Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 91

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 91

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The only child of his parents, our subject was born in Utica, N. Y., May 16, 1866. He gradu- ated from the Utica free academy in 1883 and from Amherst College in 1887 with the degree of A. B. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Society and is still identified with the alumni association. His father had removed to Colo- rado, but he remained in the old office in Utica, where he studied law. He then spent one year at the Columbia Law School in New York City. In 1889 he was admitted to the bar of New York and opened an office on Wall, and afterwards on Cedar street; New York City, where he remained until his removal to Colorado Springs in the fall of 1892. He is a member of the El Paso and Country Clubs, and politically is active in his support of Republican principles.

AMES H. SHUMATE, who is a progressive farmer of El Paso County, owns and operates a ranch on section 13, township 12, range 67 west, near the village of Husted. He was born in Monroe County, W. Va., May 19, 1841, a son of George W. and Nancy A. (Martin) Shumate. His father, who was a native of the same county, descended from a pioneer family, and his mother was born in the adjoining county of Mercer. When he was thirteen years of age his parents sold out and in 1854 removed to Ray County, Mo., but before they were settled in their new home both died of cholera, within six days of each other. They left six children, the eldest of whom was fifteen and the youngest three. It was im- possible to keep the family together, and the chil- dren were soon scattered. Three boys were taken into the home of an uncle, while the three girls were taken by another uncle. James, being next to the oldest of the family, soon began to work out, and with the wages he received assisted in the support of his sisters. He had few opportu- nities to attend school, but learned to read, write and cipher.

In 1860, at the time of the great Pike's Peak

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excitement, Mr. Shumate came to Colorado, driving a team of six yoke of cattle, and spending six weeks on the road. While at the Little Blue, in Nebraska, he witnessed a battle between two tribes of Indians, remaining the entire day to wit- ness the conflict and giving shelter to an Indian who claimed to be a doctor. In the fall he reached Denver, but after six days started back east. The following year he made two trips, taking the route along the Arkansas River by Fort Lyons.

In Andrew, Mo., September 22, 1863, Mr. Shumate married Miss Margaret E. McElroy, with whom he had become acquainted in 1860. She was born in Lafayette County, Mo., a daughter of David B. and Gula E. (Howell) McElroy, who were born and reared in Tennessee, but eloped and were married in Missouri. In the spring of 1864 Mr. Shumate and his wife crossed the plains with a horse-team, spending five weeks on the way. They spent one year in Central City, and then he rented a ranch four miles north of Denver, where he raised potatoes. These he sold in Cen- tral City for fifty cents a pound or $400 for eight hundred pounds, his crop bringing him $3,200 the first year. In the fall of 1865, owing to the death of his wife's sister and the poor health of hier father, they drove back to Missouri. It was their intention to return in the spring of 1866, with cows, but they were persuaded to remain in Missouri. Accordingly they bought a farm and remained until 1873.

However, Mr. Shumate was not content there, and in 1873 he drove a bunch of cattle across the plains and settled on the farm where he now lives. By homesteading and purchasing land he accu- mulated fourteen hundred acres, some of which he has since traded for Denver property, and now owns four hundred and sixty acres. He and his wife have no children of their own, but adopted a son of Mrs. Shumate's brother. This boy, Val- dimir Shumate, was born in El Paso County, November 7, 1883, a son of William and Susan (Shelley) McElroy. His mother died when he was a few days old and his father when he was thirteen years of age, after which he was adopted by Mr. Shumate, with whom he had been since infancy.

When Mr. Shumate homesteaded his present property it was wild land. He built a log room, 14x16, where he lived for a year, then put up another room. He carried on a dairy and for five years supplied the hotel at Manitou with butter. In 1879 he started a store at what is now Husted,

where he built a good house and lived for a few years. In the summers of 1881 and 1882 he sold $70,000 worth of goods, and at the same time acted as postmaster, filling that position for six years. In the winter of 1885-86 he bought prop- erty in Colorado Springs, where he resided for two years, returning from there to his ranch. Two years later he again went to the city, where he remained for two years. In 1892 he returned to the ranch, where he has since resided, engag- ing in general farm pursuits. Politically he is a Democrat. Reared in the Baptist faith, he has continued connected with that denomination and is serving the Husted Baptist Church as clerk and trustee.

