USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume IV > Part 9
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On the 8th of March, 1892, Mr. Gumaer was united in marriage to Miss Anna Cold- water, of Lyons, Kansas, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Coldwater, who were natives of Illinois. Mrs. Gumaer has become the mother of two children: Frank, who was born in Newton, Kansas, March 10, 1893, and is a graduate of the Denver high school; and Esther, who was born in Newton, May 23, 1896, and is also a graduate of the high school of Denver and a graduate in music of the Denver Conservatory. She is well known and popular in musical circles of the city.
Mr. Gumaer holds membership with the United Commercial Travelers. Politically he maintains an independent course, not caring to ally himself with any party but pre- ferring to cast his ballot according to the dictates of his judgment. He is a self-made man who has reached a point of prosperity, his advancement being due entirely to his capability and earnest effort. His close application, the integrity of his course, his progressive spirit and his indefatigable energy have been the salient features in bringing him to the creditable and responsible position which he now fills. The fine home which he occupies is an indication of his success and of his well directed energy and thrift. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the City Park Congregational church, of which he is an officer and trustee.
JOHN B. MAYERS.
John B. Mayers, who for a quarter of a century has been engaged in the ice, business in Littleton and who has served as mayor of his city, was born in Wurtem- berg, Germany, December 29. 1843, a son of Kaspar and Rosina Mayers. He was brought to the United States by his parents when twelve years of age, arriving on the 1st of September, 1856. He attended school in his native land until ten years of age and as he is a well read man, well informed on many subjects, his higher educa- tion must be ascribed entirely to his own efforts. Of a studious mind, he has an insatiable appetite for good literature and has especially delved into history, both religious and secular. Continuing along this line, he later in life studied Buckle's "History of Civilization in England," deriving keen satisfaction from this critically authentic work. At the age of fourteen he made his debut in the world of hard knocks and disillusions-willing to work and ambitious to conquer-but without a cent. He has made of life a success and is therefore entitled to the proudest title bestowed in America-that of a self-made man. When this country was thrown into that bitter struggle, arising out of the conditions of the south, clashing with the principles of the north, Mr. Mayers gave his services to his newly adopted country and continued throughout the Civil war, his record being more extensively given below.
When twenty years of age he began learning the butchering business, at which he continued for many years. On the 16th of February, 1876, he arrived in Denver and again became identified with the butchering business, forming a partnership with
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Henry Weinrich, their location being at Arapahoe and Eighteenth streets. There he continued for four months and fourteen days. He then walked to Littleton, where he arrived June 2, 1876, with forty dollars of borrowed money. Throughout the inter- vening period he has largely made Littleton his home, being absent for only a brief time during all the intervening years. He first engaged in the butchering business and in the conduct of a hotel for two years, cooking for the men who were engaged on railroad construction. On the 1st of July, 1878, he went to Leadville, where he engaged in prospecting but was not fortunate in striking gold. He then turned his attention to contracting and made some money in that way, but after four years he left Leadville and again came to Littleton. For ten years he was engaged in the artesian well business and made some money in that connection. His next venture was in the ice trade and for a quarter of a century he has been an ice merchant of Littleton, a fact that indicates his success. He has built up a big business and for many years has enjoyed an extensive and gratifying patronage.
Mr. Mayers was first married in Dayton, Ohio, on the 27th of May, 1866, to Miss Barbara Waters, who passed away in 1912. The children of that marriage are: Charles W .; Ella, the wife of George Griffith, living in Idaho; Fannie, the wife of R. W. Cand- ler; and Mary, the wife of S. N. Playford, of Utah. For his second wife Mr. Mayers chose Lunette Dailey Harrigan and they were married in Denver on the 16th of November, 1914.
