USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 42
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 42
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He was President of the School Board of District No. 1, during the years 1868-69-71- 72, and during his term of office the present High School Building, on Arapahoe street, the first school building in Denver with any pretensions to architectural beauty, was erected. He has always been an earnest advocate of the education of the common people, and a friend of any enterprise having for its object the improvement and eleva- tion of humanity.
He was the first Noble Grand of the first lodge of Odd Fellows established in Denver, the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Colorado, and has been twice chosen representative to the Grand Lodge of the United States. In April, 1876, he was chosen Mayor of the city of Den- ver, and faithfully discharged the duties of the office. Recognizing his executive abilities, and his devotion to principle and the interests of the people of the State, the Greenback party of Colorado, in 1878, nominated him as their candidate for Governor. Dr. Buckingham has had a long and varied experience of Western life; coming West before there was a railroad west of Pennsylvania, he has seen St. Louis grow from a small city of about seventeen thousand inhabitants to one of nearly half a mil- lion, while points that were then mere steamboat landings have become large and flourishing cities. He was married, in November, 1839, to Miss Car- oline M. De Forest, of Troy, N. Y., and has three daughters, all married and living in this State.
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FREDERICK JONES BANCROFT, M. D.
Dr. Frederick Jones Bancroft was born May 25, 1834, at Enfield, Conn. He is descended on the paternal side from the Bancrofts and Heaths, of Connecticut, and on the maternal side from the Walcotts and Bissells, early and prominent settlers of New England. He was educated at the Westfield (Mass.) Academy, and the Charlotteville (N. Y.) Seminary, and studied medicine in the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo, N. Y., from which he was graduated in February, 1861, hav- ing secured his entire education by his own efforts. In the following April, he settled at Blakely, Luzerne Co., Penn., where he remained until November of the same year, when he en- tered the army. He was in the same month detailed by Surgeon General Smith, of Pennsyl- vania, to take special charge of the "Church Hospital," in Harrisburg, "with the power of officer in command." When the regiments left this camp for the field, early in the spring of 1862, he was ordered to join the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers, stationed at Hilton Head. In May, he was detached and ordered to take med- ical direction of the forces at Pinckney Island, Seabrook's and Elliott's Plantations, South Caro- lina. In September, 1862, the yellow fever which destroyed Gen. Ormsby Mitchell, and other prom- inent officers in the Department of the Sonth, attacked also many of the Seventh New Hampshire Volunteers, and he was sent to New York City, in charge of a detachment of this regiment, on the steamer Delaware. He then proceeded to Phila- delphia, where he remained as Examining Surgeon of recruits until the early spring of 1863, when he was ordered to fit up a hospital for the accommo- dation of Confederate prisoners, at Fort Delaware, Delaware Bay, after which he rejoined his regi- ment, the Third Pennsylvania Artillery, at Camp Hamilton, Virginia, May, 1863. In June, he was assigned to duty as Post Surgeon of Fortress Mon- roe, where he remained until December, 1865, when, the war having closed, he left the United
States Military Service. In the autumn before leaving the army, he, with two other commis- sioned officers, was detailed by the Secretary of War to investigate the management of all hos- pitals, past and present, near Fortress Monroe. After returning to Philadelphia, he attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvana, 1865- 66, and June 1 of 1866 he settled in Denver. Here he has resided since that date, practicing both in the city and country, and actively asso- ciated with many of the municipal and State inter- ests. He acted for several years as surgeon of the Wells, Fargo & Company Stage Lines, which position, with his long connection in a similar capacity with the different railroads, has given him an extensive surgical practice, for which his experience of four years as army surgeon, had well fitted him. From 1870 to 1876, he was sur- geon of the Kansas Pacific, and Denver Pacific Railroads; and again, since 1877, of the Denver Pacific. He has also been surgeon of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad since its construction in 1870. He is a member of the Denver Medical Society, of which he was President in 1868; he is also a member of the Colorado Medical Associa- tion, and of the American Medical Association ; he was President of the State Board of Health for 1876-77-78, and Secretary of the same for 1879. Since 1868, he has held the office of United States Examining Surgeon for pensions; was City Phys- ician of Denver from 1872 until 1877, and again for 1878-79. Dr. Bancroft is medical referee and examiner for many of the largest life insurance companies in the United States.
