Mardos Collection
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Hardin, Robert and Laurence Daly. Fraternally Mr. Talbot is connected with Union Lodge No. 7 A. F. & A. M., of Denver, and in 1894 was grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias of the state. While in Dartmouth he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. He is connected with the bar associations of Denver and Colorado, and for eight years was one of the board of examiners for admission to the bar in the city of Denver.
IDNEY BROWN, president of the J. S. Brown & Bro. Mercantile Company, of Denver. The family of which this gentleman is a prominent member was founded in America by Henry Brown, who emigrated from England to Salisbury, Mass., about 1639. Representing the fifth generation in descent from him was Moses Brown, born in East Kingston, N. H., in 1750, a soldier in the Revolution. He married Mary Hobbs, of Poplin, N. H., and afterward removed to Strafford, in Orange County, Vt. Their son, Reuben, was born in Strafford in 1797, and when a young man located in Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he engaged in farming. He died in 1863. His wife, who was a daughter of John and Laura (Bushnell) Hill, was born in Starkshoro, Vt., and died in Denver in 1889, aged eighty-seven. She was a sister of Gen. Charles W. Hill, of Ohio, who during Governor Todd's administration was adjutant-general of Ohio, and assisted greatly in putting Ohio's quota of soldiers in the field during the war of the Rebellion, and cousin of Rev. Horace Bushnell, of Hartford, Conn., and Judge James Campbell, judge of the supreme court of Michigan.
On the mother's side Mr. Brown is a lineal descendant of Gen. Robert Sedgwick, colonist and soldier, who was born in England in 1600. The Sedgwicks came from among the mountains which form the borders of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Westmoreland, England, and suffered in the border wars of York and Lancaster. Gen. Robert Sedgwick, the ancestor of the Sedgwicks of New England, became an inhabitant of Charlestown, Mass., June 3, 1636, and in 1637 a freeman of that town. His residence was in the market place, now the square near the site of the Bunker Hill Bank. He was captain of the first "Trained Band" in Charlestown. He was chosen representative in 1637 and for several successive years served in that capacity, and as selectman of Charlestown. From 1641 to 1648 he commanded the ''Castle.'' In 1644 he was the first major of the Middlesex regiment. In 1645 he was commissioned to take care of the fortifications of the town and the harbor. He was elected major general May 26, 1652. In 1654 he visited England and engaged in the service of Cromwell as commander of a contemplated expedition against the Dutch of New York, but peace was made with them and he led the expedition against the French forts in Nova Scotia. He captured St. Johns, Port Royal and another fort. This vigorous action was so acceptable to Cromwell that the next year he was appointed to service in the West Indies. Jamaica had been captured and General Sedgwick was sent with a fleet to re-inforce General Venable. He arrived at the Barbadoes August 27, 1655, and learned that General Venable had been repulsed. A council was formed to govern the island and manage the affairs. He was made commissioner for the government and afterwards major general and governor. Carlyle said he was very brave, zealous and pious. He was one of the most distinguished men of his time. He was an enterprising merchant. He built wharves on the shore east of the old ferry-built ways and the old tide walls. In 1643 he joined the younger Winthrop in starting the first iron works in America.
Charlestown has cause to remember the public spirit of General Sedgwick. He took a warm interest in its welfare and was constantly in its service. His regard for education is seen in his gifts to the college. He was a representative of the liberal Puritans of New England; religion was in all his thoughts and yet he openly opposed the prevailing intolerance. "He was nursed in the London Artillery Garden and was stout and active in all feats of war." While in London he joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company and after coming to America was active in organizing the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, Mass., becoming its captain in 1640. He died in Jamaica May 24, 1656.
John Sidney Brown was next to the youngest of five children, the others being: Junius F., a member of the J. S. Brown & Bro. Mercantile Company; Mrs. Adelia Dayfoot, who died in Canada; Mrs. Hannah Gillett; and Charles H.,
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. who died in Denver. J. Sidney Brown was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, June 10, 1833, the son of Reuben and Betsey Horton (Hill) Brown. He was educated in public schools. In 1858 he joined his brother in Atchison, Kan., and they engaged in the manufacture of lumber. In 1861 he began freighting between Atchison and Denver, and made two trips that year with an oxtrain, and early in 1862 he came with a mule train and founded the present business. The freighting business he continued until 1870, when it was discontinued. In 1864 one of his muletrain was attacked by Indians and destroyed.
