USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 16
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Although not himself a seeker after riches, he imparted to his sons as the governing aim of his declining years, cultivation in the axioms which he had fully mastered, that prepared them to grapple with the higher problems of existence and enabled them to gain the enviable prestige they now enjoy. Twelve children were born to him, seven boys and five daughters. Two of the males died in infancy, another-Wil- liam, emigrated to Nebraska and at the age of twenty died there. He owned a country store in the little town of Osnaburg, Eastern Ohio. The surviving sons were given substantial education, the best afforded by the public schools, supplemented by personal tuition. At the age of sixteen, Augustus and Herman were taken into partnership, and under his watchful guidance were held responsible for the proper conduct of the trade. When each had thus been fitted for a wider sphere of action, he took his share of the profits for his capital, not a large sum, and went into the world to carve out an inheritance for himself. They were enjoined to be honest and truthful, to keep every engagement to the letter; to buy and sell and manage upon the principles he had incul- cated; to exact every dollar due to them, and pay every dollar due from
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them ; to be upright in all things, temperate and religiously moral; to preserve their names and his untainted, to win esteem and confidence by faithful observance of these aphorisms. They determined among them- selves that their business transactions should be established and con- ducted in the name of the Kountze Brothers, and when all were perma- nently located, to share and share alike in the profits acquired.
Augustus first proceeded to Iowa, in 1855, but not discovering suitable opportunities there, he continued on to Omaha, then a small village at the eastern border of the " American Desert," now filled with glorified cities and towns, where he opened a small banking or loan office, which, with the passing years, has developed into the first and strongest national bank in Nebraska. When Herman had finished his. course of instruction under the parental eye, he joined his elder brother, mastered the intricacies of banking, and on the attainment of his ma- jority was made a partner. Luther did not enter the store, but at the age of sixteen united with Augustus and Herman at Omaha, serving an apprenticeship with them; and in 1862 he came to Denver, and in one corner of Walter S. Cheesman's drugstore,* on Blake street, opened the second banking house of Kountze Brothers, where he purchased gold, received deposits, drew drafts on Omaha, discounted commercial paper, loaned money, etc., etc. After the conflagration of April 19th, 1863, which destroyed the drugstore, he procured similar quarters in the mer- cantile house of Tootle & Leach, and there remained, enlarging the scope of his dealings until the completion of a two story brick building erected by the firm at the corner of Holladay and Fifteenth streets, where all the details of legitimate banking were thenceforward carried on. He was elected treasurer of the city in 1865, and served one year.
At the age of sixteen, Charles B., the youngest of the quartette, began his primary course as a partner in his father's store, as Augustus and Herman had done, and proved no less apt a pupil. The next year he was dispatched to Philadelphia to select, purchase and ship to his native town an assorted stock of merchandise, the first and most trying,
* Erroneously stated in Vol. I, page 397.
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yet one of the most salutary lessons of his life. His mission having been accomplished he returned home, and when the consignments arrived, marked and exposed them for sale. In 1864, when only nineteen, he joined Luther in Denver, and here began his career in the new and strange domain of banking that was to be his permanent vocation. In 1866 he became a partner in all the banking business of the firm, and aided in organizing the Colorado National, and the Rocky Mountain National at Central City. In that year Luther went to Europe, traveled over the continent for twelve months, returned to Denver, and after a short time here went to 'New York, where in 1868 he founded upon Wall street, one of the mightiest arteries of commerce on the globe, the third great house of Kountze Brothers, a venture that has withstood all revulsions unshaken, breasting every tempest of the intervening years without a quiver of weakness, and has become one of the financial bul- warks of that city.
