History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 79

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 79
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 79

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NATHANIEL W. SAMPLE.

The career of Nathaniel W. Sample, Master Mechanic of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is that of a skillful mechanic, and gallant soldier, aud fully deserves a sketeh in this volume. He was born in Lancaster County, Penn., in 1844, and in his youth, from the age of twelve to his six- teenth year, pursued an academieal course of studies at Litz, Penn. The next eight years were spent in the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Pennsyl- vania, where, by apprenticeship and journey work, he acquired a thorough knowledge of the details of his present profession. Abandoning this useful and remunerative field of labor, he sought distinc- tion in the more honorable, but dangerous, service of his country, winning a splendid record in the war of the Union, entering the army as First Lieu- tenant of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, participating in thirty-two general engagements, and promoted to Assistant Inspector General of the

First Cavalry Division of the Military Division of Mississippi, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman con- manding. During a short period after the close of the war, he was again employed with the Baldwin Locomotive Works, but formed no permanent eon- neetion till the year 1871, when he accepted the position of foreman of the machine-shops of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, bringing with him to Denver the first three engines used on that road. In 1876, he was appointed to his present position as Master Mechanic of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and has brought to the execution of the duties of this responsible office such the- oretical and practical knowledge of mechanics as the construction and operation of a great road de- mand. One must travel over this line to compre- hend the difficulties of operating it, and to realize the responsibility resting upon him who stands sponsor both for engine and engineer. It may be interesting for the reader to know that on the Den- ver & Rio Grande Railroad, freight cars, as well as passenger, are provided with air-brake appliances, thus ensuring a greater degree of safety, and per- mitting greater speed ; and it is due to Mr. Sample to record that the credit of this safe and econom- ical arrangement belongs to him. He instigated the improvement, and carried it into exeention, when his project had been approved by the Com- pany. With such men at the head of depart- ments, the problem of safe and successful railroading would seem to be nearly solved.

JOHN W. SMITH.

Prominent among the men to whom Colorado is indebted for her material prosperity, her mount- ain railway system, the development of her agri- cultural and mineral resources, and especially of her milling and manufacturing interests, is John W. Smith. Born in Pennsylvania September 24, 1815, he removed with his family to Kansas in 1858, and, in 1860, came to Colorado in his own conveyance, a light buggy and span of mules, mak- ing the trip in three weeks, and arriving in Denver on the 3d of June. Mr. Smith is an

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exception among the successful and wealthy men of Colorado, most of whom came here poor. He, on the contrary, brought with him to the Territory not less than $20,000. Before leaving Atchison, Kan., he fitted out a train of ox and horse teams, which he loaded with merchandise, a quartz-mill, a planing-mill, and a small French portable buhr grist-mill. Renting a small building, at the enor- mous rent of $75 a month, he opened a grocery, flour and feed store, but the house proving too small, and the rent too large, he soon afterward erected a substantial two story brick store, in which he continued to do business until 1867, with the exception of two years, during which time he turned the tables, and rented out his building at the modest (?) sum of $350 a month. The quartz-mill he set up on Left Hand Creek, in Boulder County, while the planing-mill (the first, by the way, ever brought to the Territory), was set up in Denver. Both of these he soon disposed of to other parties. With the grist-mill, which he set up in Denver, he ground the first corn and wheat ever ground in Colorado, and that milling in those days was profitable business is seen from the price-$1.50 per hundred-which he received for grinding all kinds of grain. This mill yielded him a net income of $100 a day. In 1865, to meet the demands of his increasing business, he erected a large steam-mill in West Denver, but the price of wood, which alone he used for fuel, advancing to $35 a cord, he determined to secure cheaper motive power, and built a much larger mill, and secured water to run it, from the Union Ditch Company. This mill, in turn, being insuf- ficient to meet the demands of his constantly increasing business, in 1874, he erected another, and still larger one, known as the Excelsior Flour- ing Mills, and, in 1879, sold the same to J. K. Mullen for $32,000. It will thus be seen that he has erected, in the city of Denver alone, no less than five flour-mills, including the portable grist- mill, which he brought from Kansas. Beside these, he erected, in 1869, the large brick block iu West Denver, known as the Denver Woolen

