USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume III > Part 65
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W. S. PERSHING.
What W. S. Pershing has done for Limon and Lincoln county can scarcely be over- estimated. He has perhaps induced more people to locate in eastern Colorado than any other individual and he has also done much to promote the wealth of the state through his experiments, which have demonstrated the productiveness of the district along many lines. He is himself a holder of vast acreage, carefully cultivated, and at the same time he conducts a most profitable and extensive real estate business.
Mr. Pershing was born near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1852, a son of James and Sarah Pershing, who resided on the old Pershing Tomahawk claim, where the family was established in the early days by one who "squatted" among the Indians after having come to the new world from Lorraine, France. W. S. Pershing was but a year old when taken by his parents to Moline, Illinois, after which his father went across the plains to California with ox team and wagon. He had a wagon train of his own and carried provisions to the western markets. The mother and the three children returned to Pennsylvania, where they lived until after the close of the Civil war, when W. S. Persh- ing returned to the west, reaching Nebraska when a youth of fifteen years. At the age of eighteen years he began farming on his own account and for eighteen years he bought and sold farms. He was very successful in his undertakings and he also engaged in crop production, but in the early days the grasshoppers came, destroying the crops and cutting down his profits to a great extent.
It was in 1885 that Mr. Pershing arrived in Yuma, Colorado, where he turned his attention to the real estate business. He was appraiser for the Union Pacific Railroad Company's lands and also the selling and leasing agent for the company. He has resided in eastern Colorado for thirty-three years and has been most closely associated with the settlement and development of his section of the state. Removing to Limon, he purchased
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the town site from the railroad company. During the last few years he has prospered in his undertakings, his business having been most satisfactory. As the years have passed he has emphasized the worth of hog raising in his locality and has been very successful in that business on the whole. He has a ranch of about five hundred acres under culti- vation adjoining the town of Limon and he owns altogether about one thousand acres of land. He produces various crops specially adapted to soil and climate and his stock raising activities have also brought to him a gratifying measure of prosperity. He is very widely known throughout eastern Colorado and he does more advertising than any one man or company in this section of the state. He has always had firm faith in Colorado and her future and has done much to make known her resources and her opportunities to the public outside her borders. Moreover, he has been most helpful to the new people coming in and has perhaps located more people in eastern Colorado than any other one man. He has done much experimental work of various kinds test- ing all kinds of crops for the benefit of the county, and thus he has been able to advise newcomers as to what can be most readily and profitably raised. He has lived to see the country being rapidly transformed from a rich grazing district into valuable agri- cultural farms. Magnificent crops are now being raised without irrigation on land that once looked like worthless prairie, and fine residences have taken the place of the sod shanties. Mr. Pershing has demonstrated the possibility of making the land pay more than one hundred per cent in three years and of breaking the land and putting in crops which will pay the purchase price of a farm in the first year.
In 1873 Mr. Pershing was married to Miss Eliza J. Beistline and to them have heen born thirteen children. Their son, Lou B., is a lieutenant in Troop B of the First Colorado Cavalry at Douglas, Arizona, and was a cowboy before he enlisted. Addison L. is a corporal in the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Infantry, now in France.
Mr. and Mrs. Pershing are members of the Methodist church and in his political views Mr. Pershing is a republican, giving stalwart support to the party. He served as county surveyor of Lincoln county for sixteen years, or from 1891 until 1907. He is justly considered one of the best citizens in the state and is known for hundreds of miles outside of the state. He has made the largest sales of land of any man in Lincoln county for years and during all this time has never been accused of showing the wrong land to a homesteader or purchaser. He is believed to be the best posted man in eastern Colorado on the value and condition of soil in Lincoln and adjoining counties and his word is as good as any bond ever solemnized by signature or seal. He has made it his purpose ever to protect his customers' interests, knowing that such a policy always pays. His character and his business integrity are above reproach. T. M. Jackson, cashier of the Chicago National Bank in 1905, said that "Mr. Pershing has made large transactions in land for members of my family, handling thousands of dollars in an honest and straightforward manner." This characterization of him is the expression of public opinion toward him wherever he is known. Thoroughly reliable and pro- gressive, he has recognized opportunities, has utilized them to the best advantage and as the years have passed has reaped the rewards of his labor. He has made the desert bloom and blossom as the rose, and not only has he won success hut through his enter- prising methods, his wide advertising and the reliability of his sales has contributed in marked measure to the prosperity of hundreds in this section of the country.
