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Biographies for Pueblo County Colorado
ALLOTT, Gordon Llewellyn
(1907—1989)
Senate Years of Service: 1955-1973
Party: Republican
ALLOTT, Gordon Llewellyn, a Senator from Colorado; born
in Pueblo, Colo., January 2, 1907; attended the public
schools of Pueblo, Colo.; graduated from the University
of Colorado at Boulder in 1927 and from its law school
in 1929; admitted to the bar in 1929 and commenced the
practice of law in Pueblo, Colo.; moved to Lamar, Colo.,
in 1930 and continued practicing law; county attorney of
Prowers County, Colo., in 1934 and 1941-1946; director,
First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Lamar, Colo.
1934-1960; city attorney, Lamar, Colo. 1937-1941; during
the Second World War served as a major in the United
States Army Air Corps 1942-1946; district attorney,
fifteenth judicial district 1946-1948; vice chairman
State Board of Paroles 1951-1955; lieutenant governor of
Colorado 1951-1955; elected as a Republican to the
United States Senate in 1954; reelected in 1960 and
again in 1966, and served from January 3, 1955, to
January 3, 1973; unsuccessful candidate for reelection
in 1972; chairman, Republican Policy Committee
(Ninety-first and Ninety-second Congresses); died in
Englewood, Colo., January 17, 1989; interment in
Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Colo.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States
Congress, 1771-Present, contributed by A. Newell.
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BAXTER, Hiram Bennett
Hiram Bennett Baxter, an intelligent and progressive
farmer and stock-raiser of township 17-9, near Ashland,
Illinois, was born and reared in Jefferson county,
Indiana. His parents were William and Jane (Kerr)
Baxter, both natives of Ohio, his father having been
born in Dayton. His father's father was a native of
Ireland, who came to America and settled in Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, where he married a German lady, named
Rebecca Riddle. Mr. Baxter's maternal grandfather was
Josiah Kerr, a native of Scotland. Thus he is of Irish,
German and Scotch ancestry, three of the most
intelligent and progressive nationalities on the face of
the earth, and he would be a sad renegade were he not
likewise constituted. His parents had ten sons and two
daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch was the
sixth in order of birth. James Riddle, the eldest
brother, is an attorney of Bloomfield, Greene county,
Indiana; Josiah Kerr is a retired physician of
Sharpsville, Indiana; Daniel Thomas, a mechanic, died in
early manhood, leaving a wife and two children, all now
deceased; Oliver H. P. was one of the first white
settlers in Pueblo, Colorado, where he engaged in mining
and speculating in cattle, in which occupations he has
been very successful, having accumulated a fortune of
great wealth. He is now retired from active business,
and spends most of his time in traveling, has been twice
to Europe, and last summer was in Alaska. William
Alexander died in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1877; the
next in order is the subject of this sketch; George W.
is a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana; Hayden Hayes is
in the cattle business, near Pueblo, Colorado; Edward
Arthur is in the livery and undertaking business in
Sangamon county, Illinois; Leonidas Napoleon is farming
the old Indiana homestead; Havanna Siloam married Robert
Williams, a merchant of Madison, Indiana; Irena
Hazeltine died in early childhood. In 1854 the family
were called upon to mourn the loss of the devoted wife
and mother, whose life had been one of self-abnegation
and subservience to her family's welfare. The father
afterward married her sister, and to this union one son,
Virgil, was born, who died in 1861. The father died in
August, 1861, and was interred by the side of his first
wife, near the old home in Indiana. He was a prominent
man in his community and was very popular among his
associates, always heading every movement for the moral
and material improvement of his locality. The second
wife lives on the old homestead. She is a lady of much
culture and refinement, and is universally beloved.
The subject of this sketch was educated in Indiana, and
was reared to farm life, and in the peaceful pursuits of
rural and home life spent his earlier days. This happy
routine was interrupted by civil discord, which rent the
country, and on July 14, 1861, he enlisted at Madison,
Indiana, in Company K, Twenty-second Indiana Infantry.
He participated in the Missouri campaign, the first
encounter taking place at Glasgow, that State, where
Major Tanner was killed; and also took part in the fight
at Blackwater, where the Union forces took 1,300 of the
enemy prisoners. Thence he accompanied his regiment
under the supervision of General Fremont, to
Springfield, Missouri. General Hunter superseding
General Fremont, they were returned to their old
quarters, under the immediate command of General Curtis,
with whom they marched to Springfield and thence to the
battle at Pea Ridge, where the right flank suffered
severely. Thence they went to Corinth, Mississippi,
where they participated in the siege of Corinth, after
which they returned to Iuka, that State, going from
there to Florence, Alabama, and back again to
Louisville, marching 400 miles in August and September,
1862. After this they went to Perryville, Kentucky,
where there was an engagement, in which Mr. Baxter was
shot through the left knee, lying on the battlefield all
night after being wounded. There were thirty-five men in
his company on going into battle, and on emerging there
were but eight unharmed, ten having been killed,
thirteen wounded and four taken prisoners. Mr. Baxter
was sent to the hospital at Louisville where he remained
from October 8, 1862, to February of the following year.
