USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume III > Part 74
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AUGUST K. BOTT
Vol. III-34
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reason of successful management its popularity is second to none in the state. Under the regime of Mr. Bott there have been introduced some of the most successful and attractive entertainments in the history of club life in Denver, including features that were not only original but in such good taste that the unusual fitness of the man planning them was fully shown.
At Colorado Springs, on the 10th of September, 1914, Mr. Bott was united in mar- riage to Miss Eya F. Ferris, a native of New York city. They have a son, August Karl, Jr., born in Denver, March 1, 1916.
Mr. Bott is a well known Mason, having taken the degrees of the lodge, chapter and Scottish Rite and is also a member of El Jebel Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His acquaintance is wide in the various cities where he lias resided, especially in club and hotel circles. Of pleasing personality and with a manner that indicates his good rearing and refine- ment, his popularity among his many friends is in no small degree a recognition of these traits.
CLAUDE C. COFFIN.
Claude C. Coffin is a well known attorney who has been successfully engaged in practice at Fort Collins since June, 1910. His birth occurred near Longmont in Weld county, Colorado, on the 8th of March, 1884, his parents being Reuben F. and Lydia (Gregg) Coffin, who are natives of New York and Indiana respectively. Reuheu F. Coffin accompanied his parents to Illinois at a very early day and hecame a farmer of that state. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted in the Nineteenth Illinois Infantry and served for three years with that command, proving a most brave and loyal soldier. In 1867 he made his way to Burlington, now Longmont, Colorado, and for several years was engaged in freighting through the northern part of the state. In 1874 he took up a homestead in Weld county, improved the property and has operated the same continuously since, or for a period of forty-four years. His wife is also yet living and they are widely known and higlily esteemed as two of the most honored pioneers of the state.
Claude C. Coffin acquired his early education in the district schools of Weld county and subsequently pursued a high school course at Longmont, Boulder county, while later he hecame a student of liberal arts in the University of Colorado at Boulder. Hav- ing determined upon the practice of law as a life work, he afterward entered the National University at Washington, D. C., where he won his professional degree in 1908. The following two years were spent in the secret service and in June, 1910, he came to Fort Collins, where he has heen actively and successfully engaged in law practice to the present time. He was in partnership with George A. Carlson until the latter was elected governor and has since remained alone. His clientage is large and of an important character. Along with those qualities indispensable to the lawyer -a keen, rapid, logical mind plus the business sense and a ready capacity for hard work-he possesses certain rare gifts-eloquence of language and a strong personality. An excellent presence, an earnest, dignified manner, marked strength of character, a thorough grasp of the law and the ability accurately to apply its principles are factors in his effectiveness as an advocate.
On the 15th of July, 1907, Mr. Coffin was united in marriage to Miss Clara G. Richey, by whom he has a son, Adelbert Lynn, who was horn November 6, 1909. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party and in religious faith is a Methodist, while fraternally he is identified with the Masons and the Woodmen of the World. He also belongs to the Cowboy Rangers, and he is well entitled to mention in this volume as one of the worthy native sons and representative lawyers of Colorado.
CARL R. TOWNSEND.
Carl R. Townsend, editor and owner of the Kit Carson Herald. was born in Chicago on the 5th of April, 1886, a son of George B. and Carrie E. ( Meachem) Townsend. The father, who died in Chicago, was well known as a real estate dealer there.
Carl R. Townsend supplemented his early educational opportunities by two years of study in the University of Illinois, in which he pursned an engineering course. He also mastered a three years' mining and engineering course through practical experience
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in the mines of Montana. On receiving news of his father's demise, he left the mines and returned to Chicago but a little later made his way again to the west, with Kit Carson as his destination. He then took up a homestead a few miles out in the country and became interested in sheep raising, to which he devoted five years. But as the land was taken up more and more largely by farmers, leaving him less room for his sheep upon the range, he sold his flocks and turned his attention to the cattle business, in which he was engaged for three years, making some money in that connection.
