Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 34

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 34

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AVID K. HAWKINS. The mercantile in- terests of Anaconda, in the Cripple Creek district, have their principal representative in Mr. Hawkins, who since coming to this place has established an increasing and important trade, and has gained a reputation as a reliable and en- terprising merchant. In addition to this busi- ness, he is engaged in mining and has the lease of the Brooklyn claim near the C. O. D. and the Abe Lincoln. Prior to coming to Anaconda, and during his residence in Villa Grove, he acted as superintendent and manager of the Villa Grove Gold, Silver and Mining Company, which is a large corporation, owned by a number of the in- fluential meu of the country, all non-residents, whose large interests he managed ably for five years.

The Hawkins family settled in Maryland prior to the Revolution. From there Richard Haw- kins removed to Cincinnati in an early day when that city was only a small village, with a few houses, and those of logs. He pre-empted a

large tract of land, which, on the subsequent de- velopment of the city, became very valuable. His death occurred there at eighty-nine years of age. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and received injuries while in the service. Little is known of his ancestors, save that they came from England to Maryland in colonial times.

Richard Hawkins, Jr., was born on his father's farm near Cincinnati, and was one of fifteen chil- dren. His father gave him one hundred and sixty acres of land, and on this property he bor- rowed money, with which he embarked in the mercantile business in Cincinnati. He also ran flat and trading boats down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi to New Orleans, and later conducted a pork-packing house in his home town. For sev- eral years he met with success, but eventually the river, overflowing, flooded the packing house and spoiled all of the pork. At the same time his partner ran away with all of the cash in the firm's possession. This threw him into bank- ruptcy. Hoping to recruit his fortune in the west, about 1853 he settled in Bunker Hill, Il1., then a small town in the midst of unimproved farming country. The remainder of his life was devoted to stock-raising and farming, and for years he was the leading stockman of his section. His deathı occurred at fifty-five years of age. He had many friends, all of whom were very partial to "Uncle Dick," and enjoyed a chat with him whenever possible. The qualities of mind and heart which he possessed were such as to bring him into prominence in his commuity.

The mother of our subject was Mary, daughter of John Swin and Mary (McCord) Swin, natives respectively of Wales and England. She was born near Cincinnati, and now makes her home in Onawa, Iowa, being at this writing seventy-two years of age. Of her ten children, eight are liv- ing, David being the eldest. He was born March 31, 1848, in Cincinnati, and was four years of age when the family settled in Illinois. His boy- hood days were spent on a farm, much of his time being given to the care of cattle. He received a public school and academic education, and also attended Professor Sawyer's private school in Bunker Hill. The winter of 1869-70 he spent hunting in Mississippi and then went to Texas, where for two years he worked as a cowboy on the range. Returning home, he engaged in the stock business until the spring of 1875, when he went to western Iowa and began raising stock and farm produce there. Five years later he came

JAMES R. CHAMBERS.

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to Colorado and began mining at Silver Cliff, which was then in the height of its boom. He remained there and at Rosita for some years. He located and patented seven claims at Creede dur- ing the excitement at that camp, and in these he still owns a one-third interest. In 1889 he opened a store at Villa Grove, where he engaged in busi- ness, at the same time carrying forward his min- ing enterprises until 1896, the year of his removal to Anaconda.

March 4, 1878, Mr. Hawkins married Miss Henrietta Steiner, who was born in Ohio, and by her he has four children, Bertha, Richard, Louis Massey and Jessie. While he is a strong Demo- crat, he has never been active in party affairs, preferring to devote himself to private business matters. He was made a Mason in Valley Lodge No. 232, at Missouri Valley, Iowa, in 1879. He is a capable merchant and progressive citizen, and takes an interest in all that pertains to the welfare of the community in which he resides.

AMES RUTHERFORD CHAMBERS. The family represented by this influential resident of Logan County is of noble lineage, both in civil and military life. On the paternal side he is a great-grandson of Gen. Griffith Rutherford, who was one of the illustrious makers of history during the American Revolution. General Ruth- erford was a native of Rowan County, N. C., which county he represented in the convention at Newbern in 1775. In 1776 he led a force into the Cherokee country, with great success, and was appointed brigadier-general by the provis- ional congress in April, 1776. He commanded his brigade in the battle of Camden, in August, 1780. In that ill-fated battle he was taken prisoner by the British and was confined in prison at St. Augustine, Fla. After his exchange he was in command at Wilmington, when that place was evacuated by the British at the close of the war. In 1784 he served as state senator. Afterward he removed to Tennessee. A county in North Caro- lina and one in Tennessee bears his name. His oldest son, James Rutherford, was a colonel and was killed at the battle of Eutaw Springs.

