Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 87

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 87

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ing in the brush, but supposed they had come up to some hogs. Judge, then, his surprise when two large bears ran out before him. Instantly he fired off the load of buckshot, which tore a large hole in one bear's side, but the animal in a mo- ment got up and ran off. He fired the other shot into the other bear, but without injuring it. He hastily reloaded with buckshot, with which he poured thirteen shot into the sides of the small bear, effectually ending its career. Jumping off his horse, he cut the bear's throat with his pocket- knife. Soon afterward the large bear, which had been hiding in the brush close by, jumped up and ran off. His dogs, being tired, refused to give chase and he lost it; but some Mexicans came along in time to assist him in putting the body of the small bear on his horse, and with it he re- turned home. Not long after this he and his eldest son killed a large mountain lion, and the boy, though a mere lad and unused to hunting, proved of great assistance to him in the chase.

At the close of the war the governor called for the organization of a territorial militia. Though he was known to be a southerner, he was elected captain of the militia by a large majority. He accepted the position and at once began in the work. It was not long before he had established order and abolished the depredations that had previously characterized camp life. Politically he upheld Jacksonian Democratic principles, but when his party departed from its ancient moor- ings he became a member of the People's party, which, at its convention in Omaha, adopted prin- ciples that in his opinion were more in keeping with Democracy than the old party itself. Since then he has voted for the man and the principle rather than the party. In 1890 he filled the office of chief justice of his town, which was given him without solicitation on his part. During his administration of this office he in- stituted a temperance reform movement and or- ganized a Prohibition party, through which the licensing of liquor in La Veta was abolished, and after that the town did not have a licensed saloon until 1899. He assisted in the organization of the first Masonic lodge in Huerfano County, being a charter member of Huerfano Lodge, of Walsen- burg. He was also a charter member of the lodge in La Veta.

In the organization of the Baptist Church Mr. Martin took an active part. The congregation was organized with seventeen members, but now has a membership of more than ninety. For the

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past seventeen years he has served as a deacon, and for a number of years he acted as Sunday- school superintendent. The first house of wor- ship was a log building, which he assisted in building, and the logs used in that old structure are now used in his stable. He established the first meat market in La Veta, but after carrying it on for nine years turned it over to his son, C. L., who now owns the business.

By his first marriage Mr. Martin had five sons and one daughter: William B., who owns a large ranch in the Huerfano Valley; Charles Lee, who conducts the meat market in La Veta; Lizzie, who died at fourteen years; John Franklin, of Los Angeles, Cal .; Henry B .; and Edward V., at home. The second wife of Mr. Martin was Lucy Palmer, daughter of B. F. Palmer, a native of North Carolina, but for years a resident near Pal- myra, Mo., where she was born, and finally a pioneer of Huerfano County, where she married. Three children now living were born of this union: Edna B., Edith P. and Ralph E., all at home; and there were also three children now deceased.

F. CRITES, a well-known farmer and stock-raiser residing near Rye, Pueblo Coun- ty, is a western man by birth, training and tastes. He was the first white child born in Ne- braska City, Neb., where his birth occurred in 1855. His father, Harrison S. Crites, now a resident of Nevada, has spent his entire life on the frontier, and has gone further westward as the country has become more thickly settled. In 1853 he settled in Denver. For twenty-five years he followed the printer's trade. During the Civil war he fought as a soldier on the Union side. His wife, the mother of our subject, bore the maiden name of Annie Lucas.

In early life J. F. Crites accompanied his par- ents on their removal to Lawrence, Kan., where he was reared and educated. On attaining his majority he came to Colorado and made his home in Pueblo for twelve years, and in Silverton for two years. In 1887 he settled near Rye, Pueblo County, where he has since engaged in farming and stock-raising, having had charge of A. D. Mason's ranch for some time.

The marriage of Mr. Crites in 1878 united him with Miss Ada Stoddard, a native of Michigan. To them have been born six children, as follows: Frank, Erva, Ernest, Walter, May and Charles. Politically Mr. Crites affiliates with the Repub-

lican party. He is now most capably and satis- factorily serving as road overseer in district No. 14. Upright and honorable in all things, he has never allowed a note to be protested, but pays all bills promptly, and deservedly stands high in the community where he makes his home. He has helped to build schools, improve roads, and in fact aids every enterprise which he believes will prove of public good.

