History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 48

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

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In December, 1881, Mr. Knight was united in marriage to Miss Kate Davis, ot Denver, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Davis, a prominent pioneer family of Denver. Mr. and Mrs. Knight have become the parents of three children. Roger D., born in Denver in 1883, is a graduate of the West Denver high school and completed an electrical engineering course in the University of Colorado, receiving the degrees of B. S. and E. E. He married Miss Nell Hoop, of Denver, and they have two children, Elizabeth Jean and Roger Davis, Jr. Like his father, Roger D. Knight has become an active factor in the business circles of Denver, being now manager of the Macklem Baking Company, conduct- ing a large wholesale bakery business. Stephen James Knight, horn in Denver in 1887, supplemented his high school course by study in the civil engineering department of the University of Colorado, receiving the degree of B. S. in C. E., and is now manager for the Campbell-Sell Baking Company, also conducting an exclusive wholesale baking business of large proportions. He wedded Louise Carruth, of Denver, and they have three children: Ruth, Marcia and Eleanor. Mr. Knight's only daughter, Evelyn Eliza- beth Knight born in Denver in 1892, is a Wolcott School graduate and also obtained the degree of B. A. from the University of Colorado.

Mr. Knight, aside from his business interests, has become an important factor in the public life of the community by reason of his valuable service in behalf of civic inter- ests. For the past thirteen years he has been a member of the Denver Board of Educa- tion, of which he is now vice president, and is also a member of the public library board. He is now the only surviving member of the board of appraisers, composed of three men, who placed the value on the property that now comprises Denver's beautiful Civic Center and also the city's numerous boulevards. The Civic Center property included the ground and block facing the state capitol building, which was purchased by the city for conversion into probably the finest municipal property of the kind in the country and which when completed will also include an outdoor theatre. Mr. Knight has long been a very active and prominent member of the Denver Civic and Commercial Association and of the Manufacturers Association of Denver. His religious faith is manifest in his connection with the First Congregational church. He is a splendid representative of that class into whose careers have entered the distinctive and unmistakable elements of great- ness. Endowed with a rugged honesty of purpose, he has been a man of independent thought and action and one whose integrity of thought and honor have been so absolute as to compel the respect and confidence of his fellowmen. His life has been filled with "ceaseless toil and endeavor" and his strength has been as the number of his days. His motives, too, have been of that ideal order that practically make his life a consecration to duty and to the measure of his possibilities for accomplishing good. His fine mind and public spirit have made him a leader of public thought and action, and while the attainment of wealth has never been the end and aim of his life. his activities have been so directed that a considerable measure of wealth is today his.

JOHN A. WHITE.

John A. White, a general merchant of Flagler, whose business methods are characterized by determination and progressiveness, was born in Dekalb county, Missouri. December 8, 1851, a son of Robert and Marie (Miller) White, who were farming people. They removed to Kansas when their son, John A., was hut six years of age and there he received his early educational training and also gained his early experience in farm work. Through vacation periods he assisted his father in the work of the fields and soon became familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil

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and caring for the crops. When twenty-two years of age he left home and purchased a farm in Atchison county, Kansas, comprising one hundred and sixty acres. As his financial resources increased and opportunity offered he bought more land and for twenty-five years was engaged in farming in the Sunflower state, raising cattle, hogs and horses in addition to the production of crops of wheat and corn. He made money during those years and there remained until 1902, when he sold his property in that state and removed to Flagler, Colorado. Here he purchased his present hardware business and a little later he bought a ranch of twelve hundred acres situated ten miles northeast of Flagler. These comprise his business interests and activities. He devotes much of his time to the store, which is a paying proposition, for in the years of his residence here he has built up a large and gratifying trade as the result of progressive business methods, of indefatigable energy, reasonable prices and straight- forward dealing. He has made his name a synonym for thorough reliability in all business transactions.

