USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 58
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 58
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two degrees of mean temperature, are located nearly all the great cities of the world, and that these lines are the center of a temperate zone, embracing four- fifths of the population and nine-tenths of the civ- ilization of the human raee, are set forth and elu- cidated in his last volume, "The Mission of the North American People," a work containing many passages of such force and beauty that they have been incorporated into much of the literature of the land. His early views of the great empire to spring up west of the Missouri River, were de- rided by many who have lived to see them real- ized, and the very men who stigmatized him as a visionary enthusiast are to-day enjoying the fulfill- ment of his prophecies.
When the first bill for the admission of Col- orado as a State was passed by Congress, he was, with remarkable unanimity, elected Governor; but the bill was vetoed by Andrew Johnson, and that veto could not be overcome. Gov. Gilpin has been the associate aud friend of Gen. Fremont, Kit Carson, Edward Livingston, Schoolcraft, Audu- bon, George Catlin, Thomas H. Benton, and most of the noted chiefs and scouts of early days on the Plains. He has known all our Presidents since the time of Jackson, and has been familiar with most of the great men who have figured prominently in national affairs during this and the past generation. One would, therefore, expect to find a man old and infirm, but, instead, Gov. Gilpin is still in the prime and vigor of his manhood; of a dignified, soldierly bearing; tall, military figure, and fine, literary head, while the operations of his mind are as free as were his youthful footsteps from the ruts that plodding industry is continually wearing in the lines traced by pioneers. He is the possessor of an ample fortune, and the father of a young and interesting family; and in his life of retirement in this city, exemplifies the lines from Goldsmith :
" Happy is he who crowns, in shades like these, A youth of labor with an age of ease."
He lives in the enjoyment of the full fruition of his early dreams regarding the magnificent devel- opment of the great central plateau, and in the
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contemplation of the grand questions of human progress which have occupied the minds of philos- ophers and statesmen in all ages.
HON. C. J. GOSS.
Among the pioneers who still reside in this city and who have passed through the varied experiences of frontier life, and become familiar with the his- tory and growth of the State and city, is the sub- ject of this sketch. He was born in Brandon, Rutland Co., Vt., March 11, 1821. When he was about eight years of age, his parents removed to Western New York, where he received a public- school education, and, at the age of twenty-one, engaged in the mereantile business with H. N. Hoeker, to whom he sold his interest in the busi- ness in 1848, and removed to Fond du Lac, Wis., where he engaged in the mercantile business, and also in the lumber business eleven years, in partnership with his brother, Joshua Goss. Hav- ing closed out his business in April, 1859, he started West, traveling across the Plains with an ox team. Arriving in Colorado, he located in the vicinity of Boulder, having secured a ranche near that place, and engaged in the dairy business there until 1864, during which time he helped to lay out the town of Boulder. Having sold out his stock and ranche, he came to Denver and engaged in the storage and commission business in West Denver, where he carried on an extensive and successful business buying and selling grain. He also bought grain in large quantities for the Government. Iu 1865, he removed to the East Side, and formed a partnership with Charles Ruter, locating on Holla- day street. In the fall of 1866, he bought out his partner's interest in the business. That fall he was elected to the Territorial Legislature on the Republican ticket. He still continued his business until spring of the same year, when he sold out to R. Y. Force & Co., and removed to Georgetown, where he engaged in mining during the next four years, opening up nineteen mines. He formed a company, called the Baltimore Company, of which he is at present a stockholder, which operated
successfully, and is now known as one of the most substantial mining companies in the State. In 1871, he returned to Denver, and has continued in the mining business ever since. In the spring of 1879, he bought a ranche of 1,500 acres, located southeast of Denver, about fifty miles distant, on the divide. He was married, first, in September, 1841, to the daughter of H. T. Shepherd, of Western New York. February 28, 1864, his wife died in Boulder. In July, 1865, he was married to Harriet Beecher, daughter of William Beccher, of New Haven, Conn.
WILLIAM A. GORDON, M. D.
