History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 100

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918-19
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 844

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Major Spangler is a member of the Denver Bar Association and enjoys the high respect and goodwill of his contemporaries and colleagues in the practice of law. In politics he has always maintained an independent course. He has been secretary of the state board of law examiners since 1902. His record has been marked by steady progress as the result of personal ability. He provided for his education beyond that accorded in the public schools and in thus preparing for a professional career dis- played the elemental strength of his character. Merit and ability have brought him to the front and his record has at all times been most creditable.

JOHN W. DOUGHTY.

John W. Doughty, deceased, was for a long period identified with farming and mining interests in Colorado, owning and cultivating a ranch near Monument, where he passed away on the 5th of February, 1917. He was seventy-three years of age. his birth having occurred on the 30th of January, 1844. near Cincinnati, Ohio, his parents being Jonah and Keziah (Clark) Doughty, who were natives of the Buckeye state. He acquired a common school education and with the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted for active service in the Union army as a member of Company B, Eighty-eighth Ohio Infantry. He was mustered out July 3. 1865, at Camp Chase, Ohio, having been on duty for three years, and, though frequently in the thickest of the fight, he was never wounded. Moreover, he had the distinction of being the youngest enlisted man in his regiment. for he was but seventeen years of age when the war broke out.

When hostilities had ceased and the country no longer needed his aid he took up the profession of teaching, which he followed for a few years in Illinois. He after- ward removed to Oklahoma, where he spent two years upon a ranch. and in 1872 he came to Colorado, where he engaged in prospecting and mining. He had charge of the Carbon mine at Leadville for three years and then went to Garfield, Colorado, where he remained for one year, living upon leased land. On the expiration of that period he took up a homestead claim near Husted in 1884 and in connection with the development and improvement of the property he carried on mining for a few years. His remaining days were spent upon the ranch, which he brought under a high state of cultivation and to which he added many modern equipments and improvements, so that his place had all of the up-to-date advantages of the present-day farm. His life was ever a busy. useful and active one and his enterprise and unwearied industry were the basis of his success.

On the 11th of November, 1879, Mr. Doughty was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Bidle, a daughter of Edward and Mary (Batman) Bidle, both of whom were natives of Germany but came to America with friends in early life. They settled at Gutten- berg. Iowa, and in 1860 removed to Denver, crossing the prairies with ox team. Mr. and Mrs. Doughty became the parents of three children who are yet living. Wilbur W .. born in 1884, was married November 30, 1916, to Ethel Parrott, of Alma, Michigan, who was born in 1887. Wilbur W. Doughty is a farmer and stockman. Jessie. born March 14. 1886, pursued a high school education and is now the wife of Wayne Stout, a rancher living near Husted, Colorado, and they have three children: Marjorie, Clarence and Samuel. Alice, born December 12, 1888, is a high school graduate. She married

MR. AND MRS. JOHN W. DOUGHTY

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Chester Crowe, who died February 25, 1918, leaving a daughter, Sophia, born January 2, 1911.

Mr. Doughty gave his political allegiance to the republican party but was never an aspirant for office. He was a good man, honorable and upright in all of his dealings, well liked, substantial and a representative farmer and citizen of his community. The genuine worth of his character was recognized by all with whom he came in contact and his many friends speak of him in terms of high regard.

JOHN LLOYD STEARNS.

For many years no one figured more prominently in insurance circles in Colorado than John Lloyd Stearns, who was one of the organizers of the German-American Life Insurance Company, now known as the American Life Insurance Company. His splen- did executive ability and constructive force were brought to bear in the building up of the organization, of which he was the first president and so continned until his death.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, he was born on the 20th of December, 1852, and passed away in Denver on the 18th of August, 1911. His parents were the Rev. John and Harriotte Lee (Lloyd) Stearns. The father was assistant minister at St. George's Episcopal church of New York city under Dr. Milner and was afterward rector of St. Peter's in Brooklyn and subsequently located at Stratford, Connecticut. at Pittsfield. Massachusetts, and at Spotswood, New Jersey, his death occurring at the last named place in 1866. He was a graduate of the theological seminary of Alexandria, Virginia- a member of the class of 1849-and his life was devoted to a calling in which he exer- cised widely felt influence for the moral progress of the communities in which he lived. His wife was born in Alexandria and removed to the north just prior to the outbreak of the Civil war, her death occurring in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1887, when she was sixty years of age. In the maternal line John Lloyd Stearns was a descendant in the fourth generation of Richard Henry Lee, of Westmoreland county, Virginia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The ancestral home of the Stearns family is at Watertown, New York. He was also a cousin of General Robert E. Lee.

