History of Colorado; Volume IV, Part 37

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 836

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ROBERT LEWIS EULER.

Robert Lewis Euler, occupying the position of sheriff of Boulder county and mani- festing the utmost promptness, fearlessness and capability in the discharge of his du- ties, was born in Warsaw, Illinois, in 1868. His father, William D. Euler, was born in Germany in 1829 and came to the United States in 1844. After living for many years in the middle west he removed to Colorado in 1872 and his last days were spent in Boulder, where he departed this life in 1915. He had at that time been a resident of the state for forty-three years, for he came to the west when Colorado was still under territorial rule and when the work of development and progress was yet in its pioneer stages. Through the passing years he bore his part in the task of reclaim- ing a wild region for the purposes of civilization and in advancing the welfare of his community along all lines of progressive citizenship.

His son, Robert Lewis Euler, was a little lad of but four summers when the family came to this state. He was reared in Boulder and pursued his education in its public schools. He turned his attention to the livestock business when about nineteen years of age and has directed his attention in that field of activity to the present time. He has become one of the leading live stock dealers of his section of the state and has conducted his business in a very extensive and progressive way.

On the 20th of February, 1895, in Denver, Mr. Euler was united in marriage to Miss Georgia Lindley Williams, a daughter of the late Lindley Williams. They have become the parents of three sons, namely: Lou W., Robert Rowland and Clinton Olney. The family attend the Congregational church. Mr. Euler has membership with the Masons and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and is loyal to the teachings of these organizations. His military experience covers service as a member of Company H of Boulder, a company of the Colorado National Guard, with which he was identified for three years. He has always voted with the republican party and in 1913 he was chosen to the office of under sheriff of Boulder county and served in that capacity for four years. In 1916 he was elected sheriff and in the following January entered upon the duties of the position for a two years' term. He is making an excellent record in office by reason of his faithfulness and fearlessness, doing everything in his power to curb crime and maintain the highest standards of law and order.

HUGH L. SHELLABARGER.

Hugh L. Shellabarger, mayor of Castle Rock, was born in Littleton, Arapahoe county, Colorado, October 9, 1870, a son of George and Emily (Drummond) Shella- barger, both of whom were natives of Ohio. They became residents of Littleton in 1869, at which time the father homesteaded and turned his attention to ranching.

Reared under the parental roof, Hugh L. Shellabarger completed his public school education by graduation from the high school, after which he spent two years as a

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student in the University of Denver and also pursued a commercial course at Spring- field, Ohio. For ten years he was with the Denver Union Water Company in different capacities and during the latter part of that period acted as foreman of the filter plant. Later he spent four years as representative of the firm of O'Brien & Rhoades, who were contractors and builders of water plants, Mr. Shellabarger acting as superintend- ent of construction on several plants in western Colorado and Arizona. In 1906 he embarked in business on his own account at Littleton, forming a partnership with his brother William for the conduct of a grocery store at that place. In 1914 they came to Castle Rock, where they now conduct the leading grocery house of the city. They carry a large and attractive line of staple and fancy groceries and in fact their store contains everything that the market affords. They have built up a trade of gratifying proportions through honorable and progressive methods, closely studying the wishes of their patrons and putting forth every effort to please. At the same time their prices are reasonable and thus the number of their customers is continually increasing.

In 1897 Mr. Shellabarger was united in marriage to Miss Lula Eagleton, a native of Ohio, and to them have been born two children, Gertrude E. and Ruth E. The former is a high school graduate and is now successfully teaching, while the latter is still a high school student. The family attend the Methodist church and Mr. Shella- barger is a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias. His political allegiance has always been given to the democratic party and he has fre- quently been called upon to serve in positions of public trust, being a member of the town board, also a school trustee and treasurer of the school board, while for three years he was a member of the school board of Littleton. In 1917 he was elected mayor of Castle Rock and made so creditable and satisfactory a record during his first term that his fellow townsmen again called him to the position and he is now serving for the second time. He exercises his official prerogatives in support of all progressive measures and movements, his course justifying his classification with the most valuable officials of the city as well as with its substantial merchants and business men.

