History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 44

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

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established himself in business in order to make use of these opportunities. This mo- mentous step in his life fully proved his good judgment, for he has become recognized as an expert in real estate matters and therefore has built up one of the largest clienteles of any individual real estate operator in the city. Only recently he sold a residential property for fifty thousand dollars, another for thirty-three thousand dollars and several for twenty-five thousand. Many such sales have been successfully closed by him in recent years. He not only deals in improved but also in vacant property and does a large rental business, the firm under which this is conducted being known as the King-Richards Rental Agency. Along all lines he has achieved in a comparatively short time phenomenal success. His reputation is of the highest and his judgment is generally deferred to and it is therefore not surprising that so many of Denver's residents have placed their interests in his care, knowing that the trust reposed in him is always executed to the best of his ability. In connection with his agency he also maintains a loan department.

The religious faith of Mr. King is that of the Baptist church and along professional lines he is connected with the Real Estate Exchange and the Colorado Insurance Bureau. That he is deeply interested in the welfare and further development and growth of bis city and state-even beyond his professional activities-is evident from his membership in the Civic and Commercial Association. Having spent some years in Missouri, he is a director of the Colorado-Missouri Society and takes a great interest in the proceed- ings of this organization. As advertising is the staff of life of practically any business and more particularly of the real estate business, it is but natural that he should belong to the Ad Club of Denver, which organization has promoted many new ideas toward building up and making known the opportunities of the Queen City of the West. Although Mr. King is a constant and tireless worker, he finds time for recreation, recognizing the absolute necessity of relaxation in order to more efficiently conduct his exacting business interests, and is a member of the Denver Motor Club and the Denver Athletic Club. Many are the friends he has in business and private life and he stands high as a successful repre- sentative of commercial interests, as a progressive, public-spirited citizen and as a patriotic American.

CONSTANT J. FIEDLER.

The story of the subjugation of Colorado's wilderness is a thrilling one. The trav- eler of a half century ago found great stretches of sandy waste covered with sagebrush or other wild vegetation and there was little to indicate that time and man would bring about a wonderful transformation; but men with a vision saw something of what the future had in store for this great region, took advantage of its natural resources and began its development. As the years have passed scientific knowledge has promoted the work of cultivation and improvement and today Weld county is a great and rich agri- cultural district. Among those who are enjoying the advantages here offered is Constant J. Fiedler, who is living on section 27, township 5, range 65, in Weld county. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, in February, 1868, a son of Martin and Barbara Fiedler, who were natives of Germany. The father was a farmer in that country and about 1877 came to America, settling in Wheaton, Illinois, where he rented land which he continued to oultivate until he reached an age that rendered labor very difficult for him. He then retired from active life and spent his remaining days in the enjoyment of well earned rest. He died in the year 1914, having for five years survived his wife, who passed away in 1909.

Constant J. Fiedler was a pupil in the schools of Germany to the age of ten years, when he accompanied his parents to America and continued his education in the schools of Illinois, where the family home was established. He remained under the parental roof for a time and began learning the carpenter's trade, at which he worked for a time but discontinued labor of that character and resumed farming. He was em- ployed as a farm hand for three years. At the age of seventeen he left his Illinois home and went to Iowa, where he remained for one year. About 1886 he came to Weld county, Colorado, where he worked for five or six years as a farm hand. He afterward rented land, which he continued to cultivate for seven years and then purchased his present place of one hundred and sixty acres. There was not a stick upon it or any indication of improvement of any kind. "He has since carried on the work of development and has his farm in excellent condition. He has continuously operated it through the intervening years, gathering good crops, while its neat and thrifty appearance indicates his careful supervision and progressive methods.