John L. Stearns acquired his primary education in his native state and afterward attended Burlington College of New Jersey, being graduated therefrom when less than sixteen years of age. Soon after he entered the office of President Winston, the first president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York and continued there for about two years. President Winston saw that the boy was of bright mind and advised him to study law, which advice he followed. At the same time the need of being self-supporting cansed him to attend to his insurance duties. But the strain was too great and failing health caused him to abandon the law and give his entire attention to insurance, becoming corresponding clerk for the Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1885 he was appointed as general agent for the company in the maritime provinces of Canada, with headquarters at Halifax, Nova Scotia. His early training was there- fore along the line of work to which he afterward gave his attention. The territory over which he had jurisdiction included New Brunswick, Cape Breton Island, New- foundland. Nova Scotia and St. Pierre and he remained in charge at Halifax for eight years.

It was in 1892 that Mr. Stearns arrived in Colorado to become manager of the district that included Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. In that connection he continued until 1910, when he retired from the Mutual Life Insurance Company and organized the German-American Life Insurance Company, which is now known as the American Life Insurance Company. He was elected its first president and continued as its chief executive officer throughout his remaining days. The steps in his orderly progression are easily discernible. Throughout his entire career he was identified with the insur- ance business and won a place among the most successful men in that line in the country. He possessed singular adaptability to the work combined with energy and sound business judgment and high ideals of business conduct. His colleagues and con- temporaries spoke of him in terms of the warmest regard and his enterprise and ambi- tion carried him over many difficulties and obstacles and brought him to a point of substantial success.

On the 3d of October, 1879, Mr. Stearns was married to Miss Ella Powell, of Alex- andria. Virginia, a daughter of Cuthbert and Mary (Sayre) Powell and a great-great- granddaughter of Colonel Leven Powell, who was at Valley Forge with General Wash- ington. She is also a niece of Admiral Powell of the United States Navy and she has membership with the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of

JOHN LLOYD STEARNS

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Colonial Dames. Both of her parents passed away in Alexandria, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Stearns became the parents of six children. John, the eldest, is a civil engineer residing in New York city. He was graduated from Cornell University in 1907 and is now connected with the White Construction Company. He married Katherine M. Daniels, of New York city, and has two children, Melissa and Lelia Powell. Harriotte Lee, the second of the family, is the widow of Dr. Clarence B. Goddard, of Leavenworth, Kansas, and now resides in California with her daughter, Clara Cecelia. Lientenant Colonel Cuthbert Powell Stearns, a graduate of West Point Military Academy of the class of 1909, is now located in Portland, Oregon, in charge of spruce production for airplane service. He married Jessie Ann Peabody, a daughter of the late Governor James H. Peabody of Colorado, and they have one child, Frances P. Mary Sayre is the wife of Robert Vail Barkalow, of Denver, and has two children, Mary S. and Jean. Robert Lawrence is a graduate of the University of Colorado of the class of 1914 and of the Columbia Law School of 1916 and is now a captain in the national army, engaged in spruce production work under his brother in Oregon. He married Katherine Han- nington, of Colorado. Rosalie Marshall is a graduate of Miss Wolcott's School for Girls in Denver and lives with her mother in the family home in this city.

