Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 6

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 6

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).

Fraternally Mr. Byers is past master of Denver Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M., past high priest of Denver Chapter No. 2, R. A. M., and for two terms grand high priest of the grand chapter of Colorado. On the organization of the Knights Templar Commandery in Denver, he was elected the first candidate for the orders in Colorado and later was elected eminent commander and served as such several years. In the organization of the Pioneer Society he took an active part, and served as its first secretary, later was president for several years. Some years after the organiza- tion in 1859 the records were lost and in 1866 the society was re-organized. He is president of the Colorado State Historical and Natural History Society which has the best collection of cliff dwellers' relics in the world.

From this resumé of the life of Mr. Byers it will be seen that he has borne a very active part in the growth of Denver and indeed of the state itself. His sympathy and support have always been given to measures calculated to promote the welfare of the people. In earlier days the influ- ence of his pen was given toward the advance- ment of the city; later, through other ways, he has been no less potent in securing the promotion

of public-spirited and progressive projects. It is doubtful if, in a review of the eminent men of the state, there could be found a man who has done more than he in the promotion of the state's welfare from the early settlement of Colorado to the present time.

ON. FRED DICK, A. M., formerly state superintendent of schools of Colorado, now principal of the Denver Normal and Pre- G paratory School, was born in the town of Aurora, Erie County, N. Y., May 17, 1852. He is the descendant of ancestors who came from Holland and settled in Pennsylvania in an early day. His father, J. B., who was a native of New York and a farmer by occupation, was, under Presi- dent Lincoln, appointed assessor of internal reve- nue in western New York, his territory embrac- ing fourteen counties. He held the position until Andrew Johnson became president, when he re- signed. Under the administration of General Grant he was re-appointed to the same position in the internal revenue department, and filled it with credit until his death in 1871.

The mother of Mr. Dick was Ann Eliza Pratt, daughter of Luke N. Pratt, a native of Connecticut, and member of an old family in that state, her father removing to Erie County, N. Y., and be- coming a pioneer farmer. She died in that county, leaving two sons and two daughters, two of whom, our subject and Mrs. A. M. Hawley, of Canon City, reside in Colorado. The former, who was next to the eldest in the family, was educated in Aurora Academy, and taught for two years in district schools prior to entering Hamil- ton College in 1871. Immediately upon his graduation in 1875, with the degree of A. B., he was appointed principal of Hamburg Academy, and two years later accepted a more favorable position as principal of the Gowanda (N. Y.) schools. In 1880 he was admitted to the bar and for three years practiced law in Buffalo, N. Y.

Removing to Colorado in the fall of 1883, Mr. Dick accepted the superintendency of the Trini- dad schools, where he remained for five years, and during two years of this time he served both as county and city superintendent. He was the first Republican who was elected county superin- tendent in Las Animas County. At the state election in 1888 he was elected by the Repub-

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

lican party to the office of state superintendent of schools, which position he filled with credit for one term. During his term of office he laid the corner stone of the State Normal School at Gree- ley.

The Denver Normal and Preparatory School, of which Mr. Dick is principal, was founded by himself, and was the first school of the kind es- tablished in the state. It is a most creditable educational institution, and has received the highest endorsements from educators. Until the Ist of May, 1898, the school was located in the Kittredge building, but at that time it was moved to the Normal building, Nos. 1543-45 Glenarm street. It has seven complete departments, viz .: Normal, for the training of public school teachers; Kindergarten, with life diplomas, valid through- out the state of Colorado; College preparatory, fitting pupils for Yale and Harvard, or any other leading educational institution; Grade depart- ment, where instruction is given in any of the eight grades of the grammar schools; Modern language department; Commercial department, and department of oratory, physical culture and dramatic art. The faculty consists of Mr. Dick, R. M. Streeter, Margaret Grabill, Fordyce P. Cleaves, Mrs. R. M. Streeter, Nelson Rhoades, Jr., Henry Reade, W. J. Whiteman, and Mina McCord Lewis. A special summer term of five weeks is held each year. The Denver Commer- cial Institute has been incorporated with the Normal school, and furnishes instruction in sten- ography, bookkeeping, typewriting, Spanish, commercial law and arithmetic, and general cor- respondence.

