USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 50
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 50
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HON. WILLIAM M. CLAYTON.
William M. Clayton, the subject of the follow- ing brief sketch, has for twenty years been one of Denver's most prominent merchants and business men. His interests have been, and are, identical with those of the city which has so long been his home, and to whose prosperity he so largely, in common with many other good citizens, contrib- uted. He was born in the city of Philadelphia, April 24, 1824. In 1860, he came to Colorado, arriving in Denver on the 2d of April. His brother, George W. Clayton, who is still a prom- inent citizen of Denver, had come the year before, and in company with a Mr. Lowe, engaged in a general mercantile business. On the arrival of Will- iam M. Clayton, he purchased the interest of Mr. Lowe, and the firm became George W. Clayton &
Co., who continued to transact a very successful business, up to about 1874. During the early years of the war, they rendered valuable aid in the organization of the first regiment of troops for the Union army, by furnishing necessary supplies, taking for their pay the warrants issued by Gov. Gilpin, and trusting to the future action of Con- gress to legalize them. The service thus rendered during the dark days of the rebellion, can hardly be overestimated. Mr. Clayton has dealt largely in real estate, and now owns, with his brother, much valuable property in and about Denver. His residence on Tremont street, (a view of which is shown in this work), is one of the finest and most attractive in the State, and an ornament to the city. In April, 1868, Mr. Clayton was elected Mayor of the city, and served for a year with marked ability and to the entire satisfaction of the people. So efficiently and economically were the finances of the city managed during his administration, that sufficient funds were accumulated in the treasury to render unnecessary the levying of a tax the following year. All measures calculated to advance the interests of the city have ever found in Mr. Clay- ton a hearty and liberal supporter. Genial, enter- prising and public-spirited, he is the kind of a man needed to build up new cities and States, and of such Colorado cannot have too many.
REV. EARL CRANSTON.
Rev. Earl Cranston, Pastor of the Lawrence Street Methodist Episcopal Church of Denver, was born in Athens, Ohio, June 27, 1840. He was graduated from the Ohio University, at the head of his class, at the age of twenty-one, just at the breaking-out of the civil war. He sacrificed the publie honors of graduation, and entered, as a pri- vate soldier, the company first recruited at the seat of the University, and went into Camp Dennison while it was yet a wheat-field. On the re-organiza- tion of the company for "three years or during the war," he was elected First Lieutenant, and his company was assigned to the Third Ohio Volunteer
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Infantry as Company C. The regiment served in West Virginia, under Gens. McClellan, Rose- cranz and Reynolds. While in West Virginia, Lieut. Cranston resigned his position in the Third Ohio, and accepted the appointment tendered him by an old friend, of Adjutant of the First Bat- talion of Second Virginia Cavalry (Union), and served in this relation until the Government aban- doned the battalion organization of cavalry regi- ments. He then returned to his home in Ohio and raised a new company, of which he was commis- sioned Captain, and assigned to the Sixtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, just then re-organizing (after one year's service) for three years. The Sixtieth was ordered immediately to join the forces of Gen. Grant, near Washington, and saw hard service before its uniforms had begun to fade. Capt. Crans- ton's company went through the Wilderness with- out serious loss, but at the opening fight, near Spottsylvania, lost in killed and wounded half the force on duty, the Captain narrowly escaping capture. The company passed through the re- maining days of that series of movements without further disaster, and followed the fortuues of the Army of the Potomac to the end, but the return of a dangerous sickness which had prostrated him while on recruiting service, compelled the Captain to return to his home. Months passed by before he was able to resume work of any kind. At length he entered upon an out-door business life, and spent two years in the Cincinnati wholesale grocery trade, traveling most of the time. By the year 1867, his health had been completely restored, and, old convictions of duty returning, he entered the min- istry, uniting with the Ohio Annual Conference. In the thirteen years of his ministerial life now past, he has served the following churches : Bige- low, Portsmouth, Ohio; Town Street, Columbus, Ohio; the church at Winona, Minn., to which place he went for the sake of his wife's health ; Grace Church, Jacksonville, Ill .; Trinity, Evans- ville, Ind., and Trinity Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, from which point he removed to Colorado. He is earnest and enthusiastic, an eloquent and pleasing
speaker, and a stanch advocate and supporter of all good works, both in and out of the Church.
