History of Colorado; Volume IV, Part 5

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

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It was during the years of her early girlhood at frontier posts that Dr. Beere acquired her love for the independence and freedom of western life. She recalls many interesting incidents of those days; the spring raids of the lordly Cheyennes, the thieving Kiowas and bloodthirsty Comanches, when they came down on the post picket lines or settler wagon trains, painted and be-feathered, their blankets flying, their naked bodies weaving on their ponies, their war whoops shrilly echoing, to stampede horses and secure supplies; the issue days at the posts when the wide circle of squat- ting Arapahoes surrounded the huge piles of flour, sugar, bacon, and herds of ration beef. She rode her pony with the officers and scouts when, buffalo or antelopes sighted, a party would set out for fresh meat. She remembers a headquarters dinner given by her father, to General Hancock and staff, at Fort Larned, before the railroad was built, when the wild turkeys were served with snowbird stuffing and the decorations were deer and antelope heads, with wolf and buffalo robes for souvenirs. She lived in the heart of the excitement following the Beecher's Island fight and the Custer mas- sacre.

All these are childhood memories, but later, when married and living in New Mexico, she was in the path of Geronimo's band, on its career of murder and devastation as it swept through the southwest with General Miles on its trail, and a young second lieu- tenant named Pershing, who was with the cavalry at that time.

Dr. Beere is the eldest of a family of five children: Edmund Stearns; Lelia Christine (Mrs. Thomas A. Noftzger of Wichita, Kansas); Alice Mary, of Los Angeles, California; and Dr. Helen McIlvaine (Mrs. Thomas O., of Huntington, Indiana).

In her girlhood she attended the army post schools, and St. Mary's Academy, of Leavenworth, Kansas, the well known girls' school of that day, later being gradu- ated from the high school of her native city.

At Topeka, Kansas, in May, 1883, she became the wife of Edmund Burke Beere, an attorney of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and a son of the Reverend Robert Beere, a Presbyterian minister of Valparaiso, Indiana.

There were three sons of that marriage, all born in Las Cruces: Robert Morrison, the eldest, a well known newspaper man; Donald Meredith, graduate of West Point Military Academy and regular army man (a lieutenant-colonel of the Three Hundred and Twenty-first Field Artillery, National Army, in France); and Stearns Kidd, formerly in commercial life, a sergeant of the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Infantry in France, during the great war.

Following the death of her husband, Dr. Beere returned to the east, and entered the Woman's Medical College of Northwestern University at Chicago, Illinois, winning her professional degree upon graduation with the class of 1892. She practiced in Durango for three years, coming to Denver in 1895 as superintendent of the State Home for Dependent Children, which position she occupied until she went to Manila in 1898 as a representative of the Colorado Springs Red Cross, the first woman granted permission to go to the islands on a government transport. She sailed from San Fran- cisco in August, accompanied by seven nurses sent by the California and Oregon Red Cross organizations.

This little band of pioneer volunteers served for a year in the hospitals of the Eighth Army Corps, establishing diet kitchens, doing surgical dressings and general nursing. Dr. Beere returned to Denver with the Colorado regiment to which she had endeared herself by her heroic and untiring devotion.

In 1900 Governor Orman appointed her a member of the State Board of Arbi- tration, the only woman who ever served in that capacity. The same year she was appointed assistant county physician, in which position she did excellent work at the County Poor Farm, segregating the tuberculous patients and inaugurating numerous other reforms for the benefit of the inmates. For ten years she was attendant officer and medical inspector of the Denver public schools, establishing while in that position a much needed dental clinic for the school children of the poor.

In 1912 she was appointed superintendent of the County Hospital and assistant

HISTORY OF COLORADO

health commissioner, by Mayor Arnold. On her retirement from this position (being the first woman to have served as such) the staff of one hundred physicians and surgeons passed resolutions to the effect that her administration had been the most efficient, economical and satisfactory that the hospital had ever known. It was due to the social service department, inaugurated at the hospital by Dr. Beere, that the Church Convalescent Home was founded.

After serving one term as head of the hospital, she established a private sanatorium in Denver, for mental and nervous diseases, known as "Rest-A-While."

