History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 43

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

USA > Colorado > History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado > Part 43

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).

of Mayor. Mr. Chatfield is recognized by the citizens of Leadville to be one of their most substantial business men and citizens. He was married to Miss Eliza A. Harrington, in Havana, Ill., in 1858, May 20th, and has six children whom he is educating at the Brinker Institute, in Denver, Colorado.

FERDINAND E. CANDA.

Ferdinand E. Canda, Managing Director Little Pittsburg Consolidated Mining Com- pany, was born in New York City in 1842. Is a Civil Engineer, and for many years fol- lowed the business of railroad construction, including the manufacture of cars and bridges, the F. E. Canda & Co. Car Works, situated on Blue Island Avenue, Chicago, being at the time the most extensive in the West. Mr. Canda and associates were the contractors for building the first 640 miles of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and also the Cairo & St. Louis Railroad, of which latter he became the President and General Manager. Since his residence in this State his time has been devoted almost entirely to mining.

JOHN SIMS CARRINGTON, M. D.

The subject of this sketch was born in Vir- ginia in 1833. A few years later his father removed to the Red River country in Arkansas; in 1848, he was sent to the school taught by the Quaker savant and teacher, Benjamin Hallowell, at Alexandria, Va., from thence was transferred to the University of Vir- ginia, where he took his first course of medical lectures. Leaving the University he pro- ceeded to New York, taking his degree in medicine in 1855, afterward holding the positions of Assistant Physician to the Char- ity Hospital on Blackwell's Island, and House Surgeon to the Emigrant Hospital, Ward's Island, New York. With such abundant preparation and opportunities, faithfully improved, the Doctor soon took high rank with the public and his medical confreres. The eventful spring of 1861 found Dr. Car- rington in Louisiana, energetically engaged in the practice of his profession, and super- vision of his planting interests, but the fate- ful thunderings of Sumter's guns, awakened the war spirit belonging to his race, and he

CARBONATE MINE, LEADVILLE COLORADO.

323

LAKE COUNTY.

quickly dropped pills and plows for shot and shell. In truth, he was a rebel and a soldier by inheritance. It is said one of his ancestry was standard-bearer for the lion-hearted King of England, in his attempt to eject the Infidel from the Holy Land. For high treason against the Crown of England, another of his ancestors lost his head on the block, his estates were confiscated, and his children took refuge in the wilds of America from persecu- tion and poverty at home. In the rebellion against George the Third, his maternal great- grandfather, with five of his brothers, swelled the rebel ranks; while his father's father, with three of his sons, gave their brain, blood, and money, to the same cause. So, loyal friends, do not quarrel with the Doctor because he was a good rebel, he really could not help it, he was in much the same fix with the boy, who upon being reprimanded for whistling, swore he did not, it only whistled itself; so with the Doctor, he did not rebel, the stuff in him rebelled itself! In May, 1861, the Doctor was commanding a battery on the Potomac, and exchanging the compli- ments of the season with distinguished peo- ple on the other side; at the first Bull Run, he got several whiffs of villainous gun-pow- der, and shortly after was transferred to the General staff with the rank of Captain, and A. A. & I. G. Capt. Carrington was stationed at Corinth for several months, where he shared in the important actions around that post; after the evacuation of Corinth, he was ordered to the Trans-Mississippi Department, undergoing his full share of the hardships, dangers, and sufferings of that deplorable period. As a staff officer he was held in the highest esteem for his promptness, decision, energy and intelligence. On the return of peace, he went to the wreck of his home, in Louisiana, dividing his time between bossing fifty of the wards of the nation in the cotton field and fighting the Hydra-headed monster on the Pale Horse. But, as time wore on, it was evident that the old rebel, after some tran- sient successes, was again getting the worst of it. The thieving carpet-baggers plundered his purse, the insidious malaria poisoned his blood. Bankrupt in purse and healtlı, he again surrendered, this time his patrimony to

the money-lender, and fled to the wilds of Texas. Dallas ultimately became his home, and in that enterprising and prosperous town the Doctor soon stood upon the highest social and professional round. In March, 1880, his dwelling with all its contents were burned, which determined him to spend the summer at Manitou. While there, having beeome deeply impressed with the solid wealth of the Leadville mines, at the solicitations of many old friends, resident therein, he concluded to anchor himself in this city of clouds, with its brilliant lining of silver. In a short time he built up a large and lucrative practice, and confessedly stands among the very foremost of its able medical Faculty.

