USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume IV > Part 16
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On the 8th of October, 1872, Mr. Porter was united in marriage to Miss Lucy B. Miller, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Dr. J. H. and Lucinda Miller, of Moberly, Missouri, her father being one of the old-time and prominent physicians of that place, a graduate of Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. To Mr. and Mrs. Porter have been born three children: Miller B., who is associated with his father in the real estate business; George, deceased; and one who died in infancy. Miller B. Porter mar- ried Miss Bertha Bonsall and to them has been born a son, William W., named in honor of his grandfather.
Politically Mr. Porter is a stalwart advocate of democratic principles, having always supported the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He served for thirteen years as a member of the board of park commissioners. He did splendid service in that connection, contributing much to the improvement of the city through the development of its parks. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and also of the Denver Real Estate Exchange, serving at one time as a director of the
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WILLIAM W. PORTER
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latter. His religious faith is that of the Baptist church and his life is guided by its teachings. He is a man of sterling worth whose life has measured up to high stand- ards, while his business career has been characterized by the utmost integrity. For thirty-six years a resident of Denver, he is widely and favorably known in its business circles and he also has marked characteristics which make for personal popularity.
MRS. MARY JANE DANNEMAN.
Mrs. Mary Jane Danneman is widely known as one of the capable business women and large landowners of Elbert county, her home being near Matheson. She was born in Missouri and in 1879, the year after the Indians had been driven out of Elbert county, she took up her abode within its borders with her first husband, Sydney Housh. For a year thereafter she never saw a woman's face. It was her wisdom and knowledge of farming, however, that made the homestead a big paying proposition. She is a lady of superior education who has not only promoted her own knowledge through extensive reading and observation but has given her children the best educational opportunities afforded by the schools of the state. At the same time she has carefully managed her business affair's and made judicious investments until her holdings have increased by purchase and she is now the owner of one of the largest and best equipped farms near Matheson.
Ten years ago Mrs. Housh became the wife of Richard Danneman, a well known rancher, who has been an able aid to her in the development of her property.
By her first marriage Mrs. Danneman has three living children, Edna, Nellie and Robert, and the last named is now a member of the Aero Squadron at Chanute field. There were also two daughters who have passed away: Bertha, who married Walter E. Holt by whom she had two children, Bertha and Jack Holt, the former the wife of Norman H. McIlhenney; and Anna, who in February, 1909, married Fay White and died August 29, 1909, at the young age of nineteen. Mrs. Bertha Holt was married in 1895, and death called her on October 7, 1917.
Mr. and Mrs. Danneman are among the most highly esteemed residents of Matheson, both enjoying the greatest respect of their neighbors, in whose affections they hold a firm place.
REUBEN J. MORRIS.
Reuben J. Morris, a prominent figure in mining, mercantile and banking circles, his close identification with all these interests contributing in substantial measure to the development of the state along those lines, is rated as one of the most progressive business men of Colorado, being president of the North Denver Bank, of the Goss- Morris Mercantile Company and of the Douglas Mountain Copper Mines Company. He was born in Quincy, Illinois, July 19, 1852, a son of Commodore Perry and Mary Eliza- beth (Perry) Morris, the former a native of Kentucky, while the latter was born in Alabama. Commodore Perry Morris on leaving his native state became a resident of Illinois and later was a pioneer settler of Kansas. He devoted his life to the occupation of farming and passed away in Gilpin county, Illinois, prior to the Civil war. His widow long survived him and died in Hamilton, Missouri, in 1906.
