People

Elizabeth “Libby” Minerva Sumner Byers (1834–1920) was a Colorado social reformer who arrived in Denver in the summer of 1859 and spent the next six decades establishing and supporting the city’s early charitable organizations, schools, and churches. Her focus on the poor led her to found...

Caroline Nichols Churchill (1833–1926) was a writer and newspaper editor best known for founding and editing the Queen Bee , a Denver weekly newspaper dedicated to “the interests of humanity, woman’s political equality and individuality.” Embracing progressive and feminist causes, Churchill...

August Robert Meyer (1851–1905) was a mining engineer who played a central role in starting Leadville ’s silver boom in the late 1870s. Meyer recognized the value of the area’s lead carbonate ores, built a smelter , developed local infrastructure, and helped organize the new city. After leaving...

Josephine Meeker (1857–82) was the daughter of Nathan Meeker , the Indian agent who oversaw the White River Indian Agency during the Meeker Incident , a Ute uprising in 1879. After the revolt, Utes took Josephine, her mother, another woman, and her two children captive for nearly a month. Following...

Stephen Harriman Long (1784–1864) was an American military explorer best known for leading an expedition into present-day Colorado in 1820. On his expedition map, he famously labeled the arid Great Plains as a “ Great American Desert ” where agriculture could not thrive. His description was...

Otto Mears (1840–1931) was a Colorado businessman who played a key role in the removal of the state’s Ute Indians and is best known for building more than 450 miles of toll roads and railroads on the Utes’ former lands in the southern and southwestern parts of the state. Called the “Pathfinder of...

Robert Walter Speer (1855–1918) served as mayor of Denver for two terms, from 1904 to 1912, then was reelected in 1916, serving another two years as mayor before passing away in 1918 during the Spanish influenza pandemic. Speer is remembered primarily for implementing the City Beautiful plan that...

William Newton Byers (1831–1903) founded the first newspaper in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain News (1859–2009) and was Denver ’s biggest booster during the city’s early days. Byers used his newspaper as a platform for his advocacy, as his knowledge of the territory allowed him to broker land deals...

Augusta Tabor (1833–95), born Augusta Louise Pierce, came to Colorado with her husband Horace and young son during the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59. As an astute businesswoman and careful money manager, she helped her husband become one of the country’s wealthiest men in the late nineteenth...