USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 60
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now owned by C. E. Williams, selling his claim in 1885 and going to Johnson county, Wyoming, where he died.
D. A. CAMFIELD .- "Let no fertile land go dry," is Mr. Camfield's watchword. That he is doing his part to make the sentiment a living reality is proven by the fact that he and his associates have com- pleted 500 miles of irrigating ditches and con- structed several large reservoirs by means of which 400,000 acres of land are irrigated and reclaimed, and has other projects under way that will be the means of putting water on and redeeming about 425,000 additional acres. The total cost of the completed ditches and reservoirs and those now in course of construction will aggregate about $17,- 000,000, and the value of the land reclaimed has increased from $2.50 per acre to $75 and $100 per acre, thus adding more than $60,000,000 to the wealth of Colorado. Mr. Camfield was born in 1860 in Providence, Rhode Island, and received his education in the public schools of that city. He came from his native state to Greeley in 1878, arriving at his journey's end with $25 in his pocket. He at once secured employment on a farm at $18 per month "and found." After seven months on this farm he rented 160 acres of land and began work for him- self. He lived alone, cooking his own meals, doing the chores, and cultivating his farm, prospering in a modest way. It was while on this farm that he be- gan to study the problem of water supply and irri- gation and how to increase the former by storing water and holding it back for use as needed, a part of the millions of cubic feet that annually go to waste. He has already accomplished a wonderful work in this direction, but still has other worlds to conquer. As chief promoter and the head and front of the Laramie-Poudre Reservoirs & Irrigation company, Mr. Camfield is now engaged in the stu- penduous task of bringing water from the Laramie river watershed through a tunnel two and a fourth miles in length that is being driven through the range of mountains that form the divide between the Laramie and the Cache la Poudre rivers, and turning it into the latter stream, whence it will flow down to the headgate of the Poudre Valley ditch. From this point the water will flow through a ditch 100 miles in length out upon the Plains and thus bring 125,000 acres of fertile land under water. This company holds filings on Laramie river water both for direct irrigation and for storage; also on Caché la Poudre water for direct and storage use.
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It also owns several mountain reservoirs, the total capacity of its holdings amounting to 3,600,000,000 cubic feet of water, or 84,000 acre feet, sufficient with direct flow to irrigate 125,000 acres of land. The men associated with .Mr. Camfield in this great
D. A. CAMFIELD
undertaking are S. H. Shields of Fort Morgan and Messrs. W. G. Evans, Iliff, and Thorpe of Denver. The cost of the completed project is estimated at between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000. The major portion of the ditch work is already completed and construction of the remainder is being pushed for- ward with all possible speed. The tunnel was com- pleted July 22, 1911. The tunnel is being made large enough to carry 1,000 cubic feet of water per second of time, although the company does not ex- pect to draw from the Laramie more than 500 cubic feet, except during flood seasons when the excess will be stored. Not alone in the field of irrigation has Mr. Camfield made his energy and enterprise a factor in the development of northern Colorado. He has provided Greeley with a hotel, "The Camfield," of which every citizen not only of that town but also of the surrounding country is proud, and one that
fills the need of years. It is a hotel in which a city of 25,000 inhabitants could take just pride, for there are few larger or better ones in the state. He spent a fortune on an enterprise about which he knew but little, but Greeley needed a good hotel and Mr. Camfield promptly supplied that need. Mr. Cam- field is of medium height and rather stocky built. He has a fair complexion, blue eyes, dark hair gray- ing at the temples, and a reddish mustache. He is fond of horses, but of late years has become an automobile enthusiast, and once a year goes to his former home in Providence in his car. Mr. Cam- field is president of the City National bank, which has its quarters in its own $130,000 building across the street from the Camfield hotel.
