JOSEPH SEVEREN BEAMAN.
Mardos Collection
JOSEPH SEVEREN BEAMAN.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 855
work and is a stanch Prohibitionist, supporting temperance principles both in theory and practice. In 1885 he married Miss Irene S. Haldeman, of Morrow County, Ohio. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has officiated as steward, trustee and Sunday school teacher.
OSEPH SEVEREN BEAMAN came to Central City, Gilpin County, May 27, 1859, and amid the privations and discouragements which the early settler alone has felt and can understand, helped to lay the foundation for the improvements and civilization it enjoys today. He was born in Bondorf, Baden, October 23, 1834, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Ritter) Beaman. The Beamans are a well-known, prominent family of Baden. The grandfather, Martin Beaman, had charge of the government grain market, and was buyer of all the grain. Joseph Beaman was a brewer in Baden, but came to American 1851. He sent his family across in 1849, and himself and oldest sons remained until he could settle up his business. About this time the revolution in Baden occurred, and they were compelled to take part in it, delaying their coming to this country two years. He lived in retirement in Louisville, Ky., near which he died in his seventy-fourth year. The mother, Elizabeth, was a daughter of John Ritter, a farmer of Baden, and died in Kentucky when fifty-six years of age. The family were Catholics. Of the ten children, four came to America. Henry is a farmer in Indiana; Rev. Englebert has charge of a Catholic Church in Louisville, KY.; Joseph Severen is here represented; and S. B. served in a Kentucky regiment in the Union army, was wounded during service, and now resides near Louisville.
While in Baden, Mr. Beaman attended the school of Bondorf. At the age of fifteen he sailed from Havre, France, with his mother and other members of the family, on the steamer "Holyoke," to New Orleans, arriving there after forty-nine days on the ocean. They came up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Louisville, and he again entered school in Zanesville. He attended St. Joseph College for three years, but the close confinement of the school-room did not agree with him and he left school. He was then apprenticed for three years to learn the cabinet-making trade, in Louisville. He worked at his trade there and in Cincinnati until the Pike's Peak excitement in 1839, when he started for that Eldorado, taking the boat down the Ohio, and up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Leavenworth, there fitted out an ox-train and followed the Kansas and Smoky Rivers until he came to the Divide, when he went due west until he reached Denver, in April, 1859. He came to Central City and bought a claim in Russell Gulch; this he mined until November, 1859, when he abandoned it, thinking the deep snow would prevent him from securing provisions and other necessary supplies with which to continue his mining. He went to Golden, built a log shop, and worked at his trade of cabinet-making until spring, when he crossed the Snowy range to Blue River, and mined in Breckenridge and Georgia Gulch until 1861, when he returned to Golden, and began the manufacture of furniture in the same log shop. In the spring of the next year he went to Blackhawk and engaged in the same business, adding an undertaking room, the first in the city.
In 1868 Mr. Beaman disposed of this business and came back to Central City. He started a sash, door and blind factory in Mountain City, and later, in connection with it, ran a sawmill eight miles east of Blackhawk. Two years later he moved his mill and factory to Beaver Creek, above Nederland, in Boulder County. He furnished all the lumber for building Caribou, Cardinal and Nederland, during his two years' stay there. In 1872 he returned to Gilpin County and continued sash and door making in the building formerly occupied by him, adding a lumber yard and doing contracting and building. After having continued in these lines for four years he started a soda factory and bottling works on Spring street, Central City, which he operated until 1893, when he disposed of the entire business and retired with a sufficient competency to enable him to spend the remainder of his life in ease and comfort. He owns some of the most valuable property in the city, both in the residence and business portion, including the Beaman block, which contains eight commodious store rooms.
In Blackhawk Mr. Beaman married Miss Carrie Meyer, who was born in Baden, and whose father, George Meyer, came to Colorado at an early day and became a resident of Blackhawk.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. They have six children. George Henry is an engineer in Central City; Mrs. Eliza Fuelcher is also a resident of Central City; Frank, Emily, Florence and Bertie are still at home. Mr. Beaman is a Democrat, and has been several times nominated for city and county offices, making a good run, although not elected, as the party is in the minority there. He is past officer of the Knights of Honor, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Encampment, and belongs to the canton. At different times he has been president of the Gilpin County Pioneer Society. He takes an active part now, as he ever has, in promoting any cause that will be of benefit to the city. It was this public spirit that led him to build a convention hall, dance ball and opera house, combined, which property is still owned by him. His reminiscences of early life in the state are most interesting. In 1860 he and John Lutz, a partner, developed a mine near Blue River, where they built a large two-story log house, intending to start a town there, but the mine proved unprofitable and they abandoned it and left. A few years later the thriving village of Breckenridge sprung up on the same spot originally occupied by them. At another time he was offered three lots on Larimer and Fifteenth streets, in Denver, as an inducement to locate there, but that point seemed too far away, and he bought lots in Golden, as being nearer the center of population. Probably the first chair made in the state of Colorado was manufactured by him in Golden, of box elder and pine, the turning lathe used having a ten-foot treadle, and being the creation of a blacksmith of that place. While living in Blackhawk he made a cradle for his first child; all of his own children were rocked in it during their infancy, and it is now in use by his daughter. It was made entirely by him, turning, finishing and all, and was of walnut lumber brought from the states by team, and costing twenty-five cents per pound.
