History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 69

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 his political views Mr. Smith was a most earnest republican and a recognized leader in the party ranks in Denver. He became president of the first board of super- visors in Denver in 1885. He was very prominent in the Knights of Pythias and at the time of his death was the oldest representative of the order in the state. He was past grand chancellor of the lodge and his local membership was in Centennial Lodge, No. 8, of Denver. He was also one of the founders of the Pioneer Printers Society, of which he served as president, and he was one of the founders of the New York Society of Colorado. He also held membership in the Denver Club. Appreciative of the social amenities of life, he greatly enjoyed the associations which his clubs afforded him. The dominant features in his career were such as won for him the highest esteem and confidence of his fellowmen. He placed no fictitious values upon life, thoroughly under- stood his duty as a citizen and met every obligation that devolved upon him. He was a man of broad vision and of public spirit whose eastern training found full scope in the opportunities of the west and who became one of the empire builders of the great state of Colorado.

ROBERT S. CHESNUT.

In the early period of Colorado's development the state was devoted to mining and to stock raising and many believed that general farming could never be profitably carried on, but time has proven to the contrary. No finer farms can be found anywhere than some of those which are fast winning for the state its reputation as an agricultural center. Owner of a valuable property on section 22, township 4, range 65, in Weld county, Robert S. Chesnut has made for himself a place among the leading and representative citizens and progressive agriculturists of his part of the state. He was born in Ray county, Missouri, May 22, 1863, and is a son of Frank and America (Coffman) Chesnut, the former a native of Missouri, while the latter was born in Kentucky. The father was a carpenter and farmer who owned and cultivated a tract of land in Missouri, where he remained until called to his final rest in the fall of 1876. His widow is still living at the age of seventy-five years.

Robert S. Chesnut was reared and educated in Ray connty, Missouri, and after his mother's second marriage he remained with her and his stepfather for two years. In 1882 he arrived in Weld county, Colorado, and took up his abode in Platteville, where he made his home for three years. He next removed to La Salle and rented land south of the town, living thereon for a year. He then purchased a place which he continued to cultivate for five years and on the expiration of that period he bought his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres three miles south and two miles east of La Salle. Not a furrow had been turned nor a stick placed upon the farm at that time. With character- istic energy he began its development and as the years have passed on has carried for- ward the work of improvement, making his home upon the farm for twenty-four years. His lahors are manifest in its substantial buildings, its well kept fences and its highly cultivated fields. He has purchased more land from time to time and now owns four hundred and eighty acres, while at other periods he has owned still other tracts but has sold these to his children on time payments. He has been very successful in all that he has undertaken, displaying sound judgment in his business interests. In addition to general farming he has handled real estate and his activities in that connection have brought him substantial prosperity. He now makes a business of raising and feeding cattle, keeping seventy head of high grade cattle upon his farm at all times. He is also a director of the Denver-Greeley valley irrigation district, acting in that capacity for the past four years. He is actuated in all that he does by a spirit of progressiveness that never stops short of the successful accomplishment of his purpose.

Mr. Chesnut was united in marriage on the 14th of February, 1884, to Miss Minnie Elliott, of Platteville, Colorado, and to them have been born ten children, namely: Elsie, the wife of Fred Arns, a farmer residing near her father's place; Maude, the wife of V. K. Hanson, also farming in the same locality; Robert A., who resides in California; Lafe, who carries on farming near the homestead: Grace, Frank, Ernest and Byron, aged respectively twenty, eighteen. fifteen and twelve years. all at home; and Thomas and Alice, who have passed away.

ROBERT S. CHESNUT AND FAMILY

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Fraternally Mr. Chesnut is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding membership in both the lodge and encampment, and he has also filled all of the chairs in the Improved Order of Red Men. Politically he is a democrat and his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church, its teachings guiding him in all of the relations of life. In business affairs he has been thoroughly reliable as well as enterpris- ing, in citizenship is progressive and loyal and at all times his course has been actuated by high and honorable principles that make him a man whom to know is to esteem and respect.

JOHN P. DICKINSON.

