History of Denver, (Denver County) Colorado United States of America

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Biographies:

Humphrey Barker Chamberlin, philanthropist, was born in Manchester, England, Feb. 7, 1847; son of Robert and Eliza (Barker) Chamberlin. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1853; was educated in the State normal school, Oswego, N. Y.; entered the telegraph service in 1862, and served in the military telegraph corps, 1863-65. He engaged in the drug business in Oswego, 1866-76; was general secretary of the Y.M.C.A. of Brooklyn, N. Y., 1876-79, and engaged in the real estate business in Denver, Col., in 1879, becoming president of the Denver chamber of commerce in 1889. He gave the Chamberlin observatory costing $60,000 to the University of Denver, and contributed $40,000 to the Trinity M. E. church in Denver. He died at Staines, England, May 17, 1897.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Thomas MacDonald Patterson, senator, was born in county Carlow, Ireland, Nov. 4, 1840: son of James and Margaret (Montjoy) Patterson. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in childhood and after a short residence in New York removed to Indiana, where he attended Asbury (now De Pauw) university and Wabash college. He was married in 1863 to Kate Graf ton of Watertown, Mass. He was admitted to the bar in 1868. He settled in practice at Denver, Col.; was city attorney of Denver in 1874; a delegate to the 44th congress from Colorado Territory, 1875-77, and was elected a representative to the 45th congress. The certificate of election was given his opponent, James L. Belford, who was unseated, and Mr. Patterson took his seat Dec. 13, 1877, and served until March 1879. He was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions of 1876, 1880, 1888 and 1897; a member of the Democratic national committee, 1874-80, and the Democratic nominee for governor of Colorado in 1888. He purchased and edited the Rocky Mountain News at Denver, Col., 1890, and continued to practise law. As a member of the Democratic committee on resolutions in 1892 he brought in a minority report, being the only member to favor the free coinage of silver, which was adopted in 1896. He repudiated Cleveland's nomination in 1892 and led the movement which gave the electoral vote of Colorado to James B. Weaver. He was a presidential elector on the Bryan and Sewall ticket in 1896 and the Bryan and Stevenson ticket in 1900, and was elected to the U.S. senate as a Democrat in 1901, for the term ending March 3, 1907. His wife died July 16, 1902, in Denver, Col.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor