USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume III > Part 105
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quite successful and his genuine personal worth gained for him the high respect and goodwill of all with whom he was associated. He married Miss Eleanor Bailey, a native of Iowa, her father having been a pioneer settler and successful farmer of that state. Mrs. Bruce is still living in Denver and her two children are yet residents of this state. The daughter, Edith, who is the older, is now the wife of J. D. Heinzman, of Colorado.
James R. Bruce was educated in the public and high schools of Denver, having been out a little lad when his parents removed to this city. He made his initial step in the business world when a youth of sixteen. being first employed by the Colorado & South- ern Railroad Company, continuing to work in clerical lines for the company for three years. He afterward became connected with the Bradstreet Commercial Agency, with which he remained for two years, after which he returned to the railroad and was thus engaged until 1909. In that year he became connected with the Centennial School Sup- ply Company, with which he remained as an employe for two years and then became a stockholder in the business and was elected vice president, which position he has since continuously and efficiently filled. The company engages in the seating of school and public buildings and has an established clientele in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, conducting the only business of the kind in this state, its trade having now reached very extensive and gratifying proportions. With every branch of the business Mr. Bruce is thoroughly familiar and constantly studying the trade, its demands and its wishes, he has been able to do most effective work in building up the business by supplying public wants. The methods of the house have at all times been such as would bear close investigation and scrutiny and a high sense of commercial honor as well as industry is maintained.
On the 27th of May, 1907, Mr. Bruce was married to Miss Ada M. Williams, a native of Kansas and a daughter of Charles S. and Ida (Grow) Williams, who were pioneer residents of Kansas, settling in Parsons prior to the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Bruce has been born a son, James H., whose birth occurred in Denver on the 29th of February, 1908.
Politically Mr. Bruce maintains an independent course, nor has he ever been an aspirant for office. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and in club circles he is well known as a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Lions Club. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, which has been a dominant force in shaping and directing his life, making him a man whom to know is to esteem and honor.
JUDGE JAMES HARVEY TELLER.
Judge James Harvey Teller, member of the supreme court bench of Colorado, was born in 1850 in Granger, New York, a son of John and Charlotte ( Moore) Teller and a brother of the Hon. Henry M. Teller, United States senator from Colorado and secretary of the interior, and of Willard Teller, the well known lawyer of Denver. The family comes of Holland Dutch ancestry. The original William Teller settled at New Amsterdam in 1639. The family had always been represented in New York until the branch to which the late United States Senator Teller and Judge James H. Teller belonged moved to the west.
With the establishment of the family in the Mississippi valley Judge Teller became a pupil in the schools of Morrison, Illinois, and afterwards attended Oberlin College, where he won the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1874. Later he was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, an honor secured only through scholarship.
On the 3d of May, 1875, Judge Teller was married to Miss Frances L. Wheelock, a direct descendant of Eleazor Wheelock, the first president of Dartmouth College. The children of Judge and Mrs. Teller are: Charlotte, the wife of Gilbert Hirsch, of New York: Addison Ralph, now engaged in farming in Jefferson county; and Dorothy, the wite of Ben Edgerton, of Denver.
Judge Teller began the practice of law in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1876 and in 1882 removed to Dakota Territory, where for seven months he served as one of three com- missioners, in making a treaty with the Sioux Indians. In 1883 he was appointed secre- tary of Dakota Territory and occupied that position until 1886. After remaining at Yankton for a brief time following his retirement front office he took up his abode in Chicago and remained a practitioner at the bar of that city until 1902. While there resid- ing he was in 1896 a candidate for congress against James Mann and in the election contest polled a thousand more votes than William Jennings Bryan or John P. Altgeld, the presidential and gubernatorial candidates respectively.