Dr. Gordon was born at Watkins, N. Y., Sept. 29, 1833, remaining there until about thirteen years of age, when he removed with his father to Waukegan, Ill. He attended the common schools until seven- teen years of age. At that time he began teaeh- ing school and studying alternately ; first, taking a commercial course, after which he began to read medicine, and attended medical lectures during 1852-53. He then practiced his profession until 1855, when he resumed his studies in Rush Medi- cal College, Chicago, and graduated from that insti- tution February 20, 1856. He then returned to his field of labor at Wausau, Wis., remaining there in the active practice of his profession until 1860, during which time, in 1858, he was elected County Superintendent of Public Schools, and re-elected in 1860.
During the Medical College session in 1861, he was appointed to the position of Preceptor to the Chair of Anatomy of the Chicago Medical College. In September, 1862, he was commis- sioned Assistant Surgeon of the Tenth Wiscon- sin Volunteer Infantry. Upon reporting at the headquarters of the Department of Kentucky, he was assigned to duty as Secretary of the Medi- eal Directors' Examining Board, whose duty it was to re-examine all invalid soldiers and officers in the department for final discharge from the United States Serviee. In the spring of 1863, he was assigned to duty as surgeon-in-charge of General
V.D. Markham
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United States Hospital No. 15, Louisville, Ky. In the fall of the same year, in consequence of the consolidation of several hospitals of the post, he was placed in charge of United States Army Gen- eral Hospital No. 1, of the consolidation, which included four others. In the summer of 1864, the United States Army Board was ordered to convene at Cincinnati, Ohio. In consequence of the thor- ongh discipline, general good order and neatness which pervaded the hospital under his charge, Dr Gordon was urgently requested by Gen. Hum- phreys, Medical Inspector for the Western and Southern Departments of the army, to apply to the Secretary of War for a permit to appear before the United States Army Board of Medical Examiners for the position of Surgeon of United States Vol- unteers. During the ten days' session, thirty-three candidates were examined, of which only three passed, Dr. Gordon being among the successful ones. His examination papers having been approved by the Surgeon General, Secretary of War, President and United States Senate, he was then commissioned and ordered to report to Assistant Surgeon General Wood, who assigned him to duty as executive officer in the Medical Directors' office in the De- partment of Kentucky. He continued to hold this position until the spring of 1865, when he was ordered in charge of the post hospitals of the city of Louisville, Ky., and as surgeon-in-charge of the recruiting office of the United States Army. In July, 1865, he was appointed on the Board of Medical Examiners for the examination of medical officers for commissions in the United States Army, after which he was appointed to the position of Hospital Inspector, and assigned to duty as execu- tive officer in the Medical Department, which posi- tion he held until the close of the war and until the closing-up of the department and post. He then returned to Chicago, and was tendered the position of Demonstrator of Anatomy at Rush Medical College; but, owing to ill health con- tracted in the service, he was obliged to decline. He then went to Ripon, Wis., and soon after his health so improved that he opened an office
and began the practice of his profession. A few months found him actively engaged in a lucra- tive practice ; but, at the expiration of two years, he was obliged, from overwork, to retire to the sea-shore to recruit his health. After a few months sojourn on the coast, he was advised by his physicians in New York City to select a home farther south. Accordingly, he returned to Wis- consin and closed up his business, and in Novem- ber, 1868, selected Hannibal, Mo., for his future home. The change of climate resulting in an im- provement of his health. in January, 1869, he began the practice of medicine and surgery. Dur- ing the twelve months here, he was often called in consultation with the leading physicians of the city, and has since enjoyed the reputation of having the largest practice of any physician in Northeastern Missouri. In consequence of over- work and the debilitating influences of the miasma of the Mississippi Valley, he was obliged to seek a non-malarial climate. During the summer months of the past five years, three of which he spent in Colorado as a tourist, he made many expeditions through all of the noted places of interest in the State, with the view of studying carefully the peculiar effect of the climatic influences of this remarkable country upon the various forms of acute and chronic dis- eases.
By scientific investigation into the isothermal and electrical phenomena, together with care- ful observations on the varied degrees of moisture and lightness of the atmosphere in different locali- ties and altitudes throughout the State, he has en- deavored to make available every advantageof this experience for the benefit of his profession, his friends and patrons. Having been a recipient of renewed health from the beneficial effects of Colorado cli- mate, he has decided to make Denver his perma- nent home. From twenty-three years' experience in the practice of medicine and surgery, both civil and military, and occupying as he has the foremost rank in his profession. he will prove a valuable accession to the medical profession of Colorado.
