Pueblo-Costilla-Fremont County CO Archives Biographies.....Hinsdale, George A. 1826 - 1874
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Author: R. M. Stevenson (1881)

HON. GEORGE A. HINSDALE.

    The subject of this sketch died January 15, 1874. To those who knew him long
and well, an extended essay upon his character would seem but tame reproof to
their memories of his life. For those who knew less of him we pen a brief
history. Mr. Hinsdale was born at the village of Hinesburg, in Vermont, December
21, 1826. He was a son of Hon. Mitchell Hinsdale, an eminent lawyer, and once a
member of Congress from the State of Vermont, and who moved to the State of
Michigan when the subject of this sketch was but seven years old. He was
educated in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and graduated in the
classical course in 1849. He studied law in his father's office, but
subsequently turned his attention to civil engineering, and was for several
years in charge of the works of a Cannel Coal Mining Company on the Ohio River,
near Hawesville, Ky. Here he became acquainted with, and, in 1856, married, Miss
Josephine Sebastian, of Kentucky. A year or two later, with his young wife, he
came West, and settled in Dakota, Neb., where he engaged in the practice of law.
In 1859, he was elected, and served, as a member of the Nebraska Legislature
from the Dakota District. He had been troubled with asthma for many years, and
had hoped the climate of Northern Nebraska would benefit him; but in this he was
disappointed, and suffered so much, that, in the spring of 1860, he determined
to join in the rush to Pike's Peak, in the bare hope that the Rocky Mountains
would afford relief from his disease. As was the custom, he outfitted with an ox
team and wagon, and with his brave and devoted wife and infant boy, crossed the
plains and became a pioneer in a new and strange land. His asthma left him
almost entirely soon after he reached the mountains, and only seldom returned in
brief attacks during his life in Colorado. He first engaged in mining in
California Gulch, and in the fall of 1860, went down to Canon City, which had
just been laid out as a wintering town for miners, built one of the first
dwellings, and during the winter he assisted in framing a code of laws and
organizing the first people's court for the government of that district. In
1863, he settled in Pueblo, when there were scarcely a dozen families living
there, in the rudest of huts. In 1864, he moved to San Luis, in Costilla County,
where he lived nearly two years, during which time he acquired a thorough
knowledge of the Spanish language; and in the summer of 1866 he moved back to
Pueblo, where he ever afterward resided, and engaged in the practice of law. At
the election upon the adoption of the State Constitution in 1865, Mr. Hinsdale
was elected Lieutenant Governor upon the Democratic ticket, being the only
Democrat elected on the State ticket; and as such he presided over the joint
session of the State Legislature, which was held in Denver, in December, 1865,
and which elected Gov. John Evans and Hon. J. B. Chaffee, United States Senators
under the Enabling Act for State admission, the bill for which passed Congress,
but was vetoed by President Johnson. In 1868, he was elected a member of the
Territorial Council, and at the session of 1870 was chosen President of that
body. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the town of Pueblo after
its incorporation, and at the time of his death was President of the City School
Board, and County Attorney of Pueblo County. He filled numerous offices of
public trust and honor, and was ever identified with the history and growth of
Southern Colorado. In politics, he was always a Democrat of the firmest type,
and, as one of the leaders of the party in Colorado, he ever held the respect of
his political opponents by his ability no less than his sincerity, fidelity and
conscientious integrity. As a lawyer, he was a profound thinker, forcible in
logic of argument, zealous in the interest of his client, and one of the most
successful criminal lawyers of his judicial district. As a scholar, he had few
equals in the Territory, and was one of the most forcible, graceful writers for
the press. When the Chieftain as, the first newspaper in Southern Colorado, was
started in Pueblo, Mr. Hinsdale became one of its editors, and for over two
years assisted in contributing gratuitous services to this means of promoting
the development of Southern Colorado. He was afterward one of the leading
organizers of the Pueblo Printing Company, publishers of The People, and, until
about one year previous to his death, was one of the editors of that paper. He
was President of the Public Library Association of Pueblo, and took an active
interest in fostering that, one of the most creditable institutions of the young
city. We estimate the need of such men in communities by their loss. They are
the men who rule the world for good, and hold a rein upon its evil course. In
all that was good in the development of his community and of the Territory, Mr.
Hinsdale was an element. He could read the history of Colorado, whose every
mountain and valley he loved, and in the fabric of whose civic life he felt the
pride of a builder, and might be well entitled to exclaim Omnia vidi et quorum
pars fui! His life of unostentatious good should ever be an example to those who
have outlived him.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

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

O. L. Baskin & Co.
Chicago
1881


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