The year 1902 witnessed Judge Teller's arrival in Colorado, at which time he opened
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a law office in Pueblo, where he remained in active practice until 1906. He then came to Denver and occupied the position of assistant attorney general from 1909 until 1911. He afterward formed a partnership for the private practice of law with former Attorney General John Barnett. He was called upon for judicial service on the 30th of November, 1911, when appointed district judge to succeed the late Judge Bliss, of Denver. In the bar primary held the following summer he was one of the five candidates named for the district bench, standing second in the poll of the lawyers of the city. For the election he was placed on the republican, democratic, progressive, citizens' and prohibition tickets and naturally ran far ahead of anyone else on his party's ticket. He served on the dis- trict bench until 1914 and was then named as the democratic candidate for the supreme court, his opponent being former Supreme Court Judge John Campbell, whom he defeated by approximately twenty thousand votes.
One of his famous decisions was that which established the constitutionality of the commission form of government for Denver. Mayor Arnold and his associates, despite promises to give way to newly elected commissioners, had declined to give up the offices. Another famous decision which he rendered was that compelling the city to pay the legally elected water commission, thus definitely fixing its status. Judge Teller ranks among the best judicial minds ever placed upon the supreme hench of the state. His popularity with the masses is due to the conviction that he stands in the highest tri- bunal of the state as their protector, a zealous guardian of popular rights. His decisions are marked by a rare clearness of vision. He is quick to detect and expose subterfuge and there is always manifest in him an ardent desire to be strictly fair and impartial.
HUGH SMITH.
Hugh Smith, whose long residence in Denver and Colorado covered the period of pioneer development and continued on down through the epoch of marked agricultural and commercial progress and prosperity, passed away on the 10th of June, 1911, at which time he was residing in Englewood. He was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, on the 16th of June, 1840, a son of Patrick and Bridget (McKeever) Smith. His education was acquired in the old country and he taught in the national schools of Ireland before crossing the Atlantic to the new world. He came to America when about twenty-five years of age and for a period was a teacher in St. Mary's school in Brooklyn, New York. He then responded to the call of the west, crossing the plains with an ox team to Denver. After reaching the western frontier he worked at different occupations and later turned his attention to the real estate business and while so engaged purchased eighty acres of land in Englewood. He afterward removed to Pueblo, Colorado, where he resided for a decade, being there engaged in the grocery business. He also purchased property in Pueblo, but at the expiration of ten years returned and established his home at Engle- wood upon the eighty-acre tract of land which he had previously secured.
In politics Mr. Smith was a democrat and at one time served as alderman of Pueblo but gave little attention to politics as an office seeker, preferring to concentrate his efforts and energies upon his business affairs, which were carefully and wisely directed and which brought to him a measure of success that enabled him to leave his family in very comfortable financial circumstances.
On the 11th of June, 1870, in the old Stout Street cathedral of Denver, Mr. Smith married Miss Mary Cavanaugh. a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Kane) Cavanaugh. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born the following children: Alfonsus James, now em- ployed in the government shipyard at San Pedro, California; Francis Xavier, now a resident of Butte, Montana; Augustine Aloysius, a veteran of the Spanish-American war who served in the Philippines as a Colorado volunteer and is now a corporal in Com- pany C of the Forty-ninth Engineers, serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in France; Margaret Elizabeth; who wedded J. Forbes Manning, and is deceased; Joseph Henry, a rancher near Littleton, Colorado; Charles S. P., a resident of Englewood, Colo- rado; Philip Sheridan, now a resident of Seattle, Washington; and Edward Francis, a sergeant in the quartermasters department, United States army.
The parents of Mrs. Smith were natives of Ireland, Thomas Cavanaugh having been born in County Fermanagh, while Mary Kane was born in County Galway. The young people came to America in early life and were married in New York by Archbishop Keane, who had not then attained his bishopric. They later made their home in Evans- ton, Illinois, and it was there that Mrs. Smith was born. When John Evans, who served as the second territorial governor of Colorado, came to the west he engaged Thomas Cavanaugh to make the perilous trip overland with a wagonload of household goods.
MRS. MARY SMITH
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The journey, which began auspicionsly, ended in disaster. for the wagon train was attacked by the Indians and many of the daring travelers were killed. Mr. Cavanaugh managed to escape by cutting loose one of the horses and, by its aid, swimming the river to safety. He continued his journey, arriving in Denver when it was but a frontier village and thus became one of its early pioneers. Here he continued his close associa- tion with Mr. Evans for many years, passing to his final rest at the age of eighty years His family had joined him in Denver. making the westward trip about five years after his arrival and it was there that Mary (Kane) Cavanaugh died at the age of about seventy years.
