Pueblo County CO Archives Biographies.....Chilcott, George M. 1828 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 27, 2008, 9:23 pm

Author: R. M. Stevenson (1881)

HON. GEORGE M. CHILCOTT.

    The name of Mr. Chilcott is inseparably connected with the annals of
Colorado. He was born in Trough Creek Valley, Huntingdon County, Penn., January
2, 1828. He was raised on a farm, and received his education in such schools as
the country afforded. In the spring of 1844, he removed with his parents to
Jefferson County, Iowa, where he lived, working upon a farm, about two years. He
subsequently taught school, and also pursued the study of medicine, until the
spring of 1850. He was married March 21, 1850, to Miss Jennie Cox, after which
he located near his father, and engaged in farming. In 1853, he was elected on
the Whig ticket Sheriff of Jefferson County, which office he held one term. In
1856, he removed to Burt County, Neb., where he was shortly afterward elected to
represent the counties of Burt and dimming in the Lower House of the
Legislature, which met in session at Omaha, in the winter of 1856-57. But not
yet content with his situation, and with face still westward, Mr. Chilcott
started, in the spring of 1859, for the famous c: Pike's Peak country," arriving
at Denver in the month of May. He engaged in prospecting during the summer, and
in the fall following he was elected from the town of Arapahoe to the
Constitutional Convention, which met at Denver. Near the close of the year, Mr.
Chilcott returned to his family in Nebraska, where he remained through the
winter, returning to Colorado the next spring. The summer of 1860, he spent upon
Cherry Creek, and in October of that year he removed to Southern Colorado, to
the section now Pueblo County. Soon afterward he met with a serious misfortune.
Everything he had, consisting of wagon and team and other property, was stolen
from him by his only acquaintance, who left for parts unknown. Being left
penniless among strangers in a strange land, Mr. Chilcott had to resort to his
experience in farming for a livelihood, and he hired to work by the day for a
farmer. He engaged in farming during 1861-62, and in 1863 he located upon a farm
of his own, twelve miles east of Pueblo. Then returning to Nebraska, he brought
out his family May, 1863. He served as a member of the Territorial Legislature
in the first two sessions of that body. In 1863, he received from President
Lincoln the appointment of Register of the United States Land Office for the
District of Colorado. The office was first located at Golden, and subsequently
at Denver. Mr. Chilcott held the position nearly four years, until he was, in
1866, elected to Congress under the State organization then formed, and which
sought admission into the Union. But Congress refused to receive Colorado as a
State at that time, and Mr. Chilcott could not take his seat. In 1867, he was
elected a Delegate to Congress for the Territory of Colorado, and served the
people one term. It was he who introduced and got Congress to pass a bill
repealing the act which discriminated against all the territory west of the west
line of Kansas, and east of the east line of California, by charging letter
postage on all printed matter between the two boundaries. He also succeeded in
getting larger appropriations for surveys than was ever before obtained, and was
instrumental in getting passed an important bill in regard to the St. Vrain and
Vigil Land Grant. Mr. Chilcott was a member of the Territorial Council, and
President of that body during the session of 1872-73. He was also a member in
1874. In 1878, he was elected to the State Legislature from Pueblo County, and
during the session of 1878 -79, he was prominently before the Legislature as a
candidate for United States Senator, Mr. Hill, however, securing the place. In
politics, Mr. Chilcott has been a sterling Republican. He is popular with his
party, and is held in universal esteem by the people of his section; but having
determined to quit public life he has recently declined to accept any nomination
for office, his individual interest requiring his undivided attention. Being a
man of unusual energy and enterprise, he has accumulated a large and valuable
property. His interests are chiefly at Pueblo, where he now resides.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

History of the  Arkansas Valley, Colorado
By J. Harrison Mills

O. L. Baskin & Co.
Chicago
1881


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/pueblo/bios/chilcott131nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cofiles/

File size: 4.9 Kb