Reuben J. Morris, the elder of their two children, attended the public schools of Illinois and after putting aside his textbooks and while still a boy in years he worked upon the home farm, being thus employed to the age of nineteen years, when he joined the United States army as a regular and was stationed at Nashville, Tennessee, until called with his company to suppress the riots at New Orleans, Louisiana, in which a number of people were killed. He was a member of Company F, of the Sixteenth United States Infantry, and after completing his five year term of enlist- ment he received an honorable discharge. He then removed to northern Missouri, where he operated a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits for two years. On selling that property he turned his attention to merchandising in Barton county, Mis- souri, where he remained for three years, after which he removed to Denver in 1891. While in Hamilton, Missouri, he had his first experience in the mercantile business, being for several years with the firm of Anderson Brothers, prominent merchants of that town. In Denver he secured a clerkship in the grocery store of J. W. Gilder- sleeve, with whom he remained for five years, and on the expiration of that period
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REUBEN J. MORRIS
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resigned his position to enter business on his own account. In connection with C. F. Goss, he organized the Goss-Morris Mercantile Company and established business at No. 2900 West Twenty-fifth avenue, in North Denver. They started in a modest way but as the years have passed their business has grown to wonderful size and propor- tions. They started with a small stock of groceries, but later various departments were added, including a meat and vegetable department, which has developed into one of the extensive business interests of the kind. The next addition was a dry goods, clothing and shoe department and through this avenue the income of the firm has also been materially increased. At a later date Mr. Goss and Mr. Morris disposed of their grocery and meat departments in order to devote all of their time and attention to their dry goods and clothing trade, in which connection they have built up one of the largest business enterprises of the kind in North Denver, enjoying an extensive and well deserved patronage. They have closely studied the trade and have held to the highest standards in the personnel of the house, in the business methods followed and in the treatment rendered to patrons. Mr. Morris has also been very active in financial circles. He organized the North Denver Bank, the only banking institution in that section of the city, and from the beginning has remained its president. He was also one of the organizers and was elected a director and member of the advisory board of the Merchants Fire Insurance Company. He is the president of the Douglas Mountain Copper Mines Company, which owns six hundred and sixty acres of the richest copper bearing rock in that district. They own in Moffat county more than fourteen distinct claims and have four leased properties. At a recent date the com- pany has shipped to its properties on Douglas mountain, in the extreme western end of Moffat county, all material necessary for a reverberatory smelter capable of handling twenty tons of ore daily. This smelter was completed and ready for operation on the 1st of December and is expected to yield a daily net profit of more than four hun- dred dollars. The company has more than three thousand tons of ore, averaging ten per cent copper, at the mouth of the shaft of its Bromide mine now ready for the smelter and about five thousand tons of fifteen per cent copper ore blocked out in the mine. This mine has three levels and a total of thirteen hundred feet of workings. It has recently been equipped with a complete set of mining machinery. Of the thirty- one copper properties owned by the company, seven have shipped ores better than fifteen per cent copper. Mr. Morris, as president of the company, is associated with Vachael C. Walters, who is secretary of the company, and Robert Pherson, an experi- enced copper mine operator, who is general manager.
On the 14th of September, 1881, in Hamilton, Missouri, Mr. Morris was married to Miss Hattie Laura Goss, of that place. In politics he maintains an independent course, but his fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability, elected him as senator to the nineteenth and twentieth general assemblies. He is a member of the Civic and Commercial Association of Denver, also of the Merchants Association, and is a loyal representative of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. There is an old saying that "Nothing comes of nothing;" there must always be a basis for build- ing and in the case of Mr. Morris, while he did not have financial assistance or resources at the outset of his career, he did have various substantial qualities and characteristics that have constituted the foundation of his later progress and success. He had courage and he had energy. Moreover, he early recognized the fact that industry comes out victor and he determined to his own satisfaction that if success can not be had for the asking it will surrender to persistent and continued effort. Wherever opportunity has pointed the way he has been quick to see and utilize his advantages and, step by step, has proceeded along the path to the desired goal and today figures prominently in banking, commercial and mining circles.
A. L. LOBAN.
A. L. Loban, a highly respected agriculturist of El Paso county, is the owner of the Bluff View farm, which is situated in the fertile and scenic Bijou Basin. Its pro- ductiveness has been greatly enhanced by the care and labor he has bestowed upon the fields, for in all his farm work he follows the most progressive methods. In its neat appearance the place indicates his close application and well directed energy and El Paso county numbers him among her representative ranchmen. He was born August 20, 1865, in Delaware county, Iowa, a son of Andrew and Sophia (Greensleet) Loban, the former a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the mother of Warren, Washington
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county, Vermont. The paternal grandfather came to America in 1840 and was the founder of the family on the soil of the new world.
