USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 55
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Clara J. Davis and they have two children, Har- riette and Walter E. The family lives on a farm situated about two miles directly west of Fort Col- lins. The daughter, Mrs. Chas. Troutman, is a graduate of the Fort Collins High school and also of the Colorado Normal school at Greeley.
MAJOR JOHN KERR first saw the light May 15, 1823, near Winchester, Virginia and that light dis- appeared in death on Sunday morning, June 24, 1893. Death closed a long and honorable career and removed from life's activities one of the best known and best loved of the Colorado pioneers. On coming to man's estate, Mr. Kerr rejoiced in the possession of a splendid physique, rugged health, a cool brain, and a well cultivated and well bal- anced mind. His was a brave adventurous spirit, and in early manhood he wended his way west- ward, arriving at St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1849, just at the setting in of the great overland rush to the California gold fields. The following year he made his first trip across the Plains in charge of a train of ox teams loaded with merchandise, billed for Livingston & Kincaid, of Salt Lake City. The venture, though extremely hazardous, was suc- cessful, and continuing in the business he made a round trip from the Missouri river to Salt Lake each succeeding year for eight years, his freight bills often running as high as from $50,000 to $56,- 000. In 1859 he was engaged in transporting gov- ernment supplies from Independence, Missouri, to Salt Lake for Gen. Sidney Johnson's army, then employed in keeping the Mormons in subjection. His route lay up the North Platte via Fort Lar- amie and the South Pass. It was a wild country in those days, infested with savages who made fre- quent attempts to capture his train, but never suc- ceeded. While making the crossing at Green River in 1853, Major Kerr first fell in with Old Jim Baker, the noted scout, hunter and guide, W. T. Shortridge, afterwards for many years a much re- spected citizen of Fort Collins, and Harvey Jones. The acquaintance thus began ripened into a warm and enduring friendship. All of these intrepid pioneers and frontiersmen lived to a ripe old age, finally dropping into that dreamless sleep that knows no waking, revered and honored by their survivors for the hardships they endured, the trials experienced and the dangers they met with while marking out trails through a trackless wilderness for those of us who came afterwards to follow. Major Kerr followed freighting across the Plains until the breaking out of the Civil war and then,
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disposing of his train, he came from Salt Lake and engaged in farming and cattle raising in the valley of the Platte a few miles below Denver. In 1864 he raised the largest crop of wheat ever produced by one man in Colorado-31,000 bushels. When Ben Holladay moved the Overland stage route from the North Platte to Denver in 1862, Major Kerr was selected to take charge of the line from Denver to Salt Lake. He established all the stations on the road, purchased the stock and supplies and em- ployed the men. His orders were to see that the mail never failed to go through on time and he car- ried them out to the letter. Everything was run on a high pressure system in those days. Competent men for the stage service commanded wages run- ning from $200 to $300 per month, and every- thing else was in proportion. In 1864 Major Kerr married a daughter of John Ish of Saline county, Missouri, who survives him. Mrs. Kerr is a sister of Capt. John C. Ish of Fort Collins. One child, a son, who died in 1869, was born to them. Mr. and Mrs. Kerr became residents of Larimer county in 1879, when they located on a fine tract of land situated in the Little Thompson valley about two miles south of the present town of Berthoud. Major Kerr was an honest man; a man of warm, generous impulses, many sterling virtues and no vices. He was true to his friends and just to all men; enemies he had none. Though com- pelled in the early days to mingle freely with all classes; and frequently thrown into a vortex of dissipation, vice and crime, he preserved his man- hood and constantly maintained a dignified and re- served attitude, which at once commanded respect, if not admiration of the most reckless debauchee.