WILLIAM BRANDIS .- This sketch contains a few points in the busy life history of a Colorado pioneer, a gallant soldier in the First Colorado cavalry,
WILLIAM BRANDIS
teamster, stockman and farmer, and a man and citi- zen against whom not one derogatory word can be said. He was a citizen of Larimer county for 35 years and did his part to subdue the wilderness and make it blossom like the rose. William Brandis
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was born in 1841, near Bremen, Germany. When still a child he came with his parents to Galveston, Texas, moving afterward to Prairie du Chien, Wis- consin, where he attended school. He crossed the Plains in 1860, arriving at Denver June 13th, spending the remainder of the season mining at Central City and Black Hawk. In those days the only postoffice for the mining district was located at
MRS. WILLIAM BRANDIS
Central City, and a Mr. Fields delivered letters to whom they were addressed, charging 25 cents for the service. In November, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, First Colorado Volunteer cavalry, un- der Col. John M. Chivington, and served three years. After his discharge he followed teaming be- tween Central City and Georgetown, and between Denver and Camp Collins. In the winter of 1865 he hauled government corn with an ox team for the soldiers at Camp Collins, stopping at "Auntie" Stone's house, then not quite finished. In 1867 he hauled lumber from North Clear creek to Cheyenne and sold it for $100 per thousand feet, and in 1870 he filed on a homestead in the Boxelder valley, four miles northeast of Fort Collins, and settled down to the life of a ranchman, engaging in stock raising,
in which he was successful. In 1879, after the com- pletion of the Larimer & Weld canal, he engaged in general farming in connection with his stock busi- ness. He married Christine Johnson in 1873 at Greeley, and four children were born to them, Kate D., Walter, Alice, and Oscar. Alice died in 1893. In 1905 Mr. Brandis sold his farm and moved with his wife and daughter, Miss Kate, to San Diego, California, where the wife and mother died on July 15th, 1910. The eldest son, Walter, lives at Fort Morgan, and the second son, Oscar, is a prosperous farmer in the Wellington district. The father and sister still reside in San Diego.
NATHANIEL C. ALFORD was born at South Hope, in the state of Maine, on the 29th of No- vember, 1834. The story of Mr. Alford's life reads like a romance and is well worth the study of any young man as an example of what may be accom- plished by diligent application to the work which presents itself, and a character of strict integrity. Until he was 18 years of age, our subject worked upon a farm in his native state and then served three years in learning the carpenter trade, receiv- ing during this apprenticeship no other wages than his board. At the age of 21 he started west, and, arriving at Rockford, Illinois, remained there three years working at his trade. In the spring of 1859, the Pike's Peak gold excitement being at its heighth, Mr. Alford was seized with the fever which at that time drove so many young men to the West. Joining with three others he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, and on the first of May the party started on the overland trip with an outfit of two yoke of oxen and one yoke of cows and a wagon and arrived in Denver in June of the same year. Of the hardships, such as they were, of the experiences of that journey we have no informa- tion. The first work engaged in by Mr. Alford after his arrival in Denver was the pulling of one end of a whip-saw in the manufacture of lumber which was sold to the miners to be made into sluice boxes. In August, 1859, he went with a party of sixty to Middle Park, where they discovered the Breckenridge mines. They then went down the river through Eagle and Pitkin counties and find- ing themselves getting short of provisions were obliged to return to Idaho Springs. During the next two years Mr. Alford was engaged in freight- ing between Denver and Missouri river points in the summer season. During the winter of 1861-2 he wintered his oxen at a place seven miles above Livermore, in Larimer county, and hauled game
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for a band of six hunters to Denver. The rigor of the life led at this time is evidenced by the fact that Mr. Alford camped during the entire winter with- out tent or other shelter. In the summer of 1862 he crossed the Plains to Oregon and in the follow- ing winter went to the Boise mines in Idaho, where, in the succeeding summer, he started a vegetable farm, doing the first plowing and irrigation done in that state. Here he remained until the fall of 1865, in the summers carrying his vegetables with a train of sixteen pack mules to the mines in the valley. He then sold his business and returned by the Panama route to his native state, but returned to Colorado in the Spring of 1867. When the town of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was started Mr. Al- ford was there and burned the first kiln of brick ever made in that state. The following winter found him conducting a grocery business at the Elizabethtown mines in New Mexico. Selling out his business at this place he went to Texas in the spring of 1868 and bought a herd of cattle which he drove to the Arkansas river and wintered, and in the following summer moved them to Nevada, where he sold them and returned to Colorado. In 1870 he went with Mr. A. C. Goodhue to Illi- nois, where they purchased a train load of brood mares which they shipped to Colorado, this being the first train load of horses ever shipped over the Union Pacific road. The mares were held at Rock Creek, in Boulder county, during the summer of 1871, and Mr. Alford returned to Illinois where he purchased and brought to Colorado the first Nor- man draft stallion ever brought to the state. In the fall of 1871 he drove his horses and about one hundred head of cows into Larimer county and set- tled on Rabbit creek, a few miles north of Liver- more. His wanderings were now about at an end. In the winter of 1871-2 he returned to Maine and was married to Ann E. Hobbs of the town of Hope. The newly married pair arrived in Colo- rado in March, 1872, and went to their home on Rabbit creek. A log cabin with a single room was erected and served as the family mansion until the fall of 1880, when they moved to Fort Collins, which city has been their home to the present time. In 1877 Mr. Alford served as a member of the first State Legislature of Colorado. In 1881 he embarked in the bee business, starting three apiaries and shipping the first car of honey ever sent out of Larimer county. This business was conducted successfully for eight years. In 1881 and the following year, joining with six other men, he started the construction of the Larimer County