The first location of the firm in Denver was on Blake street near Fifteenth, where they remained until 1876, and then removed to their present location on Wazee street. In 1893 the firm was incorporated under the name of the J. S. Brown & Bro. Mercantile Company, of which J. S. Brown is president, J. F. Brown vice-president, H. K. Brown secretary, F. S. Brown treasurer and F. A. Hall general manager. The firm erected the first roller flooring mill and grain elevator in Colorado, on the present site of the Crescent mill. They were interested in the organization of the Bank of San Juan, at Del Norte, also in the founding of the banks at Alamosa and Durango, and took an active part in the organization of the Denver Tramway Company. In 1882 they embarked in the stock business in the Platte Valley, where they are still extensively interested. The Brown-Iliff Cattle Company have a large ranch near Snyder, Colo., between South Platte River and the Wyoming state line, the range being owned principally by the land company of which J. F. Brown is president.
In the building of railroads Mr. Brown is interested. He was a director in the South Park line, assisted in the building of the Denver Pacific Railroad, between Denver and Cheyenne, was a promoter, director and vice-president of the Denver & New Orleans Railroad, and assisted in other enterprises of an important nature. Only one man in Denver has been engaged in the same line of business continuously for a longer period than Mr. Brown.
Mr. Brown was married to Miss Irene Sopris, in Denver, in 1868. She was born in Indiana, a daughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Allen) Sopris, and died in January, 1881, leaving five children, viz.: Frederick S., treasurer of the J. S. Brown & Bro. Mercantile Company; Elizabeth, Mrs. A. B. Inglis, of Paterson, N. J.; Edward N., who is with J. S. Brown & Bro.; Katherine and William K., the latter a member of the class of 1900, Sheffield Scientific School, of Yale University.
The present wife of Mr. Brown was Miss Adele Overton, who was born in Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1871, with the degree of B. S., and the same year came to Colorado, where she was assistant principal in the Denver high school. She is a member of the Daughters of the Revolution and treasurer of the Colorado State Society. She is the mother of five children now living: John Sidney, Jr., Ben Overton, Carroll Teller, Alice and Irene. The father of Mrs. Brown, John Overton, was born near London, England, May 11, 1822, and died at Parker, S. Dak., May 14, 1888. His parents, Robert and Maria (Roy) Overton, came to America and died in Wisconsin. He was their youngest child and only son, and was eighteen rears old when he came to this country. His wife, Lucina Otto, was born in New York in 1824, and died in Parker, S. Dak., in 1892. She was a daughter of John Otto and Maria (Teller) Otto, the latter a descendant of Dr. Isaac Teller, a Revolutionary soldier. Senator Teller's father, John Teller, late of Morrison, Ill., was a brother of Maria (Teller) Otto; while Senator Jerome B. Chaffee was a son of John Otto's sister. The originator of the Teller family in America was William Teller, born in 1620 in Holland, emigrated to America in 1639, settled in Fort Orange and appointed by the king of Holland a trustee for a tract of land there, but in 1664 he returned to New York City and married Mary Douchen. From them descended Dr. Isaac Teller, who lived on the corner of Chambers and Broadway, New York, and died while serving as a surgeon in the Revolution. He married Rebecca Remsen, of Brooklyn. Their son, Remsen Teller, who was born about 1769, married Catherine Mac Donald, of Ballston Spa, N. Y., daughter of David and Sarah (DuBois) MacDonald, and granddaughter of Col. Louis DuBois, of Ulster, N. Y., who was a colonel in the Revolution. Remsen and Catherine Teller had a daughter, Maria, who married John Otto, a native of Schoharie County, N. Y., and a son of Franz Otto, who served during the entire period of the Revolution.
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The originator of the Otto family in America was Rudolph Otto, born in Baden-Baden, Germany, in 1715, and settled in Schoharie County, N. Y., in 1741. He had two sons, John and Franz, or Francis. The latter, born in 1757 and died at the age of ninety-six, married Barbara Schultz, later moving to Mount Morris, Livingston County, N. Y. Among their nine children was John, born in 1796. He was a brother of Mrs. Elizabeth Chaffee, who was the mother of Jerome B. Chaffee, United States senator and one of the most prominent mining men of the state of Colorado.
