Mardos Collection
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 195
ON. JAMES HENRY BROWN, attorney-at-law, of Denver, was born in St. Joseph, Mo., in September, 1859, the son of Henry Cordis and Jane C. (Thompson) Brown. Among both his paternal and maternal ancestors were some who served in the colonial wars and the Revolution. His grandfather, Samuel Brown, who was born in Cambridge, Mass., October 29, 1749, served throughout the entire period of the Revolution, being a lieutenant under Col. William Prescott in the battle of Bunker Hill. He also participated in the engagement at Concord and the siege of Boston and, as a lieutenant under Capt. Joseph Hubbard, he took part in Arnold's expedition to Quebec. Captured by the British near the beginning of the Revolution, he was paroled in September, 1776, and conveyed to Elizabethtown, N. J. Soon after the close of the war he went to Ohio and settled near St. Chairsville, Belmont County, where he worked at his trade of cooper and also engaged in clearing and improving a farm, he was a member of a company that, in 1893-94 (sic), went out against the Indians in the northwestern territory. His death occurred in Ohio January 16, 1828, when he was seventy-nine years old.
The maternal grandparents of Mr. Brown were Joshua Thompson, born in Maine in 1793, and Marcia (Crane) Thompson, born at Guilford, Conn., April 16, 1805. The Cranes were a prominent family in the early days of Massachusetts and some of them were soldiers in the colonial wars. James Thompson, father of Joshua, was born in Londonderry, N. H., and enlisted as a private in a New Hampshire regiment under Col. John Stark, April 23, 1777, and in time was made all officer as a reward of meritorious service. After the war he removed to Canandaigua, N. Y., where he remained until death. He was a descendant of Sir Hugh Thompson, who emigrated from Dublin to America in 1722, settling in Rhode Island; his son, Hugh, was born in 1722, three days before the ship landed upon American shores.
The eldest of three children, Mr. Brown has a brother, Sherman T., who graduated from Gross Medical College in 1897; and a sister, Carrie M., who is the wife of Robert T. Cassell, of Denver. James Henry prepared for college in the Denver schools and in 1875 entered the Northwestern University at Evanston, Ill., where he took a Latin and scientific course. At the end of the sophomore year he left school and began the study of law in the office of Hon. O. O. Symes and Westbrook S. Decker, of Denver, with whom he remained until his admission to the bar in August, 1879. In 1881 he was admitted to practice before the supreme court of the United States, before which august tribunal he conducted the suit brought by his father against the state of Colorado, to recover the capitol site. At that time he was only twenty-one years of age. From 1883 to 1885 he held the office of city attorney. He is well versed in corporation law, a knowledge that has been worth much to him in his practice. During his service as counsel for the Denver Consolidated Tramway Company, he managed its important affairs in an admirable manner.
In the fall of 1890 Mr. Brown was nominated for the legislature on the straight Republican ticket. A split occurred in the party and an opposing candidate was nominated. However, Mr. Brown was elected by a fair majority, and took his seat in January, 1891, as a member of the Eighth General Assembly. He was the leader of the combination of Republicans and Democrats, which secured the enactment of important legislation and removed the speaker, who had been placed in power by the ''machine'' element. The governor was at first inclined to sympathize with the other side and ordered militia out against the reformers, but consented to drop matters on a threat of impeachment. The case went to the supreme court at the request of the governor and that body rendered a decision sustaining the position of Mr. Brown and his friends, and deciding that a majority of the house could elect a new speaker as often as it pleased. This is the only instance in the history of the country where a precedent has been established to remove the speaker at will of the house. During the session Mr. Brown was instrumental in the passage of a bill adopting the Australian ballot law, also took an interest in the fee and salary bill, registration law, and a bill requiring the state treasurer to pay interest on the public funds into the state treasury. He served as a member of the judiciary and other important legislative committees. This session passed a law establishing the court of appeals for Colorado, and one making the taxes payable in two installments annually. He is general counsel for the Barber Asphalt Paving Company for Colorado, also for the Colorado Paving Company,
5
196
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. and represents other important legal interests. In 1891 he was a member of the board of directors of the Denver chamber of commerce and board of trade, and at present is a member of the committee on legal advice, in which capacity he has served for a number of years.