ditch, since known as the Water Supply & Storage Company ditch, and finished it to a point seven miles east of Boxelder creek. He was made presi- dent of the company and had charge of the work of construction. With unusual foresight, Mr. Alford purchased a large body of land under the newly constructed ditch, which, as the benefits to be derived from irrigation became manifest, rose rapidly in value and secured him a competency for his declining years. The land thus purchased was fenced and farmed for a number of years, furnish- ing pasturage for about four hundred head of cat- tle during the winter season. In 1893 he became a stockholder in the Poudre Valley bank and was elected a member of the directorate, which office he retained until the fall of 1909. At the time of the institution's being changed from a state to a na- tional bank, in 1905, he was elected president and acted in that capacity until, warned by advancing age to seek relief from some of his business bur- dens, and in November, 1909, he resigned the posi- tion. Mrs. Alford was permitted to enjoy life through all the years of struggle and for some time after their pathway had become less thorny. In the month of November, 1910, however, she was called from the scenes of this life. She will be long remembered as a kind and helpful neighbor, a devoted wife and loving and sensible mother. There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Alford a son, George, who did not live to complete his first year, besides two sons and two daughters, who are still living in Larimer county. Of these children, Fred C. was born on the 22nd of May, 1875; Lore E., on the 28th of Nov., 1876; Abbie A., on July 19th, 1878; and Anna Helen, on Sept. 12th, 1885. Mr. Alford's life has been that of a pioneer. To pre- pare the way for the comfort of those who followed him he faced the hardships and dangers of an en- tirely uncivilized country. To such men as he the country owes a debt which can scarcely be paid. With brains to plan, with courage to struggle against great odds, with perseverance to persist in the face of danger, with confidence in the future of a great people, they blazed the trails and marked in the desert with their camp-fires the sites of teem- ing cities which some of them, as the subject of this sketch, have been permitted to view ere called away to their rest.
HON. CLARENCE VANDERBURGH BENSON Was born at Louden, Iowa, Sept. 27th, 1868. His parents came to Golden, Colorado, in 1870, and in 1877 the family removed to Loveland, Colorado, residing on
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a farm, where he grew to manhood. He was grad- uated from the Colorado Agricultural college in 1890, receiving the degree of B. S. He entered the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, graduating in 1892 with the degree of LL. B. He also did post-graduate work and the degree of M. S. was conferred upon him by the Colorado Agricultural college. Soon after receiv-
HON. CLARENCE VANDERBURGH BENSON
ing his university degree he entered upon the prac- tice of law at Fort Collins, Colorado; later he opened an office at Loveland, Colorado. On Nov. 29th, 1893, he was married to Miss Lucy Bell of Chester, New Hampshire, granddaughter of Samuel Bell, formerly governor and United States senator of that state. She is also a graduate of the Colo- rado Agricultural college. He was active in public affairs at Loveland; was elected city attorney, and re-elected for a second term; also served as a member of the city council; held the position of cashier of the Bank of Loveland and was a mem- ber of the board of directors. He was a member of the board of education at Loveland for eight years; was president of the board at the time he resigned to enter upon his duties as Judge of the
county court of Larimer county, to which position he was elected in the fall of 1904. The excellent record which Judge Benson made while on the bench gained him the high esteem of his fellow citi- zens, and made him a host of friends. For a num- ber of years Judge Benson has been prominent in the affairs of the Pacific jurisdiction, Woodmen of the World. He was elected a delegate to the Head Camp session held in San Francisco in 1898, and was re-elected a delegate to the session held in Salt Lake City in 1900, where he was elected a mem- ber of the board of head managers, and was also chosen chairman of the finance committee. He was re-elected to these positions at the Seattle Head Camp session in 1907. Upon the vacancy occurring in November of that year in the office of head clerk, by the death of the former head clerk, his associate officials urged him to accept the appointment ten- dered him, for his trained legal ability and thor- ough familiarity with the business of this great order, and its large investments, especially. fitted him for, this position of high responsibility. - In the fall of 1908 he was nominated by the republican state. convention, for the office of lieutenant gov -. ernor. Judge Benson is a member of the board of directors of the Loveland National bank. ' In his fraternal affiliations he is a 32nd degree Mason, a Shriner, an Elk and a member of the Knights of Pythias.