Dr. Beere is a member of the Medical Society of the City and County of Denver, and also of the Colorado State Medical Society. She is recording secretary of the Colorado Medical Women's War Service League, and chairman of the committee of that organization for hospitals in the home zone. She was instrumental in gathering a ton of children's clothing in December, 1917, half of which was sent through the American Women's Hospitals to the orphans of France, and the remainder to Belgium.

Dr. Beere is a capable, energetic woman, of rare courage and fine intellect, high spirited, independent and companionable. To all her public work she has brought great efficiency through her medical experience and broad social sympathies.

WILLIAM K. BURCHINELL.

For forty-three years William K. Burchinell has been a resident of Colorado and is now filling the position of secretary of the board of capitol managers at Denver. Various chapters in his life record indicate his faithful service in connection with public affairs, not the least important of which covers his record as a soldier of the Civil war, when he valiantly followed the stars and stripes on southern battlefields and aided in defense of the Union. He was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, in October, 1846, and is de- scended from ancestors who came from England to America with Lord Baltimore and settled in Maryland. Representatives of the family participated in the Revolutionary war and marked loyalty to this land has always been one of the salient characteristics of the Burchinells. Thomas Burchinell, the father of William K. Burchinell, was born in Maryland and became a successful architect and builder. His birth occurred at Ches- tertown, Maryland, and his education was acquired in his native state. In 1835 he re- moved to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he resided to the time of his death, which occurred in 1877, when he was sixty-five years of age, for his natal year was 1812. In early manhood he had married Ann Maria Wilson, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, who belonged to one of the old families of that state, of English lineage. She, too, was born in 1812 and died in 1857 at the age of forty-five years.

William K. Burchinell was the fifth in order of hirth in a family of three sons and three daughters. Two of the sons died in Colorado, one in Leadville and the other in Boulder. They were Thomas Wilson and John Emery Burchinell. The former became a resident of Colorado in 1879 and John E. Burchinell established his home in this state in 1893.

William K. Burchinell acquired his early education in the public schools of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and afterward continued his studies in an academy at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He was then apprenticed to learn the trade of engine making in the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but he did not find that pursuit to his liking and after eight months' service there he ran away from home in 1862, when a youth of but sixteen years, and joined the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry for active service in the Civil war. He was first attached to Company L of that regiment and later to Company K and he continued at the front until the close of hostilities. Fol- lowing the battle of Chickamauga he was transferred to the signal corps of the regular army, with which he continued to the end of the war, heing mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee, in July, 1865. He participated in every engagement, from the battle of Stone River in 1862 to the battle of Franklin in front of Nashville in December, 1864. Although often in many hotly contested engagements he was never wounded or taken prisoner. He became one of the organizers of the first Grand Army post in Pennsylvania, which was formed under the name of the Veterans' Union, and later he organized another post, of which he served as adjutant. After the close of the war he was a clerk in the quarter- master's department in the spring of 1866 and later he entered into partnership with his father in the planing mill business at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he continued until the wide-spread financial panic of 1873, when the business was closed out. It was about that time that he was elected a member of the state legislature, in which he served

WILLIAM K. BURCHINELL

HISTORY OF COLORADO

for a term. He was afterward appointed receiver at the land office at Fairplay, Colorado, the appointment coming from President Grant during his second administration. Later he was appointed by President Hayes when the land office was removed to Leadville, Colorado, in 1879, and he continued to act in that capacity until 1883, or for a term of eight years in all. He arrived in Colorado in February, 1875, so that for forty-three years he has continued a resident of this state. From 1883 he has made his home in Denver, taking up his abode in this city in December of that year. Here he engaged in the machinery business until 1891, being president of the Denver Machinery Company, dealers in mining machinery. In the fall of the latter year he was elected sheriff of Arapahoe county and was reelected in 1893, serving until 1896, and upon the death of his successor, who occupied the position for two years, Mr. Burchinell was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Webb. Upon his retirement from the office in the fall of 1898 he became connected with mining interests in Colorado and Mexico. On the 6th of February, 1906, he was appointed to his present office, which position he has since continuously filled, serving for twelve years as secretary of the board of capitol managers. He is most prompt, systematic, efficient and faithful in the discharge of his duties and has thus been retained throughout the entire period in the office.

