USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume III > Part 4
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ten, going to his final reward with his name indelibly engraved upon Colorado's tablet of fame." As a tribute to his business integrity and success he was one of the sixteen men whose pictures were selected to adorn the dome of the state capitol.
ERLO E. KENNEDY, M. D.
While one of the younger representatives of the medical profession in Denver, the career of Dr. Erlo E. Kennedy, judged in the light of past achievements, is one which may well be watched with interest. He has won favorable criticism among colleagues and contemporaries and the most thorough training has qualified him for the responsible duties that devolve upon him in active practice. Dr. Kennedy is a native of West Virginia, his birth having occurred at Lost Creek in Harrison county, on the 20th of February, 1880. His father, Lloyd R. Kennedy, was born on the old homestead farm in West Virginia, which was also the birthplace of his father, William Kennedy, while James Kennedy, the great-grandfather of Dr. Kennedy, was a native of Ireland and of Scotch-Irish descent. He became the founder of the family in the new world and served his adopted country as a soldier in the War of 1812. Lloyd R. Kennedy has devoted his entire life to the occupa- tion of farming and is still living upon the old homestead in West Virginia: He married Clara Woofter, also a native of that state, and they became the parents of three children who are yet living, the brother and sister of Dr. Kennedy being Charles E. and Myrtle. The former is yet occupying the old home place and the latter is the wife of Charles Fetty, a farmer of Lost Creek, West Virginia.
In the acquirement of his education Dr. Kennedy attended the public schools of Lost Creek and afterward spent three years as a student in Salem College of Salem, West Virginia, thus acquiring broad literary knowledge to serve as the foundation upon which to rear the superstructure of professional learning. He took up the study of medicine in the Baltimore Medical College, which he entered in September, 1901, and there completed a four years' course by graduation with the class of 1905, at which time his M. D. degree was conferred upon him. He then located for the practice of medicine in Berlin, West Virginia, where he remained for two years, but the opportunities of the growing west attracted him and in August, 1907, he removed to Colorado, opening an office at Basalt, where he continued until April, 1917. He then came to Denver to accept the position of secretary and executive officer of the state board of health and is now acting in that capacity, his pronounced ability and skill well qualifying him for the re- sponsibilities that devolve upon him in this connection.
In 1902 Dr. Kennedy was united in marriage to Miss Daisy C. Trimble, of Barbour county, West Virginia, and they have one son, Charles H., born in Baltimore, Maryland, November 10, 1904, now a pupil in the Manual Training high school. Dr. Kennedy be- longs to the Delta Mu, a medical fraternity, also to the Odd Fellows lodge at Gaston, West Virginia, and in politics he is a stalwart democrat. He belongs to the Colorado State Medical Society and he is recognized as a young, energetic member of the medical profession-a man with fine personality and excellent equipment whose career has already won him notable distinction and whose future promises most brightly.
HON. LEMUEL GAMMON.
Hon. Lemuel Gammon, a successful and enterprising business man, well known as a merchant and banker at Ramalı, was born December 21, 1860, in Monroe county, Iowa, his parents being George W. and Martha (Robinson) Gammon, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. In 1865 the father removed to Decatur, Iowa, and while spending his youthful days there Lemuel Gammon acquired a common school education. Through vacation periods and atter his textbooks were put aside he worked with his father upon the home farm and thus gained valuable knowledge and experience concerning practical farm methods. In 1880 he arrived at Ramah, Colorado, then known as the O. Z. postoffice, so called from being the headquarters of the O. Z. ranch in that locality. Mr. Gammon became a cow puncher on the ranch and was employed there and on other ranches for eight years. At length he determined to take up farming on his own account and preempted a claim of one hundred and sixty acres and proved up on it in 1888. In the same year he also established a mercantile business, which has grown to be the largest in his part of the state. He has a complete stock and carries an extensive line of goods so that he is able to meet the demands of the public. His business methods,
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too. are such as will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny. He is thoroughly reliable and energetic and has ever recognized the fact that satisfied patrons are the best adver- tisement. Mr. Gammon is also well known in banking circles, being now the president and the principal stockholder of the Ramah Bank. He likewise owns and operates a grain elevator and conducts a coalyard and lumberyard. Adding to his landed possessions from time to time, he is now the owner of six thousand acres, a part of which he leases on shares. The extent and importance of his business interests place him in the front rank among the representative citizens of his section of the state.
