USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 17
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forms one of the leading industries of the Western country, promptly withdrew from the association, giving his reasons therefor, and vehemently denouncing a policy that could lead only to disastrous results upon the nation at large. Mr. Woodbury held and proclaimed that the bank in his charge could not consistently retain its membership in the National Association in its attitude of persistent action against one of the higher interests of the State.
In 1888 the stockholders, to still further establish the confidence of the public in the only State bank of its magnitude in the city, sub- scribed sufficient funds to augment its surplus to $100,000, thereby increasing its cash capital to $200,000, in recognition of the importance of having a large surplus in case of financial revulsions, events that sooner or later befall every city. Instead of waiting for the accumu- lation of profits to effect that result, it was at once supplied from their own funds. June 17th, 1890, a charter was obtained, and the Union National Bank of Denver organized, with an authorized capital of $1,000,000. The entire capital stock was taken in less than one week after the books were opened for subscriptions. The change of character and the large augmentation of capital was impelled by the realization of its officers that it must be kept abreast of the great pro- gressive movement of the city and State.
General John Pierce, president and manager from the date of its organization as above set forth, until December, 1887, was born in Harwinton, Connecticut, May 10th, 1829; educated at the Western Reserve College, in Hudson, Ohio (his father Rev. George E. Pierce D. D., being its president), was graduated in the class of 1850; entered the engineering department of Harvard College and also received private instruction in the sciences from the famous master, Professor Louis Agassiz. In the spring of 1851 he accepted a position with a corps of engineers that made the first survey of the Hoosac Tunnel. Some time later he was engaged in surveying the line of the Lake Shore Railroad, remaining two years. During the succeeding six years was employed in surveying various great railway lines, the Wabash, Cleve-
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land, Medina and Tuscarawas and others. In 1856 and for four years thereafter, was engaged in the lumber trade. Came to Denver in 1861, and by virtue of his knowledge and skill, was employed upon the public surveys of Colorado Territory, continuing the same until the spring of 1863, when, without application or solicitation on his part, he was by President Lincoln appointed Surveyor General of Colorado and Utah. He accepted the commission and served four years. He then became prominently identified with the general movement for the construction of the Denver Pacific Railway, the annals of which appear in our first volume. In 1873 he was elected president of the Denver & Boulder Valley Railway Company. In 1876 was appointed assistant commissioner for the selection of lands donated to the State of Colorado by the terms of our Enabling Act. In 1874 he was made chief engineer of the Denver Water Company, and under his direction the basis of its present extensive system was built. For several years he was a director in the First National Bank. Was appointed fish commissioner for Colorado by Governor B. H. Eaton and during his term established the excellent system now employed in that department of our State institutions. General Pierce is tall, stately and venerable, in appearance rather in ad- vance of his years. He is one of the most experienced engineers in the State, a man of broad enlightenment, an extensive reader and a superior conversationalist. Since his retirement from the bank he has devoted his time to private interests, enjoying the competence he has gained.
William D. Todd, born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 14th, 1846; parents removed to Greensburg, that State, where soon after the father died. William went to Washington, D. C., and obtained the basis of his education in the common schools of that city. In 1857, at the age of eleven, was appointed page in the National House of Representatives. When Schuyler Colfax was chosen speaker in December, 1863, young Todd was made his clerk, and later confidential secretary, continuing in that capacity in the House, and in the Senate over which Mr. Colfax presided as vice-president, until the close of his official life in 1873. In the meantime, instead of wasting his intervals from duty in frivolous
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pleasures, after the manner of most boys of his years, he employed them in an earnest course of instruction, the completion of the initial lessons of earlier years, including the study of law. In 1865 he had made such advancement as to entitle him to enter Columbia College Law School, from which he graduated in June, 1867. During congressional vacations he practiced law in Pennsylvania, and in 1872 was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1868 his first visit to Colorado was made, in company with Mr. Colfax, with whom he made a tour of the principal mountain resorts. May 8th, 1873, fixed his permanent residence here, entering the office of Daniel Witter as law partner, in business before the United States Land offices, which vocation he pursued until 1874, when he effectively aided in organizing the Denver Safe Deposit and Savings Bank, of which he was made secretary and treasurer.
