History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 6

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

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Samuel D. Nicholson, the eldest of the family. acquired his primary education on Prince Edward Island and completed his studies in Bay City, Michigan. At the age of twenty-two years he started out in the business world independently and in February, 1882, he came to Colorado, locating at Leadville. He was first employed as a snow shoveler by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and later he secured work as a miner. He devoted bis attention to such hard labor for six years and during that period spent one year in Las Animas county, at Trinidad, working as a coal miner there in 1883. He was after- ward advanced to the position of foreman, superintendent and manager of various well known metal mines of the state and entered the mining business on his own account in 1893. The first mine which he owned was in Lake county, Colorado, and came into his possession in 1882. He was associated with a Mr. Percival of Texas in the owner- ship of the property, which he purchased from his savings. It was operated by hand power and he put forth every effort in its development, but the venture proved a failure. The partners spent about a thousand dollars-all that they had-and when this was gone Mr. Nicholson was forced to go back to work for others. This first claim was located in Little French Gulch, about eight miles from Leadville, where they proceeded to sink a shaft regardless of the geological formation. As time went on they found they were sinking in solid granite, the only indication of ore being the mica contained in the granite. They sunk the shaft about seventy-five feet in the solid granite and it goes without saying that the venture proved a complete failure. From this experience, how- ever, the partners gathered knowledge which proved of great use to them in later years. Mr. Nicholson has since been connected with some of the largest mining and milling enter- prises in the state and has also been prominently identified with banking and with the sugar industry. He is now a director of the Denver City Tramway Company and is serving on its executive committee. He is likewise a director of the Denver National Bank and a director of the American National Bank of Leadville. Though he bas met with obstacles and difficulties in his path, he has by unfaltering perseverance, determination and energy worked his way upward and hardships have seemed to serve but as an impetus for renewed effort on his part. When he reached Leadville he had a cash capital of but twenty-five cents. What he has purposed he has accomplished. His plans have always been well defined and he has ever been ready to take a forward step when the way is open. Firm purpose and unfaltering determination have enabled him to steadily progress and he is today one of the prominent representatives of mining interests in Colorado.

Mr. Nicholson was married in Leadville in November, 1887, to Miss Annie Narey, a native of Clifton Springs, New York, who passed away in Denver in 1915, at the age of fifty-one years. She was the mother of three children, two of whom are living. Edward Nicholson, residing in Leadville, married Belle Dean Brooks, of Denver, and they have two children, Ruth Nicholson, and Samuel D. Nicholson, Jr., born in November, 1917.

SAMUEL D. NICHOLSON

HISTORY OF COLORADO

The daughter, Ruth Helen, is the wife of First Lieutenant Max Melville, of Denver, now with the colors in France, and they have a daughter, Ruth Anne, born October 15, 1918.

Mr. Nicholson has taken quite an active part in politics and during 1896 was a dele- gate at large from Colorado to the national populist convention at St. Louis, Missouri. He served for two terms, from 1893 until 1897, as mayor of Leadville and in 1894 he was elected as temporary and permanent chairman of the state populist convention and was a candidate for governor at the republican primaries in 1914 and 1916. He has exerted much influence over public thought and action iu connection with political affairs and has ever stood loyally for what he has believed to be right. Fraternally he is a Mason and a past master of Leadville Lodge, No. 51, A. F. & A. M. He has attaiued the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine at Denver. He also belongs to the Elks lodge at Leadville. Appreciative of the social amenities of life, he has membership in the Denver Club, the Denver Country Club, the Lakewood Country Club, the Denver Athletic Club and the Denver Motor Club. He also belongs to the Denver Civic and Commercial Association and is interested in all that has to do with the welfare of the city or with the development of those interests which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. His has been a most active and useful life and the sterling worth of his character, as well as his business ability, is recognized by all with whom he has been associated.

WALTER WOODRUFF KING, M. D.