WILLIAM T. MAYFIELD.
William T. Mayfield, one of the stockholders and directors of the Bear River Coal Company and auditor of the Big Four Coal & Coke Company of Denver, was born at Longmont, Colorado, on November 21, 1879.
His father, Thomas G. Mayfield was born in the state of Kentucky, although he considered Indiana his home state, as most of his early life up to the age of twenty- one years was spent there. In the early spring of 1861, lured by the gold excitement in Colorado, he left his Indiana home and traveled west by rail as far as Omaha, Nebraska, where in company with a party of overland freighters, he started on his journey to the Rockies, arriving in Denver September 12, 1861, and continuing on to the Blackhawk and Russell Gulch mining districts. During the years of 1862 to 1864 he was engaged in various early-day pursuits, one of which was a freighting outfit in association with Ex-Governor J. L. Brush. In the spring of 1864 he located a home- stead in the lower St. Vrain valley, a few miles east of Burlington, Colorado, now known as Longmont. His remaining life from the year 1864 until death called him on the 14th day of February 1908, was spent in farming and cattle raising in the
WILLIAM T. MAYFIELD
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vicinity of Longmont and there his wife whose maiden name was Catharine Cooke still resides. They were the parents of three children, Charles, Lulu and William T.
The last named, the youngest of the family pursued his education in the schools of Longmont, the State Agricultural College, at Fort Collins, and the Central Business College of Denver. After thus qualifying for life's practical and responsible duties he secured a clerical position with the First National Bank at Longmont, working there during the year 1897 and spring of 1898. In the fall of 1898 he returned to Denver, where he worked in various clerical lines.
On September 28, 1903, he was married to Miss Daisy Manchester, of Canon City, Colorado, daughter of Thomas C. Manchester, one of the early pioneers of Colorado.
The years of 1906 and 1907 Mr. Mayfield was employed as cashier and office manager of a large mercantile establishment at Williams, Arizona, returning to Denver late in the year of 1907. The years of 1908 to 1911 he was employed by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, one year and the remaining period as general bookkeeper of the Colorado Midland Railway Company. On August 21, 1911, he became auditor of the Big Four Coal & Coke Company of Denver, in which position he still continues. In July, 1914, he and his associates opened up the coal properties of the Bear River Coal Company and he was elected secretary and treasurer of the company and holds these offices at this writing. His work along these lines has made him largely familiar with the coal resources of the state and their development.
Mr. Mayfield is a member of the Masonic fraternity of Denver, being an officer of Colorado Chapter, No. 29, R. A. M .; a member of Denver Commandery, No. 25, Knights Templar; Rocky Mountain Consistory, No. 2. A. A. S. R .; El Jebel Temple of the Mystic Schrine; and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, and the Sons of Colorado. Practically his entire life has been spent in this state; thus for a period of almost thirty-nine years he has been an interested witness of the growth and progress of the state. His activities have been carefully directed and, making wise use of his time, talents and opportunities, he has steadily progressed as the years have gone by.
EUGENE A. WHEELER, M. D.
Medical science lost a most worthy exponent and skilled practitioner when Dr. Eugene A. Wheeler was called to the home beyond, for he was recognized as one of the eminent surgeons of the United States, particularly noted for his spinal operations, whereby he restored many helpless cripples. Born in the state of Tennessee on the 26th of April, 1869, he was killed in an automobile accident on the road between Tonopah and Goldfield, Nevada, June 8, 1914.
