History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 39

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

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Frank D. Darrow, the youngest of his father's household was educated in the public schools of Cazenovia, New York, and in the Cazenovia Seminary. When he was twenty years of age the family moved to Denver. Arriving here in the fall of 1890, Mr. Darrow secured employment with the Denver Republican in a reportorial capacity and followed journalism for a period of ten years. He then started in the music business in a small way and by rigid adherence to strict business principles and earnest personal effort has built up an enterprise which is recognized as one of the large music houses of the west.

From the time of its invention, The Darrow Music Company has featured the player piano, believing that it was the one logical and most complete musical instrument in the home. That this idea was correct is shown by the many thousands of these instru- ments which have been placed in the best musical homes and the further fact that today the leading piano manufacturers of the United States are making a very large percentage of player pianos. Under the direction of Mr. Darrow, this house has confined itself to the best standard makes of instruments that have an established reputation and to this is largely attributed the success of the business. The house has always maintained a

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high degree of integrity in its business dealings and gives credit for much of its success to the goodwill of its many patrons.

On May 23, 1900, Mr. Darrow was married in Denver to Emma C. Cordts, a native of this state and a daughter of William Cordts. They have one child, Marguerite Louise, who has shown an aptitude for music and has become quite well known in musical circles.

In politics Mr. Darrow follows an independent course. He is a member of the Denver Civic and Commercial Association and has taken an active interest in the upbuilding of the city and the extension of trade relations. His record has at all times been worthy of commendation and shows what may be accomplished by conscientious, intelligent effort.

JOHN McNEIL.

John McNeil has figured prominently in connection with the development of the fuel and mining interests of Colorado and is now extensively engaged in the operation of coal property in Routt county under the name of the McNeil Coal Company and also near Grand Junction, Colorado, as president of the Grand Junction Mining & Fuel Company. He was born in Coatdyke, Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 2, 1853. At the tender age of ten years he began his career in coal mining, toiling for over ten hours each day in a coal pit and devoting his evenings to study in a night school. In this manner, being a diligent student, he acquired a very fair knowledge of the essential English branches. Later he attended mining classes and obtained a technical knowl- edge of ventilation and coal mine gases and became an underground foreman of a colliery at Slamannan, Stirlingshire, at the age of twenty-one years.

On the 31st of December, 1872, at Slamannan, Mr. McNeil was married to Miss Janet Allan Page and in August, 1876, with his wife and two baby boys, John, Jr., and David Page, emigrated to America. He went to Ohio and a few weeks later removed to Collinsville, Illinois, where he worked as a miner and contractor in shaft sinking in the Collinsville coal field. In the fall of 1878, with a baby girl added to his family, he came to Colorado and entered the employ of the Colorado Coal & Iron Company in the coal mines at Coal Creek, Fremont county. In 1880 he was engaged by the Cañon City Coal Company, then owned by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, as superintendent in sinking and timbering Nos. 3 and 4 shafts. In 1882-3, in order to finish his education, he attended the Collegiate Institute at Cañon City and in the class of 1884 was graduated as a mining engineer. Prior to his graduation, however, the legislature had created the office of state inspector of coal mines and Mr. McNeil was appointed to that position by Governor James B. Grant. As a test of fitness for the place, he with six other candidates passed a competitive examination before a state board of examiners appointed for that purpose, and having received the highest grade in this contest, captured the prize. He entered upon the duties of his office July 1, 1883. With the consent of Governor Grant and by constant study during his leisure hours, Mr. McNeil was enabled and permitted to keep up with his class, and returning to the Collegiate Institute during the period of final examinations, he was graduated with honors on commencement day at the head of his class. Mr. McNeil was the first state inspector of coal mines in Colorado and held the office continuously from its inception until August, 1893, during the administrations of Governors Grant, Eaton. Adams, Cooper and Routt and also for six months under Governor Waite, the populist governor. He then resigned his position with eighteen months of his last appointment to run. By virtue of his office and the duties involved, Mr. McNeil was practically the general superintendent ex-officio of all the coal mines within the state for more than ten years. His annual reports exhibited both the wisdom and the importance of his supervision. They were thoroughly well prepared, terse and comprehensive, setting forth in detail, so that anyone who reads may readily understand the exact status of the coal mines of the state during that period.