Dr. Walter Woodruff King, who has won and maintained an enviable reputation as the leading physician of Teller county, has been actively and continuously engaged in practice at Cripple Creek for the past sixteen years. His birth occurred in Linden- ville. Ohio, in 1873, a son of John Wilson and Nellie H. (Woodruff) King, who were born, reared and married in the Buckeye state. The father, who devoted his life to preaching the gospel as a minister of the Methodist church, passed away in Lodi, Ohio, in 1915. The mother, however, still survives and makes her home in Geneva, Ohio.

Walter W. King acquired his early education in Ashtabula county, Ohio, and later pursued a high school course in Cortland, that state. He then began preparing for the practice of his chosen profession, spending three years in the Gross Medical College of Denver, while in 1902 he won the degree of M. D. from The University of Colorado at Boulder. In July of that year he opened an office at Cripple Creek, where he has remained continuously to the present time, having built up what is by far the largest practice in Teller county. He has repeatedly demonstrated his skill and ability in successfully coping with the intricate problems which continually confront the physician in his efforts to restore health and prolong life and has long been accorded a leading position in professional circles in his part of the state. He is likewise identified with financial interests as a director of the Cripple Creek State Bank.

In 1903, in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Dr. King was united in marriage to Miss Myrta Hope Mitchner, by whom he has a daughter, Virginia Harriette. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party and fraternally is a York and Scottish Rite Mason, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He has also crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and is likewise connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He also belongs to the Athletic Club of Denver and his pleasing personality and many excellent traits of character have won him popularity wherever he is known. Someone said of him that he hadn't an enemy in Teller county. He conforms his practice to the highest standard of professional ethics, while in every other relation his course has been above reproach.

WILLIAM CORMACK BLACK.

William Cormack Black, superintendent of the fourth district of the western division of the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company, with office at Denver, was born on the 5th of October. 1859, in Detroit, Michigan. a son of William Austin and Agnes B. (Reid) Black. He acquired his early education in the schools of Detroit, Michigan, and made his initial step in the business world as a messenger with the Western Union Tele- graph Company of Detroit, so serving in the year 1874. The following year he was advanced to the position of bookkeeper by the Western Union and in 1876 became a telegrapher for that corporation and so continued until 1884. In the latter year he

HISTORY OF COLORADO

severed his connection with the Western Union to enter into active relations with the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company, being made chief operator at Detroit and so continu- ing until 1890. He was then made night manager of the Postal at Denver and filled that position for two years. In 1893 he occupied the position of manager with the Postal Telegraph at Denver, subsequent to which time he was made superintendent of the seventh district of the western division, so serving from 1894 until 1914. In 1915 he was appointed to the position of superintendent of the fourth district of the western division of the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company and has acted in that capacity since. His course has been marked by an orderly progression that has brought him from a humble position to one of notable prominence and responsibility in the field of tele- graphic service.

On the 14th of October, 1891, Mr. Black was married to Miss Lucie J. Miller, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Miller, of Muskegon, Michigan, and to them have been horn two sons, Charles M. and William C., Jr. The former wedded Mary B. Gould of Newton Center, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the class of 1918 as civil engineer and is now first lieutenant in the Seventy-first Artillery, C. A. C., Thirty-sixth Brigade, doing duty in France. Mr. Black of this review has no marked political, lodge or club associations. In fact he has held himself independent of all these things and also of church membership, although he inclines toward the Presbyterian church. His efforts and attention have been concen- trated upon his business duties and obligations and his close application and well defined energy have brought him to the creditable position which he now fills.

ARTHUR G. SHARP.

Arthur G. Sharp has for more than twenty years been connected with the Exchange National Bank of Colorado Springs and for the past fifteen years has been its president. Honored and respected by all, there is no man in the city who occupies a more enviable position in financial and business circles, not alone by reason of the success he has achieved, but also owing to the straightforward and progressive business methods which he has ever followed.

