The Billings herald. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1882-1885, 1883-03-22
An Ex-Senator's First wife.

Senator Tabor has had q remark
able matrimonial experience, and
its sensational announcement only
recently gave great deal of mater
ial to the public tongue. He mar
ricd in Maine when young man,
and in 1859 was seized with the
Pixies Peak fever and went to Col
orado in a prairie schooner, accom-
panied by his bride, who shared
with him the perils and exposure
of that long and tedious journey.
They camped for time at the
present site of Denver, which was
then bleak prairie, where he kept
sort of eating house and supply
store, in which Mrs. Tabor partici-
pated as chief assistant and cashier
of the establishment.
He then moved on to Pixies
Peak, joining the innunerable cara
van in search of gold. He settled
at Colorado City, which is now a
town of deserted shanties at the
base of the mountain. He there
opened supply store, which his
wife kept while he joined the pros
pectors in the gulches of the noun
tains hunting for treasures.
When the Pixies Peak excitement
died out Tabor took up the line of
march and went over the mountains
following the prospectors, his wife
driving one team of mules and he
another, enduring all sorts Of hard
ships, even reaching the lowest ebb
of poverty, and sometimes threat
ened with starvation, he settled
down in a log cabin near the pres
cnt site of Leadville, where he kept
a store and boarding house for
miners, his wife acting as cook, clerk
and postmistress of the camp.
Tabor's cabin was a famous resort
in those days, and as the scene of
many incidents that arc now part
of the history of mining life in the
Rocky ,no,1ntainS
Mrs. Tabor was sort of ''daugh-
ter of the regiment" among the
miners, being the only woman for
miles around, and possessing the
confidence and regard of everybody.
She was a sort of bank of deposit
for the rusty old fellows who did
not spend their dust as fast as they
washed it out, and it is said that
she often carried many thousand
dollars in gold dust in her bosom
wrapped in little buckskin bags
with the names of the owners at
tached. During all this time, and
up to 1875, her husband was a pros
pector, meeting with little or no
luck, while she kept the wolf from
the door selling supplies, keeping
boarders and acting as laundress in
general for the camp at Carbonate
hill.
Good luck came at last. He now
owns in Lcadville and other por-
tons OF Colorado moro productive
mining property than any other
man, and from some of his mines
his income is as high as $4,000
per month. Others pay nearly as
much, and it is estimated that his
annual income from his mining
property cannot be less than $780,
900, and his entire fortune is esti-
mated as high as sl0,OW,OW.
Several months ago Senator
Tabor, having tired of the compan-
ion of his poverty and humble
life, cndeavorcd to secure a divorce
from her in one of the back coun-
ties of Colorado, using methods
which the papers Of Denver claim
were not strictly honorable. Mrs.
Tabor went into court and asked
for a division of the property and
a separate maintenance. As q COM
promise her husband offered her
S250,0OO and his residence in Den
yer, providing she would consent
to the divorce. This she refused to
do for some time, but finally the
divorce was granted on terms that
were more advantageous to her, and
appeared to be satisfactory to him.
This family difficulty affected his
candidacy for the United Suites
senate very seriously, occurring as
it did during the canvass before the
Legislature and he was compelled to
content himself with q short
term Of thirty days in that distin.
guished body, but secured the title
of senator, and now has honorable
written before his name.-[ Inter
Ocean.