USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 57
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WILLIAM CAMPTON was born on the 21st of May, 1838, at Dubuque, Iowa. He married Phebe A. Dyer at Mineral Point, Wisconsin. His occu-
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM CAMPTON
pation until the year 1885, when he came to Colorado, was farming. Upon arriving in this state, after some moving about, he finally located at Fort Collins where he engaged in the livery business. In 1886 he purchased property at St. Cloud, in Larimer county, and after having spent a good deal of time and money in improving it he moved with his family to reside upon it. Believing that he who ministers to the innocent pleasures of mankind or provides a place of retreat from the urgent pressure of business, may claim the title of benefactor, he opened a summer resort at his moun- tain home which soon became one of the most popu- lar places in the state for those seeking the refresh- ing climate of the mountains during the heated period of the year. In 1895 Mr. Campton's moun-
tain home was destroyed by fire, but with true Western energy he soon rebuilt it on a larger scale and added several cottages to his accommodations for summer guests. He has devoted some attention to the mineral resources of the county and has al- ways been alive to every movement which looked to the betterment of the state or the development of its resources. Always active and alert, he is a very pleasant and successful caterer to the com- fort of his guests. He has six children some of whom assist in the management of his increasing business.
JAMES JENSEN was born a subject of the King of Denmark on November 21st, 1867, but re- nounced his allegiance and came to Colorado in 1894. He located on a farm at Welcome Hill. Lived at Welcome Hill, 14 miles northeast of Berthoud, then moved on the farm one and one half miles northeast of Berthoud, and engaged in cultivating the soil, and that is still his home. In 1897 he went to Atchison, Kansas, and was joined in marriage with Katie Deitrickson; six children have blessed the union. They are, Leroy, Francis, Bessie, John, George and Ethel, all living. Like nearly all of his countrymen who have settled in Larimer county, Mr. Jensen has done well and is now comfortably well-off and a loyal citizen of the land of the free and the home of the brave. He has a fine farm and never fails to show a balance on the right side of the ledger at the close of the season's operations.
GEORGE WILFORD WRIGHT, a resident of Colo- rado since 1903. When he kicked the mud of the old Hawkeye state from his feet he landed in Ber- thoud on solid ground. He was born in Iowa, Dec. 19th, 1875, and was married to Zetta Thomp- son at Garner, in that state, March 14th, 1900. They have but one child living, a little son, Carroll Samuel. For 18 years Mr. Wright has followed the trade of painting and decorating, a man of experi- ence at the top of his line. He was born Wright, in Wright county, came to the right state and is all right.
HENRY P. HANDY .- The subject of this sketch was one of the noted civil engineers of the West, and he left many monuments of his skill as such, throughout Colorado, in the planning and construc- tion of large irrigation canals, dams, reservoirs, rail- roads and bridges. Not the least important of these was the planning and supervising of the system of water works built by Fort Collins in 1882-3. He
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was the locating and construction engineer of the railroad through the Royal Gorge for the Denver & Rio Grande, and also located the Oregon short Line. One of the large canals in the Big Thomp- son valley which he laid out and superintended the construction of was named in his honor. Mr. Handy was born near Utica, New York, July 24th, 1832, and died at Nampa, Idaho, in February, 1903. He left a wife and five children. The names of the children are Mrs. Nelia R. King, Nampa, Idaho; Wm. P. Handy, Denver, Colorado; George H. Handy, Caldwell, Idaho; Ralph H. Handy and Roy S. Handy. Mr. Handy and his family were residents of Fort Collins for nearly twenty years.
