History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 57

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co. cn; Vickers, W. B. (William B.), 1838-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 844

USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 57
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 57

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J. FRANCIS FOLTZ, D. D.S.

Dr. Foltz was born in Boston, Mass., May 12, 1848. In the summer of 1865, he graduated at the Boston Latin School, and entered Dartmouth College, at Hanover, N. H., graduating therefrom in the Class of 1869, with the degree of M. A. While in college, he was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. After graduation, Dr. Foltz entered the Medical Department of Harvard Uni- versity, but afterward commenced the study of dentistry under the preceptorship of President I. J. Wetherbee of the Boston Dental College, after- ward entering that institution, and graduating

therefrom with the degree of D. D. S. in the Class of 1876. He then opened an office in Detroit, Mich., and began the practice of his profession, but was compelled to leave in about one year, in consequence of ill health. Dr. Foltz came to Den- ver in the fall of 1877, opening an office on Law- rence street, where he has since continued. Iu November, 1877, just prior to his removal to Col- orado, Dr. Foltz was united in marriage to Miss Grace Wasgatt, of Boston, Mass.

WILLIAM S. FOWLER.

William S. Fowler was a native of Cincinnati, where he was born in 1848. He was raised in the city of Baltimore, Md., whither his parents had removed when he was in his infancy. His educa- tion was acquired both in the public and private schools of that city. Adapted to commercial life, he was employed in his father's business of tobacco factory for some time, and afterward in the gro- cery and grain commission and ship chandlery business. In 1873, he went to St. Louis, and was employed as clerk in the office of the Harrison Wire Company, and subsequently as book-keeper and cashier of the Metal Stamping and Enameling Company, remaining in that capacity about two years. In 1878, he came to Denver with his mother and brother, and in the following year en- tered into partnership with James Johnson, under the title of James Johnson & Co., who have built up a splendid business as plumbers, steam and gas fitters, carrying a large stock of gas fixtures, and employing ten workmen in repair work and the execution of jobs intrusted to them. Mr. Fowler is unmarried, residing with his mother in Denver. In political matters, he leans toward the Demo- cratic party, but in local matters holds himself in- dependent. He is a good business man, and will certainly achieve success.

WILLIAM H. FOWLER.

William H. Fowler, dealer in coal, wood, hay and grain, at 489 Lawrence street, was born in Branford, New Haven Co., Conn., in 1849, and

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at the age of eighteen began business as clerk in a grocery in his native town. After spending two years in business there, he removed to New Haven and continued in the same business one year. Leaving that city, he went to Ottawa County, Kan., and bought a farm, where he remained eight years, engaged in the pursuit of agriculture, during which time he became the owner of three farms, also engaging in the stock business to some extent. In April, 1879, he removed to Denver, and since that time has been engaged in his present business. He was married in Ottawa County, Kan., in 1871.

COL. ARCHIE C. FISK.

Col. Fisk, the present Clerk of the District Court of Denver, Colo., was born in Otsego County, N. Y., October 18, 1836, and removed at an early age with his parents to Ohio. He received a com- mon-school education, and when quite young en- tered a store as clerk, and at the outbreak of the rebellion was among the first to offer his services to his country. He assisted in raising a company of volunteers, which was mustered in as Company K, Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, was commissioned Second Lieutenant of the company June 1, 1861, and during that summer and fall served on the staff of Gen. W. S. Rosecrans. In the spring of 1862, he was appointed Assistant Commissary of Subsistence for the District of Kanawha, West Va., and participated in the battles of West Virginia and also second Bull Run, South Mountain and Antietam. He was commissioned First Lieuten- ant and soon after Captain and Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers. In December, 1862, he was assigned to duty with Gen. Hugh Ewing, and joined Gen. W. T. Sherman's command operating before Vicksburg in January, 1863 ; participated in all the operations in and around Vicksburg and rendered efficient and conspicuous services during the assaults and seige, for which he was specially mentioned by his commanding generals. He went with Sherman's command through Tennessee and Alabama, as Assistant Adjutant General, Second

