Mardos Collection
MRS. ANN GILMAN LYKINS.
256
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. rounding up the stock Captain Lykins and a companion made a detour, intercepting the retreating Indians in a small canon of Little Thompson Creek. The doughty captain shot one of the braves and wounded another, one of them a chief. He kept souvenirs of this victory, along with many others, in a cabinet in his home. At other times he was called upon to defend his property and that of his fellow-settlers, and was quite noted as an Indian fighter.
RS. ANN GILMAN LYKINS, who is well known in Longmont and vicinity, enjoys the distinction of being the wealthiest woman in northern Colorado, and is often termed the "land and cattle queen" of Colorado. Since her husband's death, in the spring of 1898, she has had entire charge of his great estates and business investments and has proved herself to be fully equal to the enormous undertaking, which women in other lands would undoubtedly detail to lawyers and agents. She is a true American in spirit and training and feels deeply that she is a steward of the vast riches entrusted to her care, and therefore chooses to keep the power in her own hands, rather than to place it in that of irresponsible persons.
Mrs. Lykins was the first white girl-baby born in Adair County, Iowa. She comes of good old New England stock, her grandfather, William Gilman, having been born in Massachusetts, and her father, John A. Gilman, having been born near the town of Lowell, in the same state. The latter settled at Liberty Landing, Mo., at a very early day, and later was numbered among the pioneers of Adair County, Iowa. There he took up a tract of government land, and afterwards, removing to Fremont County, Iowa, he improved another farm. Going next to Nebraska City, in 1856 he was one of the first to locate there and for some time carried on a livery and a meat market in the town. After a time he engaged in farming again, cultivating a homestead about two miles from Nebraska City. Having sold this place, in 1879 he came to Colorado, but, soon going back to the home he had recently left, he passed the remainder of his life there, dying at the age of seventy-four years. He was a man of great information and an entertaining speaker. He had traveled much and was an officer in the Mexican war. His wife, Sophia, now a resident of Boise City, Idaho, was born near Toledo, Ohio. Her parents were Frederick and Laura (Brown) Richardson. The former died in Boulder County when about seventy-five years old.
The fourth in a family of thirteen children, Mrs. Lykins is now one of the six who survive. Mrs. Martin resides in Jamestown, Colo.; John lives in La Junta, Colo,, and two sisters and a brother are in Boise City, Idaho. The early life of Mrs. Lykins was mainly passed in Nebraska City, and in 1869 she came to this state. In October of that year she became the wife of John Keen, who had been living on the St. Vrain for about five years, and had already amassed a comfortable fortune. He was quite successful in mining enterprises, and, being a miller by trade, he bought a farm and mill on the St. Vrain and operated them for a year. Selling out, be was on the eve of departing to Montana on business when death claimed him, in January, 1880. He was a native of Germany and came to the United States when a young man. The two children born to Mr. and Mrs. Keen were Emma J. and Mary. The former graduated with the highest honors (taking off all prizes tendered for special work or merit) from Gross Medical College of Denver in 1897, and is now at the head of an excellent practice in Longmont. The other daughter, Mrs. Stevens, lives in Rattle Snake Park, Larimer County, Colo.
The marriage of D. J. Lykins and Mrs. Keen was solemnized December 8, 1880, and one child, Archie, blessed their union. Mrs. Lykins is a member of the Congregational Church and is ex-treasurer of the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She is also connected with the Order of the Eastern Star and the Hive of the Maccabees. In the distribution of her means she is generous, seeking ever to give assistance to those less fortunately circumstanced than herself, when she deems them worthy of help.
ILLIAM E. HODGSON purchased eighty acres of land in Boulder County in 1883. The place was then unimproved, and without even a stick of timber, while there was not a house between it and Louisville. He at once systematically began to improve the land. In 1885 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 257
adjoining, which makes his farm one of two hundred and forty acres. Here, in addition to raising cereals, he has engaged extensively and successfully in raising stock.
