Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 44

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 44

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Three miles from the foot of Geneva Lake, at Bigfoot, Walworth County, Wis., the subject of this sketch was born in June, 1839, a son of James A. and Susan V. (Clark) Maxwell, and a grandson of Col. James Maxwell, who was a pio- neer of Walworth County, a merchant by occu- pation, a member of the territorial legislature and colonel of the Wisconsin state militia, dying in Wisconsin at eighty years of age. His brother, Philip Maxwell, M. D., was one of the prominent physicians in the early days of Chicago.

For some years James A. Maxwell was a large land holder, a successful merchant and a promi- nent man in the public affairs of Walworth County, but removed from there to Sauk County, and from there came to Colorado in 1860. He assisted in the construction of the Boulder and Blackhawk wagon road, which he operated for a time, but sold to the railroad company on the building of the railroad through the canon. In early days he also engaged in the sawmill business in Boulder. He was a consistent and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. One Thursday evening in 1892 he at- tended the regular weekly prayer-meeting, walk- ing three-quarters of a mile to the church. He seemed in his usual health at the meeting and when it had closed he walked home, where he sat down in a rocking chair, with his feet on the fender, a paper in his hands, and his glasses ou. In that position he was found, dead, the follow- ing morning. He had passed peacefully away, at the close of a service in the church he had helped to organize, and in his home, surrounded by every comfort, and apparently without any pain. He was twice married. His first wife, Miss Clark, accompanied her parents from New York to Indiana, thence to Wisconsin, where she remained until her demise. She was the mother of six children, viz .: Emma, Mrs. H. H. Potter, of Baraboo, Sauk County, Wis .; James P .; Charles A., of Boulder; Ophelia, Mrs. George H. Rust, who died in Boulder; Ellen, wife of William Hill, of Missouri; and Augusta, wife of J. V. Pierce, of Kansas City.

In 1854 the subject of this sketch entered the Lawrence University at Appleton, Wis., where he was graduated in 1859 with the degree of A.B. In 1860 he joined his father, who had preceded . him to Omaha, and together they journeyed with horses over the plains, reaching Denver

320

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

June 10, after a journey of six weeks. They went to Central City and Nevadaville, thence to Lump Gulch and engaged in placer mining. In 1860 our subject was elected sheriff of Gold Dirt district, serving for one year, and then for a simi- lar period engaged in lode mining at Leaven- worth Gulch. In 1863, with Captain Tyler, his brother-in-law, he embarked in the lumber busi- ness on South Boulder Creek, putting up a mill, and engaging in the manufacture of lumber of all kinds. This lumber he sold in Blackhawk, Central City and Cheyenne. Also, in partnership with his father, he operated, by water power, a mill at the mouth of Four Mile Creek. In 1867 he moved from South Boulder to the mouth of Four Mile, three miles from Boulder, and from there in 1870 he came to Boulder. For several years, as deputy United States mineral and land surveyor, he made surveys of the public lands of the state. In 1872 he was elected to the territo- rial legislature from Boulder, two years later was re-elected, and in 1876 was made a member of the first state senate. From 1882 to 1888 he en- gaged in government surveying in western Colo- rado, and from 1888 to 1893 he acted as state en- gineer, under appointment by Governors Cooper and Routt. As state engineer he had charge and control of the irrigation of the state, and the ap- propriations made for public improvements by two legislatures, amounting to about $200,000 each term, of which amount, by economical ex- penditures, he returned about $100,000 each two years. Appropriations for bridge building, road construction and reservoir building were made at his discretion and under his supervision. He gave personal oversight to every contract and its com- pletion, and such roads and bridges asked for, but not deemed actual necessities by himself, , were not built.

For the past ten years Mr. Maxwell has been engaged in the cattle business, and owns ranches and real estate. He laid out Maxwell's addition of fifteen acres on the mesa, a fine site, and was vice-president of the Mapleton Company that laid out forty acres. With others, in 1888, he be- gan the construction of the Silver Lake ditch, the highest ditch of Boulder canon, covering about two hundred acres of his land; irrigation has made of this section a valuable fruit tract. He is president of the Silver Lake Ditch Com- pany, and through his efforts an abundance of

water has been given to this property. He has also stocked Silver Lake with fish and is making of the lake and surrounding country a fine resort. For fifteen years he was president of the Steam- boat Springs Company, that laid out Steamboat Springs in Routt County. He is still interested in mining and prospecting in different parts of the state. Besides his other interests, he is the owner of Maxwell block, on Pearl near Twelfth street, Boulder.

