Mardos Collection
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 745
came to Colorado, where he was hired to take charge of stock on Coon Creek and employed in other ways for a year. He then freighted for the stage company to the various stations out of Denver. In 1868 he went to Cheyenne with a mule team and hauled wood from the Black Hills, later freighted to Elizabeth, making three trips with groceries. On his return to Denver he worked for the Denver & Rio Grande road and D. C. Dodge, in the express and transfer business, in which he was successful. Meantime he erected four cottages on Champa street near Thirteenth, and two residences at Nos. 1425-31 Court place. In 1876 he sold out his business and retired. He has spent four winters in California and visited the Midwinter fair. He also visited his old haute on Prince Edward Island and on his return to Denver brought a sister with him, Mrs. Lydia Morrison, who has since resided here.
ON. JAMES F. JONES, a member of the present Colorado legislature, was elected thereto by the silver Democrats and Republicans. During the last sessions he introduced and championed two bills in favor of mining interests, though one of them failed to pass the senate. He has always been deeply concerned in everything tending to effect the welfare of the hosts of people, here and elsewhere, who have connection, directly or indirectly, with mines or mining in Colorado. At the same time, he belongs to the class of agriculturists; that class, who no less surely than the other, have brought this state into prominence among those of the great west, and have added, immeasurably, to the desirability and convenience of citizenship here.
The parents of our subject were Samuel D. and Ruth M. (Fisher) Jones, and of his eight brothers and sisters but four survive. Mary is the wife of John Gano, of Wisconsin. Charles is a prominent ranchman and cattle-raiser of Montana. Bruce is also engaged in the cattle and ranch business in Montana. Blanche is Mrs. N. Burgess, of Montana. The father, bon in 1803, was a native of Michigan. Early in life he went to New York and there attained his majority. He was married in the Empire state and subsequently removed to Ohio. From that state he gradually drifted westward, his home being for a few years in Indiana, Wisconsin and Kansas. His chief occupation in life was that of farming. His death took place in Kansas.
A native of Delaware County, Ohio, James F. Jones was born on the parental homestead near the town of Delaware, October 13, 1843. After he had mastered the elements of an education in the public schools he left home to make his own way in the world. He had heard much of the great and growing west and determined to cast in his lot with the steady stream of emigration S which was pouring into the- immense plains and valleys of the territory formerly given up to the scattered tribes of red men. Leaving Iowa County, Wis., May 18, 1863, he undertook to drive a wagon with two yoke of oxen and twenty head of cattle, for a woman who wished to join friends in Colorado. The journey was at length safely accomplished, the little party reaching Marshall July 19. Mr. Jones at once found employment upon the building of a furnace at this point, and was kept busily at work until the following spring. From April to July he engaged in mining at Blackhawk and next he put up hay at $10 per ton. That autumn he teamed and hauled hay into the mountains and in the early part of December sold his cattle and wagon in order to enlist in the ninety-day service. He was in the command of Captain Berkeley during the exciting campaign against the Indians, who had become very troublesome to the white settlers.
After he had been honorably discharged Mr. Jones had a very severe spell of illness, and the savings of a long period were consumed. Not only this, but he found himself $25 in debt. He bought a yoke of cattle and a wagon on time and bravely started out again to recover his independence. He cut hay on the prairie and sold it at $40 a ton. Thus he soon paid for his outfit and continued teaming. He found a ready market for all the coal which he could transport from Marshall to Denver, and received $18 or $20 a ton for the product. In the summer of 1856 he settled down as a farmer in Boulder County, having bought a claim of one hundred and sixty acres on Coal Creek. At the end of two seasons he sold it, and, going to a point one and a-half miles further up the creek, homesteaded a tract of eighty acres. Here he resided about seven years, after which he lived a year on a farm on Rock Creek, and for a similar period on the present site
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 746
of Louisville. Twenty-one years ago he rented a quarter-section of land, his present homestead (then school property), and six years later he purchased the same. He has made substantial improvements from time to time and to-day the place is one of the model farms of his township. A true friend to the cause of education, Mr. Jones has used his influence in favor of better schools and teachers and has served as a member of the local board for a number of years. Socially he is identified with Louisville Lodge No. 94, I. O. O. F., and with Louisville Camp No. 137, Woodmen of the World.
March 17, 1868, Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Miss Sarah C. Minks, daughter of James Minks, a native of Greene County, Pa. Mr. Minks, who was a carpenter by trade, came to Colorado from Burlington, Iowa, in 1863, and thenceforth devoted himself to agriculture. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have eight children all living, and named as follows: Maud, Adelle, George, Ida, Charles, Chester, Edwin and Leroy. George is engaged in mining at Gold Hill and Charles is interested in farming. The three younger children are still at home and Ida is the wife of Ollie Willis, a rising young farmer of this county.