Mr. Burchinell was married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1872, to Miss Samantha A. Cunningham, a native of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Josiah and Ann (Moore) Cunningham, representatives of an old and prominent family of Huntingdon. Mrs. Burchinell passed away in Denver, July 18, 1907, at the age of fifty-eight years. Two children were born of that marriage. Ann, whose birth occurred in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, January 12, 1874, is now the wife of J. Grattan O'Bryan, a resident of Seattle, Washington. Edna, the younger daughter, died in Philadelphia in 1881.

In politics Mr. Burchinell has always been a stanch republican and in early manhood took quite an active part in political affairs. He is prominently known in Masonic circles, having been made a Mason in Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 300, A. F. & A. M., on the 12th of October, 1868, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He has since taken all the inter- mediate degrees up to and including the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and has ever been a loyal and faithful follower of the craft. Since leaving home to become a soldier of the Civil war he has been dependent upon his own resources and has ever been actuated by a spirit of loyalty and progress in business and official life, just as he was when he followed the nation's starry banner on the battlefields of the south.

JOHN G. KENNEDY.

John G. Kennedy, deceased, was for a considerable period actively associated with farming- interests in Arapahoe county, near Aurora. He was born in Ireland on the 24th of June, 1844, a son of John and Mary (Gleason) Kennedy, both of whom were natives of the Emerald isle. The mother died in her native land, but the father afterward came to America, crossing the Atlantic in 1864, at which time he took up his abode in Han- cock, Michigan. He there resided for five years and in 1869 removed to Colorado, settling in Denver, where his remaining days were passed.

John G. Kennedy spent the period of his minority in the green isle of Erin and was a young man of twenty years when he accompanied his father on the emigration to the new world. He also came to Colorado with him and in Georgetown, this state, was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Curtin, who was born in New York, a daughter of Charles and Katherine (Ryan) Curtin, who were also natives of Ireland. Coming to the new world, they established their home in the Empire state, where they continued to reside until called to their final rest. Their family numbered eleven children.

Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy began their domestic life in George- town, where they lived for seven years and then removed to a ranch in Arapahoe county, upon which Mr. Kennedy continued until he passed away in the year 1902. His business interests were extensive and of a most important character. Adding to his possessions from time to time, he acquired thirty-four hundred acres of land and as the years passed carried on stock raising extensively. He carefully studied the needs of the stock and knew just what breeds of cattle and horses were best adapted to climatic conditions here. He was very thorough in all that he did. painstaking in all of his business affairs and possessed excellent executive ability combined with unfaltering energy and enterprise. These qualities therefore won him substantial success as the years passed.

To Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy were born six children: John W .; Mary F., who is a high school graduate and has been successfully engaged in teaching for thirteen years; Patrick

JOHN G. KENNEDY

HISTORY OF COLORADO

E .; Katherine, deceased; Helen N., who is a high school graduate and is also teaching; and Ruth W., who is a graduate of the Sacred Heart high school. The family are all members of the Catholic church, of which Mr. Kennedy was an adherent. Mrs. Kennedy still owns seventeen hundred acres of the land acquired by her husband and carefully and wisely manages her business interests. Almost a half century has passed since the family home was established in Colorado and throughout the intervening period the name of Kennedy has been a synonym for progressiveness along agricultural and stock raising lines. Mr. Kennedy, passing away in the year 1902, left behind him a large circle of friends who entertained for him warm regard and high esteem because of his well spent life, his intelligently directed activity and his fidelity to every trust reposed in him.

W. E. HARDY.

W. E. Hardy, conducting business under the name of the W. E. Hardy Motor Company at Denver, was born in Pratt county, Kansas, March 4, 1885, a son of Cleo E. and Frances Virginia (Martin) Hardy. The father's birth occurred at Ravenswood, West Virginia, while the mother was a native of Gallipolis, Ohio. They removed to Kansas at an early day and the father became a pioneer cattleman and rancher of that state. After living there for some time he disposed of his interests in Kansas and removed to Converse county, Wyoming, where he has since been engaged in cattle raising and ranching. His wife passed away in Denver in December, 1909. There were five children in their family: William H., who is now engaged in merchandising at Freeman, Missouri; Virgil C., living in Akron, Ohio; Mrs. Theodore Bruning, of Denver; W. E., of this review; and Mrs. H. M. Munn, whose home is in Los Angeles, California.

