USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 52
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located at Laporte, Larimer county. After that and up to the time of his death in 1896, a period of more than 35 years, many of them years of toil, hardships, privation and danger, he was one of the foremost citizens and rugged stand-bys of Larimer county and of Colorado, ever loyal to what he be- lieved to be their best interests, ever mindful of what constitutes good citizenship and ever true to
ALFRED F. HOWES
the instincts of a gentleman. He was one of the leaders in the movement to organize the Colona town company at Laporte and was the first presi- dent and chief executive of the company. In 1864, he located upon the Howes homestead, a body of land embracing 640 acres situated along the north bank of the Cache la Poudre river, one mile east of the present city of Fort Collins. To this was added in after years by purchase 160 acres, making a valuable estate of 800 acres of the finest land in the valley. During the succeeding score of years he was fairly prosperous in his undertakings, making money by putting up hay and selling it to the gov- ernment and to miners at Black Hawk and Central City. In the early years of his operations in this line he used to get as high as $150 per ton for hay
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WALTER DEWITT TAFT
LOUIS B, TAFT
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
delivered at Fort Laramie, and kept a string of teams on the road in the fall and winter hauling the product of his ranch to market. In the early history of the county, Mr. Howes took a leading part in promoting the growth and development of his chosen home, and every public enterprise started with that end in view received his cordial co-opera- tion. The Pioneer irrigating ditch, which was among the first built in the county, was taken out by himself and Andrew Ames. The greater part of what was once Judge Howes' splendid farm is now owned by the Water Supply & Storage company. In 1868, Mr. Howes was elected county judge, and re-elected in 1872, serving the county in that capacity with signal ability and fairness two full terms. In 1874 he was named a member of the State Board of Agriculture in the act of the Terri- torial legislature establishing the Agricultural col- lege at Fort Collins, and always took a lively in- terest in the subsequent growth and success of that institution, aiding it with voice and pen as occasion demanded. He was appointed by Governor Gilpin in 1861, a member of the first board of county com- missioners of Larimer county, but failed to qualify. In 1890, Judge Howes was the candidate of the Republican party for State senator from the Second senatorial district, which then embraced the coun- ties of Larimer, Routt and Grand, and was elected over Judge Edwin A. Ballard, his Democratic op- ponent. He faithfully served the people of the dis- trict with ability and distinction to the end of his term, in January, 1895, when failing health ad- monished him to give up politics and retire to pri- vate life. In about a year from the time he retired from office, death removed him to another sphere in the 79th year of his age. The bearers at the funeral, held on Saturday, January 18th, were James B. Arthur, John G. Coy, Abner Loomis, C. W. Ramer, P. Anderson and N. C. Alford, all of whom had known and admired the deceased as neighbor and citizen for more than thirty years.
WALTER DEW. TAFT .- The farm home of the Taft brothers, Walter DeW. and Louis B., sit- uated about two miles northwest of Fort Collins, has long been noted for its good cheer and the gen- uine western hospitality of its inmates. Mrs. Wal- ter Taft, an educated, intelligent and cultured woman, is the presiding genius of the household, and ably assisted, as she has been by her husband and his bachelor brother, Louis, she has made the
home an ideal one, where good cheer, comfort and contentment hold complete sway. The latch-string to their door is always on the outside, and acquaint- ance and stranger is sure to meet with generous welcome. The Taft brothers were reared among the granite hills of New Hampshire and Vermont, and came from good old Colonial stock. They are distantly related to President William H. Taft, and are among the very best people in the Caché la Pou- dre valley, which has been their home for more than forty years. Walter DeW. Taft was born May 20th, 1832, near Oneida Lake, in the state of New York, where his parents, both natives of New Hampshire, spent about a year, returning to their former home in New England shortly after the birth of their third child, the subject of this sketch. Mr. Taft was educated at Swanzey, New Hampshire, and there learned the trade of making wooden bowls. His parents moved to Ludlow, Ver- mont, in 1850, and here the father and son en- gaged quite extensively in the manufacture of wooden bowls until 1860, when Walter migrated to Rock Island, Illinois, where a sister, Mrs. H. W. Chamberlin, and family resided. The following year Mr. Taft and Mr. Chamberlin and family came to Denver, crossing the Plains with an ox team, and for two years he followed freighting from the Missouri river to Colorado, making two trips back and forth each year. He and his brother, Louis, went to Virginia City, Montana, in 1863, returning to Laporte in 1864. While in Montana he paid $40.00 for a hundred pounds of flour and $2.50 per pound for butter. In the spring of 1865 the brothers went to Iowa and bought a bunch of cattle, which they drove across the Plains and pas- tured two years in the Boxelder valley and then sold them. In 1868 he went to Georgetown and worked in the Comet mine a couple of years. He was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Frazer Sept. 1st, 1870, and in 1872 returned to the Caché la Poudre valley, which has since been his home. For four years he lived on what is now the Falloon place, in Pleasant Valley, and while there sawed rails enough in Obenchain's mill for four miles of fence. He moved onto the farm he and his brother Louis now own and occupy in 1876. Mr. Taft was president of the Farmers' Protective association from 1888 to 1893, and has served one term as president of the Fort Collins Pioneer association. From the time Mr. Taft left Illinois, in 1861, until he settled down on a farm in Larimer county, he
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
had driven an ox team more than 10,000 miles, which shows that he is possessed of a world of patience.
