HARRISON FOSTER.
Mardos Collection
HARRISON FOSTER.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 873
barked in farm pursuits in the old Greeley colony district. For two winters he was employed in the construction of the Larimer and Weld ditch. In r88o he took up the homestead where he has since resided, lying on the road from Greeley to Eaton. At that time the village of Eaton had not been founded, but he saw the possibilities of the district and as water was secured in the spring of 1881 he was favorably situated for farming. The land had not been broken, and not a furrow had ever been turned in the soil, until he settled upon the place and began to break and improve the property. He is one of the inteiligent farmers of Weld County, and uses good judgment in all of his transactions. Besides his farm interests, he holds stock in both the Larimer and Weld reservoir and the ditch.
In politics Mr. McArtney is identified with the People's party. He and his family attend the Catholic Church of Greeley. February 18, 1834, he was united in marriage with Margaret, daughter of Michael Rowley, of Franklin County, N. Y. They have one child, Nellie C.
ARRISON FOSTER owns and occupies a ranch seven miles northeast of Longmont, in Weld County, comprising a quarter-section of land, which he purchased in January, 1878, and upon which he established his home in the summer of 1880. After a time he acquired an additional forty acres, making his farm one of two hundred acres. He also owns one hundred and twenty acres given over to Highland Ditch Company's reservoir No. 3. As a representative of the integrity and intelligence of the farmers of Weld County, he occupies a high place in the esteem of those who know him. By a course of good management he has become well-to-do financially, and his valuable place indicates in a marked degree to what good purpose the owner has labored.
In Cortland County, N. Y., the subject of this sketch was born December to, 1846, a son of George H. and Louisa M. (Burr) Foster. He was one of six children, four of whom are living, namely: Ann, wife of John Bates, of New London, Ohio; Helen, who married Louis T. Ruggles, of Bettsville, Ohio; Harrison; and George, a farmer living in Fitsville, Ohio. The father, who was a native of Delhi, Delaware County, N. Y., born in 1813, grew to manhood in his native place, where he married Miss Burr, who was born there in 1811. After his marriage he engaged in farming. In 1856 he removed to Illinois, but after one year spent in Ogle County, he went back east as far as Ohio, where he settled in Huron County. There the greater part of the remaining years of his life were spent, his death occurring in 1895. His first wife died in 1860, and afterward he married Mrs. Delia (Rounds) Ryan.
The boyhood days of our subject were uneventfully passed on the home farm. In the spring of 1868 he went to Toledo, and during the summer engaged in teaming. On his return home in the fall he gathered in the crop (his father being sick with the ague) and during the winter he chopped cord wood and split rails. Early in 1869, in partnership with a brother-in-law, he opened a meat shop in Shelby, Ohio, but after eight months of unsuccessful business the shop was closed. After a short time spent in various kinds of work he began to work in a sawmill, where he was soon promoted from the lowest position to that of head sawyer. He continued in that place until April, 1873, when he came to Colorado, arriving in Denver on the 4th of April. The Sunday following was spent in Denver, and he then came to Boulder, thence to a mill on Left Hand Creek, eight miles northwest of Boulder, to accept a position which had been tendered him while still in Ohio. He at once began to work in the mill, but not being satisfied with the position, he quit, and went to work in a shingle mill near by. He remained in that mill until November, with the exception of a short time spent in the mountains, and one month spent on the plains hunting buffalo and antelope. From the latter trip he returned with his wagon, to which he had hitched two yoke of oxen, heavily loaded with game, most of which was sold in Longmont, the buffalo meat bringing three cents per pound and the antelope only $2 apiece.
While Mr. Foster was out hunting, his former employers had put a sawing rig in connection with their shingle mill, and he was given charge of the saw. In April of the next year he was united in marriage with Miss Alice Lloyd, daughter of Noah Lloyd, of Red Oak, Iowa. Desiring to go in business for lnmnself, he asked his employer for a settlement, as not only was a large
874
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. amount of back salary due him, but his employer had also borrowed money from him. Being unable to effect a monetary settlement, he was given a half-interest in the mill. Some eight months later he bought out his partner and ran the business alone, continuing it until the summer of 1880, when he sold out and came to his present property. Since then he has given his time to general farming. In addition to his fanning interests he is a director in the Highland Ditch Company, having been connected with it for the past fifteen years. He is also president of St. Vrain Reservoir and Fish Company of Longinont. He was one of the charter members of Mountain Valley Camp, of Longmont, and has also served as master of his local grange. He is not connected with any church, but is a liberal supporter of religious work and charitable enterprises. He and his wife became the parents of three daughters, one of whom, Blanche, is deceased. Elsie L. is the wife of Percy L. Thompson, of Longmont, and Nellie B. is attending the Loretto Academy near Denver.
HARLES E. MILLER, deceased, was numbered among the honored pioneers of Colorado, who located in Weld County when this locality was a wild and unimproved region. In the work of development he took an active part and aided in opening up the country to civilization. As the years passed he faithfully performed his duties of citizenship, and his interest in the welfare and progress of the community never abated. Becoming widely and favorably known he made many friends, and his death was a loss to the entire community.
