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term was its chairman. He is a director in the Deliver National Bank. He has a comfortable home in Denver, presided over by his wife, who was Miss Emily Ehorst, a native of Hanover. They are the parents of six children, namely: Charles, who is foreman of the shipping department of the packing house; Harry, who is employed on the delivery force; Mina; Paul and Otto, twins; and Margaret.
The business interests of Colorado are indebted to such men as Mr. Gebhard for developing the resources of the country and giving employment to many hands and thus sending happiness to many homes. He worked his way to success by the use of good business methods, and built up an enviable reputation among the business men of the state, who prize his friendship and acknowledge him as a leader among men.
EORGE RICHARD WILLIAMSON is one of the pioneers of Colorado, as he arrived here in December, 1858, and in the following spring assisted in laying out the town of Boulder, and built one of the first houses in the place, it being made of logs. For the past forty years he has been actively interested in farming and mining operations and has done all within his power to advance the material welfare of this locality. He constructed the wagon road between Boulder and Rawlins, along Bear Canon; was one of the organizers of the Boulder National Bank, and since the expiration of its second year has been the president and chief stockholder. He was one of the early members of the Boulder Electric Light Company, and has been a director and treasurer of the same; and is financially interested in the Boulder Elevator and Milling Company.
The birth of G. R. Williamson occurred near Mercer, Mercer County, Pa., July 14, 1824. His parents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Fruit) Williamson, were natives of the same county, Mercer. The father was a soldier of the war of 1812, enlisting when but eighteen years of age, and was in the lake region service. His three brothers were also participants in the war, and one of them, Samuel, rose to the rank of colonel. Thomas Williamson was occupied in farming in his native county until he was well along in years. His death took place when he had reached his seventy-first year. His wife, who was a daughter of Richard Fruit, died at the age of fifty years. Her mother was related to Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania. The marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth Williamson was blessed with eight children, four of whom survive. Samuel, a brother of our subject, died in Colorado.
An ancestor of our subject, Thomas Williamson, was created a baronet June 3, 1642, by Charles I. of England. The family coat-of-arms is a shield or a chevron gules, between three trefoils, stipped sable. The crest: issuing from a mural crown, gules a drui-wyvern, and the motto is "Et patribus et posterilate." ("Both for forefathers and for posterity.") The great-grandfather of our subject was a native of Scotland. He married Mollie Cochran, and emigrated to the United States, settling in eastern Pennsylvania. His forefather's history and lineage can be traced back as far as 1381. Grandfather George Williamson was born in Pennsylvania and with his six brothers fought in the war of the Revolution. Subsequently he went to the neighborhood of Lexington, Ky., where he located on a land claim, but the Indians were so troublesome that he returned to his native state, and in 1798 engaged in farming in Mercer County, where he continued to dwell until his death, at the age of fourscore years.
Reared on a farm and educated in the district schools, such was the history of George R. Williamson prior to his eighteenth year, when he obtained a teacher's certificate and had charge of a school for a term or more. He went to Wisconsin and spent the winter of 1852-53, and in the following year crossed the state of Iowa with a team, and settling in Nebraska, engaged in farming in Dakota County. He was the first sheriff of that county, in which region he remained until the Pike's Peak excitement led him to start for Colorado. He joined a wagon train fitted out in Sioux City, and journeyed up the Platte as far as Julesburg, thence to the present site of Cheyenne, and southward to Boulder, the trip taking about two months. Stopping in the hamlet of Big Thompson, they put up some shanties and in the January following went to Boulder. Mr. Williamson engaged in gulch-mining at South Boulder, Spring Gulch, California Gulch, etc., for some time, having John Rothrick for his partner. In the fall of 1860 our subject returned to this town and has
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. since been interested in several mines which he opened, known as the Yellow Pine Group. He personally superintends the mines, and made the locations under the new law of fifteen hundred feet to the claim. He also is concerned in the extension of the Utica mine east (the Oklahoma), near Ward, and in other mining property of value. He has made a study of mineralogy and is thoroughly posted upon everything pertaining to ores and mining. His fine farm of three hundred acres is well improved, and lies about a mile and a-half east of Boulder. A well-built brick block, called in his honor, was erected by him in this place, as well as other structures. For years he made his home near Sugar Loaf, in this county, in order to be in the vicinity of his mines, but for about nine years he has been a resident of Boulder. Until recently, and from its organization, he was a member of the Association of Colorado Pioneers, and he still belongs to the Boulder County Pioneer Society.
