History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 60

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

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that of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he is serving as trustee. He is a man of sterling worth, his record measuring at all times up to the highest standards, and one who meets Mr. Nicholson today, recognizing in him a courteous, genial gentle- man and well informed, could scarcely realize that he was a worker in the mines of . England when a lad of but eight years. Such is the possibility for accomplishment when one has the will to dare and to do.

THOMAS NOCK.

Thomas Nock, a Denver manufacturer, who is senior member in the Nock & Garside Elevator Company, concentrating their efforts upon the manufacture of freight and passenger elevators and thus controlling one of the important productive industries of the city, comes to Colorado from England, his birth having occurred in Stafford- shire on the 20th of February, 1862. His father, Henry Nock, was born in England and was a rolling mill employe. He married Hannah Plimmer and both have passed away. On coming to America in 1868 they settled in Pennsylvania and in 1885 removed to Denver, but in the meantime had resided in the middle west.

Thomas Nock is largely indebted to the public school system of Milwaukee, Wis- consin, for the educational opportunities which he enjoyed. He worked as a machinist in various cities in early life and established business on his own account in the present connection in 1891, organizing the firm of Nock & Garside, Inc. They have a splendidly equipped plant, supplied with all the latest improved machinery and accessories necessary in the conduct of their present extensive business in the manu- facture of freight and passenger elevators. Their patronage covers a wide territory and the worth of their output has led to the constant growth of their trade.

In 1886 Mr. Nock was united in marriage to Miss Emma L. Benson, of Denver, and to them have been born six children: Ben E., who is thirty years of age and is with his father in business; Emily Ethel, the wife of Harry La Londe, of Estes Park, Colorado; Maude Edith, at home; Henry Thomas, who is attending the University of Colorado as a member of the class of 1919; and Hannah Grace and John Thomas, hoth of whom are high school students.

Mr. Nock is widely known in Masonic circles, having membership in Denver Lodge, No. 5, A. F. & A. M .; Denver Chapter, No. 2, R. A. M .; Denver Commandery, No. 25, K. T .; and in El Jebel Temple of the Mystic Shrine. In these associations are found the rules that govern his conduct, making him a man whom to know is to esteem and honor. His political allegiance is given to the republican party where national ques- tions are involved but at local elections he casts an independent ballot. He has never been an aspirant for office, preferring to concentrate his efforts and energy upon his business affairs, and as the years have gone he has made for himself a creditable position in industrial circles of Denver, his business steadily growing as the direct result of capable management, indefatigable enterprise and sagacity.

ARLINGTON TAYLOR.

Arlington Taylor, a member of the Fort Morgan bar, was born in Ursa, Illinois, October 12, 1872. a son of George W. and Caroline (Frazier) Taylor, the former a native of Kentucky, while the latter was born in Illinois. The father was a farmer by occupa- tion and in early life removed to Illinois. Left an orphan in his youth, he took up farm work in order to earn a living and later, as he had saved a sufficient sum from his earnings to purchase land, he became the owner of a farm in Adams county, Illinois, where he remained until the early '60s, when he went to California to dig gold. He did not win the fortune that he anticipated in the Golden state, however, and returned to Illinois, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits for many years, becoming one of the representative and successful agriculturists of Adams county. He finally retired from active farm work and removed to Ursa, Illinois, where he spent his remaining days, his death there occurring in June, 1909. He is survived by his widow, who still resides in Illinois.

Arlington Taylor was reared in Adams county, Illinois, and is indebted to its school system for his early educational privileges, while later he continued his studies in Chaddock College at Quincy, Illinois. He afterward taught school in his native county for nine years and proved an able educator, imparting clearly and readily to

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others the knowledge that he had acquired. During the last four years of his teach- ing period he also studied law, for he had resolved to become a member of the bar. He was admitted to practice in the fall of 1902 and followed his chosen profession in . Adams county for five years. In the fall of 1907, however, he sought the opportunities of the growing west and made his way to Fort Morgan, where he entered into partner- ship with William A. Hill, now a judge on the supreme court bench. Their interests were conducted under the firm style of Hill & Taylor. They practiced together for a year, at the end of which time Mr. Hill was elected supreme court judge and Mr. Taylor then formed a partnership with Floyd E. Pendell under the firm name of Taylor & Pendell. They practiced together until the spring of 1916, after which Mr. Taylor was alone in practice until the fall of 1917, when he was appointed Colorado title examiner for the Federal Land Bank of Wichita, Kansas. He occupied that position until March, 1918, when he returned to Fort Morgan and resumed the private practice of law in Morgan county, with offices in the Morgan County National Bank building. He is well versed in the principles of jurisprudence, prepares his cases with great thoroughness and care, is sound in argument and logical in his deductions and has won many verdicts favorable to his clients.

Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Almeda E. Nichols and to them have been born four children: Bessie Ruth, who was born in February, 1896; Russell Irwin, born in August, 1899, and now private secretary to the agricultural superintendent of the sugar factory at Fort Morgan; and two other children who died in infancy.

The religious faith of the family is that of the Christian church and in its work Mr. Taylor has taken an active and helpful part, serving now as elder in the First Christian church at Fort Morgan. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons and with the Eastern Star. Politically he is a republican and he has served as city attorney of Fort Morgan for five or six years. He belongs to the Northeastern Colorado Bar Association, to the Morgan County and the State Bar Associations and be enjoys the goodwill and confidence of colleagues and contemporaries in the profession.

CLARENCE FRANKLIN HELWIG.

Clarence Franklin Helwig. who is spoken of by those able to judge as a man one hundred per cent expert in high accounting, now occupies the responsible position of general auditor with the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. He was born in Uhrichsville, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, a son of Christian David and Priscilla Louisa (Demuth) Helwig, both of whom were born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio. The former was named in honor of the Moravian soldier, carpenter and evangelist, Christian David, who was born in Moravia in 1690 and who with Nicholas Louis, Count von Zinzendorf of Dresden, reformed the then almost extinct Evangelical church. Both Mr. and Mrs. Christian David Helwig were stanch Moravians, being brought up in that faith. The Moravian sect originally was not German at all, for the Moravians arose in Bohemia and the neighboring province of Moravia and are closely identified with the Reformation which was inspired by John Huss. The mother of Christian David Helwig was a member of the Blickensdorfer family, noted for its civil engineers. She was a stanch admirer of Benjamin Franklin and a very earnest Christian woman, and it was through her influence that her grandson, Clarence Franklin Helwig of this review, assumed his middle name. She encouraged him greatly in the matter of taking up the printer's trade during his boyhood days and exerted a very strong influence upon his earlier life. It was Jacob Blickensdorfer who built the Moravian church at Sharon, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1815, and not far from its quiet country churchyard one may find the ancient site of Moravian missionary labor called "Schoenbrunn" or "Beautiful Spring." From the writings of Loskill this region has become in a manner classic ground. It was the spot selected by David Zeisberger, the Moravian missionary, for a station as early as 1772. About ten miles away a second station was formed and named by the sadly suggestive name of Gnadenhutten. There is located the early Christian Moravian Indian burial ground where among the graves of the red and also the white Moravians will be found the graves of many of the Helwigs and Demuths. The Demuth family, of which Clarence F. Helwig is a descendant in the maternal line, came from Georgia, to which place Gotthard Demuth is recorded to have emigrated on the 7th of April, 1735. Christian David Helwig, as well as his father before him, saw military service with the American army. The former was in the Signal Corps during the Civil war and marched with General Sherman's forces "from Atlanta to the sea."

In the acquirement of his education Clarence Franklin Helwig attended the

CLARENCE F. HELWIG

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Wyandotte Academy of Kansas City, Kansas, and was afterward graduated from the high school there on the 1st of May, 1890. He received his degree of Certified Public Accountant from the Colorado state board of accountancy on the 26th of February, 1914, and in thus qualifying for his life work followed a natural bent. In his boyhood days, however, he learned the printer's trade in Kansas City, Kansas, picking up a knowledge of the business at odd honrs while still attending school. Following his graduation from the high school, however, he entered the employ of the Kansas City Elevated Railway, which was then operating a steam suburban line between Kansas City, Missouri, and the various suburban towns across the river in Kansas. He remained with that company until the fall of 1893, holding several positions such as cashier, storekeeper and finally that of purchasing agent.

