Delta County CO Archives Biographies.....Wolbert, Harry Howard December 9, 1865 - ? ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 9, 2006, 12:15 pm Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado The Farmers & Merchant Bank of Delta was organized in 1890 as a private institution by A.T. Blachly and D.S. Baldwin, and continued under their ownership and management until March, 1894. In September, 1893, Mr. Blachly, who was the cashier, was shot and killed by the outlaws McCarty, who secured a small amount of money in their robbery, and were afterward overtaken and killed. The present cashier witnessed the holdup and killing of Mr. Blachly, he having become connected with the bank as assistant cashier in 1892. In March, 1894, the ownership of the bank passed to F.E. Dodge and George Stephan, who continued in charge of it until July, 1895, when J.F. Sanders bought Mr. Stephan’s interest and the firm became Sanders & Dodge. In 1901 Mr. Dodge retired, selling his interest to Mr. Wolbert, and the new firm was organized with Mr. Sanders as president, Mr. Wolbert as cashier and H.W. Chiles as assistant cashier, who are its present officers. The institution formerly occupied the building now used as the postoffice, but in 1896 the two-story brick banking house which it now occupies was erected by Mr. Sanders at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars. It has two store rooms in addition to the quarters used by the bank, and is finished with the best material throughout, tiled floors, solid mahogany woodwork, plate glass windows and mahogany, glass and iron fixtures of the most approved style, being considered the finest and most complete bank building on the Western slope. The bank is still conducted as a private institution. Its individual responsibility is five hundred thousand dollars, and its credit stands as high as any throughout the range of its territory. Harry Howard Wolbert, the cashier of this flourishing fiscal enterprise, and its main inspiration in its useful and productive activity, was born at Rochester, New York, on December 9, 1865, while his mother was on a visit to that city, and is the son of Henry Patrick and Louise (Bennett) Wolbert, the latter having been born, reared, educated and married near Dover, Maine. In 1862 they moved to Tennessee, locating at Clarksville. At the close of the Civil war, all their buildings having been burned, the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where the father died. The mother died at San Francisco in 1892. They had two children, Harry, and an older sister, who is married and lives in Alaska. The son was reared in Cleveland and educated at the public schools. When he was thirteen years of age he came with his mother and sister to Colorado Springs, this state, and there he finished his scholastic training at the high school. He lived at that place until 1892, having gone to work when he was fifteen in the office of the Gazette Printing Company, where he was employed eleven years in various capacities. He was then on the road as a salesman until June, 1892, when he became assistant cashier of the bank at Delta. In 1894, when the bank changed hands, he took charge of D.S. Baldwin’s loan and real-estate business and remained in charge of it until 1896. At that time he returned to Colorado Springs and during the next two years he was clerk of the board of county commissioners at that place. In 1898 he went south, being interested in prospecting and in building forty miles of railroad in Arkansas, opposite and west from Greenville to Hamburg. In the spring of 1901 this road was sold to the Missouri Pacific system, and he again moved to Delta, resuming his position as assistant cashier of the bank. Within the same year he bought Mr. Dodge’s interest in the bank and became cashier. He is a firm and loyal Republican in politics, but is not an aspirant for public office of any kind, although he gives his party a cordial and helpful support at all times. On March 5, 1889, he was married to Miss Edith G. Parker, he was married to Miss Edith G. Parker, a native of Valley Falls, Kansas, and daughter of Nathan E. and Burradilla (Dunham) Parker, who were born and reared near Dover, Maine, and are now living at Colorado Springs. Mr. and this Mrs. Wolbert had two children, Norma B. and Ida M., who survive their mother, she having died in March, 1901. On June 11, 1903, Mr. Wolbert married a second wife, Miss Evangeline Wilson Huntley, an Indiana lady by nativity, born at Indianapolis on September 28, 1882, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.P. Huntley, now residents of Delta. Mr. Wolbert is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Dramatic Order Knights of Khorassan, and belongs to the Episcopal church. In business circles and in social life he is highly esteemed as a leading citizen and a potent force for good in the community. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/delta/bios/wolbert246gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 5.3 Kb