AVID ABNER STRICKLER, M. D., registrar of the faculty of the Denver Homeopathic Medical College and professor of principles of medicine and medical technology in the same institution, was born near Chambersburg, Pa., March 26, 1859, and is a son of Jacob and Anna (Stouffer) Strickler. The Strickler family originated in Switzerland and two brothers, Abraham and Conrad, natives of Zurich, founded the family in America. Upon their emigration to this country in 1705 they settled on the Susquehanna River in Chester County, Pa,, and many of their descendants still reside in the same locality, where they have made honorable records as citizens. From Abraham descended Henry Strickler, who removed from Franklin County, Pa. to Carroll County, Ill., and later went to Grundy County, Iowa, where he died.
Jacob, son of Henry, and the doctor's father, was born near Chambersburg in 1815 and died at the same place in February, 1895. He was a prosperous business man, and in politics a stanch friend of the Republican party. His marriage united him with Anna Stouffer, who was born April 15, 1816, and died August 10, 1881. She was the daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Oberholser) Stouffer, and was a descendant of Swiss ancestors who came to America in 1728 and settled in Lancaster County, Pa.
Of nine children the subject of this sketch was the youngest. He was reared on the old homestead and received an academic education at Chambersburg, studying the languages under Prof. J. H. Shoemaker, who was principal of the academy. After having gained a primary knowledge of medicine by study with Dr. Benjamin Bowman, in 1878 he went to Philadelphia, where he took a three years' course, graduating in 1881. During the following year he was chief interne in the Hahnemann Hospital. He began in practice for himself at Sterling, Ill., but after a year returned to Chambersburg, where he spent two years, and then took a special course in diseases of the eye and ear at the Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, under Prof. William H. Bigler. On leaving Philadelphia, he went to Duluth, Minn., where, in conjunction with Dr. F. C. Bowman, a former room-mate and classmate in medical college, he began in professional practice. After four and one-half years of successful work as a private practitioner, he was elected professor of otology in the homeopathic department of the University of Minnesota, and in order to be conveniently situated regarding clinical work, he moved to St. Paul in 1889. He continued his work very successfully until his wife's failing health made a change of climate imperitive (sic).
In the autumn of 1895 Dr. Strickler came to
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 857
Denver, where be has since built up a reputation as a skillful practitioner in his specialty, and as a well-known exponent of homeopathy. In the spring of 1896 he was elected to the chair of history of medicine in the college here and a year later was made registrar of the faculty. He is flow professor of the principles of medicine and medical technology. He is a member of the city and state associations of homeopathists, being vice-president of the Denver Homeopathic Medical Club and chairman of the executive committee of the state society. He is a member of the board of censors of the Missouri Valley Homeopathic Medical Association and a member of the American Institute, in the last named of which he was chairman of the committee on life insurance for two years and secretary of the section of eye, ear, nose and throat for the past year. Fraternally he is a Mason and a member of the Royal Arcanum, while in politics he is a silver Republican. Dr. Strickler is a widower and has two children, Lynda Louise and Gertrude Aline.
NTHONY ARNETT, an honored old citizen of Boulder, was one of the early pioneers of Colorado, as he landed in this state in the summer of 1859. He was the first settler in the town of Golden, arriving there June 10, 1859, and hauled the first log to the site, then erecting a cabin. His adventures and experiences in the "wild west" - freighting across the plains and over the mountains, suffering all kinds of hardships and privations, pursued by Indians and wild beasts, mining and prospecting, farming and merchandising and engaging in dozens of various enterprises--the history of all these unusual occurrences and situations in his career would make a book, and a very thrilling and interesting one to the most casual reader.
The parents of our subject were Louis and Clara (Shaddy) Arnett, natives of Alsace, France. The latter's father was killed during the Napoleonic wars. Louis Arnett was a farmer and dealer in hemp in his native land. In 1828 he brought his family to the United States and settled in New York City. Later he removed to Rochester; thence to Buffalo, and finally went from his home on the mountains near Warren, Pa., to Whiteside County, Ill. There he and his five sons took up land and improved farms in the vicinity of Prophetstown. The father died at the age of seventy-nine years, and five of his twelve children are deceased.
