USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 78
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duty ; mustered out in 1866; followed farming until 1874, when he came to Fort Collins, where he has since lived. He married for his first wife Sarah J. Luke, who died in 1909; remarried Mrs. Rebecca Powers in 1910; has three sons, Thomas, Charles and George; two daughters, Mrs. Mary Williams and Mrs. Kate Hodges.
W. E. WILLIS was born in 1829, in Harrison county, West Virginia; reared on a farm and at- tended district school; married Harriett E. Bos- worth in 1851 and the names of their children are Perry H., Squire L., George, William E., Raymond L. Mr. Willis came to Colorado in 1871, and located on a farm in Pleasant Valley where he suc- cessfully followed gardening for several years. He was an honest, industrious and prudent man and a loyal citizen of the county. Mrs. Willis was a sister of P. J., H. P. and W. P. Bosworth, all of. Larimer county. Our subject is descended from a colonial family of Virginia, his ancestors settling in that colony in the early years of the Seventeenth century. His great, great grandfather was a school teacher in Virginia before the revolutionary war and one of the contracts executed between him and the school authorities of that period is still in existence. It provided among other things that he should receive in payment for his services so many bushels of corn, so much bacon and a certain amount of money, and that he should be excused from teach- ing so many days during the term so that he could hoe his own corn. Mr. Willis was an honest, hard working citizen. He died August 17th, 1902, aged 73 years. During the Civil war he was in the United States transportation service.
GEORGE H. WILLCOX was one of the first men to recognize the value of Colorado's most succulent grasses and to fully grasp the advantages of that magnificient forage plant, alfalfa, as a food for dairy cattle. He came west from Iowa, in 1880, where he was born October 19th, 1856; married Rose Webber at Ouray, Colorado, February 22nd, 1893. For a number of years Mr. Willcox has been in the dairy business and is now located near Fort Collins. He owns a splendid herd of selected dairy animals, and has among the number many very choice specimens of the Holstein breed, re- markable for their milk producing qualities, true types of the one purpose animal. Mr. Willcox is an active, energetic man who has built up a fine business by square dealing and honest treatment to a long list of patrons.
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MR. AND MRS. JOHN G. COY
HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
JOHN G. CoY, one of Larimer county's foremost farmers and most highly respected pioneer citizens, was born April 14th, 1834, in Oswego, New York. His parents were English people and his father was a miller by trade. At the age of ten years, our subject was left an orphan and thrown upon the care of an uncle. When 13 years of age he went to live with an uncle in Illinois and worked on a farm for five years, returning then to Oswego. In the fall of 1852, he went by sea to New Orleans, thence up the Mississippi to St. Louis. Here he joined a caravan bound for California, which crossed the continent and arrived at its destination that fall. He first found employment on a ranch, then made shingles and spent a few years in mining with indifferent success. Mr. Coy returned to New York in the spring of 1861, via the Isthmus of Panama and in the spring of 1862 he and Emily Adams were married. Mrs. Coy was born near Norwich, England, in 1838, and was the second eldest of a family of eleven children. Her parents came to America when she was three years of age. Her mother died when she was 15 and her father followed his wife to the grave six years later, leav- ing her to care for the family of children. After teaching school about a year and a half, she mar- ried Mr. Coy and shortly afterwards bride and groom started on their long and perilous trip across the dreary Plains. They left Cuba, Missouri, with three yoke of oxen, a light covered wagon, a tent, a saddle horse and provisions enough to last them through to California. The story of the trials, accidents and incidents, met with on this trip is related in a paper read by Mrs. Coy at an annual banquet of the Pioneer association, which is re- produced elsewhere in this volume under the cap- tion "Crossing the Plains in 1862". Mr. and Mrs. Coy arrived in the Cache la Poudre valley and on the site of their present home on August 1st, 1862, where they concluded to remain through the follow- ing fall and winter as the season was too late to safely venture on the long trip to the Pacific coast. One winter in Colorado removed all thoughts of going on to California and for nearly half a century the Cache la Poudre valley has been their home. Mr. Coy occupies and carries on the farm he lo- cated on in 1862 and it is one of the best and most productive farms in the county. He is a thorough going farmer, stock feeder and business man, which furnishes the key to his success in life. His farm is highly improved and yields its owner a hand- some income annually. The farm buildings are modern in character and arranged with special
reference to utility and convenience. Since becom- ing a citizen of the Cache la Poudre valley, Mr. Coy has twice served the county as a member of the board of county commissioners, once the candidate of his party for state senator and once for gov- ernor of Colorado, and has always taken an active interest in public affairs. That he failed of an election to these high positions was not due to lack of personal popularity but to the fact that his party was largely in the minority. Mr. and Mrs. Coy have been the parents of ten children, four of whom died at a tender age. The six surviving are all married and well settled in life. The eldest, Elizabeth, is the wife of Prof. James W. Law- rence, head of the department of mechanical engi- neering at the Colorado Agricultural college. She was a member of the first class to graduate from that institution receiving ; the degree of B. S. in 1884. The other daughters are now Mrs. John M. Hoffman, of Fort Collins and Mrs. George Bertram, of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The sons are named W. B. Coy, a farmer of Torrington, Wyom- ing; John E. Coy, a farmer of Fort Collins, and Burgis Coy, a civil engineer in charge of construc- tion work on the Laramie-Poudre Reservoir and Irrigation company's mammoth irrigation projects.
