History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 50

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

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ROSWELL B. SPAULDING.

Mr. Spaulding was born in 1830, at Wil- liston, Vt .; he received a common-school edu- cation; at the age of twenty-one, he married a daughter of Judge Whipples, and engaged in farming for five years; in 1857, he went to Illinois and commenced the manufacture of cheese, and the same year was awarded the first premium for the same over exhibitors from all through the East; he afterward re- turned to Vermont; in. 1862, he enlisted in the Federal army, and served two years as a trader; he then returned to Vermont and en- gaged in business, afterward going to Iowa. where he engaged in mercantile business. In the spring of 1879, he arrived in Leadville, since which time he has been in the livery business and operating mines to some extent. In the spring of 1881, he was elected an Alderman of this city. Mr. Spaulding is a gentleman of sterling qualities, a popular citi- zen, and a man of great moral force.

W. CLEVES SMITH.

The subject of this sketch was born at Smith's Landing, Monroe Co., Ill., January 7, 1858, ahout twenty miles below St. Louis, on the Mississippi River, the landing taking its name from his father, who was a large grain

and produce shipper to the foreign markets. He received a good common-school education, and assisted his father in his business until eighteen years of age. In 1875, he emigrated with his parents to Kansas, and settled at In- dependence, twenty miles from the Indian Territory. Young Smith engaged as clerk in a dry goods store, where he continued for about one year; at this time, he determined to try his fortune in the Far West, and came to Denver, Colo., and took a course of mercantile studies in the Colorado Business College, in which his brother was Principal; after com- pleting his studies, he assisted for a short pe- riod in teaching the primary classes. In the winter of 1877, he returned to Smith's Land- ing and worked on a farm for about one year; he then moved to St. Louis and engaged with a boot and shoe factory, where he remained for about one and a half years. In November, 1880, he came to Leadville and found employ- ment as night clerk in a restaurant kept by his brother, and subsequently engaged with A. Brisbois in his photograph gallery as printer, where he still is employed. Mr. Smith is a young man yet, and, with his energy and busi- ness capacity, his future financial success would seem to be well assured.

JACOB SANDS.

Among the younger men of enterprise and business integrity who have been connected with the business interests of Leadville for a number of years is Jacob Sands. He was born in Poland December 25, 1851, and re- ceived his education in his native place. His parents emigrated to America in 1867, and settled in Utica, N. Y., where they remained for a period of three years. Young Sands en- gaged in the clothing business there, and came to Leadville and opened the store in which he is at present engaged, under the firm name of Sands, Pelton & Co .; this firm is better known as the "One Price Clothiers;" their place is in one of the handsome storerooms of the Tabor Opera House, on Harrison avenue, where they have as complete and elegant a line of clothing, gent's furnishing goods and miners' supplies as there is in the city; each department is complete in every detail; the stock of clothing is particuliarly fine, the line

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of ulsters and overcoats being one of the finest in the city; in miners' supplies may be found a complete stock of blankets, bedding and rub- ber goods, and all other things necessary to a miner's outfit; the furnishing goods depart- ment has in it only the best of articles, and lacks nothing it should have to make it com- plete in every detail. Sands, Pelton & Co. have been engaged in business in Leadville about fifteen months, and have in that time secured for themselves a reputation that only thorough business men, in whom the public could have perfect confidence, could secure. The success they have met with has quite ex- ceeded their most sanguine expectations, and has made it necessary for them to increase both their stock and accommodations, with which increased facilities for pleasing their patrons they have excellent reasons for expecting a continuance of the patronage extended to them. The firm of Sands, Pelton & Co. may be relied on as one that will deal fairly and honorably with their customers, giving them entire satis- faction in every respect. The firm consists of Jacob Sands, the subject of this sketch; B. Sands, who resides in New York and does most of the buying; and S. Pelton, who resides in Denver. This firm has branch houses at Idaho Springs and Black Hawk, Colo. Mr. Sands is unmarried, and is a fair representa- tive of the young merchants who have assisted in building up the mercantile interests in Colorado.

RUFUS SHUTE.

