American Heritage Center, Laramie History Subject Guide: Businesses

N. E. Corthell Family Papers, 1868-1960

Acc. #75

Nellis E. Corthell (1861-1938) was born in Cattaraugus County, New York, and came to Wyoming circa 1880. After working briefly on a ranch, he began studying law in the office of Laramie, Wyoming, attorney Stephen W. Downey and was admitted to the bar in 1883. Corthell first joined Downey’s law firm, establishing his own practice in 1887. In 1914 the firm of Corthell, McCollough, and Corthell was formed, with the other partners being his son Morris E. Corthell and A.W. McCollough. N.E. Corthell was an authority on water rights and held business interests in several Laramie companies, including the Laramie Boomerang, a newspaper which he owned from 1890 to 1911. He married Eleanor (Nellie) Quackenbush in 1885. She died in 1922. The couple’s children were: Evelyn (b. 1886, m. John A. Hill), Morris Eliot (b. 1887), Miriam (Mim, b. 1889, m. Thayer Burgess and Hugh Moreland), Gladys (1890-1925, m. Wilbur Hitchcock), Robert Clinton (Robin, b. 1891), Huron DeWitt (b. 1893), and Irving Eugene (1894-1957).

The collection mainly contains records of the businesses that Corthell held interest in along with some family and personal items. The collection includes account books and miscellaneous correspondence for the following businesses: the Laramie Boomerang (1881-1909); the Buffalo Basin Land Company (1881-1901); the Laramie Ice and Coal Company (1885-1893); the Laramie Water Company (1911-1914); Meyer & Raife (a Laramie dry goods store); the Southern Wyoming Telephone Company (1910-1914); the Van Dyke Coal and Milling Company (1890-1894); and the Wyoming Central Land and Improvement Company (1884).

Holliday Family Papers, 1870-1993

Acc. #347

William Helmus and Jethro Tabor Holliday, the sons of Eli and Annetta Bogart Holliday, were born near Miami, Ohio, in 1843 and 1844, respectively. The family moved to a farm in Coles County, Illinois, in 1858 and then to northern Colorado in 1868 to operate a sawmill. In 1870 W.H. and J.T acquired a sawmill in what is now southern Albany County, Wyoming. The sawmill was located near Sherman, Wyoming, on Dale Creek.

W.H. Holliday formed the W.H. Holliday Company in 1872 in Laramie, Wyoming, and J.T. Holliday established short-lived lumberyards in Greeley, Colorado, in 1875 and in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1877 before joining his brother as vice-president of W.H. Holliday Company in 1879, which entailed a lumber yard, general mercantile, and building contracting.

In the spring of 1880 the original W.H. Holliday Company building was lost in a fire and in 1881 a new three-story building was constructed on South Second Street in Laramie, with the top two floors serving as an opera house until approximately 1885. In 1910 another W.H. Holliday Company building was constructed, this building was four stories high and located at the corner of Garfield and south Second Street.

Following the buy-out of J.T. Holliday's shares from the W.H. Holliday Company in 1910 and the closure of the Overland Cement Company in 1928, Frank and Lewis Holliday turned to building construction and management of irrigation projects around Laramie.

The collection contains materials relating to the extended Holliday family and their business interests from 1872 to 1960. The Holliday family papers include newsclippings, scrapbooks, account books, correspondence, and miscellaneous other materials for Albert, Frank, J.T., Laura, Lewis and W.H. Holliday.

Elmer Lovejoy Papers, 1891-1945

Acc. #176

Elmer Floyd Lovejoy was a Laramie, Wyoming, businessman and inventor. He was born in Illinois on February 2, 1872, to George W. Lovejoy and his wife. Elmer Lovejoy came to Laramie in 1883 for health reasons and soon developed an interest in mechanics. He opened a general repair shop, Lovejoy Novelty Works, at 412 S. 2nd St. in 1893, and a few years later he built a steam-powered automobile incorporating design innovations of his own. In 1902, he built and drove Laramie’s first steam-driven automobile. In 1905, he invented an automobile steering gear, and in 1918 and 1921 he patented designs for automatic garage door openers. Lovejoy also operated a dealership for Franklin automobiles. Lovejoy was active in the Laramie Bicycle Club and was an amateur photographer.

The collection includes a record book (1891-1895) of the Laramie Cycling Club; 3 rolls of 16mm motion picture film depicting University of Wyoming homecoming parades of 1929 and 1930, the 1938 U.W. commencement, and a 1939 pet parade; a 1921 letter concerning a patent; records of the Lovejoy Novelty Works from 1906-1945; United States patents for his automatic door openers; and Laramie area photographs.

Root's Opera House Scrapbook, 1906-1906

Acc. #10381

Chauncey Root and his sister-in-law, Helen Elizabeth Haley Root, operated Root's Opera House from about 1894 to about 1929. The Opera House, as it was known, was the first established theatre in Laramie, Wyoming. It was located at 211 S. 3rd Street. Mrs. Root and her husband, William Root, operated a simple theater at that same location sometime during the 1880s. It was known as Blackburn Hall, and it may have served as a community hall. The Roots purchased the building from the Albany County School District in the late 1870s when the school district abandoned Laramie's first school building, which was constructed in 1872. The Roots were involved in several business ventures on this site (211, 213, and 215 S. 3rd Street) including a Studebaker farm implement sales shop, a wagon repair shop, and a wild game headquarters where game was collected and shipped to Europe. By the late 1890s, the Roots had fully converted the building as a theatre and began improving it. It had electricity, a large stage, fine dressing rooms, and plush seating for 650 people. It was considered to be among the finest theatres between Kansas City and San Francisco. The Roots were able to attract some of the most popular plays, finest actors and repertoire companies, musical comedies, and international singers of the time. In the 1920s, when motion picture shows became popular and stage-acting began to decline, a movie projector and picture screen were installed. By 1930 the theatre had closed, at which time Chauncey Root began operating a newsstand out of the theatre lobby. The building was razed in 1936.

Members of the Root family came to Laramie after the father, Aaron Root, arrived in the city as a construction worker with the Union Pacific Railroad about the time Laramie was established in 1868. Chauncey Root worked as a clerk at Edward Ivinson's bank until 1882 before he involved himself in the various family businesses. Chauncey Root died in Laramie on June 13, 1938. Helen Root died in Laramie on June 6, 1927, and William Root died in 1903.

Businesses Exhibit