He was married to Josephine Evans, the daughter of Territorial GovernorJohn Evans. She died of tuberculosis following the birth and death of her only child; the Evans Memorial Chapel was built by her father in her memory.
Early life and education
Elbert was born in Logan County, Ohio. His parents were Achsa Hitt, the daughter of Rev. Samuel Hitt,[1][a] and John Downs Elbert, a physician and surgeon.[3] He descends from early colonists and Huguenots. His great-grandfather, Dr. John Lodman Elbert, was a surgeon during the American Revolution.[4]
He left Nebraska for Colorado in 1862.[7] Elbert was appointed Secretary of the Colorado Territory that year by Abraham Lincoln.[6] He occasionally stood in for Governor Evans when needed. He served from 1862 until 1867 under Governors John Evans and Alexander Cummings.[3] He dealt with hostilities between settlers and Native Americans.[4] During the Civil War, he helped form and then mobilized the 2nd and 3rd Colorado regiments for the war effort.[4][6] He helped organize the Republican Party in the Colorado Territory.[3]
He formed the law firm Charles & Elbert with J. Q. Charles.[4] He was elected to the territorial legislature in 1869. He was made secretary one year later. He became the chairman of the Republican central committee for Colorado in 1872.[4]
Elbert was appointed as the sixth Governor of the Colorado Territory by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873.[7] President Grant became the first U.S. President to visit Colorado that summer. The President stayed at Governor Elbert's home. Elbert and Grant visited Central City, and met with a group of Ute leaders to create a treaty (Brunot Treaty of 1873) that would allow some of the Ute's land to be accessible to railroad and mining companies.[3] As governor, he promoted irrigation methods and founded the Western Irrigation Conference, which wrote water laws to ensure viable agriculture industries in Colorado.[3] Governor Elbert served until his predecessor, Edward M. McCook, was reappointed Governor in the spring of 1874, but was not confirmed by Congress until July.[6]
Elbert spent a year in Europe, during which he became aware of the political and social conditions there.[4] Colorado became a state in 1876.[4] Elbert was elected to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1876 and served until 1888.[4] During that time, he served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1879 to 1883.[7][5][6][c] He resigned in 1888 due to his poor health, and went abroad.[7]
He received an honorary LLD from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1880.[7]
Evans Memorial Chapel built by John Evans after the death of his daughter, Josephine
The Elberts lived in a red brick house on E Street, now 14th Street. Josephine gave birth to their only child, John Evans Elbert about late March 1868. He died on August 10, 1868. Josephine, who had consumption (tuberculosis), died in October 1868.[10] Her father built the Evans Memorial Chapel in her memory in 1878. It is located at the University of Denver campus.[11]
After having been in failing health for some time,[12] Elbert died on November 27, 1899, in Galveston, Texas[7] and is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Denver,[3] as are Josephine and their son John.[10]
Legacy
Elbert County, Colorado; Elbert, Colorado; and Mount Elbert, the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains, are named in honor of Elbert.[13] Grateful miners named Mount Elbert after the governor because he facilitated a treaty with the Ute tribe, which opened up more than 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of Indian reservation to mining and railroad activity.
^Josephine was born on September 30, 1844, in Attica, Indiana. Her mother, Hannah Canby Evans, died of consumption on October 9, 1850. Josephine was the only surviving child, her three brothers died in infancy. She was raised in Attica, Chicago and Evanston, Illinois, and went to Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. She then moved to the Colorado Territory on January 29, 1864. Her father and stepmother Gray of Bowdoinham, Maine had established a home there in 1862 after Evans accepted the position of Governor of the Colorado Territory. He had accepted the position hoping that the climate would improve Josephine's poor health due to tuberculosis. She met Elbert in 1863.[10]