In early life W. E. Hardy attended the country schools of Kansas and after his textbooks were put aside applied his time to learning the candy maker's trade in Kansas City, Missouri. He continued to follow the trade for a number of years, asso- ciated with various prominent firms, and during that period he saved his earnings, until his capital was sufficient to enable him to engage in business on his own account. On the 3d of August, 1903, he arrived in Denver, where he opened a real estate and loan office, conducting that business successfully for thirteen years, after which he sold out. In 1917 he established what was known as the Moore-Hardy Motor Com- pany, handling the Stephens motor cars and Staude tractor for Ford cars. After a time he purchased the interest of his partner and has since conducted the agency very successfully on his own account under the name of the W. E. Hardy Motor Company and his location is considered to be one of the finest on Broadway.

On the 26th of July, 1911, Mr. Hardy was married to Miss Genevieve M. Johnson, of Denver, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Johnson, well known and prominent pioneer people of Colorado. The father is now deceased, but the mother, Mrs. Augusta Johnson, still lives in Denver. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy have one child, Marjorie, who was born in Denver in February, 1915.

Mr. Hardy maintains an independent course in politics. He is well known in trade circles and belongs to the Auto Trades Association, to the Denver Automobile Association and to the Denver Civic and Commercial Association, all of which have been organized to advance business interests in Denver. He is a man of alert dis- position and energetic spirit, carrying forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes, and his enterprise has placed him in the front rank among the automobile dealers of the city.

ZOPHAR L. HOLDEN.

Zophar L. Holden was born February 14, 1870, on the ranch whereon he now resides in the beautiful Bijou basin in the northern central part of El Paso county. He is a son of D. M. and Isabelle (Hayden) Holden, both of whom were born in the state of New York. They came to Colorado in the '60s, making the overland trip to the Bijou basin from the Empire state. The father homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land and preempted an equal amount and continued purchasing prop- erty from time to time until his landed possessions were very extensive. In 1888 he retired from active business life and removed to Colorado Springs. His family num- bered six children, of whom L. W., the eldest, resides upon a ranch seven miles south-

HISTORY OF COLORADO

east of Bijou Basin. Zophar L. is the next of the family and resides on the home ranch which he purchased from his father. Edna, who was the wife of Robert McCoy, of Colorado Springs, passed away in November, 1918. Olive is a trained nurse now living in Arizona. Erma is the wife of Harry McIntire, a resident of Arizona. J. D. is on a ranch near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Reared to the occupation of farming, Zophar L. Holden has always continued busi- ness along that line and is today one of the most prominent and prosperous agricul- turists of this section of the state, his landed possessions embracing thirty-three hundred acres. He is a leading and well known sheep farmer, feeding about fifteen hundred head of sheep. He has a most attractive and commodious two-story resi- dence upon his farm, together with large and substantial buildings and sheep pens. The buildings are all in good repair and well painted and everything about his place is kept in first-class shape. He is a most progressive farmer and stockman and his business ability is manifest in the excellent appearance of his place. He is a stockholder of the Peyton Bank of Peyton. Colorado.

In 1893 Mr. Holden was united in marriage to Miss Violet Baldwin, a daughter of E. E. Baldwin, of Elbert, Colorado. Mr. Holden gives his political allegiance to the democratic party but has never been an aspirant for office, preferring to concentrate his efforts and attention upon his business affairs, which are wisely and carefully directed and bring to him the merited success of earnest and persistent labor. His entire life has been passed upon the ranch which he yet occupies and he is thoroughly familiar with the history of the development and upbuilding of this section of the state and at all times has borne his part in promoting the work of general improve- ment, stanchly supporting all measures which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride.

WILLIAM DAVID HOOVER.

Comparatively few men look far into the future. They are concerned mostly with questions and interests which bear directly upon the present hour, its difficul- ties and its advantages and do not recognize the exigencies and the opportunities which a later hour may bring forth. There are men, however, with keen sagacity and broad vision who look beyond the moment and see in conditions of the present the fore- shadowings of future events. Such a man is William David Hoover, who has been most prominent in connection with the development, in late years, in the growing of sugar beets and in beet sugar manufacture, which has come to be one of the chief industries of the state. His work in this connection has been most vital and he has borne an important part in promoting interests which have become a feature in the development of the Great Western Sugar Company.

