Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 32

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 32

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W. S. Stratton remained in his native village until he was twenty years old, when he went for a period to visit one of his sisters living in Eddy- ville, Iowa. He spent six months there, clerking in a drug store. He returned to Indiana, where he remained but a short time, and then went to the west again, and visited Sioux City, Iowa, and Omaha, Neb., and from there back to Indiana, returning later to Lincoln, Neb., where he fol- lowed his trade. After a year in the latter place, in the summer of 1872 he went to Colorado Springs, arriving there in August, equipped with a good knowledge of his trade, and a cash capi- tal of $300. He found immediate employment, and for some time followed his trade uninterrupt- edly. Colorado Springs is just at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and on Sundays, when free to `do as he wished, Mr. Stratton wandered in the mountains, studying the formation of the rocks

and beginning the long years of "prospecting" that finally led to success in the discovery of the Independence mine, almost twenty years later. He soon engaged in business on his own account, and followed the business of contractor and builder for many years, many of the buildings in Colorado Springs being specimens of his work.

He made his first venture in mining in the winter of 1873-74, when he purchased a one-fifth interest in the Yretaba mine near Silverton, pay- ing $3,000 in cash for the interest. His associ- ates in the venture were practical miners and men of supposed good judgment. The mine, how- ever, proved a failure, and the money invested in it was lost. Instead of being discouraged by this failure, he became all the more determined to win success at mining, and for more than ten consecutive years he left Colorado Springs each spring with a camping and mining outfit, or sometimes walking to the mining regions. During the summer he lived the hardy life led by mountain prospectors, a life often filled with toil, hardship, exposure and privations; but aside from acquir- ing a wide knowledge of the formation of the mountains, the relations of ore-bearing to barren rocks, and the geological conditions that should lead to success, these years of work were fruit- less. The winters he passed in Colorado Springs, pursuing his business as builder. During all this time he was a close student of books pertaining to mining and its kindred industries, and his summers of prospecting enabled him to test the theories he learned from books. In order to more fully equip himself for the vocation he best liked, and be in position to test ores when far from towns and civilization, he mastered the use of the blowpipe, and also took the regular course of assaying in Colorado College. Later he se- cured employment in the Nashold Mill at Breck- enridge, where he familiarized himself with the method of working gold ores by amalgamation.

In April, 1891, Mr. Stratton went as usual to the mountains, this time to seek for cryolite, a valuable mineral-bearing rock that it was re- ported had been discovered near Cheyenne Moun- tain. Weeks of prospecting resulted in failure, and about the middle of May he abandoned the search and with the young man in his employ crossed the divide into what is now the populous mining camp of Cripple Creek to seek for gold. From that time the story of W. S. Stratton has been often told, and, as is usual in such cases, more often garbled than told correctly.

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Cripple Creek, in its infancy, had to live down the unsavory reputation of a bad ancestor, it being located near where the false Mount Pisgah excitement took place. At first mining engi- neers placed the stamp of disapproval upon the district, and even practical miners from other districts, who paid hasty and cursory visits to the new camp, said that gold in permanent or paying quantities did not exist in Cripple Creek. Mr. Stratton was one of the first three expe- rienced miners and prospectors to visit the new district. Like the other two he believed that the geological formation and structure of the rocks, the dyke formation, and all the indications, pointed to the fact that here was a great mining region and he threw in his fortunes with Cripple Creek. It is a curious coincidence that all of these three first miners are now millionaires, and men prominent in the affairs of their state.