In Gilpin County, Colo., Mr. Maxwell married Miss Francelia O. Smith, who was born near Milwaukee, Wis. Her father, Nelson K. Smith, was long a resident of Wisconsin (see sketch elsewhere in this work) and came to Colorado in - 1860, engaging in the sawmill business, in manu- facturing enterprises and in the construction of a toll road from Golden to Central. He died in Boulder in 1896. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell are named as follows: Clint J., who is in charge of his father's ranches and also carries on a stock business; Mark N., who is a drug- gist in Boulder; Helen M., who studied German and music under the best instructors in Germany; and Marie O., wife of Prof. Charles R. Burger, instructor of mathematics in the East Denver high school.

Fraternally Mr. Maxwell is connected with Boulder Lodge No. 14, A. F. & A. M., in which he is past master; Boulder Chapter No. 7, R. A. M., in which he is past high priest; Mount Sinai Commandery No. 7, K. T., in which he is past eminent commander, and was grand commander of the grand commandery of Colorado for one year; the consistory in Denver and El Jebel Temple, N. M. S. For some years he acted as president of the state forestry association and is now a member of the State Historical Society. For several terms he has held the office of presi- dent of the Boulder County Pioneer Society and he is also identified with the Society of Colorado Pioneers.

SAAC LAMB BOND, M. D., a resident of Boulder since 1871, came to Colorado in that year with the Chicago-Colorado Colony, which located Longmont, but instead of making the new town his permanent location he settled in Boulder and has since made this city his home. He engaged in the practice of his profession for only five years after coming west, and is now re-

321

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

tired from active participation in professional work or in business. For one term he acted as mayor of Boulder. He took no active part in poli- tics until populism sprang up; he opposes this doctrine with all his intellect and influence, giv- ing his support to Republican principles and working for their success.

The Bond family was founded in Massachu- setts about two hundred years ago, coming there from England. The doctor's father, George S., was a son of George Bond, a farmer of Worcester County; he was born in Brimfield, Hampden County, but was reared in Leicester, Worcester County, where he has since resided, being now eighty-three years of age. He married Eliza Lamb, who was born in Worcester County and still lives there, being now eighty years of age. She was a daughter of Isaac and Abigail (White) Lamb, natives of Spencer, Worcester County. Her father, who was born in 1765 and died in 1853, took part in the Revolution and later was major of militia. Her grandfather, John Lamb, was born in Massachusetts in 1727 and died in 1796; he was a son of Jonathan Lamb, a native of Boston, who settled in Worcester County in 1726 and served as a lieutenant in the early colo- nial wars. Jonathan's father, Joshua, came from England to Massachusetts and held the rank of colonel in early wars.

The family of George S. and Eliza Bond con- sisted of two children, the older being Mrs. Maria Kent, of Worcester. The younger, who forms the subject of this sketch, was born in Leicester, Mass., March 31, 1841. He received his educa- tion in the Leicester Academy and the State Nor- mal School, from both of which he graduated. He then taught school at Holyoke, Mass., for three years, after which he took up the study of medi- cine with Dr. Blodgett, of Holyoke, and later studied in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, from which he graduated in 1866, with the degree of M. D. Opening an office in Wor- cester County he continued in practice there until 1871, when he came to Boulder. After five years here he retired from practice on account of poor health and since then he has engaged in mining, farming and banking.

In 1887 Dr. Bond organized the Boulder Elec- tric Light Company, of which he served as presi- dent for eight years and which has had a very successful history. In 1884 he assisted in the or- .

ganization of the Boulder National Bank and served as its vice-president from that time until 1891, after which he acted as cashier for two years. He is still connected with the bank as a stockholder. He has dealt extensively in mining properties and has also engaged in mining. As an irrigation farmer, he was interested in the building of some of the first ditches in the St. Vrain Valley, and was president of a number of the companies. Much of his land lies in Boulder County and consists of improved ranching prop- erty.

