MARTIN L. LANDES. |
MRS. MARTIN L. LANDES |
Mardos Collection
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MARTIN L. LANDES. |
MRS. MARTIN L. LANDES |
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 369
Rivers Union School, from which he graduated. He is a well-educated man, with a broad knowledge of history, mediaeval and modern, and with a desire to aid in the development of his town and county by the support of educational and philanthropic institutions.
ARTIN LUTHER LANDES, of LaPorte, Larimer County, is a man of prominence, and is known throughout the county as a progressive farmer, one who brought skill to the aid of the agricultural art. He was born in Circleville, Pickaway County, Ohio, March 3, 1844. His father, Joseph Landes, was of German stock and was born in Bucks County, Pa., but went to Ohio when young; there he married Miss Eve Weaver, also a native of Pennsylvania, but a resident of Circleville, Ohio, from her fourth year, when that city was nothing but a fort. Her father was a farmer. Joseph Landes was a hatter by trade and manufactured hats in Circleville for several years, but afterwards started a bakery and in 1851 located in Lucas County, Iowa, near Chariton, and there engaged in farming. He died in 1864, during the war; his wife reached her seventieth year. Four sons are still living: Henry, a resident of Keokuk, Iowa; John, of Battle Creek, Mich.; Joseph, of Chariton, Iowa; and Martin Luther, of LaPorte, Colo.
When a child of seven Mr. Landes went with his parents to Iowa, traveling by boat down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to Chariton, where he attended the public schools. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company F, Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry, and was mustered in at Keokuk. He was in the engagements at Helena, Ark., July 4, 1863, the taking of Little Rock, in October, 1863, and the battle of Little Missouri, in April, 1864. The same month they were sent to re-inforce Banks, and at Marks Mills the entire brigade, except six or eight men, were captured, and sent to Tyler, Tex., where they were kept in the stockade ten months and then exchanged. Mr. Landes, with several others, escaped capture in the rush through the closing lines. He went to Pine Bluff, Ark., thence to Little Rock, where he remained a year and did city provost duty until the close of the war. After his regiment was exchanged he joined them at Duvall's Bluff and was mustered out in October, 1865. He then returned to Iowa and engaged in farming until 1873, when he moved to Colorado and engaged in farming in the vicinity of LaPorte for three years. Going back to Iowa he bought a farm near Red Oak, Montgomery County, that state. In 1882 he sold this and bought a ranch of four hundred acres in Livermore, where he raised stock and hay until his wife's failing health necessitated a change, and he moved farther down the valley. In 1893 he went to California and spent a year. In the fall of the following year he returned to Colorado and bought his present farm of eighty acres, three and one-half miles from Fort Collins. Here he raises grain and hay and is an extensive cattle feeder.
Mr. Landes married Miss Frances J. Riddle, a native of Iowa, born in Marion County, that state. She was a daughter of John Riddle, who moved to Colorado in 1870. They have one child living, Pierce J. Landes, aged fourteen, now a student in the LaPorte public school. Their eldest child, Frances Eve, born in 1870, died at the age of one year. The home farm is a model of comfort. It is irrigated by a private ditch, and ornamented with a grove, while the house and other improvements leave little to wish for. Mrs. Landes is a lady of pleasing manners, and is a power for good in the community. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, always ready to reach out a helping hand to a needy brother, and consequently very popular in the community. Mr. Landes was a member of the school board for nine years at Livermore, acting as president and treasurer a part of the time. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was demitted by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In politics he stands a stalwart Republican, and in the last election Mrs. Landes voted for William McKinley, although she is somewhat independent in politics.
DWARD MONASH. Among the well-known establishments of Denver is The Fair, of which Mr. Monash is proprietor, and which has the distinction of being the original department store in the city. Through his energy and excellent judgment a profitable local business has been built up and a mail-order trade that extends throughout the entire state. A
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370
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. visitor to the city finds the store upon one of the best corners in the business center of town; within are floor walkers and clerks, who are studious of the customers' desires and attentive to every want. A large trade, both wholesale and retail, is carried on in the articles usually found in a department store, and the business is among the most substantial in the city.
Mr. Monash is a German by nativity, having been born in the province of Posen, where his ancestors had long resided and where his father, Marcus, was a lithographer. Edward, who was next to the youngest among four children, received his education and afterward served an apprenticeship in a mercantile establishment in the province of Silesia. When sixteen years of age, in 1865, he came to America and settled in St. Lotus, where he secured employment as a clerk. In 1868 he moved to Leota Landing, in Mississippi, and there started in the mercantile business for himself, later also carried on a cotton plantation. Selling out in 1880, he married in Peoria, Ill., Miss Jennie Schradzki, whose father, Joseph, was a pioneer merchant of that city. On his bridal tour he visited his-old home in Posen, and traveled through England, Ireland, France, Austria and Switzerland.
