History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 70

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company
Publication date: 1889-95
Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co.
Number of Pages: 791

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turned to his home and volunteered as a sollier in the 11th Pa. cavalry. In Mareh. 1862, he was commissioned as captain of vol- unteers in the 101st Pa. infantry, and served through the first peninsular campaign, un- der General Mcclellan. During that ser- vice he fell a victim to typhoid-pneu- monia, whereby he was so disabled as to compel his retirement from the army for a year. In the spring of 1863 he was elected to the position and assumed the duties of superintendent of common schools in his native county, an office involving much our Indian troubles of 1868, a man named Linley, living on the Kiowa, was shot, at first supposed to have been by Indians, but after- ward found to have been an accident. The in that capacity be resigned, his health being comparatively restored, and re-entered the army, at first actively engaged in recruiting volunteers to fill the quota demanded of his mayor of Denver offered a reward for a sur- county and thereby save it from the neces- geon who would undertake to go there and sity of drafting. He served as major of the attend the wounded man. Dr. Elsner volun- 207th Pa. regiment until the close of the war, teered and, accompanied by a friendly Indian when he was recommissioned to serve out his

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unexpired term as county superintendent of at the Moravian academy of Lititz, situate in schools, continuing in that position until the Lancaster county, graduating from that insti- tute as a civil engineer. He began the active

summer of 1866, when he resumed the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1867. practical duties of his chosen profession in In the spring of 1868 he removed with his 1852, with the corps of engineers employed family to the city of Omaha, Neb .. and then by the Pennsylvania railway, remaining with first opened a law office. At the expiration that company until 1854. when he accepted a of two years he had secured a fair clientage like position on the Philadelphia & Erie rail- way, with which he remained until 1860. After a year in charge of a surveying party on the line of the Honduras Inter-Oceanic rail- way in Central America under Col. John C. C. Troutwine, he returned to the Philadelphia & Erie road. Shortly after the outbreak of our civil war in 1861 he entered the service of the government as assistant engineer ofmili- tary railways in the military division of the Mississippi, serving under General Sherman in the reconstruction of roads that were de- stroyed along his line of march by the Confed- erate forces, and in building new lines during the memorable campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and throughout Georgia, leaving the service in 1866 as acting-chief engineer of mili- tary railroads in said division. In the autumn of 1866 he was appointed resident engineer of the Kansas Pacific railway, with headquarters at Wyandotte, Kan., and for the next year conducted the surveys of the 32nd parallel route to California for that company under the direction of Col. W. W. Wright and Gen. Wm. J. Palmer. Returning in the fall of 1868, he was engaged by the Union Pacific R. R. Co. as until its completion in 1869, and then was

for a young man, but became atllieted with asthma of a severe type which rendered him unfit for business and compelled him to re- turn East and seek medical treatment. In the fall of 1872, getting no relief from any- thing that could be prescribed for him in the East, he set out for Colorado, arriving in Jan., 1873, and has resided since that time in Den- ver, receiving marvelous benefit from the healthful and invigorating climate. In Feb., 1573. he entered into the practice of law in Denver. In 1576. when Colorado was ad- mitted into the Union as a state, he was nomi- nated by the republican state convention for the office of judge of the 2nd judicial dis- trict by acclamation, and was elected at the general fall election for the term of six years. In 1882 he was renominated, first by his own political party and within a fortnight was nominated unanimously by three other con- ventions-the democratie, the greenback and the citizens' reform, and elected without op- position for another term of six years. After twelve years' continuous service as judge of the district court, in 1888 he was nominated and elected associate justice of the supreme superintendent of bridge building on that road court, which position he held until Jan .. 1895. By the vast number of causes he has tried, he made superintendent of construction and chief has in that time become thoroughly conver- engineer of the Denver Pacific from Cheyenne to Denver, and at the same time directed the construction of the Kansas Pacific from Denver eastward to a connection with the forces en- gaged in building westward from Kit Carson. With the completion of these roads terminated his active connection with railways, and for the next five years he conducted a general brokerage business in connection with Capt. Horace A. Gray. loaning money, etc., in the city of Denver. In 1872 he was one of the cor- sant with the law, widely familiar with the decisions of other courts, and fittingly en- dowed by this large experience to analyze and correctly pronounce upon the business coming to him for determination. It is in evidence that he was able, studions and painstaking. and that his decisions were prepared with in- finite care, as the decisions of all judges should be. Whether any human being, on or off the bench, can be absolutely just and im- partial in all things, wholly free from preju- porators of the Denver & South Park railway dice and partizanship, above and beyond criticism, is at least an open question, but the people have declared by their votes again and again, by overwhelming majorities, their con- idence in Judge Elliott's skill and ability. He married Josephine E., daughter of Avery Gil- lette. Ilis eldest son. Willis Vietor Elliott, is a graduate of Michigan university law do- partment and a member of the Colorado bar. Since 1891 Judge Elliott has been a member of the law faculty of the university of Ne- braska. of the university of Denver and the university of Colorado. Ilis principal lectures have been upon the irrigation laws of the West, and the mining laws of the United Statos.