CAPT. CHARLES C. HAWLEY .- This is the story of a Larimer county pioneer who, in his early man- hood, led a very active and useful life, first as book- keeper for an Indian trading company in Minne- sota; clerk and later captain of a Mississippi river steamboat; a gold seeker in Colorado and then as a gallant soldier and officer in the Union army. Mr. Hawley was born July 26th, 1839, at Lacolle, Can- ada, and landed in St. Louis in April, 1856; was bookkeeper for an Indian trading company at St. Paul and Traverse des Sioux, Minnesota, where he was known to the Mdewahton Lake Sioux as "Napa Ska" or "White Hand"; served the trading company as clerk and later as captain of the steamboat Jean- ette Roberts; caught the gold fever and arrived in Denver in June, 1861, enroute to California. Re- verses to the Union army prompted him to enlist July 29th, 1861, in the First Colorado volunteer cavalry in Denver; promoted through the grades to 2nd and 1st lieutenants and then to captain of a company at the age of twenty-four; was in the battle with the Confederates at Apache Canon, Pigeon's Ranch and Peralta, New Mexico, and in engagements of lesser note with Indians. Rep- resented Larimer county in the first constitution- al convention held in Denver in 1864; secured a franchise from the territorial legislature in 1864 for a bridge at Laporte; organized a company in 1865 to construct a ditch from Laporte to Long Pond basin to be used as a reservoir; served one term as assessor in Minnesota and two terms as assessor for Larimer county; was water commis- sioner for District No. 3 for four years, the dis- trict embracing Larimer and Weld counties. Capt. Hawley served 43 years in the Union army; was assistant quartermaster and commissary; appointed ordnance officer in 1863 for the district of the Plains, with headquarters in Denver; had charge
of a large ordinance supply depot, inspection of troops in camp and field was part of the duties of the office. In 1862 he made his first investment in Larimer county, buying what was known as the Barry farm now owned by the Sugar company of Alphonse Larocque for $56. Mrs. Hawley lived nearly a year on this place in 1863 while her hus- band was in the army. Capt. Hawley married
CAPT. CHARLES C. HAWLEY
Ellen M. Gordon, August 25th, 1859, in St. Paul, Minnesota. They have had 12 children, eight of whom are living, twenty-four grandchildren and six great grand children. Walter L. and family are now living in Montana, Charles C. Jr. and fam- ily in this city, Alden M. and family are near the Canada boundary line in Dakota, Mrs. Anna C. and husband. Frank A. Chaffee, resident of Fort Collins, Custer and wife are in California, Mrs. Carrie Smoke and husband in Denver, Mort now on the old homestead and Alva L. and family are residents of Nebraska.
WILLIAM L. BURNETT is an example of the high grade of manhood produced in the healthy atmos- phere of Colorado. Born in Manitou, Mason
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county, Illinois, he came with his parents to Fort Collins in May, 1885. Here, in 1899, he married Miss Eva H. Cushing and they now have a family of four children. He is now curator of the museum at the Colorado Agricultural college.
THOMAS CLINE .- One of the notable characters of the pioneers who came to the Cache la Poudre valley in 1860, is Thomas Cline-overland
THOMAS CLINE
freighter, hunter and guide-who died in 1910. Though nearing the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey, he was in the enjoyment of excellent health up to the time of his last sickness, with all of his faculties unimpaired, and nothing pleased him more than to sit down and tell of his pioneer adventures, of his scraps with the wily redskins who infested the Plains in the early days and his prowess with his trusty rifle while on hunting expeditions. Many a buffalo, bear, deer, elk, mountain lion and antelope could testify to the accuracy of his aim were they living and had the power of speach. Mr. Cline was born in Holmes county, Ohio, in 1836, and went with his father's family to Iowa in 1850, so that his life has almost entirely been spent on the
frontier. After settling in the Cache la Poudre valley in 1860, he followed freighting, and many is the time he has crossed the Plains with a bull team, hauling freight from the Missouri river to the Rocky Mountains, enduring all sorts of hard- ships and privations, besides narrow escapes from hair-lifting savages. He was known from the Missouri to the Rockies as a dead shot and a fear- less man, so that very few cared to molest him at any time or place. Even the Indians had a whole- some fear of his gun. Once, in 1861, while com- ing west with a load of freight, traveling alone, a small party of Indians swooped down upon him at Fremont's Orchard on South Platte. They wanted to trade for some of the goods in his load, but he
refused to dicker with them. They advanced toward him in a threatening manner in an attempt to scare him into acceding to their demands, but he leveled his gun at them and they fled in great haste, giving him no more trouble. He located first on a ranch situated on the river bottom a short dis- tance west of the present site of the city of Greeley, where he lived until 1862, when he took up land further up the stream, near the present town of Timnath. His neighbors at that time were Joseph Prendergast, E. B. Davis, Dwight Scotten, G. R. Strauss, Thomas Earnest, "Ranger" Jones, Fletcher Earnest, James B. Arthur and the Sherwoods. While he was living in Weld county in 1861, there were nine days during which all he and his dog had to eat was two curlews that he killed by hurl- ing stones at them. His nearest neighbor was miles away, who was as destitute of provisions as him- self. While game was plentiful, he and his neigh- bor were short of ammunition. He had but one cap for his gun and dared not use that for fear the Indians might raid him. On the ninth day he suc- ceeded in getting a supply of ammunition and then had no trouble in refilling his larder with wild game. In 1866, Mr. Cline married Anna Cosslet, who died in 1904. Six children were born to the union, five of whom are living, to-wit; Mrs. Sophia Darnell of Fort Collins; Mrs. May Gardner ; Mrs. L. E. Parker of Timnath, Edward and George Cline, Mrs. B. A. Griffith of Livermore, having passed away.