JAMES M. NAYLOR was born September 30th, 1854, in Shelby county, Missouri; married Sarah E. Golay, born August 15th, 1859, in Shelby county on July 6th, 1879; came to Colorado in 1873, and engaged in stock raising until 1878 when he went to Missouri and married. He then returned to Colorado in 1881, locating three miles northwest of Loveland, and engaged in farming and stock raising; moved in 1882 three miles east of Love- land, and in 1890 to the Alexander place near the Little dam. In 1891, he moved to Chaffee county, Colorado, selling his range stock in 1897 and moving back to the Big Thompson valley to a place two miles northeast of Loveland, where he fed sheep and cattle until 1909, when he moved his family to Loveland, and is now living a retired life at 409 E. 7th street. Mr. Naylor is one of the enterprising and thrifty farmers and stock raisers of Larimer county.
SAMUEL H. EIDSON was born in 1850, in Adams county, Illinois, where he received his education; came to Colorado in 1871, locating first in Boulder county; moved to Larimer county in 1879 and is a farmer by occupation ; married Carrie Ackerman in 1879 at Hygiene, Colo., and their children's names
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HISTORY OF
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are, Otto, Elmo, Carl, Lester, Jean, Gladys, Theo- dore, and Josephine. Mr. Eidson helped to build the Handy and Home Supply irrigating canals and Mariana reservoir.
JOHN LEWIS HERZINGER .- Born April 1st, 1854 in Germany; died January 12th, 1899, in Loveland, Colorado. This simple statement tells of the opening and closing of a long and useful
JOHN LEWIS HERZINGER
life-a life marked by good deeds, love for his fellowman, his country, his home, his family and his God. For more than a score of years Mr. Herzinger was a leading citizen and business man of Loveland and was known far and wide because of his manliness, his unselfish and spotless char- acter and for his good citizenship. He came with his parents from the Fatherland to the United States when four years of age, the family settling in Jackson, Missouri. Here he obtained a common school education and learned the shoemaker's trade. In 1849 he went to California, where he remained several years. On October 5th, 1860, he was joined in marriage with Mary M. Loyd of Freder- ickstown, Missouri, who survives him. No child-
ren were born of the union. During the civil war, Mr. Herzinger served as scout under Generals Grant and Prentice, and was commended for his loyalty and many acts of bravery. In 1871 he came from Missouri to Caribou, Boulder county, where he became associated with S. B. Harter in the mercantile business-a partnership which con- tinued for more than a quarter of a century. In the fall of 1877, the firm moved to Loveland and erected the first brick store building and hall in that town. Mr. Herzinger was mayor of Love- land for two years and was for many years a di- rector of the Bank of Loveland. Strict integrity and a keen business mind characterized all his dealings. He joined the Odd Fellows in Califor- nia and was a charter member of Loveland lodge No. 36, I. O. of O. F .; also a member of the Methodist church.
HANNAH M. CASE was born May 17th, 1845, in Athens county, Ohio, the daughter of a mer- chant and manufacturer, D. B. Stewart, for whom her birth place was named. She was educated at Miller's Seminary, and at the age of 20, married J. M. Case, the inventor of the roller process em- ployed in the manufacture of flour. Of this union six children were born, two boys and four girls, all of whom are living. Their names are Mrs. Rosa- mond Herd, of Cortland, Arizona; Murray B. Case also of Arizona; Ethel A. Hicks, of Lamont, Iowa; Harvey O. Case of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Mrs. Mabel L. Baisden, of Havana, Cuba, and Luella Case of Fort Collins. Mrs. Case and her youngest daughter, Luella, came to Fort Collins in 1899, and that place has since been their home.