HON. HENRY LEE.
In the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, County of Middlesex, England, William Lee and Janet Murray, both of Scotch ancestry, were married by banns on the 28th day of November, in the year 1830. This marriage was solemnized on the 1st day of Novem- ber, 1833. In the same little chapel where they were married their five children were christened, as follows: Margaret, William, James, Henry and Robert. Following the death of the wife and mother and baby Robert in 1843, William Lee disposed of his property in London, and in 1845, with his four surviving children, came to America, settling in St. Louis, where he continued his former occupation, that of book binding.
In 1851, a book binder being needed to bind the Code of the state of Iowa, he was induced to locate in Iowa City, then the capital of the state, and take the state binding. His work proved so satisfactory that he decided to make this his permanent home, later adding a book store, which he operated in connection with his bindery. When the capital was removed to Des Moines and the university located at Iowa City, Lee's bookstore became very popular with the students who had come from near and far to this educa- tional center. In a measure it took the place of a public library and reading room, then so little known. as students were welcome at any time to consult the shelves for references.
The subject of this sketch, Henry Lee, was born in England in October, 1839. He assisted his father in his business until, in 1860, the lure of the west brought him to Colorado, his brother William having come the previous year. They worked together at gardening, Henry selling the vegetables in the mountain towns, chiefly Blackhawk and Central. This new free life appealed to him greatly and in after years he never tired of telling amusing incidents which happened as he went from town to town among the miners, and the following anecdote is one which he often told to demonstrate the superiority of vegetables grown in early days.
When Horace Greeley, then editor of the New York Tribune, was about to make his celebrated western tour, Wolfe Londoner. even then the enterprising citizen and storeman, wished to have a display that would give the distinguished visitor some idea of the resources of the great west. William and Henry Lee were offered twenty dollars a piece if they would bring in five heads of cabbage large enough to fit in a barrel head. The cabbage was brought in and arranged in barrels in front of Mr. Londoner's store, and that Mr. Greeley was duly impressed is evident by the fact that he wrote up the incident upon his return home.
After spending two years in Colorado, Mr. Lee paid a visit to his old home in Iowa. Upon his return he brought with him farm implements and garden seeds and opened a store in Denver in the rear of Tynon & Olds' grocery store, later moving across the street to the old stand where he continued in business for so many years. A large and flourishing business grew from this small beginning and in 1887, needing more room, he erected the four-story building on the corner of Sixteenth and Wazee streets, now owned by the Morey Mercantile Company.
During these years Mr. Lee resided upon his farm in Jefferson county, from which county he was twice elected on the democratic ticket to the house of representatives and twice to the senate of the state legislature. It was while a member of the third general assembly that Mr. Lee succeeded in starting the Denver park system. He was chairman on the committee of public lands, and introduced a bill which provided for the sale of a section of school land at a nominal price to the city of Denver for park purposes. This gave to Denver her beautiful City park.
Although a resident of Jefferson county, Mr. Lee always took great interest in City park, and being an expert on trees, shrubs and flowers gave much valuable advice in the laying out of the park. Later when he moved from his farm into the city he was appointed park commissioner, which office he held under Mayors Johnson and Speer.
HON. HENRY LEE
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While a member of the park hoard, he suggested and put through the deals for Berkeley, Jefferson and Highland parks and caused the city to build the pumping station which made City park independent of the Water Company.
One of the vital factors of this western country was the irrigation problem, and to this problem Mr. Lee devoted himself heart and soul, being one of the founders of the Agricultural Ditch Company and acting as secretary from the time of the company's organization until his death.