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In November, 1895, Mr. Fiedler was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Loloff, a daughter of Frederick and Catherine Loloff, who are natives of Germany and who came to America in early life. They settled in Colorado and Mr. Loloff devoted his attention to mining in the vicinity of Clear Creek. Later he went to Longmont, Colorado, where he followed farming for several years. Subsequently he homesteaded three miles east of Kersey and has since cultivated and improved his farm. Both he and his wife are still living and he is now seventy-five years of age. To Mr. and Mrs. Fiedler were born four children: Florence, Charles, Hattie and Mary. Mrs. Fiedler passed away April 18, 1914, after an illness of two years, and her death was the occasion of deep and wide- spread regret to the many friends who had learned to esteem her for her sterling worth.

Mr. Fiedler belongs to the Woodmen of the World, with which he has been identified for twenty-five years. He is also connected with the Knights of Pythias lodge, of which he became a member in 1888. In politics lie maintains an independent course. He is a director of the ditch and reservoir board and is interested in all that pertains to the material progress and welfare of the community in which he makes his home. His religious faith is that of the Christian church and its teachings guide him in all of his life's relations, making him a man whom to know is to esteem and honor.

WILLIAM FITZ RANDOLPH MILLS.

William Fitz Randolph Mills, succeeding to the mayoralty of Denver by reason of his office as manager of improvements and parks for the city and county of Denver, has had a notable career, characterized by that progress which is the outcome of individual effort intelligently directed. Without college training he has constantly broadened the field of his usefulness and his high professional attainments are indicated in the fact that he was for three years a director of the American Mining Congress and for four years a member of the directing board of the Colorado Scientific Society. He has been closely associated with civic improvements and the question of civic development, and marked ability led to his selection for the position which he is now so efficiently filling. He was born in New York city, September 8, 1856, a son of the late James Bishop Mills, who was also a native of New York city and a representative of one of its oldest families. The Millses came of French ancestry and the name was originally spelled Millais. Two brothers of the name became the founders of the American branch of the family, arriving in the new world about 1630. James Bishop Mills was a carpenter and builder by trade and his last days were spent in Leland, Michigan, where he took up his abode about 1865 and passed away in 1866, at the age of fifty years. He had married Sarah Martin Crowell, a native of New York city and a representative of an old family long connected with New York and New Jersey. She was a descendant of the Fitz Randolphs of English lineage. By her marriage she became the mother of four children, three sons and a daughter, of whom William F. was the second in order of birth. Two of the number have passed away, the surviving sis- ter being Corinne, the wife of Charles H. Luscomb, of Brooklyn, New York.

William Fitz Randolph Mills was educated in the public schools of New York city but in July, 1867, when not yet eleven years of age, left home and removed to Julesburg, Col- orado. where he remained for about nine months, his father having in the meantime passed away. He traveled by the first train from Julesburg, Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was there employed as a messenger for eight months by the Western Union Telegraphı Company. While at Cheyenne he became apprenticed to learn telegraphy and served in that capacity for about eight months, after which he became ill of mountain fever and was sent to Chicago to regain his health. On improving he secured a situation in a millinery establishment, where he worked for three weeks and for his labor received the small pit- tance of three dollars. This was not only a great disappointment to him but necessitated his seeking other means of livelihood. On advising his mother of his position and financial condition she sent him fifty dollars and he then removed to Muskegon, Michigan, where he secured a position as night operator with the Western Union Telegraph Company, remain- ing in that connection for two years. Again ill health necessitated a change and he re- turned to New York. Upon the advice of physicians that he remain out-of-doors he began selling bread, pies, cakes, etc., from a wagon, spending a year in that connection. On the restoration of his health he entered an insurance office and in 1881 he became secretary for the Irving Fire Insurance Company, in which connection he continued until 1887, when he became secretary for the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of New York city. He re- signed that position in 1888 and returned to the west, settling first at Kearney, Nebraska, where he became vice president and general manager of the Hamilton Loan & Trust Com- pany. In 1889 he arrived in Denver as a representative of that company, with which

