History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 105

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080

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LIEUT. JOHN F. BARKLEY.

The above-named gentleman and subject of the following biography is South Pueblo's most prominent dealer in general merchandise. He was born near Augusta, Bracken County, Ky., on the 17th day of February, 1835. His par- ents moved to Illinois when he was eight years old. There he went to school an occasional winter and worked on the farm and at black- smithing until he was twenty-one, when he had become proficient in the blacksmith's trade and which he followed the greater part of the suc- ceeding five years. The call of Abraham Lin- coln for 75,000 three-months men met with an immediate response from his patriotism, he being one of the first to offer his services to his country. He enlisted in Company G, of the Eleventh Infantry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, at Effingham, in April, 1861. The regiment was ordered to Jonesboro, Ill., and from there to Bird's Point, Mo., where it was mustered-out in July of the same year. This regiment was not in an engagement from the time it was mnstered in to the time it was mus- tered out, and the only unpleasant part of those three months of a soldier's life which he ex- perienced was an attack of typhoid fever of short duration. He intended to re-enlist, but first wished to see his old acquaintances, so, after he was mustered out at Bird's Point he returned to Illinois and spent three months, just the length of time he was in the army, visiting relatives and friends, and then enlisted at Mason, Ill., for three years, in Company D,

P. R. Themalo

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of the Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry, to which company he was elected and mustered in as Second Lieutenant. The Fifty-fourth was pushed to the front. It was at the siege and capture of Vicksburg, but was never drawn into pitched battle, and the only fighting it did was a little skirmishing with Forrest's command in Tennessee. Lieut. Barkley, after three months' and three years' service in two different regiments was mustered-out at Little Rock, Arkansas, without the misfortune of being in one heated engagement or of receiving a single wound. To be in the midst, as it were, of bat- tle as long and often as he was and not be en- gaged seems almost incredible. During his service, he was an officer of court martial three months at Little Rock, and was promoted to First Lieutenant at the siege of Vicksburg. He was in ill health before his enlistment but perfectly well when discharged. He commenced dealing in general merchandise in Watson, Ill., with William Abraham as partner, soon after he came out of the army the second time. Nine years he was in trade and partnership with him. His wife's health having failed, he dissolved partnership with Abraham and brought her to Colorado. She gained from the day of her ar- rival and is pleased beyond expression with the climate. Lieut. Barkley and lady belong to the fixed residents of the State.

HON. JAMES N. CARLILE.

The Hon. James N. Carlile was born in Car- roll County, Ohio, October 17, 1836. His school advantages were the same as those of the majority of the district school scholars in our free American Republic until he was four- teen years old. During his school attendance, he acquired only a vague and indistinct knowl- edge of the text-books he studied, and owes more to his inherent ability than to education for being one of the widest known railroad cantractors in the United States. At the age of fourteen, he began his railroad experience by driving a cart on the Pan Handle Railroad, which has proven to be the stepping-stone to the pinnacle which he has attained. He suc- cessfully farmed in Iowa, mined two years in French Gulch, Colo., and freighted four years with wagon teams in the Territories of New Mexico, Colorado-then a Territory,-Wy- oming. Idaho, Nevada and Montana. In 1868, he again began railroading, as a member of the

firm of Moore & Carlile, railroad contractors and builders. They built from Cheyenne out forty miles of the Denver Pacific Railroad in ten months, and in four months built the Colo- rado Central Railroad between Denver and Golden; built the larger part of the Kansas Pacific Railroad from Sheridan to Denver, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles, the only important contractors besides themselves being Fields & Jones, and William Wheeler & Co. They contracted to build, and built nearly all of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad be- tween Denver and Pueblo, and between Pueblo and Canon City. In 1874, Messrs. Orman & Co. became members of the firm, and the title was changed to Moore, Carlile, Orman & Co., who built ninety-seven miles of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. Mr. Moore withdrew from the firm in 1877; Will- iam Crook was admitted, and the firm name changed to Carlile, Orman & Crook. They built the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad from Pueblo to El Moro, and to Alamosa, with the exception of a few short dis- tances, which were built by sub-contractors. They built at least one-half of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, between Canon City and Malta ; and all of that road from Leadville to Kokomo-twenty miles ; also built between thirty and forty miles of the Denver & South Park Railroad. In partnership with others, he has built over five hundred miles of railroad. At the time of the taking of this short biogra- phy, he was interested in a contract to build thirty miles of the San Juan extension of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad from Alamosa to Del Norte, and in a contract to build the Utah extension from Tennessee Pass to Red Cliff. He is a fancier of blooded stock, and an extensive dealer in horses and cattle. In com- pany with his brothers, W. K. and L. F. Car- lile, he owns several herds of high-priced stock. He was sent from Pueblo County by the Democratic party, in 1876, to the first Leg- islature convened in Colorado after it became a State, and was elected County Treasurer of the same county in 1880. The above denotes the popularity and far-reaching financial vim of the subject of this sketch, and it only re- mains to add-to complete the sketch-that in his beautiful residence on the mesa at South Pueblo, he is a hospitable gentleman and a kind husband and father to an affectionate family.

