USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume IV > Part 33
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school for three years and is the wife of Leonard Ellis, a ranchman residing at Edge- mont, South Dakota, and they have one child, Jolin Leonard. Agnes S., born July 26, 1892, is a graduate of the high school, of the Woman's College at Denver and also of the Greeley Normal School, and is now successfully teaching in South Dakota. Robert A., born February 15. 1904, is a high school pupil at Castle Rock.
Judge Anderson and his family have made their home at Castle Rock since 1890, occupying a substantial residence which he owns. He belongs to the Odd Fellows Lodge, No. 139, also to the Court of Honor, No. 1109, at Castle Rock and is a highly esteemed representative of those organizations. A man of genuine personal worth, of a high sense of honor in office and of marked fidelity in citizenship, he is today numbered among the most valued and representative residents of his section of the state.
HON. EBEN E. HUGHES.
Hon. Eben E. Hughes, actively and prominently identified with the agricultural development of Elbert county, was born at Llanelly, South Wales, on the 18th of June, 1868, a son of Richard and Sarah Hughes. The father was a brilliant minister of the Presbyterian faith who came to America in 1870, when his son Eben was but two years of age. The paternal grandfather was connected with the noted church insurrection. Both father and grandfather were men ever ready to fight for the faith that was so dear to them and Richard Hughes came to this country like the Pilgrims of old for the religious liberty which in that period was still but a name in England. The grandfather of Eben E. Hughes in the maternal line served under the Duke of Wel- lington at the battle of Waterloo. After crossing the Atlantic in 1870 Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hughes went first to Mankato, Minnesota, and in 1874 removed to Columbus Junction, Iowa. There the family prospered and the father became widely noted for the power of his eloquence. Both he and his wife lived to round out long and beau- tiful lives in the town of Columbus Junction, honored by all with whom they came in contact.
In 1890 Eben E. Hughes, then a young man of twenty-two years, removed to Colorado and on the 4th of June, 1891, was united in marriage to Miss Ellen E. Jones, of Denver, the wedding being celebrated in the little Welton Street Welsh church. Mrs. Hughes is one of the leading women of Elbert county and takes a deep interest in all that stands for the progress and development of her sex. To Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have been born the following named: Edward, who is now in the service of the gov- ernment at Colorado College; Walter, who is in France in the service of bis country; Leila and Mary, two talented daughters, who have taken the places of their brothers on the farm and are thus doing a splendid work in releasing man power in order to aid in winning the war; and Ralph, who is the youngest of the family, and is also in Colorado College in the S. A. T. C.
Eben E. Hughes has been active in the development of Elbert county since he removed to this district with his bride in 1891. Through the intervening years he has borne a helpful part in all that has pertained to its progress and upbuilding and bis liberal education, his persuasive power and oratorical ability have been potent factors in educating the public along many lines of progress. In 1918 he was named as the republican candidate for legislative honors and was elected representative of his dis- trict comprising Arapahoe and Elbert counties. No one questions his fitness for the position nor his loyalty to any cause which he may espouse and he is widely recognized in Elbert county as a splendid type of American manhood and citizenship.
WILLIAM LEWIS ARMSTRONG.
Since 1908 William Lewis Armstrong has been a resident of Boulder, Colorado, where he is living largely retired, enjoying the fruits of former business activity, enterprise and judicious investment. He was born upon a farm in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, in 1844, being a son of William and Lucy Ann (Hickernell) Armstrong, who were likewise natives of the Keystone state. The former was a son of John Armstrong, also born in Pennsylvania. William Armstrong was born in York county in 1816 and throughout the greater part of his active business career was a contracting
HON. EBEN E. HUGHES
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builder of Pennsylvania, where he passed away in the year 1904, having for about four years survived his wife, who died in 1900.
