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bar and the confidence of the entire mass of the community are his, while his standing in the supreme court of the United States is that of one of the purest and best officers in the service."
OL. HARPER M. ORAHOOD. In the minds of most people the history of Colorado dates from the year 1859, when the news of the discovery of gold in Pike's Peak spread through the eastern states. Attracted by the reports of the immense deposits of gold, thousands of men came from the east, some to mine and some to engage in other industries which the rapidly increasing population rendered necessary. Among those who made the long and tedious journey across the plains was a youth of less than nineteen years, who abandoned the study of medicine to join a train at Rock Island, Ill., starting from there March 5, 1860, and after walking almost the entire distance, arriving in Blackhawk, Colo., on the 1st of June. His afterlife has been inseparably associated with the history of Colorado, of which state he is a distinguished citizen.
The first of the Orahood family in America was Thomas, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and a pioneer of Virginia. His son, Amos, removed from the Old Dominion to Union County, Ohio, settling near the county-seat and engaging in farming. He had a son, William J., who was born in Virginia, and worked as a mechanic near Columbus for a time, later went to Mount Vernon, the same state, thence removed to LaSalle County, Ill., later went to Utah, and at the age of seventy-eight, in 1894, passed away in Los Angeles, Cal. His wife, Ann Messenger, was born in Wilmington, Del., and died in Denver, leaving three daughters and a son.
The latter, who was the eldest of the family, forms the subject of this sketch. He was born in Columbus. Ohio, June 3, 1841, and received his education in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and Earlville, Ill. For two years he clerked in a drug store in Rock Island, Ill. On coming to Colorado he settled in Blackhawk, Gilpin County, where, and in Central City, he engaged in the mercantile business for ten years. In the office of Hon. Alvin Marsh he began the study of law, but after one year entered the office of Henry M. & Willard Teller, and was admitted to the bar October 1, 1873. Entering upon active practice he soon acquired a large clientage and became known as a well-informed rising attorney. For some years he was in partnership with Senator Teller and is now associated with the latter's brother in the firm of Teller, Orahood & Morgan, of Denver. Under F. O. Wolcott he served as deputy district attorney and upon the latter's resignation in 1878, Mr. Orahood succeeded to the position of district attorney for the first judicial district, comprising Clear Creek, Gilpin, Jefferson, Boulder and Grand Counties. On the next election he was chosen for a three years' term in the office, but in 1881, about the middle of the term, he resigned in order to remove to Denver. From 1866 to 1868 he was county clerk and recorder of Gilpin County.
In 1861 Mr. Orahood became connected with the Colorado National Guard, and, in company with Frank Hall, he raised the first company of militia mustered into service in Colorado, it being Company A, known as the Elbert Guard. In that company he was made a lieutenant. In 1864 he was made first lieutenant and regimental commissary of subsistence of the Third Colorado Cavalry, afterward becoming captain of Company B, of this regiment, and doing duty guarding mails, stages and wagon trains on the plains and in Indian warfare. December 27, 1864, the regiment was mustered out at Camp Weld in Denver. His title of colonel was conferred upon him by his appointment on Governor Mclntire's staff.
The marriage of Colonel Orahood was solemnized in the Presbyterian Church of Blackhawk and united him with Miss Mary Esther Hurlbut, who was born in Linn County, Mo. She is the eldest daughter of Hiram F. Hurlbut, who came to Colorado in 1860 and engaged in mining in Gilpin County for years, but is now a resident of Denver. They have five children William F., a graduate of Peekskill Military Academy and of the Denver Law School, and now an attorney in Central City; Harper, of Denver; George and Albert, who are students in school; and Gertrude, who is attending Emerson College in Boston.