NATHAN S. CULVER, M. D.
The present State Treasurer of Colorado, was born in Rock County, Wis., May 1, 1842. He attended the public schools until fourteen years of age, when he entered Milton Academy, and re- mained until the year 1861. He then made up his mind to study medicine, and entered Pennsyl- vania University in Philadelphia, where he received the degree of M. D. in the spring of 1866, and soon began the practice of his profession at Mil- waukee, Wis. After remaining about a year, he removed to Rochester, Minn., where he resumed practice, continuing until the fall of 1873. Hc then came to Colorado, located in Colorado Springs, and gave his attention to mining and the real estate business. He is interested in the Osceola Mine, at Sunshine, and also in the Silver Wing cluster of mines in the San Juan country. In the fall of 1878, he was elected State Treasurer, which position he still holds.
W. K. CARROLL, M. D.,
Dr. Carroll was born in Baltimore, Md., August 18, 1851. After finishing an academic education, he was engaged for a short time as Superintendent of the Mount Vernon Cotton Duck Mills, Baltimore, Md., of which his father was one of the proprietors. Having the desire for a professional life, he began the study of medicine in the fall of 1871, and graduated from the University of Maryland, at Baltimore, in March, 1873. During the last year of his course, he was appointed one of the assistant surgeons in the hospital of the University. He began the practice of his profession at Woodbury, near Baltimore, Md., where he remained until October, 1878, when he came to Denver, Colo. His specialty is surgery. In the summer of 1874, he was appointed Surgeon of the Northern Central Railway, holding that position until January, 1879, when he resigned. He has performed a number of operations in lithotomy, in all of which he has
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been successful. In May, 1872, he married Miss M. Alice Frederick, of Baltimore, Md. Dr. Car- roll is not only one of Denver's popular physicians, but he is also one of her genial and upright citizens.
WILLIAM COLE.
One of the pioneers who has watched the progress of Denver from its earliest existence-a small camp of tents and cabins-to the present time, and who was instrumental in no small degree in building up the city, is William Cole. He was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., February 16, 1836. After receiving a good common-school edu- cation, he clerked in a dry-goods store for a short time, and in March, 1857, started West and trav- eled through Iowa, Nebraska and Mississippi ; remained in Council Bluffs, Iowa, about six months, and on the 21st of September, 1858, started for Pike's Peak, arriving at the place where Denver now stands on the 28th of October. Find- ing only a few traders and no houses, he camped for a few months a few miles down the Platte, then returned and was one of an organized com- pany formed to lay out and locate lots in what was then Auraria, now West Denver, built cabins on the lots, and remained in and about Denver until 1863. He then went to Missouri and bought a herd of beef and stock cattle, which he brought across the Plains, selling a part and taking the bal- ance into Mexico, where he was awarded contracts for supplying four Government posts with beef. After following this for two years, and having fully completed his contracts, he returned to Den- ver in the fall of 1865, and went into the stock business, which he has followed ever since. Dur- ing its construction, Cole, Williams & Co. took a contract for, and built forty miles of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Afterward, Mr. Cole was for about three years engaged in the general mercantile business in the firm of Holiday, Williams & Co. He has also been more or less engaged in farm- ing, and has a sheep ranche with his brother and one of his own. He has a hay ranche on the Platte of 160 acres; a farm on the Platte of
320 acres, and one on the St. Vrain of 560 acres. He is largely engaged in stock-raising of all kinds ; is owner of some of the largest and best herds of sheep in the State, as well as some fine herds of cattle and horses. He married Miss Carrie E. Ireland, of Denver, December 4, 1864. She died in the spring of 1866, after which, on the 21st of February, 1870, he married Miss Georgia B. Has- kins. Mr. Cole is not only one of Colorado's ear- liest settlers, but by fair dealing and industry has rendered himself one of Denver's best citizens.
HON. WILLIAM CLARK.
