HON. C. S. THOMAS.
Mardos Collection
HON. C. S. THOMAS.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 449
K. of P. He is one of the most enterprising and popular young men of Jefferson County and also has a host of friends in other parts of the state.
ON. CHARLES SPALDING THOMAS, governor-elect of Colorado, has for years held a position of prominence among the professional and public men of Denver, and, indeed, of the entire state of Colorado. Since he came west in the fall of 1871 with limited means and little influence he has gained a place as one of the eminent and successful lawyers of his city, his success being due to his untiring industry, business ability and keen discrimination of men and things. Not alone in his profession, but in politics as well, he has become widely known. He is recognized as one of the leading Democrats of the state. From 1884 to 1896 he was a member of the Colorado Democratic national committee; from 1889 until 1890 held the chairmanship of the state central committee; besides which he has in many ways promoted actively the welfare of his party.
Though of southern birth (born in Darien, Ga., December 6, 1849,) the subject of this review is of northern parentage and descent. His father, William B. Thomas, was born in Connecticut and removed from there to Georgia. His wife was Caroline B. Wheeler, daughter of Amos H. Wheeler, of Bridgeport, Conn. In the village of Macon, where his father had removed, our subject attended school and passed the uneventful years of early youth. He can scarcely recall the time when he first formed the plan of studying law. All of his studies in youth were directed toward that end. His first law readings were in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and there he continued in the law department until his graduation with the class of 1871.
Coming to Denver within a few months after his graduation, Mr. Thomas entered the law office of Sayre & Wright, then the leading law firm in the state. In 1873 he formed a partnership with T. M. Patterson, which connection continued for a year at that time. Afterward he continued alone until 1879, when he again entered into partnership with Mr. Patterson, with whom he remained until 1890. During some years of this time he made his home in Leadville, where he conducted the practice of the firm at that point. At this writing he is a member of the firm of Thomas, Bryant & Lee. While he has managed cases of all kinds, his specialty is mining law, and, having made a study of it, he is able to conduct successfully and skillfully all matters coming within this department of jurisprudence.
Always stanch in his adherence to the Democratic party, Mr. Thomas had not been in Denver long before he began to be actively identified with political affairs. To the information gained by study and observation he added natural abilities of a high order, and his influence was apparent in the advanced success of his party. In 1875-76 he served as city attorney. In 1884 and 1896 he was chosen as a delegate to the Democratic national conventions. In September, 1898, he was chosen the nominee of the Teller silver Republicans, Populists and Democrats, in their respective conventions, for the office of governor, and was elected November 8, 1898.
In social relations Mr. Thomas is connected with the Athletic Club of Denver, and fraternally is a Knight of Pythias. In Kalamazoo, Mich., December 29, 1873, he married Miss Emma, daughter of Thomas Fletcher, a prominent citizen of that place. Mrs. Thomas was given the best educational advantages when a girl, and is a lady possessing refinement and the highest culture. She is an active member of the Woman's Club of Denver. The five children born of her marriage are: Mrs. William P. Malburn, Edith, Charles S., Jr., Hubert F. and George K.
The professional career of Mr. Thomas proves the individuality of his character and its force. He has pursued his course in life unmoved by those obstacles that often daunt and undismayed by hardships. With a mind capable of grasping great things, he has stored it with information of incalculable value to him in his practice, and this knowledge he uses in the conduct of his cases and the successful evolving of tangled, intricate technicalities. Endowed with mental vigor, he is prompt in forming and resolute in carrying out any purpose or plan of action decided upon. Great emergencies would have developed to their utmost his large abilities, but even in the ordinary walks of life, in the management of cases affecting only local interests, he has nevertheless
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. labored with such sagacity and skill that he has proved himself to be a man of large mental endowments.
"Charles S. Thomas has been a public figure of consequence in this community and state for many years. In political campaigns he has been criticised (sic) and even denounced, for he is a man of strong, even profound, convictions, who always stands firmly for the principles which he advocates. After all that can be said has been said these facts stand forth unchallenged. He is a man of very unusual talents. While on the one hand a man of affairs, practical, level-headed and shrewd, he is, on the other hand, a hard student, a wide reader, with a bent toward governmental science, of which he is a master. Loyal in his friendships, square in his business dealings, domestic in his tastes, there is no man in Colorado who knows the state from top to bottom more thoroughly, who understands more clearly the public questions which affect it, or who, in our judgment; will labor more earnestly to improve existing conditions. Some good, earliest and able men have occupied the gubernatorial chair of this state, but we risk nothing in saying that Charles S. Thomas is in each and every respect the peer of the best of them."
APT. GEORGE K. KIMBALL, of Golden, arrived in Denver April 28, 1860, and has since made his home in Colorado. He is a member of a family that anciently resided in County Cumberland, England, and took its name from a point on the Scottish borders, The first representative of the family in America was Richard Kemball, who came to this country from Suffolk, England. His son, John, changed the spelling of the name to its present form, and subsequent generations adhered to this spelling. Richard, son of John, had a son, Richard, Jr., the father of Aaron, who served in the Revolution. From him the line of descent is traced through Leonard to Daniel Kimball, the captain's father.