ILLIAM HOWARD SNODDY, proprietor of a general mercantile store at Las Animas, was born in Lincoln County, Tenn., January 13, 1861, a son of Francis M. and Martha(Howard) Snoddy, the former of whom is still living in Tennessee, but the latter died at the old home in 1877. When he was seven years of age he accom- panied the family from Middle Tennessee to Union City, Obion County, and three years later moved to Dyer, Gibson County, where his father followed the miller's trade and also engaged in farming, later carrying on a store in Dyer and Union City.

Under his father's instructions our subject gained his first idea of the mercantile business. He was fourteen when his father opened a store and from that time until he was nineteen he as- sisted in that business. Later he spent a year with an uncle, J. P. Snoddy, in Dyer, and one year in a wholesale grocery in Nashville, of which his uncle, William Howard, was a half owner. In 1882 he came to Colorado and for two years clerked for Jacob Weil, in Las Animas, after which he took a commercial course in the Normal School at Valparaiso, Ind. It was his intention to complete the entire course, but before gradua- ting he received, by telegram, a request from W. A. Haws to come to Las Animas and take a posi- tion as clerk in his store. He did so, remaining there until the fall of 1889, when he started in business for himself.

October 17, 1888, in Denver, Mr. Snoddy mar- ried Miss Fannie Jones, who was born and reared in Colorado, and was for a time a teacher in the Las Animas schools, but at the time of her mar- riage was living in Denver. She was a daughter of Henry and Eliza (Boone) Jones, the latter a daughter of Colonel Boone, who was a nephew of the Kentucky pioneer, Daniel Boone. Mr. and Mrs. Snoddy have two children, Mattie Boone, and William Howard, Jr.

In the spring of 1891 Mr. Snoddy sold out the business in Las Animas and removed to Amargo,

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N. M., where he engaged in business, but after a year he sold his interest to his partner. Next he spent a few months at Del Norte in the San Luis Valley, Colo., then went to Denver and clerked in Appell's department store for a year. His next position was as clerk in La Junta. For six years he was with the Price-Draper Clothing Company and G. T. Miller, where he had full charge of the business. He spent a few months in Pueblo, and afterward was with D. C. New- comb in Atchison, Kan., having charge of the shoe department of the store for seven months. For more than a year afterward he wasin the dry- goods store of R. C. Inge at La Junta. He then took a vacation from August until January, this being his first vacation since he began in busi- ness, and later he sold goods for Bergerman Brothers, of Pueblo, who established a branch store in La Junta. For a year he was salesman in the store, after which, in April, 1898, he bought his present place of business, succeeding W. A. Haws and A. Pitts, and occupying the stand formerly held by John W. Prowers.

Mr. Snoddy votes the Democratic ticket, and from early youth has taken an active interest in local and national issues. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but is now a member of the Episcopal Church, as is also his wife. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Las An- imas. In the camp of the Woodmen of the World he holds the office of banker. Besides the insur- ance carried in this order, he also has $2,000 in life insurance in the Bankers' Life, of Des Moines. He is a close observer and careful reader, and is well posted in thecurrent events of the day. As a man of judgment, business ability and energy, he has long commanded the respect of the people of Las Animas.

OSEPH K. KINCAID. During the years in which Mr. Kincaid has been a resident of Huerfano County, he has met with success as a farmer and stock-raiser. Besides his inter- est in coal lands in this county he owns eight hundred and eighty acres of land, devoted to gen- eral farm pursuits and to the stock business. He has always made a specialty of raising stock, and still handles several hundred head each year, feeding beef cattle for the market. At the time of coming to Colorado he was a young man of twenty-one, without means or friends, but he has

worked his way forward industriously and with determination, until he has accumulated a valua- ble property.

