USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 38
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 38
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Denver is almost too critical of her ministers. She is uncertain, coy and hard to please in her Pastors. Many a good man has had his ambition nipped by the chilling frost of caustic comment on his style of preaching or on some personal defi- ciency. And yet Denver is capable of great kind- ness to ministers. The man who "takes" can become imbued with that prevalent idea that Col- | count on the utmost sympathy, generosity and
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co-operation. Such men as Father Kehler and Bishop Randall in the Episcopal Church, and Father Dyer and Rev. B. T. Vincent among the Methodists, and the lamented Pickett, the Congre- gational missionary, lately killed in a stage-coach accident near Leadville, never thought the people of Denver or Colorado cold or critical.
It would be invidious, of course, to mention individual ministers as examples of success or failure in Denver, but types of the two classes may perhaps be sketched with propriety. The popular type is a man of warm impulses and earnestness, rather than cold intellectuality. He must preach a new sermon every Sunday and say something that people will remember. If culture and a wide command of pure English lend grace to his ser- mon, so much the better, but still that is by no means indispensable-as smooth a writer as ever wrote sermons failed in Denver because he lacked the Western idea of enthusiasm, and because he could not cease to be a student and a thinker long enough to mingle in the activities of Denver life. Denver was nothing to him but a city, and as to Leadville, he knew little and cared less about that eighthi wonder of the world. It was neither a book nor a sermon and consequently it was outside of his sphere of thought and action, but Denver could never forgive a minister for failing to sympa- thize with such matters as material prosperity. Her ministers must be men among men.
The bar of Denver is, perhaps, its chief profes- sional ornament. The pulpit might rival it if the pay was better, but as yet the churches have not advanced as far as high salaries, while the legal profession commands good fees, and the field to be worked is second to but few in the country. Most unhappily, litigation seems to be an adjunct of min- ing, and the man who reads his title elear to a good mine is almost an anomaly. Apart from proprie- tary litigation, mining affords a considerable harvest for attorneys in the way of ordinary transfers, con- tracts, etc. Leadville has as many lawyers as Denver, and supports them better, although gener- ally they are not equal to the average Denver
attorney. The best lawyers of Colorado gravitate to Denver, even while they do business in the out- side districts. All the leading mining and railway corporations of the State have legal representatives in Denver, as well as local attorneys in the places where their business is done, and so the bar of Denver embraces in effect the leading business done in the State, except that Pueblo is well provided with able attorneys, who take care of her litigation.
Not only in mining matters, but in important railway litigation has the bar of Denver appeared to advantage of late, and our State judiciary has won the encomiums of distinguished jurists from abroad. Said the leading railway lawyer of the Northwest: " I must compliment the Denver bar on its commanding ability, because in my whole professional career I have never been so agreeably disappointed as on coming to Colorado. Instead of young fledglings or broken-down practitioners, I find here men of the highest stamp and the most vigorous intellect." The compliment was right worthily bestowed.
As a consequence of this high standard, the chances of success at the bar of this city are no better for a medium lawyer than in the East, ex- eept that the people are more generous in extending support to worthy and ambitious young practition- ers than in most older cities. In the East. the business is controlled mainly by a few old firms, and new men labor up the ladder very slowly, if they rise at all. In Denver, however, a young man who combines pluck with industry and brains can make room for himself very soon. He does not need to bring a trunkful of recommendations from leading men who have known him from child- hood, nor will it be necessary for him to hire news- papers to puff him into prominence. He must go to work and show what he can do. If the right stuff is in him, he will succeed, but not otherwise. The same is true of the medical profession, and of teachers and editors. It seems particularly true of the learned professions in Denver, that there is no room for any of them save at the top, and the extreme top at that.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
HON. SINGLETON T. ARMSTRONG.