In 1878 Mr. White was married to Miss Sarah F. Gates, of Brown county, Kansas, a daughter of Edmund U. and Harriet Gates. Mr. White is interested in the cause of education and is doing active work in its behalf as a member of the school board of Flagler. He belongs also to the Commercial Club and he takes an active part in town affairs. supporting all those measures which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. He was made a Mason in Kansas in 1873 and has taken the degrees of lodge and chapter. He is also connected with the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is an independent republican, voting for the candidate whom he regards as best qualified for office regardless of party ties. He is numbered among Flagler's substantial citizens and is one whose business career and success illustrate the wise use of time, talents and opportunities.

ROBERT BOYD.

The life history of Robert Boyd, who has now passed away, constitutes an integral chapter in the annals of Greeley and that section of the state. He was prominently associated with business interests and public events which have had important bearing upon shaping the policy and directing the interests of the commonwealth and promot- ing the utilization of the natural resources of the state. He was among those who were in the Pike's Peak country during the early mining excitement there and through the intervening period to the time of his demise he remained a resident of Colorado. He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on the 21st of September, 1837, and was a son of Andrew Boyd, who emigrated from Scotland to the United States, establishing his home at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he resided to the time of his death, which occurred in 1845.

Robert Boyd was a little lad of but seven summers at the time of his father's demise. The family soon afterward removed to a tract of land in New York which had been previously purchased by the father, and upon the home farm there Robert Boyd was reared to manhood, attending the common schools and supplementing his early education by a course in an academy. He left the farm in 1857, when a young man of twenty years, and made his way to Leavenworth, Kansas, where for two years he was employed by the firm of Reed & Lawrence, land agents. In the winter of 1858-59 he returned to his old home and resumed his studies. In the spring of the latter year, during the Pike's Peak excitement, he started with a party for Colorado, taking the Smoky Hill route and arriving in Denver on the 22d of May, 1859. Through the summer months he prospected and engaged in mining at Blackhawk. In the fall he went to Kansas on account of his health but in the fall of the succeeding year returned to Colorado, accompanying Joseph Howe. After reaching Mountain City he opened a butcher shop in connection with Lewis A. Rice and for two years carried on that business, at the same time operating a milk route. In 1860 he took up a squatter's claim on the Platte river and put in a crop, but in May of the following year a band of Indians camped on the land and destroyed the crop. Abandoning that claim, he then took a squatter's claim of one hundred and sixty acres in the Cache la Poudre valley and was associated with Graham Scott, Lewis Rice and George Hunt, each of whom had a quarter section of land. After he had remained with them for a few years he bought out the interests of Mr. Scott and Mr. Rice in 1865. In 1860 he had built a sod house and twenty-five years later he erected another residence upon the place. From an early day Mr. Boyd had been interested in irrigation. In 1861 he assisted in building the Boyd and Freeman ditch, which was the first one in the entire county

ROBERT BOYD

SOD HOUSE IN LEFT HAND CORNER WAS ERECTED BY ROBERT BOYD ON HIS RANCH IN 1861. IN THE PICTURE ARE NINE MEMBERS OF THE BOYD FAMILY. TENANTS AND HELP. PHOTO TAKEN IN 1900.

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and was privately owned. In 1865 he engaged in freighting for the government from the Missouri river to Denver and afterward he had the contract for hauling ties for the Union Pacific Railroad and also a contract for grading four miles of the Cheyenne & Denver road from La Salle to Platteville. From 1863 until 1870, in addition to raising farm produce, he engaged in freighting across the plains. In 1866 he had a road ranch on Meadow creek, along the Wells, Fargo & Company route to Salt Lake, and another at Barrel Springs, Wyoming. He became very successful in the conduct of his business interests and owned over eight hundred acres of fine land, all under irrigation, in the vicinity of Greeley. He also owned four sections at Big Springs which he used for pasturing his stock. He ever had a large amount of stock having about two hundred head of cattle and a hundred head of horses. From 1878 until 1885 he carried on a lumber business, owning a sawmill at the foothills. In 1897 he shipped fifty car loads of cabbage besides large quantities of onions and potatoes. All of his varied business interests were wisely, carefully and profitably conducted and his efforts contributed in marked measure to the development and progress of the districts in which he operated.