Immediately after resigning the position of state inspector of mines Mr. McNeil, desiring to be a "free lance" in his profession, opened an office as a consulting mining engineer and from that date to the present his record has been exceptionally good. From the start he has been retained by the Union Pacific Coal Company and other large coal mining interests, and for many years he has enjoyed the distinction of being consulting engineer for the Phelps-Dodge Corporation of 99 John street, New York, of their coal properties, now producing approximately five thousand tons of coal and eight hundred tons of coke per day at Dawson, New Mexico.

To furnish employment for his four sons, John, Jr., David Page, Alexander Mc- Gregor and George Washington, in a business in which he was so very competent to

JOHN McNEIL

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guide them, Mr. McNeil purchased, from time to time, tracts of coal land, now com- prising more than twelve hundred acres, at Cameo (in the vicinity of Grand Junction), Mesa county, during the past fifteen years, and opened thereon a coal mine with modern equipment, which produced during 1917 one hundred and forty thousand tons of bitu- minous coal. Three years ago Mr. McNeil and his sons formed The McNeil Coal Company and purchased valuable coal lands in Routt county and thereon opened a modern coal mine, from which was shipped over the Moffat Road during the past year (1917) seventy-two thousand tons of bituminous coal. The mine is located on the Bear river at MacGregor, ten miles west of Steamboat Springs. Mr. McNeil and his four sons are equally interested in the holdings of their respective coal companies.

Mr. McNeil is married for the third time. The wife of his youth died in Novem- ber, 1888. A year later he married Miss Elizabeth C. Buchanan, a daughter of the late J. M. Buchanan, who, prior to his death, ten years ago, was in business with Mr. McNeil. Mrs. Elizabeth McNeil died June 21, 1910, and on the 22d of November, 1916, he married Miss Nellie T. Buchanan, a sister of his former wife. Mr. McNeil has seven children. His son, George W., has the distinction of having been appointed to war work by President Wilson on the board of appeals of exemption boards for the forty southern counties of Colorado, with headquarters at Pueblo. This is the final court of appeals in draft matters. John, Jr., is general superintendent of the mining interests of the family. Alexander M. is secretary-treasurer and is in charge of the general office in Denver, while David P., a machinist by trade, has charge of the machinery at the mines and George W. has charge of the mercantile company stores at the mines.

Mr. McNeil, though now in his sixty-sixth year, still enjoys excellent health with the vigor of younger years. He has been a resident of Denver since July, 1883, or for thirty-five years. In coal mining matters Mr. McNeil has examined more coal prop- erties and purchased greater areas of coal lands probably than any other man in America. Not only has he acted for himself in this matter but also for many others and especially for the Union Pacific Railroad under the Harriman administration, who alone expended millions of dollars on coal lands through Mr. McNeil. He reported on coal properties from the Gulf.of Mexico to the extreme northwestern coast and from California to Alabama and also on extensive coal fields in British Columbia, Canada. There is no feature of coal mining with which he is not thoroughly familiar and by reason of his prominence in the mining circles of the state he has contributed largely to the furtherance of its material interests and its development. At the meeting of The Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute of Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Colo- rado, held in the Broadmoor Hotel at Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 3-6, 1918, Mr. McNeil was unanimously elected president of the Institute. Colorado numbers him among her most representative and honored citizens.

HUGH O. NEVILLE.

Hugh O. Neville, attorney at law of Denver, where he has been engaged in active practice since 1911, was born in Daviess county, Missouri, on the 27th of March, 1876, a son of George and Elizabeth (Brown) Neville, the former a native of Kentucky, while the latter was born in Missouri. The father removed to Missouri in young manhood and engaged in stock raising and farming in Daviess county, becoming one of the influential and prominent agriculturists of that state, honored and respected by all who knew him to the time of his death, which occurred in February, 1918. For four years he served in the Union army, having enlisted with a Missouri regiment, and he acted as sergeant of his company. He was a son of Henry O. Neville, who was at one time a prominent resident of Kentucky and afterward of Missouri and who won his title of colonel as commander of the Thirty-fifth Missouri Regiment during the period of hostilities between the north and the south. George Neville was married in early manhood to Miss Elizabeth Brown, who was reared and educated in her native state and who passed away on the old homestead there in 1916. They were the parents of eleven children.