Hon. Singleton T. Armstrong is a descendant of a distinguished Pennsylvania family. His great- grandfather, James Armstrong, served as Captain of Dragoons in the Colonial army, under Braddock, and was one of the first two United States Senators from Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Wm. Armstrong, served in the army during the latter part of the Rev- olutionary war, and his grandfather on his mother's side served in the war of 1812, while his great-unele was Secretary of War under President Madison. Mr. S. T. Armstrong was born in Alleghany County, Md., July 1, 1841, and was educated at Dickinson College, located at Carlisle, Penn. At the breaking- out of the rebellion, in 1861, he entered the Union army, with his father and one brother, then old enough for military service. The following year, he was mustered out and transferred to the tele- graphic service of the army, from which he retired in April, 1862. He subsequently read law, and, after being admitted to the bar, settled in the prac- tice of his profession at Wheeling, W. Va. In 1866, he was elected from Marshall County to the West Virginia Legislature, and re-elected in 1867. He was also a member of the Committee on the Revision of the Laws of that State. He came West to Kansas in July, 1869, and accepted the po- sition of Superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company, under Col. Robert C. Cloury, having under his management the offices of Junc- tion City, Fort Scott and Leavenworth, Kan., and served in that capacity until he was promoted to the supervision of the Western Union Company's interests in Colorado and New Mexico, and assumed
control of the same May 15, 1875. Since that time he has resided in Denver.
Nothing can be adduced that will more graphic- ally illustrate the rapid growth of the State than the wonderful changes that have taken place in the telegraph system of Colorado in the past four years. People arrive in this city from the East, and are justly astonished at the advancement of this thriving city. They visit the telegraph office, and see a score of men and women, all rushed with the press of business that comes pouring in, in one incessant, continuous stream, over the counter, but they cannot see the wires, stretching away over the mountains into populous towns and cities, the nerve of the business community along which throbs and pulsates every change in condition that occurs at either end, and when they are told that the business has increased fourfold in four years, and that three-fourth of the wires now in use have been constructed within that time, they are not prepared to accept the wonderful fact without further investigation. They can believe almost anything in regard to Colorado, but such an in- crease is more than they can believe without the proof.
In May, 1875. Mr. S. T. Armstrong took charge of the Denver office and of the district comprising Colorado and New Mexico. At that time there were in the office three operators, one clerk and two messengers, the latter employed not more than two-thirds of the time. At that time the operations Company in this locality, outside of the eastern of the lines, were limited to the line along the Colorado Central; that to Cheyenne, on the D. P. R. R.,
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and the Southern line. extending from Pueblo to Santa Fe. Del Norte was then ont of the world; the San Juan country had not been settled; the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe was somewhere away up in Kansas; no road was built south of Pueblo; the South Park road had stopped at Morrison: the Colorado Central stopped at Central ('ity: Leadville was not dreamed of: Silver Cliff was only the Wet Mountain Valley : carbonates were a myth in Colorado, and there were com- paratively few stations off the line of the rail- road where telegraphic facilities could be pro- cured.
Very soon the business of Denver increased so that it became necessary to put another wire on the line between here and Kansas City. That was done in 1875 and 1876.
The next improvement was the rebuilding and putting on the second wire of the Colorado Cen- tral line and its extension with two wires to Chey- enne. Wy. Then the southern part of the State came in for its share of attention. The extension of the Rio Grande to El Moro induced the con- struction of a new line to that point from Pueblo, and at the same time the line from Pueblo north was reconstructed-a second wire being strung along the entire route from Denver to El Moro. Then came the building of the railroad over the Sangre de Christo, and a line was immediately built to Alamosa, the telegraph line there leaving the rail- road and pushing on to Del Norte, the present terminns. Then came the wonderful discoveries at Leadville. and with half a dozen important pro- jects on foot, a line had to be hastily constructed over the mountains to the carbonate camp. This had hardly been completed when the Colorado Cen- tral extension to Cheyenne compelled the erection of a line along that route. Then came the recon- strnetion with cedar poles of the line from El Moro south to Las Vegas and Santa Fe, and the construc- tion of the line from Granada along the new Atchi- son. Topeka & Santa Fe to Pueblo, and along the line of the same from La Junta to Otero, New Mexico. All the work above enumerated has been
completed, and there is now being constructed a line extending 150 miles southeast from Las Vegas ; a line from Del Norte to Silverton, via Lake City and Ouray ; a line from Cañon City to Silver Cliff and Rosita; a line from Leadville to Ten-Mile; a third wire from Denver to Cucharas ; a second wire from Pueblo to Canon City ; a two-wire line from Cañon City to Leadville ; and two large telephone exchanges between Leadville and Denver. There are also in process of negotiation a number of ad- ditional extensions and improvements of an impor- tant character.
By tracing the lines on the map, it will be seen at a glance that more than three-fourths of the system now centering in the Denver office has been constructed within the past four years.
