USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume II > Part 7
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Aside from his work as rector at different places, Bishop Thomas served as lecturer on pastoral care in the Philadelphia Divinity School from 1902 until 1905. He is a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science of Philadelphia, and belongs to Delta Kappa Epsilon. He has membership in the Twilight Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, in the D. K. E. Club of New York, in the Sons of the American Revolution, in the Industrial Club of Chey- enne, Wyoming, and in the Cheyenne Country Club. In Philadelphia he was a member of the Union League and of the Delaware Country Club.
Bishop Thomas was married June 4, 1896, to Miss Edith Ellsworth Prince, a daughter of Colonel Edward Prince of the Seventh Illinois Cavalry and after- ward a resident of Quincy, Illinois.
Bishop Thomas, by appointment of the governor, is a member of the Peace Centenary Commission ; of the National Security League; of the Naval League ; and of the Washington Convention called to discuss the question of how to "Win the War for Permanent Peace."
He is also a member of the board of missions of the Protestant Episcopal church and has been elected upon its executive committee. In 1917 he acted as university preacher for Leland Stanford Junior University, and in 1918 for Princeton University.
The Bishop is the president of the council of domestic missionary bishops of the Protestant Episcopal church and is the chairman of the committee on survey of the Province of the Northwest. For the past four years he has been the president of the Wyoming State Sunday School Association. He is also president of the Bishop Randall Hospital, Lander, Wyoming, and of the Cathedral Home for Children, Laramie, Wyoming.
ORLANDO E. BRADBURY.
Orlando E. Bradbury is a well known representative of financial interests in Uinta county, being cashier of the First National Bank at Evanston and, more- over, he is one of the native sons of the city in which he resides. His record stands in contradistinction to the old adage that a prophet is never without honor save in his own country, for in the place of his nativity Mr. Bradbury has worked his way steadily upward along business lines and has gained the warm regard and unqualified confidence of his fellow townsmen.
He is a son of the late Albert Edward Bradbury, a native of Vermont, who came of English ancestry, the family having been founded in America at an early period in the colonization of the new world. Albert E. Bradbury was reared and educated in Connecticut and at the age of seventeen years left home, making his way to the Pacific coast by way of Cape Horn. He first settled in San Francisco, having gone to California by reason of the gold excitement, hoping that he might win fortune in the mines. He afterward removed to Portland, Oregon, or rather to the site of the present city, which at that ime had scarcely been begun. He had
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a contract for clearing timber on what is now the heart of that beautiful city. He took the contract on condition that he was to receive a portion of the land for his pay, but he did not regard it as of sufficient value to recompense him for his labor and he therefore did not continue the work of clearing. He turned his attention instead to other activities. In California he had been engaged in placer mining and in Portland he became connected with the Huntleys, who conducted stage lines, being pioneers in that business in various sections of the west. During his time with the company he established stage lines from Helena, Montana, to the Missouri river. He remained with the Huntleys and in the latter '70s, they estab- lished large interests in Montana in connection with sheep raising, but during the hard winter of 1876 their flocks were practically destroyed and their large fortune was thereby lost. On the opening of the Oregon Short Line Railroad Mr. Brad- bury became a contractor on the construction of the road from Granger, Wyoming, to a point west and in that undertaking continued as an associate of John H. Ward until the completion of the road. He next became manager for the Rocky Mountain Coal & Iron Company of Almy, Uinta county, and was thus engaged for a number of years. His next business connection made him assistant general manager of the Union Pacific Coal Company, with headquarters at Cheyenne, where he remained for four years. On the expiration of that period he retired from business life after long and prominent connection with interests which have led in substantial measure to the development, upbuilding and progress of the west. He continued a resident of Evanston from the days when it was a tent city to the time of his demise, which occurred January 19, 1916, when he had reached the age of seventy-five years. He had lived to see remarkable changes throughout the west during that period. Evanston had become a city of beautiful homes and important business enterprises, with all of the advantages and opportun- ities found in the cities of the older east. In politics Mr. Bradbury was a stanch re- publican and at one time served as treasurer of Sweetwater county. He was also the builder of the courthouse at Green River and he took an active interest in all that pertained to general progress and improvement, giving his loyal aid and support to all those interests which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. He ranked with Wyoming's most honored and valued citizens and many public offices were tendered him, including the position of governor, but he declined to become a candidate, preferring that his service should be done as a private citizen. His work, however, was of a most farreaching, resultant and beneficial character and his name is inseparably interwoven with the history of Wyoming's progress and development. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and in his life exemplified the beneficent spirit of the craft, which is based upon a recognition of the broth- erhood of mankind and the obligations thereby imposed. Albert E. Bradury was united in marriage to Miss Roella Dodge Kidder, a native of Massachusetts and a representative of one of the old families of that state of English descent. She is still living and three of her four children survive. namely: Silas Huntley, who is a resident of Rigby, Idaho; Valorus A., who is living in New York city ; and Orlando E., of this review. The eldest of the family was a daughter, Maude A. Bradbury, who died at the age of three years.
