John Cleveland Osgood
| John Cleveland Osgood | |
|---|---|
Colorado Industrialist
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| Born |
March 6, 1851 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | January 3, 1926 (aged 74) Redstone, Colorado |
| Occupation | Industrialist |
| Spouse(s) | Nannie Irene de Belote 1891-? Alma Regina Shelgrem Lucille |
| Children | None |
| Parent(s) | Samuel Warburton Osgood & Charlotte Cleveland |
John Cleveland Osgood (March 6, 1851 – January 3, 1926) was a self-made man who founded the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company but has been referred to as a robber baron. He also created Redstone, Colorado.
Osgood was born in Brooklyn, but moved with his father to Burlington, Iowa at age 6. He had a younger sister, Julia, and a brother, Charles. After his father died in 1859, he was sent to Providence, Rhode Island to live with family and attend school. At age 14, he was on his own, working in the office of a cotton mill where he gained business knowledge. He left for New York City at age 16 and clerked for a Produce Exchange Commission firm while attending night school. After three years there, he returned to southeast Iowa as cashier of the White Breast Fuel Company, then learned the banking business as cashier of the First National Bank of Burlington. At age 26, he took over the White Breast Fuel Company.
In the winter of 1882, Osgood was sent to Colorado to research that state's coal resources for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. He visited every mine in the state and absorbed every detail. Colorado had been a state for fewer than six years, and few people besides John Osgood had the vision to see the possibilities of coal. He began to obtain huge tracts of coal land, and formed the Colorado Fuel Company in 1887. The business grew quickly, and five years later, they merged with the Colorado Coal and Iron Company to form the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I), the largest in the state. The Bessemer iron works at Pueblo, Colorado became the headquarters of the new company.
Miner strikes in 1894 and 1901 were costly to CF&I, and they were mining three quarters of the state's coal in 1892. Osgood testified at a committee hearing of the Colorado General Assembly following the 1901 strike. He insisted that management knew what was best for the miners and labor unions were a threat to the United States.
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