Hugh O. Neville, who was the seventh in order of birth in that family, spent his youthful days as a public school pupil in Daviess county, Missouri, and afterward attended the William Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri. He remained a student in the latter institution for three years and won a teacher's degree. He then taught school and became superintendent of schools of Buchanan county, Missouri, and retained that position for two years. In the meantime he devoted all of his leisure hours outside of the schoolroom to the study of law until he had qualified for the bar and was admitted

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to practice. He then gave up his position as superintendent of schools and entered upon the active work of the profession in St. Joseph, Missouri, where he engaged in the successful practice of law for eight years. Seeking a still broader field, he came to Denver in 1911 and has here since been an active member of the bar, enjoying a clientage that has constantly increased in volume and importance and that has connected him with much notable litigation tried in the courts of the state. He is a member of the Denver City and County Bar Association and also of the State Bar Association.

In St. Joseph, Missouri, on the 10th of September, 1899, Mr. Neville was married to Miss Dessie Leftwich, a daughter of James B. Leftwich, of St. Joseph. They have become parents of two children: Esther, born in St. Joseph, May 27, 1901, and now a student in the University of Denver; and Glenn, who was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1905 and is a graduate of the schools of Denver.

Mr. Neville's military experience covers service with Troop F of the Third United States Cavalry at Key West and at Tampa during the Spanish-American war and he is a member of the Spanish War Veterans. He is also identified with the Independent Order of Odd Felows, with the Knights of Pythias and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and he keeps thor- oughly informed on the questions and issues of the day, although not an office seeker. He fully realizes the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship and he puts forth every possible effort to uphold community, commonwealth and national interests.

MAJOR JOHN A. MARTIN.

Major John A. Martin, who raised and for ten months was in command of the First Battalion, Second Colorado Regiment, that enlisted for service in the present war, is now engaged in the practice of law in Pueblo, and at the same time is doing in every possible way his full share to aid in the prosecution of the war and the support of the government. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 10th of April, 1858, and is a son of Hugh and Ann (Bowen) Martin. His father was a soldier of the Civil war, enlisting for active duty with the Union army, and was assigned to service on a gunboat on the Mississippi river. He is now following the occupation of farming in Kansas but his wife has passed away.

Major John A. Martin was the eldest in a family of five sons and one daughter. He acquired a public school education in Mexico and in Fulton, Missouri, and afterward took up the study of law in Colorado under private instruction. He had come to this state in 1887, and having determined upon law practice as a life work, he spent some time in the office of Fred A. Sabin, of La Junta, while later his preceptor was Dan B. Carey, now of Denver. He was admitted to the bar in 1896 and opened an office in Pueblo, where he has since remained in active practice, and although advancement at the bar is proverbially slow, he has steadily progressed and is today recognized as one of the strongest and ablest practitioners in the courts of his district. He has ever been most thorough and painstaking in the preparation of his cases and his presentation of a cause is always clear and logical.

On the 6th of September, 1892, Major Martin was united in marriage to Miss Rose M. Chitwood, and to them was born a daughter, Stella, who is now the wife of Gordon w. Spencer.