JOHN LYON was born May 28th, 1837, in Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania. Came west in 1857 and was in the employ of the Overland stage company at Kearney, Nebraska, for seven years. He came to Larimer county in 1867 and located at Laporte where he was employed as clerk in Hook & French's store. Later he located on a farm two miles east of Laporte where he lived for many years. He married Miss Ada Hawley in 1876, and has two children living, Mrs. Anna H. Maddux of Den- ver and A. W. Lyon, Salt Lake, Utah. Mr. Lyon retired from active business pursuits several years ago and is now living with his daughter in Denver.
REV. LAWRENCE J. LAMB .- The subject of this sketch was born April 8th, 1860, near Fort Scott, Kansas, and when 14 years of age came with the family of his father, Rev. E. J. Lamb to Long-
mont, Colorado, where they resided until 1879 when the family moved to Larimer county, which was his home until death called him hence on the 18th of November, 1903. In January, 1883, he was united in marriage with Christina Nispel in Nebraska, and five sons, Arthur, Henry, Frank, Luther and Benjamin, were born to them, all of
REV. LAWRENCE J. LAMB
whom are living. Mr. Lamb followed farming in Colorado and Nebraska for several years, but gave up that occupation in 1897 to enter the minis- try, having been licensed that year to preach by the Colorado conference of the Methodist Epis- copal church. He moved his family from the farm to Fort Collins soon after and devoted his whole time and energy to the work of the Master. He served the congregation at Boxelder, Hygiene and Masonville with much zeal, force and earnestness, and was in the midst of preparing a sermon to be delivered to his congregation at Masonville when taken sick with pneumonia which caused his death. He was the second son of Rev. E. J. Lamb, one of the two pioneer missionaries sent to Colorado in 1871 by the United Brethren church, and his gen- ial manner, his zeal, earnestness and conscientious
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efforts to advance the Master's cause on earth won for him the confidence and respect of all classes. He was an excellent citizen, a devoted husband, an indulgent father and a zealous worker in the Master's vineyard, and his untimely death was deeply lamented. His widow and three unmarried sons reside at 320 West Olive street.
JAMES R. MASON-The subject of this sketch is a striking example of what a sturdy frame and
MR. AND MRS. JAMES R. MASON
.
persevering man can accomplish in Colorado in a few years amid dangerous and discouraging en- vironments. Coming to Colorado a poor boy, 14 years of age, he had to fight his own way through many adverse circumstances and discouragements that would have disheartened those made of less sterner stuff, up from poverty to affluence and to a position in the community that is the envy of weaker minds. Mr. Mason was born in 1849, in Caldwell county, Kentucky. His childhood days were spent in the famous "Blue Grass' region, where he had instilled in his being that love for fine stock which has since characterized the man. In 1863 he crossed the Plains with a bull team loaded with four tons of whiskey for a wholesale
liquor house. On arriving in Denver he camped on Larimer street and after resting his team a few days, hauled his freight to Black Hawk. He then went to work for a ranchman on the St. Vrain, two and one-half miles west of Longmont, and hauled hay with oxen from the ranch to Black Hawk and Central City. This was in 1864-5. In the fall of 1866 he was sent into the mountains after a load of poles. A snow storm set in, block- ing the trail so that he could not return and he was three days without a mouthful of food, what he considered the most gloomy period of his life. He has seen many stirring times in Colorado and endured many hardships and privations, but never before nor since has he felt the pangs of hunger so keenly as he did on that occasion. Along in the late 70's, Mr. Mason engaged in the hay and grain business at Longmont in which he was successful, and in 1885, he bought the land in the Buckhorn valley on which his present home stands and moved onto it. He has since added many broad acres to his holdings and has one of the finest and best fur- nished homes in the Mountain regions. His farm house is large and roomy and equipped throughout with every modern convenience, hot and cold water, baths, furnace heat, and there he leads a prosperous and contented life, surrounded by everything that tends to add to the comfort and happiness of human beings-a devoted wife and affectionate children. Mr. Mason is a man of more than ordinary intelli- gence and ability-native and acquired. He has always been a hard-working, industrious man, pru- dent in the management of his affairs, and through the exercise of a well-balanced judgment has ac- cumulated a comfortable fortune, and is today a splendid example of a self-made man. While Mr. Mason does more or less farming, at which he has been very successful, his specialty is the breeding and raising of fine stock. He was the first man to in- troduce Red Polled cattle in Colorado, and is there- fore the pioneer breeder of these excellent beef and milk breed of animals. The Buckhorn creek flows through his ranch, furnishing a never failing supply of stock water, and his large holdings of tillable and excellent pasture lands, make it an ideal home for cattle and horses. Mr. Mason married his first wife, Mary Maddox, in 1870, at Old St. Louis on the Big Thompson, by whom he had two children, Mrs. Edith Samuels, wife of F. M. Sam- uels of Loveland, and Charles A. Mason. Mrs. Mason died in 1875, and in August, 1877 he mar- ried Mary Flory at Longmont, who is the mother of seven children : J. W. Mason, Mrs. Bird Stobbe,
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W. H. Mason, Mrs. Vina Thompson, Floyd J. Mason, John R. Mason and Mrs. May Stevens of Covina, California.