WALTER R. PRENDERGAST was born November 1st, 1859, in Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng- land, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Prendergast. The family came to Fort Collins October 4th, 1879, and in 1881 our subject preempted 160 acres of land three miles west of Fort Collins, which he proved
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MR. AND MRS. GEORGE W. LITLE
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
up on and improved and which was the family home for many years. In 1897 he was united in marriage with Mary O. Ellms of Boston, Mass- achusetts. They have no children. Mr. Prender- gast is a practical and successful farmer and since his marriage has owned, lived on and worked a farm in the Fossil Creek district, south of Fort Col- lins. His father, John Prendergast and his younger sons carried on the old farm until a few years ago and then sold it and moved to Fort Collins.
GEORGE W. LITLE .- In writing of the Colo- rado pioneers' trials and perils, one is constantly confronted by raiding, murderous Indians and law- less whites, who, living in a country where organi- zed society barely existed, were quite often more ruthless and given to savage deeds than the abori- gines. But when you meet with one of these first comers who tells you that he found the Big Thomp- son valley "The tamest place he had been in for years" you wonder, till told of his experiences with "bad" men in a two years' sojourn in a California mining camp in the early '60's, and a four years' stay in Idaho when gold was first discovered there by white men. Then you can readily believe he found it "tame" in the valley. George W. Litle was born in Lee county, Iowa, May 15, 1841. He was a farmer's son and aided in the farm work till May, 1861, when, becoming afflicted with the wan- der lust, he left home for California, coming across the Plains with a train of ox teams. He worked at placer and tunnel mining on the Calavaras river near the town of Jenny Lind, Calavaras county for two years and made good. But one night, the fall of '63, news of the discovery of gold in Boise basin, Idaho, was brought to camp and the next morning, accompanied by his partner, Henry Rugh, a "forty-niner" of the Golden state, he left for the new diggings on the hurricane deck of a mule. He remained there four years and satisfied with his clean up, he left for the east. In July, 1869, Mr. Litle and his former chum, Mary A. Bird, were married at Fort Madison, Iowa, and after a brief honeymoon, they came west, settling in old St. Louis, a small town three-quarters of a mile east of what afterwards became known as Loveland. He and his brother, J. A. Litle, leased the Douty grist mill and bought a squatter's relinquishment of 160 acres near by. The brother looked after the mill and George attended to the farm, staying there until 1880 when he sold it. That land is situated near the sugar factory and during the sugar beet boom it was parcelled off into town lots. Mr. Litle also
owned 160 acres five miles east, but feeling that continuous labor was not the way to enjoy life, he sold all and for four months he remained com- paratively idle. Then he and Frank Barthoff bought 400 acres five miles from Loveland and he worked the farm. Two years later he bought Mr. Barthoff's interest and that was his home for some years. In 1907 he sold 160 acres of it to J. M. Cunningham. The next year he sold 80 acres to W. B. Harris, and the fall of 1909 he sold the re- maining 160 to Nicholas Beber, then moved to Loveland the next spring, bought a cozy home on the corner of 8th street and Washington avenue, where he and wife are living a contented, happy life. Mr. Litle has had many exciting advent- ures during his eventful career, but he is too mod- est to allow any of them in print. One in par- ticular, when he, a total stranger in Fort Scott, Kansas, interfered in a street quarrel between a white man and a negro, is worth publication but you will have to get the story from him. No child- ren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Litle, but they claim two by adoption. One is Mrs. Cortland Secord of Fort Collins; the other Jean, was mar- ried New Year's day of 1910, to J. H. Elliot and they live on a farm a few miles from Loveland. The subject of this sketch is yet a hale and hearty man and as ready for a business deal as when he was 40 years younger. Although he suffered from organic trouble and submitted twice to dangerous surgical operations, one having no knowledge of this, would scarcely believe it, for he possesses so much vitality and mental strength.
