History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 103

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 944

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

Thomas C. Turner was reared upon a farm in Greenwood county, Kansas, and attended the country schools. He afterward taught school for twelve years in that county and in the meantime utilized his leisure hours for the reading of law. He later entered the Kansas State University at Lawrence, in which he completed a law course and was graduated with the class of 1895. Locating for practice in Eureka, that state, he there remained a member of the bar until 1907, when he removed to Colorado Springs, where for eleven years he has now continuously practiced. One who knows him well spoke of him as a "good, clean, able lawyer." In fact, that is the reputation which he bears throughout this section of the state, and that he commands the respect and honor of his colleagues and contemporaries is indicated in the fact that he was in 1916 elected to the presidency of the El Paso County Bar Association for a one year term. He is most careful to conform his practice to a high standard of professional ethics and is recognized as a most able minister in the temple of justice.

On the 5th of July, 1893, in Eureka, Kansas, Mr."Turner was married to Miss Nellie Montgomery. They hold membership in the First Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Turner belongs also to the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Winter Night Club. In politics he is an earnest republican and was chairman of the El Paso County republican central committee for four or five years From 1901 until 1905 he filled the office of county at- torney of Greenwood county, Kansas, and he is now assistant district attorney for the fourth judicial district of Colorado, in which connection he is making a most excellent record, ever seeking justice, and while he ably safeguards the interests of the district, he has a high sense of personal honor which would never permit him to take advantage of a defendant or enjoy a success that was won at the cost of the rights of others.

WILLIAM E. SUNDERLAND, M. D.

Dr. William E. Sunderland, who continues in the general practice of medicine and surgery but specializes to a large extent in the latter branch of professional activity, has through the years of his residence in Denver become established in public regard as one of the leading members of the profession in the city. He holds to the highest ethical standards, basing his advancement upon the capability that he has won through earnest study and hroad experience. He was born April 11, 1875, in Van Wert, Ohio, a son of the late Elisha F. Sunderland, a native of the Buckeye state and a representative of one of its old families of English origin. The father became a successful real estate operator at Van Wert, Ohio, where he remained until the early '50s, when attracted by the dis- covery of gold in California, he made an overland trip to the Pacific coast, spending some time in California and in Oregon, where he engaged in prospecting and mining. He continued in the far west for thirteen years and then returned to Van Wert county. Ohio, where he resided up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 4th of Feb- ruary, 1917, when he was eighty-two years of age. In early manhood he wedded Miss Frances A. Little, a native of Ohio and of German descent. She is still living at Van Wert. In the family were three children, two of whom survive, the daughter, Mary, now being Mrs. Blackburn, of Van Wert, Ohio.

Dr. Sunderland, whose name introduces this review, was educated in the public schools of Van Wert, Ohio, and in the Ohio Northern University at Ada, from which he was graduated in 1902 with the Bachelor of Science degree. Before his graduation lie had spent seven years as a teacher in the schools of Ohio and his capability in that direc- tion was manifest in the prompt and impressive manner in which he imparted to others the knowledge that he had acquired, stimulating his pupils with much of his own zeal and interest in the work. After his graduation from the Ohio Northern University he took up the study of medicine and in 1902.entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago, Illinois, which is the medical department of the University of Illinois. He was graduated from that institution in 1906 and after his graduation was extern at St. Mary's and at the Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess Hospitals of Chicago, thus serving for a period of a year. He then entered upon the private practice of medicine in Monroe- ville, Indiana, where he remained for a year and afterward he removed to the west, locating first at Albuquerque, New Mexico, while later he engaged in practice at Estancia, New Mexico, where he continued for about five years and while there served as surgeon for the New Mexico Central Railroad Company. On leaving the southwest he went to New York city, where he resumed his studies in the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital, specializing in the study of surgery and diseases of women. On the completion of his studies in New York he visited Chicago, Illinois, and Rochester,

DR. WILLIAM E. SUNDERLAND

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New York. for further study and investigation and in the latter part of April, 1912, he came to Denver, where he immediately entered upon active practice. He has since given especial attention to surgery and his pronounced ability, in that branch is recognized by all who know aught of his career. He has frequently contributed articles to the medical journals and he is the present health officer of Edgewater, one of the attractive suburbs of Denver. He belongs to the medical and surgical staff of the Denver Chapter of the Red Cross' civilian relief committee. He is a member of the Denver City & County Medical Society, the Colorado State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion and through the proceedings of these bodies keeps in touch with the trend of ad- vanced thought and investigation concerning medical and surgical science.