HENRY E. HART .- The immediate ancestors of our subject, Mr. and Mrs. Henry P. Hart, came west from New York state in 1849 and settled near
HENRY E. HART
Springfield, Illinois, where he was born May 8th, 1863. He spent his boyhood days on his father's farm where he acquired those habits of industry which have stood him so well in hand since he came to Colorado. His ancestors came from Brainston, England, in 1642. He came to Fort Collins in 1886, crossing the Plains from Springfield in a Prairie schooner, and engaged in market gardening in which he has met with excellent success. In 1887 he went to Excelsior Springs, Missouri, and married the sweetheart of his schoolboy days, Miss Addie Brundage, on November 15th. The bride's parents moved to Missouri when she and her lover were children, but he knew where she was and when they arrived at suitable age the vows of their youth were renewed at the marriage altar. They have two children living, Clyde A. and Lottie C.
Mr. Hart owns 20 acres of rich and highly im- proved garden land at the northwestern outskirts of Fort Collins, from which he yearly derives a handsome income. Mrs. Hart was born August 2nd, 1862, at Springfield, Illinois, and was a class- mate of her husband in the public school. When still a child she went with her parents to Excelsior Springs, Missouri, where she was joined in mar- riage with Mr. Hart. She has been the mother of five children, only two of them surviving. Her ancestors came from Kentucky and settled in Illi- nois in 1810. She is a member of the Methodist church.
ALBERT S. PINDELL, one of the most active, fear- less and efficient administrative officers Larimer county ever had, was born on a farm August 21st, 1864, at Bonaparte, Iowa; came to Julesburg, Colorado, in 1882, and rode the range as cowboy until 1895, when he settled in Larimer county and engaged in farming and horse raising; moved to
MRS. HENRY HART
Wellington in 1905 and served the town as marshal for three years; appointed deputy sheriff in the fall of 1908 and moved his family to Fort Collins
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and is still a member of Sheriff Carlton's official staff. Mr. Pindell married Alice R. McGinley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James W. McGinley, July 31st, 1898. Of this union four children have been born, Nellie, James, Alice and George. Mr. Pindell is recognized and feared by law breakers as a man who is alert in the discharge of his official duty and who never fails to get the person named in the warrant placed in his hands for execution.
ANDREW J. HOTTEL was born August 7th, 1852, in Shenandoah county, Virginia. He early learned the miller's trade and in 1876 came to Fort Collins and secured employment in the Lindell Mills, where he remained until 1892 when he went to Lamar to assume the management of the Lamar Milling & Elevator company. He died August 9th, 1899, leaving a wife and three children, a son and two daughters.
