USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV > Part 88
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McNEIL, John L. See Vol. III, page 208.
MEARS, Otto, a prominent railroad builder and manager, was born in Russia, May 3, 1841. In 1854 the family emigrated to the United States, landing at San Francisco, Cal. Otto was educated in the schools of that state. Early in the civil war, he enlisted in the 1st regiment, California volunteers, and served therewith until the close of the war. He has traveled over a large portion of that state, and the territories of Arizona and New Mexico. In 1865 he came to Colorado and settled in the southern part of the territory. lle was one of the older settlers in the upper San Luis valley, and one of the fore- most in securing its segregation from Cone- jos and the organization of the present county of Saguache. When so organized, he was elected its first county treasurer. The people were few and poor. They had little money. hence were compelled to pay their taxes in furs and buckskins, which Mr. Mears brought to Denver and sold, paying the proceeds to the territorial treasurer. For two years he was Indian commissioner, and had charge of the removal of the Northern l'tes to their new reservation in Utah. He owns a large body of fine land in Saguache county, and, in company with Mr. Gotthelf, had the principal store in the county seat. Hle is best known, however, as the great wagon road builder of the southwest, having constructed most of the principal toll roads in the San Juan mining region. After the admission of the state, in 1876, the legisla- ture chose three presidential electors, of which Mr. Mears was one, and he was also appointed a messenger to carry the electoral vote of Colorado to Washington. It was this vote which elected Rutherford B. Hayes president of the United States. In 1889 he was made, by act of the General Assembly, a member of the board of state capitol commissioners, which board built our magnificent state house. In ISSS he built a section of narrow guage railway from Sil- verton to Ironton, in Red Mountain district. in Ouray county, for the accommodation of passengers and the shippers of ore. It passed through one of the most picturesque sections of the Rocky Mountains, and has been of great service to the people of that region. He is president of the Rio Grande Southern railway, running from Ridgway, in Ouray county. 175 miles southwesterly, through San Miguel, Dolores and La Plata counties, to Rico, Telluride and Durango, one of the most important in its ultimating con- sequences that has been constructed in that division of the state, since it lent vast stim- ulns to the settlements and opened great min- oral resources. Mr. Mears is also a very skillful and successful politician.
McPHEE, Charles D., manufacturer and builder, was born in Prince Edward's Island, Nov. 4. 1846, received a fair education, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade, serving four years. In
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Sept., 1866, being then a proficient journey- chief one night and disappeared. We next man, he removed to Boston, Mass., and fol- find him in Davenport, Iowa, where he clerked in a drug store for a time, worked at the marble cutter's trade some nine months. when, tiring of that, he became a messenger boy in the office of the Atlantic & Pacific telegraph company. The next departure was to a like position in the employ of the Chi- cago & Rock Island R. R., where, in due course, he learned telegraphy, and when suitably fitted by experience was made a night operator on one of the divisions of that road. In 1870 he went to California at the request of a wealthy aunt who lived there, with the view of making him the heir to her estate, should he prove worthy of such dis- tinction. He remained with this pions and benevolent lady six months, when, unable to adapt himself to the moral and religious dis- cipline exacted, he deliberately threw his prospective fortune over his shoukler and tramped off to Colusa county, where. in the absence of anything better, he engaged to work on a farm, remaining nearly a year. Happening into the local telegraph office one day, the writing of messages and the click- ing of the instruments re-awakened his old passion for a seat at the keys and wiros. Leaving the farm to take care of itself. he secured a position as clerk and operator in the ofhee of the Wells-Fargo Express, where he remained about one year, when a general order for a reduction of forces threw him out. When this change came he possessed neither money nor prospect of a situation. therefore he resolved upon returning to lowa. How to get there without a ticket was a question which demanded the keenest exercise of his native wit and ingenuity. lowed his trade two years in that eity. In May, 1869, he came to Denver and began the business of contracting and building. in part- nership with his cousin. Mr. A. McPhee. In Jan., 1871, the cousin died, after which Charles