History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 68

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 68
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 68

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scattered throughout every mining county of the State, and are between fifty and a hundred in number. The friendship and mutual interests existing between Mr. Moffat and Mr. Chaffee are not confined to their business connections alone, but extend to the various personal and social relations of life. Mr. Moffat's connection with the railroad interests of the State, has been intimate and extensive, he being one of the heavi- est stockholders of the Denver & South Park Railroad Company, and the Treasurer of the con- struction company of the same name since its organization. He was one of the originators and builders of the Denver Pacific Railroad, of which company he has been the Treasurer since its organ- ization, and its Vice President for several years. He has also been Treasurer of the Boulder Valley Railroad since its construction, and himself built the extension from Boulder to the Marshall Coal Banks, in Boulder County. He was one of the projectors of the Denver City Water Company, of which he has been the permanent Treasurer. He was for four years Territorial Treasurer of Col- orado, proving an able and faithful public officer. During the Hon. John Evans' term as Governor of the Territory, he held the office of Adjutant, General, a position of much greater responsibility then, it being at the time of our civil war, than in a time of peace. His entire time and attention being occupied by a multiplicity of business cares, he has given no thought to political matters be- yond what is the duty of every private citizen who has the good of his country at heart. He is one of the heaviest real-estate owners in Colorado, owning 27,000 acres of land in the State, and having no less than $200,000 worth of real estate in Denver. Although one of the wealthiest men in the State, and accustomed to think and act with promptness and rapidity, which is characteristic of the country, he has none of the hauteur which marks the manner of some men who have made a great success, but in all his intercourse with others he is genial and unassuming, and, although he forms his own conclusions and makes his own decisions

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in a prompt and determined manner, he makes them known with a courtesy and affability which marks the perfect gentleman.

HON. GEORGE W. MILLER.

Judge Miller is of Scotch-Irish parentage; was born in the State of Missouri May 25, 1833, and spent fourteen years of his early life in that State. In the year 1847, he went to New Mexico, and served in the Quartermaster's Department during the war with Mexico. After the war, he returned to London, Mo., and began a course of study in Missouri University, located in that place. . In 1853, he began the study of law, and was admitted to practice in 1856. He then removed to Paola, Miami Co., Kan., and began the practice of law. In connection with his legal business, he also engaged in a general land-warrant business. In 1858, he was elected County Judge, and, in 1859, was elected a member of the State Legislature from that district, and served in that capacity dur- ing his term of two years, when the beginning of hostilities rendered it impossible for the Legisla- ture to convene for the transaction of business. Judge Miller did not participate in the war, but turned his attention to gathering up the fragments of his business and settling his affairs, preparatory to removing from the State, which he did in 1864, traveling across the Plains with teams to Colorado, and settling in Denver. He immediately began the practice of law, in partnership with B. D. Martin, with whom he remained ten years. In 1867, he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, and re-elected in 1869, being chosen Speaker of the House. In 1870, he was nomi- nated by the Democratic Convention for Congress, against Hon. J. B.Chaffee, the Republican candidate, the contest resulting in Mr. Chaffee's election. Judge Miller, although defeated, still took an active part in politics. In the year 1877, he became Chairman of the Democratic Central Committee. In 1878, he was nominated for one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. In 1874, he dissolved partnership with B. D. Martin, and associated him-

self with Judge Henry A. Clough, under the firm name of Miller & Clough. He began the prac- tice of law in 1864, and has been in active practice ever since. His legal ability places him among the foremost in his profession, and throughout the State he is well known as an active politician and a leader in the Democratic party. In the fall of 1879, he received the nomination upon the regular Democratic ticket for Mayor of the city of Den- ver, and, although defeated, received the cordial support of his party.

