HON. J. C. EVANS.
Mardos Collection
HON. J. C. EVANS.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. K. P., of Golden. While living in Fort Collins he married Miss Leonore Lawson, who was born in Indianapolis, received an excellent education in the east, and previous to her marriage was engaged as a teacher in the Fort Collins schools. They have had two children, but one died in infancy, and the other, John L., when twelve years of age.
ON. JAMES C. EVANS, member of the state senate from Larimer County and one of the most influential men of Fort Collins, was born in Mount Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, August 22, 1845, and is a descendant of an old Pennsylvania family. His father, Thomas Evans, a native of Berks County, Pa., removed to Ohio and settled about 1835 in Knox County, where he engaged in farming. He was ninety-two years of age at the time of his death in 1892. His wife, Ann, was born in Knox County, whither her father, Robert Cooper, had removed from Pennsylvania. She was married twice, and had five sons by her first husband, and James C. was the only child born to her union with Mr. Evans. One of her sons by her first marriage, George Rogers, entered the Ohio Infantry as a lieutenant during the Civil war and rose to the rank of brevet brigader-general; he died in Ohio. Two brothers of Mrs. Evans have for years been engaged in the manufacture of machinery at Mount Vernon, Ohio, under the firm title of Cooper Brothers
In the grammar and high schools of Mount Vernon the subject of this sketch obtained the rudiments of his education. Afterward he attended the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. While carrying on his college studies, in 1864 he volunteered in Company E, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Ohio Infantry, of which he served as corporal until the expiration of his period of service. On leaving the army he returned to the university, where he remained until his graduation in 1868, with the degree of A. B. After graduating he entered the mercantile business, being thus engaged in Delaware, Ohio and Morrow County, that state
Coming to Colorado in 1879, Mr. Evans settled in Fort Collins. From 1880 to 1891 he was in the meat business with Messrs. Thoman and Vollintine, and also had charge of the boarding house and stores at the stone quarries in Arkins and Stout for a number of years. Since 1891 he has engaged in the grocery business, conducting the well-known College avenue grocery. From the time of his settlement here he has been interested in the sheep business. For two years he engaged in sheep ranching near Bristol, twenty miles north of Fort Collins, and on selling out turned his attention to the grocery and produce business. In 1896-97 he fed five thousand head of lambs, being the heaviest feeder in the country at that time. He owns two hundred and forty acres six miles southeast of Fort Collins, all of which is under irrigation; also owns a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres northwest of the town. Since 1894 his grocery store has been carried on under the firm name of J. C. Evans & Son. They set out fifty acres in cherry trees, planting eleven thousand of the English murella variety, and irrigating the land. On the place they intend building a canning factory. Two men have the oversight of the trees, and it is the intention of the firm to set out ten acres additional in trees. It is probable that this is the largest cherry orchard in the United States
In Ohio, August 15, 1871, Mr. Evans married Augusta Noe, who was born in Morrow County, daughter of R. L. Noe, a farmer and business man of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have a son and daughter. The former, Charles R., his father's partner, is a graduate of the state Agricultural College. The daughter, Grace G., is a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University and the wife of E. L. Shannon, an attorney of Denver
Politically Mr. Evans is a silver Republican. For two years he served as mayor of Fort Collins. In 1894, on the Republican ticket, he was elected state senator by a large majority. He served creditably in the tenth and eleventh general assemblies, sessions of 1895 and 1897. Through his efforts, in 1895, was secured the passage of an appropriation bill of $15,000 for the new state road over Medicine Bow Range through Ute Pass to North Park, a road that has since been completed. During the same year he worked for an appropriation of $10,000 for the state Agricultural College, which was secured, and appropriated for the enlargement of Machinery hail, completed in 1897. He also worked for the appropriation of $5,000 to build the chemical laboratory, which amount was secured and used for
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. the purpose intended. He introduced a bill scaling down the salaries of county offices, in order to reduce them to a level with other labor; this bill passed the senate but was defeated in the house. He was re-elected to the state senate November 8, 1898
In Collins Lodge No. 19, A. F. & A. M., Mr. Evans was made a Mason. In 1898 he attended the convention of the national organization of cattlemen, where he read a paper concerning "Lambs on Alfalfa Feed." He is clear in his thoughts and earnest in their expression, and is considered one of the best speakers in his county.