John P. Dickinson is vice president of the First National Bank of Hugo, Colorado, and numbered among the prominent financiers of Lincoln county. He was born Sep- tember 15, 1855, in Richmond, Indiana, of Quaker ancestry, his parents being George and Sarah (Poole) Dickinson. The father, who followed agricultural pursuits through- out his life, was born in Lincoln, England, and came to this country in 1822. He passed away in February, 1910, and his wife, whom he had survived for more than a third of a century, died in March, 1876.

John P. Dickinson received his education in the common schools of Leavenworth, Kansas, whither the family had removed when he was only a year and a half old. After having discarded his schoolbooks he began his active career by joining a survey- ing party of the government which was under the direction of Colonel Thomas Moon- light, of Leavenworth, and was sent out to survey the southwestern part of the state of Kansas. Being decidedly impressed with the reports which he received from Colo- rado in regard to opportunities offered here, he determined to remove to this part of the country and in 1874 arrived in Denver. A few months later he went to the Holt Ranch on Horse creek, about fifty miles east of Colorado Springs, and upon that place he remained for about eleven years as a cow puncher and range rider. He was familiar with every gulch and water course from Sand creek, at the edge of Denver, to the Smoky Hill river in Kansas, and from Platte river on the north to the Canadian river on the south, a distance between three and four hundred miles.

In 1889 Mr. Dickinson was elected county treasurer of Lincoln county, which had just been created, and served until 1896, discharging his duties to the satisfaction of the public-conscientiously and promptly. In 1896 he embarked in the mercantile business, largely handling ranchmen's supplies. In January, 1889, he had also been appointed receiver of the United States land office in Hugo by President Mckinley and he was reappointed by President Roosevelt, under whom he served for two terms, and later by President Taft. He was at the head of this office until 1914 and during his incumbency over one million seven hundred thousand acres of land were filed upon in the district of Hugo. In November, 1902, Gordon Jones organized the Lincoln County Bank in association with E. I. Thompson, now president of the First National Bank. A. K. Ladue and J. P. Dickinson. On the 1st of January, 1907, this bank was merged into the First National Bank of Lincoln county and of this institu- tion Mr. Dickinson is now vice president, Mr. Thompson remaining as president. It is a strong financial institution, conservatively managed, and its importance to the countryside is evident from the fact that its deposits today amount to one-half million dollars and its loans exceed one and one-half million dollars. In directing the affairs of the bank Mr. Dickinson has taken a prominent and laudable part and its prosperous condition today must be ascribed to the sound business policy which he has ever exer- cised in its conduct. He has been most active in the cattle business, with which he was connected from 1879 until 1911, or for a period of almost a third of a century. In this line he was very successful and gratifying financial returns were the result of his labor. He ever maintained the highest principles of business etiquette and there rests not a shadow of suspicion upon his long business career.

In December, 1880, John P. Dickinson married Anna Saunders, of Kansas, a daugh- ter of Stephen and Ellen Saunders. both natives of Ireland, who located in Kansas in 1857. Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson had a daughter, Muriel, who received her education in Denver and Bonlder. In 1904 she married Dr. William H. Rothwell but a year later, in 1905. she passed away in Salt Lake city.

Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson are popular in Hugo and the surrounding country, and the hospitality of the best homes of the community is extended to them. Mr. Dickin- son gives his political allegiance to the republican party, is influential in its local ranks and is a member of the republican state central committee. On the 5th of November,

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1918, he was elected to the state senate from the twenty-seventh senatorial district. He takes a deep interest in all affairs pertaining to the public welfare and is ever ready to give his support to matters of civic virtue and civic pride. He has traveled extensively, having visited the states of California, Florida and Texas as well as the sunny islands of Hawaii, and has also made longer or shorter trips to the Pacific coast cities and the principal cities on the eastern coast. Fraternally he is a member of Denver Lodge, No. 5, A. F. & A. M., which he joined in 1892, and he also belongs to Denver Lodge, No. 17, B. P. O. E., of which he became a member in 1910. The hon- orable principles of brotherhood which underlie these organizations guide him in his conduct toward his fellowmen and since having established his home in Hugo he has made many freinds here.

UMBERTO MORGANTI.