J. F. BARNHILL.

J. F. Barnhill, president and general manager of The Colorado Pitchblende Com- pany, occupies a conspicuous position in the mining circles of Colorado, and among the younger men of the state in that industry he stands foremost.

Mr. Barnhill was born February 20, 1885, on a farm near Brashear, Adair county, Missouri, a son of George W. and Cecelia (Howk) Barnhill. The father was born in Louisville, Kentucky, while the mother was a native of Adair county, Missouri.

George W. Barnhill was a well known farmer and stock raiser and his death occurred in 1897, leaving a widow and two sons. The widow remarried and now lives at Kellogg, Idaho. Of the sons J. F. is the elder while the younger, Roy L., is prominently identified with the Acme Manganese Mining Company of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

J. F. Barnhill as a boy attended the public schools in Gibbs, Missouri, later sim- ilar institutions at Farmington and Walla Walla, Washington. His education since the age of sixteen has been largely acquired in the school of experience. He began making his own way at the age of thirteen. However, as circumstances permitted he studied at night and in this way added materially to his previous limited educa- tional training. When he started out to do for himself he was employed at ranching in Washington. He was too ambitious to limit his progress to these lines and seeking something where advancement would be more rapid he went back east, to St. Joe, Missouri, where he became an apprentice in the trade of machinist. Here he found a wider field for his natural mechanical skill which was soon evidenced by his invent- ing the interlocking rail which he patented. He devoted considerable time to this invention, which, as a result of prolonged litigation has failed to-date to bring him as much of a reward as he is entitled to. He was connected with the Wrought Iron Range Company of St. Louis, being employed by that firm at St. Louis, Missouri. In 1909 he came to Denver and for some time was in the employ of the Chicago, Burling- ton and Quincy Railroad, after which he became connected with the mining industry as vice president and managing director of the Golden Age Mining and Reduction Company of Boulder county, as well as in connection with other mining properties. Mr. Barnhill acquired a knowledge of the rich mineral deposits of that section of the state and discovered that the great deposits of fluor spar ore on the Colorado

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Pitchblende Company's property at Jimtown carried extraordinary values in uranium, radium and other rare minerals. The fluor spar underlays approximately two square . miles of territory and extends from the surface down to unknown depths. It is the largest known uranium-radium deposit in the world. Assays of concentrates taken from this property and made by Victor Blanc, one of the leading chemists in the state, show values of $914.16 per ton, not including the fluor spar, which averages about seventy per cent in the crude ore, and when concentrated to an eighty-five per cent product, itself yields about twenty-two dollars per ton gross. It is to the development of this wonderful property that Mr. Barnhill as its president and general manager, is now devoting his energy. A plant of one thousand tons daily capacity is planned, which on the authority of engineers and experts will yield a daily profit that most mining projects would be glad to secure in a month.

Mr. Barnhill's interests include numerous other mining properties among which is the Acme Manganese Mining Company of Hot Springs, Arkansas, of which he is president and general manager. His keen executive ability and great power as an organizer have been valuable factors in his business connections and have brought him into prominence in industrial and financial circles. He is a member of the Colo- rado Manufacturers' Association.

While yet a man of less than middle age he has achieved a success that reflects a whole lot of credit upon him. Thrown on his own resources at an early age his progress has been wholly of his own making and not without the "hard luck" that to one less determined might have proven a stopping point in his career.

SAMUEL GROVER PHILLIPS, M. D.