May 13, 1875, Mr. Williamson married in Denver Mrs. Erie (Kuester) Graves, daughter of James M. Kuester, who was a noted editor and journalist. He was one of the first editors of the Pittsburg Dispatch; later published the Mercer Dispatch; the Erie Observer; the Lawrence Journal, of Newcatle (sic). He came to Denver in 1875, and died at the age of seventy-two years. His father, Mordecai, was a native of Germany, and after his settlement in the Keystone state, married a Quaker maiden, and lived in Philadelphia. The mother of Mrs. Williamson was Catherine, daughter of Daniel Deutler and wife, who was a Miss Gottschalk, a descendant of a Revolutionary war hero. Mrs. Williamson was born near Erie, Pa.; was educated in the high school and seminary of Newcastle, and upon reaching maturity married Daniel Graves, a farmer, who died in 1876, in Pennsylvania. Some time afterward she came west, and lived in Denver until her marriage to Mr. Williamson. Her only sister, Mary E., is Mrs. M. Bliss, of Denver, and her only brother, Gilbert, died in Pittsburg. She is president of the Ladies' Union of the Boulder Congregational Church.
In early life Mr. Williamson was a Whig in politics, and cast his first vote for Henry Clay. After the dissolution of the Whig party, he became somewhat independent in politics, voting for what he considered to be the best interests of the people and the country. In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Grant one of the county commissioners of Boulder County and served about one year. He was one of the prime factors in the organization of the silver party in the state, and has ever since been a strong advocate of the same, believing that the principles and policy of that party would best insure the development of the state and country. He was one of the men who determined to make the ratio sixteen to one in the platform of the party.
For many years Mr. Williamson has been recognized as one of the most intelligent and able men of Boulder County and this portion of Colorado. He is one of those who, in the pioneer era, laid the foundation, broad and deep, which has enabled the state to move forward in its splendid development. As one of the pioneers and as a citizen possessing sterling qualities of manhood, he will long be remembered. He is now the oldest bank president living in the county.
ROF. L. G. CARPENTER, professor of civil and irrigation engineering in the State Agricultural College at Fort Collins, was born near Orion, Oakland County, Mich,, and is a descendant of a family that came from England to Massachusetts, thence spreading out, through .different branches, into Connecticut, Rhode Island and Long Island. The first of the name in this country came in 1636 to Plymouth and one of the family became the wife of Governor Bradford. Daniel P. Carpenter, the professor's grandfather, was born in Queens County, N. Y., and became a pioneer of New York, one of his daughters being the first white child born at Hornellsville, that state. In 1836 he took his family to Michigan and settled near Orion, where he engaged in farming until his death. He was succeeded in the ownership of the homestead by his son, C. K., a native of Steuben County, N. Y., but during most of his life a resident of Michigan, where he was a very prominent man. In many enterprises he took an active part, all of them of a responsible nature. He was instrumental in the organization of the Farmers' (or Monitor) Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he remained president until his death and which became remarkably successful. Prior to the Civil war he was a Democrat, and was elected to the state
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legislature on his party's ticket. During the war he was a stanch Union man, and called the first Union mass meeting in Oakland County, irrespective of party lines. Largely through his efforts was built the Detroit and Bay City Railroad, the right of way for which he secured, as well as raising a large part of the money required. He was vice-president and a director of the road until his death. In the Grange he served as a state officer. A stanch friend of the Prohibition movement, and by principle a total abstainer, he finally identified himself with the Prohibition party, and upon that ticket was nominated for governor of Michigan. At one time he was also the Greenback nominee for governor, but refused to accept the nomination, having never acted with that party. He died in 1884, at the age of fifty-eight years.
The mother of Professor Carpenter was born in Livingston County, N. Y., and was Jennette, daughter of George Coryell, a native of New York, but from 1843 a farmer in Lapeer County, Mich. The Coryells are of French-Huguenot extraction, and he inherited the courage and determination of character so noticeable in people of that descent. In early days he went to New Orleans on a flatboat and from that city crossed the country into Texas, where a brother-in-law was surveyor-general. He remained for two years and one of the counties of the state was named in his honor. Mrs. Carpenter is still living in Orion. Of her eight children all but two are living. Prof. R, C., the eldest of the six, is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Agricultural College, and is now professor of experimental engineering at Cornell. Judge W. L., the second son, is an attorney of Detroit and a jurist of Wayne County, Mich. Blanche is the wife of C. H. Seeley, of Aberdeen, S. Dak.; Mary L. is the wife of N. S. Mayo, a professor in the Agricultural College of Connecticut; and Jennette, a member of the class of '98, Agricultural College of Michigan.