D. conducted the trade in his own name. In 1872 he built a planing mill and added lumber yards to the manufacturing department thus created. In Jan., 1874, Mr. J. F. Keating was taken into partnership, the firm being C. D. MePhee & Co. In Feb., 1876, this firm was dissolved by mutual con- sent, and Mr. MePhee again continued the work alone until Jan., 1879, when Mr. J. J. McGinnity became associated with him, un- der the name of MePhee & MeGinnity, now one of the most widely known business con- cerus in the western country. The planing mills and all requisite adjuncts to meet the rapidly increasing contracts have been en- larged from time to time, until at this writing it is one of the largest manufacturing estab- lishments in the city. Mr. MePhee is a ver- itable whirlwind of efficiency in expediting all matters with which he has to deal; im- petuous, almost to rashness at times, but noted for his integrity and his determination to meet his contraets faithfully. lle is prompt in the execution of orders, diligently attentive to details, supervising his large force of employés, his workshops, office, yards and the great number of buildings he has erected with serupulous attention. IIe completed, in the spring of 180) and owns a beautiful business block of cut stone, at the corner of Seventeenth and Glenarm streets, intended as a permanent legacy to his chil- dren. Since he came to Denver, with little or no capital, but a remarkable fund of in- There is but one way to secure passage over dustry and enterprise, he has built a large a long line of railway without funds. Omit- accomplished the difficult undertaking with- number of blocks and dwellings for others, ting details, it is sufficient to say that he has made a competency for himself and fam- ily, with a distinguished place among its lead- out serious mishap. From Omaha to Daven- ing business managers.
MEEK, Channing F., railway builder and manager, was born in Mt. Pleasant, Jowa. Sept 26, 1855, and educated in the public schools. After the age of thirteen he ap- pears to have directed his own fortunes, earn- ing his livelihood in such ways and places as his rather Independent temper dictated. It detracts nothing from his manhood to ro. late that he was willful, daring, headstrong. filled with the spirit of deviltry and mischief, insubordinate, and wholly ungovernable to both parents and teachers, a veritable "Tom Sawyer," the leader of his clan, the foremost in pranks and questionable escapades, the of the freight department of the Wabash com. terror, in short, of the community in which pany in that territory. By this time he had found the channel of his career, and bent he lived. At the age of twelve, to curb his natural waywardness and reduce him to all his faculties to a complete mastery of its something like submission, he was pet to intricate and laborious details. Tle took work on a farm In Illinois. After three days charge of these lines when they were newly constructed, and "during the hard times of that sort of discipline, he bundled his seanty possessions into a cotton handker- and failure of crops," says the lowa State
port he rode on the same train with Mr. 11. F. Royce, superintendent of the Rock Island road. Six years later he was train master and chief dispatcher of that road in lowa and the trusted lieutenant of Mr. Royee. having meanwhile filled all intermediate grades, winning promotion by his marked in- telligence and capability. He remained with the Rock Island until 1882. when he was ap- pointed general superintendent of the St. Louis, Des Moines & Northern, and super- intendent also of the Wabash, St. Louis & l'acitie in lowa, with headquarters at Des Moines, Ho was at the same time in control
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"Register." "his splendid abilities and good ly profitable trade which his adversaries had, management were invaluable to those prop- by combining and pooling, enjoyed for so many years, and had carried on tyrannously without regard to the interests of this west- ern country. As the battle progressed it be- came a veritable contest of a clan of giants against this young and aggressive intruder, who, having taken this astounding stand, re- solved that nothing but the imperative orders of his directorate should force him to yiekl a single essential point. Frequent meetings were held, both in Texas and Colorado. All the headquarters in New York and of the continent had been stirred to their depths. Combinations and conspiracies, plots and counterplots were formed to break up and destroy the plans he had framed, but without material effect. It was the most remarkable railway contest in the history of railway traf- fic west of the Mississippi and the Missouri, for it challenged all roads and all interests, shaking their foundations by threatening their supremacy, therefore all roads and all interests except those of the people of Texas and Colorado, who stood manfully by and ap- plauded, were combined against him. With such powerful odds in opposition, it is al- most miraculous that he should have suc- ceeded as he did in compelling concessions and compromises that overcame and forever extinguished the power of the pooled lines, and gave to Colorado and Texas immunity from their extortions, the only measure of relief they had ever enjoyed, and which ulti- mately gave birth to a wondrous change in their affairs. April 1, 1890, the road was con- solidated with the Union Pacific lines in Colo- rado, and called the Union Pacific. Denver & Gulf, and Mr. Meek was made general mana-
