Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 9

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 9

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The subject of this sketch is the oldest child of Jairus S. and Harriet A. Knapp, the other mem- bers of the family being Leonard Kellogg, of Denver; Harriet Antoinette, who is Mrs. Newell DeRoy Lee, of Westmoreland, N. Y .; Edwin Abbott, who has been in Boulder, Colo., since November, 1877, and is now the city marshal; Helen Maria, of Denver, and Alice Emeline, who has been in Honolulu since August, 1891, and is now principal of the Kamehameha preparatory school for native boys in that city.

Born in Westmoreland, N. Y., January 22, 1850, Warren Ezra Knapp was a student in the Whitestone (N. Y.) Seminary, where he pre- pared for college. About the same time he began to teach school, teaching in his native town and at Jamesville, N. Y. In September, 1871, he en- tered Cornell University (having won a state scholarship), where he remained for two years, and then spent one year as principal of the Savan- nah Union school in Wayne County, N. Y., after which he applied his earnings as teacher to the completion of his college course. He re-entered Cornell as a member of the class of 1876, having among his classmates Jesse Grant and R. B. Hayes, Jr. After leaving Cornell he held his former position as principal of the Savannah school for one year.

In August, 1876, at Ithaca, N. Y., Professor Knapp married Miss Sarah E. Cochrane, who was born in Ithaca, the daughter of Robert and Eliza J. Cochrane, whose occupation was farming.

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After his marriage, for three years Professor Knapp was principal of the Union school at West- moreland, his native place. In the fall of 1880 he became principal of the Union graded school and academy at Madison, N. Y., which position he held for two years. He had entered into a contract for a third year, but within a month re- signed, in order to accept the position of cashier of the banking house of A. K. & E. B. Yount, at Fort Collins, Colo. He reached Fort Collins July 22, 1882, and entered upon the duties of his position, remaining there until he came to Denver, in October, 1883. He was chosen principal of the Franklin school, which was then being erected, and entered upon his work in January of the fol- lowing year. At that time the school was the largest and finest building of its kind west of Omaha and Kansas City. He remained its prin- cipal until January, 1898, when he resigned to enter upon his duties as county superintendent of Arapahoe County. To this position he was nominated on the silver Republican ticket and endorsed by the Mckinley Republicans, and was elected by a large plurality at the election in No- vember previous. The county has nearly one hundred school districts, with six hundred and fifty teachers and thirty-five thousand children of school age, being the most populous county in the state.

In 1884 Professor Knapp became identified with the State Teachers' Association, also the national association, and in 1890 was appointed superin- tendent of the Colorado state educational exhibit made at St. Paul, Minn., in July, at the meeting of the national association. He was present at the national meeting of teachers at Madison, Wis., in 1884; at San Francisco in 1888, when he had charge of the Colorado state headquarters; and at St. Paul in 1890, where was the first ex- tensive educational exhibit ever made by Colorado at a meeting of an educational association. In December, 1890, he was elected president of the State Teachers' Association, and soon afterward was appointed state manager for Colorado for the association meeting in Toronto, in July, 1891, the duty of manager being to arrange for the state representation and take charge of the delegation. During the Toronto meeting he was elected a member of the board of directors, National Edu- cational Association, to represent Colorado. The following year he was again made manager of

the state delegation, which he took to the Nation- al Educational Association at Saratoga, N. Y.

At the expiration of his term as president of the state association, in December, 1891, the for- mer treasurer, Hon. J. C. Shattuck, who had held the office for fourteen years, resigned, and Professor Knapp was elected to the place, which he has since filled. At the meeting of the Na- tional Educational Association in Asbury Park, N. J., in July, 1894, he was again elected to represent Colorado on the board of directors. He, with the influence of other Colorado del- egates, succeeded in securing the convention of 1895 for Denver, and he was the state director for the meeting here. In 1896 he again had charge of the Colorado delegation to the National Educational Association at Buffalo, N. Y. With one exception he has attended all the meetings of the National Educational Association since 1888.