WILLIAM F. R. MILLS

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he remained until 1893 or until the widespread financial panic of that year. From 1891 until 1893 he was its president. In the latter year he entered the brokerage busi- ness on his own account, representing eastern capital until 1901 and conducting one of the leading brokerage establishments in the city. He next purchased the Mining Reporter, having become deeply interested in mining, and continued the publication of that trade journal until December, 1907, making it a leading authority upon the questions of which it treated. At length he sold that business and turned his attention in other di- rections. During that period, however, he was a member and director of the Western Association of Technical Chemists & Metallurgists, and to cap his eminence in that field, he was chosen in 1906 a director of the American Mining Congress and served in that capacity until 1909. For a number of years he has been an honored member of the Amer- ican Academy of Science, the National Geographic Society, the Colorado Scientific Society and the National and Colorado Forestry Associations. It is one of the remarkable features of his career that despite the incompleteness of his early education he has attained such high standing in the organizations into which few but college-bred men are able to enter. He also has kept strictly in the line of progress with the good roads movement and since 1907 has been an active member of the Rocky Mountain Highway Association, while no citizen has been more earnest or influential in the broad work of the Denver Chamber of Commerce.

In 1904 Mr. Mills organized the Denver Convention League, became its manager and director and so continued until the organization was dissolved in 1909. During the period of its existence he took a leading part in its operation and in the conduct of various civic matters in which Denver became widely advertised for its progressiveness. Since 1901 he has been a most active member of the Chamber of Commerce, served as its secretary in 1908. was its vice president in 1906 and 1907 and has long been one of its directors. His business activities bring him into connection with the Semper Land Company of Denver, of which he is the secretary and manager. Along more strictly official lines he was iden- tified with the parks and public improvements of the city and county of Denver, having on the 17th of May, 1916, assumed the duties of manager of improvements and parks, in which he was actively, successfully and continuously engaged until May, 1918. His la- bors in this direction have been far-reaching, important and effective, adding much to the development of the park system and to the advancement of public improvements along various lines. It was the efficiency of his public service through long years that led Mayor Speer to select him as the most capable man for this office, notwithstanding the fact that Mayor Speer was the democratic leader of Denver, while Mr. Mills has ever been a stalwart republican. The fact of the matter is that they are both of that broad-minded class who in their devotion to the public welfare transcend partisanship and place the general good before politics. Upon the death of Mr. Speer, Mr. Mills by virtue of the office that he was holding in the mayor's cabinet, succeeded to the position of chief executive and has entered upon his duties with the full determination to carry out the policy and continue the work instituted by Mayor Speer for developing Denver's civic center and making this the ideal American city.

On the 25th of January, 1881, Mr. Mills was married in New York city to Miss Cor- wina Rouse, a native of Saratoga, New York, and a daughter of John and Hannah M. (Tompkins) Rouse, representatives of old and prominent Saratoga families. To them were born eight children: Edith R .; Florence, who died in infancy; William F. R., who married Ethel Thornburgh and resides in Denver; Jessie E., the wife of George R. Painter. of Telluride, Colorado; Corwina R., deceased; Kenneth, who died in infancy; Harold G., a resident of Denver; and Donald, who died in infancy.

Politically Mr. Mills is a republican where national questions and issues are involved but casts an independent local ballot, supporting men and measures best calculated to pro- mote the general improvement. He has been very active in support of all plans and meas- ures for the general good and has rendered helpful support in civic and charitable work. His military record covers ten years' connection with the Twenty-second Regiment of the New York National Guard, which he joined as a private but was made sergeant, afterward first sergeant and later a member of the colonel's staff, so serving during the last five years of his connection with the organization. He is a Mason and took the degrees of the blue lodge in New York city in 1881. He took the degrees of Scottish Rite Masonry in New York in 1883, became a Knight Templar in Denver in 1891 and also a member of the Mystic Shrine in Denver in 1889. He is a member of the First Universalist church. of which he is serving as treasurer, and he is a director of the Denver Motor Club. Starting out in life on his own account at the early age of eleven years, he has since been depen- dent upon his resources and efforts for his advancement. The attainment of wealth has never been the sole end and aim of his life. He early realized the fact that the greatest joy and the greatest success in life comes through the stimulus of intellectual effort and

