USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 83
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 83
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Louis railway supply house, where he continued to manufacture his railway signals nutil 1876. He then removed to Denver, seeking a more congenial climate for the restoration of his wife's health, which has resulted beneficially. He has since been engaged in the railway supply business, and also general agent for Eastern manufacturers in their various lines.
ISAAC UNDERWOOD.
Mr. Underwood was born in Marlboro, Watt- shire, England, September 5, 1835, remaining there until 1859. He then came to the United States, and engaged in the grocery business at Quincy, Ill., until 1861, when he sold out his business and entered the army, enlisting in the Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, remaining in the service during the war, after which he came to Denver, Colo., and engaged in the con- fectionery business, in connection with the fish and oyster business, which he gradually merged into a general groeery stock, continning the same until 1867. He then closed out and engaged in the commission business in company with W. Elliott Lee, and has since continued the same.
WILLIAM B. VICKERS.
This gentleman, at present Private Secretary to Gov. Pitkin, has achieved some prominence in journalism and politics since his advent in the State about eight years ago. He came from Indianapolis, where he was born March 21, 1838, and where he lived almost continuously until 1871. Through the death of his parents and the consequent breaking-up of the family while he was quite young, the subject of this sketch lacked in his youth many of those opportunities for education which were afforded by the primi- tive schools of Indiana in those days. He pieked up a little reading and writing and less arithmetic in a log schoolhouse near his grandfather's farm, a few miles outside of the city ; but even grammar was as Greek to him until he mastered most of its intricacies in the school of the printing office. In truth, he was no student, but an indefatigable
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reader from his youth, and later on, an equally inde- fatigable scribbler for the press. The untrained mind was manifest, however, in all of his earlier productions. He was not a genius, and the dis- advantages of his youth bore their legitimate fruits in later life. It was only after long years, when he had mastered his chosen profession and corrected the faults of his early education, that he began to achieve a moderate measure of suc- cess as a journalist and literary aspirant. At one time, he abandoned the pen and engaged in mer- cantile pursuits, but the "ruling passion " was too strong in him, and he returned to his first love. The lamented Senator Morton, better known throughout Indiana as Gov. Morton, was a fast friend of the young journalist ; and, through Morton's influence, Mr. Vickers was gradually led to abandon literary for political journalism. He was always a radical Republican, and soon found his new field of labor no less inviting than the old; but failing health drove him West before he attained much prominence in Indiana politics. Mr. Vicker's first venture in Colorado was at Greeley, where he founded the Greeley Sun, and published it about eighteen months with only moderate success. An opportunity to remove to Denver was gladly embraced by him early in 1874, since when he has been identified very prominently with the journalism and politics of the Centennial State. He was for several years connected with the Denver News as stockholder and managing editor, and afterward, when the News was sold to the Democrats, was managing editor of the Tribune until he.resigned the place to accept his present position. As a writer, he is more direct and forcible than elegant, but his style seems to suit the people of the State better than the sonorous sentences of college graduates.
JOHN B. VROOM.
ยท The name of Vroom carries the mind back in the history of our country to the days of the Knickerbockers, when the island of Manhattan, and the adjacent territory, known collectively as
the "New Netherlands," was governed by the Dutch. Mr. Vroom is descended from one of the most ancient and honorable of these families, which emigrated to this country from Holland, and settled near the site of the city of Brooklyn, in the year 1623. Among its descendants are uumbered many who held places of trust, when official position carried with it the respect and confidence of their fellow-men. His father, Peter D. Vroom, was a native of the city of New York, a physician and surgeon, and subsequently, a prominent business man. He held many respon- sible offices in Jersey City, N. J., where he re- sided from 1843 to the time of his decease in 1865. His father's uncle, the son of a Revolu- tionary colonel of militia, also named Peter D. Vroom, served as Governor of the State of New Jersey for six years, represented her in Congress, and was appointed by President Pierce Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Prussia, at Berlin. John B. Vroom was born in Somerset County, N. J., November 27, 1833. In 1839, the family removed to New York City, where he received an academic education. Ten years later, he entered the dry-goods establishment of A. T. Stewart & Co., remaining until 1852. He then embarked in manufactures, and continued therein up to 1860, when he purchased a farm on the Hudson River, in Orange County, N. Y., and engaged actively in agriculture. While living in Orange County, he married a daughter of John Nicoll, a retired New York merchant. From 1869 to 1872, he served the township of Blooming Grove, N. Y., as Assessor, Justice of the Peace, Town Auditor and Excise Com- missioner, also as sole Trustee of the school district. In the fall of 1875, the severe indisposition of his wife induced him to try the salubrious climate of Colorado, where a brief sojourn produced such a marked and salutary effect upon her, that they concluded to adopt the Centennial State, and the beautiful city of Denver, as their permanent home. As an earnest of their intention, Mr. Vroom has erected the fine mansion in which he resides on Capitol Hill.