OUIS SCHROERS, postmaster at Elyria, is the only representative of his immediate family in America. He was born in Kreis Rees, Germany, October 16, 1830, the son of Bernard and grandson of Henry Schroers, also natives of the sane province as himself. During the war of 1812-15 Bernard Schroers was a soldier in the German army and a participant in several conflicts. Under his father, who was a blacksmith, he learned that trade, which he followed in Ringenberg. Finally he accompanied his children to America and settled in Henderson, Arapahoe County, Colo., where he died at the age of ninety-two. His wife, Johanna Dacke, was born in Germany and died in Wisconsin in 1856. She was a daughter of Peter Dacke, who held a government position as chief forester, an office that remained in the family for years.
Four children of the Schroers family came to America. Among these Louis was next to the oldest and is the only one now living. He spent the first fourteen years of his life in Germany and was a pupil in the public schools for some time.
In 1845, with his parents, he took passage at Rotterdam on the sailing vessel "Catherine Jackson," that landed in New York City after a voyage of fifty-two days. Going to Wisconsin, he began to work upon a farm in the town of Oak Creek, Milwaukee County. In 1854 he removed to Dane County and there engaged in farming until 1862. Meantime his brother, Henry William, had gone to Colorado and the reports he sent back were so encouraging that he determined to remove to this state. To this resolution he was partly led on account of ill health. He made the trip via stage from Atchison, and, reaching his destination, located on a ranch near Henderson, where he bought an interest with his brother in the place and engaged in farming and stockraising on the Platte River. With a Colorado regiment he took part in the one-hundred-day service at Fort Morgan, but on account of illness was honorably discharged.
Selling his ranch in 1894, Mr. Schroers settled in Elyria, where he became deputy postmaster under Postmaster McDermott. In February, 1895, he was appointed postmaster through the influence of the assistant postmaster-general, and since then he has filled the position with efficiency and success. This is the only office he has ever held except that of road overseer, which he occupied while on his ranch in district No. 3. He was reared in the faith of the Lutheran Church, but since coming to Elyria he has attended the Congregational Church. At one time he was an active worker in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While in Wisconsin he married Miss Abbie Knoblach, who was born in Germany and died in Dane County, Wis., in 1857. The only child born of the union is now Mrs. Anna C. Watt, of Elyria.
HARLES H. WATKINS. A business man of undoubted ability and excellent judgment, Mr. Watkins has been an employe of the Denver Fire Clay Company since 1895. In April, 1881, he located in Elyria and seven years later erected the house he now occupies. Adjoining this is the house occupied by his mother, which was the first residence built in the Elyria plot. In the election of 1896 he was chosen, on the city party ticket, as trustee of Elyria for a term of two years, and since becoming connected
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 747
with the board he has served as chairman of the purchasing committee and a member of other committees.
A native of Prince Edward Island, Mr. Watkins was born in Charlottetown, November 6, 1867. His father, Samuel, was born in 1840 in London, England, of Welsh ancestry, and when a young man served as a soldier in the British army. It was during his service in the army that he was ordered to Prince Edward Island, where he was stationed for some time. Soon after his marriage he retired from the army and, having learned the trade of stone mason and brick layer, he moved to Halifax and engaged in work at his occupation. In 1879 he came to Denver, where his family joined him the following year. In the spring of 1881 he established his home in Elyria, from which suburb he rode daily to the city. One evening in November, 1881, while riding home on the Union Pacific road, a collision occurred at what is now Thirty-sixth street, and he received injuries that resulted in his death two hours later. Our subject was on the same train, but jumped from the car and reached the ground before the collision occurred.
The mother of our subject was Fannie Stewart, a native of Charlottetown, to which place her grandparents had come from Scotland. She was a daughter of Charles Stewart, who was born and reared on Prince Edward Island and engaged in farming there until the gold excitement in Australia in 1852, when he went to that country and engaged in mining. On the return voyage home he was shipwrecked and drowned. His wife was Jane Heartz, a native of Prince Edward Island, whither her father had come from New York. The Heartz family is of German descent.
The family of which our subject is a member consists of five children, namely: Charles; Frank, of Elyria; William, who is employed on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad at Trinidad, Colo.; Jennie and May. Charles was educated in the public schools of Halifax. He was a boy when the family removed to Denver, and he at once began to work in a planing mill, where he was employed for five years. For three years he was a machinist's helper in the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad shops at Burnham, and then for five years was with the Union Pacific Railroad as stone mason and in other capacities. Since 1895 he has been with the Denver Fire Clay Company.
In Denver, Mr. Watkins married Miss Emma Hester, who was born in Richview, Washington County, Ill., the second among the four children of W. R. and Mary (Butts) Hester, natives respectively of Kentucky and Tennessee. Her father was engaged in the marble business in Illinois, and for ten years was with the Union Pacific Railroad as foreman of the stone mason department. Mr. Watkins has two daughters, Ruby and Edith. Politically a Republican, he has been a delegate to county conventions and assisted his party in other capacities. He is a member of the Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally is past master of Robert Morris Lodge No. 92, A. F. & A. M., of Denver.