J. HARRISON MILLS.

This artist and writer is a native of Western New York, descended from pioneer stock of New England. His art-training began in the winter of 1858-59, under John Jamieson, a well-known bank-note en- graver, of Buffalo, N. Y. Here he learned, with the habit of severe precision in drawing that be- longs to the plate engraver's art, something of com- position, and the use of that little steel implement, whose value he was not to fully appreciate for nearly twenty years to come ; for, with a boy's ambition and high notions of high art, he soon abandoned the humbler (?) walk for the wider scope of the brush, and opened his first studio in Lockport, N. Y., where he began painting portraits in 1859. A few hunting and game pictures, and portraits of fine animals, painted for the Nimrods of the Niagara frontier, gave a promise of the success realized in his best work. In 1861, he had newly established himself in Buffalo, when the war inter- rupted, and he enrolled himself on the day after the fall of Fort Sumter, in one of the companies that formed the Twenty-First Regiment of New York Volunteers. His studies, continued in the field, did not interfere with his duties as a soldier, and during the charge on the railroad embankment, held by Jackson's men, on the 31st of August, 1862, at the second battle of Bull Run, he received wounds that caused his discharge four months after. At the same time, his knapsack was rifled of accumulated sketches, in the capture of wagon trains at Catlett's. After the war, he continued

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his studies, also publishing a full history of his regiment, which literary venture gained him recog- nition as a writer; and from this time his journal- istic work has continued along with his artistic progress, without retarding it. A bust of Abraham Lincoln, modeled at this time, was accepted by the public as establishing the not uncommon trait of artistic versatility. It is a favorite axiom with Mr. Mills, that to be a successful artist one must have the most varied ability.

It was not, however, until after his removal to Colorado, made imperative by continued ill health of Mrs. Mills, that the inherited pioneer instinct developed. Forsaking, not with intent, but almost unconsciously, with the influence of his new envi- ronment, the trammels of association, and that far- reflected influence of the schools, that at best, is, out of their immediate presence, but a delusive light, Mr. M. began to develop his own impressions, to see for himself, and to paint as he sees. Much of his time has been passed among the usual avoca- tions of the Colorado ranche-men, mountaineers, trappers, hunters and explorers. He was, with his family, among the first settlers of Grand County, where the children of the settlers were gathered and taught by Mrs. Mills in the winter of 1875, probably the first "over the range" school in Colorado. Here the artist, in the full enthusiasm of his art, followed the game into the most remote fastnesses, and among the Indians, fre- quently making long journeys on snow-shoes, which he learned to weave for himself, in search of the studies which have furnished some of his hest work. Once, attacked by a rheumatic fever, he was rescued and nursed by hunters and hauled fifty miles over mountains and deep snow to the settlements. It is this intimacy with the very actual life and times that his pictures present, that, aside from their true artistic motive, makes them valuable as records of a period fast vanish- ing; of conditions that will soon belong to the past of a people and a continent. With the desire of becoming independent of his art, and enabled to confine himself to his mission, Mr. M. has

established in Denver the business of wood en- graving, for book illustration especially, and his work may be seen in the best publications of the day, Scribner's employing him for much of the time in reproducing his own designs. He talks of himself as one just ready to begin, and with his best work yet before him. One of his poems serves for introduction to this history.

L. A. MELBURN.

The extensive business which L. A. Melburn has built up in the city of Denver, and the respect- able position he holds in the community are due alike to his own industry and skill. He was born in Upper Canada in 1854, and after a short time spent at the public schools, assisted his father on the farm. Deciding to learn the blacksmith trade, he served an apprenticeship of a year and a half. From Canada he went to Buffalo, N. Y., picking up work easily there, and then back to Canada again, where he worked steadily at his trade for nearly a year. In 1871, he moved to Colorado and settled in Den- ver. By working resolutely and patiently at his trade, he accumulated sufficient means to com- mence a business in his own name, which by careful management has grown to its present large proportions. A visit to his establishment, 484 and 486 Larimer street, will repay any one inter- ested in the progress of Denver in the industrial arts. Horse-shoeing, blacksmithing, wagon and carriage making are pushed through with all the enterprise and skill of Eastern factories. Five fires are constantly glowing in the smithy, and eighteen persons are variously employed in the different departments. To give a correct idea of the extent of his business, it may be stated that Mr. Melburn has manufactured to order over 150 vehicles, such as platform spring wagons, carriages, buggies and phaetons, and over 300 wheelbarrows, since opening his present establishment, hesi les repair work and blacksmith jobs of every descrip- tion. While thus employed, he has also found time to improve the character of his work by the intro- duction of several important features. In the

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construction of platform spring wagons, he has re- jected the wooden blocks supporting the body upon the front gear, and substituted steel bars, thus in- creasing the strength of the vehicle nearly double, while its general appearance is considerably im- proved. In three-spring wagons he has introduced a novel feature hy mechanically joining the king- bolt and fifth-wheel in one piece, thereby prevent- ing shifting of these parts and securing a simpler and easier mode of construction. Mr. Melburn was married in Canada in 1877. At the age of twenty-five, he finds himself at the head of an interesting family, and owning and managing a splendid business, which, under his skill and enter- prise, is keeping pace with the rapid growth of Denver.