On the 31st day of March, 1873, Mr. Lee was married to Jennie Paul, daughter of the Hon. George Paul and Vienna Winchester Paul of lowa City. Her father served in various state offices and was the founder of the lowa State Press. To them were born three children: Henry Murray, March 13. 1874; Jessie, July 19, 1876; and Robert Paul, April 23, 1882. Henry Murray graduated from the East Denver high school as a member of the class of '93, following which he entered the State School of Mines, where he specialized in chemistry and engineering. For the following eighteen years he fol- lowed his profession, during which time his duties took him to various places on the North American continent. Upon the death of his father, he returned home and has since been in charge of the estate. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, holding mem- bership in Harmony Lodge, No. 61. His political allegiance is with the democratic party and he served as county surveyor of Dolores county, and also, by appointment, as sur- veyor for Jefferson county. He is a progressive young man, manifesting marked ability and in his chosen profession has done much important work.
Jessie, the only daughter, graduated from the North Denver high school in 1896. Later taking up teaching as her chosen work, she was graduated from Professor Dick's Normal and Preparatory School in 1903 and was connected with the city schools in the kindergarten department for twelve years. In October, 1914. she was married to William W. Taylor, of the Denver Dry Goods Company.
Robert Paul, the youngest child, was graduated from the North Denver high school in 1901, and from the State School of Mines in 1905. After his graduation he entered the drafting department of the city engineer's office. In 1907 he went to Ely. Nevada, as chemist and draftsman for the Millard & Son Agency and was in their employ at the time of his sudden death, April 15, 1911.
Having sold part of the farm, which is now beautiful Crown Hill cemetery. Mr. Lee built a bungalow on the remaining part and moved there in August, 1912. He was busy with the horticultural work he loved so well and with plans for beautifying the home when death claimed him March 30, 1914, in his seventy-fifth year, thus bringing to a close a long and useful life. His hand and purse were ever at the service of a friend, and in no man did charitable calls ever find readier response. There were no traits of selfishness in his character. A man of high ideals, large heart and unvarying kindness, he filled a prominent place in the early history of Colorado and dying left but friends among all who knew him.
SPENCER PENROSE.
With various corporate interests in Colorado, Spencer Penrose of Colorado Springs is identified. though preeminently by training and preference a mining engineer. He was born in Philadelphia on the 2d of November, 1865, a son of Richard Alexander Fullerton and Sarah Hannah (Boies) Penrose and a brother of Boies, Charles B. and R. A. F. Pen- rose, the first named being a distinguished attorney and statesman of Philadelphia who has left the impress of his individuality upon the legislative records of state and nation. The second son, Charles Bingham Penrose, is a prominent physician of Philadelphia and Richard A. F. Penrose, Jr., is a well known geologist and mining engineer, also living in Philadelphia.
Spencer Penrose is the only representative of the family who has come to the west. He is a Harvard man of 1886, having graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree. Attracted by the opportunities of this section of the country, he became one of the founders and the secretary and director of the Utah Copper Company and was also one of the pioneers in the mining district of Cripple Creek, Colorado, where he still has investments in valuable mining properties. Throughout the years he has followed the profession of mining engineering and as opportunity has offered he has extended his business connections into still other fields, being a stockholder and officer of many im- portant corporations. He is now the secretary and one of the directors of the Garden City Sugar & Land Company and of the Beaver Land & Irrigation Company, is a director of the Ray Consolidated Copper Company, of the Chino Copper Company, the First
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National Bank of Colorado Springs, the Cripple Creek Central Railroad, the Beaver, Penrose & Northern Railroad and the Grand Junction & Grand River Valley Railroad. A man of keen discernment who readily discriminates between the essential and the non- essential, his investments have been wisely and judiciously made and the results have been almost absolutely certain.
Mr. Penrose was married on the 26th of April, 1906, to Mrs. Julie Villiers (Lewis) McMillan, of Detroit. His political allegiance has always been given to the republican party and he served on the staff of Governor Peabody of Colorado in 1903 and 1904. He is very prominent in club circles, belonging to the Philadelphia, the Union League, the Philadelphia Country and the Racquet Clubs of Philadelphia, the University and the Union League Clubs of New York, the Denver and Denver Country Clubs of Denver, the El Paso and Cheyenne Mountain Clubs of Colorado Springs, the Alta Club of Salt Lake City, the Yondotega Club of Detroit and the Travelers Club of Paris, France.
ALBERT WOLFF.