Mills, the first and only woolen-mill ever built in Colorado. He then formed a partnership with John Winterbottom, of Edina, Mo., and entered largely into the manufacture of woolen goods, which they continued for eight years. During all these years, Mr. Smith has been largely engaged in both placer and quartz mining. He erected his second quartz-mill at Gold Dirt, in Boulder County, his third, fourth, and fifth at Mosqueto, Park County, the sixth, at Granite, Lake County, and had about completed the seventh, at California Gulch, when he became satisfied that gold-bearing quartz was not likely to be found in that locality, sufficient to supply his mill, he abandoned the work. During the summer of 1867, he hired prospectors, who prospected over much of the ground where rich carbonates have since been found, but Mr. Smith remarks, that he hired men to find gold lodes, not carbonates. In 1869, he built the famous White Rock Flouring Mill, in Boulder County, at a cost of over $20,000. This mill was destroyed by fire in 1878. In 1868-69, be built the American House, which for ten years, was the largest hotel in Colorado, and in which have been entertained more guests than any other house in Denver. In 1876, he pur- chased the Inter-Ocean Hotel, which is now run in connection with the American. He inaugurated the Colorado Savings' Bank in 1871, and, during his residence in Colorado, has been very active in building, dealing in real estate, etc. In 1863-64, he invested over $40,000 in building the Platte Water Canal, commonly called the Smith Ditch, and now owned by the city of Denver. His associates were Hon. Amos Steck, and Fred Z. Salomon. To this enterprise, the city is indebted for its fine gardens, beautiful shrubbery, and dense shade, which add millions to the value of its property. In the early part of 1879, Mr. Smith, with J. S. Brown, C. B. Kountz, and others, determined that the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad, which had been built as far as Morrison, should be extended to the South Park, and began a canvass of the city for subscriptions

Yours Truly N. E. Wilson M. D.

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for that purpose. Amid great discouragements, they continued the canvass persistently from day to day for two months, at the end of which time $300,000 had been subscribed. A construction company was formed, of which Mr. Smith was chosen President, which office he holds to the present time. The contract was soon let for grading the Platte and Deer Creek Cañons, and the building of the road has steadily progressed until it has reached the Arkansas Valley. The people of Colorado are indebted to Mr. Smith for the active part he has taken in building the South Park Railroad, as well as his many other enterprises, which have proved of so much bene- fit to the State and its chief city. On the 15th of December, 1879, the Denver City Steam Heating Company was organized, for the purpose of heating the city by steam, by the Holly sys- tem. This company comprises a number of the most substantial and energetic citizens of Denver. Mr. Smith was chosen President, and it is hoped that during the coming year, the works will be put into active operation.

WILLIAM B. O. SKELTON.

Mr. Skelton was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., March 27, 1813. When about twelve years of age, he was placed at the carpenter's bench to learn the trade, being then so small that it was necessary for him to stand on a block to perform his work. He followed the carpenter's trade up to 1849, when, on the discovery of gold in Cali- fornia, he, in company with a party of 300, char- tered a steamboat in which they descended the Ohio River and ascended the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to St. Joseph, Mo., from which place they started across the continent for California. In that State, he followed his trade about two years, when he returned to Pittsburgh. In 1852, he came West to Davenport, Iowa. He was one of the seven original pre-emptor's of Rock Island, in the Mississippi River, opposite the city of that name. He resided in Davenport and Rock Island contracting and building, and running the Union

House, until 1860. He spent the summer of 1860, and 1861, in Colorado, and in the spring of 1862, came with his family as a permanent settler. In the fall of the same year, he purchased a claim to 160 acres of land on the Platte, about nine miles from Denver and near the present village of Lit- tleton, on which he erected, near the bank of the river, a small cabin of hewn logs, which he hauled from the divide. During the great flood of 1864, the river overflowed its banks for a quarter of a mile beyond the cabin, and not relishing a second like experience, he moved it, in the fall, to its present more elevated location, where it forms a part of his granary. He then pre-empted a home- stead'adjoining, which, with the original claim, composes his fine farm of 320 acres, on which, the past year, he raised not less than 200 tons of hay, twenty-five acres of corn, and 3,700 bushels of small grain. Mr. Skelton was married, May 10, 1845, to Miss Katharine Kennedy, of Pittsburgh, Penn., a native of Washington County, in the same State, and has three sons and one daughter living. He has devoted his attention, in addition to his farming and mining interests, more or less to stock raising, having a herd of 100 head on the South Park. His efforts for the improvement of the breeds of horses have resulted beneficially. He is the owner of two of the finest horses in the State, one of pure Norman-percheron blood, im- ported from France, and the other a thorough- bred Kentucky horse, of finest mold and giving evidence of great speed. Mr. Skelton is justly regarded as one of the most enterprising and sub- stantial farmers of the Centennial State.