Orlando E. Bradbury was educated in the public schools of Evanston and of Salt Lake City, Utah, and in the Rensselaer Institute at Troy, New York, a polytechnic school from which he was graduated in 1907 with the degree of Civil Engineer. He started out independently upon his business career in 1907 in connection with the engineering department of the Union Pacific Coal Company, with which he continued until 1913. He then became cashier of the First National Bank of Evanston, which office he has since continuously filled, making an excel- lent record in this position. He is a courteous, popular and obliging official, ex- tending the courtesies of the bank to its patrons to an extent that will not hazard the interests of the depositors. He has closely studied banking questions since becoming connected with financial affairs in Evanston and his work is proving highly satisfactory to the institution and to the public at large. He is a director of the bank and he also has important cattle interests in Uinta county. He is like-
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wise a director of the Scofield Coal Company and is recognized as a young man of sound business judgment, alert, energetic and determined.
On the 20th of June, 1912, Mr. Bradbury was married in Rock Springs, Wy- oming, to Miss Louise Henkel, who was born in Green River, Wyoming, and is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig Henkel. Mr. and Mrs. Bradbury have become the parents of two children : Dorothy, who was born in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, March 3, 1914; and A. E., who was born in Evanston, May 1, 1917. The family occupy an enviable social position and the hospitality of the Bradbury home is greatly enjoyed by an extensive circle of friends.
In politics Mr. Bradbury is an active and earnest republican whose opinions carry weight in the councils of the party and who from 1912 until 1916 served as state senator, doing important work in the upper house of the Wyoming General Assembly. He gave earnest thought and consideration to all questions which came up for settlement and was identified with much constructive legislation which has been of great benefit to the commonwealth. He, like his father, is a prom- inent Mason, holding membership in the lodge, the chapter, the consistory and the Mystic Shrine. Liberal educational opportunities were accorded him, but it is a well known fact that notwithstanding the advantages offered in youth, the in- dividual must essentially determine and shape his own character. Utilizing the chances which came to him and actuated at all times by laudable purposes and high ideals, Orlando E. Bradbury has steadily advanced and is today regarded as one of the foremost residents of Evanston by reason of his business ability, his political activity, his public spirit and his genuine personal worth.
HON. JOHN W. LACEY
Hon. John W. Lacey, senior partner in the law firm of Lacey & Lacey, of Cheyenne, and at one time chief justice of Wyoming, was born in Randolph county, Indiana, October 13, 1848, a son of the Rev. Henry J. and Elizabeth (Thompson ) Lacey. The father was a Methodist minister and reared a family of four sons and three daughters. Well descended and well bred, Judge Lacey had the advantages offered in a home of culture and refinement.