William Lewis Armstrong, whose name introduces this review, was reared upon the old homestead farm in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, early becoming familiar with the work of the fields from the time of the early spring planting until crops were harvested in the autumn. In the winter months he attended the country schools and then at the age of eighteen years, or in September, 1862, he enlisted in response to the call for troops to aid in the preservation of the Union, becoming a private of Company D, Eighty-third Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out in May, 1865, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, after having participated in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and many other hotly contested engagements of the war which led up to the final victory which crowned the Union arms. At Fredericksburg he was slightly wounded. Following
his military experience, he went to the oil regions of Pennsylvania, where he remained
until 1908, winning success through well directed business efforts and Investments. He has become interested in Oklahoma oil property and, moreover, is the president of the Mercantile Bank of Boulder, president of the Nederland State Bank, and a director of the Louisville (Col.) State Bank. He became a resident of Boulder in 1908 and through the intervening period has made his home in this city.
On the 16th of February, 1870, in Crawford county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Armstrong was married to Miss Mary J. Wasson, a daughter of the late Harrison Wasson, a native of Pennsylvania, and to them was born a daughter, Hattie Mabel, who became the wife of Abram McCoy, of West Virginia, who died in 1907, leaving four children, namely: Lewis J., who is with the One Hundred and Fifteenth Engineers of the national army; Freda, who married Albert D. McArthur, of Idaho, and they have a son William Lewis, named in honor of his great-grandfather; Ernest; and Abram Armstrong McCoy.
Mr. Armstrong belongs to the Boulder Club and to the Boulder Golf Club, while fraternally he is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His religious faith is indicated in his membership in the First Presbyterian church of Boulder, of which he is serving as a trustee. In politics he has always been a stalwart republican and while in the east served for one term as county commissioner of Venango county, Pennsylvania, while since taking up his abode in Boulder his fellow citizens have twice chosen him to fill the office of mayor. He is now taking a very active part in Red Cross work and is doing everything in his power to sustain his country in its aim at world democracy. He is one of the most esteemed citizens of Boulder, interested at all times in the general progress of his city, the commonwealth and the country.
FREDERICK A. WALD.
Frederick A. Wald, as a member of the firm of Wald & Mosher, is one of the owners of The Oasis, a valuable ranch property in Elbert county, not far from Kutch, and is a recognized leader among the agriculturists and stock raisers of the state. He was born in New York city, October 12, 1862, a son of Fred and Louise Wald. both of whom were natives of New York. In 1869 they removed with their family to Bay City, Michigan, where the mother is still occupying the old home.
Frederick A. Wald was a lad of about seven years at the time of the removal to the middle west, where he was reared and educated. He entered business life as an apprentice to a plumber and gas fitter and when fifteen years of age ran away from home in order that he might enlist in the Twenty-third United States Infantry Band, with which he served for five years. In that period he saw only border service. At the end of that time he returned home and entered railroading, to which occupation he devoted twenty-seven years of his life, spending much of that time with the Michi- gan Central, while later he was yardmaster with the Pere Marquette at Saginaw. Michigan.
In 1906 Mr. Wald removed to Colorado for the benefit of his health and today he is as robust as ever. The bronchitis from which he had suffered in the east was entirely cured in this climate. With his arrival in Colorado Mr. Wald began rail- roading at La Junta and later he entered into a partnership with J. B. Mosher and purchased eight hundred acres of land in Elbert county near Kutch. The firm is engaged in raising registered Hampshires that command notably large prices. They now have forty-five head of blooded Hampshires upon their place and also fifty head of
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pedigreed shorthorns. The Fort Collins Agricultural College has made a special record of the blue ribbon won by the firm with one of its Hampshires at the county fair held in Kutch in 1917. The firm owns one hog which cost them at the time of the purchase a dollar per pound. Their ranch is known as The Oasis and includes four hundred acres of land under cultivation, with fine fruit trees and shade trees. The barn is one of the largest and best equipped in the county. Not only have they been very successful in stock raising, but have made equal progress in crop production. They have raised eight hundred pounds of beans to the acre, fifty bushels of corn, twenty-seven and twenty-eight bushels of rye-all this in a dry country. They have studied the best methods of tilling the soil and developing the crops and thoroughly understand existing conditions, so that their labors produce the best possible results. Their activities have constituted a standard which others have followed and the members of the firm rank with the most prominent and progressive agriculturists and stock raisers of the state.