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he has continually broadened his knowledge by reading, study and experience. Upon many subjects having to do with mining conditions and with civic projects he is regarded as authority and he is interested in all those broad scientific questions which mark the progress of the race and the trend of modern thought and investigation. Today he is con- centrating every effort and thought upon carrying out the plans for Denver's improvement and upbuilding according to the ideas of Mayor Speer, with whom he was most closely associated, being familiar with all of his plans for Denver's benefit. There are many who feel that the interests of the city could not be left in safer hands than those of William Fitz Randolph Mills.

EDWARD L. PRENTISS.

Edward L. Prentiss is the president and general manager of the Routt County Fuel Company, owners of the Pinnacle mine, which is one of the most valuable coal properties in Colorado. He makes his home in Denver and from this point supervises his invest- ment interests, which are now extensive and valuable, returning to him a most gratifying income annually. Mr. Prentiss is a native son of Kansas. He was born in Lawrence on the 6th of October, 1869. Investigation into his history shows that the Prentiss family is of English origin and was founded on American soil at a very early day, the original ancestor having crossed the Atlantic while this country was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain. Among the ancestors of Edward L. Prentiss were those who participated in the Revolutionary war and aided in winning independence for the nation. His father, Dr. Joseph L. Prentiss, was a native of the state of New York and became a physician and surgeon. Removing westward, he cast in his lot with the pioneer settlers of Colorado. He had pursued his education in univer- sities in the east and at the time of the Civil war he responded to the country's call for troops and was a veteran of the Army of the Potomac. He served throughout the entire period of hostilities between the north and the south, took part in a number of battles, and by reason of his strenuous duty as a surgeon his health became greatly impaired. He was chief surgeon and had sixty surgeons under him. In one of his notes concerning the battle of Antietam he says in his diary that his staff cut off two wagon loads of arms and legs, such being the necessity for surgical work following that san- guinary engagement. It was subsequent to the Civil war in 1865 that he came to Colo- rado, first settling at Cañon City, and there he engaged in fighting the Indians. He continued his residence at Cañon City throughout his remaining days. He was quite prominent in connection with civic and political matters in the locality in which he lived and was likewise very prominent in his profession. He became a man of very high standing in professional circles and his marked ability was widely recognized. He kept in touch with the trend of modern professional thought as a member of the Fre- mont County, the Colorado State and the American Medical Associations and he put forth every effort in his power to broaden his knowledge and promote his efficiency. He wedded Mary Anderson, a native of Kansas, her parents having been pioneer settlers of Lawrence, that state. They were married in Lawrence and they came of English an- cestry. To Mr. and Mrs. Prentiss were born three sons: George, who is now a resident of Miami, Oklahoma; Edward L .; and James H., who is living in Chicago.

Edward L. Prentiss is indebted to the public school system of Cañon City, Colorado, for the educational opportunities which he enjoyed in his boyhood and youth. He passed through consecutive grades in the public schools of that city and ultimately was graduated from the high school. When seventeen years of age he started out to provide for his own support and throughout the intervening years he has been largely identified with the development of the fuel fields of Colorado. He became associated with his father and his brother in the operation of their mine, which was known as the Prentiss mine. This property was worked with partial success for ten years. Since making his initial step in that connection Edward L. Prentiss has followed coal mining in every branch of the business, and the mine in which he is now located is the third largest producer in the county. His business interests are carried on under the name of the Routt County Fuel Company, a corporation which employs about two hundred people, and the mines have an output of a thousand tons per day. The company owns a mine known as the Pinnacle. It was opened by Mr. Prentiss and, seeing how valuable was the property, he incorporated his interests, organizing the Routt Company in 1908. He has since been its president and general manager and in carrying on the business has been closely identified with the development of the coal fields of the state. The work is most systematically carried on and Mr. Prentiss has been fortunate in that he has

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been able to surround himself with a competent, efficient and progressive force of assist- ants. He is also president of the Routt County Bank at Oak Creek, Colorado, and he has other mining interests and investment properties which are returning to him a most substantial and gratifying income.