JAMES M. STRICKLER.

J. M. Strickler, cashier of the Exchange Bank, of Denver, is a native of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. He was born on a farm in Page County, on the 10th of November, 1836. Receiving an academic education, he left home at the age of seventeen, going west to St. Joseph, Mo. In 1854, he went to Oregon, in the same State, and was employed as a book-keeper in a mercantile

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house, in which, at the end of two years, he be- came a partner. In 1862, he started west in charge of a stock of goods for a gentleman of his county, and, on arriving in Denver, disposed of them, and became the book-keeper for the firm of Pickett, Lincoln & Flemming. In 1864, he entered into 'a partnership with Mr. Lincoln, and together they conducted an auction and commis- sion house for about eight years. The firm is at present Paul & Strickler, and is the largest auction honse in the State. Mr. Strickler's connection with the business has been constant for more than fifteen years, although owing to the pressure of other business he has not given it his active personal attention for several years. He was elected, in 1873, to the office of Treasurer of Arapahoe County, and conducted the financial affairs of the county in a highly creditable manner for four years. He was one of the originators and a Di- rector of the Exchange Bank in 1875, and during the past year has occupied the position of Cashier. Mr. Strickler possesses, in an eminent degree, the confidence of the mercantile community, by whom he is regarded as a safe, sound and conservative financier.

HENRY STEWART.

Mr. Stewart was born in Mount Morris, Ogle Co., Ill., August 15, 1843. He received a public school education, and afterward entered Rock River Seminary, and graduated from the commercial de- partment of that institution in 1865. Soon afterward he came to Colorado, and spent six months in min- ing. He then returned to Denver, and clerked in the Tremont House, and Carr House two years. For the next four years he was engaged in freight- ing across the Plains, after which he took a con- tract for furnishing ties on the Union Pacific Rail- road. He then took a contract for grading on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, upon which he was en-

gaged two seasons. He then came to Denver and bought a billiard hall, and, after one year in that business, sold out. In the spring of 1872, he purchased G. A. Jones' stock of house furnishing goods, and has since continned the same, dealing

in new and second-hand house-furnishing goods at 348 Blake street, where he has met with good success. He was married, November 30, 1872, to Melissa, daughter of Amos Hicks, of Lawrence, Kan.

ARNOLD STEDMAN, M. D.

Dr. Stedman was born at Hartland, Somerset Co., Me., February 22, 1839. After fitting him- self for college at Maine State Seminary, he en- tered Waterville College, now Colby University, in 1862. His studies were broken up, however, in September of that year, when he entered the army and served as Orderly Sergeant of Company K, Twenty-second Regiment Maine Infantry, until August 23, 1863. During that time, he was in the Department of the Gulf, in the Nineteenth Army Corps. He was with Gen. Banks in his expedition up Red River, and afterward partici- pated in the battle of Irish Bend. He was pres- ent at the passing of Port Hudson by Farragut's Fleet, and during the siege and surrender of that stronghold. After he was mustered out of the serv- ice, he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. John Benson, at Newport, Me., and after- ward at Portland, with Dr. S. H. Tewksbury, after which he attended two courses of lectures at the Maine Medical College, also at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., and one course at Pittsfield, Mass. He graduated at Berkshire Medical College, Pitts- field, Mass., in November, 1865. He then settled in Dexter, Me., in the practice of medicine, which he continued about four years, and served as a member of the Town School Committee during two years of his residence there. He came to Denver, Colo., in the spring of 1870, and has since that time been engaged in the practice of his profession. He is a member of the Denver Med- ical Association, and was President of that society one year ; also a member and first Secretary of the State Medical Society, and was President of the Society for the years 1878-79. He is a member of the School Board of District No. 1, which in- cludes all schools in the city proper. He was mar- ried, October 24, 1866, to Clara Adelaide, third

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daughter of S. B. Brown, Esq., formerly of Ban- gor, and now of Portland, Me.

