Portrait and biographical record of the state of Colorado, containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 99

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 99

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

The only child of his parents, our subject was born in London, England, September 3, 1848. He attended the high school and college at Hills- dale, Mich., after which he carried on a mercan- tile business in that city for a few years. In 1873 he came to Colorado and for three months worked for others there, after which he engaged in the book and stationery business as a member of the firm of Tribe & Jefferay. In 1878 the firm started a branch store in Leadville, and he was made manager of the store there. In 1891 he formed a company and opened the Fanny Raw- lings mine, which he named in honor of his wife, and which is proving to be valuable prop- erty. He also invented and patented Tribes cur- tain wires, which is manufactured by George Frost & Co. Other inventions have also been patented by him. He is largely interested in the Homestake Gold Mining and Milling Company, and is general manager of their mine. In addi- tion he is secretary of the Monte Carlo Gold and Silver Mining Company, in whose mine at Creede both gold and silver have been found. Since 1881 he has not been connected with the book business, but has given his attention en- tirely to mines and patents.

Politically Mr. Tribe is a stanch advocate of the silver cause, and gives his allegiance to the men and measures pledged to its support, believ- ing that the highest good of the people cannot be conserved until silver is placed upon its proper basis. He was married in London, England, to Miss Fanny M. Rawlings, who was born in that city and is a member of the Church of England. They have two daughters, Edith and Ida.

AMUEL B. FAULKNER, county clerk of Prowers County, and a resident of Lamar, is an influential member of the Democratic party in southeastern Colorado. Although not what might be termed a partisan, he is as un- deviating in his devotion to his party as the needle to the pole. The political questions of the age have received from him the serious con- sideration which they demand, and he has firm convictions upon all subjects of importance. He gives support to all measures having for their object the promotion of Lamar's progress and the people's welfare. He was elected to his present office in the fall of 1895, and has filled the posi- tion with fidelity and characteristic efficiency.

The parents of our subject, James and Nancy (Goin) Faulkner, were born in Claiborne County,

Tenn., but removed from there to Mercer Coun- ty, Mo., in 1859, and about 1888 settled in Kan- sas. In their several places of residence they have made their home upon farming land. While they were living in Mercer County, Mo., the sub- ject of this sketch was born, May 30, 1860. He received a fair education, and for five years en- gaged in teaching school in his native county. Afterward he learned telegraphy at Redding, Ringgold County, Iowa, and this occupation he followed for eight years, being in Iowa during part of the time. In 1891 he came to Colorado, and, after a few months spent in Granada, settled in Lamar. For some years before he was elected county clerk he engaged in the mercantile busi- ness in this city. Fraternally he is connected with Lamar Lodge No. 84, I. O. O. F.

In Granada, in 1891, Mr. Faulkner married Miss Estella Bridges. His second marriage was solemnized in 1894 and united him with Ger- trude Biby, who was born in Wayne County, Iowa, and removed to Lamar in girlhood. She is an estimable lady and shares with Mr. Faulk- ner the esteem of all associates.

OHN W. FREEMAN, sheriff of Lincoln County, is the owner of a ranch eighteen miles from Hugo and a blacksmith's busi- ness in the village. The latter enterprise he con- ducted personally for two and one-halfyears, but now rents the shop. In the office of sheriff he has proved to be fearless, just and impartial, and under his supervision law and order have been preserved to a degree not often found even in long established communities.

Mr. Freeman was born near Lomax, Hender- son County, Ill., in 1862. He is a son of John Freeman, a native of Sweden, who came to America in early life and settled in Henderson County, Ill., engaging in railroading and in bridge-building. He is still living, but is prac- tically retired from business cares, and resides on a farm in Nebraska. In politics he is a Demo- crat, and in religion a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During his residence in Illi- nois he married Mary Johnson, a native of that state, and who died in Henderson County when our subject was seven years of age. Besides him she had two sons and one daughter, namely: Andrew, a farmer at Ashgrove, Franklin County, Neb .; Gus, who is foreman of a paper mill in Oregon City, Ore .; and Anna, who died at twenty- eight years of age.

WALTER N. HOUSER.