Having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he was graduated from the Denver College of Medicine and entered upon the active work of his profession in the city of Denver, where he became quickly known, not only through his success along professional lines, but by virtue of his magnetic personality and his straight- forward dealing. He was distinctly "a man's man" in every way, honored by all for the many sterling traits of his character. During the years of his practice in Denver, Dr. Wheeler was honored with many positions of trust. For a considerable period he was police surgeon of the city and during the term of Governor A. W. McIntire the state's chief executive appointed him as a member of the state hoard of pardons, a position which he creditably filled during five administrations. In 1906 greater opportunities beckoned to him from another field and he removed to southern Nevada, locating at the interesting mining town of Goldfield. Nevada was "booming" at that time, the great gold strikes drawing thousands from every state, and Dr. Wheeler's appearance in this new town marked for him the beginning of a career of conspicuous success and laud- able work. Mining also claimed a great share of his attention and he invested in numerous leases, none of which proved enough of a success to supplant his chosen work-the healing of the sick. Besides his general practice there Dr. Wheeler was at the time of his death county physician for Esmeralda county, also surgeon for the Gold- field Mine Operators Association and for the Tonopah and Goldfield and Las Vegas Railroad Companies. He was also for years surgeon for the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company and was in charge of St. Mary's Hospital at Goldfield.
The brilliant success and the worthy honors of Dr. Wheeler were but forerunners of the life which should have been his; an unkind stroke of fate, a life snuffed out in a flash, and the career of this talented young surgeon was ended. The details of the accident which caused his death are superfluous to a memorial such as this, but as a
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part of Dr. Wheeler's life they must be recorded. On the night of June 8, 1914, he, with three companions, attended a Knights of Pythias meeting at Tonopah. The four started back to Goldfield at a late hour and while motoring along the desert road encountered another machine, broken and abandoned, standing across their path. Dr. Wheeler, who was driving, turned out to avoid the car and in regaining the road lost control of his own machine. The car turned over, pinioning him beneath and almost instantly crushing out his life. His death was a staggering blow to the community and perhaps in no other instance in the country's history has more profound respect or sincere sorrow been expressed than in the Goldfield-Tonopah testimonial to the memory of Dr. Wheeler. In the words of Charles S. Sprague, who spoke at the funeral ceremony in Goldfield, the following tribute was paid:
"Of Dr. E. A. Wheeler I speak not only as a brother Elk, but as a friend of long standing, dating back fifteen years ago when we sat together on the state board of par- dons of Colorado, of which we were members by appointment of the governor. As that board had to do with the life and liberty of men, I know the keenness of his judgment, his knowledge of human nature and his broad humanity. He was at that time a comparatively young man and yet at the head of his profession in Denver. He was the chief surgeon of the city staff and already had gained a wide reputation throughout the west as a surgeon. When the mine operators at Goldfield needed a hospital for their fifteen hundred men and an able and experienced head to organize and direct it, they sent to Denver for Dr. Wheeler as the man best qualified and he has lived and practiced his noble profession in Goldfield and the surrounding country ever since. A shaft of marble may be erected to his memory in a distant city, where the remains will repose, but a monument has already been erected in the hearts of the people of this community-a monument of love and gratitude, more imperishable than marble." The remains of Dr. Wheeler were brought back to Denver for interment.
Dr. Wheeler was married to Miss Clara A. Milheim, of Denver, a daughter of John Milheim, mentioned elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Wheeler bravely bore up under the tragedy which came to her in the summer of 1914 and she now divides her time be- tween Denver and California, cherishing the memory of her husband, and happy in the knowledge of his successful career.
Dr. Wheeler was a thirty-second degree Mason, also a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He belonged to all the medical societies and he was loved by his brother members of the medical profession because of his strict observance of professional ethics and the eagerness with which he shared his knowledge with others for the benefit of mankind. His life was indeed a blessing to those in need of medical and surgical assistance and he was constantly reaching out a helping hand. His example remains as a stimulus to others and his memory as a blessed benediction to those who knew him.
ANDREW J. LAWTON.
Andrew J. Lawton is a well known figure in insurance circles of Colorado Springs, having been identified with the business from the age of eighteen years, when he joined his father, who was conducting a real estate and insurance agency. Through the intervening period he has closely concentrated his efforts and attention upon the business and has continually advanced, each forward step bringing him a broader opportunity and a wider outlook.
