Pueblo County, Colorado
William H. Young

Contributed by Jean Griesan.

Young, William H. (arrived in Colorado in 1858)

Wm. H. Young, with a number of residents of Fountain City and Pueblo, namely Josiah F. Smith and his brother, Stephen, William Kroenig, Charles D. Peck, and Robert Bercaw, being apprised of the gold discoveries in the South Park, went up the Arkansas River to a point just below the gorge and then platted the new town of Canon City, about the middle of October 1859.

Wm. H. Young was born in Brown County, Ohio. Mr. Young's father enlisted in the War of 1812. Wm. Young was an adventurous youngster working on steamboats plying between Cincinnati and Pittsburg [Pittsburgh?]. In 1851, taking the cholera during the summer of that year, he returned home. In July 1852 he engaged in railroad grading. In 1853, in company with Joseph Evans and Wm. Godfrey he went to Sacramento, visiting a number of mining districts. Mr. Young's first venture was to purchase a river mining claim at Oroville, for which he paid $10,000. This was as complete a fraud as was ever perpetrated, he losing all he had paid. He then engaged in the saw mill business in Placer County, California, where he made some money. Returning to St. Louis, he engaged in various enterprises. Going to Kansas where he operated a mail line between Fort Scott, Kansas and Kansas City. Selling his interest in the mail route, he started for Pikes Peak, arriving on the present site of Pueblo.

April 17, 1859, he began to farm in 1859 and the spring of '60 and continued until 1877 when he turned to mining with success. [Preceding sentence is a true copy.]

Extracted from "The Real Pioneers of Colorado," by Maria Davies McGrath, published in 1934 by The Denver Museum, retyped with added notes by Jane P. Ohl, in October 2001.



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