It was in November, 1915, that Mr. Townsend was united in marriage to Miss Mary B. Page, a daughter of Hugh A. and Velora Page, the latter a native of Belgium. Mrs. Townsend was born in Beaver City, Nebraska. Her father was engaged in the live stock business and Mr. Townsend also became active in that field. In 1916 he bought his present place, purchasing it at first as a speculation, for he had no idea of running a paper. He had had no experience in that line, but he knew the people wished to have a paper in their midst, so he decided to make a trial of journalism. He has had plenty of business in the intervening period and his patronage is steadily growing. He has learned much concerning newspaper publication and the methods which he has introduced have proven profitable. His initiative and his enterprise have carried him steadily forward and he has made the Kit Carson Herald a valuable paper to the community and one which is popular with its many patrons.
Mr. Townsend is also interested in music and has organized a cowboy band of twenty-two pieces in the town. He is the secretary and manager of the organization and not only the members but the general public derive much pleasure therefrom. Mr. Townsend is active in all community affairs and stands for progress and improvement in all things. He is a very energetic young man, determined and resolute, and he has used the talents with which nature endowed him wisely and well.
It is of interest to note that Mr. Townsend has a brother, Elmer L., who is now in the aviation service in France. The only sister, Vera K., is the widow of George R. Morrell, who was employed by an importing company of Chicago and died in 1917, leaving two children. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Morrell had spent four years in study at the Art Institute of Chicago and since her husband's death has entered the business field, taking up commercial art work and doing interior decorating and designing. The Townsend family is a very old one, represented in the battles of Lexington, Concord and in other engagements of the Revolutionary war. The same spirit of loyalty to country is manifest in Carl R. Townsend, whose editorial utterances and activities breathe his spirit of patriotic devotion to the welfare of his native land. Possessed of a spirit of initiative, he is constantly putting forth plans for the benefit and upbuilding of his community and is active in carrying these forward to successful completion.
C. A. LEWIS.
C. A. Lewis, president of the Lewis Realty, Investment & Securities Company, with offices in the Foster building in Denver, was born June 27, 1873, in the city where he still resides, his parents being Julius Curtis and Amanda (Jackson) Lewis. The father was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, while the mother's birth occurred in Morrison, Illinois. They arrived in Denver in 1871 and Mr. Lewis established one of the first lumberyards of the city and became one of the most successful lumber dealers in the state. He continued active in the buisness to the time of his demise, which occurred in April, 1908, when he was seventy-two years of age. His widow survives and is yet a resident of Denver at the age of seventy-eight years. In their family were three children: William B., who is now president of the Oakdale Coal Company of New York; C. A., of this review; and Mrs. Maybelle L. Todd, living in Denver.
C. A. Lewis, after attending the public schools of Denver and the East Denver high school, became identified with the lumber industry in connection with his father and continued active in that line of business until 1898, when during the gold excite- ment in Alaska he joined the prospectors in the far northwest, making the trip to the Alaska gold fields on the Yukon river. He met with moderate success during the year and a half which he spent in the frozen north, after which he returned to the States, making his way to Sulphur Springs on the Sulphur river in Idaho. There he began business in the establishment of a refinery, which he operated very successfully for three years. He then disposed of his interests at a good profit and removed to Creede, Colorado, where he engaged in sulphur refining on his own account for a time. In 1904 he again became connected with the lumber business at Pine River, Colorado,
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where he continued for three years, when he sold out there and once more entered into the sulphur refining business at Cripple Creek, conducting a profitable and grow- ing enterprise at that place for three years. He sold out at the end of that time and turned his attention to the oil and refining business, organizing the Manhattan Oil & Refining Company of Kansas, of which he is now the president. This company is engaged in sinking wells on its property and owns several thousand acres of oil land in Kansas. Mr Lewis is also the president of the Lewis Realty, Investment & Securities Company of Denver. conducting an extensive realty business in Colorado, with offices at No. 510 Foster building in Denver. Throughout his entire life he has been a close student of business conditions, especially of those affecting in any way the interests in which he has been engaged. He is thoroughly familiar with the oil development of the west, also with real estate activity in Denver and his judicious investments have brought to him a very gratifying financial return.
