USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 48
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S. W. JOHNSON .- Born November 25th, 1852, in Perry county, Ohio; educated at Sterling, White- side county, Illinois; married Maud M. Cochrane, February 16th, 1898; three children, Wesley, Lovina and Ephriam; came to Fort Collins, March 1st, 1904 and engaged in farming; stockholder in and director of the Fort Collins National bank and is recognized as a high class citizen.
SYLVANUS OLDFIELD was born December 23rd, 1847, in Richland county, Ohio. Went with his father's family to Jasper county, Iowa, in 1856, where he went to school and worked on a farm. At the age of 16, he enlisted in company K of the 28th Iowa infantry, February 29th, 1864, serving until the end of the Civil war. Was wounded at the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19th, 1864. At the close of the war he located on a homestead in Thayer county, Nebraska, where he lived until he came to Colorado in the fall of 1887. He married Hattie E. Wilson, January 1st, 1873, at Delhi,
Iowa. Came to Larimer county in 1900 and spent two years on a farm near Trilby school house, mov- ing then to Fort Collins, where he still resides. Was one year field superintendent for the Great Western Sugar company, and for the past six years has been in the United States mail service as rural route carrier. He has four surviving children; Mrs. Nellie E. Cline of Adams county, Colorado; Mrs. Daisy E. Pavitt, of Greeley, Colorado; Raymond A. of Covina, California, and Mrs. Bessie Russell of Fort Collins.
WALTER DIXON, born in Brampton, Derby- shire, England, in the year 1839; married in 1865 to Mary Ann Hall. There have been born to them eight children. When the people who formed the Greeley colony, in Weld county, came to the West in 1870, Mr. Dixon joined them and in 1885 he moved with his family to Fort Collins. In Febru- ary, 1887, he settled upon a farm five miles north- west of the latter city where he still resides.
JOHN C. MATTHEWS .- The subject of this sketch died November 9th, 1897, at White's hos- pital in Fort Collins, aged 72 years. Mr. Mat- thews was a native of Missouri, but came to the Caché la Poudre valley in 1866 and located at La- porte, then the county seat of Larimer county. He at once became an important factor in the develop- ment and upbuilding of his chosen home. He taught the first public school at Laporte. While thus employed he was made county jailer and also appointed deputy clerk, discharging the duties of all three positions with the utmost faithfulness and fidelity. In the county clerk's office he brought order out of chaos, opening the first regular set of record books for the county. Later he engaged in the mercantile business at Laporte in partnership with the late A. H. Patterson, the firm subsequently moving its stock of goods to Fort Collins, which had been selected as the county seat. In 1870, Mr. Patterson sold his interest in the store to the late William C. Stover and the firm of Stover & Mat- thews carried on the business together until 1876, when Mr. Matthews disposed of his interest in the firm to Mr. Stover and retired. Until the big brick building at the corner of Jefferson and Linden streets was erected in 1874, Stover & Matthews occupied the old Grout building which stood where Frank P. Stover's drug store now stands. That was the first brick store building erected in Fort Col- lins and it was occupied for thirty-six years for mer- cantile and other purposes and until, in the spring of 1910, it was razed by the Union Pacific rail-
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
road company. The Free Masons met on the second floor of the building for about ten years. Mr. Matthews was twice elected county clerk of Larimer county, and held other offices of trust and responsibility, always giving the utmost satisfac- tion. One of his greatest claims upon the regard of the community and one for which his memory will long be revered, lies, perhaps, in his gift of eighty acres of land to the state for the use of the Agricultural college and which is now embraced in the present college farm. It was through the generosity and public spirit of Mr. Matthews, Ar- thur H. Patterson, Joseph Mason and Henry C. Peterson, each of whom made a free gift to the state of land, that the friends of the college were able to secure the location of that institution in Fort Collins. One of the beautiful residence streets of the county seat was named in honor of Mr. Matthews. He was never married. His burial was according to the rites of the Masonic order of which he had been a member for more than a quarter of a century.