The subject of this sketch was born in Clin- ton Co., N. Y., May 24, 1837; he received a common-school education, and removed to Wisconsin at an early age and engaged in the lumbering business. At the outbreak of the Pike's Peak excitement, in 1859, he came to Colorado and was engaged in prospecting and mining for about one year, but, having an opening in his former business, he returned to New York and remained there for four years. In 1861, he removed to Michigan and engaged in sheep-raising for about three years. Removing back to New York, he again went into the lumber trade, in which he con- tinued for a period of seven years. In 1872, he removed to Boston, Mass., and embarked in the stock and livery business, in which he

continued for five years. Having sold out, he emigrated to Colorado and started again in the lumber trade in Leadville, the firm being Hallock, Shute & Havens, in which business he was quite successful. In 1879, he sold out at a handsome profit, and engaged in mining and cattle-raising, which business he still fol- lows. Mr. Shute was elected Alderman and served for one year, but devotes his time en- tirely to his business and does not care for any preferment or political positions. He was married in New York, in 1858, and has a family of two children-a son and daughter.

THOMAS STARR.

Mr. Starr was born in Ireland in 1835; he came to the United States in 1853. He spent two years in Lowell, Mass., and three years in Minnesota. In 1858-59, he made a trip to Salt Lake, and in 1860 made one trip to Den- ver from Missouri River and back; he re- turned to Colorado the following year and located in California Gulch, where he en- gaged in gulch mining. He has since that time made his home in California Gulch, where he owns the property known as the Starr Placer Mine, consisting of about twenty- eight acres, and upon which part of the city of Leadville is built. This property has been worked for twenty years, producing about $7,000 per year. Mr. Starr is one of the few who remained in the gulch from the first discovery, and has seen and shared the hard- ships of a new mining camp in a new coun- try. He at one time packed a sack of flour over the range on snow-shoes, having paid for the same the sum of $75. and after arriv- ing in camp divided with his neighbors. Mr. Starr has spent large amounts of money in developing mining property in Lake and other counties, and is at present engaged in several large mining ventures in four different coun- ties. He has a wife and three children.

DANIEL SAYER.

Daniel Sayer, Esq., the subject of this sketch, was born at West Town, Orange Co., in the State of New York, in the spring of 1840. He lost his father during infancy and at the age of four years went with the remain- ing members of his family to reside at

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Goshen, the county seat of Orange County. He resided at Goshen attending the select school of Daniel Wells, Esq., until the age of fifteen when he went to Iowa, where he was employed in a mercantile establishment, then under the control of one of his brothers. After remaining in Iowa for less than a year he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and was there employed in the banking house of his brother- in-law, Hon. S. S. Davis, ex-Mayor of Cincin- nati, and one of its most prominent business men. He commenced the study of law in said city in the year 1860, in the office of Judge N. Headington, and graduated at the Cincinnati Law College in March, 1861, about a month prior to the commencement of the late civil war. He was admitted to the bar in the early part of April, 1861, and im- mediately afterward started to make a tour of the Continent of Europe, and while at Wash- ington to procure a passport, news was received of the commencement of the civil conflict and of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, when he immediately determined to delay his contemplated visit and volunteer in the national service. He entered the service as Second Lieutenant of Company G. of the Fifth Regiment of Ohio Cavalry, under the command of Col. W. H. H. Taylor, and within a month thereafter was made Adjutant of the regiment. The regiment was attached to the brigade of Gen. W. T. Sherman, and partici- pated in the engagements at Fort Henry, Shi- loh, the advance on Corinth and the other great battles in which the Army of the Ten- nessee were engaged under the command of Gen. Halleck and Gen. Grant. Upon the organization of the Seventh Regiment of Ohio Cavalry, which regiment was mostly officered from officers then serving in the field, the command of Company C in this regiment was given to Mr. Sayer, and he served with this regiment, and as staff officer until after the fall of Vicksburg in 1863. After the fall of Vicksburg he was assigned to duty as Lieutenant Colonel of a regiment stationed in the fortifications, which regiment was organized there for the defense of Vicksburg and embraced the best material and men in that city. About eighteen months after the close of the war he came to Colorado and