REV. THOMPSON L. SMITH.

Rev. T. L. Smith, Pastor of the Reformed Epis- copal Church of Denver is a native of Virginia, and was horn May 3, 1823. After graduating at the Alexandria Theological Seminary, at the age of twenty-two, he went to Georgia, where he was or- dained by Bishop Elliott, of the Protestant Episco- pal Church, and remained nine years, establishing several churches. He was stationed throughout va- rious parts of the State, until 1854, when he went to Charleston, W. Va., and took charge of the Episcopal Church there, remaining until the breaking-out of the war. He was commissioned Chaplain, under the provisional government of Virginia, over all the forces in West Virginia, and afterward held the rank of Major. He held the office of Senior Chaplain throughout the war, with headquarters at Staunton, Va. Since the war, he has been actively engaged in the ministry, a part of the time in New Brunswick, but most of the time in Missouri Valley, where he was engaged in establishing churches. Having united with the Reformed Episcopal Church, he was sent by the General Council to Denver, arriving in July, 1879, and at once organized the first church of his denomination in Colorado.

ALFRED SAYRE.

Among the landmarks in the legal history of Colorado, prominent as a pioneer, and occupying no secondary place at the bar, is Alfred Sayre. Born in Deckertown, Sussex Co., N. J., March 10, 1834. he was taken when but a child, to Western New York, by his parents, who located in Cana- dice, Ontario County, then called Lake Country, and regarded as " the West." He was reared on a farm, and after reaching his majority, he was ena- bled, by saving his earnings acquired by teaching common schools during a portion of the year, to obtain an academic education, and prepare himself for the junior class in college, but not seeing his

way clear, owing to lack of means to complete a college course, he abandoned the purpose, and en- tered a law office in Canandaigua, the county seat of Ontario County. His preceptor was Stephen Van Rensselaer Mallory. After studying in his office about two years, he was made managing clerk. Before his application for admission to the bar, the sudden death of his preceptor left a large amount of business in the office requiring his attention, and as the general term of the Supreme Court of the State in his district would not convene until some- what later, he applied to the Judges of his district for letters to the Judges of the adjoining district, and obtaining the same, upon presentation to the court in Buffalo, the rules were suspended, and he was allowed to enter the class of that district, and undergo examination for admission to practice law. The examination was held in open court, and under the personal supervision of the four Judges. As an indication of the rigidity with which candidates for admission to the bar were examined in those days, among fifteen applicants composing the class, three only, including himself, were admitted, the rest being rejected. Resisting all importunities to settle in Canandaigua, he turned his steps west- ward, coming in 1857, to Omaha, Neb., then a small frontier village, and the only place of any note at all between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City.

In the winter of 1859-60, attracted by the glowing accounts of the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak, and believing that region to be a second California, he started across the Plains, on foot, for the new El Dorado, then known as Cherry Creek gold diggings. He walked the entire distance, and arrived in Denver on the 24th of March, 1860. A few weeks later, he formed a copartership with others, and went to California Gulch, where they mined that summer, with moderate success. Léav- ing California Gulch in September, under the delusion that it would be dangerous to remain there during the winter, he found upon returning to Denver, that the people were excited over the reported discovery of rich placer diggings in the

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San Juan Mountains, by one Capt. Baker. There was a great stampede for those mines, and he was pursuaded, against his better judgment, to join a party going there instead of returning to Omaha, or further East, as he had intended to do. He went, crossing the Sangre de Cristo Pass and Rio Grande River, going through Costilla, Conejos, San Antonio, Oho Caliente, Abique and Pergosa Springs, into the San Juan country. The trip was one of hardship, if not of peril, as they had to pass through a portion of the Navajos' country, which tribe was, at that time, hostile to the whites. Finding no placer or gulch diggings, they left the country, and, in common with many others, fought their way out, the Navajos then having appeared upon the route in considerable force. Upon his arrival in Denver, he returned to the mines of Park and Lake Counties, but his mining advent- ures were without success. After a short trip to Virginia City, Nev., he returned to Denver, and in 1864, when martial law was proclaimed in the city, he enlisted as a private in the Third Regi- ment of Colorado Cavalry, coming out of the serv- ice as Captain of his Company. He then en- tered into partnership with Moses Hallett, now Judge of the United States District Court of Col- orado, in the practice of law, which partnership continued until Judge Hallett was called to the bench, since which time he has been engaged in practice in this city. Mr. Sayre knows by per- sonal experience the hardships and privations endured by the early pioneers in the Rocky Moun- tains; has felt the pangs of hunger for days to- gether, while the proximity of the murderous savages rendered even the lighting of a camp-fire the signal of destruction. During his professional career, he has attained a high reputation for legal ability and personal popularity, and, though not a politician, was the candidate of his party for member of the Constitutional Convention, in 1875, and, although defeated by a few votes, he ran largely ahead of his ticket. He has been several times nominated by his party for various offices, but has declined to be a candidate.