In fraternal relations Mr. Brown is a Knight Templar Mason. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution. Politically he gives his affiliation to the silver branch of the Republican party. As a director he has been actively interested in the Colorado Cattle Growers' Association, and has done all within his power to promote the industry which is so vitally connected with the welfare of the state. He attends the First Congregational Church and contributes liberally to its support, as, indeed, he does to all enterprises of a religions and philanthropic nature.
ROF. WARREN EZRA KNAPP, superintendent of public instruction of Arapahoe County, is a member of a family that traces its lineage back to Saxony and to Scotland. For many generations its representatives have been identified with the history of the United States. From Connecticut Oliver Pickett Knapp removed to Westmoreland, Oneida County, N. Y., where he died at all advanced age. His son, Ezra Abbott Knapp, was born near Fairfield, Conn., and removed to Oneida County, N. Y., where he engaged in farming until his death, in December, 1841, at the age of forty-three years and eight months. When a mere lad he had taken part in the battle of Sacket Harbor. He married Sophronia Waters, who was born in Connecticut, and accompanied her father, Elijah Waters, to New York state, where he followed the carpenter's trade.
In the family of Ezra Abbott Knapp there was a son, the oldest of the family, Edwin A. Knapp, M. D., who served as surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty-second New York Infantry, during the Civil war, and died in Syracuse, N. Y. Another son, Jairus S., who was the third among the six children of the family, was born in Westmoreland, Oneida County, N. Y., May 8, 1825, and grew to manhood on the hone farm. He made farming his life work, and for fifty-four years tilled the soil of the old homestead. Meantime he held a number of local offices and took part in many enterprises for the benefit of the town and county. In 1891 he retired from farming and has since resided in Denver.
In 1849 Jairus S. Knapp married Harriet A. Kellogg, who was born in Westmoreland, N. Y., January 31, 1825, being a descendant of one of the passengers of the historic ''Mayflower.'' She was a daughter of Deacon Warren Kellogg, who was born in Hartford, Conn., and became an early settler of Oneida County, N. Y., where he engaged in farming and carpentering. He died in 1869, at the age of ninety. His father was Abraham Kellogg.
The subject of this sketch is the oldest child of Jairus S. and Harriet A. Knapp, the other members of the family being Leonard Kellogg, of Denver; Harriet Antoinette, who is Mrs. Newell DeRoy Lee, of Westmoreland, N. Y.; Edwin Abbott, who has been in Boulder, Colo., since November, 1877, and is now the city marshal; Helen Maria, of Denver, and Alice Emeline who has been in Honolulu since August, 1891, and is now principal of the Kamehameha preparatory school for native boys in that city.
Born in Westmoreland, N. Y., January 22, 1850, Warren Ezra Knapp was a student in the Whitestone (N. Y.) Seminary, where he prepared for college. About the same time he began to teach school, teaching in his native town and at Jamesville, N. Y. In September, 1871, he entered Cornell University (having won a state scholarship), where he remained for two years, and then spent one year as principal of the Savannah Union school in Wayne County, N. Y., after which he applied his earnings as teacher to the completion of his college course. He re-entered Cornell as a member of the class of 1876, having among his classmates Jesse Grant and R. B. Hayes, Jr. After leaving Cornell he held his former position as principal of the Savannah school for one year.
In August, 1876, at Ithaca, N. Y., Professor Knapp married Miss Sarah F. Cochrane, who was born in Ithaca, the daughter of Robert and Eliza J. Cochrane, whose occupation was farming.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. After his marriage, for three years Professor Knapp was principal of the Union school at Westmoreland, his native place. In the fall of 1880 he became principal of the Union graded school and academy at Madison, N. Y., which position he held for two years. He had entered into a contract for a third year, but within a month resigned, in order to accept the position of cashier of the banking house of A. K. & F. B. Yount, at Fort Collins, Colo. He reached Fort Collins July 22, 1882, and entered upon the duties of his position, remaining there until he came to Denver, in October, 1883. He was chosen principal of the Franklin school, which was then being erected, and entered upon his work in January of the following year. At that time the school was the largest and finest building of its kind west of Omaha and Kansas City. He remained its principal until January, 1898, when he resigned to enter upon his duties as county superintendent of Arapahoe County. To this position he was nominated on the silver Republican ticket and endorsed by the McKinley Republicans, and was elected by a large plurality at the election in November previous. The county has nearly one hundred school districts, with six hundred and fifty teachers and thirty-five thousand children of school age, being the most populous county in the state.