In Denver Mr. Brown married Mary A. Clark, who was born in Lyons, N. Y., and graduated from the Denver high school. Her father, Hon. William Clark, was born and reared in New York and served in the senate of that state, coming from there in 1879 to Colorado, where he made his home until he was killed by accidentally falling from a railroad train in 1884 while returning from the east. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have one daughter, Dorothy.
July 14, 1896, the degree of A. M. was conferred upon Mr. Brown by the University of Denver. Fraternally he is connected with the Royal Arcanum; also Denver Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M., Denver Chapter No. 2, R. A. M., Colorado Commandery No. 1, K. T., the Thirty-second Degree Consistory, Scottish Rite, and El Jebel Temple, N. M. S., of which he is potentate. He is a member of the Denver Club and of the Denver Athletic Club, upon whose board of directors he has served for a number of years, during which time the club's building has been erected. He was president of the club at one time. He is captain of Troop C, First Squadron Cavalry, N. O. C., also belongs to the Sons of the Revolution and the Society of Colonial Wars. In the State Bar Association he is an active member. A friend of the silver cause, he was a delegate to the national silver convention at St. Louis in July, 1897, and served as chairman of the Colorado delegation.
AMES M. IRWIN, real-estate and insurance agent at Brighton, was born in Pittsburg, Pa., September 5, 1828, a son of Dr. William B. and Virlinda (McConnell) Irwin. His father, who was a physician, removed front Pittsburg to Washington County, Pa., in 1832 and there remained until the son was about eleven years of age, when he settled in New Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio. Five years later he went to Steubenville, Ohio, where the son was employed in the finishing department of C. C. Wolcott's woolen factory, having previously worked at all branches of the business in New Lisbon from the age of fourteen. At the age of eighteen he began to clerk in a store at Steubenville. The first month his salary was $10, the second $25 and the third $40.
Continuing in the store until March, 1849, Mr. Irwin then fell a victim to the gold fever, and with fifty-five others formed a joint stock company, each member putting in $125. They chartered a boat, called the "Germantown,'' in which they went to St. Louis, and there chartered the ''Mary Elaine,'' sailing up the Missouri. Their wagons had been made in Steubenville, and in Cincinnati they had contracted for sea biscuit and pork. Upon leaving the ship they bought sixty-five yoke of oxen, which they put, in three or four yokes, to their nineteen wagons. They followed the old Oregon trail through Kansas and Nebraska, striking the South Platte twelve miles below Fort Kearney. In Kansas the company divided, as they could not agree, and with four wagons our subject and nine others traveled to Fort Kearney, where they found two little log huts and seven Irish soldiers. From the fort they traveled up the South Platte to the present site of Julesburg. Crossing the river, they drove to the North Platte, which they followed about half way to Fort Laramie. Building a boat of Cottonwood trees by hewing out of them four canoes they lashed these together in order to cross the swollen stream. One man attempted to swim a horse across and lost his life. Our subject and two others were tipped out of the boat and had a hard struggle for life. After crossing, they followed the stream to Fort Laramie, where they found a more extensive fort then at Kearney, although there were no soldiers, as the fort belonged to the American Fur Company, who had one white man there to trade with Indians. They traveled across the country to the Sweetwater and followed that up to the base of the mountains. They went through South Pass, about ten miles wide, and a most beautiful place, affording a natural pass through the mountains. Although they crossed near the center of the park it seemed as though the mountains were perpendicular on each side. They knew when they had passed the divide by a large spring, which they called Pacific Spring, and the waters of which flowed west.
Following the slope downward the party crossed Green River, where they found Mormons build-
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 197
ing a boat. The Mormons wanted $10 for each wagon they took across the river, but our party, who were old river boys, saw that the Mormons knew nothing about boat-building, so they entered into an agreement to assist them with the boat if they in turn would help them across the river. In that way, after several days, they crossed the river without any expense. There, too, they saw the half-breed, Old Truckie, who had been Fremont's guide in 1842, and from him they endeavored to get information, but all they could learn was that they would see ''h--l'' before they got to California.