The maternal ancestral record of James Ruther- ford Chambers is not less distinguished. His maternal great-grandfather was Gen. William Davidson, who was killed in the Revolutionary war. In 1897 the congress of the United States donated $5,000 for the purpose of erecting a

monument to his memory. This tardy recogni- tion to great heroes is doubtless due to the nu- merous vigorous patriotic organizations now ex- isting; as is also the pride in honorable ancestry. Col. George Davidson, brother of William, was also an officer in our war for independence. Dropping to another generation finds the grand- father of Mr. Chambers, true to family record, a soldier in the war of 1812. For his courage, in and out of season, he gained the sobriquet of "Devil Tom" Davidson.

Not content with military honors, the ancestors of Mr. Chambers are found in civil territory also. Hon. Hugh Lawson White, of Tennessee, was his third cousin on the maternal side. Judge White was the presidential nominee, in 1836, on the old- line Whig ticket against Martin VanBuren. In this political campaign White led his party, not only against Van Buren, but against all the power and immense influence of Andrew Jackson. It was a notable and brilliant canvass in the nation's history. Judge White's memory is still cherished in Tennessee, and his name is a synonym for sterling worth and purity of character, blended with noble intellectual attainments.

William Cathry Chambers, the father of the subject of this sketch, belonged to a type of men now passed away forever. The conditions that created the type are destroyed. He was a cotton planter in Mississippi and was an old man when called upon to meet the thunderbolts of the Civil war. But the blood of Griffith Rutherford was his strength, and he bore the loss of sons and fortune with Socratic courage. A lifelong stu- dent of political economy; a conscientious old-line Whig, when that beloved party perished amid the smoke and roar of a civil strife, he cast no more votes. The faithful friend and follower of Hemy Clay lost his reckoning, but he still remained the man of gentle dignity, scholarly habits and princely mien, whose word was as good as another inan's bond; loved alike by servant and equal; who through all strife and bitterness, wrecked fortune and bruised heart, "bore still the grand old name of gentleman."

The birth of William C. Chambers occurred in Dyer County, Tenn., in 1802. After his mar- riage to Catherine Davidson he engaged in farm- ing and was successful until the financial crash of 1836 wrecked his fortune." He had, some years before, settled near Granada, Miss., from which place in 1844 he removed to Coahoma County, the same state, where he was a pioneer in what

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was known as the Mississippi swamps. He es- success, and, above all else, after the manner of tablished his home near Friar's Point. Good his father, "His word is as good as another man's bond." judgment enabled him to retrieve his losses, and he became well-to-do, but his place was destroyed and his fortune again swept away in the Civil war. In 1864 he removed to Bolivar County, where he made his home for two years. The last years of his life were spent among his children, and he died April 9, 1883.

It was in April, 1871, that Mr. Chambers and his brother arrived in Colorado. When they reached Evans they had but $5 in their possession and this money his brother spent for medicine. The brothers continued together in all of their business dealings until 1878. In the spring of In the family of W. C. Chambers there were nine children, but only three survive. The eld- est, Christopher C., lives in Phoenix, Ariz .; Margaret, the only daughter, is the wife of Col. A. J. Kellar, of Hot Springs, S. Dak., formerly editor and proprietor of the Memphis (Tenn.) Avalanche for many years, but now a prominent attorney of South Dakota. James Rutherford Chambers was born in Coahoma County, Miss., October 16, 1848. His mother, to whose influ- 1872 our subject went to what is now the village of Merino and took upa pre-emption of one hun- dred and sixty acres, on which he began farming. In the spring of 1874 he left his farm and turned his attention to the cattle business, hiring out by the month to ride on the range. After some time he began buying cattle for himself and gradually added to the herd, which he ranged with those owned by his employer for nine years. During all of this time he was in the employ of B. F. ence his steadfast character and manly worth are " Johnson, of Greeley. In 1883 he went to the

due in no small degree, was born in Iredell County, N. C., in June, 1811, and was a daugh- ter of Thomas Pinckney Davidson, to whom ref- erence has been made. On both sides of the family her kindred were Scotch-Irish, of the Presbyterian faith, a pioneer race, hardy, brave, self-reliant and gifted. Throughout her life, which was prolonged to eighty-five years, she was ever a cheerful, contented Christian, devoted above all things else to her husband and children, and living but to promote their happiness.

