History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 27

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

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the foundation of the Bodleian Library and soon after the accession of King James I to the throne he received the honor of knighthood. He died at his home in London in January, 1612, and was buried in Merton College chapel, where a memorial was erected to him crowned with his statue. He wrote the history of his own life to the year 1609. As stated, the line of descent can be traced down to Mrs. Bates, the mother of Mrs. Mead, who left England in August, 1869, in company with a friend from Devonshire. They were passengers on the steamship City of Paris, on which Prince Arthur sailed, and they were en route to Halifax for six days. Mrs. Bates has a grandson in the Yeoman School, preparing for the navy.

In his political views Mr. Mead is a stalwart republican, having stanchly supported the party since attaining his majority. He is also a member of the Masonic lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he holds membership in the Greeley Club. He is highly esteemed throughout the community, honored for his successful career and for his upright life.

NATHAN GREGG.

Nathan Gregg, well known in financial circles in Denver as a prominent investment broker, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on the 30th of December, 1873. His father, Nathan Gregg, was born in Alabama and in early life engaged in the wholesale grocery business but following his removal to Denver turned his attention to the lumber busi- ness. He took up his abode here in 1892 and continued a resident of the city to the time of his demise. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Belle Wilson and was also a native of Alabama, has passed away.

Nathan Gregg is one of a family of six children, five of whom are yet living, three brothers and two sisters. He acquired his education in private schools at Shreveport, Louisiana, and then turned his attention to the line of business in which his father was engaged, spending a few years in the employ of the Mowat Lumber Company. He was afterward appointed military secretary to Governor Adams and served in that position through his term and also during a part of the administration of Governor Thomas. At length, however, he turned his attention to the investment business, which he has since carried on, being now senior member of the firm of Gregg, Whitehead & Company, investment bankers at the First National Bank building, who are members of the Denver Bond Dealers Association and the Investment Bankers Association of America. He is thoroughly familiar with the value of bonds and other investments and has won a large clientage, his business having now assumed extensive and gratifying proportions.

In 1897 Mr. Gregg was united in marriage to Miss Isa Stearns, of Denver, who is a granddaughter of ex-Governor Hunt and is a recognized leader in the social circles of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Gregg have a son, Hamilton, nineteen years of age, who is a grad- uate of the East Denver high school. In club circles of the city Mr. Gregg is well known, having membership in the Denver Athletic Club, the Denver Country Club and the Denver Motor Club, and he is also a member of the Civic and Commercial Associa- tion, looking to the upbuilding of the city along material lines and to the advancement of its civic standards. His ideals in this connection are high and he puts forth every possible effort to secure their attainment. He is a man of genuine personal worth who has built up a business of extensive proportions, merit and ability bringing him to his present place in financial circles.

SPERRY S. PACKARD.

Sperry S. Packard, an ahle attorney of Pueblo and one whose professional interests now divide his attention with his active work in behalf of the Red Cross and other patiotic movements, was born in Ashkum, Iroquois county, Illinois, February 26, 1880, a son of Sidney M. and Jennie (Hayden) Packard. The father was a wheelwright and farmer, devoting his life to those pursuits up to the time of the Civil war, when his patriotic spirit was aroused by the attempt of the south to overthrow the Union and he joined the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry for active service at the front. He is still living but his wife has passed away. They were the parents of three sons and a daughter, and one of the sons, Dr. H. P. Packard, is now in Persia.

Sperry S. Packard, whose name introduces this review, is the third in order of birth in the family and was a little lad of but seven years when the removal was made to

NATHAN GREGG

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Colorado, so that he acquired his education in the public schools and in the Centennial high school of Pueblo, from which he was graduated with the class of 1898. He after- ward attended Colorado College at Colorado Springs, there completing his course in 1902. He also pursued a business course in a commercial college and spent three years as a law student in the office of McCorkle & Teller, J. H. Teller of this firm being afterward a member of the Colorado supreme court bench. Mr. Packard was admitted to the bar in 1905, ranking second in the class of twenty-three who at that time sought admission to practice in the courts of Colorado. He opened an office in Pueblo, where he has since practiced continuously and successfully, ranking today with the representative members of the bar in his section of the state. He has made a specialty of irrigation law for the past twelve years.

On the 24th of June, 1909, Mr. Packard was married to Miss Ella L. Graber, of Colo- rado Springs, who is a graduate of the Colorado Springs high school and of Colorado College. They have become parents of two children: David, five years of age; and Ann Louise, two years of age.