The birth of Mr. Hodgson occurred in Stark County, Ill., March 6, 1845, his parents being Jonathan and Anna (Lundy) Hodgson. He was one of fourteen children, namely: Mary E., James (deceased), Levisa, Levi, Lydia A., Daniel, Rachel, Anna J. (deceased), Amanda, William E., Martin, Jonathan, Albert and Mary E. (twins). The father was born in Ohio in 1806 and after his marriage removed to Illinois in 1830, settling upon a farm, where he remained until 1858. He then went still further west and located in Kansas, sixty-five miles south of Kansas City. At that time he had frequent conversations with John Brown, of anti-slavery fame, who lived in the same locality. He was a public-spirited man and a member of the first board of county commissioners of Stark County, Ill., in the organization of which he took an active part. For fourteen years he served as a justice of the peace in Stark County and for seven years held the same position in Kansas. In 1868 he was elected to he Kansas legislature on an independent ticket. During the Civil war he served in the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, Colonel Judson commanding, and took part in the battles of Perry Grove, Cain Hill, Pea Ridge and other engagements. He was received into the Methodist Church by Peter Cartwright and became a local preacher, accomplishing much good through his active and earnest preaching. His death occurred in 1879. He was a son of Daniel Hodgson, a native of North Carolina, who removed to Ohio and later to Illinois, engaging in farm pursuits until his death.
When the family removed from Illinois to Kansas the subject of this sketch was thirteen years of age. The trip, with its many experiences, is indelibly impressed upon his memory. With three wagons, some sixty head of cattle and fifteen head of horses, they joined a train of some ten more wagons, and spent thirty-six days in crossing the country to their destination. From the time they started it rained almost incessantly. He remained on the home farm until he was twenty-four years of age, and then married Miss Christian Payton, by whom he had three children: Marion, a farmer and stock-raiser of Boulder County; Anna P., deceased; and one that died unnamed in infancy.
After his marriage Mr. Hodgson entered as a homestead eighty acres of land, which he improved and cultivated. While living on that place, his wife died in 1874. He was again married in the spring of 1877, his wife being Mrs. Louisa (Shepherd) Andre, by whom he has one son, William Forest. By her former marriage Mrs. Hodgson had two children: Mary E., now Mrs. James Nichols, and John O. In the spring of 1880 Mr. Hodgson came to Colorado and during the spring and summer worked on Left Hand Creek. The next year he began farming on rented land. In 1883 he purchased the place where he has since made his home. Fraternally he is identified with Boulder Lodge No. 9, I. O. O. F., and Louisville Lodge No. 137, Pacific Woodmen of the, World. In political views he is in hearty sympathy with the People's party, believing that free silver would advance the financial prosperity of our country, and especially of the great west.
LEXANDER J. GRAHAM. Every visitor to Denver hears of the beauties of City Park, nor are its beauties overestimated even by the citizens of Denver who have a natural prejudice in its favor. It comprises three hundred and twenty acres, two-thirds of which has been improved, situated on the east side of the city and commanding a fine view of the surrounding country. Especially in the summer season are its beauties manifest to even the most unobservant eye. There are long stretches of green-spreading lawn; trees whose dense foliage affords a grateful shade; a pavilion and two lakes that add picturesqueness to the landscape; flower beds with every species of garden plants, and six greenhouses, in which may be found palms and potted plants of every description. On summer afternoons it is one of the most popular places in the city, frequented by picnic parties and by families, and as one walks along its winding paths they see gay groups in the enjoyment of a holiday, children sporting under the trees, tired mothers getting a needed rest, and men sitting lazily and comfortably on the rustic benches that line the walks and driveways.
The transformation effected in City Park during the past few years is due almost wholly to the
258
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. efforts of the superintendent, Mr. Graham, who was appointed to the position by John L. Dailey and has accomplished wonders in the place. He added the pavilion, built a greenhouse and a museum, also the new lake of twenty-three acres. He is well versed in floriculture and horticulture, and no better man than he could be secured for the superintendency.
