JOHN THOMPSON.
Mardos Collection
JOHN THOMPSON.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 1003
The first seventeen years of our subject's life were passed at home and in the acquirement of a common-school education. In the spring of 1866 he crossed the ocean and landed in New York City, from which place he went direct to Brookfield, Ohio, and secured employment in the coal mines. Prior to leaving his native land he had been employed in mines, so was familiar with the business From 1866 to 1876 he continued in the coal mines of Brookfield and Urichsville, Ohio, Evansville, Ind., and Murphysboro, Ill. In 1876 he came to Colorado and settled in Erie, where he worked for four years in the mines. He then became a salesman for J. T. Williams, a general merchant, and by energy and business ability gradually rose from a clerkship to a partnership in the business. The firm was then composed of J. T. and J. W. Williams and Mr. Probert. Later J. T. Williams retired from the business, since which time the store has been conducted by the two younger members of the firm.
During his residence in Illinois, in 1872, Mr. Probert was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Thomas, a native of Ohio. To their marriage three children have been born, Harriet, William and Anna. The family are highly respected and are prominent in the best social circles of their town.
Fraternally Mr. Probert is identified with Erie Lodge No. 46, I. O. O. F., and Lily of the Valley Encampment No. 10. Politically he is a supporter of Greenback principles. For one term he served as clerk of the town of Erie. He is especially interested in educational matters and during the twelve years that he has held position as member of the school board he has been instrumental in raising the standard of education and promoting the welfare of the schools.
OHN THOMPSON is one of the representative agriculturists of Weld County, and owns one of the finest and most highly improved ranches in this section of the state. To himself alone he owes his present prosperity, as it is the result of years of patient, zealous labor and wisely directed business ability. He has been a public-spirited citizen, doing his full share toward the general welfare, and endeavoring to promote all worthy enterprises to the best of his ability.
Mr. Thompson inherits from Scotch ancestors many of the sterling traits of character he possesses. His parents, Robert and Jane (Pennman) Thompson, were natives of Scotland, and their marriage took place in the land of the thistle. They came to America in 1819, and at first settled in Rhode Island. Later they removed to Massachusetts, where the father, who was a weaver of woolen cloth on the old-fashioned hand-looms, found plenty of employment at his trade. In 1844 he removed from Massachusetts to Wisconsin, where he became one of the pioneer farmers of Racine County, and there passed the remainder of his life.
Seven brothers and sisters of the subject of this article grew to maturity. Grace, the eldest, who was born in Scotland, married Emerson Lombard and settled in Wisconsin. Robert P. was a merchant in New York City for years. Thomas P. was one of the Union colony who settled in Greeley, Colo., in 1870. Jane M. married Gustavus Goodrich, who was a captain in the Twenty-second Wisconsin Regiment during the Civil war and died soon after the cessation of hostilities from disease and exposure. William remained on the old homestead in Wisconsin. Margaret is the wife of James C. Bennett, of Kalamazoo, Mich. James lived in Wisconsin up to the time of the Civil war, when he enlisted in the Eighth Regiment of that state. His death resulted from the exposure and hardships incident to his army life.
John Thompson was born in Worcester, Mass., September 29, 1829, and in the Bay state the first fifteen years of his life were passed. Then, accompanying the rest of the family to the west, he grew to manhood on the Wisconsin farm. He finished his common-school education with a course in the University of Wisconsin. He learned the weaver's trade of his father, but never followed it to any extent. Instead, he cultivated the home farm until 1871, when he joined the Union colony that had settled in Greeley the previous year. He had secured a certificate of membership a year before, however, and upon his arrival in Greeley he took up a five-acre lot near the town and bought a pre-emption right to an eighty-acre tract of land on section 24, township 6, range 66. This is a portion of his present farm, which now includes one hundred and twenty acres of land purchased by him in the fall of 1879.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. He built a comfortable house and made other substantial improvements, and engaged actively in the cultivation of his land and in stock-raising. He was one of the original stockholders of the Farmers' Mercantile Company and owns some stock in the Cache la Poudre Reservoir Company and in ditch No. 2, which provide irrigation for his farm. Politically he is a Republican.
In Wisconsin Mr. Thompson married, in 1857, Miss Mary Lombard, by whom he had four children. One child died and Mrs. Thompson departed this life in March, 1866. November 1, 1868, Mr. Thompson married Kate N. Near, daughter of Barnard H. and Eleanor (Tarpany) Near, natives of New York. Mrs. Thompson was born in the city of Utica, N. Y. The three children of Mr. Thompson's first marriage are: Herbert J., ex-county treasurer of Weld County; William O., a farmer near Lincoln, Neb.; and Mary R., wife of Max K. Gerry, who resides on our subject's farm and assists in its management.