SA STERLING. Of the stockmen residing in Greeley few are better known than the subject of this article, who has gained noteworthy success through his good management in business affairs. In addition to his large stock interests, he is president of the First National Bank of Greeley, which was established in 1884 and is regarded as one of the substantial and safe monetary institutions of northern Colorado. Its officers are: Mr. Sterling, president; William Mayher, vice-president; A. J. Park, cashier; and U. M. Henderson, assistant cashier. The bank has a paid-up capital of $100,000, with a surplus of $15,000, loans to the amount of $250,000, and about an equal amount in deposits
On a farm in Livingston County, Mo., Mr. Sterling was born April 20, 1842, being a son of Travis and Chloe Sterling. His father was a native of Maryland, his mother of Kentucky. In 1859 he left home and went to St. Joseph, Mo., where he spent the winter with an uncle. In the spring of 1860 he came across the plains with a herd of cattle and arrived in Denver during July of that year, when the gold excitement was at its height. For four years he herded cattle on a ranch near Denver. In 1864 he went with a drove of cattle to Montana, where he remained until 1867. In April of that year he went to Salt Lake, Utah, and remained there until the fall of 1869, engaged in buying and selling cattle for John W. Kerr & Co. In the fall of 1869 he went to Cheyenne, bought some cattle, drove them to Salt Lake, and sold them to Kerr & Co., thus doubling his capital, and again was employed by Kerr & Co, and remained with them until the spring of 1870. He then purchased cattle near old Bent's Fort in Colorado and sold them in Utah. He continued buying and selling cattle and horses and thus laid the foundation of his fortune. His business took him all over the west and into Texas and Mexico, and he spent considerable time in Old Mexico. In 1871 he drove Texas cattle into Weld County, but the winter being unusually severe, half of his herd was lost.
The range on which Mr. Sterling pastures his cattle extends about twenty miles along the Platte River. He is the owner of several ranches, which are leased to tenants, and also has a hay ranch of four hundred and eighty acres in Tennessee Park, near Leadville. He has always been identified with the cattle and horse interests of this western country and is at the present time a large owner of cattle and horses. For about eight months during the year his stock pastures on the range, when the most of them are gathered and feed hay. Mr. Sterling is a Democrat in Politics. In 1875 he was united in marriage with Miss Anna Loustelet, of Denver, and they have a comfortable home in Greeley.
HARLES E. PENNOCK, president and manager of the Pennock Nursery and Seed Company, of Fort Collins, is a member of a pioneer family of Massachusetts, some of whose representatives drifted to Vermont. His grandfather, who was the son of a Revolutionary soldier, himself rendered active service in the second war with England. The father, Oliver P. Pennock, was born in Vermont, whence he removed to Livingston County, N. Y., and engaged in farming. In 1861, when fifty years of age, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fourth New York Infantry, in which he remained until his death, two years later. His wife, Caroline, who was born in Haverhill, N. H., died in New York in 1854. She was a daughter of Benjamin Rowell, a farmer and a soldier in the war of 1812, who in early days removed from New Hampshire to Livingston County, N. Y
Of the nine children of Oliver P. and Caroline Pennock, five are now living. John R. lives in Livingston County, N. Y.; Mary B., Mrs. Horatio M. Foster, came to Colorado in 1860 and resides at Parker; Ellen M., Mrs. Edward Q. Peck, lives in Colorado Springs; Elizabeth J.,
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Mrs. J, M. Tallman, lives in Elizabeth, this state. Of those deceased, William M. was a member of the Wadsworth Guard (One Hundred and Fourth New York Infantry), and was killed in the battle of Gettysburg; George P. died in Fort Collins in 1888; Alice died at seven years; and one died unnamed in infancy
The subject of this sketch was born on a farm in Livingston County, N. Y., May 5, 1850.
When he was a boy his father and brothers (except John) enlisted in the Federal army, and he followed their example by enlisting in the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery as a drummer boy, but he was not accepted. Six months later, at the time of muster, he was rejected as too young. In 1864 he again enlisted, this time in the Fifty-eighth New York National Guard, and was mustered in for one hundred days. He served for four months, guarding rebel prisons, and was mustered out at Elmira, N. Y. Early in 1865 he enlisted in the Forty-fourth New York Infantry, and was mustered in and stationed in New York on Hart's Island. At the close of the war he was honorably discharged. In April of the next year he came to Colorado, starting from Omaha with a mule team and joining a train on the Platte. The Indians drove the mules off, and he then hired to an ox-team train, which reached Denver in June. For ten years he engaged in freighting, his route extending west to Salt Lake City and Nevada and north to Cheyenne. His brother, Frank, preceded him two years to Colorado, having come in 1864. He was noted as an Indian fighter, and was a man of great bravery. In 1876 our subject began prospecting in the mountains, going into North Park when there was not a person within its bounds. Next he engaged in making ties, which he floated down the Cache la Poudre, at the time the railroad was building from Fort Collins to Stout. Later he was superintendent in charge of the building of the High Line ditch around Bingham Hill, having the oversight of the construction of two tunnels, two hundred feet and one hundred and fifty feet long, respectively. His next work was the building of the railroad for the Union Pacific through the Poudre canon, which work took fourteen months, his special charge being the construction of the Big Narrows road, twenty miles above.