Division Fifteenth Army Corps; was in the battles around Chattanooga, at Mission Ridge and Knox- ville, remaining with this army till after the fall of Atlanta ; and as Assistant Adjutant General of this division served on the staffs of Gens. Ewing, J. A. J. Lightburn, William B. Hazen and Mor- gan L. Smith. In November, 1864, he was assigned to duty as Assistant Adjutant General with Gen. Morgan L. Smith, commanding district of Vicksburg, Miss., which position he held till after the close of the war. In addition to his duties as Assistant Adjutant General of that department, he was appointed in February, 1865, commissioner for the exchange of prisoners of war, and succeeded in releasing from rebel prisons at Cahaba, Ala., and Andersonville, Ga., about ten thousand capt- ives. The camp in rear of Vicksburg was named " Camp Fisk" in his honor. At the surrender, he signed the paroles and furnished transportation to their homes of about seventy-five thousand confeder- ate soldiers from the armies of Gens. W. B. Forest, Dick Taylor and Wirt Adams. After the close of the war, he remained in Vicksburg, and engaged in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. During the reconstruction, he took part in politics, and published the Republican and afterward the Daily Times. Was a Delegate from the State at large to the National Convention that first nominated Grant in 1868; was appointed member of the National Executive Committee for Mississippi, for the ensuing four years ; was Chairman of the State Committee in 1869, and was also candidate for Congress in the Vicksburg District for that year. In 1873, he removed with his family to Denver, Colo., where he has since resided, operating exten- sively in real estate and mining. He was appointed Clerk of the District Court in January, 1878.

SIMON H. FOSS.

Simon H. Foss was born in Dexter, Penobscot Co., Mc., March 1, 1846. In 1855, his father re- moved with his family to Illinois. He received an education in the public schools, and at the be- ginning of the rebellion entered the army in the

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One Hundredth Illinois Infantry, serving during the war. Returning to Illinois, he spent two years in the State Normal University at Bloomington, after which he went to Southern Illinois, where, for three years, he operated a flouring-mill, conducting a general flour and feed business. In the spring of 1872, he came West, locating in Colorado Springs, where he was engaged in the flour and feed business in company with W. L. Copeland until 1878, when he became interested in mining at Leadville. Since that time, he has given his at- tention exclusively to mining operations, becoming the fortunate owner of some of the most valuable mines in Leadville, among which is the Highland Chief, of which he is the owner of a large share, He is also interested in the Little Pittsburg and the Pendery, and owns valuable mining property in Ten Mile and the San Juan country. Although his mining interests claim most of his time and at- tention, he is identified, to some extent, with the industry of this city, being a member of the firm of Allen, Foss & Co., jobbers of teas, coffees, spices, cigars, etc., and has contributed something to the growth of the city, having recently finished a fine residence, adding another structure to the many which adorn and beautify the city. He was mar- ried in Illinois, in December, 1869, to the daughter of Joseph Bullock.

THOMAS M. FIELD.

It is unnecessary in this volume to present other than a brief outline of the life of Thomas M. Field. An early citizen of Denver, and intimately con- nected with various enterprises throughout the State and Territory for nearly a score of years, he has become well known both as an active, cousci- entions business man, and as an upright, honorable citizen. He was born near Columbia, Boone Co., Mo., February 17, 1837. At the age of four- teen he left the farm on which he had been raised, and entered the University of Missouri, at Columbia, graduating from that institution at the age of nineteen. He had taken a course in civil engineering, and immediately after leaving college,

was employed in surveying the line of the North Missouri Railroad, in Missouri. This profession he followed for about eight years, when, in company with his brother and their families, he came to Col- orado, arriving in Denver in 1864. He was em- ployed upon most of the railroads in Colorado, both as Civil Engineer and Contractor. Besides con- tracting and railroading he has engaged in mercan- tile pursuits, and now owns a store at Alamosa, in this State, where is done a general merchandise and forwarding and commission business. He was City Treasurer of Denver two years, commencing about 1875, and in the fall of 1878, was the Dem- ocratie candidate for Lieutenant Governor of the State, receiving the largest vote on his ticket. Mr. Field was married in Missouri, in 1861, to Miss Amanda Ellis, only daughter of Captain Ellis, an old and honored citizen of Missouri, who gained his title in the Florida war. To this union three children have been born.

HON. WILLIAM GILPIN.