In 1884 Professor Knapp became identified with the State Teachers' Association, also the national association, and in 1890 was appointed superintendent of the Colorado state educational exhibit made at St. Paul, Minn., in July, at the meeting of the national association. He was present at the national meeting of teachers at Madison, Wis., in 1884; at San Francisco in 1888, when he had charge of the Colorado state headquarters; and at St. Paul in 1890, where was the first extensive educational exhibit ever made by Colorado at a meeting of an educational association. In December, 1890, he was elected president of the State Teachers' Association, and soon afterward was appointed state manager for Colorado for the association meeting in Toronto, in July, 1891, the duty of manager being to arrange for the state representation and take charge of the delegation. During the Toronto meeting he was elected a member of the board of directors, National Educational Association, to represent Colorado. The following year he was again made manager of the state delegation, which he took to the National Educational Association at Saratoga, N. Y.
At the expiration of his term as president of the state association, in December, 1891, the former treasurer, Hon. J. C. Shattuck, who had held the office for fourteen years, resigned, and Professor Knapp was elected to the place, winch he has since filled. At the meeting of the National Educational Association in Asbury Park, N. J., in July, 1894, he was again elected to represent Colorado on the board of directors. He, with the influence of other Colorado delegates, succeeded in securing the convention of 1895 for Denver, and he was the state director for the meeting here. In 1896 he again had charge of the Colorado delegation to the National Educational Association at Buffalo, N. Y. With one exception he has attended all the meetings of the National Educational Association since 1888.
The first connection of Professor Knapp with politics was in the fall of 1892, when he was a candidate for state superintendent of public instruction before the Republican convention at Pueblo. Before the nomination he withdrew from the race in favor of his only opponent, geographical and political reasons influencing him in this decision. However, the convention by acclamation placed him in nomination as a regent of the state university, but, with the whole ticket, was defeated, Governor Waite and the entire Populist ticket being elected.
In the Republican state convention of 1894, Professor Knapp was again a candidate for slate superintendent of public instruction, and until the convention opened it seemed that he was likely to be nominated. However, a new candidate appeared. Universal suffrage had come into Colorado, and a lady appeared as a candidate. An exciting condition of affairs followed, but, as the ballot was about to be taken, he voluntarily withdrew from the race and moved the nomination of Mrs. Angenette J. Peavy by acclamation, which was done, although hundreds of his friends protested against his withdrawal.
The legislature in 1891 organized the state into normal institute districts, Arapahoe County being the third district. He was the first regular normal institute conductor for this county and after this organization held the institute in the Franklin school. In 1892 he was again appointed and held the institute in the East Side high
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school, being in each case appointed by the Hon. A. D. Shepard, county superintendent of schools. Since then he has engaged in institute work every summer in the various counties of Colorado and in Cheyenne, Wyo. Since 1892 he has been a member of Washington Camp No. 14, P. O. S. of A., in which he is now president. For sixteen years he has been identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a member of the Third Congregational Chinch of Denver, is its treasurer and for six years was superintendent of the Sunday-school. His daughter, Evelyn, is the only survivor of his five children.