In addition to his work in connection with the school, Mr. Dick is treasurer of the Rocky Moun- tain School Aid & Supply Company. He was the founder of the Rocky Mountain Educator, a monthly journal devoted to the interests of teach- ers, students, school directors and educational institutions of the Rocky Mountain region. Of this he is now the editor and manager. The journal is high in its standard and interesting and comprehensive, and is now nearing its fourth volume as a successful paper for educators. Po- litically Mr. Dick is a Republican, and has at- tended every state convention, with one excep- tion, since his residence in Colorado. He and his wife are members of the Unity Church. At one time he was president of the State Teachers'

Association of Colorado, and is a member of the Colorado School Masters' Club, the National Educational Association (of which he has been state manager) and the Educational Alliance. Fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, being a charter member of the latter lodge in Trinidad.

In Erie County, N. Y., June 29, 1876, Mr. Dick married Miss Florence E. Sprague, who was born in that county, a daughter of Norman B. Sprague. She is a very intellectual woman, was a charter member of the Woman's Club of Denver, and is now president of the educational department of that organization. Their only child, Florence E., died in Trinidad when nine years of age.

ON. GEORGE W. BAXTER, one of the most prominent representatives of the cattle industry in the Rocky Mountain region, is the subject of this sketch, who is the owner of the Baxter ranch, six and one-half miles in extent, and situated on Horse Creek on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, near Cheyenne. Here he is engaged in raising full-blooded Hereford cattle, as fine as any to be found in the west. Since 1888 he has been identified with the West- ern Union Beef Company (now the Western Live Stock and Land Company), of which he is presi- dent and manager, and which is incorporated under the laws of Colorado.

Mr. Baxter was born in Henderson, N. C., and is a grandson of William Baxter, a native of Ireland, who came to America and settled in Charleston, S. C., at seventeen years of age, but later removed to Rutherford, N. C., where he became owner of a plantation. He married Miss Katherine I,ee. Their son, John Baxter, was born in Rutherford in 1819 and became an attor- ney. When his son, our subject, was two years of age he removed to Knoxville, Tenn., where he became a prominent lawyer. He was a meni- ber of the constitutional convention of Tennessee in 1870, at which time the present constitution was adopted. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes as one of the United States cir- cuit judges, his territory being the sixth circuit, embracing Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky and Mich- igan. He was filling that office at the time of his death, in the spring of 1886, when he was

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

sixty-seven years of age. During the war he ad- hered to the Union. His was a turbulent career, for his talents brought him into prominence during the critical period of our nation's history.

The mother of our subject was Orra Ann Alex- ander, who was born in Asheville, N. C., the daughter of Mitchell Alexander by his marriage to Nancy Foster, both natives of Virginia. Her grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution and lost a limb in one engagement. The family is of Scotch descent. Mrs. Baxter died in 1859. She was the mother of four sons and three daughters, all of whom are living but two daughters. The third of these was George W., who was born January 7, 1855. He was educated in the Uni- versity of Tennessee at Knoxville and the Uni- versity of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. In May, 1873, he entered the Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in June, 1877, and was then assigned to the Third United States Cavalry as second lieutenant of Company H, with which he served in Wyoming, Dakota and Ne- braska. In July, 1881, immediately after his promotion to first lieutenant, he resigned from the service and turned his attention to ranching. In 1886 President Cleveland appointed him gov- ernor of Wyoming, but becoming involved in a controversy with his immediate superior, the secretary of the interior, he resigned after filling the office three months. In 1889 he was a mem- ber of the constitutional convention that adopted the present constitution of Wyoming, and after the admission of the state, in 1890, he was the Democratic candidate for governor, but the state being Republican by a large majority his candi- dacy was with no expectation of success. He made Cheyenne his home until 1895, when he came to Denver, and has since resided in this city.

At Knoxville, Tenn., in 1880, Mr. Baxter married Miss Margaret McGhee, who was born there and received her education in Georgetown Academy, Washington, D. C., and in Europe. She was a daughter of Charles M. McGhee, who was closely identified with railroad interests in Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter are the parents of five children, Cornelia, Margaret, Katherine, Charles McGhee and George. The family attend St. Mark's Episcopal Church. Fraternally Mr. · Baxter is connected with Cheyenne Lodge No. 1, A. F. & A. M., the Royal Arch Chapter and

Knight Templar Commandery, also El Jebel Temple, N. M. S., of Denver. He is still a member of the Association of Graduates of West Point.