William Clark was born in Seneca County, N. Y., February 9, 1810. After receiving an aca- demic education he began, in 1831, the study of law, and in January, 1838, was admitted to the bar. He at once began the practice of law at Lyons, Wayne County, N. Y., where he remained until the fall of 1873, nearly thirty- five years, and during that period was elected to the State Senate of New York, in which body he served as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. In the fall of 1873, he came for the first time to Denver, Colo., to try the effect of the climate upon asthma, from which he suffered, and for two years spent the winter months in this city. In October, 1876, he became a permanent resident of Denver, and resumed the practice of his profes- sion. In 1847, he married Miss Amelia R. Ileer- mans, the daughter of the late William P. Heer- mans, of Nassau, N. Y. Mr. Clark still continues to practice his profession in Denver, where he is regarded as a man of sterling honesty and absolute reliability.
MASON B. CARPENTER.
Prominent among the members of the legal pro- fession in Denver is the above-mentioned gentle- man. A native of Vermont, he was born October 7, 1845. During the rebellion, he entered the military service of the United States as a Sergeant in the Thirteenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers, being afterwards promoted to the rank of Sergeant- Major. He was the Official Reporter of the
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Vermont House of Representatives in 1867, Assist- ant Secretary of the Senate from 1869 to 1872, and Secretary of that body the following year. In 1873, he removed to Chicago, where he was a member of the legal firm of Hutchinson & Car- penter. While there, he assisted in organizing the First Regiment of Illinois State Guards, of which organization he was the President one year, and Captain of Company C, of that regiment. He was married in St. Albans, Vt., in December, 1875, to the daughter of Lawrence Brainard, Esq. Soon after his marriage, he came to Denver and began the practice of his profession in this city. Mr. Carpenter has received the advantages of a thor- ough education, having graduated from Barre Academy, at Barre, Vt., in 1864, and from the University of Vermont in 1868. He had read law during his leisure time while Reporter and Secretary of the Legislature, and was admitted to the Franklin County bar, of his native State, in 1871. As an able and careful lawyer Mr. Carpen- ter ranks high in the profession, and the success he has attained is the best evidence of his worth.
HON. JOHN Q. CHARLES.
Prominent among the attorneys of Colorado is John Q. Charles. For almost thirty years, he has been a devoted student of the principles embodied in his chosen profession. For eighteen years, he practiced law in Denver, maintaining a clear rec- ord for integrity and persevering industry, always using his influence in favor of law and order. He was born in Belleville, Ill., October 5, 1821, and received a common-school education, supplemented by considerable private study. He is the son of Elijah Charles, who was prominent in politics, holding many local offices, and was for a number of years Probate Judge of his county. He re- moved at an early day to Galena, Ill., and here young Charles was for some time employed as book- keeper and clerk in a store, after which he studied law in the office of Judge Daniel Stone, of that town; was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in Galena until 1862, being employed the first
four years as Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court. Coming to Denver in March, 1862, he at once began the active practice of the law which he has successfully continued to the present time. His entire library, a valuable one, with many valuable papers, was lost in the destructive flood of 1864. He at once began collecting another, and he now has the largest and best law library in the State, and one of the best, if not the best, west of the Mississippi River. It includes the reports of every State in the Union, and the greater part of the English reports of any value, besides all the standard text-books; numbering in all over 4,000 volumes. This in itself is a monument of industry and devotion to his profession. Mr. Charles has never aspired to political honors, but on the con- trary has avoided them. He was, however, with- out solicitation on his part, elected a member of the Territorial Council, and served in the session of 1866-67, with credit to himself and his constitu- ents. He accepted an appointment as County Attorney for a brief period in 1866, in which position he became somewhat prominent for his active and successful prosecution of public gam- blers. Mr. Charles was married, October 13, 1852, to Miss Fannie, daughter of Col. James M. Strode, a prominent lawyer of Illinois.