The first connection of Professor Knapp with politics was in the fall of 1892, when he was a candidate for state superintendent of public in- struction before the Republican convention at Pueblo. Before the nomination he withdrew from the race in favor of his only opponent, geograph- ical and political reasons influencing him in this decision. However, the convention by acclama- tion placed him in nomination as a regent of the state university, but, with the whole ticket, was defeated, Governor Waite and the entire Populist ticket being elected.

In the Republican state convention of 1894, Professor Knapp was again a candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, and until the convention opened it seemed that he was likely to be nominated. However, a new candidate appeared. Universal suffrage had come into Colorado, and a lady appeared as a candidate. An exciting condition of affairs followed, but, as the ballot was about to be taken, he voluntarily withdrew from the race and moved the nomina- tion of Mrs. Angenette J. Peavy by acclamation, which was done, although hundreds of his friends protested against his withdrawal.

The legislature in 1891 organized the state into normal institute districts, Arapahoe County being the third district. He was the first regular normal institute conductor for this county and after this organization held the institute in the Franklin school. In 1892 he was again appointed conduc- tor, and held the institute in the East Side high

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

school, being in each case appointed by the Hon. A. D. Shepard, county superintendent of schools. Since then he has engaged in institute work every summer in the various counties of Colorado and in Cheyenne, Wyo. Since 1892 he has been a member of Washington Camp No. 14, P. O. S. of A., in which he is now president. For sixteen years he has been identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a member of the Third Congregational Church of Denver, is its treasurer and for six years was superintendent of the Sunday-school. His daughter, Evelyn, is the only survivor of his five children.

- ENRY C. BROWN. The first member of the Brown family of whom there is any definite knowledge was Samuel, son of Nicholas Brown, and a native of Reading, Mass. He was a man of considerable force of character and, for those early days, was considered wealthy, leaving valuable property at his death. After- ward his widow took charge of the property, which she managed until her death, after a widow- hood of fifty years. Elisha, son of Samuel, was seven years of age at the time of his father's death. In 1744 he moved to Cambridge, and later married Elizabeth Davis, of that city. By inheritance he was a rich man, and through the exercise of good judgment he added to the fort- une left him by his father. He and his wife were the parents of four children, Hannah, Mary, Samuel and Elisha. At different times he resided in several Massachusetts towns, and finally died in Acton, where his mother had left some property. His wife also died there, in 1781. The fate of their children is not definitely known, excepting Samuel, the progenitor of our subject. He was the third child of his parents and was probably born in Cambridge; but spent his youth principally in Acton, from which place he enlisted for service in the Revolution. Among the en- gagements in which he participated were the battle of Concord, siege of Boston, battles of Bunker Hill and Quebec; and at the latter place he was wounded and taken prisoner, but later was sent home on parole. He ranked as a second lieutenant. He was fifty-one years of age when, in 1800, he removed to St. Clairsville, Ohio, and there he died in 1828, and was buried with military honors. Twice married, his first wife

was a daughter of Maj. Daniel Fletcher, of Acton, and his second wife was Polly Newkirk. In his family, by both marriages, there were twenty- one children, but only two of them are living, Elizabeth Fletcher Lennon and Henry Cordis Brown, both of Denver.

The subject of this sketch, who was the son of Samuel Brown, was born near St. Clairsville, Ohio, November 18, 1820. He was educated at Franklin Brooks Academy, St. Clairsville. At the age of seven years he was orphaned by his father's death and soon afterward he began to earn his own livelihood. He remained on the farm until sixteen years of age and later learned the carpenter's and joiner's trade and the ar- chitect's business in St. Louis, Mo., where he re- mained until the spring of 1852, assisting his brother, Isaac H. Brown, an architect and builder. From St. Louis he crossed the plains to Califor- nia, making the trip with ox-teams, and after a journey of many hardships landed in Placerville (then called Hangtown on account of the historic tree used for hanging) after one hundred and ten days on the way. After one day in that town he went to Sacramento, thence to San Francisco, and from there, a month later, to Portland, Ore., where he spent a month. He then went down the Columbia River and from there crossed by land to the Willamette River, thence to Olympia, Wash., where he spent a month. Forming a partnership with two men, Messrs. Roader and Peabody, he began the construction of a sawmill for sawing lumber, and located a mill at the mouth of the Whatken River, emptying into Bellingham Bay.

