Mardos Collection
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 739
be enjoyed by himself, and in 1876 he graduated from there. On his return to Indianapolis he was superintendent of the City hospital for two terms, 1877-79.
The severe strain caused by his professional duties was too much for the constitution of Dr. Davis and his health broke down. He came to Colorado hoping the change of climate might be beneficial, and in January, 1880, opened an office in Denver. The following year he went to Golden, where he became surgeon for the Colorado Central Railroad and on the removal of their shops to Denver, in October, 1883, he returned here, continuing to act as surgeon for a time, until he resigned. He has his office at No. 1209 Seventeenth street. In 1887 he took a postgraduate course in the Polyclinic and Post-graduate Hospital Medical Colleges of New York, where he made a special study of dermatology. He has one son, John B. Davis, who is a member of the class of 1899, literary department of the Denver University.
Politically Dr. Davis is a Republican. He is a member of the Denver and Arapahoe County Medical Society, the State and American Medical Societies, and is grand medical examiner for the Ancient Order of United Workmen of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Fraternally he is past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and is connected with Denver Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M.; Denver Chapter No. 2, R. A. M., and Colorado Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar.
ILLIAM G. PELL, who owns and occupies a farm near Ni Wot, Boulder County, was born in Canada, August 10, 1820, a son of William and Anna (Van Antwerp) Bell. He was one of nine children, five of whom are still living, namely: Peter, who is engaged in farming at Hiawatha, Kan.; William G.; Edward, of Ni Wot; Amelia, wife of Samuel Johnson, who lives in the state of Washington; and Daniel, a carpenter of Vermont.
Sixty years of his life William Pell passed in his native land, Canada. He then migrated to Wisconsin and settled ten miles west of Racine, where his death occurred five years later. His wife, who was of Mohawk-Dutch stock, was born in Canada prior to the breaking out of the Revolution, her parents, who were in sympathy with England, having removed from Schenectady, N. Y., with other Tories, on the opening of hostilities between the two countries. Her father was not an active participant in the war, but his sympathies were strongly on the side of England. The father of William Pell was a native of England and emigrated to Canada in his youthful days, settling upon a farm, where he afterward resided.
At the age of about twenty years the subject of this sketch left home and went to Rochester, N. Y., where he apprenticed himself to the blacksmith's trade. About three years later he went further west, settling in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was employed for two years as a journeyman blacksmith. On the discovery of copper in the Lake Superior country, he went there, and for eleven years worked at his trade in the copper region. In 1859 he went home, fitted out for a western trip, and early in May left Wisconsin for Colorado. Crossing the plains in a light wagon, with a pair of horses, he arrived in Boulder July 20, 1839, and is therefore one of the pioneers of this locality. To him and to Carver Gauss belongs the distinction of being the locators of the now thriving city of Boulder. Making this place his headquarters, he became interested in mining, and followed gulch mining with intervals of working at his trade until 1875. Then, in partnership with John Scroles, he grub-staked rich property on Gold Hill. These two and John Nicholson began the development of what was known as the Slide mine, on the Slide lode. Here, during the first week, they took out a small shipment of ore near the surface, which netted them $300 after shipping and milling expenses (which were then exorbitant). January 20, 1876, the Corning Tunnel Mining & Reduction Company filed an adverse claim and then began a litigation which lasted some six years, our subject and his partners winning every decision rendered from the lowest court to the United States supreme court.
About 1888 Mr. Pell disposed of his interest in the mine and, with his family, removed to Denver, making his home in that city until 1894. He then removed to his present home farm at Ni Wot, which he had owned for some years previous and which has since been his dwelling place. In politics he is a Republican. In 1862 he enlisted in the Second Colorado Cavalry and served
740
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. his country during the Civil war. He was appointed sergeant November 1, 1862. With his regiment he went to Kansas and pursued Price, whom they brought to bay at Kansas City, and there had the first important fight of their campaign. Following Price through Missouri, they had other engagements. They were mustered out of service at Fort Riley, Kan.
In 1871 occurred the marriage of Mr. Pell to Miss Eliza Parker, who was born in Wisconsin and died in Boulder, Colo., eighteen mouths after her marriage. June 11, 1875, he was united in marriage with Miss Ellen H. Bergeron, a native of Quebec, Canada, her father, Gabriel Bergeron, being of French lineage. There was born to this union a son, Earnest, February 9, 1880, now a student in the State Agricultural College, at Fort Collins. During the period of his residence in Denver, Mr. Pell carried on a stone yard. While in Boulder he took au active part in public affairs and for one term served as an alderman. He is identified with the Association of Colorado Pioneers.