The route lay north of Salt Lake City and the Mormons before mentioned had come to the river to establish a ferry for the purpose of making money from the emigrants who wanted to cross the river. The company traveled along Bear River, which flows into Salt Lake. They followed the curve of the river on the north side to Bear Lake, and then turned almost due north to Fort Hall, another trading post of the American Fur Company, where they found a white man and his wife, the only whites they had seen, except one man at Fort Laramie. Fort Hall was on Snake River, which they followed down and then up a creek, named by them Rattlesnake Creek, on account of the large number of rattlesnakes found along its banks. Going south to the Humboldt, they followed down that river to the point where it sinks out of sight. Here a party of one hundred tried unsuccessfully to rescue a white woman said to be among the Indians. Then followed a desert of seventy two miles, where, on account of the lack of water, many of their oxen fell dead in their yokes. When they reached Truckee River, two miles above Pyramid Lake, they found water no grass, so they drove down to Pyramid Lake, where they found an abundance of grass for the cattle. After a few days spent in recuperating they started up the Truckee River. They were forced to keep watch all the way along the Humboldt River, as the Indians were numerous and hostile.
From Pyramid Lake the men went up the Truckee River, the west wall of which is the divide of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They were obliged to cross the canon twenty-eight times before they reached the lake where the Donner party had perished the year before from hunger and cold. This party had come from Missouri, under the command of Captain Donner and had undertaken to winter in the canon. A rescuing party from California came in time to rescue a man, whom they found boiling the arm of a woman, who had been the last to perish. The rescued man was taken to California, where he lived for several years.
By unyoking their cattle and driving them around, our subject and his party reached the top of the divide. There they rigged up a windlass, by means of which they pulled the wagons up the hill, which was too steep for oxen to climb, even without a load. After many experiences down the southern slope they came to Steep Hollow, at Bear River, where they camped for several days and where they dug some gold, the first they had found. During their stay at Steep Hollow, another company camping there hung a man for stealing. He was hung in the evening and the body left on the ground, under a blanket, for burial the following morning. To the surprise of the people, in the morning the body was gone. Some months afterward our subject saw a man in California whom he took to be the same man that was hung. He asked him and the man acknowledged it was so. On inquiry as to how he escaped he said he had no recollection of his escape, but remembered only that a rope was put around his neck and when he came to himself he was miles away from the place.
The company to which our subject belonged reached their destination, with the loss of three, one of whom had been drowned, another turned back and the third accidentally shot himself. The smaller company of ten prospected on the way, at Steep Hollow, Grass Valley and on the present site of Nevada City. They took what gold they had with them to Sacramento, in October, 1849, and there twenty-seven of the original fifty-six comprising the party were together for one night. Afterward our subject and another man went forty-five miles east of Sacramento to Auburn, where for five months he worked for a gentleman from Cleveland, Ohio, receiving $300 a month and board. At the expiration of the five months he had saved $1,200. He bought a team and began teaming, which he followed for twenty months, employing a driver to assist him. During a part of the time he worked a claim. It was his custom to buy a load in Sacramento and haul it to a mining camp, where he would sell it,
198
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. taking gold-dust for his pay. He dealt in almost every article of provision except whiskey, which he always refused to handle.
In January, 1853, our subject left California and in company with four members of the original company he journeyed via the Isthmus of Panama, carrying his savings in gold-dust. After crossing the Isthmus he took passage on the steamer, "Ohio," which landed him in New York, after a journey of forty-one days. From there he went to Steubenville, Ohio, and a short time afterwards embarked in the mercantile business with a brother-in-law, at Salineville, that state, but five years later closed out the business, and our subject bought another store. Selling this out in 1858, he vent to Newton, Jasper County, Iowa, and bought a farm of eighty acres. He had never had any experience as a farmer and after a year decided he could do better elsewhere. Renting the place he secured employment as a clerk in Newton, working for one firm there for three and one-half years. In the meantime he learned the business of buying cattle and hogs. After a time he secured employment in the office of the recorder and treasurer, where he remained for two years. Later he began to buy cattle on commission, in which business he was successful, and some of the money he made was invested in an eighty-acre tract. When the war was at its height, in the summer of 1863, he bought cattle in Missouri and drove them to Iowa, selling them there. In the spring of 1865 he had one hundred and twenty-eight head of oxen. He and two others yoked up the cattle and loaded twelve wagons with flour, which they brought to Denver, starting in June. As the season was wet the trip was long and hard, and they were three months on the way. They sold out at $18.50 per hundred, having paid $3.75. They turned the cattle out to pasture and returned to Jasper County, he and his partner being in the first coach that ever went over the Smoky Hill Route. Indians having destroyed the provisions, they went for seven days without anything to eat except such game as they killed on the way. At Monument Station, now on the Kansas Pacific road, one of the party was so frightened that he became insane, ran away and was never heard of any more.