Claims had been staked on the western and northern hills of what now comprises Cripple Creek, and as Mr. Stratton did not want to inter- fere with these, he began prospecting on his own account near the head of Wilson Creek. He lo- cated some claims and found some rich ore, but the relation of the veins and dykes to the contact between the granite and eruptive rocks did not impress him as a formation that would prove to be of reliable or permanent value, and he aban- doned his claims. Some of them have since been developed into great mines. He extended the scope of his prospecting, hoping to find a forma- tion that would fit into his belief of what was necessary in order to assure the discovery of gold in permanent deposit. About the middle of June he prospected the south slope of Battle Moun- tain, then not considered as being in the mineral zone. The rocks here proved to have a different formation from other parts of the district, but the heavy growth of brush and undergrowth made the work of prospecting particularly difficult. This work led him on down to the base of the mountain, and here for the first time he saw the big Independence dyke, an immense rib of rock that had been forced up through the surrounding and older formations. The trend of this dyke was directly at right angles with the line of con- tact between the two characteristic rock forma- tions of the region, and this fitted in with Mr. Stratton's theory. He took some small samples of the rock, and tested it after returning to his home in Colorado Springs. The tests showed some gold; and, as he gave more thought to this

dyke, the more he became impressed with the idea that it was valuable and was, in fact, the thing he had sought for twenty years. He re- turued to Battle Mountain on July 4, and located two mining claims on the big dyke, and in honor of the day he named one Independence and the other Washington.

Months of hard work, of discouragement, of financial stringency, and of grim determination followed, before the real richness of the Independ- ence was proved; but the " reading of the rocks" indicated that the formation either must carry rich gold, or that the science of gold mining had no basis in fact and reason. That the persistent work was finally rewarded proved that gold min- ing is a science, if not an exact one.

The tale of the great Independence, so far as its riches are concerned, does not properly belong in a biographical sketch. It is known that be- tween four millions and five millions of dollars have been extracted from it, chiefly from devel- opment work; it is believed that not one-quarter of its ore has been broken or mined, and that but a fractional part of the big group of mines, of which the Independence is but a part, has been prospected. But the mine as a mine, belongs to another chapter of Colorado's history.

The opening of the Independence mine was the beginning of Mr. Stratton's fortune. For some time he devoted his time, energy and money almost solely to exploring and developing this mine, blocking out the large ore reserves con- tained in its enormous ore-shoots, and purchasing the mining property adjacent to it. Then came an opportunity to use business judgment, pluck and money, in another direction. Friends of Mr. Stratton had staked out some claims near his own on Battle Mountain, they had prospected the properties as long as they had money, and when they found rich ore in the then small Portland, the properties were not patented, and the owners had no money to patent, or to protect the prop- erty from the mass of litigation that was heaped up against it by adverse claimants. The three owners of the Portland properties were then poor men, aside from their mining claims they had no security to offer, and it seemed that they would lose much of their holdings because they had not the capital to protect their interests. They laid the case before Mr. Stratton. He then had un- limited capital, he knew the mining ground in question perfectly and had faith in it and he joined the Portland owners in fighting their litiga-

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tion and developing their mines. He was one of the incorporators of the Portland Gold Mining Company; it was largely through his efforts and advice that the first great consolidation was made that freed the mines from their litigation and put them in the ranks of profit-making prop- erties. Mr. Stratton was the first president of the Portland Company, of which he is still a director and the second largest shareholder. At one time he owned one-third of the entire issued capital stock of the company; and at another time, when the company was in straits and needed funds and the sinews of war, he voluntarily contributed to its treasury. At a later time the Portland was again assailed with litigation, and it was on a plan outlined by Mr. Stratton that the great Port- land consolidation of 1895 was carried through. Mr. Stratton put into this consolidation a number of mines which he had purchased, and he made a very large fortune out of this oue transaction; but as the consolidation saved the Portlaud Com- pany great sums of money, and added the colossal sum of $4,000,000 to the market rating value of the total capital of the Portland Company, the transaction is justly entitled to rank as the best piece of mining financiering ever consummated in Colorado. The Portland is to-day one of the greatest gold mining properties in the world; and it is all the more to the credit of the men who founded and developed it from its small begin- ning, that they had had no previous experience in large transactions.

In addition to the Independence and his hold- ings in the Portland, Mr. Stratton owns numerous other mines in the Cripple Creek district, as well as large vested interests in Colorado Springs and other places, and his wealth naturally brings him into national prominence, and causes him to be one of the most important factors in the develop- ment and upbuilding of the state of Colorado.

