Beshoar, Michael M. D. (1858 - 1907)
Born in Pennsylvania, Michael Beshoar was living in Arkansas when the Civil War broke out. With his friends and neighbors, he joined the Confederate Army in 1861. He was chief surgeon of the Arkansas Infantry. In 1863, Union forces captured Beshoar. After signing the Oath of Amnesty, Beshoar joined the Union Army as an Acting Assistant Surgeon. He was assigned to the hospital at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri. Later, he transferred to the hospital at Fort Kearny, Nebraska. For the remainder of the war, he cared for the wounded on both sides of the conflict.
Following the war, Beshoar made his way west, eventually arriving in the young town of Trinidad in 1867 where he remained until his death in 1907.
Operating the first one-horse buggy in town, he traveled throughout the mostly unsettled territory, helping the sick, delivering babies, performing operations, and was one of the first to help the Indians and Hispanics with vaccinations against smallpox.
He opened the first drug store between Denver and Santa Fe, founded the first city newspaper, The Advertiser, as well as the Pueblo Chieftain. He was the first president of the Rocky Mountain Medical Association, organized in 1874.
He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, a founder of the Trinidad Chamber of Commerce and held such public offices as county coroner, clerk, judge, school superintendent, and was a state legislator.
He is buried in the family mausoleum high on the hill, over looking the Masonic cemetery in Trinidad.
Available for research in the Western History/Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library, the Beshoar Family Papers (WH1083) include 1864-1866 medical records from Benton Barracks and Fort Kearny as well as correspondence related to every aspect of western life in the nineteenth century.