LOUIS B. TAFT .- The story of Louis B. Taft's life reads very much like that of his brother Walter, the date and place of birth alone excepted. Since Louis came to man's estate he has been associated with Walter in his journeyings and business under- takings, and is so associated today. He was born May 27th, 1839, in Swanzey, New Hampshire, where, and in the common schools of Vermont, he received his education. He came to Colorado in 1864 and clerked for a time for Mason & Cham- berlin, who conducted a sutler's store for the troops in a log building which stood directly across Linden street from Stover's drug store. He went to Montana that fall to join his brother, Walter, and came back to Laporte with him in 1864, going to Iowa the next year after cattle. In 1867, after sell- ing the cattle, he went to Georgetown and discov- ered the Comet mine, a very rich silver proposition, which he and his brother worked for two or three years. He then went into Stewart's reduction works and took up the study of metallurgy and soon became a proficient assayer, and was given charge of that department of the work. He remained there until 1872, when he came back to Laporte with his brother, Walter, and has since been a member of the firm of Taft Brothers. Besides the farm they live on they own a hay farm of 160 acres on the river bottom, about five miles east of Fort Collins, from which they take a great many tons of choice native hay every year, which brings them a large yearly in- come. They have accummulated a goodly share of this world's goods and are enjoying themselves in their old age as rational, intelligent human beings should always be able to do, and they possess the confidence and respect of all who know them, to a remarkable degree. In 1884 Mr. Taft was the democratic candidate for county commissioner from the First district, receiving 772 votes, as against 960 cast for Wm. P. Bosworth, his republican oppo- nent. That year Grover Cleveland, the successful democratic candidate for President, received 645 votes in this county, so Mr. Taft, though defeated, ran 127 votes ahead of his ticket.
MATHEW S. TAYLOR .- Mathew S. Taylor came to Larimer county in the early 60's when still quite a young man. He was a native of Illinois, and a brother of the late William S. Taylor, who kept the stage station at Virginia Dale, 1863 to 1865, and the Laporte station from 1866 to 1868, and was a
well-known and popular young man, an attorney by profession. In 1869 he was the democratic candi- date for member of the Territorial legislature and was elected over the late Judge John E. Washburn, his republican competitor. He served through the Eighth session of the legislature with marked ability and was considered one of the brightest members of that body. He was an indefatigable worker and dur- ing the term succeeded in securing the passage of sev- eral important acts affecting the interests of Larimer county, among them being the bill to locate the State Agricultural college at Fort Collins. When the Leadville excitement broke out in 1878, Mr. Taylor went there and opened an office for the prac- tice of his profession and soon gained an extensive and lucrative practice. He died in Leadville, April 7th, 1884, aged about 40 years.
JUDGE JOHN E. WASHBURN was born Aug. 7th, 1830, at Litchfield, Herkimer county, New York. On attaining his majority he went to Chicago, where, in 1853, he was married. He came to Colo- rado in 1860 and to the Big Thompson valley in 1863, where he lived until death supervened on Aug. 15th, 1886. He was one of the first to suc- cessfully engage in farming, dairying and fruit- growing in Larimer county, and assisted in various ways in developing the resources of the county. He held during his lifetime in this county various posi- tions of public trust, including one term as county judge, and was the candidate of the greenback party for governor of Colorado in 1884. Judge Wash- burn was a man of marked ability, and commanded the respect of those who disagreed with him on all subjects. His friendships were lasting. As a pio- neer of the Big Thompson valley, he was always an energetic worker for the best interests of the com- munity, and all projects calculated to advance the material, social and moral upbuilding of his chosen home received his hearty and active support. When the Grange movement started in Colorado, he was one of the first to enlist in it and he gave the cause earnest and efficient aid and encouragement. Later he was president of the Loveland Farmers' institute and also secretary of the Northern Colorado Horti- cultural society. He left a wife, now a resident of San Diego, California, and one daughter, Mrs. Winona W. Taylor of Fort Collins.