On the 1st of October, 1893, Mr. Helwig resigned his position as purchasing agent of the elevated railway company and moved to Denver, where he accepted a position with the Denver Lithographing Company, first as solicitor and afterward as foreman of the job printing department. After resigning that position he entered the employ of Frank Trumbull, receiver of the Union Pacific & Gulf Railway Company, under A. D. Parker, auditor for the receiver, with whom he remained until after the reorganization of the Colorado & Southern Railway Company, when he was transferred to its New York headquarters. In 1906 he resigned and was sent by the bond house of E. D. Shepard & Company to look after some of their interests in the state of New Mexico. In the latter part of the same year, however, he withdrew from that connection and accepted a position with the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company at Denver. One who has known him for about a quarter of a century says: "As a business man he is keen and alert, with an analytical mind, honest, loyal to the interests he represents, hard- working, painstaking and a good organizer of departmental work in his line. . .

Perseverance, industry and a determination to succeed in whatever he undertakes have been the salient features in his advancement in the business world. He is recognized as an authority in his line and has written articles for different magazines and lectured on the subject of auditing." Aside from being general auditor of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company he is a director and the secretary of the Rocky Mountain Stores Company and auditor of various other subsidiary corporations.

Mr. Helwig has been married twice. On the 16th of October, 1895, in Pueblo, Colorado, he wedded Mary Prentiss Simpson, a daughter of William A. and Louisa (Prentiss) Simpson. Both the Simpson and Prentiss families are of old New England stock dating back to Revolutionary times. Of this marriage there were born two sons, Herschel Sylvester and Frederic William, both artillerymen in the United States Army, the latter having been on active duty in France since 1917.

The prolonged illness of Mrs. Mary Prentiss (Simpson) Helwig, which finally terminated in her death in 1905, the impaired health of the elder son, Herschel Sylvester, and finally the almost fatal sickness of Mr. Helwig himself, due to tubercular peritonitis, caused him to turn his attention to country life as a possible restorative. Mr Helwig began to live in the out-of-doors about seven years ago. His home at present is at Littleton, a suburban town near Denver. Here he regained his health, as he had hoped, engaging in intensified farming on about ten acres, aided by the enthusiastic help of his family, trying out in his spare moments in a practical manner what may be accomplished in the way of intensive farming, not only as to the cultivation of the soil but also as to diversified stock raising. It is his hope that these practical experiments will be fruitful as to suggestions regarding the popular "back to the land" idea and a further aid toward the solution of some of the living problems of the masses. It also is his earnest hope that these experiments, practically presented, may prove of interest to our returning soldiers when they again take up the problems of livelihood incident to civil life.

On the 4th of September, 1906, in Trinidad, Colorado, Mr. Helwig was married to Maud Terhune, a daughter of William Henry and Martha (Jefferson) Terhune. The Terhunes and Jeffersons are old Kentucky and Virginia families respectively. The Jeffersons, many of whom served in the War of 1812, are descendants of Thomas Jeffer- son, third president of the United States. To the second marriage of Mr. Helwig have been born two sons and a daughter: David Terhune, Paul Demuth and Martha Louisa.

Mr. Helwig has been a republican for many years but nevertheless voted for President Wilson. His military record is limited to National Guard work in the early '90s. Fraternally he is a prominent Mason, belonging to Oriental Lodge, No. 87, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Denver Chanter, No. 2, Royal Arch Masons; Denver Council, No. 1, Royal and Select Masons; Colorado Commandery, No. 1, Knights' Templar; El Jebel Temple. Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles, Mystic Shrine; and Man- zonita Chapter, No. 85, Order of Eastern Star, of Littleton, being worthy patron of the

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last named in 1918. The breadth and nature of his interests is indicated moreover in the fact that he has membership in the Denver Athletic Club, in the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants, in the Kansas Club, the Denver Motor Club, the Denver Civic and Commercial Association, the American Institute of Accountants at Wash- ington, D. C., in the Luther Burbank Society, the National Geographic Society, the National Playground Association, the National Efficiency Society, in the Young Men's Christian Association, and in the Presbyterian church of Littleton, of which he is an elder, while in the Sunday school mission work at Louviers, Colorado, he is also actively interested. For a number of years he has been lecturer on the subject of mining accounts in the School of Commerce and Finance of the Denver University. He was chairman of the Young Men's Christian Association war campaign as well as chairman of the Playground Association campaign and vice chairman of the American and Syrian relief campaign, conducted at Littleton in 1917, and of the United War Workers campaign for Arapahoe county, Colorado, in 1918. He has for a number of years been most active in church work and at the present time is most heartily, earnestly and effectively cooperating in movements to uphold the hands of the president in this critical hour of national history and to extend relief to those people who have so terribly felt the oppressions and burdens of war.