company (now a part of the I'nion Pacific system in Colorado), and was elected chief engineer. I'nder his direction the South Park road was built from Denver to the Arkansas river and thence to Gunnison. From that time to the present, he has devoted his time to per- sonal interests, and to large real estate trans- actions in Denver. As the hasty epitome fore- going demonstrates, he has been actively associated with the principal railway enter- prises of Colorado, those which form the groundwork of the great system that has made Denver one of the most noted centers of the West. Ilis experience has covered broad fields of action, extending over the famous battle grounds of the southwest during the war, and over the plains from the Missourl river to the Pacific, including the principal

EICHOLTZ, Leonard H., railway engineer, was born in Lancaster City, Pa., and educated thoroughfares of our own state. Having

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amassed a fortune, he is enjoying the eom- withstanding the efforts of the company, the forts of a beautiful home and, surrounded by city being thinly populated, commerce and in- a happy family, with few cares to harass and annoy, Col. Eicholtz serenely contemptates the past as a life work worthily consummated. with occasional indulgence in visions of a great future for the city and state of his adoption.

came an employé of the Exchange Bank in passage by Congress, in 1875, of an act to en-

ELLSWORTH, Lewis C., ex-banker and railway manager was born in Troy, N. Y., June 30, 1832. While in his sixth year, his parents settted in Napervitte, Itt. At sixteen he was a clerk in a drug store, Two years later he learned telegraphy and afterward civil engineering. He received a very thor- ongh English education, and, in 1852, be- Chicago, conducted by H. A. Tucker & Co. Ilaving a natural aptitude for the profession of banking, he was advanced in the regular order of promotion through the various grades, and made a partner in 1860. Soon after the commencement of our civit war the bank paid all its obligations and went out of business. In 1864 Mr. Ellsworth be- came one of the corporators and owners of the Traders' National Bank in the same city, and /was also lassociated with several im- portant enterprises in that field. In 1867 he, with a partner, built one of the branch lines of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy rail- road from Buda to Elmwood. Soon after its completion they constructed the branch of the same line from Mendota to Prophetstown. In the summer of 1871 he came to Denver with a party of Chicago capitalists, and, while here, his attention was called to the practi- cally unused charter for a street railway, that had been granted to certain corporators named therein, by the territorial legislature, in 1865. Scarcely any work had been done in compliance with its provisions. After in- vestigating the present and prospective ad- vantages of the city with reference to the en- terprise, which then were quite encouraging, Mr. Elisworth and his friends purchased the franchise, organized a new company, and soon began grading and laying track upon the in- itial fine, beginning at a point in West Denver near Hallack & Howard's planing milts, and running along Larimer to Sixteenth street. up the latter to Champa, and along that thor- oughfare to Twenty-eighth street. This work began in November, 1871. The weather was extremely cold, the ground frozen, mak- ing their progress difficult and expensive. The line mentioned was completed and opened to traffic, Jan. 2, 1872. The next was taid on the North Denver route during the summer of 1873; the Broadway line followed in 1874. and the Twenty-third street extension the same year. The Larimer street extension to the fair grounds of the Colorado Agricultural association began July 20. 1876, and a week later was completed from Sixteenth to Thirty- third street, a distance of 8,500 feet. Not-