On the 4th of August, 1909, Dr. Sunderland married in Santa Fe. New. Mexico, for his second wife Miss Hazel F. Rietz. a native of East Dubuque, Illinois, and a repre- sentative of one of the old families of that state, her father being Robert Rietz, her mother before her marriage, Bertha Grimm. To Dr. and Mrs. Sunderland has been born a son, Karl, whose birth occurred in Estancia, New Mexico. October 4, 1910. Dr. Sunderland turns to motoring and to hunting for rest and recreation. He was made a Mason at Estancia, New Mexico, and is now a member of Union Lodge, No. 7, A. F. & A. M., of Denver. and Colorado Chapter, No. 29. R. A. M. Unto Dr. and Mrs. Sunderland has come the warm regard of many friends and he enjoys the high respect of his pro- fessional brethren. His career has been marked by steady progress that is the direct result of personal ability and ambition. He worked his own way through college and has gained a most creditable place in a calling where advancement depends upon in- dividual merit.

Dr. Sunderland was first married August 3. 1897, at Van Wert, Ohio, to Miss Gladys Poling, three children being born to this union: Cloe; Franklin Vaughn, born May 8, 1901, at Van Wert, Ohio, a student of North Denver high school; and William, Jr.

LEONARD EAGER CURTIS.

Leonard Eager Curtis, an attorney and power plant constructor of Colorado Springs, was born in Norwalk, Ohio, July 23, 1848, a son of Alfred Smith and Elmina W. (Wadams) Curtis. The father was born in Ulster county, New York, in 1816 and was a student at Yale as a member of the class of 1841. He was married on the 23d of July, 1846, to Elmina W. Wadams, who was born in the Empire state in 1820 and who passed away in Norwalk, Ohio, on the 28th of August, 1849. Mr. Curtis, however, long survived his wife, his death occurring on the 4th of February, 1890.

Leonard Eager Curtis is in the eighth generation, in direct male line, descended from Henry Curtis, who was born in England about 1608 and died in 1678, at the age of seventy years, in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The place of his birth and residence in England is not certain, but he probably lived near Southward, in Surrey. He came to Massachusetts in 1635. He married Mary Guy, of Upton Gray, England. Moreover, Leonard E. Curtis is descended in the female line from a Curtis ancestor, his great- great-grandmother being Rebeka Wight, who was born in January, 1709, and married John Curtis, great-grandson of Henry Curtis. The ancestry of Rebeka (Wight) Curtis was as follows: William Curtis, born November 12, 1592, married Sarah Eliot and they had a daughter, Elizabeth Curtis, who was born February 13, 1624, and who married Isaac Newell. Their daughter, Elizabeth Newell, born January 6, 1669, married Benja- min Wight. The latter was a grandson of Thomas Wight, a very prominent man in the early history of this country and one of the founders of Harvard University. The daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Newell) Wight was Rebeka Wight.

The first American born ancestor of Leonard E. Curtis, in direct male line, Joseph Curtis, son of Henry and Mary (Guy) Curtis, was born at Sudbury, Massachusetts, July 17, 1647, and married Abigail Graut. Their son Ephraim, born September 4, 1680, also at Sudbury, wedded Mary Stone and they became the parents of John Curtis, born at Sudbury, September 20, 1707, who married Rebeka Wight, mentioned above. Their son, James Curtis, great-grandfather of our subject, was born at Worcester, Massa- chusetts, September 8, 1746, and married Sarah Eager. They became the parents of Leonard Eager Curtis, who was born at Lancaster, Massachusetts, about 1784. He married Abigail Smith, who became the mother of Alfred Smith Curtis, born December 9, 1816, who married Elmina Wadams, and they became the parents of Leonard E. Curtis of this review.