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When sixteen years of age the subject of this sketch went to Cass County, Neb., where for two years he engaged in railroading. After- ward for ten years he conducted a farm in Har- lan County, about ten miles west of Ashgrove. From there he came to Lincoln County, Colo., and settled at Bovina, where he made his home for seven years, meantime following various occupa- tions. In January, 1896, he removed to Hugo, and after two years of service as under-sheriff, in the fall of 1897 he was elected sheriff, which position he fills with the greatest efficiency. He was elected to the position on the Democratic ticket, he being a stanch adherent of that party.

In 1884 Mr. Freeman married Miss Esther Jackson, who was born in Fayette County, Ill., and in 1872 accompanied her father, Robert Jack- son, to Nebraska, settling at Ashgrove. Mr. and Mrs. Freeman are the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters, namely: Roy, who is a bright lad of twelve years; Cora, Ralph, Edna and Andrew.

ALTER N. HOUSER, county surveyor of Huerfano County and one of its most ex- tensive stock-raisers, was born in Wiscon- sin in 1860. He is of Swiss parentage. His father, John S. Houser, a native of Switzerland, came to the United States in 1848 and settled in Galena, Il1., where he and General Grant be- came well acquainted. In his early manhood he went to Wisconsin and engaged in the grain bus- iness at Bangor, where for twenty years he served as postmaster. An active worker in the Repub- lican party, he held a number of county offices and was one of the well-known men of La Crosse County. He died in 1869, when thirty-eight years of age. By his marriage to Miss Caroline Mann, a native of Vermont, six children were born, but our subject alone survives. The wife and mother died in Colorado in 1880, aged fifty- two years.

The subject of this article was born in Bangor, LaCrosse County, Wis., February 5, 1860. When about ten years old he entered his uncle's store in Cambria, Wis., as cellar boy, and continued in various departments in that establishment un- til sixteen years old. His health requiring a change, he came to Colorado, hoping that he might be benefited by the climate of the west. At first he could do but little. After a time he became a guide for pleasure parties in the moun- tains, and this occupation he followed for three

years. Later he had charge of the business af- fairs of S. W. Madge, near Castle Rock, and the owner of a large stone quarry. He remained in Castle Rock until 1885, meantime taking con- tracts for the building of ditches and earthworks. In 1882 he built the city water works for the city of Longmont, Colo.

. Coming to Walsenburg in 1885, Mr. Houser located on a ranch near Gardner, in the north- western part of Huerfano County, and there he remained until 1894, since which time he has made his home in town. In connection with the Merino Live Stock Company of Elizabeth, Elbert County, he had gained an accurate idea of the sheep business, and on settling here he en- gaged in the stock business, handling cattle and sheep. He owns numerous ranches in this county, besides which he is interested in mining. Fraternally he is connected with the Wahatoya Tribe of Red Men. In politics, as a Republican, he has been active in county affairs and has worked faithfully in the interests of his party. In 1894 he was elected county surveyor for one year to fill a vacancy. His administration of the office was so satisfactory that he was re-elected in 1895 for a term of two years, and again in 1897 for two years. In 1881 he married Miss Josie Hammar, of Castle Rock, and they have three children: Della, Percy and Walter.

RANCIS M. TAGUE, postmaster at Las Animas, Bent County, was born in Switzer- land County, Ind., April 16, 1835, a son of Joseph and Sarah (Johnson) Tague. His pater- nal grandfather, John Tague, came from England to this country, in company with his brother, Robert, during the Revolution and served in Gen- eral Marion's command from that time until the close of the war. Joseph Tague, who was born at Culpeper C. H., Va., accompanied his parents to Kentucky at fourteen years of age and from there he afterward crossed the river, settling in Switzer- land County, Ind., while the Indians were still numerous in that locality. From the primeval wilderness he cleared and improved a farm, and there spent the remainder of his life.

In the common schools and a local seminary the subject of this sketch acquired an excellent education. He taught one term of school, but not finding the work congenial, turned his at- tention to other employment. He became a cook on the river and afterward was promoted to be a pilot. For fourteen years he continued on Ohio

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and Mississippi River steamboats. Hewasmarried in Vevay, Switzerland County, in 1853 to Miss Mary Rogers, of that city, who was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. At the opening of the Civil war, in 1861, he offered his services to the gov- ernment, and he became a private in Company C, Third Indiana Cavalry, in which he served for three years and four months. From the ranks he was promoted to be sergeant, orderly and second lieutentant successively. Among the im- portant engagements in which he took part were those at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellors- ville and Gettysburg, in which latter engage- ment the major was killed and he was recom- mended for the vacancy, but never received his commission. At Fredericksburg, Va., the end of his middle finger was shot off, his clothing and hat were penetrated by bullets, and his horse was shot from under him, while he received a saber thrust in his right hand. His injuries, however, were not sufficient to render it necessary for him to be absent from his command; the only time when he was in a hospital was at Fredericksburg, where he lay ill for a long time with typhoid fever.

