USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 68
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
C. N. GLOVER, President of the Glover Tile company, (Inc.) was born November 22nd, 1860, and educated in Chicago, Illinois .; married Mary E. White, (sister of Mrs. J. L. Armstrong,) of Detroit, Michigan, July 21st, 1883. They have one son, Eugene N., who is engaged in newspaper work. Mr. Glover came to Fort Collins in Dec- ember, 1893, and bought the old Secord place, three
[399]
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
miles north-west of Fort Collins. Here he will erect a $25,000 plant for the manufacture of con- crete tile, an enterprise which promises to become an important addition to the industries of the Caché la Poudre valley. Mr. Glover is one of the ster- ling citizens of Larimer county, public spirited and enterprising.
PAUL W. LEE .- For many years the bar of Lar- imer county has been noted for the intellectual
PAUL W. LEE
acumen, thorough knowledge of jurisprudence, high legal standing and upright professional character of its members. They are all gentlemen of ability, learned in the principles of the law and careful and conscientious in the application of those principles. Among those who stand in the front rank of the legal fraternity of the county is the subject of this sketch. Mr. Lee has been secretary of the Larimer county Bar association since its organization; is a member of the Colorado Bar association and the American Bar association ; of the American Acad- emy of Political and Social Science; of the Amer- ican Political Science association; of the National Municipal League and of the Loyal Legion. He was attorney for the city of Fort Collins from April,
1907 to April, 1911, and has an extended practice in the courts of the state, with a broad experience in ir- rigation litigation, particularly in the courts of Lar- imer and Weld counties, during the past ten years. He has frequently appeared as referee in the adjudi- cation of prior rights to the use of water for irriga- tion and has a thorough knowledge of the theory and practice of irrigation. Mr. Lee was born November 26th, 1876, in Xenia, Ohio. He is a B. A. grad- uate of the University of Colorado, and an LL. B. graduate of the University of Denver. He was
married August 22nd, 1906, to Florence Moore and the union has been blessed with two children, a son and a daughter, Richard M., and Margaret Lee. He came from his native state to Colorado in 1897, locating first at Colorado Springs. After being admitted to practice in the courts of the state in 1900, he settled in Fort Collins which has since been his home. Practiced in Greeley 1901-3; located in Fort Collins in 1903.
ARTHUR J. PIATT was born on a farm in 1872, in Neosho county, Kansas, and educated in Iowa; married Minnie E. Debolt November 21st, 1900, at Fort Collins, Colorado, and they are the par- ents of three daughters, Ruth, Mildred and Evelyn. He came from Iowa to Fort Collins in 1895 and worked on a ranch the first summer; returned then to Iowa and attended school at Earlham acad- emy one winter; came back to Fort Collins in the spring of 1897 and attended one term at the State Normal school, Greeley; engaged in farming the following four years; worked four years for P. Anderson Mercantile company in Fort Collins, and then P. Anderson and he founded the Piatt Mercantile company at Wellington, Colorado, where he and his family reside. Mr. Piatt enjoys the confidence and good will of all who know him and is considered one of the substantial business men of Larimer county.
CLERIN T. WOODS .- Mr. Woods came west when a mere lad, being 12 years of age when he landed in Marshalltown, Iowa, hailing from Ohio, where he was born December 1st, 1853. He was educated in Marshalltown, Iowa. He roughed it across the Plains in 1871, punching cows, and re- peated the trip in 1872. The year 1873 found him a resident of Larimer county. He moved to St. Cloud in 1874, where he served as postmaster for 18 years, and in 1902 he became a resident of Fort Collins. He married Emma Haddock in 1878, at Marshalltown, Iowa. Two sons and two daughters were born to them: Hubert R. Woods,
[400]
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
Auditor Hahn's Peak R. R .; Mrs. Florence E. Baxter, Miss Maud and Imri Woods, the two last being with their parents. Mr. Woods was at one time one of the largest cattle growers in Larimer county.