ON. JOHN W. NESMITH. There is no concern of its kind which has become more prominently known throughout the state than the Colorado Iron Works Company, of Den- ver, which was established in 1860, and incor- porated in 1876 and again in 1896. In January, 1879, Mr. Nesmith accepted the position of super- intendent and continued in that capacity until 1886, when, he and his family having acquired the larger portion of the stock, he was made president and has since been in active manage- ment of the plant. At the time he became con- nected with the works, they were small and un- important, and it is due almost wholly to his en- terprise and judicious management that he has now one of the largest mining machinery factories in the west. The three hundred and fifty men em- ployed at the works assist in the manufacture of copper, silver and lead smelting furnaces. The company has built most of the important smelters from Helena to the City of Mexico; they also build mills and manufacture works for the treatment of ores of precious metals. In 1881 the shops were destroyed by fire, but were rebuilt soon at the same place, Thirty-third and Wynkoop streets.

The Remolino Coffee and Sugar Company was established in 1893, with Mr. Nesmith as presi- dent, and his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. F. L. McFarland, as associates in the en- terprise. They own a coffee plantation situated south of the Gulf of Mexico, on the Coatzacoalcos River, on the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, state of Vera Cruz, Mexico. In addition to the manage- ment of the plantation, they operate, for general traffic, a steamboat on the river, the vessel being small, but as large as the exigencies of that traffic demand. Not only on account of his business in- terests there, but also because he is fond of travel, Mr. Nesmith has visited almost every point of interest in Mexico. Of late years he has taken up the study of the Spanish language, in which he has gained such proficiency as to construction and grammar that he can read and write the lan- guage correctly and with facility.

From Parker's history of Londonderry, N. H.,

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

page 290, we quote the following regarding the pedigree of the Naesmyth, Nasmyth or Nesmith family (for in these various ways the name has been spelled):

I :- "James Nesmith emigrated from River Bann, Londonderry, Ireland, to America, in 1718. He was one of the first sixteen settlers of Londonderry, N. H., a highly respectable mem- ber of the colony and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He married, in Ireland, Elizabeth McKeen, and by her had children: Arthur, James, John, Thomas and Elizabeth.

"Arthur (1), who was born in Ireland, settled in Maine, and had children: James, John, Benja- min and Mary. This James (son of Arthur I) served in the Revolution in the company com- manded by Capt. George Reid; was at the battle of Bunker Hill; afterwards was promoted to cap- tain and commanded a company in Canada; and also in Rhode Island under General Sullivan. He was frank and generous in disposition, digni- fied, and was distinguished for intrepedity, ac- tivity and muscular strength.

"James Nesmith (2), son of James (1), was also born in Ireland and was also in Captain Reid's company as a Revolutionary soldier. He · lived at Londonderry, and had children: James, who, married Martha McClure, and was an elder in the church; Jonathan, who married Eleanor Dickey and removed to Antrim in 1778 and was an elder in the church; Robert, who married Jane Anderson; and John, who married Eliza- beth, sister of Gen. George Reid, and died at Londonderry in 1815, aged eighty-seven. John and Elizabeth left the following-named children: James, who married Elizabeth Brewster, of An- trim; Arthur, who married May Duncan and moved to Ohio; John; and Thomas, born 1731, who married Annie Wilson, settled at Windham, near Londonderry, and had children.

"John Nesmith (3) was born November 26, 1766, at Londonderry, N. H. Lived on the homestead. Married February 28, 1797, Susan (Sukey) Hildreth, who was born at London- derry, June 22, 1777; they left children: John Pinkerton, Isabella, Samuel Hildreth, James P., Mary, Thomas and Elizabeth.

"Samuel Hildreth Nesmith (3), born August 21, 1803, at Londonderry, N. H., married April 19, 1831, Priscilla Brown at Circleville, Ohio. The father died in Angust, 1876, and the mother

July 10, 1851. They had children: John Well- ington; James Browne, born February 5, 1837; and Ellen Mary, born August 20, 1840.

"John Wellington Nesmith, born January 4, 1834, near Chillicothe, Ohio, married October 30, 1856, Miss Elizabeth R. Dickson, of Pittsfield, Il1. Children: Isabel, born June 13, 1859, at Pitts- field, Ill .; Eleanor, born July 13, 1869, at Black- hawk, Colo. Eleanor Nesmith married February 26, 1890, Finlay Le Roy McFarland, of Denver; Isabel Nesmith married October 7, 1891, James Porter Evans, of Denver."

