GEORGE DANE
Mardos Collection
GEORGE DANE
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 1059
the high school, graduating at the age of eighteen with honors. For a year or more he kept books for his father, who was engaged in the grain business.
Coming to Colorado in 1891, the subject of this sketch began to teach school in Elbert County, and this occupation he followed for four terms, mostly in the summer seasons. Meantime he engaged in the study of medicine under Dr. McNeilan, of Elbert, and took a course of lectures in Gross Medical College, Denver, from which he was graduated in 1896, with the degree of M. D. Soon afterward he began to practice in Elbert and here he has since built up a good practice and has become known as a rising young physician, with a prosperous future before him. He is identified with the American Medical Association and the Colorado State Medical Society, and takes a warm interest in everything pertaining to the profession. In 1898 he was chosen county physician and health officer, which position he is filling with efficiency. In Elbert Camp No. 132, Woodmen of the World, he is the examining physician, as he is also for the Equitable, New York and Mutual Life Insurance Companies. In political belief he is a Republican.
EORGE DANE, a farmer living twelve miles southeast of Harman, Arapahoe County, owns two hundred and eighty acres of land situated on section 30, township 5 north, range 66 west. He was born in the County of Victoria, parish of Andover, Canada, February 16, 1835, a son of William and Mary Dane, natives respectively of England and the north of Ireland. Both were reared in their native shires, and coming to America, were married near St. John's, after which they settled upon a farm.
Assisting his father in the cultivation of the home farm, the subject of this sketch spent the first twenty-three years of his life beneath the parental roof. At that age he went to Minnesota and for three years was employed in the pineries, it being the agreement that he was to receive $16 a month, but hard times befell his employer, who was unable to sell his lumber, and as a consequence the wages were not paid the last year. Leaving Minnesota in March, 1860, he went with a company to Pike's Peak, paying them $60 for his board and the transportation of his baggage, while he walked all the way and did the cooking during part of the time. In July he arrived at California Gulch, where he worked until fall, and then went to New Mexico prospecting for gold. Only a few months were spent there, and he then returned to Colorado, where he remained at Gold Run until the fall of 1861.
About that time Mr. Dane enlisted as a private in Company E, First Colorado Cavalry, and after a few months was promoted from the ranks to be first corporal. From time to time he received other promotions, until he was made third sergeant, but was then reduced to the ranks because he had made merry at a ludicrous blunder of the first lieutenant and had refused to apologize for so doing, declaring he had nothing to apologize for. He was in the company enlisted by Maj. Scott J. Anthony, a company that enlisted as cavalry, but served as infantry for some time, until they could get their horses. They were in New Mexico for a time and took part in the battle of Pache Canon, then returned to Colorado City and received their horses, after which they engaged principally in guard duty in this state.
After serving until December 1, 1864, Mr. Dane was mustered out in Denver. During his term of service he was never in the hospital nor the guard house. He had saved his earnings, amounting to about $1,100, it having been his custom to work at anything he could find to do, and at one time he cut hay with a scythe at Booneville, Ark., for the government, receiving $4 a day. After his discharge he began to cut wood near his present home. During the winter, in visiting a sick soldier, he was exposed to the measles, and caught the disease; during his sickness he lay in a shanty, with a blanket for a door. In the spring of 1865 he fitted up a team of oxen and engaged in freighting, which proved profitable. In the fall of 1868 he returned to his old home in Canada, and there, March 26, 1869, he married Miss Elizabeth L. Clark, a daughter of Enoch and Sarah A. (Phamphey) Clark. She was born within a mile of the birthplace of her husband and had received fair educational advantages in her home neighborhood. Her father was born in Rochester, England, at Rochester Castle, and was a son of Sir Richard and Mary (Russell) Clark and grandson of Lord John Russell; her mother was a native of Canada.
