LAKE, Henry F., b. 1843; 1905 Bio, Gunnison County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/lakehf.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 26, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- Henry F. Lake It is always important and usually interesting to contemplate the lives of the founders of a new section of our country, the pioneers who faced their tasks undaunted and found contentment in fashioning the mighty levers of future achievements; and if some of the scenes and incidents of their lives seem homely to us, we shall be better able to appreciate the advantages we enjoy compared with those our hardy founders had when they laid the base of our prosperity. Their days of simplicity in life and iron seriousness of purpose have many salutary lessons for this hurried and self-satisfied age. Their story is epitomized in the interesting career of Henry F. Lake, of Gunnison county, this state, who, devoted to the welfare of his country, has borne his full share of labor and care in its service in peace and war. Mr. Lake was born in Livingston county, Michigan, on November 1, 1843, and is the son of Rial and Mary F. (Burt) Lake, native near Bellows Falls, Vermont. The father kept a private school in Philadelphia a number of years, then in 1834 moved to Livingston county, Michigan, when that country was as wild and unsettled as any of the farther West is now. With an ox team he hauled the first stove into the county from Detroit, a distance of fifty miles. He passed the remainder of his life in that wilderness, clearing and improving a good farm from the virgin forest and helping to organize and shape the government and civilization of the section; and when his and his wife's useful labors were ended they were laid to rest amid the growing industries and cultivation which they had helped to found. Eight children were born to them, but two of whom are living, their son Henry and one of his sisters, the latter making her home on the old Michigan homestead. A younger brother, who passed away some years ago, was in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad for many years, and at the time of his death was its chief engineer. Henry, who was next to the youngest of the family, remained at home until he reached the age of fifteen. His educational advantages were compassed within the crude and irregular facilities of the country school in a new section, where every force was required to subdue the land to fertility and supply the home with the necessaries of life. He worked on farms near his home until August 9, 1862, when he enlisted as a private in Company H, Twenty-second Michigan Volunteer Infantry, in defense of the Union during the Civil war. He was promoted corporal before leaving the state and sergeant in the spring of 1863. At the battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20, 1863, he had command of his company as fifth sergeant, all its higher officers having been killed or wounded. In this terrible battle the whole regiment was captured and Mr. Lake was held a prisoner of war until March 1, 1865, passing the time in prisons at Atlanta, Richmond, Danville, Andersonville, Charleston and Florence. On March 1, 1865, he was paroled at Wilmington, North Carolina, and on April 28th following was commissioned second lieutenant to rank as such from April 1st. He was prevented from being mustered as a lieutenant by being a prisoner under parole, and was honorably discharged at Camp Chase on June 9, 1865. On February 28, 1888, nearly twenty-five years afterward, the government made tardy reparation for this hardship by special order No. 43, from the headquarters of the army, adjutant general's office, which reads: "The discharge of Sergeant Henry F. Lake, Company H, Twenty-second Michigan Infantry Volunteers, June 9, 1865, is amended to take effect April 27, 1865. He is mustered into service as second lieutenant, same company and regiment, to date April 28, 1865; mustered out and honorably discharged June 9, 1865, and he is mustered for pay in said grade during the period embraced between the aforesaid dates." During his time of nearly a year and a half in southern prisons he suffered terrible hardships and privations, cruelties and disease, exposure and want. After the war he returned to Michigan and for the next ten years farmed a portion of the old homestead. In January, 1876, he moved to the vicinity of Topeka, Kansas, and before the end of that year came to Colorado on the first regular passenger train that reached Pueblo over the Santa Fe Railroad. During the ensuing winter he was night clerk at the terminal railway station, and in May, 1877, he joined a train of freight teams leaving for the San Miguel country, attracted to that region by the mining excitement. The government had built a road from the old Ute agency to the Uncompahgre river, but it was so crude that this party found it necessary in places to take their wagons apart in order to get to the top of a hill. Some little time afterward the Mears toll road was built and many of these difficulties were thereby removed. During the summer of 1877 he made three trips to Pueblo with a freight team, the distance being three hundred and fifty miles each way. With several other men he remained in the San Miguel country through the winter of 1877-8. In the fall of 1877 the old town of San Miguel, about two miles below what is now Telluride, was surveyed, and Mr. Lake and others, being dissatisfied with the allotments of land made to them, surveyed and plotted the present town of Telluride, which they named Columbia. During the summer of 1878 he prospected with indifferent results, and the next winter worked in the engineering department of the Santa Fe at Topeka, Kansas. In the spring of 1879 he came with burros over the old Saguache road to Gunnison, which then had only two buildings, one of them the county clerk's office with a dirt roof. He located at White Pine, about thirty-eight miles east of Gunnison, and engaged in mining and prospecting, locating nearly all of the May Mazeppa properties on Lake hill, the North Star being one of the principal mines of the group. This he worked successfully for ten years, then sold his mining interests and took up his residence permanently in the town of Gunnison, where since 1894 he has been actively engaged in the real estate and insurance business. In politics he was a pronounced Republican until 1896. He then became a Democrat and has since been allied with that party, in whose services he has been zealous and efficient, as he always was in the service of the other. In 1890 he was appointed receiver of the United States land office at Gunnison, in which position he served four years. When in San Miguel county, which was then a part of Ouray, he served as justice of the peace, the first one in that section. Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows, the Red Men and the Woodmen of the World, holding his membership at Gunnison and being a charter member of the lodges of the two last mentioned, and since 1890 clerk of his camp of Woodmen. In May, 1873, he was married to Miss Mary Tock, a native of New York, who died in 1875, leaving one son, Henry F. Lake, Jr., now editor and manager of the Gunnison News-Champion; and in March, 1892, he married a second wife, Miss Frances A. Norton, who was born in Livingston county, Michigan. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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