Shortly after reaching home our subject heard that the man whom he had put in charge of his cattle was not doing right. The temperature was twenty-eight degrees below zero and traveling was anything but desirable. However, he took a coach and started west. For eleven days and nights he had no sleep except such as he could snatch when sitting up in the coach. He found the cattle all right, and, although he had expected to be home in six weeks from the time he started, he decided to remain and look after his interests. In the spring he bought a ranch. Then, with two men, he went to Missouri, bought cattle and drove them to Jasper County, expecting soon to return to Colorado, but the report of Indian troubles caused them to continue in Iowa. In 1886 he came to Denver and two years later bought eighty acres near Brighton. The land was unimproved, but he placed it under cultivation. For five years or more he has engaged in the real-estate business in Brighton. In 1856 he voted for J. C. Fremont and has ever since been a Republican.
Before our subject went west for the first time he became acquainted with a young lady with whom he corresponded for a time, but the letters afterward miscarried and another Iowa boy received them. He became familiar with the circumstances while in the west, so, on his return, an explanation was had and an engagement announced. In August, 1854, he married Miss Lucy Hart, of Carroll County, Ohio, daughter of Cyrus W. and Susan (Ewing) Hart. She was born on a farm in that county and received her education in the public schools. One child blesses their union, a son, Chatham, who was born in Salineville, Columbiana County, Ohio, received an excellent commercial education and now follows farm pursuits. February 2, 1898, he married Miss Eliza Dwyer, a teacher in the schools of Denver.
ON. JOHN G. LILLEY. The farm where Mr. Lilley now resides was purchased by him in February, 1862, and at that time consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, but by subsequent purchase it was increased to three hundred and eighty acres, and now, a portion of the property having been sold, the acreage is one hundred and fifty. The homestead being situated adjacent to Littleton, Mr. Lilley is, therefore, identified with the history of this place,
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 199
to the development of which he has been a large contributor. In 1868 he was one of the builders of the Rough and Ready grist mill, which soon acquired a reputation for producing the finest flour in the state, and for years the products of the mill were shipped as far east as Boston and commanded a higher price on 'change than almost any other flour in the country. During the time that he was connected with the mill it was twice burned to the ground.
The parents of Mr. Lilley were John and Ann (Buck) Lilley, natives of North Gillsboro, England. About 1847 they removed from their farm at North Gillsboro to Burkinhead, Cheshire, England, where he engaged in the laundry business until his death in 1886. His wife passed away in 1883. Both were members of the Church of England. Their son, John G., was born at Gillsboro June 12, 1833, and after the family removed to Cheshire he served for six years in the Burkinhead market. At the age of twenty he came to America, and after stopping for a few days in Portland, Me., he went to New Brunswick, where he stopped for ten days, and then shipped for Ireland as steward on a vessel. After a sojourn of six weeks in Ireland, while the vessel was anchored in Cork, he returned home, and for a year followed the butcher's trade. He then crossed the ocean to Boston, and from there went to LaCrosse, Wis., and engaged in business as a butcher. He remained there from 1854 to 1860 and then came to Colorado, settling in Denver, and for some two years prospecting in the mountains. He then bought the farm where he has since resided.
While living in LaCrosse, in £855, our subject returned to England, and on Christmas day of that year was there united in marriage to Miss Louise Ann Hay, whose father was a civil engineer. Ten children were born of their union, namely: William H., commissioner of Park County, married and the father of two children; Anna, deceased; Maggie, wife of Frank Soper, a telegraph operator residing in Littleton; Fred; Lucy, deceased; Harry, who is engaged in the livery business at Littleton, and who married Kate Bergen, by whom he has two children; Marcia L., wife of Charles Watlington, of Madison, Ind.; Josephine, a graduate of the University of Colorado, and now teaching in the public schools of Littleton; Benjamin E., who married Maggie Monahan, and assists his father in the management of the home farm; and John G., who is engaged in the dairy business at Cripple Creek. The wife and mother died May 7. 1895.