In Denver, on the 17th of December, 1891. Mr. Gammon was married to Miss Mate Magrum, a daughter of Joseph F. and Mary (Munch) Magrum. She was reared in Elmore, Ottawa county, Ohio, obtained a high school education and for a number of terms successfully taught school prior to her marriage. She has become the mother of three children. Harry A., born December 12, 1892, is a graduate of the State University at Boulder and also a graduate of the military school at Salina, Kansas. He is now at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, having previously served with the rank of second lieutenant at Camp Funston, Kansas, while at the present time he is an instructor at the Fort Sill Field Artillery School. He married Beth Glen, of Denver, on the 24th of June, 1916, and they have one child, Harriet. Ray E., born May 5, 1894, is a graduate of the military school at Salina. Kansas, and is now at St. Paul, Minnesota, being a salesman for the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. He married Bernice Newman, of St. Paul, on the 28th of June, 1916. Delma, born September 8, 1896, is a graduate of Miss Wolcott's School for Girls at Denver and is now at home with her parents.
Mr. Gammon and his family own an attractive home at Ramah, in fact he is the owner of at least one-half or more of the dwellings in the village and without invidious distinction he may be termed the leading citizen of his section. He is a good business man, active and energetic, wide-awake to every opportunity. and he is now the owner of most valuable realty holdings. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and for two years he served as a member of the seventeenth general assembly of the state of Colorado. He is also a member of the state stock board. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons, having taken the degrees of the Scottish Rite, and he is also a member of El Jebel Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Denver. His marked traits of character make for personal popularity and wherever known he is spoken of in terms of high regard and warm friendship.
WILLIAM R. LEONARD.
If one could turn back the hourglass of time to the year 1866 and review the boy workers of Carbon county, Pennsylvania, he would find among the number William R. Leonard, who at that date was picking slate or driving mules in connection with the mines; while at the time of his death, which occurred October 25, 1918, he was promi- nent in the mining world, and president of the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company of Denver. It is a far step between points, nor had he reached his prominent position by leaps and bounds, but by that steady progress which is the direct result of indefatigable effort and energy. He was born at Beaver Meadow, Pennsylvania, May 18, 1852, a son of Bernard Leonard, who was a native of Ireland and came to the new world during the '30s. In Pennsylvania he wedded Margaret Ryan, who was born in Northampton county. Both have now passed away. They reared a family of five children.
William R. Leonard, who was the third in order of birth, pursued his education in the public schools of his native county to the age of fourteen years and then started out to earn his living, securing his first wage as a slate picker in the mines of. Pennsyl- vania. In June, 1876, he determined to try his fortune in the west and went first to Leads City, South Dakota, where he was employed in various ways, including mining, and in 1884 he removed to Idaho, settling in the Coeur d'Alene district. There he be came actively identified with mining interests, both as mine superintendent and operator, and was very successful in the conduct of his business at that point. It was Mr. Leonard who discovered the Mammoth and Custer mines, both of which were among the largest and heaviest producers of the Coeur d'Alene district. His brother having arrived two years later from the east, Mr. Leonard admitted him to partnership and together they became identified with mining interests in northern Idaho. After taking out a clear profit of over one hundred thousand dollars in 1903, they sold the Mammoth mine to the Federal Mining and Smelting Company for the comfortable sum of two and one-half million dollars. Mr. Leonard retained a very large interest in
WILLIAM R. LEONARD
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
the mines of the Coeur d'Alenes, having a large block of stock in the Tamarack Custer mine and in the Federal Mining and Smelting Company. Again good fortune smiled and the Green Hill-Cleveland, located by the brother in the early part of 1900, also became a "fairy godmother" to the two brothers, and in the vernacular of the camp they again "struck it" in the year 1912.
