Bigwigs & Benefactors of the Pikes Peak Region
Presentations
Mike Olsen
Pennies From Heaven?
How big a wig does it take to be a bigwig? Are all benefactors created equal? This presentation will consider these and other questions about “Bigwigs and Benefactors,” as well as asking if there might be two sides to the philanthropic “penny.”
David D. Finley
Edmond van Diest: A Great Man for Colorado, Colorado Springs, & Colorado College
Edmond van Diest was a successful Colorado and regional businessman, a prominent Colorado Springs community leader, a longtime trustee and benefactor of Colorado College, a New Deal era advisor to FDR’s first Secretary of Commerce, an engineer and director for Gen. William Jackson Palmer’s Glen Eyrie and Monument Valley Park development, and he was responsible for Colorado Springs’s most notable sculpture, the Palmer statue on Nevada Avenue. This presentation will resurrect the life and contributions of one of the region’s most notable bigwigs and benefactors of the first half of the 20th century.
Joyce B. Lohse
The Penrose Legacy: Ventures, Vogue, & Vagary
Spencer Penrose came to Colorado from Philadelphia in 1892 to enter a business transaction with friend and associate, Charles Tutt, which resulted in large payoffs. Known for his antics and flamboyant style, Penrose often drew public attention to himself and his favorite causes. Was this colorful character a lucky man who became rich and showboated his way into the history of the fledgling community? Or, were his achievements and contributions vital to the growth and development of his adopted home at the foot of Pikes Peak?
Eric Swab
Fred Wade Barr: Benevolent Trail Builder or Tourist Entrepreneur?
Fred Barr is often considered the benevolent superhuman who single handedly built the frequently traveled trail up the east face of Pikes Peak that bears his name. This presentation will show Barr as a multifaceted business man who understood the attraction of Pikes Peak for tourists, and that his efforts have had a lasting impact on the recreational opportunities of the Pikes Peak region.
William G. Thomas
Howbert, Waite, & the Ladies: The Colorado Gubernatorial Election of 1894
Characterized by those who knew him as a quiet, modest man whose positive contributions to Colorado Springs and El Paso County were eclipsed only by Gen. William Jackson Palmer, Irving Howbert has been either largely ignored or roundly vilified by many modern local historians primarily because of his stubborn defense of the actions of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry at Sand Creek. Sand Creek notwithstanding, Irving Howbert was a man of many accomplishments whose abundant contributions to regional politics, business, culture, and natural environment helped build Colorado Springs. This presentation will also discuss one of his most interesting achievements, and one that he was most proud of, his role in the defeat of Populist Governor Davis H. Waite in the 1894 election.
Erinn M. Barnes
Unwitting Benefactors: American Indians & Tourism in the Pikes Peak Region
No stranger to the bloody and often brutal process of Indian removal, the Pikes Peak region had made it clear in the years following the gold rush that American Indians were not welcome residents. By 1867, the vibrant native populations along the Front Range had been forced far from home, most to reservations in Oklahoma and Montana. Conspicuously and purposefully absent from the region, American Indians reemerge in earnest around the turn of the century; not as residents, but as objects of tourism. This paper will examine the latent tension of this seemingly contradictory relationship, and the American Indian’s role as unwitting benefactors of the region’s tourist economy.
William J. Schultz
Freedom for Whom? Robert LeFevre, the Freedom School, & the Birth of Modern Libertarianism
Robert LeFevre and his Freedom School transformed libertarianism from an idea into a political movement. In 1956, LeFevre opened the Freedom School in the mountains above Colorado Springs. For the next 10 years he and a cadre of libertarian intellectuals provided hundreds of businessmen with weeklong courses in the “philosophy of freedom.” These businessmen, in turn, put this fiercely individualistic and anti-government ideology into practice. This presentation will explore how the Freedom School laid the foundations for the libertarianism so prevalent in contemporary American politics.
Katie Rudolph
Mafia on the Front Range
While Colorado does not have a well-known reputation for mafia activity, organized crime flourished in and around Pueblo and Denver from the early 1900s through the 1970s. This presentation will discuss the activities (bootlegging, gambling, infiltration of labor unions, etc.) the mafia carried out in Pueblo and Denver and explore why and how mafia activity flourished in such an unlikely place and how its bigwigs also served as benefactors within its sphere of activity.
Lucy Bell
“This Little Light of Mine, I’m Gonna Let it Shine” Pioneers for Racial Justice in Colorado Springs
When Quaker and anti-slavery Civil War General William Jackson Palmer founded Colorado Springs in 1871, he vowed there would be no discrimination in his town. Black middle class businesses flourished, but after Palmer’s death in 1909, opportunities for blacks plummeted. This presentation will look at specific black citizens who in spite of segregation and racism, forged successful lives and never lost faith in the possibility of change in American society. Through inner courage in the face of racial injustice, the subjects in this presentation were benefactors to their families, the Colorado Springs community, and human spiritual progress.