Umberto Morganti is the proprietor of the Denver Art Studio, located at No. 933 Sixteenth street and 1638 Curtis street. He is also an editor of wide renown in Italian newspaper circles and his name is well known as a frequent contributor of original and interesting articles to American magazines and papers.

Mr. Morganti comes of an old Italian family of Livorno, Italy, where he was born November 25, 1880, a son of Leopoldo and Iadele Ferri, who were likewise natives of Livorno, where they spent their entire lives. His father was a captain in the army and died in 1916. His mother is now a resident of Tunis, Africa. They became the parents of four children: Lieutenant Victor Morganti, now an officer in the French army; Domenica, who is with her mother in Tunis, Africa; Umberto, who is the second in order of birth; and Caesar, who died in 1898, and was an officer in the Italian army.

Umberto Morganti received a liberal education in Italy and, as the result of a number of brilliant articles published in the "Eco del Sangro," advocating civic reforms, he became the editor of that paper. His aggressive campaign against inefficient and dishonest public officials attracted great attention throughout Italy and entangled him into lawsuits out of which he came victorious. In the meantime he was urged by his friend, Mr. Frazzini, an Italian banker in Denver, to come to the new world and edit "La Capitale," an Italian paper published in Denver. Upon his arrival in this country he entered the newspaper field, but after two years of constant efforts he re- signed his editorial position, and in 1910 he purchased the Denver Art Studio, which he has since conducted, making it one of the leading photographic establishments in the city.

In addition to his work as a representative of the photographic art, he has devoted considerable time to newspaper work as a writer of special articles for the News-Times and other papers.

Mr. Morganti has made a great number of friends through his business and social connections, as well as on account of his generous disposition and charming person- ality. He was the president of the Dante Alighieri in Denver, and under his leader- ship that literary institution developed into a successful social club, numbering among its members some of the most distinguished and highly cultured Americans.

On January 12, 1901, Mr. Morganti married Miss Noemi Rossetti, of Livorno, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jole Rossetti, a well known family of Livorno, where her father, a veteran of General Garibaldis' army, held the responsible position of city treasurer. Mr. and Mrs. Morganti became the parents of five children, but only one is living, Caesar, born in Denver in 1909, who is attending school in this city. Emilio died in the year 1916 at the age of twelve years. Clara passed away in infancy. and Caesar and Ines are also deceased.

Mr. Morganti has the inborn love of art, a characteristic of the Italian people, and this has contributed much to his success as a photographer in the city of Denver.

E. A. GREEN.

E. A. Green, well known as a painting contractor of Limon, was born in Illinois in October, 1860, and when eleven years of age removed to Pawnee county, Nebraska, where he took up his abode upon a farm. His father had died while in active service during the Civil war and the mother afterward became the wife of F. G. Miles, who, removing with the family to Nebraska, there engaged in farming in Pawnee county,

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and E. A. Green became his active assistant in the development of the fields. He remained upon the farm nntil twenty-nine years of age and in 1889 removed to Sher- man county, in western Kansas, where he was employed in various ways. Finally he entered the service of the Rock Island Railroad Company and in 1895 he removed to Limon, where he was connected with the Rock Island Company, acting as head man in the roundhouse for eleven and a half years. He then lett the railroad service and took up the painting business as a contractor and has remained active in that line to the present time. His work is of high quality and his patronage therefore is extensive. In all business dealings he is thoroughly reliable and his enterprise and energy have carried him into important relations with the industrial interests of his town.

Since 1889 Mr. Green has been a loyal member of the Knights of Pythias and since 1915 has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His polit- ical allegiance is given to the republican party.