dustry suffering from the monetary panic of 1873. as also from the appalting ravages of locusts which devastated the agriculturat dis- triets during 1874-75-76, the public patronage was not sufficient to maintain it, therefore financial embarassment ensued. In 1878. however, a prosperous new era began, which imparted great value to their property. In 1883 the franchise and att the real estate and appurtenances of the company were sold to a syndicate composed of Providence and New York capitalists, by whom it has been de- veloped into one of the most comptete of western street railway systems. After the abte the people of Colorado to form a state government, Mr. Ellsworth was elected a delegate from Arapahoe county to the consti- tutional convention. In the formation of the committees, he was made a member of those on bitt of rights, on publie and private corpo- rations, revenue and finance, and congress- ional and legislative apportionment. Mention of his service in that historic assembly ap- pears in Chapter XIV. Votume 11. The state of Colorado having been admitted into the Union in Aug., 1876, he was elected to the State Senate for a term of four years, repre- senting Arapahoe county in the First General Assembly, and was appointed chairman of the committee on corporations in that body. On the 24th of June, 1879, when the Denver & Rio Grande railway, by reason of its con- flirt with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé railroad company, passed into the control of the U. S. courts, Judge Hallett appointed him receiver for that corporation. He exercised such control to the satisfaction of the public and att parties in interest until the final ad- justment of the legat difficulties in Feb., 1850, when the road was surrendered to its original owners. When in 1877 the First National Bank of Georgetown (Clear Creek county) failed and passed into the hands of the first comptroller of the treasury, Mr. Ellsworth was appointed receiver of that institution and continued in charge until retieved by the final settlement of its affairs. In Jan., 1884. the First National Bank of Leadvitte closed its doors, under circumstances related in the history of Lake county (Volume III, page 438). He was at once appointed receiver for that atso, but owing to the unhappy effect of the high altitude upon his health, he resigned the charge to other hands. The fascina- tion of his manner, the genial intelli- gence of his conversation invites conti- dence, impels respect, and makes it a delight to know him. As a business manager, pos- sessing superior qualifications for the conduet of financial enterprises, the uprightness of his dealings with all mankind is attested by the publie with marked emphasis. He is now practically retired from active pursuits. Dur-

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ing 1890 he made a tour of the world, not in him to make a survey from Denver to Cen- eighty days, but taking sufficient time to ob- tral City, via Golden, with the view of de- serve and study, in its more important fea- termining the practicability of a railroad be- tures, every country visited, from England tween those points. This was the first rail- and the Continent to Egypt, Asia and India. road survey made in the Rocky Mountain re- This expedition was undertaken by command gion. In 1862 he prepared the first map of of his medical adviser, who found his health Colorado and assisted Surveyor-General John so undermined and shattered by mental Pierce in making the first land survey of the anxiety as to require absolute rest and the territory. lle continued surveying until 1865 largest degree of recreation to be extracted and then engaged in the stock and dairy busi- from the novel and picturesque scenes met ness a few miles from Denver. This, as with in foreign lands. Returning from this stated by him, proved the happiest and most tour, largely strengthened and restored, he fortunate event of his life. There he lived was met by the death of Mr. W. B. Daniels, until 1875, when he moved to the eity for the head of the great mercantile house of Daniels advantages afforded by the publie schools for & Fisher, who had in his will provided that Mr. Ellsworth should be the executor of his gaged in the banking business as a stockholder very large and valuable estate. In due course the education of his children. In 1873 ho en- and director of the Exchange Bank, of which he has invested the gains arising from the he was president from 1876 to 1878. He was ventures in which he has been engaged so that a moderate fortune has accrued. In 1893 he was appointed receiver for the Chamberlin Investment company and remained in charge until its affairs were settled. No one will question that his place among his fel- low men has been most conscientiously and worthily filled, or that he has justly

elected a member of the constitutional con- vention which framed the fundamental law of the state. His services in that body have been noted in the chapter relating to that sub- jeet (Volume II, Chapter XIV). After the ad- mission of the state he was made a member of the board of regents for the state uni- versity at Boulder. Deeply interested in all carned the profound respect and boundless matters relating to the public schools, he was friendship accorded him.

chosen a member of the school board for dis- triet No. 1. and was one of its wisest counsel- ors. One of the finest school buildings in Denver has been named in his honor. Mr. Ebert was universally admired for his learning, his ex- alted character, his probity, candor and ah- solute truthfulness. He took profound inter- est in the advancement of the material inter- ests of the city and state, and especially its educational and industrial interests. lle was always an ardent advocate of manufactures, especially iron manufactures, and assisted in founding the first rolling mill established here. It would be ditlieult, if not impossible, to ex- aggerate the earnestness and fidelity of this most estimable man to the interests which looked to the exaltation of the public welfare in any direction which promised such result. We have never had a more valuable citizen to the extent of his power than Mr. Ebert. The esteem in which he was held by all classes gave him great influence, and it was invariably exercised for good purposes.