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LAWRENCE N. GREENLEAF.
Mr. Greenleaf is not only one of Colorado's most honored and respected business men, but he is also her pioneer poet. Very soon after coming to Colorado, he became quite popular and widely known through his contributions to the Rocky Mountain News over the nom de plume of Peter Pun-ever. In 1862, he wrote his satirical poem "King Sham," which was well received. It was delivered in Denver on three different occa- sions, and repeated to large audiences in all of the towns and mining camps of the Territory. By this time his poetical ability was well known, and he was frequently called upon to prepare and deliver his poems. Among the most conspicnous was one de- livered at a Fourth of July celebration in 1865, another for the pioneers' celebration, July 4, 1866, and one for the Masonic celebration of St. John's Day, June 24, 1867. He was also called upon to deliver the poem for the Centennial celebration in 1876, the last of which is one of his best literary efforts. In 1868, he made a collection of his writ- ings, which were published by Hurd & Houghton, of New York, in a very neat little volume, under the title of "King Sham and Other Atrocities in Verse," which met with public favor, and were much admired for their humorous and well-directed hits on the times. Mr. Greenleaf was born in Boston, Mass., October 4, 1838, and graduated at the English High School in that city, and at an early age displayed a taste for literary pursuits, and attracted attention in Boston literary associa- tions as an amateur poet. In 1855, he began his business career, entering a Boston wholesale house, and remaining until the spring of 1860, when the glowing accounts of Pike's Peak attracted his at- tention, and he determined to seek his fortune be- yond the Plains. In company with his present partner, Mr. G. G. Brewer, he started for Colo- rado. At St. Joseph, Mo., they joined the " Brad Pease" party, and, after twenty-six days' travel across the barren Plains, reached Denver on the 24th of May. Upon their arrival, they found con- siderable excitement over the discoveries in Cali-
fornia Gulch, and Messrs. Greenleaf and Brewer at once purchased a team, which they loaded with provisions and miner's supplies and started for that district, which they found to be very rich. Dispos- ing of their goods at a handsome profit, they re- turned to Denver, and at once began looking around for a point to permanently establish them- selves in business. On their last trip, they had passed through Colorado City, which at that time was attracting considerable attention as a prospect- ive business point. The town could already boast of 125 houses, either built or in course of con- struction, and was extensively located on paper, there being miles of vacant lots. Messrs. Green- leaf and Brewer decided to pay it a visit, at least, before permanently locating, and while there a lib- eral offer for lots, though coupled with an agree- ment to put up a substantial storeroom and stock it with goods, fortunately failed of acceptance, and the two young men returned to Denver and opened a permanent business. They have con- tinued in the mercantile business ever since, and are, therefore, now one of the oldest and most sub- stantial firms in the State. They first opened a line of groceries and miner's supplies, carrying such stock as was adapted to the wantsof a new country. But, as the city grew older, they, in 1863, added a stock of toys and fancy goods, and gave their first holiday opening. As the country became more permanently settled, they gradually discontinued other lines and gave their whole attention to their present specialty of toys and fancy goods. They now have the most extensive establishment of its kind between Chicago and San Francisco. They have battled with the ups and downs to which Colo- rado has been subjected, but, by careful business management and honest perseverance they have always been able to meet promptly all demands, and keep up their good business standing. Mr. Greenleaf has also been one of the most active Freemasons in the State, having been honored by his brothers of the craft with many important offices. He has been Master of Denver Lodge, No. 5, during 1866-68-69-77-78. Was High
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Priest of Denver Chapter, R. A. M., for 1867-68, and is now T. P. G. M. of Delta Lodge of Perfec- tion, and M. W. M. of Mackey Chapter of Rose Croix, of the Scottish Rite. He is also a Thirty- second Degree Mason, and is Special Deputy for Colorado of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States.
DAVID B. GRAHAM.