From 1866, Charles B., a mere youth, scarcely old enough to vote, assumed general charge of the two banks in Colorado. In 1867 a branch of the Omaha house was established at Cheyenne, managed by Augustus and Herman. Charles was regularly elected to and retained the office of cashier until 1871, when he was made president, and Wm. B. Berger cashier. Therefore, at the age of forty-six (present writing) he is the controlling power of the Colorado National, an equal sharer in the First National at Omaha and that of Kountze Brothers in New York, the branches at Central City and Cheyenne, having been disposed of to other parties. He has acquired in the name of the firm, immense landed inter- ests in Colorado, Nebraska and Texas ; indeed, there is scarcely a Western State or Territory in which they have not large possessions ; was treas- urer of the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth Railway, and a member of its directorate, and is one of the principal owners of the Globe Smelting Works near Denver. He was heavily interested in the construction of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railway, from the sale of which to the Union Pacific in 1879, he derived material benefits; owns the most beautiful residence in the city, and a large amount of extremely valuable
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real estate therein. He has witnessed the accretion of deposits in his bank from $189, 101.96 in 1866, to a total of $3,600,000 in 1890, and the development of the city from a village of less than 4,000 souls to one of 126,000. He was its treasurer from 1868 to 1871, inclusive. The deposits of the three banks of the Kountze Brothers now aggregate nearly fifteen millions of dollars.
That the subjects of this rapid sketch have achieved enviable success, each upon the line he has chosen and marked out for himself, and have acquired great possessions by the observance of the maxims in which they were, so to speak matriculated, is well known, and they take infinite satisfaction in ascribing all they have gathered of the flowers of fortune to the advice and disciplinary training of the father, whose memory they cherish in fathomless love and veneration. In less than ten years after Charles B. assumed charge of the Denver bank, and Luther that in New York, the firm became so firmly entrenched in public esteem as to render it impregnable against all the assaults of adverse tides. I know of no better examples for the rising generation of boys to consider, and for their parents to emulate, than is here briefly epitomized. While the Kountze Brothers might have won equally gratifying prestige without the early education they received is probable, for others have made their names illustrious without such instruction by the sheer force of inherent qualities, but who, notwith- standing, will deny the value of such scholarship?
William B. Berger, late cashier of the Colorado National, who bore a material part in its later triumphs, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., May 31st, 1839 ; was educated in the common schools, and at the age of thirteen entered a mercantile house in that city as a clerk, remaining there three years. While there he contracted the irritating and extremely distressing disease of asthma, which rapidly grew into a chronic affection, causing him great suffering and finally impelled him to seek relief in the town of Marquette on the border of Lake Superior, where, finding improvement, he remained several years, employing the time in clerical work in various public offices. When twenty-one he
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went to Europe and in Carlsruhe, Germany, and subsequently in Nancy, France, he studied and acquired a knowledge of the German and French languages, and at the same time recuperated his health. A year later he returned to his native land, and again settled in the Lake Superior region. At the outbreak of our civil war, inspired by ardent love for the Union and its cause, he enlisted, but was rejected by the medical examiners on account of his asthmatic tendencies, which they knew would incapacitate him for active service.
Shortly afterward he became interested with his father in the iron manufacturing trade at Newcastle, Pennsylvania, but as the condition of his health forbade his locating in that climate, he assumed the duties of commercial traveler for the firm, and in this capacity visited every State, and every important city and town in the North and West. Possessing superior talents for commercial affairs, he soon laid the lines of a very large traffic, but the malady that had afflicted all his years still clung to him, and while there were intervals of immunity from its tortures, it could not be subdued in the lower altitudes, therefore in 1867 he sought the less humid atmosphere of the Rocky Mountains, stopping temporarily at Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he secured a clerical position in the bank of Kountze Brothers. Two years later he moved on to Denver, where his tormentor was in time effectually subdued. Having decided to adopt the pursuit of banking, he was offered and accepted the duties of collection clerk in the Colorado National, whence he rose step by step through the several grades to that of cashier in 1871. He purchased stock in the bank, and thence- forward assumed an important part in its management. No man was more highly esteemed, no one bore his honors and the wealth that came to him in due course, more modestly. Quiet, reticent and zealously industrious, a master of detail, firm and unyielding when the interests of the institution required it, he came to be respected as much for his method of doing business as for his kindly disposition and the geniality of his manners in social intercourse. The few who were fortunate enough to reach his heart, found him gentle, charitable and
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sympathetic, an excellent conversationalist, well informed, broad and generous in his views, progressive and public spirited. He was one of the founders, and larger stockholders in the mercantile house of Struby, Estabrook & Co .; a considerable stockholder and a director in the Globe Smelting Company, one of the largest concerns of its class in the country ; was for sixteen years treasurer of Denver School District, No. I, and always unselfishly devoted to the advancement of education; was a stockholder in the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth Railway, and for a time its treasurer. He never aspired to or held a political office. Mr. Kountze, who knew him more intimately and valued him more highly than any one except his family, says of him,-"He was uniformly kind and pleasant, possessing wonderful self-control, unusual sagacity and foresight in business, fine administrative ability, and was ever ready to assist worthy applicants for aid, never passionate or ill-tempered, honest, candid and manly."