HOWARD G. SPRINGER .- One of the conspicu- ous examples of the thousands of young men who left their eastern homes and came to Colorado with limited means in the early days in search of a more genial climate and where there were greater ad- vantages for acquiring a competence and who, through industry, persevenance and good judgment, have exceeded their fondest anticipations in that direction, we feel at liberty to mention and point out the subject of our sketch. Mr. Springer was born March 13th, 1865, at Bridgeport, New Jersey, and spent his boyhood on a farm. He received his education in his native town and soon after attain- ing his majority, he bade good-bye to his eastern home and friends and journeyed westward, arriv- ing in Fort Collins in March, 1887. Being a far- mer boy and a lover of good stock, he began to look about for a piece of land or a farm that he could obtain on which to begin an independent life and make a home. Fortune favored him for it soon came to his knowledge that the Armstrong McGinley farm of 240 acres, a short distance north of Timnath, one of the best and most productive tracts of land in the Caché la Poudre valley, was for sale. It did not take him long to close a bargain with Mr. McGinley for the place, going into debt though for a good big share of the purchase money. Possession of the place was given him right away and he went to work digging a fortune out of the soil. If you would learn how well he has suc- ceeded, ask his neighbors, his bankers, or anyone that knows his circumstances, and they will tell you that Howard Springer is one of the foremost as well as one of the wealthiest citizens of the Tim- nath district. He is now the owner of two good farms, one of 200 acres and another of 240 acres, all under a high state of cultivation and producing marvelous crops every year. In 1910 his wheat fields yielded him 66 bushels to the acre, which goes to show what kind of a farmer he is, what kind of land he has and how he works. A poor farmer couldn't get such yields of grain from even the famous rich bottom lands of the Nile. Not long after he began operations on his farm, Mr. Springer discovered that it was not good for man to be alone, that solitude and cold lunches were not conducive to one's greatest happiness, and he be-
gan to look about for a suitable help-meet and com- panion. Here fortune favored him again. Near by lived Almeda Flick, daughter of Paul Flick, one of the real pioneers of the Cache la Poudre valley, and she met favor in his eyes and he in hers, with the usual result-that one very short word in re- ply to a question, settled the matter and they were joined in marriage on March 12th, 1889. The
-
HOWARD G. SPRINGER
union has been blessed with two beautiful daugh- ters, one dying in infancy and the other, Alice Elizabeth, a graduate of the Fort Collins High school. Mr. Springer has had remarkable success as a farmer and stock feeder and this was not due to luck, but to hard work, good management and in knowing how to do a thing right and when to do it. He believes in and practices one of Ben Franklin's famous maxims, "He that by the plow would thrive, himself must either hold or drive." He is known as a man of strict integrity, upright and honorable in all his dealings, as one of the solid, substantial citizens of Larimer county. He is a Vice-President of the Farmers' Bank of Timnath and director of school district No. 6.
[401]
HISTORY OF LARIMER
COUNTY, COLORADO
WILLARD HARDING, one of the early settlers of the Cache la Poudre valley and one of the suc- cessful and substantial farmers of Larimer county, was born in 1840, in Wyoming county, Pennsyl- vania. He was reared on a farm and received his
--
-
WILLARD HARDING
education in the common schools of that period, attending school in the winter season when his services were not needed in his father's fields. He migrated to Colorado in 1872 and first located on a part of the farm now owned by T. J. Stroh. His nearest neighbors at that time were Gilbert Smith, Revilo Loveland, Simon Duncan, Lewis and Peter Kern, William H. and Adolphus Peter- son, Ebenezer, John and David Davis, James B. and John Arthur and Joseph Prendergast. He has followed the business of farming, stock raising and stock feeding since coming to Colorado with uniform success and is rated one of the financially strong men of the county. He has never sought nor accepted public office, although he has always taken a lively interest in public affairs, but has devoted his time and attention to the improvement and cultivation of his farm and to the care of his live stock. Mr. Harding never married and has
therefore lived the life of a bachelor. He has been a good and useful citizen of the county for nearly forty years, and has done his part in helping to subdue the wilderness and make it blossom as the rose. If all men had as high a conception of the difference between right and wrong as has ani- mated his conduct all through life, there would be no need of court houses and jails.
MONTEZUMA W. FULLER was born November 13th, 1858, at Horton, Kings county, Nova Scotia; educated in the public schools and at the Colorado Agricultural college; came from Denver, Colo., to Fort Collins, in April, 1880; married Anna E. Graham, June 27th, 1881, in Fort Collins; names of children: Graham W., Robert K., Frances M., Bessie M., Dorothy F., Paul H. and Margaret Fuller; architect and building superintendent.
FRANK MICHAUD .- This is the story of one of the stand-bys of Larimer county. He came to Colo-
FRANK MICHAUD
rado the first time fifty-four years ago and has been a resident of the county since 1871, a period of forty years. He is widely known and highly es- teemed for his many splendid traits of character.