· Mr. Packard's religious faith is indicated in his membership in the Pilgrim Con- gregational church. He votes with the republican party but has always avoided office. However, he has represented the sheriff on legal matters in the county. He belongs to the Chi Sigma Chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He also has membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and in Masonry has attained the Knight Templar degree. He is fond of outdoor life and of athletics. He has always been greatly interested in the state and its development and has con- tributed much to projects of local improvement. At the present time he is doing active work for his country as a public speaker for the Red Cross and was chairman of the cam- paign committee of the Red Cross, which raised one hundred thousand dollars in Pueblo on the first drive. He has represented the attorney general in legal matters in Pueblo, and is a member of the legal advisory board for the Pueblo county draft board. He counts no effort or sacrifice on his part too great if it will promote the interests of the nation or in any way advance war work. He has always been one of the first to offer cooperation where aid has been called for. He belongs to the State Bar Association and to the American Bar Association, and his position in professional circles in Colorado is an enviable one.

DAVID A. STRICKLER, M. D.

With the broad foundation of medical science for general practice, Dr. David A. Strickler in recent years has specialized as an oculist and aurist and has attained an eminent position in that branch of the profession. Ever holding to the highest standards, he has continually broadened his knowledge through study and. experience and has at all times kept in touch with the latest scientific researches, investigations and dis- coveries.

A native of Pennsylvania, he was born at Chambersburg, Franklin county, on the 26th of March, 1859, a son of Jacob Strickler, a native of Pennsylvania, who spent his entire life to the age of eighty years in Franklin county. He belonged to one of the old families of the state, of Swiss descent. It was founded in York county, Pennsylvania, about 1729. There the family were well known as leading members of the Mennonite church. They were a family of agriculturists and Jacob Strickler also carried on the work of the farm for many years but in later life became connected with industrial lines and held an interest in woolen mills and paper mills. For a time he was also superintendent of a turnpike company and through the conduct of his business won a very substantial measure of success as the years passed. He became one of the promi- nent and leading residents of his section of the state and that he was a man of excellent business ability and of marked personal worth is indicated in the fact that he was often called upon to act as trustee of.estates. He held to the religious faith of his fathers, being an earnest member of the Mennonite church and a devout Christian. Politically he was a republican, but the honors and emoluments of office had no attraction for him. He married Anna Stouffer, a native of Franklin county and a representative of one of the old families of Pennsylvania, of Swiss ancestry, founded in America about the same time as the Strickler family. They, too, were Mennonites and in that faith Mrs. Strickler was reared and lived. She died in 1881 at the age of sixty-five years, her birth having occurred in 1816, while Mr. Strickler, who was born in 1815. had reached the age of eighty years ere death called him in 1895. Their family numbered ten children, seven sons and three daughters, but only three of the number are now living: Jacob and Amos,

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who are still residents of Pennsylvania; and David A., who was the youngest of the family.

To the age of eighteen years Dr. Strickler of this review spent his youth upon the home farm and began his education in the district schools, while later he pursued a literary course in the Chambersburg Academy. At length he determined upon the prac- tice of medicine as a life work and with that end in view became a student in the Hahne- mann Medical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated with the M. D. degree as a member of the class of 1881. Following his graduation he became resident physician in the Hahnemann Hospital, in which he remained for a year. He then sought a field of labor in the middle west and opened an office in Sterling, Illinois, where he continued for a year. During the succeeding two years he was at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in general practice, and he also resided for four years in Duluth, Minnesota, where he devoted his attention to general practice. for a time, but afterward concentrated his efforts and attention upon diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. During the following six years he was at St. Paul, Minnesota, and from that city removed to Denver, where he arrived in the fall of 1895. In the in- tervening period, covering twenty three years, he has been in active and continuous practice and now occupies a very prominent and commanding position in his profession. He pursued post graduate work in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, covering various lines of professional activity. He held the chair of ophthalmology, oto-laryngology and rhinology in the medical department of the University of Minnesota from the time the department was created until he left that state, covering a period of seven years. Later he was registrar and dean, respectively, of the Denver Homeopathic College and its successor the Denver College of Physicians and Surgeons until, owing to efforts of the medical profession to diminish the number of colleges, it closed its doors in 1909. He is a man of pronounced professional ability, as is attested by the leading physicians of the state and by those elsewhere who know aught of his career. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons; a fellow of the American Medical Association, and be- longs to the Colorado State Medical Society and to the medical associations of the city and county of Denver; of the Colorado Ophthalmological Society; the American Institute of Homeopathy; the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology, is presi- dent of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, and has been a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners of Colorado for the past sixteen years and its executive officer for the past seven years. He was president of the Colorado Homeopathic Society in 1902 and 1903, belongs to the American Homeopathic Ophthal- mological & Oto-Laryngological Society, is president of the Park Avenue Hospital As- sociation of Denver and is a member of the staff of the City & County Hospital of Denver. He is a member of Advisory Board No. 3 (Medical for Colorado) ; the State Committee on National Defense (medical); and of the board of examiners for aviation service. He is chairman of the committee on public policy of the Colorado Medical Society and also the committee on public policy and legislation of the Medical Society of the City and County of Denver. These various membership connections and activities along the line of his profession establish his prominent position among the eminent practitioners of the west.