He has been, since 1875, President of the Agri- cultural Ditch Company, an enterprise that utilizes nearly twenty thousand acres of valuable farming land, hitherto barren, within from two to fifteen miles of Denver. From 1872 to 1876, he was President of the Board of Education of East Den- ver. He has been Vice President of the Board of Trustees of "Wolfe Hall" since 1875, also a member of the Episcopal Standing Committee of Colorado for 1878 and 1879. He is the first
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President of the Colorado State Historical and Natural History Society. In 1871, Dr. Bancroft married the daughter of Mr. George A. Jarvis, of Brooklyn, N. Y. His medical writings re- late chiefly to the climate of Colorado, and to matters of hygiene; those on the former subject have been extensively copied by Eastern papers and journals, and, by their honest information, concerning the classes and stages of disease that might or might not be benefited by a sojourn in one or another part of our State, have done much to influence the coming of invalids hither. So much that, a few years ago, Dr. Bancroft had the reputation of having, directly and indirectly, added more to the permanent population of Colorado than any other one man in Denver.
HON. LOUIS F. BARTELS.
Few of the early pioneers of Colorado were more favorably known than Louis F. Bartels. He was without doubt one of Denver's oldest and most respected citizens. He was born January 10, 1826, near the university town of Goettingen, in the Pro- vince of Hanover, Germany. His education was acquired at the famons university of his native town. After completing his studies, he, a young man of nineteen, impelled by an enterprising and restless nature, left his native country for the one that offers so many advantages for the young and energetic foreigners. Upon his arrival in New York, be immediately started for St. Louis, where he resided until, in 1851, the glowing accounts of the Western country led him through the plains and wilderness into the now Territory of New Mexico. He was among the first who sought their fortunes in this Territory after its annexation to the United States. At first, he located at the old city of Albuquerque, where he was soon launched upon the road to success in a mercantile business. He soon acquired a knowledge of the Spanish language, in that country so indispensable to a business man, and became very popular, by reason of his generosity and strict business integ- rity. After having amassed, like so many others
of the early pioneers of the West, a handsome for- tune, he traveled extensively throughout this West- ern country, making friends wherever he went. In 1856, he returned as far east as St. Louis, but soon again turned his way westward, making the small town of Bellevue, Neb., his home until 1861. Here he embarked in the grocery business, but was not very successful. After having lost all he possessed in the panic of 1857-60, he, in the summer of 1861, with an ox team of goods, crossed the Plains, and in the fall of the same year arrived at Denver. With what goods he had left, he opened a grocery store on what was then known as Front street, in West Denver. He re- mained on the West Side until just prior to the flood, in May, 1864, when he removed his business to the building now occupied by Birks Cornforth, on Fifteenth street. He, however, soon after, erected a building of his own, adjoining and in the rear of the Colorado National Bank, to which he removed his business. Being universally re- spected for his personal probity and commercial rectitude, and well known throughout both Col- orado and New Mexico, his old home, his business soon became one of the largest and best in the State. After a successful career as a business man, and desirous of recreation after so many years of incessant labor, he retired from business in 1870. But being of an active and energetic disposition, he found retirement irksome, and far from congenial. He therefore, in the same year, with his junior brothers, Gustave and Julins L., again commenced mercantile business in the cities of Pueblo, West Las Animas, Walsenberg, and San Antonio, all in Southern Colorado ; and in these he was interested up to the time of his death, leaving his brothers his surviving partners. In 1868, he also engaged in that most lucrative business of stock- raising, associating with him his brother Ernst, whom he also left his surviving partner in that business. Being in every sense a public-spirited citizen, he was active in furthering and fostering all worthy enterprises. In 1869, he, with the aid of other prominent citizens, organized the Colorado
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Savings Building and Loan Association. 6 He
was its President from its inception to the time of his death. This Association, having been of such benefit to the poorer classes of people, in the way of enabling them to build homes of their own, has been followed by many other similar institutions. He was also one of the organizers and founders of the Gas Company, being at the time of his death Secretary of the same. His last enterprise was the organization of the German National Bank, than which there is no more healthy financial insti- tution in the State of Colorado.