Personally, Mr. Stratton is a quiet, modest, self-contained man of simple manners. All his large interests are under his personal supers sion, and in their management he has surrounded Jim- self with a corps of capable assistants that is remarkably small in numbers when the mag- nitude of the interests is considered. That the entire business is well and systematically man- aged is best indicated by the remark made by an eminent English mining engineer who was per- mitted to visit the Independence. He said "The great Independence, with its miles of levels, its thousands of feet of development, and its great

machinery, is so fully and thoroughly and system- atically opened, that it makes this mine easier to see and understand and study, than the average prospect hole."

Mr. Stratton is of medium size, rather slender, sinewy, and of a nervous temperament. He lives quietly in his home at Colorado Springs,-a fine, rich home, but one that is modesty itself com- pared with the average homes of multi-million- aires. In the days of his prosperity he has for- gotten none of his former friends, and in his manner he is as plain, straightforward and un- affected as he was when he first came to Colorado Springs twenty-five years ago, as a young work- man. He has the well-merited reputation of being one of the most generous men in the west, and he has given away fortunes in his benefac- tions and charities, but as ostentation is distaste- ful to him, he keeps the amount and character of his charities to himself, and none but him know their extent. He is a close student of books, and, like many of the successful men of the west, he is largely a self-educated man. He has no craving for political or social distinction, makes no osten- tatious display of his great wealth, and devotes his time to the management of his business, the upbuilding of his enterprises, the pleasures of his home, and to traveling when the pressure of his business will permit him. He acts upon his own judgment, maps out his own lines of action, and when he begins upon a particular course he pursues it until it succeeds. He has enjoyed the greatest of good fortune, which he has supple- mented by keen business sagacity and unswerv- ing policies of action. He is steadily adding to his large fortune, not because he needs more money, but because he is a man of affairs, and enjoys the conduct of business.

] HENRY HARRISON, of Canon City, is a member of a family that for more than two hundred and fifty years has been intimately associated with the history of Orange, N. J. His father, Rev. Jephtha Harrison, was born in that city December 15, 1796, and there gained the rudiments of his education, afterward entering Princeton College, where he took the theological course. He graduated in 1820, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister. Immediately afterward he began to preach, but his health failed to such- an extent that a change of climate became neces- sary, and in 1826 he went to the West Indies,

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

where he remained for a year. Upon his return to the United States his health was still delicate and he was advised to confine his labors to the south. For that reason he accepted, success- ively, charges in Memphis, Tenn., Florence, Ala., Newcastle, Henry County, Ky., and Aberdeen, Miss. In recognition of his broad knowledge and his distinction as a theologian, the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him. In the year 1853 he moved from the south to Burlington, Iowa. Five years afterward he moved to Fulton, Mo., in order to educate his children, and in that town he remained until his death, October 30, 1863.

The marriage of Dr. Harrison united him with Ann Thompson, member of an old and prominent family of Chambersburg, Pa. She was born in that city January 8, 1806, and died in Denver, Colo., October 12, 1884. Four children were born to their union, namely: Mary V., wife of Judge Thomas Macon, of Denver; J. Henry; James L., of Worcester, Mass .; and Robert, who makes his home in Canon City. The oldest of the sous, who forms the subject of this sketch, was born in Newcastle, Ky., March 23, 1844. The rudiments of his education were obtained in pri- vate schools, and during the residence of the fam- ily in Burlington, Iowa, he was a student in the public schools. After removal was made to Ful- ton, Mo., he was for four years a student in West- minster College, remaining there until the insti- tution was closed, temporarily, on account of the war. Returning to Iowa, he remained for a year with his sister in Oscaloosa, after which he clerked in a store in Burlington for a few months. His sister and her husband were removing to Colorado and the entire family desiring to be with them, he, together with his mother and two brothers, accompanied them. With a party of about twenty others, they started overland from Fulton, Mo., June 2, 1864, and traveled via the Platte route, as the Indians were troublesome on the Arkansas route. After two and one-half months he arrived in Denver, and from there, after a short time; he came to Canon City, his objective point. The entire trip from Fulton to Canon City was made in wagons, as at that time there was not a rail- road west of the Missouri.