In 1863 Colonel Orahood was made a Mason in Central City Lodge No. 6, A. F. & A. M. Later he was a charter member of Blackhawk Lodge No. 11, of which he was master for several years. In 1876 he was grand master of the grand lodge
4
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. of Colorado. He is a member of Denver Chapter No. 29, R. A. M. For years he was commander of Central City Commandery No. 2, and is now a member of Denver Commandery No. 25. In 1879-80 he was grand commander of the grand commandery of Colorado, and held that position at the time of the triennial conclave in Chicago. He belongs to El Jebel Temple, N. M. S., Denver Consistory, S. R., and is a thirty-third degree Mason. It was in a large measure due to his efforts that the conclave of 1892 was held in Denver; he was the first chairman of the triennial committee and afterward first vice-chairman, and took an active part in the work that made the conclave such a memorable triumph for this city. Since 1880 he has attended all the conclaves of Knights. He is past commander of the Loyal Legion and has been an aide on the department staff of the Grand Army of the Republic. For years he has been vice-president of the Bar Association of Denver, and he is a member of the Gilpin County and State Pioneer Associations.
Politically Colonel Orahood is a silver Republican. For eight years he was city treasurer of Blackhawk. With other citizens he succeeded in having the postoffice established there and in 1862 was appointed postmaster by President Lincoln, holding the office until 1871. For some years he was city attorney of Central City, resigning on his removal. The only position he has accepted in Denver was that of director of school district No. 1, in which office he did all within his power for the advancement of the schools. He took an active interest in the building of the Colorado Central from Blackhawk to Central City, and later was the attorney for that road, now a part of the Union Pacific. His firm are now the attorneys for the latter railroad. Personally he is a man of many winning traits, liberal, large-hearted, enterprising and approachable, and he has won a deserved position of prominence among the people of the state.
ON. R. S. LITTLE. In the history of Arapahoe County considerable mention deservedly belongs to the founder of the beautiful suburban village of Littleton. The Little family was founded in America in 1640 by George Little, who came from Unicorn street, near London bridge, in London, and settled in Newbury, Mass.
His descendants were among the patriotic men who fought for the liberty of our country. Lieut. Moses Little, of New Hampshire (born 1742, died 1813), served as first lieutenant under Capt. Samuel Richards, in Col. John Stark's regiment, and he and his son, George (our subject's grandfather), took part in the battle of Bunker Hill. He marched from New Hampshire with Col. Jacob Gates' regiment and joined the Continental army in Rhode Island in August, 1778. George Little (born 1762, died 1850) was a private in Capt. John Duncan's company, commanded by Cot. Moses Kelly, and with his command started for Ticonderoga on receiving the alarm July 1, 1777, marching as far as Washington and Charlestown, when he was ordered back. As a member of the company of Capt. James Arkens, in a regiment commanded by Colonel Kelly, he matched from New Hampshire to Rhode Island in August, 1779, and joined the Continental army.
The subject of this review was horn in Grafton, N. H., May 12, 1829, a son of John and Betsey (Jackman) Little. He was seven years of age when he accompanied the family to Nashua, near which place his father carried on a hotel until his death in 1854. R. S. Little received his education in the Norwich University, graduating there in 1850 . He was a classmate of Gen. G. M. Dodge, U. S. A.; Rear-Admiral George Dewey was also a graduate of this school. He proved himself especially gifted in mathematics. His expenses in college he partly paid by means of his musical skill, for he was a skilled violinist. He graduated at the age of twenty-one. Afterward he assisted in the survey of the first railroad from Danforth Corners to Milford, N. H., under General Stark. In 1851 he started west via Ogdensburg, from which place he traveled by stage to Watertown and then pursued his way to Rome, from there by rail to Buffalo, then took a boat for Detroit, and sailed up the lake until stopped by a blockade of ice. He finally reached Detroit, front which place he traveled by steamcars to Michigan City, making six or eight miles an hour over the strap rails. From Michigan City he went by boat to Racine, Wis., thence by stage seventy miles into the interior of the state, stopping for a time in Janesville. From that city to Chicago he ran the levels for the first railroad survey on the line now belonging to the Chicago & North-western Railroad, The company for
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whom he worked failed, owing him $500. He then shouldered his pack and walked to Eagle, Wis., where he found employment on the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, making the preliminary survey from Madison to the Wisconsin River, and having charge of the construction of the road west of Whitewater. Afterward he surveyed a line from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac.