He was born on Lake George, in Warren County, N. Y., and is the son of William and Agnes (Lauder) Graham, natives of Dumfriesshire, Scotland. His maternal grandfather, John Lauder, came to America and died on a farm in Warren County at ninety-eight years. The paternal grandfather was a farmer in Scotland; his ancestors for generations had been florists and gardeners. On coming to America, William Graham settled in Warren County, but later went to Flushing, L. I., and engaged in market gardening. Afterward for eighteen years he was superintendent of Pendleton Rogers estate, in Hyde Park, N. Y., where he died at eighty-five years. In religion he was a Presbyterian. His wife died in Hyde Park at eighty years. Of their ten children seven are living, our subject being the youngest. All are in the east except the latter and his brother, David, a veteran of the war and now on a fruit farm in New Mexico.
At the age of eight our subject accompanied his parents to Flushing, and five years later he began to work in a nursery there, going thence at the age of eighteen to a place on the Hudson that is now owned by Hon. Levi P. Morton. There he was foreman of the plant department. Next he was superintendent of Grand Park, owned by Tammany magnates, at Norwalk, Conn., where was the finest collection of plants and flowers in the world. He remained at that beautiful place for seven years, when the enterprise collapsed. Going to Cleveland, Ohio, he was foreman of a park for three years, and then started in the nursery business in Elyria, Ohio. In 1890 he came to Denver, where he was foreman of Riverside Cemetery, until the spring of 1893, and then for six months was employed in laying out Dunham Park in Swansea, a suburb. On the completion of the work he was appointed superintendent of City Park.
In Hyde Park, N. Y., Mr. Graham married Ellen, daughter of James Porter, who had charge of General Jones' estate at Hyde Park, Their children are Archibald D., who has charge of the animal department in the park; David, who is a blacksmith with the Orrock Carriage Company; and Flora, wife of Col. William R. Grove, who is assistant adjutant-general of the state. Mr. Graham was made a Mason in Denver Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M., to which he belongs now. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the World, the Foresters and the Caledonian Club, and in religious belief is a Presbyterian.
Every purchaser of five acres with water in Gutheil Park will, according to contract, have his land plowed up and all ditches made to his tract. He will also receive, free of charge, first-class fruit trees of his own selection, besides shade trees for the avenues. In 1897 about thirteen miles of shade trees (maple and elm) were planted and fifty acres planted to orchards. During the first year the company sold over one hundred acres, and a number of houses have been built there, among these the fine residence occupied by Mr. Gutheil.
Born near Leipsic, Germany, the subject of this sketch was a student in the university at that place, graduating in 1879. In the spring of 1880 he came to America, sojourning for a short time in Maryland, Columbus, Ohio, Chicago, Ill., Omaha, Neb., and Fort Sidney, also having charge of a stock ranch in Wyoming for a while. His first visit to Denver was made in 1882 and
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 259
four years later he settled here permanently. He entered the real-estate business in 1888 and two years later started the Denver Match Factory, with himself as vice-president and chief stockholder; but after one year it was bought up by the syndicate. While it was a worthy industry, yet it was not patronized by the people to the extent it deserved. In 1889 he bought and platted Gutheil Gardens, which he disposed of soon afterward. He was married in Denver to Miss Lilla B. Baker, who was born in Manchester, N. H.
UCIUS H. DENISON, general manager of the Slide mine at Gold Hill, Boulder County, is a member of a New England family that emigrated to this country from England in an early day. His father, Lucius, was born in Caledonia County, Vt., a son of Isaac Denison, who was born in Vermont, engaged in farming there and continued to make the state his home until death. One of his brothers took part in the Revolution.
From Vermont Lucius Denison went to Boston, where he engaged in business as a commission merchant, meantime residing in the suburban town of Chelsea. In 1861 he removed to Norway, Me., and for twenty consecutive years carried on a large general mercantile business. Later he turned his attention to the manufacture of wood pulp, in which business he continued until his death, in 1882, at seventy-nine years. Twice married, he had three children by his first marriage, all of whom are living; while by his second wife he had nine children, six of whom survive. His second wife, our subject's mother, was Adeline Hobart, a native of New Hampshire and an aunt of the present vice-president of the United States, Garret A. Hobart, her brother being the latter's father. She died in 1891, when sixty-five years of age.