M ARCUS BARRETT CORBIN, deceased, homesteaded a tract of land in 1870, near Fountain, El Paso County. Afterward, from time to time, he made improvements to the place and increased its value by his thrifty man- agement. By additional purchase he became the owner of eleven hundred acres, which he de- voted principally to stock-raising, although to some extent he engaged in general farm pursuits. He was born at Dudley, Mass., November 2, 1829, a son of Joshua and Almira (Barrett) Cor- bin, and a grandson of John Joshua Corbin, a Revolutionary soldier. The first ten years of his life were passed uneventfully in the factory vil- lage where he made his home. His parents being poor, he secured work in a factory and in that way assisted in his support. At twelve years of age he went to make his home with an uncle, who was well-to-do, and who owned a farm in Dudley. There he spent the years of youth. He was apprenticed to the millwright's trade, at which he served until he had mastered the occupation. Afterward he went to Wiscon- sin and worked in a lumber yard, also for a time in the pineries, then farmed in Rock County.

During the short time he spent in Rock Coun- ty Mr. Corbin became acquainted with Miss Mary L. Warren, whom he married September 27, 1853. Soon afterward he removed to Pea Ridge, Sauk County, where he bought govern- ment land and engaged in farming. About 1857 he sold that place and moved to Nebraska, where he settled near Nebraska City and carried on agricultural pursuits. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the service as a cav- alryman and served about eighteen months. In 1870 he came to Colorado, making the trip by

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railroad to Evans and from there to Denver, thence to Pueblo, where he bought town lots. After one summer there he homesteaded the claim in El Paso County where his widow now resides.

Mr. and Mrs. Corbin were the parents of eight children, of whom four are now living. Belle, who was born near Nebraska City, Neb., is the wife of Curtis Hutchin and has five children; they live at Cedar Hill, N. M. Edith, who was boru in Nebraska, married Van E. Rouse, of Colorado Springs, and they have one child. Stanley, who was born in Nebraska, is married and resides in Fountain. May, who was born in Fountain, is the wife of Homer West.

Politically Mr. Corbin inclined toward the plat- form of the Republican party, although his strong temperance principles made him a sympathizer with the Prohibitionists. He and his wife were both reared in the Baptist faith and he served as a deacon in that denomination. At one time he was actively identified with the Odd Fellows. His death occurred May 19, 1896, mourned by the many friends whom he had won during the years of his residence in El Paso County and who realized that, in his death, one of their best citi- zens was gone. His body was laid to rest it Fountain cemetery.

Mrs. Corbin was a daughter of Nathaniel Warren, who was born in Canaan, N. Y. In West Stockbridge, Mass., he married Laura Ann Fitch, who was born in that state. For several years they resided in Palmyra, N. Y., where Mr. Warren engaged in the monument business. From that city he brought his family west as far as Wisconsin, about 1845, and there he spent his declining years upon a farm. A few months be- fore his death he came to Colorado, and here he passed away at the age of eighty-four years. His remains were taken to Wisconsin and laid to rest by the side of his wife's body at Newark. His first wife, who was the mother of Mrs. Corbin, died when the latter was four years of age and was buried at Palmyra, N. Y.

YLVESTER M. BUZZARD, a pioneer of 1862, owns and occupies a ranch on section 26, township 13, range 64 west, seven miles southeast of Falcon, El Paso County. He has been a witness of all the changes wrought in this section of country since pioneer days and endured the hardships incideut to frontier life. During the early days Indians were very troublesome and frequently the settlers were in peril of their

lives. At the time of the Indian raid in 1868 the people made a fortification at Colorado City and remained there some time for protection, but finally the men went to their various ranches in order to gather their crops. On the 3d of Sep- tember Mr. Buzzard and another farmer were hauling in their wheat when a man galloped up, bearing the tidings that the redmen were on a raid. He started his oxen toward his house, while his neighbor ran home to get his money. Jumping on a horse Mr. Buzzard rode two miles to the point where the people had congregated. He found them hid in ditches, prepared to fire when the proper time came. He rode to the Bates ranch to warn them, but Mrs. Bates at first refused to leave, insisting upon waiting for her son, who had gone out after timber. Finally he persuaded her to go, and he proceeded to tell her son and husband, whom he brought into the fort. Then, with another man, he rode nine miles to warn a man who was still out, but found the lat- ter had already received warning. In all these trips he incurred great danger from savages lurk- ing in hidden places, but feeling his errands were necessary to save the lives of others, he did not hesitate. After threatening the settlers for some time the Indians retreated, evidently concluding there was danger in making an attack.