On removing to Colorado, Mr. Leonard located in Pueblo, having a contract to deliver ore from their mines to the smelters of that city. Later he took up his abode in Denver and with business associates established the Hibernia Bank & Trust Com- pany, and from 1914 served as its president. This bank is capitalized for one hundred thousand dollars and has deposits of over one million, five hundred thousand dollars. The business of the bank is splendidly organized in every department. A general bank- ing business is conducted and four per cent paid on savings accounts. It has a well established bond, real estate and insurance department. Mr. Leonard was also interested in the First National Bank of Denver and was a realty holder of that city.
It was in Denver that Mr. Leonard met and married Miss Frances Coll, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and is a descendant of one of the old families of that state. Fraternally Mr. Leonard was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Wallace, Idaho. His religious faith was indicated by his membership in the Roman Catholic church. He was a most generous contributor to all charitable activities. His friends were the friends of adversity as well as pros- perity, for he judged men not by their possessions but by their personal worth, thereby holding the respect and esteem of his fellowmen.
JESSE FLOYD WELBORN.
Previous to the great war in which our nation is now engaged, there prevailed in the country a feeling that so-called "big business" had fairly well stifled the patriotic spirit upon which the freedom of our institutions rested. To far-seeing generals of great industries, war meant, in the end, appalling sacrifices. England was already an illus- tration, for it was, as it is now, seizing the major portion of the profits that came from the unsual war contracts. The war became a necessity. The peril was imminent. There was no protest from men who knew what war meant in the way of taxation and appropria- tion of industries. They not only jumped into the breach to help with all the industrial power at their command, but the men at the head of these industries tendered their personal services.
Schwab is building the greatest merchant marine the world has ever known, at a salary of one dollar a year.
John D. Ryan is performing a similar service in the construction of our air fleet.
The patriotic spirit prevails today as it did in 1776. In this state, J. F. Welborn, executive head of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and one of the foremost men in industrial circles in the west, tenders his services without charge and is now working as manager of fuel production for Colorado, under the National Fuel Administration. This labor, too, is gratuitous.
He worked in the Red Cross. Later he was marshal of the war savings campaign in Colorado and now he is on the executive committee of the Fourth Liberty Loan. The success of the Rockefeller plan, devised when the coal-field troubles were ended, was due in a great measure to the wise generalship of Mr. Welborn. Of the stern and unyielding stuff that is in him, there was ample evidence during the strike. Of the spirit of fairness that dominated him the state was certain.
The entire country will not soon forget the classic in which he replied to the criticism of President Roosevelt. laying bare the situation in clear and forcible words and scoring, what men in a position to know termed, a great moral victory. Later he was again at Washington among those who made clear the situation to President Wilson.
That Mr. Welborn was born to leadership was demonstrated during the strike. That there is peace and harmony today in the Colorado industrial world; that labor is satis- fied; that conditions surrounding it are vastly improved. is due to a great extent to the work of Mr. Welborn.
J. F. Welborn was born in Ashland, Nebraska, March 9, 1870, and is a son of John Wesley and Jennie ( Roberts) Welborn. The father was a farmer by occupation and his son was reared amidst the environments of farm life. In August of 1890 he removed westward to Colorado and entered the employ of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. The growth of this business was rapid in the last decade of the nineteenth century and as the organization developed its interests Mr. Welborn grew and developed, advancing
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
from the humble position of bookkeeper through regular stages of promotion to his present position of president of the company. In 1899 he became general sales agent. He worked directly under A. C. Cass, who was connected with the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company from 1882 until his death in 1903. Upon the death of Mr. Cass he succeeded to the position of vice president and was given charge of sales and traffic. In 1907 he was elected to the presidency to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Frank J. Hearne.
His is the record of a strenuous life-the record of a strong individuality, sure of itself, stable in purpose, quick in perception, swift in decision, energetic and persistent in action. His views have ever found expression in prompt action rather than in theory.
Mr. Welborn was married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in June, 1903, and has one son and one daughter. He is a member of the Denver Club and of the Denver Country Club and is appreciative of the social amenities of life. Public interests are to him a matter of concern and he has never allowed business to so monopolize his time and attention as to exclude his active participation in movements and projects which are looking to the upbuilding of the community and the advancement of public welfare.