REV. FRANCES BYRNE .- Born in Carlow, Ire- land, near Dublin, May 4th, 1807; died June 24, 1904 at Littleton, Colorado. He was educated for the ministry and on St. Mark's day, April 24, 1850, was ordained to the priesthood by Lord Spen- cer, Bishop of Jamaica. He left Jamaica for New York in 1854; officiated in Boston until 1867 when he came with Bishop Randall to Colorado, where he labored as missionary to within five years of his death. He came to Fort Collins in 1875 and helped to organize St. Luke's church of that city, remaining rector of the church until 1882 when he was transferred to another field. "Father Byrne", as he was lovingly called, was for many years known and beloved in Colorado for his good work in mining camps and in the cities and towns of the state on the Plains. None who had ever looked upon his face could ever forget the serene peacefulness it radiated. It was as a glowing bene- diction and bespoke a mind surpassingly pure and calm.
FRANK E. GIFFORD .- One of the enterprising and thorough going hardware men of Fort Collins is Frank E. Gifford, born in Tioga county, New York, June 4th, 1859. He married Miss Nettie T. Nook March 24th, 1884. Their home has been made happy by the birth of one son and two daugh- ters, May, Allaquippa and Reamer. Mrs. Gifford succumbed to a lingering disease, several years ago. Mr. Gifford's second wife, whom he married in Fort Collins, November 18th, 1908, was Emma Lord. He came to Fort Collins in July, 1879,
was clerk in several business houses until 1898, when he branched out on his own account in the hardware line, in every branch of which he is an expert. He is a popular and accommodating merch- ant.
E. A. ATHERLY is a native of New York, his birthplace being near Jamestown in that state. He was born on September 22nd, 1849, and on the tenth day of October, 1876, he married Miss Mary E. Jones, of Jamestown. In the autumn of 1892, Mr. Atherly removed with his family to Fort Col- lins where he has since been engaged in the mer- cantile business.
M. E. HOCKER, the pioneer druggist of Fort Collins, died in November, 1907, at Leeton, Miss- ouri, aged about 75 years. Mr. Hocker was a native of Missouri and served all through the Civil war in the Confederate army. He came to Fort Collins in 1870, and was for a time associated with B. T. Whedbee in the management of the only mercantile establishment here then in which drugs and medicines were carried. Being a pharmacist, Mr. Hocker had full charge of the drug business. At that time Mr. Whedbee's store stood at the corner of Linden and Jefferson streets, where the Yount bank building was afterwards erected. When Mr. Whedbee moved his building and stock of goods in 1873 to the corner where the First National bank building now stands, Mr. Hocker severed his connection with the firm and he and William C. Stover opened a drug store in the old Grout building, which stood where Frank P. Stover's drug store now stands. This was the founding of what is now known as the City Drug store, owned and conducted by Frank P. Stover. In the fall of 1874, W. C. Stover sold his interest in the drug store to his brother, F. P. Stover, who had just come out from Indiana, and he and Mr. Hocker under the firm name of Stover & Hocker, conducted the business until 1876 when Hocker disposed of his interest to his partner and started for the Black Hills with a stock of drugs and medicines, but did not reach his destination as the bull train hauling his goods was raided by the Indians en route and practically destroyed. Mr. Hocker then went to Rawlins, Wyoming. In 1880 he came back to Fort Collins and bought in with his old partner, F. P. Stover, the two carrying on the business until after the fire in September, 1882, which destroyed the firm's new building, then about ready to move into, when he again sold to his part- ner and moved to Evanston, Wyoming, where he
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opened and conducted a drug store for several years. In 1905 he disposed of his interests at Evanston and went back to his native state where he died.