Mr. Buzzard was born in Hampshire County, W. Va., August 8, 1838, a son of William and Lucinda (Smoot) Buzzard. His father, who was a native of Hampshire County, was a son of Jacob Buzzard, who removed from his native valley, the Shenandoah, and settled in Hampshire County in early manhood. William Buzzard died in 1842, leaving nine children, of whom Sylvester was fifth. Afterward the mother was again married and our subject continued to make his home with her until he was eighteen. Free schools had not been introduced into that sec- tion of country and he had little opportunity to acquire an education, but learned to read, write and cipher. From nineteen years of age he was self-supporting. Going to Ohio he worked on a farm in Highland County for four years, sending his mother regularly one-half of his wages. In the fall of 1860 he went to Adams County, Il1., where he remained one winter. Though he was reared a Democrat, when Abraham Lincoln be- came a candidate for president he supported him and is proud of having voted for him. In the spring of 1861 he went to Montgomery County, Iowa, where he worked on a farm, While there

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he joined the Home Guards, who were called out to fight guerillas, and spent two weeks in the chase.

In the fall of 1861 Mr. Buzzard went to Atchi- son County, Mo., where he became a member, for six months, of the Missouri state militia, and was stationed at Rockport, that county. He served as first duty sergeant and did scouting duty mostly. Often he was in close quarters, with the enemy near, and several times he suc- ceeded in capturing one of the Confederate sol- diers. After being honorably discharged he went to Iowa, and in May, 1862, with an ox-team, started for Colorado. He was one of a large party, for whom he did the cooking and drove a team. The journey occupied from May 28 to July 26. From Denver he went to Lincoln City, where he worked in the mines for a short time. It was in the fall of 1862 that he came to Colo- rado City, and he spent the winter in hunting on the St. Vrain. In the spring of 1863 he worked on a ranch four miles south of Colorado City. One year later he went to Idaho to dig gold, but returned in November with less money than he had taken with him, besides which he had ex- perienced great hardships in the trip. The snow had fallen to a great depth and huge drifts made the way almost impassable, but at the stage sta- tions they were refused admission and were obliged to proceed. Besides the six men there were two women in the party. They camped all night in their wagons, but in the morning went to the stage station and forced the proprietors there to furnish them with breakfast. The next day the storm was so severe that they lost their way, and had it not been for the determination of one man and his wife our subject would have turned out the mules and given up the battle.

On returning to Colorado City Mr. Buzzard rented land near the town and during the same year he bought a pre-emption claim and planted a crop. In spite of grasshoppers he secured thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, for which he was paid $7.80 per bushel, and he also raised a good crop of oats. After some years he was given a deed for his land. In the fall of 1865 he was appointed county assessor to fill a vacancy, and the two ensuing years he was elected. Afterward he served for one term as county treasurer. Be- sides discharging the duties of the office he car- ried on his farm. In 1870 he laid a claim to property where he now lives, and in the fall of that year he bought one hundred head of sheep,

with which he started a sheep ranch. The next year he moved here. He continued steadily at work for years after he came to Colorado and did not make a trip back east until 1869, when he returned to Ohio. From time to time he has bought land and now owns twenty-two hundred acres, upon which he engages in the sheep busi- ness. He has had as many as nine thousand head at one time and received in one year $10,000 from the business.

In Denver April 10, 1884, Mr. Buzzard mar- ried Mrs. Sarah Mckinney, née Milner, of El Paso County, a native of Highland County, Ohio, and a schoolmate of Mr. Buzzard in childhood days. They have two children, Sissyl and Mil- ton M., both of whom were born on the home ranch.

As has been intimated, Mr. Buzzard is a Re- publican. Fraternally he has been a member of El Paso Lodge No. 13, A. F. & A. M., since 1865, in which he served as junior warden and for two terms as worshipful master, being the oldest liv- ing master of the blue lodge.

