The Elbert County tribune., 1907-06-06
HAND OF DEATH
1T FALLS UPON PIONEER AND EN-
PIRE BUILDER.
WALTER SCOTT cHEEsMAh
President Of Denver Union Water
Company Passes Away After But
Ten Days of illness.

| captain of finance, empire builder and
pioneer, is dead.
At 3:35 o'clock on the morning OF
May 31st he succumbed to q complica-
tion OF maladies caused by a severe
case of la grippe, which he contracted
last December. Neuralgia, asthma and
other complications caused death.
Mr.. Cheesman was president of the
Denver Union Water Company, vice
president of the First National bank, a
| director of the International Trust
Company and of the Moffat road, pres
ident of the State Bank of Aspen, was
connected with many other corpora
tions. and for fifteen years had been
president of the Humane Society.
Although a comparatively poor man
when he came to Colorado forty-seven
years ago, he died possessed of an es-
tate variously estimated TO be worth
from $15,000,000 to $25, 100000. Men
close to him make the estimate of his
wealth as being about s20,000.000.
Mr.. Cheeseman's realty holdings in
Denver have an assessed valuation of
| nearly 100000, and an actual value
OF nearly twice that much. His inter-
est in the Denver Union Water Com
pany is valued at millions of dollars,
he and David H. Moffat owning far
more than control. His mining prop
critics in various parts of the state are
| estimated to be worth millions of dol
lars.
or all the men who by their thrift,
| industry and faith in the future and
| sterling courage in trying times,
| builded the state of Colorado from a
wilderness where the red men held
sway to one of the greatest common
wealths of the Union, the name of Wal
| ter S. Cheesman must stand forth pre-
eminently. With the glare of the lime
light upon him he never was known to
| finch, and his life and his connection
with the semi-public enterprises was
as an open book.
Men of public affairs expect to be
criticised. They look for the scathing
| darts of public censure, but. although
! Mr.. Cheeseman's corporations were at
| tackled mercilessly at times, his own
character escaped, and even his enc
mics recognized in him a man of lofty
| purpose, man above the little things
of life. man to whom success would
count as nothing if in its achievement
one bit of his character had to be sac
rificed.
w Nith al VI lhS WtlSAly VI
finance, state building and corporation
government on his broad shoulders.
Walter Cheesman found time to listen,
| to the cries of the oppressed. The
| plaintive plea of the little uncGred-for
child, or the mute appeal of the animal
never reached him in vain For twenty
years Mr.. Cheesman had been identi-
fed with the humane movement in Col
orado. When the old Humane Society
was in existence he was actively inter
ested in the work and was one of the
men who stood by it. in the strenuous
days when financial depression threat
ened the disruption of the society. Fif-
teen years ago he became president of
the Humane Society, and when that de-
veloped into the State Bureau Of Child
| and Animal Protection, he continued
| at the helm, giving freely of mis- own
| bank account that the bureau might be-
come firmly established.
Mr.. Cheeseman's interest in the HUI
name Society work was so great that
he bore the expense of a second field
| agent in the Humane Society all dur
| ing 1906. He had become convinced
that one agent could not cover the
Denver field and thereupon authorized
the appointment of an assistant at a
personal expense of about $1,000. He
kept this charity from the public the
same as he did his many other philan-
| thropic donations.
In the death of Walter Cheesman the
dumb animal and the mistreated child
have lost the best friend they ever had
in Colorado. The good he did along
these lines was by stealth, and he
''blushed to find it fame" Many who
knew him well never guessed that a
| good part of his life work was the re-
| lt..f. s..
when the General Assembly consd-
cred the abolition of the bureau he
used his influence to save it, and to the
personal friendship which many of the
| legislators entertained for him is due
| the utter failure of the campaign
Like David H. Moffat, Mr.. Chees-
man came to Colorado when life here
was not all sunshine; when the men
who had blazed the trail from the East
! thirsted for gold and hungered for
bread. He did not wait until the possi-
bilities of the new country were mani
fest.
stead Harbor, Long Island, New York,
| June 81, 1885,
| Historians of the state say that Den
ver's salvation from being a mere viii
lage is due to Walter Cheesman and a
| group of sanguine young men who pre-
pared the way for the city to become
the metropolis of the Rocky Mountain
region. His history is a good part of
the history of Denver, and his active
identification with gigantic enterprises,
| such as the construction of the Den
yer Pacific. the Denver & Boulder Val
ley. the South Park, the Denver & New
Orleans. the Denver, Texas & Fort
| Worth railways, is a matter of record
in financial annals. He labored with
Mr.. Moffat to bring the Union Pacific
road into Denver. He was also con-