Tracing the more remote lineage of the Nesmith family, we find that they were represented among the families going from Scotland to the Valley of the Bann, Ireland, in 1690. There James Nesmith was born in 1692 and from there he emigrated to America in 1718. As before stated, he was one of the sixteen original settlers of Londonderry, N. H. He was a signer of the memorial to Governor Shute, and was appointed elder of the West Parish Church on its organiza- tion in 1739. He died in 1767, aged seventy- five. His wife, Elizabeth, daughter of James and Janet (Cochran) McKeen, was born in Ireland and died in New Hampshire in 1763, aged sixty- seven.

From the autobiography of Sir James Nasmyth we learn the following regarding the history aud traditions of the Nasmyth or Nesmith family. He writes: "Sir Bernard Burke, in his 'Peerage and Baronetage,' gives a faithful account of the ancestors from which I am lineally descended. The family of Naesmyth, says Burke, is one of remote antiquity in Tweeddale, and has possessed large lands there since the thirteenth century. They fought in the wars of Bruce and Baliol, which ended in the independence of Scotland. The following is the family legend of the origin of the name of Naesmyth: In the troublous times which prevailed in Scotland before the union of the crowns, the feuds between the king and the barons were almost constant. In the reign of James III. the house of Douglas was the most prominent and ambitious. The earl not only resisted his liege lord, but entered into a combi- nation with the king of England, from whom he received a pension. He was declared a rebel and his estates were confiscated. He determined to resist the royal power, and crossed the border with his followers. He was met by the Earl of

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Angus, the Maxwells, the Johnstons and the Scotts. In one of the engagements which en- sued, the Douglas appeared to have gained the day, when an ancestor of the Naesmythis, who fought under the royal standard, took refuge in the smithy of a neighboring village. The smith offered him protection, disguised him as a ham- merman, with a leather apron in front, and asked him to lend a hand at his work.

"While thus engaged a party of the Douglas partisans entered the smithy. They looked with suspicion on the disguised hammerman, who, in his agitation, struck a false blow with the sledge hammer, which broke the shaft in two. Upon this one of pursuers rushed at him, calling out, 'Ye're nae smyth.' The stalwart hammerman turned upon his assailant, and wrenching a dag- ger from him, speedily overpowered him. The smith himself, armed with the big hammer, ef- fectually aided in overpowering and driving out the Douglas men. A party of the royal forces made their appearance, when Naesmyth rallied them, led them against the rebels, and converted what had been a temporary defeat into a victory. A grant of lands was bestowed upon him for his service. His armorial bearings consisted of a head dexter with a dagger, between two broken hammer shafts, and there they remain to this day. The motto was, Non arte sed marte (Not by art but by war)."

The father of our subject, who removed from New Hampshire to Ohio about 1830, was a civil engineer on the Ohio canal, and later a con- tractor. In the fall of 1834 he removed to Pike County, Ill., settling near Pittsfield, where he was a pioneer farmer. About 1850 he moved to Barry, Ill., and engaged in merchandising, but later went to Canton, Mo., where he remained until his death at the age of over seventy. His first wife, Priscilla, who was born near Chilli- cothe, Ohio, was a daughter of White Brown, a native of Delaware, settling in Ohio about 1808 and dying upon a farm there. He owned many slaves at one time, but becoming convinced that slavery was wrong, he freed them, thus losing his fortune. Mrs. Nesmith died when our sub- ject was fourteen years of age, leaving besides him a younger brother and sister, James B., later a civil engineer engaged on the Iron Mountain road at Cape Girardeau, Mo .; and Mrs. Ellen Burke, now of Kansas.