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WILLIAM K. CARLILE.

At New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Mr. Carlile was born May 4, 1844, and moved to Carroll County in 1849. He en- listed, in 1862, in Company A, Eightieth Ohio Volunteers, and during the rebellion. was in many skirmishes and thirteen general engage- ments-the battles of Corinth, Iuka, Grand Junction, Holly Springs, Davis' Mill, siege of La Grange, Wolf River, Forest Hill, Jackson (Louisiana), Grand Junction, Port Gibson, and the seven days' fight at Jackson, Miss. He was shot in the thigh in the last-named battle, taken prisoner, and, after three months' im- prisonment at Jackson, was conveyed in box- cars and on old hulks of vessels twenty-one hundred miles to Belle Isle, kept there three days, and then taken to Libby Prison. After he had suffered there months in that pen of horror, he was paroled, and sent to St. John's Navy Hospital, Camp Parole, Annapolis, Md. He was transferred from Camp Parole to Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, and appointed one of the permanent party to do duty at Tod Bar- racks, Columbus ; and, on the day of Presi- dent Lincoln's second inauguration, reported one hundred and sixty men to Gen. Hancock for his Veteran Reserve Corps. In his capac- ity as one of the permanent party, at the close of the war, he went via New York and Fortress Monroe with sentenced men to the Dry Tor- tugas ; helped to rescue a part of the Seven- teenth Iowa who were wrecked on the Rip Raps, and reported to his command at Alex- andria, Va. With it he went to Washington to the grand review of, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the West. He was ordered when the review was over to report to Maj. Skyles, of his regiment, at Columbus, and deliver to him the discharges and pay-rolls of thirty members of his company of whom he had command, and who, with himself, were mustered out of the United States service as soon as he arrived. He was Second Sergeant during the war. He refused a First Lieuten- ancy in another regiment ; he was recommended for the appointment of Second Lieutenant of his own company, and received his commission eighteen months after his appointment was forwarded to Washington, and after he had his discharge. A short stay at home was made by him, canvassing for the " Life of Sherman, " and then the advantages of Colorado influenced

him to go to St. Joseph, Mo., and hire the owner of a mule train to take him a passenger to her Territory. A year's residence on a ranch within her borders was concluded by his going to Pueblo and serving a short clerkship for Messrs. Berry Bros., and then opening the first livery, sale and feed stable opened in the city. Three years of successful business was done by him, when, believing the prospects on the Greenhorn River for doing business still better, he disposed of his stable and engaged in ranching and stock-raising in its valley. After a loss of all his crops, and everything else he had but his stock by three floods was sustained on the Greenhorn, he located at his present home, Pleasant Park, near Good-night Station, on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, which is one of the best improved, most valuable and beautiful farms in Colorado. It is a garden of fruit trees, flowers, shade trees, arbors and bowers, of which a writ- ten description would give but a faint idea, and is a popular picnic ground and recreation resort. He is now extensively deal- ing in blooded horses, in partnership with his brother, the Hon. J. N. Carlile. Here it may be told that he was nominee on the Republican ticket and opponent of his brother, J. N., when the latter was elected to the Legislature in 1876 on the Democratic ticket, and was de- feated by the number of votes the Democratic party had in the county more than the Repub- licans. He married Miss Abagail Price, in Carroll County, Ohio, February 16, 1871. He has four children-Nannie May, Minnie Bell, John Francis and William Scott.

HON. GEORGE M. CHILCOTT.