PETER ANDERSON .- Whether as farm hand, when a boy, freighter across the Plains in 1864-5, farmer, stockman, at the head of a big mercantile business, banker, school director, city alderman, or President of the Chamber of Commerce, Peter Anderson was ever the same kindly, urbane, genial and progressive citizen that he is today. His early life was a strenuous one and his success in later years is proof of the metal that is in him. He made good as a chore boy on a Wisconsin farm, as a bull-whacker on the Plains, as a Colorado farmer, as stockman controlling big herds of cattle on a Wyoming range, for the past twenty-two years as head of an important mercantile establishment, as Vice-President of the First National bank, as a city alderman, a member of the board of education and as President of the Chamber of Commerce. He has never lost his grip nor fallen down with anything he has ever undertaken, and is today one of the foremost citizens of the county. He enjoys the confidence and respect of every person in the world that knows him. Having been a resident of the county for forty-five years and known to be an enterprising, energetic, progressive and public spirited man, the number of his friends and ac- quaintances runs up into the thousands. He is a natural born booster and has always stood ready with voice, pen and purse to help advance any pro- ject or enterprise that gave promise of aiding in the growth, development and prosperity of his chosen
home. Indeed, he has been personally identified with many of the public enterprises that have since added to the fame and prosperity of Fort Collins and Larimer county. He has helped to build and maintain churches, encouraged popular education both as a private citizen and school officer, and has done much in the way of developing the resources of and in advancing the material prosperity of the county. He is benevolent and generous and, with kindly advice and open purse, has helped many a poor man to get on his feet and started on the road to independence. His private character is un- impeachable and his domestic life a happy one. In all his intercourse with his fellowmen he is an in- born gentleman. Mr. Anderson was born October 17th, 1845, near Honefos, Norway, and can, there- fore, never be President of the United States, no matter how much the people should want him to be. His father died when he was five years of age, and two years later his widowed mother, with her little flock of five children, the subject of this sketch being next to the youngest, came to the United States and settled in Walworth county, Wisconsin. The family was poor, dreadfully poor, hence Peter, when less than nine years of age, was put out to work as chore boy for a farmer, his meagre earn- ings going into the common fund for the support of his mother and her dependent little ones. From that time until the spring before he was sixteen years old, he worked on a farm summers and went to school winters. In the fall of 1864 he turned his face westward and arrived in Denver in due time. After working at the saddler's trade with William Lindenmeier a few months, he bought four yoke of oxen and a wagon and began freighting across the Plains, making three trips from Denver to the Missouri river during the years 1864 and 1865. In the fall of 1865 he bought George R. McIntosh's squatter's claim of 160 acres of land and improve- ments thereon. This claim is situated east of and adjoining what is now the sugar factory farm, and forms a part of Mr. Anderson's splendid and highly improved 330-acre farm. On the claim was a small log cabin which Mr. Anderson moved into on January 14, 1866, and which was his bachelor home for about ten years. In 1866 he became associated with William Lindenmeier, Sr., in farm- ing and stock business and they continued as part- ners until 1878, when Mr. Lindenmeier retired from the firm. Mr. Anderson then took his two brothers in as partners and they run cattle in Northern Wyoming and Western Nebraska, until 1890, when they disposed of their holdings
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and retired from that line. In the fall of 1887, they turned 5,000 head of cattle on the range and were only able to gather 2,000 head the follow- ing spring, the hard winter of 1887-1888 hav- ing killed off 3,000 head, involving a loss to the firm of $90,000. In September, 1878, Mr. Anderson married Mary Severson of Black Earth, Wiscon- sin. She died in September, 1891, leaving her hus- band with the care of a young daughter, who is now Mrs. Cora Riddell. In October, 1892, he married for his second wife, Mrs. Anna J. Kriplin, of Whitewater, Wis., who was his boyhood's sweet- heart, but who married while he was out west, her husband dying a few years before Mr. Anderson's first wife died. The union has been a happy one and blessed with one living son, Howard, now about 13 years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have a beautiful home at the corner of Howes and Oak streets and are generous and hospitable entertainers. Since 1888 he has been engaged in the mercantile business in this city, in which he has been very suc- cessful. He has served one term as alderman from the 3rd ward, three terms as member of the board of education, several years as director and Vice- President of the First National bank, and one year as President of the Chamber of Commerce.
HERBERT S. PEASE was born July 18th, 1861, at Flint, Michigan ; married Minnie B. Morrish, born September 10th, 1865, at his own birthplace, Janu- ary 10th, 1884; moved in 1885 to Buffalo county, Nebraska, and was engaged in the drug business there until 1899, when he came to Fort .Collins. Mr. and Mrs. Pease have two children, Glenn R., born September 9th, 1889, and Ray H., born Aug- ust 16th, 1894.