After eight months Mr. Brown sold his interest in the mill and returned to San Francisco, where he followed the occupation of an architect and builder, among the buildings he erected being a bank building, then considered the best building in the city, and still standing. He spent three years in San Francisco, meeting with varying success. From there he went to Oroville, Cal., where he spent six months, engaged in the build- ing and commission business, and was so success- ful that he accumulated $6,000 in that time. Re- turning to San Francisco, he sailed in a clipper ship, "The Golden Eagle," for Peru, South Am- erica. He spent sixty days touring in Lima and Calleo, then sailed in the "Golden Age," for . Hampton Roads, Va. From there he went to

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Baltimore, then to Philadelphia and New York, next to Chicago and from there to St. Louis, reaching that city after an absence of five years. After a short visit there, he took passage up the Missouri River to Sioux City, Iowa, and from there went to Decatur, Neb., where he remained for two years. Next he spent a year or more in St. Joseph, Mo.

June 9, 1860, Mr. Brown arrived in Denver, finding here a frontier town of one thousand inhabitants, and with no substantial buildings ex- cept the Broadwell Hotel, corner of Larimer and Sixteenth streets. The first building he erected was a large structure on Cherry Creek that was used by the Methodist Episcopal congregation as a church house until the disastrous and memor- able flood of May 4, 1864, washed the building away. Just two weeks before the flood he had moved from the neighborhood of the creek to his pre-emption claim, later known as Brown's addi- tion, on which subsequently the state capitol was built, also many of the most beautiful residences in the city, and the famous Brown Palace Hotel, the most magnificent hotel between Chicago and San Francisco, and erected at a cost of $1,600,000.

ON. HENRY NEIKIRK, a pioneer of Colo- rado, ex-state senator, and a prominent citizen of Boulder, is a representative, in the fourth generation, of a family that was found- ed in Pennsylvania by three brothers from Ger- many. His grandfather, Henry, the son of one of these pioneers, was born in Pennsylvania, but re- moved to Maryland, where he continued to engage in farm pursuits until his death; during the war of 1812 he rendered service in the American army. His son, Manassas, was born in Washington County, Md., and after his marriage removed, in 1836, to Carroll County, Ill., where he improved a large tract of government land that still remains in the possession of the family. He was born in 1809 and died in 1871, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife, Mary, daughter of Josiah Pope, was born in Maryland, of Irish-German descent, and died in Illinois in 1892, when more than eighty years of age. They were the parents of three sons and four daughters who attained matnre years, of whom all but one daughter are still liv- ing, Henry being the eldest of the sons.

At Elkhorn Grove, near Milledgeville, Carroll

County, Ill., the subject of this sketch was born November 27, 1839. He was educated in the public schools and in Mount Carroll Seminary, where he remained for three years. He studied law in Mount Carroll under William T. Miller, then the most prominent attorney of that section. However, after a year of study, he was seized with the western fever and in 1861 started for the mountain regions, going down the Mississippi to Hannibal, from there to St. Joseph, then horse- back to Nebraska City, where he outfitted with an ox-train. Going up the Platte, he established a trading post at Alkali, on the river, two hun- dred and thirty miles east of Denver, building the first post there. During the summer he carried a load of freight to Denver and returned with a load of lumber for building on his ranch. Alkali was the greatest place for trading he had ever seen, but he was too young to take advantage of the opportunity. While there he had many in- teresting experiences, such as fall to the lot of a pioneer. On the 25th of December he returned to Nebraska City, and in the spring of 1862 again came west, beginning as a prospector and miner in Blackhawk, Gilpin County. He continned in the vicinity of that place during most of the time until 1875. In the meantime, as early as 1867, he began to work the Hoosier mine in Boulder. In 1875 he located the Mel- vina, near Salina, which was one of the finest mines of its kind that had been opened up to that time; after running it for five years he sold the property. In 1886 he with others bought the White Crow at Sunshine, and operated it for five years. He is interested in the Freiburg at Gold Hill, of which he is superintendent; Sunshine and Black Swan at Salina; Black Swan Gold Mining Company, of which he is superintendent and a director; Golden Sheen and Maveric; Colonel Zellar's mine at Sunshine; and Gold Farms, com- prising one hundred and seventy-three acres near Magnolia, the most extensive mining property in Boulder County, and operated by the Gold Farms Mining Company, of which he is superintendent and a director.