Mr. Wald was married in 1887 to Katherine Enright and their children were: Palmer, who has enlisted for service with the colors in France; and Laverne, who is private secretary to the secretary of state of Michigan. Mrs. Wald died in 1898 and on September 16, 1901. Mr. Wald was united in marriage to Margaret Fee French, of Saginaw, Michigan.
Mr. Wald is very prominent in political circles and is a single-tax man. He is perhaps the best posted resident of the county on economic topics of the day. He possesses a fine library and is a student of the best literature, keeping in touch with the trend of thought in past ages as well as with the questions of interest of the present. Mrs. Wald is the secretary of School District No. 6, which includes twenty- one schools, and is a stalwart champion of the cause of public education. In fact she and her husband stand for progress and improvement along all lines which tend to promote the material, intellectual, social and moral progress of community and commonwealth.
UPTON T. SMITH.
Upton T. Smith, at one time treasurer of Douglas county and a well known and honored citizen of Castle Rock, was born in Monroe, Waldo county, Maine, September 22, 1843, a son of Gustavus Watson and Rosilla (Pattee) Smith. The paternal grand- father. Daniel Smith, who it is thought was born in New Hampshire, settled in Waldo county, Maine, about 1800 and there Gustavus W. Smith was born and reared. Later he became a prominent citizen of the town of Monroe, where he served as selectman. His fellow townsmen would have elected him to the legislature but he refused to accept the nomination. When his son, Upton T. Smith, was thirteen years of age the father, having married a second time, removed to another county.
It was then that Upton T. Smith went to make his home with a cousin, with whom he remained for about four years, during which period he attended the country schools and also spent one term as a pupil in the academy at Newburgh, Maine. He afterward occupied the position of messenger for the high sheriff of Penobscot county for a year. In May, 1861, when a youth of but seventeen years, he responded to the first call of the country for troops to serve for three months in the Civil war. He enlisted but the company was not accepted under that call. On the 28th of the same month he enlisted again, becoming a member of Company H, Sixth Maine Infantry, which was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. He participated in the engagements of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Cold Harbor, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Rappahannock Station, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and various skirmishes. He was always at the front on active duty but was never wounded or captured. After three years of faith- ful service he was honorably discharged at Portland, Maine, and returned to Levant, that state, where his father was living.
The sheriff of Bangor, Maine, appointed Mr. Smith to the office of deputy. After three months, feeling the need of a better education, he attended the academy at Searsport and a year later became a student in Eastman's Business College at Pough- keepsie, New York, from which he was graduated in April, 1867. He then taught school for one term at Saddle River, Bergen county, New Jersey, and subsequently went to New York city, where he was employed for a year by the Brooklyn City Railway Company in the capacity of conductor.
It was while there that Mr. Smith met Parker N. Savage, who was the owner of mining properties in Colorado, and Mr. Smith accompanied him to the west, arriving Vol. IV-18
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at Central City on the 1st of March, 1869, having made the journey by stage from Cheyenne. He then engaged in prospecting but was not successful. In September, with a brother, who had recently come from Maine, and with Newton S. Grout, Mr. Smith set out on a surveying expedition. In the fall of 1869 he entered a quarter section of land on section 26, township 8, range 68 west, and there developed and im- proved a farm, to which he afterward added, so that his place comprised five hundred and twenty acres in all.
