USA > Colorado > Sketches of Colorado: being an analytical summary and biographical history of the State of Colorado as portrayed in the lives of the pioneers, the founders, the builders, the statesmen, and the prominent and progressive citizens Vol. 1 > Part 31
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trails, or with courage checking a stampede of startled or storm-driven herds; he was quiet and unassuming, but always the man of nerve and steel. He declined to carry the weapons borne by many a cowboy of a later period, and at all times refused to take in- toxicating liquors. He lived on friendly terms with the Indians and they with him. In business tact, integrity and good morals his name was a synonym for all that is best in a business career and that, too, amid the wild life of the theu far west. At the time of his death he owned perhaps the best cat- tle range in the world, containing 20,000 acres of pasturage, and some of the finest springs and grazing valleys of the west. He could travel for a week, yet always eat and sleep at one of his own ranches. Here he collected and prepared his cattle for the markets of Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, and for filling his numerous and ex- tensive government contracts. His vast herds, roaming over the great plains from the grazing slopes of Montana to the prairies of Texas, numbered fully 50,000 head, of which he marketed an average of about 13,- 000 head per year. With the exception of about a year in the banking business with Hon. Amos Steck, in Wyoming, he engaged in no enterprises outside of the cattle busi- ness, but as his means increased he increased his herds. Mr. Iliff was twice married. The first time in January, 1864, to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Smith, a refined and cultivated lady of Delaware, Ohio, a lineal descendant of John Smith of Pocahontas fame. She died in December, 1865, leaving a young son, Wil- liam Seward Iliff. In March, 1870, Mr. Iliff married Miss Elizabeth Sarah Fraser, of Fitzroy, Ontario .. Her father, William Henry Fraser, was a grandson of Colonel Simon Fraser, who led the Seottish forces in the siege of Quebec. Mr. Iliff died Febru- ary 9, 1878, leaving a wife and four children (William Seward, Edna, Louise and John Wesley, Jr.) to mourn his early death. He was temperate, honest and just, and his busi- ness career was marked by a conscientious ness of purpose which rendered him a desir- able neighbor and a most useful citizen. The Iliff School of Theology at University Park is a memorial of him, his widow and chil- dren erecting the building and contributing largely to the endowment.
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GEORGE W. KASSLER
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GEORGE W. KASSLER.
K ASSLER, GEORGE W., merchant, banker, insurance, born in Canajoharie, Montgomery county, New York, September 12, 1836.
George W. Kassler received a limited education in his early boyhood and in his native town, where, at eleven years old, he was employed in a store, working during the summer months and attending school in win- ter. In this way he acquired knowledge and experience which served as the foundation for a varied and successful business career. At the age of fifteen years he went to Coop- ertown, New York, where he was clerk in a store for one year. Thereafter he was clerk in the postoffice at Coopertown, until 1857, when he came west and located at Omaha. While there he was employed in the banking house of L. R. Tuttle and A. U. Wyman, each of whom in later years became treasurer of the United States. It was under the train- ing of these eminent financiers that Mr. Kassler acquired the principles and methods of his systematic and successful banking career in after years. Early in 1860, he left Omaha for Denver, the journey, by wagon, requiring twenty-four days. From that time till the advent of the railway, he made no less than a dozen trips by stage across the plains, one trip being made by wagon train. Arriving at Denver in April of that year, he immediately entered the banking house of Turner & Hobbs, as its cashier. Mr. Kassler was not only a pioneer settler, but a pioneer as a financial expert, a promoter of business activity and a practical force among the builders of the new city of the plains. At the beginning of the civil war, the firm of Turner & Hobbs closed its business and the partners returned to the east. Mr. Kassler was then appointed assistant to Major J. S. Fillmore, paymaster of the United States army. About a year later, while on a visit to the east, he was appointed cashier of the United States Mint at Denver. Resigning that position in 1864, he established a book
and stationery store at the corner of Blake and Fifteenth streets, subsequently adding fire and life insurance, and continuing these lines for ten years. He served, also, as presi- dent of the Denver Board of Fire Under- writers. In 1873, Mr. Kassler was elected city treasurer, serving two years. In 1874, he closed ont his mercantile and insurance business and became actively connected with the First National Bank of Denver as assist- ant cashier, the late David II. Moffat being then the cashier. In 1880, when Mr. Moffat was chosen as president of the bank, Mr. Kassler was elected cashier. In 1882, Mr. Kassler, through his enterprising activity, having accumulated a comfortable fortune, retired for rest and recuperation. Besides the fruits of his unflagging industry, he was a careful and successful investor, and among his early achievements was the erection of the Moffat & Kassler business building on Lawrence street, now a valuable property in the heart of the city. Mr. Kassler filled various positions of responsibility and pub- lie usefulness. He was deputy territorial treasurer in 1876; was, for many years, sec- retary of the Denver and South Park Rail- road Company ; was treasurer of the Board of Trade; for six years, ending in 1883, he was a member of the Board of Education from District Number One; from 1883 to 1889, he was a member of the State Board of Capitol Managers; resigned on account of failing health. After a protracted illness, Mr. Kassler died July 20, 1890. He was a man of attractive personality, gentle and kindly in nature, having the esteem and affection of all who knew him in business and social life.
