USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 76
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 76
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JOHN M. REIGART.
John M. Reigart was born April 29, 1843, at Lancaster, Penn. He graduated July 29, 1860, at the Lancaster High School, taking the full classical course, which occupied a year longer than the usual course. Going to Washington, D. C.,
low While head M. O.
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March 1, 1861, to attend the inauguration of President Lincoln, he entered a drug store, on the 5th of March, to learn pharmacy. After spending three years in this place, desiring to study theology, he obtained an appointment from Hon. Salmon P. Chase, to a clerkship in the Treasury Department, and acquitted himself with credit. In less than a year, however, his health failed to such an extent that he was compelled to give up study, but continued in the Treasury until June, 1867, being of such service to the Department as to merit and receive three successive promotions and extra compensation. Going to Minnesota for the benefit of his health, he remained until January, 1872, when he returned to Washington, and in October, 1873, was appointed to a position in the Post Office Department, under Second Assistant Postmaster General John L. Routt. He was placed in an important position, and served faithfully and efficiently, becoming Col. Routt's main reliance and right-hand man. After Col. Routt had removed to Colorado, as Governor of the Territory, knowing well his worth, intelligence, education and fitness for the work he desired to have performed, he sent for Mr. Reigart and tend- ered him the position of private secretary. During Gov. Routt's two terms of office, Mr. Reigart trans- acted the business of secretary, becoming familiar with the needs of the State, and taking entire charge of the office during the temporary absences of the Governor, who placed the utmost reliance on his ability, integrity and good sense, and who, on his return, invariably found everything in as good condition as if he had never been absent. During his entire term as secretary, nothing occurred to require the slightest correction, or occa- sion the least censure or complaint. Mr. Reigart is now engaged in the drug business, in Denver, for which his experience and scientific training admirably fitted him. Mr. Reigart is a gentleman of extensive reading, fine mathematical and scien- tific attainments and general information. He is an active member of the Presbyterian Church and an enthusiastic worker in the Sunday school,
and withal, an honest, upright and honorable man.
CAPT. JOHN RAY.
Capt. Ray has been, since becoming a resident of Denver, one of her active and enteprising busi- ness men, contributing to the building-up of the city by erecting several substantial residences, and facilitating the progress of her business as the rep- resentative of the Fairbanks Scale Company of St. Louis, Mo. He was born in Carrollton, Greene Co., Ill., February 17, 1841. At the age of twelve, he left his native town and started overland to California. The journey was attended with hard- ships and danger, arising from the hostility of the Indian tribes. Arriving in Sacramento August 3, 1853, he was for the six following years profitably engaged in various pursuits. In October, 1859, he returned East by the southern route. At Apache Pass, in New Mexico, the party, consist- ing of himself and three others, were taken pris- oners by a band of Comanche Indians, who shot two of his companions, and only for a timely chance to escape during the night, he would have met the same fate. He arrived safely at his home in Carrollton, Ill., in November, and after attend- ing school a few months embarked in the mercan- tile business, continuing until the breaking-out of the rebellion, when he entered Company F, First Missouri Cavalry. His regiment served under Gen: Fremont during his raid through Missouri, and afterward under Gen. Curtis, in the battles of Cross Hill, Sugar Creek and Pea Ridge. He also participated in the battle of Stone River, under Gen. Rosecrans. In the spring of 1863, he left the cavalry service and, returning to Illinois, organ- ized the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company E. He reported for duty in March, 1864, to Gen. G. M. Dodge, at St. Louis, and, soon afterward, was promoted to Captain of his company. In June, following, his company was detailed as provost guard at St. Louis, in which service he continued with his company until July, 1865, when he was mustered
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out at Springfield, Ill. In October, he was com- missioned First Lieutenant in the regular army, and reported for duty at Brownsville, Texas, where he remained until April, 1866. He then resigned, and, one year later, accepted the position of traveling salesman for the Fairbanks Scale Company of St. Louis. In 1872, he removed to Denver to assume charge of the Company's office, as general agent for Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, since which time he has devoted himself energetically to the advancement of the interests of the Company.
HON. GILBERT B. REED.
