Pueblo County, Colorado
William C. Bales

Contributed by Jean Griesan.

William C. Bales, vice-president and general manager of the Colorado Coal and Coke Company, and manager of the Northern Coal Company, is an enterprising and efficient business man of Pueblo. He came to this city in 1893 as manager for the Southwestern Coal Company, and later organized the Colorado Coal and Coke Company, with which he has since been connected in an official capacity. Thoroughly conversant with every detail of the coal business, his information, coupled with intelligence and energy, has brought him success.

Born in Toledo, Iowa, April 3, 1866, the subject of this sketch is a son of Marion T. and Helen (Culbertson) Bales, natives, respectively, of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The family, both in its direct and collateral branches, has had representatives in the various wars of our country. His father, who was a graduate of Allegheny College at Meadville, Pa., has spent the greater part of his life in Pennsylvania, where he carried on business as a life insurance agent. He married a daughter of William Culbertson, who was a promising attorney of Meadville, but died when only thirty-three years of age. Besides his sister, Clara M., our subject is the only child of his parents. The boyhood days of his life were passed in Meadville and Titusville, Pa., where he received his education in private and public schools. When he was fifteen years of age his mother died. Two years later he went to Buffalo. N. Y., where he was bookkeeper for various firms until 1887. He then went to Kansas City, Mo., where he opened a jewelry store and started in business for himself. In the same city he carried on a coal business for several years. From Kansas City he came to Pueblo in 1893 and here he has since been identified with the business interests of the place. Besides his coal business he is also interested in mining at Cripple Creek.

In 1897 Mr. Bales married Miss Ophelia Copeland, of Denver, daughter of the late Hon. George P. Copeland, who was for many years a prominent mining man of Leadville. He was the son of William L. Copeland, a well-known citizen of Colorado Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Bales have one daughter.

Extracted from "Portrait and Biographical Record of the State of Colorado," published by Chapman Publishing Company in Chicago in 1899.



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