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EDWARD VELTZ.
Edward Veltz, of the firm of Veltz & Benham, is a native of France, and was born November 6, 1852. He came to the United States in 1871, and, after being variously employed in New York for about five years, came to Denver in 1876, and with Mr. Benham opened a meat market at the corner of Twenty-first and Champa streets, which business they still conduct. Although but a young man, Mr. Veltz, by industrious habits and fair dealing, coupled with a thorough knowledge of his business, has succeeded in securing a large and lucrative patronage from the citizens of Denver.
J. S. VANDERLIP.
Mr. Vanderlip was born in Bennington County, Vt., April 5, 1835. He spent the greater part of his boyhood in Erie County, N. Y., and at the age of eighteen went to Mississippi, where he followed rafting and wood-cutting for steamers three years, and then removed to Southwestern Iowa, where he engaged in farming and cattle raising two years, and then went to Southern Kansas, remained one year, and then returned to Iowa. He was married January 12, 1860, and soon after began freighting to Denver, which he continued until the spring of 1865, and then settled on a farm on Sand Creek, four miles from Denver. After farming in various parts of the county, he finally engaged in the gro- cery business in Denver, at which he continued until 1876, when he engaged in farming and rais- ing horses on his ranche, twelve miles north of Denver, on which place he still resides.
JAMES C. VEATCH.
One of Denver's genial hotel-keepers is J. C. Veatch, who was born in Fayette County, Ind., September 10, 1840. Receiving a common-school education, he began clerking at fourteen years of age, in a dry-goods store, and three years later learned the machinist's trade, at which he worked in Terre Haute, Ind., up to the breaking-out of the eivil war. In 1861, he enlisted for three months in Company D, Eleventh Indiana Volunteer In-
fantry. After serving his time, he entered the navy as Third Assistant Engineer, remaining in this branch of the service until 1867, when he was mustered out. Going to Indiana, he remained for about one year, after which he was employed for about eight months as engineer on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. In 1874, he came to Colorado, and the first year was engaged on the water-works at Pueblo. He then came to Denver, where he has since been engaged in hotel keeping, freighting and spiee manufacturing, and is now proprietor of the " Red Lion Inn," a popular hotel of Denver.
CAPT. ROGER WILLIAMS WOODBURY.
