USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 66
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 66
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task under the circumstances. Going to the levee, he accosted the most genial-looking captain then on the river and asked him what he would charge to take himself and family with their goods to St. Louis. The fare was $15 a passenger, but as his family must be small-he was then under twenty-the good-natured captain offered to take them for $25. This was more than young Lon- doner had, and he therefore proposed to pay $15 and the balance as soon as he could earn it in St. Louis. To this the captain finally consented, and a ticket was accordingly issued to " Wolfe Londoner and family." Hurrying home, he loaded their household effects on two days and sent the family, consisting of seven persons, on board the boat, with directions to secure berths and hold them while he remained with the goods. It was not until the boat had put out from the wharf and was several miles down the river, that he ventured to approach the clerk, who by this time was quite anxious to sec the holder of the tickets of the fam- ily that had appropriated so many of the staterooms. At the clerk's office he met the captain, who charged him with decciving him. "No," said young Londoner, "upon my word, every one of that party is a member of my family." Looking at him in astonishment, the captain asked him to explain. " Well, captain, I will tell you, although I seldom speak of it, and hope you will not in the future. I married a widow." The captain's sym- pathy being aroused that the young man should be so cruelly imposed upon, closed the conversa- tion by inviting him to drink. In the meantime, the captain's wife had made the acquaintance of the family, and at the supper table that evening they were assigned the choicest places, next the captain's family. The captain, appreciating the joke, overlooked the deception, and the acquaint- ance thus begun between the families ripened into an intimacy which continued for years. At St. Louis he obtained work at $25 a month until, meeting Mr. A. Hanauer, an old friend of the family, he secured more remunerative employment. In the early spring of 1860, he left St. Louis
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to come to Denver, in the employ of Hanauer, Dold & Co., then engaged in freighting across the Plains, and in merchandising in Colorado and New Mexico. He joined the wagon train of the firm at Atehison, and the first day out, they made a dis- tance of five miles. On the second day, as he was comfortably seated in one of the wagons, he was discovered by the Mexican wagon master, or major domo, who, disregarding his protestations that he was sent out by the owners of the train, ordered him to vacate his seat at once. Finding it useless to demur, he obeyed, and the balance of the journey was performed on foot. Arriving in Denver, almost completely worn out, and with but $1.50 in his pocket, in a few days he assumed charge of his employers' store in West Denver. During the summer, he was sent to Canon City to start another store, and built the first stone building in that city, where he did an immense business the first year, owing to the rush from California Gulch to the San Juan country. In the fall of 1860, he started a branch store in California Gulch (now Leadville), at that time the largest mining eamp in the Territory, and contain- ing abont ten thousand people. In the spring of 1861, he gave up the management of the Cañou City store, taking the business at California Gulch for his own, which he continued until 1865. Four years of this time, he held the office of County Clerk and Recorder of Lake County, the fees of the office, during the two years of the Red Moun- tain exeitement, amounting to $10,000 per annum. Ile also held the offices of County Treasurer and County Commissioner. In 1865, he came to Den- ver, and opened his present business, building up a large and constantly increasing trade, which ex- tends through Colorado, and into Kansas, New Mexico and Wyoming, and amounting to nearly $1,000,000 per annum. He has also a branch store in Leadville, which is under the management of his youngest brother, Joseph Londoner. Mr. Londoner has done his share toward the building- up of Denver, and is the owner of one of the most beautiful residences in the city. He has been in-
terested in various railroad enterprises, and is at present a stockholder in the Denver & Rio Grand Railroad. He has served one term as a member of the Board of Aldermen. He is a hard-working man, giving his constant attention to even the smallest details of his immense business. Having acquired an ample fortune, he is enabled to follow his generous impulses in dispensing a lavish hospi- tality. As an entertainer, he is unequaled, and whenever an editorial excursion, a board of trade, or other body of tourists, visits Deuver, Wolfe Lon- doner is always on hand to give them a princely reception, and set before them the good things of life. For several years, he has been Vice President of the Denver Press Club, and has achieved con- siderable reputation as a correspondent, his letters to the Denver papers exhibiting the same happy vein of genial humor, that is apparent in all his intercourse with his fellow-men.
JULIUS LONDONER.