He pursued his education in the public schools of various towns in which the family lived owing to the custom of itinerant ministry in the Methodist church at that period. Later he entered DePauw University of Indiana and was gradu- ated therefrom with the class of 1871. He took up the profession of teaching, which he followed for a short time, but regarded this merely as an initial step to other professional activity and began reading law under the direction of Isaac Van Devanter, of Marion, Indiana, who remained his preceptor until he was admitted to the bar in 1875. Prior to 1875 he had read law at intervals in the office of William O'Brien of Noblesville, Indiana. It has been said that a lawyer's experience should be as broad as the universe, for he has to do with every phase of life. Judge Lacey brought to the starting point of his career certain rare gifts-eloquence of language and a strong personality. He, moreover, had back of him experience as a soldier of the Civil war. He was only fifteen years of age when he enlisted for active service at the front, becoming a member of Company F of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Indiana Infantry in 1863. He was mustered out the following year but later in that year reenlisted, becoming a member of Company B of the One Hundred and Fifty-second Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. His training, too, at home had been of that kind which develops character and self-reliance. He entered upon the practice of his profession in Marion, Indiana, where he remained until 1884, when he was appointed by President Arthur to the position of chief justice of Wyoming and served in the highest judicial office of the territory until 1886. In November of that year, having resigned his position upon the bench, he entered into partnership with W. W. Corlett and Judge John A. Riner under the firm
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style of Corlett, Lacey & Riner. Following the death of Mr. Corlett the part- nership was continued under the firm name of Lacey & Riner and so existed until the junior partner was appointed United States district judge in 1890. Later Mr. Lacey entered into partnership relations with his brother-in-law, Willis Van Devanter, who is now a justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was thus associated until 1897, but is now senior partner in the firm of Lacey & Lacey, a firm that ranks with the foremost practicing at the bar of Cheyenne. Nature endowed him with some of those qualities indispensable to the lawyer-a keen, rapid, logical mind plus the business sense and a ready capacity for hard work. An excellent presence, an earnest, dignified manner, marked strength of character, a thorough grasp of the law and the ability to accurately apply its principles are factors in his effectiveness as an advocate.
In 1878 Judge Lacey was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Van Devanter, daughter of Isaac Van Devanter, and to them have been born six children: Her- bert V., an attorney of Cheyenne ; Walter M., M. D., and a captain in the United States service at Fort Riley, Kansas; Ruth, the wife of W. H. Barber, of Eaton, Colorado; Elizabeth, instructor in economics in the University of Nebraska ; Louise, teaching home economics in the Colorado Agricultural College at Fort Collins ; and Margaret.
In 1874 the degree of A. M. was conferred upon Judge Lacey by his alma mater, De Pauw University, and in 1914 he received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Denver. In his political views he is a republican and upon all the vital questions of the day keeps abreast with the best thinking men of the age. Fraternally he is a Mason and has taken the degrees of the commandery and of the consistory. A resident of Cheyenne since 1884, he has done much to uphold public stability and to advance the standards of citizenship in relation to municipal and commonwealth affairs.
EDWIN M. CONANT.
Edwin M. Conant, who is filling the office of county clerk and is also serving as clerk of the district court in Washakie county, makes his home in Worland. He was born in Waupun, Wisconsin, December 22, 1876, and is a son of William T. and Agnes M. (Frazier) Conant, the former a native of the state of New York, while the latter was born in England. It was in the year 1855 that they be- came residents of Wisconsin, where they are still living, and in that state they reared their family of eight children, seven of whom survive.
Edwin M. Conant passed the period of his boyhood and youth under the par- ental roof and divided his time between such duties as parental authority assigned him. and the work of the schoolroom and the pleasures of the playground. He passed through the elementary branches of learning and was graduated from the high school at Waupun, Wisconsin. He continued his residence in that state until he had reached he age of about twenty-seven years, when he sought the opportunities of the west and in 1903 arrived in Wyoming, taking up his abode in Washakie county. Here he was first appointed to the position of county clerk in 1911 and the following year was elected to the office, in which capacity he has since served by reelection, covering a period of seven years. He has also been clerk of the district court and in his dual position has discharged his duties in the most systematic, prompt and capable manner, the results achieved for the benefit of the county being most satisfactory. His political endorsement is given to the republican party. While active in office, he has also concentrated his attention in partial manner upon business affairs and is now the owner of two good ranches in northern Wyoming.