Mr. Kassler married Miss Maria T. Steb- bins of Clinton, New York, in 1865. He is survived by his wife and two sons, all resi- dents of Denver : E. S. Kassler, president of the Kassler Investment Company, and C. M. Kassler, secretary.
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ROBERT WILBUR STEELE
ROBERT WILBUR STEELE,
S TEELE, ROBERT WILBUR, lawyer, born at Lebanon, Ohio, November 14, 1857, was the son of Henry K. (a physician) and Mary Frances (Dunlavy) Steele. Robert W. Steele is deseended from a line of eminent professional men in the early history of Ohio. Dr. Henry K. Steele (1825-1893) was for many years a physician in Denver, Colorado. Dr. John Steele was grandfather of Robert
W., and on the paternal side, he descended from old Virginia stock, among the early settlers of Kentucky and, later, pioneers of Ohio. Dr. Henry K. Steele was educated at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, taking his degree in medieine and surgery at the University of New York. In the civil war he was surgeon of the Forty-fourth Ohio Infantry and the Eighth Ohio Cavalry, serv-
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ing till the close of the conflict. He re- moved to Denver in 1870, and was one of the organizers of the Colorado Medical So- ciety. He filled various positions of honor and responsibility, serving the publie with- out pay.
Robert Wilbur Steele, deceased, the only son and late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Colorado, came to Denver with his parents in 1870. Having received his early education in the common schools of Dayton, Ohio, he entered the Denver public schools, graduating from the first class of the Denver High School in 1877. In 1878-1879, he at- tended the law department of the Columbian University, and was admitted to the bar in 1881. From 1880 to 1884, Mr. Steele served as clerk of the Arapahoe county court, re- signing that position to engage in the prac- tice of the law. For his beginning he had the esteem of his fellow barristers and the friendship of all classes of the people. His fine intelligence, his noble nature and the sturdy qualities of his young manhood, as manifested in faithful application to what- ever calling and, withal, uniting a charming personality with a wide comprehension of the law, his many virtues strongly commended him to publie favor and he began his official life at an early period in his professional career. In 1891, Mr. Steele was elected dis- triet attorney for the Second Judicial Dis- triet, resigned and was appointed to fill a vacancy as judge of the Arapahoe county court. By election in 1895, he continued upon that bench until 1898.
In the fall of 1900, he was elected to the highest judicial office in the state, tak- ing his seat as a justice of the Supreme Court of Colorado in January, 1901. He arose to the position of Chief Justice in 1907, and continued as the presiding offices until his death. He was stricken with apoplexy, September 21, and died October 12, 1910. Whether in professional pursuit or public service, Judge Steele's preferment was not due to partisan sentiment or political affili- ation so much as to his high degree of intel- lectual capacity, his exalted sense of right, tempered by a noble and benevolent nature- all combining in the one personality to make him greatly popular among all political par- ties and all classes of the people. Though nominally a republican at an earlier period, but latterly yielding no avowed allegiance to any partisan organization, he had an equal elaim upon all, and was renominated for the supreme bench by acclamation, at the democratic state convention in Denver, September 15, 1910, only a week before his fatal illness. He was a man of the peo-
ple and the people of Colorado claimed him as their own.
Justice Steele, in the case of Elder versus Sours, delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, sustaining the constitutionality of the Rush Bill, on the consolidation of the City and County of Denver. In a later case, that of the People ex. rel. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that there were two sets of of- ficers, Justice Steele and Justice Gunter dis- senting. In the recent case of the State of Colorado, ex. rel., the Attorney General, ver- sus George D. Curtice, et. al., respondents, Justice Bailey overruled the opinion of the Johnson case, and held that the City and County of Denver was entitled to but one set of officers. In delivering his opinion, Justice Bailey referred with approval to the dissenting opinion of Justice Steele in the Johnson case, holding it to be the law "be- cause of its convincing, exhaustive, and un- answerable discussion of the subject."