Widely popular, and probably the most accomplished parliament- arian of the time through his extended experience in congress, he was elected to the lower branch of the State legislature in 1879, when on account of the accomplishments named he was solicited to be a candi- date for speaker, but declined ; nevertheless, during the sessions of that body he was more frequently than any other member called to preside over its deliberations in Committee of the Whole because of his skill in the rapid and accurate dispatch of business. In the senatorial canvass of that winter he took a leading part in the election of Hon. N. P. Hill to the Senate of the United States. In the Republican State Con- vention held at Leadville in August, 1880, he was somewhat strongly urged as a candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor, but as Lake and adjacent counties, then in the height of their prosperity and polit- ical power, demanded the nomination of George B. Robinson, the latter was chosen.
Mr. Todd served as secretary of School District No. 1, East Denver, from May, 1876, to December, 1889, when he resigned, after thirteen years of close attention to the responsible duties of that important office. While connected with the Union Bank he was elected treasurer of a
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great number of societies and moneyed corporations, more perhaps than any other person in the State; was cashier of the bank named, from its inception in 1874 to April, 1889, when he resigned to engage in partner- ship with Donald Fletcher in the purchase and sale of real estate. He was one of the founders of the State Historical and Natural History Society, of which he has been the treasurer to the present time; has been an active member of the Masonic Order during the period of his residence here; was advanced through the several grades to the com- manding position of Grand Master in 1889, and has been Grand Treasurer of the Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons and of the Grand Commandery Knights Templar, since 1876. In 1881 he negotiated in Chicago the sale of $100,000 worth of city bonds at five per cent., up to that time the most successful transaction of the kind in the history of the State.
Roger W. Woodbury, president and manager of the present Union National Bank, was born in Francestown, New Hampshire, March 3d, 1841. The first five years of his life were passed upon a farm. In 1846 his parents moved to the manufacturing city of Manchester, where he received a common school education, working in the cotton mills and attending school in alternate years. When quite a young man he learned the printer's trade. At the age of twenty, just after the first battle of Bull Run, he enlisted as a private in the Third New Hampshire Infantry, remaining in the service until the final surrender of the Confed- erate armies at Appomattox. He was successively promoted to second and first lieutenant, and then to the captaincy of his company; took part in the expedition to Port Royal, South Carolina, and served in the department of the South-including the capture of Morris Island in Charleston harbor and the demolition of Fort Sumter, until the spring of 1864; was subsequently transferred to Florida and thence to General B. F. Butler's Army of the James, participating in the series of great battles around Petersburg, Fort Darling and north of the James River near Richmond, during that year ; was wounded by a spherical case ball at the famous "battle of the mine" in front of Petersburg; joined
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Butler's expedition to Fort Fisher at the mouth of Cape Fear River, and took part in the reduction of that formidable fortress. In the second expedition to that place he served as chief of ordnance with the rank of captain on the staff of General Terry, which position he retained until the close of the war. On retiring from the army, August 2d, 1865, he entered the office of the " Mirror," at Manchester, as local reporter, con- tinuing until the spring of 1866, when he emigrated to Colorado. For some three months he "worked a rocker" in the gold bearing gulches of Summit County, then returned to the plains and began as a compos- itor on the Golden "Transcript," and later took a case on the Denver "Tribune," the history of which, and of his further career in journalism, appears elsewhere.
Mr. Woodbury has neither aspired to nor held any public office, except that of Regent of the State University at Boulder, to which he was elected in 1884. During the second administration of Governor F. W. Pitkin, he was appointed Brigadier General in the Colorado Na- tional Guard, and was assigned to duty on the Executive staff. For many years he took a conspicuous part in the affairs of the Masonic fraternity ; for twelve years as presiding officer, including the offices of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter, and Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar. For many years he was chairman of the com- mittees on jurisprudence in all those bodies ; was made president of the Masonic Temple Association, and laid the financial foundation which eventuated in the beautiful Masonic Temple recently completed.