Mr. Stearns was a Mason of the thirty-second degree, belonging to the York and Scottish Rites. He also held membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, was a member of the Denver Club and of the Denver Athletic Club. He belonged to the Society of Colonial Wars and to the Sons of the American Revolution. His political allegiance was given to the republican party and few men outside of political circles were better informed concerning the questions and issues of the day. He took a most active and helpful interest in church work, serving for eleven years as treasurer of St. John's cathedral of Denver. He found his greatest interest, outside of his home and business, in the collection and reading of good books and was the possessor of one of the finest private libraries in the state. He was also the author of several published writings on insurance topics. Throughout his life he found his greatest joy in those things which are most worth while the things which have cultural value-and his broad learning was such that association with him meant expansion and elevation.

JOHN E. LEET.

John E. Leet, engaged in the real estate and investment business in Denver, with offices in the Empire building, comes to Colorado from Missouri, his birth having occurred at Steelville, in Crawford county of that state, on the 4th of January, 1847. The ancestral line is traced back to Pennsylvania, thence to Virginia and to Connecti- cut. Governor William Leet of this family was one of the colonial governors of Connecticut and was the founder of the American branch in the new world. He arrived on this side the Atlantic in 1643. He had been a close friend and associate of Oliver Cromwell. Among his descendants were those who took active part on the side of independence in the war of the Revolution. Other representatives of the family have figured prominently in connection with political affairs and events of national import- ance. Judge David M. Leet, the father of John E. Leet, was a prominent lawyer and distinguished judge who presided over the court of the fourteenth judicial district of Missouri. He became a resident of Steelville, Missouri, in 1840 and there resided for eleven years. Prior to the Civil war, however, he removed to Gasconade county, Mis- souri, settling in Hermann, and in 1881 he became a resident of Denver, Colorado, where he was extensively engaged in the real estate business for a considerable period. He continned to make his home in Denver to the time of his demise, which occurred in 1900, when he was eighty-six years of age. He was a very prominent and influential citizen of Missouri, was a stanch democrat in political faith and was a warm personal friend of Thomas H. Benton, Belah Hughes and Governor Gilpin, who was the first governor of the territory of Colorado. He also enjoyed the friendship of General Price and other distinguished men of that age. He married Julia Kelsey, a native of Hol- land Patent, Oneida county, New York. The old family homestead adjoined that of Rev. Cleveland, who was the father of President Grover Cleveland. Mrs. Leet was born in April, 1818, and was a descendant of one of the oldest New England families, of English and Scotch lineage. She died in Sedalia, Missouri, March 20. 1876, and her remains were interred in the Crown Hill cemetery, an endowed burial place of Sedalia. The grave of Judge Leet was made in Fairmount cemetery in Denver. In their family were three children.

John E. Leet, who is now the only survivor of the family, pursued his early educa-

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tion in the public schools of Missouri, afterward spent one year in the State University and after the Civil war devoted three years to study in the Kentucky University, now Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky. He was graduated from that insti- tution in 1870 with the degree of Master of Arts and while a student there Champ Clark was numbered among his schoolmates. Following his graduation Mr. Leet took up the study of journalism and became editor of the Abbeville Flag, published at Ahbeville, Louisiana. Prior to this time he had taught school in Abbeville, and after being identi- fied for a period with newspaper publication there he became editor on the New Orleans Picayune and was also at one time editor on the New Orleans Times-Democrat. He continued in active identification with journalism until 1879 and in the meantime he served as harbormaster of the port of New Orleans from January, 1873, until January, 1875. He afterward removed to Denver, where he arrived on the 15th of April, 1879, and here he became editorial writer on the Rocky Mountain News, with which paper he was associated until March, 1881. He then turned his attention to the real estate business and within twelve years made a handsome fortune which could be indicated in six figures. He has since been actively and continuously engaged in real estate lines and there is no one in Denver more thoroughly informed concerning realty values or the property that is upon the market. He has negotiated many important transfers and the enterprise and business ability that he has displayed have brought him to a very prominent position among the successful and prosperous men of the city.