When a boy our subject learned the machinist's trade in Pittsfield and followed it in St. Louis for a time; while there he was asked to come to Colo- rado and erect a mill in what is now Gilpin Coun- ty, which he did, afterward running the mill for a year, but before the year expired the firm failed. It was in June, 1860, that he arrived in the moun- tains, after an ox-train journey of forty-two days, from Nebraska City via Fort Kearney to Ne- vada Gulch. In February, 1861, he came to Denver and entered a small machine shop and foundry owned by Langford & Co. In the fall of 1862 the shop was moved to Blackhawk, Gilpin County; in 1864 he was made superintendent of the shop and remained with the company until 1869, when he resigned to enter the milling busi- ness. Building a mill in Blackhawk, he had charge of it some two years. About 1874 he was locomotive engineer on construction of the Colo- rado Central Railroad, and when the line was completed into Blackhawk he became master mechanic. The next year he was made master of transportation, with headquarters at Golden. About 1876 he was made master mechanic of the Upper Division of the Kansas Pacific (now a part of the Union Pacific), including the lines from Denver to Wallace, Denver to Boulder, Kit Car- son to Los Animas, and Denver to Cheyenne. In 1878 he was appointed by Governor Evans super- intendent of the South Park Railroad, and con- tinued in that position until January, 1879, when, the iron works having been moved back to Den- ver, he resigned to become superintendent of the plant.

In Pittsfield, Il1., Mr. Nesmith married Eliza- beth, sister of Judge Dickson, of Leadville. They are the parents of two daughters. The family attend the First Congregational Church and take an interest in its welfare. Mr. Nesmith is a member of the chamber of commerce and board of trade. While in Illinois he was made a Ma- son, and was past master of Blackhawk Lodge No. 11, A. F. & A. M., but is now a member of Oriental Lodge No. 87, in Denver, also a member of the Royal Arch Chapter. He represented Gilpin County in the upper house of the territorial legis- lature, sessions of 1868 and 1870, during which time he was a stalwart supporter of the cause of woman's suffrage.

For many years Mr. Nesmith has been a stu- dent of the physical sciences. He is an expert in

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the chemistry and metallurgy of the smelting of ores of the precious metals, as gold, silver, cop- per, lead, etc., and is a recognized authority on blast furnace construction and practice as adapted to such minerals. While in Blackhawk and vi- cinity, from 1868 to 1874, he practiced civil and mining engineering, in which he has few superi- ors to this day. He is a member of the National Association of Mining Engineers, also of the Den- ver Society of Civil Engineers and the Colorado Scientific Society, of Denver.

Associated with him in the Colorado Iron Works, Mr. Nesmith has a half-brother, S. H., who was born to the marriage of Samnel H. Nesmith and Caroline Rush, of Barry, Il1., and by that union there was a daughter born, Julie, who married William H. Drescher, and resides in Hannibal, Mo. In addition to Mr. Nesmith and his brother, the former's daughter, Mrs. Isa- bel Evans, is connected with the company, being its secretary and treasurer, while John H. Mor- com fills the position of superintendent.

ILLIAM W. GRANT, M. D. During the years that have elapsed since he came to Denver, Dr. Grant has built up a large practice in this city and has become known as a skillful surgeon and a successful physician, who is accurate alike in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. While his specialties are surgery and gynecology, yet in every department of the pro- fession his knowledge is exhaustive and his skill recognized. He has had the advantage not only of study in the institutions of our own land, but in those abroad, having spent one year in the study of surgery and gynecology in the hospitals of Berlin, Vienna and London.

The record of the Grant family appears in the sketch of ex-Governor Grant, the doctor's brother. The family consisted of seven children, of whom William was the third. He was born in Russell County, Ala., near Columbus, Ga., and in boyhood attended a private school there. His boyhood life was spent on a southern planta- tion, where he was instructed by his father in the making of every kind of farm implement and in their use in the cultivation of corn, cotton and other farm products. He also learned to fell trees, split rails and dig ditches, and, in fact, did every kind of farm work, and did it well. He

worked side by side with the colored help, and no favors were shown him, although his father was a kind and indulgent man. Thus he learned to appreciate individual effort and its results. School study and farm work were alternated; yet before the age of fifteen he and his brother, the ex-governor, read Virgil and had commenced Sallust. However, they were not "hothouse" products, for neither was familiar with the letters of the alphabet until seven and eight years of age respectively.

At the age of sixteen our subject entered as a private a company of Alabama artillery known as Clanton's battery in Gen. James H. Clanton's brigade, and served during the last sixteen months of the Civil war, being promoted from the ranks to the position of sergeant of artillery, in charge of the gun. He was present in the en- gagements of Mount Hope Church and Colum- bus, Ga. Returning home at the close of the war he attended school for a year and then began the study of medicine. For a time he read under private tutelage, then spent a year (1867) in Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, and the following year entered Bellevue and Long Island Medical College, from which he graduated in 1868 with the degree of M. D.

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 6

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