The close of the Civil war found the subject of this sketch still a young boy in school. At that time southern youths had to stand alone or fall. The old men were helplessly stranded on a strange shore. The young men, without train- ing or experience or pecuniary aid, were left to perform double and difficult duties. Mr. Cham- bers had been reared in the usual fashion of the day and locality,-a stranger to every sort of labor. When the necessity came, he left his family in Tennessee and came to Colorado, a deli- cate, beardless boy, without means or friends, and with no more than a girl's strength he began the battle of life. The qualities that win in war win in peace. The same courageous spirit that ani- mated his race in the Revolution, in the war of 1812, and that made them faithful to duty in the Civil war, animated him in the new life and sur- roundings. His energy, determination and his innate honor made for him an exalted position in the great state of his adoption, He won financial

vicinity of Crook, Logan County, and home- steaded a portion of his present ranch. The origi- nal tract was one hundred and sixty acrés, to which he afterward added until his ranch now numbers twenty-three hundred acres, all under ditch. After settling here, he disposed of his cat- tle and engaged in the sheep business, having now forty-two hundred head of sheep. Of late years he has also taken up the cattle business again. To give his children the advantage of good schools, in 1892 he removed his family to Sterling, where they now reside.

January 8, 1884, Mr. Chambers married Bessie, daughter of Charles Stone, a prominent news- paper man of Nashville, Tenn. The four chil- dren born of their union are: Charles R., William C., Harry S. and George E. In politics Mr. Chambers is liberal, with a leaning toward the Democracy.

OHN SPEED TUCKER, senior member of the firm of Tucker, Ballard & Co., of Colo- rado Springs, is one of the influential busi- ness men of this city, and has for some years been closely identified with gold properties and mining investments. The firm has its office in the Bank block and is represented by Mr. Ballard in the Colorado Springs Mining Stock Associa- tion. The large business carried on is mainly in the line of loans, mining and mining invest- ments, and is of a nature responsible and calling

MAJOR A. V. BOHN.

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for business talents of a high order, as well as a complete and thorough knowledge of mines and prospects.

Mr. Tucker was born in Lynchburg, Va., May 15, 1863, a son of Beverley St. George Tucker and a brother of Beverley Tucker, M. D., in whose sketch the family history is presented, chronicling events of importance from the early days of the settlement of the family in America. John Speed Tucker received his primary educa- tion in Marshall, Mo., where the family settled when he was six years of age. He attended the University of Missouri at Columbia until the close of the sophomore year, when he discontinued his studies and came to Colorado. For two years after his arrival in Colorado Springs he was employed as bookkeeper in the El Paso County Bank. After- ward, for seven years, he was paying teller of the First National Bank. On resigning his connec- tion with the bank, in 1895 he started in the brokerage business, buying out Lindley & Fitz- patrick, and soon afterward forming the present firm of Tucker, Ballard & Co., who carry on a large business in their special lines. As a busi- ness man he is conservative and calm, and all of his transactions are guided by deliberate judg- ment and keen sagacity. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Colorado Springs. Po- litically he is a Democrat and a stanch supporter of party principles.

The marriage of Mr. Tucker took place in Colorado Springs and united him with Miss Fan- nie Aiken, who was born in Chicago, Il1. They have two children, Beverley St. George and Har- riet Aiken. The family attend the Presbyterian Church, of which Mrs. Tucker is a member.

