Denver-Lake County CO Archives Biographies.....Nicholson, Samuel D. 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 August 8, 2009, 11:26 pm

Source: See Additional Comments Below
Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1919)

SAMUEL D. NICHOLSON.

    Samuel D. Nicholson, president and general manager of the Western Mining
Company, with offices in the First National Bank building of Denver, was born on
Prince Edward Island, Canada, February 22, 1859, a son of the late Donald M.
Nicholson, who was a native of Scotland and in early manhood emigrated to
Canada, where he arrived during the '40s. There he continued his residence
throughout his remaining days and successfully followed agricultural pursuits.
He was one of the pioneer residents of the section in which he settled and
contributed much to its substantial development. A devout Christian, he held
membership in the Presbyterian church and passed away in that faith in 1904, at
the age of seventy-four years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine
McKenzie. was born on Prince Edward Island and was of Scotch lineage. She died
at Bedford, Massachusetts, in September, 1917, at the age of eighty-four years.
Their family numbered thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters, of whom
nine are living.

    Samuel D. Nicholson, the eldest of the family, acquired his primary
education on Prince Edward Island and completed his studies in Bay City,
Michigan. At the age of twenty-two years he started out in the business world
independently and in February, 1882, he came to Colorado, locating at Leadville.
He was first employed as a snow shoveler by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and
later he secured work as a miner. He devoted his attention to such hard labor
for six years and during that period spent one year in Las Animas county, at
Trinidad, working as a coal miner there in 1883. He was afterward advanced to
the position of foreman, superintendent and manager of various well known metal
mines of the state and entered the mining business on his own account in 1893.
The first mine which he owned was in Lake county, Colorado, and came into his
possession in 1882. He was associated with a Mr. Percival of Texas in the
ownership of the property, which he purchased from his savings. It was operated
by hand power and he put forth every effort in its development, but the venture
proved a failure. The partners spent about a thousand dollars-all that they
had-and when this was gone Mr. Nicholson was forced to go back to work for
others. This first claim was located in Little French Gulch, about eight miles
from Leadville, where they proceeded to sink a shaft regardless of the
geological formation. As time went on they found they were sinking in solid
granite, the only indication of ore being the mica contained in the granite.
They sunk the shaft about seventy-five feet in the solid granite and it goes
without saying that the venture proved a complete failure. From this experience,
however, the partners gathered knowledge which proved of great use to them in
later years. Mr. Nicholson has since been connected with some of the largest
mining and milling enterprises in the state and has also been prominently
identified with banking and with the sugar industry. He is now a director of the
Denver City Tramway Company and is serving on its executive committee. He is
likewise a director of the Denver National Bank and a director of the American
National Bank of Leadville. Though he bas met with obstacles and difficulties in
his path, he has by unfaltering perseverance, determination and energy worked
his way upward and hardships have seemed to serve but as an impetus for renewed
effort on his part. "When he reached Leadville he had a cash capital of but
twenty-five cents. What he has purposed he has accomplished. His plans have
always been well defined and he has ever been ready to take a forward step when
the way is open. Firm purpose and unfaltering determination have enabled him to
steadily progress and he is today one of the prominent representatives of mining
interests in Colorado.

    Mr. Nicholson was married in Leadville in November, 1887, to Miss Annie
Narey, a native of Clifton Springs, New York, who passed away in Denver in 1915,
at the age of fifty-one years. She was the mother of three children, two of whom
are living. Edward Nicholson, residing in Leadville, married Belle Dean Brooks,
of Denver, and they have two children, Ruth Nicholson, and Samuel D. Nicholson.
Jr., born in November, 1917. The daughter, Ruth Helen, is the wife of First
Lieutenant Max Melville, of Denver, now with the colors in France, and they have
a daughter, Ruth Anne, born October 15, 1918.

    Mr. Nicholson has taken quite an active part in politics and during 1896 was
a delegate at large from Colorado to the national populist convention at St.
Louis, Missouri. He served for two terms, from 1893 until 1897, as mayor of
Leadville and in 1894 he was elected as temporary and permanent chairman of the
state populist convention and was a candidate for governor at the republican
primaries in 1914 and 1916. He has exerted much influence over public thought
and action iu connection with political affairs and has ever stood loyally for
what he has believed to be right. Fraternally he is a Mason and a past master of
Leadville Lodge, No. 51, A. F. & A. M. He has attained the thirty-second degree
of the Scottish Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine at Denver. He also
belongs to the Elks lodge at Leadville. Appreciative of the social amenities of
life, he has membership in the Denver Club, the Denver Country Club, the
Lakewood Country Club, the Denver Athletic Club and the Denver Motor Club. He
also belongs to the Denver Civic and Commercial Association and is interested in
all that has to do with the welfare of the city or with the development of those
interests which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. His religious
faith is that of the Presbyterian church. His has been a most active and useful
life and the sterling worth of his character, as well as his business ability,
is recognized by all with whom he has been associated.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF COLORADO

ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME III
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918


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