One of his most important and beneficent decisions for the people of Denver, was in the case of "The City and County of Denver et al. vs. Hallett, Executor." The decision pro- vided for the erection of the auditorium by the people of Denver, for the use of the pub- lie. An illustration of his humanity and pa- triotism is the inscription which he gave for the corner stone :
"Let all the nations be gathered together -let the people be assembled." This deci- sion gave him more satisfaction than any other, as he felt that he had accomplished something for the people.
Upon all questions, whether for the adju- dication of the courts, in state or municipal affairs, or questions affecting the business and social life of the community, he was courageous and unyielding in his position for equity and right; and thus his benign influence pervaded all circles and reached from the humblest elements of society to the highest dignitaries of the land. His able and equitable opinions and decisions from the bench characterize him as sublime in his rectitude, impressive in his learning and en- title him to honor as "the ideal minister of the constitution and the law." In him was vested the power to inspire the people with reverence for the courts and a revered con- fidence in justice therefrom. He was a mem- ber of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion and affiliated with several fraternal organ- izations.
Judge Steele was married in Toledo, Ohio, to Miss Anna B., daughter of P. B. Truax, of Toledo, Ohio, February 28, 1884. He is sur- vived by his wife and two children, Jane G. and Robert W. Steele, Junior.
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JAMES G. KILPATRICK
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JAMES G. KILPATRICK.
K ILPATRICK, JAMES G., merchant, born in County Armagh, Ireland, May 2, 1848, son of James and Sarah (Gass) Kilpat- rick, died in Denver, Colorado, October 17, 1895, was descended from a long line of Irish ancestors.
James G. Kilpatrick received a good com- mon education in his native country. He came to the United States in 1866, first locating in St. Louis, Missouri, in May of that year, and there engaged as bookkeeper in a notion house. He continued in that position for two and a half years, and in 1869, purchased and located upon a farm near Pleasant Hill, Missouri. After a brief experience at farming, he sold out and went to Baxter Springs, Kansas, where he en- gaged as elerk and bookkeeper for about one year. He then formed a partnership with Guren & Hunter at Baxter Springs and bought out the interests of his employer, dealing in dry goods and general merchan- dise. He thus continued for one year, when the firm of Hunter & Kilpatrick succeeded to the business, and, under this organization, Mr. Kilpatrick continued for about one year longer. The latter firm then sold out all interests and Mr. Kilpatrick came to Denver in July, 1872. Here he again entered into the dry goods business as a clerk. He con- tinued in this capacity for a short time and then took charge of the books in the furni- ture store of Smith & Doll. In that position he remained for about eighteen months. In 1874, he formed a partnership with Robert Brown of Cincinnati and opened the Kilpat- rick & Brown furniture store. This partner- ship terminated in 1884, and the business was conducted thereafter by Mr. Kilpatrick alone. This was the first large retail and wholesale furniture store in the state. The business prospered and under the immediate direction of Mr. Kilpatrick, it was one of the most successful mercantile enterprises in Denver, having a widely extended wholesale
trade. Such continues to be the status of the house. The business was continued by Mr. Kilpatrick under the style of Kilpatrick & Brown until the former's death, and follow- ing this event, the James G. Kilpatrick Fur- niture Company was organized, with Mrs. Annie L., widow of James G. Kilpatrick, president ; and Mr. Julian T. Clarke, her brother, vice-president and general man- ager. Under this organization the business is continued to the present day. It is the oldest furniture house in Denver continu- ing in the business. The new store of the company at 1633-1639 California street forms an admirable feature of the splendid growth of Denver in the past fifteen years. It is one of the great and luxurious stores of medium and fine furniture, in conformity with the more exacting demand for costly house equipment in the west. At the time of his death, Mr. Kilpatrick was president of the Denver Athletic Club, and likewise a trustee of the Central Presbyterian church. He was on the building committee of both these institutions, and supervised the eree- tion of both buildings. He was a devout Presbyterian and a staunch member of the Central church.
Mr. Kilpatrick is remembered as a mer- chant of great enterprise, a progressive and publie-spirited citizen, contributing in large measure to the advancement and prosperity of the city-an exemplary man in business and in all the relations of life.
He married in Denver, July 28, 1873, Annie Laurie Clarke, of East Haddam, Con- necticut, who survives him. Mrs. Kilpatrick is a daughter of Jonathan Tillotson and Emma (Webb) Clarke of East Haddam. On the maternal side her father was descended from the Willards. Colonel Simon Willard of that branch of the family and from whom Mrs. Kilpatrick is eighth in descent, was one of the founders of Concord, Massachu- setts.