AJOR A. V. BOHN, one of the well-known mine operators in Leadville, was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 1835, a son of Judge Valentine and Susan (Strickler) Bohn, natives of Franklin County, Pa. His father, who was an attorney, moved to Ohio in 1833 and for some time held the office of judge of Stark County, after which he served as judge of the district courts. In 1850 he moved to Carroll County, Ill., ofwhich he was soon elected county clerk, and later became county judge. At the time of his death he was sixty-four years of age. He was a member of an old Pennsylvania family that came to this country from Germany. His wife, who died in young womanhood, was a men- ber of the Dunkard society and had a brother

who was a prominent preacher in that sect; her father, Henry Strickler, was a farmer in Pennsyl- vania. Of her children, Adam was engaged in the mercantile business in Illinois and moved from there to Iowa, where he died; John H., an attorney, was an officer in the Ninety-second Illinois Infantry, and died from the effects of wounds received at Chickamauga; Catherine, de- ceased, married David Nelson, who for thirty years was a merchant in Carroll County; Mary E. married William Barker, a contractor and builder living at Lyons, Iowa.

When a boy of fifteen years our subject ac- companied his father to Illinois. His education was completed in the high school of Mount Car- roll. At twenty years of age he started out in life for himself, and at first was agent for the Illinois Central Railroad at Amboy. Later he was employed in the construction of the Hanni- bal & St. Joe Railroad, and after its completion be- came a conductor on the line. At the opening of the Civil war he enlisted in the Fifteenth Illi- nois Infantry as a private, and was assigned to the western army, which later became the Army of the Tennessee, and he participated in all of its battles. In October, 1865, he was mustered out as major, having received promotion in recogni- tion of meritorious service.

Returning to Ohio, Major Bohn entered a com- mercial college at Dayton. For two years he taught in that institution. In 1868 he went to Missouri, where he engaged in the coal business in Kansas City, and later purchased coal mines on the Vandalia Railroad in Illinois. Afterward he located in St. Louis, engaging in the coal business. During his stay in St. Louis he started to build a railroad extending from Cape Girardeau to the in- terior of Missouri, but after eighty miles had been built the crash of 1873 came and he and his partner sank beneath it. He remained there for one year, later went to Alabama and opened up coal fields in that state, where he remained three years, then, in 1878, came to Leadville, Colo. Here at first he was connected in a small way with the mining interests of the district, but this connection has grown more important with pass- ing years. He has for years been manager for Tabor and owns the Bohn mines in the city. The formation of the land in this section he has carefully studied and has located many mines of great value.

While in the army, in 1864, Major Bohn mar- ried Miss Emma Kneisley, member of a promi-

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nent family of Dayton, Ohio, and daughter of John Kneisley, who was a large manufacturer of flour and owner of a distillery. Their marriage has been blessed with three sons, who are un- usually intelligent and talented and are gradu- ates of the Colorado School of Mines, Cornell and Washington Universities. The oldest, Arthur K., is chemist for a Mexican firm in Sierra Mojada, Mexico; John V. is chemist for the British American Investment Company, Limited, at Rossland, British Columbia, and is married, his wife being a daughter of Admiral Howell of the United States navy; Charles A. is chemist for the Bimetallic Smelting Company, of Lead- ville. Since voting for Fremont in 1856, Major Bohn has always supported the Republican party. He is past commander of Garfield Post, G. A. R., and in 1885 served as department commander of Colorado and Wyoming.

ILLIAM H. MC DONALD, M. D. A po- sition of prominence among the physicians and surgeons of Pueblo is held by Dr. McDonald, who has engaged in practice in this city since 1881 and has built up a valuable pat- ronage among the best people here. In addition to and in connection with his private practice, he has taken a warm interest in St. Mary's Hospital, and the Pueblo Hospital, with both of which he has been identified from their establishment. He is a charter member of the Pueblo County Medi- cal Society, of which he had the honor to be chosen president. For a time he was also act- ively associated with the State Medical Society.

Dr. McDonald was born in Belleville, Mifflin County, Pa., February 3, 1847. His father, Rev. S. H., who was the son of a Scotchman, was born on a farm near Princeton, N. J., and took a course in theology at Princeton University, from which he was graduated. Afterward he was engaged as a teacher of mathematics at Princeton, and later entered the ministry. Dur- ing his pastorate at Millerstown, Pa., he married Ann Eliza (Adams) Beaver, who was born in that village and was a member of an old family of the state. She was a woman of rare strength of mind and great intellectuality, and the impress of her character was left upon the minds of her children. She was a daughter of Abraham Adams, who conducted a farm adjoining Millers- town and also engaged in business in the village, dying there an aged man. When a young girl she became the wife of Jacob Beaver, who died

in the prime of manhood. Of her children by that marriage, Gilbert, a brave soldier and gal- lant officer in the Union army, fell in the battle of Antietam. Another son, Gen. James A. Beaver, is one of the distinguished men of our country and was formerly governor of Pennsyl- vania; he was a member of the committee, ap- pointed by President Mckinley, to examine into the conduct of the Spanish war.