Mr. Green had six children: Minnle, the wife of H. R. Neeper, of Cope, Colorado; Emery A., a resident of Dorrance, Kansas; Lena, the wife of Ed Sutherland; Everett, a resident of Cope, Colorado; and Allen, a resident of Washington. The other member of the family was a son. Frederick Gridley Green, of whom the father has every reason to be proud and whose memory he most tenderly cherishes. He was born in Goodland, Kansas, March 18, 1895, and was educated in the schools of Limon. After his school days were over he entered the employ of the Rock Island Railroad Company as a call boy for the crews and worked in that way for a year and a half. He then entered upon an apprenticeship as an engineer and boilermaker and spent three years in that con- nection, but after the country became involved in the great international war he felt that his first duty was to aid in the task of making the world safe for democracy. Accordingly he enlisted at Seattle, Washington, on the 15th of December, 1917, with the marines and went to a camp in California, where he remained until the ist of May, 1918. He was then transferred to Virginia and later was sent across to France, where he was killed in action on the 19th of July. But one month prior to this date he wrote his father that he was perfectly happy and was getting three good meals a day. He seemed perfectly content and was rejoicing in this opportunity to serve his country and the cause of worldwide independence. No other word was received by the father from the son until the news came from the war office: "Killed in action." He was an excep- tionally bright young man, industrious and a devoted son, and his loss is most keenly felt by all who knew him. He laid down his life on the altar of freedom that the world should no longer have to suffer from the Prussian militarism that holds no life as sacred, even that of women and children. The word "Marines" will ever awaken a thrill of admiration and pride among the American people because of the wonderful account which these brave soldier boys gave of themselves in battle and E. A. Green has indeed reason to cherish the memory of his son.

FINLAY L. MACFARLAND.

Finlay L. MacFarland is accounted a most energetic and progressive business man of Denver and as president of the MacFarland Auto Company has developed a trade of extensive proportions. He is identified also with various other corporate interests, but these constitute only one phase of his life of intense and intelligently directed activity. He has labored untiringly for the benefit of Denver, is now the president of the Civic and Commercial Association and the recently appointed president and general manager of the Denver Union Water Company. Further proof that he is one hundred per cent American is found in an appointment of which he has every reason to be proud, for Governor Gunter chose him as one of three men to serve on the executive committee of the State Council of Defense and he was also selected by the Liberty Loan executive committee to head the Liberty Loan army of Denver and organize its selling force.

Mr. MacFarland was born in Richmond, Missouri, September 16, 1862, and comes of Scotch ancestry. The family was established on American soil during colonial days and the great-grandfather of Finlay L. MacFarland served as a colonel in the Revolutionary war. The father, Oscar A. MacFarland, was a native of Vir- ginia, where representatives of the family lived through several generations. He became a merchant and, removing westward, cast in his lot with the early settlers of Longmont. Colorado, in 1872. There he devoted his attention to merchandising and spent the greater part of his life. continuing his residence in Longmont until

FINLAY L. MACFARLAND

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1899. He passed away, however, in Denver in April, 1900, when seventy-one years of age. His wife bore the maiden name of Katherine Hubbell and was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1832. She belongs to one of the old Connecticut families. The Hubbells were of English descent. Her grandfather and six of his brothers were all lost at sea while serving in the Revolutionary war. Her father, William D. Hubbell, was an old river captain on the Mississippi, sailing between New Or- leans and St. Louis. He took Major Long up the Missouri river to Council Bluffs, Iowa, on his first memorable trip and at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedi- tion he took Captain Clark to the Little Missoula Falls. Five of his sons served in the Confederate army. His daughter, Katherine Hubbell, became the wife of Oscar A. MacFarland at Liberty, Missouri. She is still a resident of Denver and is enjoying excellent health for one of her years. She became the mother of nine children, five sons and four daughters, of whom one son and three daughters are living. The daughters are: Sue T., the widow of Napoleon B. Mccrary, who re- sides at No. 1545 Vine street, in Denver; Mrs. Katherine M. Howe, who is the widow of Henry W. Howe and is a resident of California; and Nan, who is the wife of Kent Robinson, of Denver.