It may well be doubted if the generation now upon the scene of action can accurately measure, or adequately appreciate, the distinguished public services of William Gilpin. To do this, one must read backward, word by word, line by line, and page by page, the history of our nation for forty years; must rub out, one after another (beginning with Colorado), twenty States and Territories from the map of our country; must go with him as a soldier through the swamps and marshes of Flor- ida ; must accompany him in his toilsome journeyings over the trackless plains and through mountain gorges to hew daylight open to the Pacific and to China, and open up the grand highway of the nations; must suffer secret hunger, both upon the plains and in the haunts of men ; must stand with him upon the loftiest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, amid the unbroken solitude of the ages; must cross and re-cross the great continental divide for more than fifty times; must fight with him through the struggle which wrested from Mexico three- fifths of her territory and a half-million of her

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population ; must march with him in many a weary campaign against the murderous savage ; must toil with him through many years, while with voice and pen he continued, amid the denunciations of his enemies, to publish to the world the marvelous resources and the glorious possibilities of an em- pire, which he, with prophetie vision, foresaw must arise upon the great eentral plateau of North Ameriea ; must be an observer while he, as the first Governor of the Territory, with an empty publie treasury, grasps with characteristie vigor the question of the hour, arms and equips his sol- diers, and drives back the hordes of treason from the plains of Colorado and New Mexico. These and much more must the citizen of to-day exper- ienee, before he ean grasp and comprehend his arduous lahors or their magnificent results. A student and then a soldier in the springtime of his life, the summer of his manhood was given to shaping and perfecting a continental destiny for our people; and he now sees around him the rich autumnal fruits of a policy which he foresaw, for which he furnished the faets, and in which his in- domitable will and elear eoneeption carried for- ward the hesitating and stimulated the strong. While Thomas H. Benton, Lewis F. Linn and others were striving to instruet their colleagues in Congress, and urging the duty of pushing forward to the glorious destiny that awaited the central plain of the continent, behind them all, furnishing the facts that served as the ammunition for their telling cannonade, William Gilpin was toiling over the grand plains, and spying from the loftiest peaks of the Rocky Mountain chain, the rich pastures which he, with prescient vision, saw must soon be taken in. He was the one solitary vidette far beyond the outposts of the great army of eiviliza- tion that lay behind him, and it was he who sig- naled the advanee which has since continued, and which, having reached the Pacifie, is pouring hack in a refluent tide into the great central plateau, which he marked down as the center of continental life in North America. William Gilpin was born October 4, 1822, on the battle-field of Brandywine.

He traces his descent from Richard de Guylpyn, in the time of King John, in the very beginning of the thirteenth eentury, down through a line of hardy aneestors, eminent as soldiers, statesmen and divines, and ineluding Bernard Gilpin, the "Apostle of the North," to Thomas Gilpin, a stout soldier of the Commonwealth under the iron-hearted Crom- well, a member of the famous " Ironsides" regi- ment and one of the provost guard of soldiers selected by Cromwell himself to guard the royal prisoner, Charles I, when he paid with his life the just penalty for trifling with the liberties of the English people. His son, Joseph Gilpin, was also a soldier under Cromwell, and after his leader's death and the restoration of the house of Stuart in the person of Charles II, having united with the Society of Friends under their founder, George Fox, he joined his fortunes with the experiment of William Penn, in the New World, helping to swell that immigration which brought with it the seeds of eivil and religious liberty to germinate in a eongenial soil. Taking up a large tract of land on the Brandywine, at the head-waters of Chesa- peake Bay, he founded the Gilpin family in Amer- ica-a family who numbered among their intimate friends such men as Washington, Franklin, La Fay- ette and other illustrious heroes of the Revolution- ary period. The Quaker principles of the family did not prevent them from joining in the great confliet of the Revolution, in the vietorious vindi- cation of those principles of human liberty and the rights of man, for which their ancestors had fought in England. They were, therefore, among the first to enroll themselves under the banner of Washing- ton, and fought bravely through the struggle for independence. After its elose, the old homestead on the historie field of Brandywine was the rendez- vous of many of the old patriarehs of freedom, and it was in such an atmosphere, amid the ideas and inspirations that had come down to him through the years, that William Gilpin passed his boyhood, becoming imbued with that abhorrence of des- potism and with those ideas of demoeraey taught by Cromwell, Milton, Bacon, Penn,

