USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume IV > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
30
HISTORY OF COLORADO
life and his opinions upon the bench. In this regard he stood far in advance of many of his fellows, so much so that his course at times awakened the opposition of even his associates upon the bench and led to his filing various dissenting opinions. It is said that while the decisions from which he dissented were being written into the recorded law of the state the people were gathered to the support of the standards he had raised. "His clear, authoritative and unanswerable presentation of the primitive principles of American free government was a great rallying cry that brought the invincible hosts of democracy to his aid and swept to oblivion the structure that had been raised against his protest. Within two years from the time when his presence in the supreme court ceased, the right to defend it and the principles he maintained were reestablished and confirmed, even though in some of these cases the majority decision yet stands as the highest judicial authority. A beautiful and well merited tribute was paid to his memory by one who was long associated with him and who said: "From his ancestors of the Ohio valley Robert Steele drew his patriotism, his aptitude for culture and learning and his strong inclination toward those traits of mind and body that are most aptly summarized in the expression, 'an American gentle- man.' Those hereditary dispositions were fixed and strengthened by the associations of his youthful years. His education and his environment in early Denver confirmed his democracy of thought and feeling toward everyone that shared his highly prized right of American citizenship. His work as district attorney inculcated respect for law and order and gave him practical experience in dealing with the demoralizing and dis- integrating forces of modern society. In the county court he profited by the study of human nature and learned to judge motive and impulse as well as the legal issues that were presented to him. In the activities and associations of politics he encountered the complicated problems of matching great principles of human rights and liberties to the trivial, selfish and often sordid conditions of local government. In the supreme court his mental powers, stimulated by responsibility, rose and expanded to the meas- ure of their opportunity and proved equal to the demands that were made upon them. * * * The unfolding of his personality through the years was something more than the shaping of a material being through the incidence of events. It was rather the progressive triumph of a master spirit, embodied in earthly form, rising ever to the level of higher opportunities and using every experience gained and power won as instruments for the achievement of better things. From the central fire of his personal integrity, the genial light and warmth of honesty, kindliness, unselfishness, gentle humor, patience, meekness, temperance, humility, and faith in the eternal righteous- ness of God and man, irradiated his pathway for his own blessing and for the benefit of all with whom he had to do. * * * The broadness of his mental vision and the range of his active interest were befitting to a judge who was called upon to deal with the widest variety of personal and property rights and possessions.
"He loved the free air of God's great outdoors. He loved the trees and the beautiful flowers that cover the ungardened meadows of the remote highlands; he loved the birds that build their nests where none may see or make afraid; he loved the wild, shy beasts that live on the wide upper pastures, that shelter themselves in the groves of aspen and spruce, or that lurk in the willow thickets along the mountain streams. He transferred his kindly thought and care to the animals of the cities. He was instrumental in pro- moting the anti-docking laws and in establishing Denver's traffic squad, when he saw the horses slipping on the icy pavement. He wore but two badges, that of the Loyal Legion, which indicated the honorable service of his father in the Civil war, while the other was that which commissioned him as a humane officer to intervene in the name of the state for the protection of animals abused or neglected. But with all his interest in the world of nature, Robert Steele's chief concern was with the world of man. He shared as best he might the burdens of the common people in the common ways of life, and gave himself freely to service in the place and the manner in which he could do the most good. He loved the children and liked to play with the little ones of his own household. His juvenile field day in the county court showed his fatherly interest was extended to the fatherless. He gave substantial proof of his interest in the Steele Hospital and in beneficent work of that character. He was also much interested in educational matters, but was no respecter of persons along the lines of wealth and station. Men invariably accorded to him the respect he merited but he never claimed their tribute to his mental or moral worth. He was scrupulously honest and honorable in small matters as well as large, according to the faultless guiding of an inner sense. He was temperate, walking always in the light of that reason that despises intemper- ance in thought, in word and in action as a folly even worse than crime. He was pure himself in word and in deed. He was brave under circumstances that would have tried the courage of any man."
