Denver County, History of Colorado, BIOS: WILSON, Nat P. (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II

p.38, 40-41
photo p.39


NAT P. WILSON.

	Most interesting and oftentimes thrilling have been the events 
which constitute the life history of Nat P. Wilson, a prominent mining 
man of Denver and the president of the Ajax Metal Mining Company. He 
was born in Catawba county, North Carolina, October 12, 1860, a son of 
Jasper and Octavia Adelaide (Norwood) Wilson, both of whom were natives 
of North Carolina. In November, 1868, the family removed to near 
Lawrence, Kansas, where the father engaged in cattle raising and 
ranching and became one of the leading and successful cattle men of 
that state. He continued in the business for many years but eventually 
retired and took up his abode in the city of Lawrence, where he 
maintained his home until his death, which occurred in December, 1915, 
when he was eighty-four years of age. His widow is still a resident of 
Lawrence and is now eighty years of age. In their family were nine 
children, as follows: Mrs. Mary C. Herring, who is a resident of 
Lawrence, Kansas; Nat P., of this review; Newton S., who makes his home 
in Denver, is prominently identified with the oil business, and was, in 
association with Verner Z. Reed, one of the founders of the Mid-West 
Oil Company and has been general field manager ever since; Mrs. John H. 
Griffin, of Baldwin, Kansas; John W., who lives in Wyoming and is in 
the employ of his brother, Newton S., in the conduct of the Mid-West 
Oil Company; Thomas E., who passed away in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1917; 
Edward B., a resident of Lawrence, Kansas; and Arthur C. and Jasper B., 
who also make their home in Lawrence, Kansas.

	In early life Nat P. Wilson attended school in Lawrence and in 
Perryville, Kansas, and later became engaged in the cattle business 
with his father, that connection being maintained until the winter of 
1878, when he left home and came to Colorado. He afterward located in 
Leadville, where he took up mining, and there he assisted in the 
development of such famous properties as the Little Chief, Robert E. 
Lee and other well known gold and silver producers, working for a time 
for Irving Hulbert, a large mine owner and the principal stockholder in 
the richest silver mine in the state-the Robert E. Lee, which had a 
record of twenty thousand dollars to the ton. Mr. Wilson left Leadville 
in November, 1881, and went to northwest Idaho on a prospecting trip, 
but in the spring returned to the San Juan country, where he continued 
his mining activity. He operated the famous Boomerang mine in San 
Miguel county, Colorado, also the Saratoga, the Belle of the West and 
other mines at Ironton, Colorado, all of them very valuable mining 
properties and large producers. During this period he made a 
prospecting tour into the Gunnison country and assisted in developing 
that section in connection with its mines and mining interests. During 
the year 1883 he went to Alaska with Colonel George A. Jackson, a 
prominent and wealthy mine owner of Colorado, the purpose of their trip 
being to explore the country. They went up Cook's Inlet and spent 
several months in the wild and uninhabited northland but returned to 
Gunnison county, Colorado, in the winter. Mr. Wilson next made a trip 
with Colonel Jackson by way of pack train to Sonora, Mexico, for the 
purpose of examining the territory there and to secure a concession 
from the Mexican government permitting them to locate mining claims. 
They located the noted Cananea copper mines, which are situated about 
sixty miles south of Bisbee, Arizona. After staking out and filing 
their claims they returned to San Juan county, Colorado, and for 
several years thereafter Mr. Wilson managed and developed mining 
properties in the latter district, where he continued until 1893 with 
the exception of trips which he made two or three times a year to 
report on various properties in South America and Mexico.  At length he 
entered the employ of D. H. Moffat and was sent to Cripple Creek on the 
14th of November, 1893. He remained there for only a few months and 
then started out on a prospecting trip on his own account. In 1895 he 
took charge of the noted Moon Anchor mine, which he made a paying 
investment, it proving a large producer for six years. In the meantime 
he organized the Rio Grande Sampling Company of Cripple Creek and 
continued to carry on business under that name and at the same time 
developed his mining Interests until 1903. He then disposed of his 
mines in the Cripple Creek district and also his interest in the Rio 
Grande Sampling Company.

