Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 197

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1530

USA > Colorado > Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present > Part 197

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By the marriage of T. S. Lawrence to Char- lotte Stevens, who was born in Kent and died in Madison, Wis., at sixty years, there were born five sons and two daughters. Of these John T. served through the entire period of the Civil war, as a member of the Ninth New York Infantry, and is now living in Madison, Wis .; R. S. is a bookkeeper; George S. is a builder and contrac- tor in Madison, Wis .; Edward is county clerk and recorder of Dane County, Wis., which position he has held since 1886; Hannah is the wife of W. C. Colby, of Madison, Wis .; and Charlotte is the wife of W. G. Hawkins and lives in Colorado.

When the family emigrated to America the sub- ject of this sketch was three years of age. He received his primary education in New York City, and later attended the schools of Madison, Wis. At the age of eighteen he began to learn the trades of blacksmith and plasterer. On leaving Madi- son he went to Chicago, where he was employed for two years. From there he removed to Den- ver, where he has made his home for more than twenty-five years. He owns a fine home in Den- ver and is well fixed financially. Politically lie

is independent, voting for the men whom he deems best qualified to represent the people, irrespective of their political affiliations.

The marriage of Mr. Lawrence took place in 1880 and united him with Miss Hannah Barker, of Denver. She is a daughter of A. H. Barker, who put up the first house built in Denver and was sergeant-at-arms in the first legislature. By occupation a miner, he devoted his life to that business and located, among other claims, the Grant-Winnebago mine. His death occurred in 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence became the parents of three children, but one son died, unnamed, in infancy. The others are Edgar and Lucille.

HARLES W. KINKEL, county commis- sioner of Morgan County, owns one thou- sand acres of ranchi property twenty miles south of Fort Morgan, which property he pur- chased in the spring of 1896, and upon which he has since engaged extensively and successfully in the cattle business. He is one of the representa- tive men of his locality, and is especially promi- nent in the Republican party, of which he is a local leader. In 1891, 1892 and 1893 he served as a member of the town board, and in the fall of 1896, on the party ticket, he was elected a mem- ber of the board of commissioners, in which posi -- tion he has been helpful to the county's interests.

A native of Prussia, born February 4, 1866, Mr. Kinkel was one of ten children, eight of whom are living, viz .: Henry, of Boulder, Colo .; Will- iam, living in Denver; Louise, of Frankfort, Ger- many; Louis, who is proprietor of a meat market in Fort Morgan; Charles W .; George, also of Fort Morgan; Mattie and Augusta, who make their home in Frankfort, Germany. George Kin- kel, our subject's father, was born in Prussia about 1826, and in youth learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed during his entire active life. He died in 1888, and is survived by his widow, who is now (1899) seventy years of age. She was in maidenhood Minnie Feisel and was born in Prussia.

In common schools in Germany our subject acquired his education. When sixteen years of age he came to the new world, landing in New York, May 20, 1882. - For ten months he worked in Carbon County, Pa., at railroading, after which he came west, arriving in Denver in the latter part of February, 1883. For six months he worked on a ranch. In the fall lie came to Fort Morgan, where for more than a year lie

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worked on the ditch. Afterward he was em- ployed on ranches. In 1888 he opened a meat market in the town and afterward conducted a successful business until the spring of 1896, since which time his attention has been given chiefly to ranching and cattle-raising.

In 1892 Mr. Kinkel married Maggie, daughter of J. H. Farnsworth, of Fort Morgan, and they had one child, Elizabeth. Mrs. Kinkel died July 15, 1896. Fraternally our subject is a member of Oasis Lodge No. 67, A. F. & A. M .; Fort Morgan Chapter No. 31, R. A. M .; Akron Com- mandery, K. T .; El Jebel Temple, N. M. S., of Denver; also Silver Lodge No. 60, K. P., and Fort Morgan Camp No. 193, Woodmen of the World.

A RTHUR R. BROWN, ex-judge of Eagle County, came to Colorado in 1880 and set- tled in Leadville, where for two years he was interested in mining and also engaged in the practice of law. In 1882 he removed to Red Cliff, the county-seat of Eagle County, and a mining camp that was then three years old. He has witnessed the growth of the town from a small camp to a village of almost fifteen hundred people, and has himself contributed to its develop- ment. For some years he has devoted himself to mining and the practice of law, but after his first election to the office of county judge, much of his time was given to his official duties.