31
HISTORY OF COLORADO
Such are the words and phrases, not of empty eulogy or lavish encomium, but of the sober judgment of the men of his own day and of his personal acquaintance, the painstaking portraiture for the benefit of the men of other times and of other states, of one of whom it may be said in sober truth and exactitude:
"None knew him but to love him, None named him but to praise."
To the young men of Colorado, and especially to the young lawyers of the Denver bar, Judge Steele was a model, an example, an inspiration, a friend and helper. He had a high sense of the ethics and the responsibilities of the legal profession, and scrupulously upheld its honor hoth as an attorney and a judge. But he also had a most kindly interest in and regard for the young men around him and he always did whatever he could to help them along the path he had pursued. The beautifully illuminated seal upon the certificate issued upon admission to the bar is a mark of his consideration, for he arranged its colors with his own hand, thinking that "the young men ought to have something better than a plain seal in black and white." His interest in them they returned with something warmer and more personal than the respect due to an older and wiser man, with something more affectionate than the honor paid to the judge who was eminently successful in the profession they had chosen for their own. They loved him because he appealed to the best that was in them, as men and as Americans. He had faith in them, as he had faith in the nation to which he gave the unstinted measure of his service and devotion.
Patriotism and love of humanity were the guiding stars of his career-not rival and inconsistent objects of his regard, but harmonious parts of a resolute purpose. To those high ideals his life was consecrated, not in the formalism of a conscious statement, but rather in the expression of a lifetime of loyalty and truth. As in the county court he had guarded the interests of the widows and orphans, so in the higher tribunal he defended the inheritance of liberty. The citizens of the republic were hls wards; the usurpers of the people's rights were his adversaries; freedom was a sacred trust committed to his keeping; and he recognized no other treason so vile as that of the public official, in legislative, executive or judicial position, who would use the power entrusted to him for the people's welfare to betray their trust.
He held ever a supreme faith in the American republic; a glory in its historic achievements; a pride in its wealth, its resources, its strength, its prosperity, and in all the magnificent accomplishments of its civilization. He felt a steadfast confidence in its future, believing that through all its difficulties and dangers things would come out right in the end, because he believed in the people, in their patriotism and in their love of truth and justice.
Through the distraction and the temptations of an age when the conditions in state and nation seemed to appeal as never before to the selfishness, to the avarice and to the ambition of men's natures, Robert Steele kept faith with the people and with himself. He did his full part to hand on to Americans of the future the full measure of the inheritance of freedom with which he had heen endowed; and he never doubted that there would always be men of his own mould, who would carry forward his work as he had sustained the work of others, and that, amid the struggle for wealth and the strife of selfish ambition, there would always be those who would resolutely pursue the higher way, and who, guided by reason and enlightened by truth, would strive, fearlessly and unfailingly, according to the full measure of their powers and opportunities for liberty and justice and humanity.
JAMES M. MORRIS.
James M. Morris, engaged in the raising of live stock and poultry in Arapahoe county, was born in Canada, October 21, 1857, a, son of Michael and Mary (O'Shea) Morris, the former a native of Ireland, while the latter was born in Canada. The father came to America in the '40s and enlisted for service in the Mexican war In 1844. He remained . with the army for three years or until honorably discharged in San Francisco in 1847, then devoting three years to gold prospecting, along which line he was very successful. At the end of that period he went to Canada, where his death occurred May 16, 1916, at the age of ninety-four years. His wife also passed away in that country. They had a family of eleven children, eight of whom are living.
James M. Morris spent his youthful days in his native country and was a young man of about twenty-one years when in 1878 he came to Denver. The following year he removed to Leadville, where he resided for a short time, and was there engaged in
32
HISTORY OF COLORADO
the live stock business. In 1909 he purchased a ten acre tract of land, whereon he now resides in Arapahoe county, and in addition to giving his attention to the raising of live stock, he is also engaged in the poultry business. Both branches of his activity are proving profitable and his success is well deserved. He is likewise one of the directors of the irrigating ditch and is thus active in promoting general farming interests.