EORGE STROEHLE enjoys the distinction of doing the best work and putting on the market the best buckets for hoisting in Colorado. He has large boiler shops in Blackhawk, which are under the immediate management of his son, and the wok turned out is first-class in every particular. Having spent many years in bringing his business to its present state of perfection, he has now practically retired from active business.
He was born in Tyrol, Austria, in 1838, his parents being George and Catherine (Berhtold) Stroehle. His father was a stone cutter and stone mason, and came to the United States soon after the death of his wife, locating first in New Orleans, and later in St. Louis. He went to California during the gold fever in 1849, but returned to Rock Island, Ill., where he died in 1865. There were eight children in his family, six of whom are living and came to America with him.
The eldest of these was George Stroehle, our subject, who was about twelve years old when he came to this country. He attended school in Rock Island one winter and was then apprenticed to learn the boiler trade in the same city. At the breaking out of the war he was among the first to offer his services to the country. In August, 1861, he enlisted in the Forty-fifth Illinois Regiment, and was a member of the band. He was at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth and Jackson, Tenn. When orders were given to disband, all the regiment bands were mustered out, and he returned to Rook Island. In 1865 he came by mule team to Colorado, stopping at Denver and Blackhawk. He remained there only until December, when he returned to Rock Island. The following year he came back to this county by mule team, bringing his family, and started a boiler shop in the old St. Louis mill. This he conducted for some time and then built a small shop which was replaced in 1895 by his present large shops. He manufactures and repairs boilers, makes buckets, and does all kinds of sheet iron work, having the oldest, largest and best repair shop in the county. In 1896 he took his son, John, into partnership with him and the firm is known as George Stroehle & Son.
In Rock Island, Ill., in July, 1861, Mr. Stroehle married Miss Christine Stapp and the next month left his young bride to be a soldier. She was born in Hessen-Darmstadt, and bore him three children, viz.: Annie, Mrs. W. W. Huntington, of Gilman, Colo.; John, who is in partnership with his father; and Fred, who is also with his father. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge, and Ellsworth Post No. 20, G. A. R., and is a stalwart Republican.
ENEDICT SCHUTZ is postmaster and general merchant of Franktown, a village in the Cherry Creek Valley, thirty-three miles southeast of Denver, and ten miles from Parker, the nearest railroad point. He was born in Muetenberg, Canton Berne, Switzerland, April 21, 1839, and at the age of fourteen years accompanied his parents, Jacob and Mary (Palmer) Schutz, to the United States. The voyage, on a sailing vessel, consumed about sixty days and was extremely rough; the passengers more than once, in time of storm, feared that the ship, which was an old one, would go down.
Landing in New York in January, 1854, the family proceeded direct to Chicago, where they expected to find relatives, but learned on arrival that they had moved to Michigan. The father took the family about thirty miles from Chicago and settled in a small place. He had but limited
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 1005
means and soon afterward was paralyzed, and after some months of suffering died. The widowed mother was left with five children, two of whom were younger than Benedict. The latter secured employment on a farm and thus assisted in the support of the family. His opportunities for securing an education were meagre, but he attended school whenever it was possible to do so.
In 1859, with his older brother Jacob, and a brother-in-law, Mr. Schutz started for Kansas, making the trip with a wagon and two yoke of oxen. For a short time they squatted on government land on the Whitewater River, after which they joined a company and proceeded to Colorado, arriving in August, 1859, on the present site of Denver. Soon Mr. Schutz came back up Cherry Creek to a sawmill near where Russellville now stands, and here he secured work. For some years he engaged in hauling lumber to Denver. In 1862 he took a squatters' claim on Russell Gulch, which he sold two years later and invested the money in stock. He already had ten cows and the purchase of fifty-three calves gave him a good start. He continued successfully engaged in the cattle business until 1881, when he sold out for $6,000 and the following year embarked in the mercantile business. For a few years he was in partnership with another man, whom he later bought out, and has since continued the business alone. During the early years of his residence in this state, in 1864, he enlisted for one hundred days in Company M, Third Colorado Cavalry, and was stationed at Camp Wheeler during the larger part of his time. He always votes the straight Republican ticket, and in religion is of the Protestant faith.
ON. I. A. VAN GORDEN, a well-known citizen of Morrison, Jefferson County, was a member of the sixth general assembly of the Colorado legislature, and served with credit to himself and constituents in that honorable body. He was elected on the Democratic ticket, receiving a handsome majority, although the county was strongly Republican at the time. The following year, 1887, he was appointed to the office of water commissioner by Governor Adams, and was again honored in this manner by Governor Waite in 1893, and in 1897 by the present state executive. A man of liberal education and training, he is a friend to the people, to education and to all other measures which, as he believes, are for the general welfare. In his home district he has served as a member of the school board for many years. He was one of the most influential men in the organization of Morrison Lodge No. 82, I. O. O. F., and is also identified with the encampment.