The marriage of Dr. Bond, solemnized in New York City, united him with Arabella, daughter of James and Anna (Watson) Coates, and a sis- ter of the present postmaster of Boulder. She possesses many admirable qualities and is a lady of refinement. A stanch Republican, Dr. Bond has been a member of the state central committee, was chairman of the county committee 1894-96, served as mayor of Boulder in 1891-93; and was his party's candidate for state senator in 1892, but was defeated by the Populists. He has done much to advance the welfare of his party, among whose members he is very popular.

ON. ADAIR WILSON, associate judge of the Colorado State Court of Appeals, was born in 1841 in what is now Cambridge, Saline County, Mo., and is of Scotch-Irish lineage. His_paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland to the United States and after a short so- journ in Pennsylvania went to the Shenandoah Valley, of Virginia, where he was engaged as a planter until his death. He had a brother, James, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, also of the Constitution, by pro- fession an attorney, and under appointment by President Washington chosen to fill the position of justice of the supreme court of the United States.

The grandfather of our subject, William Wil- son, was born in Virginia, and took part in the Revolution when a young man. Many years later, in 1824, he removed to Missouri and settled upon a farm near Glasgow, Howard County, where he lived retired until his death. The young- est of his large family was William A., a native of Augusta County, Va., and in early life a mer- chant, but later a student of law with his brother,

322

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Gen. John Wilson, who had preceded the family to Missouri and had served in the war of 1812. William was admitted to the bar in Saline County and opened an office in Marshall, where he was a pioneer and prominent attorney. For years he was clerk of all the courts there. When the Civil war broke out he was somewhat advanced in years, but enlisted in the state militia and was made lieutenant-colonel of a regiment, serving until the close of the war, but the exposure of camp life caused his death soon afterwards. He was then about fifty-seven years of age. Frater- nally he was a Mason.

Our subject's mother was Mary E. Reeves, a native of Todd County, Ky., and now living in Marshall, Mo. She is the descendant of English and Scotch-Irish ancestors, who early settled in Virginia. Her father, Col. Benjamin H. Reeves, was born in Augusta County, Va., but about the close of the eighteenth century, when in in- fancy, he removed to Kentucky with his parents. His father had served in the Revolution and he took part, asa captain, in the war of 1812, being of the greatest assistance to the cause in Indiana and Kentucky and relieving Zachary Taylor when the latter was besieged near Lafayette. During his residence in Kentucky he was for many years a member of the legislature. In 1818 he removed to Missouri, where he was a member of the constitutional convention, later state senator from his district, and afterward lieutenant-governor of the state for one term. He was one of the commissioners appointed by the president of the United States to locate the Santa Fe trail. Both while in Kentucky - and Missouri he was active in the skirmishes with the Indians, and during the Iowa Indian war he was colonel of a regiment. He died in 1849, at the age of sixty-two years. Politically he had been an ardent supporter of Henry Clay and the Whig party.

The family of which our subject is a member consisted of seven children, he being third in order of birth. One brother, Benjamin H., was a captain in a Missouri regiment during the Civil war and is now a resident of Denver. Our subject was reared in Marshall and received his education in the Masonic College, from which he graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1858, when less than seventeen years of age, being the youngest member of his class. He studied law

under an uncle, Judge Abiel Leonard, who was at one time judge of the supreme court of Mis- souri. In 1860 he was admitted to the bar at Marshall and in the spring of the following year came to Denver, making the trip overland with teams. After a few weeks he proceeded west- ward to California and located in San Francisco, where his uncle, Gen. John Wilson, was a prom- inent attorney. The uncle and nephew practiced together for two years, then the latter went to Virginia City, Nev., and embarked in the news- paper business as city editor of the Virginia City Union, at the same time that Mark Twain was city editor of the Enterprise. After one year he went to Austin, Nev., where he was the first editor of the Reese River Reveille, a paper that is still being published. Resigning his position a year later, he went back to San Francisco and resumed the practice of law. His father dying in 1867, he re- turned to Missouri to look after the estate, and opened an office in Marshall, where he practiced until 1872.