Dr. Samuel Grover Phillips, a prominent homeopathic physician and surgeon of Denver, whose hospital work and wide general practice have gained for him a place in the front rank of the representatives of the homeopathic school in the city, was born in Hindsville, Arkansas, January 6, 1863. His father, the late Samuel G. Phillips, was a native of Alabama and was of English descent. The family traces its ances- try back to a period antedating the Revolutionary war and settlement was originally made in the New England states. Samuel G. Phillips became a successful planter and through the later years of his life resided in Arkansas. His early life, however, was spent in southern Missouri and Texas and during the Civil war he served with the Confederate army, becoming captain in an Arkansas regiment. He was at the front throughout the entire period of hostilities between the north and the south. He had previously been a large slaveholder and he became a well-to-do planter of Arkansas, where he continued to make his home until his death, which occurred in that state in 1896, when he was seventy years of age. In politics he was a stanch democrat and served as sheriff of Madison county, Arkansas, while for one term he was also

county assessor. Fraternally he was connected with the Masons. He married Elizabeth Johnson, a native of Tennessee, where her family has been represented from pioneer times. They come of English and Scotch ancestry and the family was estab- lished on American soil at an early period in the development of the new world. Mrs. Phillips had a brother, Hon. Robert Johnson, who was a prominent jurist of Madison county, Arkansas. Mrs. Phillips passed away at the age of seventy-two years. She had become the mother of nine children. two sons and seven daughters.

Dr. Phillips of this review was the seventh in order of birth in that family. He was educated in the public schools of Hindsville, Arkansas, and also attended the College View College, near Lincoln, Nebraska. He completed his studies, however, in the Kansas City University of Kansas City, Kansas. For seventeen years previous to 1906, Dr. Samuel G. Phillips had charge of the field work for the Pacific Press Pub- lishing Company of Oakland, California, with branch house at Kansas City. Missouri. He began at the bottom with them and worked his way to the top. He was field manager for the territory extending from Mexico to Canada and from the Mississippi river to the Pacific coast. The company was a distributor and publisher of bibles and other religious works. Dr. Phillips made his headquarters in Arkansas, Missouri and Colorado, and handled millions of dollars for the company. In 1906, however, tiring of the nomadic life and desiring to take up the practice of medicine and sur- gery, he resigned his position. The company endeavored by increased pay and other inducements to persuade him to remain. They offered him the opportunity to go for them to England, to the Pacific islands and also to Australia; but Dr. Phillips adhered to his determination to become a physician and surgeon. He spent three

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years in the Denver Homeopathic College and for one year was a student in the medical department of the Kansas City University. He was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1910 and through the following two years he served as an interne at the Park Avenue Hospital in Denver. He next entered upon the private practice of 'medicine, in which he has since actively continued and his pronounced ability is evidenced in his increasing patronage. He was at one time medical examiner of the German American Life Insurance Company of Denver and was medical examiner of the Modern Brotherhood and the Knights and Ladies of Security. He was also con- nected with the Modern Woodmen of America in a similar capacity and is now medi- cal examiner for the Court of Honor and medical examiner for the American Life Insurance Company. He is a member of the staff of St. Anthony's Hospital of Denver and also of the Park Avenue Hospital Association and its vice president. He is a well known and frequent contributor to medical journals and his writings always elicit interest and attention. He belongs to the American Institute of Homeopathy, to the Colorado State Homeopathic Society and to the Twentieth Century Medical Club of Denver. He is likewise identified with the Denver Homeopathic Society and was at one time vice president of the Colorado State Homeopathic Society. He holds to high professional standards and has kept abreast in all of his professional work and thought with those who are recognized leaders in the practice of homeopathy.

Dr. Phillips has been twice married. In 1884, in Hindsville, Arkansas, he married Anna Fritz, a native of that state and a daughter of Martin and Matilda (Johnston) Fritz, the former now deceased. To Dr. and Mrs. Phillips were born eight children, six sons and two daughters. His second marriage occurring October 2, 1918, when he wedded Mrs. Marian F. Brown, a native of Iowa, and a graduate nurse.

Dr. Phillips maintains an independent course in the exercise of his right of fran- chise yet often supports republican principles, in which he believes. He is a Mason of high rank and member of the Mystic Shrine and he also belongs to the Lions Club and to the Kiwanis Club of Denver. His social quallties render him popular in these organizations, while at the same time his professional skill and conscientious service have gained for him an enviable position as a homeopathic practitioner. Dr. Phillips has pursued postgraduate work in surgery at the Metropolitan and Bellevue Hospitals of New York city. He also spent some time visiting the prominent hospitals at Wash- ington, D. C., his object being to further perfect himself in surgery.