In 1875, the whole telegraph force of Colorado, exclusive of the repair men, numbered not more than forty. Now there are on the rolls as operat- ors, clerks and messengers. not less than '150. Twenty of these are in the Denver office, and Leadville is a larger office than Denver was four years ago, four operators. two clerks, and four messengers being required to attend to the busi- ness, which, without a newspaper night report, is rarely closed up for the day before 2 o'clock of the following morning.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 miles of line have Denver as the center of the system, and within a short time several hundred miles more will be added.
Railroads may possibly begin nowhere and end nowhere-they go into a country sometimes to develop it, and fail. With telegraph lines, how- ever, it is different. They go where there is a reasonable amount of business-enough, at least, to pay the interest on the cost of construction, and therefore the wonderful extensions during the last four years in this State, may be taken, in a measure, as an indication of the actual growth of the popu- lation and business interests of the State, and an important fact is, that even with the push that has characterized every movement of the Company in Colorado during the period cited, it has been un-
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able to keep up to the pressing demands of the State, a new want presenting itself almost as soon as an old one is filled.
MAJ. THOMAS J. ANDERSON.
William Anderson, the grandfather of Thomas J., was of Scotch-Irish descent, a man of Herculean strength. standing six feet and four inches in height. He had a family of twelve children- eight sons and four daughters. The sons were perfect athletes, their average height was six feet and one inch, and were all very powerful men. Martin Anderson, son of William, was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1817, and married Ellen Houck, a lady of German descent, from the vicinity of Baltimore, Md. Their son. Thomas Jefferson, was born at Atwater. Portage Co .. Ohio, May 29, 1839. and received an English education in the Marlboro Union School, under Prof. Holbrook, the founder of the Southwestern State Normal School, at Leh- anon, Ohio. After one year in Iowa, Thomas removed with his parents to Kansas in 1857. Martin Anderson. when in Ohio, took an active part in the organization of the " Free-Soil " party, and upon his removal to Kansas, gave his hearty support to the Free-State cause, serving as a mem- ber of the Territorial Council, and afterward as a member of the first State Legislature. A good public speaker, he frequently took part in the polit- ical canvas», was recognized as an able member of the Republican party after its organization, and was elected State Treasurer in the fall of 1864. which office he held for two years. He was also a zealous advocate of the temperance cause, doing efficient service for that reform. Thomas J. An- derson was deeply interested with his father in the success of the Free-State movement, and with him assisted in the organization of the Republican party in Jackson County, March 12, 1858, on which oc- casion they were attacked by a drunken mob of border ruffians, and his father severely wounded. At the ensuing election, Thomas J. was elected County Surveyor of Jackson County upon the Republican ticket.
When the war began he enlisted as a private in Company A. Fifth Regiment United States Volun- teers, and was mustered into service at Fort Leav- enworth, July 4, 1861. Upon the organization of the regiment he was appointed Sergeant-Major. and in the fall of that year he was discharged from the ranks to accept promotion as Lieutenant of Engineers on Gen. Lane's staff. with whom he served during his Missouri campaign, and wax mustered out upon the collapse of his Texas expe- dition. February 22, 1862. he was appointed by President Lincoln Assistant Adjutant General, with the rank of Captain, was assigned to duty on the staff of Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt, and organized the Fourteenth Kansas cavalry, and the Second Kan- sas Colored Infantry. May 26, 1863, he was promot- ed to the rank of Major, and served as Assistant Ad- jutant General of the Army of the Frontier, under Gens. Blunt, McNeil and Thayer, and was Gen. MeNeil's Chief of Staff during his services in Arkansas. March 3. 1865, he was breveted Lieu- tenant-Colonel, and two days later was brevetted Colonel. Soon afterward he resigned his position in the army, and was appointed, by Gov. Crawford. Adjutant General of the State of Kansas. He thoroughly organized that department. and brought the records of the Kansas regiments to a condition of completeness equaled in few of the loyal States. August, 1866, he resigned this position, and in the following October accepted the appointment of agent of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. which he held until March 1, 1873, when he was appointed General Freight and Ticket Agent of the Kansas Midland Railroad. and continued in that office until the road was purchased by the Atchison; Topeka & Santa Fe Company. Upon the purchase and trans- fer of the Midland road, Maj. Anderson was ap- pointed General Passenger Agent of the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, which position he held from August 1. 1875. to March 15. 1878. when he was appointed General Agent of the Company, in charge of its freight and passenger interests in Kan- sas, Colorado, and New Mexico. In the spring of 1875, he was elected Mayor of Topeka, was