Directly after their marriage Mr. and Mrs.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Dane came to Colorado and settled, in August, 1869, at their present place. He had bought a squatter's claim of eighty acres, which he afterward homesteaded, together with eighty acres given him for a soldier's claim. He has since bought one hundred and twenty acres, and all of the land, two hundred and eighty acres, is improved. The larger part of his money has been made in stock-raising, which be has found a profitable industry. In the Grange he has served as master one year and many years as overseer, and in the State Grange has held office as gate keeper.
The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Dane is John F., who was horn on the home farm May 24, 1870, graduated from the East Denver high school and married Isabelle Kenney, by whom he has a daughter, Ethel H., born in Denver October 20, 1892. He is an employe of the United States government in the Denver postoffice.
Politically Mr. Dane is a Republican and has voted that ticket ever since the presidential election of 1864. He has been content with voting and has never desired to receive for himself the votes of others, preferring to give his time to business matters. In 1869 he was made a Mason in the blue lodge at Presque Isle, and soon afterward was demitted to Union Lodge No, 7, at Denver. He is also identified with the Association of Colorado Pioneers, and is a member of Lincoln Post No. 4, G. A. R.
AMES HENRY, who was a member of the Union colony and a pioneer of Weld County, resides on township 6, range 65, directly north of Greeley. As a pioneer, he has been identified with the history of this section from its earliest settlement, and enjoys the distinction of having built the first house in Greeley. In spite of his eighty-seven years he is active and rugged, retaining all his faculties except his hearing. All of his work is under his direct supervision, though his plans are carried out with the assistance of hired men, it being unnecessary for him to do manual labor. Strong and hearty, it seemed possible for him to enjoy many more years of usefulness, and that he may do so is the wish of his large circle of friends.
Born in New York City, March 28, 1812, the subject of this sketch is a son of Thomas and Susan Henry, natives respectively of New Jersey and New York. His father, who followed the occupation of a mason and builder in the metropolis, bought a farm in Newtown (now part of New York City) in 1828 and there carried on farm pursuits. Politically he was a Democrat, and for some time held office as assistant captain of the watchmen of New York (then employed instead of policemen). In religion he was identified with the Methodist Church. By his marriage to Susan Lawrence, nine children were born, James being the youngest of the sons. He attended school on Long Island, and learned the mason's trade, which he followed for a time in New York, and afterward worked in different places. After some time in New Jersey he went to Pennsylvania, from there to North Carolina, thence to New Orleans (where he worked in a foundry) and finally secured employment in Memphis. In 1870 he came to Colorado and for five years engaged in building houses in Greeley, also erected the Episcopal Church. In 1875 he came to his present place of residence, and without assistance put up the house where he now resides. It is of adobe, covered with a cement that gives it a neat finish, and possesses the desirable quality of being cool in summer and warm in winter. Here he raises grain, alfalfa and potatoes, the work being under his personal supervision. He is also a stockholder in No. 2 ditch.
In political matters Mr. Henry is independent, with Democratic tendencies. He has been twice married. One child was born of his first Union, but it died young. In 1844 he married Miss Simons, and they had three children, but only one survives, Drusilla, who married Ben C. Rinks and resides near the old homestead.
ILLIS BRYANT. One mile northwest of Sedalia, Douglas County, lies the farm owned and operated by Mr. Bryant. It was purchased by him in 1871 and consists of seven hundred acres, which he has improved and upon which he is engaged in ranching stockraising and the dairy business. In 1873 he erected a substantial brick house, but it burned to the ground in 1897, and soon afterward he built the residence the family now occupies.
The son of John and Fannie (Smith) Bryant, our subject was born in Worcester County, Mass.,
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July 10, 1825. He was next to the youngest among six children and was seven years of age when his father died. Afterward his mother sold the farm and settled in Holden, Worcester County, where he attended the public schools and completed the regular high-school course. At the age of eighteen he taught one term of school. In 1844 he went to Illinois, joining a brother in Nauvoo, Hancock County, and was there at the time the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, was killed at the county-seat, Carthage. He had seen the famous apostle of Mormonism on his way to the county jail.