He rejoined his regiment at, Tennessee, and there
received his commission as First Lieutenant, being
promoted from Duty Sergeant to that rank. In the absence
of the captain, who had been wounded, Mr. Baxter at once
assumed command of the company. His regiment remained in
Murfreesboro until June, and then went on the Tullahoma
campaign, following the enemy as far as Chattanooga, and
participated in the historic battle of Chickamauga. It
then fell back to Chattanooga, and engaged for a time in
building fortifications. It next took part in the
sanguinary battle of Missionary Ridge, at which it was
in Sheridan'' division, and fought in the center. The
following morning it started on a forced march for
Knoxville, to relieve Burnside, who was surrounded by
Longstreet. During this rapid march, the regiment was
short of rations and had no tents. It was encamped on
Strawberry Plains for six weeks, while the ground, the
greater part of the time, was covered with snow. At this
place the regiment re-enlisted for three years, and then
returned to Chattanooga, after which the men were given
a veteran furlough. At the expiration of their leave of
absence, they rejoined their command at Chattanooga,
whence they started with General Sherman on his
memorable march to the sea. The Twenty-second Indiana
being in the advance brigade. The enemy were met in
force at Tunnel Hill and Rocky Face Ridge, and next at
Resaca, Georgia, whence the Union forces proceeded to
Snake Creek Gap, where Mr. Baxter's division was
separated from the main army, and sent, under General
Jefferson C. Davis, via Rome, Georgia. Here an
engagement was fought, at which Mr. Baxter was again
wounded in the left leg, the same as before. He remained
about a month in Rome, when he secured a leave of
absence for forty days, finally reporting to the
officer's hospital, in Cincinnati, where the board of
examiners ordered his discharge, General Slemmer being
the chief of the board. On being discharge, August 29,
1864, he was granted $8.50 a month, that being half of a
first lieutenant's pension. In February, 1865, Mr.
Baxter assisted in raising a company for the One Hundred
and Forty-eight Indiana Regiment, of which company he
became First Lieutenant and afterward Captain. This
regiment was sent to Columbia, Tennessee, where it did
patrol duty until September 6, 1865, when it was
mustered out of service.\par Mr. Baxter then returned
to his home in Indiana, and was subsequently employed
for a time in the railroad business in Indianapolis.
December 15, 1866, he reached Jacksonville, Illinois,
near which place he taught school two years; later, he
taught school for another two years at Literberry, same
State. He was afterward engaged in selling goods in the
latter place, where he acted at various times as
railroad agent, Postmaster and Justice of the Peace, his
residence there extending over a period of nine years.
In 1876 he was married, and included the Centennial
Exposition in his wedding tour, visiting in old Virginia
and spending a week in Washington city. Miss Lydia Ellen
Crum was the lady of his choice, a daughter of Abram A.
and Sarah (Buchanan) Crum, old and highly respected
residents of the vicinity of Literberry, Illinois, where
they still reside. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter have two sons,
--Albert, born October 9, 1880, and William Abram, born
September 18, 1887. In 1881, Mr. Baxter sold out his
mercantile interests in Literberry and removed to his
present farm, five miles west of Ashland, where his
father-in-law had given him $20,000 worth of land. He
owns a farm of 760 acres on the garden spot of Illinois,
and, as for that matter, of the world, inasmuch as there
is no more fertile country on the globe than that
included in the Prairie State. This season (1892) he has
260 acres of corn, 180 of wheat, and eight of oats, the
balance being meadow and pasture land. He has here a
substantial farm residence, neatly and comfortably
arranged; large barns for his grain and stock; and many
other valuable improvements. Mr. Baxter is a stanch
Republican and takes an active interest in political
matters. He has been a candidate for various offices,
but his party being in the minority he was never
elected, yet succeeded in helping to hold the party
organization together. He belongs to the G. A. R. and
was the first commander of John L. Douglas Post, No.
591, at Ashland, having served two terms in that
capacity. Seven of Mr. Baxter's brothers were in the
army, no two of whom were in the same regiment, and all
returned home, and still survive. Dr. Josiah was a
Surgeon in the army; and Hayden was taken prisoner,
stripped of his clothing and other valuables, paroled
and turned loose, walking all the way home from Arkansas
Post. Of this family there were one Surgeon, two
Captains, one Lieutenant, and three privates in the
service. The subject of this sketch received three
commissions, two as First Lieutenant, and one as
Captain, all from the hands of the famous war Governor
Oliver P. Morton. Mr. Baxter received two wounds at the
hands of the rebels, which compelled him to spend some
eight months in the hospital. During the total period of
three years and eight months he served two years in
command of his company; and, while he was one of the
youngest soldiers in it, he thinks he did his part. Had
this family lived in Napoleon's time, they would have
been greatly honored, inasmuch as he valued families
only in proportion to the number of sons contributed to
the insatiable monster of war. It is the disadvantage of
republican forms of government, that they bestow no
special privileges for services rendered by their
inhabitants other than the universal gratitude of
millions living and unborn, which is supplemented, in
the breasts of those champions of liberty in the late
war, by a deep sense of duty done, which soothes the
wounded spirit and begets a peace which passeth
understanding.
Submitted by Kim Torp |
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