In 1872 Mr. Smith returned to Maine and in the town of Monroe, on the 8th of November, was married to Miss Sarah E. Grout, who was born in Jackson township, Waldo county, Maine, a daughter of Robert C. and Elizabeth (Stowers) Grout. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Hattie Avis, born upon the home farm November 2, 1873, became the wife of Thomas Hall, who passed away on February 12, 1911. To this union were born seven children as follows: James Ross, Murray Doug- las, George Edwin, John Pringle, Wallace Treat, Elizabeth Isabelle and Guy Monroe. Her second union was with George F. Short, of the Cripple Creek district and to them was born Rose Ella. Edwin W., head of the commercial department of the North Side high school of Denver, the second of the family, was born February 19, 1878, and married Zelma Woods, of Fort Collins. Guy W., born October 7, 1885, was graduated from the State University of Boulder and pursued a post graduate course in the State University of Illinois at Champaign, where he won the Ph. D. degree. He is now a teacher of higher mathematics in the State University of Kentucky at Lexington. Roger Putnam, born October 3, 1887, and a direct descendant of Israel Putnam of Revolutionary war fame, was graduated from the high school of Castle Rock and from the Agricultural College at Fort Collins and is now private clerk and stenographer to the chief of police of Denver. He married Elizabeth Thompson, of Denver.
Mr. Smith cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and has continued a stanch republican to the present time. He was elected treasurer of Douglas county and continued to fill that office for seven years. During his term of office he assisted in organizing and became vice president of the First National Bank of Castle Rock, and soon after retiring as county treasurer helped in founding the Peoples Bank of Castle Rock of which he was chosen president. Owing to the un- faithfulness of a cashier the bank proved only a partial success and after about two years was absorbed by the First National Bank of Douglas county. Although he now lives largely retired, he is still doing some business in the field of real estate and also looking after some property for others. He is a stockholder and one of the directors of a county newspaper called the Record-Journal. In Grand Army circles he has been a very prominent figure. He was a member of Blunt Post, No. 65, G. A. R., of which he was the first commander, occupying that position for two terms. He is now commander of Post No. 65 and is also a member of the Odd Fellows lodge of Castle Rock. While he was in the army he sent ten dollars of his pay home each month to his father and this was returned to him when he resumed his education, being used to meet the expenses of his college course. The thorough educational training which he received constituted the basis of his success in life. His has been a most useful, active and honorable career, winning for him the respect and confidence of all with whom he has been associated. and in public affairs he has been as true and loyal to the welfare of his country as when he followed the nation's starry banner on the battlefields of the south.
FRANK J. SCHMID.
Frank J. Schmid, a farmer of Elbert county, was born in Germany in 1878, a son of John and Annie (Miller) Schmid. He came to this country with his mother when six years of age to join the husband and father, who had crossed the Atlantic two years before. The family home was established in Kansas City and after acquiring a limited education Frank J. Schmid started out in business life by working on the railroad, cleaning engines and assisting in other tasks in the roundhouse. He later became connected with the brick business at several places, working at different times in Trinidad and Pueblo, Colorado. He continued to work on the brick press for four years and in Pueblo was employed by the Standard Brick Company for five years. On the expiration of that period he returned to Trinidad in 1897 and in 1904 came to his present place which is situated on section 6. township 12, range 59, and he also owns a quarter of section 60. He lived in a sod house that is still in existence. He had to encounter many of the hardships which are conditions of pioneer life. When
FRANK J. SCHMID
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he arrived in this section the county was yet in an undeveloped state. On the prairies there were only cattle and sheep; little of the land was cultivated, and many believed that it was not possible to raise crops in the district. His financial resources were limited at the time of his arrival, but he had a team and wagon, harness, a cow and calf and twenty-five dollars in money. During the first year he could only plant a small tract of about twenty acres, but at the present time he has about one hundred and sixty acres under cultivation. At different periods he found it necessary to go out to work in order to earn a little ready money. He has seen the time when he did not have a pair of shoes to wear and when there was no food in the house. One time he traveled twenty-eight miles to a store to see if the people would let him have some provisions for himself and his wife until he was in a position to pay for them. The storekeeper refused him credit. The next day he went about the same distance and received the same answer from another merchant. The third day, however, he was very lucky, for he made a call on two brothers of the name of Keysor, who conducted a little store a few miles away, and they extended to him the credit which he required. As time passed he proved up on his property, was able to meet all of his indebtedness and he increased his original holdings until now four hundred and ten acres are within the boundaries of his farm. In 1912 he built a nice home and he has all modern improvements upon his place. A very substantial measure of success has attended his efforts during the past few years and he is now very profitably carrying on general farming, although he raises cattle to some extent.