The history of the two brothers, Wolfe and Julius Londoner, is almost parallel, from the time of their coming to Colorado, in 1860, until about two years ago. Both were first in the employ of Dold & Co., and afterward interested with them in business at Cañon City and California Gulch, buy- ing out the business at the latter place, and contin- uing in trade together there until their removal to Denver, and from that time on till 1877, when they dissolved partnership, and, after looking over the State and finding no place so desirable as Denver, Julius Londoner returned, and resumed business on Fifteenth street, about a block from his old stand. While in California Guleh, Mr. Londoner served as Postmaster in 1863, and, during his brother's administration as County Clerk and Re- corder of Lake County, then including all the scope of country extending to the Utah line, he officiated as Deputy, the two performing the entire work of the office, enough for four or five men during the busy prospecting season of the Red Mountain ex- citement. Mr. Londoner was born in New York City November 7, 1832, remaining in his father's
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store up to the age of eighteen, when he went to California, and clerked for awhile in a store in San Francisco. He made three journeys to California previous to the fall of 1856, was for a time engaged in business in Los Angeles, aud afterward among the Mormons of San Bernardino. As a member of the Vigilance Committee in San Francisco, he was present at its re-organization in 1856, and its sub- sequent reign, during which they hanged many of the roughs and desperadoes, and effectually cleared the city of such characters. Returning East, he removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and took charge of his father's store in that city. The following year, he went with his father to St. Louis, and there re- mained until his removal to Colorado in 1860. He was married, March 29, 1868, to Miss Sophie Flesher, of Denver, and has six children. Mr. Londoner has spent most of his life on the frontier, and has been the witness of many exciting events both in Colorado and California.
MAJ. JOHN A. LENNON.
Maj. John A. Lennon was born in Manchester, England, in October, 1818. He served an apprentice- ship to the tailor's trade, in London, and in 1839 came to the United States, and followed his trade in New York City two years. He then came West, and located in Warsaw, Hancock Co., Ill., where he formed a partnership with Samuel Brown in the merchant tailoring business. In 1845, he removed to Alexandria, Mo., and, after one year, to La Fayette County, Wis., and continued the same business, in connection with lead mining. In 1853, he removed to Hannibal, Mo., where he continued business until 1856; then sold out and resided two years in Davis County, Iowa. Returning to Hannibal, he engaged in the hotel business until 1861, when he entered the army, enlisting in the Third Missouri Cavalry, and during his term of four years' service received promotions until he reached the rank of Major, which position he re- signed in September, 1864. Returning to Hannibal, Mo., he resumed the merchant tailoring business, and continued the same until 1870, when he came
to Denver, and has established a successful business since that time. He was married in 1845, to the daughter of Henry C. Brown, of this city.
HON. HERMAN E. LUTHE.
The above-named gentleman is a native of Co- lumbia County, N. Y. He was born in Kinder- hook January 27, 1847. In 1850, his father's family removed to Beaver Dam, Wis., where he pursued a course of literary studies, and graduated at Wayland University in 1867. He then began the study of the law, was in due time admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice of his profes- sion in Beaver Dam in June, 1869. In the fall of 1870, allured by the brilliant prospects of the young and growing Territory of Colorado, and the reputation of its capital city as a health resort and business center, he removed to Denver, and became associated with the Denver bar, which has distin- guished itself for its eminent jurisprudence, legal acumen and forensic power. He held the office of Police Magistrate two years, and, in 1878, was elected a member of the State Legislature, and took an active part in the legislation of the session.
JOHN LEWIS.
The senior member of the firm of Lewis & Steinhilber, of Denver, is John Lewis, whose career is thus briefly sketched. He was born in Albany, N. Y., in 1842, and, owing to the death of his father, was unable to obtain the usual ad- vantages of education which his more fortunate companions enjoyed. While quite a young man, he went to Illinois, and served an apprenticeship in the saddlery business for three years, and was working at his trade when the civil war com- menced between the North and South. Burning with patriotic ardor, he enlisted in the Seventy- second Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, which formed part of Gen. Grant's army before Vicks- burg, and remained with his comrades in the field, participating in the several campaigns of the war, until honorably mustered out of the service in 1865. When peace was declared, he laid down
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his arms and took up the implements of trade, working in Chicago, Ill., for several years, until 1869, when he removed to Colorado and became a permanent citizen of Denver. In November, 1879, he opened his present establishment under the firm name of Lewis & Steinhilber, and engaged in the manufacture of harness and saddlery. They employ six hands constantly in the shop, and deal only in the finer qualities of harness and saddlery work. Mr. Lewis was married in this State in 1877. He has found time to supply the lack of education in his youth by self-instruction during his later years. With his honorable record in the service of his country, his good business qualities and elegant workmanship in his trade, he will always manage to increase and extend the patron- age already bestowed upon him by those who ad- mire both the skill and character of the man.