In partnership with Joseph Macon, a brother of Judge Macon, Mr. Harrison had brought a stock of goods to Colorado and in the fall of 1864 he opened a store in Canon City. Shortly after his arrival he took up land for farming purposes and

with others, formed a company that built the first ditch of any importance in this section, now known as the Canon City H. & I. Ditch. By this means the entire town is irrigated, as well as lands lying to the east. In those early days merchandise and produce were high, as everything was freighted from the Missouri River towns by wagon, the freight charges being from twelve and one-half to twenty-five cents a pound. After three years this partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Harrison formed a business connection with Capt. B. F. Rockafellow in the general mercan- tile trade, but this lasted for eighteen months only.

A portion of the farm land owned by Mr. Har- rison is now within the city limits, and this he has platted, and has sold and is selling as city lots and tracts. Much of the remainder of the land he has improved by planting to orchards. While Custer wasstill a part of Fremont County he was elected county commissioner and chosen chairman of the board. Afterward, from 1880 to 1884, he served as county treasurer. He has been a member of the city council for a number of years, and for two terms served as mayor of Canon City. In the fall of 1894 he was elected county commissioner for the second time and served from January, 1895, to 1898, being again elected chairman of the board. Politically he has always affiliated with the Democratic party, in whose councils he has been active, and has fre- quently served as a delegate to county and state conventions.

Local matters especially receive Mr. Harri- son's attention, and he has given his support to all enterprises that will advance the welfare of his town and county. To his persistent efforts the people of the county are largely indebted for their commodious court house and county jail. He is one of the directors of the proposed Canon City & Cripple Creek Railroad. The work that he has done in improving property has not only benefited himself financially, but has advanced the interests of his fellow-citizens and the prog- ress of the city.

June 12, 1879, Mr. Harrison married Mary E., daughter of Joseph Franck, who was for years engaged in agricultural pursuits at Lamoille, Ill., but in 1870 came to Colorado and engaged in the stock business, ranging his cattle in South Park, though his home was in Canon City. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison have three children, Ida M., Edith L. and Frank T.

E. A. THAYER.

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

LMER A. THAYER. Hotel Colorado, of which Mr. Thayer is proprietor, is situated at Glenwood Springs, and is beyond doubt one of the finest hotels in the United States. Built of Colorado red sandstone and brick, its ex- terior appearance is imposing and attractive, while within the building this impression is heightened by elegant furnishings, large halls, commodious reception rooms, and every con- venience that ample means can provide. Every effort is made to contribute to the comfort and happiness of guests." The house is furnished lavishly, yet in excellent taste. There is a quiet elegance about every room and a degree of har- mony in the smallest details of decoration pro- ductive of the most artistic effects. The broad, open corridors and verandas which surround the court lend an added charm to the place. The fine lawn is adorned with trees and plants, artis- tically arranged. Opportunities for amusement and recreation are furnished by the croquet grounds, tennis courts, fine golf links, and the best polo grounds in the United States. But the most attractive feature of the place is the famous hot sulphur spring, whose healing waters have been sought by people from far and near, and whose source of supply is some subterranean lake, from which the water is sent gushing forth, at boiling temperature. Reaching the surface of the earth, it is run into a large pool, walled with

sandstone and with a brick foundation, covering an acre of ground, at the side of which are ele- gant brown stone bath houses with modern equip -. ments. The water is tempered by a constant flow of cold mountain water, which brings it to a correct temperature for bathing. One of the most novel attractions is an extensive vapor cave, built at a cost of over $50,000. Here one steps from his dressing room into the very side of the mountain, from the cool, fresh air and bright sunlight into an atmosphere heavy with hot sul- phurous vapors from the waters that flow be- neath. The result is a profuse perspiration that carries away with it those poisons with which the system has become freighted. This cave has been proved to be quite invaluable in the treat- ment of many diseases.