EBERT, Frederick J., was born in Bruns- wick. Germany, Jan. 27, 1822, primarily edu- cated at the Gymnasium, after which he was graduated with first honors from the Lead- emy Collegium Corolinum, a polytechnic in- tute of high standing, and selected the science of forestry as the one toward which his strong- erinclinations tended. In histwenty-fourth year he was examined by the government for the position of Forest engineer, receiving the de- gree of A., and was therefore duly commis- sioned, hokling the position until 1850. At that time the reaction following the revolu- tion of 1848 had set in, and Mr. Ebert, who had taken part therein, decided to emigrate to America. He landed in New York in June. 1850. and went to Milwaukee, Wis., where he remained about a year, engaged for the most part in studying the English language and familiarizing himself with the institu- tions and government of the country. His next move was to St. Louis, where he remained two years; next to St. Joseph, Mo., where for ELDER, Clarence P., retired merchant, was born in Columbia, Lancaster county. Pa., Dec. 11, 1839. In 1855, having acquired a fair education in the common schools, he took a clerkship in a dry-goods store at lowa City. The third year thereafter, by his use- fulness and striet attention to the interest of his employers, he was, though without eap- seven years he was engaged in land and rail- way surveys. In that city he married Miss Mary Davis, in Dee., 1855, and on the 1st day of June, 1860, started with an engineering corps to survey a railroad line to Denver. which was the first survey of the kind west of the Missouri river. At the Republican river the Indians met and strenuously opposed ital, made a partner. In the fall of 1859 he their further advance, therefore they were organized the firm of C. P. Ehler & Co., in the same business, and moved to Keiths- burg, Ill. In 1861 he soll out at a profit, and under the same firm name, but with dlf- compelled to abandon the enterprise. The en- gineers hastened to the main line of travel on the Platte and then came to Denver. ar- riving in December. A short time after ferent partners, re-established in Burlington, his arrival Mr. W. A. II. Loveland engaged fowa, where he enjoyed a very prosperous

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trade until 1863, when the stock in hand was 1840. The evidences of this gentleman's transferred to Denver and located at the cor- handicraft and architectural taste and skill are scattered all through the beautiful city of Denver, which has been made famous by the substantial character, no less than by the eleganee of the artistie designs employed, of its publie and private buildings. In this monumental work Mr. Edbrooke has borne a

ner of Fourteenth and Larimer streets. For years afterwards the firm of C. P. Elder & Co., dry-goods merchants, was as well known as are any of the great mercantile concerns of the present era. In 1870 the business was sold, and from that time to this Mr. Elder has been engaged in various private enter- distinguished part, as all men of the existing prises, mainly real estate and mining. In generation of inhabitants readily compre- 1872 he was elected to represent Arapahoe hend. He was educated in the schools of the county in the territorial legislature. After the passage by Congress of our enabling act, mighty city by the lakeside. He began his business profession by a thorough course of study, but when the civil war occurred he en- listed in the 12th Ill. infantry, with which he served three months, then re-enlisted in the 12th Ill. cavalry, and participated in all its engagements, battles and skirmishes for two and a half years. At the expiration of his term he returned home, resumed his studies in 1875, he was elected to the constitutional convention from Arapahoe county. He was chairman of the committee on executive de- partment, and was extremely active in en- deavoring to exclude the pernicious fee sys- tem from our fundamental laws, substituting salaries therefor, but, in spite of all that could be done, this laudable interest was overborne and, in due course, began the practice of his by a combination of officeholders under the profession. In 1879 he came to Colorado, fee system. However, as chairman of the settled in Denver and from that time, the be- committee on executive department, he sue-

ginning of a new epoch in building, to the ceeded in fixing salaries for all state officers. present date he has been one of the foremost Further mention of his service in that con- of the guild. He has designed and erected vention of wise and patriotie men appears in some of the most admirable blocks, churches Chapter XIV, Volume II of our history. In and dwellings in the city and many in neigh- the fall of 1882 he was nominated for state boring cities. His energy is almost phenome- Senator without his knowledge, first by the nal, his capabilities inexhaustible. Of power- republican party, afterward indorsed by the ful physique, he is the incarnation of swift democrats and elected without opposition, a rare compliment, evincing publie confidence in his ability and worth. As chairman of the Senate committee on publie buildings he re- ported the bill creating the state capitol and took charge of the appropriation bills which provided for its erection after they had passed the House. Therefore he takes some pride in being the father of the state house. and effective movement in the accomplish- ment of whatever work he may have in hand. He is respected for the indomitable force of his character no less than for his integrity and skill. When the General Assembly cre- ated a board of public works for the city of Denver, the governor promptly selected Mr. Edbrooke for one of its members. Though overwhelmed with orders, he accepted, but

Although strongly attached to the republican after a year in the municipal service found it party and repeatedly tendered political prefer- impossible to continue, therefore resigned and once more put all his strength into the ment, with the exceptions noted. he has not been a candidate for office.