MAJ. JAMES A. LOWRIE.
James A. Lowrie, attorney at law, was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., January 25, 1833. He is a son of Hon. Walter H. Lowrie, late Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. He was educated at the Western University of his native city, and at Miami Uni- versity of Oxford, Ohio, from which institution he graduated in 1851. He then read law in Pitts- burgh, and practiced in that city until the beginning of the rebellion, when he entered the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was commissioned Captain of Company K. On the expiration of his three months' term of service, he was made Cap- tain and Assistant Adjutant General, and assigned to duty with Gen .. James S. Negley's brigade. After the battle of Stone River, he was promoted to the rank of Major. During the Atlanta cam- paign, he was with Gen. Baird, in the Fourteenth Army Corps, and took part in all the engagements from Stone River to the capture of Atlanta, except Mission Ridge. After the fall of that city, he left the service, and, returning to Pittsburgh, re- sumed the practice of his profession. In 1875, he came to Denver, where he has not sought to enter the political field or to render himself conspicuous
in any manner, but has confined his attention to the practice of the law.
W. V. LIPPINCOTT, JR.
The responsible position of cashier of the Den- ver Freight Office of the Kansas Pacific Railway is filled by W. V. Lippincott, Jr., of whom a brief sketch is here given. He was born in Pennsyl- vania in the year 1855, at a little town called Gwynedd, in Montgomery County. His parents' circumstances enabled them to afford him liberal educational advantages, such as a classical course of studies in Swarthmore College, which was after- ward supplemented by extensive travels in Europe, devoted to the critical examination of continental life, and the acquisition of foreign languages. Upon his return to the United States in 1873, he became connected with the large shipping-house of W. P. Clyde & Co., of Pennsylvania, where he acquired his first practical knowledge of commer- cial life, and received that bias for transportation business which has characterized his subsequent connections. After several years spent in the employ of that firm, he moved West to Kansas City, Mo., in 1877, and entered the office of the General Superintendent of the Kansas Pacific Railway, occupying there and also in the general office, various positions of responsibility, until he was transferred in 1879, to assume the duties of cashier of the freight office in Denver. Mr. Lippincott is now twenty-five years old and ummar- ried. Finely educated, polished in manners, and possessing many of those qualities of head and heart that strengthen friendship and awaken respect, he would seem about to enter upon a bright career, attended by the sincere wishes of Eastern and Western friends.
S. LOUSTANO.
Among the early settlers of Colorado, who have secured for themselves good homes and a decent competency by hard work, frugal habits and business enterprise, it is proper to mention S. Lonstano, a resident and citizen of Denver, a native of France,
AAAauto M. D.
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born near the Basque Provinces in the year 1839. He came to the United States in 1853, and lived for several years in New Orleans. Moving to Kansas in 1858, he found employment there in various occupations until the year 1861, when he came to Colorado. Since that time, he has been almost uninterruptedly engaged in the live-stock business, both as a dealer and grower. Commenc- ing without capital, but determined to succeed, he has since conducted some large operations, and amassed a handsome fortune. He has given some time and labor to mining, years ago-delving unsuccessfully for the golden treasure, on the very site of what is now considered the richest silver deposits in the United States. Mr. Loustano was married several years ago in Colorado, and besides some valuable real estate in Denver, is the owner of a cattle-ranche about sixty miles from that city. Surmounting the natural obstacles which foreign birth, language and customs impose in every coun- try, he has achieved by his own industry a success that redounds to his credit and stamps him essen- tially "a self-made man."
THOMAS S. LESLIE.