Mr. Boyd was united in marriage to Miss Agnes M. White, of New York, on February 14, 1871. She was a daughter of Andrew P. White, who was for eleven years a govern- ment official in Washington and for a number of years was superintendent of schools at Ellington, New York. To Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were born six children: Andrew W., who died at the age of about twenty-three years; Robert, Jr .; Aurelia; Charles; Jennie and Elizabeth. The family all attend the Congregational church. They still occupy the ranch which they are conducting. Mr. Boyd gave his political allegiance to the republican party and in matters of citizenship stood for progress and improvement in all things. He was a man of genuine worth, honored and respected by those who knew him and most of all by those who knew him longest and best. His death, there- fore, was the occasion of deep and widespread regret when on June 1, 1915, he was called to the home beyond. He had made valuable contribution to the development of his section of the state, being among the honored pioneers who have laid broad and deep the foundation upon which has been built the present progress and prosperity of the commonwealth.

TYSON S. DINES.

Marked ability has brought Tyson S. Dines prominently to the front in connection with the legal profession in Colorado. He maintains his law office in Denver, where he has been accorded a large and representative clientage during the quarter of a century in which he has made his home in this city. He was born in Fayette, Missouri, November 29, 1858, son of Tyson and Mary S. (Stakes) Dines, both of whom were of English lineage. The father was born in Maryland and the mother in Virginia.

While spending his youthful days under the parental roof Tyson S. Dines mastered the branches of learning taught in the common schools of his native town and after- ward continued his studies in Central College at Fayette, Missouri, where he was graduated in 1879, at which time the Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him. He took up the profession of teaching, which he followed for two years at Brunswick, Missouri, serving as superintendent of the city schools there, and during the period of his residence in Brunswick he also occupied the position of commissioner of Chariton county. He regarded school teaching, however, merely as an initial step to other professional labor and in 1882 severed his connection with the schools to take up the study of law, which he had already been pursuing privately for several years, anxious and ambitious to become a member of the bar. He was admitted to practice in 1884 and for six years thereafter was actively engaged in professional work in north Missouri. In 1891 he removed to St. Louis, although he retained his law office in Brunswick. The following year he again made a removal, with Colorado as his des- tination. It was in November of that year that he opened a law office in Denver, where he has since engaged in the general practice of his profession, specializing in mining law. He has developed marked power in that field of jurisprudence, of which he has been a very close and discriminating student. His preparation of cases is always very thorough and exhaustive and he seems to lose sight of not a single point that will add weight to his argument or advance the strength of his position. He has built up an extensive and lucrative law practice and is accorded very high standing at the Colorado bar. He has been retained in many of the most important cases involving large mining interests, and the court records bear testimony to the many causes which he

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has won for his clients. He practices as a member of the firm of Dines, Dines & Holme, and the firm was retained as counsel for the Colorado Southern Railroad, etc.

In 1882 Mr. Dines was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Mauzey, a daughter of Judge Mauzey, a prominent banker and jurist of Brunswick, Missouri, and to this marriage have been born five children.

In his political views Mr. Dines has always been a stalwart democrat since age con- ferred upon him the right of franchise but has never been an aspirant for public office. In 1892 he was chosen one of the two delegates from the St. Louis district to the national democratic convention, which was held in Chicago.

In 1896 Mr. Dines was elected president of Central College, his alma mater, but did not accept the position because it would have entailed great sacrifice of his growing legal business. He has, however, become widely known as an educator in professional fields, being professor of evidence in the University of Denver for three years and afterward elected one of the trustees of that institution. The cause of public education has ever found in him a stalwart champion and he has done effective work for the public schools and higher educational institutions. For four years he was a member of the Denver school board in District No. 1 and in 1898 was called upon to deliver the annual address to the students at the Colorado University, while in June, 1900, he was chosen for the same service at the University of Denver. Along the line of his profession his membership extends to the Denver Bar Association and to the Colorado Bar Association, of which he is a charter member. Fraternally he is a Knights Templar Mason and in club circles is widely and prominently known, holding membership in the Denver, Denver Athletic, Overland Park and University Clubs. Few lawyers have made a more lasting impression upon the bar of the state, both for legal ability of a high order and for the individuality of a personal character which impresses itself upon a community. His social qualities, too, have gained him precedence in those circles where true worth and intelligence are received as the passports into good society. He is widely recognized as a broad-minded man and is usually to be found in those gatherings where thinking men are met in the discussion of vital problems.