In Duluth, Minnesota, in 1887, Dr. Strickler was united in marriage to Miss Ger- trude Olmsted, a daughter of Captain Allen Olmsted, who was a Civil war veteran, a member of one of the old families and a pioneer settler of Duluth, removing to that state from Iowa. He married Louise Lawyer and has now passed away. The death of Mrs. Strickler occurred in Denver in 1896, when she was thirty-five years of age. In their family were two children: Lynda Louise, who is a teacher in the high school of Denver; and Gertrude Aline. Both daughters are highly educated in the languages and in the arts. On the 1st of December, 1906, in Denver, Dr. Strickler was again mar- ried, his second union being with Mrs. Mary (Riggs) Bradner, a native of Canton, Michi- gan, and a daughter of Alfred Riggs. Mrs. Strickler's mother is still living, but her father has passed away. Prior to her marriage to Dr. Strickler she was the wife of Dr. William Bradner, a prominent physician of Denver, who died in 1895. Mrs. Strickler is a graduate of the dental department of the University of Denver, which conferred upon her the degree of D. D. S. in 1898. She still practices to some extent among her old patients. She is a woman of exceptional ability and qualifications, of liberal education and of noble character.

Dr. Strickler is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having taken the initial degrees in the order in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1895. He also belongs to the Elks lodge of Denver and to the Lakewood Country Club. He is likewise a member of the Chamber of Commerce and is interested in all that has to do with the welfare and progress of his

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adopted city, but his time and attention are chiefly concentrated upon his profession, which is continually making heavier and heavier demands upon his energies. His prac- tice throughout the entire period of his residence in Denver has been large and im- portant. He is today a man of national reputation in his profession and he was chosen as one of the speakers at the annual congress held for the Cooperation for the Preven- tion of Medical Frauds, which was held at the Congress Hotel in Chicago on the 4th and 5th of February, 1918, his subjects being medical education and licensure. This was the eleventh annual congress held. In preceding years he also took an active part in the proceedings. He is ever regarded as a most valued addition to any of the conventions of the profession and is a speaker of wide reputation who is always listened to with interest and attention, for he has carried his investigations far and wide, bringing to light many of nature's secrets and gaining especial prominence in the field to which he has now for many years devoted his attention. He is one of the eminent oculists and aurists of the west whose practice is largely the expression of the last word in scientific investigation.

FRANK E. EDBROOKE.

Frank E. Edbrooke, a Civil war veteran, a distinguished architect and a citizen of high personal as well as professional worth, was born in Lake county, Illinois, on the 17th of November, 1840, but for many years has been a resident of Denver. His parents, Robert J. and Mary (Stanley) Edbrooke, were natives of England and of Perth, Canada, respectively. The father was born in 1809 and crossed the Atlantic to America in 1828, settling in Buffalo, New York, where he resided until 1836. He then took passage on one of the sidewheel steamers to Chicago, the trip covering two weeks. He arrived at his destination when Chicago contained a population of but two thousand at that time a settlement not being made between the government and the Indians for their lands in that locality. Mr. Edbrooke was a mechanical and structural engineer and followed his profession in Chicago to the time of his death. His wife also passed away there when forty-eight years of age. Their family numbered nine children, five sons and four daughters, all of whom have passed away with the exception of Frank E. Edbrooke.

In his youthful days Mr. Edbrooke of this review was a pupil in the public schools of Chicago for a short period but his education was largely acquired through private study whenever opportunity gave him leisure for his textbooks. In early life he became an apprentice in order to learn the building business and with the outbreak of the Civil war he responded to the country's call for troops, feeling that his first duty was to defend the Union cause. He therefore enlisted with the first Twelfth Illinois Infantry under Colonel John McArthur at Cairo, Illinois. He became a member of Company G and served out the three months' term of enlistment, returning home with health somewhat impaired. He, soon recovered, however, and for about a year worked at his trade, at the end of which time he again attempted to join the army but decided to try some other branch of service than the infantry. About that time Captain James R. Hyslop went to Chicago from New York and opened a recruiting office to enroll sailors, railroad men, mechanics, etc., for the marine service to form the First New York Marine Artillery, a branch of the United States Navy, as the captain called it, the purpose being to join Burnside's expedition in North Carolina for gunboat service. Mr. Edbrooke and his brother, together with three hundred other strong, healthy, patriotic, practical fellows, enlisted and were sent to New York, where they were quartered in some old marine buildings on Staten Island, where they remained for about six weeks for organization and equipment. They passed the medical examination, were sworn in and equipped with the regular United States Navy uniform. They also drew two hundred and two dollars in bounty from the city, county and state of New York and were credited to New York's quota. There seemed to be something mysterious about all of the proceedings in the organization but the enlisted troops asked no questions. About two weeks after receiving their bounty they were ordered on board a transport and taken to Newbern, North Carolina, where they were installed on an old wooden gunboat for distribution and remained for ten days under navy discipline. They were anchored out in the Neuse river about half a mile from shore and thence two hundred and twenty-seven of the men were sent down Pamlico Sound on a steamer and landed on Roanoke island, a low, flat sandy island about two miles wide and five miles long, which was used by the government as a base for military and naval supplies. The men were placed there to protect the island from invasion by the natives from