Upon retiring from the Union service Mr. Tague resumed his work on the river, but in two years he opened a mercantile store at Greenwood, near Indianapolis, Ind., where he was successful. After a time he removed to Indianapolis and em- barked in the manufacture of collars, cuffs, shirts, overalls, etc., putting in expensive machinery and operating his plant successfully for some time. However, after taking a partner into the business and adding sewing machines to his stock he met with less success, and in six years closed out the business, leaving no indebtedness, but taking all of his capital to settle his debts. In 1880 he came to Colorado and settled in Pu- eblo, where he engaged in the manufacture of shirts until 1887. On selling out he invested in real estate on the town site of Caddoa, it Bent County, where he sunk all that he had, as well as all of his wife's money, the investment proving a most disastrous one to him. In 1893 his wife died at Caddoa; their only child had died in In- dianapolis, Ind., when in her twentieth year. He was again married, his second union being solemnized in Nodaway County, Mo., September 30, 1896, and uniting him with Miss Nannie Kessler.

Politically Mr. Tague has always been a stanch Republican, following, in this respect, the ex- ample of his father, who was a Republican after

the disintegration of the Whig party. In 1892 he was elected commissioner of Bent County, and for five years he was postmaster at Caddoa under Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland. In January, 1896, he removed to Las Animas, where he was employed as deputy county clerk until the death of the clerk. In November, 1897, he was appointed postmaster. He has filled all the chairs in the Masonic and Odd Fellows' lodges, and in the former fraternity has taken the various orders up to and including the commandery.

ILLIAM A. MERRILL. The local United States land office of the Bent land district, which comprises the counties of Bent, Ki- owa, Baca and Prowers, is located at Lamar, and the present register is Mr. Merrill, a well-known attorney and newspaper man. Since entering upon his duties, in April, 1898, he has given his attention to their successful discharge, and at the same time is serving acceptably as deputy district attorney for Prowers County.

In Lawrence County, Ky., February 17, 1857, the subject of this sketch was born to the union of Joseph C. and Louisa (Buchanan) Merrill. His father, who was from Massachusetts, served for three years in the Union army from West Virginia. For some time he was a merchant and manufacturer of furniture at Catlettsburg, Boyd County, Ky., and now, at the age of seventy-one, is still an active merchant at Granada, Prowers County, Colo. His wife, four years his junior, was born and reared in Kentucky, and is re- lated to the Buchanans and Hamptons of that state. George B. Merrill, a younger brother of the subject of this sketch, publishes that stalwart Republican paper, the Lamar Register. A sister, Miss Louise A. Merrill, is a teacher in the West Denver school district. A married sister, Mrs. Rufus B. Switzer, is the wife of a prominent law- yer of Huntington, W. Va. The family are Universalists in religious belief. They state with pride, that none of them "is afflicted with the pe- culiar political heresies that have made Colorado conspicuous for the past few years."

In the private and normal schools of Boyd County, our subject received his education, gradu- ating from the normal school in 1873, when six- teen years of age. 'Two years after leaving school he began to study law and for some time he studied privately, in conjunction with other work, but he afterward entered the law school in Louisville,

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Ky., and took the regular course of lectures, graduating in 1879, in the class of which John D. Fleming, of Denver, was a member.

Opening an office at Ashland, Ky., Mr. Merrill began in the practice of his profession. After a few years he removed to Wayne County, W. Va., and there practiced for a time, but in 1885 be- came the publisher of the Charleston Tribune, a prominent Republican paper of Charleston, W. Va. In 1886 he came to Colorado and took up a pre-emption near Granada, Prowers County. . At the same time he was proprietor of the Coolidge Citizen at Coolidge, Kan. For more than three years he held the office of postmaster at Granada and also served as deputy county assessor. Since his appointment as register of the United States land office he has made his home in Lamar. June 30, 1897, in this city, he married Miss Zoa B. Lee, an accomplished lady, formerly of Edina, Mo., who had been a successful teacher in the public schools of Central City and Pueblo in Colorado, and in Boise City, Idaho.