Mr. Sharp is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred on a farm near Chillicothe, in Ross county, on the 19th of March, 1864, his parents being Gideon T. and Sarah (Teter) Sharp, who were also natives of Ross county and there continued to reside throughout their entire lives. The farm on which Gideon T. Sharp was born was lo- cated near Chillicothe and was owned by his father, Henry Sharp. who was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, and a descendant of one of the noted families of the colonial period in the Old Dominion. Prior to the Civil war Gideon T. Sharp was a merchant of Roxahell, Ross county, Ohio, but after the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south he responded to the country's call for troops and in 1862 enlisted as a member of Company K, Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which command he participated in many important engagements. He served actively until he was cap- tured by the Confederate troops, by whom he was confined in Andersonville prison. After months of hardship and suffering there he passed away on the 9th of June, 1864. A short time before his capture he visited his family on a brief furlough, which was destined to be his last glimpse of his home. He was a brave and gallant soldier whose life was given as a sacrifice to the cause of his country. His wife, Sarah Ellen Sharp, who died April 15, 1877, was a woman of rare sweetness of character and devoted her life to the care and education of her five children. She was a daughter of Samuel Teter. who was born and reared in Ross county, Ohio, and from the primeval forest cleared a farm on which he lived for more than seventy years. He reached the very advanced age of ninety-two.

Arthur G. Sharp was educated in the excellent schools of Greenfield, Ohio. That city has a modern high school building, erected at a cost of four hundred thousand dollars, with an auditorium having a seating capacity of fifteen hundred. There are also out- door study balconies and every modern facility to promote the school work, the equip- ment comparing favorably with that of the best colleges. In 1885 Mr. Sharp started westward, traveling as far as Kansas. He there accepted the position of hookkeeper in the First National Bank of Burlingame and later was elected cashier and a director of the bank, with which he was connected for ten years, and during the last three years of that period he was its president. In 1895 he resigned his position in Burlingame and removed to Colorado Springs, where for more than twenty years he has been connected with the Exchange National Bank, entering that institution as its cashier, but for the

HISTORY OF COLORADO

past fifteen years serving as its president. This bank is capitalized for three hundred thousand dollars, and its deposits reach more than five million dollars. It has an able corps of officials and the business of the bank has steadily developed, its policy being marked by a progressiveness that is tempered by a safe conservatism.

On the 31st of March, 1887, Mr. Sharp was united in marriage to Miss Louie Milner, of Leesburg, Ohio, who is a daughter of Alfred and Nancy (Denny) Milner and a graduate of the high school of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp became the parents of two sons, Roy Milner, who died January 5, 1916; and Arthur G., who is now thirteen years of age.

Mr. Sharp is a thirty-second degree Mason and also a member of Pikes Peak Com- mandery, K. T., while both he and his wife have membership in the First Presbyterian church of Colorado Springs. There is no one who occupies a more creditable position in financial circles of Colorado Springs than Mr. Sharp. Free from every element of the spectacular, his life has been characterized by a steady advancement that has come as the recognition and utilization of opportunity and the development of his innate powers and talents.

GENERAL FRANK DWIGHT BALDWIN.

Frank Dwight Baldwin is a direct descendant of Joseph Baldwin who first settled in Milford, Connecticut, in 1639. The record and names of the Baldwins that appear in all important events in connection with the protection of the colonies, both in war and commerce against the French and Indians, and during the great war against the mother country for the independence of this nation, is a long one, as shown in the Baldwin genealogy, compiled by Judge C. C. Baldwin of Cleveland, Ohio, where much of interest is chronicled, that space here will not permit of reciting.

Francis Leonard Baldwin, the father of General Baldwin, was born March 14, 1814, in Hope, New York. On the 26th of September, 1841, he was married to Betsy Ann Richards, of Michigan, to which state he had removed with his father in 1835. He died February 28, 1842. On the 26th of June, 1842, Frank Dwight Baldwin was born at Manchester, Michigan. He was educated in the public schools of Constantine. Michigan, and at Hillsdale College in that state, an institution which in 1904 conferred upon its distinguished student the degree of Doctor of Laws.

General Baldwin was married on January 10, 1867, to Alice Blackwood, of North- ville, Wayne county, Michigan. Their only child Juanita Mary, was born October 12, 1867, as the genealogy has it, "under canvas at Trinidad, Colorado, while the parents were on the march from Kansas to Fort Wingate, New Mexico." A grandson, Baldwin Williams-Foote, is now serving in our army in France, as a captain of infantry, on duty with the Fifty-eighth Regulars. His military service finds inspiration in the record of his grandfather.