He has been great private business he had built up. He is a member of the Masonie fraternity, whose splendid temple in this city he designed and

quite extensively interested in real estate and mining transactions in Colorado and New Mexico; has visited Europe a number of erected. The First Baptist church, the Pat- times on business, whieli enabled him to terson & Thomas building, Ernest & Cran- mer building. Peoples' National Bank build- ing. Central Presbyterian Church, Unity church, Oxford hotel, H. C. Brown Palace hotel and many other of the finest business and residence buildings in the city were built upon plans furnished by him and mostly travel quite extensively in Great Britain and on the Continent. He has been very promi- nent in the 1. O. O. F. in Colorado and Wyo- ming, and during its early history was one of Its most influential supporters. As a natural result he has filled by election its highest

offices. As chairman of the committee on the under his effective supervision.

new constitution he was the author of the present fundamental law under which the order has achieved its greatest prosperity. The late Dr. R. G. Buckingham and himself were intimately, indeed almost inseparably, identified in the promotion of its welfare. Upon the death of Dr. Buckingham, Mr. El- der delivered the eulogy before the grand lodge.

ESTABROOK, George H., wholesale mer- chant, was born in Carbondale, Pa., April 16, 1847. Facing the Union depot in Denver is a large four-story briek business house, 70x125 feet. Along the top of this building, in large letters, are the words "The Struby- Estabrook Mercantile company." The name of the firm is familiar to all ecmmercial trav- elers entering Denver and to all merchants in the grocery business in Colorado, New

EDBROOKE, Frank E., architect and builder, was born in Chicago, Ill., Nov. 17. Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and portions of

OLIVER GRAVES

THE OLD MOME.

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HISTORY OF COLORADO.

Washington. Montana, Texas and Arizona. cated in the public schools. At the age of Mr. Estabrook is the junior member of this firm. Ilis parents removed from Carbondale to Binghampton, N. Y., where they resided until he was two years old, when they located in Sheffield, 11. Here they remained five eighteen he removed to Iowa and shortly after- ward to Leavenworth, Kan. In 1864 he came to Denver with a stock of general merchan- dise in connection with the late W. B. Dan- iels and at once opened a store. This was the foundation of the present great dry-goods years and subsequently lived in Fulton county, the same state, seven years. Young. ambitions and anxious to achieve something for himself, and looking to the West for broader opportunities, he started for Col- orado, arriving in Denver, July 19, 1864. Soon thereafter he became connected with a book and stationary store, and after three years' service therein he engaged in the liv- ery business with his father. continuing with him until 1875, when he operated the business for himself. In 1881 he embarked in the wholesale grocery trade with Mr. F. F. Struby and has successfully followed the same until the present time. Generous and companion- able he has naturally many warm friends in the social and business world, and these traits of character, strongly supported by keen, practical judgment. have largely con- tribmed to the success of the firm. house of Daniels & Fisher. A year later Mr. Daniels came to Denver and the business of Nekhart & Daniels was continued until 1878. Mr. Eckhart made large purchases of real estate in lhighlands, East Denver, and farm- lands outside. Ile made the first improve- ments at the corner of Fifteenth and Stout streets, a brick block, which is still standing. Nov. 21, 1869, he married Miss Mary Green of Licking, Ohio. Two daughters and a son were born to them. The Eckhart home in Highlands is one of the finest in that locality, comprising an entire block of ground beau- tifully laid out in walks and drives with a splendid residence. It has been so improved by his widow it is now valued at $75,000. Mr. Eckhart died Jan. 23, ISSO. Mrs. Eckhart took charge of the large estate, and by her excellent care and wise judgment has brought it to its present fine condition.

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History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 70

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company Publication date: 1889-95 Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co. Number of Pages: 791

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company
Publication date: 1889-95
Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co.
Number of Pages: 791