A. L. Lohan acquired a common school education in Iowa and for a number of years was engaged in the butter business at Webster City, at Randall and at Paullina, Iowa. He also carried on farming for a number of years in that state, where he remained until 1900, when he came to Colorado, settling at Boulder, where he was interested in mining and in the development of oil fields. In 1910 he removed to the Bijou Basin and purchased eight hundred and eighty-six acres of land, since which time he has success- fully engaged in farming with the exception of two years spent in Boulder, where he engaged in tungsten mining. He is the secretary and treasurer of the Wall Street Mine, located in the central mining district in Nugget Gulch, on what is known as Left Hand. At the same time he is a most progressive ranchman, having good buildings upon his place, all of which were erected by him. He has one hundred head of cattle and milks on an average of thirty-five cows, selling cream.
In 1888 Mr. Loban was united in marriage to Miss Alice Caroline Tatham, of Carroll. Illinois, who passed away in 1903. On the 7th of January, 1905, Mr. Loban wedded Adelyn Louise Tunnell, who was born in Illinois but was reared in Colorado. They have become parents of eight children: Elizabeth, Homer, Dorothy, Genevieve, Irene, Florence, Clyde and Edgar. The older ones are attending school.
Mr. Loban is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, having connection with the lodge at Boulder, and his wife is identified with the Royal Neighbors. In politics he has always been a republican but is now giving earnest support, as are hundreds of others of the party, to President Wilson and the policy which he is pursuing in con- nection with the war. The family attend the Presbyterian church. They are highly esteemed people of the community, respected for their sterling worth, their many ex- cellent traits of character winning them high regard and warm friendship.
HARRY C. STEPHENS.
Among the younger bankers of Washington county, Colorado, is Harry C. Stephens, who as cashier of the Farmers State Bank of Otis represents important financial inter- ests. He was born in Osage county, Kansas, July 31, 1894, his parents heing Preston and Leona (Stice) Stephens, natives of the Sunflower state. While in Kansas, Preston Stephens followed agricultural pursuits, remaining in that state until about twenty- eight years of age, when removal was made to the state of Washington. There he resided, however, for only nine months and in 1899 went to Yuma, Colorado, where he engaged in the general merchandise business, so continuing for a number of years. He still makes his home in that city hut is now connected with the furniture business, being quite successful in this line and enjoying the confidence and regard of his fellow citizens. His wife is also living.
Harry C. Stephens was reared under the parental roof and received his education in Yuma, Colorado, and also in the district schools of Washington county. Having com- pleted his school work, he decided upon banking as a life work and in 1910 secured a position as clerk and bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Yuma. His inherent interest in the work, his close application and his naturally quick perception and undoubted ability led to his promotion to the position of assistant cashier, which office he held seven years. In May, 1917, Mr. Stephens came to Otis, considering this a favor- able field for the establishment of a new bank. After looking over the ground carefully he decided upon the venture and with others organized the Farmers State Bank. The institution is capitalized for fifteen thousand dollars and the surplus is placed at seventy- five hundred dollars. Although it has been in existence merely two years, its deposits already amount to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Thomas P. Rehder is president and Cloyd C. Fisch vice president. The hank is housed. in a thoroughly modern, fire and burglar proof-building, which was especially erected for the purpose, and they have occupied the same since July 6, 1918. Besides being cashier Mr. Stephens is a director of the bank, the affairs of which are practically solely under his manage- ment. While he follows a conservative policy, protecting to the fullest extent depositors and stockholders, yet he is progressive and ever ready to render financial aid to those who desire loans from the institution in order to extend legitimate business interests of a mercantile or agricultural character. In his section he has hecome recognized as a financial authority and is often consulted upon matters of investment, as he is well informed in regard to stock and bond values and also as to real estate valuations.
On the 14th of October, 1914, Mr. Stephens married Hazel B. Tribbett, daughter of Vol. IV-9
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Charles and Mary (Gashaw) Tribbett, the former being numbered among the honored pioneers of Yuma, where he follows agricultural pursuits. His wife passed away in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens have one child, Dorothy Irene, whose birth occurred October 2, 1915.