In 1853 Mr. Little located, constructed and operated a roach from Milwaukee to Columbus, Wis., as assistant to E. H. Broadhead. September 24, 1854, he married Angeline, a daughter of John Harwood, of Nashua, N. H., and afterward settled in Watertown, where he did much toward the development of the city. In 1858 he laid the track from Fond du Lac to Oshkosh. In 1860 he came to Colorado, where he engaged in the construction of the capital hydraulic ditch from the present site of Littleton to Denver. Under the claim law he took up one hundred and sixty acres, to which he afterward added a homestead of one hundred and twenty acres. When the railroad lands came into the market he purchased a section and engaged in ranching, gardening and dairying.
Mrs. Little had been greatly troubled with asthma, and as soon as Mr. Little found this climate beneficial for that disease, he sent for her. He met her in Chicago in 1862 and brought her across the plains with a mule-team, spending two months on the way. The air of these high altitudes at once relieved her, and she has had no recurrence of the trouble, except when visiting the east. She lived six months in Littleton before she saw a white woman. She has been one of the prominent women in all enterprises that would tend to benefit the town and its people. Her charity is proverbial and her love for humanity is beautiful as it is rare. She is the mother of Lucius H. Little.
In 1867 Mr. Little, in company with others, erected the Rough and Ready flour mills in Littleton, which were destroyed by fire in 1872, with a loss of about $45,000, including the stock on hand. They at once erected another null on the same site. In 1873 he was elected to the territorial legislature, receiving three thousand votes out of three thousand and one hundred votes cast in the county. He was the Republican nominee, but was endorsed by the other parties. While a member of the house, he introduced a bill providing for a general system of irrigation for Colorado, making the land owners under it stockholders and assessing the land thus benefited pro rata. However, owing to a variety of causes, the bill failed to pass. In 1874 the mill again burned down with a heavier loss than before; they at once erected the present stone mill, which is fireproof throughout, with five sets of burrs, and a capacity for three hundred sacks per day. The storehouse has a capacity of twenty thousand bushels. From the time of the building of the mill the flour steadily grew in reputation, and is now famous throughout the entire country as the best brand in the market.
A number of people having already settled here, in 1875 Mr. Little platted the village of Littleton, which has since become one of the most attractive towns in the state, its churches, public schools and public improvements of all kinds, making it a desirable home for a family. In 1871 Mr. Little donated the ground on which he built St. Paul's Episcopal Church. He has also donated the sites of the present Presbyterian Church, the school house, four lots to build the first store, and also lots for other public enterprises. He has been the leading spirit in the village since its inception, and with commendable energy has furthered every measure for the benefit of the people and the advancement of local interests.
UMAN M. GIFFIN, M. D. The medical department of the University of Colorado, or, as it is more frequently called, the Colorado School of Medicine, of which Dr. Giffin is dean, was opened in September, 1883. The faculty for 1883-84 consisted of seven members, but was increased from year to year until it numbered twenty-two professors, besides lecturers and assistants. Soon after the opening of the school a hospital was established on the grounds and a clinic was maintained, The course of study covered three years until 1893, since which time there has been a four-year course only. In September, 1892, arrangements were made to conduct the last two years of the course in Denver until such time as sufficient hospital advantages might be secured in Boulder, and since then the plan has been to have the work of the first year in the university, the other part of the course being pursued in Denver. By a recent
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. decision of the supreme court, however, all regular instruction must be retained at the university until the constitutional right to continue the former arrangement may be obtained. A building has recently been erected to give more room for the medical school, and every modern equipment is being furnished that will assist in the work of clinic and laboratories.
The faculty of the School of Medicine consists of the following: James H. Baker, LL. D., president; Luman M. Giffin, M. D., dean and professor of anatomy and physical diagnosis; Charles Skeele Palmer, Ph. D., professor of chemistry; John Gardiner, B .Sc, professor of histology and bacteriology; A. Stewart Lobinginer, M. D., professor of surgical pathology; Emley B. Queal, M. D., professor of physiology; Horace O. Dodge, M. D., professor of materia medica and therapeutics; E. H. Robertson, Ph. M., M. D., professor of pathology; John H. Parsons, D. D. S., professor of operative and prosthetic dental technics; Charles Fisher Andrew, M. D., lecturer on hygiene; George O'Brien, M. D., demonstrator of anatomy; and Mary Alice Lake, M. D., demonstrator of anatomy.
