Families - Teller County COGenWeb, Colorado genealogy, family history

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FALK Family

I am from Sweden. I found some photos in my uncle's home of my grandfather's sister, Neta Christina NILSDOTTER (NILSSON). She was born 02 Jul 1867, and she emigrated in 1893 from Vapnö parish of Hallands län (county) in Sweden and married Andrew FALK. Andrew emigrated from Svedala parish Scania county in Sweden. They settled down in Victor, Teller County, Colorado, and were members of the Nebo Lutheran Church.

The wedding photo of Neta and Andrew FALK. The photographer's name is Eckler from Hotsprings, Arkansas.

A photo of Neta taken by the photographer Schedin & Lehman in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Karl William FARR

Karl William Farr, a successful young attorney and worthy native son of Greeley, has to his credit four years of service on the bench as county judge of Teller county, Colorado. His birth occurred in Greeley on the 17th of October, 1890, his parents being William Henry and Jennie (Willson) Farr, both natives of Elgin county, Ontario, Canada. He received his early education in the grade and high schools of Greeley, Colorado, and following his graduation in 1908 matriculated in the University of Colorado. The following year he entered the University of Michigan, which conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1912 and the degree of LL. B. in 1914. He was admitted to the bar of Michigan on the 23d of June, 1914, and to the Colorado bar on the 3d of March, 1915. Mr. Farr then took up the work of his chosen profession in Denver but in August, 1915, moved to Cripple Creek, where he engaged in law practice until elected county judge of Teller county, in which office he served for the four-year term between 1917 and 1921. In the latter year he took up his permanent abode at Greeley, where he has since been accorded an extensive and gratifying clientage in the practice of law.

Mr. Farr gives his political support to the republican party, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church of Greeley. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order and with two Greek letter societies — Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Delta Phi. Along strictly professional lines he holds membership in the Weld County Bar Association, the Colorado Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He belongs to the Greeley Kiwanis Club and is president of Weld-Morgan Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

On the 12th of August, 1915, in Denver, Colorado, Mr. Farr was married to Ruth Scott Bernethy. They are the parents of three sons, namely: Karl William, Jr., Richard Scott and James Robert. --Extracted from 1927 History of Colorado by State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado, volume 4, pages 221-222.

HILL Family

The homestead of my great-grandparents in the late 1800's.
Pictured from left to right: Rosetta May HILL, Margie HILL, Joseph Henry HILL, Margarat HILL, William H. HILL, and an unknown person.
Margarat and William HILL were the parents of Joseph HILL and the grandparents of Margie HILL.

Taken at Tracey Crossing at Divide, Teller County, Colorado.
Pictured from left to right: Burt CLUFF, Florence (NOBLE) HILL, and her father, Alexander NOBLE.
Labeled along the left side: Lumbermen.

Branding in Teller County, Colorado, before 1915.
One of the men in this picture is my grandfather, William T. HILL. (No others have been identified.)

Harvey Calvin NEESE

NEESE Brothers
Art, Will, Cal, and Jake

Harvey Calvin Neese was born in Armstrong County, PA on May 5, 1866. He was the first son born after the Civil War ended to John Neese and Mary Ann Emery Neese. Along with his father-in-law, George Emery, John had served in Company M of the 2nd Pa Cavalry, 59th Volunteers. Calvin had two older brothers, George F., born Nov. 16, 1859 and Jacob E., born Sept. 3, 1861. There would be one more son born in Armstrong County, Pa -- William E., born July 19, 1867 -- before the family relocated to Coffee County, Tennessee the next year. Two more brothers, Arthur Monroe, born May 10, 1869, and Robert S., born May 25, 1871, and three sisters, Kate, born April 30, 1873, Mattie, born May 6, 1875, and Mary, born June 11, 1878, would follow before their mother died, apparently in childbirth, on July 3, 1880.

John Neese and his family came to Tennessee in 1868, along with his in-laws, George and Catherine Hillard Emery. Both families appear on both the 1870 and 1880 Census Records of Coffee County, TN. It is also known that George Emery owned a farm of one hundred acres in Armstrong and Jefferson counties, PA which he sold before coming to Coffee County, Tennessee, where he purchased 125 acres, near the Prairie Plains area. Although this is contrary to family folklore, census records confirm both families' existence in Coffee County in both 1870 and 1880, and does not show any evidence of their being present in Armstrong Co., Pa. in either census. After Mary Ann Emery Neese died in 1880, George lived three more himself, dying in 1883, in his 68th year. Catherine Emery had been helping John Neese care for his children during this time, but upon his remarriage to Ann Landers, a short time later, she subsequently sold the land in Coffee County and returned to Redbank Township in Armstrong County, PA., where she purchased 5 acres from her other son, Jacob. Calvin would have two step brothers, Hardy, born Oct. 7, 1885 and John, born October 26, 1890, and one step sister, Minnie, born May 19, 1889, from this second union.

In the 1890s, the financial situation in Tennessee was not all that good. There was a "panic" during that time, and money was in short supply. When gold was discovered out west, it is not surprising that the four Neese boys would get a touch of the fever. Jacob, Calvin, William, and Arthur headed west! In the mid-1890s thru the turn of the century, Jake, Cal, Will, and Art worked the mines in and around Cripple Creek, Colorado, two of which were the "Clara D" and "Abe Lincoln Mine." From 1902-1905, Cal, Art, and Will shared a house together at 132 W. Warren. It was in the area known as Poverty Gulch, near the mines, and there were many miner's shacks located in this area, although none remain today. As the gold fields played out, Jake and probably Will went even further west and it is known that Jake was in California at the time of the earthquake in 1906. Art and Cal remained in Colorado. Cal married Myrtle Parker on January 30, 1907 in Victor, Co. He was 37, she was 28. From 1912-1913, Cal and Myrtle lived at 410 Colorado Avenue in Cripple Creek, an affluent street of Victorian homes, at the top of a hill overlooking the town. The lot is vacant at 410 where Cal and Myrtle lived, but the one next door remains today. And it was during this time that he became the Night Marshal of the City Police Force of Cripple Creek, Co, and this was where he died on July 3, 1920, shot to death by a friend, Will Sloan, who had had too much to drink.