A. A. Morrison D.A.

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Franklin, Washington and Jackson. At ten

he remained at school for three years. Re- years of age, he was sent to England, where

turning, he entered the Junior class at the Uni-

versity of Pennsylvania, which institution his

grandfather had helped to found, and, on his grad-

uation two years later, Gen. Jackson appointed

him a cadet in the National Military Academy at

West Point. Graduating in 1836, at the age of

eighteen, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in

being then in progress, he accompanied the veteran Gen. Harney, at St. Louis. The Seminole war the Second Dragoons, and reported for duty to

Harney to Florida, and there served through the

in 1839, began preparing himself for his contem- resigned his commission, and locating in St. Louis the Pacific Coast, and this being denied him, he Gen. Jessup. At its close, desiring to be sent to war, as an escort to the Commander-in-Chief,

marking-out of a path to the Pacific Ocean. In plated exploration of the wilderness, and the

1841, he removed to Independence, Mo., and was chosen Secretary of the General Assembly of the State, serving two years. While a cadet at West

Point, he had pursued the study of law, being

registered as a student with his brother, Henry D.

Gilpin, afterward United States District, Attor- ney under Jackson, and, still later, Attorney Gen- eral in Van Buren's Cabinet, and while a resident tice of that profession. In 1843, he set out on of Missouri, he engaged, more or less, in the prac-

the extraordinary tour of exploration, which was to furnish the essential element of fact, with which

the friends of Western development, on the floor of Congress, were to meet the organized resistance

of the representatives of the Atlantic Coast. Being trained, from his youth, in the school of science, as well as experience, he was eminently fitted to furnish information that would be of the highest value in determining the topography, character and resources of the unknown land. Leaving his home, in Independence, his line of march lay along the Kansas River, and of the Republican Fork, to the plateau where Denver

now stands, then the very limit of United States

Mexicans, Indians and English traders, who Territory, the country beyond being occupied by

were jealous of any interference with their trade. He then traveled by the Republican,

the Sweetwater, Green River and Snake River,

most of the distance on foot, leading his horse

This was his first passage of the Rocky Mountains, but he has since crossed and re-crossed more than he had gleaned in his long and toilsome march. himself to boiling down and tabulating the facts swim," his progress was stopped, and he applied presses it, "too deep to wade, and too wide to Ocean. That sheet of water, being, as he ex- to the mouth, and looked out upon the Pacific valley of the Columbia River, which he followed and carrying his rifle, until he came into the

cans, Canadians, employes of the British fur settlers on the Willamette, consisting of Ameri- fifty times, at various points. The few white

companies, whalesmen, Catholic missionaries, etc., determined to form a territory and ask the pro-

tection of the United States Government. They accordingly assembled on the 4th of March,

1844, to the number of about 125, and chose William Gilpin to draw up articles of agreement, and arrange the different departments of a Territo- rial government. They then commissioned him to lay their petition, for recognition, before the

American Congress. Armed with this memorial, he

made his way East, by the way of New Mexico, and the following winter appeared in Washington as the "squatter delegate from the Pacific Coast," prepared to perform his mission, and make known the glories and resources of the Western El Dorado. He was met, on the floor of Congress, by the representatives of the Atlantic Slope, "salt water despots," he terms them, who did all in their power to belittle his mission, and cast contempt upon him, calling him "Bombastes", while Cal- houn charged that he was a "young man who desired to trade off his lieutenant's uniforn for Senatorial robes." But amid this denunciation, he stood firm, supported by a few Western men, his

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report to the Committee on Post Offices and Post- roads, was, after a protracted debate, ordered printed, and the people got the facts from which to make up their verdict. As the founder of the city of Portland, Ore., William Gilpin will be held in lasting remembrance by the people of the Pacific Slope.