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Y reelected the following year, and displayed fine exec- utive ability in managing the affairs of the city government. He was elected to the Legislature of 1879, on the Republican ticket, from the Topeka City district. At the close of the session, he removed to Denver in the capacity of General Agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- road. Maj. Anderson is a worthy, honored and zealous member of the Masonic Order. He founded Topeka Chapter and Topeka Commandery, has filled many subordinate positions in the fraternity, and has been Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter, and Grand Commander of the Knights Templar for the State, and is the Rep- resentative of the Grand Master of Knights Tem- plar for the United States for the Ninth District, embracing the States of Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado. Maj. Anderson was married, April 12, 1864, to Martha E., daughter of Joseph Miller, of Fort Smith, Arkansas. They have two daugh- ters, Minnie and Mary. The Major has a com- manding appearance, is six feet two inches in height, well proportioned, and of dignified and soldierly bearing. Ile is a live man, energetic, possessed of fine executive ability, and is a lead- ing spirit in all public enterprises, as well as in social life. He took such an active part in the early struggle of the State, and came so promi- mently into notice during the war of 1861-65, and subsequently as Adjutant General of the State, that few men are better known throughout Kansas. His twenty-one years of active life in the State- thirteen of these passed at the capital, have brought him in contact with her citizens from every section, and among them all he is honored for his adher- ence to principle, his able discharge of the many and onerous duties assigned him, and his steady devotion to the interests of his adopted State.
E. H. ALLISON.
E. H. Allison, of Denver. is an enterprising young business man, whose character and social standing are of the very best. IJe was born in Spencer, Owen Co., Ind., December 26, 1854. and received a good
common school education. In 1872, he deter- mined to learn the drug business, and entered a drug store in Worthington, Ind., for that pur- pose, but after remaining for about a year his father decided to remove to Denver, and he left his place to come with him. After arriving here, in October of 1873, he entered upon a clerkship in a grocery house, where he remained until the fall of 1877. He then returned to his native State, and married Miss Ida M. Reed, of Indianapolis, in October of 877. after which he returned to Den- ver, and, having saved his earnings, and being am- bitious to have a business of his own, he formed a partnership with his brother and engaged in the retail grocery business. in which they have since continued, and in which they have succeeded in building up a fine trade.
E. E. ALLISON.
E. E. Allison, of the firm of Allison Brothers, and brother of E. H. Allison, is a young man whose business qualifications and social standing award him a place among Denver's good citizens, and, although a young man, he is identified with her careful and industrious business men. He was born in Spencer, Owen Co., Ind., March 3. 1857, and received a good common school educa- tion. In 1873, he came to Denver with his pa- rents, and in a short time entered upon a clerkship in a leading grocery house, where he was engaged most of the time, until his connection with the present firm, in December of 1877; since that time he has given his entire attention to their business, and, by carefully studying the trade, they have gained the reputation of having one of the neatest, cleanest and best managed retail groceries in this city.
CHARLES E. ANTHONY.
Charles E. Anthony was born in Anburn, N. Y., June 10, 1843. At the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the Nineteenth New York Infantry, and served three years. After the war, he worked as a carpenter and contractor, in Au- burn, until 1870, when he came to Denver,
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and at once engaged in assaying and mining, which he has followed with varied success ever since. In the summer of 1878, Mr. Anthony discovered and worked the famous "Tecumseh " mine at Rosita, which is now a very promising piece of property. By far the richest discovery yet made by Mr. Anthony is the "Big Blossom" mine, on Jim Creek, in Boulder County. The heaviest assay of ore from this mine gave $250,- 000 to the ton. The mine is in litigation at present with the Grand Central Company, and has as yet not been fully developed. The "Swallow Tail " and " Palisade" mines, both of which have attracted considerable attention, were discovered by Mr. Anthony. He is a careful and shrewd business man, and has developed some of the richest mines of the Centennial State.
GEORGE ANSTEE.
