Denver-Pueblo-Arapahoe County CO Archives Biographies.....Smith, Hugh And Mary 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 24, 2008, 4:30 am

Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918)

HUGH SMITH.

    Hugh Smith, whose long residence in Denver and Colorado covered the period
of pioneer development and continued on down through the epoch of marked
agricultural and commercial progress and prosperity, passed away on the 10th of
June, 1911, at which time he was residing in Englewood. He was born in County
Fermanagh, Ireland, on the 16th of June, 1840, a son of Patrick and Bridget
(McKeever) Smith. His education was acquired in the old country and he taught in
the national schools of Ireland before crossing the Atlantic to the new world.
He came to America when about twenty-five years of age and for a period was a
teacher in St. Mary's school in Brooklyn. New York. He then responded to the
call of the west, crossing the plains with an ox team to Denver. After reaching
the western frontier he worked at different occupations and later turned his
attention to the real estate business and while so engaged purchased eighty
acres of land in Englewood. He afterward removed to Pueblo, Colorado, where he
resided for a decade, being there engaged in the grocery business. He also
purchased property in Pueblo, but at the expiration of ten years returned and
established his home at Englewood upon the eighty-acre tract of land which he
had previously secured.

    In politics Mr. Smith was a democrat and at one time served as alderman of
Pueblo but gave little attention to politics as an office seeker, preferring to
concentrate his efforts and energies upon his business affairs, which were
carefully and wisely directed and which brought to him a measure of success that
enabled him to leave his family in very comfortable financial circumstances.

    On the 11th of June, 1870, in the old Stout Street cathedral of Denver, Mr.
Smith married Miss Mary Cavanaugh. a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Kane)
Cavanaugh. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born the following children: Alfonsus
James, now employed in the government shipyard at San Pedro, California; Francis
Xavier, now a resident of Butte, Montana; Augustine Aloysius, a veteran of the
Spanish-American war who served in the Philippines as a Colorado volunteer and
is now a corporal in Company C of the Forty-ninth Engineers, serving with the
American Expeditionary Forces in France; Margaret Elizabeth, who wedded J.
Forbes Manning, and is deceased; Joseph Henry, a rancher near Littleton,
Colorado; Charles S. P., a resident of Englewood, Colorado; Philip Sheridan, now
a resident of Seattle, Washington; and Edward Francis, a sergeant in the
quartermasters department, United States army.

    The parents of Mrs. Smith were natives of Ireland, Thomas Cavanaugh having
been born in County Fermanagh, while Mary Kane was born in County Galway. The
young people came to America in early life and were married in New York by
Archbishop Keane, who had not then attained his bishopric. They later made their
home in Evanston, Illinois, and it was there that Mrs. Smith was born. When John
Evans, who served as the second territorial governor of Colorado, came to the
west he engaged Thomas Cavanaugh to make the perilous trip overland with a
wagonload of household goods.

The journey, which began auspiciously, ended in disaster, for the wagon train
was attacked by the Indians and many of the daring travelers were killed. Mr.
Cavanaugh managed to escape by cutting loose one of the horses and, by its aid,
swimming the river to safety. He continued his journey, arriving in Denver when
it was but a frontier village and thus became one of its early pioneers. Here he
continued his close association with Mr. Evans for many years, passing to his
final rest at the age of eighty years His family had joined him in Denver,
making the westward trip about five years after his arrival and it was there
that Mary (Kane) Cavanaugh died at the age of about seventy years.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF COLORADO

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME III

CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918



Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/denver/photos/bios/smith113nbs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/denver/bios/smith113nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cofiles/

File size: 4.7 Kb