In his political views Major Martin is a democrat and has been very active in party ranks, his opinions carrying weight in its local councils and to a considerable extent shaping the policy of the party in the state.' He has served as a member of the general assembly of Colorado and for two terms has represented his district in congress. He has also been city attorney and in all matters of public concern he is ever found on the side of progress and improvement. His entire career has been characterized by the wise utilization of his time and opportunities. He had no special advantages at the outset of his career and no financial assistance came to him. While he was studying law he devoted two years to the publishing of the La Junta Times and in 1887 he worked on the construction of the Colorado Midland Railroad, which was the first standard railroad across the plains. He recognized the value of such a line and set about to secure the fulfillment of his plans. The same spirit of determination las char- acterized him at every point in his career. While serving as city attorney he resigned his position to raise the First Battalion, Second Colorado Infantry, and was commis- sioned a major by General Baldwin. The company was recruited along the Arkansas valley and sent to San Diego, California, but because of his age Major Martin was hon- orably discharged and returned to Pueblo. While he did not find it possible to go across

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the water and aid on the battle line in holding in check German militarism and stamp out German atrocities, he is nevertheless doing his full part in every possible way and is often heard on the public platform, where his enthusiasm inspires others with much of his own patriotism and loyalty. He is a man of high principles, greatly respected and loved by those with whom he has come in contact, and he is widely honored through- out the state.

LEWIS CLARK RUSH.

Lewis Clark Rush has been admitted to practice at the bars of Michigan, Illinois and Colorado and is now following his profession in Denver, giving his attention largely to corporation law. He was born in Chauncey, Illinois, December 29, 1887. His father, Louis Rush, is a native of Ohio and is now a farmer of Crawford county, Illinois, where he has extensive land holdings, his possessions aggregating one thousand acres. He has been very active and prominent in local affairs there, filling the office of county supervisor and serving in other public connections. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having gone to the front with an infantry regiment, with which he participated in various hotly con- tested engagements and also went with Sherman on the celebrated march from Atlanta to the sea. He married Grace Greer, who was born at Chauncey, Illinois, and is a daughter of Richard Greer, who was of Irish birth, as was his wife. The death of Mr. Greer occurred in Joplin, Missouri, when he had reached the advanced age of ninety-six years. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Rush were seven children, three of whom have passed away.

Lewis C. Rush pursued his early education in the district schools of Illinois and after- ward attended the Central Normal School of Danville, Indiana. His preparation for the bar was made in the University of Michigan, which conferred upon him the LL. B. degree upon his graduation as a member of the class of 1912, while in 1913 he received the LL. M. degree from his alma mater. He was admitted to the Michigan bar at Lansing in 1912, was admitted to practice in the courts of Illinois in 1913 and in the courts of Colorado in 1914. Following his removal to the west he was connected with the district attorney's office in 1914-15, after which he entered upon practice alone and has since given his atten- tion largely to corporation law. He is well versed in that branch of jurisprudence and is now the legal representative of various important corporate and business interests. He is regarded as a wise counselor and an able advocate and is making steady progress in the profession, having already gained a position that many an older member of the bar might well envy. In early manhood he devoted two years to teaching school and was made superintendent of schools when a young man of but twenty-four years.

Mr. Rush is a Mason, belonging to Western Star Lodge, No. 26, A. F. & A. M., of Dan- ville, Indiana, also to Colorado Chapter, No. 29, R. A. M., and Colorado Commandery, No. 25, K. T., both of Denver. He has likewise crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of El Jebel Temple of the Mystic Shrine and he has membership with Denver Lodge, No. 17, B. P. O. E. He became a member of Kappa Sigma at Danville. Indiana, and he has ever been loyal to his pledges to these different organizations. His has been a well spent life- a career of usefulness which has won for him the honor and respect of all with whom he has been brought in contact.

GEORGE W. DANIEL.

George W. Daniel is postoffice inspector in charge of the Denver division, which embraces the four states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming and includes twenty-five hundred offices. Steadily he has worked his way upward to this position of importance and responsibility and his course has been characterized at all times by the utmost fidelity to duty as well as by capability in discharge of the tasks which fall to his lot. Mr. Daniel is a native son of Arkansas, his birth having occurred in Searcy county on the 30th of October, 1859. His father, William P. Daniel, was a native of Georgia and was descended from an old family of Lynchburg, Virginia, of English origin. The family was started on American soil by William and John Daniel, who came from Cornwall, England, about 1640 and settled where Lynchburg, Virginia, was later founded. Ancestors of Mr. Daniel were among the prominent factors in state and national affairs, including men of letters and of learning and of marked political influence. Among the family was John Moncure Daniel, who served with the rank of major in the Revolutionary war. The Daniel family was directly related to the Ball family of Virginia, which num-

LEWIS C. RUSH

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bered among its members Mary Ball, who married into the Washington family and became the mother of George Washington.