MRS. LUCY SCHILLING is now a resident of Loveland, at 1109 Lincoln avenue. She recently came to that city from Nebraska. She married John J. Schilling, Jan. 15th, 1877, in Lake county,
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
Indiana, moving to Nebraska, where her husband died at Grand Island, in 1892. She has two sons living, Arthur E., a prosperous farmer at Scotia, Neb., and Earl S., employed in a business house in Loveland. The hand of sorrow has borne heavily upon this estimable lady, for, besides her husband, she has lost two sons and a daughter, Albert T., and Mrs. Lillie F. Locker, who died at Scotia, Neb., and Fred H., who passed away at Loveland.
HON. JARED LEMAR BRUSH was born in Clermont county, Ohio, on the 6th day of July, 1835, and was educated at Felicity, Ohio. Mr. Brush be- longs to the class of empire builders to whom the West owes a large debt of gratitude. He came to Colorado in the year 1859 and for more than half a century has been identified with nearly every enterprise that has contributed to the development of the agricultural resources of the state. He set- tled in Russell Gulch and afterwards, in 1860, came to Weld county, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. He married Ada Maltby in 1866. Two children, both still living, were born: Walter L. and Edna M. Mrs. Brush died in 1874, and in 1879 he married Mrs. Doolittle. Five children, all still living, were born: Ruth G., Ada M., Mary J., Jared L., and Sterling R. Death claimed the second wife in 1903.
Mr. Brush has always taken a keen interest in political questions, local and national, and there have been few councils of the political party with which he is identified in which his voice has not been heard, and his influence felt. In 1870, he was elected sheriff of Weld county; county commis- sioner in 1874; a member of the state legislature in 1876. He has been twice elected Lieutenant Governor of the state, and has been three times sent as delegate to the National Republican con- vention, and has served for a good many years as a member of the State Board of Agriculture. He joined the Union colony in 1870 and has lived in Greeley ever since; has been president of the Greeley National bank for twenty-one years. Mr. Brush will perhaps be longest remembered for the interest he has taken in the development of irriga- tion in Colorado. His assistance did much to per- fect the organization of two large irrigation sys- tems-the Upper and Lower Platte and the Beaver, and the construction of the ditches connected there- with. The development of the country around Brush, Colorado, has been accomplished chiefly as the result of his efforts. He has also at all times been deeply interested in educational matters and
it was in no small degree due to his influence and energy that the State Normal school was located at Greeley. Under the first military organization of the state, Mr. Brush was made a field brigadier general. His clear sighted conception of the con- sequences which must follow from given causes has given him the truly prophetic vision, and acting upon the conclusions thus reached has enabled him
HON. JARED LEMAR BRUSH
to foresee the needs of the people and to grasp in advance the unguessed possibilities of the arid west. While securing to himself a competency of worldly goods, he has never acquired wealth by measures which left the field less productive for others. His influence has always been constructive, his conduct unselfish. He has had at different times large hold- ings of agricultural land in Weld county and has been able in his own experience to work out many of the problems which confronted the settler from the East, in the presence of an untried climate, a strange character of soil and the entirely unlearned methods of irrigation. His efforts towards the im- provement of the stock fed upon the farms and the horses used by the farmers have done much to awaken an interest in these subjects, and his con-
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
nection with the Agricultural college has put it in his power to further the efforts of the general gov- ernment on these lines. For many years, the figure of Mr. Brush will stand out large in the history of Northern Colorado.
