Horace Austin Warner Tabor | |
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United States Senator from Colorado |
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In office January 27, 1883 – March 4, 1883 |
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Preceded by | George M. Chilcott |
Succeeded by | Thomas M. Bowen |
2nd Lieutenant Governor of Colorado | |
In office January 14, 1879 – January 9, 1883 |
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Governor | Frederick Walker Pitkin |
Preceded by | Lafayette Head |
Succeeded by | William H. Meyer |
Personal details | |
Born |
Holland, Vermont |
November 26, 1830
Died | April 10, 1899 Denver, Colorado |
(aged 68)
Political party | Republican |
Horace Austin Warner ("Haw") Tabor (November 26, 1830 – April 10, 1899), also known as The Bonanza King of Leadville, was an American prospector, businessman, and Republican politician. His life is the subject of Douglas Moore's opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe; and the 1932 Hollywood biographical movie: Silver Dollar. Also, Graham Masterton's 1987 novel Silver has a protagonist named Henry T. Roberts, whose life includes incidents from Tabor's.
Tabor was born in Holland in Orleans County in far northern Vermont to Cornelius Dunham Tabor and Sarah Ferrin. He was one of five children, one girl and four boys.
When he was finished training as a stonemason, Tabor left home at age 19 to work the quarries of Maine and Massachusetts. In 1855, he departed for the Kansas Territory with the New England Emigrant Aid Company to populate that territory with anti-slavery settlers. There he farmed land along Deep Creek in Riley County, near Manhattan, Kansas (known today as Tabor Valley). In January 1856, Tabor was elected to the Free-State Topeka Legislature, but that body was soon dispersed by President Franklin Pierce in favor of the pro-slavery legislature that had been elected under the influence of "Border Ruffians" from Missouri.