Mr. Bartels was not only prominent in business, but equally so in political circles. He was a Re- publican in politics, always advocating the princi- ples of his party to advantage. Being a German of education and culture, he naturally soon became one of the leaders of his people. The German element had unlimited confidence in him, and his political influence was therefore great. Being a master of the Spanish language, he was also very influential with the, Mexicans, who, until the com- pletion of the Deuver & Rio Grande Railroad to Pueblo, were very numerous throughout the State.
He was elected one of the Representatives of Ara- pahoe and Douglass Counties in the Fifth Legisla- tive Assembly of the Territory of Colorado. In 1869, he was again nominated by the Republicans for the Legislature, but was defeated by a very few votes. He cared nothing for office or personal political gain, but was always willing to do, and always did, effective work for his party. He never shirked his duty, and his efforts were always pro- ductive of good results. After a long sickness, which neither medical skill nor travel could check, Mr. Bartels departed this life at his residence on California street, on July 27, 1874, at the age of forty-eight years. He left a wife and seven chil- dren to mourn his untimely death. He enjoyed the confidence, respect and esteem of all who knew him, and his death was the source of deep and wide-spread sorrow. The eldest of the children is Mr. G. C. Bartels, who has recently been admitted
to the bar of this State, and is now a partner of the Hon. Alfred Sayre.
A. W. BAILEY.
Mr. Bailey was born in St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., Dec. 20, 1835, and received a liberal education, graduating in the High School of Potsdam, N. Y. In 1854, he accepted a clerkship in a drug-store, continuing for about three years. In the spring of 1857, he went to Chicago, Ill., accepted another clerkship in a drug-store, remaining there until 1860, when he " caught the Pike's Peak fever " and came to Colorado, and soon after entered the " Pioneer Drug-Store " of Wm. Graham, and here had charge of the first prescription case in Denver. In the spring of 1862, he left this situation, and, in partnership with J. Lloyd Smith, engaged in the drug business for himself for about two years. He then sold out and bought a ranche, which he farmed for about a year, and which satisfied him he was better adapted to the drug business than to ranching. He therefore sold out and returned to Denver, and for a short time superintended Walter Cheesman's drug-store. In the spring of 1866, he went back to Toledo, Ohio, where he was engaged in the drug business for about nine years, after which he sold out and returned to Denver in the fall of 1875, engaged in the same business, and is now one of the leading retail druggists of the city. Mr. Bailey does not aspire to political honors, preferring to lead and enjoy a quiet bus- iness life ; but, in 1864, without solicitation on his part, he was elected to the Territorial Legislature from Arapahoe County, along with Eli M. Ashley, D. H. Moffat and John Kountz, but as they all were in favor of the admission of Colorado as a State, they were refused their seats by the anti- State men on some trumped-up technicality, and others, not elected, were seated in their places. He also served as aid-de-camp to Gov. Evans for a short time during the Indian war. Mr. Bailey has become prominent as a business man through fair dealing and persevering industry, and occu- pies a high position as a citizen. He married
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Miss Diadema Adams, of Denver, in August, 1863.
EDWARD F. BISHOP.