As already stated in our chronicles of Denver journalism, until 1882 his time and abilities were given to the successful management of his newspapers, the "Tribune" and the "Times." His rare gift for the management of business affairs caused him to be elected president of the Denver Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, when that body came to be organized in the spring of 1884, a position to which he was thrice elected by the Board of Directors. His record there will be given in connection with the history of that large and influential body of
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leading citizens. The Union Bank and its successor, the Union Na- tional, owe a very large share of their enviable prestige to his skill and discreet direction.
The German National. This institution is an outgrowth of the "German Bank," organized under the laws of Colorado, March 3d, 1874, at which time the stockholders met and elected the following directors :
John J. Reithmann, C. F. Bartels, J. M. Eckhart, John Good, Con- rad Walbrach, Jos. L. Bailey, M. D. Clifford, George Tritch and Walter A. Stuart, who subsequently chose the following officers :
President, John J. Reithmann ; vice-president, George Tritch ; cashier, C. F. A. Fischer. The capital was $100,000, and the bank opened May 4th in the Fink building near the corner of Fifteenth and Holladay streets. Something of remarkable romance attaches to this organization, and although out of the usual order, and originally designed for incorporation with our budget of interesting reminiscences, on re- flection, it has been made a part of the annals of banking. The history of the German bank would scarcely be complete without it.
At the risk of being charged with precipitancy in producing the climax at the beginning instead of at the close of our narrative, it may be stated that Walter C. Sheridan, alias Walter A. Stuart, whose name appears upon the records among the directors, of which the foregoing is. an abstract, was ultimately discovered to be one of the most noted bank robbers and forgers of the age. He came to Denver in 1873, bringing numerous letters of introduction to prominent citizens, and some letters of credit also, all of them his own forgeries. But this was not brought to light until long afterward, when a very full epitome of his crimes ap- peared through the various detective agencies that had been in pursuit of him. He was a man of rather striking personality, of elegant man- ners, charming address, evidently well endowed with all the accomplish- ments of good society, and for exerting marked influence upon men. His age at the period we are considering, was about thirty-eight, his height five feet seven or eight inches; complexion light and fair, blue
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eyes, light hair, sandy beard and moustache, general deportment courtly and attractive. His alleged wife was pretty, stylish, and well calculated to win her way in social circles. They had one child, a boy of rather ten- »der years, which may have been borrowed or adopted. Stuart's fortune, though not large, was assumed to be ample for his moderate needs. He purchased from Henry C. Brown a block of choice ground on Grant avenue, built a small but rather stylish house thereon, which he said was only for temporary use; that he would soon surprise the people with another to cost $30,000 to $40,000, something unique in architecture and interior finish, when the original structure would be moved back and used as a porter's lodge. He rented a pew in one of the aristocratic churches, and became a regular attendant upon divine service. He was a man of magnificent schemes. To have an occupation and to conceal his real identity he built propagating houses, raised vegetables and, in their season, drove down town and personally sold them in open mar- ket. His neighbors observed that he rose early, worked diligently, and appeared to be a very earnest and useful citizen. He at no time attempted to apply any of his "professional" methods here. He bought stock in the German bank, was elected one of its directors, and took vigorous interest in its affairs.
Now Theodore W. Herr owned one-half of the then great Poca- hontas silver mine at Rosita, now a part of Custer County, and made the German bank his depository. Stuart observed that it was a large account, and that the mine was yielding heavily. He made the ac- quaintance of Mr. Herr, elicited much valuable information from him respecting the mine, and then proposed to start a bank at Rosita for the better accommodation of the miners, and to this end accompanied Mr. Herr on his return to that place. There he met as if by accident, but really by preconcerted arrangement one James R. Boyd, a con- federate, who represented himself to be a capitalist, making great displays of wealth in the form of bonds, cash, etc. He had a satchel full of them, which were ostentatiously exhibited. The two soon established a bank, fitted it up handsomely, and began business. Mie"
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became familiar with the foreman of the mine, its yields, etc., and con- cocted a scheme for possessing themselves of it. By fraud and force they succeeded, a riot ensued, one man was killed, others badly injured. Herr obtained a writ of injunction restraining them from shipping and selling the ores. They got all they could, refusing to pay their employes, and finally decamped with all the funds of the bank. Meanwhile, Stuart had disposed of all his interests in Denver. The next heard of him was from Kansas City where he endeavored to secure $10,000 on a certificate of deposit drawn by himself on the Rosita bank, but was disappointed. These events occurred in the autumn of 1875.