Mr. Miller was born in Dutchess County, N. Y., February 24, 1834, a son of Edmund and Mary B. Miller, farming people, and he remained in New York until he reached the age of twenty-four. With a large party he came overland with ox teams from Nebraska City to Fort Bridger, where they were detained by snow, and they finally decided to return. They were engaged in freighting for Russell Waddell & Co., but with a four-mule team they started back, it being Christmas before they reached Nebraska. Out of twenty-five only seventeen lived to reach the government train which was sent out from Fort Kearney to meet them. The following spring Mr. Miller went to Pike's Peak, and he followed prospecting and mining in California Gulch. He and his cousin, John T. Doughty, employed one hundred miners in placer and gulch mining, and met with ordinary success. In 1863 our subject accepted a position as driver for the government, under Orlando Black, then wagonmaster, and carried supplies to the troops stationed in Denver. The following year he accepted a clerkship with Campell & Jones, wholesale grocers and government contractors of Denver, but was with them only a short time when he was made government teamster under Major Fillmore, paymaster on the frontier at that time, and he retained that position during the winter of 1864-65.
On the 5th of June, 1865, Mr. Miller was united in marriage with Miss Augusta B. Dibble, better known as Augusta Goff, her step-father being Lorin A. Goff, chief of police at Denver. She was born at Cainsville, Iowa, now Council Bluffs, May 22, 1847, and is a daughter of Ira T. and Lucretia A. (Lane) Dibble. At the age of sixteen she accompanied her parents on their removal to Denver, where she made her home until her marriage. She lost her father when only five years old, and her mother afterward married Mr. Goff, who was killed by lightning on the streets of Denver. By her first marriage she had four children: Nancy M., widow of Thomas Donahue and a resident of Omaha, Neb.; Charlotta, who died in infancy; Augusta B.; andEmma J., wife of George Stewart, of Myrtle Point, Ore. There was one daughter by the second union: Buena, deceased wife of Charles E. Goodfriend, of Leadville, Colo. For her third husband the mother married John Orrendorf, of Denver, now a resident of St. Louis. She died at Denver, January 22, 1889, and was buried in Riverside Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Miller had no children of their own. However, they adopted Carrie D., daughter of Shelby Thomas, at the age of one year and seven months; she is now the wife of Walter Sylvester, who lives on the old Miller homestead. Mrs. Miller, now Mrs. George Carter, of Evans, also reared a boy from the age of thirteen years, John Taylor, who is now married and living near Fort Lnpton. She is at present rearing a brother and sister, Lloyd and Ilma children of Zachariah Reynolds.
Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Miller and his cousin, Mr. Doughty, bought what is still
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 875
known as the old Beaver Creek ranch, on the South Platte, along the old stage route between Denver and Omaha, but disposed of it nine months later and purchased the old Fisher ranch, now within the corporate limits of Denver. On selling that place to Edward Kettle, Mr. Miller removed to Castle Rock, south of the city, where he made his home upon a ranch for two years, but was forced to leave it in the fall of 1868 on account of the hostile Indians. In the spring of 1869 he moved to the Godfrey Bottom along the Platte, where he bought a claim of Mr. Doughty, which he sold five years later to Mr. Griffin. For the following four years he occupied rented land, but in 1878 bought the Perkins place; but sold it a year later and rented the Godfrey place until 1881, when he bought a ranch of Kram Brothers in Weld County. There he spent his remaining years, his death occurring at that place May 11, 1892, and his remains being interred in the Riverside Cemetery of Denver. He was a leading spirit in all enterprises tending toward the improvement of the county; was president of No. 3 Irrigating Ditch Company, assisted in organizing school district No. 65; and was a member of the school board for some time, serving as its secretary at his death. He was one of the organizers and charter members of the Weld County Fair Association, and his aid was never withheld from any object which he believed calculated to prove of public benefit. Politically he was a strong Democrat, and as one of the prominent and influential citizens of his community was a recognized leader in local affairs, but he cared nothing for the honors or emoluments of public office.
AMES A. DANIELS is the owner of a good ranch on section 6, township 4, range 66 west, Weld County. He is one of the frontiersmen of 1859, and has been a witness of the great changes and increasing population of the now wonderful state of Colorado. His experience covers many a year of hardship, strange adventure and privation and struggle, known only, in the fullest extent, by the hardy pioneer, the harbinger of civilization and culture. Little did he dream, in the quiet, peaceful days of his boyhood, in the English home of his parents, what a future of endurance under trial and constant struggle against cold and hunger it would be his lot to pass through within a few years. But those days have passed and he has entered into the fruits of his toil, being well provided for, and a man of position and respect.