Dr. Giffin was born in Heuvelton, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., October 30, 1850, the son of Horace and Roxalana (Wright) Giffin, natives of Vermont. His father, who was of Irish descent, was a member of a family that settled on the original site of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and from there removed to northern New York. He came from Vermont to Henvelton, where he engaged in the mercantile business until his death at thirty-seven years. His wife, who was the daughter of a miller, was of English descent, her family name being originally Wreut. She was twice married, by her first union having two sons and a daughter. After her first husband's death she became the wife of Israel Rowland, by whom she had four children. She died in Colorado at sixty-five years of age, and all her children are in the west except a daughter of her first marriage.
At the age of nine years our subject accompanied his mother to Morristown, St. Lawrence County, where he attended a district school. Afterward he was a student in Black River Academy at Ludlow, Vt. He took one course of lectures in the medical department of the University of Vermont, after which he took two courses in Rush Medical College, Chicago, from which he graduated in February, 1875, with the degree of M. D. He practiced in Rossie, St. Lawrence County, until March, 1881, when he came to Boulder. Soon after the organization of the medical department of the state university he became connected with it as professor of anatomy and physiology, which chair he held until 1897, and was then made professor of anatomy and physical diagnosis and dean of the department.
At one time Dr. Giffin was president of the Boulder County Medical Association. He is a member of the State and American Medical Associations, is examining physician for different insurance companies, and local surgeon for the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf and Colorado Northwestern Railroads. Fraternally he is connected with Boulder Lodge No. 45. When the United States Pension Examining Board was organized in 1894 in Boulder County he was chosen secretary of the board and served in that capacity for some time.
In Rossie, N. Y., in 1875, Dr. Giffin married Miss Lillie J. Forester, who was born there and died in Colorado in 1887. Two sons were born of the union: Horace, who was educated in the high school of Boulder and is now with a book firm in this city; and Clay, who is a member of the high school class of 1902. Dr. Giffin was married a second time in Denver, his wife being Miss Fannie Lake, who was born in Lake Forest, Ill. Three children were born of this union: Ruth, Alice, and Louise, who died at three years of age.
ILLIAM P. DANIELS, president and manager of the Big Five, was the founder of the town of Frances, where he resides. He is of remote Scotch descent, but the first representatives of the family in America came here from England. His father, William F. Daniels, was born near Hamilton, Canada, and in boyhood accompanied the family to Wayne Junction, Mich., but a short time afterward he settled near Rockton, Winnebago County, Ill., of which, as also of Forreston, Ogle County, he was a pioneer. In 1856 he moved to Iowa, becoming an early settler of Howard, where be followed the millwright's trade and the milling business. For some years after 1865 he carried on a mercantile business in Howard County. During the Civil
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war he volunteered in the Union service, but was rejected, and so was compelled to remain at home, while five of his brothers were accepted for service. In 1884 he removed to Louisiana, where his death occurred in 1893, when he was seventy years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary O. Preston, was born in Penn Yan, N. Y., and is now living in Louisiana. Her father, Richard G. Preston, was born in Scotland and accompanied his parents to America, settling in New York.
Of the family of nine children five attained mature years and four are now living, William P. being the oldest of these. He was born near Rockton, Winnebago County, Ill., June 16, 1851, and was a child of five years at the time the family removed to Howard County. At the age of fifteen he left home and began working on what is now the St. Paul (then the McGregor Western) Railroad, the first through line to St. Paul. In 1872 he began as conductor with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, with which he remained for two years, and then for twelve years he was with the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad as conductor. In 1873 be became a member of the Order of Railway Conductors and five years later was elected its grand secretary and treasurer, with headquarters at Cedar Rapids. This position he held for seventeen years, having in 1886 retired from the railroad in order to devote his entire attention to the secretary and treasurer's office. At the time he became secretary there were about six hundred members and when he left the order had twenty-five thousand members in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In 1895 he resigned the position and came to Colorado, accepting the position as president and general manager of the Dew-drop Company, that was organized in 1893-94.