CAPT. HOWARD C. CHAPIN.

Capt. Chapin is from Massachusetts; was born in February, 1846, in Pittsfield. He was educated at Pittsfield and Eastman's Commercial College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., after which he spent one year in the lumber business in Vermont, then enlisted in the army; he entered the Fourth Vermont Regi- ment as a private, but was soon made Captain, and subsequently was on Gen. Getty's staff. He was taken prisoner in 1864, and held nine months at Charleston, and subsequently thirty days in Libby Prison. He was one of the sixty officers who were placed under fire of the Union guns at Charleston, and also one of the number who tunneled out of Libby Prison, nearly all of whom were recaptured. He was mustered out in September, 1864, and immediately came to Colorado. In the spring of 1865 he embarked in the grocery business at Georgetown, in which he continued five years. He then engaged in the hotel busi- ness at the same place, keeping the old Barton House three years. He then moved to Den- ver, where he kept the Inter-Ocean and Grand Central Hotels for five years. He then built and opened the Park Place Hotel in West Denver, which was destroyed by fire after having been run only one season; by this Capt. Chapin sustained a heavy loss. In 1878, he moved to Leadville, where he engaged in mining and real estate business, and in 1880 bought the interest of Bush in Claren- don Hotel. He was married in May, 1868

BIOGRAPHICAL:

324

to Miss Louisa H. Mills, of Adrian, Mich., and has one daughter.

HON. WILLIAM M. CLARK.

William M. Clark was born May 1, 1840, in Chester County, Penn., and is now forty- one years old. His parents were farmers and Quakers. He received first a common school education, and afterward graduated at the State Normal School at Millersville, Penn., at the age of nineteen. For a short time he engaged in teaching school and studying law with the Hon. James B. Everhart until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted as a private in the Twenty-eighth Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Col. John W. Geary. He served with that command until the close of the war, being mustered out as Captain of Company E, of the 147th Pennsylvania, which formed a part of the original Twenty-eighth. He was never absent from his regiment dur- ing the entire time, serving in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac until after the battle of Gettysburg, when with the Twelfth Army Corps his regiment was sent to the relief of Thomas at Chickamauga, under the command of the gallant Hooker. Was at the battle of Lookout Mountain, and in the campaign of the spring of 1864, to Atlanta. Went with Sherman to the sea, and from Savanna home at the mustering-out of the army in the summer of 1865. After spend- ing the fall and winter of 1865-66 in his old home, Mr. Clark concluded to take the advice of Horace Greeley and go West, leaving home on the 1st day of April of that year he with- out delay landed in Colorado about the middle of May. After roaming around a short time he located at Idaho Springs, then the Capital of Clear Creek County, where he engaged in mining and began taking an active part in the public, and especially the political inter- ests of the county. At the county election held in that county in 1868, he was elected Superintendent of Schools, which position he held for six years; his work in perfecting a complete organization of schools in that county is marked to this day; in that same year he was appointed by the late Judge Gorsline to the important position of Clerk of the District Court for that county, which

position he held until his resignation was accepted in 1874, in which year he was elected as a member of the Territorial Senate, repre- senting the Counties of Clear Creek and Sum- mit in that body. In the Tenth General Assembly he was an active member as the records show. Afterward, when the Enabling Act was passed, Mr. Clark was elected a mein- ber of the Constitutional Convention, in which body he took an active part, being Chairman of the Committee on Mines, and an Address submitting the Constitution to the people. In 1874, he was appointed Brigadier General of the Northern Division of the Territory, which he held for four years. At the election in 1876, of the first State officers, he was elected Secretary of State, leading his ticket by several hundred. After retiring from the office of Secretary of State, he concluded with others to try the fortunes of the celebrated Carbonate Camp. Arriving here in the spring of 1879, he engaged in mining. Was soon appointed to assist as Deputy Assessor, and afterward appointed City Clerk. During the celebrated strike he was the Adjutant General on Gen. James' staff, and did important serv- ice; in the last campaign he was Chairman of the Republican County Central Committee. He is to be classed as a Stalwart; never makes any compromises with his political opponents, and is probably as much feared by the Democ- racy as any man in the State. He is a mar- ried man and now resides with his family in Leadville.