In 1875 Mr. Neikirk brought his family to Boulder, where he established his home. In 1881 he located at his present place, buying thirty-four acres, of which he has sold sixteen. He has built a substantial brick residence, set out shade and ornamental trees, as well as a number of fruit

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

trees, and introduced a system of irrigation. In

the spring of 1898 he platted and placed on the market the Neikirk-Stewart addition to Boulder City, comprising one hundred and sixty-five lots situated to the north and west of the main busi- ness portion of the city. For fourteen years he was a director and the vice-president of the Na- tional State Bank of Boulder, but finally resigned. He has been a large land owner, having real es- tate in Denver, also owned several ranches, com- prising twelve hundred acres in Boulder and Weld Counties, and six hundred and forty acres north of Longmont, where he built a reservoir of one hundred acres, that furnishes excellent irri- gation facilities.

The marriage of Mr. Neikirk took place in Jamestown, Boulder County, and united him with Miss Emily Virden, who was born in Grant County, Wis. Her father, John Virden, was born in Kentucky, and became a pioneer farmer of Wisconsin, but in 1863 brought his family to Colorado, settling in Gilpin County, but later re- moved to Jamestown. Born in 1816, he is now eighty-two years of age, and can no longer en- gage actively in business pursuits; he is spending his last days in the home of Mr. Neikirk, where four generations of his family are represented. His wife was Jane Hunt, born in Kentucky, died in Colorado.

The six children of Mr. and Mrs. Neikirk are named as follows: Fannie, wife of Fred Angove, of Boulder; Jessie, a graduate of the State Uni- versity, in 1897; Lewis, member of the class of 1898, in the university; Thomas, who assists his father in mining; Burr, who is a member of the high school class of 1900; and Abigail, who is a student in the high school.

In 1878 Mr. Neikirk was urged to accept the nomination for the state senate and was elected by a majority of four hundred, his opponent be- ing the noted Joe Wolf, who had organized Greenback clubs throughout the county and had worked the district for two years hoping to secure the election. Mr. Neikirk served in the second and third sessions, 1879-81, was chairman of the committees on irrigation and fees and salaries the first session, and chairman of the finance com- mittee the second session. During the first ses- sion he drew the bill that levied the tax of one- half mill, the nucleus of the fund that built the present state capitol building. He secured ap-

propriation to pay expense of martial law, declared by Governor Pitkin in 1880, during the strike at Leadville. He has frequently served the Republi- can party as delegate to conventions. During the campaign of 1896 he advocated the silver cause, and has since served as chairman of the county convention of that party.

ON. MOSES HALLETT. While it was the hope of discovering gold in the mines of the mountains that induced Judge Hallett to come to Colorado at the time of the Pike's Peak gold excitement, the competence he has gained here was not unearthed from hidden re- cesses of the mountains, but has come to him in the honorable discharge of his duties as a jurist. When Colorado was admitted as a state, during the Centennial year of our country's history, President Grant appointed him judge of the United States district court of Colorado, and this honorable position he has since most efficiently filled. He is also dean of the Colorado School of Law, which is the law department of the Colo- rado University, and holds the chair of American constitutional law and federal jurisprudence.

