Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Sapp, Dexter T. July 4, 1847 - ? ************************************************ 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 24, 2006, 6:51 pm Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Dexter T. Sapp, one of the leading lawyers of the Western slope, whose home is at Gunnison, was born at Battle Creek, Michigan, on July 4, 1847, and is the son of Rev. Rezin and Margaret P. (Ferry) Sapp, the former a native of Mount Vernon, Ohio, and the latter of Monroe, Michigan. The father was a Methodist minister in active itinerary work, and, owing to his migratory life, his family had for no considerable time a settled home. The education of his children, five of the six of whom are living, all sons, was necessarily irregular and subject to interruptions. He and his wife died some years ago. But before their demise their son Dexter was able to complete, as far as his circumstances allowed, the course of instruction furnished by the public schools of his native state. In 1862 he entered the college at Albion, Michigan, but two years later, fired by devotion to the Union, he left the classic halls of that institution and enlisted in the Federal army as a volunteer in Company L, First Michigan Cavalry, in which he served to the close of the Civil war, and afterward crossed the plains with it to Salt Lake City to aid in quelling the Indian outbreak in that neighborhood. There he was mustered out of the service in the fall of 1865. During that war he took part in a number of important battles, the most sanguinary being that of the Wilderness, but, although his service was constant and active, he escaped without serious wounds or other disaster beyond losing the hearing in one ear. After his discharge from the army he returned to his Michigan home and pursued a course of commercial instruction at Mahew College. He then began reading law at Kalamazoo in the office of Hon. Henry F. Severns, at present United States judge for the western district of Michigan. He continued his studies in the office of Hon. Thomas F. Sherwood, now a justice of the supreme court of Michigan, and finished them in that of Hon. Josiah L. Hawes, later a district judge of the circuit court in that state. He was carefully trained under the discipline of these eminent men, and when admitted to the bar, in April, 1870, was well qualified for the arduous and important duties before him by accurate and extensive knowledge of both the letter and the spirit of the law and the ethics of his profession, which he has always carefully observed. He practiced at Greenville, Michigan, until 1881, then came to Colorado and located in Gunnison county. In 1894 he moved to Seattle, Washington, where he remained two years and four months, at the end of that period taking up his residence again at Gunnison, which has ever since been his home. From the time of his admission to the bar he has devoted his time exclusively to his practice, avoiding all the seductive allurements of politics, and since coming to this state has made a specialty of mining cases, in which he is now a widely acknowledged authority. In politics he was a Silver Republican in the nineties, but is now an ardent Democrat, and until recently never sought or accepted a nomination for public office. In the fall of 1904 he yielded to the demand of the Democratic constituency of the eleventh district, and became its candidate for state senator from that district, which comprises Gunnison and Pitkin counties. At the election which followed his triumph was pronounced although his opponent was a popular citizen, a man of large business connections and an active and vigorous campaigner. Fraternally the Senator is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to the lodge and Royal Arch chapter at Gunnison, and a charter member of the lodge of Knights of Pythias at the same place, as he was of a lodge of that order in Michigan, which he joined in 1871. He also belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, and has served as commander of his post and judge advocate for the department of Colorado, holding the latter office in 1884. He was married in 1873 and has one daughter, Reva, who is engaged in newspaper work on the Rocky Mountain News at Denver. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/sapp405gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 4.7 Kb