Frank Dwight Baldwin entered the United States Volunteer Army as a second lieuten- ant of the Michigan Horse Guards, September 19, 1861, and was honorably mustered out with his company on the 22d of November following. He reentered the service as a first lieutenant of the Nineteenth Michigan Volunteers, the 5th of September, 1862. He was in the engagement at Brentwood, Tennessee, March 25, 1863, which command was captured hy General Forrest. After the regiment was exchanged and reorganized in August, 1863, it went to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. On the 5th of October, 1863. General Wheeler's division captured Company D of the Nineteenth Michigan Volunteers, com- manded by Lieutenant Baldwin, while they were guarding the railroad bridge three miles south of Murfreesboro; but Lieutenant Baldwin and his men were set at liberty the same evening, returning to Murfreesboro the following day. His service there afterward led to his being recommended for a medal of honor by congress, the recommendation being made by Colonel John Coburn, who was commanding the brigade at the time. Lieutenant Baldwin spent the winter of 1863-4 at McMinnville, Tennessee. He was pro- moted to a captaincy January 23, 1864. and in April of that year proceeded with his regiment to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he was assigned to the Third Brigade, Third Division, Twentieth Army Corps, of Sherman's army, participating in the great campaign under Sherman from Chattanooga, Tennessee, through Atlanta, Milledgeville, Savannah, Georgia, Columbia, South Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, to Washington, D. C. During that period he participated in many ot the hotly contested engagements of the campaign and was awarded a medal of honor "for distinguished bravery in the battle of Peach Tree Creek. Georgia, July 20, 1864, while serving as captain, Nineteenth Michigan Infantry." He led his company in a countercharge, under a galling

GENERAL FRANK D. BALDWIN

HISTORY OF COLORADO

fire, being ahead of his own men, and singly entered the enemy's line, capturing and bring- ing back two commissioned officers, fully armed, besides a guidon of a Georgia regiment. At the close of the war, with his command, he proceeded to Detroit, Michigan, where he was finally discharged as captain June 10, 1865. He was commissioned lieutenant- colonel but owing to the depleted condition of the regiment was not mustered.