The marriage of Rev. S. H. McDonald and Mrs. Beaver resulted in the birth of three sons and two daughters, of whom William H., the second in order of birth, is the only surviving son; both of the daughters are living. One son, Abraham Adams McDonald, enlisted at an early age in the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Infantry and served throughout the Civil war, attaining the rank of lieutenant. The mother of this fam- ily died at sixty-four years of age. The father survived her for some years, and continued, until late in life, his active connection with ministerial and educational work. He passed away at Lewis- burg, Pa., in 1894, aged eighty-four years.

The boyhood years of our subject were passed in the sports of boyhood and the studies of the common schools. He was a student in Kishaco- quillas Seminary, in Mifflin County. While he was diligently applying himself to his studies at the seminary, Lee invaded Pennsylvania, and he saw large droves of stock pass by the school, being driven by the farmers to a place of security. He inquired the reason, and on being told that the southern army was coming north, he deter- mined at once to enlist. In July, 1863, he went to Harrisburg, and, although he was only six- teen years of age, he was accepted, and became a member of Company E, Twenty-first Pennsyl- vania Cavalry, enlisted for six months. The troops were kept at different points in the state for eight months, and were mustered out at Chambersburg in the spring of 1864.

Resuming his studies, he graduated from the seminary in the spring of 1865. He then en- tered the Washington and Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pa., of which General Beaver is a graduate, and there he completed the literary course in 1868. Immediately afterward he matric- ulated in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York, from which he graduated, in 1871, with the degree of M. D. For one year he was attending physician at the hospital on Black- well's Island. He then entered the United States navy, by competitive examination in which

FRANK H. GILL.

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

he was successful. For six months he served as physician at the Norfolk navy yards, after which he was assigned to the United States steamship "Wyoming," as assistant surgeon, with the rank of first lieutenant, and the following eighteen months were spent in cruising through the West Indies, in search of blockade runners. In 1873 he resigned his commission and went to New York City, where for eight years he practiced, as resident physician, in the New York Hospital and its sub-department, Bloomingdale Asylum. In 1881 he resigned his position and came to Pueblo, where he has since established a reputa- tion as an experienced and skillful physician, able to cope with disease, in its many varied forms. He is ideutified with the Pueblo Club and was at one time a member of its board of governors. In politics he is a Republican.

In Pueblo occurred the marriage of Dr. Mc- Donald to Mrs. Mary S. (Gumaer) Wells, who was born in New York state, of French extrac- tion, and was the widow of Dr. Wells, of Ovid, Mich. In religion she is connected with the Christian Church. A lady of unusual culture and ability, she has rendered most efficient serv- ice as secretary of the Board of Associated Char- ities, and also as a member of the board of trustees of the Colorado Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Blind, to which position she was ap- pointed by Governor McIntire.

RANK H. GILL, a substantial ranchman of Morgan County, was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., October 21, 1858, a son of William H. and Elmira H. (Otis) Gill. He was one of seven children, and the third among the five now living. Of these Alice M. is the wife of Bruce F. Johnson, who is engaged in the mer- cantile business in Greeley, Colo .; Florence E. also resides in Greeley; William H. is proprietor of a store there; and Marquis B. is superintend- ent of 22 ranch in Washington County, Colo.

The Gill family descends from John Gill, who was born in England about 1620, and emigrated to America between 1638 and 1640, settling in Salisbury, Mass., where he married Miss Phoebe Buswell. Her father, Isaac Buswell, was one of the original owners of the present town site of Salisbury. Samuel, the son of John Gill, was born in Salisbury in 1652, and his son, Daniel, who was born in the same town November 18, 1679, removed to Exeter, R. I., in 1730. Dan- iel, Jr., was born in Exeter, September 25, 1734,

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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 34

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