engaged in mining near Central City, where he had a cousin residing engaged in civil engineering. Relinquishing the occupation of mining in which he was unsuccessful, he went the succeeding year to reside at Denver, where he entered into a partnership with his kinsman, Alfred Sayer, Esq., and engaged there in the practice of the law, and remained there in practice for three years, when he again engaged his attention with mining in Gilpin County for two years. He came to Leadville in February, 1879, and entered immediately upon the practice of the law. He is now and for more than two years past has been a member of the well known law firm of Thomson & Sayer, one of the leading law firms of the State, and in the possession of a large and lucrative practice. He was elected City Solicitor of the city of Leadville in the spring of 1880, and re-elected to the same office in the spring of 1881, which office he now holds. He was married in February, 1869, to Miss Gussie Young, of Central City, and has two children.

HON. AZOR A. SMITH.

A. A. Smith was born in Gratiot, Licking Co., Ohio, August 25, 1829. He was educated in Aurora, Ill .; graduated at Rush Medical College, Chicago, in the year 1857; came to Black Hawk, Colo., in 1859; in 1861, was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the First Colorado Infantry, and at the close of the war was mustered out of service as Surgeon. He then located in Linn County, Kan., and represented that county in the Legislature of 1867-68; he afterward practiced medicine in Kansas City, Mo., and in 1870 returned to Colorado and engaged in mining in Gilpin and Boulder Counties. He was appointed Physician for the Nederland Mining Company. He was Assayer and then Superintendent of the Nederland Mill. In 1874, was Repub- lican candidate for the Legislature, but was defeated. In October, 1876, was elected to the House of Representatives of the first Gen- eral Assembly-receiving 1,529 votes against 1,087, for James Stevens, Democrat. He resumed the practice of medicine at Black Hawk in 1878, and in July of the same year went to Leadville and engaged in mining on

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Fryer Hill. In December of 1878, he received the appointment of Postmaster of the city of Leadville, which position he still holds. He is still engaged in mining and owns one-half interest in the drug firm of J. S. Miller & Co.

MILO H. SLATER.

This gentleman, the present Superintendent of the Breece Mining Company, was born in Hancock County, Ill., November 27, 1841, near the old Mormon town of Nauvoo. His parents were of the old Vermont stock and his father was engaged in the business of a " nursery farm," which he carried on on a very extensive scale, and young Slater assisted his father in that business, receiving a good edu- cation in the schools that were in that local- ity. In the spring of 1860, though but a youth of nineteen, he came to Colorado and arrived in Denver the 19th day of May, 1860; after a brief stay he went to Central City and commenced prospecting and mining, which he continued until the breaking-out of the war. In 1861, he enlisted as a Private, join- ing the First Colorado Volunteers, afterward known as the First Colorado Cavalry, and served through the war, participating in the battles of Apache Canon, Pigeon Ranch, Peralto, Sand Creek massacre, and many minor skirmishes and engagements ;- these were all on the frontier and west of the Mis- souri River. At the close of the war, he returned to Central City, where he was mar- ried to Miss Wilson, who died in six weeks after his marriage. He, after this bereave- ment, visited New Mexico and traveled for considerable time, returning to Denver in 1866. In 1869, was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Mint, located at Denver, and continued in that employment for eight years, holding the position of Chief Clerk when he retired. In the spring of 1878, came to Leadville and became interested in some valuable mining property. He organ- ized the Small Hopes Mining Post, subse- quently selling out his interest. He at pres- ent is Superintendent of the Breece Mining Company, and gives his entire attention to the management of that valuable mine. The present officers of that mine are Hon. H. A.

W. Tabor, President; L. E. Roudebush, Vice President; Hon. J. Y. Marshall, Managing Director; A. T. Gorman, Secretary; M. H. Slater, Superintendent. In the management of the affairs of the company, Mr. Slater has displayed ability and given perfect satisfac- tion to all parties interested.

JOHN A. SCHLAGETER.