Capt. Woodbury was born March 3, 1841, at Francestown, Hillsboro Co., N. H., the fifth of a family of eight. He is a descendant of one of the Woodbury brothers who settled at Beverly, Mass., in the year 1628. His father was a farmer in Francestown, but moved with his family to Manchester, in the same county, in 1846, where he followed his trade of bootmaker. Here Mr. Woodbury's mother died in 1849, as also did three sisters, all younger than himself. He attended the public schools of Manchester " from the primary to the high school, but with frequent intermissions, being obliged to alternate sehooling with work in the cotton-factories. After finishing his schooling, he learned type-setting in the office of the Man- chester Mirror. He also taught school at Deering, N. H. He was married to Miss Emma J. York, of Manchester, by whom he had one son, Frank S. Woodbury. He was foreman in the composing- room of the printing office when the rebellion broke out, and with three other Mirror employes enlisted in Company A, Third New Hampshire Infantry, the week after the first battle of Bull Run. He was appointed Fourth Sergeant of the Company before leaving the State. His regiment was the first set apart for the expedition of Gen. W. T. Sher- man, to Port Royal, South Carolina, the capture of which occurred early in November, 1861. After the capture, the troops were comparatively idle for many months, during which time Sergeant Wood-
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bury had charge as receiving and issuing clerk of the immense storehouses of the Hilton Head depot commissary. These storehouses aggregated some fifteen hundred feet in length, and contained sev- eral months' supply for the entire army in the De- partment of the South. When active operations in the field were to be resumed in 1863, Sergeant Woodbury returned to company dnty, and partici- pated in all the battles of his regiment until after the Florida campaign in the spring of 1864. This included the assault upon and capture of Morris Island, the charge upon Fort Wagner, the demoli- tion of Fort Sumter, and the hombardment of Charleston. Early in the Morris Island campaign, he was commissioned as Second Lieuteuant, and assigned to command Company A. For many weeks after the landing on Morris Island, it could be said that he was almost continuously under fire, and like all who participated in that seige, met with many narrow escapes, the most remarkable of which was after the capture of Fort Wagner. He was escorting the Surgeon of the Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment through the mysteries of the fort, when an eight-inch shell from one of the rehel works buried itself in the ground but a yard distant, showering him with dirt and rendering him for a few moments almost insensible. After the Morris Island campaign, he was promoted to be First Lientenant, his company and regiment were changed to mounted infantry, and proceeded to Florida as a re-enforcement after the battle of Olus- tee. From there they proceeded to Virginia, and joined Gen. Butler's army of the James. Upon embarking, Lieut Woodbury was detached to take charge of a ship-load of ordnanee stores for the supply of ten thousand men. Arriving at Virginia, and disposing of these stores, he was assigned as Ordnance Officer of the Second Division of-the Tenth Corps (re-named the Twenty-fourth Corps ), and served upon the staffs of Gens John W. Turner, Adelbert Ames and R. S. Foster, who successively commanded the division. He partici- pated in many battles during the summer of 1864, from Petersburg to the north bank of the James.
At the explosion of the mine at Petersburg, he was struck in the thigh by a spherical case bullet, which, while not disabling him, still left its mark. In one of the battles north of the James, when the enemy made an effort to drive back the Union forces, two divisions of the latter ran out of ammu- nition, the ordnance trains belonging to them hav- ing taken alarm and proceeded to the rear, Lieut. Woodbury took his ammunition train within rifle distance of the lines, and supplied each divis- ion with all they needed to carry on the battle to a successful end. He was promoted to be Captain in October, 1864. As Division Ordnance Officer, he took part in Butler's expedition to Fort Fisher, in North Carolina, and on the abandonment of the attempt and the return to Virginia, started with only one night's interval, on the second expedition nnder Gen. Terry. On this occasion he went as the chief ordnance officer of the expedition, upon the staff of the commanding General. At the assault on Fort Fisher, it was designed to make a breach in the palisades surrounding the fort, by burying powder beneath and exploding it. As this required to be done under fire from the fort, it was a task of great danger ; but, although Capt. Woodbury had his arrangements made, the powder prepared, the fuse fixed, and all taken to the front ready for a dash, he was at the last minute saved by a lucky shot from the navy tearing out a few feet of the palisades just at the right place. He remained upon the staff of Gen. Terry until the close of the war, which for Capt. Woodbury was at Raleigh, and was mustered out with his company at Concord, N. H., the original place of rendez- vous, on the 2d of August, 1865, four years and a week after enlisting, and after having partici- pated in forty to fifty battles and skirmishes. He filled the position of local reporter on the Manchester Mirror until the ensuing spring, when he emigrated to Colorado, working that summer in the mines of Summit County. In the fall, he worked as a compositor on the newly started Golden Transcript, and in the same ca- pacity upon the Denver Daily Tribune, just
