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228 East First High Street, (P O Box 247)
Central City, Colorado 80427-0247
Phone: 303.582.5283
gchs@wispertel.net
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Governor
William Gilpin
(October 4, 1813–January 20, 1893)
Was a 19th century U.S. explorer, politician, land speculator,
philanthropist, and futurist writer about the American
West. He served as military officer in the United States
Army during several wars, accompanied John C. Frémont
on his second expedition through the West, and was instrumental
in the formation of the government of the Oregon Territory.
As a politician and writer, he was an inveterate believer
in Manifest Destiny and was a visionary booster of new
settlement to the West, helping lay the groundwork in
his writings for a modern theory of the succession of
civilizations. He served as the first governor of the
Colorado Territory, where his administration was consumed
largely with the defense of the new territory in the early
days of the American Civil War and was brought down after
only one year by scandalous financial dealings. After
the demise of his political career, he made a large fortune
as a land speculator in New Mexico. Gilpin County, Colorado
is named for him.
Early life
Gilpin was born near Wilmington, Delaware to a wealthy
family of Quakers. He was educated by private tutors and
studied abroad in England before attending the University
of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1833. He later
attended West Point but dropped out after eight months.
Despite this, he received a commission as second lieutenant
in the United States Army and served in the Seminole Wars.
He also served as a recruiter in Missouri. While in Missouri,
he became attracted to opportunities on the frontier and
to the idea of westward expansion of the nation. After
leaving the Army in 1838, he moved to St. Louis where
he became a newspaper editor and opened a law practice.
After three years in St. Louis, he moved across the state
to Independence, where he interacted with emigrants about
to embark on the Oregon Trail.
Pacific Northwest
In 1843 he encountered John C. Frémont along the
Santa Fe Trail and embarked westward with Frémont
on his expedition to find a route over the continental
divide. While passing through the region of present-day
Colorado, he encountered evidence of placer gold in the
region, but the information would go unused for at least
another decade. When the party reached Walla Walla in
the Oregon County, Gilpin continue westward on his own
while Frémont continued on to California. At the
time, the Oregon Country was under joint administration
by the United States and the United Kingdom, but in practical
terms it was controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company at
Fort Vancouver. Gilpin settled among the growing community
of U.S. settlers in the Willamette Valley and became active
in the organization a provisional government. At the landmark
convention at Champoeg, he helped draft a petition requesting
support for the provisional government from the United
States Congress Gilpin himself was charged with carrying
the Willamette petition back east. On his way back through
Missouri, he helped publicize the Pacific Northwest and
stir up "Oregon fever". He delivered the petition
to Congress in 1845, then wrote memoirs of his travels
in the Pacific Northwest to emphasize its potential for
trade and settlement.
The Central Gold Region
During the Mexican-American War, he received a commission
as Major and marched to Chihuahua City in the successful
bloodless campaign to capture New Mexico. He was considered
to have served with distinction in the campaign and was
later given command of a volunteer force to protect the
Santa Fe Trail against attacks by Native Americans.
After the end of the war in 1848, he returned to Missouri
and resumed his law practice. He made an unsuccessful
attempt at a political career while in Missouri as well.
In 1859, Gilpin's early intuition about gold in Colorado
proved correct, and the region suddenly became the target
for thousands of eager and hopeful prospectors in the
ensuing Colorado Gold Rush. That year, Gilpin published
a futurist history of the region, called The Central Gold
Region, in which he wrote, "The destiny of the American
people is to subdue the continent". In the book he
predicted that the Mississippi River valley would become
the center of western civilization with the new settlement
of Denver as its capital, based partly on its location
near the 40th parallel north. In the book, Gilpin envisioned
that all the great cities of the world along that latitude
would eventually be linked by railroad lines, and proposed
a rail line over the Bering Strait connecting North America
and Asia. Throughout his career in politics, Gilpin was
a strong believer that the American West would not only
be settled, but that it would eventually hold an enormous
population. He was a particularly strong advocate of the
now-debunked climatological theory of "Rain follows
the plow", which held that settlement in the arid
lands of the West would actually increase rainfall in
the region, making it as fertile and green as the Eastern
United States.
Governor of Colorado
In the early 1860s the crisis in Kansas prompted Gilpin
to join the Republican Party, putting him at odds with
many citizens of Missouri. His political alignment with
the new administration of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
was rewarded in 1861 when Lincoln appointed him governor
of the newly-formed Territory of Colorado. His selection
was motivated in part by the fact the Gilpin was backed
by the Governor of Missouri, a slave state that Lincoln
was eager to keep in the Union.
American Civil War
Gilpin left Missouri and arrived in Colorado in May 1861
to cheering crowds. Despite his warm reception, his administration
and governor was plagued with difficulties from the outset.
The territory had been organized at the start of the Civil
War and faced a complex set of possible threats, including
Confederate sympathizers within the territory, the possibility
of a Confederate invasion from outside the territory,
and the looming tensions with Native Americans (in particular
the Arapaho and Cheyenne) in the wake of the withdraw
of U.S. Army troops in the region for other duties.
The imminent threats facing the territory prompted Gilpin
to act quickly without receiving authorization from the
federal government. He appointed a territorial military
staff and, despite having no funds for military purposes,
he began to solicit volunteers for a military regiment.
Without funds, he took the daring step of issuing $375,000
in drafts on the federal treasury, with the expectation
that the federal government would honor them later. He
later claimed that he had received verbal authorization
from Lincoln before leaving for Colorado.
At first, most of the merchants and citizens of the territory
were willing to follow Gilpin's campaign, but doubt began
to spread through the territory after rumors from Washington,
DC confirmed that the federal government did not intend
to validate the drafts. By the summer of 1861, many of
the citizens of the territory were in uproar, a petitions
were circulated calling for Gilpin's removal from office.
The campaign against him was fostered by the anger of
William N. Byers, the powerful editor of the Rocky Mountain
News, whose newspaper had been bypassed in favor of rival
in the awarding of the territorial printing contract.
Under attack in his own state, Gilpin went to Washington
to plead his case for the validation of the drafts. Despite
the controversy, the funds already raised from the drafts
allowed the creation of the 1st Colorado Volunteers. The
regiment trained in the summer and fall of 1861 at Camp
Weld near Denver.
The mustering and training of the regiment proved to be
highly useful when the Confederates launched an invasion
northward through the New Mexico Territory in the spring
of 1862. The invasion (now called the New Mexico Campaign
to reflect its abortive nature) had as its aim the seizure
of the mineral-rich Colorado Territory and eventually
California. The volunteer regiment raised by Gilpin's
efforts played a critical role in the campaign, routing
the Texans at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, which became
known as the "Gettysburg of the West".
Despite the enormous success of the regiment, the territory
was mired in financial problems caused by the fact that
Gilpin's drafts had tied up most of the circulating currency
without any resolution regarding their validation. Eventually
the federal treasury settled the drafts after being presented
with itemized statements by the holders of the drafts.
The resolution came too late for Gilpin, however, who
was removed from the governorship of the territory by
Lincoln in April 1862 and replaced by John Evans.
St. Joseph Hospital, Denver, Colorado Real Estate Donation
Governor William Gilpin and his wife Julia, a devout Catholic
donated the land for the current site at the corner of
Humboldt Street and 18th Avenue, for a $40,000.00, 80
bed hospital.
Governor William Gilpin passed away on January 20,
1893 from injuries sustained from a carriage accident
in Denver, Colorado.
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