In politics Mr. Lilley is a silver Republican. For some twenty-seven years he has been president of the school board. In 1872 he was elected to the legislature, in which he served one term, and, being himself actively engaged in the cattle business, he took an active part in all cattle legislation. In 1879 he was elected county commissioner and served efficiently for a term of three years. He was made captain of a company organized in 1864 for protection of life and property from the Indians. In 1868 the company was called into active service to suppress the Utes and Cheyennes, whose raids had proved troublesome and disastrous to property, but after a futile chase of a week or more the men were ordered to return home.
As a member of the firm of Lilley & Coberley, our subject was connected with the building of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, having a contract to Denver ties from the divide to the territory between here and Sheridan, and running forty wagons, with seven yoke of oxen, to the trail. In 1870 the Indians raided a herd of cattle belonging to them at the bend of the Sandy, for the loss of which a claim of $32,000 is now before the government.
DWARD BOICOURT TROVILLION, M. D., a successful physician of Gold Hill, Boulder County, where he has resided since 1889, was born in Golconda, Pope County, Ill., October 31, 1861, a son of Edward E. and Nancy (Carr) Trovillion, natives respectively of Middle Tennessee and Virginia. He is a descendant, in the fifth generation, of an Englishman who first settled in Massachusetts, but later removed to Virginia. The latter had a son, Edward, who was born in the Old Dominion and bore a valiant part in the Revolution. A town in Virginia was named in his honor.
James V., son of Edward, changed the spelling of the family name from Trevelian to Trovillion. He was born in Virginia and became an early settler in Tennessee, where he was a tobacco planter. During the Seminole and Florida wars, in which he served, he was wounded, and after-
200
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ward was again wounded in the Black Hawk war. His death occurred in 1881, when he was about eighty years of age. His son, our subject's father, took part in the Mexican war. After his return from the front he married and removed to Illinois, settling in Pope County, where he bought and cleared one hundred and sixty acres of government land. The tract is still owned by the family. At the opening of the Civil war he assisted in raising Company G, Sixth Illinois Cavalry, and was made its first lieutenant, but in the fall of 1864 was forced to resign his commission, owing to a serious attack of typhoid fever. He was brought home, where he was confined to his bed from that time until his death, in March, 1865, at the age of thirty-nine. He organized a Baptist Church in Pope County and officiated as its minister until his death.
Our subject's mother, who still resides at the old homestead, was a granddaughter of a planter of Virginia, who went there from the mountains of Vermont. His father was one of the Green Mountain boys, who bore so brave a part in the Revolution. Our subject is the youngest of the parental family of five sons and three daughters, of whom three sons and one daughter are living. Of the family he is the only one in the west. At the age of seventeen he began to teach school in Pope County, Ill., and continued in that occupation until 1882, when he became deputy county clerk under his brother, Penn V. Later he entered a medical college and after taking a three-year regular course he graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago in 1886 as an M. D. Opening an office in Rosebud, Ill., he engaged in practice there until 1889, and meantime served as secretary of the United States board of pension examiners. Resigning that position, he came to Colorado in 1889 and succeeded Dr. O. R. Wells, an old college chum in Rush Medical College, as physician at Gold Hill, where he has since remained. His practice is not limited to this town, but extends to Salina, Jamestown and in fact throughout the entire county. In addition to his practice, he is interested in mining and operates a number of mines. For a short time he was engaged in the drug business, but the pressure of his large practice obliged him to give up the other enterprise.
In Golconda, Ill., Dr. Trovillion married Miss Carrie M. King, who was born in Rosebud. Her father, William King, who is a very extensive merchant and large real-estate owner in Rosebud, was a member of the same company and regiment (Company G, Sixth Illinois Cavalry) as our subject's father. Mrs. Trovillion was educated in the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbondale and is a lady of culture. Her two daughters are Beatrice and Genevieve.
Politically the doctor is a Republican. In 1890 he was elected county coroner, but did not qualify, not desiring the position. In 1894 he was a candidate for representative and 1897 for county clerk, but, belonging to the minority party, was not elected. He was made a Mason in Columbia Lodge No. 14, A. F. & A. M., to which he now belongs. He is also identified with Boulder Chapter No. 7, R. A. M., Mount Sinai Commandery No. 7, K. T.; Home Forum, for which he is examiner; Sons of Veterans, having his membership at Golconda, Ill.; and the Ancient Order. of United Workmen at Gold Hill, for which he is medical examiner. A number of insurance companies have also secured his services as examiner. In religious belief he is a Baptist. All matters pertaining to his profession receive his thoughtful attention and he keeps abreast with every development made in the science of medicine. He is vice-president of the Boulder County Medical Society and a member of the State and American Medical Associations.