Mr. Lawton is a native of Burlington, Wisconsin, born in 1873. His father, Andrew I .. Lawton, was born in Lowell, Wisconsin, in 1848 and was a son of Clark Lawton, a native of northern New York, whence he removed westward to Lowell, Wisconsin, about 1844. There he lived for many years and was engaged in the woolen manufacturing business, but in 1865 went to Burlington, Wisconsin; in 1874 he came to Colorado Springs where he resided to the time of his demise. His son, Andrew L. Lawton. lived in Wisconsin. until the removal of the family to Colorado Springs in 1874, when he embarked in the real estate business and also established an insurance agency, conducting both lines with success to the time of his death. He was married in Burlington, Wisconsin, in 1870 to Miss Emily H. Perkins, a native of that place. During the years of his residence in Colorado Springs be filled various city offices, including that of alderman, and the duties of these different positions he discharged with notable promptness, capability and fidelity. He was active in politics as a supporter of democratic principles. He died in Colorado Springs in 1901 after a residence here of over a quarter of a century, and his widow still makes her home in Colorado Springs.
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Andrew J. Lawton was but nine months of age when brought by his parents from Wisconsin to this state and through the intervening years he has continued a resident of the city in which he now makes his home. He began his education in the public schools and afterward attended the Colorado College for four years. He put aside his textbooks when a youth of eighteen years and entered the real estate and insurance office of his father; since which time he has concentrated his efforts and attention upou this line of business. He was admitted to a partnership at the age of twenty-five and the relation between them was maintained until the father's death, since which time he has carried on the business alone and has now a very extensive and well deserved clientage.
On the 29th of November, 1894, in Colorado Springs, Mr. Lawton was married to Miss Loulou McGovney, a daughter of the late Alvan A. McGovney, and they have one child, Margaret, who is now attending school at Boulder, Colorado.
The religious faith of the family is that of the Episcopal church and Mr. Lawton also has membership with the Masons, having taken the degrees of both York and Scottish Rites and of the Mystic Shrine. He has filled all of the offices in the various branches of the York rite, including that of eminent commander of Pike's Peak Com- mandery, No. 6, K. T. He votes with the democratic party; and from 1909 until 1915 filled the position of commissioner of public works and property. He is widely and favorably known in the city, where practically his entire life has been passed and his social qualities and genial disposition have made for personal popularity among his many friends.
S. J. HUBBELL, M. D.
Dr. S. J. Hubbell, now living retired in Denver. comes of an ancestral line that is traced back to Denmark, although the name is not Danish but is gothic and comes from the western border of Russia, where the Goths, an original German tribe, settled even before tradition was extant. The language of the Goths was taught by word of mouth until ahout the year 310, when Wulphelas or Ulphilas used the same language but converted it into a system and, using the old Greek letters, arranged it gram- matically. According to this system the name Hubbell can be found and its meaning understood. As far back as 850 A. D. the Hubbells were a family and known by that name.
The first ancestor of whom Dr. Hubbell has record is Harald Hubbell, who went to England with Knud. king of Denmark, who gave him, according to the Red Book, all of Northumbria, Durham and York. His seat was at the castle of Haraldstone. where he lived and married Maria Moesting. He kept his title of earl until his death in 1035 and his descendants retained the title and estates until 1066, when William the Conqueror annulled the title and forfeited the estates. In 1484 Hugo Hubbell, having ridden over much country as a knight errant and achieved much fame, was given the estates of Horstone with the title of baron. He attached his fortunes to the Lancastrian line in the War of the Roses and was then deprived of both title and estates. One of his descendants, William, lived to the age of one hundred and five years. His son Francis went to Plymouth, England, and there married, having a son who went into the shipping business. He was the father of another Francis, who married and had three children, one of whom, Richard, came to America in 1635 and was the progenitor of the family in the new world, establishing his home near Fair- field. Connecticut. The line is traced down to Richard Hunt Hubbell, father of Dr. Hubbell, who was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, and was a son of Samson Hubbell. whose father was Thomas Hubbell. He married Ann Elizabeth Watson Cowgill, a daughter of Isaac Cowgill, whose father was William Cowgill, son of Sir Henry Cowgill. William Cowgill settled in Culpepper county in 1790 and his son Isaac was there born and married Elizabeth Stokesbury. The death of Mrs. Ann Hubbell occurred in November, 1841, in Springfield, Ohio. The Cowgill family were owners of the land on which stands Continental Hall in Philadelphia, in which the colonial congress sat.