	In 1900 Mr. Wilson had decided to sell all of his holdings and 
retire, but his friend, Verner Z. Reed, a wealthy mine owner, called 
him back to Cripple Creek, where the latter was heavily interested in 
mining properties. For three years thereafter Mr. Wilson was 
continuously on the road, examining mine fields for Mr. Reed and 
others. In January, 1903, he was called to Rag Top mountain near 
Deadwood, South Dakota, to make some very important examinations on 
mines and milling property for some capitalists of Colorado Springs. He 
completed this task in the middle of February and returned to Denver 
but had hardly reached that city before he was again sent to Mexico by 
New York capitalists to report on property which they controlled at 
Parral, Mexico. These were silver mines upon which he made the report 
that they were not worth working. After this Mr. Wilson again took up 
mining on his own account and extensively and vigorously prosecuted his 
interests in that connection for eight years. During this time he 
opened up three very valuable silver mines, including the noted 
Clarence mine, which was one of the old Spanish workings of three 
hundred and fifty years ago. This he has since sold. He still retains 
the other two properties, however, and has recently started active 
development work thereon after they had been practically inactive for 
seven years. Mr. Wilson and A. J. McWaters, a millionaire miner, have 
become known as the most daring pair in taking desperate chances in 
Mexico during the years 1913 to 1915, when the rebellious uprisings 
rendered life in that country very unstable. Nevertheless these two 
gentlemen opened up a road from Texas through the wilds of Mexico for a 
distance of three hundred miles, cutting a way through forests and 
proceeding through deep canyons. They had continually to be on the 
alert to dodge the rebel Mexicans and any roving bandit bands, but they 
successfully completed their task and brought out on mule trains over 
one million dollars in silver bullion in July, 1913, making the trip in 
nineteen days with mules and Mexican servants. They crossed the Rio 
Grande river at the noted crossing, Ojinaga, Mexico, two hundred and 
eighty miles south of El Paso, where many Mexican battles have since 
been fought and where Colonel Langhorn of the United States army has 
had troops stationed almost continuously since 1914. Mr. Wilson has 
made many other trips fraught with adventure and danger in and out of 
Mexico, traveling on hand car and in automobile, the railroads in that 
country having been torn up by the warring factions. He was a warm 
personal friend and associate of John W. Benton, who was killed by the 
bandit Villa in Juarez, Mexico. A few days after the murder of Mr. 
Benton, President Wilson ordered a committee of five Americans to go 
into Mexico to investigate the murder and make a report. The party was 
halted at the line. They were to have gone to Chihuahua, where the body 
of Benton was supposed to have been taken, but Villa had sent seventy-
five of his men eighty five miles south of El Paso to watch the 
junction of the railroad and wagon road, thinking that the party might 
cross there by automobile. Mr. Wilson, knowing nothing of the 
arrangement, left El Paso with Frank Hynes and a chauffeur with 
supplies for his mines, and while proceeding along the road they were 
ambushed by this party of Villa's guards on reaching the junction; but 
on account of the notoriously poor marksmanship of the average Mexican 
they escaped unhurt. After halting Mr. Wilson addressed the leader in 
Spanish, speaking the language as well as a Mexican, and after a two 
hours' parley they were allowed to proceed unmolested. This and many 
other similar escapes Mr. Wilson has had in this wild country. His son 
has on two occasions been taken prisoner in Mexico by the rebels and 
both times was sentenced to death and taken out to be shot, but on 
account of his remarkable self-control, his knowledge of the Mexican 
and his familiarity with the Spanish language he has managed to make 
his escape, persuading his guards to release him. On one of these 
trips, when he was captured, his wife was with him and was sent ahead 
on the same train while he was held captive. During the trying time of 
1916, when President Wilson ordered all Americans to leave Mexico, Mr. 
Wilson and his son abandoned the Mexican field and made their way to 
Arizona, where they now own valuable copper mines in Cochise county, 
sixty miles east of Bisbee, which they are successfully operating. Mr. 
Wilson is likewise a director in various enterprises in Colorado and 
other sections. He has very large real estate holdings in Denver and in 
other parts of Colorado and he maintains offices in both Denver and in 
El Paso, Texas.

	On the 27th of December, 1887, Mr. Wilson was married to Miss 
Harriet L. Humphrey, of Ouray, Colorado, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
Abraham Humphrey, her father being a very prominent public man of Ouray 
county and the father of D. B. Humphrey, now assistant state treasurer. 
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have become parents of three children. Aida, now 
Mrs. Joseph J. Calder, who was born in Ouray in 1888 and was graduated 
from the Denver high school, is now a resident of Los Angeles, 
California. Mr. Calder is prominently Identified with the Universal 
Film Company. W. H. Wilson, born in Ouray in 1891, was graduated from 
the Colorado School of Mines at Golden and from the University of 
Denver, which conferred upon him the M. E. degree. He is now operating 
mines with his father in Arizona and his experiences have been almost 
as varied and eventful as those which have fallen to his father's lot. 
He married Miss Cecil Bostwick, a native of Kentucky, Colorado. Howard 
H. Wilson, born in Ouray in 1895, is a graduate of the East Denver high 
school and is now leasing and managing two of his father's farms four 
miles from Denver. He was married in Denver to Miss Marie Lang and they 
have one child, Betty Alice.

	Mr. Wilson had many opportunities to fill public offices but has 
steadfastly declined. He is, however, a stanch supporter of the present 
government and the policies outlined in the present war by Woodrow 
Wilson. He has for many years been a member of the Denver Athletic 
Club, also has membership in the Cripple Creek Club and the noted 
Toltec Club of El Paso and there resides when in Texas. The life story 
of Mr. Wilson would match any tale of fiction if it were written at 
length. There is no phase of mining development in the west with which 
he is not familiar. He was at one time a partner and associate for ten 
years, from 1881 until 1891, of Colonel George A. Jackson who was the 
discoverer of the first pay gold diggings at the mouth of Chicago 
Creek, near Idaho Springs, where today stands a five thousand dollar 
monument erected to the memory of Mr. Jackson. Mr. Wilson is widely 
known to mining men throughout the entire country and his opinions are 
largely accepted as authority by those who know of the geological 
formation of the country. He has contributed much toward the 
development of the rich mineral resources with which nature endowed 
Colorado and the west and the value of his work in this connection 
cannot be overestimated. His success has been the legitimate outcome of 
his untiring efforts, his practical knowledge of mining conditions and 
his keen sagacity. He manages gigantic interests with ease, has 
splendid powers of organization and is most systematic in all that he 
does. He lives at his country home at Westminster, about eight miles 
from Denver, and his successes enable him to enjoy all of the comforts 
and luxuries that life can offer. But he is still a very busy man who 
plays the game not so much to win but because of the keen delight which 
anyone should feel in the accomplishment of a difficult and honorable 
task.