Since becoming president of the Dew-drop Company, Mr. Daniels has been instrumental in the organization of four other companies, viz.: the Dew-drop Mill Company; the Adit Mining Company, the Adit Tunnel Company and the Ni Wot Mining Company. The original name of the company was the Orphan Boy Extension Mining and Milling Company, which in 1896 was changed to the Dew-drop Mining Company. The Ni Wot Mining Company, with the mines, mill and manager's office, is located at Frances, a town that he named after his youngest daughter. A tunnel has been excavated which will, when completed, be six thousand feet in length and which extends under Bald Mountain. There is also a branch tunnel of twenty-four hundred feet, to cut the celebrated Ni Wot lode. The company has among its members a large number of railroad men, whose long acquaintance with Mr. Daniels has given them abundant reason to rely in his judgment.
Politically Mr. Daniels is a Democrat. While in Cedar Rapids he served as mayor of the city for two terms. He was made a Mason in Lime Spring, Iowa, and is now identified with the lodge, chapter, commandery, consistory and temple at Cedar Rapids, having attained the thirty-second degree. In Washburn, Iowa, he married Miss Julia C. Close, who was born in that state, daughter of Cicero Close, a pioneer of Washburn. They have two daughters, Mary C. and Frances W.
Of Republican belief, Mr. Moynahan has been prominent in politics. From 1870 to 1873 he was commissioner of Park County, being chairman of the board for one year. In 1876 he was elected to represent his district in the state senate, and the length of his term being decided by lot, he drew the short term, being a member of the first general assembly, which was in session for more
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. than five months. In 1882 he was chosen to represent Park and Fremont Counties in the state senate and served in the fourth and fifth general assemblies, a term of four years. For two years he was president pro tem of the senate and during this time, by virtue of the state law, when both the governor and lieutenant-governor were out of the state, he was acting governor, but there being no special business to be brought up, he was not in active service as the chief executive. Many times he has served as mayor of Alma. He was elected in 1896, re-elected the following year, and in 1898 was nominated and elected without any opposition. He assisted in the incorporation of Alma, was a member of its first board of trustees, and laid out a part of the town. Since the fall of 1834 his family have resided in Denver, where he owns a residence at No. 6 Broadway. In addition to this, he owns some vacant property in the city.
In Greenfield, Wayne County, Mich., Mr. Moynahan was born June 7, 1842, the son of James and Catherine (Hart) Moynahan, both natives of Ireland. His grandfather, Matthew Moynahan, settled in Canada at Maidstone Cross, near Windsor, and there engaged in farming until his death. James Moynahan located in Wayne County, Mich., where he carried on a farm and followed the blacksmith's trade. He was with the Michigan men in the Toledo war. He died at the age of forty-eight. His wife also died in Michigan, her age being sixty-two. They had three sons and two daughters who attained maturity, and one son and two daughters are now living, the latter being Mrs. Parks, of Leadville, and Mrs. Clinton, of Michigan. Two sons are deceased, Matthew having died in Breckenridge and John in Georgetown, Colo.