Mr. Mayers' military record covers service with Company E of the Seventy-First Ohio Infantry, in which he fought for four years and four months during the Civil war. While working as a lineman near Cumberland, Tennessee, he was taken prisoner, but was paroled. On parole he went to Dayton, Ohio, and was exchanged in February, 1863, then rejoining his regiment. He was wounded in the battle of Shiloh and he participated in the battle of Missionary Ridge, went to Nashville, Tennessee, and he was also in the Atlanta campaign and thus loyally defended the Union throughout the entire period of hostilities between the north and the south. Mr. Mayers has always been interested in the welfare and progress of the city in which he has so long made his home and has served as alderman, while for one term he was mayor of Littleton. He has not adhered to any political party but maintains an independent attitude, voting for men and measures that he thinks are most valuable to the country. He is widely known as a progressive business man and his enterprise has brought to him a substantial measure of success.
THOMAS BAYARD BURNITE.
Thomas B. Burnite is the president of the Western Engineering Specialties Com- pany of Denver and as such is at the head of an extensive and prosperous business, with headquarters in the Boston building. Through business and social connections he has become one of the best known citizens of Denver, highly esteemed by all with whom he has been brought in contact. He was born in Felton, Delaware, July 6, 1879, a son of Wilbur H. and Marie Lindale Burnite, the former a native of Maryland, while the latter was born in Delaware. The father was well known in connection with public life in Delaware, where he served for two terms as state treasurer and held other im- portant offices. He was also a member of the state legislature, serving as representa- tive and as state senator one term each. In business life he was a manufacturer of lumber and operator of a sawmill producing ship keels, and he was also owner of large peach orchards. He died October 21, 1918, and is survived by his widow, who resides at Snow Hill, Maryland. Their family numbered six children: Martha; Lindale, a resident of Denver; Clara; Thomas B; James Hyland; and Pauline.
In his boyhood days Thomas B. Burnite attended the country schools of Felton, Delaware, and afterward entered the Williamson Technical and Trade School at Phila- delphia Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1900. After leaving that school he secured a position with the Deane Steam Pump Company of Holyoke, Massa- chusetts, and remained with the firm for a year, when he went with the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company of Franklin, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, as designing engineer for two years. He next entered the Schenectady Locomotive Works as a member of the engineering staff and continued in that position for two years, after which he resigned and accepted a position with Charles C. Moore & Company, of San Francisco, California, on power plant designing, with which he was thus con- nected for two years. In July, 1906, he came to Denver. after the earthquake and fire, and organized The Western Engineering Specialties Company, which under his
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guidance has developed into a prosperous industry. They are general agents for the T. L. Smith concrete mixers, Telsmith gyratory crushers, Byers hoisting engines, Byers ante-cranes, Erie City Iron Works engines, Kimball elevators, Hill pumping machinery, Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company compressors and pneumatic tools, and Parsons trench excavators and back fillers, and Elgin motor driven street sweepers. They take large contracts for mining machinery and equipment. The business was incorporated in 1908 with Mr. Burnite as president and treasurer.
On the 17th of December, 1902, Mr. Burnite was married to Miss Marion Craw- ford of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Captain Robert Crawford, U. S. N., who has passed away. Mr. and Mrs. Burnite have become parents of three children: Thomas Bayard, Jr., born in Denver, January 27, 1907; Jean, in 1913; and Marion, in 1915.
Mr. Burnite is a prominent Mason. He has passed up through both routes and has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and the Knight Templar degree of the York Rite, and is a Shriner. He is also a member of the Denver Athletic Club and the Lakewood Country Club, and he is a member of the Jovian Order, a national electrical engineers' association, in which he has the title of Atlas, and is a member of the Denver Civic and Commercial Association. His religions faith is that of the Presbyterian church. His aid and influence are always on the side of progress and improvement, of truth, reform and advancement. His business enterprise and thorough reliability have constituted the foundation upon which he has builded his success, while the sterling worth of his character has gained for him the high regard of all with whom he has been associated.
GRANT S. PECK, M. D.