Susan Fletcher
The Palmer Girls & Their Impact on Colorado Springs
This presentation will explore Elsie, Dorothy, and Marjorie Palmer and their relationship with their father as well as their varied roles in the social and philanthropic history of Colorado Springs. After Queen Palmer’s death in 1894, General Palmer brought his daughters back home to Glen Eyrie. During the next 15 years the girls would serve as the first ladies of Colorado Springs in their mother’s absence, the hostesses of Glen Eyrie, and would contribute philanthropically to the community. The presentation will examine their impact upon the social set of Colorado Springs, the health and wellness of the region, and upon our historical understanding of their father.
Leah Davis Witherow
A Study of Influences: The Close Friends & Business Associates of William Jackson Palmer
Undeniably, Bigwigs and Benefactors shape history. But who shapes them? What influences, philosophies, and beliefs ultimately contribute to their ongoing legacies? This presentation, based on extensive research into the correspondence and private papers of Gen. William Jackson Palmer and his small circle of friends and close business associates, including Andrew Carnegie, George Foster Peabody and Isaac Clothier, will the follow the development of Palmer’s beliefs and perhaps even more importantly, actions regarding abolitionism, education, and philanthropy. Ultimately, through their deep friendships and lively exchanges of ideas, Clothier, Carnegie, and Peabody influenced Palmer — who in turn shaped the history of the Pikes Peak Region.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant
The Ethical Industrialist: William Jackson Palmer & the Gilded Age
The first name that comes to mind as a Colorado Springs “Bigwig” and “Benefactor” is William Jackson Palmer. Judging by the scholarship and biographies of him (or lack thereof), however, his name is only known to Colorado Springs and parts of the state. Yet Palmer was a typical Gilded Age industrialist in many ways that make him as significant to national history of the era as famous men he respected (Carnegie) or deplored (Gould). As a capitalist—a railroad, fuel, and real estate developer—he conducted his business expansively and competitively; set up his personal life luxuriously and as an Anglophile; and stepped dangerously close to unethical precipices. As a Quaker abolitionist he also took roads not taken by the same class of men. How and why he did so is instructive and sometimes inspirational. This presentation will use primary documents and secondary comparisons to critically analyze Palmer in the context of his times, as well as why he is historically neglected and what we should do about it.
Pennies From Heaven?
How big a wig does it take to be a bigwig? Are all benefactors created equal? This presentation will consider these and other questions about “Bigwigs and Benefactors,” as well as asking if there might be two sides to the philanthropic “penny.”
David D. Finley
Edmond van Diest: A Great Man for Colorado, Colorado Springs, & Colorado College
Edmond van Diest was a successful Colorado and regional businessman, a prominent Colorado Springs community leader, a longtime trustee and benefactor of Colorado College, a New Deal era advisor to FDR’s first Secretary of Commerce, an engineer and director for Gen. William Jackson Palmer’s Glen Eyrie and Monument Valley Park development, and he was responsible for Colorado Springs’s most notable sculpture, the Palmer statue on Nevada Avenue. This presentation will resurrect the life and contributions of one of the region’s most notable bigwigs and benefactors of the first half of the 20th century.
Joyce B. Lohse
The Penrose Legacy: Ventures, Vogue, & Vagary
Spencer Penrose came to Colorado from Philadelphia in 1892 to enter a business transaction with friend and associate, Charles Tutt, which resulted in large payoffs. Known for his antics and flamboyant style, Penrose often drew public attention to himself and his favorite causes. Was this colorful character a lucky man who became rich and showboated his way into the history of the fledgling community? Or, were his achievements and contributions vital to the growth and development of his adopted home at the foot of Pikes Peak?
Eric Swab
Fred Wade Barr: Benevolent Trail Builder or Tourist Entrepreneur?
Fred Barr is often considered the benevolent superhuman who single handedly built the frequently traveled trail up the east face of Pikes Peak that bears his name. This presentation will show Barr as a multifaceted business man who understood the attraction of Pikes Peak for tourists, and that his efforts have had a lasting impact on the recreational opportunities of the Pikes Peak region.
William G. Thomas
Howbert, Waite, & the Ladies: The Colorado Gubernatorial Election of 1894
Characterized by those who knew him as a quiet, modest man whose positive contributions to Colorado Springs and El Paso County were eclipsed only by Gen. William Jackson Palmer, Irving Howbert has been either largely ignored or roundly vilified by many modern local historians primarily because of his stubborn defense of the actions of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry at Sand Creek. Sand Creek notwithstanding, Irving Howbert was a man of many accomplishments whose abundant contributions to regional politics, business, culture, and natural environment helped build Colorado Springs. This presentation will also discuss one of his most interesting achievements, and one that he was most proud of, his role in the defeat of Populist Governor Davis H. Waite in the 1894 election.
