Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 59

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 59

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October 11, 1864, Judge Breath married Mrs. Amanda Barker, who had come to Boulder County in 1862. She was born in Vermont, be- ing a daughter of Abel and Amanda (Heb- ard) Goss, natives of Lower Waterford, Vt., and Lebanon, N. H., respectively. They were farmers, as were their fathers before them. Grandfather Abel Goss was of the Green Mountain state, and was of English descent.

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Aaron Hebard, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Breath, was a native of New Hampshire. She is one of nine children, five of whom are living. She was first married in 1851 to Jerome Barker, who had come to this county in 1860 (and Mrs. Barker came in 1862), making the trip across the plains, and had settled on a farm near the lower Boulder River. For a year or two he was en- gaged in mining at Russell Gulch. His death occurred in 1863, and his widow was left to manage the large ranch and other property. The only child of the judge and wife, Edward, a youth of much promise, died when in his seventeenth year, in 1881.

In the fraternities Judge Breath is a charter member of Golden City Lodge No. 2, A. F. & A. M., and is now identified with Columbia Lodge No. 14, A. F. & A. M., of Boulder. He assisted in the organization of the Republican party in Illinois, and has never swerved in his allegiance. He is an honored member of the Boulder County Pioneer Association. Both he . and his wife are valned members of the Congre- gational Church, he being one of the deacons and Mrs. Breath being connected with the Ladies' Union of the church.

OBERT FIELDS LEMOND, oculist and aurist, was born at Springfield, Tex., April 9,1852, son of Cyrus M. and Sarah Fields LeMond. His father was a farmer and stock- raiser in comfortable circumstances, who, upon the outbreak of the Civil war, enlisted in the Confederate army, and was elected captain of the second company that was organized in the coun- ty, and served until the close of the war, which, by being away from home and neglecting his private business, reduced him to poverty. He returned to his plantation and stock farm and went to work immediately after the close of the war to recuperate his fortune. Soon after he entered the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and preached for twenty years. His paternal great-grandfather fought as a patriot in the Revo- lutionary war, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Young LeMond worked on his father's farm, where it was quite hard, for a number of years, for the family to make a mere existence. He attended a private school anywhere from two to

four months a year, until he was able to get a certificate as a teacher, when he began teaching small public country schools. After a year or two he entered an academy, where he paid his tuition and board by assisting the president of the school two hours per day. After one term of this kind of work he taught another school or two and then entered Cedar Grove Acad- emy, which was considered at that time the fin- est school in that part of Texas. There he graduated in 1878 with the highest general av- erage that had been given out from that academy in eleven years, being a general average of ninety-eight and seven-tenths. In the same year there was a proposition from the University of Nashville (Tenn.), offering two scholarships to each congressional district of Texas, to be elected by competitive examination, which was main- tained by the Peabody fund, which also paid $25 a month for eight months of each year. Young LeMond was successful in competing for one of these scholarships, and so became a student in the University of Nashville in 1879, where he entered the third year of the university course and graduated in 1881, A. B. He returned to Texas and resumed teaching and began the study of medicine, which he afterwards practiced, grad- uating from the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, Ky., in 1885, and was the fifth in standing in a class of one hundred and forty-six.

In 1887 he attended the Post-Graduate School at St. Louis, taking a special course on the eye and ear, from which place he went to New York City and attended the Post-Graduate School there in the eye and ear department. At the close of the term he was elected as interne to the Man- hattan Eye and Ear Hospital. In 1889 he re- turned to Texas, where he practiced the spe- cialty of diseases of the eye and ear. In 1891 he took another course in the New York Post-Grad- uate Medical School, and while in New York he was, through the recommendation of the faculty there, elected by the Gross Medical College of Denver as professor of the chair of diseases of the eye and ear, which position he still holds, being also a member of the executive faculty of the Gross Medical College.

In April, 1892, Dr. LeMond came to Denver, where he is also surgeon to the eye and ear de- partment of the county and city hospitals, chief surgeon of the Herman Straus Free Clinic, a

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

member of the American Medical Association and all of the Colorado regular medical associa- tions, and is ex-president of the Colorado South- ern Society. He is a contributor to numerous medical journals, and through his learned arti- - cles has acquired national reputation as an ocu- list and aurist.