About the Ist of March, 1890, realizing the need of a short vacation, he visited the Pacific Coast, and on the 10th of April following, while playing with his children on the beach at Monterey, the pulsations of his heart suddenly ceased, he fell, and in a few moments expired. The remains were brought to Denver, and followed to Riverside cem- etery by a very large concourse of sincere mourners, representing the city at large.
Mr. Berger's connection with the Colorado National formed an essential feature of its prominence. The great enterprises with which his capital and influence were associated are conspicuous factors in the growth of the city. The schools in which our citizens take exalted pride, because of their excellence, have been benefited by his counsel. To his family he left the splendid legacy of an untarnished name, and a substantial fortune. He was an honest, forceful and good man in the fullest measure of the expression. His life was a revelation of upright- ness, of unfaltering fidelity to the trusts confided to his care. What prouder monument can be erected to his memory, even though it were made of gold incrusted with precious stones ?
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Mr. Thomas H. Woodleton, for many years assistant cashier, was chosen his successor, and the two sons of Mr. Berger, Charles B., aged 24, a graduate of Yale College, made assistant, and George B., aged 21, second assistant. They have exhibited marked aptitude for the business and bid fair to perpetuate the fame of their distinguished parent. Since the foregoing was written, ill health compelled the retirement of Mr. Woodleton, when Mr, Charles Berger became his successor as cashier by election.
The City National. One of the originators of this bank, the third of the series to be considered, was Mr. Frank Palmer, a pioneer of the early gold mining epoch, when everything was new and strange, Denver but a small collection of rude cabins, bearing the appearance of a tented field, rather than a fixed settlement. He was a native of New York, born December 9th, 1832; educated in the common schools. At the age of nineteen he joined the surging tide of emigration to California, where he took up the hard and but too often precarious search for gold in the placers and gravel beds, which he prosecuted with indifferent success during three years, when he returned to the "States," locating in Des Moines, Iowa, and engaged in the purchase and sale of real estate. His next change of residence was to the young settlement of Leaven- worth, Kansas, just at the beginning of the boisterous rush to Pike's Peak, which prompted him to join it. Having a small capital on his arrival in Denver, he opened an office and began buying gold. In 1861 he was joined by Warren Hussey, who subsequently became one of the most active business men of the city, when the firm of Warren Hussey & Co., bankers, was founded, and a branch established at Central City, of which Mr. Hussey assumed personal charge. For a time both were conducted as purchasing agencies, but developed into legitimate banking as their means augmented and facilities for exchange were supplied. The record of these houses was much the same as those already described. Palmer was elected city treasurer in 1867, serving one year. In 1863 Mr. Joseph A. Thatcher took the manage- ment of the Central City branch. Both he and Palmer being cautious,
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conservative and prudent men, they made money rapidly, while Hussey, being somewhat inclined to speculation, engaged in real estate, mining and other ventures.
Palmer, more especially, threw his whole mind and strength into the enterprise, and ultimately destroyed his mental and physical powers by overwork. He was one of the most genial, companionable and popular of the young men of his day. He was made a partner, in 1865. Hussey went to Salt Lake City, and in that hotbed of murderous Mor- monism, dominated by Brigham Young, "Prophet and Revelator of the Church of Latter Day Saints," obtained permission to establish a bank. During the construction of the Union Pacific Railway through Utah, he handled its business.