JOHN STRAUGHAN WILLIAMS was born Oct. 7th, 1839, near Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, of Welsh and Scotch descent, his father's parents being natives of Wales, and his mother, whose maiden name was Ailcy Ann Straughan, of Scotch parentage. When our subject was seven years of age his father moved
JOHN STRAUGHAN WILLIAMS
to what is now Boone county, Iowa, the county not having been organized at that time, the Indians having been removed to their reservation only the year before. The town his father located in being largely settled by Swedish people was for many years called Swede Point, but is now known as Madrid. His school advantages were meager in those days, but he profited by such as the county af- forded and became well grounded in the fundamen- tals of an education. In 1860, when 21 years of age, he had an attack of the Pike's Peak gold fever and he arrived at Gold Hill, Boulder county, in June of that year. In 1865 he went back to Iowa, returning to Colorado in the fall of that year. That
year the Indians were troublesome on the Plains and he lost much time waiting for a wagon train large enough to defend itself against attacks of the savages. He made another trip to Iowa in 1870, and on his return to Colorado he married Caroline L. Osborn of Central City, in February, 1871 ; she lived but a short time. He filed on a homestead near Boulder City, which is now known as the McCall farm, on which fine oil wells have since been developed. In the fall of 1872, soon after the death of his wife and twin babies, Mr. Williams came to Larimer county, locating first on Rabbit creek, a few miles northwest of Livermore. His sister, Miss Maggie Williams, kept house for him several years. In 1884 he was married to Martha Z. Reavill of Fort Collins, and in 1890 he moved to the ranch on the Lone Pine creek, where he con- tinued to carry on the cattle business until January, 1910, when he moved to Fort Collins, where he died on April 17th, 1911, his wife and three children, Frank R:, Carrie and George Williams, surviving him.
EMMET C. McANELLY, oldest son of Judge and Mrs. Jefferson McAnelly, was born September 6th, 1875, at Bowling Green, Indiana. He came with his parents to Loveland in 1881 and to Fort Collins in 1884; received his education in the pub- lic schools and after graduating from the High school, took the engineering course at the Colorado Agricultural college, graduating therefrom with high honor. He married Mildred Goldsborough, a high school classmate, on March 16th, 1904. Since graduating from college he has most accept- ably served the home of his adoption several years as city engineer and is now serving his third term as county surveyor of Larimer county. He has a beautiful cottage home on West Mountain avenue and is recognized as one of the most upright and useful men in the community. One of the most notable pieces of engineering was the laying out and construction of Fort Collins' new water works system, including the filter plant and storage basin.
B. A. GRIFFITH was born on the 30th day of May, 1864, at Lancaster, Ohio. His education was acquired at the district schools of the state of Kansas. He came to Colorado in the spring of 1883 and settled on a farm near Livermore, in Larimer county, in the same year. On the 6th day of April, 1895, he married Miss Anna Cline and two children, Horace and Anna were born to
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them. Mr. Griffith has been engaged in the busi- ness of ranching and cattle raising since coming to this country and has met with a large degree of success. He is one of the substantial men of the county and fully alive to its possibilities.
JOSEPH MASON was born in Montreal, Canada, January 28, 1840. He attended school at Mon- treal and Sherbrooke, and received a fair common
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JOSEPH MASON
school education; left Canada at the age of 15 and spent three years in the New England states, one year in Mississippi, bringing up at St. Louis in the spring of 1859, when he joined Capt. Rey- nold's expedition which was accompanied by Prof. Hayden, to explore the head waters of the Yellow- stone. He left the party at Deer Creek where it had gone into winter quarters, and on the 10th of February, 1860, arrived at Laporte, where he found a settlement of mountaineers and trappers fifty or sixty strong, and four or five hundred Indians. He spent some time after that in the mining regions of the territory and in different parts of Colorado, re- turning to the Caché la Poudre valley in 1862, when he made his first investment in real estate,