ENRY C. BROWN. The first member of the Brown family of whom there is any definite knowledge was Samuel, son of Nicholas Brown, and a native of Reading, Mass. He was a man of considerable force of character and, for those early days, was considered wealthy, leaving valuable property at his death. Afterward his widow took charge of the property, which she managed until her death, after a widowhood of fifty years. Elisha, son of Samuel, was seven years of age at the time of his father's death. In 1744 he moved to Cambridge, and later married Elizabeth Davis, of that city. By inheritance he was a rich man, and through the exercise of good judgment he added to the fortune left him by his father. He and his wife were the parents of four children, Hannah, Mary, Samuel and Elisha. At different times he resided in several Massachusetts towns, and finally died in Acton, where his mother had left some property. His wife also died there, in 1781. The fate of their children is not definitely known, excepting Samuel, the progenitor of our subject. He was the third child of his parents and was probably born in Cambridge, but spent his youth principally in Acton, from which place he enlisted for service in the Revolution. Among the engagements in which he participated were the battle of Concord, siege of Boston, battles of Bunker Hill and Quebec; and at the latter place he was wounded and taken prisoner, but later was sent home on parole. He ranked as a second lieutenant. He was fifty-one years of age when, in 1800, he removed to St. Clairsville, Ohio, and there he died in 1828, and was buried with military honors. Twice married, his first wife was a daughter of Maj. Daniel Fletcher, of Acton, and his second wife was Polly Newkirk. In his family, by both marriages, there were twenty-one children, but only two of them are living, Elizabeth Fletcher Lennon and Henry Cordis Brown, both of Denver.
The subject of this sketch, who was the son of Samuel Brown, was born near St. Clairsville, Ohio, November 18, 1820. He was educated at Franklin Brooks Academy, St. Clairsville. At the age of seven years he was orphaned by his father's death and soon afterward he began to earn his own livelihood. He remained on the farm until sixteen years of age and later learned the carpenter's and joiner's trade and the architect's business in St. Louis, Mo., where he remained until the spring of 1852, assisting his brother, Isaac H: Brown, an architect and builder. From St. Louis he crossed the plains to California, making the trip with ox-teams, and after a journey of many hardships landed in Placerville (then called Hangtown on account of the historic tree used for hanging) after one hundred and ten days on the way. After one day in that town he went to Sacramento, thence to San Francisco, and from there, a month later, to Portland, Ore., where he spent a month. He then went down the Columbia River and from there crossed by land to the Willamette River, thence to Olympia, Wash., where he spent a month. Forming a partnership with two men, Messrs. Reader and Peabody, he began the construction of a sawmill for sawing lumber, and located a null at the mouth of the Whatken River, emptying into Bellingham Bay.
After eight months Mr. Brown sold his interest in the mill and returned to San Francisco, where he followed the occupation of an architect and builder, among the buildings he erected being a bank building, then considered the best building in the city, and still standing. He spent three years in San Francisco, meeting with varying success. From there he went to Oroville, Cal., where he spent six months, engaged in the building and commission business, and was so successful that he accumulated $6,000 in that time. Returning to San Francisco, he sailed in a clipper ship, 'The Golden Eagle,'' for Peru, South America. He spent sixty days touring in Lima and Calleo, then sailed in the ''Golden Age,'' for Hampton Roads, Va. From there he went to
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Baltimore, then to Philadelphia and New York, next to Chicago and from there to St. Louis reaching that city after an absence of five years. After a short visit there, he took passage up the Missouri River to Sioux City, Iowa, and from there went to Decatur, Neb., where he remained for two years. Next he spent a year or more in St. Joseph, Mo.
June 9, 1860, Mr. Brown arrived in Denver, finding here a frontier town of one thousand inhabitants, and with no substantial buildings except the Broadwell Hotel, corner of Larimer and Sixteenth streets. The first building he erected was a large structure on Cherry Creek that was used by the Methodist Episcopal congregation as a church house until the disastrous and memorable flood of May 4, 1864, washed the building away. Just two weeks before the flood he had moved from the neighborhood of the creek to his pre-emption claim, later known as Brown's addition, on which subsequently the state capitol was built, also many of the most beautiful residences in the city, and the famous Brown Palace Hotel, the most magnificent hotel between Chicago and San Francisco, and erected at a cost of $1,600,000.
