Montrose County CO Archives Biographies.....Hamilton, Eugene C. 1845 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 25, 2006, 8:15 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     A native of Michigan, born at Mount Clemens in 1845, and the son of

pioneers in that state, Eugene S. Hamilton, of Paradox valley, living not far

from the village of Paradox, Montrose county, came honestly by his tendency to

frontier life, and by the traditions and experiences of his family and his own

early training was well prepared for its strenuous requirements.  His parents

were Hiram S. and Jeannette Hamilton, natives of Massachusetts, who settled in

Michigan at an early period in its history.  When he was yet young they moved to

Minnesota and located the first claim of government land near the site of the

present city of Winona, where they remained ten years, then moved to Chicago. 

The father was a man of great activity and enterprise, and engaged in various

pursuits, always finding work at his hand to be done, and always doing it with

might and productive results.  He was a noted Congregational minister of his

day, but was also a worker in industrial lines, engaging in building railroads

in Missouri and other works of public improvement.  His son Eugene reached

manhood in Chicago and finished his education there.  After leaving school he

was employed in the collection business for several years, and in 1875 came

west. Two years later he settled at Lost Trail in this state and found ready and

remunerative employment in transferring freight from wagons to pack trains, and

also ran a large warehouse business.  He and a Mr. Carson discovered the Carson

mine and continued to work it until 1883, when he sold his interests and moved

to the land which he now occupies, which he then bought and has ever since owned

and farmed.  He has a fine valley ranch and is actively engaged in farming and

raising stock on a large scale and with cumulative profits.  He has, however,

never lost his interest in the mining industry, and still owns several valuable

properties in this department of human enterprise, among them the well known

Sunrise copper mine.  He is also part owner of the Copper Prince, which has a

large vein of copper and the largest known vein of uranium, this mine being in

fact the only one in the United States that is developed and actively worked for

this metal.  From it more than two hundred tons of its rare product have been

shipped to the old country.  In 1879 Mr. Hamilton was married in Chicago to Miss

Mollie Olinger, native of Carlisle, Ohio.  They have no children.  In 1895 Mrs.

Hamilton was appointed postmistress at Paradox, and she is still in charge of

the office.  When they settled here there were but three or four families in the

valley, and they have seen all its progress and contributed essentially to its

development and growth.  They have a competency for life won by their own

efforts, are well established in the public regard of their community, and are

yet in the full flush of their vigor and energy.  Behind them in [sic] a path of

rugged and difficult progress over which they have come to their present estate,

and before them, with health, strength and enterprise on their side, and with a

so much better armament for the trials they may yet come there would seem to be

a career of still greater triumph and usefulness.  

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/montrose/bios/hamilton451gbs.txt

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