Dr. Grant S. Peck of Denver, was born in Swatara, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1864, being the fourth son and the seventh child in a family of eleven children born to the late John F. and Angeline Peck. The family was founded in America by four brothers who came to the new world prior to the Revolutionary war, one of these being the great-grandfather of Dr. Peck. During the Civil war, his father who was also a native of the Keystone state, organized Company C, One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, of which he was chosen captain by his company. He was with that command for three years and his military record was one of distinction and honor. In the spring of 1865 he became a resident of southern Michigan, settling on a farm in Berrien county where he devoted his attention to farming and to the lumber trade. He died at this place in 1909, at the age of eighty years. His wife prior to her marriage bore the name of Angeline Stober. She, too, is a native of Pennsylvania and a representative of one of the old families of that state. Mrs. Peck is still living and is yet enjoying good health, making her home in Buchanan, Michigan, at the age of eighty-seven years.
Dr. Peck acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of Berrien county, Michigan, and afterward attended the State Normal College at Ypsilanti, Michigan, and the Northern Indiana Normal School, from there going to Wheaton College at Wheaton, Illinois, for one year. The succeeding five years he was engaged in teaching in the public schools of Michigan during the winters, providing for summer schooling at the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, excepting one year which was spent pioneering in South Dakota, holding government land. Later, deciding to take up the medical profession, he matriculated in the University of Michigan from which he was graduated in 1890 with the degree of M. D. Following his graduation he settled in New Buffalo, Michigan, where he engaged in general practice for a year. He then returned to his alma mater to become house surgeon and assistant professor of practice and materia medica in the University of Michigan, there remaining until 1892, when he came to Denver and was associated with Dr. Norman G. Burnham, with offices at 708 Fourteenth street. His connection with Dr. Burnham was maintained for seven years; he then moved his offices to 1427 Stout street, there remaining until 1912, when he removed to his present location in the Majestic building, specializing in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat.
He belongs to the American Medical Association, the American Institute of Homeo- pathy, the Colorado State Homeopathic Society, the Colorado State Medical Society and the Twentieth Century Medical Club. He is conscientious in his practice, faithful to the interests of his patients, and his highly developed power ranks him with the
DR. GRANT S. PECK
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leading physicians of Denver and the state. His own labors provided the means of his education and his success is the merited and direct reward of his perseverance and ability.
During the World war he held an appointment from the president as medical examiner and member of Local Exemption Board No. 6, his associates on this board being Mr. W. P. Horan and Mr. W. N. W. Blayney.
He also served for ten years as professor of the eye, ear, nose and throat in the Denver Homeopathic College and was registrar of that college for two years, while for twenty-four years he was eye, ear, nose and throat surgeon for the Denver Orphans' Home and of the People's Tabernacle free clinic for fifteen years. He served on the staff of the County Hospital for a number of years; is examiner for a number of the old line life insurance companies; was at one time president of the State Homeopathic Medical Society, the Denver Homeopathic Club and of the Twentieth Century Medical Society. 1
He has pursued post graduate work at various times, taking several courses of lectures in clinics in the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, in the New York Eye and Ear Hospital and the New York Polyclinic. He was the first vice president of the American Institute of Homeopathy, serving in that office in 1913-14.
On the 6th of October, 1892, Dr. Peck was married in Birmingham, Michigan, to Miss Edla A. Park.
Dr. Peck belongs to Oriental Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Colorado Chapter, No. 29, R. A. M .; Denver Commandery, No. 25, K. T .; and to El Jebel Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is treasurer and one of the directors of the Denver Athletic Club, belongs to the Denver Country Club, the Lakewood Country Club, the Denver Civic and Com- mercial Association and to the Denver Rotary Club.
His associates in every relation entertain for him high respect by reason of his ability, his personal worth and his public-spirited devotion to the welfare of city, com- monwealth and country.
HIRAM G. WOLFF.
The history of any state is but a record of the lives of those men whose activities have had to do with its building up and development. Thus in the history of Colorado there are few men living today who will more fully measure up to that standard of eligibility than Hiram G. Wolff, of Denver. Nearly three score years have passed since Mr. Wolff, then a boy of sixteen, came into the territory of Colorado. Here he resided continually during the territorial days and on into the days of statehood; during this long period his identification with various lines of development has been a substantial contribution to Colorado's progress.