In 1883 Mr. Morris was married to Miss Flora McGillis, a native of Canada and a daughter of Angus and Anna (McDonald) McGillis, the former now deceased, while the latter is still living. To Mr. and Mrs. Morris were born three children, but all have passed away. The parents are members of the Catholic church, and in his political views Mr. Morris is a democrat. He is a self-made man whose prosperity has been gained since coming to Colorado. At one time he was engaged in merchandising in Nebraska for three years, but the greater part of his life since he has attained his majority has been passed in this state and his close application and unfaltering energy have been the salient features in bringing to him the measure of success which is now his.
CHARLES H. REYNOLDS.
Charles H. Reynolds, vice president of the board of water commissioners, is one of Denver's leading citizens, who has taken an important part in the public life of the city, having promoted a number of interesting and far-reaching measures for a greater and more beautiful Denver. He has served in numerous public positions and semi- public offices, and in these connections has wrought much good for his fellow citizens. He was horn in Kendall county, Illinois, August 28, 1848, his parents being Augustus Spencer and Sarah (Beach) Reynolds, both of whom were natives of Saratoga county, New York, whence they removed to Illinois in the early days in the history of that state-in 1844. The father there remained until 1849, when the seemingly fabulous reports of gold discoveries in California induced him to join the gold seekers and by way of the overland route he traveled to Callfornia. He spent a short time in the gold fields of that state but then returned to Illinois and entered the postal service in Chicago, remaining in that connection for thirty-five years. In 1895 he came to Denver, where he passed away fourteen years later, at the age of ninety-one years. His wife preceeded him to the beyond, passing away in Denver, at the age of eighty- two, in 1902.
Charles H. Reynolds was the only child born to this union. He attended school in Chicago for a number of years and after putting aside his textbooks was connected with business interests in that city until coming to Denver in 1873. Here he entered the internal revenue service under Dr. Morrison and continued in the government employ for about two years. Desirous of having a business of his own, he then opened a hardware store which he successfully conducted from 1876 until 1880, in which latter year he organized the Austin-Reynolds Passenger and Baggage Express, remaining at the head of this business from 1881 until 1889 and deriving considerable profit from this enterprise. In 1890 he was elected secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, his qualifications well fitting him for this important position. That Denver has become one of the most popular convention cities and a haven for tourists is largely due to the untiring efforts of Mr. Reynolds. He continued as secretary of the Chamber of Commerce for two years, or until 1891, and his service earned for him the entire approval of all of its members and the commendation of the general public. All recognized his peculiar fitness for his work in this connection and spoke highly of his energy in pursuing a given object. The results of his labors as secretary are still seen and his work is yet bearing fruit. In 1891 Mr. Reynolds retired from the Chamber of Commerce and organized the Western Steam Laundry Company, which is now one of the largest enterprises of its kind in the city and of which he has since been president.