David B. Graham, District Attorney for the Second Judicial District of Colorado, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., on the 17th of Febru- ary, 1846, beinga son of a merchant of that county. He received a thorough business training in his youth, as a clerk in his father's store, and this was supplemented by a course of study at Duff's Mer- cantile College, in Pittsburgh, Penn., from which institution he graduated in the winter of 1863. The following year, having reached the age at which young men are received into the military service, he entered the Union army as a member of Company I, Two Hundred and Eleventh Penn- sylvania Volunteers, and continued in active serv- ice till the close of the war, taking part in the storming and capture of the fortifications in front of Petersburg. The war being over, he resumed his studies, entering Westminster College at Wil- mington, Penn., graduating with honor in. June, 1869. The next year was passed in teaching as Principal of an academy. Choosing the law as a profession, he entered the Albany Law School as a student and graduated in 1871. He then located in Denver, and the following September, opened an office and began the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1876, he was elected to the office of District Attorney, for the Second Judicial District of Colorado, comprising the counties of Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Larimer and Weld. In his offi- cial capacity, he has been vigilant in guarding the public welfare, and bringing the guilty to the pun- ishment they justly merit. His faithfulness to duty, and devotion to the interests of the people, were recognized by his re-election on the 7th of October, 1879, to the office for another term of
three years from the 1st of January, 1880. Mr. Graham was married to Miss Lucy A. Seeley November 7, 1877.
JAMES M. GALLOWAY.
James M. Galloway, Deputy Secretary of State, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, December 22, 1842. He is the son of Rev. John M. Galloway, a well known Presbyterian minister of Eastern Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania. In 1857, his father removed to Clearfield, Penn., and soon after- ward yonng Galloway entered Jefferson College, then situated at Cannonsburg, Penn., and graduated with the degree of B. A., in 1861. He then en- tered the law offce of Senator William A. Wallace, in Clearfield, Penn., where he read law and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1864. He then formed a partnership with H. Bucher Swoope of the same town but afterward of Pittsburgh, and one of the finest advocates in Western Pennsyl- vania. He remained in practice with Mr. Swoope, until the fall of 1865, when he removed to Wheel- ing, W. Va., and continued in the active practice of his profession there until 1870, when he was vio- lently attacked with hemorrhage of the lungs, and as soon as he was able, he came to Colorado, and located at Fort Collins, but was unable to enter on the active practice of his profession for about five years, and in the mean time, was eleeted and served one term as County Superintendent of Schools for Larimer County. In 1875, his health had suffi- ciently recuperated to allow him to resume the permanent practice of law, and in 1877, he was the Republican nominee for County Judge, and was defeated by only twenty-eight votes. In Decem- ber, 1878, he received the appointment of Deputy Secretary of State, in which capacity he still acts, and removed to this city, where he has since resided.
GEORGE C. GRIFFIN.
George C. Griffin, one of Colorado's fifty-niners, and an extensive farmer of Arapahoe County, was born in Connecticut October 21, 1835. His father was a farmer, and, in 1844, removed to
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Wisconsin, where he remained until 1859, when he came to Colorado ; the above-mentioned gentleman was employed on the farm, and in lumbering, hav- ing spent three years in the pineries of Wisconsin. He arrived in Colorado in October, 1859, and spent the first winter on a farm near where River- side Cemetery now is. The following May, he went into the mountains, where he spent the sum- mer in prospecting, and in August of the same year bought a ranche sixteen miles north of Den- ver, on the Platte, where he still lives. He was married in Wisconsin, in 1864, to Miss Lucelia Rust, with whom he came to Colorado the next spring. Mr. Griffin is well known among his neighbors as a genial, pleasant gentleman, and an enterprising and prosperous farmer and stock-raiser.
P. W. GILDEA.
P. W. Gildea was born in County Donegal, Ire- land, in 1806. His parents removed to the United States when he was but a few years of age, settling first in Philadelphia. Mr. Gildea was engaged in various occupations, and had learned the trade of a plasterer and brickmason before coming to Colo- rado in 1872. He remained in Denver a few months and then removed to Georgetown, where he lived about five years, and then returned to Arapahoe County. His home is now at Island Station, where he works at his trade. Although he has passed his threescore and ten years he ap- pears as hale and hearty as most men of fifty, and is well known as a sober, industrious man, and a good citizen.