Born in Burke County, N. C., in 1853, our sub- ject is a son of James and Mary (Kincaid) Kin- caid, natives of North Carolina. His father, who was a planter and slave holder, took an active part in local affairs and was a stanch Democrat. For many years he had charge of all the county business and was the leading man of his locality. He died in 1897, at the age of seventy-eight. His father, Dunn Kincaid, was probably born in Vir- ginia, and for years was in charge of a plantation with many slaves, dying in 1862, when seventy- four years of age. He was a son of John Kincaid, who was born on the James River in Virginia. The latter was a son of John, Sr., a soldier in the Revolutionary war, who was hung by the Tories, but was fortunately cut down by Washington's men before life was extinct; he survived, but his neck always afterward showed the effects of the rope. He was a Scotchman, and had emigrated to Virginia in colonial days.

The marriage of James Kincaid united him with a daughter of Col. "Billy" Kincaid, of the war of 1812. They became the parents of seven chil- dren: Betty, wife of Wilborn Sudderth; Annie, who married James McCoy; Caroline, wife of Alexander Moore; Mary, who married Albert Baird; William, county judge of Ouray County, Colo .; Horace, who remains in North Carolina; and Joseph K. The mother of this family died in 1864, at forty-four years of age.

On the old homestead in North Carolina our subject passed his boyhood years. He attended the common schools and Rutherford College. In 1874 he arrived in Colorado, reaching what is now La Veta in March of that year. He first took up a claim on Indian Creek, but shortly afterward sold it. About 1875 he bought a squat- ters' claim five miles from La Veta, where he re- mained for eighteen years, meantime raising cattle and also freighting over the Veta pass to the min- ing country. In 1886 the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad built a switch and established a shipping post on his farm, for his accommodation in ship- ping stock and hay. In the buying, raising or selling of cattle, the years were busily passed until 1895, when he rented his old place, and bought five hundred and sixty acres, known as a part of the Francisco and Daigre grant. Here he has resumed the stock business.

On the Democratic ticket Mr. Kincaid was a

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candidate for county judge and commissioner, but was defeated. For seventeen years he has been secretary or treasurer of the school board of dis- trict No. 16, in the organization of which he was a prime factor. For several years he has been a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to the support of which he is a liberal contributor. Fra- ternally he is past master of La Veta Lodge No. 59, A. F. & A. M., is a member of Walsenburg Chapter No. 27, R. A. M., and representative to the state grand lodge. For a number of years he was identified with the Farmers' Grange. In 1878 he married Miss Laura Alexander, who was born in North Carolina. They became the parents of six children: John, William, Addie, Robert Levi, Clara, and Laura Cornelia, at whose birth the mother died, in November, 1898.

- REDERICK SCHNEIDER is proprietor of the only hotel in Hugo, Lincoln County, also carries on a butcher's business (the only one in the county), and is the owner of val- uable stock interests in this locality. He was born in Berne, the capital of Switzerland, in 1847, being a son of John and Mary (Nussbaum) Schneider, natives of the same country. His father, who was a butcher by trade, carried on business in his native land and there died when fifty-six years of age. In religion he was a Prot- estant. His wife attained the age of eighty- three years. They were the parents of three sons and two daughters. Of these, John, who died in 1897, at seventy-eight years of age, was district clerk in Switzerland for more than forty years, and also served as a lieutenant in the army and training master for twenty-six years. Samuel, a baker by trade, resides in Kankakee, Ill. Eliza- beth is the wife of William Wilde, of Switzerland, and Anna married B. Rubber, a farmer in Swit- zerland.

After having received good educational advan- tages in the schools of his native land, our sub- ject started out for himself at nineteen years of age. He soon emigrated to America and settled in Macon City, Mo., where he remained from 1866 to 1873, meantime carrying on a merchant tailoring business. In 1873 he went to Denver and for two years and four months worked in a merchant tailor's and men's furnishing house. Afterward for six years he was engaged in the summer resort business, and for four years was employed as agent for Epstein & Sanders. In 1884 he came to Hugo, and after two years in

the tailoring business opened the hotel which he has since carried on. In politics a Democrat, he was chosen county commissioner on the organiza- tion of Lincoln County and filled the position faithfully.

In 1885 Mr. Schneider married Mrs. Anastena Papke, who was born in Prussia and by whom he has two sons and one daughter: Edward, Fred and Alma.

