Rosemary Fetter - Colorados Legendary Lovers: Historic Scandals, Heartthrobs, and Haunting Romances

Text copyright 2004 Rosemary Fetter

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

ebook ISBN 978-193848-624-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fetter, Rosemary.

Colorados legendary lovers / by Rosemary Fetter.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-55591-372-5

1. ColoradoBiography. 2. Man-woman relationsColorado. 3. Frontier and pioneer lifeColorado. 4. West (U.S.)Biography. 5. CouplesColoradoBiography. I. Title.

CT226.F48 2005

920.0788dc22

2004022380

Editorial: Faith Marcovecchio, Katie Raymond, Haley Groce

Design: Patty Maher

Cover image: From an antique valentine, c. 1905

Fulcrum Publishing

16100 Table Mountain Parkway, Suite 300

Golden, Colorado 80403

(800) 992-2908 (303) 277-1623

www.fulcrum-books.com

To my mother, who always told me,

You should write a book.

Table of Contents

NATIVES AND PIONEERS

Susan and Samuel Magoffin

Mollie Dorsey and Byron Sanford

Chipeta and Chief Ouray

Maria Josefa Jaramillo and Kit Carson

Elsa Jane Guerin

Isabella Bird and Mountain Jim Nugent

ADVENTURERS, GAMBLERS, AND SHADY LADIES

Countess Katrina and Count Henri Murat

Ada LaMont and Charley Harrison

Belle Siddons and Archie McLaughlin

Mattie Silks and Cort Thompson

Lois Lovell and Unknown Lover

Pearl DeVere and the Mystery Millionaire

Frances Barbour, Margaret Jane, Helen Brown, and Ed Chase

SCANDALS AND TRIANGLES

Hattie Sancomb and William Newton Byers

Louise Hill and Bulkeley Wells

Donna Madixxa and William B. Daniels

Isabel and John Springer, Frank Henwood,

and Tony von Phul

Clara Dietrich and Ora Chatfield

Baby Doe Tabor and Arabella Huntington

LOVERS FOR LIFE

Mary and John Elitch

Elizabeth Iliff Warren and John Wesley Iliff

Carrie and Thomas Walsh

Mamie Geneva Doud and Dwight David Eisenhower

Agnes and Harry Heye Tammen

Julie and Spencer Penrose

RUGGED INDIVIDUALISTS

Madge Smiley Reynolds and Fredrick Gilmer Bonfils

Madam C. J. Walker

Lena Allen Webster-Stoiber-Rood-Ellis and Husbands

Mollie OBryan

Goldie Mabovitch (Golda Meir) and Morris Meyerson

Mary Rippon and Will Housel

Verner Z. Reed

Maggie and J. J. Brown

HAUNTING ROMANCES

John Cameron s Mourner

Foreword

M any of Rosemary Fetters fellow Colorado authors, myself included, are probably pounding their desks and keyboards, asking themselves, Why didnt I think of a book like that?

This seductive paperback is a terrific way to meet many of Colorados most memorable characters and the lovers who, more than most biographers will tell you, spurred them to greatness. Rosemary, a Colorado native and seasoned Denver author, shows how these loves shaped Colorado, or at least made headlines. One of the most haunting tales is that of a beautiful Indian woman who married and sustained a Ute chief trying to keep peace. Chipeta and Chief Ouray were inseparable, and she remained his friend and confidante during the Utes most troubled times. She helped Ouray negotiate peace in the wake of the Meeker Massacre, accompanying him in 1880 to Washington, D.C., where she was proclaimed the Queen of the Utes. After Ouray died, she spent her last forty-four years in dire poverty, living in a teepee in the Utah desert.

The characters chosen for the book all have compelling sto ries. Julie Penrose converted Colorados most extravagant playboy into the states premier philanthropist, while Hattie Sancomb changed Colorado history with a potshot at errant lover William Newton Byers, ending his editorship of the Rocky Mountain News and potential political career. Louise Hill and Bulkeley Wells made adultery fashionable for the upper class. Mary and John Elitch founded a landmark amusement park and theater that entertained Coloradans for generations. Some were saints and others sinners, but they all shaped the highest state.

Many books give you less than you expect from their blurb promises. Colorados Legendary Lovers gives more. Herein look for engaging little sidebars, ranging from Love Locks: The Art of Hair Jewelry to Flowerspeak. The latter instructs lovers to send brambles to show remorse and a striped carnation to terminate a relationship. Striped carnations, of course, are cheaper than divorce attorneys.

Unlike many of her romance-minded predecessors, Rosemary tries to separate fact from fiction in this collection of colorful character profiles. She is an adept researcher who has a gift for popularizing history and bringing characters to life on the printed page. Her honesty, clarity, graceful writing, and wit make this a sweetheart of a book.

This is a book for anyone wanting charming mini-stories of Colorados movers and shakers and shockers. Heres to you fellow readers and fellow romantics and, as you will discover herein,

Heres to those who love us,

If we only cared.

Heres to those wed love

If we only dared.

Thomas J. Noel

Acknowledgments

T his book owes a great debt to many historians and writers, whom I hope I have credited sufficiently in the bibliography. I would particularly like to thank my longtime friend and mentor, Dr. Tom Noel of the University of Colorado at Denver, whose lively Colorado history classes inspired my further research into the secret lives of the formerly famous. (As Noel once put it, I prefer to write about the dead. They dont contradict you.) Other Colorado historians and colleagues who were particularly supportive and helpful include my friends Cathleen Norman and Bonnie McCune. Peg Eckstrand, Betty Lynne Hull, Sylvia Pettem, Linda Jones, Jan MacKell, Deborah Dix, Julie Kanellos, Stan Oliner and Modupe Labode, chief historian at the Colorado Historical Society, all provided vital information and suggestions, as did Marianne Glacer, daughter of Bulkeley Wells.

Research librarians are invaluable to any writer, and I would like to thank the Denver Public Library Western History Department staff, particularly Colleen Nunn and Bruce Hanson. Marshall Edson at the Iliff School of Theology Library provided a great deal of assistance, along with the staffs of the Colorado Historical Societys Stephen H. Hart Library, the Littleton History Museum, the Kit Carson Museum, and the Golda Meir Museum. The Denver Womans Press Club Critique Group provided an additional nudge that helped me get this project off the ground.

Finally, I would like to thank my longtime pals Sandra Elliott, Kay Hornor, Kate Kienast, and Anne Reynolds and my sons, Mark and Chris, who put up with my whining and provided encouragement when I needed it, which was most of the time.

Introduction

C olorados snowcapped peaks and crimson sunsets have always provided an inspiring backdrop for romance. Lovebirds flock to the Rockies year-round to celebrate landmark moments, rekindle passion, or simply enjoy the pleasure of each others company. Myriad love stories thread through the states past like a colorful tapestry that brings his tory to life (and vice versa).

Of all Colorado romances, the saga of silver king Horace Tabor and the stunning Baby Doe is the best known. As an opera, a movie, and the subject of innumerable books and articles, the Tabor tragedy has become the quintessential American rags-to-riches-to-rags epic. Perhaps no other state can boast a love story so well publicized.