Mr. Leslie was born in Camden County, N. J., in 1841. Partially through his own labors, he obtained a good education, for during the summer months he worked hard to sustain himself and to supply the means of obtaining instruction in the winter. At the age of twenty-two, he was em- ployed by the Government as teamster in Virginia during one year of the war, and afterward went to Chicago, where he worked in a broom factory sev- eral years, and subsequently embarked in business on his own responsibility. He was engaged in the manufacture of brooms in Leavenworth from 1870 to 1876, and then came to Denver and established his present business, known as the Colorado Broom Factory, located at No. 536 Larimer street. He has carried on an extensive business, employ- ing several persons, and manufactures a superior article both for the trade and retail purposes. Mr. Leslie was married in Kansas in 1876, and is a
Republican of the stalwart kind. Though he has had many reverses, owing to lack of sufficient capital, he has managed by his skill and industry to provide a good maintenance for his family and to secure a gradual extension of his business. It would interest many of the housekeepers and dealers in the city of Denver to visit this factory and contrast the cheap work of Eastern manufact- urers with the superb workmanship and superior quality of the brooms which Mr. Leslie offers for sale. It is a wise policy to foster home industries when conducted in a skillful and enterpising man- ner.
JOHN J. LAMBERT.
Mr. Lambert was born in Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1842. At the age of ten years, he went to Edward County, Ill., and from that time until 1861 was variously employed, being for a time engaged in the furniture and undertaking business and after- ward in the drug trade. On the breaking-out of the late war, he enlisted in the Thirty-eighth Illi- nois Infantry, and served over three years, part of the time as Quartermaster Sergeant. He came to Colorado in 1866, and after mining a short time returned East and engaged in business in Cincin- nati and Albion, Ill., until 1873, when he again determined to try his fortune in the mines of Col- orado, and from that time until the present, has been actively engaged in mining, having developed some of the richest mines of Colorado. In Au- gust, 1879, he organized the Western Union Min- ing and Prospecting Company, of which he is the President and a member of the Board of Directors.
A. M. LAY.
Mr. Lay is the junior proprietor of the Grand Central Hotel of this city, and was born in Detroit, Mich., October 26, 1844. When nineteen years of age, he began the dry-goods business in Detroit with William Schroder. In 1869, he formed a partnership in the wholesale dry-goods and jobbing business, under the firm name of Hirth, Lay & Co., and continued the same about eight years. While there, in October, 1870, he was married to
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the daughter of Edward T. Skauk, of New York City. In 1877, he sold out his interest in the firm of Hirth, Lay & Co., and bought an interest in the firm of Thorp, Hawley & Co., but soon afterward, on account of failing health, gave up the dry-goods business and came West to Nebraska, where he secured a large ranche, and invested in the stock business. He then came to Denver in May, 1878, and, in the fall, became interested in valuable mioing property at "Ten Mile." In December of the same year, he formed a partner- ship with David A. Gage, as proprietors of the Grand Central Hotel, which they fitted up through- out, and have made it one of the leading hotels of Colorado. During the summer of 1879, he made investments in mines at Leadville, having bought the Uncle Sam, Domingo, and several other valuable claims at that place.
STEPHEN B. LEYBOURNE.
The junior member of the firm of Roop & Ley- bourne, corner of Sixteenth and Wazee streets, Denver, is Stephen B. Leybourne, one of the pio- neers of Colorado. He was born near Toledo, Ohio, in 1836, and was raised upon a farm with his parents, who were the earliest settlers in that section of the State. His entry into business life was at the age of twenty-one, as a clerk in a gro- cery store in his native town. With the experi- ence thus obtained, he traveled through Canada in the interest of a large firm in Toledo, purchas- ing furs, and was thus engaged till the spring of 1860, when the Pike's Peak excitement allured him, with his friend, Oscar Roop, to the moun- tains of Colorado. Together they crossed the Plains, driving an ox team, and after a brief halt in Denver, plunged at once into the mountains, intent only upon one object, the sudden acquisition of wealth. Russell's Gulch was first prospected, after which he went to Park County, whither he hauled a quartz-mill to erect in a new mining camp called " Buckskin Joe;" but not finding a suitable location, brought it to Montgomery, where ore in sufficient quantities could be obtained to render
the working of the mill profitable. In March, 1862, he crossed the range to Breckinridge, where there was to be found good placer mining, but be- came snow-blind on the trip, which so seriously affected his eyes that they have never yet fully recovered. In the fall of 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Third Colorado Regiment, Col. Ford commanding, and marched across the Plains with gun and knapsack, reaching Leavenworth, Kan., in twenty-six days. This regiment, or battalion, was afterward consolidated with the Second Colo- rado, mounted and became the First Colorado Cavalry, and formed part of the army that drove Gen. Price's command out of Missouri. After the close of the war, in 1865, when he was honor- ably mustered out of the service at Fort Riley, he was variously employed as a freighter and driver across the Plains in every direction; cutting ties for the Union Pacific Railroad, and hauling wood to Fort Phil Kearney, reaching the latter place a few days after the massacre which thrilled, in its horrible details, the whole continent. In the fall of 1868, he was getting out ties for the Denver Pacific Railroad, near Cache la Poudre, and after- ward was engaged in the construction of the Kansas Pacific, near Sheridan, Kan. In 1872, he mined successfully near Fairplay, and with the proceeds, invested in a cattle-ranche and stock busi- ness for several years, in connection with Oscar Roop, his present partner. Mr. Leybourne is still unmarried-is independent in political action- and devotes his time and capital to the successful prosecution of the business in which he is engaged. As an ex-soldier of the Union army, he has a claim upon the country which his fellow-citizens in Denver will always be glad to recognize.