Dr. LeMond is prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, being Knight Templar, Shriner, and having passed most of the chairs up to past high priest. He is married and has two children, a daughter and son. The doctor has a magnificent business, often having patients seated in his waiting room from three to six dif- ferent states. He has been offered a chair in two different . medical colleges in the last several years, but has declined both propositions. In 1891 the University at Quauah, Tex., conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.

ON. ELIAS M. AMMONS, ex-speaker of the house of representatives of Colorado and senator from El Paso and Douglas Counties, elected on the silver ticket of 1898, is a prominent stock dealer and farmer of the latter county, his home being five and one-half miles south of Little- ton, 01 Plum Creek. He was born on a farm near Franklin, Macon County, N. C., July 28, 1860, and at ten years of age accompanied his parents to Colorado, settling in Denver, where he soon secured employment in a woolen mill. After a few months the family moved to the head of Deer Creek, in Jefferson County, and there for a year he worked on a ranch. Later he engaged in hauling lumber and railroad ties, and skidded from the woods the first five thousand ties of the South Park Railroad. During the entire winter, even when the weather was intensely cold, he worked constantly out of doors, without gloves or overshoes. In fact, he never had a pair of either until he was about grown. He con- tinued lumbering until 1875. Meantime his edu- cational advantages had been very meagre; in- deed, he may be said to have had none at all. However, he was fortunate in having for a father a man who was well educated, and who had been a school teacher and Baptist minister. At the age of fifteen he went to Denver to attend school. He worked in a laundry, intending to use the · money thus earned for the purchase of books, but

was cheated out of his wages. He then secured employment at sawing wood in the wood yard. Finally he was successful in buying the needed books and at once entered the old Arapahoe school, where he began in the fourth grade. Within two weeks he was promoted to a higher grade, and after eighteen months was promoted to the high-school grade. At the age of nineteen he graduated from the East Denver high school. Meantime he had worked nights and Saturdays in order to earn the money for his education. For four years he worked nights lighting the street lamps, and in addition used to gather up discarded tin cans and melt the solder off, and engaged in a number of other schemes for making money. For a time he was employed on the Times, in the circulation department. After graduating he was sent out by the Denver Tribune to write up the boom at Breckenridge. In the fall of 1880 he was accidentally shot in the head, and for some time was incapacitated for duty. Upon his recovery he reported for the Denver Hotel Reporter. Next he was put on the cir- culation staff of the Times, with which paper he continued for four and one-half years. Mr. Woodbury took him into the business office, and when he sold out the new firm assigned him to reportorial work. Soon he began to edit the telegraph for the Times, read the proofs for the paper and was afterwards made city editor, and at the age of twenty-five was made associate editor. Unfortunately, his eyes, which had been affected by the injury of 1880, troubled him to such an extent that he was obliged to resign his position.

Turning his attention to the cattle business, in partnership with Thomas F. Dawson, now private secretary to Senator Teller, our subject began in 1885 with eighty acres of land on the western line of Douglas County, thirty-nine miles from Den- ver. At first they had only twenty-five head of cattle. They now have eight hundred and eighty acres, all in one body, and one hundred and sixty acres on Lost Park Creek, twenty miles from the other tract; also two hundred and sixty- two acres where he now resides, the last purchase of eighty acres costing $4,800. Besides the land owned by them they lease about five thousand acres. In 1898 they sold fourteen hundred head of cattle at $28 per head. Mr. Ammons has al- ways been the active manager of the business.

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In Denver, January 28, 1889, Mr. Ammons married Miss Lizzie Fleming, a sister of James A. Fleming, who at one time owned practically all of South Denver.