The name of Mr. Chilcott is inseparably con- nected with the annals of Colorado. He was born in Trough Creek Valley, Huntingdon County, Penn., January 2, 1828. He was raised on a farm, and received his education in such schools as the country afforded. In the spring of 1844, he removed with his parents to Jeffer- son County, Iowa, where he lived, working up- on a farm, about two years. He subsequently taught school, and also pursued the study of medicine, until the spring of 1850. He was married March 21, 1850, to Miss Jennie Cox, after which he located near his father, and en- gaged in farming. In 1853, he was elected on the Whig ticket Sheriff of 'Jefferson County,

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which office he held one term. In 1856, he re- moved to Burt County, Neb., where he was short- ly afterward elected to represent the counties of Burt and Cumming in the Lower House of the Legislature, which met in session at Omaha, in the winter of 1856-57. But not yet content with his situation, and with face still westward, Mr. Chilcott started, in the spring of 1859, for the famous " Pike's Peak country," arriving at Denver in the month of May. He engaged in prospecting during the summer, and in the fall following he was elected from the town of Arapahoe to the Constitutional Convention, which met at Denver. Near the close of the year, Mr. Chilcott returned to his family in Nebraska, where he remained through the winter, returning to Colorado the next spring. The summer of 1860, he spent upon Cherry Creek, and in October of that year he removed to Southern Colorado, to the section now Pueb- lo County. Soon afterward he met with a serious misfortune. Everything he had, con- sisting of wagon and team and other property, was stolen from him by his only acquaintance, who left for parts unknown. Being left penni- less among strangers in a strange land, Mr. Chilcott had to resort to his experience in farming for a livelihood, and he hired to work hy the day for a farmer. He engaged in farm- ing during 1861-62, and in 1863 he located up- on a farm of his own, twelve miles east of Pueblo. Then returning to Nebraska, he brought out his family May, 1863. He served as a member of the Territorial Legislature in the first two sessions of that body. In 1863, he re- ceived from President Lincoln the appointment of Register of the United States Land Office for the District of Colorado. The office was first located at Golden, and subsequently at Denver. Mr .. Chilcott held the position nearly four years, until he was, in 1866, elected to Congress under the State organization then formed, and which sought admission into the Union. But Congress refused to receive Colorado as a State at that time, and Mr. Chilcott could not take his seat. In 1867, he was elected a Delegate to Congress for the Territory of Colorado, and served the people one term. It was he who introduced and got Congress to pass a bill repealing the aet which discriminated against all the territory west of the west line of Kansas, and east of the east line of California, by charging letter post- age on all printed matter between the two

boundaries. He also succeeded in getting larger appropriations for surveys than was ever be- fore obtained, and was instrumental in getting passed an important bill in regard to the St. Vrain and Vigil Land Grant. Mr. Chilcott was a member of the Territorial Council, and Presi- dent of that body during the session of 1872- 73. He was also a member in 1874. In 1878, he was elected to the State Legislature from Pueblo County, and during the session of 1878 -79, he was prominently before the Legislature as a candidate for United States Senator, Mr. Hill, however, securing the place. In politics, Mr. Chilcott has been a sterling Republican. He is popular with his party, and is held in universal esteem by the people of his section; but having determined to quit public life he has recently declined to accept any nomination for office, his individual interest requiring his undivided attention. Being a man of unusual energy and enterprise, he has accumulated a large and valuable property. His interests are chiefly at Pueblo, where he now resides.

DR. ROBERT J. CHRISTIE.

This gentleman was raised in Frederick County, Va., where he was born June 13, 1831. He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1856, and afterward moved to Missouri, where he practiced medicine until the breaking-out of the late war. Being a Southern man, he very naturally espoused the cause of the South, and served through the war as a surgeon, holding the position of Senior Surgeon of Gen. M. M. Parsons' Confederate Infantry. After the close of the war, he returned to Missouri and renewed the practice of his profession, which he continued until coming to Colorado more than a year ago. He arrived at Pueblo January 1, 1880, and immediately entered the practice as a partner of Dr. Craven. He and Dr. Craven are now doing a large and lucrative practice in Pueblo County, having established a wide and enviable reputation, both as physicians and as surgeons. We desired to re- fer to Dr. Christie in this brief sketch, since he is prominently identified with the medical pro- fession at Pueblo, and has become as thorough- ly known as though " an old-timer."

ISAAC T. COATES, M. D.

Dr. Coates is a prominent physician oť Pueblo. He was born and reared in Coatesville,