There is an interesting military chapter in the life record of Mr. Leet, who was but a boy at the time of the Civil war yet responded to the call of the Union for aid and joined the Seventh Missouri Cavalry. He was taken prisoner at March Mills, Arkansas, by General Parsons, who had been the best man at the wedding of his parents. He was confined at Camp Ford, in Tyler, Texas, but managed to make his escape from that place and he suffered many trials and hardships while attempting to get back to the Union. He was on parole for about fifteen months during the last part of the war and was a victim of yellow fever when his parole was granted. He had only attained the age of seventeen years when the war was over. Those were hard experiences for a boy of his age, but he never faltered in the faithful performance of the duties which devolved upon him.

Mr. Leet was married in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 26, 1871, to Miss Modeste Caillier, a native of the Crescent City and of French parentage. Mrs. Leet died May 30, 1910. in Denver, and was buried in Fairmount cemetery. By her marriage she became the mother of six children, of whom three passed away in infancy. The living are: Mrs. Emma L. Downing, a resident of Denver; Mrs. Laura Roller; and Edmund, a. mechanical engineer, living in Denver. There are also six grandchildren: Richard Downing, who is a sophomore in the State University at Boulder at the age of nine- teen years; Virginia Downing, fourteen years of age, a pupil in the high school of Denver; Wilfred Roller, seventeen years of age, a student in the North Denver high school; Marian Roller, fourteen years of age, a junior in the high school; Daniel Niel, nine years of age; and Edmund Leet, Jr. The daughters of Mr. Leet were born in New Orleans, while his son is a native of Denver and all of the grandchildren were horn in this city.

Mr. Leet was one of the founders of the Denver Club but has not been an active member in recent years. He was also one of the founders of the Denver Athletic Club. His political allegiance has always been given to the republican party until the last election, when he voted for President Wilson. He was the first alderman from the fourteenth ward of Denver who was elected on the people's ticket and he was chair- man of the Fifteenth Street Theater convention, which was held in 1890, and took a leading part in promoting the interests of the Trans-Mississippi Congress of 1881. He stands at all times for advancement and improvement and has ever been as true and loyal to his country as when a soldier boy he followed the stars and stripes on the battlefields of the south. He is actuated by a lofty patriotism and marked devotion to duty at all times and has ever commanded the respect, confidence and goodwill of his associates.

BRADISH P. MORSE.

Bradish P. Morse is the treasurer of the Morse Brothers Machinery & Supply Con- pany of Denver and is thus actively identified with important industrial interests of the city. He was born in Ware, Massachusetts, March 16, 1871, and pursued his educa- tion in the public and high schools of that city and of Amherst, Massachusetts. Early

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in life he took up the printing trade in connection with newspaper publication in Massa- chusetts and was identified with seven weekly newspapers in central Massachusetts covering a period of six years. Eventually he sold his interests there and came to the west, believing that he might have still better and broader business opportunities in this great and growing section of the country. He arrived in Denver in 1893. His parents, Samuel and Olive (Goodell) Morse, were both natives of Massachusetts and have passed away. The father devoted his life to the occupation of farming there. Two brothers, George G. and B. P. Morse, however, have become actively interested iu industrial lines in Denver and are now conducting a growing business at Nos. 1732-1750 Wazee street. Their plant covers twenty-five thousand square feet of floor space and their yards at Thirty-first street and the Union Pacific tracks, where they have seven acres. The business was established in 1898. They handle used equipment in making their output and as the years have passed the excellence of their product, the relia- bility of their business methods and the reasonableness of their prices have secured to them a constantly growing trade.

In 1912 Mr. Morse was united in marriage to Miss Anna Reynolds, of Denver, and to them has been born a son, Albert, who is three years of age. Mr. Morse is well known in Masonic circles, belonging to Hiram Lodge, No. 98, A. F. & A. M., of Aspen, Colorado, while in Rocky Mountain Consistory, No. 2, he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He has also crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of El Jebel Temple of the Mystic Shrine and he belongs to the Denver Club and to the Denver City Club. He has thus become widely known in social as well as business circles and his prominence in both is the result of genuine worth and merit. Steadily he has advanced since starting out in the business world on his own account, each step in his career being a forward one, and ultimately he has reached the present place which he occupies as a leading representative of industrial activity in Denver.

