Iles Family
Family Group
Eliza Collection
Photos from Bill
Zurth
Alfred Collection
Log of a Sea Going Pioneer
Gertrude Collection
Bible Pages
Letter to the
Countess of Tankerville
Documents
Links
George Eastman House Thurlow Collection
One of the amazing things about the Iles family is that they
lived near James Thurlow, a photographer. Some of his collection
can be found here. Look for the photo titled "Iles Terrace." |
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This is a collection of files and
information of the Iles family who came to Manitou, Colorado
from London, England. William Bennett Iles and his wife Eliza
Willsher came with either 7 or 8 children in August 1871. We
believe that their children Walter and Alice may have been
deceased before coming from England, and their son Alfred was in
the British Navy leaving only 7 children actually coming to the
U.S. in 1871 with Alfred following in 1875. William Iles was
invited out by Dr. William Bell to work for the new Colorado
Springs Hotel as manager (Click "Villa La Font" to read a June
23rd 1871 newpaper article). Since the hotel had not been
completed, he was sent out to Manitou to run what was called the
Transient Inn or Temporary Inn which was located in what is now
Soda Springs Park. Sometime in mid December of that year, after
the Colorado Springs Hotel had been completed, he and his family
started moving in into the new hotel. Unfortunately there was a
disagreement over the use of liquor and William Jackson Palmer,
President of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and the National
Land Improvement Company, asked William Iles to leave the
premises (Jeff Christlieb has a copy of a letter to Iles from
Palmer). William Iles then built a house in Manitou just west of
the Pawnee Spring (now called the Little Ute Chief Spring). In
about 1874-1875 he was working for the Manitou House which was
located at what we call now Memorial Park. The Iles home would
later burn down do to a lightening strike. According to Deborah
Harrison a Manitou researcher, he also was constable and owned a
curiosity shop. In 1891 when his wife Eliza died suddenly on a
train trip back from Silverton after a visit with her son Alfred
and daughter Gertrude, William Iles moved to Denver of that year
and lived there for the next fifteen years, moving from
apartment house to apartment house. He is listed as being a real
estate agent. Their children included:
George W. who moved with his Louise
to Chicago, Illinois
Blanche who lived and died in
Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Harry who came out to Colorado
Springs, moved to Pueblo and later to Los Angeles, California.
Eliza who married in Manitou and
later moved to Nevada and California.
Alfred who served in the British
Navy and came to Colorado in 1875. He would later live in Pueblo
& Silverton, Colorado - Valdez, Alaska - New York, New York and
Washington D.C.
Emma who married in Manitou at
the Cliff House and lived in Manitou, Crissman, and Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
Annie who would live with the
family in Manitou until her marriage in 1881, she would later
live at Ivywild which is now part the southern part of Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
Gertrude who would stay with the
family in Manitou until she moved to Silverton, Colorado where
she married in 1890. She would later live Denver and Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
In July 2000, Jeff
Christlieb found a web site mentioning the name of Alfred Iles
(son of William & Eliza). On this site was written: The
March 17, 1883, issue of the Red Mountain Pilot
states: "…Alfred Iles has one of the finest prospects in the
District, the Addie S. It is located at the southern limits of
Red Mountain City, between the Blue Bird and the Turkios, on the
same blow-out as the wonderful Silver Ledge. W. J. Shiek, of the
Denver Fire Brick company, is interested with Mr. Iles in this
valuable property."
Jeff
Christlieb contacted Gary Lewis who found this information, Gary
told Jeff that he needed to get the book "Many More
Mountains Vol. III," as it contained much information on the
life of Alfred Iles. Gary sent Jeff a scan of a photo that was
in the book of Alfred Iles standing in his British Naval
uniform. Underneath this photo was "courtesy of the Genheer and
Kirkpatrick families." Who were these families and how were they
linked to the Iles family? This would be answered with a search
of an online telephone directory for the name "Gensheer."
Much to Jeff's amazement, he found Cecilia & Victor Gensheer
located in Durango, Colorado. Jeff promptly called and talked
with Cecilia "Babe" Gensheer. Alfred Iles was her step
grandfather and she was surprised to hear that somebody was
doing research on the person who she called "Pa" or "Alf." She
also said that when Alfred died, nobody wanted his old scrapbook
of photos and newspaper clippings. Since she was a young girl of
about 16 or 17 years, she asked if she could have them, and they
have been in her possession for 58 years. With a promise to
donate the collection to the Pioneer Museum in Colorado Springs,
Colorado, Babe sent everything to Jeff Christlieb in September
of 2000. Much to Jeff's amazement, the collection also contained
Alfred's 80,000 word memoir "Log of a Sea Going Pioneer," which
described Alfred's life from the age of seven.
In April of 2001,
Jeff contacted Helen Merit of Portland, Oregon. Helen's husband
John or "Jack" Merit had contacted Jeff's wife Cindy in
the 1980s. Cindy & Jack Merit were the actual Iles descendants
as they were cousins. Helen informed Jeff that Jack had died in
1996. After talking for awhile on the phone about the history of
our spouses ancestors, Helen mentioned that she was coming out
to Colorado to visit with friends, and that she would be glad to
bring out all the Iles information, family Bible, photographs,
etc., as long as they were donated to Pioneer Museum in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. So, Jeff Christlieb now had the photograph
collection of both Alfred and his sister Gertrude in his
basement sitting side by side. Jeff also had a photograph of
William and his wife Eliza Iles', which can be seen on this
page.
On August 22, 2001,
after scanning every photo of both collections, Jeff Christlieb,
along with his daughter Ashlee and his father-in-law Fred Greier,
went down to the Pioneer Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
They handed over both collections to Leah Witherow an archivist
at the Museum.
In September of
2001, while doing more searches on the internet, Jeff Christlieb
came into contact to Bettie Muggeridge, a descendant of Harry
Iles. Also Bill Zurth, who's wife was a descendant of Eliza (nee
Iles) van den Heuvel. Bill has some wonderful photos of the Iles
children during their time in Manitou, Colorado. Bettie is
catching up on reading Alfred's memoirs and has brought out
Harry Iles' collection of information and will let us know what
she has.
And so the search continues... |
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Mea
Gloria Fides (Fidelity is my Glory)
The Iles Family Crest.
William
Bennett Iles
Photo was taken in Exeter,
England about 1862.
Eliza Willsher
Photo taken in New York in the
1870s.
Iles Terrace
This photo was taken by James Thurlow about
1872. |