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Penn. He studied medicine, and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1859 ; he then went abroad and spent some time in visiting the hospitals of Europe. Upon returning to America, he went to Louisiana ; there he re- mained until the spring of 1861, when he made a second voyage to Europe. After spending a few months in Europe, he again returned to America and entered the United States Navy as a Surgeon. During the late war, he acted as Surgeon upon various naval vessels. After the war closed, he returned to Pennsylvania and practiced medicine there until 1867. When, during that year, the Indian war broke out, Dr. Coates was appointed Surgeon of the Seventh United States Cavalry, Custer's great regiment. He was with the troops in the West about a year, being also, for a time, Surgeon of the Tenth Infantry. In the latter part of 1868, he made his way through Arizona to Califor- nia, and returned East by steamer via Panama. He practiced his profession in Chester, Penn., until 1872. In that year he took a steamer for South America, going to Peru, where he be- came the Medical Director of the Chimbote & Huaraz Railroad. The Doctor relates many in- teresting incidents of his life and travels of four years in South America. He traveled through the various countries and crossed the Andes as many as ten times. He returned to the United States in 1876. In 1878, he made a second voyage to South America, going then to Brazil, where he was expected to act as Chief Surgeon for the company building the Madura & Mamore Railroad. But the project for building that road failed after a short time, and Dr. Coates again returned to the United States. In the spring of 1869, he came West to Colorado and located at Pueblo, at which he has since resided, in the practice of his pro- fession. The Doctor has an enviable reputation as a physician, and now commands all the practice he desires to attend to. The varied experience of Dr. Coates and his inexhaustible fund of knowledge, taken with his affable man- ners, render him not only a very entertaining gentleman, but a most useful member of the society in which he lives.

DR. JOHN T. COLLIER.

Dr. Collier is a native of Kentucky, being born in Bourbon County, in 1826. His par- ents immigrated to Missouri, in 1828, and set-

tled in Callaway County, then a wild, unset- tled country. There young Collier was raised, receiving such education as the country afforded. He read medicine and attended lect- ures at the University of Missouri in 1848-49, and, in the spring of 1849, he began the prac- tice of medicine, which he continued about twenty years in Missouri and Nevada. He was married, in Missouri, May 26, 1854, to Miss Cassandra A. West. In 1864, Dr. Collier im- migrated with his family, to California, where .he lived about a year, and, in 1865, he removed to Nevada. He lived in Nevada seven years, practicing his profession and engaging profit- ably in the cattle business. In 1871, he re- moved to Colorado and, locating near Pueblo, he at once embarked in the sheep and wool growing business, which he has since continued with eminent success, handling large flocks of the best sheep in the country. The Doctor now has his home in South Pueblo, and few men in the county have more friends than he. In politics he is strongly Democratic, and in religion is a liberal thinker.

HON. ALDRIDGE CORDER.

This gentleman is a scion of an old Virginia family. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, and his father was in the war of 1812. He was born near Warrenton, Va., July 31, 1827 ; received his education at Warrenton and New Baltimore Academies, graduating at, the latter in 1846. After finishing school, he en- gaged in merchandising. In 1848, he went to Lexington, Mo., at which place he lived-with the exception of nearly two years spent in Louisiana from 1849 to 1851-until the break- ing out of the late war .- He went into the war as a soldier of Col. Shelby's Missouri Regiment, and was subsequently upon Shelby's staff, after that officer became a General. After the war closed, he went to Waverly, Mo., where he was cashier of a bank for five years. In 1870, he became President of the bank, and continued as such for six years. In 1876, Mr. Corder came to Colorado, and located at Pueblo, where he has since engaged successfully in the drug business, being also connected with various other im- portant interests. Since 1878, he has been President of the Pueblo Building and Loan Association, one of the most important enter- prises in the city, the Association having a capital of $500,000, and doing a large business.

Chat J. Thomson

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PUEBLO COUNTY.

In November, 1880, Mr. Corder was nominated by acclamation by the Democratic Convention for State Senator from the Fifteenth Senatorial Distriet of Colorado, to which office he was elected by a handsome majority. He obtained the passage through the Senate of a bill appro- priating to the State Insane Asylum at Pueblo $60,000, then the largest appropriation ever made by the Legislature for a State institution. He also did much to further other important enactments. Mr. Corder was married at Wa- verly, Mo., in 1867, to Miss Blanche Hall.

WILLIAM H. CONNER.

The subject of this sketch was born in Mon- son, Me., September 11, 1838. In 1847, he re- moved with his parents to Sheboygan Falls, Wis., where he lived on a farm about four years. When about fifteen years of age, he went to Milwaukee, where he attended school, graduat- ing in due course ; he also took a course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College. He served in the Federal army during the late war, being at one time Adjutant General on General Palmer's staff. After the war, he re- turned to Wisconsin, and for a number of years engaged in business as an accountant. In 1873, he came to Colorado and located at Pueblo, where he has since lived. He was elected City Clerk and Treasurer of Pueblo in the spring of 1877, which office he held two terms-being re- elected in 1878. In January, 1880, he was ap- pointed Deputy County Clerk, which position he now fills. Mr. Conner is a thorough busi- ness man, and is so regarded by his fellow- citizens. He is quite prominent as an Odd Fellow. Mr. Conner was married at Pueblo in October, 1876.

DR. JAMES T. CRAVEN.