At Elkhorn Grove, near Milledgeville, Carroll County, Ill., the subject of this sketch was born November 27, 1839. He was educated in the public schools and in Mount Carroll Seminary, where he remained for three years. He studied law in Mount Carroll under William T. Miller, then the most prominent attorney of that section. However, after a year of study, he was seized with the western fever and in 1861 started for the mountain regions, going down the Mississippi to Hannibal, from there to St. Joseph, then horseback to Nebraska City, where he outfitted with an ox-train. Going up the Platte, he established a trading post at Alkali, on the river, two hundred and thirty miles east of Denver, building the first post there. During the summer he carried a load of freight to Denver and returned with a load of lumber for building on his ranch. Alkali was the greatest place for trading he had ever seen, but he was too young to take advantage of the opportunity. While there he had many interesting experiences, such as fall to the lot of a pioneer. On the 25th of December he returned to Nebraska City, and in the spring of 1862 again came west, beginning as a prospector and miner in Blackhawk, Gilpin County. He continued in the vicinity of that place during most of the time until 1875. In the meantime, as early as 1867, he began to work the Hoosier mine in Boulder. In 1875 he located the Melvina, near Salina, which was one of the finest mines of its kind that had been opened up to that time; after running it for five years he sold the property. In 1886 he with others bought the White Crow at Sunshine, and operated it for five years. He is interested in the Freiburg at Gold Hill, of which he is superintendent; Sunshine and Black Swan at Sauna; Black Swan Gold Mining Company, of which be is superintendent and a director; Golden Sheen and Maveric; Colonel Zellar's mine at Sunshine; and Gold Farms, comprising one hundred and seventy-three acres near Magnolia, the most extensive mining property in Boulder County, and operated by the Gold Farms Mining Company, of which he is superintendent and a director.
In 1875 Mr. Neikirk brought his family to Boulder, where he established his home. In 1881, he located at his present place, buying thirty-four acres, of which he has sold sixteen. He has built a substantial brick residence, set out shade and ornamental trees, as well as a number of fruit
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trees, and introduced a system of irrigation. In the spring of 1898 he platted and placed on the market the Neikirk-Stewart addition to Boulder City, comprising one hundred and sixty-five lots situated to the north and west of the main business portion of the city. For fourteen years he was a director and the vice-president of the National State Bank of Boulder, but finally resigned. He has been a large land owner, having real estate in Denver, also owned several ranches, comprising twelve hundred acres in Boulder and Weld Counties, and six hundred and forty acres north of Longmont, where he built a reservoir of one hundred acres, that furnishes excellent irrigation facilities.
The marriage of Mr. Neikirk took place in Jamestown, Boulder County, and united him with Miss Emily Virden, who was born in Grant County, Wis. Her father, John Virden, was born in Kentucky, and became a pioneer farmer of Wisconsin, but in 1863 brought his family to Colorado, settling in Gilpin County, but later remoted to Jamestown. Born in 1816, he is now eighty-two years of age, and can no longer engage actively in business pursuits; he is spending his last days in the home of Mr. Neikirk, where four generations of his family are represented. His wife was Jane Hunt, born in Kentucky, died in Colorado.
The six children of Mr. and Mrs. Neikirk are named as follows: Fannie, wife of Fred Angove, of Boulder; Jessie, a graduate of the State University, in 1897; Lewis, member of the class of 1898, in the university; Thomas, who assists his father in mining; Burr, who is a member of the high school class of 1900; and Abigail, who is a student in the high school.
In 1878 Mr. Neikirk was urged to accept the nomination for the state senate and was elected by a majority of four hundred, his opponent being the noted Joe Wolf, who had organized Greenback clubs throughout the county and had worked the district for two years hoping to secure the election. Mr. Neikirk served in the second and third sessions, 1879-81, was chairman of the committees on irrigation and fees and salaries the first session and chairman of the finance committee the second session. During the first session he drew the bill that levied the tax of one-half mill, the nucleus of the fund that built the present state capitol building. He secured appropriation to pay expense of martial law, declared by Governor Pitkin in 1880, during the strike at Leadville. He has frequently served the Republican party as delegate to conventions. During the campaign of 1896 he advocated the silver cause, and has since served as chairman of the county convention of that party.