The surviving son is Finlay L. MacFarland, who was educated in the graded schools at Richmond, Missouri, and in the high school at Longmont, Colorado. When sixteen years of age he started out in life on his own account and his first employment was that of clerk in his father's store. He was engaged in mercan- tile lines until he reached the age of twenty-one years and then came to Denver, where he entered the house of N. B. Mccrary & Company as the junior partner. He became managing partner in the concern and continued active in the business until 1892, when his health failed and he went to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where he was engaged in the development of a coffee and sugar plantation. He continued on the isthmus for ten years and after he had realized on but two crops a forest fire swept over the plantation, destroying everything, so that he suffered a loss approximating eighty-five thousand dollars-the result of ten years of labor. He then returned to Denver and established the Economic Asphalt Repairs Com- pany and was engaged in the street paving business until 1911, when the city of Denver purchased the plant. In 1907 the present business, conducted under the name of the MacFarland Auto Company, was established and incorporated. Since disposing of his asphalt plant Mr. MacFarland has devoted his entire time to the automobile trade and is among the largest dealers in this line in the state. The company handles the Buick car exclusively and has built up a business of very substantial and gratifying proportions. Mr. MacFarland is president of the Lalley Western Farm Lighting Company, is also a director of the United States National Bank, vice president of the Pencolo Oil Company and the Victor Shale Oil Com- pany. These interests, however, represent but a part of his activity in the field of business. He is the president of the Harriman Ditch Company, president of the South Platte Canal & Reservoir Company, president of the Littleton Milling & Water Power Company, a director of the Soda Lakes Reservoir & Mineral Water Company and has been a most active and forceful factor in the development of the water interests of the state.

On the 11th of June, 1913, Mr. MacFarland was united in marriage at Castle Rock, Colorado, to Miss Ellen T. Phillips, a native of Canada and a daughter of James S. and Addie Victoria (Brown) Phillips, the latter of English birth. Both are now deceased.

Mr. MacFarland is well known through fraternal, club and public connections. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, being a Knight Templar and thirty- second degree Mason and member of El Jebel Temple. A. A. O. N. M. S. He is likewise connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He belongs to the United States Chamber of Commerce, to the Denver and Lakewood Clubs, of which he is a director, and also has membership in the Denver Country Club, the Denver Athletic Club, the Denver Motor Club, the Artists' Club, the City Park Golf Club and the Travel Club of America. In politics he maintains an independent course, voting for men and measures rather than party. He belongs to the First Congregational church and for ten years served as one of its trustees and was active in the building of the present church edifice. That he is not unmindful of the duties of citizenship is indicated in the fact that he is president and one of the most earnest workers of the Denver Civic and Commercial Association and in that connection is doing most important work for the development and progress of the city, for the extension of its trade relations and for the upbuilding of its civic and municipal interests. He was one of a committee of nine men who or-

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ganized the Mountain Park system, has been on its advisory board from the be- ginning and has had erected at each entrance to the Mountain Park huge stone arches at his own expense. At the present time he is largely concentrating his efforts and attention upon his work as one of the three men appointed by Governor Gunter as the executive committee of the State Council of Defense. Here his splendid powers of organization are brought into full play and his initiative has enabled him to do excellent work in this connection. In charge of the Liberty Loans, he planned and organized the forces which had charge of the sales that put Denver over the top. In every public connection he has served with ability and marked success, reaching out along those lines which mean intellectual liberty for the masses and the democratization of the world.

WILLIAM NEWTON BYERS.

The name of William Newton Byers figures on many pages of Colorado's his- tory. He was prominently known as a journalist, was one of the organizers of the company that built the first telegraph line in the state and was also actively connected with the building of both steam railway and tramway systems.

A native of Ohio, Mr. Byers was born in Madison county on the 22d of February, 1831, a son of Moses Watson and Mary Ann ( Brandenburg) Byers. His ancestral line is traced back to the early colonial days. His great-grandfather, Andrew Byers, and his grandfather, James Byers, together with two brothers of the latter, served with distinction and valor in the Revolutionary war. The ancestral line, however. is traced back still farther to Scotland, whence representatives of the name were driven through persecution to Ireland and there participated in the siege of Lon- donderry. Later they emigrated to the American colonies, settling in Pennsylvania, and Moses Watson Byers, father of William Newton Byers. was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, whence he afterward removed to Madison county, Ohio. He cast in his lot with the pioneer settlers of that district and there he cleared and developed a farm of three hundred acres on the Darby plains. He afterward became a resident of Iowa and was again engaged in farming in the vicinity of Muscatine, where he departed this life in 1866. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Ann Brandenburg, was a representative of an old family of German origin that was early founded in the Miami valley of Ohio, and in Iowa she passed away in 1884.

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History of Colorado; Volume III, Part 69

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