[402]
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
Mr. Michaud was born October 13th, 1837, at Isle Verte, province of Quebec, Canada, where he received his education in the public schools. He married Aurelia Paradis, August 19th, 1867, at Trois Pistoles, Canada, and they have four chil- dren, Joseph and Anna Michaud, Mrs. Helen Wil- lox and Mrs. Mary Bogard, all of Fort Collins. In 1856, Mr. Michaud went into the lumber woods
MRS. FRANK MICHAUD
of Northern Wisconsin and rafted lumber down the Wisconsin river from Wausau to Prairie du Chien and other river towns on the Mississippi. In 1857, he drifted to St. Louis and hired out to Col. Bent to drive an ox team loaded with freight to Bent's fort in the Arkansas river valley. He made the trip without incident or serious accident, returning to St. Louis in 1858 and drove a gov- ernment train to Fort Union, New Mexico. He then went to New Orleans, but not being pleased with conditions there, returned to his starting point and in the spring of 1859, arrived in Den- ver. After spending three months in the mines at Central City, he returned to Denver and took up 160 acres of land on the Platte river bottom, near
the present town of Brighton. He was the first man in Colorado to declare his intentions to be- come a citizen of the United States. This was in the spring of 1861. He remained on his ranch near Brighton, making hay and raising vegetables for the Denver market until 1871, when he traded the ranch with Joseph Mason for the farm in the Caché la Poudre valley on which he still lives. Since coming to Larimer county he has taken an active interest in public affairs and has been road overseer of his district for eleven years and school director for twenty years. He is regarded as one of the best citizens of the county, intelligent, honest and up- right.
FRANK A. CHAFFEE .- A native to the manor born, a man who has spent all the years of his life in Larimer county. Mr. Chaffee was born on the Big Thompson, one mile west of where Loveland now stands, June 30th, 1862. He was educated in the schools of Fort Collins, and was married to Miss Anna C. Hawley, Nov. 10th, 1892. They have one daughter, Gladys. Mr. Chaffee has been in business in Fort Collins for over twenty years, and with W. C. Stover and R. M. Ferguson founded the Collins Cash Clothing Co. Since the death of W. C. Stover, his son, Judge Fred W. Stover has become the silent partner of the firm. In 1908, Mr. Chaffee was elected a member of the board of County Commissioners. His large ma- jority of the votes cast is a true measure of the confidence and esteem in which he is held by the people of the county.
PETER GEALOW .- This is a brief life history of Peter Gealow, one of the pioneers of Virginia Dale and also one of the solid, substantial citizens of Larimer county. He was born in Germany, but came to the United States with his parents when a child and was educated in this country. In 1883 he married Ida Waxmost, at St. Peter, Minne- sota. They have no children. By occupation he is a stockman in which he has had good success. He came to Larimer county in 1872 and located on a ranch on Deadman creek, which has since been his home. His neighbors at that time, were S. C. Leach and Frank Kibler and they lived several miles distant from him. He never had any trouble with the Indians nor anybody else, having always lived a quiet, peaceful life and given to minding his own business and not interfering with his neigh- bors. He is widely known and is a good and highly
[403]
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
respected citizen. From him we learn that William Kibler, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kibler, was the first child born in Virginia Dale and he opened his eyes upon his world in 1873.
JAMES C. DOUGLASS .- Born May 12th, 1848, in Cochranton, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, where he received his education in the public
MR. AND MRS. JAMES C. DOUGLASS
schools. He was reared to manhood on a farm and soon after attaining his majority, he moved to Garnett, Kansas, where he was married in 1876, to Cynthia A. Clarke. They have three children living, Earl, Wilhelmina and Helen Irma, all of whom were born in Fort Collins, to which place Mr. and Mrs. Douglass moved in 1879. Before coming to Fort Collins he had been engaged in farming in Kansas, but since then he has given his attention mainly to the coal and transfer business which he has successfully followed for nearly thirty years. His children have been given the advant- ages offered by the public schools of Fort Collins, all of them being graduates of the High school, the son Earl and daughter Wilhelmina being grad- uates also of the Colorado Agricultural college, at
which institution Earl is now a valued member of the teaching staff. The daughters are successful public school teachers in the county. During his residence in Fort Collins our subject has acquired valuable real estate in the city and is also the owner of farm property on Dry creek. He is half owner and builder of the Colorado block, one of the finest business and office blocks in the city; has a fine house on South Howes street and is in comfort- able financial circumstances. He is a leading mem- ber of the First Baptist church, a man of honor and integrity and enjoys the confidence and respect of all who know him.