At Ocean Park, California, Mr. Prentiss was married on the 10th of November, 1909, to Miss Ethel Fraser, a native of Michigan and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Fraser, both of whom are still living and are representatives of an old Michigan family. Her father became one of the carly residents of California and was the founder of Ocean Park. He there erected a million dollar pier, which was destroyed by fire, but he soon rebuilt it. He was a very prominent, wealthy and influential citizen of that place. To Mr. and Mrs. Prentiss have been born two children: Alexander, whose birth occurred in Denver, April 5, 1912; and Edward L., Jr., who was born in Denver on the 14th of July, 1913.

In his political views Mr. Prentiss has always been a republican where national issues are involved but he casts an independent local ballot. He belongs to the Denver Athletic Club, also to the Denver Country Club, to the Lakewood Club, to the Automobile Club and to the Civic and Commercial Club, associations which indicate much of the nature of his interests. He is also identified with the Broadmoor Club of Colorado Springs. His has been an active and useful career. From the age of seventeen years he has been dependent upon his own resources and one element of his success is the fact that he has always continued in the line of business to which he turned his atten- tion on starting out in the world. He has therefore thoroughly acquainted himself with every phase of the fuel trade, from the point of the earliest opening and develop- ment of the mine to the time the product is placed upon the market. As president and manager of the Routt Company he is conducting a most extensive and important busi- ness and at all times has been actuated by a spirit of unfaltering enterprise productive of most substantial results.

HALSTED L. RITTER.

Concentrating his time and efforts upon the practice of law with good results, having attained a most creditable position at the Denver bar, in connection with a profession where advancement depends entirely upon individual merit and worth, Halsted L. Ritter is spoken of in terms of high regard by colleagues and contemporaries in the profession and by the general public as well. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, he was born on the 14th of July, 1868, a son of Eli F. and Narcissa (Lockwood) Ritter, the former a native of Indiana, while the latter was born in Kentucky. The Lockwood family, however, re- moved from Kentucky to Indiana, the father of Mrs. Ritter freeing his slaves on his plan- tation and then making his way northward. Eli F. Ritter was a well known attorney of Indianapolis and at the time of the Civil war put aside all business and personal consider- ations to espouse the Union cause, becoming captain of Company K of the Seventy-ninth Indiana Infantry, with which he served throughout the entire period of hostilities between the north and the south. In two different engagements he was wounded. He always stood for reform, for progress and improvement in the public life of community, common- wealth and country and in 1885 was chairman of the national prohibition party. He died in Indianapolis in 1914, at the age of seventy-seven years, and thus was closed a life of great usefulness, but his memory remains a blessed benediction to those who knew him. His wife died in the same year at the age of seventy-two. They were the parents of seven children. His son, Halsted L. Ritter, still has in his possession the father's sword which he carried throughout the Civil war.

The eldest of the family, Halsted L. Ritter, pursued his education in the schools of Indianapolis and in De Pauw University of Indiana, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Philosophy degree as a member of the class of 1891. He also received from that institution the Master of Arts degree in 1893. Pursuing the study of law, he won the LL. B. degree in 1892 and at once began practice in connection with his father. He continued with his father for three years, from 1892 until 1895. On the 8th of January of the latter year he arrived in Denver and since that time has built up a large practice in this city, ranking with the leading attorneys at the Denver bar. He served as deputy prosecuting attorney of Denver from June until December, 1897, and was assistant city attorney from 1900 until 1903. In January, 1908, he was made state railway commissioner and occupied that position for a year. His high standing among his professional brethren is indicated in the fact that in 1909 he was chosen by them to serve as president of the

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History of Colorado; Volume II, Part 44

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