GEN. AMOS P. CURRY.

The wonderful mineral resources and in- creasing popularity have drawn men of cap- ital and character from all parts of the United States to Colorado to unearth the riches of the famous Rocky Mountains, and to establish themselves among the most progressive and energetic people on the face of the globe. Among them can be mentioned with pride the subject of this sketch. He was well known as a military commander in the late war, and was repeatedly honored for his meritorious services. Born in Bangor, Me., July 7, 1836; his parents moved to Bath, Me., and subse- quently to Massachusetts, where Amos Curry received his education; in 1853, he came West, with his parents, and settled in Dixon,

325

LAKE COUNTY.

Lee Co., Ill. At the age of twenty two, he was elected City Marshal of Dixon, being the first one to hold that office; in the spring of 1860, he emigrated to Colorado, and settled in Clear Creek, engaging in prospecting and mining; in the winter of 1860, he returned to Illinois, crossing the plains, having a perilous and hazardous trip, but finally arrived without disaster. The following spring, he prepared to return to Colorado, but the war breaking out, he enlisted as a private in Company A, Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and at the battle of Rolla, Mo., for meritorious con- duct, he was promoted to Lieutenant and transferred to Company B, Bowen's Cavalry. After an active service in the field of one year, was promoted to Captain, and served through the Southwestern campaign, with his com- mand, as Body Guard to Gen. Curtis, and par- ticipated in all of the hard-fought battles of that campaign. He was transferred to the Department of the Mississippi, under Gen. Sherman, and was successively under the com- mands of Gens. Hatch, Grierson, Dodge, Logan and Hurlbut. He received the appointment of Colonel of the First Regiment, West Ten- nessee Infantry, and was assigned to Memphis, Tenn., where he remained until the close of the war. Concluding to remain in the South, he embarked in mercantile pursuits, at Mem- phis, and in 1867 was elected Sheriff of Shelby County; was re-elected in 1869 and 1871; in the fall of 1873, removed to Arkansas, and engaged in railroading; assisted in build- ing the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad and the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad; in 1878, he removed to Leadville, Colo., and en- gaged in mining and real estate business, in which he has been quite successful. At the last election he was elected City Marshal; he is also serving his sixth term as President of. the Union Veteran Association, and is a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees of the Union Veteran Hospital. Col. Curry was recently appointed, by Gov. Pitkin Major-General Third Division of Colorado State Militia. He was married in 1858.

CAPT. R. G. DILL.

R. G. Dill, the editor of the Leadville Her- ald, was born in June, 1840; his early training

and education was received at New Haven, Conn. After graduation at Russell's Military Academy, in that city, he chose the profession of journalism, and was, in 1858, installed as the city editor of the Daily News, a Douglas paper, established during that year. A year spent in a printing office prior to this time had given him a taste for the printing busi- ness, and in 1859 he resigned his position on the News, and going to New York, finished learning the trade of a compositor. In the fall of 1860, he went to South Carolina, ac- companied by some friends, intending to make an extended tour through the South, but the secession of the State, which occurred while he was in Columbia, convinced him that South Carolina was no place for a Northern man at that time, and accordingly he went to Tennes- see, spending some time in Nashville and Memphis. In March, 1861, it became evident that Tennessee would secede, and accordingly he left for Pittsburgh, Penn., arriving there but a few days before the assault on Fort Sumter. Immediately upon the receipt of the news, he placed his name upon the roll of the Duquesne Greys, and a few days after- ward was mustered, with his company, into the three months' service, and sent to the field, the regiment, the Twelfth Pennsylvania, having been assigned to the duty of guarding the Northern Central Railroad, then threat- ened by Marshal Kane's men. Upon the con- clusion of his term, he again enlisted in the One Hundred and Third Regiment Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, in which regiment he served until the spring of 1864, when, having been examined by Casey's Military Board, he was promoted to the rank of Captain, assigned to the Forty-third United States Colored Troops, and immediately joined his command, partic- ipating with it in Grant's campaign against Richmond, from the Wilderness to the capt- ure of the Confederate capital. Soon after the fall of Richmond, the division to which he was attached was sent to the Texas front- ier, where it remained until November, 1865, when it was mustered out of service. Upon returning home, Mr. Dill engaged in business in New Castle, Penn., as editor of the Law- rence Journal. Selling out his interest in this paper, in the spring of 1870, he retired