Judge Brown was born in Utica, N. Y., in 1850, a descendant of Peter Brown, who crossed the ocean in the "Mayflower." His paternal grandfather, a native of Stonington, Conn., and a colonel in the war of 1812, engaged for years in the manufacture of woolen goods and in the dis- tillery business, accumulating a small fortune through his various enterprises. Politically he voted with the Democrats. His son, the judge's father, Lorenzo S. Brown, was born in New York state, where for a considerable number of years he followed the distillery business. He was a Republican in politics and prominent in local affairs. His last years were spent in retirement and he died when eighty-four years of age, his death occurring in Utica, of which city he had long been a prominent resident. He owned large tracts of real estate there and also had an interest in the banking business of A. H. Brown & Co., in which all of his brothers were also interested. Besides this, he owned stock and lumber interests, He married Elizabeth C.

Brainard, a native of New York; her father, Maj. Chauncey Brainard, engaged in the mer- cantile business and the manufacture of woolen goods, having mills at Cedarville, N. Y., and was a major in the war of 1812. Some of the money he received when he was paid off by the government is now in the hands of our subject.

In the family of Lorenzo S. Brown there were three children. Clara B. became the wife of Timothy E. Wilcox, M. D., a surgeon in the regular army, with the rank of major. Susan M. is the wife of Adelbert J. Rhodes, who is engaged in the coal business in New York. Our subject, who was the only son, spent his early years in his New York home, and was educated in the schools of Utica and the military school at Clinton, N. Y. On leaving school he went to Michigan, where his father owned large tracts of pine land, and there he engaged in the lumber business for eight years. In the interests of rail- road bondholders, he went to Indiana, where he remained for seven years. Since coming to Colo- rado, his attention has been largely given to the practice of law and mining, and he not only owns mining interests of his own, but manages impor- tant properties for others. Fraternally he is a Mason, connected with the Knights Templar and Shrine. In politics he is a stanch Republican.

In New Bedford, Mass., Judge Brown was united in marriage with Miss Florence C. Shaw, a sister of Capt. Charles F. Shaw, who was an officer in the Union army during the Civil war, and a daughter of Frederick P. Shaw, who was a wholesale grocer in New Bedford, and later in Saginaw, Mich.

RANK B. WEBSTER, district attorney of the twelfth judicial district, is an able and prominent attorney of Alamosa. The prin- cipal part of his life has been passed in Colorado, for, though a native of Schuylkill County, Pa., born in 1863, he has been a resident of this great western state since 1872, during territorial days. His boyhood days were spent in Denver, where he attended the public schools and gained a fair education. When a youth of fifteen he went to Boulder County, and following the occupation so common in the mountain regions, began to mine. For nine years he operated mines that were leased.

Abandoning the work of a miner in the fall of 1887, with a determination to enter the profes- sional world, Mr. Webster took a course in the

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Denver Business College. Upon its completion he came to Alamosa, May 17, 1888, and here se- cured employment as stenographer in the office of C. C. Holbrook, with whom he remained for some time, meanwhile reading law during such spare moments as came to him. In 1891 he was admitted to practice before the Colorado bar. During the same year Judge Holbrook was elec- ted to the district bench, and Mr. Webster then opened an office and began to practice for him- self. In the years that have intervened he has built up an excellent practice and become well known in the fraternity.

A Republican in politics, Mr. Webster was elected district attorney for the twelfth judicial district on the straight ticket of his party, and this position he has filled acceptably since 1897. Since his admission to the bar he has served as county attorney for Costilla County. He is rec- ognized as one of the leading attorneys of the valley and as a young man whose prospects for the future are most promising. In matters rela- tive to Alamosa, its welfare and its progress, he is always interested. From 1893 to 1897 he served as attorney for the city. He has also been attorney for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad for a number of years. In 1892 he was united in marriage with Mary A. Cowell, by whom he has one child, Bessie E. Fraternally he is past chancellor of Alamosa Lodge No. 96, K. P., and captain of the Sierra Blancha Division No. 21, Uniform Rank.