In November. 1871, Mr. Reynolds was united in marriage to Miss Alice Goss, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, a daughter of Joshua and Cynthia Goss. Mrs. Reynolds passed away in 1915. On January 1, 1918, he contracted a second union with Miss Anabel Holland, of San Diego, California, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Holland. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds occupy an enviable position in the social circles of Denver, extending a truly warm-hearted hospitality iu their home at 1600 Pennsylvania street. Their friends in Denver are legion and all of them are equally enthusiastic in praise of their high qualities of heart and mind. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds maintain a summer
CHARLES H. REYNOLDS
Vol. IV-3
34
HISTORY OF COLORADO
home at Buffalo, Colorado, where they spend most of their time during the hot season. Outside of the office of secretary of the old Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Reynolds has held many public and semi-public offices and in all of these has contributed towards the development and beautification of his city. He served as director and treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce and during his term signed all of the bond issues of the organization. For two years he served as president of the Mountain and Plain Festival Association and was also connected with the Convention League, at different times filling the offices of president, treasurer and director. This league he assisted in organizing after having resigned from his position as director and treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the depot commission and was a director during its existence. The work of this commission was of tremendous value and had a far-reaching influence. It brought into harmonious cooperation a combina- tion of interests, that for years had defied all similar efforts and made impossible, the superior depot facilities now enjoyed by the city. He served as a member of the Denver park board and it is largely due to his efforts that Denver today has such beautiful parks, which give it a nation-wide reputation. At present he serves as vice president of the board of water commissioners, having been elected to this position in August, 1918. This) board was only recently organized and has taken over the Denver Union Water Company, whose stockholders received bonds in lieu of their stock certificates. As member of this newly created and very important board Mr. Reynolds is doing very valuable work in the interests of his fellow citizens. His busi- ness and public interests being very important, Mr. Reynolds has found little time for club work, his only connection in this regard being with the Denver Athletic Club, of which he is a life member. In the Masonic order he belongs to Lodge No. 33, A. F. & A. M., and also is a Knight Templar of Denver Commandery, No. 25, and a Shriner. His political affiliations are with the republican party, with non-partisan leanings.
Mr. Reynolds has achieved a success in business life which is truly remarkable, considering that he began with nothing. He has earned the proud American title of self-made man. Moreover, he has not considered his own benefit alone in pursuing his life work but has ever been cognizant of his duties as a citizen and has cooperated in many ways to promote the welfare of his fellows. He has many friends in Denver, which has now been his home for forty-five years, so that he is numbered among the honored pioneers of the city. Those who know him longest speak of him in the highest terms of praise, for they know best his admirable qualities.
WOODFORD A. MATLOCK.
It is impossible to determine what would have been the condition in the west had it not been for the oil discoveries, so important has the development of the oil fields become as a source of prosperity and progress beyond the Mississippi. Opportunities in this direction have called forth the efforts and enterprise of many men who have made for themselves notable places in the business world, men of marked energy, of keen foresight and perseverance. With development projects Woodford A. Matlock has long been connected and he is now fiscal agent for the Kinney Oil & Refining Company, with office in Denver. He was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, September 18, 1870. His father, Woodford A. Matlock, was a native of Kentucky and his grand- father was also born in that state. He, too, bore the name of Woodford A. Matlock, so that the subject of this review is of the third generation to be so called. His father was an active business man but is now deceased. His mother, who bore the maiden name of Amanda Cochran, was a native of Kentucky and is now living in California. At the time of the Civil war Woodford A. Matlock, father of the subject of this review, responded to the call of the country to preserve the Union and joined thẻ Eighth Kentucky Cavalry, with which he did active duty in defense of the stars and stripes.
Woodford A. Matlock, Jr., came to Greeley, Colorado, with his father in 1872, at which time he was but two years of age. The days of his boyhood and youth were there passed and he acquired a public school education in Greeley. He afterward took up the work of telegraphy as an operator, entering upon that field when but fifteen years of age, and for a quarter of a century he followed railroad interests:t Gradually he was advanced in that connection until he became traffic manager of the Cripple Creek Railway. The next change in his business career brought him into close relations with the McNeil-Penrose Company in connection with land development enterprises and afterward he developed the Maxwell land grant in Mexico. He then
1541066
WOODFORD A. MATLOCK
36
HISTORY OF COLORADO
turned his attention to the oil business and is now fiscal agent for the Kinney Oil & Refining Company. Each change that he has made in his business connections has brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities, marking a step forward in his career.
In 1893 Mr. Matlock was united in marriage to Miss Jessica Shadony, of Jennings, Indiana, and they have become the parents of four children. Their eldest son, Paul B., born August 16, 1896, is now a lieutenant in the Twentieth Infantry, United States Army, stationed at the present time at Fort Douglas. Woodford A., bearing the name in the fourth generation, is a student in Princeton University of New Jersey with the class of 1920. Bruce King, fourteen years of age, is a student in the Denver high school. Jessica, a little maiden of nine summers, is also in school.