Among the pioneers of Leadville who have passed through the varied experiences of frontier life and become familiar with the history and growth of Colorado, is the subject of this sketch. He was born in New York City December 25, 1853. At an early age, he removed with his parents to Wapello County, Iowa, and until he was eighteen years of age, remained with his parents on a farm, attending a village school during the winter months and working on the farm dur- ing the summer. In 1872, he took the advice of Horace Greeley and " went West," arriving in Denver April 4, 1872, and obtained em- ployment as a laborer in a saw-mill at $35 per month, where he continued for a period of three years. In the spring of 1876, hav- ing by the closest economy saved a small sum from his earnings, he visited the San Juan country where he engaged in buying and selling jacks for pack animals, making sev- eral trips to New Mexico and return; also was engaged in freighting stores from Fort Garland to Silverton, having at one time eighty-six head of jacks in that business. He opened a flour and grain store during this period at Silverton, which he afterward sold to good advantage. The 10th of November, 1877, he arrived in Leadville, and with but a small stock opened the first flour and grain store in the Carbonate camp, which he subse- quently sold out. He then engaged in the real estate and mining business, which he still follows. Mr. Schlageter is also inter- ested in cattle and stock raising, and owns a herd of 700 head, with forty head of ponies on the Republican River, about 200 miles from Denver. He owns some valuable real estate in Leadville together with some good mining property, and has always taken an active interest in the affairs of Leadville. He has long been an honored member of the

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I. O. O. F., holding the position of Treasurer of Chloride Lodge, No. 31. Mr. Schlageter has, for one so young in years, shown himself a man of unusual promise and enterprise, and who, without disaster, will at no very distant period ascend to an enviable rank of wealth and importance in the community in which he lives. He married Miss Mary Sheean, of Indianapolis, and has one child.

LEDYARD R. TUCKER.

Mr. Tucker, the present Sheriff of Lake County, was born in Martinsville, Ind., November 19, 1845. He received a common school education, and, when twenty-one years of age, came to Colorado and engaged in min- ing in Lake County; also in 1875 and 1876 and 1877, he was engaged in the cattle busi- ness and has a large ranch sixty miles east of Denver, and devotes some of his leisure time to that branch of pastoral industry. He is unmarried and is now filling his second term of Sheriff of Lake County.

HON. CHARLES I. THOMSON.

The Hon. Charles I. Thomson is compara- tively one of the early settlers of Leadville, where he now resides. He was born in New- burg, Orange Co., N. Y., March 3, 1836, where his parents located upon their arrival in this country from Scotland, and he claims with pride the country of his ancestry. He removed from Newburg, at the age of two years, to what is now Ashland County, Ohio, where his parents went to reside, a district of country then sparsely populated, and at a period prior to the introduction of railways in that State. His father there engaged in agricultural pur- suits, and the subject of our sketch only enjoyed such opportunities for education as a new country and country schools afforded, until he reached the age of fifteen years, when he entered Oberlin College, remaining there for three years, but leaving there before he reached the graduating class. After leaving Oberlin College he commenced the study of law in the office of Judge J. K. Hord, at Tiffin, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1860, and shortly thereafter located at the town of Valparaiso, Ind., where he immediately entered in the active practice of

his profession. He was married April 16, 1861, to Miss Olivia Weirick, a lady of cult- ure, character and refinement, and a leader in charitable enterprises, who is still the partner of his home. After practicing law for five years at Valparaiso with reasonable success, he removed in the spring of 1866, to, and located at Kansas City, Mo., then in its infancy, where he entered upon a large and lucrative practice. In the prosperous era of that city when all indications pointed to the greatness which it is now in the process of realizing as a commercial center, he invested largely in real estate, when the financial dis- asters which came upon that city with the other cities of the country in 1873, so depre- ciated the value of his investments, and resulted in such heavy pecuniary losses, that he was virtually compelled to start anew. With the hope of retrieving his fortunes he came to Leadville in the spring of 1878, and entered immediately into a first-class practice and was retained in nearly all of the impor- tant mining litigation then before the courts. He has made his mark in the profession he follows, and through his practice has become extensively known throughout the State. He is in the prime of his manhood, and a career of usefulness is before him. He is a man of literary tastes, and a terse, cogent debater.

HON. HORACE A. W. TABOR.

The man of true genius never waits for time to accomplish his plans, but only looks for opportu- nity, and when that comes, it finds him prepared to grasp and use it to the utmost advantage .- Disraeli.