Leonard Eager Curtis was but a year old at the time of his mother's death, after which he was taken to live in the home of his grandparents at Fleming Hill, New York,

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whence the family removed to Auburn, New York, in 1856. In 1857 Alfred S. Curtis married again and later the son returned to his father's home. In 1861 a removal was made to Oneida, Illinois, but in 1864 L. E. Curtis returned to Auburn, New York, to attend school. He afterward became a student in the preparatory school of Knox Col- lege at Galesburg, Illinois, and in 1868 he went to New Haven, where he entered the academic department of Yale College, completing the course with the class of 1872. While pursuing his college work he spent the vacation periods in profitable ways. In 1869 he devoted the summer months to canvassing for a book in New York and the summer vacation of 1871 was most pleasantly passed in a walking trip with Elbert Hubbard from New Haven to White Mountains, Lake Memphemagog and Lake Cham- plain.

Following his graduation Mr. Curtis spent a month on a mackerel schooner and then remained in Plymouth and Nantucket, Massachusetts, until he entered the Yale Law School in the fall of 1872. He also became instructor in the Hopkins Grammar School that year and continued teaching and study until graduated from the law school in 1874. Among the boys whom he instructed at the Hopkins Grammar School were John Hays Hammond, Walter Camp, Julian Curtis, William F. Fisher, who is now prominent in the food administration at Washington. and others who have become eminent in various ways. His initial professional experience came to him in the law office of Stanley, Brown & Clarke as a clerk without pay and later in the same year he went to live with William Stanley, senior partner in the firm, at Englewood, New Jersey, and acted as tutor to his son William Stanley, Jr., who afterward became one of the great electricians and inventors of his age. He died two years ago. Four of his sons are in military service, three of them flying in France. Mr. Curtis remained in the law office until ill health forced him to give up his position and in September, 1876, he went abroad, visiting Ireland, Scotland, London and Paris, remaining in Europe until Christmas day of that year, when he returned to his native land. In 1877 he became junior partner in the law firm of Sedgwick & Curtis of New York city, an asso- ciation that was discontinued in 1878. when Mr. Curtis entered upon a special partnership arrangement with the firm of Stanley, Brown & Clarke, with which he had previously been associated. In 1880, however, he abandoned law practice and on the Ist of Novem- ber of that year took the office of secretary of the United States Electric Lighting Com- pany. In 1881 he and his wife went to the Paris exposition, where he represented electric interests for several months, after which he resumed business relations in New York and in 1886 became a member of the firm of Duncan, Curtis & Page, which he repre- sented abroad in the latter part of that year, visiting London, Paris, Lucerne, Milan, Vienna and Budapest. The year 1889 also saw him in London, Vienna, Venice and Paris on electric business and in 1890 he withdrew from the firm of Duncan, Curtis & Page and entered into partnership relations as a member of the firm of Kerr & Curtis. On the Ist of May, 1896, they were joined by a third partner under the style of Kerr, Curtis & Page but in the fall of that year Mr. Curtis' health broke down and he sought the benefits of a change of climate, arriving in Colorado Springs on the 7th of December. He afterward took a trip to Arizona and southern California and then returned to New York but early in 1898 again made his way to Colorado Springs, where he was soon joined by his family. In 1899 Mr. Curtis accepted a position with Bonbright & Company, representing electric light interests, and afterward organized the syndicate of Bon- bright & Company, Otis & Company and Bertron & Storrs in order to buy properties and build a new plant. Through the intervening years he has been prominently and extensively engaged in power plant development and construction. In 1900 he built a generating plant for the Colorado Springs Electric Company and acted as manager during the year. He was also largely the promoter of the Guanajuato Power Company of Mexico and in 1902 built the first plant there. In 1905 he became an active factor in promoting the interests of the American Finance Company and in the organization of the Guanajuato Reduction Company. He has been identified with some of the most im- portant water power projects of this state and the west. He was associated with the Central Colorado Power Company and took charge of the interests of the Animas Power Company for the Electric Bond & Share Company in August. 1905. He made the report on which the Central Colorado Power Company was financed in 1906 and in 1907 he built power plants for this company, the business engaging his attention for two years. His work has been of a most extensive and important character in connection with the development of water power projects, leading in large measure to the advancement of prosperity in the state, and at the same time he has conducted important legal interests, his knowledge of law proving of the greatest possible benefit in the organiza- tion, financing and promoting of the great water power projects with which he has been associated.

