WSP03413 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

/</ 000088 . ~ statement of Sign~icance continued . page 2 Late in 1859, Moffat formed partnership with C. C. Woolworth of st. Joseph, Missouri. His native shrewdness taught him that it would be far more profitable to supply the wants of the gold seekers than to hunt for the gold itself. Moffat and Woolworth organized a book and stationery business and the first stock of merchandise was loaded onto four wagons in st. Joseph. They hired three drivers, Moffat drove one team himself, and the wagon train arrived in Denver, March 17, 1860. A store was opened on Eleventh street below Larimer, and Moffat became an assistant postmaster along with his other duties. The original plan was to sellout the stock of merchandise in Denver and continue on towards california but business proved so remunerative that these plans were changed and Denver be- came his permanent home. He returned East in the fall of 1861 and on December 11 of that year married Miss Fannie A. Buckhout of Mechanicsville, New York, a childhood sweetheart. Their honey- moon was spent on a prairie schooner since there were no steel tails to Colorado at that time. David H. Moffat and his wife had one daughter, Marcia, who married James A. MCClurg, a Denver businessman, in 1887. Mr. MCClurg died early in 1909 and Marcia divided her time from then on between New york and paris. ' David Moffat. died March l8, 1911, in a New York city hotel room, exhausted and beaten down in his efforts to raise funds for his beloved Denver and Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Later it was disclosed that he was practically bankrupt; his own great fortune had vanished in pursuit of his dream of pushing a transcontinental railroad west from Denver. His wife lived in the Grant street mansion alone with only servants about her. In 1918 she sold the mansion to J. B. cosgriff and moved into her old home. Marcia returned to Denver briefly for her father's funeral. From 1867, Moffat's activities are interwoven in the chronicles of Colorado and from 1867 the First National Bank properly marks the commencement of the Moffat activities on a large' scale. A young man with the brains, energy and healthy imagination of David H. Moffat, supplemented by a thorough financial training, could not help but appeal to the two dominant forces in the affairs of Colorado during the '60's, '70's, and '80's. These dominant forces were (1) Jerome Chaffee, who turned his attention to mining development, and (2) John Evans, an empire builder'who stood high in the regard of Jay Gould. ' ,. Chaffee needed Mofat's counsel in the exploitation of' the Boulder county mineral holdings and Moffat became an owner in the Caribou Mine-the foremost bonanza of Colorado priQr to the Leadville discoveries. continued on page 3 11,. '.' III '11 ,I. '1'1. I I," ,',. , ,