One of our subject's brothers, Elias B., of Portland, now manager of the Androscoggan Pulp Company, was the first purchaser of a patent for the manufacture of wood pulp and subsequently patented other improvements in the same line. Our subject attended the public schools of Norway and graduated from the Liberal Institute of that place. In 1876 he entered the Westbrook Seminary at Deering, from which he graduated the following year. Later he spent one year in Tuft's College at Meadford, Mass., after which he returned to Norway, Me., and secured work in a shoe factory. His next position was in an insurance office at Portland, Me. In 1881 he settled in Lincoln, Neb., and for fifteen months was connected with a wholesale grocery house. In 1882 he entered the First National Bank of Crete, Neb., as assistant cashier, and in 1888 was promoted to be cashier, which position he held until 1897. Meantime he served for three terms as a member of the council, to which he was elected on the Republican ticket.
Locating at Gold Hill in 1897, Mr. Denison leased the Slide mine, which he has developed and operated. At the same time he has also operated the Allamnakee mine, of which he is in charge, and the Slide mill, a thirty-stamp mill. Fraternally he is connected with the blue lodge of Masonry at Crete, Neb., the Knights of Pythias at Crete and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of which he is past master. In religion he is a member of the Congregational Church.
In Crete, Neb., Mr. Denison married Miss Emma Bader, who was born in Grinnell, Iowa, a daughter of William and Catherine (Heimburger) Bader, natives of Germany, and early settlers of Grinnell. Her father was engaged as a millwright and miller in Grinnell, from which place he moved to Nebraska City and there resided until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Denison are the parents of four children: Lucius Bader, Philip Hobart, Bertha Helen and Ruth.
UY LE ROY STEVICK. Among the attorneys of Denver Mr. Stevick occupies a position of honor and influence, a position that has come to him, not through luck or any accidental combination of circumstances, but as the result of constant application and determination of will. Since coming to Denver he has established a profitable practice, extending into the various courts. He is a clear and logical thinker and a forceful writer, and is the author of a law work entitled "Unincorporated Associations," for which he received a prize in the University of Pennsylvania and which was afterward published by that institution.
The son of David B. and Mary E. (Black) Stevick, our subject was born in Newburg, Cumberland County, Pa., March 22, 1865. The
260
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. first eleven years of his life were passed in the town where he was born, but at that time his father removed to Carlisle, Pa., and established a mercantile business there. In the public schools of the latter city he continued his studies. At the age of sixteen he entered Dickinson College at Carlisle, and prosecuted the regular course of study there, graduating in 1885, with the degree of A. B.
Immediately after completing his classical and literary studies, Mr. Stevick began the study of law in the office of Hon. A. B. Sharpe, of Carlisle, under whose preceptorship he gained his first knowledge of Blackstone. Well grounded in the English law, he entered the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, where he completed the regular course of lectures, graduating in 1888, with the degree of LL. B. About the same time his alma mater at Carlisle bestowed upon him the degree of A. M. His literary ability had been cultivated while in college. While a student in Dickinson he was the editor of the Dickinsonian, and after entering the university he became the university reporter and reported the lectures and legal department of that institution.
Immediately after graduating, Mr. Stevick was admitted to the Philadelphia bar: The months following this, however, were not devoted to practice, but were spent with the Sioux Commission in opening up the Sioux reservation in Dakota, a work that brought him into personal contact with the Indians. He came to Denver in 1888, reaching the city on Christmas day, and for a few months afterward was in the office of R. D. Thompson. Soon he formed a law partnership with Robert Collier and the two continued together for a time, but since the connection was dissolved he has been alone. He has the greatest faith in Denver, its wonderful opportunities and the extent of its resources. Through his instrumentality about twenty-five houses have been erected here, and in other ways he has promoted the growth of the city.