OSEPH S. MC CLUNG came to Colorado in 1885 and in 1887 homesteaded a tract of land two miles east of Granada, Prowers County. In addition to his homestead he also entered a tree claim and afterward bought one hundred and sixty acres, which made his aggregate posses- sions four hundred and eighty acres. From this he has sold forty acres. He has put excellent improvements on his land, which is under the Prowers County Land and Canal Company's ditch and the XY ditch.

The son of James D. and Agnes (Sharp) McClung, our subject was born in White County, Ill., March 11, 1860. He was about six years of age when his parents removed to Johnson County, Mo., and settled upon a farm. After the death of his father, in 1872, his mother took her six children to Fairfield County, Ohio, her native county, and there our subject made his home with an uncle on a farm. He was given excel- lent educational advantages. When nineteen years of age he entered the normal school at Lebanon, Ohio, and the following year began to teach a country school in Ohio. In 1883 he re- moved west to Dodge City, Kan., and was em- ployed on a cattle ranch there, also in No Man's Land. In 1885 he came to Colorado with the cattle company, and since 1885 has lived in Prow- ers County.

REV. H. B. HITCHINGS.

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Reared a Democrat, Mr. McClung cast his first presidential vote in 1884, when he supported Cleveland. In 1889 his party nominated him for assessor of Prowers County. In 1895 he was elected county commissioner by a majority of one hundred and thirty-eight, and during his term of office the Carlton bridge was built and the iron bridge at Lamar completed. He was made a Mason in Granada Lodge No. 72, A. F. & A. M., in 1894, and has served as junior warden, secre- tary and worshipful master, having held the office of secretary for three years. He is a persevering and capable man, and is held in the highest esteem by his entire circle of acquaintances.

EV. HORACE B. HITCHINGS, whose home is in New York City, but who has extensive interests in Colorado, was born in Malden, Mass., January 31, 1831, a son of James and Eunice Moore (McIntosh) Hitchings, both descendants of colonial families. His father, who was an agriculturist by occupation, spent his en- tire life at Malden, and died there when ninety- seven years of age. In disposition he was de- voutly religious, unobtrusive and unpretentious, industrious and kind-hearted, a man who gave his attention closely to personal duties without any desire to enter public life. He was a son of a Revolutionary hero, James Hitchings, who was a participant in the Battle of Bunker Hill, but later entered the navy, and took an active part in the war against England. Finally taken prisoner, he was sent to Halifax, there paroled, and started back to Massachusetts in the Cartil- Snow, Swift, September 30, 1778, but en route to his home died, it is supposed the victim of poison administered by the British. Rev. Mr. Hitch- ings' maternal grandfather, Peter McIntosh, was one of the famous "Boston tea party," and helped throw the tea into Boston harbor. He was an intimate and lifelong friend of Paul Revere.

The first twelve years in the life of Horace B. Hitchings were spent in his native town of Mal- den. He went from there to a noted Baptist school in Middleborongh and prepared for col- lege. Later he matriculated in Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he took the regular course, graduating in 1854, with the degree of A. M. With the ministerial profession in view he entered Berkeley Divinity School at Middle- town, Conn., where he completed the course. After having been ordained by Bishop (now

Presiding Bishop) Williams, to the ministry of the Episcopal Church, he accepted a pastorate in East Haddam, Conn., where he remained, as rector of St. Stephen's Church, for six years.

When the tide of emigration poured westward at the discovery of gold in Colorado there was a lack of ministers and churches to attend to the spiritnal needs of the new settlers. A few earnest communicants of the Episcopal Church residing in Denver determined to remedy this so far as lay in their power. They organized a parish, nam- ing it (very appropriately then) St. John's in the Wilderness. The parish was put in temporary charge of an army chaplain stationed at Denver until a permanent rector could be obtained. Rev. Mr. Hitchings, in his quiet country parish in Connecticut, was greatly astonished to receive a call as rector to a parish in Denver. He had never heard of Denver or Colorado, and most diligent search in the latest and most authentic maps gave no information as to the locality of the town. He concluded some college friends had been playing a joke on him, and put the call aside, giving it no serious thought, until a letter came from Bishop Talbot some weeks later, beg- ging him not to decline the call, but wait until all the particulars of the place and circumstances of the situation could be communicated. Denver was a reality and the call was genuine.