It is chiefly through his prominence at the bar that the above-named gentleman is best known to the citizens of Denver. Born in Steuben County, N. Y., February 8, 1828, he was taken by his par- ents, when but twelve years old, to Michigan. He received a liberal education, in Grass Lake Academy, Michigan Central College, at Spring Arbor, and Michigan State University, at Ann Arbor. He read law in Jackson, Mich., and was admitted to the bar in 1850. Removing the same year to Illinois, he practiced law successfully up to 1854. In June, 1860, he came to Colorado, and located at Idaho Springs, where he was Judge of the Mining Court until the organization of the Territory. In 1863, he removed to Central City, and practiced his profession in that place, until his removal to Deuver, in the fall of 1874, where he has confined his attention strictly to the practice of his profession. Mr. Reed is a gentleman of thor- ough seholarship, courteous address, great business energy and activity, and as a leading member of the Colorado bar, his example and influence have done much toward maintaining a high standard of excellence, and honorable practice in the legal pro- fession.
A. H. ROOT.
Mr. Root was born in Schoharie County, N. Y., in 1842; when nine years of age, he removed to Ripon, Wis., with his parents. He was educated at Brockway College, Wisconsin, pursuing a course
of study with the intention of choosing the law as his profession. He continued studying and teach- ing school alternately until the breaking-out of the rebellion, when he enlisted in the Fourth Wis- consin Infantry and served with that regiment three years and a half. He was taken prisoner by the Confederates on the 14th of June, 1863, during the siege of Port Hudson. After a confinement of eight days in the besieged fortifications, he suc- ceeded in making his escape by swimming the Mis- sissippi River at night, and on the following day, without clothing, reached the headquarters of Gen. Banks. After the war he came to Colorado with the Greeley Colony. Abandoning his former plans of engaging in the practice of law, he estab- lished himself in the hotel business, which was the first established in the town. He continued the same prosperously for several years after which he removed to Denver and embarked in business as wholesale dealer in cigars and tobacco. He has served two terms as a member of the Board of Aldermen in this city.
LOUIS D. RIETHMANN.
Mr. Riethmann is a native of Switzerland. He was born in the town of Lausanne, May 8, 1842. In 1848, he came to the United States with his parents who settled in Utica, N. Y., but at the end of two years the family removed to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, and two years afterward settled on a farm near Indianapolis, Ind., where he remained until 1856. He then came west as far as Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he remained two years. Turn- ing his steps westward, he crossed the Plains with ox teams and late in the fall of 1858 arrived at Pike's Peak. He immediately engaged in mining, which he followed until 1865, then going farther
west he spent a few months at Salt Lake City, Utah, after which he went to Montana and embarked io the restaurant and bakery business in company with Frank Hogert. In 1868, he returned to Colorado, and in company with his brother, J. J. Rieth- mann, engaged in the dairy business ou a ranche near Denver. At the end of one year he re-
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moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming Ter., where he and his brother carried on business for a short time, removing to Elcona, Nev., he continued in the same business until 1870. He then returned to Denver and embarked in the grocery business in company with E. Black, with whom he con- tinued until 1873, when he assumed control of the business, to which he added the fish and oyster business; of the latter, he has one of the largest trades in the city.
F. L. ROHLFING.
F. L. Rohlfing, the well-known grocer on Fif- teenth street, was born in Levern, near Lubeke, Germany, October 2, 1841. He was educated at the common school of Levern, and emigrated to this country in 1857. Mr. Rohlfing first located in New Orleans, La., and was there engaged as a clerk in a wall-paper house for about two years. He then removed to Leavenworth, Kan., and was a clerk in the grocery house of Rohlfing & Co., of that city, for one year. He came to Denver in the spring of 1871, where his brother was engaged in the grocery business, clerked for him three years, and in the spring of 1864, he entered into partner- ship under the firm name of F. A. Brocker & Co. In 1872, he bought his associate's interest, and since that time has continued the business alone.
JOSHUA B. REED.