After a year in Nauvoo Mr. Bryant returned to Massachusetts, but two years later joined his brother, who had moved to St. Louis, Mo. For two years he clerked in a store that his brother had opened. He then again returned to Holden, Mass., where he clerked in a store, and later was made a partner in the business under the firm name of Nichols & Bryant. In 1856 he went to Chicago, and made a tour of inspection of the northwestern country as far as Lake Superior. While in Minnesota he took up a government claim and improved the land, for which he secured a deed. In 1860 he came to Colorado, where he engaged in mining, prospecting and freighting for some years, until the purchase of his present property in 1871. Though now advanced in years, he is as active and mentally vigorous as he was twenty years ago, and bids fair to be spared for many years to come. His mother, who was born in 1789, spent most of her life in Massachusetts, but finally went to Plainfield, Ill., and made her home with a daughter until her death, which occurred January 14, 1889, when ninety-nine years, eight months and twenty-six days old.
On Thanksgiving day of 1873 Mr. Bryant married Miss Mary A. Murphy, of Douglas County, but a native of Chicago, Ill. In 1859 she accompanied her parents, Henry C. and Mary (Roice) Murphy, to Colorado, where her mother died in 1875 and her father is still living in Denver. By her marriage she is the mother of an only daughter, Fannie B., who received an excellent education in a high school of Denver and the State Normal at Greeley (from which she graduated in 1898) and also took a business course in Colorado Central Business College of Denver. She is fitted, both by natural qualifications and education, for the teacher's profession, and is intensely devoted to this work, in which she has met with striking success.
In early life a Whig, Mr. Bryant cast his first presidential ballot for Gen. Winfield Scott. In 1856 he supported John C. Fremont, and ever since then he has cast a straight Republican ticket. At one time he was a candidate for county commissioner, but was defeated by a few votes. In Worcester, Mass., in 1855, he was made a mason, and has since taken all the degrees through the Royal Arch. He was a member of Morning Star Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Worcester, Mass., at the time of coming west, in which he was a paid-up life member, and he has never transferred his membership. Mrs. Bryant is an adherent of the Roman Catholic faith.
The first seventeen years in the life of our subject were spent in Michigan, where he enjoyed public-school advantages. At the age of seventeen he accompanied his parents to Colorado, and in 1877 he began to farm as a renter. Three years later he took up a quarter-section on the Big Thompson and bought at the same time another quarter, so that his farm now comprises three hundred and twenty acres of improved land devoted to general farming. The entire tract is under cultivation, and the improvements represent the tireless labors of the owner, who has spared no pains in order to bring the land to a high state of cultivation. In addition to his private farm interests he is a stockholder in the Loveland and Greeley and the Farmers' Ditch Companies, and has served as treasurer of the latter for a number of years.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Mr. Dell is a man of positive convictions, strictly honest, and never afraid to stand by what he believes to he right. In his friendships he is strong and in his dealings honorable. He is a Republican by political faith and has kept himself intelligently conversant with public affairs.
NTON FRITHIOF ECKDAHL, city auditor of Denver, was born in Osterjötland, Boxholm, Sweden, May 19, 1861, the son of Andrew Frederick and Johanna Louise (Jensson) Eckdahl, natives respectively of Boxholm and Mjolby. His father, who is a merchant tailor by trade, came to America in 1869 and settied in Chicago, Ill., where he carried on business. At the time of the great fire his store was burned down, but he resumed business in another location and continued until his retirement. He and his wife still make Chicago their home. Of their eight children all but one are living, Anton being third in order of birth and the only member of the family in the west. Two sons, Axel and Albert, are engaged in the mercantile business in Chicago.
When twelve years of age our subject secured work as an office-boy, and his subsequent education was obtained in the night schools. When seventeen he was given a position as salesman with Nelson Brothers, with whom he remained for eight years in all, being for a part of the time in charge of the clothing department of their wholesale and retail house. For two and one-half years he was chief manager of the clothing department of the Chicago Clothing Company, and afterward was given the management of a branch store at Thirty-first street and Wentworth avenue, owned by Nelson Brothers.