In 1906 Mr. Conant was married to Miss Katherine Frisby, a native of Mis- souri, and they have become parents of two children: Donald R., who was born July 15, 1907 ; and Agnes V., born December 24, 1910. Vol. II-4
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Both Mr. and Mrs. Conant are members of the Congregational church and are loyal adherents of its teachings. They occupy an enviable position in social circles and their home, which is one of the fine residences of Worland, is the abode of a warm-hearted hospitality which is greatly enjoyed by their circle of friends- a circle that is almost coextensive with the circle of their acquaintance.
The name Conant has long been prominently connected with the history of Wyoming, for A. A. Conant, an uncle of Edwin M. Conant, became one of the first settlers of Fremont county. He died at Basin in 1904. He had been one of the prominent men of his section of the state, honored and respected by all who knew him, and most of all where he was best known.
HON. EARL WARREN.
Hon. Earl Warren is bearing his part in directing the public affairs of Wyo- ming as a member of the state legislature. In business circles he is also well known, being engaged in farming and live stock growing and in the purchase and sale of farm lands at Riverton, Wyoming. The steps in the orderly pro- gression which has brought him to his present business and political prominence are easily discernible.
A native of Missouri. he was born in Pettis county, September 25. 1872, a son of Robert William and Victorene ( Durrill) Warren, both of whom were also natives of Pettis county, where they resided until 1898. They then removed to Texas, taking up their abode near Houston, and in 1909 they became residents of Riverton, Wyoming, where the mother is now living, the father having passed away December 18, 1917.
Earl Warren acquired his education in public schools of Missouri and in the Central Business College at Sedalia, that state, while later he became a student in the University of Missouri at Columbia. When his education was completed he took up the occupation of farming and cattle raising in Missouri and was thus engaged until 1894. when he went to Texas, where he turned his attention to cotton and rice growing. He afterward located in Houston, where he was prominently engaged in colonization work. and in 1909 he came to Riverton valley, Wyoming, where he secured under a twenty year lease one thousand acres of Indian land under ditch at Arapahoe. In the intervening years he has brought this land to a high state of cultivation. While en route to Wyoming he first made his way to St. Louis and bought and shipped to Wyoming a carload of horses. He arrived at his destination ahead of the horses, built a corral for them and was ready to receive them when they reached this place on the 15th of March. Two months and a week later he had completed his house and barn and had seven hundred and forty acres of land broken and planted to grain. He filed on a homestead on reaching Wyoming and in subsequent years he has added to his holdings by purchase from time to time, acquiring adjoining land until he now has extensive property interests. Practically all of his land is under irrigation and is very productive, responding readily to the care and labor which he bestows upon it. He annually gathers rich harvests as a reward for his industry and capable management, and in all that he does he displays a most progressive spirit. In 1914, prior to any oil development in Fremont county outside of the Lander fields, Mr. Warren took oil leases on four thousand acres of Indian land at Pilot Butte, thirty-two miles northwest of Riverton, and organized the Hall Oil Company for the development of these lands. This com- pany began drilling and in December, 1915, brought in the first producing well in the Pilot Butte district. From the beginning Mr. Warren has been secretary of the company, active in the control of its affairs, and in the management of its interests he displays the same spirit of enterprise and progressiveness that has characterized him in all of his undertakings.
In 1898 Mr. Warren was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth C. Berry, of
HON. EARL WARREN
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Odessa, Missouri, and to them have been born three children, Mary O., Earl and Robert W., who is usually known as "Billy." The parents are members of the Christian church and are prominent in the social circles in which they move.
