Watson S. Coburn was
born on June 4, 1838, in Decatur, Massachusetts.
After living in
the New England states about twent-yone years, he decided to go west. He
made Chicago, then a town of a hundred and nine inhabitants, his first
stop, where he remained six months, before going to Springfield, Illinois.
While in Springfield the civil war broke out and he went to join the army.
Failing to get in on account of the quorum being filled, each time he
applied, he was given a position as a sutler to sell goods to the
soldiers.
He was in the siege at Vicksburg, which lasted
forty-seven days and nights, and when Pemberton was forced to surrender to
Grant and the town was opened, Coburn was the first citizen to enter
Vicksburg. He went in with the first regiment of soldiers on July 4, 1863.
About this time he quit the army and went into the commission
business at Omaha, Nebraska. Six months afterwards his partner died, so he
sold out and came to Colorado, since which time he has been all over the
western states. He lived on his ranch, which was called the Chicago ranch
and situated on the Platte River, during the years of 1865, 1866 and 1867.
When the Union Pacific Railroad was built from Julesburg on west
in 1868, this put a stop to the overland freight and travel and
consequently put the feed stations out of business. Mr. Coburn then went
to work for the railroad, contracting for the fuel. He was the first man
to build a house and dig a well in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Later he took a
supply of goods and moved along ahead of the railroad and sold goods to
the graders. When the track reached Promontory Point west of Ogden, Utah,
on May 10, 1869, his store business was stopped. He went to the then new
state of Kansas and began dealing in Texas cattle, which proved
unsuccessful, so he returned to Colorado. Mr. Coburn's next venture was
freighting and mining, and when the Ute Reservation was thrown open in
1882, he took up a ranch on the western slope, between the present towns
of Paonia and Hotchkiss, Colorado. He started a commercial orchard on his
ranch, and has since made his home there.
W. S. Coburn
Some of the Pioneers of Colorado
Source: True History of some of the Pioneers of Colorado, by Miss
Luella Shaw, Press of Carson Harper Co, Denver, Colorado, 1909 |
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