E. L. CAMPBELL.
Mr. Campbell, of the well-known law firm of Markham, Patterson, Campbell & Thomas, is a young man of marked ability, which, coupled with his sterling habits and thorough preparation, war- rants him a place among the distinguished mem- bers of the bar of Colorado. He was born in Woodford County, Ky., June 29, 1846, and after sufficient preparation, he attended Bethany College, West Virginia, during the years 1863 and 1864. He then entered Kentucky University, at Harrods- burg, Ky., and subsequently graduated at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Ill., in the Class of 1867. After graduating, he taught Latin and Greck in the Jacksonville High School for some time. In 1868, Mr. Campbell determined to continue his
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studies, and went to Europe, attending lectures at Heidelburg. He also attended the University of Vienna during the years 1869 and 1870, and grad- uated at the University of Wurzburg in 1871. During his sojourn in Europe, he gave special attention to the study of the history and foun- dation of the common law, having determined to make this his profession. Returning to his native land, he spent about two years in the study of law in the office of Col. Charles G. Peckham, after which he was admitted to the bar. In 1874, he removed to Kansas City, Mo., and began the practice of his profession, and while there was en- gaged in the condemnation proceedings for the Kansas Midland Railroad. In the fall of the same year, he decided to push farther West, and located in Denver, Colo., where he was engaged in the active practice of his profession up to the fall of 1879, when he went to Leadville to represent his firm in that city with Mr. C. S. Thomas. Mr. Campbell is an enterprising, industrious and able practitioner, and deserves the success he is now meeting.
WILLIAM F. CALLAWAY.
William F. Callaway, of the firm of Callaway Bros., was born in Sussex County, Del., Septem- ber 11, 1844. He received an academic educa- tion, and followed teaching for a couple of years. Like so many young men before and since, he turned his face westward and resolved to win a name and place for himself amid new scenes, and in a younger land. In the fall of 1865, he was employed for a short time in a railroad office in Kau- sas City, Mo., and subsequently entered a law and abstract office, remaining there until November, 1866. At this date he came to Denver, making the journey across the Plains by wagon teams. On his arrival in Denver, Mr. Callaway obtained a position in a crockery store, and continued clerking in that establishment about six years. He engaged in the book and stationery business for about two years longer, in company with D. W. Richards. In the spring of 1878, he formed a copartnership with his brother, Mr. G. F. Callaway, the new firm
being engaged in the queensware and crockery trade. Mr. Callaway has been engaged in this business ever since, and from a comparatively small beginning has built up a large wholesale and retail trade. He is emphatically a self-made man, having an abundant supply of that energy, enterprise and business sagacity necessary to suc- cess in this new and wide-awake Western country.
EDWARD E. CHEVER.
The above-named gentleman was born in Mass- achusetts in 1828. When he was eighteen years old, he went to Illinois, then the " Far West," and was engaged in farming until 1854. He then went to Illinois and afterward engaged in mining, hunting and salmon fishing, employing a large number of Indians for that purpose. Returning to Illinois, he in 1862 enlisted in the Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry, and served until the close of the rebellion, when he returned to Illinois. In 1869, he came to Colorado, and purchased the Cotton- wood ranche, on Cherry Creek, where he has since been engaged in raising fine blooded horses, in which he has been successful, and also gives atten- tion to cattle raising. Mr. Chever is an enterpris- ing, worthy citizen, deeply interested in the public welfare, and assisting in public improvements, among which may be mentioned the road up Cherry Creek, on the west side. Mr. Chever was the first to introduce live quail into Colorado, which he did in 1869.
GEN. DAVID J. COOK.
To recount in detail the history of David J. Cook would require a volume in itself. Coming to Pike's Peak when but a lad of nineteen, his life has been a most eventful one, extending over two decades of the most interesting and exciting period in the history of the Rocky Mountain region. It may well be questioned if any one, not familiar with the peculiar hardships, the great dan- gers and the exciting experiences of detective life. on the frontier in early days, can properly appre- ciate the value of the services rendered by Gen.