HOMAS N. WILLIS is one of the progressive, wide-awake farmers of Boulder County. He is the owner of a fertile and well-improved ranch, situated about one and a-half miles south of the town of Lafayette, and in addition to this he is the fortunate possessor of some valuable mining property in Summit County. Twenty years have rolled away since he cast in his lot with the inhabitants of Colorado, and during the intervening period he has labored industriously to gain a substantial foothold, and to his credit be it said, has ably succeeded in his commendable endeavors.
Born in Dade County, Mo., September 22, 1860, our subject is a son of Oliver G. Willis, whose history is to be found in the sketch of W. A. Willis, printed upon another page of this work. Our subject was reared to manhood upon his father's homestead in the southwestern part of Missouri, and early became familiar with the varied duties pertaining to the proper management of a farm. The public schools of that portion of Missouri were of a decidedly poor type during the Civil war and for a decade or more subsequently, and thus the educational privileges of the youth were limited. When he was in his eighteenth year he left home and embarked on the independent sea of life, from that time forward making his own livelihood. In 1878 he turned his face westward to the new and promising state of Colorado, whose destinies were thenceforth to be indissolubly interwoven with his own. He landed in Denver on the 2d of March and soon proceeded on his way to Coal Creek, where his brother William was then living. For nearly two years our subject found employment with farmers of the locality and thus acquired the means for other ventures.
In 1880 Mr. Willis went to Summit County and for the next four years was concerned in mining operations. He then returned to Boulder Valley and rented the farm of Judge C. A. Clark. This place he cultivated for the next three years, in the meantime spending a few months with his Missouri relatives, during the winter of 1886-87. In the spring of the year last named he went to Summit County again, and from August until June, 1888, he was occupied in mining operations in Leadville and vicinity. The next six months he lived in Alma, Park County, after which a similar period of time was passed by him in Boulder Valley. Returning then to Alma, he remained there until the fall of 1894, when he took up a homestead of one hundred and twenty acres, convenient to Lafayette, Boulder County. He has given his chief attention to the management of this place ever since and has made a financial success of the enterprise. He has not relinquished his mine property in Summit County, however, some of it being very valuable. He uses his right of franchise in behalf of the nominees of the Democratic party.
OHN D. MASON is the superintendent and general manager of the Boulder Electric Light Company, which was incorporated in the summer of 1889, and has proved one of the most successful and useful enterprises of Boulder. In 1891 the fine new building and plant were erected on Walnut street. The boiler room is 35X40 feet in dimensions and is equipped with three boilers; while the dynamo and engine room is 47X42 feet and is fitted with three engines, of one hundred-horse power each. The plant furnishes power for eighty arc lights and three thousand incandescent lights. The success which
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 741
has attended this enterprise from its inception is almost entirely due to the excellent business management of Mr. Mason, and his thorough, practical supervision of every detail connected with the running of the plant. In 1888 he and I. E. Storey and T. Austin, in partnership, founded the electric light works, and after running it for a few months it was incorporated under its present title. Mr. Mason is the only one of the originators of the electric light works in this city who is still actively interested in its development and success. At first the plant was located at Thirteenth and Spruce streets, but, for various reasons, it was deemed best to remove to the new site.
The birth of J. B. Mason occurred June 8, 1856, in Rossie, N. Y., and in the public schools of that town he acquired his education. He is one of the two children of John and Mary (Van Dusen) Mason, natives of Scotland and Canada respectively. The former came to America with his mother when he was a young man, and settled in Rossie, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where he carried on the butcher business for a few years. When on a trip through Michigan during the '60s he contracted a fever, from the results of which he died. Thus the mother was left with her two little ones to bring up, and nobly did she fulfill the task, being both father and mother to them. Her daughter, Alice, is now the wife of C. W. Rowland, of Boulder, and she makes her home with her children in this town. Her father, David Van Dusen, was from an old and respected Dutch family of the Mohawk Valley. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. For a few years he lived in Canada, but later settied in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where he died at the age of eighty-seven years.
When he was seventeen years of age Mr. Mason commenced an apprenticeship to a carpenter in Rossie, working there and in Hammond, N. Y., for a period of about three years.