326

BIOGRAPHICAL:

from business for a few months, but in August of the same year, established the Lawrence Guardian. Close application to business, however, ruined his health, and on the 1st of January, 1872, he was compelled to sell out again. Failing to recover his health perma- nently, in the spring of 1874 he came to Col- orado, and after several months devoted to the recuperation of his health, found employment on the Denver Times, in 1875, remaining with that paper until 1878, when the purchase of a Sunday paper resulted disastrously and was abandoned after a few months' trial. In the spring of 1879, Mr. Dill came to Leadville, and seeing an opening for a morning paper, was induced, by friends, to embark in the en- terprise, the first number of the paper appear- ing on October 21 of that year. It at once took an advanced position among the leading papers of the State. Mr. Dill is a vigorous and rapid thinker and writer, and an indefat- igable worker. The editorials of the Herald have always been noted for their pith and vig- or, while its reports on the mines in and about Leadville are regarded as the most complete and authentic of any published in the State. We judge that Mr. Dill has always been an active politician. He was a member of the Republican State Convention of Pennsylvania of 1870, Secretary of the Republican Commit- tee of Arapahoe Co., Colo., in 1876, and Chairman of the same committee in 1877. He was Chairman of the Republican City Committee of Leadville in 1881, and is now City Clerk of Leadville.

FREDERICK F. D'AVIGNON, M. D.

Prominent among Leadville's leading phy- sicians may properly be classed the subject of this sketch, born in Canada in 1847; in 1859, he attended St. Mary's College, at Rou- ville Co., Canada, terminating his collegiate course in 1866; he then went to New York to study medicine with an uncle, who had been a surgeon in the United States Army. He en- tered McGill University, at Montreal, in the fall of 1867, and graduated in the spring of 1871; he then located at North Adams, Mass., and practiced medicine and surgery for five years. After a trip in Europe, occupying two years, he settled in St. Louis, Mo., and came

to Leadville in February, 1879, where he has since successfully practiced his profession. He married a daughter of the late Dr. de Grosbois, of Chambly, Canada, who is also a niece of the Hon. Charles B. de Boncherville, of Canada.

DAVID H. DOUGAN, M. D.

Dr. Dougan, the present Mayor of Lead- ville, was born at Niles, Mich., August 17, 1845; he obtained the rudiments of an edu- cation at the public schools, and in 1858 en- tered a printing office as a printer's devil. In two years, he left the printing office and stud- ied book-keeping, and was assistant book- keeper for his brother, who, at that time, was engaged in pork-packing; in April, 1861, he entered the Branch Bank of Richmond, Ind., as an apprentice and junior clerk; two years later, he accepted a position in the First National Bank, where he remained until Sep- tember, 1872; in 1870, he commenced the study of medicine, in consequence of failing health; during the winter of 1872-73, he at- tended the Rush Medical College at Chicago, and the following winter the Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York City, at which institution he graduated March 1, 1874, and commenced practicing, as a partner of Dr. James F. Hibberd; in October, 1875, he re- moved to Colorado, settling at Alma, Park Co., where he, in addition to practicing medicine, was Superintendent of the Russia Mine. In November, he came to Leadville, and com- menced the practice of medicine; in March, 1878, was appointed, by Gov. Routt, a member of the State Board of Health, and in January, 1880, was re-appointed by Gov. Pitkin; at the last annual meeting of the Colorado State Medical Society, was elected Vice President; .he was elected Mayor of Leadville, after a spirited contest, and received the votes of a large number of the citizens irrespective of party. Dr. Dougan has a large and lucrative practice; he was married, in 1867, and has one child, a daughter.

CARLYLE C. DAVIS.