Reared in the Democratic faith, Mr. Stevick is stanch in his allegiance to its principles and in his support of its candidates. In 1896 he was nominated for the legislature on the fusion ticket, but was defeated. He has served for several years as town attorney for Argo, a corporation within the city of Denver. In his religious views he is independent, but, though not a member of any denomination, he gives his support to the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife is a member. April 16, 1888, in Carlisle, Pa., he married Miss Marion, daughter of Capt. R. H. Pratt, who was the founder and superintendent of the Carlisle Indian Training School. They have five children, Anna Laura, May Ellen, Nana, LeRoy Champney and Theron Pratt.
OBERT I. WILLIS, the efficient and courteous superintendent of the Boulder County poor farm, has held this responsible position since February 1, 1898, and has made a good record, giving general satisfaction. He has been a resident of the Boulder Valley since the Centennial year, in which Colorado became one of the sisterhood of United States, but several years prior to that time he was a property holder here and considered his interests identical with those of this immediate region. As a public official he is the same conscientious, diligent, honorable man that he has always been as a private citizen, and the esteem and respect which are universally accorded him are justly his due.
Mr. Willis comes of a good old Kentucky family, his birth having occurred in Todd County, July 26, 1847. (For history of his parents and family refer to biography of W. A. Willis, elsewhere in this volume.) The boyhood of our subject passed quietly and uneventfully under the roof of his father, O. G. Willis, to whose wise example and guiding influence he owed much of his success in after life. His education, unfortunately, was somewhat limited, being simply that of the district schools, whose usefulness, meager at best, was retarded and checked by the breaking out of the Civil war, and the troublous times afterward.
Soon after reaching his majority Robert I. Willis embarked upon his independent life, and March 25, 1869, started for the west to carve out his fortune. He was accompanied by his brother, G. S. Willis, and by a friend, D. B. Scott, all ambitious, enterprising young men, eager for a taste of frontier life. They proceeded on the railways as far west as the town of Phil Sheridan, then the limit of the completed road, and from that point they joined a government train which took them to Kiowa Station. There the young men hired a man to take them to Denver,
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 261
in which now important city they safely arrived April 12. Our subject proceeded to Boulder Valley and spent about three weeks here, looking around with a view to making his permanent home here. However, he went on to Georgetown, where he found employment in cutting wood. Ere long he began working for the Bakersville Mining Company, with whom he remained several years.
In 1871 Mr. Willis returned to Boulder County for a brief period and homesteaded a tract of eighty acres. In 1876 he settled on this ranch, which he improved and cultivated for the following decade. In 1886 he sold his farm, as his mining interests demanded his entire attention. Since that time he has paid little heed to agriculture, but has devoted his energies chiefly to the development of his mines and to his other business affairs. He is the owner of the Greenfield silver mine at Montezuma, one of the best-paying mines in that section. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat, being an earnest believer in the principles advocated by that party.
The Middaughs are of Holland extraction and the name in Dutch, means midday. The father of our subject, William H., was born near Painted Post, N. Y., and removed to Erie, Pa., where he followed the wagonmaker's trade, going from there in 1853 to New Castle, Lawrence County, the same state. In 1859 he settled in Denver, of which he was a pioneer and a prominent citizen. He was the first sheriff of Arapahoe County and the first deputy United States marshal under the Kansas laws. He died in 1862, at the age of forty-eight. His wife, Mary, was a daughter of Col. John Marvin, who was born in Massachusetts, took part in the famous Boston tea party, was a captain in the Revolution, and at its close removed near Covington, Tioga County, Pa. Mrs. Middangh was born in Tioga County and died in Denver in 1884, at the age of seventy-four. All of her seven children came to Colorado, and two, Mrs. Alfred Sayre and Mrs. Armstrong, died here, while a son, James F., died in Nevada. Four are living: Charles F. is in Rico, Colo.; William is a hardware merchant in Ouray; Asa F. resides in Denver; and Frances is the wife of James W. Wier, a real-estate dealer in Denver.
