Part 2

_The Tabor Grand rose like a cathedral beyond the spired church. At far right is Augusta’s house. The light building behind the present Navarre Restaurant is the Windsor Hotel. The tall business building in the middle was the Tabor block. The Brown was a triangular cow pasture. In front of it was Augusta’s coach house that faced Seventeenth Avenue._]

“I suppose Mr. Tabor’s and my souls are of more value than they were a year ago.”

Poor Augusta! Time was running out. Tabor’s answer to her tartness was to spend his evenings in the variety halls and bordellos. As his interests and investments widened, he took the most seductive inmates traveling with him. The newspapers reported that Tabor had given clothes, jewelry, furs and furbelows to three or four women (one paper said five) so that they could appear as “Mrs. Tabor.” One that he singled out was Alice Morgan, an Indian club swinger at the Grand Central variety hall in Leadville. Next he was charmed by Willie Deville in Lizzie Allen’s parlor house in Chicago, and he brought Willie west with him. Augusta discovered the affair and the miscreants promised to part.

But this was a ruse. Tabor kept on seeing her secretly and took Willie on a trip to New York. There, she was so indiscreet about their relations that a woman in the hotel tried to blackmail the Silver King. Tabor told Willie she talked too much and made her a gift of $5,000 to soften the blow of saying “good-bye.” (Augusta preserved an interview, with many more details than these, that Willie gave to a St. Louis reporter a couple of years after the affair. Apparently, Willie was still talking too much.)

In September, 1879, Tabor sold out his interest in the Little Pittsburgh for a cool million dollars. He bought the Matchless for $117,000 (which later proved the greatest bonanza of all) and over 800 shares of stock of the First National Bank in Denver. Then he and Augusta went East for six weeks while he made further investments, notably land in South Chicago.

On November 5 the Tabors returned to Denver and Horace left for Leadville to see to the completion and opening of the Tabor Opera House. Augusta remained in Denver. Tabor did not return even for Christmas. His bachelor suite on the second floor of the Opera House (with its handy passageway across to Bill Bush’s Clarendon Hotel) proved too delightful for a man whose eyes wandered.

Augusta and he began to quarrel more violently. During 1880 they appeared together at balls of the Tabor Hose Co. in Denver and of the Tabor Light Cavalry in Leadville, and when Tabor entertained ex-President and Mrs. Grant in the “Cloud City.” The two couples sat together in the left-hand box for the second act of “Ours,” and then left to attend a ball in the general’s honor. This was July 23, 1880, a momentous date for forty-seven-year old Augusta—not because she had met a president, but because just about that time Horace ceased to be her husband.

In the autumn, back in Denver, Horace gave her $100,000, following his usual practice of making a parting gift. In January, 1881, Tabor left the Broadway mansion irrevocably and established residence in a suite at the Windsor Hotel of which he was part-owner.

What had happened was that, some time during the spring or summer on one of his frequent trips to Leadville, Tabor had met “Baby” Doe. She was twenty-five and he was forty-nine. They were introduced by Bill Bush who had known the Dresden-doll beauty as Mrs. Harvey Doe during her two-and-a-half year residence in Central City. Bill Bush had been proprietor of the Teller House and had also known her husband and in-laws. She had obtained a divorce from Harvey Doe in March, 1880, for adultery and non-support, and shortly after arrived in Leadville.

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. In the next months Augusta used her ownership to check up regularly on activities at the hotel. When Tabor brought Baby Doe down from Leadville and installed her at the Windsor, the two women must have passed in the lobby frequently.

Augusta realized a fine monthly profit from her Windsor investment, and in April, 1881, she treated herself to a trip abroad for several months. Both Tabor and Bush wanted to buy out her share. Tabor did not like her making “such a damned nuisance of herself” going in and out of the rooms, and Bush wanted to obtain a controlling interest in the hotel. Augusta kept on saying, “No.” No divorce and no hotel sale.

When Augusta returned from Europe, she found her husband had risen to new heights. He was being considered for a senatorship and he had finished building the Tabor Grand Opera House in Denver. The citizens were tendering a ceremony and watch fob to him on the opening night.

Augusta wrote him a letter apologizing for what she “had said in the heat of passion.” She also asked to be allowed to come to the opening night of the Tabor Grand and to go with him to Washington as a senator’s wife. This letter turned up among Baby Doe’s papers at her death. No one knows how, or if, it was answered. But the Tabor box was empty on September 5, 1881, the gala occasion Augusta wanted to attend.

