om, which was
the direct cause of a severe illness.

He fought retirement for a long time, but was finally forced to give
up.

The latter part of February, 1886, he arrived in Denver on his way to
his home in Geneva, N. Y., but remained with me at the restaurant for
ten days where he was cared for and given the best of medical aid
available in those days.

He finally prevailed on a mule freighter to take him as a passenger to
Atchison, Kansas. Arriving at Fort Carney, Nebraska, he had a relapse
and was ordered by the Commander of the Fort to be placed in the Army
Hospital for treatment, where he remained until able to continue his
journey by stage to Atchison, thence by rail home.

He left Colorado with the full determination of returning on
recovering his health. A mother's influence, however, changed his
plans and he finally decided to remain in the East. He purchased a
grocery business and conducted it with great success until his death,
March 17th, 1910. By his strict attention to business, square dealing,
genial disposition and original wit, he gained the confidence and
respect of his fellow-men. He was buried in St. Patrick's cemetery in
his home city where a surviving sister has caused to be erected an
appropriate and costly monument to his memory.

NEW EMPLOYMENT

I remained with the restaurant keeper one year, when through the
assistance of influential men that boarded at the restaurant, I
secured a position with a grocer. Shortly after entering his employ I
made the acquaintance of an ex-army officer, a graduate of West Point
and a well educated man, who afterwards became my boon companion. At
that time he was an ex-pork merchant from Cincinnati; an eccentric old
fellow without chick or child, and with plenty of money to loan at 3%
a month. He owned a large warehouse on Cherry Creek in West Denver
where he slept and did his own cooking. His evenings were passed at
the store and many were the nights that we told stories and otherwise
enjoyed ourselves. He was a silent member of the firm and I was wise
enough to keep on the right side of him. During that time the head of
the firm ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket. Such an election I
never want to see or go through again. Large wagons loaded with
barrels of all kinds of liquor on tap were driven from poll to poll.
Many more ballots were cast in each precinct than there were voters
and by night nearly the entire male portion of the inhabitants we