Hiram G. Wolff was born October 23, 1845, at West Liberty, Ohio county, Virginia. His father, John B. Wolff, who was born at Martinsburg, Virginia, July 7, 1816, was the owner and editor of the Wheeling Argus prior to the Civil war; always an aboli- tionist, later a republican. His mother was Caroline J. Hedges, a native of West Liberty, Virginia, one of the F. F. V.'s. The father of John B. Wolff was Joseph Wolff, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican war, and was enlisted in the service of his country in the War of the Rebellion. He lived to be ninety-four years of age. The father of Caroline J. Hedges was Hiram Hedges, who married Miss Hannah Forman and crossed the Allegheny mountains into the upper Ohio valley prior to the Revolution and settled near what is now the city of Wheeling, West Virginia.
John B. Wolff went to Kansas during the border ruffian troubles of 1857, in which he took an active part helping to bring in Kansas as a free state. In August, 1859, he came to Colorado, leaving his family in Kansas, but returned in the fall to join them at Leavenworth. In 1860 he removed to Colorado. In the spring of 1862 the family, consisting of the mother and eight children, Hiram G., the oldest, then sixteen years of age, with two teams of oxen crossed the plains from Leavenworth, Kansas, to join the father on his claim on Clear creek, near Denver, which was afterward known as the Wolff homestead, near Arvada. The family belonged to that class of hardy pioneers known as "Pike's Peakers," who knew no such thing as failure, and while others returned to the "States" discouraged, they remained to help break the way and lay the founda- tlon on which this great commonwealth now stands. With no schools in which to educate their growing children, with the most meager facilities for inter-communication, their auto a lumber wagon, their engine a yoke of cattle, their chauffeur the father or
HIRAM G. WOLFF
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son, their fuel, an ox goad, they put their hands to the plow and never thought of looking backward.
In 1868 the father returned to the east in an attempt to collect from the govern- ment pay for stock stolen by the Indians, in their depredations of 1864, 1865 and 1866. This took him to Washington, where he remained until his death, leaving the care and support of the family to the older boys. For eleven years the older boys worked together to accomplish this end, sent the younger children to school, built a home for the mother and maintained it until her death years later. This home had the dis- tinction of being the first house of any pretension built in what was afterward the town of Highlands.
Of the family of ten, only three remain: Hiram G., who resides in Denver; John, who resides at Boulder, Colorado; and Mrs. Ella Leimer, who lives with her son, Walter A., in Denver. Albert, having recently departed this life, lived at the old home- stead for fifty-six years.
Hiram G. Wolff, the subject of this sketch, attended school in Clear creek valley in a log schoolhouse, which he helped to construct in 1863. This was one of the first schoolhouses erected in the territory of Colorado. It was burned down after a "watch meeting" on the night of December 31, 1864. After a time a new frame district school was built at Arvada and this he attended during the four winter months, and worked on the farm and in the garden eight months of the year until his majority.
In 1862 Mr. Wolff became market gardener and farmer; a pioneer in fruit raising in this part of Colorado. In the fall of 1863 he drove a team from Denver to Des Moines, Iowa, for his first installment of nursery stock, returning to Denver, December 16, 1863. This venture was only partially successful because of floods and ravages of grasshoppers, but perseverance finally brought ample success. The nursery and fruit-raising business was continued for many years and thousands of the fruit and shade trees in and around Denver and throughout this section of the country came from his nursery. The trees around the courthouse at Denver are products of his nursery. He was the first to engage in the ice business in Denver and drove the first ice wagon, at which time one wagon served the whole town.
Mr. Wolff was thoroughly familiar with the Indian troubles from 1864 to 1866, having seen people who were scalped by the Indians. He was personally acquainted with Colonel Chivington, who commanded the Colorado Third Regiment in the memorable Sand Creek fight, which ended the Indian troubles in Colorado. He has seen all the notable floods in Cherry creek since May 19, 1864, and can tell familiar details of each. He has seen Judge Lynch deal with the horse thieves and noted criminals of the early days. Mr. Wolff has met every president since Lincoln; has known every governor of Colorado; and every mayor of Denver since 1860.