erties. His success was marked, and his value as a railway manager so thoroughly demonstrated, he was much sought for by larger railway lines outside of the state." He remained in charge of these trusts until 1887, when he was appointed general manager of the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth railway by General G. M. Dodge, its president, who required a phenomenal manager for that en- terprise then nearing completion, knowing the vast difficulties involved. Every resi- dent of Denver at that time remembers the trials, cares and responsibilities of an un- usual character that met him at the threshold of this gigantie undertaking. To begin with, it had always been sharply antagonized as an in- terloper by existing lines between Denver and Pueblo, because it paralleled them, attempted to divide their lucrative traffic and threatened their monopoly. As a matter of fact, the road had no friends except its stockholders, and even they were in despair. From Trinidad to Fort Worth, Texas, it traversed an almost un- inhabited region. an empire in extent, track- less and of no value whatever to commerce, except perhaps in its cattle herds. Hence it was practically impossible for the road to maintain itself unless extraordinary efforts should be made to people the Panhandle of Texas, establish towns and cities, and pro- moto in the largest attainable degree the cultivation of the soil and the development of trade through the fruitage thereof. This, together with the even more formidable problems which involved the wholesale re- adjustment of the entire railway traflie of the trans-Mississippi region, extending from that valley to the Gulf and the Pacific, ren- dered imperative by the introduction of this new factor, created a situation which none but a man of superior courage, iron nerve and transcendent fitness could ever hope to satisfactorily determine. It meant a tremen- dous and wholly unprecedented revolution, and the issue rested with the skill of its director. Mr. Meck's first move was an open declara- tion of war against existing rates, followed by a reduction of more than 30 per cent. It spread over the Union with a force and startling effect well nigh equal to a call for the nation to rise in arms, for it struck at the very vitals of railway transportation throughout the land. Meck started out with the self-evident proposition that fidelity to the trust reposed in him demanded that the road should be made to till the purpose of its creation, first by so adjusting the rates as to induce importers and shippers, cattle grow- ers. fruit dealers, lumbermen and all others having interchange of commodities with Col- orado, to use his line in preference to the old routes. To accomplish it called for the ut- most exercise of his mental and physical powers, for he had attacked and proposed to undermine, in brief to overturn, the immense-
ger. Ile remained in charge until Jan. 15, 1891, when he resigned to engage in private enterprises of great magnitude in the Re- public of Mexico. The foregoing outline of his career, which brought incalculable ad- vantages to the commerce of Colorado and in the development of Denver. fittingly illus- tratos the governing characteristics of the man, and needs no further eulogy than the facts supply. He had a narrow escape from the medical profession, however, for, com- bined with his many other diversions, he studied medicine from 1873 to 1878 (his fa- ther's profession and matriculated at the Iowa state university medical college and at the close was well equipped, as far as mere study goes, to practice. This study was pur- sued during intervals between other duties of chief clerk, operator and yardmaster for the Rock Island road at Iowa City. During Ilarrison's administration he was tendered the general superintendency of the U. S. rail- way mail service, but declined. Though mainly educated in the common schools, sup- plemented by the study of medicine just no- ted. he is a strong writer, reader and thinker. lle has a fine library of standard works, and is given to earnest contemplation of the so-
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PROPERTY OF J. W. WIER, DENVER.
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cial and political problems of the age. He division, in Dec., 1593. The division embraces married Miss Fannie Melbourne, at Xenia, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona Ohio, Sept. 25, 1879.
and Utah, with headquarters in Denver.