Returning to the United States in 1881, Mr. Monash settled in Denver and for one year had a mercantile store on Larimer, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets. Afterward for five years he was in the Union building on Sixteenth street, where he inaugurated the department system, starting the first store of that kind in Denver. The name of The Fair was given to the store in 1882. Since 1887 he has been located on Sixteenth and Champa streets, where he occupies a large ground space and four floors. For years he has been a member of the chamber of commerce and board of trade, of which in 1890-92 he was a director, then was chosen first vice-president; in 1897 he was again elected a member of the board of directors and the same year became president of the board. His service of one year was most satisfactory in every respect, but at the expiration of the term he refused re-election, as the duties of the position took his time too much from business. June 1, 1895, under appointment by Governor Mclntire, he became president of the board of public works, and served in that capacity until June 1, 1897. He also served two years as park commissioner, having been appointed to the position by Mayor Van Horn in 1893. While president of the chamber of commerce, the convention of January, 1898, was originated in that body, who invited the Colorado Cattle Growers' Association to meet in Denver, and out of that convention grew the national association, Mr. Monash appointing the committee that presented it for adoption. He also appointed the committee that went to Philadelphia and urged, successfully, the American Medical Association to meet in Denver in June, 1898. Since the starting of the festival of the mountain and plain, he has been a member of the board of directors and for two years was chairman of the third day, and is now first vice-president, also chairman of the finance committee of the association and a member of numerous committees. He has never identified himself with politics, his interest in the progress of Denver having been solely that of a public-spirited citizen. However, he is well informed regarding the issues before the people of this age. He favors protection of home industries and the placing of silver upon a proper basis, by which two things he believes the advancement of the city and state and the welfare of the citizens can be most fully conserved.
OSEPH EDWARD PAINTER. Faithfulness to duty and strict adherence to a fixed purpose in life will do more to advance a man's interests than wealth or adventitious circumstances. The successful men of the day are those who have planned their own advancement and have accomplished it in spite of many obstacles and with a certainty that could have been attained only through their own efforts. This class of men has a worthy representative in Mr. Painter, the present efficient chairman of the board of county commissioners of Weld County, who began life amid rather unfavorable circumstances. Although yet a young man he has left the impress of his individuality on the policy of the county, and is regarded as one of its most prominent and influential citizens.
Mr. Painter was born in Stafford, England, January 6, 1862, and was educated at King Edward VI grammar school of that place. At the age of fifteen he entered the cashier's office of
371
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Barbour Brothers' cotton and silk establishment at Manchester, and later was employed in the government postal service, with which he was connected until coming to America at the age of nineteen. He and his brother arrived in New York City October 1, 1881, and he came direct to Denver, Colo., reaching there on the 4th of the same month. He found employment in the large grocery of Briks Cornforth on Fifteenth street, where he remained until the following May. He then went by wagon on a prospecting tour through the southern part of the state. In July he went to the Blue Range to do some work on property for Denver parties, but soon returned to the Atlantic district, where he remained until fall. He looked for a location for a cattle ranch on the Muddy and Troublesome Rivers, but failed to find a suitable one. After spending the winter at Rico, he returned to Denver, but almost immediately went to Idaho Springs, where he did some contract work for Brick Pomeroy on the Idalia tunnel, remaining there all winter. He was told that he did more than any one else for the same money. He next went to Middle Park on a gold hunting trip, and then over the range, locating mines in the Atlantic district. He and his brother visited several places and decided to embark in the cattle business on what was then known as Blair, now Roggen, Weld County, where they took up government land and also leased some from the state. This they improved, and started in business with two hundred head of stock, which they increased to six hundred, and also raised on shares hundreds for other parties. During this time, however, our subject returned to Denver, where he engaged in the wholesale coal, grain and feed business with success, but ill health finally compelled him to abandon that business, and early in the year of 1893 he again came to Weld County and embarked in farming, in which he has also been successful, although the hail in 1898 destroyed his crops and killed some of his hogs and fruit trees. He owns a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres under an excellent state of cultivation, and his cattle graze on six hundred and forty acres adjoining. He expects in the future to give more attention to cattle raising.