In March, 1890, Mr. Eckdahl came to Denver and for a year was salesman in a clothing house, after which he engaged in the real-estate business, having his office first in the Colorado National Bank building and later in the Ernest & Cranmer building. In 1892 he was the nominee of the silver Democrats and the Populists for representative to the state legislature, but was defeated. In April, 1893, he was appointed clerk of the police magistrate court of Denver by Judge A. S. Frost and held the position until 1895. On the expiration of his term he went to Cripple Creek, then in the incipiency of its boom, and engaged in mining and the brokerage business there. On his return to Denver, six months later, he became general manager of the leading Swedish paper of the west, The Swedish Correspondent, which is published weekly and is an organ of the silver party. He continued its management until he was elected city auditor. In the spring of 1897 he was nominated for this office on the Tax Payers, Democratic and People's party tickets and was elected by a plurality of eighty-five hundred, having twice as many votes as his leading opponent. He took the oath of office April 13, 1897, for a term of two years.
Fraternally Mr. Eckdahl is an officer in Rathbone Lodge No. 59, K. of P., and he is prominently connected with the American League of Liberty. He was among the first to espouse the cause of the white metal in Colorado. Believing that the highest prosperity can never be attained by the people of this state as long as the demonetization of silver is permitted to continue, he has steadily and faithfully championed its restoration to the proper standard. During the exciting presidential campaign of 1896 he was called east to deliver political speeches in behalf of the silver Democratic party, and remained seven weeks in active campaigning, visiting many town in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, and winning a reputation as a logical, eloquent and earnest speaker, who was thoroughly informed regarding all the intricacies of the currency question.
ENEDICT KIMBER is a young man of unusual business qualifications, developing a knowledge of the milling business at an early age that induced his father to place him as manager of one of his mills when but little more than a boy. This confidence in his ability was rewarded by a close attention to detail and a shrewdness in the management that surprised even his friends. He was born in Central City, Gilpin County, December 19, 1865, and is a son of job Vernon and Virginia (Lehmer) Kimber. His father was born in Brownsville, Pa., and crossed the plains in 1860, while yet a young man. He traveled by ox-team to Central City and engaged in mining. He then erected a quartz mill and did a milling business. In 1868 he bought the Polar Star, a small mill on the Blackhawk, at the mouth of Chase Gulch, and added
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to it and improved it to a forty-ton mill, winch it has been for the past twenty years. He was also interested in the two Kimber and Fullerton mills on North Clear Creek, and the Gunnell and Whiting mines. He was county commissioner one term. He died April 5, 1897, at the age of seventy-four years. He married, in Colorado, Virginia Lehmer, a native of Pennsylvania, and now a resident of Santa Barbara, Cal. There were six children, of whom five are living.
Mr. Kimber is the oldest of his father's family, and the only one residing in the state. He received his education in the schools of Central City and Blackhawk. He was always about his father's mills, and mastered the trade of milling while yet a lad. He was given charge of the Polar Star mill in 1886 and has been manager and superintendent of it since that time. After the death of his father he took charge of the different mills and mines owned by him, and has managed them very successfully. He is manager of the Kimber and Fullerton mills, and they handle all the ore from the Gunnell mines, having a capacity of about forty tons each, per day. He is largely interested in these mines which yield a high grade ore and are the oldest here. He married in this city, Miss M. B. Lynch, who came here with her father. They have one child, J. V. Mr. Kimber is a Democrat, and a strong advocate of silver money.
Having decided in 1859 to come to Colorado, our subject began to make his arrangements for the journey. In 1860, with others, he drove across the plains with ox-teams. Their only experience of a trying nature was the stampeding of their horses, for which they hunted and finally gave up in despair, but later were successful in finding them. In June they arrived in Denver and soon afterward proceeded to California Gulch (now Leadville), where Mr. House engaged in mining, and he also wintered the first domestic animals ever brought to that place. At first he was successful in mining, but afterward lost everything by buying up poor claims. In 1865 he began to freight and in the nine years that followed he freighted to many points in Colorado, and crossed the plains thirty-eight times. In 1865 he engaged as wagon-master for May & McQuen and made a trip to Virginia City, Nev. Finally he began ranching at Henderson, below Denver, where he remained for three years, in partnership with Albert A. Kneeland. In 1869 he came to Douglas County, where he bought Judge John Craig's ranch, and in November settled upon the land now occupied by Sedalia. Near this village he owns a ranch of almost three hundred acres, and he also owns city lots in Denver.
