Augusta Pierce Tabor (March 29, 1833 – January 30, 1895) was the wife of a merchant and miner, Horace Tabor, the first white woman to live in the Idaho Springs mining camp, and a Denver philanthropist. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1991 for her contributions to social service and philanthropy. [1]
Augusta Pierce was born in Augusta, Maine on March 29, 1833. [2] [3] Her father, William B. Pierce, [4] owned a quarry [2] [3] and was a contractor. Tabor, one of ten children and the third of seven girls, suffered poor health during her childhood. [2] She is described as being tall, lithe and beautiful with thick dark hair and was determined and charming. [5] Tabor was a debutante, grew up in a pampered lifestyle, and believed in women's rights. [6] She was the cousin of Franklin Pierce, president of the United States. [7]
William B. Pierce hired Horace Tabor to supervise stone-cutters who worked on the construction of a mental institution (called an insane asylum at the time) in Augusta, Maine. Augusta Pierce met Horace and they fell in love. [8] [9] Augusta and Horace made a plan to move west to Kansas Territory to help populate the territory with anti-slavery supporters. First, though, Horace traveled to Kansas and worked to save money to get married. [10] He arrived with other members of the New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1855. [11] [12] Horace worked at Fort Riley as a stonemason, [12] and he fought with others to defend the town of Lawrence against pro-slavery men during the Sacking of Lawrence. [13]
A member of the Free Soil Party, [14] Tabor was elected to the Topeka Legislature. [12] [14]
Augusta was married to Horace Tabor on January 31, 1857, becoming Augusta Tabor. [15] [16] After their marriage at her family's home in Maine, the couple farmed for two years along Deep Creek in Zeandale, Kansas (known today as Tabor Valley). [12] [15] [16] They had a son named Nathaniel Maxcy, [12] who was also known as Maxey. [17]
| Articles |
|---|
| People |
| Mines |
| Related articles |
Augusta and Horace Tabor lived in the Idaho Springs mining camp before moving to Leadville. The Tabors established a store and Augusta made money as a washerwoman and as a landlady to boarders. Horace mined for gold in the mountains of Colorado and in 1878, after 20 years, he struck a silver vein that made US$10,000 (equivalent to $315,724in 2023) per day. [1]
The Tabors established a mansion in Denver after Horace was elected lieutenant governor later in 1878. The 20-room mansion, built at Eighteenth and Broadway for $40,000 (equivalent to $1,262,897in 2023), was operated as a boarding house after Horace left her for Elizabeth "Baby Doe" McCourt. Augusta was landlady for up to 14 people at a time and was engaged in community activities, such as contributing to civic projects and charities and hosting fund-raising events. Tabor was particularly involved in the Pioneer Ladies Aid Society. [1]
With then-husband Horace, Augusta was a co-developer of the Tabor Grand Opera House (1881), Denver's first opera-quality theatrical performance space. Augusta Tabor is a major character in the opera The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore and John Latouche; the role was created by Martha Lipton at the opera's 1956 premiere. [18] A noted interpreter of the part was Frances Bible, who recorded it in 1961. [19]
Leadville is a statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,633 at the 2020 census. It is situated at an elevation of 10,119 feet (3,084 m). Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States and is surrounded by two of the tallest peaks in the state.
Margaret Brown, posthumously known as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was a survivor of the RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912, and she unsuccessfully urged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field to look for survivors.
Polly Bemis was a Chinese American pioneer who lived in Idaho in the late 19th and early 20th century. Her story became a biographical novel, and was the subject of the 1991 film Thousand Pieces of Gold.
Horace Austin Warner "Haw" Tabor, also known as The Bonanza King of Leadville and The Silver King, was an American prospector, businessman, and Republican politician. His success in Leadville, Colorado's silver mines made him one of the wealthiest men in Colorado. He purchased more mining enterprises throughout Colorado and the Southwestern United States, and he was a philanthropist. After the collapse in the silver market during the Panic of 1893, Tabor was financially devastated. He lost most of his holdings, and he labored in the mines. In his last year, he was the postmaster of Denver.