MYRON H. AKIN, an ex-mayor of Fort Collins and one of the city's leading citizens who, for thirty years has been a prominent factor in the exploita- tion and development of the agricultural, stock- growing and stock-feeding industries of Larimer county, was born in Lockport, Illinois, where he received his education. He was the second son in order of birth of Henry and Eunice ( Harris) Akin, both of whom were natives of the state of New York. Henry Akin, the father, was born Aug. 20th, 1819, in the old historic Hill house at Johns- town, New York, and was cotemporary with Eliza- beth Cady Stanton with whom he went to school. In 1842 he married Eunice Harris, who was born at Pine Plains, Dutchess county, New York, in 1823. Six sons, Henry, a railroad superintendent at Hous- ton, Texas; Myron H., Harris, A. I. Akin, and William B. Akin of Fort Collins, Colorado, and John H. Akin of Houston, Texas, were born of the union. Mr. Akin, senior, came with the younger members of his family from Illinois to Fort Collins in 1879, and settled on a tract of raw land situated three miles southwest of Fort Collins. He was a
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thorough farmer, and with the help of his sons sub- dued the soil and brought his farm under a high and profitable state of cultivation. His wife died in February, 1896, and he followed her to the grave in 1904. The subject of this sketch came from Illi-
MYRON H. AKIN
nois to Fort Collins in 1881 and spent three years on his father's farm. He then became associated with Jesse Harris in the buying and selling of live stock, a line of business he successfully followed for five years. On June 5th, 1890, he was united in marriage with Elizabeth D. Mellinger in Fort Col- lins. She was born in Seven Mile, Ohio, in 1859, and was educated in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After leaving school she taught for six years in the graded schools of Fort Wayne, coming from there to Fort Collins in 1884. Here she was employed as a grade teacher in the public schools for seven years previous to her marriage, and has since served fourteen years on the board of education. Mr. and Mrs. Akin have three children, a son and two daughters, and their names are Eunice Harris, Wayne Mellinger and Julia Asenath, all at home. Miss Eunice is a graduate of the Fort Collins High school and is a talented musician and organist at the
Presbyterian church. Wayne and Julia are still in school. Our subject was one of the organizers of the Akin Live Stock company and was president of the company for three years. This company owned a large tract of land northwest of Fort Collins and did an extensive business for several years in the raising and buying and selling of live stock and in the feeding of cattle and sheep for market. Mr. Akin was also one of the promoters and organizers of the Laramie-Poudre Reservoirs & Irrigation company, now engaged in constructing one of the largest and most important irrigation projects in- augurated in northern Colorado, and has been a director of the company. He served his ward, the Fifth, as a member of the Fort Collins city council from 1908 to 1909, and was then elected mayor of the city, a position he filled with conspicuous ability for two years. He resides in a beautiful home at 1008 Remington street.
JOHN S. CUSACK, cashier of the First National bank of Wellington, Colorado, is a native of Ne- braska, born Nov. 2nd, 1879, at North Bend, Dodge county, that state. He received the rudi- ments of an education in the public schools of his native town and completed his school work at Mon-
JOHN S. CUSACK
mouth, Illinois. After leaving school he was em- ployed by the Standard Beet Sugar company for two years and then opened and conducted a bank at Ames, Nebraska, until June, 1905, when he came
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to Larimer county to accept the position he now holds with the Wellington bank. Mr. Cusack was united in marriage with Mary A. Wilson on June 20th, 1906, and they have one child, named John Charles Cusack. Besides being an excellent busi- ness man and banker, Mr. Cusack is one of the most prominent citizens of Wellington, and takes deep interest in and an active part in the public affairs of the town. He is loyal to the town and believes, and gives reasons for his faith, that Welling- ton is destined to become one of the most important business points in Lari- mer county. Our subject's father, Chris- topher Cusack, was born in Guelph, Canada, of Irish descent. His mother, Eliza (Scott) Cusack, is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Cusack is a Master Mason, an Odd Fellow, and a member of the B. P. O. Elks.