He then engaged in business upon his own account, and in the spring of 1882 came to Colorado. Locating in Boulder, he became a contractor and builder, erected numerous residences, business blocks and the medical hall at the university. For the past decade he has given his time and energies to the electric light works, as already mentioned. He has made a close study of everything relating to electricity and electrical appliances and machinery. The "Governor Routt" mine, at Sunset, now being operated, belongs to him, and he takes great interest in mining in general. He is a charter member of the local lodge of the Woodmen of the World and politically is a Republican. He is one of the board of trustees and ex-superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Baptist Church here, to which he belongs. His marriage, March 27, 1890, united him with Miss Josie Niles, daughter of H. S. Niles, of Boulder, and their two children are named respectively, Guy H. and Carl L.
ONTFORD S. WHITELEY, one of the reliable and straightforward business men of Boulder, enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellow-townsmen to an enviable degree. He is progressive and thoroughly in accord with the spirit of the times, favoring modern improvements, advanced ideas in education and all measures calculated to permanently benefit the community, state and country in which his lot has been cast. In politics his ideas coincide with the principles of the Republican party, and he earnestly believes that their policy has brought this fair land to its present prosperous condition. For two terms he has served in the council here as alderman from the second ward.
Hon. R. H. Whiteley, father of the subject of this sketch, died several years ago. He was a very prominent man in his generation, was active and influential in politics, and in the business world and commanded the esteem and respect of all who knew him. His history is given at some length in that of his son, R. H., Jr., printed elsewhere in this volume. Montford S. Whiteley was born in Bambridge, Ga., in 1860, and received good educational advantages in his native town. In 1877 he came to Colorado, and the year that the state university opened in Boulder he was one of the students. He continued in the institution until the close of his junior year, when, in 1880, he entered the commercial world.
At first Mr. Whiteley was interested in the real-estate business here, and for a year or two was employed by different firms. In 1882 he entered the establishment with which he has since been connected, and was bookkeeper for the company for some time. The store changed hands once or twice, and he was retained in the em-
742
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ploy of each successive firm, the last being that of the Brown Merchandising Company, dealing in groceries and hardware, etc. When they failed in business, in March, 1897, Mr. Whiteley purchased the hardware department and has since carried on the business alone very successfully. The store is modern and centrally located, being No. 1413 Pearl street. The proprietor carries a full line of shelf and heavy hardware, general house furnishings, stoves, etc., and an extensive stock of mining and milling machinery and miners' supplies. The store building is 25x90 feet in dimensions, with a warehouse 25X50 feet additional, and the main structure is two stories in height. Mr. Whiteley is prospering, and in the brief time that has elapsed since he took hold of the enterprise has amply demonstrated his executive and financial ability. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and is one of the board of directors of the Boulder Building & Loan Association. He was one of the charter members of this organization and a stockholder, later becoming a director.
Mr. Whiteley married, in this town, one of Boulder's most charming daughters, Miss Mina A. Andrews. Her father, George A. Andrews, one of the prominent old settlers of this section, is represented elsewhere in this history. The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Whiteley are, George, Mona, Marguerite and Mary.
On the home farm, near Augustine cove, on the Tryon River, our subject was born in February, 1834. His school advantages were limited to a brief attendance at the pioneer pay schools, where he was taught the three R's. When he was in his teens, his brother-in-law, Edward Warren, left the island and sailed around Cape Horn on the brig, "Fannie," Captain Irving, reaching California, where he spent two and one-half years mining in the Grass Valley, and then returned home. Joseph, hearing the accounts of the Golden Gate and Pacific coast, resolved to go there. Soon he was ready for the long trip. In 1854 he and two friends started for California, but the friends returned home from New York, leaving him to make the trip alone. He took passage on the "Star of the West" to the Gulf of Mexico and then crossed the Nicaragua canal, afterward going to San Francisco on the boat "Cortez," which encountered a very severe storm in the Pacific.
From San Francisco Mr. Howard went to Sacramento, then to the mines in Placer County, where he engaged in mining. Soon he bought seven acres and began raising vegetables, for which he always secured good prices in the market. Afterward he went to the Salmon River, where his nephew, John Simpson, had been among the first to find the diggings. Prices were exceedingly high there, nothing selling for less than $1.25 per pound. He and six others remained six months, then went down the Snake River to Walla Walla, and finally reached San Francisco, without any money. He then went to Last Chance, on the North Branch of the American River, but while there he and his companions had an altercation with an Irishman who claimed he owned the claim and in the melee the man was shot in the arm, but not seriously wounded. The friends of the Irishman then attacked the other party, who gave themselves up, but were soon released.
After leaving Last Chance, he engaged in cutting hay on shares. In the fall of 1864 he went to Idaho and spent the winter, finding the snow there eight feet on the level. A year later he
 |
 |
 |
 |