Col. Edward F. Bishop was born in Chi- cago, Ill., October 15, 1843. His father, Hon. James E. Bishop, was one of Chicago's pioneers and prominent business men, and his mother, Caroline L. Wilson, came of the old Albany Dutch stock, and was a daughter of the Hon. John Q. Wilson, of Albany, who sat on the bench for many years. Edward received a lib- eral education, in the Chicago schools and at Racine College, Wisconsin. When seventeen years of age, he began his business life as assistant cashier, at Chicago, of the Michigan Southern Railway, and, from 1861 to the time he enlisted in the army, he was agent for this Company, in charge of its extensive stockyards in that city, each Eastern road having separate stockyards at that time. When the second call for troops was made, in 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry (well known as the famous Rail- road Regiment, because of being entirely made up of railroad men). On the, muster-in of the com- pany, Col. Bishop was made Orderly Sergeant, and when the regiment was organized he was made its Adjutant. The regiment was ordered to the front at once, and took part in all the battles of the Army of the Cumberland, under Maj. Gens. Buell, Rosecranz, Thomas, Sherman and Grant. Adjt. Bishop was severely wounded at the battle of Stone River, and was gazetted by general or- ders on the " Roll of Honor" for gallantry in that battle. He was again wounded at Chickamauga, and, after it was determined that his wounds would disable him from service and for life, he re- ceived his discharge, during the winter of 1864, and was pensioned. While wounded, and at home, on a furlough, he took part, for several days, in assisting to quell the insurrection of rebel prison- ers at Chicago, serving on Gen. Hough's staff, and organizing troops. After receiving his dis- charge from the service, he entered the banking house of Solomon Sturges' Sons, of Chicago, as
book-keeper, for a short time, but resigned this position to take charge of the circulation of the Chicago Evening Journal, where he continued until 1865, and was then appointed cashier and paymaster of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, remaining in this position to the year 1867, when he resigned and came to Colorado. In 1868, he was employed, at a large salary, by J. W. Iliff, the Colorado cattle-king, as his book-keeper and gen- eral manager, and remained with him for six years. During this time, Mr. Iliff was doing his heaviest operating, supplying large Government contracts for beef, both for soldiers and the Indian Department, besides shipping thousands of cattle to the Eastern markets. A great deal of this ex- tensive business was entrusted to Col. Bishop, in whose business faculties he had the utmost confi- dence. In 1873, he was appointed by the Gov- ernor, and unanimously confirmed by the Legisla- ture, both Adjutant General of the Territory and Commissioner of Emigration, and was Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives for the sessions of 1873-74. In the spring of 1874, he was ap- pointed Clerk of the District Court for the First Judicial District of Colorado, which was composed of seven counties, and removed to Denver contin- uing in this position nntil the admission of Colo- rado as a State, in 1876, when he was appointed by the Judges, Clerk of the United States Circuit and District Courts of Colorado, and has since faithfully performed the duties of this office. Col. Bishop is known to be one of the most careful and prompt business men in Colorado, is public-spirited and enterprising. He has built and owns one of the finest buildings in this city, consisting of a row of dwelling-houses on Fourteenth street, known as Washington Terrace, which was the beginning in Denver of that style of houses now so frequently seen.
JOSEPH M. BROWN.
Joseph M. Brown, farmer and stock raiser, was born May 16, 1832, in Baltimore, Md., where he lived until the age of sixteen years. He then went to New York City, where he found
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employment in a store. In 1854, he came West to Chicago, spending the summer on the way with an uncle in Toronto, Canada. He remained in Chicago till the following autumn (1855), when he went to New Orleans and joined, with others, in the formation of a colony to settle in the Mos- quito Kingdom in Central America, on lands said to be owned by Col. Kinney, of Texas. They char- tered a vessel at New Orleans and loaded with farming implements and provisions enough to last a year. On arriving and exploring the land and finding that Col. Kinney had no title to the land which he professed to claim, they disbanded, and Mr. Brown, with others, joined the Nicaraguan forces, under Gen. William Walker, and served about a year, participating in several engagements. Returning to the United States in the fall of 1856, he spent the following winter in Iowa, and in 1857, went to Kansas and engaged in farming. In May, 1859, he, with his brother Samuel W. Brown, left for the Pike's Peak gold region, and on their arri- val, being satisfied of the permanent growth of the country, they made claims on the Platte River where they now reside. In August of that year, he started into the mountains on a prospecting tour, and during the two years which followed, he prospected in the South Park, the Blue River country, Ten Mile Creck, Eagle River, California Gulch on the Arkansas River, Taylor and Gunni- son Rivers, and the San Juan country, etc. Dur- ing the winter of 1859-60, he and his brother built the bridge over the Platte, which has since been known as Brown's bridge. In 1861, he began farming and stock-growing in which he has been successful, owning a well-improved farm of 360 acres. In 1863, he was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners of Arapahoe County, for three years, and is now serving on his third term in that capacity. He was married, in 1864, to Miss Anna Dunham, of Rock Island, Ill., and has four children.
JOHN G. BENKELMAN.