It was in 1634 that Richard Kemball, a native of Ipswich, England, took passage on the ship "Elizabeth" and sailed across the ocean to America, settling in Watertown, Mass. John Kimball, his son, was born in Suffolk County, England, and settled in Ipswich, Mass., where he died May 6, 1698. By his union with Mary Bradstreet, whom he married in 1655, he had a son, Richard, born in 1665, September 22, in Ipswich, Mass., and died in 1716, May 26. He was a member of a committee to treat with the Englishmen and Indians concerning the title to their land, including the town of Bradford. By his marriage to Lydia Wells, of Ipswich, he had a son, Richard, born in that place August 17, 1691, died in 1760. He was a carpenter, and removed from Ipswich to Norwalk, Conn., later settling in Windham, Conn. He married Sarah, daughter of Andrew and Mary (Conant) Burley.
Next in descent was Aaron, born in Norwich, Conn., February 18, 1729, and died in Grafton, Mass., March 20, 1808. In 1757 he was a member of the militia at Grafton and was one of the soldiers who marched to the relief of Fort William Henry August 16, 1757. He was captain of a Grafton company that marched on the Lexington alarm of the approach of the British, April 19, 1775, and served until May 15 of the same year. On the 5th of April, 1776, he was made captain of the Sixth Worcester Company, and served in the Revolution. He married Mary Brooks, daughter of Noah and Sarah (Willard) Brooks.
Their son, Leonard, was born in Grafton, Mass., June 18, 1772, and died at Greenwich, Mass., March 30, 1817. The most of his active life was passed as a farmer at Greenwich. He married Patty Baird, of Worcester, Mass. Of their seven children the oldest was Daniel, born at Sutton, Mass., October 31, 1794, and died at Hingham, the same state, June 21, 1874. September 28, 1825, he married Louisa, daughter of Royal and Deborah Keith, of Grafton, the latter a Miss Adams in maidenhood and a member of the same family as the presidents of that name. Royal Keith was the son of Simeon Keith, Jr., a soldier in the Revolution and a descendant of Scotch ancestors. Upon her father's farm at Grafton Louisa Keith was born June 15, 1801; her death occurred in Boston January 20, 1870.
For thirteen years Daniel Kimball transacted business as a commission merchant in Charleston, S. C., and on his return north he settled in Boston, where he engaged in the dry-goods business for twenty-five years, retiring in 1855. In 1840-41 he was a member of the common council of Boston. For many years he was a director of the North Bank and the National Insurance
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 451
Company. He was largely interested in the woolen factories at Fitchburg, Mass. In personal character he possessed many admirable traits and was a man of great moral worth. He was the father of eight children, viz.: Daniel, who died in Boston in 1870; Mrs. Louisa Plympton, of Boston; George K.; Anna, Mrs. Wales, of Boston; Mrs. Lavinia T. Snow, of Boston; Herbert W., of Boston, great registrar of Massachusetts for the Sons of the American Revolution; Samuel F. and Mary F., who died in infancy.
In Boston, where he was born March 26, 1831, the subject of this sketch received his education in a private school. At the age of seventeen he entered a hardware store as clerk, but resigned the position in 1852 and went to New Orleans, where he remained with an uncle for a year. In 1853 he went up the Mississippi, then crossed to Milwaukee, Wis., where he was employed by a hardware firm until 1853. From that time until the fall of 1859 he engaged in the furniture business there. The discovery of gold in Colorado caused him to remove to this state. He spent the winter of 1859-60 in Leavenworth, and then, with an ox-train, spent two months in crossing the plains to Denver. He camped on Cherry Creek after his arrival in Denver, but soon went into the Gilpin district, where he engaged in mining until the fall of 1861. The war breaking out, he started east to enlist in a Wisconsin regiment, but while on a stage en route to Kansas City he met Colonel Leavenworth, who was going to Washington to get a recruiting commission. The colonel offered Mr. Kimball a position as major in his regiment, but afterward politics crept in and the appointment was never given.
Commissioned first lieutenant, our subject was mustered in February 23, 1862, and soon received promotion to the command of Company E, Second Colorado Volunteers. Afterward he served as acting assistant adjutant-general of the Santa Fe route. Among the battles in which he took part were those of Honey Springs, Cabin Creek and Elk Creek. Upon the consolidation of the Second and Third Colorado Infantry into the Second Colorado Cavalry, he being supernumerary was mustered out and honorably discharged at St. Louis in February, 1864. After his discharge he spent a year in Boston, but in 1865 returned to Colorado as superintendent of the Lode Star Mining Company, of Boston, putting up their mill and operating it until 1867.