Judge Hallett was born in Galena, Jo Daviess County, Il1., July 16, 1834. His father, who was a native of Massachusetts, came west in an early day and engaged in pioneer farming in Missouri, and later in Jo Daviess County, I11., and served during the period of the Black Hawk war. When a boy the subject of this sketch at- tended the public schools, then continued his studies in Rock River Seminary, and subse- quently became a student in Beloit (Wis. ) College. At the age of twenty, in the fall of 1855, he be- gan to study law in the office of E. S. Williams, of Chicago, and four years later was admitted to the bar, after which he opened an office in Chicago. In the spring of 1860 he came to Colo- rado for the purpose of mining, and for a time worked in Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties, but the employment was uncongenial and unprofit- able. He was soon brought to realize that he was more fitted for the practice of law than for the discovery of mineral wealth, and he decided to return to practice. Coming to Denver, he formed a law partnership with Hon. Hiram P. Bennett. In April, 1866, he was appointed chief justice of the territorial supreme court, as

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the result of a joint memorial that was passed by the general assembly of the territory of Colorado in Feburary, 1866, and presented to President Andrew Johnson, asking him to make a citizen of Colorado the appointee and recommending Mr. Hallett for the position.

The memorial being approved by the governor was forwarded to the president, and the result was that April 10 Mr. Hallett was commis- sioned chief justice. He was very successful in the position, winning recognition for fairness and impartiality. He was re-appointed by General Grant April 6, 1870, and in April, 1874, serving until the territory was made a state. It was not his first experience as an office holder, for he had previously represented the counties of Arapahoe and Douglas in the legislature. In January, 1877, he was made judge of the United States district court by President Grant, with whom he was personally acquainted. It has been well said of him, "He has aided very largely, not only in settling many of the disputes that have come up in the territory and state, but he has done a great deal towards establishing justice and dignity in the Colorado courts, without which no community can ever prosper."

The memorial alluded to, asking the president of the United States to appoint a citizen of the territory as chief justice and approved February 8, 1866, read as follows:

"To His Excellency, the President of the United States:

council and house of representatives of Colorado territory do most earnestly and respectfully pray that your Excellency will appoint Moses Hallett, a citizen of this territory, in whom we have con- fidence, to be chief justice of this territory."

In his capacity as judge of the district court and in every duty connected with his high position, Judge Hallett has shown himself to be well informed, impartial and of profound sagacity. By the people of Colorado he is held in the high- est esteem. Personally, he is amiable, kind- hearted, genial and companionable, and when relieved from service on the bench the dignity of the judge is lost in the affability of the man. In addition to his work as judge he is dean of the law school, of which James H. Baker is the president.

In February, 1882, Judge Hallett married Miss Katharine Felt, daughter of Lucius S. Felt, a merchant of Galena, Ill. They have one son now living, Lucius F. Mrs. Hallett was educated in New York City. She is prominently connected with St. Luke's Hospital Society and is also an active member of the Episcopal Church, which the judge attends. He is connected with the Masonic fraternity and the University Club.

General Hall, who, as a citizen of the state, has been familiar with the judicial record of Judge Hallett, says of him, in his History of Colorado: "He is, and from the first has been, noted as an industrious and intelligent student of the law, penetrating the depths of every proposition sub- mitted to him for determination. He never was a fluent or eloquent advocate, but always a wise and safe counselor, rigidly honest, forceful and frequently profound; had he never been elevated to the bench, he would still have been an eminent lawyer. With a strong judicial mind, he has brought to his office the great advantage of a thorough training in his profession. Long years of experience upon the bench sometimes begets a certain disinclination to re-consider expressed views, but no judicial officer is less governed by pride of opinion than Judge Hallett. He is firm, without question, but the position is taken only after deliberation. The effect of his own training, discipline and kindly disposition is manifest in his court; business is dispatched, but there is no evidence of haste; dignity in its true sense is al- ways apparent, and casts its pleasant influence

"The people of the territory of Colorado, through their representatives in the legislative assembly, respectfully represent nnto the presi- dent that many of the questions growing out of mining operations and concerning mining titles in this territory are novel and peculiar, while other questions, concerning the irrigation of lands, and growing out of the peculiar situation of the people, remote from all other communities, are almost unknown to the laws of the eastern states; and persons residing in the territory have ac- quired a knowledge of these questions, necessary to a correct understanding of them, which is not possessed by residents of eastern states; and for this reason, among others, the people of this territory are exceedingly anxious that citizens of this territory, who are identified with the people and will attend to their public duties, should be appointed judges of the territory; therefore, the upon all who enter the temple. The respect of

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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 9

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