HORACE W. EMERSON was born on June 7th, 1838, at New Hampton in the State of New Hamp- shire. His boyhood was spent upon a farm and
HORACE W. EMERSON AND DAUGHTER. DOROTHY
he was educated in the common schools and at the New Hampshire Institute. On October 22nd, 1862, he was married at his native town to Miss Lizzie Freeman. He came to Colorado in 1866 and first located at Julesburg. From that place he went to Fort McPherson where he worked for a time then, in the fall of 1867, moved to Sherman where he worked at putting up wood for the Union Pacific railroad company until the fall of 1868. In December of this latter year he came to Larimer county. During the winter of 1868-9 he was en- gaged in getting out railroad ties near Chamber's lake. The ties amounting to two hundred and twenty thousand in number were floated down the Poudre river at time of high water in the spring
and were landed at Greeley. In 1870 Mr. Emer- son went to Fort Lyon and built there two sets of company quarters of stone, and two sets of officers quarters of brick. In 1871 he built himself a home at Greeley where he resided for one year. In the fall of 1871, associated with his brother, Charles, he put in a herd of cattle near Livermore, and in the winter of 1872 worked at getting out ties near Fort Steele and contin- ued to follow this work for seven or eight years, at the end of which period he returned to Lari- mer county and took up a body of land near Liver- more, which is still occupied by himself and his brother Charles. Mr. Emerson's wife died in 1889 and in 1891 he married her sister, Metta Freeman, in Frankfort, Maine. He has one child, a daugh- ter, Dorothy, aged twelve years.
OLIN G. REED, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel O. K. Reed, was born July 9th, 1873, in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at the Colo- rado Agricultural college; married Nellie Morse- man, July 3rd, 1897, and they have five children, all at home, Lloyd M., Emmet G., Sarah J., Blanche J., and Eugene C .; came to Colorado in February, 1881 and spent his boyhood days on his father's farm at Fossil creek on which he is now living and successfully cultivating.
WILLIAM E. MAHOOD, born November 21st, 1866, at Hanover, Illinois, received his education in the public schools of Nebraska; came to Fort Col- lins, December 10th, 1888; farmer and stockman; married Susie Kennedy, February 24th, 1897, at Windsor; no children ; spent first few years in Fort Collins as salesman in a grocery store; guard two years at state penitentiary, Canon City; associated with Bennett Brothers in the ownership and man- agement of a 640 acre farm, in Black Hollow and carried on farming and stock feeding until 1907, when he moved to Fort Collins which is still the family home. Still owns half interest in the farm and looks after its management; elected alderman from the third ward in April, 1909, serving on the council with signal ability and fidelity; is a Master Mason, a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Temp- ler. Mrs. Mahood, born November 18th, 1870, was a daughter of W. W. Kennedy, of Windsor, came to Colorado in 1880.
JOHN LINDLEY SMITH was born near Batavia, Ohio, Aug. 27th, 1838. He came to Fort Collins in 1870; was married here on June 6th, 1886, to Mrs. Rosamond S. Edwards. They have one
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
child, a daughter, Miss Fern. Mr. Smith was a vet- eran of the Civil war, enlisting Sept. 10th, 1861, in Company F, 59th regiment Ohio volunteer in- fantry ; was honorably discharged April 27th, 1862. He has always been an enthusiastic worker in the temperance cause; a faithful, earnest Christian at all times. He organized the first Sunday school in Fort Collins, August, 1870. The school was held in a small frame shanty opposite Aunty Stone's log hotel. When the Good Templars organized here in 1872 Mr. Smith was one of the main workers in the lodge. He was Deputy Grand Chief Templar for twelve years.
CHARLES G. MCWHORTER, born August 3rd, 1862, at Brockport, New York; came to Greeley in May, 1870; moved to Buckhorn valley in 1871, where he has since resided engaged in farming and fruit growing, having had good success in raising peaches ; married Mary L. Sheldon August 9th, 1894, and has three children, Lewis A., Fannie L. and Lesle S. McWhorter; has served Larimer county as deputy assessor several years, giving ex- cellent satisfaction. He is an upright honorable man, a good husband, father and neighbor; has one of the finest and most productive orchards in the county and his fruit always finds a ready market.
J. MONROE WHITEMAN, senior member of the firm of Whiteman & Nelson, proprietors of the Gem grocery, was born Dec. 13th, 1847, in Livingston county, New York, and educated in the public schools of his native county. He came to Colorado in September, 1886, and for a number of years was the popular and efficient clerk at the Tedmon house, a position he resigned to engage in the grocery busi- ness with D. C. Threlkeld, in 1900, which he still follows. Mr. Whiteman married Jennie Budrow in November, 1877, in Livingston, N. Y., and she died in 1891 in Fort Collins. Since then he has lived the life of a single man. In 1903, Mr. Threlkeld sold his interest to Frank M. Nelson. His business life has been a prosperous one and the firm of Whiteman & Nelson has a high rating in the com- mercial reports of the country.