Mr. Hoover comes to Colorado from Ohio. He was born in Miamishurg, that state, December 18, 1862, a son of Ahel and Clara Elizabeth Hoover, both of Dutch ancestry, whose respective parents had removed to Ohio from the Dutch settlement of Pennsyl- vania. He was educated in the public schools of Miamisburg, being graduated with honors from the high school there. Both his father and grandfather being engaged in agricultural implement manufacturing, William D. Hoover entered into this line of work after his graduation. It is interesting to note in this connection that the firm was among the earliest manufacturers of binders that used twine in Ohio. Until 1890, Mr. Hoover was interested with his father in the manufacture of harvesting machinery and twine but in that year removed to Akron, Ohio, where he organized the Western Linoleum Company, of which he became vice president and general manager. His arduous duties in this connection, however, undermined his health and in 1897 a change of climate was considered advisable and he came to Colorado. He thoroughly interested himself in the resources and possibilities of this new state and in 1899 he was one of the first men to recognize the vast possibilities of the beet sugar industry in Colorado. On September 11, 1899, his first prospectus for the Loveland factory was issued. The Loveland factory was later built by other interests and is today one of the largest producers of beet sugar in the country. Subsequently he became inter- ested in the preliminary work for beet sugar development at Eaton and Windsor, being president and general manager of such plants for a year or two. Later he was active in the preliminary work in the South Platte valley, which resulted in the con- struction of the new factory at Sterling, but he was later not connected therewith. His undaunted energy and sincere enthusiasm as to the future of this industry con- vinced others and he succeeded in establishing other factories in the South Platte

HISTORY OF COLORADO

district, thus becoming one of the important factors in founding beet sugar manu- facture in this state. These factories are now an integral part of the Great Western Sugar Company, of which Mr. Hoover is manager of public relations. The importance of his position is most poignantly recognizable in these days when the sugar question has become one of vital national significance. After his work in the South Platte valley Mr. Hoover and his associates established the sugar factory at Monte Vista, which has long since been removed to Lovell, Wyoming, and which is today also part of the Great Western Sugar Company's interests.

In 1885 Mr. Hoover was married to Miss Elizabeth Hunt, of Miamisburg, Ohio, and they have two children: Edwin H., who is a gunner in the Thirty-fifth Infantry of the United States army; and Donald H., who at this writing has graduated from the Western Reserve Medical School and has entered the medical division of the United States army as a lieutenant.

In the civic life of the city of Denver, which Mr. Hoover makes his home, he has always been deeply interested and has ever been a leader in movements for the development, advancement and trade expansion of city and state. Fraternally he is a Mason but is not active in the affairs of the order. The family home is located at No. 1119 York street and is one of the handsome residences of that section of Den- ver. There Mr. and Mrs. Hoover entertain their many friends, cheerful hospitality always prevailing at their fireside.

STORRS H. HALL.

Storrs H. Hall is a partner in the firm of Hall Brothers, proprietors of the Western Holstein Farm and also of the Cooperative Milk Company of Denver. In this con- nection he has become known as one of the leading breeders of thoroughbred Hol- steins in Colorado and the west. The story of his life is the story of earnest endeavor and continuous progression to the goal of success. He was born in Cleburne, Texas, September 14, 1878, a son of William S. and Mary (Wheeler) Hall, both of whom were natives of Massachusetts and in early life went to Wisconsin, crossing the country with ox team. In 1874 they removed to Texas, where the father devoted ten years to the cattle business, and in 1884 he became a resident of Denver, Colorado, where he established a livery stable, which he conducted for two years. He next concentrated his energies upon farming in Arapahoe and Jefferson counties and at the present time he is engaged in mining in Clear Creek county, Colorado. He has reached the age of seventy-two years, while his wife is living at the age of sixty-eight. They had a family of six children, of whom four are living, Carlos, Storrs H., Mrs. Kittie McIntosh and Ira.

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History of Colorado; Volume IV, Part 5

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