Carlyle C. Davis, the projector, owner and managing editor of the Leadville Chronicle, was born at Glen's Falls, N. Y., Nov. 4, 1847. He

327

LAKE COUNTY.

entered a country printing office at the age of ten; at sixteen, he was the editor and propri- etor of a journal in the interior of Illinois, and subsequently owned and conducted, for five years, the St. Charles (Mo.) Cosmos, the second oldest and the most influential country paper in that State. In 1877, Mr. Davis re- moved to Denver, and occupied the position of associate editor of the Rocky Mountain News until the mining excitement at Leadville attracted him to that magic city. Thither he went with a capital of $1,000. In two years, he has built up a business worth $50,000, and owns, besides, considerable bank stock, mining shares and mining property in Lake, Gunni- son and Summit Counties. His alma mater was a printing office, the educator of so many of our public men. He is a stalwart Repub- lican, and his paper is a power in the councils of the party in Colorado. His success demon- strates what can be done in the West by young men having the ability, industry and perseverance of Mr. Davis. On the 29th of January, 1879, he issued the first number of the Evening Chronicle. The office consisted of a single room, 20x30 feet, and into this was crowded editorial and business departments, composing, job and press room, while at night eighteen men found sleeping accommodations in the loft and in rude bunks arranged against the walls. The first number of the paper was so eagerly sought after by the populace, then numbering about 5,000, that it was not until 9 o'clock that the demand was supplied. Be- fore retiring that night, its proprietor mailed an order for additional material with which to enlarge the miniature paper. Success was thus assured from the start. In less than a year, the mountain village grew to a cosmo- politan city of 30,000, and the " little Chroni- cle" passed rapidly through the various forms of a five, six, seven, eight and nine column paper to its present size, equaled by few afternoon journals in the country. Until ad- equate telegraphic facilities could be obtained for handling the Associated Press dispatches, the Chronicle depended for outside news upon " specials," prepared by its agent at Denver, which was transmitted to Leadville in cipher, over the single wire stretched across the Mos- quito range at an altitude of 13,000 feet above

the level of the sea. Owing to the difficulty at that early day of obtaining reliable assist- ants, the proprietor was often compelled to divide his time between the editorial desk, the business counter, the type rack and the feed board, a newspaper experience of over twenty years having rendered him capable of per- forming any task about a printing office. So soon as spring opened and material could be obtained, a magnificent building was erected over the little one-story shanty-issues of the paper being uninterrupted during the process of construction- and to-day the Chronicle oc- cupies entire one of the largest and best equipped establishments between St. Louis and San Francisco. The building, 40x87 feet, is a handsome structure, now in the heart of the city, a credit to Leadville and to its enterprising owner. Three editions are issued daily, the earlier one being sent, by private conveyance, twenty miles over the continental divide, to the mining camps on the Pacific slope. The Carbonate Weekly Chronicle, a mammoth fifty-six column quarto, has ob- tained a marvelous circulation in all of the Eastern and Southern Statss, illustrations having been a popular feature of it from the start. The holiday number embraced twenty pages, illustrated profusely with maps, full- page views of Leadville, street scenes, etc. -a. paper that would reflect credit upon any journal in the United States.

ADDISON DANFORD.

Mr. Danford was born in New Hampshire on the 4th day of July, 1829, and emigrated to Illinois in 1837, and from thence to Kansas, in 1857, and located in Linn County, where he laid out and surveyed the present county seat, Mound City. He was elected, in the fall of 1857, a member of the House of Repre- sentatives from Linn County, and in the spring of 1858, elected to the Constitutional Conven- tion, which framed what is known as the Leavenworth Constitution, and in the fall of 1858 was re-elected to the House of Repre- sentatives, being one of only four members who were re-elected to the House. In the spring of 1858, he was admitted to practice law, and commenced the practice of his pro- fession at Mound City, and in September,

328

BIOGRAPHICAL:

1863, removed to Fort Scott, Kan., where he continued the practice of the law until his re- moval to Colorado in March, 1875. While residing at Fort Scott, Kan., he was elected to the State Senate in 1864, and served one year, after which he resigned; during the session of the Senate of 1865, he filled the position of Chairman of the Judiciary Com- mittee, and served on all the other prominent committees. In 1868, he was elected to the office of Attorney General of Kansas, and held that office for the term of two years. He came to Colorado on account of the poor health of his family, and located, in April, 1875, at Colorado Springs, after which he removed to Lake City, in the San Juan country, where he spent over two years in a very lucrative min- ing practice, and afterward returned to Colo- rado Springs, where he formed a copartner- ship with Judge J. C. Helm. He afterward removed to Leadville, in the winter of 1880, and is still actively engaged in the practice of the law.

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.

History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 43

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