Coming again to Colorado in 1872, our subject located in Pueblo, where he practiced for a year. He was among the earliest settlers in the San Juan mining region and located at Del Norte, which became the county seat. In 1875 he was elected the first member of the territorial council from the San Juan country, comprising five or six counties, and served during the last session of the legis- lature of the territory, being chosen as president of the body. In 1876 he was a delegate to the national Democratic convention at St. Louis that nominated Samuel J. Tilden for president, and during the ensuing election was one of the Demo- cratic candidates for presidential elector voted for by the legislature of Colorado. During the same year he was nominated for judge of the fourth judicial district, but declined the nomination. In 1880 he was tendered the Democratic nomination for governor, in the convention held at Leadville, but refused to accept. Six years later he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for state senator from the San Juan district and was the only one on the Democratic ticket elected, the district being Republican. His term of service covered the years 1887-90, during which time he introduced many bills of importance. In 1887 he opened an office in Durango, where he has since resided. At the convention in Chicago in 1896 he was elected a member of the Democratic

HON. JAMES W. MCCREERY.

325

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

national committee. In April, 1897, Governor ried Rachel Miller, by whom he had two chil- Adams appointed him to the position he now dren, Silas H. and Alexander H. His second holds, that of associate judge of the court of wife is still living. appeals. He is a member of the Pioneers' As- sociation of San Juan, and fraternally is connected with the Masonic lodge of Del Norte. In Arrow Rock, Saline County, Mo., he married Miss Margaret E. Edwards, who was born in Pettis County, that state, being the daughter of Philip W. Edwards, who was born in Kentucky in 1800, removed to Missouri in an early day and en- gaged in business there until his death. This union was blessed with the following children: Katharine W., who married Austin H. Brown; Edwards Adair, Alva Adams and Margaretta.

ON. JAMES W. MCCREERY, state sena- tor, and one of the ablest attorneys not only of Greeley, but of the entire state as well, was born in Indiana County, Pa., July 13, 1850, a son of William G. and Mary (Work ) McCreery. His paternal grandfather, William McCreery, was born in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1772, of Scotch descent, and emigrated to America in 1793, settling in Indiana County, Pa., where, in 1804, he married Margaret McLain, born in America in 1781. He was a son of Samuel Mc- Creery, who came to America at the same time with a brother and sister; their father, Samuel, Sr., was a native of Scotland, who removed thence to Ireland.

In Pennsylvania, where he was born July 4, 1821, William G. McCreery devoted his active years to farming, and he is still living on the family homestead in Indiana County. He has been a Republican since the organization of the party. The only office he ever accepted was that of school director, in which position he aided the public schools. To the work of the United Pres- byterian Church he has for years given liberally of his time and means, and been one of its faith- ful members. His first marriage united him with Mary, daughter of James Work. They became the parents of seven children, four of whom are living, viz .: Margaret E., James W .; Samuel Fletcher, who is engaged in the insurance busi- ness in Greeley; and Robert C., a farmer resid- ing at Fort Morgan, Colo. Mrs. Mary McCreery died in 1860, and afterward Mr. McCreery mar-

In local schools, an academy and the State Normal in Indiana County the subject of this article received his education. While teaching for several years he devoted his leisure hours to the study of law. In December, 1880, he was admitted to the bar, and in the spring of 1881 came west to Greeley, reaching here on the Ist of June. He was pleased with the location and de- termined to make the city his permanent home. Confining himself to civil law, he has succeeded in that line of the profession and has built up a remunerative practice. By his energy and native ability he has placed himself in the front rank of the bar of northern Colorado. In all the promi- nent irrigation cases that have come up in the past seventeen years he has been interested, and a fair percentage of these he has won. During the same time he has also been connected with all irrigation legislation. His practice extends throughout the entire state, and in 1897 he was called to Illinois to take charge of an important will case involving $500,000.

An ardent Republican, Mr. McCreery has been active in almost all of the county and state con- ventions. In 1888 he was elected to the state senate from the district then comprising Weld, Logan and Washington Counties. During the four years that followed he made an enviable record as a legislator. One of his most impor- tant works was the introduction and passage of a bill providing for the establishment of the State Normal School at Greeley, a school intended for the preparation of teachers in the common schools of the state. For the past eight years he has been a trustee of the institution, and during part of the time served as president of the board.