Prominent among the young attorneys of the Denver bar, was J. B. Reed. He was a young man of such marked ability and sterling integrity, and had made such thorough preparation for his profes- sional duties, as to render success for him certain. He was a Kentuekian by birth, was born in Mar- ion County, in that State, July 16, 1855, and, after sufficient preparation, he entered Center College, and in the Class of 1875, graduated with the degree of A. B. He then entered the law office of Samuel Harding, of Danville, Ky., and began the study of his profession, and in March, 1877, was admitted to the bar, but, ambitious to be at the head of his profession, he determined to make
still further preparation, and entered the Univer- sity of Virginia, where he took the course under the private tutorage of John B. Binor, LL. D. He then entered Vanderbilt University, and in 1878, was one of nine, out of a class of forty, who were permitted to graduate with the degree of LL. B. In March, 1879, he came to Denver, and began the practice of his profession, in which he continued up to the time of his death, which occurred November 23, 1879. He had made but the beginning, but the foundation was laid in pur- ity and honor. No man knew him but to respect and honor him for his manly integrity and refined nature.
SAMUEL P. ROSE.
S. P. Rose, of the well-known law firm of Hughes, Welborn & Rose, was born in Tipton County, Tenn., July 18, 1844. He attended the public schools but for a few months, after which he started in the world for himself, improving his spare time in studying until he had acquired a good busi- ness education, also studying the higher mathe- maties and languages. In 1861, at the breaking- out of the rebellion, he enlisted in the Memphis Southern Guards, serving with them for about one year, when he was commissioned Captain of Com- pany I, of the Ninth Tennessee Infantry, continuing in the service until the close of the war. He then returned to Memphis, Tenn., and, for a short time, acted as Deputy Sheriff, in the meantime giving his spare moments to the study of law. In the spring of 1866, he was admitted to the bar and continued in that city until the spring of 1868, when he re- moved to Covington and engaged in the practice of his profession, and also in the publication of a newspaper. He continued there for about two ycars, one of which he served as Mayor, then re- turned to Memphis and formed a copartnership with Hon. H. Cascy Young, continuing to practice law there until 1872, when he removed to Denver, where he has since remained in the active practice of his profession. In 1876, he was the Demo- cratic nominee for District Attorney, but was defeated, in common with the rest of his party
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ticket. Mr. Rose takes charge of the Leadville office of the firm of which he is a member, and has won the reputation of being one of the leading attorneys of the State.
CAPT. RICHARD SOPRIS.
Capt. Sopris, Mayor of the eity of Denver, and one of the earliest settlers, having lived here sinee the winter of 1858-59, was born in Bucks County, Penn., June 26, 1813. He remained on his father's farm until the age of sixteen years, when he learned the trade of a house earpenter, which he followed for a number of years. He was married, June 5, 1836, near Philadelphia, to Miss Elizabeth Allen, of Trenton, N. J., and the same year removed to Indiana, where he became a contractor on the Whitewater Canal, making his home in Brookville, Franklin County. He subse- quently removed to Dearborn County, on the Ohio River, and thence to La Porte County, in the north- ern part of the State, eontinning his business as a eanal and railroad contraetor. At the very begin- ning of the Pike's Peak gold excitement, in 1858, he started West, making the journey as far as Omaha by stage, and there outfitted for the trip aeross the Plains. He arrived at this point in season to become one of the original shareholders of the town of Auraria. He spent the winter and following spring in prospeeting. No gold, however, was discovered during the winter, exeept in small quantities two miles up the Platte, and it was not until the following spring that the prospectors reached the mountains. In April, 1859, the Gregory and Bates lodes were discovered, on the latter of which he located a elaim and began min- ing, which he followed two years. In the fall of 1859, he was elected to the Territorial Legislature of Kansas, from Arapahoe County, then eompris- ing the present entire State of Colorado, and spent the winter in Lawrenee. In the spring of 1860, after the adjournment of the Legislature, he re- turned to Indiana for the purpose of bringing his family, consisting of a wife and eight ehildren, to Denver. They arrived on the 16th of April and
have resided here ever sinee. In August, 1861, he was commissioned Captain of Company C, First Colorado Infantry, and in that capacity served until July, 1862. He then engaged in farming, and has sinee been actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, still owning a fine farm near the eity. In 1863, the Colorado Agricultural Society was organized and Capt. Sopris was ehosen its first President, and continued to hold that offiee five years, during which time the present agricultural grounds were purchased and improved. In 1864, he was elected Sheriff of Arapahoe County for two years, at the end of which time he was re- eleeted for a second term of two years. During the four years, from 1869 to 1872 inclusive, he assisted in building the Denver Pacific Railroad from Cheyenne, the Kansas Pacifie from Kit Car- son to Denver, and the Denver & Rio Grande from Denver to the Cañon City eoal banks. Afterward he acted as Deputy Sheriff of the county until his eleetion as Mayor of the eity of Denver in October, 1878. That he discharged the impor- tant duties of this offiee in a manner ereditable to himself, and satisfactory to the publie, is evident