Caroline Bancroft

“ Maxcy Tabor inherited the money his mother had husbanded with such business acumen. He brought her body back from California and she was buried in Riverside cemetery. With the passage of the years Maxcy was laid to rest in Fairmount beside his wife; and Horace Tabor, in Mt. Olivet beside Baby Doe. Augusta lies alone in an old-fashioned cemetery, as alone as she lived her last fifteen years, terribly alone.
For many years of her middle life Augusta was called “Leadville’s First Lady.” ”

“ The Tabor Opera House in Leadville was the home of legitimate drama and provided many cultural evenings for early-day bonanza barons.
Horace found no gold, but Augusta was very successful. She made enough money to buy their unpaid-for farm in Kansas and to keep them through the winter in Denver. In February Horace returned to his prospect but found his claim had been jumped. He decided to go prospecting farther afield, on the Arkansas, and returned to Denver to make plans. ”

“ Tabor sold her house on Broadway and moved across the street to the newly-opened Brown Palace Hotel. Although Maxcy and Bill Bush were the managers and lived there also, Augusta did not enjoy hotel life. Her health was starting to fail and she went to California for the winter, seeking a milder climate. There in Pasadena, on February 1, 1895, at the age of sixty-two she died, her social position still secure, if not showy, and her fortune built to a million and a half dollars. ”

“ How sadly I felt, none but God, in whom I then firmly trusted, knew. Twelve miles from a human soul save my babe. The only sound I heard was the lowing of the cattle, and they, poor things, seemed to feel the loneliness of the situation and kept unusually quiet. ”

“ Once again Augusta was the first woman in the camp, and once again the men built her a primitive log cabin. This one had a sod roof, no window, and a dirt floor. She promptly went into business and Horace went 6 prospecting. As the Tabors were the only people in the upper end of the gulch who owned a gold-scales, Augusta added weighing dust to her duties of taking boarders and doing laundry. In a few weeks ten thousand men were crowded in the gulch, and a mail and express office was needed. Augusta was appointed postmistress of Oro City. ”

“ It was this public statement of hers to the judge which made her feel that the divorce was not valid.
Amos Steck, Augusta’s lawyer, summed up the whole five years of public quarreling and scandal when he talked about her to a reporter:
“Oh, she knows all about his practises with lewd women. I never saw such a woman. She is crazy about Tabor. She loves him and that settles it.”
For years Augusta hoped that Baby Doe would tire of Horace and, crestfallen, he would come back to his first wife. She thought that when the money was gone, the young hussy would flit. ”

“ Baby Doe said that it was “love at first sight” on her part. With Tabor, the feeling grew on him. She became his mistress almost immediately, but it was not until January, 1881, that he began to think of divorce and re-marriage. Augusta put her foot down. She refused successive overtures of a handsome settlement in return for a divorce.
Augusta knew what was going on. In December, 1880, she bought a third interest in the Windsor Hotel from Charles L. Hall of Leadville. The other third was owned by Bill Bush, who also managed the hotel, assisted by her son, Maxcy. ”

“ Augusta recalled.
Farming in Kansas proved bleak, arduous and lonely for the twenty-four-year old bride, and unprofitable for her husband. When the news of gold in Colorado broke, the Tabors joined the rush. On April 5, 1859, they set out in an ox-drawn covered wagon with two men friends and their sixteen-month-old baby son, Maxcy, who was teething. They also took along several cows to provide milk. The journey to Denver took them until June 20. They camped there for two weeks because the cattle were footsore, and then moved to a site near Golden. ”

“ Augusta continued to keep boarders during the summer and Tabor, to supervise the store’s activities. But then Tabor began to splurge, and in the autumn they sold out. The fall election had made Tabor lieutenant-governor of Colorado, so they planned to move to Denver.
In January, 1879, Tabor rented, and the next month purchased, the Henry C. Brown house at 17th and Broadway, paying $40,000. According to Augusta, when her husband took her to see it, she was very mindful of the quick rises and equally rapid descents of Colorado fortunes. ”

“ The best people continued to draw that line. When the Tabors returned to Denver after their honeymoon, no one called on the second Mrs. Tabor. But shortly afterward Augusta came home from California where she had taken her broken heart. Two hundred and fifty people organized a surprise reception for her at her palatial residence.
But in the following months Augusta brooded.
“I do not consider myself divorced from Mr. Tabor,” she told the reporter. “The whole proceedings were irregular. If it were not for my son, 2 Maxcy, I would commence suit tomorrow to have the divorce annulled. ”

“ A Bachelor of Arts from Smith College, she later obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Denver, writing her thesis on Central City, Colorado. Her full-sized Gulch of Gold is the attractive, definitive history of that well-known area. ”

“ Historic Central City: “We could do with more such stories of Colorado’s fabled past.” Marian Castle in The Denver Post.
Famous Aspen: “It’s all here.... Aspenites should be grateful.” Luke Short in The Aspen Times.
Silver Queen: The Fabulous Story of Baby Doe Tabor: “Attractive, sprightly, well-printed book ... which is more informative and genuinely human than preceding works giving the Tabor story.” Fred A. Rosenstock in The Brand Book.
Tabor’s Matchless Mine and Lusty Leadville: “Seventh in her series of Bancroft Booklets retelling segments of Colorado’s history. ”

“ In July, 1879, she attended a meeting of the Association at Manitou in company with Flora Stevens, a correspondent for the Kansas City Times. Miss Stevens later wrote Augusta up under the heading, “A Rich Man’s Wife,” in which she said that Augusta kept an extensive journal during the trip to Manitou. Unfortunately this particular example of Augusta’s authorship has not been preserved. ”