BENJAMIN T. WHEDBEE .- Because of length of years and useful life, many years of it spent in the service of the people as a public official, and because of his integrity and rugged honesty, characteristics that marked his every act, public or private, the late Benjamin T. Whedbee was one of the most remarkable of the early pioneers of the Caché la Poudre valley. He was born Nov. 14th, 1812, in Orange county, North Carolina, and died in Fort Collins Oct. 24th, 1910, aged nearly 98 years. He moved to Missouri in 1832 and, after visiting sev- eral portions of that state, settled in Buchanan county. He worked at the carpenter trade, on a farm, and was engaged in the mercantile business a part of the time. He came to Colorado in 1863. and settled in what is now known as Pleasant val- ley, a name he gave it soon after his arrival. He
removed to Fort Collins in April, 1871, and opened and kept the first drug store north of Boulder. He disposed of this store in 1875 and engaged in the general merchandise business, on the corner of Mountain and College avenues, retiring from active business pursuits in 1881. He served the people of his chosen home as a member of the board of town trustees and also as mayor one term with sig-
BENJAMIN T. WHEDBEE
nal fidelity and faithfulness. When Larimer county was organized for judicial purposes, in 1864, Gov- ernor John Evans appointed Mr. Whedbee its first county treasurer, and he was twice thereafter elected to the same office by the people. While in that position he carried the tax roll and the records in his pocket, and when he met a taxpayer on the street he would collect the amount due the county and give receipt. He also carried the county money and when he met a man with a warrant he would pay the amount the county owed. There was no court house at the time and business was done in rather crude fashion. Everybody trusted "Uncle Ben," for he was as honest as the day is long, and everything he did was done carefully and well. Mrs. Whedbee died in 1886, and for a long time
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"Uncle Ben," who had no children, made his home with a relative, the late Mrs. Elizabeth Travis. Upon her death the care of the aged man fell to Mrs. Travis' two daughters, Grace and Marian, who most faithfully and constantly nursed him, at- tending to every want as though they were his own children. Mr. Whedbee erected the first county jail. It was a small, but substantially built, log building, and served a good purpose for several years. He was a member of the Presbyterian church; had been a Master Mason for more than fifty years, and was buried with Masonic honors.
JOHN FRASER was born at Lumphanan, in Aber- deenshire, Scotland, on the 10th day of June, 1871, and came to Fort Collins in May, 1892. Upon his arrival in this country he at once engaged in farm- ing and has continued in that occupation to the present time. On the 20th of September, 1904, he was married to Miss Jeannie Taggart, a native of the same county in Scotland in which Mr. Fraser was born. Since coming to Colorado, Mr. Fraser has shown the same thrift and economy which is noticeable in so many of his countrymen and is rapidly nearing a condition of independence which assures his ease and comfort as age comes upon him.
HENRY C. PETERSON was, perhaps, the first white civilian to locate permanently in Old Camp Collins. If not the first, he was one of the first. He was born April 9, 1836, in Williamsburg, Ohio, where he received his education in the public schools and later learned the trade of a millwright. Endowed with a love for adventure, and a desire to share in the far-famed riches of Colorado gold mines, he journeyed across the Plains with the great rush in 1859 and worked in the mines of Gregory Gulch and freighted until 1864, when he located in Camp Collins. The soldiers had established a military post here that year and he immediately secured employment as a gunsmith, repairing guns for the soldiers. In 1865, he cut the logs for and built the first dwelling house erected in Fort Col- lins. It was built for Mrs. Elizabeth (Aunty) Stone, in which she kept a mess house for the officers of the post. It was also Fort Collins' first hotel and was used for that purpose until 1873. In com- pany with Mrs. Stone, who was a woman of means, he began in 1867 the erection of a flour mill and completed it in 1868. At this time there was only one other mill north of Denver and that was built the same year at Old St. Louis on the Big Thomp- son. Stone & Peterson operated the mill until
1873, when they sold it to Joseph Mason, who in the winter of 1880, sold a half interest in it to Benjamin F. Hottel, and it has since been known as the Lindell Mills. It was destroyed by fire in June, 1886, and immediately rebuilt. Mr. Peter- son married Mary Lyon, April 8th, 1872. Miss Lyon came across the Plains from Pittsburg, Penn-
HENRY C. PETERSON
sylvania, in 1864 with her brothers, William and John, and after spending a few years at Laporte went to Cheyenne to live, returning to Fort Col- lins in 1870. Of her union with Mr. Peterson there are four surviving children, two sons, Lee and Roy, and two daughters, Mrs. J. H. Setzler and Mrs. Ella Grove, both of this city. Lee Peterson is a prominent citizen of Meeker, Colorado, and Roy is a resident of San Francisco, California. In the spring of 1881, Mr. Peterson took up land on the Upper Poudre and lived there with his family until 1885, when they moved to Buford, Rio Blanco county. He died at Meeker, April 10th, 1896. His widow resides with her daughter, Mrs. Setzler, of Fort Collins. He was a public spirited man, a de- voted husband and father and was held in high esteem by all the pioneers of the Cache la Poudre
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valley. He built the first school house in Fort Collins, a frame structure, erected in 1871; burnt the first kiln of brick and built the first brick house here. This house was erected in 1873 and stood on Lincoln avenue, near the Lindell Mills.
