Irving Howbert: Successful Businessman and Railroad Investor

Men and women outside a polling station in Colorado 1893. Courtesy of Denver Public Library, Western History/Genealogy Department. (Public Domain)

Irving Howbert (1846–1934) headed west with his family in hopes of finding gold. Later in life, he played a vital role in getting railroad tracks laid through the Rocky Mountains. He became a major land developer in Colorado and wrote two books, which are some of the earliest accounts of the region surrounding Pikes Peak.

Howbert was born in Columbus, Indiana and got his schooling in Iowa before his family’s wagons went west to mine for gold. The Howbert family traveled towards the Rocky Mountains with only enough supplies to last six months, which was common during the “Pikes Peak or Bust” mining boom days. Accounts from one of Howbert’s books titled “Memories of a Lifetime in the Pikes Peak Region” say that 60,000 to 70,000 people went to the Rocky Mountains during the summer of 1860.

"Memories of a Lifetime in the Pike’s Peak Region" by Irving Howbart.

Howbert’s father was a Christian missionary, and his family first went to set up churches in mining camps in the center of the Colorado territory. The family eventually settled on a farm in 1862 in what is now Colorado Springs. His father preached empathy for all, but people often dismissed this counsel. Howbert once told a story about how his father tried to talk people out of a hanging. A man was convicted for theft and sentenced to death. Howbert’s father asked the townspeople to let him preach before the hanging, but the residents refused.

Colorado Springs

“Colorado Springs began to grow. [Howbert] came here as a child before there was a Colorado Springs,” Mel McFarland, historian and author of several books about Colorado railroads, told The Epoch Times.

“He grew up here and spent most of his life here,“ Mr. McFarland said. ”Here, in the Pikes Peak Region and especially in Colorado Springs, they talk about the developments that General (William Jackson) Palmer brought. Well, Irving Howbert was General Palmer’s land agent. So, he helped find all of the properties that General Palmer eventually bought.” Palmer was a decorated Union general during the Civil War.

People from the East settled in around Colorado's Pikes Peak. (Hogs555/CC BY-SA 3.0)

After a six-month stint in the military during the Civil War, Howbert returned and took the position of El Paso County Clerk in 1869. Many officials of Colorado Springs lived out of town, so while doing his clerk’s jobs, Howbert also completed the duties of the country assessor, treasurer, and three commissioners. In 1874, Howbert, with his best friend Benjamin Crowell, opened the First National Bank of Colorado Springs.

Howbert invested in silver mines in Colorado, which increased his wealth. He shared his good fortune with his community by building an opera house and donating money to establish Colorado College.

Cripple Creek

Gold was discovered just west of Colorado Springs in a town called Cripple Creek. Howbert invested in the area’s new mining district and railroads that lead through the mountains to the booming gold mines. “There were three different railroads that started in Colorado Springs and headed west, and [Howbert] was a part of all of them,” Mr. McFarland said.

Cripple Creek, Colo., under martial law in 1894. Rastall, Benjamin McKie. University of Wisconsin. (Public Domain)

Howbert’s philanthropic efforts continued when tragedy struck Cripple Creek. Before the state militia was forced to intervene, Howbert hired and deputized troops to manage miners during the Cripple Creek Miner’s Strike of 1894. When a fire broke out and decimated the town two years later, Howbert sent trains full of supplies to help those affected by the blaze.

According to Mr. McFarland, Howbert once had a town in Colorado named after him. However, the South Platte River was dammed to build the reservoir in 1932, and the town of Howbert, Colorado now sits on the bottom of the reservoir in 11 Mile Reservoir State Park.

“Most of the towns in Colorado were actually started by the railroads and they would name things after the people that were influential,” Mr. McFarland said. “[Howbert, Colorado] was named after Irving Howbert. By the time they built the dam in the 1930s, the town had basically gone away.”

Howbert served as a Republican state senator from 1882 to 1886, and he was very active in Colorado’s Republican Party. He continued as a board member for Colorado College, and as the president of the First National Bank of Colorado Springs until the early 1920s. 

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