JOHN W. SEAMAN .- Died at midnight on Janu- ary 9th, 1907, at his home in Loveland, aged 63 years. Mr. Seaman was born in 1844, at Belle- fontaine, Ohio. He was educated in the public schools of that day, and in 1862, when but 18 years of age, he enlisted in the 96th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but was discharged at Vicksburg in 1863, on account of disability. Recovering his health, he reentered the army in 1864 in the 132nd Ohio Infantry, and was commissioned a Second Lieu- tenant. When the Civil war closed he returned to his Ohio home, where he remained until 1871, coming then to Colorado and locating in Evans. In 1877, Mr. Seaman came to Loveland and took charge of George Krouskop's general store. In 1883, he was appointed Postmaster by President Arthur, and gave the community splendid service. After
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HISTORY OF
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retiring from the postoffice in 1888, he again en- gaged in the mercantile business, and twice served Loveland as member of the board of town trustees. In the fall of 1901 he was elected County Assessor, and reelected in the fall of 1904. He was a care- ful, painstaking and one of the most conscientious public officials Larimer county ever had. He left a widow, three sons and a young daughter. The eldest son is the present Assessor of the county.
COOKE RHEA now a prosperous Jackson county ranchman, but a former resident of Fort Collins, has been on the frontier nearly all his life. He was born October 28th, 1844, in Mercer county, Missouri, and relocated in Platte county, Neb- raska. In November, 1886, he married Carrie Growendike at Rawlins, Wyoming, and his living children are Ethel R., Clara L., Spartan W. and Ruth N. His daughter Ethel was the first child born in Big Creek Park, Jackson county. Mr. Rhea came to Kansas in 1854, in Border Ruffian times, and to Colorado in 1872, returning to Kan- sas the following year. In the raid the Cheyenne Indians made through Kansas in 1875, he cap- tured Chief Dull Knife's horse and kept the animal until he died. He came back to Colorado in 1880, and in 1882 helped to build the Greeley, Salt Lake, & Pacific railroad, having a sub-contract for grad- ing the track across the Sherwood ranch west of Timnath. In the fall of 1882 he went to North Park, locating on a stock ranch, in Big Creek Park, where he still lives. Mr. Rhea did a good deal of hunting game for market the first few years of his life in the park, always with good success. Antelope, deer, elk and bear were plentiful in those days, and he shot and killed twenty-seven antelope in one day. Of other game killed that year (1882) there were four bear, eleven deer, seventeen elk and seven mountain sheep.
PROF. EDWARD B. HOUSE, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. E. P. House of Greeley, and head of the de- partment of Civil and Irrigation Engineering of the Colorado State Agricultural college was born February 27th, 1872. His father came to Colo- rado in 1865 and his mother in 1870. The family lived at Evans until 1878 and then moved to Greeley. There were three children in the family, Edward B., George W., and Louise, now Mrs. Downey, all of whom were educated in the pub- lic schools of Greeley. Our subject graduated from the Greeley High school in 1891, and then spent a year at work earning money to enable him
to enter college. He spent the year 1893 at the University of Pittsburg, going thence to the Uni- versity of Michigan at Ann Arbor, graduating therefrom with the degree of B. S. (E. E.) on June 20th, 1896, as one of the honor members of a class of 851 students. He came to Fort Collins and began work at the Colorado State Agricultural college on September 1st, 1896, as assistant in
PROF. EDWARD B. HOUSE
mathematics and physics; was made professor of mathematics January 1st, 1897 and held the chair of mathematics for nine years; did irrigation work during the summer vacations for several years; worked on the Colorado-Kansas case two summers and was stationed at Chamber's lake one summer. The degree of M. S. was conferred upon him June 3rd, 1904, and September 1st, 1905, he was chosen associate professor of Irrigation Engineering. He held this position five years. On June 15th, 1910, he was promoted to professor of Civil and Irriga- tion Engineering, and on April 1st, 1911 he was placed at the head of that department of college work. On August 25th, 1896, Professor House was joined in marriage with Harriet Chandler of Macomb, Illinois, who had been a teacher in the
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HISTORY OF
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public schools of Fort Collins. They have three children; Edward C., Margaret, and Joseph C. House, all at home. Professor House is a member of Larimer Lodge No. 101, Knights of Pythias and represented the lodge in the Grand lodge of Colorado in 1901; was elected Grand Master at Arms in 1904, and Grand Chancellor in 1907, leading the Colorado Pythians through a successful and prosperous year.