The father of the above-named gentleman was John W. Van Gorden, who was born in Delaware in 1823, and, with his parents, removed to Susquehanna County, Pa., when he was a child of about eight years. The farm on which the family settled was an almost unbroken forest, but with energy and untiring industry they set to work to clear and improve the place, and in time succeeded in making a model farm of the tract. John W. fell heir to the homestead and dwelt upon it altogether some sixty-six years, or until death claimed him, April 3, 1898. In his choice of a wife he was especially fortunate, for she was companion, friend and helpmate, a sharer of all his joys and sorrows. Her maiden name was Louisa Love, her father being Andrew Love, a neighbor and worthy pioneer of the same county and township as that in which the Van Gorden family lived. Six children were born to the marriage of John W. and Louisa Van Gorden. One has been called to the silent land and the others are: I. A., of this sketch; Andrew L., of Carbondale, Pa.; John L., of Pine City, Minn.; Charles E., living on the old homestead; and Jennie M., wife of Frank Pinnock, of Meshoppen, Wyoming County, Pa. The father was a man universally respected and loved; a trusted counsellor (sic), a loyal friend, a devoted citizen. In the home his best qualities shone forth, and among those of his own household he was a model of uprightness and loving kindness. He was an earnest Christian, and all who knew him feel that the world is truly a better place for his too brief presence in it. His earthly labors finished, he sleeps peacefully in the beautiful Brick Chapel cemetery on the bank of the Susquehanna River, two miles above Meshoppen.
The birth of Hon. I. A. Van Gorden took place in Susquehanna County, Pa., June 6, 1852. He received a good education, completing his studies in the Factoryville (Wyoming County, Pa.,) high school. From that time until he was twenty-eight years of age he taught school during the winter terms and worked on the farm the
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. remainder of the year. In the spring of 1881 he concluded to try his fortunes in the west, and came to Colorado. Here he passed the first year of his residence within the state in selling goods for the World's Publishing Company. He then settled upon a farm in Bear Creek Valley, and has devoted much of his time since to the cultivation of his homestead. Possessing in a large degree the stable, industrious and admirable traits of his honored father, he enjoys the high regard of a large circle of friends here and in the east, his former home.
In July, 1884, Mr. Van Gorden married Miss Margaret Cole, a daughter of William F. Cole, an old and esteemed citizen and prosperous merchant of Susquehanna County, Pa. Five children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Van Gorden, namely: Maud H., Grace M., John W., I. A., Jr., and Frank V.
Frederick Avery, the father of our subject, was born in Connecticut, and was of an old family in that state. He removed to Pittsfield, Mass., where he was occupied in farming for years. About 1840 he took his family to Wisconsin and became a resident of Lake Mills, Jefferson County. His death occurred in that place, after which his widow, Mary (Croson) Avery, went to live with her children, and died in Arkansas. She was born and reared to womanhood in Connecticut.
G. M. Avery, one of ten children, was born in Pittsfield, Mass., February 28, 1833. His chief schooling was gained in Wisconsin, and as soon as he could be of use on the farm he gave his assistance to his father in the management of the homestead. In 1856 he came as far west as Kansas, and carried on a farm near Lawrence until 1859, when he became anxious to come to the gold fields of Colorado. Starting out with ox teams over the old trail of the Arkansas and Santa Fe, he finally arrived at his destination, Central City, and engaged in mining and prospecting. At first he tried lode mining, and in the spring of 1860 turned his energies to gulch mining in Nevadaville and vicinity, there he built a cabin, whip-sawing the lumber, as he had previously done when he constructed a shanty at Gregory mine. It was in the same year, 1860, that he crossed the snowy range to California Gulch, now known as Leadville. At the end of one season he started for Mobile, Ala., where a situation had been offered him, but he went no further than Greenwood, Ark., below Fort Smith, as he found that the coming event of the great Civil war had so unsettled business that it was not advisable for him to remain. Returning to Springfield, Mo., he thence went to Kansas, and in 1863 drifted back to Colorado with a mule train across the plains. The same year found him in Empire, and his time occupied in mining and prospecting. That fall he returned to Lawrence, Kan., was married, and the following spring brought his wife with him to Empire. After a residence here of two years or more they resumed farming on the homestead owned by Mr. Avery in Kansas, but in 1868 they became permanent citizens of Empire. Mr. Avery discovered and began the operation of the Cambria mine, and was also the discoverer and developer of the Denver City lode and the Americus City lode. Both of the last named are fine properties, and he is still a one-half partner in the first mentioned, and one-third owner in the other. In addition to this he was superintendent of the Clear Creek Milling Company, and holds like positions with the Hecla Gold Mining Company and the Silver Mountain Mine Company. The proprietors of the last mentioned are Boston capitalists, and the mines in question are the Pittsburg and Silver Mountain lodes, large producers. The mines are near northern Empire, while the mills are at Empire station.
The marriage of Mr. Avery and Miss Laura Sinclair, a native of Ohio, was celebrated in Law-
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