ILLIAM H. LAVINGTON. During the year 1888 Mr. Lavington came to Colorado and entered a claim to land near Flagler, Kit Carson County, on the south fork of the Re- publican River. At the same time he opened a general store in the village, where he has since carried on a trade in groceries, dry goods and other articles to be found in a country store. While a large share of his time is given to his store he also devotes considerable attention to the stock business and on his ranch has a large number of cattle and horses.

The Lavington family originated in England. Our subject's father, Charles Lavington, was born in England and in young manhood emi- grated to the United States, settling in New York state and engaging in farm pursuits. In religion he was a Baptist. His death occurred in 1870. He had married Elizabeth Price, a native of Eng- land, but long a resident of New York, in which state she has several brothers who are farmers. In the Lavington family there were three sons and three daughters. Lincoln is a farmer near Shelton, Neb .; Charles is employed as cut- ter in a clothing house in Brooklyn, N.Y .; Annie is the wife of Frank Calkins, of Syracuse, N. Y .; Alice is a school teacher in Syracuse; and Mrs. Fannie Hayes resides in Oswego County, N. Y.

Near Syracuse, N. Y., where he was born in 1859, William H. Lavington gained the rudiments of his education. Afterward he was a student in Fulton Seminary. After his father's death lie made his home with an uncle. At the age of twenty-two he went to Fremont, Neb., and for two years engaged in farming there. Later he was for three years engaged in the stock business and general farming near Kearney, Neb. After two years as a railroad contractor, in 1888 he came to Kit Carson County aud here has since engaged in the stock business and the manage- ment of his store. In 1888 he married Miss Ella Van Heusen, who was born in New York, the

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daughter of a carpenter there. The three chil- dren born of the union are: Leon, Charles and Annie.

With the public affairs of the county Mr. Lav- ington has been associated during the entire pe- riod of his residence here. During 1893, 1894 and 1895 he held the office of commissioner of Kit Carson County, and from 1889 to 1894 he served as postmaster of Flagler. His wife holds membership in the Congregational Church of Flagler, to which, though not a member, he has been a liberal contributor.

NDREW T. NICHOLS resides on section 32, township 22, range 53 west, near Fre- donia, Bent County, where some years ago he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres and has since secured water right, planted an orchard, erected necessary buildings and made other im- provements. In addition to this property he has one hundred and sixty acres in Otero County, under the Holbrook ditch, which land he took as a timber claim. He also owns one hundred and sixty acres in Chautauqua County, Kan., which he purchased at $1.25 per acre and on which he lived for thirteen years.

In Tolland County, Conn., December 21, 1842, our subject was born, a son of Benjamin and Hannah (Hall) Nichols. He spent his boyhood years in the schoolroom and on the farm where he worked. He was only six years old when his father died, and a year later he was taken into the home of a farmer, who gave him his board and clothes in return for his services. At first he could do but little; however, as years passed by his assistance began to be valuable. When he was sixteen he started out in the world for himself. Going to Hartford he drove a team for three years there. At the opening of the war he enlisted for nine months as a private in Company K, Twenty-fifth Connecticut Infantry. He first served for three months in the state militia, after which he was mustered into the general army, and was assigned to the Nineteenth Army Corps in Louisiana. After taking part in the battle of Bayou La Fauche he participated in skirmishing on Red River and the siege of Port Hudson, where he was wounded in the left hand. He was mustered out of the army in 1863.

Moving west to Lee County, Ill., Mr. Nichols began to farm on rented land. After two years there he went to Shelby County, Mo., where he was employed in railroad construction on the

Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad. One year later he went to Phelps County, Mo., where he worked on railroad construction for a year. There he formed the acquaintance of Miss Emma Bender, whom he married October 2, 1867. She was born in Sebastian County, Ark., and in early life was brought to Phelps County, Mo., where her girlhood was passed. Soon after his mar- riage Mr. Nichols moved to Barry County, Mo., where he farmed, but after a year he went back to Phelps County and worked on the railroad for six months. He then took a wagon and team and drove overland to Edwardsville, Kan., spend- ing three weeks on the road. He remained in Edwardsville for one year, after which he was employed in the grading of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad for two years. His next move was to Howard (now Chautauqua) County, Kan., where he cultivated a quarter-section purchased from the government. After thirteen years on the same farm, in 1882 he drove across the plains to Colorado, the journey consuming five weeks. Soon he began mining at the Summitville camp, where he remained for two years, from that place going to what is now Otero (then Bent) County. After eight years in that county he came to his present farm, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres.