HON. MOSES HALLETT, LL. D.
Judge Moses Hallett was one of the foremost and most honored jurists Colorado ever had. He was the father of Lucius F. Hallett, president of the Denver board of educa- tion, who has also largely given his life to service for his city and who is a representative of one of the prominent pioneer families of Denver. Lucius F. Hallett was born in this city, November 12, 1884, a son of the Hon. Moses and Katherine (Felt) Hallett, both of whom were natives of Illinois.
Moses Hallett was born in Galena, Jo Daviess county, Illinois, July 16, 1834, bis parents being Moses and Eunice (Crowell) Hallett, the former a native of Massachusetts, whence in 1820 he removed to Missouri and there engaged in farming. He became a resident of Jo Daviess county, Illinois, in 1826 and passed away in 1859. The Hallett family is of English lineage. The mother of Judge Hallett was a native of Massachusetts and died at the old family home in 1864. His father had been a member of the state militia and participated in the Black Hawk war of 1832.
Judge Hallett was a pupil in the Rock River Seminary of Illinois and later in the Beloit (Wis.) College. When twenty-one years of age he became a law student in the office of E. S. Williams, of Chicago, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. after which he entered upon the practice of law in that city. In 1860 he arrived in Colorado and took up mining in Gilpin and Clear Creek counties, but preferred professional activity and resumed the practice of law in partnership with H. P. Bennet, the firm of Bennet & Hallett existing until the former went to congress in 1863. On the 10th of April, 1866, Judge Hallett was appointed chief justice of the territory of Colorado and entered upon a long and honorable career as a territorial jurist and remained upon the bench for many years after Colorado had become a state. He was also a member of the senate in territorial days, from 1863 until 1865. In 1870 President Grant reappointed him to the territorial supreme court and again in 1874, and in 1877 he received from President Grant appointment as judge of the United States district court for Colorado, remaining upon the bench until May 1, 1906. The life record of few men in public service extended over so long a period and none has been more faultless in honor, fearless in conduct or stainless in reputation. He was called upon to settle many intricate and involved legal problems concerning mining laws and their interpretation and exerted a most widely felt influence on mining jurisprudence. In this connection a contemporary biographer has written: "Leadville. Aspen, Creede, Cripple Creek, in the character of their veins and deposits, with new features of metalliferous mining, presented intricate problems for both the bench and the bar, and precedents had to be set along new lines of interpretation, to meet the conditions peculiar to the geological formation in these new mining camps. Probably no western jurist has exerted a greater influence in mining jurisprudence than Judge Hallett. During his term on the United States district bench the Denver & Rio Grande and the Colorado & Southern came directly under his supervision in the appointment of receivers, and matters were further complicated by labor troubles and strikes that followed in connection therewith. With firmness and tact and judicial acumen, he handled these difficult problems. Out of labor difficulties he brought peace and quiet, and from a chaotic financial condition, the railroads were established on a paying basis."
Judge Hallett belonged to the University Club and the Masonic fraternity. In 1892 he became professor of American constitutional law and federal jurisprudence in
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
the University of Colorado, which in 1893 conferred upon him the LL. D. degree. He was executor and trustee of the estate of George W. Clayton, who left a large fortune for the establishment of the George W. Clayton College for orphan boys.
On the 9th of February, 1882, Judge Hallett was married to Miss Katherine Felt, a daughter of Lucius S. Felt, a merchant of Galena, Illinois. For many years Mrs. Hallett was prominent in the social and church circles of Denver and the state, doing particularly active work in the Episcopal church and in connection with St. Luke's Hospital. She died September 19, 1902, and in her honor Judge Hallett built the Katherine Hallett Home for Nurses at St. Luke's Hospital. Judge Hallett survived until 1913 and in that year Colorado was called upon to mourn the loss of one of its most honored and distinguished jurists, one who had left a deep impress upon the judicial history of the state and upon Colorado's development in many other connections.