Born in Gloucestershire, England, August 17, 1838, our subject is a son of Michael and Martha (Blackmore) Daniels, both natives of the same section. The father was a mechanic and stonecutter, and pursued his trades in the town of Burley, the scene of the childhood of James A. The latter was apprenticed to the baker's trade when he was fourteen years old, and for nine months worked for a man in a small tow about three miles from his old home. Not Iiking the place, he ran away to London, and hired out as a stable-boy. At the end of a year he became an employe in a bakery carried on by a woman named Woodard, and continued there about two years.
In 1857, in company with his brother Henry, Mr. Daniels sailed for America, going to Quebec, and thence to Wisconsin. In that state another brother, Hophny, a farmer, was living. Our subject found work upon a farm for a year or two and in the spring of 1859 set out for Kansas. Upon reaching the Missouri River, the gold excitement swept him away, and he joined a company of eighteen or twenty men. Their equipment consisting of one wagon and three yoke of cattle, they were obliged to agree to the rule that no one should get into the wagon while it was moving. Thus they walked the entire distance across the plains, the wagon being used for the conveyance of their supplies. At the end of nearly three months they reached the mountains, June 1. Denver was then a group of ten or twelve cabins, with one frame house, that of Jack 0' Neil. Mr. Daniels went to Clear Creek Valley, near the present Blackhawk, and there he found encamped and living in their wagons, some four hundred or more men, who, like himself, were interested in mining operations. That season he prospected without success and in the fall and winter following he was in Russell Gulch. The next spring he and others fitted out a man to go as their agent on an exploring tour, and it transpired that he was one of the discoverers of California Gulch. Mr. Daniels followed his agent as soon as he heard of the great find, and was chagrined to learn that the claim which had been
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. taken for him was ignored by the rushing prospectors. Then he went to the southwestern part of the state, only to return and resume operations in California Gulch. He was one of the first miners in the Buckskin Joe mines in 186 1, and was actively engaged in working the Gregory tunes later.
In 1863 Mr. Daniels added a squatter's claim to a quarter-section of his present ranch, and occupied it under the homestead act. The place was wild land, the only improvement consisting of a rude cabin. The new owner became a dairyman, disposing of his supplies in Denver at good prices. In 1865 he went to Iowa, having sold his cattle, and intending to buy more stock, but he finally returned without purchasing. About this time he and Mr. Bennett, with a few other farmers, organized the Big Thompson and Platte River Ditch Company. The ditch was made seven miles in length and four feet wide across the bottom, it being the work of the promoters of the enterprise, and dug out entirely with shovels. It was not large enough to be effective and some ten years later its width was doubled. Mr. Daniels was president of the company for nine years and for five years has been its secretary. In 1882 he took his herd of some two hundred cattle to Wyoming, but this was not a judicious move, as many of them perished in the cold weather. He has purchased another quarter-section of land, it being watered by the Loveland and Greeley ditch, in which corporation he is a shareholder. He aided in the organization of school district No. 21, and gave the land upon which the school was built, in 1879, besides serving as a director most of the time since. When the Weld County Pair Association was organized he took an active part in the enterprise, and was made vice-president of the company.
April 2, 1889, Mr. Daniels married Mrs. Fannie S. Beer, widow of Edward Beer, and daughter of John and Mary (Osmotherly) Denniss. Mrs. Daniels was born in St. Neots, England. Her father was a civil engineer in the employ of the government. He went to India when Mrs. Daniels was six years old, taking his family with him. They remained abroad for four years, then returning to England by way of the Suez canal, and Cairo, Egypt, in which quaint city they spent three days. On the way to India the family went in a sailing-vessel, which took seventeen weeks to make the trip, as it was driven far from its course. The father was engaged in railroad construction and, with his household, lived at a point about six hundred miles from the coast, back from Beypore, in the jungle. Under his charge five hundred laborers worked, and he was allowed eight body servants. His death occurred in East Bengal, in 1866. Subsequently the widow, her four sons and daughter came to America and settled in Beardstown, Ill. There she afterwards married again and in that town Mrs. Daniels was first married. Mr. and Mrs. Beer had three children. Edward J. married Floris Combs, of Kansas City, and is now taking the whole charge of the half section of land owned by our subject. Eleanor is the wife of Louis H. Bailey, an employe of the R. H. Johns Grocery Company of Greeley, and they have a son, Alfred Harold. Alfred A. is a member of Company F, First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, now in the Philippine Islands.
Mr. Loustalet was born at Brighton, Colo., May 14, 1870, and is a worthy representative of one of the oldest and most honored pioneer families of the state, his parents being Honore and Marie (Canton) Loustalet, who are represented elsewhere in this volume. At the age of two years he was brought to Kersey, this region at that time being a vast wilderness and the few settlements widely scattered. As his father died when he was but seven years old, he early began to assist in the management of the estate, and soon acquired an excellent knowledge of every department of farm work and cattle-raising. He also obtained a good practical education, attending the public schools of Greeley, and also taking a course at the Greeley Business College. Thus well fitted for the responsible duties of life he has met with success in his business undertakings, and
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