REX B. YEAGER.

Rex B. Yeager is a progressive business man and representative citizen of Denver, who first came to Colorado in 1903 and since 1910 has engaged in the undertaking business. He was born in Francisco, Indiana, November 5, 1885, a son of Thomas L. and Sarah J. (Smith) Yeager, who are natives of Indiana, where the father engaged in farming and stock raising for a long period, making his home in Gibson county. In 1909 he removed to Colorado and is now living retired in a pleasant home in Arvada at the age of sixty-two years. His wife was reared and educated in Indiana, where her people were prominent in early pioneer times. She has now reached the age of fifty-seven years. To Mr. and Mrs. Yeager were born five children, three of whom have passed away, while those still living are Rex B. and Madge, both of Denver.

Rex B. Yeager was the second in order of birth in the family. In his boyhood he mastered the branches of learning taught in the public and high schools and the Oakland City College of Gibson county, Indiana, and later took up the profession of teaching, which he followed for two years in Gibson county. He first came to Colorado in 1903 but after a short time returned to his native state and devoted his attention to teaching there. In 1906, however, he once more arrived in Colorado and hecame a student in the University of Denver, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1910. Taking up his abode in Denver, he was employed in various undertaking establishments of the city with a view to acquiring a competent working knowledge of the business, and on the completion of his apprenticeship in 1907, he secured his state papers, licensing him to engage in the business on his own account. In 1911 he opened his present undertaking parlors and later incorporated the business, which through his able management has developed into one of the leading undertaking enterprises in the west. He employs the most advanced and scientific methods in the care of the dead and in fact has instituted many valuable improvements in the pro- fession. His high standing among those engaged in the same line of business is indicated by the fact that he is now president of the state examining board of under- takers, appointed by Governor Carlson in 1916 for a term of four years, and is a mem- ber of the Colorado State Funeral Directors & Embalmer's Association and the National Funeral Directors' Association. Mr. Yeager is now erecting the new Yeager Mortuary at Sixth and Sherman streets and Speer boulevard, which is the culmination of his dream of the finest mortuary that can be built and which will be one of the three finest in the United States.

On the 25th of June, 1912. Mr. Yeager was married to Miss Ruth Josephine Churcher, of Salida, Colorado, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank B. Churcher, her father being one of the officers of the First National Bank of Salida. Mr. and Mrs. Yeager have one son, Rex B., Jr., who was born in Denver, October 4, 1914.

In politics Mr. Yeager maintains an independent course. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, having attained the thirty-second degree. He is also identified with the Kappa Sigma college fraternity, Omega Upsilon Phi, a medical fraternity, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World, the Yeomen lodge, the Foresters of America,

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the Knights of Pythias, and Union Lodge, No. 1, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, exemplifying in his life the beneficent principles which underlie these organi- zations. Mr. Yeager is recognized as a man of resourcefulness and has originated many ideas which have been of the utmost value and worth in his profession, while the tact and kindliness which he displays in the exercise of his professional duties have won him the love and lasting gratitude of many families. He is active at the present time in furthering a most humanitarian idea, being one of the originators of the Purple Cross Society, the object of which is to send a large number of undertakers to the battle lines of France, so that the remains of soldiers may be embalmed and returned to their people, that each family may know that it is the remains of their own soldier son that they lay to rest in the family burial lot. It would be of the greatest comfort to many a father and mother in the land, if they must give a son as a sacrifice to their country, to have the remains of the boy brought back for interment and in such a manner that they may look once more upon the features of the loved one. The broadest humanitarian spirit has prompted Mr. Yeager's efforts in this connection. He is at all times actuated by a devotion to the general good that has been manifest in many other ways. He cooperates heartily in plans for the upbuilding and progress of his adopted city and is truly a western man in spirit, in enterprise and allegiance.

