Portrait & Biographical Record

Mardos Collection

CHRISTIAN MANHART.

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
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enemies, He possesses the temperament of a leader, the magnetism to attract and hold a following, the audacity to lead a forlorn hope if necessary, and the elan to win victory in the face of defeat."

HRISTIAN MANHART is the owner of Keystone ranch, comprising eighteen hundred acres, located six miles from Sedalia, Douglas County. He was born near Catawissa, Columbia County, Pa., April 30, 1835, a son of Philip and Sarah Manhart, natives of Alsace, Germany. A few years after their marriage his parents emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia, where the father followed the wheel-wright's trade; later, however, he removed to a farm near Catawissa, in Columbia County, where the remainder of his life was passed in agricultural pursuits. He died there in 1861 and his wife passed away seven years later. Of their seven children three were born in Germany, one on the ocean, and three in the United States. Five attained year of maturity and four are still living, Christian being the youngest. Philip, who is the oldest, is still living in Columbia County, Pa.; Frederick, a retired business man, resides in Knoxville, Iowa; and John Michael makes his home at Roaring Creek, Montour County, Pa.

     In boyhood our subject was given fair schooling advantages. At the age of sixteen he began to learn the carpenter's trade with his oldest brother at Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pa., and at the close of two years of apprenticeship he began to get journeyman's wages. When only nineteen, April 23, 1854, he married Miss Sarah Barney, who was born in Plymouth, Luzerne County Pa., a daughter of Henry and Susan (Keller) Barney. November 6, 1856, Mr. and Mrs. Manhart started for Iowa and arriving in Marion County, settled in Marysville, where he commenced to work at his trade. In the spring of 1860 he drove through to Colorado with an ox-team, in company with a party of emigrants, spending forty-five days on the road. In Park County he engaged in various pursuits, mining, prospecting, working at his trade, and during one season carrying mail once a week from Buckskin to Montgomery, Park County. He came to his present place in 1866 and bought a claim of one hundred and twenty acres, to which he added, by preemption and homesteading, as well as purchase, until he acquired his present acreage. The log cabin in which he first made his home is still standing. Since 1883 he has made his home in a substantial frame residence. At one time he had two hundred head of cattle, but since the range has become limited, he has reduced the number to one hundred and fifty.

      In the fall of 1868 the neighborhood in which Mr. Manhart lived was disturbed by the Indians. In the afternoon word was received that the Indians were coming. At nightfall Mr. Manhart loaded his wife and children into a wagon and drove to Denver, where they remained during the winter, Mr. Manhart and his hired help staying on the ranch. They lost considerable in the line of clothing, provisions and stock, on account of the Indians, and were obliged to guard their possessions and do their work with arms always within reach.

     Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Manhart we note the following: George W., who was born at Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pa., is engaged in the mercantile business at Sedalia, his sketch appearing elsewhere; John F., who was born in Marysville, Marion County, Iowa, died in Colorado March 6, 1885, his death being the result of having been accidentally thrown from a horse; Alice Susan, who was born in Park County, Colo., married Arthur H. White, and lives near Sedalia; Clara B., who was born in Douglas County, is the wife of William O'Brien, living near Williamsburg, El Paso County, Colo.; they have five children; Henry P. was born on the home farm and still resides here; October 26, 1898, he married Mary A. Lowell, of Sedalia, a daughter of Charles and Lydia E. (Bowman) Lowell; Anna C., Mrs. William Burke, lives in El Paso County and has one child; Alphonso is at home; and Frances C. married Matthew Rogers, of Eldora, Colo.

     Although his father was a Democrat, our subject became a Republican. He did not vote at a presidential election until 1875, when he cast his ballot for R. B. Hayes. He was elected sheriff in 1874, upon the organization of Douglas County, and served until the fall of 1875, being the first elected after the division of the county. In Park County he served as a constable, and also held the office in Douglas County both before and after he served as sheriff. During the administra-

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

tion of President Hayes Mr. Manhart held the office of postmaster at Sedalia. For twenty-five years he has served as a school director. Through his assistance the schools of his section have been promoted and the system of teaching advanced. He is a friend of the public school system and gave his children the best advantages possible, not only in local schools, but also in those of Denver. Though reared in the Lutheran Church, he supports the Episcopal Church and assisted in building St. Philip's Church near his home. In 1872 he became identified with Weston Lodge No. 22, A, F. & A. M., at Littleton, with which he has since been connected. He is also a member of the Association of Colorado Pioneers and Plum Creek Camp No. 226, Woodmen of the World. As a citizen he is progressive and public-spirited, and justly occupies a position among the most prominent and influential men of his county.

OHN NICHOLLS, SR., has held a number of important public positions, among them those of sheriff and commissioner of Jefferson County, chairman of the county central committee, mayor of Golden, and is at present a justice of the peace for Jefferson County and a member of the state silver Republican committee. He resides in Golden and has the distinction of occupying the first house built here, a building constructed of logs, which has been thoroughly remodeled so as to give it a modern appearance. Possessing considerable inventive genius, he has invented, among other things, a number of improvements for mining carriages, and an incubator, which he has manufactured under the name of the Atlantic incubator, also a spring seat for the use of engineers and firemen on locomotives. Mr. Nicholls was born in Cardiganshire, Wales, July 16, 1842, the next to the oldest of his father's twenty-eight children. He has a sister, Mrs. Spear, in Blackhawk, Colo.; a brother, William, in Denver, and another sister, Mrs. Emma Triscot, in New Jersey. His father, John, was the son of Samuel Nicholls, who engaged in mining in Wales for Taylor & Co., of London. He was born in Devonshire, England, but during most of his life was superintendent of mines in Wales, from there returning to Devonshire, then going back to Wales he subsequently died there at the age of fifty-six, in 1876. His first wife, our subject's mother, was Mary Ann Colmer, a native of Devonshire and daughter of Thomas Colmer, a mining engineer of England. She died in England at the age of thirty-eight.

      When two years of age our subject was taken to England and at the age of eight he began to assist his father in the mines of Devonshire. After some years of experience he became a practical miner in tin, copper and lead mines. In 1859 he went to Carmarthaenshire, Wales, where he worked in the Vale of Towan lead mine. A year later he went to the Cardiganshire lead mines, where he was employed as timberman for some years. In 1865 he took passage on the steamer "Marathon" at Liverpool, and after a voyage of sixteen and one-half days landed in New York City, from which place he went to Wilkesbarre, Pa. He secured work in the mines of Luzerne County, and for eight years was foreman of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company in the Henry and Prospect mines. This position he resigned in 1873, on coming to Colorado. He arrived in Golden on Sunday morning, April 6, 1873, and has since considered this place his home. He leased one mine and opened several others near Golden, and for some years engaged in mining coal, which he shipped to Denver and to Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties, also supplying railroads on contract. He is the only man who ever worked the coal mines here successfully. In 1885 he sold out to a Philadelphia company, and was superintendent of coal mines at Tindale for years for a London company. In 1880 he started a boot and shoe store, which he has since conducted, in addition to his work in the mines. He is president and a director of the Golden Opera House Company, which conducts the opera house here.

     The first marriage of Mr. Nicholls united him with Margaret Edwards, who was born, reared and married in Wales, and died in Golden. Of the children born of this union three are living: Mary A., Mrs. Preston of Elizabethtown, N. Mex.; John, Jr., who is in the tobacco and cigars business at Golden; and Emma, who is in New Mexico. The present wife of Mr. Nicholls was Clara York, a native of Pennsylvania, and three children have been born unto them: Foster George, Clarence Silver and Stella May.

     During the early days of his residence here, Mr. Nicholls was appointed night marshal and