In 1881 Mr. Pennock retired from railroading and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres in Pleasant Valley. Nothing was to be seen on the land but prairie dogs. The surroundings were desolate and the prospects unattractive. However, with a firm faith in the future, he began to cultivate the land. He put in lateral ditches, drowned out the prairie dogs, began planting apple, pear and peach trees, and made a specialty of the nursery business. He now has thirteen acres in orchards of pears, apples, peaches and cherries, and all kinds of small fruits. In 1897 he started a nursery at Fort Collins, incorporating the Pennock Nursery and Seed Company, which owns seventeen acres adjoining Fort Collins on the west and has leased six acres in the eastern part of the city. Here are propagated thousands of trees of all kinds, which are sold not only in this state and in all the states of the union, but in Germany and England also. A number of new fruits have been originated and propagated, one of which is the Rocky Mountain cherry, now sold all over the country. The office of the company is in Fort Collins, Mr. Pennock's home farm in Pleasant Valley, one mile south of Bellvue, being used for an experimental station in originating and testing fruits. Not only is his the finest variety of fruits in the state, but it is also probably the largest. The homestead is known as "Apple Grove Fruit Farm."
In Pleasant Valley Mr. Pennock married Miss Lydia C. Flowers, who was born near Bull Run, Va. Her father, Jacob Flowers, was born in Pennsylvania and was captain on the river in early life. About 1868 he removed to Kansas City, and in the spring of 1873 came from there to Colorado, settling in Pleasant Valley, where he has since resided, engaging in farming and the lumber business. His wife, Elizabeth Meeks, was born in West Virginia and died in Colorado. They had six children, namely: T. Wesley, of Bellevue, Idaho; S. W., who is in the stock business in British Columbia; Lydia C., Mrs. C. E. Pennock; Sarah, Mrs. J. P. Beach, of Fort Collins; Benjamin Franklin; and Cora, wife of William Tilton, a merchant of Bellevue. Mr. and Mrs. Pennock have four children living: Arthur, Mary Alice, Charles Ridridge and George Maurice
Besides his other property Mr. Pennock owns a ranch in the mountains six miles west of his
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. homestead. This property, of one hundred and sixty acres, he has fenced and improved, making of it both a fruit and stock farm. He was one of the founders of the Larimer County Horticultural Society, of which he is president. Frequently he has written articles upon horticultural topics for the Field and Farm, by which others receive the benefit of his successful experience. Politically he votes the Democratic ticket, and in religion he is of the Universalist faith. He is connected with George H. Thomas Post No. 7, G. A. R. Fraternally he holds membership with Larimer County Lodge, K. of P., in Fort Collins. On the formation of District No. 50 he became a school director, and for many years was secretary of the board, but resigned some years ago. In many respects his success is remarkable, for he began without capital and under disadvantageous circumstances; but in spite of hardships and obstacles he has won success, and is among the most prominent and influential men of his county in his line of business.
A son of Cyrus and Marian Oviatt, residents of Ohio, Mr. Oviatt was born in Richfield, a thriving village of the Buckeye state in August, 1853. He was reared to manhood and acquired his education in Ohio. His health not of the best, he decided to travel in the west to some extent before settling down to business, and about one year was passed by him in California. Returning then as far as Colorado he led an outdoor life for a few years, carrying on a farm at Highland Lake, Weld County, with success. Soon after Longmont was founded he located here and opened a meat market. In this new line of enterprise he also met with gratifying results, financially, at the same time gaining the good will and respect of all our business men and citizens.
Albert C. Oviatt was active in the ranks of the Democratic party. He served as deputy sheriff under Sheriff Jester, and also as constable. In 1894 he was appointed postmaster of Longmont by President Cleveland. He continued to fill the office to the entire satisfaction of everyone from that time until his death, which sad event occurred July 9, 1896. He was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
The first wife of Albert C. Oviatt was Miss Allie Comstock in her girlhood. She departed this life in Colorado, leaving two children, now grown to be young ladies. The elder, Nellie Marian, is a graduate of the Presbyterian College, of Longmont, and is now an assistant in the postoffice. Lida Miller, who graduated from the Longmont high school, is a successful teacher, now located in the town of Hygiene, Boulder County. In 1891 Mr. Oviatt married Miss Lillian Terry, daughter of Edwin and Jane (Lewis) Terry. Her father was born in Connecticut and died in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he had been engaged in building and contracting for several years. He was seventy-one years old at the time of his demise. The mother was born in Ireland, but cane to the United States in infancy. She lived in New York City and there met and married Mr. Terry. She also died in Kalamazoo, Mich. Mrs. Lillian Oviatt is a native of Kalamazoo, and in 1890 came to Colorado. Her marriage with Mr. Oviatt was solemnized in Longmont, and here their happy life together was passed. Three beautiful little daughters came to brighten their home, namely: Helen Marie; Hazel Marguerite and Inez Alberta.
In the fail of 1896 Mrs. Oviatt was appointed postmistress of Longmont, to succeed her husband. So well was she esteemed by our citizens and so strongly recommended for continuance in the office that President McKinley, of the opposite party, retained her and gave her a reappointment. Very few women in Colorado were better fitted for such a responsible position or have given greater satisfaction. She in turn was succeeded by O. W. Richardson. Mrs. Oviatt is a member of the Ladies of the Tent of the Maccabees, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church and of the aid society connected therewith.
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