Mr. Lewis was married January 12, 1904, to Miss Daisy R. Reid, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Reid, of a well known family of Denver. They have three sons: Charles Stewart, who was born in Denver in May. 1905, and is now attending school: Julius Curtis, who was born in Denver in July, 1913: and Bruce Aaron, born in Denver in 1917.
Mr. Lewis belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has never held political office and has always maintained an independent course in his voting. He stands very high as a citizen and a business man and is well known as a representative of that progressive type of men who have been the real upbuilders and promoters of the west.
ROBERT K. POTTER.
Robert K. Potter, vice president and general manager of the Colorado & Kansas Railroad Company. a man of marked executive ability. who through the steps of an orderly progression has reached his present position in connection with the adminis- tration of important corporation interests. was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. on the 27th of January, 1852. and is a son of Wellington and Elizabeth ( Ellsworth) Potter. The family was established in Nebraska in 1879 and Robert K. Potter, npon the removal to the west. homesteaded in that state. His father lived and died in Nebraska, where he took up his abode in pioneer times. becoming closely identified with the early development and progress of the state. He had served as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war. participating in many hotly contested engagements, in which he proved his valor and loyalty to the cause that he espoused.
Robert K. Potter, spending his boyhood and youth in Pennsylvania. is indebted to the public school system of his native state for the educational opportunities that he enjoyed. He was reared to the occupation of farming. early becoming familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops, and for many years his time and attention were given to agricultural interests. He was a young man of about twenty-seven years when he removed westward to Nebraska, where he gave much time to farming, bringing his fields under a high state of cultivation. He was also engaged in buying cattle and hogs. but eventually sold his Nebraska interests and removed to Colorado in 1892. After spending ten years in the Cripple Creek district. during which time he was engaged in the sawmill business. he purchased a farm on Beaver creek. which he cultivated for a time but later sold and established his home in the Penrose district. There he also purchased land on Turkey creek and filed on the Teller Reservoir site. With characteristic energy he began the development of the place and soon con verted some of the waste land into productive fields, but afterward sold the water rights to Mr. Teller. He still owns the farm, which is pleasantly and conveniently sitnated about fourteen miles north of Pueblo. Mr. Potter is now connected with the Turkey Creek Stone, Clay & Gypsum Company, which has furnished the stone for some of the finest public buildings in Colorado, also at Bartlesville, Oklahoma. the stone being used in the courthouse there. also in the Union depot at Wichita. Kansas, in the postoffice at Ottawa, Kansas, in the Denver public library and in the Pueblo county courthouse, besides the Santa Fe office building at La Junta, the Perkins Trust Company building at Lawrence, Kansas, the Broadmoor Hotel at Colorado Springs and others of almost equal note. The clay taken out by this company is used all over the United States. Mr. Potter is vice president and general manager of the Colorado & Kansas Railroad Company and he possesses the administrative power and executive force which enable him to carefully control and direct the interests that come under his management in this con-
*
RI Potter
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nection. In all of his business career he has displayed a ready discrimination between the essential and the non-essential, combined with the power to coordinate seemingly diverse interests into a unified and harmonious whole. He has carefully directed his plans and his activities have been most resultant, contributing in marked measure to the welfare and progress of the communities in which he has operated.
Mr. Potter was united in marriage to Miss Tillie Burnett, who passed away leaving the following named sons and daughters: Chandler, who is with the United States army as an engineer in France; Lillian; William, and Carrie. Having lost his first wife, Mr. Potter was again married, his second union being with Miss Louise Male. He is a Protestant in religious faith and fraternally is connected with the Masons and the Odd Fellows. He belongs to the Commerce Club and in his political views is a republican. While in Nebraska he took a very prominent part in civic affairs and was one of the organizers of Buffalo county, which he afterward represented in the state legislature, giving careful and thoughtful consideration to the vital questions which came up for settlement in the general assembly. He has always been actuated by a public-spirited devotion to the general good and his cooperation in behalf of any important public project is never sought in vain. At the same time he has carefully managed important business enterprises and has figured prominently in connection with the industrial and financial interests of the state. Especially valuable has been his work in connection with the stone and clay company, an undertaking that in its ramifying business in- terests is covering a most extensive territory.
