Eagle County CO Archives Biographies.....McCoy, Charles Henry April 15, 1842 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 10, 2006, 4:29 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     While fate laid upon the pioneers of this and other states a heavy burden

of care, toil and danger, and freighted the argosy of their hopes with hardships

and privations, she did not leave them wholly without some recompense besides

the chance to win a good estate from her wildernesses, in that she gave them

opportunity to build an enduring memorial of their early trials and later

triumphs in some town or county named in their honor, which marked the outpost

of civilization at which they camped and thus inscribed their names on fame’s

imperishable records, to signalize their courage and perseverance in settling a

new section after the march of progress and enlightenment, of development and

industrial life, of civilization and culture had gone far beyond them.  This was

the fate of the subject of this brief memoir, who came to the portion of what is

now Eagle county, in which he now lives, when it was still the abode of the

Indian and the beast of prey, and started its redemption from the waste to the

uses and profit of mankind.  Mr. McCoy was born in Adams county, Illinois, at

the village of Clayton, on April 15, 1842, and is the son of John and Martha J.

(Watson) McCoy, natives of Kentucky, the former born in Garrard and the latter

in Boyle county.  They moved from their native state to Illinois soon after

their marriage and there they passed the remainder of their lives, successfully

engaged in farming.  The father was an earnest and active Republican in

political affiliation and an elder in the Presbyterian church, to which his wife

also belonged.  He died in 1884 and she in 1892.  They had a family of five

children.  Three of them, Emma, Alta and John D., are dead, the latter dying two

years ago in Lordsburg, California; Blatchford A. and Charles Henry are living.

 The last named received a common-school education of limited extent in his

native state, remaining with his parents until the beginning of the Civil war,

when he enlisted in defense of the Union as a member of the Third Illinois

Cavalry.  He served in this regiment until September 4, 1864, when he was

mustered out at Springfield, Illinois.  He then located in Knox county,

Missouri, where he was engaged in farming until 1879. In that year he came to

Colorado and located at Leadville, where he remained ten years, prospecting and

mining with varying success there and at Kokomo, conducting also at times a

teaming and hotel business.  He expended a considerable amount of his gains in

developing mining properties, and from some of his ventures reaped rich rewards,

while from others he got nothing.  In 1889 he purchased his present ranch of one

hundred and sixty acres in Eagle county, and when a postoffice was established

on it it was named McCoy in his honor.  He has one hundred and twenty acres of

his land in good tillable condition and raises large crops of hay, grain and

fruits.  The improvements he has made on the place are substantial and in good

style, making his ranch one of the most attractive homes in the county.  He

carries on an extensive cattle business, favoring thoroughbred Herefords, of

which he has a large number.  From the foundation of the office he has been the

postmaster at McCoy, and he now enjoys the distinction of being the oldest

postmaster in the county by length of continuous service.  He also served on the

school board and as a justice of the peace and notary public many years.  In

political faith he is a stanch Republican, and in fraternal life belongs to the

Grand Army of the Republic and the order of Odd Fellows.  He is now also engaged

in the hotel business at McCoy, in addition to his ranching and stock industry,

and is credited with conducting the best hotel in western Colorado.  On

September 4, 1865, he was married to Miss Rebecca Burke, a native of Adams

county, Illinois.  They have had six children, of whom Edgar, Bertram and

Francis C. have died and John F., Charles B. and Frederick C. are living, highly

respected by all.   

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

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