Judge Hallett was born in Galena, Jo Daviess County, Ill., July 16, 1834. His father, who was a native of Massachusetts, came west in an early day and engaged in pioneer farming in Missouri, and later in Jo Daviess' County, Ill., and served during the period of the Black Hawk war. When a boy the subject of this sketch attended the public schools, then continued his studies in Rock River Seminary, and subsequently became a student in Beloit (Wis.) College. At the age of twenty, in the fall of 1855, he began to study law in the office of B. S. Williams, of Chicago, and four years later was admitted to the bar, after which he opened an office in Chicago. In the spring of 1860 he came to Colorado for the purpose of mining, and for a time worked in Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties, but the employment was uncongenial and unprofitable. He was soon brought to realize that he was more fitted for the practice of law than for the discovery of mineral wealth, and he decided to return to practice. Coming to Denver, he formed a law partnership with Hon. Hiram P. Bennett. In April, 1866, he was appointed chief justice of the territorial supreme court, as
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. the result of a joint memorial that was passed by the general assembly of the territory of Colorado in Feburary (sic), 1866, and presented to President Andrew Johnson, asking him to make a citizen of Colorado the appointee and recommending Mr. Hallett for the position.
The memorial being approved by the governor was forwarded to the president, and the result was that April to Mr. Hallett was commissioned chief justice. He was very successful in the position, winning recognition for fairness and impartiality. He was re-appointed by General Grant April 6, 1870, and in April, 1874, serving until the territory was made a state. It was not his first experience as an office holder, for he had previously represented the counties of Arapahoe and Douglas in the legislature. In January, 1877, he was made judge of the United States district court by President Grant, with whom he was personally acquainted. It has been well said of him, he has aided very largely, not only in settling many of the disputes that have come up in the territory and state, but he has done a great deal towards establishing justice and dignity in the Colorado courts, without which no community can ever prosper.''
The memorial alluded to, asking the president of the United States to appoint a citizen of the territory as chief justice and approved February 8, 1866, read as follows:
"To His Excellency, the President of the United States:
"The people of the territory of Colorado, through their representatives in the legislative assembly, respectfully represent unto the president that many of the questions growing out of mining operations and concerning mining titles in this territory are novel and peculiar, while other questions, concerning the irrigation of lands, and growing out of the peculiar situation of the people, remote from all other communities, are almost unknown to the laws of the eastern states; and persons residing in the territory have acquired a knowledge of these questions, necessary to a correct understanding of them, which is not possessed by residents of eastern states; and for this reason, among others, the people of this territory are exceedingly anxious that citizens of this territory, who are identified with the people and will attend to their public duties, should be appointed judges of the territory; therefore, the council and house of representatives of Colorado territory do most earnestly and respectfully pray that your Excellency will appoint Moses Hallet, a citizen of this territory, in whom we have confidence, to be chief justice of this territory."
In his capacity as judge of the district court and in every duty connected with his high position, Judge Hallett has shown himself to be well informed, impartial and of profound sagacity. By the people of Colorado he is held in the highest esteem. Personally, he is amiable, kindhearted, genial and companionable, and when relieved from service on the bench the dignity of the judge is lost in the affability of the man. In addition to his work as judge he is dean of the law school, of which James H. Baker is the president.
In February, 1882, Judge Hallett married Miss Katharine Felt, daughter of Lucius S. Felt, a merchant of Galena, Ill. They have one son now living, Lucius F. Mrs. Hallett was educated in New York City. She is prominently connected with St. Luke's Hospital Society and is also all active member of the Episcopal Church, which the judge attends. He is connected with the Masonic fraternity and the University Club.
General Hall, who, as a citizen of the state, has been familiar with the judicial record of Judge Hallett, says of him, in his History of Colorado: ''He is, and from the first has been, noted as all industrious and intelligent student of the law, penetrating the depths of every proposition submitted to him for determination. He never was a fluent or eloquent advocate, but always a wise and safe counselor, rigidly honest, forceful and frequently profound; had he never been elevated to the bench, he would still have been an eminent lawyer. With a strong judicial mind, he has brought to his office the great advantage of a thorough training in his profession. Long years of experience upon the bench sometimes begets a certain disinclination to re-consider expressed views, but no judicial officer is less governed by pride of opinion than Judge Hallett. He is firm, without question, but the position is taken only after deliberation. The effect of his own training, discipline and kindly disposition is manifest in his court; business is dispatched, but there is no evidence of haste; dignity in its true sense is always apparent, and casts its pleasant influence upon all who enter the temple. The respect of
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