SAMUEL D. MCCRACKEN.

Samuel D. McCracken, merchant and banker, successfully connected with business enterprises at Colorado Springs, was born on a farm in Niagara county, New York, in 1858. His father, Richard McCracken, was a native of the north of Ireland, born in 1832, and in his boyhood days he crossed the Atlantic to Canada with his parents. He was a youth of fourteen when he became a resident of the state of New York and there began working as a farm hand. After reaching adult age he was married in Niagara county, New York, to Miss Clarissa Putnam and throughout his remaining days he devoted his attention to general agricultural pursuits. He died in Niagara county in 1900, while his widow survived him for a number of years, there passing away in June, 1918.

Samuel D. McCracken is indebted to the public school system of his native county for the early educational opportunities which he enjoyed and which were supplemented by a high school course in Lockport, New York. He left school at the age of twenty years but remained a resident of Niagara county until the early nineties, when he sought the opportunities of the growing west, making his way to Colorado Springs. He believed that he would have better chances for advancement in this great and growing section of the country and not long after his arrival he purchased an interest in a dry goods business, although his name did not appear in the firm style. In 1893 the New York Cash Store had been organized and Mr. McCracken became one of the partners in the enterprise. Later the name was changed to the Colorado Dry Goods Company, of which Mr. McCracken is the president and he and his wife are the sole owners. In this connection an extensive business is carried on. The firm has a large stock of goods and the methods of the house are such as will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny. They have ever recognized the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement and they put forth every possible effort to please their customers. In 1907 Mr. McCracken also became one of the organizers of the Colorado Springs National Bank and was elected to the presidency, in which position he still continues. His has been the directing voice in shaping the policy and promoting the interests of the bank and in so doing he has ever most carefully safeguarded the depositors, while at the same time progressive methods have led to the growth of the business. Mr. McCracken is also president of The P. Mayer Leather Company, of

HISTORY OF COLORADO

Pueblo, Colorado, wholesale dealers in leather, findings and shoe store supplies. He now devotes a great deal of his time and attention to his large cattle ranch of six thousand acres, on which he raises Short Horns and Black Galloways. This ranch is located twelve miles from Colorado Springs.

On the 21st of December, 1892, in Buffalo, New York, Mr. MeCracken was married to Miss Ruth N. Corrigan. He is a Master Mason and in religious faith is a Baptist, while his political views are in accord with the principles of the republican party. He is regarded as one of the most substantial business men of Colorado Springs, standing high in the opinion of his fellow townsmen, who recognize bis genuine worth. What he undertakes he accomplishes. His plans are well formulated and promptly executed. He possesses in large measure that quality which for want of a better term has been called commercial sense, enabling him to recognize the value of an opportunity, to purchase wisely and sell fairly, and by reason of such methods his business is con- stantly growing. As merchant and banker he occupies a most creditable position in the commercial and financial circles of his adopted city.

WILL M. WRIGHT.

Although Will M. Wright is not a pioneer of Colorado in the sense of the old school of western pioneers, he has made his home in Denver for over twenty years. and although he has been engaged in business independently for only a few years, he has in a com- paratively short time built up an enterprise of magnificent proportions-the Wright Transfer Company, of which he is president and in connection with which he has become widely known. His establishment is an important one and by bringing it to life and making it a success Mr. Wright has proven his ability to perceive opportunities which others seemingly have passed heedlessly by. He opened his business just at the right time and has ever since conducted it in the right spirit-that is, the spirit of service -- and it is therefore but natural that remarkable success has attended his endeavors in so short a period.