This gentleman, a popular physician of Pueblo, was born in Palmyra, Mo., September 22, 1844. He graduated at Christian College, in Canton, Mo., at the age of nineteen. He afterward read medicine, and attended lectures at the Iowa State University, where he graduated in 1866. Subsequently, in 1869, he took a course of lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, when he received a diploma in 1869. He practiced medicine at Palmyra about four years ; then he moved to Louisiana, Pike County, Mo., where he practiced five years. He was married at Palmyra, Mo., November 18,

1869, to Miss M. M. Brown. In 1878, his health failing, Dr. Craven thought a change of climate would be beneficial to him, and he decided to move to Colorado. He came to Pueblo in October, 1878. His health began at once to improve, and he soon entered upon the practice of his profession, meeting with fine success. About a year ago he associated him- self with Dr. Christie, with whom he still con- tinues in business. Drs. Craven & Christie have become widely known, and are now doing an extensive and lucrative practice. None are more highly regarded, and none are more generally patronized than they.

PATRICK J. DESMOND.

The above-named gentleman was born in the county of Cork, Ireland, in 1841, and is a distant relative of the Earl of Desmond, with whom his father was imprisoned by the English Gov- ernment for opposing its measures, and by it had his property confiscated, which left him unable to obtain for his children the school advantages he otherwise would. Henee, the subject of this writing had only a slight sehool- ing, and has had to win his own way in the world independent of a thorough education and influential friends, excepting those he has acquired by his individual efforts. Acting on the suggestion of a cousin, one John Buckley, a stockholder in the New Orleans Street Rail- way, he, in 1864, came to the United States. He stopped in Chicago, Ill., a year, went to Lake Superior where he worked another year, then to Oil City, Penn. From Oil City he went to Chicago with quite a sum of money, where -he joined the Perry Guards, and crossed into Canada with the Fenians in 1866; he was in the fight of Ridgeway. He returned to Chicago and went out on the Chicago & North-Western Railroad, with bridge contractor Sherman, arriving in Council Bluffs, Christmas, 1867. As assistant wagon-master of a Government train, he left Council Bluffs for Fort MePher- son. Forty miles from the celebrated Jack Morrow's raneh, on MeFarlan's Bluff, the train was corraled by Indians, and escaped massacre through the arrival of a company of soldiers, who guarded it to Fort Sedgwick. There he was occupied for a short time in keeping the fort in meat by hunting antelope. From Sedgwick, he made an important trip to the North Platte for a load of Spencer car-

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bines. He stayed in the Government employ till 1868, plying between Forts Sedgwick, San- ders, Laramie and Fetterman, doing different duty, as freighting, helping to protect apostate Mormons from the Mormon Church authorities, and others from Indians, having many fights with them. He left the employ of the Govern- ment in 1868, and entered the service, as watchman of freight, of Wells, Fargo & Co., between North Platte and Julesburg, and was at Julesburg when the Indians attacked the station and burned the stations between that place and Denver. Leaving Wells, Fargo & Co., he went on the Union Pacific Railroad as detective, remaining on it until it was finished to Corinne, Utah; then went to Omaha, St. Louis and Chicago-being comfortably well off financially-on a two-months' visit. In 1869, he went to Fort Hays, beginning work on the Kansas Pacific Railroad as foreman for Messrs. Fields & Jones, and acted as such until that road was built to Kit Carson, a place which, besides being a railroad terminus, was a fron- tier rendezvous for desperadoes and other rough and lawless characters. To ferret out and ar- rest them, needed a man of shrewdness and courage, and Mr. Desmond was selected as such a man by the Sheriff and Justice of the county, and appointed by them Constable and Deputy Sheriff. He appointed Thomas Smith his assist- ant, and captured many of the gang of roughs, ridding the place of the dangerous element which infested it. In order that the reader may get a correct idea of the death he continu- ally faced, it is incidentally remarked here, that Smith was since Marshal of Oberlin, Kan., and in the discharge of his duty had his head com- pletely severed from his body by an ax in the hands of an outlaw. Fields, in a partnership with a Mr. Hill, took a contract to grade a por- tion of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and sent to Kit Carson for Mr. Desmond to come to Denver and again be foreman for them, which he did, staying with them until the road was built to Colorado Springs.' The road being built no further for awhile, he, wishing not to be idle, took several teams he owned and joined the bridge builders and returned to Denver. Be- coming tired of living in Denver, he went to Golden and opened a restaurant. From Golden he weut to Georgetown, where he engaged in mining. In 1873, he went to Denver again, and from there to South Pueblo and leased a

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 105

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 1080

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080