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inaugurated. On the latter, he shortly became loeal editor, managing editor, and part proprietor. He continued as manager until the end of 1871, when he sold his interest, and in the summer of 1872, purchased the Denver Daily Times, a small sheet, started more partienlarly as a theatrical pro- gramme. In 1870, he was married to Mrs. Anna M. Koons, of Denver. Since his purchase of the Times he has repeatedly enlarged it, and, with a year's intermission, has been its editor, besides superintending the general business of the estab- lishment. Ile has recently erected a four-story building for the mechanical departments of the office, and employs, on an average, thirty persons, in addition to the regular corps of carriers. Mr. Woodbury took an active part in the early con- tests in which Denver struggled for pre-eminence, and was earnest in urging the building of the first railroad. He was, for several years, Secretary of the Denver Board of Trade, but finally declined a re-election. He prepared the annual reports of the Board, the publication of which attracted wide- spread attention to the city as a commercial center. His efforts in the building-up of Denver have been consistent and not without good results. At one time he assisted in the organization of a "Con- vention of Asthmatics," which published several thousand pamphlets, illustrating the advantages the climate of Colorado offers to sufferers from that distressing malady, and which attracted large numbers of persons to the Territory. He has always taken a lively interest in the public schools of Denver, and at one of the annual meetings of District No. I (which was attended by but two or three citizens, besides the Board), he moved the levying of a special tax for the erection of a publie school edifice. The only public school in East Denver was then held in an old building at the corner of Larimer and Eighteenth, recently demol- ished to make way for a new hotel. From the special tax then levied the site was secured for the present High School building. A few years ago he tendered a prize of $5 in gold, to be com- peted for by young gentlemen of the High School
in declamations-the prize to be given at the end of each term or each year. The Board of Educa- tion accepted the latter, and the contests create much attention from the publie, and are believed to be of no little benefit to the students. The name " Centennial State," as applied to Colorado, was given by Capt. Woodbury, in the issue of the Times of February 27, 1875, just after the pass- age of the enabling act by Congress, and before the approach of the Centennial Exposition had made the word at all familiar. As a business man, Capt. Woodbury has been a hard worker, giving personal attention to the details of his office, and seldom absent from his post. With the exception of the editor of a weekly paper in a neighboring city, he is the oldest in Colorado journalism, though not in years. He is a leading member of the Masonic Fraternity, and after filling several sub- ordinate positions, was two years presiding officer of Uniou Lodge, No. 7, and Denver Chapter, No. 2; while he has also filled several offices of trust in Colorado Commandery, No. 1, Knights Tem- plar, Delta Lodge of Perfection, and Mackey Chap- ter of Rose Croix, Scottish Rite; President of the Colorado Convention of High Priests, and M. W. Grand Master of Masons of the State. He is also Grand Representative in Colorado of the Grand Lodges of Florida, Louisiana and New Hampshire; of the Grand Chapter of Florida; and of the Grand Commanderies of Maryland and Louisiana.
EDMUND A. WILLOUGHBY.
Among the few who yet remain of the pioneers of '58, who have witnessed the transformation of the barren plains of Colorado from a desolate and uninhabited desert to cultivated fields and pastoral domains, and have seen cities spring up as if by magie and become the abodes of a prosperous people and the homes of wealth and refinement, is Edmund A. Willoughby. Born in Groton, Tompkins Co, N. Y., January 6, 1836, he is the youngest son of Gen. Franklin Willoughby, one of the leading men and early pioneers of that State. IIe is a brother of Judge Westel Will-
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oughby, formerly Judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and now a prominent attorney in Wash- ington, D. C., while the Rev. B. F. Willoughby, an eminent clergyman of Oneida County, N. Y., is also a brother. Mr. Willoughby was educated at Groton Academy, an institution of prominence twenty years ago. Possessed of a natural talent for music, he applied himself to its cultivation, and before he was twenty years of age was able to play several instruments and was the leader of a band, which, during the first Republican cam- paign in 1856, rendered efficient service to the party by furnishing music at the campaign rally. He chose the occupation of a builder, and at the age of eighteen, began contracting and building on his own account. Leaving home in 1857, he came West as far as Omaha, Neb., and there re- mained until, on the first reports of the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak, he started across the Plains to the Rocky Mountains. Arriving at the mouth of Cherry Creek on the 27th of October, 1858, he soon began work as a builder, and in company with Mr. M. A. Avery, erected the Old Denver Hall, a well-known building in the early days. He continued the business of contracting and build- ing extensively, until the fall of 1873, and up to that time, was considered the leading builder in the city. He was the manufacturer of the famons Willoughby brick. which were made by him in 1871 and 1872. At one time, Mr. Willonghby was an extensive owner of real estate in Denver, and was active in every measure calculated to ad- vance the interests of the city of which he has been a constant resident for over twenty-one years. In his prosperous days, he was generous to a fault, and during the spring of 1859, when the great influx of immigration and the inadequate supply of provisions caused much hardship and even suf- fering, he was ever ready to assist the needy to the extent of depriving himself of the comforts and even the necessaries of life. In his business also, he was generous, paying liberally those in his employ, thus making many friends, and when,
Sheriff, it is said that he received the support of nearly every mechanie and working man in Ara- pahoe County, the contest resulting in his election by a two-thirds vote of the county. He served as Alderman from the then Fourth Ward, from April 1, 1870, to April 1, 1872. Mr. Willoughby is an active Mason, a member of Union Lodge, No. 7, of which he was elected Master in 1871, and again in 1872. Ife is also a member of Den- ver City Chapter, No. 2, R. A. M., and of Colo- rado Commandery, No. 1, K. T. In politics, he is an active worker in the Republican party, and as a citizen, is well known throughout the State. He was married, in 1864, to Miss Martha B. Whiting, of Denver, Colo., and has two sons.