ILLIAM W. HASSELL. The Hassell Iron Works Company, of which Mr. Hassell is president and general manager, is one of the flourishing business concerns of Colo- rado Springs. Their first foundry was erected in Colorado Springs in 1893, but in January, 1896, it was destroyed by fire, and, as it was only insured for one-third of its value, the loss was a heavy one for the proprietors. Removing the business to the Springs, in the early part of 1896 they built a plant, which has since been repeatedly enlarged, as every six months it has been found necessary to build an addition equal to the size of the original building. The fire in Colorado Springs during the latter part of September, 1898, entirely destroyed the office and warerooms (then located at Nos. 18-24 Huerfano street west) entailing a severè loss. Fortunately the foundry and machine shops were located below the burned district, so that the company was enabled to con-

tinue its business. In the spring of 1899 an office and store room were opened at No. 19 East Pike's Peak avenue. The works are situated at the corner of Sierra Madre street and Mareno avenue.

Mr. Hassell was born in Newark, N. J., August 17, 1860. His father, John, a native of Manchester, England, was a son of John Hassell, Sr., also a native of that city, and who settled in New York City, where he became a successful physician and editor of Wood's Materia Medica. Jolın, Jr., was a brass manufacturer for a time, but took up the study of dentistry in New York City and afterward followed that profession in Newark, N. J., until his death. Fraternally he was a Mason. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Gibb, was born in New York City, member of an old family there and of remote Scotch lineage; she is now living in North Caro- lina. Of her four living children, our subject is the youngest and the only one in Colorado. He spent the first eight years of his life in Newark, after which he lived in New York City, near what is now Riverside Drive. Becoming inter- ested in the Van Winkle & Weedon School Pub- lishing Company, Mr. Hassell remained with them until 1884, when he came to Colorado for his health. He was so decidedly benefited that he concluded to remain. In 1885 he started in the manufacture of patent woven wire fences, and from that drifted into the manufacture of iron fences, and in time developed a machine shop and foundry from his original business.

For a time the firm was Hassell & Talcott. In 1893 the Hassell Iron Works Company was organized, with himself as president and general manager. They manufacture the iron work and casting for the Midland Railroad Company, hoisters and hoisting machinery for miners, structural iron work, columns and beams, and ornamental fence work. The machine shop is modern in every respect. The business is the largest in its line in El Paso County, and employ- ment is furnislied to thirty-five men. They have had contracts for equipping all the structural buildings erected during the past eight years, and their work is noted for its substantial character. Their main building is 50 x 190 feet, and is fur- nished with three electric motors for power. There is a separate pattern shop, 40 x 50, also an iron room, 16 x 60, besides the office and sales- room on Pike's Peak avenue.

In Colorado Springs, in 1890, Mr. Hassell mar- ried Miss Catherine Ott, who was born in Albany,

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N. Y. They have two children, William Brad- ford and Julia Frances. The family are connected with Grace Episcopal Church. In politics Mr. Hassell is a Republican and a stanch supporter of the present (McKinley) administration. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and takes an interest in all projects for the advancement of the city where he resides.

HARLES B. NEWTON, a pioneer of Costilla County, now residing near Fort Garland, was born in the city of Philadelphia in 1822, a son of Jonah and Sarah (Vanderveer) Newton, natives respectively of New England and New Jersey. When he was a child his father died and when he was nine years of age he went to Steubenville, Ohio, to make his home with Rev. Charles Beatty, for whom he was named and who was president of a ladies' seminary in that city. At eighteen years of age he left his foster father's home and went to Alexandria, Mo., where a friend lived. After a year or more in Missouri, he accompanied Captain Gordon to the Rocky Mountains in 1842. Captain Gordon had been an officer in the United States army and had spent considerable time among the Sioux Indians on the frontier.

Going up the Missouri River to Fort Pierre, the company of three men traveled on horseback together, but at the fort they separated, and Mr. Newton returned to Fort Leavenworth, where he enlisted with the First Dragoons. For two years he was on duty at the fort, meantime making several excursions into New Mexico, Colorado, and as far west as Oregon. When the Mexican war broke out, he served under Colonel Kearney, and went to Santa Fe. He took part in the sup- pression of a Mexican uprising at Taos and also participated in the battle of Embudo, N. M. From the ranks he was promoted to be corporal, and later sergeant. After five years in the regular army, at the close the war he was honorably dis- charged.