In 1896 he was again nominated for the senate and was elected by a plurality of nearly nine hundred. In the session that followed he was one of the most prominent members, and as a member of the committee on finance took a firm stand for retrenchment in public expenses, and openly advocated reform in such expenditures. Having made the subject of finance a close study, he was well fitted for that kind of work.

One noticeable trait in Mr. McCreery's char- acter is his kindness to young men just starting out as attorneys. Many a one owes to his sym-

326

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

pathetic interest the start in the profession to which he owed his later success. In 1897, when the rules relative to admission to the bar were drafted again and a committee appointed to act as a board of law examiners, the supreme court of the state named him as a member. He practices before all the courts, including the supreme court of the United States. In addition to his other practice he is attorney for the First National Bank of Greeley and for ex-Governor Eaton in the latter's irrigation matters.

In religion he is connected with the Presby- terian Church. August 27, 1883, he married Mary M., daughter of Mathew Arbuckle, of Madison, Ind. They are the parents of four children now living: Mary, Donald, Edith and Dorothy.

RANK C. AVERY, president of the First National Bank of Fort Collins and a resident of Colorado since 1870, was born in Cayuga County, N. Y., at Ledyard, near Cayuga Lake, April 8, 1849, a son of Edgar and Eliza (Worth- ing) Avery. He is a descendant, on the pater- nal side, of a pioneer family of New England. His grandfather, Benjamin Avery, who was born in New London, Conn., went to Cayuga County, N. Y., at the age of eighteen years, and began the improvement of a farm from the wilderness. At the time he settled there Auburn had but two houses, and they were built of logs. He engaged in farming and stock-raising until his death. His son, Edgar, who was born and reared in Cayuga County, removed from there to Colorado and died in Greeley in 1887. His wife died in Fort Collins in 1897. She was a daughter of Rev. Jonathan Worthing, a pioneer minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for some time a presiding elder of that denomination. He died in Binghamton, N. Y.

The subject of this sketch was second among five children. His older brother, Edward, is liv- ing in Fort Collins. Louise, the wife of Alex- ander Mead, resides in Greeley; George is a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, now stationed in Fort Collins; and William, who came to Colorado about 1880, became a land owner in Larimer County and was also connected with the First National Bank until his death, in 1890. Our subject attended Cazenovia Seminary. Upon completing the engineer's course he joined the

Union colony and came to Greeley, where he ar- rived May 9, 1870. He made the surveys and laid out the town; also surveyed the ditches. After eighteen months in that place, in the fall of 1871, he located near La Porte, Larimer County, where he embarked in the stock business. In 1872 he made the original plat and laid out the town of Fort Collins, changing the old town as much as possible in order to make the streets run straight. He became interested in the real-estate business here, and was among the first to im- prove and sell town lots. In the fall of 1872 he was elected county surveyor and in 1874 was re- elected. The first noticeable growth of the city took place in 1873, after which its development was steady. As long as the colony existed he continued its engineer.

In January, 1880, Mr. Avery organized the Larimer County Bank, a state institution, with a capital stock of $30,000, and himself as presi- dent. After a few months the name was changed to the First National Bank and the capitalization was increased to $50,000. In addition to build- ing the first bank building, he also erected ten stores near the bank, comprising the Avery block, and a commodious and substantial stone residence, set in the midst of large grounds. He had a one-fourth interest in the building of the opera house, and has aided in the improvement of other property. In a number of ditch com- panies he has been largely interested, serving as president of several. Through his efforts was organized the Water Supply and Storage Con- pany of Fort Collins, of which he is still a di- rector. This company built the most expensive ditch for its length in the entire state, having spent $100,000 in blasting through the solid rock in order to bring the ditch over the Snowy range, nine thousand feet elevation, for feeding the Larimer County ditch. The company also built two large reservoirs, which, after two years of work, were completed in 1893. For this work he made the preliminary survey. He is interested in ranches in Larimer and Weld Counties, and owns several sections which he has fenced and improved. In the organization of the Akin Live Stock Company he took an active part. They feed about six thousand sheep and own a number of fine thoroughbred horses.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 44

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