Anthony Arnett was born in Reisthof, on the Rhine, Alsace, France, July 7, 1819, and was about nine years of age when he came to the United States on a sailing vessel, which took seven weeks to reach its destination. He had but meager school advantages, and was only sixteen years old in 1835, when he started for Chicago, driving through the Maumee swamps from his old home near Warren, Pa. The winter of 1835-36 he engaged in teaming between Chicago and Michigan City, after which be homesteaded some Illinois prairie land, later selling it. then he went to Iowa, and made $450 in three months, breaking prairie. It was very hard work, however, for several yoke of cattle had to be hitched to the great plow, which cut twenty-four inches into the soil, then overgrown with rank weeds. Returning to Illinois he was similarly employed until 1846, when he embarked in the mercantile business in Portland, Ill. This enterprise did not pay very well, so he turned his attention to cultivating a forty-acre tract of land which he owned. About this time he married Mary, daughter of William and Rose Graham, of Scotch-Irish descent and natives of the town of Monaghan, Ireland. She has always been a loyal help-mate, sharing her husband's burdens and cheering him by her love and sympathy. Their four children are: Willamette, now in Alaska; Emmett, proprietor of the Boulder laundry; Eugene, who is in the army now at Manila; and Mrs. Jennie Develine.
In 1849 Mr. Arnett started for the gold fields of California, from New York City, on the bark "Clyde." they proceeded around Cape Horn, and were over six mouths on the voyage. With three comrades, who had but ten cents among them, Mr. Arnett began his career in the far west by working for his first meal in San Francisco. He soon found employment in freighting goods over the mountains to the mines, and escorted one party to their new "diggings," put up a log cabin for them, and then returned to Stockton. That winter he teamed in mud almost knee-deep, for he could obtain truly fabulous prices for so doing. One load which he conveyed to Wood's Diggings was paid for at the rate of $1 per pound, but the trip of sixty miles con-
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. sumed four days. He had made an arrangement with his three companions, above mentioned, that he should bring them all needed supplies while they mined, and that they would divide the proceeds in the spring. As a result of his labors he had over $3,000, while the three others had but $48 among them. Mr. Arnett's next venture proved successful also, for having selected a suitable site he built an 18x26 frame house, started what is known to this day as the Rock River Hotel, and inside of ten days made $1,600. In the fall he sold the hotel for $1,800. and subsequently put up another mountain house, which was not a financial success. For a time he operated a store on the Feather River, and again transported goods, but was not so prosperous during the last year of his stay in California. In the fall of 1851 he returned to Illinois, crossing Nicaragua, and was one of the first of the gold seekers to select that route. In the Prairie state he cultivated a farm of eighty acres for some eight years.
It was in 1859 that Mr. Arnett left his Illinois home in a wagon drawn by oxen, bound for Colorado. The trip took about two months, and he spent some time in Golden and Boulder before he returned to Illinois in the autumn. The following year he came back to Boulder, and in 1862 he succeeded in fetching one hundred head of cows from the east. His idea was that Boulder Valley might be made a good place for the raising of cattle, and so it proved. In 1864 he purchased the Boulder House and was its proprietor for many years, and in 1875 he erected the Brainard House. He has dealt considerably in real estate, and his mining operations have been very extensive. At present he owns the Celestial mine and the Corning lode in Ward; has investments in two mines near the Dew Drop mine; Osborne group (or Ricco Alto, meaning rich high), in Sugar Loaf, near Yellow Pine; also the Maxwell lode on Gold Hill; an interest in Horsefall mine at Gold Hill; Mack lode on Gold Hill; the Greenback at Gold Lake; Lone Widow at Sunshine; the I. O. U. at Sunshine, and a one-third interest in the La Plata lode at Rowena.
A great deal of credit is due Mr. Arnett for the liberal manner in which he has supported all enterprises calculated to develop and add to the beauty and desirability of Boulder and the Boulder Valley. That we have the state university located here is very largely the result of his influence and financial assistance. Besides donating to the institution eighty-four acres of land for a site, he gave $500 in cash on the spot. His gifts altogether, including the property estimated at its present value, would amount to about $40,000. He had an old friend in the legislature at the time that that honorable body was considering the location of the state university, and this old comrade, who had been his companion on one of his trips across the plains, used his influence, which was not slight, on behalf of Boulder, in order to favor Mr. Arnett. When the railroad was being built through the valley the officials needed right of way and financial encouragement and Mr. Arnett again came to the front, subscribing $2,200 toward the good cause. Then, with three others, he built the Caribou road, a very difficult undertaking, and believed to be an impossibility. He helped build the road to Central City, and in fact, nearly every local enterprise has received substantial aid from his generous purse. Formerly he was identified with the Republican party, and was a member of the first board of aldermen here. Politically he is now independent. Boulder County Pioneer Society holds him as one of its most honored members, and every one who knows him respects and admires him for his sterling characteristics, and for what he has accomplished in his long and useful life.
ILBER R. THORNTON, a large land owner of Larimer County and a prominent citizen of Berthoud, was born in Wyoming County, N. Y., in 1853, a son of Richard and Eleanor (Seeley) Thornton. He spent his early years in his native county and received a fair education in the public schools, after which he engaged in teaching. In 1877 he cane west and for a short time sojourned in Longmont, but came to Larimer County in the spring of 1878 and took up a tract of school land. For three years after coming to this county he taught school, in addition to superintending the improvement of his land. On the foot hills near the Big Thompson he took up a quarter-section of government land, but soon sold it and bought a stock ranch in the hills. For some years, and until 1882, he en-
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