After the death of his father, which occurred in December, 1858, our subject vent to the upper peninsula of Michigan, where he worked in copper mines. Later he was in the lower peninsula. At the first call for troops during the Civil war he volunteered in the Fifth Michigan Infantry, but the quota being filled, the regiment was not called into service at that time. In 1862 he entered Company C, Twenty-seventh Michigan Infantry, and enlisted as a private at Copper Harbor, thence going to Kentucky and joining the Ninth Corps under General Burnside, in the Department of the Ohio. He took part in the siege of Vickshurg and later was at Jackson, going from there back to Kentucky, then to East Tennessee and taking part in the siege of Knoxville. In the spring of 1864 the corps was reorganized at Annapolis, Md., and was incorporated with the Army of the Potomac, taking part in all the engagements in the Wilderness. At Spottsylvania, while acting as second lieutenant, May 12, 1864, he was wounded by a minie-ball that lodged in the right breast and remained there for eleven months before it was removed. When he was wounded he was taken to Fredericksburg and for four days lay on a blanket, without medical attention, during which time the wound became so swollen that the surgeon could not probe for the bullet. He was moved to Washington, sent from there to Philadelphia, and finally, though the bullet was still in his breast and the wound still open, he requested to be returned to his regiment, which was done. He was commissioned first lieutenant in February, 1865. While participating in the assault on Fort Mahone at Petersburg April 2, 1865, in command of his company, before daybreak he was shot in the left forearm by a minie-ball, which would have entered the left side had it not been for his silver watch and a memorandum book in his overcoat pocket. Previous to this the fort had been taken and with it three pieces of artillery, and his company, which carried the colors, had planted the stars and stripes oh the fort, so that he was permitted to participate in the victory before incapacitated for further service. On his way from the field he met General Potter, whom he notified of the victory, news that naturally rejoiced the general's heart. He went to the hospital at City Point, where he had his arm dressed; the old bullet in his breast, which was lodged against the shoulder blade, was operated for and removed at that time, April 12, 1865. He participated in the grand review at Washington and was mustered out as captain of Company G, July 26, 1865, at Washington, and a few days later was honorably discharged at Detroit. During the period of service his regiment crossed the Rapidan, May 5, 1864, with eleven hundred men and forty-three commissioned officers, and after the blowing up of mine fort at Petersburg in July, three commissioned officers and sixty-three men reported for duty. The regiment stands eleventh in regard to proportionate loss, according to the
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statistics by Fox, and first in percentage of loss of the regiments that entered the service in 1862.
After his retirement from the army, Captain Moynahan studied in Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in Detroit. In April, 1866, he graduated from the college and shortly afterward came to Colorado, where for two years he superintended a mine in Park County, then turned his attention to merchandising. In 1874 he started a store at Alma, of which place he has since been the most prominent business man. His name is so well known throughout the state that both in 1884 and 1886 he was prominently mentioned for governor of the state. He is a member of the Abe Lincoln Post, G. A. R., in Denver, of which he is past commander. In the Colorado Commandery of the Loyal Legion he holds membership.
In Greenfield, Mich., our subject married Mary Monaghan, who was born in Ireland, a daughter of Peter Monaghan, who came to America and settled in the upper peninsula of Michigan, there engaged in mining. The four children born of the union are: Alice, Ambrose Edwin, James W. and Clarissa.
AVID GRIFFITHS, state inspector of coal mines, was appointed to this position by Governor McIntire February 18, 1895, for a term of four years. The coal industry in Colorado is yet in its infancy and only the croppings have been mined, the vast wealth in coal that lies underneath the surface of the earth having never been touched. This statement will give all idea of the immense veins that wait to be freed from their prison beds within the earth. While the output is so very small in comparison with the actual amount here, yet it is sufficient to provide the entire state with coal for its railroads, manufacturing industries, public buildings and private residences, and besides this, large shipments of coal and coke are made to other states. The manifold duties connected with the development of the industry require the entire time of the state inspector and an assistant.
The family of which Mr. Griffiths is a member has long been known in Carmarthaenshire, Wales, His grandfather, John, who was born there, made it his home throughout life, tilling one of its farms. William, father of David, was born in that shire, but after his marriage to Ann Evans he removed to Glamorganshire, where he engaged in farming until his death, in 1888, at the age of sixty-one. His wife passed away in 1878, at the age of fifty-one years. She was a daughter of Hugh Evans, who was a weaver and manufacturer of woolen goods.
Of four children, three being daughters and still in Glamorgan, the subject of this sketch is the eldest. He was born at Glynneath, Vale of Neath, Glamorganshire, February 1, 1856, and in early childhood was a pupil in the British schools. Before he was ten years of age he became a helper in a coal mine near Resolven, and while there learned to dig coal, in which work he began before he was sixteen, meantime becoming fire boss in a mine in the Neath district. In 1882 he took passage at Liverpool for America, and after landing in New York proceeded at once to Colorado, where he arrived in May. He engaged in mining in Erie district until February, 1883, when he went to Como, Park County, Colo., and continued mining. March, 1884, found him in Crested Butte, where he was fire boss for the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, and this company in 1885 sent him to take the position of fire boss at the Walsenburg mines. In May, 1886, he resigned the position and visited his old home in Wales, spending six months in renewing associations with the comrades and scenes of his youth. While in Wales he married Miss Mary Ann, daughter of Reese and Elizabeth Howells.