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Cook, or fully realize the amount of shrewdness, nerve and courageous daring requisite to the suc- cessful prosecution of the detective business. To call Gen. Cook "the Pinkerton of the Rocky Mountains" but inadequately expresses the truth, for, great as is the work done by Pinkerton in the East, it lacks many of the exciting elements and dangerous features of the same calling in the coun- try west of the Missouri River. The criminal classes of the Plains and mountains are of a pecu- liarly desperate character ; bold, reckless and daring, with a disregard for human life, which leads them to consider that life a failure whose course is not marked with human blood, and whose end is not met either at the end of a rope or by the bullet of the officer of the law. In their code, not to have "killed his man" is to have failed in attain- ing that which makes life most desirable. Many thrilling adventures and exciting experiences which have occurred during Gen. Cook's career as Su- perintendent of the Rocky Mountain Detective Association, as Government detective, and Sheriff of Arapahoe County, inight be related, but this is not our purpose. David J. Cook was born Au- gust 12, 1840, in La Porte County, Ind., being a son of George Cook, a farmer and land speculator. Receiving a moderate education, he worked on farms in Indiana, Iowa and Kansas until 1859, when the wave of excitement which swept the country on the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak bore him to the Rocky Mountains, where he spent nearly two years mining in what is now Gilpin County, Colo. Returning to Kansas, he pur- chased a farm, but in the fall of 1861, went to Rolla, Mo., and engaged in running a supply train. He was soon afterward transferred to the Ordnance Department of the Army of the Frontier, and early in 1863, came again to Colorado and established the association with which his name has since been connected, and which has so long been a terror to evil-doers and a trusty guardian of the public safety. Enlisting in the First Colorado Cavalry, he was, in the spring of 1864, detailed by the Quartermaster of the Denver Post as Government
Detective in Colorado, and served until the abandonment of the post, in 1866. He next served three years as City Marshal of Denver, and in the fall of 1869, was elected Sheriff of Arap- ahoe County. So satisfactory to the people of the county, of both political parties, was his ad- ministration of the Sheriff's office, that at the end of his term he was re-elected, without opposition, and served two years longer. From 1873, he gave his entire attention to the detective work, holding at the same time the position of Deputy United States Marshal until the fall of 1875, when he was again elected Sheriff, and re-elected at the end of two years, his last term expiring in January, 1880. In 1873, he was appointed by Gov. Elbert, and confirmed by the Senate, Major Gen- eral of Colorado Militia, was re-appointed by Gov. Routt, and again by Gov. Pitkin. He has served as Major General for seven years, and has rendered efficient service in quelling riots throughout the State, as well as in the recent Indian troubles. He is now devoting his exclusive attention to his detective work, and has again been appointed Deputy United States Marshal for the District of Colorado. From the foregoing it will be seen that Gen. Cook's life, thus far, has been spent in the public service, maintaining a record as a faithful and efficient public officer, whose courage and integrity have never been questioned, and whose official course has received the unqualified indorse- ment of the people.
JOSEPH T. CORNFORTH.
Joseph T. Cornforth, who is now one of the largest wholesale dealers in foreign and domestic fruits in this city, was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, July 4, 1839, received a good common-school education, and commenced his business career in the dry-goods business in his native town, after which he was employed for a short time in Falkner Brothers' extensive dry- goods house in Manchester, England. He came to America in 1855, remained nearly one year in Peru, Ill., after which he met his brother, Birks
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Cornforth, in New York, and together they came to Atchison, Kan., and embarked in a general mercantile business, which they continued for some time. His brother then went to Salt Lake, while Joseph continued in the business of freighting from the Missouri River to Denver and the mili- tary posts for about four years, when he sold out, and went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and started in the grocery business. In 1865, he, with others, obtained a contract for supplying seven military posts, which were to be established in the Territory of Dakota, with cattle ; this proved very disastrous to the contracting parties, on account of hostile Indians. In 1870, he was burnt out, losing all he had accumulated in his active business life. In no degree disheartened by these reverses in business, he returned to the Missouri River, and started anew in a general commission business in Kansas City. In the spring of 1874, his health failing, he came to Denver, and went into the wholesale business of foreign and domestic fruits, under the firm name of Martin & Cornforth, remaining in that firm until the fall of 1878, when he withdrew and opened under the name of J. T. Cornforth & Co., which firm is still doing an extensive and profitable business.
HENRY CROW.
This gentleman was born in the State of Wiscon- sin. At an early age he went to Chatham, Can- ada, where he remained until eighteen years of age ; he then returned to the United States, and located in Princeton, III. After spending about three years here in attendance at the public schools, he went to Marietta, Marshall Co., Iowa, and embarked in the dry-goods business, continu- ing the same until 1859, when he came to Colo- rado, and immediately engaged in mining, return- ing East in the fall. The following spring, he brought his family to Colorado, and located in Central City, where he continued mining three years, then removed to Denver, and during the following year, 1864, he served in the Indian war, after which he removed to Georgetown, and en-
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