SAMUEL LEACH.
This gentleman was born in Manchester, Essex County, Mass., August 29, 1837. He spent his early life here in the pursuit of study until 1855. Leaving his native town, he went to St. Louis, Mo., and was engaged in the grocery business until 1862, when he sold out and came to Colorado,
G
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where he was engaged in a general mercantile business in the mountain towns until 1870, after which he returned to Massachusetts and was mar- ried in 1871. The same year, he came West again and located in Independence. Kan., establishing himself in the grocery business. In 1874, he re- moved to Denver and formed a partnership with J. W. Smith in the grocery business, in which he still continues.
A. G. LANGFORD.
Mr. Langford was born in Utica, N. Y., in November, 1834. He remained here until 1854, when he went to St. Paul, Minn. In Feb- ruary, 1861, he came to Colorado, and, in company with Mr. J. M. Marshall, built and operated the first foundry in Colorado. It was located in Den- ver where the residence of Daniel Witter now stands. This foundry was removed to Black Hawk in July, 1862, where Mr. Langford continued business until March, 1876, when he returned to Denver, having organized the Colorado Iron Works, of which he was Treasurer until January, 1879. In the mean time, as early as 1864, he and Mr. Marshall had built an iron furnace at the Marshall coal mines in Boulder County, where they made about two hundred tons of pig iron. At present, Mr. Langford is manager of the Marshall Coal Mining Company, which has a large body of coal land in Boulder County, connected by a railroad five miles long with the Colorado Cen- tral and the Boulder Valley Railroads at Boulder.
CHARLES A. LANG.
The almost unparalleled immigration the past year, and the increasing importance of Denver as a commercial center of the vast Rocky Mountain trade, have drawn hither many enterprising and experienced business men from other States, among whom is Charles A. Lang, wholesale dealer in boots and shoes. Mr. Lang was born in George- town, Essex Co., Mass., July 6, 1837, but was taken by his parents, at an early age, to Boscawen. N. H., where he passed his early life in attendance at the public schools. In 1864, he began the
manufacture of boots and shoes in that town, and five years later removed to Lynn, Mass., the great center of shoe manufacturing in this country, where he continued the same business ten years. In July, 1879, he came to Denver and established himself in the wholesale boot and shoe business, at 406 Larimer street, where he is building up an extensive trade. He was married December 3, 1870.
EDWARD J. LOPER.
In the catalogue of merchants who invested their capital in Denver when the prospects were not so bright as now, and who have steadily enlarged their business as the growth of the city and State seemed to justify, may be found the name of Edward J. Lo- per. Born in Steuben County, N. Y., in 1842, his boyhood and youth were passed amid the scenes of rural life on his father's farm. In his sixteenth year, he was placed at school and continued his studies up to the age of twenty. Not inheriting his father's taste for agricultural pursuits, he entered a store in Canisteo, N. Y., in the capacity of clerk, and after two years' experience, engaged in business on his own account, conducting a gen- eral merchandise store for three years in the same town. From there he went to Hillsdale, Mich., where he resided nine years, and iu 1867, went to New York City. After eight years' residence in New York, during which time he was connected with some of the large wholesale houses of that city, he removed to Denver in 1874, and in the following year established his present business as dealer in cider and vinegar, at 419 Blake street. He has recently begun the manufacture of vinegar by a new process, and in the additional capital thus invested and the employment given to labor, contributes directly to the wealth and prosperity of the community. Mr. Loper was married to Miss Meribah M. Foss, in Steuben County, N. Y., in 1866, and has one son born from this union. His family are members of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Loper is a Republican in politics, and a mem- ber of the Masonic Fraternity, in which he has held several offices.
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