Afterward for a year he was superintendent of the Glade gold mines at Allatoona, Ga., and then came back to Colorado and engaged in mining at Central City. During 1866 he had become interested in a mine in Russell Gulch, and his son later organized a company for working it, the Calumet Gold Mining and Milling Company, of which our subject is treasurer, a stockholder and director, and his son, George K., Jr., general manager. In 1870 he came to Golden, where he was employed as freight and passenger agent for the Colorado Central road until 1873, and afterward, for eleven years, from 1873 to 1884, he was postmaster of Golden under Presidents Grant and Hayes. He was then city clerk and superintendent of the city water works for three years and county commissioner for four years, being chairman of the board during two years of this time. For a time he was clerk in the surveyor-general's office, but political changes caused his resignation. He has since given his attention to the oversight of his mining interests.
July 2, 1856, in Milwaukee, Wis., Captain Kimball married Miss Frances E. Smith, daughter of J. W. and Ruth (Benjamin) Smith, of Chatham, N. Y., where she was born. They are the parents of three children, the eldest of whom, Louise Ruth, married and died in California, leaving six children. The older son, George K., Jr., graduated from the School of Mines in 1892 and is now general superintendent of the Calumet Gold Mining and Milling Company. The younger son also graduated from the School of Mines in 1892 and is connected with the Calumet Company. Captain and Mrs. Kimball have a comfortable home on Second street, built by himself in 1877.
Politically a Republican, Captain Kimball voted for Winfield S. Scott in 1852, for John C. Fremont in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He has been an elder in the Golden Presbyterian Church since 1873. In the state and county associations of pioneers he holds membership. He is president of the Veteran Association of Colorado Troops, and is a charter member and past commander of T. H. Dodd Post No. 3, G. A. R. He was offered the position of senior vice-commander of Colorado, but declined the honor. In Denver Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M., he was made a Mason, and now holds member-
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ship in Golden Lodge No. 1, Golden Chapter No. 5, R. A. M., Colorado Commandery No. 1, K. T., of Denver, and El Jebel Temple, N. M. S. From September, 1887, to September, 1888, he was grand master of Colorado, and he is now past deputy grand high priest, but declined the offered position of grand high priest.
Mr. Bennett, who is now serving as county treasurer of Weld County, is a native of Ozaukee County, Wis., born November 7, 1849, and is a son of Daniel John and Iretta (De Couders) Bennett, both natives of Cayuga County, N. Y., whence they removed to Wisconsin at an early day. In the midst of the wilderness the father developed a good farm which extended down to the lake, and in connection with its operation he also engaged in merchandising for a short time and in contracting for delivering wood to the steamers. In religious belief he was a Methodist, and in political sentiment a Republican.
Reared in his native state, Christian A. Bennett obtained his early education in the schools of Port Washington, where his father was engaged in mercantile pursuits. With his parents he removed to Maries County, Mo., in May, 1865, and soon afterward entered the law office of J. M. Siglin at Vienna, where he remained as a student until admitted to the bar in 1870. He has always been an active and prominent member of the Democracy and in Maries County served as deputy circuit and county clerk. Afterward he entered upon the active practice of his profession and at the election in November, 1874, was elected prosecuting attorney to succeed Joseph Mosby, and re-elected in 1876. While his practice has been in both the civil and criminal courts, his preference has been for the latter and in his chosen line he has met with remarkable success. In November, 1879, he was elected a member of the Thirty-first General Assembly of Missouri for a term of two years, and after that session took up the practice of law and in 1880 became part owner of the Gazette. As senior editor he conducted the paper in the interests of the Democracy until he sold out in 1883 to John H. Diggs and came to Greeley, Colo. He was a forceful advocate and as a political speaker ranked among the best of his locality. Upon coming to Greeley he opened a law office and engaged in practice until 1888, when, although his party was decidedly in the minority, he was elected to the office of city attorney, which position he held until 1891, and again from 1892 to 1895. On the 19th of December, 1893, he was appointed referee by Judge Downer to settle the priority of water rights in irrigation district No. 1, which required an immense amount of work. At the fall election of 1897 he was elected to the office of county treasurer.
At Vienna, Mo., Mr. Bennett was married December 3, 1873, to Miss Mary R., daughter of A. K. Burke, of Scotch-Irish descent, and to then have been born five children: John A., quartermaster-sergeant of the First Colorado Light Artillery; Lena; Mabel; Nellie; and one who died in early childhood.
Fraternally Mr. Bennett belongs to Poudre Valley Lodge No. 12, I. O. O. F.; the Ancient Order of United Workmen; the Woodmen of the World; and the Imperial Legion, a Colorado organization. He attends the First Presbyterian Church, to which he contributes, and is an upright and honorable man. An article published at his old home in Missouri after he left there states that his most intimate friends had never heard an oath escape his lips. At home he is a model host and an affectionate and indulgent husband and father, and anger and immorality have never blurred his name. He is a worthy man, a steadfast friend, a safe and cautions advisor, and his holding the responsible position he does is the best evidence of the esteem in which he is held, when it is considered that the political patty to which he adheres is in the minority.
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