HON. THOMAS GEORGE.
Hon. Thomas George, one of the prominent attorneys of the Denver bar, was born in Fairfax County, Va., in 1825. After receiving a liberal education in the public schools and the University of Virginia, he graduated in the Law Department of this university, in 1846, with the degree of LL. B. He then began the practice of his pro- fession at Fairfax Court House, continuing there until 1850. He then removed to New York, and
engaged in the active practice of law up to 1870. In the fall of this year, he was elected County Judge of Orange County, N. Y., remaining on the bench until the spring of 1874, when he camne to Denver, Colo., where he has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession, having also opened a branch office at Leadville, in connec- tion with his office in this city. Judge George is a close and careful student of the principles em- bodied in the law, and is a man of ability and good judgment, while his known integrity and honorable record in the past command the confi- dence of the public, and are an index of his future.
GEORGE A. GANO.
In a city like Denver, which is daily increasing in population and wealth, that branch of business devoted to furniture and house-furnishing is apt to prove both active and profitable. Among those who have engaged extensively in this line of business and whose reputation, as an honorable merchant, is co-equal with his record as an upright citizen, is George A. Gano, a brief sketch of whom is here subjoined. He was born in the State of New York in 1839. His business career commenced at the age of twelve, as clerk in a dry-goods house in New York City, where he remained nine years. In 1860, he removed to St. Louis and became con- nected with the large wholesale dry-goods house of Scruggs, Vanderford & Barney, with whom he remained four years. Having acquired a thorough knowledge of the business and having, by industry and economy, accumulated sufficient means, he formed a copartnership with his brother and opeued a large dry-goods establishment in Pittsfield, Ill., under the firm name of Gano Brothers. After conducting a profitable business there for eight or nine years, his health became so impaired that he found it necessary to dispose of his interest in the business, and came to Denver with the hope of im- proving his physical condition. Shortly after his arrival here, he engaged in his present line of busi- ness, and, a few years later, formed a copartnership with H. H. Thomas, of which firm he is now the
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senior member. He was married in June, 1865, to the daughter of W. H. Merritte, one of the early settlers of that city. Mr. Gano is in affluent circumstances, and is surrounded with all the com- forts which a pleasant home and a loving family can bestow.
GEORGE W. GILDERSLEEVE.
Mr. Gildersleeve was born near Sunbury, Ohio, October 12, 1839. He was raised on a farm. When he was six years old, his father died. In 1859, he came West to Missouri, coming up the Missouri River, in company with a large body of men on their way to Pike's Peak. After living near Lexington and Sedalia, Mo., for about two years, he returned to Ohio, and for the next two years was a student at Oberlin. In 1864, he came to Colorado and spent a short time near Central City, working in the mines and driving cattle. Returning to Denver, he returned that fall to Ohio. In company with three soldiers, he ran the Indian blockade by de- scending the Platte in a small skiff. Engaging in business in Ashley, Ohio, he remained until 1869, and again started West. Coming to Wyoming Territory, he followed merchandising about two years in Atlantic City, and came again to Denver in July, 1871. He first engaged in the grain busi- ness, and afterward in groceries and general mer- chandising. He was married in Ohio, in 1875, to Miss Sallie E. Snyder.
WILLIAM E. GREENLEE.
W. E. Greenlee, of the marble firm of Greenlee & Co., West Denver, is a Pennsylvanian by birth. Ile was born November 2, 1844, on a farm near Clarksville, Green County, where he passed the first nineteen years of his life, and, in 1863, removed with his father's family to Keokuk County, Iowa. On attaining his majority, he left the farm and began learning the trade of a marble-cutter in Oskaloosa, Iowa, with a gentleman with whom he afterward engaged in business. In April, 1873, he came to Colorado, and, after working at his trade a few months in Denver, went to Boulder,
where he opened business for himself, soon after- ward forming a partnership with George W. Drake, his present partner. In the fall of 1874, the firm removed to Denver, and established them- selves at 312 Larimer street, West Denver, where they have since continued to do a prosperous business, being looked upon as among the most energetie and enterprising firms in the city.
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