BERT C. BULSON.
Bert C. Bulson, conducting business at Aguilar under the name of the Star Tailoring Company, was born in Garnett, Kansas, on the 1st of June, 1887, a son of M. L. and Eva (McClure) Bulson, who are now residents of Glasco, Kansas. Their family numbered six children, of whom Bert C. is the third. He was educated in the public and high schools of Glasco and when his textbooks were put aside made his initial step in the business world as clerk in a mercantile establishment, thus gaining the experience that fitted him for carrying on business on his own account. He spent ten years in clerking and then embarked in business independently in Glasco. Eventu- ally, however, he sold out there and removed to Minneapolis, where he carried on business for a year. He next removed to Alamosa, Colorado, where he was connected with a company from 1913 until 1916, having charge of the business. For three years he has been proprietor of a store in Aguilar and has built up a large trade. He uses two automobiles in mercantile service to all of the camps and his patronage is extensive and gratifying. He makes a close study of the wishes of his patrons and carries a stock that meets all public demands.
On the 26th of August, 1913, Mr. Bulson was united in marriage to Miss Lillian M. Bottomley and they have a daughter, Lois A. In politics Mr. Bulson is a democrat and he is a blue lodge Mason, loyally adhering to the teachings and purposes of the craft. In his community he is recognized as a leading citizen, taking an active part in all public events which have to do with the upbuilding and progress of the district. He is courteous, obliging and popular and his worth as a business man and citizen is widely acknowledged by those who come in contact with him.
EDWARD AGARD.
Edward Agard, a wheelwright and blacksmith conducting business at Rockvale, was born in Canon City, Colorado, on the 13th of May, 1876. and is a son of Julius Carl and Anna (Christianson) Agard. The father was a tinner by trade. The family came to Colorado about 1868, settling at Cañon City, where the parents spent their remaining days. They reared a family of two sons and two daughters.
Edward Agard, who was the youngest of the four children, was educated in the public schools of Canon City and after his textbooks were put aside assisted his father in the hardware business. Having removed to Rockvale, he there learned the trades of a wheelwright and blacksmith. He gained marked efficiency while serving in the employ of others and in 1899 he started business on his own account. He has since been so engaged and his patronage has steadily increased as the years have passed, his business now being a large and profitable one.
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On the 25th of December, 1899, Mr. Agard was united in marriage to Miss Mamie John and they have two children, Howard and Emily.
In his political views Mr. Agard is a republican and he has served as town mar- shal and also as water superintendent. He has likewise been secretary of the school board and he is interested in all that pertains to welfare and progress in his community and to the development of the interests of the city. He belongs to the Elks Lodge, No. 611, at Florence, to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to the Knights of the Golden Eagle and to the Woodmen of the World. He greatly enjoys hunting and fish- ing and various forms of outdoor exercise but concentrates his efforts and attention most largely upon his business affairs, which are wisely directed and are bringing to him a substantial measure of success that is well merited.
JACOBO J. GARCIA.
Jacobo J. Garcia, well known in Denver and throughout Colorado in connection with the employment business, was born February 26, 1879, in El Moro, Las Animas county, Colorado, a son of Jose and Josefita (Tafoya) Garcia. Further mention is made of the family in connection with the sketch of Abraham Garcia on another page of this work. Both his paternal and maternal grandparents were natives of the south- west, either of Colorado or New Mexico. In the fall of 1887 his father took the family to Socorro, New Mexico, where they resided until 1891, when they returned to Colo- rado, settling at Hastings, where J. J. Garcia remained with his widowed mother and a brother and sister until 1902, at which time they removed to Pueblo, Colorado, and there the mother passed away in the year 1910.