In 1903 Mr. Schmid was married to Miss Mary E. Miller, a daughter of Phillip and Annie ( Mills) Miller and a native of Kentucky. They are members of the Metho- dist church and Mr. Schmid gives his political allegiance to the democratic party. He is very much interested in astronomy and is ambitious to be able to give more of his time to the study of that science. While born in Germany, he is thoroughly American in spirit, interest and loyalty and he and his wife have been active sup- porters of the Liberty Loan and all movements that will promote the safety and wel- fare of the American boys at the front. He is a genial gentleman, kindly and courteous in manner, and his sterling worth and ability are recognized by all.
A. J. FYNN, PH. D.
Dr. A. J. Fynn, of Denver, educator, author, lecturer and musical composer, is well known throughout the entire country, particularly by reason of his contribution to the literature concerning the American Indian. Dr. Fynn was born on a farm in Herkimer county, New York, a son of Michael and Mary (Barnes) Fynn. The father was a native of Ireland and came to America in early life, settling in the state of New York, where he was engaged in various lines of business until the Civil war, when he volunteered for service, enlisting in the One Hundred and Twenty-first New York Regiment of Infantry, in July, 1863, and losing his life during the engagement at Yorktown in the following November. His wife was born in Connecticut, and died in Salisbury, New York, in 1908. They had a family of four children, those still living being A. J., Hiram A. and Phebe H., the two brothers being residents of Denver.
Dr. A. J. Fynn began his education in the rural schools of his native county and afterwards attended Fairfield Seminary. He was graduated on the completion of a preparatory course in 1878 and later entered Tufts College of Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1884. In 1887 he won the Master of Arts degree from the same institution, and received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Colorado in 1899. In 1914 Denver Univer- sity conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature.
After winning his Bachelor of Arts degree he resumed his educational work, having formerly taught in the rural schools and the union districts of his native state. FIe also spent one year as instructor in Fairfield Seminary. In 1889 he came to Colorado, and was elected principal of the Central City high school. He was afterward superin- tendent of schools in Alamosa, and later became a member of the faculty of the Uni- versity of Colorado at Boulder, teaching and attending lectures at the same time. On leaving that institution he removed to Denver in 1899 and has since had the super- vision of three different schools of the city. In 1915 he became principal of the Gilpin school, which is regarded as one of the most excellent and thorough of the public educational institutions of the state. In addition to this, for several years he has been connected with the extension work of Denver University as professor of anthropology and literature, and is constantly in demand as a lecturer on these subjects. Another
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branch of his educational work is that of Normal Institute conductor. Dr. Fynn thinks that the aim of modern American education should be, first, to make the child appre- ciate his own country through careful study of its language, literature, history, gov- ernment and social institutions, and, second, to develop the child in the direction of his natural aptitudes so that he may become an efficient citizen.
A lifelong student, Dr. Fynn has constantly extended his researches and investi- gations into various fields, and he is the author and publisher of several works not only of high literary but also of scientific merit. Of his volume entitled "The American Indian as a Product of Environment" the Boston Transcript said: "Perhaps no other book gives in small compass a truer idea of the Indian and his life." The Washington Star stated that "The final chapter, in which is found Dr. Fynn's conclusions as to the facts he has observed and assimilated, is convincing in its breadth of view and calm- ness of judgment." The Review of Reviews said: "While Dr. Fynn's work has especial reference to the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, his chapters contain many sugges- tions which have force as related to the study of other Indian tribes. There is no attempt at technical discussion, but all of Dr. Fynn's comments are of interest to the general reader as well as to the student of anthropology." Equally favorable com- ments were made by the press in all sections of the country.
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