HERMAN STRAUSS .- Located near Timnath ; lives on one of the model farms of the county. Born in the south, at Columbia, S. C., in 1850. Herman Strauss settled in Larimer county in March, 1878. For three years he was employed by his brother as manager of his farm, and later, for six years follow- ing, he farmed the property as a renter. He was married to Mrs. Eliza C. Horner Jan. 17th, 1905. By the demise of his brother, Robert G. Strauss, he became the sole owner of his large farm and stock interests, which could not have fallen into better hands. Mr. Strauss is an excellent farmer, thrifty, energetic and of good business ability.
T. H. HALE was born in 1876, in Schuyler county, Missouri, and attended the public schools of his native town; married Carrie Skinner, May 13th, 1896, and has five children, William, James, Ozeitta, Ethel and Raymond Hale. He came to Fort Collins in 1899, and has since followed farm-
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ing, stock raising at which he has been very suc- cessful. He owns and cultivates a good farm and buys and sells live stock.
JOHN MCPHERSON .- The subject of this sketch was born June 14th, 1842, at Almond Bank, near Perth, Scotland, and came to the United States in 1868, locating in business at Chicago. In 1871 he returned to his Scotland home for a visit and on
JOHN MC PHERSON
coming back to America he was accompanied by his sister, Mrs. James Loomis, and his brother-in- law, John Nelson and family, all of whom came to Colorado with him in 1873. Mr. McPherson and Mr. Nelson secured farms a short distance southeast of Fort Collins and were the first in that vicinity to take water for irrigation from the Larimer county canal No. 2. They built the first fence put up on the bluff lands between the Caché la Poudre and Big Thompson rivers. Mr. Mc Pherson sold his farm in 1881 and two years later moved to Fort Collins and was for one year mana- ger of the Farmers' elevator. After resigning from that position in 1884, he engaged in building operations, the McPherson block, now occupied by
the Gem Grocery, one of the most substantial business blocks in Fort Collins, was erected by him that year. He was a stone cutter by occupation and evidence of his handiwork crop out in a num- ber of the best buildings in the city. Five child- ren, Mrs. Walter Beach and John, both of Fort Collins, Fred of Shoshone, Wyoming, Andrew (residence not known) and Mrs. R. J. Handy of Rochester, New York, survive him.
HENRI S. MCCLELLAND was born August 3rd, 1869, in Galesburg, Illinois; received his education in the public schools of Fort Collins and the Colo- rado Agricultural college; married Matie Sains- bury, October 18th, 1893, and two children, Mary Irene and Joseph Henry McClelland, have blessed the union; came from Galesburg to Fort Collins with his father's family in 1873, and still resides in the Cache la Poudre valley; farmer and fruit grower, and has the largest and most productive orchard in Northern Colorado. Mr. McClelland is a son of the J. S. McClelland, founder of the first newspaper published in Larimer county.
OLIVER B. TOMLIN .- This deservedly popular young man, who served as a mail carrier in Fort Collins for many years, being one of the original ap- pointees, is now a resident of Helena, Montana, and is employed as a draftsman in the office of the sur- veyor-general of that state. His parents came to this state in 1872, and his father, A. B. Tomlin, conducted a general store in Fort Collins for many years. Mr. Tomlin was born in Fort Collins Jan. 4th, 1878. He attended the public schools and High school and graduated from the Colorado Agricul- tural college with distinguished honors. He has a host of friends in his native city, where he has been so favorably known from boyhood, who are warm admirers of his straightforward disposition and manly character.
WILLIAM B. BAKER, born in the year 1854, was one of the pioneers of Larimer county, to which he came in 1870. Forced by loss of health to leave his widowed mother he sought the West and an outdoor life with the hope of improvement. He secured a position on the Alsop and Hutton ranch, on the Laramie Plains, where for some years he led the life of a cow-boy, passing through all the grades of that school from "flunkey" cook, to sheep herder, horse herder and cow-puncher, he grad- uated as a "broncho buster." He became a fine rider and learned to love the Plains and his horse. During the winter months he returned to the East
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to attend school, being a student of the Baptist University of Des Moines, Iowa. On January 4th, 1879, he married Amanda E. McCall at Fort Col- lins and settled on a homestead five miles east of that city. When Mr. Baker moved with his young wife into his one room cabin, the neighbors con- sisted largely of coyotes and antelopes. Their ex- periences were those of all of the hardy class who have moved ahead of the settlements and sought a home on the frontier. Their home was bright- ened by the arrival one after the other of six child- ren, four daughters and two sons, all of whom are living excepting a daughter who died in early child- hood. The sons are both graduates of the State Agricultural college, and the daughters attended the Fort Collins High school. Mr. Baker lived to take part in the making of twenty-six years of the history of Larimer county. His death occurred in the fifty-first year of his age and he left surviv- ing him a widow and five children. Mrs. Baker now resides in Fort Collins with a daughter. Mr. Baker was interested in the upbuilding of the church of which he was a member and he had a full ap- preciation of the value of free schools. He was successful in his business and lived to see his child- ren, grown to manhood and womanhood, take their places as respected members of society.