In April, 1882, Augusta instituted a suit for payment of $50,000 a year alimony despite the fact that she was not divorced. She listed Tabor’s holdings and their specific worth, an impressive tabulation, which brought the total to $9,410,000. The suit caused a lot of scandal, damaged Tabor politically, but accomplished nothing for Augusta since it was thrown out of court as illegal.

Augusta gave in on the hotel-sale petition first. She sold her interest in the Windsor to Bush for close to $40,000 in May, 1882. Finally, on January 2, 1883, she gave Tabor a divorce in exchange for property worth about $300,000. She caused a sensation at the divorce trial by reiterating:

“Not willingly, Oh God, not willingly!”

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. She told reporters she was building up her own fortune and hanging on to her large house in order that she might take care of Tabor in his old age.

But Augusta was wrong. She had underestimated her rival. When the Silver Panic of 1893 reduced the former millionaire to poverty, his pretty blonde wife stuck like glue.

Belatedly Augusta realized the true character of Baby Doe. In 1892 the first Mrs. 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.

She said in her own words when Tabor was at his richest:

“I feel that in those early years of self-sacrifice, hard labor, and economy, I laid the foundation for Mr. Tabor’s immense wealth. Had I not stayed with him and worked by his side, he would have been discouraged, returned to the stone-cutting trade and so lost his big opportunity.”

All Colorado agreed with her at the time—and then the mills of the Gods ground slowly and exceedingly fine. Tabor’s immense wealth evaporated.

But its going did not bring Horace back to her; he clung to Baby Doe until the end, four years after Augusta’s death. Never once was there the slightest rumor of any infidelity of his to her after 1881 and none of Baby Doe to him after their first meeting. It must have been galling to Augusta.

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 nickname was spoken in affection and in admiration, and she was interviewed for the Leadville papers under that heading. Yes, she was a first lady in many ways, courageous and industrious and civic. The tragedy of her life lay in the fact that, although she was beloved of many, she lost the key to the only heart she wanted.

_Acknowledgments_

(Reprinted from earlier editions for the fifth in 1968)

For Research Aid: First, as always, to the patient staff of the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library—Ina T. Aulls, Alys Freeze, Opal Harber and Katherine Hawkins—who find the answers to many puzzlers. Secondly, Agnes Wright Spring, Colorado historian, always generous; and helpful others at the State Museum—Dolores Renze, Frances Shea, Dorothy Stewart and Kenneth Watson. Next, Lorena Jones and Allen Young of _The Denver Post_ library, unfailingly obliging. My gratitude to all. For Photographs and Sketches: The Western History Department of the Denver Public Library has supplied the great majority of the illustrations used. The Colorado Historical Society contributed two photographs; the Oshkosh Public Museum, one; Mrs. Belle Taylor, two; the Mile High Center, one; and one gift of Fred Mazzulla was graciously rehabilitated by Phil Slattery and Bill Brown of _The Denver Post_. For Proofreading: Mrs. J. Alvin Fitzell continues to donate her time and aptitude for catching typographical errors in each successive booklet.

_By the Same Author_

Gulch of Gold: Her affection for and pride in Gregory Gulch shows in every line of this book.... The old photographs and maps are entrancing.... Marshall Sprague in the _New York Times_.

Colorful Colorado: Its Dramatic History: “... a remarkable feat of condensation ... ought to be a copy in your car’s glove locker.” Robert Perkin in the _Rocky Mountain News_.

Unique Ghost Towns: “This new Bancroft Booklet is the best yet.” Stanton Peckham in _The Denver Post_.

The Unsinkable Mrs. Brown: “Caroline Bancroft’s booklets are brighter, better-illustrated and cheaper than formal histories of Colorado.... The Unsinkable Mrs. Brown was a delightful person, and I wish I had known her.” John J. Lipsey in the _Colorado Springs Free Press_.

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Denver’s Lively Past: “With zest and frankness the author emphasizes the dramatic, lusty, bizarre and spicy happenings.” Agnes Wright Spring in _The Denver Post_.

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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. They are popularly written, color-packed little pamphlets, and it’s a pleasure to commend them to native and tourist alike.” Robert Perkin in the _Rocky Mountain News_.

Six Racy Madams of Colorado: “This delightful booklet is written both with good humor and good taste.” _Rocky Mountain News._

Colorado’s Lost Gold Mines and Buried Treasure: “The casual reader ... will find his own treasure buried in this little booklet.” Claude Powe in _The Central City Tommy-Knawker_.

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GULCH OF GOLD

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_Transcriber’s Notes_

--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.

--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.

--In the text versions, delimited italicized text by _underscores_.