FRANK H. MADDEN was born December 11th, 1873, in Van Buren county, Iowa; his wife, whom he married January 24th, 1894, was born as Anna V. Hoskin, on September 24th, 1871, also in Van Buren county, Iowa; they came to Fort Collins, on March 20th, 1904, where they still reside; for three years after coming here he followed contracting and
building and since then he has been engaged as a dealer in real estate and is himself a land owner.
HON. FRED W. STOVER, son of Hon. William C. Stover, a Larimer county pioneer and a member of the constitutional convention which framed the or- ganic law of Colorado, was born Sept. 25th, 1878, in Fort Collins. He was educated in the public
HON. FRED W. STOVER
schools of his native city, at the University of Den- ver and the Denver Law school; married Lucile Timberlake, Dec. 28th, 1904, of Sterling, Colo., and they have one child, Sarah Margaret Stover. He was admitted to the bar in 1904 and began prac- ticing his profession in Fort Collins that year; ap- pointed judge of the county court of Larimer county in November, 1907, to fill out the unexpired term of Judge C. V. Benson, resigned, and in November, 1908, he was elected by the people to a full term, which he is now serving. Judge Stover is a mem- ber of the Colorado State Bar association and also of the Larimer County Bar association.
JOHN C. MCLEOD was born May 10th, 1850, in Montague, Prince Edwards Island, Canada; married to Annie Stewart, May 25th, 1878, and
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HISTORY OF LARIMER
COUNTY, COLORADO
they have four children, Mary C., Edna F., Bertha M., and J. Keith McLeod; came to Colorado in 1874, locating first at Longmont; moved to Old St. Louis in the Big Thompson valley in 1875; was in the shoe business. Mr. McLeod died in Loveland, October 31st, 1896. He was a public spirited man and took an active part in every cause that promised to add to the welfare of Loveland, being an ardent temperance worker and also zeal- ous worker in the church. His widow and children still live in Loveland. No man was better known in the Big Thompson valley or more highly re- spected than John C. McLeod.
WILLIAM M. SLAUGHTER died at his home in Loveland on Friday, Nov. 19th, 1897, from pneu- monia, after a very short illness. One of the most striking figures of the early history of Colorado passed away when Judge Slaughter was called from the world. He came West in 1858, from Platts- mouth, Nebraska, with the very earliest of the pioneers and at once took a prominent part in direct- ing public affairs. At that time no legal authority had been asserted for the protection of life and property, and to preserve law and order a pro- visional court was established with three associate justices, Mr. Slaughter being named chief justice. Before this tribunal persons charged with crimes against person or property were given a trial, and if found guilty of theft the sentence was banishment from the country. Murderers were sentenced to immediate execution. While a member of this court, Judge Slaughter illustrated his unswerving fidelity to duty by condemning his friend, James Gordon, to death for shooting and killing, while drunk, an inoffensive German farmer. After pro- nouncing sentence, the judge gave him a respite of one week in order that the murderer might settle up his earthly affairs, and assisted him in closing up his business matters. Gordon was duly executed on the day fixed by the judge. In 1862, Judge Slaugh- ter moved to Central City and in 1863 was elected mayor of that town. At that time Central was the leading town of the territory, a booming mining camp of perhaps 10,000 people. It was never "a man for breakfast" camp for the reason that mur- derers were sure of swift punishment. But two murders were committed there while Judge Slaugh- ter was mayor. One of them expiated his crime on the gallows, and the other, Charles Hanicon, a theatrical manager, who killed Dan Spitz, a prize- fighter, escaped to the south and joined the Con- federate army. He was later killed in battle. Judge
Slaughter served two terms in the Territorial legis- lature and had a conspicous part in shaping the legislation of the period for Colorado. He came to Larimer county in 1872, settling on a farm in the Big Thompson valley, about four miles west of the present city of Loveland, and became one of the pioneer fruit growers of the county. Judge Slaughter was one of the prime movers in organizing and es- tablishing the Pioneer Society of Colorado, and numbered among his friends nearly every Colo- radoan who came to Pike's Peak in the great gold rush of 1858-59 and '60. He had passed the three- score milestone by four years, but was as vigorous and ambitious as a man of fifty up to his last illness. He practiced law in the courts of the county and state for several years before his death, and was an esteemed member of the Larimer County Bar association.
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