Mr. Baldwin, commissioned February 23, 1866, as a second lieutenant of the Nine- teenth United States Infantry, was promoted to first lieutenant February 23, 1866. He was transferred to the Fifth Infantry. May 19, 1869, was stationed at Fort Hays, acting as quartermaster and commissary, and at Fort Larned in the same capacity, until Decem- ber, 1872. He was then on recruiting service at Detroit, Michigan, and Newport, Ken- tucky, until June, 1874, when he was relieved to join the Indian Territory expedition at Fort Dodge, Kansas, under command of General Nelson A. Miles, Fifth Infantry. As chief of scouts he was on duty during the campaign against confederated bands of Cheyennes, Kiowas, Arapahoes and southern Comanches, and went through all of the experiences of Indian warfare, participating in various engagements with the red men. He was brevetted captain "for gallant service in actions against Indians on the Salt Fork of Red River, Texas, August 30, 1874, and on Mcclellan's Creek, Texas, November 8, 1874," and was awarded a congressional medal of honor "for most distinguished gallantry in action against Indians on Mcclellan's Creek, Texas, November 8, 1874, in attacking the Indians with two companies, D, Sixth Cavalry, and D, Fifth Infantry, forcing them from their strong position and pursuing them until they were utterly routed; while first lieutenant, Fifth Infantry." The citation continues: "Rescued, with two companies, two white girls, by a voluntary attack upon Indians whose superior numbers and strong position would have warranted delay for reinforcements, but which delay would have permitted the Indians to escape and kill their captives." After the successful termina- tion of Indian warfare, resulting in the utter defeat and surrender of all the hostile Indians in that region, Captain Baldwin commanded the escort to Lieutenant E. Ruffner of the Engineer Corps during the summer of 1875 and in September of that year returned to Fort Leavenworth. He was next engaged in successfully settling the threatened troubles with a band of Apache Indians in New Mexico, under General Nelson A. Miles and later under command of General Miles as acting adjutant of six companies of the Fifth Infantry, started for the Yellowstone, where he participated in operations against Sitting Bull and confederated hands, under General Terry until he left the field, when the District of the Yellowstone was organized, with General Miles in command. Captain Baldwin participated in various engagements during the Indian campaign in that region, resulting in the capture or surrender of the Sioux under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and the Nez Perces and Bannocks. He was brevetted major "for gallant and suc- cessful attack on Sitting Bull's camp of Indians on Red Water River, Montana, December 18, 1876, and conspicuous gallantry in action against the Indians at Wolf Mountain, Montana, January 8, 1877." He was promoted captain March 20, 1879, and from 1881 until November, 1885, was judge advocate of the Department of the Columbia and during that time, in 1884. consummated a successful and satisfactory settlement of the then seriously threatened disturbances with the Indians of the Moses and Colville reservations in Washington territory. He was with his regiment from the winter of 1885 until Novem- ber, 1890, when he was ordered to the scene of hostilities near Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where, as acting inspector general of the Division of the Missouri, he served until the Indians surrendered in January, 1891. He next became inspector of small arms practice of the department in Chicago, where he continued until 1894. when he was ordered to duty as Indian agent at Anadarko, Oklahoma, where he remained until May, 1898. On the 26th of April of that year he was promoted to major. He was appointed inspector general with the rank of lieutenant colonel of volunteers May 9, 1898, serving at Chicka- mauga Park as inspector general of the Third Army Corps and afterwards of the sep- arate army there; at Lexington as inspector general of the First Army Corps; and in Cuba as inspector general of the Department of Matanzas. In 1899, he was assigned to duty as acting inspector general of the Departments of the Colorado and Missouri, where he remained until December, 1899. when he was relieved, at his own request, to join his regiment in the Philippines. His service there was of an important character and resulted in the surrender of Lieutenant General Trias "next to Aguinaldo the most important and influential leader in the islands." In this connection we quote from the annual report of the lientenant general commanding the army. "During the past year there have been no serious engagements except that of the troops under General Frank D. Baldwin in Mindanao, P. I., with the Moros. For the number of men engaged, this was a very spirited and desperate engagement. Our forces were commanded by one of the most experienced and efficient officers of the army, whose record has always been

HISTORY OF COLORADO

of the highest order, and his achievement, together with that of his troops, in this engage- ment, made another chapter of fortitude, tenacity and heroic sacrifice in the history of American arms." In the report of the secretary of war appears the following: "The Moros of the Sulu archipelago and Palawan, and those living upon, or in immediate communication with, the sea coast of Mindanao, have been as a rule friendly and well behaved. Some of the Malano Moros who inhabit the borders of Lake Lanao, in the interior of Mindanao, resented attempts made by Americans to examine the interior of the country, and in the spring of this year entered upon a regular system of attack- ing our men when found alone or in small parties, and stealing our horses and mules. Several of our men were murdered, and in April a demand was made for the return of the property and the surrender of the murderers. This demand was met by defiance, and after long continued and repeated efforts to secure redress and a discontinuance of the practice by peaceable means, an expedition was organized under Colonel (now briga- dier general) Frank D. Baldwin, which on the 2d and 3d of May attacked and cap- tured the strongholds of the sultan of Bayang and the datto of Binidian on Lake Lanao, with a loss of seven killed and forty four wounded. A part of the Twenty-seventh Infantry and the Twenty-fifth Mountain Battery were engaged. It was a brilliant affair, and the conduct of officers and men merited the high praise conveyed in the following dispatch from the president:

'Washington, D. C., May 5, 1902.

'Chaffee, Manila.

'Accept for the army under your command, and express to General Davis and Colonel Baldwin especially, my congratulations and thanks for the splendid courage and fidelity which have again carried our flag to victory. Your fellow countrymen at home will ever reverence the memory of the fallen, and be faithful to the survivors, who have them- selves been faithful unto death for their country's sake.

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History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 6

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