On his return to America Mr. Griffiths resumed his former place as fire boss in the Walsenburg mines, and was later promoted by the company to be pit boss at the Robinson mines. Resigning in June, 1889, he went to Sopris, Las Animas County, where he took the position of fire boss with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, but this he resigned in October, 1890, in order to accept a position as mine foreman with the Trinidad Fuel Company at Chicosa, Colo. During his time with them he had entire charge of the group of mines, with three openings. In 1894 he resigned and took full charge of the Oak Creek mines at Williamsburg for the United Coal Company, being superintendent and mine foreman for the company until he accepted his present position of state inspector. During the administration of Governor Waite he was one of seven who took the competitive examination for
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. state inspector, and of the seven four passed the minimum, which was sixty per cent; of these he received the highest grade, his being ninety-nine and a fraction per cent, while the others received respectively sixty-six and eight-tenths per cent, sixty-two and sixty-one and a fraction. The appointee was the one who had sixty-two per cent. He was again examined at the regular time in 1895, this time receiving ninety-nine and a fraction, while not one of the three other competitors received ninety per cent, which was the minimum. February 18, 1895, he was appointed state inspector for a term of four years. For three years he studied in the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton and graduated from that institution in the mining course, receiving his diploma September it, 1897. In the final examination his standing was ninety-eight and seven-tenths per cent, which was remarkably high.
Since his appointment as state inspector Mr. Griffiths and his wife have made their home in Denver. They have five children: William, Martha A., Elizabeth, Catherine Jane and Blossom. In national politics Mr. Griffiths is a silver Republican. He was made a Mason at Crested Butte and is still a member of Lodge No. 8 at that place. He is also a member of Unity Lodge No. 70, I. O. O. F., at Walsenburg.
Born in Cattaraugus County, N. Y. April 4, 1830, Mr. Cheney was reared on a farm. When a boy he removed to Stephenson County, Ill., settling on a farm near Lena. At the age of twenty he journeyed over the plains with an ox-team to California, where he engaged in mining, freighting and stock dealing, which yielded him a handsome revenue. In 1854 he returned overland to Illinois, and engaged in the mercantile business in Lena until 1866, when he sold out and started for Montana. On the 20th of May he met his brother in Nebraska City and together they bought four hundred cattle and freight teams, which they loaded, and started up the Platte. At Fort Larimer they were informed by officers that they would have no trouble in passing over the Bozeman route. After they had traveled some distance they were attacked by Sioux and Cheyennes at Dry Fork and Wind River. His brother was shot and killed, and he narrowly escaped the same fate. He spent the winter at the head of the Missouri River and sold out in the spring of 1867, returning to Illinois in July, accompanied by his brother's family.
After selling his property in Lena, Mr. Cheney removed to Holden, Mo., and in partnership with I. M. Smith, under the firm name of Smith & Cheney, opened a bank July 1, 1868. In 1871 the Bank of Holden was organized, with himself as president. In 1874 he assisted in organizing the Bates County National Bank, in Butler, Mo., and was made its president. Three years later, in 1877, he organized the First National Bank of Boulder, of which he was president until his death. He also organized the First National Bank of Gunnison and was its president during the remaining years of his life. Through his business and financial ability and sound judgment in investments, he became one of the wealthiest men in Boulder.
In 1855 Mr. Cheney married Margaret Blair, who died in 1867. His second marriage took place in Holden in 1871, and united him with Sarah A. Milner, who was born near Connorsville, Fayette County, Ind. One of her earliest recollections is of leading by the hand her great-grandfather, Amos Milner, who was a native of Kentucky, a soldier in the Revolution, and was nearly blind at the time of his death, when little less than one hundred years old. His son John moved from Ohio to Indiana and died there; the latter's son, Amos, was born in Ohio, settled in Fayette County, Ind., and engaged in farming until his death, which occurred when his daughter was ten years of age. His wife, Rosanna, was a daughter of John Boyd, a farmer in Indiana; she died when her daughter, Sarah A., was eight years old. Of her five daughters and three sons one daughter and two sons are living. John, an attorney, died in Indiana; William I. and Amos
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