On the outbreak of the Mexican war, he re- sponded to the President's first requisition for troops from Missouri, was chosen Major of the First Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, and served with distinction until the soldiers of Missouri, who moved south along the Great Central Plateau, had driven back all opposing forces, and joined their conquering arms with those of the main army in Mexico. In 1847, before the definitive treaty of peace with Mexico, the Indians composing the nine great tribes had confederated and were burn- ing wagon trains, cutting off communications, killing emigrants, and committing other depreda- tions on the frontier. Maj. Gilpin, by the direc- tion of the President, selected a force of 1,200 men, consisting of cavalry, artillery and infantry, of which he Was chosen Colonel in command, and undertook the duty of subjugating the savages, and opening up communications for our armies. Leav- ing Leavenworth early in October, 1847, he crossed the great Plains and wintered at Pike's Peak. In the spring, he entered upon an active campaign, and by the time the treaty of peace with Mexico was made, he had so thoroughly subjugated the Indians that the peace thus secured was unbroken for eighteen years. From 1848 to 1861, his life was that of a private citizen at his home near In- dependence, Mo., but he was constantly bring- ing forward and making known, by lectures and by letters to the Eastern press, his great ideas, and applied himself assiduously to stimulating the settling and developing of that territory which had come to us as the result of the Mexican war, and even at that carly day urged, with all the enthusi- asm of his nature, the building of the Pacific Rail- way. He outlined the character of the gold and silver deposits of the Rocky Mountains, and tabu-

lated the extent and course of the currents of immigration that are now filling up the central plateau of our continent. On the passage of the act, in 1861, erecting the territory of Colorado, he was appointed by President Lincoln as the first Territorial Governor, and at once took up his resi- dence in Denver, where, less than a score of years before, he had stood in the character of a solitary explorer, and looked out upon the rich but desolate and uninhabited Plains, so soon to become the abode of a numerous and prosperous people. He found here a strong disloyal element, and many friends of the rebellion, even among the Federal officers, while the Texans were marching upon all our depots of supplies. He had no money in the treasury, but instantly comprehending the emer- gency, he demonstrated that he was the man for the occasion. Raising a force of volunteers, he issued warrants upon the United States Treasury for food, clothing and ammunition, marchied into New Mexico and wrested victory from defeat on the battle-field of La Glorietta. He was Governor but a year, but the rebellion never afterward ap- peared upon the Plains. This prompt and ener- getic action, and the issuing of these warrants, cost him his office, while the speculators and jobbers, by running down the credit of the warrants and then buying them in, well knowing their legality, realized fortunes.

"The military mind, trained up in the school of war, is generally supposed to want the power of nice discrimination ; the jurisdiction of the camp is little solicitous about forms and subtle reasoning ; military law is blunt and summary, and, where the sword resolves all difficulties, the refined discussions of the forum are never practiced." William Gil- pin, however, "indebted to nature for a certain rectitude of understanding, was not out of his sphere, even among men versed in questions of jurisprudence. To say of a character truly great, that integrity and a spirit above corruption made a part of it, were mere tautology, as injurious to his virtues as it is unnecessary. Even the love of fame (that fine incentive of generous minds) could

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neither betray him into an ostentatious display of virtue, nor induce him to practice those specious arts that court applause, and often supply the place of merit. The little ambition of rising above his colleagues was foreign to his heart. He avoided all contention with the procurators of the province. In struggles of that nature, he knew that victory may be obtained without glory, and a defeat is cer- tain disgrace." With his high connections, and his acquaintance with the political leaders of those days, he had open to him in his youth the most flattering prospects for political preferment, but he rejected with scorn the overtures of those in power to become their protege, and all the alluring prospects of place and power, preferring rather to go forth to the accomplishment of his great mission, "to plant empire in the wilderness." Gov. Gilpin, by his letters to Eastern papers, and by his lectures in St. Louis, San Francisco, New York and London, and before the New York Geographical Society and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, as well as by his published books, has disseminated much useful information regarding the structure of the North American Continent, and the wondrous re- sources of the great West. He has always declared that the great Plains were not arid des- erts, but pastoral and agricultural domains, admira- bly fitted for the abode of man; that the moun- tains were filled with immense deposits of gold and silver, "in mass and in position," which the in- dustry of man would extract and send forth to bless the race; that the great central plateau was to be the arena around which should cluster the great issues of the age, and from which should em- anate those influences which should harmonize the various discordant elements of our nation, oblite- rate sectional prejudices, and mold our country into one harmomous unity. His theories, that the concave structure of our continent tends to har- monize and unify the various interests of the na- tion, political, social and commercial, while the convex configuration of Europe produces distrac- tion and diversity of interests ; that on the fortieth parallel of latitude and the isothermal line of fifty-

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History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 57

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co. cn; Vickers, W. B. (William B.), 1838- Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 844

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co. cn; Vickers, W. B. (William B.), 1838-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 844