Though reared in the Democratic faith Mr. Nichols became a Republican in early life, and in 1864 voted for Abraham Lincoln. He is an active worker in his party and has frequently served as a delegate to conventions. He and his wife are believers in the doctrines of the Baptist Church. They are the parents of four living children. Benjamin Frank, the eldest, lives at Florence, Colo .; he married Miss Sophia Hill and has two children; Anna Mabel is the wife of An- drew Hanson, of Goldfield, Colo., and they have two children; Matt C. died in Kansas at the age of two years and six months; William B. and Zula Zane are at home.

ILLIAM O. HAYS. One of the busiest, most energetic and most enterprising citi- zens of Pueblo County is Mr. Hays, a well-known resident of Rye, who is now conduct- ing a general store at Greenhorn Crossing. He is also one of the pioneers of the state and has been prominently identified with its development and prosperity for forty years.

Mr. Hays was born in Harrison County, Ohio, March 17, 1840, and is a son of William and

MOSES T. HALE.

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Annie (Cunningham) Hays. His father devoted much of his life to agricultural pursuits and came to Colorado in 1859. Our subject was nineteen years old when he removed to Lexington, Lafay- ette County, Mo. The elder Hays was for thir- teen years a member of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, and the only schooling our subject re- ceived was around the camp fire, receiving his instruction from the French Canadians, who were frequently educated men. Coming to Colorado in 1859, he located in Denver, and when the Civil war broke out he enlisted in the First Colorado Cavalry, which did duty on the frontier most of the time, keeping back the Indians. He was at Sand Creek at the time of the massacre, and after the close of the war was in the employ of the government for some time. He has traveled ex- tensively over Idaho, Kansas and Indian Terri- tory; was in Oklahoma when it was opened up for settlement; has hunted with Kit Carson; and has had many thrilling adventures during his life on the frontier. He first came to Pueblo County in 1875, but since then has spent some years in traveling, returning to the county in the fall of 1895, at which time he established his store at Greenhorn Crossing. He had engaged in the drug business in Rye in 1890, and still owns a neat residence at that place, where he makes his home.

In 1884 Mr. Hays was uuited in marriage with Miss Alice Mitchell at Anthony, Harper County, Kan. She is a lady of refinement and pleasing address, and was born in New York, but was reared in Wisconsin. Her father, Angewine Mitchell, a carpenter by trade, came to Colorado in 1880. In his political views Mr. Hays is a Republican, and in social and business circles stands deservedly high. His success in life has been the result of honest, persistent effort in the line of honorable and manly dealing. His aims have always been to attain the best, and he has carried forward to successful completion whatever he has undertaken.

M OSES T. HALE, treasurer of the municipal corporation of Colorado Springs, is one of the most popular officials of the city, as his election year after year proves. In 1893, after having served acceptably as chairman of the county central committee, he was nominated, on the Republican ticket, for city treasurer, and was duly elected. Each succeeding year he was re-elected, receiving in 1898, after a bitter fight,

the largest majority that had ever been given him. In accordance with a change of law, made by the eleventh general assembly, the length of term was in 1898 changed to two years, the change going into force in 1899. He was re-elected for his seventh term, which will be for two years. He is a member of the chamber of commerce and is closely identified with many important organi- zations and plans for the development of local interests.

The subject of this sketch, his father, Moses, and grandfather, Capt. Moses Hale, were born in Newburyport, Mass., and the last-named was a captain of a vessel engaged in foreign trade. Of his five sons all became sea-captains except his namesake. The Hale family were represented among the passengers of the "Mayflower," and from that day to this have been identified with American history. The great-grandfather of our subject was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Our subject's father was a merchant in Newbury- port, until his death, in 1859. For several terms he served as a member of the city council. In religion he was a Congregationalist. His wife, whose maiden name was Lydia Jaques, was born in Newburyport, and is still living there. Her father, Capt. Ezekiel Jaques, who was born in New Hampshire, of French descent, was a sea captain and engaged in foreign trade until his health failed. When a very old man (almost ninety) he was killed in Newburyport, being accidentally run over by a train.

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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 87

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