HON. NORMAN H. MELDRUM.

Hon. Norman H. Meldrum, Secretary of State, was born October 11, 1841, in Caledonia, N. Y., where he received a good common-school educa- tion. In 1861, he was one of the first to respond to the call for volunteers, enlisting in Company B, of the One Hundredth New York Volunteer In- fantry. He was under Gen. McClellan through the Chickahominy campaign, participating in the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks and the Seven Days' fight. He was subsequently commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Twenty-first New York Cavalry, and did service in the Shenandoah Val- ley. He was appointed aide de camp on the staff of Gen. Hunter, during his raid on Lynchburg, and was also in the valley campaign with Sheri- dan, where he was present in eighteen general engagements. At the close of the war, he was ordered, with his regiment, to Colorado, and on the 13th of July, 1866, was mustered out of the service with the rank of Captain. In 1867, he was elected Treasurer of Cheyenne, and was also elected Assessor of Larimer County for two years. He was elected a member of the last Territorial Legislature, and on October 3, 1876, was elected a member of the Senate of the first General As- sembly. In the fall of 1878, before his term had expired in the Assembly, he was elected Secretary

of State, and entered upon the duties of this office on the 14th of January, 1879. Mr. Meldrum is a young man, full of energy and with a high sense of honor, and his genial disposition makes friends of all who know him.

HON. WILLIAM B. MILLS.

William B. Mills was born near Syracuse, N. Y., Angust 26, 1836. His ancestors, for genera- tions, were of the middle class, none of them, so far as his knowledge extends, ever holding any official position, nor were they ever accused of any offense. They believed, and acted upon the belief, that " The post of honor is the private station. " Mr. Mills, after receiving a good English education, prepared for college, and entered the Monroe Col- legiate Institute, near Syracuse, where he remained two years. After leaving college, he entered a law office, in Weedsport, N. Y., to pursue the study of thelaw. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1859, and at once entered upon the practice of his pro- fession, continuing until 1873. During this time, he held the office of District Attorney of Cayuga County, nine years in succession. In 1873, owing to ill health in his family, he came to Denver. Just previous to this, he had been elected County Judge, but resigned this position to come West. In January, 1875, he was elected County Attorney of Arapahoe County, and still occupies that po- sition. He was a member of the last Territorial Legislature, in 1876, and was influential in organ- izing the House. He was married, October 29, 1861, to Miss Alice Havens, of Weedsport, N. Y., and has two children living. Judge Mills is em- phatically a self-made man, depending entirely upon his own exertions, since the age of seven years, for his subsistence, his education, and his professional start, and has never had a dollar in his life that he did not earn.

RUTHER MCDOUGALL.

Ruther McDougal, Master Mechanic of the Denver Division of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and the Denver Pacific & Boulder Valley Railroad, was born in Quebec, Canada, in the year 1845.