C. LOUIS SMITH.

C. Louis Smith, president of the Smith Packing Company of Colorado Springs, is a business man whose record is most creditable, illustrating as it does the possibilities for successful achievement in spite of difficulties and obstacles. Such a record should serve to inspire and encourage others, showing what may be accomplished when there is a will to dare and to do. Mr. Smith is a native of Minooka, Illinois, born in 1861. His father, Leander Smith, was born in West Wilton, New Hampshire, May 5, 1821, the day on which Napoleon Bonaparte died. He was about twelve years of age when the family removed to Worcester. Massachusetts, where he attended school for three years, and in October, 1839, he became a resident of Jonesville, Michigan, residing at that place and in the adjoining town of Fitchfield until the fall of 1856, when he removed to Minooka, Grundy county, Illinois. It was at Rochester, New York, April 22, 1845, that he married Dolly Ann Whittemore, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, October 1, 1822, a daughter of Clark Whittemore, of Worcester. Her mother died when she was six years of age and she afterward lived with her sister, Mrs. B. F. Smith, the wife of a brother of Leander Smith. She was seventeen years of age October 1, 1839, the day on which they started for Jonesville, Michigan. At the end of two years she returned to Wor- cester, Massachusetts, and later removed to Rochester, New York, where she became the wife of Leander Smith. They began their domestic life in Michigan, removing. as previously stated, to Minooka, Illinois, where they remained from the fall of 1856 until the 20th of May. 1880. Mr. Smith then started for Colorado, arriving at Colorado Springs on the 27th of May, 1880, and on the 25th of June he went to Manitou Springs, where he finally took up his abode. He was accompanied by his son, C. Louis Smith of this review, and during the summer they lived in a tent while building a small house. On the 21st of September. 1880, they were joined by the wife and mother, Mrs. Dolly A. Smith, and for a year Mr. Smith was a partner in the firm of M. A. Leddy & Com- pany, general merchants. He then began business on his own account under the firm style of L. Smith & Company, his wife being the silent partner, while his son Charles acted as clerk. In 1884 the business was incorporated under the style of the C. L. Smith Mercantile Company and the son was admitted as a stockholder and general manager. In 1891 they also established a store at Cripple Creek, where they carried a stock valued at twenty-five thousand dollars, but in the widespread financial panic of 1893 they suf- fered heavy losses, amounting in all to about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. The character of father and son, however, was soon manifest in their renewed efforts to gain a second start in the business world and the results achieved are manifest in the record of C. Louis Smith, today one of the prominent and wealthy business men of Colorado Springs, occupying as he does the presidency of the Smith Packing Company. His father passed away in Manitou in 1903 and the mother's death occurred in 1907.

C. Louis Smithi had acquired his education in the public and high schools of Minooka. Illinois, and after coming with his parents to Manitou entered commercial circles here, opening a small retail grocery house with a capital stock of five hundred dollars. As the years advanced he prospered in his undertakings. he and his father becoming leading merchants not only of Manitou but also of Cripple Creek. C. L. Smith remained

LEANDER SMITH

C. LOUIS SMITH

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actively in the grocery business until 1893, when, as previously indicated, he succumbed to financial conditions which brought failure to thousands throughout the country. His next venture was in the field of meat packing, when he organized the Colorado Springs Packing Company and became its president. The business was conducted under that style until 1907, when it was reorganized as the Smith Packing Company, of which C. L. Smith remains the president. In the intervening years he has built up a business of extensive proportions and is one of the prominent meat packers of the state. His activities have been wisely and intelligently directed and his undaunted enterprise and perseverance have enabled him to overcome all difficulties and work his way steadily upward to prosperity. In addition to his connection with the packing business Mr. Smith is secretary of the Colorado Springs Creamery Company, and owns and operates the Rex Hotel of Colorado Springs and various other enterprises. During 1889-1890 he erected two brick blocks at 108-112 Canon avenue, Manitou, and in 1896 built an up- to-date abattoir at Colorado Springs. The Rex Hotel was built in 1904, and in associa- tion with a partner he erected the Kennebec Hotel in 1908. The officers of the Smith Packing Company besides C. Louis Smith, president, are: A. E. Smith, vice president; Carlos Smith, secretary, and Franklin W. Smith.

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History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 60

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