WILBUR R. THORNTON, a former capable, hon- est and very efficient member of the board of com- missioners of Larimer county, who died June 19th,
WILBUR R. THORNTON
1901, at Loveland, was a native of the state of New York. He married Jessie Scoville in 1877, at At- tica, New York, and they came to Colorado the same year. His early pursuits were teaching school and carpenter work, but after coming to Larimer county his business was chiefly farming, at which he was very successful. For many years he was the moving spirit and president of the Home Supply ditch. In 1891 he was elected a county commis- sioner on the democratic and prohibition ticket, serving his term of three years with marked ability and satisfaction; for seven months he was manager
of the Berthoud Mill and pulled the affairs of the Milling company through the panic of 1893-4, after being repeatedly requested to take full charge. Mr. Thornton had lived in and around Loveland for nearly thirty years, when he died, holding the respect and confidence of all who knew without a break through all those years. He left surviving three children, Clarence F., Theresa R., and Bruce J. Thornton. The family lives at 355 West 5th street, Loveland. Mr. Thornton was by nature, education and experience well fitted for almost any position in the gift of the people and had he lived he would no doubt have been called upon to serve the people in many public capacities. He knew how to transact public as well as private business in a methodical and accurate manner and was of great service in this regard as a member of the board of county commissioners. Larimer county never had a more competent and conscien- tious member of the board than he proved to be or one that gave better service. His death was not only a great loss to his family but a distinct loss to the community in which he lived and to the county at large.
WILLIAM A. SHIPP was born April 2nd, 1855, at Jordan Grove, Iowa; educated at Irving, Kan- sas, and at Laporte, Colorado; came to Colorado in 1868 with his father's family and settled at La- porte. He was joined in marriage with Maggie Lawrence on March 29th, 1880, and they have four children; Elsie, Albert, Walter and Alice. Mr. Shipp has followed farming for many years with a fair measure of success. He resides in Pleasant Valley.
WILLIAM T. NEWELL was born December 12th, 1830, in Hancock county, West Virginia; raised on a farm and received his education in the common schools; went to Iowa in 1854, remaining in that state until 1860, when he crossed the Plains with an ox team and arrived at Central City, Colorado, May 20th; engaged in mining and lumbering in Gilpin county for 23 years; came to the Little Thompson valley in 1883, having, in 1874, pur- chased 320 acres of land situated 1} miles east of Berthoud, which he fenced for pasture; married Carrie E. Bradley, daughter of S. H. and Anna Laurie Bradley of Black Hawk, in January, 1867; ten children were born of the union, five of them are living: J. H. Newell, manager of Mintener Lumber company, Berthoud; W. A. Newell, S. Ernest and William T., farmers near Berthoud, and Charles S. Newell of the Colorado Telephone
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JOSEPH MURRAY
MRS. JOSEPH MURRAY
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
company, Denver. Mr. Newell crossed the Plains seven times in a wagon and tells some thrilling Indian stories. He and his wife are passing their declining years in the village of Berthoud.
HON. JOSEPH MURRAY .- Joseph Murray, spec- ial agent of the United States Treasury Depart- ment in charge of the Seal islands of Alaska, died in Fort Collins, October 4th, 1898, at the age of 55 years. Mr. Murray was born April 10th, 1843 in County Kildare, near Dublin, Ireland, and was educated in the national schools of Ireland and at Salford college, England. Of humble but honest parentage, he early developed those traits of char- acter that made him a noted man throughout his eventful life. His leading characteristics were a cheerful and vivacious temperament, enthusiasm, ready sympathy for the weak and suffering and un- tiring energy. Mr. Murray, at the age of 18 years, came to the United States and joined the Union Army, enlisting in the famous 69th New York Volunteers, which was attached to General Francis Meagher's Irish brigade. He fought in the army of the Potomac from Manassas to the Wilderness, participating in the first big battle of the war at Bull Run, July 21st, 1861, also in the battles at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He was commissioned a second lieu- tenant before the war ended. After being mustered out, Mr. Murray followed bookkeeping in New York, going thence to Paterson, New Jersey to become foreman of a factory. In August, 1869, he married Miss Margaret H. Jordan of Whip- pany, New Jersey, who survives him. They came to Colorado in 1870, with the Greeley Colony, and went bravely to work together to make a home on the barren Plains. Mr. Murray assisted mater- ially in the organizing of the town of Greeley and in bringing order out of chaos. Three years later he moved to Larimer county and took up a home- stead in the Harmony district and engaged in farm- ing. He was elected assessor of the county in 1874, and was the candidate of the republican party for sheriff in 1876, but was defeated. Later he identified himself with the Farmers' Alliance and labor movements. He was called the father of the Knights of Labor in Colorado and assisted in organizing lodges all over the state and in attempt- ing to improve the conditions of the laboring classes. He was also an aggressive champion of the farm- ers' movement and was the leader in organizing the Farmers' Milling & Elevator company, in which he was a very heavy loser. In 1889, President
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Harrison appointed him special agent of the treas- ury department to take charge of the Alaska seal fisheries, a position he held up to the time of his death. In the care of the seal rookeries and the supervision of the fish canneries he had an exten- sive territory to cover, requiring him to travel from the Pribyloff Islands to Sitka, a distance of 5,000 miles. He did a great deal to preserve seal life from pelagic sealers, and assisted materially in bringing about the settlement of the vexed seal question between the United States and Great Britain. He was on his way to Washington to prepare and submit his report, and stopped off to visit his family after an absence of two years when stricken with paralysis of the brain from which he failed to recover. Thus ended the life and public services of one of the most useful and popular men that ever dwelt in Larimer county.