EBEN S. MERRIFIELD .- Born July 25th, 1836, at Burton center, New York; educated in common and High schools of St. Joseph and Porter counties, Indiana; married first wife, Miriam F. Wolf, December 25th, 1862 ; second wife, Sarah A. Pratt, June 10th, 1896; children, Ralph C., Monie, Hal- bert and Frances Merrifield ; came from Indiana to Colorado in May, 1902; spent a year in Long- mont, coming thence to Fort Collins in April, 1903; farmer and insurance agent. Mr. Merrifield spent several years in his early manhood in the United States treasury department in Washington.
CHARLES EMERSON was born at New Hampton, New Hampshire, on the 5th day of November, 1849, and was educated in the schools of that city. He came to Colorado in 1869, and located near Livermore, in Larimer county, in the year 1871. In 1877 he was married to Miss Alice Freeman. He was engaged in the year 1868-9 with his brother, Horace, in getting out railroad ties near the head- waters of the Caché la Poudre river for the Den- ver Pacific railroad company. During the greater part of his residence in Larimer county he has been engaged in ranching, giving the most of his atten- tion to the production of alfalfa and the feeding
of cattle, meeting with great success in the business. He has paid little attention to active politics though at all times well informed on the questions of the day and punctual in the exercise of his duties as a citizen. He was at one time a candidate for the office of State senator and polled the full strength of his party. His estimable wife, who shared with him the difficulties of pioneer life was
CHARLES EMERSON
spared to enjoy for some years the fruits of their united labor, but, in the early part of the winter of 1911, she was stricken with paralysis which terminated her life. She had so entirely identified herself with all the interests of her community that her death was mourned as a public calamity. Mr. Emerson has contributed much to the upbuilding of the county by his demonstration of the complete suitableness of local conditions for success in the business of cattle feeding.
CARLTON C. BUSHNELL .- Born in 1845 in Princeton, Illinois, and educated in Peru, that state. Came to the Big Thompson valley in 1871 and located at Namaqua, where he followed farm- ing. Married Emma Hanby in 1879 and has two
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daughters, Mrs. A. B. Cook of Loveland, and Mrs. F. F. Rourk of San Francisco, California. Con- ducted a hotel in Loveland for several years and is now leading a retired life.
AUSTIN C. DOWNEY, son of Dr. and Mrs. J. W. Downey, was born November 8th, 1881, at Topeka, Illinois. In 1887 moved with his parents to Iowa
AUSTIN C. DOWNEY
and in 1892 to Fort Collins, Colorado. Here he attended public school five years and the State Agri- cultural college five years, taking the civil engineer- ing course. In the activities of the student body he excelled in oratory, winning all of the class con- tests and medals. Served as president of the Orator- ical association, was college orator at Washington Day exercises, member of Columbian Literary society and the "Collegian" staff. In the cadet battalion he attained the rank of captain. He be- gan his career as an engineer with the Oregon Short Line railroad in the spring of 1902. In 1903 he was in the State engineer's office with Professor L. G. Carpenter and with one of the Irrigation Com- panies in the Arkansas valley. Passed the first civil service examination at the organization of
United States Reclamation service and was as- signed to the Shoshone Project, Cody, Wyoming. Took up the work in June, 1903 and was closely identified with the development of the project. For several years he was first assistant to D. W. Cole, constructing engineer on Shoshone dam. This be- ing the highest dam ever built presented difficult problems in the solution of which Mr. Downey had an important part to perform, being chief of party and instrument man on construction surveys and later an inspector in the real work of building the dam. He received frequent promotions, the last one of which would have been effective two weeks later than the date of his death when he would have succeeded Mr. Cole and been in full charge of affairs at the dam. Among his associates he earned a reputation for conscientious accuracy and as a persistent worker. During his seven years in the Reclamation service he had but three vacations of ten days each. He died June 16, 1910, by acci- dental drowning in Shoshone lake. The body was recovered two months later and on August 18th, 1910, was buried in Grandview cemetery, Fort Collins, Colorado, with Masonic honors.
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