RANK DULIN, M. D., police surgeon for Denver and member of the state board of medical examiners, and member of the United States board of pension examiners, is one of the successful and well-known physicians of Denver, where he has his office at No. 1407 Larimer street. In the general practice of medicine he has gained the confidence of his patients and has shown himself to be accurate in diagnosis and skillful in treatment. In addition to his private professional work he fills the office of member of the state board of medical examiners, to which he was appointed by Governor Adams in April, 1897; also the office of police surgeon, to which he was appointed May 1, 1897, by the fire and police board, Dr. Miller being the other police surgeon for the city.
In early days the paternal grandfather of our subject removed from Virginia to Kentucky,
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 201
where he spent the remainder of his days in the cultivation of a plantation. Rev. Robert Dulin, the doctor's father, was born in Christian County, KY in 1815, and during the early days of the religious movement that called for a return to apostolic methods, he associated himself with Alexander Campbell and other men who gave their lives to that work. For years he preached in time Christian Church, yet for all his self-sacrificing labors he refused to accept any salary, feeling himself repaid if he led men and women into the light of the Gospel. After selling his farm of five hundred acres in Christian County, he lived somewhat retired, enjoying the comforts his industry had rendered possible. In 1879 he went to Sherman. Tex., and there died in 1895, aged eighty years.
The mother of the doctor was Lucy P. Coffey, who was horn in Cumberland County, Ky., and is now living in Sherman, Tex. Her father, Benjamin Coffey, was a member of a Virginian family of planters and a descendant of Revolutionary ancestry. Our subject was born in Hopkinsville, Ky., and was one of thirteen children, ten of whom attained mature years and eight are now living. William was killed at Fort Donelson when twenty-one years old. Smith was colonel of a Confederate regiment and fell at Jackson, Miss. The father had opposed the sons entering the army, and for that reason Smith went to Texas, where he enlisted as lieutenant and was promoted to colonel on the field at Jackson. There are four daughters and four sons now living. John L. is a graduate of Jefferson Medical College and a practicing physician; Charles S. is proprietor of a newspaper in Sherman; and Robert R. has a store in that place.
After having gained the rudiments of his education in the private schools of Hopkinsville, our subject entered Princeton College at Princeton, Ky., where he studied some time. Removing to Sherman, at the age of twenty-one he began to study medicine under Dr. John L. Scott, and in 1880 entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in St. Louis, from which he graduated in 1882 with the degree of M. D. Afterward he was assistant demonstrator of anatomy in that college and file hospital for a year, and then located in Ashley, Washington County, Ill., where he engaged in practice nearly three years, but in the fall of 1885 he removed to Garden City, Kan., and from there in July, 1889, came to Denver.
In 1892-93 he was county physician. In the fall of 1893, under the civil service law, he received from President Cleveland the appointment of member of the United States board of pension examiners, of which he is now time treasurer. Active in the Democratic party, he has been a member of the county committee and a delegate to county and state conventions. He is connected with the American Medical Society and the Denver and Arapahoe County Medical Society. In religious belief he is identified with the Central Christian Church, of which Dr. Barton O. Aylesworth is the pastor. He is physician to the Rocky Mountain Camp, Woodmen of the World. In the Knights of Pythias he is examining physician and past officer, also three times in succession its representative to the grand lodge and in that body a member of the committee on credentials. In Caledonia, Mo., he married Miss Fannie May Carr, daughter of Dr. Munson Carr, an old settler of Caledonia. They have one son, Robert Carr Dulin.