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AARON DENNISON LEWIS
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AARON DENNISON LEWIS.
LEWIS, AARON DENNISON, merchant, son of Aaron Thompson and Josephine (Russell) Lewis, was born November 22, 1865, in Roseville, Illinois. His father, A. T. Lewis, born March 19, 1831, died January 20, 1907, farmer, banker, merchant, the late senior member of the dry goods firm of A. T. Lewis & Company, was for many years one of the leading business men of Denver, and prominent citizen, identified with the growth and prosperity of the city and state. Jose- phine, his mother, was the daughter of Jon- athan and Amanda Lyon Russell.
Mr. Lewis is a Son of the Revolution and has an historic and proud lineage, extending back to the Mayflower, upon which vessel came his ancestor, Edward Doty, in 1620, the name of the latter being inscribed on the Plymouth Monument. In the paternal line, his ancestor, Samuel Lewis, came from Wales in 1732, and settled in New Jersey.
Mr. Lewis came to Denver, February 27, 1880, and from 1883 to 1888, he was em- ployed by Daniels & Fisher, of that city. In 1888, he removed to Breckenridge, Colo- rado, where he owned and conducted a dry goods business. He established a large and successful trade, remaining in Breckenridge until 1890, when he returned to Denver.
In November of the year 1890, he started in business in Denver, under the firm name and style of Lewis Son & Barrow. When he opened this new dry goods house, it was with a small beginning and modest surround-
ings, the employees numbering only ten.
This business was afterward incorporated under the name of The A. T. Lewis & Son Dry Goods Company. The company now employs six hundred people in its several and large departments, and maintains buy- ing offices in New York, Paris, Berlin and Chemnitz. At the beginning, its sales were a few thousands of dollars a year; now they aggregate several millions of dollars annu- ally.
The firm is known and recognized as not only one of the great dry goods houses of Denver, but of Colorado and the west. The integrity and stability of this firm is one of its strongest assets. From the establish- ment of this house, to the present time, only goods of the best quality and highest grade have stocked its counters and shelves. These salient features, together with fair dealing, honest methods and consistent service, have built up this great dry goods establishment.
Mr. Lewis is a member of the Denver Club; Denver Athletic Club, the Colorado Traffic Club, the Denver Chamber of Com- merce, the Colorado Manufacturers' Associ- ation and the Retail Merchants' Association.
Mr. Lewis married in Denver, Colorado, February 8, 1898, Miss Luella E., daughter of George and Caroline Brand of Denver. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are prominent in the social life of Denver. They have two child- ren, Flora Luella, and George Dennison.
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ALBERT EDMUND HUMPHREYS
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ALBERT EDMUND HUMPHREYS.
H UMPHREYS, ALBERT EDMUND, min- ing, born January 11, 1860, in Kanawha county, Virginia (now West Virginia), is the son of Ira A. and Eleanor A. (Dawson) Humphreys. She was the daughter of John R. and Lily Dawson. He is a descendant of the Humphreys of Virginia, whose pro- genitor was a martyr, one of the seven Hum- phreys who suffered persecution and mar- tyrdom. The derivation of the Humphreys name is supposed to be from the French, homme, man, and vrai, true, meaning true man. The name is found in the ancient rec- ords as Amfreville (with various spellings of the same) in Normandy, which is consid- ered the origin of the family history. Later the "h" appeared, and from Humphreys, now the more general way of spelling it, the name may be traced to Humphreyes, Hum- frey, Humphrie, and other derivations. From the days of the crusades, when Le Sire d'Umphrayville was constable of Jerusalem, and from the conquest of England by Wil- liam the Conquerer in 1066, who was accom- panied by Sir Robert d'Umfreville, down through the centuries, they were valiant knights and brave warriors, from whom sprang the colonial Humphreys of Virginia, who were patriots in the American revolu- tion.
Albert E. Humphreys, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Kanawha county, West Virginia, and at Marshall college, Huntington, West Virginia,
and first engaged in business with his father in 1876. He was one of the discoverers of the great Mesaba iron range in Minnesota, and owns gold and silver mines in Brit- ish Columbia, Colorado and other western states. His interests at the present time in- elude large investments in Creede, Colorado. He has been engaged for more than twenty years in the mining business, and in addition to his western enterprises, he owns and con- trols large coal properties in West Virginia. Mr. Humphreys came to Colorado in 1896 and spends a part of his time in West Vir- ginia.