AINSWORTH EMERY BLOUNT was born at Brainard, East Tennessee, Feb. 6th, 1832. His parents were from New England and went south as missionaries to the Cherokee Indians. He was edu- cated at Dartmouth college (class of 1859), and chose teaching as his pro- fession. During the Civil war he saw active service as a captain in the First East Tennessee cavalry under Col. 'Fighting Jim" Brownlow. He was also associated with "Parson" Brown- low in the publication of his abolition paper, and when driven out of Ten- nessee went to Galesburg, Illinois, where the publication was continued. After the close of the war he was postmaster under President Grant at Cleveland, East Tennessee, for eight years. During this time he owned a farm near Cleve- land, where he carried on his experi- ments in improving corn which brought him to the notice of the Department of Agriculture and all the leading agricultural publications of the country. Professor Blount came to the Colorado State Agri- cultural college in 1878, as its first professor of agri- culture. His work of fourteen years in experiment- ing with and improving wheat and other grains was of immense value and gave to the institution and himself a world-wide fame. In 1890 he went to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he spent several years in the same line of work. Professor Blount
was married at Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, in 1865, to Susan P. Hall (sister of Dr. Henry F. and Edward H. Hall). Professor Blount and his wife have lived in recent years at Wellesley, Massa- chusetts. They have two daughters, Miss Nettie, a teacher at Wellesley, and Carrie, wife of George
SOLOMON BATTERSON
H. Bowles, M. D., of Boston, Massachusetts. Pro- fessor Blount died at Wellesley on Feb. 21st, 1911, aged 79 years.
SOLOMON BATTERSON was born Aug. 26th, 1830, in the town of Hume, Alleghany county, New York, his parents being Henry and Hannah (Goff) Batterson. His ancestors moved from Pennsylvania and settled in New York state, where his father followed farming. From there he moved to Cleveland, Ohio; thence, twelve years later to
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Chicago. Shortly afterwards the family settled in Cass county, Illinois, moving later to Chatfield, Minnesota, where the father died. Our subject at- tended the public schools in Cleveland, Ohio, and when 14 years of age hired out to work on a farm and was thus employed for eight years. Mr. Bat- terson was married in Decorah, Iowa, to Mary L. Fassett, who was born in Alleghany county, New
MRS. SOLOMON BATTERSON
York. After devoting eight years to farming in Steele county, Minnesota, he moved to Clear Lake, Iowa, where he carried on a rented farm for three years. In 1870 he came to Colorado with his team and cattle, driving through from Iowa. The fam- ily had started for California, but on reaching the Caché la Poudre valley they were so well pleased with the country that they decided to remain in Larimer county. They went to a point ten miles west of Livermore in August and homesteaded 160 acres and later pre-empted another 160 acres ad- joining, which gave him 320 acres of meadow and pasture land. He subsequently purchased two ad- ditional quarter sections, making him 640 acres of land. He still owns the property and lived on it for about 35 years, amassing a comfortable fortune
in the cattle business. About eight years ago he sold off his cattle, leased his ranch and he and his wife moved to Fort Collins, where Mrs. Batterson died in 1910. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Batterson, but only one, Mrs. Mina Tib- bitts of Livermore, survives. The youngest, a daughter, died in 1878, and the only son, William, passed away in 1908.
HON. JOHN C. ABBOTT was born Jan. 20th, 1841, in Lockport, Will county, Illinois, and reared on a farm. He received his education at Batavia and Joliet in the state of his nativity, and at the college in Hillsdale, Michigan, graduating from that insti- tution. On Nov. 26th, 1862, he was joined in marriage with Emily Wright at Morris, Illinois. Mrs. Abbott was born Aug. 27th, 1840. She was educated in the public schools, completing her studies at Northwestern college. Two sons and a daughter were born of the union, but only the sons, Frank D. and Albert D., are living, the daughter dying at the age of three years. For eight years after the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Abbott he carried on his father's farm in Will county, Illinois, and in 1870 he came to Colorado with the Union colony of Greeley, his family fol- lowing him three months later. The family re- mained in Greeley until 1872, when he located on a tract of wild land in Larimer county, bordering the line between Larimer and Weld counties. This he improved and converted into a valuable farm, on which he lived until 1881, when he moved his family to Fort Collins, where it has since resided. Mr. Abbott early began to take an active part in the development of the agricultural resources of the Cache la Poudre valley, and was particularly interested in the promotion and construction of irri- gating canals and ditches. In company with Ben- jamin H. Eaton, who later become governor of Colorado, they built the Lake canal ditch, the Lari- mer county No. 2 canal, and was associate con- tractor in the construction of the Pleasant Valley & Lake canal in 1879-80. All of these were Lari- mer county enterprises. After moving to Fort Col- lins Mr. Abbott engaged in the mercantile business with Charles W. Ramer, their store standing on the ground now occupied by the First National bank building. He remained thus engaged until he was elected Auditor of State in November, 1882, moving soon afterwards to Denver to enter upon his official duties. After completing the two years' term as State Auditor, he moved his family back to Fort Collins and engaged in the real estate, in-
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