The first presidential vote cast by Mr. Merrill was in support of General Garfield in 1880. He has always been a stanch friend of Republican principles, and has uniformly voted for men and measures pledged to the party. He has been a delegate to state conventions in Kentucky, West Virginia and Colorado. While in Coolidge, Kan., he became a member of Coolidge Lodge No. 299, I. O. O. F., and after removing to Granada he assisted in the organization of Gra- nada Lodge No. 78, in which he has filled the chairs and which he represented in the grand lodge in 1892 at Aspen, Colo.

ILLIAM E. CULVER, a well-known dealer in drugs and stationery at Las Ani- mas, was the first mayor of this city, and held that office for two terms. He was also twice elected a member of the city council and twice served for five years as postmaster, the first time under President Garfield, and again under Presi- dent Harrison. Politically he is an ardent Re- publican. He cast his ballot for General Grant in 1868, and from that time to the present has never missed an opportunity to vote for a Repub- lican candidate. When Bent County was cut off from Pueblo in 1872 he was elected the first as- sessor, and filled the office one term.

David Culver, father of our subject, was born in Vermont, and in early life went west to Michi- gan. There he met and married Rosetta Elwood,

who was born in Springwater Valley, N. Y. After their marriage they continued for a short time to live in Hillsdale, Mich., where their son, William E., was born August 13, 1843. From there they removed to a farm in Calhoun Coun- ty, Mich. Our subject attended the district schools of the latter county, after which he spent three years in high school, one year being at Bat- tle Creek and the other at Burlington. In 1861, before the first call had been made for volunteers, he offered his services as a private in Company C, Second Michigan Infantry. His first enlist- ment was for three months, but before he left the state he had re-enlisted for three years. He took part in both the battles of Bull Run, serving in the army of the Potomac until after the battle of Fredericksburg, when he was assigned with the ninth corps to duty in Kentucky, later was at Vicksburg, then in Knoxville, Tenn., at the time of the siege. Returning to the army of the Potomac, he was under General Grant at Wilder- ness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, and other bat- tles.

After three years of service Mr. Culver re- turned home, but he soon re-enlisted as first lieu- tenant in a corps of topographical engineers, and assisted in laying out the line of works around Nashville. During his long period of service, covering almost four years, he was in many ex- citing battles and frequently in peril of life, some- times having balls pass through his clothing, while at one time a ball passed between two but- tons; but in spite of many narrow escapes he left the service without having been wounded. In 1869 he turned his attention to farming. During that year he came to Colorado, taking the Kansas Pacific road to Sheridan, and traveling from there by stage to Bent County, where he began stock- raising. After six years he opened a drug store in Las Animas, starting with a stock valued at $600, which he has since increased to its present size and value. He was fitted for this occupation by the fact that he had studied medicine for two years in Michigan and had become familiar with pharmacy at the same time.

In 1866 Mr. Culver married Miss Mary A. Smith, of Elyria, Ohio, who was born near that city and attended school at Oberlin. She died in July, 1884, leaving one child, Minnie, who was born in Michigan, and married Hurbert Rey- nolds. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds have three chil- dren: Burrell, Nelson and Burton. They reside in Greeley, Colo., where Mr. Culver and Mr.

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Reynolds have a large drug store. In Earlville, (Todd) Pusey, of Las Animas. They are the Ill., Mr. Culver married Miss Hattie F. Foley, parents of four children, Gertrude, Charles Willis, Ione Lerene and Oscar P., Jr. who was born in New York.

During the fall of 1873 the Cheyennes became very troublesome, and for three days our subject was corralled in his stone house, which stood two miles below Prowers Station. However, the In- dians at last left without taking any lives. Fra- ternally a Mason, Mr. Culver served as junior warden, senior warden and master of King Solo- mon Lodge No. 30, A. F. & A. M., and is also a member of the chapter and commandery at Pu- eblo. He was the prime factor in the organiza- tion of Richardson Post, G. A. R., of which he was the first commander. He also organized a lodge of the Ancient Order United Workmen, of which he was the first master workman.