Though too young to vote, Mr. Ammons took an active part in the campaign of 1880. He frequently represented the Republican party in conventions, but refused to act as a delegate to the national convention in St. Louis in 1896. On a previous occasion, before he was a voter, he had been chosen as a delegate to state conven- tion, but declined on account of age. In 1890 he became clerk of the district court, but after three months of service resigned. He was then elected to the state legislature after the most exciting campaign in the history of Douglas County. He had as an opponent William Dillon, brother of the famous Irish agitator. Mr. Dillon challenged him to joint debates. He accepted the challenge and vanquished his opponent in Dillon's precinct, while Dillon secured but five votes in his district. Interest was so great that large crowds went from one precinct to another to listen to the debates. In the legislature he was one of three grangers who decided the speakership in the caucus. Mr. Ammons made a strong fight on parliamentary rulings and in this way the impression was created that he was a lawyer. However, he had never studied law a day in his life, but he had debated in literary societies, where he had gained a thorough knowl- edge of parliamentary tactics. In the legislature he served as a member of the judiciary committee. He was instrumental in the passage of the fee and salary bill, the Australian ballot law, appro- priations for state roads in Douglas County and numerous reform measures passed by this general assembly. There was a strong fight made for representation from different counties, and he succeeded in making such arrangements that Douglas, though having insufficient population, was permitted to retain its representation. He was instrumental in electing Senator Teller, of whom he has always been a warm admirer. Among the other members he was credited with being the hardest worker in the house.

At a convention held for a nomination, in 1892, Mr. Ammons received every delegate's vote (ex- cept his own) ou a secret ballot, and was re- elected by an increased majority. He had proved so popular and able as a legislator that it was de-

cided he should make the race for speaker. The Republicans had thirty-three out of sixty-five votes and he was elected to the highest office in the gift of the assembly, being the youngest man ever elected to that position in this state. In his rulings as speaker no appeal was ever sustained, and at the extra session of fifty-two days no ap- peal from his decisions was ever taken, although the session was an exciting one and many matters of importance were brought to him for settlement. On the conclusion of his second term he declined to be a candidate for re-nomination. In 1896 he refused the chairmanship of the state silver Re- publican committee and later in the same year declined the nomination for representative.

September 16, 1898, in the silver Republican senatorial convention of El Paso and Douglas Counties, Mr. Ammons was (without his seeking the position) nominated for senator. The nomina- tion was endorsed by Populists and Democrats. He was nominated on a platform that bound him not to support for United States senator any man who is in the slightest degree suspected of leaning toward the policy of the national Republican party in its advocacy of the single gold standard. In the election that followed, a vigorous campaign, he was elected by more than four thousand ma- jority, carrying every precinct in his own county, as well as getting an enormous majority in his opponent's home county.

Mr. Ammons has several terms been a mem- ber of the state central committee for Douglas County, and twice was chairman of the county central committee. He is now the member of the state central committee from Douglas County and is also chairman of the congressional district committee.

When the national Republican party became a gold standard party, Mr. Ammons followed Mr. Teller out of that party and helped to or- ganize in Colorado the silver Republican party. Indeed, he led the fight in the second con- gressional district convention in 1896 to instruct a bolt from the national convention under the leadership of Senator Teller, in case the expected announcement of the gold standard policy should be made. He was always a stanch believer in the ability of this country to carry out its own policies and is earnestly opposed to any man or party that proposes to ask the consent of foreign governments to the use of the kind of money we

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want for ourselves. He is a man of far more than ordinary ability, with a thorough knowledge of parliamentary laws, and a broad information that makes him a conspicuous figure, both in public and private life.

T SAAC NEWTON STEVENS. Of the men who have been leaders in public affairs, con- tributing to the advancement of the state and wielding large influence in political circles, among the most distinguished is the subject of this sketch. Mr. Stevens has long been a prominent politician, and, first as a Republican, later as an ally of the silver cause, has been an element in party suc- cess. While, as is the case with every man who has taken a firm stand on public questions, he has his political enemies, yet it has never been denied by anyone that he is a counselor of broad knowledge, a politician of keen discrimination, and a man who possesses rare ability in the or- ganization or conduct of a campaign, local or state.