October 24, 1869, Mr. House married Miss Mary Atchison, of Denver, with whom he had become acquainted in St. Joseph, Mo., while he was engaged in freighting across the plains. She was born near Lexington, Mo., and by her marriage became the mother of one son, Claude Lee, now living at Lyons, Colo. The first vote cast by Mr. House was in 1876, when he supported Samuel J. Tilden for president, and he has since given his allegiance to the Democratic party. For a number of years he served as constable, but with that exception has held no office, preferring to devote his time to his personal business affairs.
ORMAN CHATFIELD. A perusal of the briefest history of the eventful life of the gentleman of whom this article is penned yet brings to any imaginative mind strange pictures of stirring adventures by land and sea; of vicissitudes, hardships, good and bad fortune, not often crowded into the life of one man. A man of real genius, equally at home on the high seas, in the mines and mountains, on the plains
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. or prairies, lakes or rivers, as master of a boat or manager of a mill, his like is rarely seen. At present he is the superintendent of the Kansas mill, owned by the Gold Coin Mining Company. This is a forty-stamp mill, located at Nevadaville, Gilpin County.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, Nicholas Chatfield, came from an old agricultural family in Kent, England. Nicholas, Jr., father of Norman Chatfield, was likewise a native of Kent, and there learned the tanner's and currier's trade. Coming to America, he started a tannery at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, and later removed it to Canterbury Township, on a creek of the same name. After a busy and successful career, he died in 1881, at the advanced age of fourscore years. His wife, who departed this life in 1880, when in her eighty-third year, was born in Kent, and was a Miss Susan Nye in her maidenhood. Their nine children all grew to maturity, and all but two are still living. Two sons, George and Howard, took part in the Civil war.
Norman Chatfield was born at Cornwall, N. Y., January 20, 1842, and attended the school of Canterbury until he was a lad of fourteen. In 1856 he shipped aboard a sailing vessel at Nantucket and started on a long whaling voyage. They proceeded southward to the Cape of Good Hope, thence to New Zealand, cruised near Kamchatka, spent the summer season in the north and winters further south, and thus passed four years. Young Chatfield, who went as a cabin boy, was gradually promoted, was a stroke-oresman (sic), and the third year was made a harpooner. On three different occasions he was dashed out of the boat, the latter being smashed to pieces by the infuriated whale, which the crew were endeavoring to capture. Each time Mr. Chatfield escaped but little the worse for his terrible experience. At length the cargo was unloaded in San Francisco and the crew discharged. In the fall of 1859 our young friend returned home by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Next year he made two trips to London as third mate of the packet ship "Patrick Henry," and in 1861 took a position as mate on the clipper "B. F. Hoxie," which left New York with a cargo of general merchandise, went around the Horn, and reached San Francisco at the end of about four months. Upon landing in the last-named city, Mr. Chatfield became captain of a schooner, the "Dart," plying between Benicia, Mexico and San Francisco. This place he held for a year, and next we find him as second mate on the bark "Catalpa," running to Hong Kong. Following this, he was second mate on the "Elizabeth F. Willetts," which went from the Golden Gate to New York around the Cape of Good Hope, and weighed anchor at her destination February 10, 1863. One of the incidents of the trip was that of being chased by the privateer schooner "Retribution." Owing to the fact that the merchant marine service was so badly crippled by the Civil war then in progress, Mr. Chatfield spent two years sailing on the rivers and bays of the northern Atlantic coast, and this terminated his sea-faring life.