ROBERT G. PAYNE.

The Yale Laundry, of which Robert G. Payne is the founder and of which he is now president and manager, is one of the leading establishments of the kind in the city. It had its start in a very modest and unostentatious way, the work being under- taken by Mr. and Mrs. Payne in small quarters, but through careful attention to busi- ness they have developed a patronage of extensive proportions and thelr trade is now in a well equipped plant.

Mr. Payne was born in Maury county, Tennessee, May 4, 1864, a son of James Madison and Lucy C. (Perry) Payne, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Tennessee. In young manhood the father removed to Tennessee, where he and his wife spent their remaining days, and he became well known as a planter and slave- holder prior to the Civil war. He was born in 1815 and died at the age of eighty-six years, while his wife, who was born in 1822, passed away at the age of seventy-eight. In both the paternal and maternal lines Robert G. Payne comes of families long identified with the south and prominent in connection with many events in both Virginia and Tennessee.

The youngest in a family of eight children, Robert G. Payne attended the schools of Maury county until his seventeenth year, when he left home and made his way to Emporia, Kansas, where he became an employe in a grocery store, continuing in that position for five years. He then severed his connection with the house and removed to Denver in 1889. Here he again secured a clerkship in a grocery store, with which he continued for five years, after which he obtained a position with the Old Home- stead Baking Company and was in that employ for twelve years. On the 20th of June, 1910, he established a small laundry in connection with his wife. It was at first a hand laundry but as the business grew the most modern machinery has been installed and today the Yale Laundry is one of the best equipped of the city. In 1913 the New Method Laundry was consolidated with the Yale and as the result of the amalgamation of these two strong companies the business has increased many fold,

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employing now from seventy-five to eighty people and utilizing nine delivery wagons and trucks. The building occupied is thoroughly modern in every way and the trade now extends to various points outside of Denver. Mr. Payne is the president and manager of the business. The corporation is a close one. Mr. Payne is president of the Denver Laundrymen's Association. He also has membership in the Manufacturers Association.

Mr. Payne has been married twice. He first wedded Miss Anna L. Casey, a native of Tennessee, the wedding being celebrated in 1891. She passed away in Denver in 1904, leaving a son, Harold B. Payne, who was born in Denver in 1898 and is a graduate of the high school. He is now in the national army with the Artillery Corps at Camp Taylor. In 1906 Mr. Payne was married to Minnie E. Ball, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Ball, well known people of Denver, having resided here from the early days. Mr. Payne may truly be called a self-made man and as the architect of his own fortunes he has builded wisely and well.

GEORGE W. HARRIMAN.

Inseparably interwoven with the history of Jefferson county is the name of George W. Harriman because of the active part which he took in the promotion of its interests. He was identified with mining, with hotel keeping, with the agricultural development of his section of the state, and his work was particularly valuable in connection with irrigation interests. While actuated by the laudable ambition of winning success in his business affairs, he at the same time was ever mindful of his duties and obligations as a citizen, contributing in large measure to the upbuild- ing of the district in which he made his home.

A native of Canada, Mr. Harriman was born in Argentine on the 1st of Sep- tember, 1826, his parents being Reuben and Abigail (Davis) Harriman, whose family numbered seven children. The father was a native of Vermont, born January 1, 1799. In his youth he accompanied his father to Canada, where he learned the shoemaker's trade and afterward followed that occupation throughout his entire life. In 1833 he became a resident of Niagara county, New York, where he resided until 1842. He then went to Ohio, whence he afterward removed to Indiana. At a later period he went to Michigan and in 1848 took up his abode in Walworth county, Wisconsin, where he resided until he was called to his final rest on the 12th of April, 1863.

George W. Harriman accompanied his parents on their various removals, thus gaining wide experience which proved of worth to him in his later years. Having reached adult age, he was married November 11, 1851, at Elkhorn, Wisconsin, to Miss Betsy M. Spencer and for six months thereafter conducted a hotel there but at the end of that time turned his attention to farming. In 1858, however, he became pro- prietor of a livery stable at Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and also again conducted a hotel there.