ANDREW J. WILLIAMS.
Mr. Williams, President of the Exchange Bank, and one of the pioneers of Denver, is a native of Franklin County, N. Y., born November 22, 1833. His father was from Rhode Island, a de- scendant of Roger Williams, the founder of that State. His mother was a Hutchinson, from Ver- mont, her father being a member of the well-known Massachusetts family of that name. Mr. Williams was raised on a farm, receiving a common-school education, and afterward prosecuted his studies in the Franklin Academy. In 1851, he removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, then called Kanesville, whither his father's family had preceded him the year be- fore. There he learned the printer's trade in the Bugle office, and followed it until, in 1853, he be- came the clerk of Col. A. W. Babbitt, who had been appointed Secretary of Utah Territory, and, with him and a gentleman named MI. V. Brewer, he left for his field of labor in Salt Lake City. He was the only one of the party who left the Terri- tory alive, Mr. Brewer being killed by the Mor- mons, and Col. Babbitt by the Indians, in 1856. Mr. Williams returned to Council Bluffs in 1855, and engaged in the milling business until 1858. The financial depression following the crash of 1857, and the report of the discovery of gold at in 1873, he became a candidate for the office of Pike's Peak, led him to turn his attention to the
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new country which he foresaw would be opened up on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. In the early fall of 1858, in company with Charles H. Blake (for whom Blake street is named), he started across the Plains with four wagons and four yoke of oxen to cach wagon, bringing the first stock of merchandise ever brought to this city. They arrived here on the 1st of November, and built the first store in Auraria, as West Den- ver was then called, near where the Canon City coal yard now is. In December, the survey of Denver was begun, Mr. Williams and Gen. William Larimer carrying the first chain. The following spring, Blake and Williams removed across Cherry Creek, and built the first hotel in East Denver, and called it the Denver House. It was a log structure, 110x32 feet in size, and covered with canvas. It stood on Blake street, near Fifteenth, and remained until the fire of 1863. During the year 1859, the firm discontinued merchandising and engaged in freighting and contraeting in Colo- rado aud New Mexico until 1865. Mr. Williams then engaged extensively in the cattle business, buying large herds in Texas and driving them to Colorado. He did an immense business, and real- ized handsome profits. In 1869, he resumed his trade, in which he has continued more or less to the present time. He is an active, energetic busi- ness man, and has been connected with almost every variety of business enterprise. He was one of the incorporators and a director of the Ex- change Bank in January, 1876, and in January, 1878, was chosen President, but did not assume the active control of its affairs till January, 1879. He has, for a number of years, been more or less interested in mining operations, and has done much to develop the agricultural resources af Colorado. He owns a fine farm of 720 acres, twenty-five miles down the Platte, consisting of the finest bot- tom lands in the State, and known as the Lupton Bottoms. He was oneof the builders of the Union Block, one of the finest brick buildings in the city. Ile has served several years in the City Council and Board of County Commissioners, and, in 1876,
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