In February, 1865, our subject started from New York for Colorado, proceeding from Atchison by mule teams to Denver, where he landed April 26. That summer he mined and prospected along Clear Creek, and in the autumn took charge of the Stoner stamp mill in Nevada. At the end of a year he became engineer of the Whitcomb mill, where he remained another twelvemonth. His next venture was to lease the Stoner, La Crosse and Pacific National mills, an aggregation of forty-eight stamps. When the season had closed he was made engineer of the Kansas mill, after which he took charge of and operated the Mercer County mine and the American Flag. In 1874 he returned to his old home in the east, and buying the schooner "Jane," sailed on the Hudson River for three years. Having disposed of his ship to good advantage, Mr. Chatfield went to Galveston, Tex., and engaged in lightering cotton outside the harbor and wrecking for the next six months. His family had been living in Chicago during this period, and he now joined them, and for one season ran on the "Jonathan Doane" between Chicago and Buffalo. In the fall of 1879 he returned to Colorado, and for five years was occupied in mining and milling. He then entered the employ of the firm with which he is at present, and for three years was at Hidden Treasure mill in Blackhawk. Afterwards he mined in Nevada until the spring of 1889, when he went to Blackhawk again and took charge of the Cashier mill, remaining there a year. In 1890 he went to Brazoria County, Tex., and bought a ranch of five hundred acres, about twenty miles from Gal-
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veston. In June, 1894, his former employers urged him to return to them and he did so, becoming foreman of the Gilpin mill of Blackhawk during the two months' absence of the superintendent. In September of the same year he became superintendent of the Kansas Mill and is still connected with the same.
Mr. Chatfield was married in Central to Mrs. Sophronia Parker (nee Buzzell), who was born in Vermont, and was a daughter of Aaron B. Buzzell. The four children of this marriage are: Charles, who is in the Blackhawk mill; Norman, Jr., a fine electrician and engineer, now of Denver; William, who is managing the ranch in Texas; and Louisa, who is with her mother and brother on the homestead in Texas. The family located there permanently in 1893, and the son is extensively engaged in stock-raising and general farming.
Some years ago Mr. Chatfield identified himself with the Masonic order in Blackhawk, and belongs to the blue lodge and chapter. He is a member of the Merchants' and Shipmasters' Association of New York City. In politics he is independent.
REDERICK A. BEIN, who is engaged in farming in Weld County, his home place being on township 4, range 68, was born in Scott County, Iowa, in 1861, a son of Augustus Bein. His father, who was a native of Iowa and a life-long resident of that state, engaged in farm pursuits during his entire active business life and held a position among the leading agriculturists of Scott County. The early years in the life of our subject were passed in the home neighborhood, where he was reared to a knowledge of farming. In 1881 he came west to Colorado and settled in Boulder County, where he took up land and engaged in ranching.
After three years, however, he removed to Platteville, and settled on a farm near the town, where he remained for a year. In 1887 he purchased his present property, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres of fine land. He immediately began the work of improvement and to-day has one of the most valuable tracts in the county. His land he devotes to general farming and stockraising. His land is watered by the Home Supply ditch, of which company he is a stockholder. In politics he takes an interest in all local affairs.
For seven years he has acted as a member of the school board, and as its secretary, and through his interest in and knowledge of educational work he has been enabled to promote the welfare of the schools. Fraternally he is connected with the Berthond Lodge of Masons and the Woodmen of the World.
In 1883 Mr. Bein married Miss Martha, daughter of James Akins, of Boulder County. They have six children, Mabel, Arthur, Lewis, Lena, Effie and Violet. Mr. Bein is one of the successful farmers of his county and deserves especial credit from the fact that he commenced without means. He owns besides his farm of one hundred and sixty acres, an interest in mining camps in Boulder County.
HOMAS GRAHAM, who resides on township 4, range 67, in Weld County, is a native of the north of Ireland, born in 1826, and is a son of Hugh Graham. The years of his boyhood, however, were spent principally in Scotland, and he was educated in the schools of that country. At the age of fifteen he left home and began to earn his own livelihood. Becoming a coal miner, he gained a thorough knowledge of that business, his experience in which brought him into contact with well-known mining companies. In 1857 he came to the United States and settled in Ray County, Mo., where he engaged in mining.