McMECHEN, W. M., postoffice inspector, was born in Clarksburg, Va. (now West Va.), fifty years ago, the spot in which the illus- trious Stonewall JJackson first saw the light. Both branches of his family are of revolution- ary stock. One great uncle was lost in Brad- dock's defeat and others were killed in the revolution. At the age of seventeen he be- gan business as cashier of the Virginia Roll- ing Mill and Iron works, at Benton, W. Va. At the breaking out of the civil war he was eigliteen years of age and entered it as a private in the 27th Virginia volunteers, one of the regiments comprising the Stonewall brigade. During the second year he was a member of the Lynchburg artillery in Gen- eral Pickett's division, Longstreet's corps. During the last two years he was 1st lieu- tenant in Stuart's cavalry; was engaged in the battles of Manassas or first and second Bull Run, those around Richmond and many others; was wounded at llagerstown in a cavalry charge. captured at Fisher's Hill and sent to Fort Delaware, from which prison he was released in June, 1865. A few weeks later he went to New York and en- tered into active business pursuits, being for many years a member of the New York pro- duce exchange and was largely engaged in the shipment of live stock. He was also for three and a half years secretary of the Johnston Har- vester company of New York. Until the panie of 1873 he was peculiarly successful. Later he made a complete examination of the accounts of the comptroller's office of the city of New York. In 18 3 he came to Colorado and en- tered the mining business, placing the famous Ground Hog gold nugget mine, at Red Cliff. Colo., in New York. He managed this property for six years. He also has man- aged the Holy Cross Mining Co. and many other valuable properties. Hlo took an active part in state polities, being an intense demo- crat. He ran for state Senator in 1SS8 in a strong republican district, and though de- feated, succeeded in cutting the republican majority down several hundred. In 1890, when Judge Caldwell Yeaman was the demo- cratie nominee for governor, Mr. MeMechen carried Eagle county, a republican strong- hold, for him. He was also offered the nomi- nation for secretary of state, but declined it. After the split at the Pueblo convention of 1891, he was nominated by the Cleveland democrats for lieutenant-governor, but the ticket was overwhelmingly defeated. He was the first applicant in the race for the Denver post office, and although a few of the straight democrats fought him, yet he re- ceived the support of the great majority of that faetion, as well as that of a large por- tion of the silver democrats. lle was ap- pointed post office inspector, in charge of this 33-iv
MITCHELL, John C. See Vol. 111, page 213.
MILLS, William B., lawyer and jurist, was born in the town of Elbridge. N. Y., Aug. 26, 1836. After due preparation he entered Mon- roe collegiate institute, at Elbridge, where he remained two years, then studied law in Weedsport and was admitted to the bar in June, 1859. le then engaged in practice, continuing until 1873, during which time he held the office of prosecuting attorney for Cayuga county nine consecutive years. The ill health of his wife impelling him to seek a better climate, he came to Colorado and settled in Denver. Just prior to this, how- ever, he had been elected county judge of Cayuga county, but resigned, owing to his plans for removal. In Jan., 1875, he was elected county attorney of Arapahoe county, and held that important office for twelve years, retiring in 1857. He was a member of the last territorial legislature in 1876. For many years he was president of the Denver Water company and secretary of the Denver Gas company. By virtue of his legal ability and his prominence in county and corporate affairs he was very widely known. His pri- vate practice was large and remunerative. Ile was one of the organizers of the Citizens" Water company and its secretary and at- torney up to the time of his death. He was an excellent lawyer, a broad minded, just and upright man, a consistent and honored member of Trinity M. E. church, rendering substantial aid toward the erection of its beautiful church edifice. Indgo Mills de- parted this life in Denver, Nov. 29. 1890. The members of the bar at a meeting held to pay their tribute of respect to his memory adopted resolutions stating that "as a law- yer he was able and efficient, as a citizen he was enterprising and industrious, and as a man he was honest, kind and good; a con- sistent Christian, a devoted husband and fa- ther." The editor of the "News," in a terse. well-digested review of his character. said: "lle was a man universally respected for his professional ability, his business and official integrity, and his many excellent qualities as a man, neighbor and friend. His career will illustrate the best characteristics of our American manhood, and has been as hen- orable as it was successful." All who knew this pleasant, dignified and estimable gentle- man will cordially indorso these culogistic expressions. Ilis portrait appears in Volume 111. at page 276.
MILLER, James A., clerk of the supreme court, was born in Ohio. In the sixties, hun- dreds of young men who were well equipped by nature, education and early training for almost any kind of business in the commer- cial and trading world, or for the highest
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positions of honor in official life, left their to the House of representatives of the terri- comfortable homes in the East to voluntarily grapple with severe trials on the great plains of the West. Among them was Mr. James A. Miller. He left home in 1860, and after jour- heying to the then "Great American desert," he engaged in the transportation of supplies from outfitting points on the Missouri river to various posts in the Rocky Mountains. Ile continued in this business until the ad- vent of railroads in this section of country. During the greater part of the time from 1870 to 1877 he followed mercantile pursuits in the city of Denver. When Colorado was admitted into the Union, he was selected as marshal of the first supreme court of the new state, but was soon thereafter appointed clerk of that body, and has held the posi- tion for the past seventeen years. He is an accomplished officer.