S. H. BIRDSALL was born at Venango, Crawford county, Penn., in the year 1836. He entered the Allegheny college at Meadville, Penn., in 1855, and
S. H. BIRDSALL
finished the course of instruction there in the spring of 1860. While still a student at college, Mr. Birdsall commenced to give lessons in music. He took a Normal course in music at Meadville in 1867, and was able thereafter to greatly improve his method of teaching. In August, 1862, he en- tered the Union army as private in Company K, 150th regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served for one year on the private guard of President Lincoln in Washington. In 1863, he raised a company of colored troops and became regimental quartermaster. When mustered out in 1865, at Roanoke Island, he was made agent of the Freed- man's Bureau. His health was beginning to show the effect of exposure and after a year or two spent in trying to recuperate, he went to Titusville, Pa.,
and taught music in the schools of that city. He came west with the Greeley colony in 1870. In the spring of 1871, he moved upon a tract of land near Timnath in Larimer county. Mr. Birdsall was married in 1860 to Amanda D. Knerr of Venango, Pennsylvania. Two daughters were born to this union. The principal work of his life has been to impart instruction to youth. He has had large experience in teaching in the public schools, and has been especially successful in the giving of instruc- tion in music. He has a happy faculty of versifica- tion which he has exhibited in the production of many rousing campaign songs. Mr. Birdsall is now a resident of Kimball county, Nebraska. He has been many years a member of the M. E. church and retains his membership in the Masonic and G. A. R. orders. His present address is Pine Bluffs, Wyoming.
HARRY L. GILPIN-BROWN was born in York- shire, England, on the 18th day of October, 1860. He was educated at Harrow school, and came to Colorado in 1880, first settling near Timnath, in Larimer county. He was the son of George Gilpin-Brown of Sedbury Park, Yorkshire, and re- lated to Gov. Gilpin of Colorado. In 1890, having lived a few years in North Park, he bought a farm near Livermore where he resided until his death in June, 1905. On the 18th of January, 1893, he married Sylvia Swan of Larimer county. While liv- ing on his Livermore farm, he engaged in the cattle business with marked success. His health after coming to America was never good and he was thus precluded from participating in public affairs.
JESSE M. SHERWOOD .- Judge Jesse M. Sher- wood, one of the pioneers of the Cache la Poudre valley, died Nov. 30th, 1879, at the home of his brother, F. W. Sherwood, four and one-half miles southeast of Fort Collins, from Bright's disease of the kidneys. He was about 65 years of age. He was born in Oswego county, New York, and emi- grated to Wisconsin in 1834. Soon after that he located at Manitowoc in that state, where he lived several years, engaged in lumbering in Manitowoc and Calumet counties. In 1854 a township in Calu- met county was named for him. He always took a prominent part in the public affairs of northern Wisconsin, and represented Manitowoc county in the state legislature in the early years of that county, and also held other important positions of public trust. Judge Sherwood left Manitowoc for the West in the spring of 1860 and, crossing the Plains with an ox team in company with his brother, F.
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W. Sherwood, arrived in the Caché la Poudre val- ley in December of that year, both locating on the place where he died. The brothers engaged in farming and stock raising and were very successful. Judge Sherwood was twice elected probate judge of Larimer county and once a member of the Terri- torial council. In 1875-6 he became interested in mines and mining property at Caribou, Boulder county, where he lived until the beginning of his last sickness, when he was brought to his former home by his brother. Judge Sherwood was a man of great courage, fine ability and excellent social qualities, who left the impress of his master mind on the destiny of Larimer county.
JOHN R. ULLERY was born in western Ohio in 1832; moved to Nebraska in 1856, and married Mary Wheeler Feb. 2nd, 1858, at Brownsville, Nebraska; seven children were born to the union, only three of whom are living; came to Colorado in 1862, did carpenter work for several years and then engaged in farming in the Little Thompson valley ; went to Missouri in 1897, remaining until 1908, when he returned to Berthoud; spent a short time at Grand Junction. The names of his children are Mrs. Stella M. Wray of Berthoud, Mrs. Anna L. Shellenberger, Nampa, Idaho, and Forest Ullery, Nampa, Idaho.