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Mr. Curtis has been married twice. On the 9th of July, 1879, in New York city, he wedded Miss Charlotte Stanley Hine, who passed away in Colorado Springs on the 15th of August, 1909. On the 9th of November, 1912, in Colorado Springs, he wedded Helen Evans Waterman. By the first marriage there were born four children. Eliz- abeth Stanley, whose birth occurred on the 1st of October, 1884, is the wife of Eric A. Swenson, the marriage being celebrated at Colorado Springs on the 26th of February, 1908. Mr. Swenson is food administrator of El Paso county. Helen, who was born August 1, 1888, gave her hand in marriage to Albin C. Swenson on the 26th of June, 1909. He is now serving as captain with the United States forces in France. Leonard Eager, who was born October 8, 1889, and who entered the army and was later discharged for physical reasons, married Ann Florence Gladstone Fraser on the 31st of January, 1910. Alfred Stanley was born November 26, 1890. He was graduated from Yale and for three years was instructor in electrical engineering at Sheffield Scientific School. He would have joined the army but could not pass the physical examination on account · of defective eye sight. He is now engaged in war work in the research department of the Western Electric Company at New York, under Captain Jones. There are also six grandchildren. Eric A. and Elizabeth S. (Curtis) Swenson have a daughter, Margreta, whose birth occurred at Colorado Springs on the 9th of February, 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard E. Curtis, Jr., have two children: Charlotte Stanley, who was born at Silt, Colo- rado, September 20, 1910; and Mary Gladstone, born at Los Angeles, California, October 11, 1913. Albin C. and Helen (Curtis) Swenson are the parents of three children: Mary Charlotte, who was born at New York city on the 5th of September, 1911; Helen, whose birth occurred on the 13th of December, 1913; and Eleanora, born November 21, 1917.

In religious faith Mr. Curtis is a Congregationalist and in political belief a repub- lican. He held public office while residing in Englewood, New Jersey, during the period of his law practice in New York, and for four or five years has been a member of the Colorado highway commission, still serving in that capacity. He has done most effective work in hehalf of the good roads movement and no man is better informed concerning the possibilities for the development of Colorado's wonderful highways or is more en- thusiastic in support of such. Mr. Curtis is well known in club circles of Colorado Springs, belonging to the El Paso Club, the Winter Night Club, of which he has been president, the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club and the Colorado Golf Club. Well descended and well bred, his personal qualities have ever gained him the entree to the best society and he is always to be found where intelligent men are met in the discussion of important public problems.

CYRUS A. BOWERS.

Cyrus A. Bowers, filling the office of justice of the peace at Trinidad, was born in Franklin county, Ohio, July 3, 1841, a son of William and Nancy J. (McDowell) Bowers. The father was a cooper by trade, and also a local minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. He acted as drummer in drilling volunteers for the Mexican war, but could not go to the front. He had a family of five children, three sons and two daughters.

Cyrus A. Bowers, who was the third in order of birth, pursued his education in the rural schools, but when only seven years of age was bound out to a millwright, who afterward purchased a farm in Indiana and removed to that place, Mr. Bowers accom- panying him. He assisted in clearing the farm, and later accompanied his employer to Sturgeon, Michigan. Subsequently the man returned to Allen county, Indiana, where Mr. Bowers remained for five years. He then ran away to Michigan and was employed as a farm hand at eight dollars per month. He was at that time a youth of fifteen years. He agreed with J. M. Lockwood, his employer, to remain with him until he was twenty- one years of age. He was to receive five dollars per month for nine months in a year and to have the opportunity of attending school for the remaining three months. His employer was also to give him a hundred dollars, horse, saddle and bridle when he had reached his majority. The war, however, came on in 1861, and Mr. Bowers was mustered into service. By going to the front he lost the horse, saddle and bridle and the one hun- dred dollars which he was to receive on reaching manhood. However, duty to country was the paramount thing in his life at that time and, responding to the call of his country, he joined Company C of the Eleventh Michigan Infantry, with which he served for three years. He participated in a number of hotly contested engagements, including the battles of Stone River, Resaca, Big Shanty, Chickamauga, Peach Tree Creek and several others of lesser importance. He was at Marietta, Georgia, on the 4th of July,

