Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Lewis, Benjamin Whitehead August 14, 1840 - October 23, 1903
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 24, 2006, 9:33 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     The great American republic has in many ways reset the conditions of life

and changed long established beliefs in numerous lines of thought and action. 

Until the gigantic enterprises which distinguished the development of her

enormous northwestern territories were put into successful operation no one

thought of looking for mercantile or business industries of magnitude outside

the mighty marts of commerce.  America has taught the world that they can be

conducted on an enormous scale in the very heart of an almost unbroken

wilderness.  One of the most impressive illustrations of this fact is furnished

by the career and achievements of the late Benjamin Whitehead Lewis, of

Gunnison, whose death on October 23, 1903, after an illness of only a few hours,

left his great work unfinished but so far developed as to make it a lasting

monument to his executive ability, financial genius and capacity for large

affairs.  The business enterprises which he put in motion and conducted with

emphatic success were of such character and magnitude as to forcibly engage

attention and almost stagger belief, even here in the west, where men have their

vision adapted to colossal proportions in everything.  Mr. Lewis was born at

Glasgow, Missouri, on August 14, 1840, and was the son of Benjamin W. and Amanda

(Barton) Lewis, natives of Virginia, who emigrated to Missouri when young and

were married at Glasgow in that state.  There the father became a tobacco

merchant on an extensive scale, in fact, one of the largest in the United States

at the time, with warehouses also in London, England.  He and his wife died some

years ago in the town which had been the scene of his great operations, and

their remains were buried there.  Their son Benjamin was reared in his native

town and received a liberal education from private instructors at Fayette,

Missouri.  While yet a young man he entered the business of his father, and

during the Civil war was its representative in London.  Near the close of the

war he returned to his home and assumed entire charge of the business. Soon

afterward he opened his principal office in New York city, and about 1870, owing

to the high war tax on tobacco, he retired from his chosen line and, going to

St. Louis, organized the Merrimac Iron and the Big Muddy Coal companies, which

carried on extensive business with mines located in southwestern Missouri, and

works and blast furnaces at Grand Tower.  Later he became connected with the

Kansas City & Northern Railroad and was made its president.  During his tenure

in this office he extended the line from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Council

Bluffs, Iowa.  When the Wabash gained control of the road the presidency of the

system was offered him, but finding himself in conflict with the Goulds, he

declined the offer and retired from the railroad business.  Before doing so,

however, he consummated the sale and transfer of the Missouri Pacific from

Commodore Garrison to Jay Gould, one of the largest deals of its kind in the

history of the country up to that time.  He next gave his attention to operating

in grain on the St. Louis stock exchange and acquired considerable wealth by his

operations. About 1880 he became interested in mines in various parts of

Colorado, principally at Leadville and in the neighborhood of Gunnison, and came

into possession of some of the most extensive iron mines in the country.  His

great ambition was to make Gunnison a second Pittsburg on account of its natural

advantages in iron and coal, and with this end in view he became one of the

leading builders and promoters of the place.  In 1883 he put up the La Veta

Hotel, one of the finest buildings in the state, four stories high, one hundred

by one hundred and twenty-five feet in size, with one hundred and fifty rooms

for guests, and constructed of brick and stone, the house and its furnishing

costing about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.  About the same time he

organized the Gunnison Gas & Water Company, which furnishes light and protection

from fire to the city, and a little later built the electric light plant of the

city.  In 1885 he built the Tomichi Valley Smelter at Gunnison, at a cost of two

hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and expended large sums in operating it, but

without success on account of unfair discrimination in railroad rates.  He

worked for years and spent fortunes to bring about his one desired result, that

of making Gunnison a great smelting and steel manufacturing town, and in his

efforts acquired extensive holdings in iron mines.  At various times he had good

opportunities to sell these to great advantage, but in every deal that was

undertaken he made it a condition that works should be established at Gunnison

in case the sale were consummated, and this condition being unwelcome to the

intending purchaser, he retained the almost inexhaustible iron ore deposits of

this region to the day of his death, in all things proving his unswerving

loyalty to the town of his choice and benefactions, which he did more to build

up and develop than any other man.  In the midst of his great usefulness, and

while his mighty projects were yet unfinished, he was fatally stricken and died

a few hours later. His wife and daughter were at Hot Springs, Arkansas, at the

time, but they hastened home in season to be present at the imposing funeral,

which was held in Denver, his remains being buried from the home of Rev. Dean

Hart, one of his intimate friends in that city.  He was married in 1867 to Miss

Anna McCreery, a native of that city and daughter of Phocion and Mary J. (Hynes)

McCreery, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Nashville,

Tennessee, both of whom died in St. Louis.  The father was a member of the old

and widely known dry goods firm of Crow, McCreery & Company.  In the Lewis

household eight children were born.  One son, Humphries, died in 1898, aged

seventeen years.  Robert B., Mary McCreery, Amanda E., wife of K.L. Fahnestock,

of Leadville, William H., Anne E., McCreery and Irwin are living.  On the fame

of this man of great enterprise and capacity, whose life was devoted to pursuits

of magnitude which provided employment for thousands of willing heads and hands,

and furnished comfort for hundreds of happy homes, time set before he went hence

the seal which is seldom set except upon the fame of the departed; for he was

known throughout the country as a great captain of industry long before his death.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/lewis417gbs.txt

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