Mr. Stephens readily cooperates in all measures and movements undertaken in the interest of his community, in the growth of which he is deeply concerned. In his posi- tion as cashier of the bank he is not only acquiring individual fortune but in large measure contributes to the development of the town, and his work is therefore of great importance locally. Along political lines he is independent. supporting the candidates whom he considers best fitted for office, without being influenced by their party affilia- tions. His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church and fraternally he belongs to the Knights and Ladies of Security. Since coming to Otis he has made many friends in the town, for although he has been here but two years, it has taken his fellow citizens only a short time to recognize in him an able business man who is guided by the strictest and most honorable principles in the conduct of his affairs and who is public-spirited and holds friendship inviolable.
OSEE WALLACE HOFFMAN, M. D.
Specializing in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, Dr. Osee Wallace Hoffman has made for herself an enviable name and place in professional circles in Denver. She is accorded high rank and standing by her colleagues in the field of medicine and surgery and her ability is recognized by an extensive clientage. Dr. Hoff- man is a native of Greene county, Pennsylvania, where her ancestors have lived through several generations. She is descended from the Mason-Taylor and Jewell families of Virginia and Pennsylvania, all of whom were prominent in Colonial and Revolutionary days. Her grandfather, Peter Fry, on the maternal side, was a captain in the War of 1812 and many of her ancestors figure on the pages of American history, and patriotism, progressiveness and loyalty have ever been numbered among their marked characteris- tics. While unable to do much active work herself, in our recent conflict, she has done her bit and members of her family, following in the footsteps of their ancestors, have given their lives on the field of battle for their country. Her only first cousin is in active service at the head of a nurses' division in France.
Dr. Hoffman graduated from the Washington Female Seminary of Pennsylvania, afterwards entering the Laura Memorial Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio. After completing her medical course she took special clinical work in eye, ear, nose and throat treatment under the most eminent men of that city and entered upon active practice in Denver in 1900, where she limited her practice to this special work, becoming the woman pioneer in the west in this field, and has won for herself a very favorable position in professional circles of this city. Recognition of her work came to her by her appoint- ment to the position of assistant clinical professor in the eye and ear department of Denver Gross Medical College, which position she filled six years.
Dr. Hoffman belongs to the American Medical Association, the Colorado State Medi- cal Society and the Medical Society of the City and County of Denver. She is a member of the Young Ladies' Clio Club, the Medical Women's War Service League, the Red Cross and similar organizations. Her religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. She works in all the hospitals of Denver and her labors have been of great value to mankind.
AUGUST H. BEUCK.
August H. Beuck, owner of one of Colorado's largest ranches, was born in Kiel, Holstein, May 24, 1854, a son of Henry Beuck, a farmer of that section, which at that time belonged to Denmark. He spent the first fourteen years of his life in his native country and then came to America, settling in Davenport, Iowa. He there remained for about two years and in 1870 came to Colorado and soon became interested in the fine opportunities for cattle raising in Elbert county, making his start in the business in 1874. By 1876 he had purchased a preemption and proved up on one hundred and sixty acres of land on the East Bijou in Elbert county. He began raising shorthorns and Durham cattle and by 1885 had nearly a thousand head of fine stock of those breeds. August H. Beuck was one of the first cattle owners in the west to experiment with Pasteur's vaccine for the extermination of blackleg. He has always followed the
AUGUST H. BEUCK
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most progressive methods in the care of his stock and the development of his herds. and his opinions are largely accepted as authority upon stock raising in his section of the state.
In Central City, Colorado, Mr. Beuck was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Miller and they have become the parents of two sons, Frederick and Henry Beuck, who now own and operate the two big ranches in the vicinity of the town of Buick, a station on the Union Pacific, which was named in honor of the subject of this review. By mistake the department called it Buick, but steps are now being taken to restore the name to the intended form of Beuck.