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Though born on foreign soil, he was raised from his earliest years under the American flag, living in Burlington, Vt., where he went to school, and first commenced his struggle with the world. At the age of fifteen, he undertook to learn the art of painting, and by hard study and practice, did suc- ceed in rendering himself a tolerably good carriage painter ; but the study of the mechanical sciences proved too alluring for the young artist, and there- fore abandoning the brush, he entered the shops of the Grand Trunk Railroad, resolved to acquire a knowledge of all the branches of motor power. From that period to the present he has heen con- nected, in his profession, with different railroads and other organizations and with private firms throughout the country, from whom he has re- ceived the highest encomiums as a skillful engineer and mechanic, and equally conversant with marine, stationary and locomotive engines. He has been connected with the Lake Shore & Michigan South- ern Railroad, as a machinist; with the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad ; the Piqua & Indianapolis Railroad; the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad; the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad; the Memphis & Charleston Rail- road; the Memphis & Louisville Railroad; the Mobile & Ohio Railroad; the New Orleans & Mo- bile Railroad, sometimes working as a mechanic, then employed as foreman of gangs, and in charge of shops, until finally he rose to the position of General Master Mechanic of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. He resigned that position, in 1876, on account of failing health, and came to Colorado. Since coming West, he has been connected with the Kansas Pacific Railroad, as general foreman of the district shops at Brookville, Kan., from which he was transferred to Denver, and invested with his present duties as Master Mechanic of the Denver Division of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and of the Denver Pacific & Boulder Valley Railroad. Mr. McDougall is a clear-headed and cautious man, a splendid mechanic, and well adapted, hy nature and training, to the control and management of extensive shops. He is thirty-

five years old and has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Laura Claudas, who died in Mobile, Ala. His present wife was Miss F. C. Haney, of Cleveland, to whom he was married in St. Louis, in 1878. Mr. McDougall is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Denver- claims to be independent in politics-and is a mem- ber of the I. O. O. F. He is interested in some mining claims and owns real estate in Arapahoe County. His career has been both honorable and prosperous, and has entitled him to the confidence and respect of the community.

EDWARD P. McGOVERN.

Mr. McGovern was born in New York March 17, 1845. After leaving school he learned the carpenter trade, at which he worked until 1871 when he came to Denver and began working at his trade here, but soon removed to Idaho Springs. He was employed in the construction department of the Colorado Central Railroad for a time, and was afterward carpenters' foreman on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, until Jannary, 1879. The fol- lowing May, he began the undertaking and em- balming business with Mr. H. M. Behymer, at 542 Larimer street, in which business he is still engaged. These gentlemen do a general undertak- ing and embalming business, having fitted them- selves expressly for this profession. Their large and increasing business has extended into all the neighboring towns.

ENOS MILES.

Mr. Miles was born June 13, 1829, in Parke County, Ind. He is the son of Samuel Miles, who was a Lieutenant in the war of 1812. He received a good common-school education and attended the State University at Bloomington, Ind., for the college year of 1848. In the fall of 1850, he entered the law office of his father-in- law, Col. John Osborn, as a student. Col. Osborn was elected Auditor of Clay County, Ind., in the fall of 1852, continuing in office until 1858; dur- ing which time, Mr. Miles discharged the duties

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of that office as Deputy. Mr. Miles was admitted to practice in the Common Pleas, Circuit and Superior Courts of Indiana, in March, 1859, and continued to practice in that State until 1872, when he had acquired a large and lucrative prac- tice ; he then sold out there, and spent about a year in visiting the principal cities and State capi- tals of the West, and in July, 1873, he came to Denver, opening a law office the following December, where he has since continued to prac- tice his profession. Mr. Miles was raised a Whig, going from that to the Republican party, and in the fall of 1860, was an associate editor of the Hoosier Patriot, a campaign paper that was largely circulated. He has avoided politics and given strict attention to the practice of his profession, holding that this was his highest honor.

ALBIN MAUL.

Mr. Maul was born in Saxony, Germany, in 1854. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed as a mechanic, and worked at the trade several years. He came to the United States in 1872, and pro- ceeding to Colorado, was variously employed, working in the mines, "prospecting," etc., till 1877, when he established his present business at 549 Champa street, Denver, known as the "Pacific Bakery." Commencing with very little capital, he has succeeded in building up an excellent trade in all quarters of the city, employing at the present time twelve persons in the bakery and attending to the delivery of goods. Mr. Maul is unmarried, and has started out in a business career which will undoubtedly prove both honorable and successful.

CYRUS C. MARBLE.

