BUDDECKE, A. E., b 1840; 1905 Bio, Montrose County, Colorado

http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/montrose/bios/buddeckeae.txt



---------------------------------------

Donated September 7, 2001

Transcribed by Judy Crook <jlcrook@rof.net> from the book:

Progressive Men of Western Colorado 

Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill.



---------------------------------------

A.E. Buddecke

	Whatever has already been or may hereafter be accomplished by Colorado and

other western states, whatever high examples they may give to mankind, or deeds

that stir the blood may shine like stars in their future history, nothing can

take away or abate the credit due to the pioneers that explored them and began

their settlement, daring the dangers, confronting the difficulties, suffering

the privations of frontier life, cut off from society and sympathy--almost from

earthly hope--and often dying in the midst of the vast wilderness before any of

the fruits of their labors began to bloom or ripen around them.  What matter if

many were rude men, all were vigorous and daring; what matter if they were

impelled to enterprise by native restlessness or lured by hope of gain, they

blazed the way for the march of civilization and empire, and opened a storehouse

of incalculable wealth for the benefit of their kind throughout the world.  To

this class, the pioneers of the great West of the United States, belongs A.E.

Buddecke, the subject of this sketch, a veritable old timer in Colorado and one

of the first settlers at Montrose.  He was born in 1840, in Franklin county,

Missouri, the son of William Buddecke, one of the pioneers and conquerors of the

waste.  They were natives of Germany and brought their family to Missouri among

its first settlers after the Revolution, arriving in America about the year

1814.  In what is now Franklin county of the state of Mr. Buddecke's nativity,

they passed the residue of their lives, both dying in 1850, the mother aged

forty-five and the father sixty.  Their offspring numbered six, of whom A.E. was

the youngest.  Passing his boyhood and youth in the wilds of Missouri, it is not

strange that he imbibed a love of adventure and conquest of untrodden regions

from his surroundings and his daily life, and at the age of twenty joined the

stampede to Pike's Peak, making the journey by team across the plains and

arriving at Denver in the summer of 1860.  Instead of only prospecting and

digging for gold as others did, he found a mine in using his team in the service

of miners and was engaged in freighting out of that place until 1872, with some

incidental mining at times.  In that year he went to Indian Territory and from

there to Texas, and in those places he was employed in the stock business until

1882.  He then returned to Colorado and located at Montrose, one of the first

white men to settle on its site.  He engaged in the grocery and general

merchandising trade, and thus drawing people from the surrounding country to

this point, helped to found the town and begin its life.  He continued in

business until 1893, having a partner named Diehl, the firm name being Buddecke

& Diehl.  In 1893 he sold his interest in the business to his partner and

retired from active pursuits.  He lives alone in a neat cottage home, and enjoys

the respect and esteem of the whole community as a sort of patriarch and father

of the town.  He built the first brick structure within its limits and was the

builder of the Montrose Opera House, of which he is still the manager.  In

politics he is an unflinching Democrat, and although averse to official life,

served as one of the first board of commissioners for the county.  No enterprise

for the good of the town and county has failed to get his active aid if he

approved it, and when once his interests has been enlisted his energy in behalf

of the object that engaged it has never flagged until the desired end was

accomplished.



===================================================

Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project

(http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive

Project



USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any

format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons.

Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain

the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative

of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof

of this consent.  The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb 

Archives to store the file permanently for free access.