John G. Benkelman, one of the most exten- sive cattle-dealers of Colorado, is a native of Wit-
tenberg, Germany; he was born July 25, 1830, and after receiving the rudiments of a good educa- tion he came to the United States, at the age of twenty, and for four years engaged in lumber- ing and saw-milling in the State of New York. In 1854, he went to California and for over seven years followed the rough life of a miner. Returning to New York, he was married, in the spring of 1862, to Miss Christina Romel, and came at once to Colorado. He followed ranching and cattle-raising for a couple of years in Jeffer- son County and then removed to Gilpin County, where he remained until 1873, when he came to Denver ; since then he has engaged extensively in cattle-raising and trading, and is well known throughout the State as a shrewd and careful business man.
COL. JOHN M. BERKEY.
Col. John M. Berkey was born in Somerset, Perry County, Ohio, January 16, 1834, and received a common school education. In 1849, he went to Columbus, Ohio, where he served three years as an apprentice at carriage-smith- ing. He then went to Tiffin, Ohio, and re- mained about two years at school-teaching six months of the time. In 1854, he went to Monti- cello, Ind .; and there attended school and taught for a short time, after which, he engaged in the hardware and grocery business in Monticello, continuing until 1860, when he sold out, and was extensively engaged in cutting and contracting timber and lumber until the breaking-out of the rebellion, when he raised a company and was com- missioned Second Lieutenant of Company G, Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry. He was subse- quently promoted to First Lieutenant, and when the Ninety-ninth Indiana Infantry was being recruited, he was commissioned its Adjutant. On the organization of the regiment, he was commis- sioned Major, and on the 24th of April, 1864, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. As a soldier, Col. Berkey was always at his post and ready for duty ; he served with his regiment faithfully until
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the close of the grand Savannah campaign, when he resigned his commission January 8, 1865, after serving his country for over three years, in the mean time participating in a number of hard- fought engagements, in a part of which he com- manded the regiment. He then returned to his home, and soon afterward bought a farm in Iroquois County, Ill., where he continued until the spring 1870. He then came to Colorado, located in Den- ver, and was for a short time engaged in the sale of sewing machines. He then went into the real- estate business, of which he has made a success; is now handling more real estate, in connection with his partner, H. T. Burchard, than, perhaps, any other firm in the city. Mr. Berkey is tall and commanding, and of a positive temperment, is energetic, public-spirited, and, in every respect, a good citizen. He married Miss P. A. Irons, daughter of Capt. Irons, March 1, 1859.
J. J. T. BALL.
This gentleman was born in Mendon, Monroe Co., N. Y., March 15, 1827. He spent the early part of his life in the same county in which he was born. He was married July 1, 1849. He began his career as a railroad man in 1850. At that time, he became manager of the Western Freight Transfer of the New York & Erie Rail- road at Dunkirk, N. Y., the western terminus of that road. He remained in that business five years. Then he became clerk in the Dubuque & Minnesota Packet Line on the Upper Mississippi River. The years 1858 and 1859 were spent in New Orleans and on the Red River in the packet trade. In August, 1859, he went to St. Joseph, Mo., in the interest of the Keokuk Northern Line Packet Company. Having dissolved his connec- tion with the packet company, in 1861 he became Western Agent of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. He remained in that office nine years, residing in Leavenworth, Kan. On the 1st of January, 1870, he came by the Union Pacific and the Denver Pacific Railroads as far as the latter road was built, then by stage to | practice of his profession, but, February 15, 1867,
Denver, Colo., and accepted the office of General Ticket Agent of the Union Pacific Railroad Com- pany, remaining with them seven years. Since 1877, he has been ticket agent of the Pool Line. He has given his whole attention to the steamboat and railroad business for the last thirty years.
J. W. BENHAM.
J. W. Benham, of the firm of Veltz & Benham, was born in New York in 1852. He received a good common-school education, and at the age of twenty came to Colorado, and remained about three years, when he returned to New York. After remaining there three years, he again came to Colo- rado, and together with Mr. Edward Veltz, opened a meat market at the corner of Twenty-first and Champa streets. These gentlemen, by energy and fair dealing, have built up a large and growing trade in their line of business.
HON. ANDREW W. BRAZEE.
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