After completing his schooling in Erie and New Castle, in 1860 our subject and his brother, James F., came to Denver, where he embarked in the stock and coal business and in ranching. In 1864-65 he engaged in freighting between Denver and Missouri River points. For eight years, beginning in 1866, he was a merchant in Elizabethtown and Cimarron, N. M., in partnership with H. M. Porter, and the two also carried on a banking business in Cimarron. In 1875 he opened a mercantile store at Del Norte, in the San Luis Valley, where, in 1882, he opened the Bank of Del Norte, one of the oldest financial enterprises in that place. He still continues in the banking business there, where he also has a horse ranch and several farms. Among the horses he has raised is Jim Blame, record 2:24, and others almost as fine.
Fraternally Mr. Middaugh was made a Mason in Cimarron and is now a member of Denver
262
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Lodge No. 7, A. F. & A. M. He is a member of the Pioneers' Association and politically is a silver Democrat. While in New Mexico he married Miss Amelie Siever, who was born in St. Louis. Five children were born of their union: Edna, who died in 1895; Nettie, Hallett, Florence and Freeman.
CHUYLER GRANT HURST, cashier of the Bank of Brighton, came to Colorado in the early part of 1892, shortly after completing his business education. He was so well pleased with the prospects here that he determined to remain. He bought out W. G. Lovelace, banker of Brighton, and, associated with A. A. Failing, embarked in the banking business, but soon bought out his partner and has since been alone. The means for establishing himself in business he secured from his mother and grandmother's estate, which enabled bun to start for himself, without borrowing money. At the time he began in the banking business he was the youngest banker in Arapahoe County and one of the youngest in the state, but his sound judgment enabled him to establish the bank upon a substantial basis. The bank has weathered the financial depression of the past few years and is now in a more prosperous condition than at any time in its history. A report, given at the close of the year 1897, showed that the bank deposits had increased one hundred per cent during 1897, loans increased eighty percent and cash resources over one hundred per cent. The business for that year was most satisfactory and far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the officers of the bank. Such a report shows that the community in which the bank is located and from which it draws its patronage, has resources which enable it to breast the severest industrial storms and still prosper. At the beginning of the panic depositors were frightened and two-thirds of the deposits were withdrawn, but it was soon seen that the bank was upon a sound financial basis, confidence was restored, deposits were returned and new accounts opened.
The son of Robert and Harriet (McCord) Hurst, the former of whom resides in Fremont County, Iowa, the subject of this sketch was born in Warren County, Ind., March 19, 1871. His father, a native of Virginia, removed to Indiana in early manhood and there met and married Miss McCord, who was born in Warren County and died there, leaving an only child, five years of age. The father married again, removed to Iowa and is now living there upon a farm; by his second marriage four children were born. Our subject, who was the only child of the first marriage, remained with his father until he was twenty years of age, meantime attending the public and high schools, and spending three years in Tabor College, Fremont County, from which be graduated in the commercial department in 1891. He came west in the summer of 1891, intending to visit for a short time in Colorado, but he was so pleased with the state that he returned to Iowa and made arrangements to return here permanently.
October 28, 1896, Mr. Hurst married Miss Carrie Whitebead, of Evansville, Ind., with whom he became acquainted while she was visiting in Brighton. Politically he is a Republican, upon which ticket he was elected an alderman and town treasurer of Brighton. While in Iowa he was elected assessor, but did not qualify for the office. Reared in the Methodist faith, he attended that church for some time, but is now identified with the Presbyterian denomination.
YRUS McCONNELL, who is engaged in business as a carriage, sign and ornamental painter, in Denver, was born in Pittsburg, Pa., December 10, 1853, and is the son of James and Rebecca (Stuart) McConnell, natives of Pennsylvania. His maternal grandfather, Robert Stuart, was of Scotch descent and engaged in farming near Pittsburg. James McConnell was employed as a blacksmith in Pittsburg for years, but is now living retired. By his marriage to Miss Stuart, now deceased, he had twelve children, and of these seven are living, our subject being third in order of birth and the only member of the family in Colorado. He was reared in Pittsburg and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to carriage painting, which he learned, as well as sign and ornamental painting. After the expiration of four years of apprenticeship be began to work at his trade in the employ of others, and finally entered the carriage manufacturing business in partnership with Mr. Miller, but sold out on removing to Denver in 1890.
 |
 |
 |
 |