Erinn M. Barnes
Unwitting Benefactors: American Indians & Tourism in the Pikes Peak Region
No stranger to the bloody and often brutal process of Indian removal, the Pikes Peak region had made it clear in the years following the gold rush that American Indians were not welcome residents. By 1867, the vibrant native populations along the Front Range had been forced far from home, most to reservations in Oklahoma and Montana. Conspicuously and purposefully absent from the region, American Indians reemerge in earnest around the turn of the century; not as residents, but as objects of tourism. This paper will examine the latent tension of this seemingly contradictory relationship, and the American Indian’s role as unwitting benefactors of the region’s tourist economy.
William J. Schultz
Freedom for Whom? Robert LeFevre, the Freedom School, & the Birth of Modern Libertarianism
Robert LeFevre and his Freedom School transformed libertarianism from an idea into a political movement. In 1956, LeFevre opened the Freedom School in the mountains above Colorado Springs. For the next 10 years he and a cadre of libertarian intellectuals provided hundreds of businessmen with weeklong courses in the “philosophy of freedom.” These businessmen, in turn, put this fiercely individualistic and anti-government ideology into practice. This presentation will explore how the Freedom School laid the foundations for the libertarianism so prevalent in contemporary American politics.
Katie Rudolph
Mafia on the Front Range
While Colorado does not have a well-known reputation for mafia activity, organized crime flourished in and around Pueblo and Denver from the early 1900s through the 1970s. This presentation will discuss the activities (bootlegging, gambling, infiltration of labor unions, etc.) the mafia carried out in Pueblo and Denver and explore why and how mafia activity flourished in such an unlikely place and how its bigwigs also served as benefactors within its sphere of activity.
Lucy Bell
“This Little Light of Mine, I’m Gonna Let it Shine” Pioneers for Racial Justice in Colorado Springs
When Quaker and anti-slavery Civil War General William Jackson Palmer founded Colorado Springs in 1871, he vowed there would be no discrimination in his town. Black middle class businesses flourished, but after Palmer’s death in 1909, opportunities for blacks plummeted. This presentation will look at specific black citizens who in spite of segregation and racism, forged successful lives and never lost faith in the possibility of change in American society. Through inner courage in the face of racial injustice, the subjects in this presentation were benefactors to their families, the Colorado Springs community, and human spiritual progress.
Susan Fletcher
The Palmer Girls & Their Impact on Colorado Springs
This presentation will explore Elsie, Dorothy, and Marjorie Palmer and their relationship with their father as well as their varied roles in the social and philanthropic history of Colorado Springs. After Queen Palmer’s death in 1894, General Palmer brought his daughters back home to Glen Eyrie. During the next 15 years the girls would serve as the first ladies of Colorado Springs in their mother’s absence, the hostesses of Glen Eyrie, and would contribute philanthropically to the community. The presentation will examine their impact upon the social set of Colorado Springs, the health and wellness of the region, and upon our historical understanding of their father.
Leah Davis Witherow
A Study of Influences: The Close Friends & Business Associates of William Jackson Palmer
Undeniably, Bigwigs and Benefactors shape history. But who shapes them? What influences, philosophies, and beliefs ultimately contribute to their ongoing legacies? This presentation, based on extensive research into the correspondence and private papers of Gen. William Jackson Palmer and his small circle of friends and close business associates, including Andrew Carnegie, George Foster Peabody and Isaac Clothier, will the follow the development of Palmer’s beliefs and perhaps even more importantly, actions regarding abolitionism, education, and philanthropy. Ultimately, through their deep friendships and lively exchanges of ideas, Clothier, Carnegie, and Peabody influenced Palmer — who in turn shaped the history of the Pikes Peak Region.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant
The Ethical Industrialist: William Jackson Palmer & the Gilded Age
The first name that comes to mind as a Colorado Springs “Bigwig” and “Benefactor” is William Jackson Palmer. Judging by the scholarship and biographies of him (or lack thereof), however, his name is only known to Colorado Springs and parts of the state. Yet Palmer was a typical Gilded Age industrialist in many ways that make him as significant to national history of the era as famous men he respected (Carnegie) or deplored (Gould). As a capitalist—a railroad, fuel, and real estate developer—he conducted his business expansively and competitively; set up his personal life luxuriously and as an Anglophile; and stepped dangerously close to unethical precipices. As a Quaker abolitionist he also took roads not taken by the same class of men. How and why he did so is instructive and sometimes inspirational. This presentation will use primary documents and secondary comparisons to critically analyze Palmer in the context of his times, as well as why he is historically neglected and what we should do about it.