THOMAS HALPIN.

Thomas Halpin occupies a very beautiful home in Eaton and is one of the prominent and representative business men of Weld county, where he now fills the responsible position of manager for Clayton & Murnan, the largest cattle feeders in the state. He and Mr. Murnan are the owners of eight hundred acres of land and Mr. Halpin gives personal supervision to the cultivation of most of this.

Mr. Halpin was born in Penn Yan, New York, in April, 1870, a son of John and Anna Halpin. His education was acquired in his native state and in Greeley, Colorado. He came west in 1885 and when he had reached the age of eighteen years his school days were over and he made his initial step in the business world. He obtained work on a ranch, handling from four to five thousand head of horses, and when he was twenty-one years of age he was actively assisting in the building of reservoirs and ditches. He has done much work in this connection, contributing in large measure to the development of the irrigation system of the county. Much of his life has been spent in connection with cattle raising interests in the vicinity of Eaton and Greeley and his marked ability in this connection led to his selection for the postion of manager with the firm of Clayton & Murnan, whose cattle feeding interests o'ertop in extent those of any other firm in the state. In this connection he has charge of from eight to eleven thousand head of cattle, which are pastured in Weld county and this section of the state. He has handled more cattle perhaps than any other one man in the state and his conduct of the business has always been very successful. He ever gives close attention to the work in hand, never neglects his stock in the slightest degree and there is no one who has more accurate knowledge of the best methods to care for stock than he. Messrs. Halpin and Murnan are also the owners of valuable land, having purchased a farm of eight hundred acres, six miles northeast of Eaton from the Wyatt brothers. Notwithstanding his extensive interests and activities in other directions, he has found time to improve his land and now farms five hundred acres himself, while renting the remainder. He also owns a most attractive home in Eaton and his capably directed interests have brought to him the prosperity that enables him now to enjoy all of the comforts of life and many of its luxuries.

Mr. Halpin was married in 1899 to Miss Ellen Effington and their children are three in number. John C., seventeen years of age, is assisting his father. Thomas E., fifteen years of age, enlisted for active service and is with Engineers Company 318. He was sent to Vancouver and is now in France. Will, six years of age, completes the family. Mr. Halpin has every reason to be proud of his sons, especially of the young

THOMAS HALPIN

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lad who is doing active duty at the front in defense of world democracy. There are indeed few in the service at his age, but the recognition of his capability led to his acceptance. Mr. Halpin is a forceful and resourceful man, ready to meet any emergency in business, and his plans are well formulated and carefully executed.

HARRY L. WOOD.

Active, energetic, alert and determined, Harry L. Wood has made for himself a creditable position among the representatives of commercial activity in his section of the state, being now proprietor of a well appointed store at Ramah. He comes to Colo- rado from Illinois, his birth having occurred in Fairfield, Wayne county, that state, on the 20th of April, 1880. His parents were William R. and Nancy (Carpenter) Wood, the former a native of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Marietta, Ohio. The father was a cabinetmaker and carpenter by trade and in 1885 removed with his family to Norton, Kansas, where his son, Harry L., attended the public schools.

When a youth of fourteen years Harry L. Wood put aside his textbooks and entered the employ of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company as a telegrapher. After one year spent in that connection he was sent to Falcon, Colorado, where he served as telegraph operator for a year and later spent two years as relief agent with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, being sent to various points along the line during that period. He was agent at Ramah for three years, also agent at Burlington, Colo- rado, for a year, and in 1901 he established himself in a mercantile business at Ramah, where he is now located. He is enjoying a large and growing trade, carrying a care- fully selected line of goods, and his patronage is constantly increasing by reason of the fact that he puts forth earnest effort to please his customers and is thoroughly reliable in all of his business dealings. He is also the owner of a farm of four hundred acres, two and one-half miles east of Ramah, from which he receives a good rental.

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History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 100

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918-19 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 844

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918-19
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 844