purchasing a farm on the south side of the river nearly opposite Rock Bush's place and a little over a mile northwest of Fort Collins, of the squaw of a man named Gangros, who had been killed by the Indians about four months before. It was mainly through his influence that Camp Collins was estab- lished in 1864 on the present site of the City of Fort Collins. From that day until the day of the acci- dent which resulted in his death on the 11th of February, 1881, amid all the trials and discourage- ments incident to pioneer life, he never lost faith in Fort Collins, of which he was the first white settler. In 1862, Governor Evans appointed Mr. Mason, Wm. B. Osborn of Big Thompson and James B. Arthur of Cache la Poudre the first board of county commissioners. Mr. Mason was elected sheriff of the county in 1871 and re-elected in 1873; was appointed the first postmaster of Fort Collins, a position he held for several years. In 1877 he was reappointed postmaster by President Hayes but resigned his office in 1879. In company with Major Allen he built the old Grout building which stood where F. P. Stover's drug store now stands and which was a land mark from 1865 to 1882, in which he served the soldiers while they were here as post sutler, remaining in trade until December, 1869, when he sold his stock and business to the late William C. Stover and John C. Mat- thews. In 1873 he purchased the Lindell flouring mills, and in 1877 re-engaged in the mercantile business in company with Francis L. Carter-Cotton in which he continued until December of that year when the copartnership was dissolved. After dis- posing of his mercantile business to Tedmon Brothers in 1878, he retired from trade and devoted his time and attention to his milling business in which Benjamin F. Hottel became associated in the fall of 1877. Mr. Mason was largely instrumental in securing an affirmative vote of the people locat- ing the county seat at Fort Collins in 1868, and was recognized in his lifetime and is remembered to this day by all of the pioneers of the valley, as one of the most enterprising and public spirited citizens the county ever had Mr. Mason was mar- ried to Luella M. Blake on July 3rd, 1870, and two children were the fruits of the union, Minnie Luella and Albert J. Mason. Miss Minnie died in 1903 and Albert is an electrician in the employ of the construction company of the Laramie-Poudre Reservoirs & Irrigation company, engaged in driv- ing a tunnel through Green mountain near the headwaters of the Laramie and the Caché la Poudre rivers.
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JOHN BAPTISTE PROVOST, one of the first white settlers in Larimer county, and who had been a continuous resident of the county for nearly half a century, died on Monday, January 4th, 1904, at his late home in Laporte. He was a native of Montreal, Canada, born July 4th, 1823. His early manhood was spent on the frontier, trapping and trading for furs with Indians on the headwaters of the Missouri river and its tributaries, and on Snake and Green rivers, in the employ of the Hud- son Bay Fur company. In the spring of 1858 he came from Fort Laramie to the Caché la Poudre valley with a band of trappers and fur traders, locating at Laporte which had since been his home. At that time Laporte was a small frontier trading post and resting place for emigrants before enter- ing the mountains. It was inhabited by white men only during the trapping season, who, as soon as the snows of winter disappeared in the spring folded their tents and took the trail for Fort Lara- mie where they sold their furs and usually spent the summer. These were the conditions at Laporte when "Uncle John", as he was familiarly called, located there. There were really no permanent white settlements in Larimer county until later, so that in reality Mr. Provost is entitled to the honor of being the first permanent white settler in the county. Others followed shortly afterwards, and among these were Rock Bush, Judge A. F. Howes, G. R. Strauss, Abner Loomis, James B. Arthur and J. M. and F. W. Sherwood. Of this venturesome and heroic band only one, Rock Bush, is still living, all the others having joined the silent majority beyond the tomb. When Mr. Provost came to the Caché la Poudre valley to establish a home, roving bands of Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Sioux made the valley their temporary home. With these "Uncle John" made friends, finally taking a Sioux woman for a wife to whom several child- ren were born. These, with one exception, a daughter who was with her father in his last hours, with their mother went to Red Cloud agency in 1880, and those living, so far as is known, are still there. For many years Mr. Provost kept a road ranch on the south side of the river in the home now occupied by Rowland Herring. In 1869, soon after the Overland stage had been succeeded by the Union Pacific railroad, he purchased one of the stage company's abandoned buildings in the town on the north side of the river in which he opened and kept a hotel and eating house until a few months before his death. In June, 1864, at the time of the big flood when the bottom lands of the
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