Through his mother Mr. Stevens is a relative of Commodore Perry, the illustrious hero of Lake Erie. He was born in Newark, Ohio, November 1, 1858, the son of Dr. L. A. and Sarah Stevens. In youth he was given excellent advantages in high school and academy, and, had his father lived, he would undoubtedly have enjoyed uni- versity training. But the death of Dr. Stevens terminated his son's schooling at an early age and forced upon him the necessity of self-support. In the winter of 1876-77 he taught a country school in Henderson County, Il1., but in March of 1877 he went to Burlington, Iowa, and entered the office of Hedge & Blythe. He continued to study law until he was twenty-one, when he was admitted to the bar. Coming at once to Colorado, he arrived in Denver June 1, 1880.

Not long aftercoming here Mr. Stevens began to take an active part in politics as a member of the Republican party. For a time he was president of the Lincoln Club. In 1882-83 he served as a member of the Republican executive committee, in 1884-85 was chairman of the city committee, and in 1886-88 secretary of the state committee. Under President Arthur, in 1884, he was appointed assistant United States attorney for Colorado, be- ing the first to fill that position in the state. In 1888 he was chosen district attorney for the sec- ond judicial district, which office he held for three

years, meantime having in hand many important cases, in the management of which he displayed energy and talent. Two of these cases became especially prominent on account of their connec- tion with state officials, one having to do with frauds upon the state treasury, the other impeach- ing the integrity of certain state officials. The prosecution of Harley McCoy for the murder of Inspector Hawley occurred during his term; also a case that gained national note, the trial of Dr. T. Thatcher Graves for the murder of Mrs. Jose- phine Barnaby, of Providence, R. I. In 1892 he was appointed county attorney, and the next year as chairman of the Republican central com- mittee, had charge of the local campaign. As a politician he is a force everywhere. While he has risen or fallen with the cause he has espoused, yet there has never been a time when he has been without influence in the world of public affairs. In every position, and under every circumstance, his skill in solving intricate problems that affect the political status of affairs has made him con- spicuous among even the most gifted men.

LIJAH BOSSERMAN, general manager of the Denver Live Stock Commission Com- pany and its organizer in 1886, was born in Clinton, DeWitt County, Ill., and is of Ger- inan descent. His father, David, was the son of Michael Bosserman, a native of Pennsylvania, and an early settler of Perry County, Ohio, the birthplace of David. About 1859 the latter re- moved to Illinois and engaged in farm pursuits there until 1880, when he went to Superior, Neb., and started a banking business in that place. He is the president of the First National Bank of Su- perior, and, with his sons, owns thirty-two hun- dred acres of land adjoining the city. His sixty- eight years are carried lightly, and he retains the mental acumen and energy of former days. His wife, Catherine Cowan, was born in Ohio and died in Illinois, leaving three sons and two daugh- ters, the latter living in Nuckolls County, Neb., where two of the brothers, Lincoln and John, are engaged in the cattle business.

The oldest member of the family is our subject. He was educated in Clinton and at the age of twenty-one begau farming and dealing in cattle. in De Witt County. Removing to Superior, Neb., in 1881, he entered land in that vicinity and en-

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gaged in the cattle business, buying and selling steers in large numbers, often as many as two to three thousand head per annum. With his father and brothers he organized the Superior Cattle Company of Superior, Neb., and was its manager until removing to Denver. He still owns large tracts near Superior and is a stock- holder in the First National Bank there. In 1886 he conceived the idea of incorporating a stock company and interested C. J. Duff, F. P. Ernst and H. M. Porter in the plan, soon after- ward forming the Denver Live Stock Commission Company, which was the first company to locate at the Union stock yards of Denver. They carry on strictly a commission business, furnishing money to feeders, etc., and running average sales of from $300,000 to $500,000.

Fraternally Mr. Bosserman is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias at Superior and the Benevo- lent Protective Order of Elks at Denver. He is an active member of the chamber of commerce and board of trade, and is identified with the Colo- rado Cattle Growers' Association. Politically he upholds Republican principles. In Illinois he married Miss Laura Watt, who died in Denver, leaving five children: Alonzo, Cyril, Barco, Ethel and Gladys. His second marriage took place in Denver and united him with Mrs. Min- nie Youmans, of Kansas City.