ILLIAM CLINTON CALHOUN. The business career of Mr. Calhoun shows what may be accomplished by pluck and perseverance. When he came to Denver he had no friends in the city and his means were limited; but with the determination characteristic of him he again embarked upon the unknown sea of journalism. He established the Rocky Mountain Sentinel, a weekly, which for some time he published with indifferent success, but from the time, in 1891, when he commenced to advertise in state and eastern papers he was unceasingly prospered. His legal advertisements began to be special features of his paper, and the advertising patronage increased so rapidly that it absorbed from three to eight pages of each issue. In order to meet this increased patronage and also to make his paper one of general interest to people throughout the United States, he decided to establish another publication, and so the Illustrated Weekly was born. Phenomenal success attended the new enterprise, and subscriptions poured in at times at the rate of hundreds daily. Finding that his advertisements were profitable, he continued them in about one thousand newspapers and magazines, and the returns have been such as would convince the most skeptical of the profits
202
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. derived from the liberal use of printer's ink. The Twin Weeklies of the Rockies, as the papers are called, are national illustrated home and family papers, with views of the finest scenery in America and articles of interest alike to busy mothers, school children, farmers and business men.
The Calhouns are an old southern family. Garrett Calhoun, our subject's father, was born in South Carolina, and in childhood, accompanied by the other members of the family, he removed to Ohio, where he died in 1864. His wife, Mary was born in Middletown Valley, Md., and was a daughter of Samuel Fisher, a native of Hagerstown, that state, a successful farmer, and an own cousin of ex-Governor Cullom, of Illinois. He married Debbie Barnhiser, who is still living, and is now eighty-five years of age. Her father, John Barnhiser, was born in Pennsylvania and served under Washington in the Revolution, of which he was later a pensioner. He died at Quincy, Pa., in June, 1849, aged one hundred and six years. Samuel Fisher moved west to Illinois, settling first in Knox County, but later removing to Logan County, and some years later to Kansas, where he died at eighty-five years. His daughter, Mrs. Calhoun, resides in Lincoln and is now sixty-three years of age. She is a lady of noble character and culture, one who is universally esteemed by her acquaintances. She had only two children, and one of these, John F., died at twelve years of age.
Near Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio, the subject of this sketch was born November 11, 1863. He was four years of age when the family moved, by wagon, to Illinois, and his childhood years were passed in Lincoln, Ill. He can scarcely remember when he first determined to be a printer. He had a great desire to learn the trade and at the age of thirteen he secured employment on a farm, saving his earnings until he had $35, with which he bought a small printing press and a couple of styles of type. He put it up at home and, unaided, gained an understanding of its intricacies. Without other aid than his own quick intelligence, he learned to set type and gained a knowledge of leads, slugs, fonts, ems, cases, etc. When he was seventeen he began to print a paper in Lincoln, and later he was employed on some of America's largest dailies, being with the Chicago Times in 1883.
During the boom Mr. Calhoun took up a pre-emption claim in Ford County, Kan., his land being so far from the railroad that at first he was obliged to walk thirty-six miles, to Dodge City, for his mail. He proved up the claim, and the next year homesteaded a tract in Grant County, four miles from Zionville, and one mile from his nearest neighbor. He built a sod house, with an oxteam turned the first furrows in the soil, and planted corn and vegetables with a spade. At the same time he started the Zionville Sentinel, walking four miles to town in the morning, and returning in the evening. He also established the Westola Wave in Morton County. When it became known that the rainfall was too irregular and insufficient to insure crops in the western part of the state, the settlers, discouraged and disheartened, turned their faces towards their old homes in the east. Instead of following their example, he determined to come still further west and establish a paper in Denver.
In 1888 Mr. Calhoun located in Colorado and soon afterward he came to Denver, where he at once embarked in the journalistic field. His present large business has been built up solely through advertising, and the two papers he founded have grown to such proportions that they are the wonder and admiration of all western newspaper men. Their success is all the more remarkable when it is considered that he began with small capital and has had to contend with the long continued period of depression and accompanying hard times. In addition to his newspapers he possesses large real-estate and mining interests in the state. He was among the very first to become interested in the Cripple Creek gold fields in 1891, and still holds valuable interests there. He has a comfortable residence, recently erected, and presided over by his wife, whom he married in Utah, in 1891, and who was Miss Annie Orr, a native of Canada, the eldest daughter of John Orr, all of whose ancestors resided in Scotland.
Mr. Calhoun is a firm believer in the teachings of Odd Fellowship, and belongs to Anchor Lodge No. 66, Wauneta Rebekah Lodge No. 22, and Silver State Encampment No. 34. He is also a member of Kremlin Riga No. 6, Imperial Order of Muscovites, and is also identified with the several branches of the Masonic order, being especially interested in the Knights Templar. He takes great pride in the fact that he is a member
 |
 |
 |
 |