Lucius F. Hallett was the elder of the two children born to Judge and Mrs. Hallett and after acquiring his early education in the elementary schools of Denver went to the Pomfret School in Connecticut and afterward became a student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston. He was graduated on the completion of the scientific course in 1908 and then returned to Denver, where for three years he was connected with the construction of Clayton College of Denver, one of the leading educational institutions of the state. He afterward returned to the east for a year to engage in engineering work, but on receiving news of his father's death he immediately went home and engaged in settling up his father's estate, which required his attention for two years. He next devoted a year and a half to the affairs of St. Luke's Hospital, of which he has since been treasurer. In 1917 he was elected president of the Denver board of education. He is a trustee of Clayton College and of St. Luke's Hospital and of the Museum of Natural History at City Park.
Mr. Hallett was married on the 14th of June, 1909, to Miss Genevieve Pfeiffer, of Rye, New Hampshire, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Pfeiffer, residents of Denver. They have become parents of five children: Lucius F., born in Denver in 1910; John Folsom, in 1912; Robert Corbin, in 1913; James Brewster, in 1915; and Moses Deering in November, 1917. The elder children are in school.
Mr. Hallett is a member of the Denver Club, the University Club, the Country Club and the Mile High Club.
JOHN CLARK MITCHELL.
Advancing through successive promotions to a high position in banking circles, John Clark Mitchell has since January, 1913, been president of the Denver National Bank, in which he had previously served for a number of years as cashier. He was born in Freeport, Illinois, February 29, 1860, his parents being James and Catherine (Clark) Mitchell. His father was born in the year 1810 and devoted his life to the banking business, his labors being terminated in death in August, 1874, when he was sixty-four years of age.
When a youth of eighteen John Clark Mitchell began following in his father's busi- ness footsteps, securing a clerical position in the Freeport Bank, following the comple- tion of his public school education, which was acquired in his native city. He spent two years in the Bank of Freeport and in 1880, attracted by the growing opportunities of the west, made his way to Alamosa. Colorado, where he entered the employ of the firm of Field & Hill, who were engaged in general merchandising and freight forwarding, following the construction of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Mr. Mitchell accepted the position of bookkeeper with that firm but was employed in that capacity for only a short time, as he felt that banking was a more congenial field of labor for him, and he accepted a clerical position with the Bank of San Juan at Alamosa. He remained there for but a year and in 1881 removed to Durango, Colorado, acting as assistant cashier in the Bank of Durango until 1883, and then accepting a position with the Carbonate Na- tional Bank, of Leadville. He proved capable, efficient and thoroughly loyal and these qualities won him promotion to the position of assistant cashier. in which capacity he served from 1883 until 1885. He was then advanced to the position of cashier and so continued until 1890. In the latter year he removed from Leadville to Denver and for five months was cashier of the People's National Bank, after which he was made treas- urer of the firm of E. H. Rollins & Sons, with whom he continued for six months. His knowledge of the banking business was recognized in the offer of the cashiership of the Denver National Bank of Denver, an offer which he accepted. He continued to act as cashier until January, 1913, when he was elected to the presidency of the bank, and
JOHN C. MITCHELL
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
has since remained at its head. Constructive effort on his part is combined with wise ad- ministrative direction and executive control and the bank under his guidance has made substantial progress. A general banking business is conducted and the policy of the institution has ever been such as to commend it to the continued patronage of the public. There is no phase of the banking business with which Mr. Mitchell is not familiar and all who know aught of his career regard him as one of the most competent and thor- oughly informed bankers of the west.
In 1886, in Leadville, Mr. Mitchell was united in marriage to Miss Clara Matteson Goodell, who is the eighth in descent from Captain Joseph Sill and who is a daughter of R. E. Goodell, of Leadville. They have become parents of a son and a daughter, Clark G. and Clara S. The former married Ida Quentin, a native of Colorado and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Quentin, carly settlers of Denver. To this marriage have been born three children, Elizabeth, Catherine and John Clark Mitchell II, born May 8, 1917. The daughter, Clara S. Mitchell, is the wife of Henry C. Van Schaack and they have three children, Henry C., Clara Mitchell and Eleanore Mitchell Van Schaack.
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