Mr. Matlock belongs to the Country Club, the Denver Athletic Club, to the Lake- wood Country Club and to the Civic Association. He is much interested in shooting, golf and other sports, to which he turns for recreation when leisure permits. He belongs to the Central Christian church and its teachings have guided him in all of life's relations. As a member of the Civic Association he manifests his deep interest in the welfare and progress of Denver and its upbuilding along those lines which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. What he has accomplished represents the fit utilization of his innate talents and his life record is indicative of the power that may be developed in the individual through the exercise of effort.
ROSE KIDD BEERE, M. D.
Among various professional fields in which western women have rapidly forged their way to the front in the past quarter of a century is that of medicine and in this line of work Dr. Rose Kidd Beere of Denver is among the most able.
She is nationally known through her activities in medical and charitable enter- prises, and through her war service contributions during the Spanish-American con- flict and the recent World war, of the efficient labor that is the result of her fine physical strength and tremendous vitality, reinforced by a vivid personality.
After the battle of Santiago in 1898 Major Kidd, her father, a Civil war veteran, wrote to her, "This is the first war of our country in which our family has no part. I am too old and your boys are too young.
"Do you remember the sealed fruit can we found in the 'spring house,' after the peach canning for the military hospitals in Indianapolis, at the close of the Civil war-containing a few unpeeled peaches, some bits of broken blue dishes, and your little china doll, minus an arm and a leg-your contribution of your treasures to the returning 'Yanks' of that day-labeled 'From Rose to the Soldiers'?"
It was in answer to that communication that Dr. Beere wired: "You take care of my boys and I'll represent our family in this war. I can't raise a regiment, or carry a gun, but I can help nurse the men who do."
Dr. Beere wore a two-star service pin during the World war but neither son represented by those stars did better work for America than their mother during her term as representative of the Colorado Springs Red Cross, in Manila, in 1898-99.
Dr. Beere was born in Wabash, Indiana, a daughter of Meredith Helm and Milli- cent (Fisher) Kidd, both of whom were natives of that state, her father being a prominent member of the Indiana bar.
On the paternal side she is descended from English forebears, Sir Francis Drake and the Corys, the Hampton and Jones families of Virginia, and the DeCamps of New York, originally from Holland. On her mother's side she is descended from the Stearns and Fishers of New England and the Ingersolls and Steelmans of New Jersey, the first Frederick Steelman holding a large grant of land from the king in the sixteen hun- dreds, including Great and Little Egg Harbors, and the country where Atlantic City now stands.
At the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South, Dr. Beere's father, Meredith Kidd, organized the Thirteenth Indiana Battery, of which he was made cap- tain. Subsequently he was transferred to the Eleventh Indiana Cavalry, with the rank of major. The close of the war found him a lieutenant-colonel of infantry of an Indiana regiment.
After the war he was commissioned a major of the Tenth United States Cavalry. Owing to frequent troubles with the Indians, the cavalry was kept on the frontier in those days. Major Kidd was commanding officer at the time Fort Larned, Kansas, was built and later was stationed at Fort Sill, then Indian Territory, now Oklahoma,
37
HISTORY OF COLORADO
and built Camp Supply. His name became linked with the development of the west as that of a brave and fearless officer and an honored and respected man.
In the early '70s he resigned from the army and returned to Wabash, Indiana, where he resumed the practice of law, in which he continued until his death in 1908.
The mother of Dr. Beere, Millicent Fisher, was a daughter of the Hon. Stearns Fisher, who was one of three men to pledge their private fortune to equip the first regiment that went from Indiana to the Civil war. He was a close friend and asso- ciate of Governor Morton, the great war governor of that state. Mrs. Millicent Fisher Kidd died at the family home in Wabash, Indiana, in 1881, after twenty-four years of happy married life. She was a woman of broad sympathies and beautiful character.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.