William P. Daniel. father of George W. Daniel, on leaving his native state of Georgia removed to Arkansas, where he became a successful farmer. He took up his abode in the latter state about 1846, following the removal of the Cherokee Indians from that district, and he was one of the first white settlers who established a home on the south side of the Ozark mountain range. He served with the federal troops in the Civil war, becoming a member of the Third Arkansas Cavalry. He is a man of lofty patriotism and undaunted loyalty. He was wounded while at the front, and his army service under- mined his health, but though entitled to a pension he would under no circumstances accept government aid in recognition of what he had done for his country. In politics he has been a stalwart democrat since the reconstruction period. He exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit of the Masonic fraternity, to which he belongs, and he holds membership in the Methodist church, being a devout Christian. His entire career has been actuated by high ideals and his word is as good as any bond solemnized by signature or seal. He is now living retired, enjoying the fruits of a well spent life and an untar- nished name, his career ever commanding for him the goodwill and confidence of those with whom he has been brought in contact. He married Lavinia E. Hatchett, a native of Tennessee and a representative of one of the old southern families of both Kentucky and Tennessee. Her father was Page Hatchett, a pioneer of Ohion county, Tennessee, and of English lineage. He was a companion of and hunter with Davy Crockett, with whom he took part in hunting expeditions to the Reelfoot Lake region of Obion county, Tennessee. The great-grandfather of George W. Daniel in the maternal line was the progenitor of the American branch of the Hatchett family and the grandfather became a well known hunter and successful planter of Tennessee and of Arkansas and removed to the latter state at the same time the Daniel family took the trip. In fact, the two families were of the same wagon train. The parents of Mr. Daniel of this review were at that time young people and were married in Arkansas and to them were born eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. Both parents still survive and are among the honored residents of their adopted state.

George W. Daniel, who was the second of the family, acquired his education in the public schools of his native county and in Marshall Academy at Marshall, Arkansas, while later he attended the Bellefonte Collegiate Institute at Bellefonte, Arkansas, and eventually continued his studies in the Arkansas Conference Seminary at Harrison, where he completed his course in 1879. His youthful days were spent upon the home farm until he reached the age of seventeen years, and during that period he underwent the hardships and privations of pioneer life and did all kinds of hard work incident to the settlement of a new country, including the building of log cabins, splitting rails, etc. He was ambitious to acquire a good education, however, and embraced every opportunity to further that end. After his graduation he entered upon educational work and for five years successfully engaged in teaching school in Arkansas and Texas, imparting clearly and readily to others the knowledge that he had acquired. During this time he also took up newspaper work and established and published the first newspaper of Searcy county, Arkansas, called the Searcy County New Era. It was published weekly and was of democratic policy. Mr. Daniel was identified with newspaper interests from the fall of 1886 until 1890. In June. 1887. he established a paper called the Boston Banner, which was published at Boston, Las Animas county, Colorado, and remained in the news- paper business altogether for five years. The venture, however, did not prove successful and in the early part of 1889 he came to Denver with financial resources completely exhausted. His first employment here was in driving a bobtail horse car but after a brief period he reentered journalistic circles as a reporter, concluding his reportorial work in June, 1890, with the Star, published at Pueblo. In July of that year he entered the postal service at Denver as a letter carrier. after passing the civil service examination, and continued to act in that capacity until 1898. In the fall of that year he was transferred to New York in what is known as the ocean mail, or seaport service, continuing therein until March. 1906. During that period he crossed the ocean one hundred and eighty times and toured the continent of Europe. particularly England, France and Germany. In international postal matters he became quite expert in everything having to do with the foreign and domestic postal laws and service. In March, 1906, he was appointed by the postmaster general, George B. Cortelyou, after civil service examination, to the position of postoffice inspector. In August, 1915, he was made inspector in charge of the Denver division, with twenty-five hundred postoffices in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming under his direction.

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History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 39

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