ROBERT STOEHR.

Robert Stoehr, proprietor of the Pacific Bakery, 549 Champa street, was born in Germany, in 1850, and cmigrated to America in 1871. He first settled in New York City, where he remained until 1876, when he came to Colorado and settled in Denver. He engaged in his trade until he purchased his present place, where he is conducting a prosperous trade. He was married, November 19, 1879, to Miss Emma Folkman, a native of Germany.

HON. ADOLPH SCHINNER.

The subject of this sketch was born in Prussia, April 17, 1831. At fourteen years of age, he was apprenticed to learn the printer's trade, and fol- lowed the same until he came to the United States, in 1854. Arriving in Baltimore, he found employ- ment as a journeyman printer on the Baltimore Correspondent. He soon, however, left for Cin- cinnati, going from that city to Chicago, and in the spring of 1857, he became one of a party of sixteen young men of that city who went to Kan- sas and laid out the town of Eudora, on the Shawnee land on the Kansas River. He was engaged in various employments for a time, after which he was employed as a compositor in the offices of the Herald of Freedom and the Law- rence Republican. He came to Colorado on horseback, with four others, in the spring of 1860. He soon engaged in prospecting, but meeting with indifferent success, he returned to Denver, where he has been, for twenty years, one of the promi- nent citizens and closely identified with the build- ing-up of the city, being the proprietor of Schinner's Addition, lying on the east of the city and con- taining 160 acres of land, and some of the finest building sites in Denver. Mr. Schinner served two years as Secretary of the Denver Board of Edu- cation. In 1876, he was elected a member of the first State Legislature, and served on the Com- mittees on Stock, Public Buildings, etc. Mr. Schinner was married, in 1862, to a daughter of Joseph Rinot, of Lawrence, Kan. For the past five years, he has been engaged in stock-raising

Abram Malson

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on Coal Creek, where he has a ranche of nearly five hundred acres. He is also an extensive owner of real estate in Denver.

JASPER P. SEARS, JR.

Mr. Sears is one of the remaining pioneers of 1859. He was born in Marion County, Ohio, in 1838. After receiving a good education at Delaware, Ohio, he went to St. Paul, Minn., remaining three years engaged in trade with the Sioux Indians. In 1858, he started westward, wintering at Leavenworth, Kan., and, the follow- ing spring, started with a train of ten ox teams, loaded with a general stock of merchandise, for Pike's Peak. After much trouble with the Indians and a great deal of sickness in the party, they arrived in Denver in September, 1859. Mr. Sears, in company with Mr. C. A. Cook, at once opened a general store at the corner of Fifteenth and Larimer streets, under the firm name of C. A. Cook & Co. This was soon changed to a whole- sale and retail grocery house on Blake street. After conducting a good business there for four years, they sold out and opened the banking-house of C. A. Cook & Co. This they continued until about 1869, after which Mr. Sears was, for a time, employed as a Government contractor. He has of late years been engaged in the real-estate business and speculating, in which he has been very successful.

JAMES A. SHREVE.

Among those who have demonstrated that agri- cultural pursuits can be successfully carried on in Colorado is the above-mentioned gentleman. He is an "old-timer," having been here since June 5, 1860. He was born in Lawrenceville, N. J., April 6, 1835. His early life was spent upon a farm and at school up to the age of seventeen, when he entered the Polytechnic College of Phila- delphia to learn civil engineering, remaining till the close of the junior year. He then came as far West as Iowa, and followed surveying in that State and Illinois until 1860, when he joined the

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History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 79

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