WILLIAM RINGLAND was born in County Down, Ireland, on Nov. 5, 1841, on the farm that had been in his father's family for over 200 years. On February 1, 1867, he and Margaret Ann Ireland were married, the ceremony being performed in the Presbyterian church, Killileigh, County Down, by the Rev. Andrew Braky, the pastor who performed a similar service for the father and mother of the groom, and in the same church. Twin sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ringland, on October 14, 1870, the mother dying the following February. The father and his sons set sail for America, via Liverpool, England. He left his sons with an uncle in Ohio and continued his journey, arriving in Larimer county, about the 26th of March, 1871, and here he has since lived.
PERRY REEDER .- Our subject is one of the thrifty, prosperous farmers of Larimer county, who, starting with little except a clear brain and willing hands, has made good. He was born March 8th, 1863, in West Virginia, mid the booming of cannon, the whistling of bullets and the rattle of drums of the Civil war period, and was educated at Carth- age, Illinois. He came to Colorado in 1887, and went to work on a farm for E. B. Davis, south of Timnath. In 1894, he married Emma E. Allam of Windsor, who died in March, 1903, leaving a daughter, Fannie, and a son, Albert. Soon after his first marriage, he took charge of the Alex Barry farm south of Windsor, where he lived for six years. In 1901 he bought a farm of 160 acres six miles east of Fort Collins, on which he still re- sides. In June, 1904, Mr. Reeder married, for his
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second wife, Mrs. Lizzie Walker of Fort Collins. His farm is watered from the Larimer County canal, one of the best irrigating canals in the state. He has fed sheep for 14 years and has found it to be a very profitable industry.
FREDERICK J. SCHROEDER .- Born of German parents, June 7th, 1857, in Auglaise county, Ohio, our subject received his education in the public
FREDERICK J. SCHROEDER
schools of Cincinnati. Soon after leaving school he began work in a grocery store, and later went to Knoxville, Ohio, where he apprenticed him- self to learn the harness maker's trade. He then returned to Cincinnati and resumed the occupa- tion of salesman in a grocery store, which he fol- lowed until he was 22 years of age, and then went into business for himself. In 1882 he married Emma E. Konsheim, and seven children are living as fruits of the union, whose names are Albert, Margaret, Edna, John, Lewis, Theodore, and Mary, all at home. Seized with the western fever in 1883, Mr. Schroeder came with his family to Larimer county and took up the claim in Liver- more that Arthur Aldrich now owns and occupies.
After spending a year in the mountains, he moved to Fort Collins in 1884, and went to work in Evans, Thoman & company's market. In 1885, he went into partnership with John Yost and the firm bought the Standard market on Linden street and continued in that line of business until 1904, when he sold out. Since then, Mr. Schroeder has been engaged in buying and selling live stock, feeding cattle and sheep for market and in wool growing in which he has had splendid success. Though neither a politician nor an office seeker, he has through the unsought partiality of friends served the First ward of Fort Collins five years as its rep- resentative in the city council, one year by appoint- ment and two full terms by election, making an enviable record for faithfulness and fidelity to trust. He has a beautiful home on Remington street and is the owner of considerable other real estate. He is a public spirited, progressive citizen and no man in the home of his adoption enjoys to greater extent the good will, confidence and re- spect of his fellowmen than Frederick J. Schroeder.
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