MR. AND MRS. CYRUS A. BOWERS

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1864, and with the expiration of his term of service in that year he returned to farm life in Michigan, there remaining until 1866. In the latter year he went to Illinois, having discovered his people in that state. In the same year he was married to Miss Lydia A. Wright, and he continued a resident of Illinois until 1878, making his home near Bloom- ington. At that date he removed to Hutchinson, Kansas, where he continued until September, 1880. and then came to Colorado, settling at Trinidad. He was engaged in railroading in connection with the Santa Fe for five years, and afterward was employed in various ways until 1900, when he was elected to the office which he has since filled. making an excellent official as justice of the peace. His decisions are strictly fair and impartial and his record is a most commendable one.

In 1907 Mr. Bowers was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who passed away on the 24th of September of that year, after a happy married life of forty-one years. Their children are: Willie Grant, John M., and Eva May.

In his political views Mr. Bowers has always been a stalwart republican, active in support of the party. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, holding member. ship in Trinidad Post, No. 25, of which he has been chaplain for several years. Through his membership in this order he maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades -the boys in blue who were the defense of the Union during the dark days of the Civil war, and who as a class have been most reliable in citizenship, loyal at all times to the stars and stripes which they defended on southern battlefields.

WILLIAM COLUMBUS FERRIL.

With the pioneer history of many regions, as civilization has been carried for- ward, the ancestors of William Columbus Ferril have been identified, and in their advance- ment, have left the impress of their individuality on their records. Always interested in those events which have marked the history of the country, it was Mr. Ferri! of this review who first outlined in 1889, the preliminary plans for holding a centennial celebration of the Louisiana purchase, that culminated in the exposition held in St. Louis, in 1904. He was formerly curator of The State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado and secretary of the Colorado Academy of Science, associations that indicate the trend of his interests and the nature of his activities. He is now devoting his attention to editing and publishing The Rocky Mountain Herald at Denver.

A native of Lawrence, Kansas, he was born August 28. 1855, his parents being the Reverend Thomas Johnson and Minerva (Hornsby) Ferril. In tracing his ancestry, it is found that his branch of the Ferril family came from or near Belfast, Ireland, in the colonial era, and that John (also known as Jonathan) Ferril, his great-great grand- father participated in much of the Indian warfare on the frontier of Virginia, prior to and during the early part of the War of the American Revolution. He married Margaret Baughman and later removed from the Greenbrier region of Virginia to Kentucky. His wife was a sister of Captain Jacob Baughman who was in charge of a party of immi- grants, including the Ferrils, en route to the pioneer settlements of Kentucky. They were organized in a military way, as was then the custom, to protect themselves from the Indians. While encamped near Crab Orchard, Kentucky, they were attacked in the night by the Shawnees and a number of the immigrants killed, Captain Baughman, John Ferril, and other relatives and members of the party being among the slain. Mrs. Margaret Ferril. her two daughters and her son John made their escape. The wife of Captain Jacob Baughman, her son Henry, of tender age, and two daughters, were also saved from the Indians. Reference is made in Collins History of Kentucky, Vol. 2, page 692, to Baughman's defeat without giving the date, but that is determined by the filing of two land warrants for one thousand and four hundred acres each, in the pos- session of Captain Baughman when killed. These two land warrants filed in the name of his son, Henry Baughman, who married Patience, a sister of Governor Owsley of Kentucky, were recorded in the book of surveys in Lincoln county, that state, one entry being made February 15, 1781, and the other February 17, 1781. From these data it is learned that the Baughman-Ferril defeat or massacre occurred in the fall of 1779 or the spring of 1780, as no land filings could be made in that country until 1781, and this Indian fight was one of the minor hut numerous bloody contests on the frontier in the days of the American Revolution, as these Indians were then the allies of the British. John Ferril, the son, participated in many expeditions against the Indians in Kentucky and in the region north of the Ohio river. He married Keziah Cook in Lincoln county, Kentucky, August 1, 1791. True to the pioneer spirit that has ever actuated the family,

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History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 103

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 944

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 944