Cyrus C. Marble, of Denver, Colo., was born in Turner, Me., April 23, 1836. He moved with his parents to Boston at an early age, and in the public schools of that city received a good common-school education ; after which, in the year 1852, he entered a Boston wholesale dry-goods house, where he was a clerk for about eight years. He had, by this time, acquired sufficient experi-

ence and means to enable him to engage in the same business for himself, in which he continued up to 1865, when, on account of illness, he was compelled to give up one of the best wholesale dry- goods trades in that city and seek a climate where he could enjoy health. He came to Colorado in the summer of 1865 and went to mining, which he followed for about nine years, during which time he operated in the Gilpin County gold mines and in the Georgetown silver mines. In the latter, he lost very largely by having mines, which he had developed, "jumped " and seized by mountain desperadoes, and was glad to escape with his life, as these were the days when might, instead of right, ruled. He then came to Denver in the fall of 1873, and being impressed with the importance of the city as a commercial metropolis, he immedi- ately opened a mercantile brokerage office and se- cured agencies direct from many of the largest sugar refinerics, coffee and tea importers, tobacco manufactories and canning establishments; repre- senting the largest firms in all of the principal cities in the Union; thus he enables the wholesale merchants of this city to purchase in large lots, at their own doors, goods direct from the manufact- urers and importers. In this way, Mr. Marble has contributed very largely to the commercial interests of Denver and built up an excellent business for himself, having sold in the past year about $1,- 000,000 worth of goods exclusively to wholesale dealers.

GEORGE MCCULLOUGH.

Mr. Mccullough was born in Beaver County, Penn., July 18, 1802. In 1813, his father removed to Ohio and became one of the pioneers of Har- rison County, which was then a wilderness. At twenty-one, Mr. Mccullough left the farm, and going to Cadiz, the county seat, was employed for five years in the office of the Clerk of the Court, most of the time as Deputy Clerk, in which capac- ity he assessed and collected the taxes of the county. He was married, January 29, 1829, to Miss Hetty Simpson, of Cadiz, and shortly after- ward began the dry-goods business, being engaged

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in merchandising for about six years. He then bought a farm in Columbiana County, on the Ohio River, on which he remained four years, removing thence to Cincinnati, where he embarked in the commission and forwarding business, after which he was seventeen years a wholesale grocer of Cin- cinnati. From that city, he removed to Iowa City, Iowa, taking with him a stock of groceries, but soon sold out and invested in lands, and engaged in the real-estate business for about five years. His next move was to Chicago, where he resided for two years, at the end of which time he was appointed by the Secretary of State to a position in the Custom House in Baltimore, Md., where he remained till the close of the war. He then formed an oil company, and removing to Cam- bridge, Ohio, began boring for oil, but not meeting with success, he removed to Quincy, Ill. In 1872, he came to Denver, and with his son, who had purchased 160 acres adjoining the city, and who resides in Philadelphia, laid out Mccullough's Addition to Denver, platting eighty aeres, and proceeding to lay off the streets and plant trees. Mccullough's Addition now forms one of the most attractive and desirable portions of the city for residences, lying high and dry, and commanding an extensive and enchanting view of the Rocky Mountains.

JOHN MILHEIM.

Mr. Milheim, an old resident of Denver, was born in Biene, Switzerland, on the 3d of June, 1835. His mother died when he was ten years old, and at the age of fourteen he left the vine-clad hills of his native land, and, in company with a party of thirteen other young people, including an elder brother, came to America, landing in New York, in May, 1849. Going to Niagara Falls, he learned the baker's trade, and, at the end of two years, went to Columbus, Ohio. There he entered the employ of the Ohio Tool Company, and learned the art of polish- ing steel. In the spring of 1856, he emigrated to Omaha, Neb., where he worked at various kinds of employment till early in 1859, when he joined the tide of emigration then making its way across the

Plains to the Pike's Peak gold region. It was his intention to continue the journey to California in the event of not finding the prospect on the eastern slope of the mountains as good as he expected. Two weeks before leaving Omaha (April 16, 1859), he was married to Miss Riethmann, a sister of John J. and L. D. Riethmann, two well-known pioneers of Denver. Their journey across the Plains, with ox teams, occupied four weeks, and, on arriving in Denver, Mr. Milheim, in company with John J. Riethmann, opened the first bakery in the new town, which he continued to run until 1866, since which time he has given his attention to the im- provement of real estate, having built a considerable number of dwelling and business houses. Mr. Milheim attends quietly to his own business affairs, never seeking notoriety nor official position, and his success in life demonstrates the wisdom of his course.

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History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 68

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