torial legislature, representing the second district, composed of Arapahoe and Douglas counties. In 1867 he was re-elected and chosen speaker of the House. At the close of that session his fellow members pre- sented him a fine wateh, as a testimonial of their appreciation of his services. In 1869 President Grant appointed him receiver of the United States land offiee at Denver, which he held four years. From 1875 to 1879 he was employed in the Denver post office. In October of the latter year he resigned and was immediately elected alderman for the 3rd ward of that city and subsequently was nominated for mayor by the republican or- ganization. but unsnecessful. Many years of his life were devoted to the advance- ment of the I. O. O. F .. efforts that were re- warded by his elevation to the office of grand master, grand patriarch, and in 1875- it was made representative to the sovereign grand lodge. During the past ten years he has been engaged in the real estate business in the city of Denver.
MCLAUGHLIN, Cyrus H., pioneer, was born in Mercer county, Pa., April 22. 1827. In ISO, at the age of thirteen. he became an apprentice in a printing office. Having ac- quired proficiency in that trade he followed it many years, finally emigrated to the terri- MILLER, George W., lawyer and jurist, was born in Missom, May 20, 1833. The pro- genitor of the family in America was a soldier in the Revolution, who was killed at the battle of Entaw Springs, S. C., Sept. S, 1781. All of the succeeding members were natives of Kentucky and Missouri. The father of our subject was a noted lawyer and jurist of the latter state. George W. was educated in the common schools. It was not much of an education, but he developed a taste for reading history, biography. and especially for tales of adventure on the border and among the Indians of the plains, of hunters, trappers and traders, therefore at the age of fourteen. inspired by a desire to see something of that life, he attached himself to the quartermaster's department of Colonel Doniphan's eommand, then under orders to march overland to New Mexico, and remained with it until after the conquest of that territory. After the capture of Santa Fe by General Kearney, Mr. Miller joined the expedition to Taos to suppress the Indo-Mexican uprising there, in which Governor Charles Bent had been assassinated. Here he was wounded in the first charge made upon the revolutionists. In IS4S he returned to Missouri, entered Chapel Hill college, studied there two years, then went to the state university at Columbia. whence he graduated in 1953, being the valedictorian of his class. For two years afterward he taught school and simultaneously. during hours off duty and in vacations, studied law. Advancing rapidly. he was admitted to the bar of Columbia in Feb., IS56. Strongly attached to the democratie party, and while in the state university having been a leader in the debates, he drifted early to the rostrum in tory of Wisconsin, and thence to Leaven- worth, Kan., in 1857, where he struck the land of border ruffianism, strife, blood- shed, rioting and turbulence in the most exaggerated forms. In 1859 he left for the newly discovered gold region as messenger in the employ of Jones & Cartwright's ex- press, an arant-courier, so to speak, in- strueted to investigate the exact status of the discoveries reported to have been made in the Pike's Peak country. From the Cherry creek settlement he went on foot over the rugged mountain trails to the Gregory dig- gings just above the present town of Black Hawk. These, and a few limited placers on the plains in the near vicinity of Denver, com- prised the sum of his investigations in that behalf. Returning to Leavenworth, the ro- port he rendered was substantially rein- forced by the exhibit of eleven large buck- skin sacks or pouches of gold dust, besides a mummiber of smaller ones, the value of the several lots, which were consigned as express matter by the miners to various parties in the East, being about $30,000. This glittering treasure being displayed to the people, and herabled by the press, set a great tide of em- igration toward the sources of its production. besides confirming the purpose of Jones & Cartwright to establish a line of communica- tion therewith. In the spring of 1860, aceom- panied by his family, he reerossed the plains, located in Denver, and took a set of cases in the office of the Rocky Mountain "News." where he remained until 1861 and then en- gaged in gardening on the Platte river. The results of this venture, though persistently followed until 1864, proving unsatisfactory, he returned to Denver and took a position in political campaigns and in due course became the military quartermaster's office, where he one of its effective speakers. Lack of space remained two years. In 1866 he was elected forbids entering upon a detailed account of
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