In Orion, where he was born March 28, 1861, the subject of this sketch gained the rudiments of his education. From 1876 to 1879 he attended the Michigan Agricultural College, from which he graduated with the degree of B. S. Afterward he engaged in teaching French in the college. In 1881 he was made assistant professor of mathematics and engineering, which he held until resigning to accept his present position. He was practically the organizer of the department of irrigation engineering in the Agricultural College of Colorado, the former professor having resigned the position six weeks after he opened the department. He spent the winters of 1881-82 and 1883-84 in graduate work in the University of Michigan, making a specialty of mathematics and physics. In the winters of 1885-86 and 1887-88 he engaged in post-graduate work in Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, where he had all the privileges of a Fellow and made a specialty of mathematics, physics and astronomy. In June, 1888, he accepted the position with the Colorado State Agricultural College, and in September took up the professorship, beginning experimental work in one room, then branching out to the main building. In 1893 he took possession of the engineering building, which had been remodeled for this department, with a main class room upstairs, an office and drafting room on the first floor, and a laboratory in the basement. At first he had but four classes, now he has nearly thirty, some of them in two and three divisions. An engineering course, which is complete, has been introduced. He also has charge of the meteorology and irrigation engineering section of the United States Agricultural Experiment station, the line of experiments stretching out over a large part of the state. A number of years ago he was appointed an United States artesian well investigator, having charge of Colorado and New Mexico.
In Jackson, Mich,, Professor Carpenter married Miss Mary J. Merrill, who was born in Canada and was reared in Michigan, graduating from the Michigan Agricultural College in 1881 with the degree of B. S., and later receiving the degree of M. S. They have two children, Charles Louis and Jennette.
Some years ago Professor Carpenter was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he is a member. He is also a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and attended the meeting of the society at Montreal in 1884. He was one of the incorporators of the Michigan Engineering Society and is an active member of the Denver Engineering Society, of which he has served as vice-president. In 1891 he assisted in the organization, at Salt Lake City,
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. of the American Society of Irrigation Engineers, of which he held the office of president for two years and which has members from many of the countries of the world. He takes an active interest in the work of the American Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, and serves as a member of its board of directors. In 1893 the French government conferred on him the order, Chevalier du Merite Agricole, in recognition of important services rendered in the department of agriculture. He is probably the only American on whom this honor has been bestowed.
In 1892 he visited Europe, and spent some time in investigating the irrigation methods and enterprises of France, Italy and Algeria. The work of this department has been generally recognized by the different countries in their leading papers, viz.: Germany, France, Russia, India, Australia and England, also throughout the United States. This recognition of his work is naturally quite gratifying to him. It is solely due to his personal efforts that his department is foremost among all in the entire country, while he has without doubt the best and most complete library on irrigation in existence. He is frequently called upon to deliver lectures along the line of his specialties. In 1898 he gave the state address for the League of American Wheelmen at Rocky Mountain Chautauqua, Glen Park. In 1884 he received the degree of M. S. from his alma mater. In religion he is connected with the Presbyterian Church.
LFRED A. FALKENBURG, head consul Pacific jurisdiction of Woodmen of the World, was born in southern Indiana, January 31, 1857, and is a son of Rev. S. B. and A. Jane (Gardiner) Falkenburg, the father a minister in the Methodist Episcopal denomination. Fred A. (he is known by this name) was educated primarily in the public schools of Indiana, and afterward entered the preparatory department of Moore's Hill College, where he remained a student for six years. At the end of the junior year he entered Bryant & Stratton's Business College in Indianapolis, where he took a business and law course. He engaged in law practice in Indiana from 1876 to 1881. In the latter year he became auditor for the Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad, then in process of construction, also auditor for the construction company in charge of the building of the road.
The next position secured by Mr. Falkenburg was with the Royal Fire Insurance Company of Chicago, where he had charge of sub-agency accounts for thirteen northwestern states. Afterward he became secretary and treasurer of a large publishing firm in Chicago, and later, going to Lincoln, Neb., he entered the wholesale book and stationery business. It was while in that city he became interested in Woodcraft, and there he held the position of presiding officer of the local camp, Modern Woodmen of America. In May, 1889, he moved to Colorado, at which time William Jennings Bryant succeeded him in the position of presiding officer at Lincoln. June 6, 1890, with Joseph Cullen Root, he organized the Woodmen of the World, which had a membership, May 1, 1898, of one hundred and twenty-eight thousand, and has paid over $3,000,000 in benefits to widows and orphans. At the convention where the Woodmen of the World was organized he served as secretary and now holds benefit certificate No. 1, in that order. At this writing he is sovereign adviser of the eastern jurisdiction and head consul, or chief executive, of the Pacific jurisdiction, in which are thirty-five thousand members and in which $1,000,000 has been paid to beneficiaries.
Outside of his executive duties and the management of a correspondence that averages three thousand letters per month, Mr. Falkenburg has been engaged considerably in platform work, and during the past year (1897) delivered two hundred and forty-seven addresses, traveling over thirty thousand miles. He is serving his fourth biennial term as head consul in the Woodmen of the World. Three times he has been selected as a representative of the order to the National Fraternal Congress. On the breaking out of the war with Spain in 1898 he was the first supreme officer of any fraternal order who officially requested all of the local organizations to keep all soldier Woodmen in good standing during their term of service under the stars and stripes; also to provide a large hospital fund for wounded and sick members of the order. His request was unanimously adopted by the camps of the nine states under his supervision.
The marriage of Mr. Falkenburg took place in Indianapolis in 1879 and united him with Miss
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