from his triumphant re-election in October, 1879, over an opponent seleeted for his popular strength and inherent worth. As a eitizen, Capt. Sopris is publie spirited and generous in the support of all laudable enterprises, and has been connected in one way or another with most of the undertakings for the advancement of the interests of the city and vieinity. For several years past he has been President of the Colorado Pioneer Association. He has seven ehildren living, all residents of Colorado but one. His oldest son, Allen B. Sopris, is engaged in the book and stationery business, in Denver. Elbridge B. is a real-estate dealer in Trinidad, and County Surveyor and Deputy County Clerk of Las Animas County. Simpson T. is book-keeper for the wholesale groeery house of J. S. Brown & Brother, in this city. Levi S., a farmer, is now on the police foree of Denver, and George L. is an attorney at law in this eity. The elder of his daughters, Indiana, is the wife of
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Samuel Cushman, a native of Massachusetts, and now the agent of the Hazard Powder Company, at Deadwood, D. T., while the younger, Irene A., is the wife of J. S. Brown, of Denver. All his family are useful members of society.
HON. WILBUR F. STONE.
Wilbur F. Stone, a member of the Supreme Bench of Colorado, was born in Litchfield, Conn., in 1833. He is of English descent, the family settling in New England in the early Colonial times. When Judge Stone was six years old, his father removed to Western New York, and after- ward to the then new State of Michigan, whence he subsequently removed to Indiana, and, in 1844, to Iowa, then a Territory. Judge Stone received a collegiate education, partly at Asbury University and partly in the State University of Indiana, graduating in both the classical course and Law Department of the latter institution. Settling at Evansville, Ind., he was for nearly two years editor of the Daily Enquirer, of that city, and after- ward entered upon the practice of law, remaining in Evansville until 1859. Going to Omaha, Neb., he became Assistant Postmaster and also editor of the Omaha Nebraskan. Early in the spring of 1860, he was one of a party from Omaha, who crossed the Plains with ox teams and from the " Cherry Creek Settlement," he made his way on foot through the mountains to the Tarry-all mines of the South Park. He wintered at Canon City, where, with the late Gov. Hinsdale, be helped to build that town. He organized the first People's Court, and drafted a code of laws for the government of that community. After the organ- ization of the Territory of Colorado, he was elected one of the Representatives of Park County in the Legislative Assembly. This was in 1862, when the Legislature met at Colorado City, the first regularly located capital of the Territory. In 1864-65, he was again elected to the Legislature from Park County, where he made his home until 1866, being engaged in mining and prospecting along the belt of mountains from Blue River to
California Gulch. In the winter of 1866, he returned to "the States," and married Miss Minnie Sadler, of Bloomington, Ind., and, return- ing, settled at Pueblo, where he resided until his election to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1877. From 1862 until 1866, he was Assistant United States Attorney for Colorado, during the incuni- bency of Gen. Samuel E. Browne. In 1868, he was appointed by the Governor and afterward elected, the First District Attorney of the Third Judicial District of Colorado. In 1868, when the Pueblo Chieftain was established as the only newspaper in the Territory south of the divide, he became one of its editors, and, together with Gov. Hinsdale, continued to write for it, and also the People's Newspaper, until 1874, besides contrib- uting to other journals in Colorado and abroad. Judge Stone wields a facile pen, is ready and en- tertaining, and while possessing ability as a polit- ical writer, he especially excels in narrative and descriptive composition. His description of Mount Lincoln, written about 1864, attracted wide- spread attention, and was universally pronounced the finest example of descriptive writing that the magnificent scenery of the Rocky Mountains has ever called forth. He settled with his family in Pueblo, when there were scarcely a dozen cabins on the banks of the Arkansas River at that point. During his twelve years' residence there, he aided largely in building it into a prosperous city, and was one of the foremost in securing the completion to that point of the Denver & Rio Grande and the Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe Railways, as well as the building-up of the public schools of that city, until they rival those of any other city in Colorado. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention, and, after the adoption of the Consti- tution, was nominated a candidate for the position of Judge of the Supreme Court on the Demo- cratic ticket, for the first State election in 1876. Upon the resignation of Judge Wells, of the Supreme Bench, in 1876, a convention of the bar of the State was called to nominate a successor for the place, at which convention he was chosen,
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and at the subsequent general election was elected, without opposition, to fill the uuexpired term. He took his seat on the Supreme Bench in November, 1877, to hold until the expiration of his term in 1886. In politics, Judge Stone is Democratie, and is the only Democrat holding a State office in Col- orado. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, is senior warden of St. John's Church in Denver, and ecclesiastical chancellor of the diocese. As a citizen, Judge Stone is held in the highest esteem, as a journalist he ranks high, and as a jurist his course is marked by a clearness of perception and a firmness and integrity of purpose which invite the confidence and command the respect of all.