In 1849 Mr. Newton established a store in Taos County, N. M., which he carried on for two years. Afterward, for several years, he engaged in trading with the Indians, in partnership with Tom Tobens. Meantime he made a number of expeditions to Fort Laramie. During much of the time until 1860, while he was thus engaged, he made his headquarters in Taos and Arroyo- hondo, N. M. He was also a great hunter and, while on his trading expeditions, always carried

his gun with him. Often he has killed antelope and deer on the land where Denver now stands, but at that early day there was not even a log hut to indicate a future settlement. From 1860 to 1870 he was employed as clerk for Ferd Meyer, of Costilla. About 1870 he settled on land near Fort Garland, and later purchased a claim adjoin- ing, and here he has since engaged in farming and stock-raising. The place is situated five miles from Fort Garland and is maintained under his supervision, for he is still quite active, in spite of advancing years. Politically he has been a stanch Democrat from youth. He is mar- ried and has two children.

T. WALKER owns and occupies a stock ranch one mile east of Pagosa Springs, Ar- . chuleta County. This tract of land he homesteaded in 1884, but, it being then a mili- tary reservation, he was not allowed to locate upon it. However, two years later, he took up his residence here and has since built one of the most substantial ranch houses in the county. Giving all of his time to ranching, he raises stock and owns about one hundred and fifty head of cattle, for which he cuts hay and alfalfa for feed.

A son of David H. and Caroline (Skinnell) Walker, our subject was born in Bedford County, Va., in 1844. At sixteen years of age he enlisted in the Second Virginia Cavalry, from which he was transferred to the Thirty-fourth Virginia In- fantry, and served until the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House. During the siege of Petersburg he took an active part, and when the fort was blown up he was near the front and received a severe wound, the scar of which he will always carry. After the close of the war he returned home, but in January, 1866, went to Boone County, W. Va., and for three years worked in a sawmill there. From that place he went to Kansas and engaged in the saw- mill business on the Osage Indian reservation, remaining for four years in Kansas. He was in the town of Independence before it was built up. On account of the fact that he had served in the Confederate army, he was disfranchised and not permitted to take any part in political affairs, but in the spring of 1871 a petition requesting the legislature to remove the political disabilities by reason of his having served in the southern army was voluntarily drawn up by the citizens of the town of Independence. This bill was passed in the legislature. March 6, 1871.

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After having conducted a sawmill business in Independence for some time, in the fall of 1872 Mr. Walker disposed of his property in that place and went to Sherman, Tex., where he operated a sawmill for a year. In 1873 he removed to the Indian Territory, where he worked at his trade. From there, in the spring of 1879, he came to Pagosa Springs, Colo., and set up a sawmill on the San Juan River, two miles east of town, where he carried on a sawmill and lumber business un- til 1890. Meantime he homesteaded his present ranch and began the improvement of the property where he now resides. His attention has been given almost exclusively to the sawmill business and ranching, his only effort at mining having been in connection with a gold mine, which, how- ever, did not realize his hopes.

At the first election in the new county of Ar- chuleta, in the spring of 1886, Mr. Walker was elected county assessor. He has been one of the local workers in the People's party, by which, in 1895, he was nominated for county judge. Meas- ures for the benefit of the people receive his hearty support. He is a member of Durango Lodge No. 46, A. F. & A. M., in which he is past master. His marriage, in 1874, united him with Rose V. Shelton, by whom he has one son, Gladwyn.

D HARLES NEWMAN, president of the Swan- sea Gold and Silver Mining Company, oper- ating in the prosperous mining camp of Rico, is himself a resident of Durango, where he ranks among the influential citizens and mine owners. He is of eastern birth, a member of a family that has been long and honorably associated with the history of Boston. The first of the name to set- tle in this country was John Newman, a native of England, and for years connected with the marine mercantile business, owning a trading vessel that engaged in traffic between England and Boston. John's son, Robert, grandfather of our subject, was sexton of the Salem street Church in Boston and he it was who held the lantern on the night that Paul Revere made his famous ride. He was one of the well-known and honored citizens of Boston. When he died his remains were interred in the famous old burial ground, Copp's Hill, near which his home had been.