Warren Hussey was born on a farm near Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1835 ; educated in a country school. At the age of seventeen he obtained a clerkship in a drugstore at Terre Haute, where he remained two years, then went to Leavenworth, Kansas, and joined one of Russell, Majors & Waddell's supply trains bound for Salt Lake City, with stores for General Joseph Johnston's army, but left it at Fort Kearney and went to Des Moines, Iowa, where he took a clerkship in the drugstore of Dr. Alexander Shaw (now a resident of Denver). This occurred in 1853; remained one year and then entered the private bank of B. F. Allen (the same for whom D. H. Moffat was cashier in Omaha), where his primary lessons in banking were taken; came to Denver in 1861; opened an office for the purchase of gold, in a corner of Wm. Graham's drugstore on Blake and Fifteenth streets; January 1st, 1863, removed to Ford Brothers' store, corner of Holladay and Fifteenth; opened a branch in Central City in the summer of 1863. In 1865 he went to Salt Lake City and established a branch there. At this time Frank Palmer became a partner, remaining only two years, however, when he sold his interest to Hussey. Before and after the years named, he was Hussey's manager.
He was a man of very genial and attractive manners, great nervous energy, enthusiastic and sanguine, disposed to push the development of
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the country, ready and earnest in cooperating with every effort to estab- lish schools, churches and other public institutions, engaged quite extensively in mining on Quartz Hill, Gilpin County, made money rapidly, and spent it lavishly. The crash of 1873 closed his bank in Salt Lake. At this writing he is cashier of the Spokane National Bank at Spokane Falls, Washington.
The Denver house flourished and prospered under Palmer's prudent management, and in 1872 was chartered as a national by the Comptroller of the Treasury. Its capital was $100,000, and opened its doors to the public June 10th. The first directors were Henry Crow, Frank Palmer, J. Sidney Brown, John R. Hanna and William Barth. Officers, Henry Crow, president; Frank Palmer, vice-president, and John R. Hanna, cashier. Soon afterward Palmer had become so weakened by excessive application, he was compelled to yield and retire to private life. He traveled for a time, but without material benefit. The seeds of decay had undermined his constitution, and he wasted gradually until December 3d, 1877, when he passed away at his home in Herkimer, New York, in his 45th year.
Henry Crow was born in Wisconsin, and at an early age went to Chatham, Canada, remaining there until he was eighteen, then returned to the "States" and attended school at Princeton, Illinois, for three years; subsequently embarked in the drygoods trade at Marietta, Iowa ; in 1859 emigrated to the Rocky Mountains, and began mining in Gilpin County. In the spring of 1860 he returned East and brought his family. The fickle goddess did not smile upon his endeavors until 1865, when he became interested in the Terrible mines at Georgetown, Clear Creek County, then at the beginning of a marvelous prosperity induced by the discovery of valuable silver mines, which for two or three years following made it the principal center of activity. Soon after the pur- chase of the mines in question, he persuaded Mr. F. A. Clark to join him, and they together developed these holdings into properties of great value. In 1870 they were sold to an English syndicate or company in London for $500,000, after which both Crow and Clark erected homes
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in Denver, and the block on Market street which still bears their names. In 1876 Mr. Crow resigned the presidency of the bank, and was suc- ceeded by Wm. Barth, since which time he has been engaged in mining.
William Barth was born at Dietz, Nassau, Germany, December 8th, 1829, emigrated to America in 1850, landing in the city of New Orleans. Having learned the shoemaker's trade in the fatherland, he soon found employment which he sorely needed, as he was well nigh penniless. The climate disagreeing with him, failing health obliged him to seek a Northern State, and he settled temporarily in the town of Belleville, Illinois. A year later he located in Glasgow, Missouri, and afterward at Platteville, in the same State, when in connection with his brother Moritz, who had preceded him to this country, they engaged in the man- ufacture of boots and shoes. When the war broke out, the brothers instantly espoused the Union cause, which rendered them offensive to . the prevailing sentiment in Missouri. Finding that they could no longer reside there in peace and safety, on the 2d of June, 1861, they crossed the plains, and made their way to California Gulch, but remained there only a few months. Thereafter until 1862 they manufactured boots in St. Louis for the Colorado trade. In the year last named they came again to the mountains. William settled in Fairplay, and Moritz in Montgomery, at the very head of the South Park. In May, 1863, they opened a shop in Denver and resumed their profession. Being indus- trious and economical, they built up a profitable trade. For many years they conducted a large store on Fifteenth street, between Holladay and Blake. As their means augmented they purchased real estate, from which in after years they realized handsome fortunes. When the City National was organized, William became one of its principal stock- holders, and was also one of the large holders of stock in the Bank of San Juan, at Del Norte, and in two others established, one at Alamosa and the other at Durango. He was one of the moving spirits in the Denver & South Park Railway, and in some other notable enterprises. The Barth Brothers are among the wealthier citizens of the city and State.