HOWARD A. STREIGHT.
Among those artists of merit and genius who have been attracted hither by the beauty and grandeur of natural scenery-the lofty cloud-capped mountain peaks; the sparkling brook, dashing and foaming down its rocky chanuel; the gloomy, awe-inspiring cañon; the peaceful valley, clothed with verdure; the gorgeous brilliancy of the mar- velous sunset, lighting up with a blaze of glory the fleecy linings of the clouds; all inviting the poet's muse and the artist's brush-is Prof. H. A. Streight, a brief sketch of whom is appended. Born in Brown County, Ohio, May 24, 1836, he was taken by his parents, at an early age, to Virginia, where, amid the picturesque scenery of the "Old Dominion," that love for the beautiful and sub- lime in nature, which, in after years, blossomed forth upon the canvas in the semblance of placid lake, or rippling streamlet, the mild radiance of autumn sunsets, or the gloomy grandeur of moun- tain gorges, was first implanted in his soul. He afterward returned with his parents to Ohio, and after a residence of twelve years in that State, ac- companied them to Iowa. Up to that time, 1869, he had not received any instruction in the line of art, save what nature, in her kindness, had be- stowed upon him. About this time, he became acquainted with Miss Etheridge, a young English lady, whom he afterward married. Removing to
Fort Madison, Iowa, he found a kind friend in the person of Hon. Daniel F. Miller, who gave him much encouragement at a time when poverty and disease had well-nigh driven hope from the heart of the struggling artist. He afterward re- sided in Fairfield, Iowa, Quincy, Ill., and Palmyra, Mo., meeting many good friends, among them W. W. Junkin, editor of the Fairfield Ledger. While living in Palmyra, he formed the acquaintance of Dr. J. H. Ealy, a great lover of art, who sent one of Mr. Streight's Rocky Mountain scenes to Dr. J. G. Holland, of Springfield, Mass., by whom it was placed on exhibition in New York City, where it received great praise from artists and critics. A subsequent picture, sent to Dr. Holland by Prof. Streight, drew forth a characteristic letter of ac- knowledgment from the eminent author, filled with the warmest commendation and kindliest en- couragement, and embodying an invitation to come East, coupled with the promise to furnish him an opportunity to develop the best that was in him. From Palmyra he removed to Chicago, by invita- tion of a number of artists and prominent citizens of that city. While there he painted "The Home of the Thunda," which brought forth enthusiastic encomiums from connoisseurs and art critics, and was valued at $5,000. He also painted "Autumn Sunset in the Southwest," a valuable painting, now in possession of Mrs. Jennie Hazen Lewis, the cele- brated story-writer, and many other paintings, including portraits of some of the most influential citizens of Chicago. His failing health and love for the grand scenery of Colorado induced him to remove to Denver in 1874, since which he has devoted most of his time to painting Colorado scenery, having been most successful in depicting the gorgeous sunset scenes for which Colorado has become so noted. His centennial picture, “ Kan- sas and Colorado," attracted much attention at the Centennial Exposition, and afterward sold for $1,000. Prof. Streight expects to make Denver his permanent home, and is now engaged upon several paintings of Rocky Mountain scenery, among which are one of Pike's Peak; two com-
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