The following article was picked up by United Press and carried in the Fort Collins Courier front page story on July 3, 1920:

On Sunday, July 4, 1920, the Colorado Springs Gazette ran the following story:

(Note: There are two mistakes in this article: "Carl" should be CAL and he was not shot on Thursday night but around 2:00 a.m., on the morning of July 3, the same day he died, based upon another report that he died "seven" hours after the shooting.)

And another newspaper report from the Weekly Ignacio Chieftan of La Plata County, Co on July 14, 1920 gave these details: "Harvey C. Neese, night Marshal of Cripple Creek, was shot through the lung at Cripple Creek by William Sloane, former City Fireman, and died in the Sisters' Hospital seven hours later. Sloan is in jail charged with the killing. The shooting took place in the middle of the main business street. Sloane, it is said, was under the influence of intoxicants and was causing a disturbance."

It is known that Sloane (or Sloan) was convicted of this killing and served time in the Colorado Penitentiary at Canon City, Co. for his crime. His inmate Number was 11125. An article from the Akron Weekly Pioneer Press (Akron, Washington County) on November 19, 1920 stated: "A jury in the District Court at Cripple Creek returned a verdict finding William Sloane, 33 years old, guilty of murder in the first degree and recommending life imprisonment."

Cal's body was taken to Denver, where he was buried on July 7, 1920 in the family plot purchased by his brother, Art, in the Crown Hill Cemetery in North Denver, "overlooking the city to the east and the majestic mountains to the west." Crown Hill Mortuary records show that Cal was number 8,403 to be buried in this cemetery. Arthur and his wife, Verdie, owned A.M. Neese Dry Goods, Notions, Furnishings in Denver, located at 3970 Tennyson Street, which was just across the street from Verdie's family's Hardware Store, Clay and Haughey, established in 1906. Art died there on May 2, 1942, and is buried beside his brother. Verdie would join her beloved husband five years later. Of the four Neese brothers who came to Colorado near the turn of the century, Calvin and Author remained and Will and Jacob returned to Tennessee. Both appear on the 1920 Census Records, and both of them would die in Tennessee, Jake in 1939 and Will in 1940.

Note: Calvin Neese was my great-uncle. His younger sister, Mary Neese married Dr. John Kennerly Farris, Jr., a neighbor who had just completed Medical School in 1899, and these were my grandparents. My father was the youngest of four children, born in 1914, and I grew up hearing the stories of his uncles and their adventures out west. He had first-hand accounts from "Uncle Jake" who spent a great deal of time with his nephews and never tired of re-living those exciting days. My husband and I were in Cripple Creek a short time ago, and it was an awesome feeling as we were walking down Bennett Avenue to know that this was where my great-uncle had fallen almost 90 years ago. --Shirley Farris Jones

POPST Family

"In Loving Remembrance of My Husband
George Popst
Borne September 18, 1856
Died May 16, 1895
'No Pain, No Grief, No Anxious Fears, Can Reach the Peaceful.'
Shakespeare"

He was shot in Victor and died at his home in Altman in May 16, 1895. He was born 18 Sep 1856 in New York, and migrated with his family to the Colorado goldfields after 1875. [His oldest son was born in Shadigee, Orleans County, New York in 1875.]

According to family legend George POPST was a union organizer, plus he also had some claims the large mine owners, Stratton, wanted. So he was assassinated by hired gunmen. He was so loved by local miners they pitched in a purchased the tombstone. According to other sources George POPST (name spelled Pabst in "Money Mountain" by Sprague, P. 200) was a ne're do well and my great-grandmother, Honora POPST, was his gun moll. This has never set well with the older generations who knew her. Honora died 4 Feb 1920 and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. [I've been to this grave and we have her death certificate.]

"General Jack Smith" was killed at the same time. It is historically accurate that he was the leader of the 1894 strike that resulted in the Battle of Bull Hill where the miners held of the Colorado Militia with a canon from the local Civil War monument. We know George also participated in this. When I first saw the stone ca 1984 it was toppled. Cripple Creek civic groups put it back up sometime in the late 1980s. Something for which we are most grateful.

George's mother, Mary (HART) POPST, is buried somewhere either in Cripple Creek or the surrounding area. She is supposed to have died in Sisters Hospital, in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado.

QUICK Family

My grandparents inside the Stratton mine at Cripple Creek, possibly in 1892 or as late as 1898. My grandfather, Robert QUICK, is the one sitting, and my grandmother, Basha (PATTEN) QUICK, is the one holding the sledge in the foreground in the plaid skirt. This may be the day they met in 1892. Mutual friends, the DUNCANs took Grandma to the Stratton mine where she met Robert QUICK, a miner from England. She was 17. Her mother died that year, and she left Colorado for a time. They were married in 1898, and my father, Robert QUICK was born at Cripple Creek in 1899.

TOWSE Family

Inez Katura (TOWSE) DAWSON and Eunice (GRIFFEN) TOWSE about 1905 near Cripple Creek. All proper ladies rode sidesaddle, you see....

Inez' husband, Charles DAWSON, had a small mine near here called the Little Peril.

--Contributed by Debra Pierce Cohig mdcohig@aol.com