Further information from the bishop and oth- ers led to due and prayerful consideration of the matter, and against the advice of all his friends and the wishes of his bishop in Connecticut, he concluded to accept the call, believing it to be the guiding of Providence to an arduous field of labor that could not lightly be set aside. In the winter of 1862 he made the long and then dangerous journey across the plains in a stage coach from Atchison, Kan., seeing many Indians, buffaloes, antelopes and other indications of an unsettled wilderness. There were no white inhabitants along the dreary way, except such as were living at the stage stations, some twenty or thirty miles apart. Upon reaching Denver he entered imme- diately upon the duties of his rectorship, gather- ing the people together and building up a parish as best he could in an ever-changing and fluctu- ating population. The present large and pros- perous Cathedral parish, with its beautiful and costly edifice, under the able management of the learned and godly Dean Hart, is the result. From the very outset the parish was self-support- ing. The rector's salary and all other expenses,

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which in a new parish are not altogether light, were raised by voluntary contributions, and the parish to-day, with all of its valuable belongings, is entirely out of debt. In the early '6os there was very little of Uncle Sam's currency in circu- lation in Colorado, but there were plenty of buckskin bags with gold dust in them, and the good people of St. John's, always liberal to a fault, would give the bag many shakes when the collection plate came around; doubtless much more gold dust came out at times than was in- tended, but no one was ever known to ask for change.

Mr. Hitchings was never a missionary in the ordinary acceptation of the word, though he gave much time each year to missionary work on ranches and at mining camps in various parts of the territory. He held the first Episcopal service at Golden City, at Colorado Springs, also at Pueblo, on the banks of the Arkansas, where, under a large and gorgeous cottonwood tree, standing near where the old road crossed the river, some two hundred or more of settlers and soldiers from a military camp near by gathered on a beautiful Sunday morning in June. The birds in the branches above were so numerous, and their songs so loud, as almost to drown the human voice. The first Protestant service at Fort Garland was held by him, also the first re- ligious service in many of the mining camps in the mountains, where it often was impossible to get the miners together until late at night, after their day's work and supper were over. It was always his endeavor to assist temporarily and uplift spiritually those among whom he went. The trials of a missionary's life were his, volun- tarily undertaken, and always paying his own expenses on the long journeys. In spite of the hardships, many rides on horseback under blaz- ing sunshine, or in snow and storm on mountain and plain, with stops in camps destitute of every comfort, he speaks of this part of his life as among his most pleasant remembrances, for his audiences were always attentive and appreciative; people were kind and generous; the pioneers were noble people, both men and women, filled with that whole-souled hospitality that warms the heart and cheers the spirit of their guest.

During the episcopate of the venerable and much-loved Bishop Randall, Mr. Hitchings was a member of the standing committee of the dio- cese, also examining chaplain, thus aiding the bishop greatly in his many toilsome and weary

duties. For several years he accompanied the bishop in his long drives over the diocese, mak- ing all arrangements for religious services, select- ing the place (often a grocery store or perhaps even a bar-room), notifying the people, etc.

For a number of years after coming to Colo- rado Mr. Hitchings made no investments, and the first that he made were for the purpose of re- lieving the distresses of the poor. In fact, his very first investment was in order to furnish a widow money necessary to prove up on land pre- empted by her husband, and in return for the money loaned she gave him one-half of the land, upon which were no improvements. The eighty acres that she retained proved to be her support from that time until her death, at the age of over ninety years. Often he bought claims from those who were destitute and desired to return east, his kindness in taking the land (which at that time was utterly worthless) enabling them to get back to their homes. Since these pur- chases were made Denver has grown to such an extent that the land has become very valuable, so that, in a way he little dreamed of then, his kind- ness has been blessed to his financial prosperity. It was indeed "bread cast upon the waters."

Upon resigning the pastorate of St. John's in 1869, Mr. Hitchings made a tour of Europe, visiting all points of interest to the student of history. Upon his return to the United States he came to Colorado on a visit, and, finding that the land on the divide over which he had trav- eled in previous years was offered for sale by the government, he purchased some three thousand acres of timber land in El Paso County for a ranch. While he was here he received a call to a parish in Bangor, Me. He accepted, but the climate there proved uncongenial, and he was obliged to resign after eighteen months of labor. He then went to Trinity Church, at the head of Wall Street, New York, and continued there un- til 1882, when he retired from active ministerial work. Since that time he has traveled over a large portion of the globe, visiting nearly all civilized countries.

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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 91

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