This saying furnishes the solution and ex- plains the reasons in those cases where men of native talent, determined will and rare busi- ness aptitude have leaped, at a bound, as it were, from a lowly condition to affluence and stations of high dignity and trust. To the surprise of many who measure cause and effect with a mere superficial glance, these "favorites of fortune," as they are often erro- neously termed, are found to move with ad- mirable fitness upon the unaccustomed plane they have reached, and, with a ready adapta- tion to circumstances, reflect credit upon the positions of responsibility and influence they have attained.

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The men who have left the deepest impress upon the character of the times in which they lived, who have shaped and controlled public events, who have been most effective in arous- ing the busy hum of industry where, but for them, it never would have existed, are rather noted for their pluck, intuitive perception and fidelity to purpose that concentrates all their powers upon the acquisition of a definite ob- ject, than for the extent of their early advan- tages or the amount of book learning they have acquired. Indeed, from the very ab- sence of theoretical knowledge, their minds become repositories where facts are stored, leaving no room for idle fancies and conceits. They set a high value upon the lessons of ob- servation and experience, and it is this class of men who display most fortitude in coping with present difficulties while grimly calculat- ing the chances ahead. They are persistent and irrepressible, ever on the alert for that golden "opportunity " of which Beaconsfield speaks, and, when it comes within reach, they grapple it for all it is worth. It is this class of men who develop mines, endow churches and hospitals, build theaters, banks and rail- roads, create cities, and inaugurate systems of public improvement on a grand scale. And it is from this class the people, with unerring judgment, select capable executive officers, who are characterized by energetic and useful activity. The subject of this sketch is an ap- propriate illustration and exemplar of the class above described.

Gov. Tabor commenced life where men of his climbing propensities usually begin-at the foot of the ladder. He was born in Ver- mont in 1830. After acquiring the rudiments of a good education, he served an apprentice- ship as stone-cutter, and plied his trade in various portions of New England until twenty- five years of age. He then moved to Kansas and settled down to the business of farming, raising corn, wheat and vegetables. He was a member of the Topeka Legislature when that body was forcibly dispersed by orders from President Pierce, and, with strong Union sentiments and sympathies, was an active par- ticipant in the local politics of that troublous time, which culminated a little later in acts of open violence and internecine strife.

Weary of the increasing disorder, and the disasters that threatened the agricultural in- terests of that State, and catching the fever of the Pike's Peak excitement, he removed to Colorado in 1859, with the early pioneers, and has ever since been a resident of this State. His first venture was in the role of an indus- trious miner, with pick and shovel, in the vi- cinity of the present site of Idaho Springs, and there it was he earned his first wages as a gold seeker, by hard manual labor. After wintering in Auraria (now known as West Denver), he started early in the spring of 1860 for Independence Gulch. After prospecting with unsatisfactory results at the mouth of Cache Creek, he came to California Gulch, where the first boom originated that drew a tide of hungry gold-dust-ers to this then un- explored section. Here he divided his time between mining and general merchandising. He secured a claim near the Discovery, which yielded handsome returns, and when he closed out he was the possessor of $8,000, and this sum gave him his first substantial start in life. As miner and merchant he gained the good will of all with whom he came in contact, and was universally esteemed as an honorable, up- right man. He next crossed the range to Buckskin, in Park County (then considered the coming town), and stocked a store with groceries and miscellaneous goods suited to the wants of a lively mining camp. Here he remained dispensing merchandise and officiat- ing as Postmaster until 1868, when he re- turned to Lake County. Oro was then a thriv- ing city of 8,000 inhabitants, and promised to be what Leadville has since become. Here he did business for awhile, but afterward trans- ferred his store and post office to New Oro, when the old town lapsed into premature de- cay. In the fall of 1877, he called in all his available resources in goods and chattels, and opened a store in Leadville, where he carried on a flourishing business until the fall of 1878, when he was relieved from any further neces- sity of engaging in mercantile pursuits.

During all these years of harassing discom- forts and arduous toil, Gov. Tabor had kept the "main chance " steadily in view. He felt confident that within this vast mineral belt some newly discovered bonanza would open its

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 50

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