ON. J. W. BARNES, secretary of the state board of arbitration and for nine years judge of Jefferson County, came to Colorado in 1874, and for four years served as superintendent of the schools of Fort Collins. On coming to Golden in 1879 he accepted a similar position in the schools here, and while discharging his dn- ties as superintendent also engaged in reading law, the study of which he had begun some years before. He was admitted to the bar of Colorado in1 1882 and the following year resigned his con- nection with the schools in order to engage in practice, which he carried on from June, 1883, to January, 1884. Meantime he had been elected county judge on the Democratic ticket, and the first of 1884 he took the oath of office. He filled the position so ably and satisfactorily that he was twice re-elected, holding the office until January, 1893. At once after his retirement from office

he resumed his law practice and he has since es- tablished an enviable reputation as a lawyer. He is a recognized authority on irrigation law and water rights.

The Barnes family is of English extraction and its first representatives in this country settled in New England. Thomas Barnes, who lived at Portsmouth, N. H., was a seafaring man, the master of a vessel of his own, and all of his sons but James were sailors and took part in the naval affairs of the war of 1812. James, who selected agriculture for his life work, was born in Ports- mouth, N. H., and moved with his father to Ox- ford County, Me., where he spent his remaining years upon a farm. His son, Nahum, father of Judge Barnes, was born in Oxford County, and engaged in farming there until his death, which took place at forty-eight years. For some time previons he had been serving as a selectman. His wife, Clarissa, was a daughter of Capt. Thomas Mathews, who was captain of a whaler that sailed from New Bedford; he died at sea. His father was of English birth and founded the family in this country. Mrs. Barnes was born in Oxford County and is still living there, being now eighty years of age. She was the mother of four children, of whom our subject and two daughters in Oxford County are now living.

In Oxford County, Me., the subject of this sketch was born March 22, 1850. He was edu- cated in the public schools and private acade- mies of the vicinity. At the age of eighteen, in 1868, he went to Iowa, where he taught at Earlville for one year. He then went to Minne- sota and was superintendent of the schools of Glencoe and Litchfield for five years. In 1874 he came to Colorado, where he has since resided.

On the creation of the board of arbitration by the legislature of 1897 it was stipulated that three men be appointed, one from the ranks of employ- ers of labor, another from the Labor Union and the third impartial. Governor Adams appointed Judge Barnes for the third member and he was made secretary of the board. His services in this capacity have been able and satisfactory. In political belief he has always adhered to the Dem- ocratic doctrines. He is a member and past master of Golden City Lodge No. 1, A. F. & A. M., a member and past high priest of Golden Chapter No. 5, R. A. M., also a member and past chancellor commander of Lodge No. 10,

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K. P., of Golden. While living in Fort Collins he married Miss Leonore Lawson, who was born in Indianapolis, received an excellent education in the east, and previous to her marriage was engaged as a teacher in the Fort Collins schools. They have had two children, but one died in infancy, and the other, John L., when twelve years of age.

ON. JAMES C. EVANS, member of the state senate from Larimer County and one of the most influential men of Fort Collins, was born in Mount Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, August 22, 1845, and is a descendant of an old Pennsylvania family. His father, Thomas Evans, a native of Berks County, Pa., removed to Ohio aud settled about 1835 in Knox County, where he engaged in farming. He was ninety- two years of age at the time of his death in 1892. His wife, Ann, was born in Knox County, whither her father, Robert Cooper, had removed from Pennsylvania. She was married twice, and had five sons by her first husband, and James C. was the only child born to her union with Mr. Evans. One of her sons by her first marriage, George Rogers, entered the Ohio Infantry as a lieutenant during the Civil war and rose to the rank of brevet brigader-general; he died in Ohio. Two brothers of Mrs. Evans have for years been engaged in the manufacture of machinery at Mount Vernon, Ohio, under the firm title of Cooper Brothers.

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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 59

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