On the 13th of March, 1889, Mr. Painter married Miss Florence Mary, daughter of Thomas Musgrave, of Pittsburg, Pa., and to them have been born two children, Alice Musgrave and Joseph Edward. They attend the Episcopal Church and are widely and favorably known. Taking a deep interest in educational affairs, Mr. Painter organized School District No. 88, at Roggen and served as trustee there until his removal to Denver, and was also postmaster. In the fall of 1895 he was elected county commissioner on the Republican ticket and when the board assembled was chosen chairman. He always attends the state conventions of his party, and takes a prominent part in political affairs. He is a good financier and excellent business man, and is therefore well qualified for his present responsible positions, the duties of which he is most ably discharging, paying particular attention the preservation of county roads.
HOMAS H. ROBERTSON, of Fort Collins, was born in Culpeper County, Va., April 20, 1856. His father, William A., also a native of Culpeper County, born May 28, 1820, was a son of William Robertson, a planter, and became the owner of Clairmont, a fine farm, where he has resided for many years. During the late war he was a member of the Virginia cavalry. His wife, Sarah T., was born September 74, 1814, in Orange County, Va., where her father, John Farish, was long a resident. She died July 29, 1897. Of her seven children all but one are living. William R., a farmer, resides in Culpeper, Va.; James F. is a druggist in Charlotte, N. C.; Katherine, wife of Edmund P. Nalle, lives in Washington, D. C.; Alexander F. is an attorney in Staunton, Va.; and Benjamin T. is a physician at Sulphur Springs, Tex.
The education of our subject was obtained in private schools. In 1873 he embarked in the drygoods business in Culpeper, and continued in that way until 1878, when he became connected with a wholesale dry-goods house in Baltimore, Md. In 1879 he went to Chicago, Ill., where he was employed in a wholesale hat and fur house. January, 1882, found him in Colorado, and here he has since resided. He started the firm of T. H. Robertson & Co., on Jefferson street, Fort Collins, where he began with a stock of boots and shoes, an later added a stock of clothing and furnishing goods. In 1885 he sold out and settled on a ranch eight miles northwest of the
372
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. town, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres and remained for two years. Returning to Fort Collins in 1887, he embarked in business on Linden street, where he carried a full line of shoes, clothing and furnishing goods. July 1, 1896, he sold out his business, since which time he has given his attention principally to feeding and selling cattle.
The marriage of Mr. Robertson took place in Fort Collins June 14, 1888, and united him with Miss Lelia, daughter of Abner Loomis. She was born in Larimer County October 6, 1865, and here her entire life, thus far, has been passed. She is a graduate of the State Agricultural College. The family home is situated on Mountain avenue and is brightened by two children, Scott Loomis, born August 8, 1891, and Helen Farish, born January 31, 1897. In addition to this property Mr. Robertson owns other valuable real estate. Politically he is a Democrat, and is chairman of the Democratic county central committee. For a time he served as councilman. He is one of the directors in the Poudre Valley Bank and has other connections with local enterprises. Fraternally a Mason, he belongs to Collins Lodge No. 19, A. F. & A. M., Collins Chapter No. 11, R. A. M., and DeMolay Commandery No. 13, K. T., besides which he is identified with the Woodmen of the World.
At the age of about ten our subject went into the mines with his father, under whom he learned to mine coal and became familiar with the other departments of the work. He was with his father when the latter was fatally injured in the mine. After his father's death he remained a workman in the mine for some time, but believing that America offered better opportunities he resolved to come hither, and in 1882, with his brother, arrived in Colorado, where he secured work at Coal Creek with the Colorado Coal and Iron Company. In 1885 he resigned his position there and went to Leadville, where he engaged in metalliferons mining in Iowa Gulch, but in the fall of the same year went back to Coal Creek. In 1887 he entered the University of Denver, where he studied bookkeeping and other studies connected with the commercial course. Afterward he worked in the Blossburg mines a short time, but in the fall of 1888 took up the study of mathematics in the University of Denver. In the spring of 1889 he went to Idaho Springs, where he worked in the Salisbury mines.
Taking a vacation from his work, after almost ten years in America, in the fall of 1891 Mr. Jones returned to his native land on a visit, going from New York by steamer to Liverpool and thence to Swansea. He spent three months in the old home shire, and in February, 1892, returned to the United States, encountering much unpleasant weather between Liverpool and New York. On going home his brother was with him, but he returned to this country alone. For some months he was employed in the Maid of Erin mine at Leadville, but an attack of grippe left him in delicate health and he was obliged to seek a lower altitude. He then went to Canon City. In 1893 he engaged with the Santa Fe Company at Rockville, and remained in their employ until February 18, 1895, when he was appointed assistant state inspector of coal mines by David Griffith. In 1894 he began a course with the International Correspondence School of Scranton, from which he received a diploma September 8, 1897, having a standing of over ninety-nine per cent. Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows at Idaho Springs. He is not a member of
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