The sons are reputed to be among the most progressive, alert and energetic young farmers of Elbert county. There is nothing of a modern nature found in the equipment of the finest farms of the present day that is not to be seen upon their places. The parents sent the two sons to the Denver schools, where they obtained liberal educa- tional advantages which have assisted in making them leaders in their line of business in the county. Henry Otto Beuck, who was born near Agate, March 10, 1883, was married in Denver on the 20th of March, 1912, to Miss Jennie Matheson, a daughter of the founder of the town of Matheson. They have become parents of two children, Janet Rose and Henry Duncan.
In his political views August H. Beuck has always been a republican and in 1889 he was elected to the office of county commissioner, in which position he served con- tinuously until 1896, making a most creditable record in office, as is indicated by his reelections. He is ever loyal to the best interests of the community in which he resides and he and his sons have made the name of Beuck an honored one in their locality.
JOHN A. McGUIRE.
John A. McGuire, president of the Outdoor Life Publishing Company and also of the McGuire Printing Company, with office at No. 1824 Curtis street in Denver, was born in Polk county, Iowa, near Des Moines, April 20, 1869. His father, the late Michael McGuire, was a native of Ireland and came alone to America in 1848, when sixteen years of age. He immediately took up his abode near Ottumwa, Iowa, where he was employed at farm labor, and subsequently be removed to Polk county, Iowa, where he purchased land and engaged in farming until 1881. He then came to Colo- rado, settling in Denver, at which time he was a traveling representative of John McConville & Company. For this firm he traveled throughout the central western and Rocky Mountain states and continued with the house until he reached the age of sixty years, when he retired from active business and made his home in Denver until his death, which occurred in June, 1910, when he was seventy years of age. During the period of the Civil war he was traveling in the south and on several occasions was arrested by Confederate soldiers on the supposition that he was a spy. He man- aged, however, to clear himself of the imputation but had considerable trouble. His religious faith was that of the Roman Catholic church. He wedded Mary McGonigle, also a native of Ireland, born in 1845 in Donegal, which was also the birthplace of her husband. She came to America with her widowed mother, who brought with her four children. They settled near Ottumwa, Iowa, and it was there that she met and married Mr. McGuire. She became the mother of seven children, six of whom are living. In May, 1883, she removed to Colorado and is still a resident of Denver.
John A. McGuire, the eldest of his parents' family, was educated in the public schools of Des Moines, Iowa, to the age of thirteen years, when his textbooks were put aside and he entered upon an apprenticeship to the printer's trade with a farm journal called The Homestead, which is still in existence and is today one of the lead- ing agricultural papers of the country. He was associated therewith for a year, at the end of which time his family removed to Denver, and he afterwards completed his trade with the Denver Inter-Ocean, a weekly paper. In 1887, when he was eighteen years of age, he became associated with a monthly journal called Sports Afield, which was the first sporting monthly established in the United States. He was connected with that paper for five years and his second position was that of foreman of the printing department, his first position having been that of editor of the cycling depart- ment, at which time cycling was a very popular sport in America, and Mr. McGuire became an expert rider, taking part in many racing contests. When he became chief consul of the Colorado division he headed a committee of four who attended the national convention of the League of American Wheelmen at Louisville, Kentucky, where they secured the national meet for the following year. The meet was accordingly held in
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وجد
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Denver in 1894 and on that occasion Mr. McGuire was one of the contestants, but on the second day of the contest met with an accident which caused him to withdraw. However, he won in various contests on other occasions in both local and state meets and was regarded as one of the best riders in the west. In January, 1893, Mr. McGuire founded the Cycling West, a paper which he published successfully for five years, at the end of which time he sold the plant, which was afterward utilized for the publica- tion of an automobile journal. In 1898, in connection with J. A. Ricker, he established and published the first issue of Outdoor Life. The partnership continued for. seven years, at the end of which time Mr. McGuire purchased Mr. Ricker's interests and since that time has been sole owner of this paper, which is one of the most interesting sportsmen's magazines published. It has among its writers some of the best known sportsmen of the country, treating of all kinds of sports with rod and gun, and every- thing that is of interest to the fisherman and the huntsman. Since taking up the publication of this magazine Mr. McGuire has won substantial success. He has made the publication one of great interest to a wide circle of readers who are found through- out the entire country.
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