The Central City Opera House is located in the Central City/Black Hawk Historic District in Central City, Colorado, United States. It was constructed in 1878. It has offered operatic and theatrical productions that drew prominent actors and performers in the late 19th-century, and in the early 20th-century it was a motion picture theater.
John Sewell Langrishe, popularly known as the "Comedian of the Frontier", was an Irish-American actor and impresario who travelled extensively throughout the American West and later in life became one of the first State Senators of Idaho.
Granite is an unincorporated community with a U.S. Post Office in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The zip code of Granite is 81228. According to the 2010 census, the population is 116.
The Ballad of Baby Doe is an opera by the American composer Douglas Moore that uses an English-language libretto by John Latouche. It is Moore's most famous opera and one of the few American operas to be in the standard repertory. Especially famous are the title heroine's five arias: "Letter Aria," "Willow Song," "I Knew it Was Wrong", "Gold is a Fine Thing", and "Always Through the Changing." Horace Tabor's "Warm as the Autumn Light" is also frequently heard. Distinguished sopranos who have portrayed Baby Doe include Beverly Sills, Ruth Welting, Karan Armstrong, Faith Esham, and Elizabeth Futral.
Oro City is a ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States
The Unsinkable Molly Brown is a 1960 musical with music and lyrics by Meredith Willson and book by Richard Morris. The plot is a fictionalized account of the life of Margaret Brown, who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and her wealthy miner-husband. A musical film version, also titled The Unsinkable Molly Brown, with screenplay by Helen Deutsch, was released in 1964.
The Leadville Historic District is in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. The National Historic Landmark District includes 67 mines in the mining district east of the city up to the 12,000 foot level, and a defined portion of the village area. It was designated in 1961. Then, when the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) program was started in 1966, Leadville's National Historic District was included in its first day's listings, along with all other existing National Historic Landmarks. The NRHP district was later expanded, adding a number of structures along the Harrison Avenue corridor, and making them eligible for historic preservation grants and tax subsidies, too.
The Leadville mining district, located in the Colorado Mineral Belt, was the most productive silver-mining district in the state of Colorado and hosts one of the largest lead-zinc-silver deposits in the world. Oro City, an early Colorado gold placer mining town located about a mile east of Leadville in California Gulch, was the location to one of the richest placer gold strikes in Colorado, with estimated gold production of 120,000–150,000 ozt, worth $2.5 to $3 million at the then-price of $20.67 per troy ounce.
Muriel Sibell Wolle, née Muriel Vincent Sibell was an American artist best known for her drawings and paintings of mining communities in the western states.
Elizabeth McCourt Tabor, better known as Baby Doe, was the second wife of Colorado pioneer businessman Horace Tabor. Her rags-to-riches and back to rags again story made her a well-known figure in her own day, and inspired an opera and a Hollywood movie based on her life.
The Matchless Mine is a historic mine located in Lake County, Colorado. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is part of the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum.
Temple Israel is a former synagogue, now Jewish history museum, located at 201 West 4th Street in Leadville, Colorado, in the United States. The former synagogue was erected during the summer of 1884 in less than two months. The Temple Israel building is a rare example of a frontier synagogue.
David May (1848–1927) was an American businessman and founder of the May Company department store.
Caroline Bancroft was an American journalist. She is known for the books and booklets that she wrote about Colorado's history and its pioneers. In 1990, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.
The Tabor Opera House is an opera house in Leadville, Colorado. Opened in 1879, The building has been designated a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Tabor Grand Opera House, not to be confused with the Tabor Opera House of Leadville, was a Denver opera house and theatre built and subsidized by the silver magnate Horace Tabor and his first wife Augusta Tabor.
{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) For more information about the documentary, see IMDB.A statement recorded at Denver, Oct. 22, 1884, concerning arrival in Colorado, 1859; experiences in mining regions; work with her husband in the Post and Express Office; carrying gold to Denver.
Media related to Augusta Tabor at Wikimedia Commons
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