While residing in Pueblo, J. J. Garcia was engaged in the employment business and also acted as interpreter for the Santa Fe Railroad. In 1912 he went to Greeley, where he engaged in business as a sugar beet contractor but ultimately abandoned that business and in the same year removed to Denver, where he again became engaged in the employment business. Since then he has conducted boarding camps for the Union Pacific and for the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad Companies and at the present time he is still carrying on the employment business, in which connection he is doing important work.
JULES JACQUES B. BENEDICT.
The development of native powers through study and broad experience has brought Jules Jacques B. Benedict to an enviable position among the leading architects of Denver. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, April 22, 1879, and is a son of Bernard and Martha Johanna Sophia (Horn) Benedict. The father is a native if Vienna, Austria, but in early life crossed the Atlantic to America and became a resident of Chicago, where he grew to manhood. He there entered the real estate business and became one of the successful and prominent representatives of that field of activity. He still makes his home iu Chicago and is today widely known there as a successful business man and representative citizen. The mother of J. J. B. Benedict was born in Baltimore, Mary- land, and is now living in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Benedict of this review was the elder of two children and the younger son is Herbert Benedict, who is a resident of Los Angeles.
In early life J. J. B. Benedict was a pupil in the public schools of Chicago and later he became a student in the Boston School of Technology, while at a subsequent period he entered the Chicago Art Institute. He next went to Paris, France, and entered the school of fine arts, receiving thorough training as an architect and designer. He remained there from 1902 until 1906 and came under the instruction of some of the most eminent representatives of the profession in the old world. After receiving his degree he returned to the United States and established his home in New York city, where he successfully continued in the practice of his profession from 1906 until 1909. He then sought the opportunities of the growing west and made his way to Denver, where he opened an office and established himself in his chosen profession. He has since become famous as an architect and designer of fine buildings and residences of the modern type. Since coming to Denver he has designed and supervised the erection of the beautiful Central Savings Bank building, the New Albany Hotel annex, the Highland Park public library, the Littleton public library, the J. H. Brown building
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and many handsome homes. He also designed the City Park gardens, the sunken gar- dens at City Park, the Washington Park pavilion and gardens, the Mountain parks and many other public works. Comfort, utility and beauty are combined in the build- ings which he erects and these become a matter of architectural adornment to the cities in which they are located. He has also done much to add to general beauty through the development of the park systems with which he has been connected.
On the 20th of February, 1912, Mr. Benedict was married to Miss June Louise Brown, of Denver, a danghter of Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Brown, well known and prominent people of this city. They have one child, Peter Benedict, who was born in Denver in 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Benedict are very prominent socially in Denver and the hospi- tality of their own home is greatly enjoyed by their many friends. They hold meni- bership in the Episcopal church and politically Mr. Benedict maintains an independent course. He belongs to the Country Club of Denver, the Beaux Arts Club of New York city, the Artists' Club and the National Geographic Society, associations which indicate much of the nature and breadth of his interests.
JOSEPH B. BURGESS.
Joseph B. Burgess, who is efficiently serving as water commissioner at Pueblo, claims Missouri as his native state, his birth occurring in Ray county, February 6, 1864, and he is a son of Jacob S. and Elizabeth (Lewis) Burgess. In the family were five children and he is the fourth in order of birth. The father, who was a farmer hy occupation, served under General Shelby during the Civil war. Both parents are now deceased.
In the state of his nativity Joseph B. Burgess grew to manhood and in the acquire- ment of an education attended the rural schools. After putting aside his textbooks he aided his father in the operation of the home farm until coming to Colorado in 1885, when he located in Pueblo county. Here he continued to engage in agricultural pursuits until 1916, when he removed to the city of Pueblo and was appointed to his present position as water commissioner in May, 1917, by Governor Gunter.
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