FRANK E. EDBROOKE

Vol. II-13

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the mainland, the nearest point of which was seven miles distant. On the island there was an old dilapidated fort, armored with four old rusty cannons, no two of the same caliber or design, and only one man was kept at the fort to fire a gun to notify the troops in case of threatened invasion. For a short time the men enjoyed their camp life but a malignant fever set in and nine-tenths of the boys were stricken and in many cases the disease proved fatal, so that within four weeks forty had succumbed and at one time there were less than twenty of them able to report for duty. They probably suffered from some form of malaria or yellow fever but the officers could not or would not get any relief to the men. In the meantime, through correspondence with influen- tial friends at Springfield, Illinois, the troops learned that they were nondescripts as far as the United States army and navy were concerned and that no such branch of service as the Marine Artillery had ever been a part of the government armament. The Springfield friends brought the matter to the attention of Governor Yates of Illinois, who promptly presented the grievances of the troops to congress, then in session at Washington. The boys were anxious to find out whether they were soldiers, sailors or pirates. There was much dissatisfaction among them because of conditions and one morning several of the leading spirits called a meeting of all the boys who were able to attend to discuss the situation and form some plan to better their condition. Several letters from eminent authority at Springfield, Illinois, were read and freely discussed and they came to the conclusion that they had been decoyed and hook- winked in New York into this Marine Artillery business by fraud-a scheme that the government could not and would not recognize. They had enlisted in good faith to serve their country in the marine or naval service and not to be placed on a desert island to starve and die for want of proper food and medical attention. The boys placed the blame on their officers and decided to put the officers under guard, which they did, treating them well but guarding them closely. Of course, this was considered mutiny on the part of the boys but it accomplished their object of being removed from the island, for the news of conditions there was received by General Foster, in command at New- bern, and a steamer hove in sight with several companies of New York Hawking Zouaves on board. The troops were ordered on board the boat and about one hundred and fifty obeyed the command, while of the remainder of the company, those who had not succumbed to disease were in the hospital. When they reached Newbern they were turned over to the Third New York Artillery. They were looked upon as mutin- eers and a tough lot and about two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day they were lined up in Fort- Totten for inspection and lecture, and three companies of armed infantry were lined up in front as their executioners. Mr. Edbrooke tells the story as follows: "General Hawk, a very venerable looking old gray-haired warrior, was the spokesman. After taking a good look at us he said: 'Men, you are here as prisoners with charges of mutiny against you, and you all know what that means. My orders are that you be divided into small squads and set to work under guards, who will see that you obey all orders issued to you or be punished.' He then said: 'If there are any of you now who intend to disobey those orders or refuse to do the work assigned to you, step two paces to the front.' Every man in our company promptly stepped two paces to the front, and at that the old general lost his temper and turned to the three companies of infantry and said: 'Ready, take aim,' which they did, and we all cheered the poor old man .. 'Men, you don't know what you are doing,' shouted the old gentle- man. 'In less than five minutes half of your number may be lying dead on the ground. Now, men, I will give you one more chance. Will you obey orders and go to work?' We all yelled in one voice, 'No,' and again cheered the poor old man. He was very angry, shaking his fist at us and making profane remarks; then. ordering the three companies to recover arms, carry arms, right face, marched them out of the fort, leaving us standing there. His bluff did not work. We broke rank and congratulated our- selves on being alive."

Later in the day, however, the troops were broken up in squads of twelve and fifteen and Mr. Edbrooke, with fifteen companions, was quartered in a large Sibley tent in the fort, in charge of Company C, Third New York Heavy Artillery. There they remained as prisoners for about two months. The artillery officers tried to persuade the men to join their companies but to no avail. One day near the last of February orders came to pack up and prepare to leave the fort, and the men were then divided into small squads and marched off in different directions. Two of Mr. Edbrooke's squad were H. W. Hitchcock and a Mr. Calbreath. He and the others were marched down to the dock, ordered into a small rowboat and taken out to an old canal boat called the Gunboat Shrapnel, which was anchored about a half mile from shore. The guards put the "prisoners" on board the old craft with their traps and told them to

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History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 27

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