MRS. JAMES C. DOUGLASS .- Cynthia Ann Clarke first saw the light in Pickaway county, Ohio, where she spent sixteen years of wholesome life on a farm. Then, "after the war" the Clarke family fell victims to the western fever, and came, first by river steamer down the Ohio and then over- land from the Missouri to Anderson county, Kan- sas. They shared the trials of pioneers, their un- ceasing toil and uncertain future of the farmers about them, accepting grasshopper years, dry years and years of plenty hopefully and as cheerfully as possible. Miss Clarke soon became one of the much needed teachers of the county and also attended the Kansas State Normal school at Emporia, a couple of terms. In 1876 she married James C. Douglass, also a Kansan, and three years later started for Colorado in a prairie schooner. For six long, tiresome weeks that vehicle impelled by horses, crawled over the Plains of Kansas and Colo- rado in scorching summer heat, its occupants, weary of camp life and scarcity of water, finally reached Laporte, August 1st, 1879. After visiting many localities in the state from the Caché la Poudre valley to the Garden of the Gods, Mr. and Mrs. Douglass settled in Fort Collins and have since made that city their home, enjoying content, pros- perity and the good-will and esteem of a wide cir- cle of warm friends. Mrs. Douglass is a member of the Baptist church and has long been a leader in all good work connected therewith.
THOMAS DARNELL, one of the early settlers of the Cache la Poudre valley, died November 14th, 1904, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. A. Drake, wife of Senator Drake, aged 76 years. He came from Iowa to Fort Collins in 1880, and en- gaged in farming. In 1902 he sold his farm to the North Poudre Canal company, as the greater por- tion of it would be covered by the Fossil Creek res- ervoir which that company was building, and moved
[404]
1
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
his family into Fort Collins. His aged wife died in June, 1904, and he then made his home with his daughter until death ensued.
ABNER LOOMIS .- The history of Larimer county, like that of all other communities, is founded upon the lives, the characters, and the deeds of the pion- eers, who braved the dangers and endured the hard- ships, privations and sufferings incident to the long and perilous journey across a 600 mile desert to establish a new home beyond the borders of civil- ization. Their blood was tinctured with iron, their nerves fortified by steel and their souls made invulnerable by high purposes and cherished ideals. They were also possessed of prophetic vision, for they saw in this land of promise the making of a rich and prosperous region, filled with teeming thousands of happy, contented people. They came and laid the foundations deep and lasting for the blessings of civilization which we of the present generation now enjoy. To Abner Loomis, one of that noble band of pioneers, this sketch is dedi- cated. Mr. Loomis was born December 17th, 1829, at Fredonia, New York. His parents moved to Black Creek, Ohio, when our subject was four years old, and here the future pioneer and suc- cessful man of affairs had his first introduction to the school room, within a small, rude log struc- ture with rough benches and desks, to sit and work upon. A primer was his only school book. In 1840, the family moved to Iowa, then a sparcely settled country without schools or colleges, con- sequently young Loomis had but slight opportuni- ties to acquire an education outside of his own efforts before the family fireside, but those efforts proved invaluable to him in after life. In 1850, Mr. Loomis crossed the Plains to California with an ox team and was three months making the jour- ney. He made money at placer mining, but spent much of his gains searching for richer ground. He returned to Iowa in 1859, and in the spring of 1860 started for Colorado, then the mecca of gold hunt- ers. Soon after arriving at his destination, he fell in with Antoine Janis with whom and eight others, he prospected along the eastern base of the moun- tains from Laporte to Medicine Bow creek, but failed to find enough of the yellow dust to pay ex- penses. In June, 1860, he returned to the Caché la Poudre valley and in company with two others, filed a squatter's claim on land in Pleasant valley. The prairie was covered with a luxuriant growth of grass and while his associates were cutting and stacking hay, he went to Denver, bought an ox