In 1872 a select cabal of expert forgers and thieves of the higher class in London and New York, devised an ingenious plot for a colossal raid on the Bank of England by means of cleverly forged bonds and other securities. Walter Sheridan was the instigator and governing head of this bold enterprise, and had associated with him Andrew J. Roberts, George Wilkes and Frank Gleason. Sheridan and one of his confederates crossed the Atlantic and met in London those with whom they were to cooperate there, but disliking their manners and methods they abandoned the scheme and returned to New York. The others subsequently executed the plot, were detected, arrested and imprisoned.
After his arrival in New York this dauntless and skillful criminal formed a new combination ; had plates engraved by the best counter- feiters in the guild, producing exact fac-similes of the mortgage bonds of the New York Central, Buffalo & Erie, Chicago & Northwestern, and some other railway corporations, and issued them to the extent of two and a half millions, some of which were successfully placed on the market before their fraudulent character was discovered. Sheridan's confederates being less slippery than he, were captured and punished, but their leader effected his escape, changed his name to Stuart, and after a time appeared in Denver as a capitalist, gardener and general speculator.
According to the chronicles of the period, he had been depredating
m. y. Woods,
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upon other people's property from boyhood, indeed, had never followed any honest vocation, beginning as a horse thief, passing to that of general thief and confidence operator, and graduating as a robber of bank vaults. Having robbed a bank in Chicago he was captured and sent to Joliet for five years. At the expiration of his term, he with two confederates robbed the First National of Springfield, Illinois. He engaged and fully occupied the attention of the teller in front, while his accomplices slipped into the vault, seized and escaped with $35,000 in current funds. Out of this booty Sheridan secured $22,000. He was arrested, but having the means to employ a noted criminal lawyer was acquitted. Later he with one or two assistants stole $120,000 in bonds of the Maryland Fire Insurance Company ; robbed a bank in Scranton, Pennsylvania, another in Cleveland, Ohio, and several others.
To illustrate some of his methods, it may be stated that after per- fecting the bond forgeries just enumerated, he applied for and was admitted to membership in the New York Produce Exchange, under the name of Ralston ; fitted up an elegant office and became a vigorous broker in wheat and other speculative commodities. He adroitly secured a loan of $70,000 on the forged bonds, from the Guarantee & Indemnity Company by placing $102,000 of these false securities with them. A day or two later he managed to obtain $30,000 additional upon another bundle. The fraud soon became public, as anticipated, but as he was prepared at all points, the next outgoing steamer carried him to Europe. He was followed by detectives whom he eluded, and after amusing himself for some time in foreign lands, returned to the United States, finally locating in Denver.
After leaving Colorado, by the use of numerous disguises and the skillful obliteration of his tracks, he proceeded to New York City, where he was discovered by one of Pinkerton's detectives on Cortlandt street, en route to Broadway. When arrested he exhibited great astonishment and indignation, declared himself to be a wealthy and influential citizen of Colorado, the president of a bank in Rosita, with large possessions in Denver, etc., etc. Nevertheless, he was tried for the bond forgeries,
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convicted and imprisoned. Soon after the expiration of his term he reappeared in Denver, December 13th, 1888, with a famous bank robber known to the police as "Horace Hovan," or "little Horace," who entered the cash vault of the People's Bank, on Arapahoe street in broad daylight, shod with noiseless felt shoes, but was detected and captured by the employes of the bank, just as he was leaving the vault empty handed. Sheridan remained outside, and on discovering that his accom- plice had failed, disappeared. Hovan was held in custody until the 20th, when he was released on straw bail by one of our astute justices of the peace, and he too passed out of sight. Sheridan, after committing several other robberies, the last in Montreal, Canada, was arrested and incarcerated. He died in the jail of that city in January, 1890.