Charles Newman, Sr., our subject's father, was born in Boston, and for many years en- gaged in business as a carriage and wagon-maker in that city. His last years were spent in Read-

ing and Groton, and in the former town served as selectman for some years. Like other members of the family, he was a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to St. Andrew's Lodge No. 32, A. F. & A. M., in Boston. His death oc- curred in Groton in 1871, when he was seventy- one years of age.

Born in 1851, a son of Charles Newman, our subject was four years of age when he accom- panied his parents to Kansas, and in 1860 he returned with them to Massachusetts, settling in Groton, where he was educated in the high school and Lawrence Academy. After his edu- cation was completed, in 1867 he returned to Kansas, and became clerk for an older brother in the mercantile business at Osawatomie. In 1873 he removed from there to Colorado, making the trip to Denver overland, by mule-team. In Sep- tember of the same year he went to Del Norte in the San Luis Valley, where he formed a partner- ship in the drug business with M. T. Chestnut, W. L. Stephens being admitted into the firm in 1875, since which time the firm of Newman, Chestnut & Stephens have continued in active partnership. In 1876 they opened a branch drug business in Silverton, of which Mr. Newman was placed in charge, and in 1878 a branch was started at Alamosa, with Mr. Chestnut in charge. In 1880 they opened a branch drug store at Chama, N. M., and the same year started a wholesale and retail branch in Durango, Mr. Newman taking up his residence here at that time. In 1882 a branch house was opened in Pn- eblo, and all of these enterprises they conducted, with success, until they disposed of them all in 1891. In 1875 they became interested in mining, and finally, on their withdrawal from the drug business, they gave their attention wholly to this industry, in which they have important interests in various sections of the San Juan country. Mr. Newinan in 1879 located the Swansea mine, in Dolores County, near Rico, and the firm con- tinued to develop the mine until they sold it a few years later. Afterward Mr. Newman became president of the Swansea Gold and Silver Mining Company.

A stanch Republican, Mr. Newman is active in his party. From 1874 to 1879 he was post- master of Del Norte, and in 1892 he was elected to represent the nineteenth senatorial district (comprising La Plata and Montezuma Counties) in the state senate, where he rendered able ser- vice. He is the owner of considerable property

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in Durango, besides his important mine interests. In 1875 he married Marion L. Chestnut, a sister of M. T. Chestnut, his business partner; he has two daughters, Edna and Velina. Fraternally he is a member of Durango Lodge No. 46, A. F. & A.M., San Juan Chapter No. 15, R. A. M., Ivan- hoe Commandery No. 11, K. T., and Colorado Consistory of Denver.

OHN W. HORNER. In every community there are a few men whose ability makes them conspicuousin the professional or busi- ness life of their locality. Such a man is the sub- ject of this review, who has long engaged in the practice of the law in Colorado, for years in Den- ver and, since the latter part of 1895, in Cripple Creek. In addition to his practice, he is inter- ested in mining and owns stock in two valuable claims that are leased.

The boyhood days of our subject were passed in his native village, Baptistown, Hunterdon County, N. J. His education was obtained in common schools and the Trenton (N. J.) Academy, also in Madison University at Hamil- ton, N. Y., where he graduated. On the conclu- sion of his studies he turned his attention to edt- cational work. He became proprietor of the Clin- ton (N. J.) Academy, and remained at the head of that institution for one year. Afterward he was for three years principal of the high school at Mauch Chunk, Pa., where he became well known for his successful work as an educator. For one year he was employed as civil engineer . in the building of the Lehigh Valley & Susque- hauna Railroad.

Coming to Colorado in 1865, Mr. Horner spent about two years in mining in Gilpin and Boulder Counties. He then went to Denver and completed his law studies, which he had begun in the east. He was admitted to the bar in Deuver in 1868 and at once began to practice in that city, where he gained a large and valuable clientage and accumulated considerable property. Unfor- tunately, through the failure of investments, he lost almost all the fruits of his years of labor, and when he came to Cripple Creek his means were limited. Since then, however, he has gained a good financial footing and is prospering.

In December, 1870, Mr. Horner was united in marriage with Miss Tillie Browning, of Wash- ington Heights, N. Y., and they have five children living. Politically Mr. Horner votes the Demo- cratic ticket, but is not active in public affairs.

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Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 197

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1530

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1530