The year 1860 witnessed his arrival in Colorado. Making his way across the . plains with a two-horse team, he reached Boulder on the 28th of June and afterward went to Central City, where he devoted a month to mining and then established a boarding house, which he conducted for a year. In the spring of 1861 he located at Kenosha, Park county, Colorado, where he built a hotel, which he carried on for three and a half years. He was one of the pioneer hotel men of the state and while thus engaged he took part in the Espanosa and Runnell raids. Because of the lawless conditions that existed in the frontier settlement, he decided to dispose of his inter- ests there in October, 1865, and returned to Wisconsin, where he spent the winter. However, the lure of the west was upon him and in the following spring he returned to Colorado and conducted a stage line running between Denver and Buckskin Joe. A year later he removed to Turkey Creek, two miles above Morrison, in Jefferson county, and there built a hotel, which he conducted for three years, and at the same time was engaged in stock raising and teaming. In 1870 he settled on what became known as the Harriman ranch, on Bear creek, between Fort Logan and Morrison, homesteading one hundred and sixty acres of land, to the development and improve- ment of which he at once gave his attention. He studied closely the conditions of the country, its opportunities and possibilities and realized how valuable the district would become if water could be supplied to the arid plains. He became the originator and principal promoter of the extensive irrigation system of Bear Creek valley. He was the prime mover in support of the Arnett ditch, which had been begun two years before. It was Mr. Harriman who worked out the plans for its completion by his

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undaunted energy and saw that the project was carried forward to success. On the completion of the ditch with all of its ramifications Mr. Harriman took over the Arnett interests and it became known as the Harriman ditch. In 1873 he was the builder of a large reservoir, the first in Colorado, and thus he became the father of the great system of storage reservoirs now. so prominent a feature in the develop- ment of the state and the promotion of its agricultural interests. He was largely instrumental in building the Bergen reservoirs and was also one of the heaviest stock- holders in the Soda Lake reservoirs. The worth and value of his labors can scarcely be overestimated. He was indeed an important factor in that work which has made Colorado to bloom and blossom as the rose, reclaiming its arid districts for the pur- poses of civilization, converting wild tracts of land into rich and productive farms that provide the means of livelihood for thousands.

In all public affairs Mr. Harriman was also deeply interested and his fellow townsmen, appreciative of his worth and ability, elected him a member of the board of county commissioners that had charge of the erection of the courthouse at Golden. His fellow townsmen strongly urged him to become a candidate for the state legisla- ture, but his ambition was not in the path of office holding and he declined. While Fort Logan was being builded he was one of the contractors who made brick for the building and he also did much teaming work in connection with the erection of the fort. His business affairs were wisely and carefully directed and as the years passed he kept adding to his holdings until within the boundaries of his ranch were comprised eight hundred and eighty acres. A spirit of warm-hearted hospitality per- vaded the place, its good cheer and hearty welcome being greatly enjoyed by the many friends of the family. In 1897 Mr. Harriman sold his ranch and removed to Fort Logan, where he lived retired until his demise. Mr. Harriman reached the age of almost ninety years, passing away on the 24th of August, 1915, while the wife and mother died on the 2d of May, 1908.

Mr. and Mrs. Harriman became the parents of four children, but only two sur- vive, Clark S., a prominent ranchman of Park county, Colorado, and Hattie M., the latter the widow of W. J. Watson. She was born in Park county, Colorado, and reared and educated in Denver. On August 18, 1886, she married William J. Watson, a native of England, who had come to America, with his parents, when a lad of fifteen years and resided in Kansas until 1882, when he came to Colorado, locating in Jefferson county. Following their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Watson resided in Jef- ferson county until 1887, when they removed to the western slope, where he was numbered among the leading ranchmen and stockraisers, up to the time of his death which occurred October 2, 1896.

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History of Colorado; Volume IV, Part 37

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 836

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 836