When Dr. Hubbell was three years of age his parents removed to Kentucky and thence to Michigan, proceeding to Saginaw bay, where the father raised a sunken vessel, leaving his wife at St. Joseph. At Saginaw bay the boy slept every night on the arm of an Indian chief of the Pottawattomies, who called him a papoose. Later Richard H. Hubbell went with his family to Columbus, Ohio, where he purchased a paper mill, which he sold in 1845, removing then to Wheeling. Virginia. where he became the owner of a steel factory in which one hundred and thirty men were em-
DR. AND MRS. S. J. HUBBELL
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ployed. He continued in that business until 1855, when he failed. Dr. Hubbell had been sent to Gambier, Ohio, to attend an Episcopal school in 1841. He was at that time seven years of age and studied in the Milnor Hall preparatory department until he became a freshman in Kenyon College, but with his father's failure in business that year he had to abandon his college course. He afterward, however, learned Italian, French, Spanish and German, speaking them fluently, and also learning to read Latin and Greek very well without a teacher. He hegan the study of pharmacy in 1853 with Dr. Richard Blum and in 1854 became a student of medicine in the office of Dr. Osbun. Later he studied with Dr. Albert P. Wheeler as his preceptor and in October, 1854, entered upon a course of lectures at the Starling Medical College. Subsequently he again studied with Dr. Wheeler until 1856 and in October, 1855, he became a student in the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, from which be was graduated on the 8th of March, 1856, the anniversary of his birth.
In April of that year Dr. Hubhell opened an office in North Wheeling, where he successfully practiced. Two years before he bad also entered business with his father in the sale of agricultural implements, seeds, trees and other things in that line and the firm built up a prosperous trade, but the father had not liquidated in full all of the heavy indebtedness which he was carrying at the time he failed in business and creditors demanding settlement, the agricultural implement business of the father and son was forced to suspend. Dr. Hubbell served as city physician of Wheeling for two years and in 1859 started for Pike's Peak. On arriving at Auraria he found about twenty-five hundred men, nearly all in tents. There were, however, three cabins and a dugout. There seemed to be little prospect for successful mining and he returned to Springfield, Ohio, where he engaged in practice with Dr. Edmond Owen and purchased his partner's interest in the business in 1860. He prospered until 1861, when because of his southern sympathies he almost lost his life at the hands of a mob. However, friends came to his assistance and ultimately aided him in making his escape. For two weeks he was sheltered by a friend in Wheeling, Virginia. and in April, 1861, he arrived in Richmond. It was about this time that the first gun of the Civil war was fired at Charleston, South Carolina. Arriving at Richmond, he was made an irregular surgeon of the Confederate army, which position he retained until June 10, 1863, when with thirty-three others he took the examination, but only three. one of whom was Dr. Hubbell, passed. At his request and at the order of the secretary of war he was sent to Chimborazo Hospital, north of Rockets, where he was given charge of a number of wards. On one occasion Dr. W. A. Davis, his associate in the hospital, told him that orders had been received from Surgeon General S. P. Moore to hermetically seal all penetrating gunshot wounds of the lungs. This Dr. Hubbell refused to do, his professional judgment indicating such a course to be a fallacy. Dr. Davis then proposed that each one take half of the men who were thus wounded and who were at that time being brought in for treatment. Dr. Hubbell would not agree to this but said that be would take four of the five men, leaving the other to Dr. Davis' care to be treated according to the surgeon general's command. The next morning the patient of Dr. Davis was in the morgue, while Dr. Hubbell's patients were still living. Dr. Hubbell was in every engagement of the Tenth Virginia Regi- ment except the raid on Guyandotte. The regiment remained in western Virginia until November, 1862, when they were ordered to proceed to Richmond and then after drilling for sixty days were ordered to Yorktown, where they were under the command of General Magruder of Texas. The record of the regiment's service has become a matter of history and Dr. Hubbell remembers many interesting incidents of his ex- periences while connected with the Confederate army during the Civil war. At length he was taken prisoner and sent to Winder Hospital in Richmond under Dr. Quick of Connecticut, where he had the pleasure of furloughing most of his patients and later received his own parole in Richmond. The surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, although he had been expecting it for months, brought on nervous prostration and he was ill for a half year, spending the last three months of that period in bed.
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