team and drove it to Omaha after a load of provi- sions which he brought back that season. In the win- ter of 1860-1 and spring of 1861, their surplus hay was hauled to Central City, a distance of 90 miles, and sold for $100 per ton. In 1861, Mr. Loomis raised potatoes, corn and other vegetables on his land in which he succeeded so well that he con- tinued in that line until 1867, finding a ready, though distant market for his products at the min- ing camps. In 1862, Mr. Loomis exchanged gold dust for mint certificates and made a trip to Mis- souri. He fell in with some Union soldiers in Kan- sas who arrested him in the belief that he was a a spy from "Pap" Price's confederate army, but when he showed his captors those mint certificates, they released him. If he had not had those cer- tificates he probably would have been hung as a spy. In 1867 he gave up general farming and turned his attention to cattle raising, having already accumulated a herd of 200 head. That year he established a ranch at Spring canon and thence- forward for about 15 years he devoted the most of his time and attention to the cattle business. In 1879 he formed a partnership with Charles B. An- drews in the cattle business and in 1882 the firm sold 7,000 head for $127,000. When Mr. Loomis first settled in Pleasant Valley, in June, 1860, there were but three other Americans here, and they were William Lytton and Todd, and A. W. Randall. After disposing of his cattle, Mr. Loomis devoted his means and energies to the upbuilding of Fort Collins and Larimer county. His life was ever a busy one and his work of whatever nature was well done. He was a pioneer of pion- eers and his counsel was often sought on various subjects and his aid and sympathy were extended to all worthy objects. In every step forward in the march of progress he was a potent factor. No heart was more quickly touched by appeals of the unfortunate and the aid he rendered was the un- ostentatious and quiet act of one who fully under- stood the master definition of true charity. His love of right, strong as it was, was no stronger than his abhorence of wrong, and he had that moral poise which intuitively differentiated between right and wrong. Recollections of Abner Loomis, of his blameless life, his sturdy manhood, his energy, enterprise and public spirit; of his generous deeds, his loyalty as a friend and as a citizen and his lov- ing kindness and sympathy for those in trouble, will ever be pleasant and profitable. In 1894, he was elected President of the Poudre valley bank, a position he filled for more than ten years. When
[405]
HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY,
COLORADO
the county . was organized, Governor Evans ap- pointed him member of the board of County Com- missioners and he served the people in that capa- city for eleven successive years. He also served his ward on the town board of trustees when the water works were built in 1882-3. In 1862 he mar- ried Isabelle Allen, who was the mother of his children. She died greatly lamented in October, 1892, and on December 21st, 1896, he married Mrs. M. Maxwell, who survives him. He de- parted this life August 23rd, 1904. His surviving children are Leonidas, Guy E., and Jasper Loomis, Mrs. T. H. Robertson and Mrs. Charles Gold- ing-Dwyre, Jr. Mr. Loomis was a Master Mason and a member of the order of Elks.
JACK HARPER; born in 1844, in Virginia, and moved to Nebraska in 1860; fought Indians on the Plains for three years and in 1867 came to Fort Collins with a mule team and was employed for a time at hauling lumber from Rist Canon to Fort Russell, Wyoming; ran a threshing machine in 1868 for N. H. Meldrum; drove ties down the Poudre in 1870 with a gang of Mexicans for Con- tractor Watson; went to Texas and in 1877 mar- ried Miss M. J. Fritz, settling soon after in Utah where he now resides. He has pleasant recollec- tions of many of the old timers in the Cache la Poudre valley, including Joseph, Austin and Frank Mason, White, Bradbury, Gordon and Dr. T. M. Smith.
JAMES M. MCCREERY .- Our subject in this in- stance was one of the pioneers of the Big Thomp- son valley and was during all of his thirty-seven years' residence one of the most popular and most highly esteemed citizens of Larimer county. Every- body knew James M. McCreery and everybody had the utmost confidence in his honesty, his integrity and in the sincerity of his purpose. Friends he had everywhere and enemies he had but few. He was the soul of honor, whether as a private citizen or as a servant of the people whom he repeatedly served in various important positions of public trust. Mr. McCreery was born April 25th, 1853, in Indiana county, Pennsylvania. He was reared on a farm and received his education in his native town. A portion of his boyhood years were spent learning a trade in the car shops at Allegheny, Penn. He came west in 1874 and settled in the Big Thomp- son valley where he spent four years on a farm. He was then employed for several years as salesman in Krouskop's store at Loveland. On November 22nd, 1882, he was united in marriage with Ada
L. Shallenberger and their living children are Ralph R., Mrs. Bessie Van Sickle, Lucas, Herbert (now deceased), and Helen. In January, 1892, Mr. McCreery was appointed deputy County assessor and he moved his family from Loveland to Fort Collins, which place remains the family home. Four years later he was elected County assessor, which office he filled four years with conspicuous
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.