ITCHELL BURNS, M. D., a rising young physician of Denver, is a graduate of Gross Medical College, in which he now holds a professorship as instructor of obstetrics. Under the preceptorship of Dr. W. H. Buchtel he began the study of medicine and afterward became a student in Gross Medical College, from which he graduated in 1893 with the degree of M. D. For about a year he was interne in the State Woman's Hospital. In 1892 he passed the examination before the state board of medical examiners and received a certificate to practice medicine, which profession he has since followed, having his office at No. 1618 Glenarm street.
The Burns family is descended from the nobility, for its lineage can be traced back to the house of Stuarts in Scotland. From Scotland members of the family removed to Ireland and from there to Canada, where the doctor's father, T M. Burns, M. D., was born and reared. For some years he resided in Schoharie County, N. Y., but his death occurred in California. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Minnie Cochran, was born in Nova Scotia, a lineal descendant of Lord Nelson, of England. She was a daughter of Daniel Cochran, a merchant of Nova Scotia, and the father of three sons, one a physician and two that were sea captains on merchant vessels engaged in the East India trade. She is still living and makes her home in Denver, where live her only surviving children, T. Mitchell and Daniel C., the latter a graduate of the Denver University law department in 1895 and now a practicing attorney in this city.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Dr. Burns was born in Richmondville, N. Y., January 3, 1868, and received his education in the public and high schools of Homer, N. Y. In 1888 he came to Colorado and two years later began to study medicine with W. H. Buchtel, M. D. After receiving his certificate from the state board, he engaged in a general practice, with a specialty of obstetrics. In 1892 he became resident physician of the midwifery dispensary, which he and Dr. Buchtel established and which was one of the first of the kind in the United States. In 1893 he was made instructor of obstetrics in Gross Medical College, two years later was made an adjunct professor in that department, and in 1897 was elected to the professorship. Meantime he has been a frequent contributor to medical papers and journals. He is a member of the staff of St. Anthony's Hospital and is still medical director of the midwifery dispensary. In the organization of the Denver Literary and Social Society he took an active part and for a time was its president. In December, 1897, he was elected president of the Denver Ralston Club on the occasion of the reorganization of that club, which is now in a flourishing condition, with a membership of one hundred and fifty. He has served both as secretary and president of the Gross Medical College Alumni, of which he is a member. He is also identified with the American and State Medical Societies, the Rocky Mountain Inter-State Medical Society and the Denver and Arapahoe County Medical Society.
LBERT G. SNYDER, who is engaged in the real-estate and fruit-growing business in Boulder, is a public-spirited citizen, respected and esteemed by all who know him. In 1893 he was elected to serve as alderman from the third ward by the Republicans, and in 1895 he was re-elected, thus serving four years. He was chairman of different committees, and while he was in office the city water system was enlarged, sewers were built and many other valuable improvements instituted.
A. G. Snyder is a native of Canton Berne, Switzerland, born on the 23d of November, 1845.
His parents, Benedict and Anne (Alleman) Snyder, of the same locality, were people of good education and standing in the community where they dwelt. The mother was a teacher in the high school of Canton Berne prior to her marriage. The father was a gardener by occupation and participated in the Revolution of 1848 in the German army. The same year he emigrated with his family to the United States, and settled in Carthage, Jefferson County, N, Y. There he passed the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1866. He was an honest, industrious man, respected and admired by all who knew him. The mother died in September, 1860. Of their family, which comprised six sons and five daughters, five are deceased.
With the exception of one sister, our subject is the only one of the parental family in the west. He was next to the eldest child and was brought up in Jefferson County, N. Y., on a farm. From the time that he was twelve years of age he worked for farmers for his board and the privilege of attending school during the winter term. He was very anxious to enlist in the Union army at the outbreak of the Civil war, but he was young and his father would not give his consent to the project. At last he relented, when our subject found that he could enter a cavalry regiment, in 1863. The young man became one of Company E, Twentieth New York Cavalry, being mustered in for three years at Sacket's Harbor. At the close of four months he was made a corporal; then took part in the defense of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and later was stationed at points along the coast of Virginia. During the last ten months of his service he was duty sergeant. He was at Fortress Monroe at the time that Jefferson Davis was taken there as a prisoner, and there Mr. Snyder was mustered out, his honorable discharge being granted at Sacket's Harbor, August 11, 1865. Thus he had been a soldier for two years, lacking three days. Returning home, he suffered with malaria and fever for several weeks, and as soon as he was recovered he turned his attention to farming, as formerly.
November 5, 1867, Mr. Snyder started for Missouri, and purchased a farm near Kingston. This land was on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, and comprised one hundred and twenty acres. In February, 1887, having rented his farm, he came to Sterling, Logan County, Colo., and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land. This property he improved and cultivated for four years, and in 1891 became a resident of Boulder. Here he bought two acres in High-
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