Mr. Humphreys is a member of the Den- ver Club, Denver Country Club, and Denver Athletic Club, Denver; the Edgewood Coun- try Club, Charleston, West Virginia; Oak- shore Club, Rockport, Texas.
In Levana, Ohio, November 3, 1887, he married Alice K. Boyd, daughter of Captain C. W. and Margaret Boyd of Levana. They have two children: Ira B, a successful in- ventor, and Albert E., Jr.
The Boyd family are of Kentucky origin and Mrs. Humphrey's mother was of the MeMeeken family of Pennsylvania. Her pa- ternal grandmother was a Gibson of Ken- tueky and through the Boyd branch of the family Mrs. Humphreys traces her ancestry in a direct line to revolutionary stock, sev- eral of her ancestors having held commis- sions in Washington's army.
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WILLIAM B. HARRISON
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WILLIAM B. HARRISON.
H ARRISON, WILLIAM B., attorney, was born in Angusta county, Virginia, on November 18, 1851. Henry Harrison, his father, was born on May 13, 1823, and still resides on his Virginia plantation, known as "West Hill." ITis mother was Jane St. Clair Cochran, danghter of George M. and Maria B. Cochran. Mr. Harrison comes of an old and distinguished family. Benjamin Harri- son settled in Surry county, Virginia, in 1635, and from him were descended Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declara- tion of Independence; William H. Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, presidents of the United States; and Carter H. Harrison, mayor of Chicago. Among Mr. Harrison's ancestors were Colonel Archibald Cary, a revolutionary patriot, who presided over the Virginia convention of 1776, and Robert Car- ter, known, on account of his great wealth, as "King Carter," a colonial governor of Virginia. A brother, George M. Harrison, is one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and another brother, Randolph Harrison, is an eminent lawyer of that state.
Mr. Harrison received his first education from tutors in his father's family and at Powers' preparatory school in Staunton, Virginia, after which he matriculated at the
University of Virginia, where he studied law in 1874 and 1875. After leaving the univer- sity he began the practice of law in Staun- ton, Virginia, where he resided from 1875 until 1883. He came to Colorado in the lat- ter year and settled in Denver, where he has since lived and practiced his profession.
Mr. Harrison has had an active and suc- cessful professional career. He has success- fully conducted a number of important cases before the Interstate Commerce Com- mission, and much of the commercial equal- ity now enjoyed by Denver is due to his efforts. Mr. Harrison has, for some years, been a standing master in chancery and ref- eree in bankruptcy in the Federal Court, having contributed valuable service in the formation of the practice of bankruptcy in this jurisdiction.
Mr. Harrison and Miss Janet Colquhoun Withers, daughter of Reverend Edmund Withers, were married in Norwood, Virginia, on September 30, 1879. Two children were born to this union. One daughter, Clara Colquhoun Harrison, is the wife of Lieuten- ant William W. Edwards, Tenth Cavalry, United States Army, and the other daugh, ter died in childhood.
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RODELPHUS HOWARD GILMORE
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RODELPHUS HOWARD GILMORE.
G ILMORE, RODELPHUS HOWARD, lawyer, born in Leeds, Maine, February 19, 1842, was the son of Colonel John and Eliza (Otis) Gilmore. Through both his pa- ternal and maternal lines, Judge Gilmore is connected with prominent colonial families of New England, in military and civil life. His ancestor, James Gilmore, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, because of the religious perse- cution of that period, sailed from London, for Massachusetts, in 1715, and became the ancestor of this branch of the Gilmore fam- ily in America.
Judge Gilmore's father, Colonel John Gil- more, commanded a regiment of Massachu- setts infantry in the War of 1812. He was born in 1790, and at the age of 23, when at the head of this regiment, the credit was largely due and given him, in repelling the British from the southern coast of Massa- chusetts in that war. He made his residence at Easton, Massachusetts. His wife was the daughter of Oliver Otis, and a sister of Hon- orable John Otis, of a distinguished New England family. In the Lothrop lineage, an ancestor was a gallant soldier in the Amer- ican Revolution. His great-grandfather, Ma- jor Daniel Lothrop, was in command of the artillery, overlooking Dorchester Heights, at the time Washington assumed command of the army, and his son, Lieutenant Daniel Lothrop, was with the troops at Valley Forge. General O. O. Howard, one of the great military leaders of the civil war, was a half-brother of Judge Gilmore. Thus from colonial days, and from the revolution to the civil war, his family has been prominently connected with the military history of the country.
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