The Hot Springs Hotel Company own their own electric light plant, which is used to light the hotel and grounds, the bathhouses and the town. At any time of winter or summer people may be seen who are brought here in cots, but, recover- ing in a short time, go away restored to health. What the springs of Baden are to Germany, and the Hot Springs of Arkansas to the Mississippi Valley, such the springs at Glenwood are rapidly becoming to the people of the north and west.

Eastern people, coming here for the first time, always express surprise to find a hotel so com- plete and elegant "away out west." Continued

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on the high plan upon which it is now running, the hotel cannot fail to become one of the most popular resorts in America.

The subject of this sketch was born in Boston, Mass., in 1848. He is a descendant of English ancestors who settled in Massachusetts in an early day. His parents, Angustus and Maria W. (Ellison) Thayer, were natives of that state, where his father was an extensive farmer. They had ten children, but only two are living: Elmer and George, the latter a hotel man in Providence, R. I. In 1852 the family moved west to Rock- ford, Ill., and there, four years later, the father died. When our subject was sixteen years of age he started out for himself. Securing employ- ment in the St. James hotel, Boston, he gained his first experience in the business to which he now gives his attention. When twenty-eight years of age he went to Chicago, where he spent ten years in the same business, and during part of the time he was superintendent of the dining car system of the Michigan Central Railroad. In 1882 he came to Colorado and has since been proprietor of the hotels and dining stations of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad system, besides which, since 1898, he has been proprietor of the Hotel Colorado. In 1894 he was elected presi- dent of the Hotel Mutual Benefit National Asso- ciation of the United States, and it was through his efforts that the association met in Denver in 1894. He is also largely interested in mining in this state. He is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree. Politically he is a Republican.

In 1877 Mr. Thayer married Mrs. Emma (Homan) Graves, who was born and reared in New York City. By her first marriage she had two children, Amy and Byron Homan Graves, the latter of whom is financial secretary and manager of the Rio Grande Hotel Company. The former married Rev. John Wallace Ohl, rec-

tor of the Church of the Ascension, in Salida, Colo. She was most helpful to him in his pas- toral work and was especially successful in the founding of Episcopal missions, from which were built up self-supporting churches. She died at Salida in April, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Thayer were the parents of two children, both now de- ceased.

From girlhood Mrs. Thayer displayed literary ability. Fond of the best in fiction, science and history, she early acquired a broad knowledge that has since proved most helpful to her. She is the author of several works, all of which have had a large sale. One of them is entitled "Wild Flowers of Colorado" and the "Wild Flowers of the Pacific Coast," concerning which she is con- sidered an authority. Her third work was a novel, "English-American," in which was shown the folly of American girls who marry titled foreigners; this has been published in eight edi- tions and has been widely read. She is also the author of "Petronilla, The Sister," which is now in the fiftieth edition. She is a leading member of the New York City Art School, where her works are on exhibition. In religion she is identified with the Episcopal Church, which Mr. Thayer also attends.

ILLIAM W. ASHLEY, M. D., a success- ful and popular physician of Ouray, was born in Lafayette County, Mo., February 10, 1854, a son of William and Melona (Box) Ashley, natives of Kentucky, but after 1835 resi- dents of Missouri. The father died before our subject was born and four years later the mother passed away. Their orphan son was taken into the home of Capt. Richard M. Box, his uncle, and a captain of the Missouri state militia. He received a grammar and high school education, and in 1874 entered the medical department of the Missouri State University at Columbia, from which he graduated in 1875.

The first experience in professional work Dr. Ashley gained while practicing in Bates County, Mo. In 1877 he came to Colorado and began to practice at Ouray, but after a year, desiring more complete professional knowledge, he returned east, and took a course in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and also took a course in the Post-Graduate School. Returning west, he re- sumed practice in Ouray. After six years here he removed to Montrose, where he remained for seven years, and then came back to Ouray, where

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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 32

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