Las Animas-Pueblo County CO Archives Biographies.....Beshoar, Michael 1833 - 1907
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 21, 2008, 10:53 pm

Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918)

MICHAEL BESHOAR, M. D.

    Some names are indelibly written upon the pages of history and time serves
but to heighten the fame of the individual. Such is the record of Dr. Michael
Beshoar, of Trinidad, now deceased, who was one of the distinguished physicians
and surgeons of Colorado, an able newspaper man and legislator. His life work
was well done and he left behind him a record of which his family may well be
proud, while his memory remains as an inspiration and a benediction to all who
knew him.

    The Doctor was born in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, February 25, 1833, and
pursued his education in the Tuscarora Academy at Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He
afterward entered the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with
the class of 1853, on the completion of a course in medicine, and later he
pursued post-graduate work in the University of Pennsylvania. He worked his way
through the University of Michigan and the stories of his existence and the
means which he employed to make both ends meet, as humorously related by him in
later years, created laughter in all who listened to his reminiscences. Four
years prior to his demise Dr. Beshoar went back to Ann Arbor to celebrate the
fiftieth anniversary of his graduation, and twenty-five and thirty-five year
anniversary men stood aside in honor of this veteran. From the spring of 1S53
until after the outbreak of the Civil war in 1861 he engaged in the practice of
his profession in Pocahontas, Arkansas, and became a prominent and influential
resident of that state, leaving the impress of his individuality for good upon
its history. He was twice elected to represent his district in the Arkansas
legislature during that period. He ever stood loyally for what he believed to be
right and his position upon any vital question was never an equivocal one. He
had the rare distinction of being a Confederate veteran and also a member of the
Union army. With the outbreak of the war between the north and the south he
enlisted in the Arkansas infantry in support of the Confederate cause and was
made chief surgeon. Later he became a full surgeon of the provisional armies of
the Confederate states under General Hardee and afterward was transferred to the
Department of the Mississippi. In 1863 he was captured by the Union troops and
after being held as a prisoner of war for a time in St. Louis was released on
parole in order that he might utilize his professional knowledge to assist the
sick and wounded of the Union army. He thus did active professional work for
both sides, his broad humanitarianism prompting him to do the utmost in his
power to relieve the sick and suffering of both armies.

    When the war was over Dr. Beshoar entered upon the active practice of his
profession in St. Louis and later, or in 1866, was appointed to the position of
chief surgeon at Fort Kearney, Nebraska. After a brief period, however, he
resigned and removed to the west, first establishing his home in Pueblo,
Colorado, where he opened the first drug store between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
Denver. In 1867 he established his residence at Trinidad, Colorado. In 1868 he
founded the Pueblo Chieftain, which has remained throughout all the intervening
years, covering a half century, one of the leading newspapers of the state. It
would be impossible to keep a man of Dr. Beshoar's ability and resourcefulness
in the background, and constant were the demands for his service in various
public connections. He was a member of the territorial legislature and also of
the general assembly after the admission of Colorado into the Union. He also
figured again in newspaper circles in 1882 as the founder of the Trinidad
Advertiser. His editorials were clear, trenchant, concise and forceful and had
much to do. with shaping public thought and opinion among his readers. He was a
man of keen insight and of broad vision and he handled public questions from the
standpoint of a man who sees clearly and thinks deeply.

    In 1872 Dr. Beshoar was united in marriage to Miss Anna E. Maupin and their
children are: Mrs. Roy Gulley; Mrs. Burnie B. Joerger, who is a representative
of the medical profession; Dr. B. B. Beshoar, mentioned elsewhere in this work;
Dr. John Beshoar, a successful practicing dentist; and Bertram, assistant to the
attorney general at Denver.

    Dr. Michael Beshoar was the founder of the Old Settlers' Association of Las
Animas county and remained its honored president until his demise. He was a
Mason of fifty-four years' standing, having membership in the lodge, the chapter
and the council. He also belonged to the Knights of Pythias fraternity and to
the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.

    Throughout his active life he remained a prominent representative of the
medical profession and served at different periods as city and county physician,
was at one time surgeon of the Arkansas state militia and afterward a member of
the Colorado state board of health. He belonged to the Pan-American Medical
Congress, was a member of the American Public Health Association, of the
Association of Assistant Army Surgeons, U. S. A., was a member of the American
Association of Examining Surgeons, belonged to the Colorado State Medical
Society, of which he served as vice president, was at one time president of the
Las Animas County Medical Society, was a life member of the American Medical
Association and was a delegate from the American Public Health Association to
the American Congress on Tuberculosis. He was also a member of the Association
of Medical Officers of the Army and Navy of the Confederacy. In addition to his
private practice he was examining surgeon for numerous leading life insurance
companies.

    The Chronicle-News of Trinidad, of September 6, 1907, wrote: "Dr. Beshoar is
dead. Last night while the city lay in deep midnight silence, death claimed him
for his own and the great-hearted physician who had fought off the grim reaper
thousands of times for others, whose whole life had been devoted to keeping the
shadow at bay, answered the call. The end was as he would have wished—suddenly,
yet peacefully—and throughout the length and the breadth of these United States,
wherever he has been during his long and eventful life, there will be men and
women who will shed a tear for his memory. In halls of learning, in the
dwellings of the rich and the humble homes of the poor he was beloved and justly
so. And here in southern Colorado, where he has spent a half century, doing good
among the people, in the cities and over the broad mesas where the long grass
waves, and deep in remote canons where the feet of white men seldom tread, his
multitude of dark skinned friends will hear of his passing; in the pueblos and
among the scattered huts of the sheep herders the answering of the call will be
told and their heads will be bowed in sorrow, for he was ever and always their
true, stanch  friend in  their greatest hours of need."


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF COLORADO

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME III

CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918


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