SCAR P. SMITH, county clerk of Bent County, was born in Trenton, Butler County, Ohio, May 31, 1861, a son of Conrad Theo- dore and Gertrude (Lander) Smith. His father, who was a native of France, graduated from Heidelberg College and was a man of scholarly attainments. Settling in Ohio on his arrival in America, he afterward married and became the father of four children. At the first call for vol- unteers in the Civil war he offered his services and was made a recruiting officer, with the rank of captain. At the expiration of three years he was honorably discharged from the service. For more than forty years he followed the occupation of teaching, but is now retired and, at seventy-six years of age, makes his home in Trenton, Ohio.

When only eleven years of age our subject was so proficient in the German language that he was able to teach it. He won a scholarship in the normal school at Lebanon, Ohio, but did not use it. At fourteen years he became an employe in a drug store at Hamilton, it being his intention to learn the trade of a druggist, but after two years he turned his attention to other lines of work. He attended the commercial col- lege in Hamilton, and in the fall of 1878 came west to Colorado, settling in Bent County, where he had an uncle engaged in the cattle business. For a year he worked on the range as a cowboy. Afterward he was employed as a clerk in Las An- imas until 1885. From that time until 1891 he engaged in the stock business, but the enterprise proving very unprofitable, he abandoned it.

February 22, 1886, Mr. Smith married Miss Fannie Pusey, daughter of Willis B. and Frances

Reared in the faith of the Democratic party, Mr. Smith voted for Grover Cleveland in 1884. In 1896 he was elected mayor of his home town, Las Animas. During the same year he was chosen county clerk, to fill a vacancy in that office, and in the fall of 1897 was elected by a majority of nearly two to one, in a Republican county. He was made a Mason in King Solomon Lodge No. 30, A. F. & A. M., in Las Animas. In Elder Lodge No. 11, I. O.O. F., in this city, he has filled all the chairs, and was elected to repre- sent the lodge in the grand lodge.

Mr. Smith is one of the prominent men of Bent County. The people have signified their appre- ciation of his worth by repeatedly electing him to local offices of trust, a fact which attests his pop- ularity and qualifications. He is a genial gen- tleman, of recognized integrity, and has won a reputation for fairness and honesty that speaks volumes for his high character.

- RANCIS M. WEILAND is the owner of four hundred and eighty acres of valuable land lying one mile south of Fowler, Otero County. A resident of Colorado since 1872, he was born in Rayesville, Ind., September 29, 1849. When he was seven years of age he accompanied his parents in their removal to Iowa Falls, Iowa, and there the years of his youth were spent. Af- ter having assisted during the summer months in the cultivation of land, at the age of sixteen he became a clerk in a general store at Iowa Falls, and there remained until he came to Colorado.

Continuing in the employ of the same merchant he had been with in Iowa, Mr. Weiland was em- ployed for three years in Pueblo. In 1875 he went to California, and for one year carried on a milk business, but the prospects offered by that country did not equal his expectations, and he returned to Colorado. After some years as a clerk in Pueblo he was able to engage in busi- ness independently. He invested his savings in a stock of goods and opened a store at Nepesta, a small village in Pueblo County. From there, in 1891, he came to Otero County, settling in the western part, at Fowler, on the Santa Fe Rail- road, where he opened a store. Trouble with his lungs, which was aggravated by the confinement of the store, forced him in a short time to seek outdoor occupation. Taking up a homestead,

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he added to it by the purchase of a half-section adjoining, and has since made his home here. Six acres of the land he has planted to fruit trees.

In the spring of 1889 Mr. Weiland was one of the promoters of the Oxford Farmers' ditch, which is thirteen miles long, and he has served as secretary of the company that owns the ditch. Fraternally he is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In political views he is a silver Republican and has taken an active in- terest in local affairs. In 1896 he was elected county commissioner to serve for a term of three years, and for five terms he has been a member of the board of school directors, besides which he has held a number of minor offices. His mar- riage united him with Miss Louisa Carlton, of Iowa City, Iowa, daughter of John A. Carlton, one of the first settlers of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Weiland have four children: Adelbert A., a student in the State Normal School at Gree- ley; Edward F., who is attending school in Chillicothe, Mo .; Jay O. and Pearl, who are at home.

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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 99

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