Mark Lo, Blunt.
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John R. Hanna was born at Cadiz, Ohio, October 17th, 1836; took a primary course in the public schools, which was supplemented by a course of study in Franklin College at New Athens, in the same State ; at the age of eighteen removed to Mercer, Pennsylvania, and there entered a bank, remaining until October, 1869, when the impairment of his health brought him to Colorado. After a year spent in outdoor exercise on a ranch near the metropolis, having regained his wonted strength and vigor, he came to this city and aided in the organization of the City National, of which he was elected a director and cashier, which positions he still retains. He is credited with being one of the most conservative bankers in the city, careful, strictly attentive to business, easy, good-tempered and affable, strong with its patrons, and enjoying the confidence of all his associates. He is an ardent supporter of education, of religion and good morals, clear headed, quiet, unas- suming and effective, having no ambition to make a noise in the world, but to execute every duty in justice, to advance the worthy causes with which he may be connected, with scrupulous regard to the benefits to accrue to his fellow beings. He is thoroughly devoted to the up- building of all educational institutions, to works of charity and the amelioration of the poor and distressed, but it is done so unostenta- tiously as to escape public notice. The bank of which he is the manager finds in him a man of sedulous industry, of large and valuable experience, a safe counselor, one who makes no serious mistakes, because of his ability to see all sides, and to reach the depth of every question requiring prompt and proper decision.
Union Bank, incorporated under the laws of the Territory, was organized in May, 1874, with the title of "The Denver Safe-Deposit & Savings' Bank," by General John Pierce, who became president, Daniel Witter treasurer, and William D. Todd secretary and cashier. Its authorized capital was $60,000, of which fifty per cent. was paid. It opened for business in July, 1874. At that time no city in the Union having no greater population than ours possessed among its fixed insti- tutions a well built safe deposit vault for public uses.
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The office was opened in Dr. W. F. McClelland's building at the southeast corner of Fifteenth and Lawrence streets. The officers and stockholders remained unchanged excepting Mr. Witter, who in 1877 was succeeded by D. H. Moffat, Jr., and he by Samuel S. Landon. In 1881 the owners, in connection with P. Gottesleben, John J. Reithmann, and the proprietors of the "Denver Daily Republican," purchased the southwest corner of Sixteenth and Arapahoe streets, for $50,000, each owning parts thereof, and conjointly erected a fine lava stone building thereon, to which the bank was removed August 26th, 1882. Simul- taneously with this change of quarters, the stockholders increased the capital to $100,000 and entered upon a general banking business, dis- pensing with the savings department. The new organization com- prised John Pierce president, Cyrus W. Fisher vice-president, S. S. Landon treasurer, W. D. Todd cashier, and Charles R. Pierce assistant cashier. J. V. Dexter, R. W. Woodbury, M. Spangler and George W. Currier were among the stockholders. A much larger safe deposit vault was constructed in the basement, and well patronized. In the autumn of 1886 R. W. Woodbury purchased a controlling interest in the bank; and January Ist, 1887, was elected president and became in fact its manager and directing head; M. Spangler was made vice- president, W. D. Todd cashier, and R. C. Lockwood assistant cashier. During the same year the building and safe deposit were sold to Mr. Dexter who organized the Union Safe Deposit & Trust Company, with a capital of $50,000, and it has ever since been conducted under the management then instituted. When Mr. Woodbury assumed charge, the deposits were about $250,000. At the beginning of 1890 they had increased to $1,250,000. In the summer of 1889 the interior of the bank was entirely remodeled and refitted at an expense of $12,000, and is now one of the most attractive in the city. Mr. Woodbury being an enthusiastic and thoroughly patriotic promoter of the progress of our city and State, discovering the National Banking Association to be uncompromisingly antagonistic to the use of silver as money, thereby constantly depreciating the value of that metal, the production of which
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