The German Bank secured a charter for a National, with a paid up capital of $100,000, was organized in March, and commenced business in April, 1877. Its board of directors consisted of George Tritch, M. D. Clifford, John Good, J. M. Eckhart, Conrad Walbrach, Joseph L. Bailey, P. Gottesleben, John J. Reithmann and G. G. Symes.
The following officers were elected: President, George Tritch; vice-president, John Good ; cashier, Job A. Cooper.
The first quarterly statement rendered June 22d, 1877, showed deposits, $168,704. 13 ; loans and discounts, $197,233.31. At the be- ginning of 1890, the deposit account was $3,036,372.83; loans and discounts, $1,880,021.30. The present officers are J. J. Reithmann, president ; D. C. Dodge, vice-president; Chas. M. Clinton, cashier ; Chas. Kunsemelleo, assistant cashier.
John J. Reithmann was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, November 20th, 1838; ten years afterward he, with his parents, emigrated to America, locating at Indianapolis, Indiana, where John was educated in the public schools ; soon after was employed in the " Bank of the Capitol." In the spring of 1858 the family moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in the fall of that year he, in company with his brother, L. D. Reithmann and one companion, crossed the plains to the Rocky Mountains, reaching the present site of Denver, October 20th. They built a cabin at or near
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the point where the Grant Smelting Works are now situated, in which L. D. passed the following winter. It is claimed, and perhaps justly, that this was the first house built on the east side of Cherry Creek, though a long way from the original site of Denver. After remaining about two weeks, and having ascertained the results of Green Russell's various prospecting expeditions, John decided to return to the Missouri River, and took with him such letters as the few prospectors and settlers desired to send, and with them a small package of gold dust, that when exhibited in the border towns intensified the rapidly growing interest in the newly discovered mines. At the time of his arrival here in October, the only white persons in the region were Green Russell's explorers, John Smith, trapper and trader, and Wm. McGaa (alias Jack Jones). The merchandise train of A. J. Williams, accompanied by E. A. Wil- loughby (both residents of the present era), arrived just as he was about starting on his return to Council Bluffs. Mr. Reithmann claims the honor of having been not only the original mail carrier between this region and the borders of civilization in 1858, but the first bearer of golden treasure, with accurate intelligence from the first gold hunters. In March, 1859, he came a second time, taking up the manufacture of crackers and other bakery products, which he personally disposed of to the people. This enterprise, that yielded steady profits and developed an extensive trade, engaged his attention until 1870. In 1868 he pur- chased the drugstore and stock established by William Graham, the pioneer druggist. When the need demonstrated itself, he added a wholesale department. The two branches have been carried on with constantly expanding volume to the present time. He purchased when the city was only a village, some corners and inside lots in the center of town, that have since become extremely valuable, the greater part of which he still retains. Between the bakery business, the drugstore, real estate, the bank, some other highly successful ventures, and the practice of economy, he has accumulated a large fortune. In 1876 he resigned the presidency of the bank, revisited his native land, and made a general tour of Europe. He was succeeded by Mr. George Tritch,
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who retained the headship until the regular annual meeting of the directors in 1890, when Mr. Reithmann was again chosen.
George Tritch was born in Baden, Germany, April 26th, 1829, and in the same year was brought to New York by his parents, who moved west and settled in Chillicothe, Ohio. He remained at home, acquiring such education as the place afforded until fifteen years of age, when (1844) he went to Cincinnati and, inclining toward the tinner's trade, entered a shop and served an apprenticeship. In 1847 removed to Pittsburgh, where he was married in 1849. Four years afterward he moved west to Muscatine, where and at Tipton, Iowa, he was engaged in his chosen vocation until May 27th, 1860, when he became a resident of Denver. Having brought his tools and a small stock, he opened a shop for the manufacture and repair of tin goods, which proved most fortunate, for the early immigrants, settlers and miners were somewhat extravagantly partial to such wares for table use, disdaining for obvious reasons the more delicate queensware, dainty French porcelains and the like. Trade prospered, and grew to very gratifying proportions with increased population. General hardware was added, next all manner of farming implements, the first introduced here, which greatly facilitated the progress of agriculture. The original building becoming too limited for the expanding business, a large brick store and warehouse was erected by Mr. Tritch on one of the corners of Fifteenth and Wazee
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