George Anstee was born in Hendon, County of Middlesex, England, August 12, 1840. At an early age, he went to work for Cubit & Co., the heaviest contracting and building firm in London, with whom he remained until 1869, when he came to the United States. He first settled in Chicago, remaining but a few months, however, when he went South and worked at his trade, that of a brickmason and contractor, until the latter part of 1870, when he came to Denver. He combines brickmaking with bricklaying, and also does an extensive business as a contractor .. Mr. Anstee was elected Alderman from the Sixth Ward, on the Democratic ticket, in 1875, and, after serving one term, was re-elected in 1878. He was married, in August, 1866, to Miss Mary J. Ford, of Reading, Berkshire, England.
M. C. ABBOTT.
M. C. Abbott was born near Philadelphia, Penn., October 29, 1827. At an early age, his parents removed to Columbia County, where most of his boyhood was spent. When about eighteen years of age, he learned the blacksmith's trade, at which he worked until he came to Denver, in
1867. He was employed four years in Denver by Wells, Fargo & Co. In 1876, he moved on his ranche, on the Platte, fourteen miles below Den- ver, where he keeps the Island Station House, of which he is the proprietor, besides farming and blacksmithing. He is one of Arapahoe County's most enterprising and successful farmers.
ALBERT ABEL.
Albert Abel was born in Prussia, Germany, April 16, 1845. He came to America in April, 1866, and located at Omaha, Neb., where he began busi- ness as clerk for Max Meyer, in the cigar and tobacco business. Afterward, he became a partner in the firm, under the firm name of Max Meyer & Co., but, owing to failing health, he came to Denver in November, 1876, and established a branch business of his firm at No. 273 Fifteenth street, where he has met with good success and perfect restoration of health. In January, 1878, having severed his connection with the Omaha house, he bought out the interest of Max Meyer in the Denver establishment, and removed to the new Moffat & Kassler Block, on Lawrence street, where he has established one of the finest whole- sale and retail cigar and tobacco houses of the West. He was married, March 1, 1874. to the daughter of Jacob Solomon, of Omaha, Neb.
HENRY E. ALLEN.
Henry E. Allen, of Littleton, Colo., was born in Greenfield, Mass., January 27, 1842. At eighteen years of age, having received a good academie edu- cation in South Hadley Falls, he went to Illinois and remained in Wayne, Du Page Co., until the beginning of the war of the rebellion. He was one of the first to respond to the call of the President for three-years troops, enlisting on the 12th of August, 1861, in Company K, Thirty- sixth Regiment Illinois Infantry. He served in the campaign of Gen. Curtis against Price, in the spring of 1862, taking part in the battle of Pea Ridge, on the 6th, 7th and 8th of March. From there he went with his regiment to Corinth,
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Miss .. and served under Gen. Halleck, and. in the fall of 1862, to Louisville, Ky., taking part in the campaign of Buell against Bragg. He was wonnded at the battle of Perryville, Ky., October 8, 1862. in consequence of which he was sent, home on furlongh. During his leave of absence he was married, December 25, 1862, to Miss Mary J. Wait. of Wayne, Ill. Rejoining his regiment, he was honorably discharged March 8, 1863, for wounds received. Locating in Chicago, he was employed as foreman in a mechanical bakery until 1868, when he removed to Denver, Colo. In Oc- tober. 1869. he settled in Littleton. and has since been engaged as foreman, shipping and receiving clerk, and book-keeper of the Rough and Ready Flour Mill, where his practical knowledge of. and faithful attention to. the details of the business. have rendered his services invaluable to his em- ployers.
ALIDA C. AVERY, M. D.
Alida Cornelia Avery-sixth in the family of three daughters and five sons of Hannah Dixon and William Avery-was born in June, 1833, in Sherburne. Chenango Co., N. Y. Her father was one of the little band of Abolitionists of Central New York. who marshaled under the leadership of Gerrit Smith, and he was wont to relate the personal perils and social ostracism encountered by these pioneers in advancing polit- ical freedom ; especially was the first Anti-Slav- ery Convention. held in Utica in 1834, and at- tacked by a fierce mob, a theme never wearied of by him or his home audience. He lived to see the end of American slavery and of the rebellion, when, like old Simeon, he said, "Now, Lord, let thy servant depart." for the prayer of his whole life was answered. The children of this Puritan Presbyterian Deacon had the hardy regimen of farmer folk ; work. school and meeting being much larger factors than play in their daily and yearly routine. They had the fair educational training afforded by the public schools and academy of their native town. and. before she was sixteen, the subject of this sketch began to teach. and continued in
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