Mr. Warren is a democrat in his political views and in 1912 was elected to the board of county commissioners, serving for a term of two years. In 1914 he was appointed a member of the state fair commission and was in charge of the agricultural department when the first permanent buildings on the fairgrounds were erected. In 1916 he was elected to represent his district in the state legis- lature and took a very prominent part in promoting legislation in behalf of the state highways and state-wide prohibition. He stood at all times for progress and improvement and was connected with much constructive legislation which has proven of great worth to the commonwealth. While a stalwart advocate of party principles, he has ever subordinated partisanship to the general good and self-aggrandizement to the interests of the entire community. In a word, he is a loyal, public-spirited and patriotic citizen and the part which he has played in the development of his community and in upholding the high standards of the commonwealth has been a helpful and important one.
JOHN W. STRYKER.
No history of Wyoming would be complete without extended reference to John W. Stryker, one of the pioneer merchants of Laramie, who has been identi- fied with the city since 1877 and throughout the entire period has been connected with its commercial interests. For many years he has figured as a factor in the successful development of the trade of the W. H. Holliday Company, of which he is the secretary and treasurer and in which connection he has aided in building up one of the largest enterprises of its kind in the state. His life record indi- cates what can be accomplished by determined purpose and indefatigable energy, for he started out in the business world empty-handed and is today in possession of a comfortable competence.
He was born in Birmingham, Ohio, July 21, 1852. His father, Abraham H. Stryker, was a native of New York and a representative of one of the old fam- ilies of the Empire state of Dutch descent. The founder of the American branch of the family settled at New Amsterdam, now New York, in the early part of the seventeenth century and later representatives of the name were among the pioneers who contributed to the development and upbuilding of Ohio. Abraham H. Stryker became an attorney at law in the Buckeye state and during his later years resided in Atchison, Kansas. He had been a partner of Governor Glick of Kansas while the latter was a resident of Sandusky, Ohio, and on his account re- moved to Kansas. He became a very prominent factor in democratic circles while living in Ohio, doing much to shape public thought and opinion during war times. He passed away in Atchison, Kansas, in October, 1880, at the age of fifty years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Henrietta Wood, was a native of Ohio and a representative of one of the pioneer families of the state of English lineage. She died in Ohio in 1853 when but twenty-five years of age, and of her two chil- dren one passed away in infancy.
The surviving son, John W. Stryker, pursued his education in the public schools of Ohio and in Oberlin College to the age of fourteen years, when he started out to provide for his own support and since that time has been dependent entirely upon his own resources, so that whatever success he has achieved is the direct result and reward of his labors. He was first employed as chain man with a surveying party in eastern Kansas, engaged in the survey of the Atchison & Nebraska Railroad. His next position was that of clerk in a hardware store in Atchison, Kansas, which was his initial experience in mercantile lines. He re- moved from Atchison to Netawaka, Kansas, and there engaged in mercantile pur- suits through the winter of 1872-3. He then came to Wyoming in January, 1873,
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casting in his lot with its pioneer settlers. He located first at Medicine Bow, where he remained until March, 1877, when he arrived in Laramie, with the interests and upbuilding of which he has since been actively and prominently identified. Here he found employment with the firm of Trabing Brothers, then the leading merchants of Wyoming, and continued with that hrm until March, 1880, when he became associated with W. H. Holliday. That association has since been main- tained and through all the intervening period, covering thirty-seven years, he has been an active factor in the further growth and development of the enterprise. The business was originally established on Railroad street and was begun on a comparatively small scale but has since been developed into the largest general merchandise establishment in the state of Wyoming. They carry an extensive line of hardware, groceries, furniture and other things, and their patronage has reached most gratifying proportions. They have ever exercised the utmost care in the personnel of the house, in the selection of goods, in the treatment rendered customers and in the business methods employed and thus their trade has con- stantly grown through the excellent service which they have rendered to the public and through the capable management of their interests. Mr. Stryker has also been engaged in the undertaking business since 1880 and has developed one of the most important business concerns of the kind in the state. He has a fine building erected expressly for this purpose, containing a beautiful chapel, and with all other equipment of a modern undertaking establishment of the present day.
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