Mr. Wright was born in Rockport. Indiana. November 25, 1868, his parents being J. S. and Clara ( Williamson) Wright, both natives of the Hoosier state, where the father has been engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout his life, and he is still residing in the state of his birth. When the strife between the north and the south broke out. threatening the disruption of the Union, Mr. Wright offered his services in the northern cause and enlisted as a member of the Twenty-fifth Indiana Regulars, serving throughout the war. He was captain of his command during most of this period and was promoted to the rank of colonel of his regiment for gallantry in action. He is highly respected in the neighborhood where he lives and has been an important factor in agricultural devel- opment there. His wife died in Indiana when our subject was in his childhood.

Will M. Wright spent his boyhood days on his father's farm in Indiana and in the acquirement of his education attended the Rockport schools, from which in due course of time he was graduated. He then entered the transfer business, which he learned from the ground up and which he successfully conducted in Indiana. building up an enterprise of considerable proportions, which he sold prior to 1896 to good advantage. In August of that year. he came to Denver, taking up the same line of work and being connected with various transfer companies until 1915, when he decided to again embark in business on his own account, establishing the Wright Transfer Company, of which he became president and manager. Being thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the business and possessing natural executive ability, he soon succeeded in extending the scope of his enterprise, winning a more and more extensive patronage. He now owns one of the largest transfer companies in the city, using seven auto trucks and twelve wagons, and his employes number twenty. He is shrewd and careful in his deals, but never takes undue advantage and always follows the most honorable methods. Upon reliability and promptness is founded the business policy of the company, which thereby has prospered accordingly, and his slogan, "Let Wright move you the right way," which is copyrighted, has become popular in Denver.

On June 17, 1893; at Rockport. Indiana, Mr. Wright was united in marriage to Miss Anna Wilkinson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willis Wilkinson, and to them have been born two children: Mrs. Edith Wilson, whose birth occurred in Rockport, Indiana, and who makes her home in Denver, and Clara, also a native of Rockport, who is now a student in the University of Colorado.

Mr. Wright is a republican politically and supports the principles and candidates of

WILL M. WRIGHT

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his party loyally. He is a progressive and aggressive business man, ever ready to cooperate in measures for the promotion of the growth of the city, and is a member of the Civic and Commercial Association, with the plans of which he is thoroughly in accord. He is a member of the Lions, Kiwanis and Optimists Clubs, and fraternally belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He has a large circle of friends and acquaintances in Denver and is known to almost every one as "Billy" Wright. The success which has come to him is well merited, for it has been honestly sought and honestly won, and therefore none can begrudge him his prosperity. He began his active career without outside help and without particularly favoring circumstances, and that he has succeeded is entirely due to his own efforts, so that he is well entitled to the proud American title of a self-made man.

CYRUS BOUTWELL.

One of the most attractive commercial enterprises of Denver is the shop in the Majestic building conducted by Cyrus Boutwell, who is well known as a representative of art and interior decorating. Developing his native powers and talents along that line, he has built up a business which is now extensive and his handiwork has added to the attractiveness of many of the most beautiful homes of Denver. Mr. Boutwell comes to Colorado from the Empire state. He was born in Jefferson county, New York, July 13, 1876, a son of Johnson E. and Ruth E. (Swan) Boutwell, both of whom were natives of New York. In early life the father engaged in farming and stock raising in New York, but at the time of the Civil war put aside all business and per- sonal considerations and in response to the country's call for troops offered his services as a private and joined the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth New York Volunteer Infan- try. He participated in a number of important battles and was wounded in action. Captured, he was taken to Richmond but escaped while being transferred to Ander- sonville. Then ensued a period of great hardships and privations. He was three months in reaching Washington, D. C., during which time he slept in hollow logs or other places in the woods and ofttimes went without food for long periods, but eventu- ally managed to reach the capital. When the war was over he resumed his farming and stock raising interests in New York and in 1900 removed to Colorado, where he lived retired throughout his remaining days, enjoying a rest which he had truly earned and richly deserved. He passed away in Denver in 1909, at the age of seventy- one years, and is still survived by his wife. They reared a family of three children: Mrs. Charles B. Overton, now living in Kansas City, Missouri; Rolland L., a resident of Manitou, Colorado; and Cyrus, whose name introduces this record.

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History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 48

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