With the death of Albert Wolff, Jefferson county lost one of its most progressive farmers and a citizen of the greatest value and highest standing. His farm was located a mile south of Arvada and there for many years he carried on agricultural pursuits. He was born in Mount Pleasant, Jefferson county, Ohio, December 29, 1846, his parents being John B. and Caroline Jane (Hedges) Wolff, who had a family of ten children. Joseph Wolff, the granfather of our subject, was a Pennsylvanian by birth and as a young man served with distinction in the War of 1812. Hiram and Hannah Hedges, the mater- nal grandparents, were born in Virginia.
John B. Wolff in early life studied dentistry, medicine and law and when his son Albert of this review was two years of age he returned with his family to Virginia and settled in Wheeling, where he operated the first steam printing press ever run in that city. In 1858 the family removed to Kansas, where he had prepared a home for them, but in 1859, when the gold discoveries in Colorado startled the country, he joined the throng of prospectors and crossed the plains to the mountains of the west. Several months later, however, he returned to Kansas, finally making arrangements to take up his permanent abode in Colorado, where he arrived in the spring of 1860. His family, however, did not join him until two years later. A man of business sagacity and a keen observer, he came to the conclusion that gardening would prove a profitable undertaking and decided to embark in that business. In the course of years he accumulated con- siderable property, continuously increasing his income by thrift and industry. He was a republican and took an active part in local political affairs during the '50s and was one of the organizers of the party in the district in which he then resided. In Virginia Mr. Wolff made speeches against old Governor Wise and in Kansas was prominent in the anti-slavery fight of 1857. At the time of his death he was engaged in law practice in Washington, D. C., and was considered one of the best informed men of his time. For years he officiated as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and in his circuit riding in the early days rode over the prairies where Chicago now stands.
Albert Wolff received his education in the common schools of his neighborhood and when the father left the home farm in 1868 took charge of the place in partnership with an older brother. In the following year they purchased the farm and for eleven years cultivated the same under a partnership arrangement to good purpose. Upon dividing their interests Albert Wolff retained the home farm, upon which he himself lived, instal- ling the most modern machinery and equipment. Of a studious turn of mind. he was greatly interested in agricultural subjects and applied his knowledge to the cultivation of the most suitable crops in regard to soil and climate. In 1894 he built a handsome modern residence, which added another distinction to his property.
On February 7, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wolff and Mrs. Mary E. (Royce) King, a daughter of Phineas W. Royce, a native of New York. On leaving the Empire state Phineas W. Royce removed to Ohio, where he resided for some years, and in 1864 he came to Colorado, thus becoming one of the pioneers of this state.
Mrs. Wolff is a native of Ohio and, as a girl, became a student in Oberlin College, where she took the teachers' course. She began teaching in the public schools of that state when but sixteen years of age, continuing this work intermittently with her col- lege course. About this time, her parents removed to Colorado, and she coming with them, she now has place among the early settlers of the state. In 1866 she married the Reverend Charles King, the first Methodist Episcopal minister to be ordained in Colorado. They went to California the year following their marriage, where Dr. King
ALBERT WOLFF
MRS. MARY E. WOLFF
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accepted a position as professor of Greek and Latin in the Pacific Methodist College, at Santa Rosa. While residents of California a daughter was born to them, Ella H., who passed away at the age of twenty-one years. Returning to Colorado in 1874, Dr. King was called to his final rest in the fall of that year, his death occurring at Fountain, September 12, 1874. Following the death of her husband, Mrs. King again engaged in teaching and her activities in educational work in Colorado covered a period of years. It was while thus engaged as a teacher in the schools at Arvada that she met and wedded Albert Wolff, who found in her a helpmate of congenial tastes and charming personality. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Wolff was blessed with two children, Chester A., who was educated in the high school and graduated from the University of Denver with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He is now teaching in the public schools of Canon City, Colo- rado. He wedded Grace A. Stephens, of Wheat Ridge; and Percy H., who was graduated with honors from the Wheat Ridge high school, then entered the State Agricultural Col- lege at Fort Collins, taking a carefully selected course. He married Mary F. Stephens, and to them has been horn a daughter, Marie Alberta.
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