Mr. Wolff was one of the first residents of what after became the town of High- lands, building the first house on the hill west of Denver, at a time when there were not enough resident males within the boundary to fill the offices of the newly organized town. He took a most active part in the development of that growing suburb, as well as in the city proper, securing franchises for the first electric street car lines con- structed in Highlands. He organized and was president of the Rocky Mountain Lake Street Car Company, and constructed and operated the line to Rocky Mountain Lake; raised the subsidy which built the West Twenty-ninth avenue street car line, graded the street and had the cars running in thirty days; secured the franchise for the Berkeley motor line, afterward turning it over to the tramway; secured all the electric franchises for the Tramway, for all the lines in what was then the town of Highlands; and secured the electric light franchise for the town of Highlands for a less rate than the city of Denver was at that time paying. He circulated the petition for opening the county road, which afterward became Federal boulevard, the longest and best boulevard in or near Denver; organized the Fourteenth Street Viaduct Association to provide a way over the railroad tracks for residents of the north side; was its presi- dent and after years of persistent effort and continual opposition by the city mayor and council board of public works and the railroad companies succeeded in the comple- tion of the present Fourteenth street viaduct.
Mr. Wolff worked for twenty years for a system of parks and viaducts, with varying success. He caused the old city charter (a franchise granted by the legislature) to be amended by the legislature, permitting the city council to divide the city into park districts, only to have the proprietors of the two daily newspapers personally oppose the plan, to its utter defeat. He was a member of the charter convention which formed the present city charter. His efforts in this convention were devoted to getting such provisions into the charter as would assure a comprehensive park system, realizing the natural advantages to be gained by dividing the city into park districts, and allowing each district to secure its own park system by issue of district bonds. This was bit-
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terly opposed by some who now claim to be the originators of the plan and system. It required two years of persistent effort to get the first district uuit of the system through, namely, the Highland park. This secured for the city more than four hundred acres of lakes and land, for a very nominal cost; next the Washington park system, and the Montclair park and boulevards. About this time the late Mayor Speer seemed to realize the possibilities and took up the civic center and boulevards and worked out a comprehensive park and boulevard system equaled by few cities in the world and one that future generations will refer to with pride. The real fight of this same charter convention was over the provision for viaducts. The railroads opposed this by all the means usually employed but without success. The result was the present Twentieth street and Colfax viaducts.
Mr. Wolff has had more than fifty years of experience in irrigation. He helped to construct the first large ditch in Colorado-the Rocky Mountain ditch, taking water from Clear creek near Golden, using a yoke of cattle and a home-made wooden scraper, in the years 1862, 1863 and 1864. He has been an officer and director in this company fifty years, and is at present the president and manager of the company, which position he has held the past thirty years. This ditch waters some eight hundred gardens west of the city-the most sought after lands in Colorado. He was the president and prin- cipal owner of the Farmers Highline (Arapahoe) ditch, when its decrees were produced, also interested in the Church and other ditch and reservoir enterprises of the state. He caused the district irrigation law known as the "Church law" to be rewritten and placed on the books, the abuse of which has resulted in much turmoil in irrigation enterprises, though the law in itself is a very good one. He organized the Inter Moun- tain Water Company for the purpose of bringing seven hundred cubic second feet of water from Williams river to the Platte river water shed for irrigation purposes. This was opposed by the government and the Union Water Company, the Colorado Central Power Company and others, but the decrees were finally granted and work commenced, but the completion was defeated by the action of the government and collapse of irriga- tion securities. He is and has been a strong advocate of bringing absolutely pure water across the range for Denver's domestic supply and for power purposes for street and city lighting, using Cheesman, Antero and Lost Park reservoirs water for irrigating lands near Denver. Mr. Wolff is said to be one of the best posted men in Colorado on all lines of irrigation matters.
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