GEORGE R. STRAUSS .- Sketches of the lives of men identified with the earliest history of the set . tlement of a community and whose brain and brawn contributed to the development of the resource of a country, converting it from a wilderness into a populous, prosperous and highly civilized region, are always interesting and instructive. Such men mark the beginning of the history of communities and commonwealths. To such men as George Robert Strauss, a pioneer of pioneers, who, realizing the possibilities of the Caché la Poudre valley, set about establishing a home and doing his part toward re- deeming a wild, unfrequented region, the present inhabitants of Larimer county owe an everlasting debt of gratitude. It can almost be said of a truth that the history of the white settlement of the county began with the advent in its borders of Mr. Strauss on May 15th, 1860. There was, to be sure, a small settlement at Laporte composed mainly of trappers, fur traders and adventurers, who were of a migratory character, here today and there tomor- row, but permanent settlers were few and far be- tween when Mr. Strauss located here. George Rob- ert Strauss was born Nov. 20, 1831, in Columbia, South Carolina. At the age of fifteen he left his
native state and went to Kentucky, where he spent seven years of his life, going thence to Indiana. A little later we find him moving westward to Mis- souri, where he remained three years. He was in Kansas during the exciting times of the border ruf- fian war. In 1858, he entered government employ and started from Fort Leavenworth with an ox
GEORGE R. STRAUSS
train loaded with supplies for General Albert Sid- ney Johnston's soldiers, then located at Camp Floyd, near Salt Lake, Utah. Shortly after arriving at his destination, in the summer of 1858, Mr. Strauss purchased a team of horses and wagon and, with three or four companions, started for California. He had not proceeded far on the journey ere he was taken sick with pneumonia. While wrestling with the disease a party of Mormons passed by and, espying his team and outfit, promptly appropriated them to their own use, leaving him without means to continue his journey. On recovering from his illness, Mr. Strauss' sole worldly possessions con- sisted of $10.00 in money and the clothes he had on his back. He gave a returning emigrant a dollar to take him back to Provost, Utah, where he spent the winter of 1858-9 and the following summer, do-
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ing such odd jobs as fell to his hands. During the winter of 1859-60 he herded cattle for some drovers from the Indian territory. About the first of April, 1860, accompanied by Robert Lawrence, Mr. Strauss turned his footsteps eastward. He had noted the beauty and character of the Cache la Poudre valley on his outward journey in 1858, and he decided to come back here and set his stakes for a home. The travelers had one pony and on his back were packed bedding, extra clothing, cooking utensils and provisions. The entire journey from Camp Floyd to the Cache la Poudre valley was made on foot, and they were six weeks on the road. The weary, foot-sore travelers reached a point on the bank of the river about a mile east of Fort Col- lins on the evening of the 15th of May, 1860, and spent the night there. They were without a cent of money, but as game was plentiful there was no danger of starving. The next day they began pros- pecting their surroundings and looking for some- thing to do. Aside from a collection of log cabins at Laporte, only a few of which were occupied, there were but four human habitations on the river from the canon to the point where the stream emp- ties into the Platte. One of these stood on the farm now owned by M. L. Landes near Laporte. Todd Randall's cabin on what is now the Slockett farm, two and one-half miles southeast of Fort Col- lins, one on what is now the James Cuthbertson farm, four miles below Fort Collins, and Robert Boyd lived in the fourth, located a short distance west of the present city of Greeley. Other than these, there was not another building of any kind in the valley. The first summer after coming here Mr. Strauss eked out a bare existence by doing odd jobs here and there as he could get them to do. In the fall of 1860 he joined a band of hunters and spent the following winter killing game in the mountains and marketing it in Denver. The sum- mer of 1861 he started out in business by himself and planted a garden which yielded him good re- turns, his vegetables finding a ready sale to emi- grant trains moving through the country. Thus, from a pioneer settler without a penny, by indus- try, perseverance, and the exercise of prudence and good judgment, he amassed a handsome property. Whenever he had a few dollars to spare he invested them in cattle and these grew into large herds. The homestead he located on in 1860 is situated on the bottom lands about a mile up the river from Timnath, and here he lived a single man for forty- four years, dying from exposure during the flood of May 20th, 1904. The circumstances surrounding
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