Coming to Colorado in 1875, Mr. Graham settled in Erie, Weld County. He soon found employment with the Boulder Valley coal mine, and remained in that position until 1882, when he bought a claim on government land occupying the location of his present farm. He embarked in general agricultural pursuits and from the first met with success, having, in addition to his regular farm interests, stock in the Hillsboro Ditch Company and in the Berthoud roller mill. For a number of years, unfortunately, his health has not permitted him to do active manual work as he did in other years.
Politically Mr. Graham is a stanch Democrat. While still in Scotland, he was made a mason in Ayrshire about fifty years ago and by various degrees arose to the thirty-second, but since coming to the United States he has not taken an active part in the order. In 1854 he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth, daughter of
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. John and Elizabeth (McClean) Kane, the former a leading merchant of Kilbourne, Scotland. They became the parents of six children now living, and three, Thomas, Maggie and Bessie, deceased. John lives in Erie, which is also the home of Hugh; Cora is the wife of William Clark; Maggie (2d) is the wife of Edward Russell, of Cripple Creek; Nannie is the wife of C. C. Clark; and Allan, who married Nellie M. Laughlin, carries on the old homestead.
The birthplace of Mr. Lewis is in Anglesea, North Wales, where his ancestors owned large estates, and rejoiced in the honor of being the oldest family of that locality. The old homestead is still in the possesssion (sic) of relatives of the same name, as it has been for generations, even before the time of William the Conqueror. Originally the name was Llewellyn, but it was officially altered to the simpler form of Lewis. The Christian names of William J. are also very old ones in the family and have been handed down from father to son for generations. The father and grandfather of our subject both bore the given names of William J. and both were ministers in the Church of England.
Born in the year 1830, William J. Lewis, of whom we write, received a college education and graduated from Oxford with the degree of Master of Arts, after which he pursued theological studies and was ordained when about twenty-five years old. For two years he was head master of Cheltenham College, but the desire to see something of the world grew upon him and he traveled extensively in Canada and the United States for a period. In the course of his wanderings he arrived in this county, and becoming interested in what he foresaw was to be a great state he cast in his fortunes with the pioneers here. He made a success of ranching, and at length he commenced to give much attention to mining. During the years that followed he mined in Montana, Arizona and other states, as well as in Colorado. In the meantime he made several journeys to England and also went to western Australia. In that far-away land he proceeded two hundred miles or more into the interior, engaged in prospecting for gold, but found nothing better than the gold-mines of Colorado. He has also tried mining in the Tyrol, on the continent, but the summing up of all his experience leads him to believe that Colorado surpasses all other gold-bearing sections.
Mr. Lewis discovered and developed the Silver Cloud mine and the Gluck Auf (meaning good luck), which he sold. Later he came into possession of another Gluck Auf mine, and still owns this property. In 1879 he discovered and began the operation of the Doric mine and July 5, 1896, the great Doric tunnel was commenced. The Cosmos tunnel of the Doric mines is a wonderful piece of engineering, and is now finished into the heart of the mountain some three thousand feet. It is 8x9 feet in dimensions and is provided with two exhaust jets, which afford sufficient ventilation. At the innermost point, where two of the most modern machines are drilling into the solid rock, there are twenty-five hundred feet of rock and earth overhead. The group of Doric gold mines have twenty-six miles of underground works and seventeen different lodes have been struck. The company is incorporated as the Doric Gold Mines, limited, of England, with Mr. Lewis as manager. They have thirty-four patented claims on Griffith and Saxon Mountain. These join the Griffith mine, and the next three lodes which will be struck will be the Griffith lode of the Griffith tunnel. Mr. Lewis is also the manager and promoter of the Georgetown Syndicate, limited, of England. This company has a tunnel and shaft on the Mascot, and struck thirteen different lodes from which ore is shipped that yields six and eighty-one one-hundredths of gold to the ton, ninety-eight ounces of silver and twenty-two per cent, of copper. Besides these, the firm of Lewis & Swanton are interested in the Freeland, in the Ariadne group, between the Lambertine and Freeland Extension mines.
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