lieutenant predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place party office birth_date order term_start image article_title term_end name
david courtney coates warren a. haggott charles s. thomas james h. peabody 21 july 1919 muscatine , iowa , united states denver , colorado , united states democrat governor of the state of colorado 4 november 1849 12th january 8 , 1901 james_orman . gif james bradley orman
 january 13 , 1903 james bradley orman
james bradley orman

james bradley orman -lrb- november 4 , 1849 -- july 21 , 1919 -rrb- was an american politician and railroad builder .
he served as the 12th governor of colorado from 1901 to 1903 .
he was a democrat .
orman was born in muscatine , iowa and grew up on his family 's farm there .
in 1869 , he moved to colorado at the age of 20 , along with his brother william .
the brothers soon started a construction company which , though it did a variety of projects , was most famous for building railroads , particularly in colorado and kansas .
james orman moved to pueblo , colorado in 1874 , and soon entered politics .
he was elected to several terms in the colorado state legislature and the pueblo city council , and he served as mayor of pueblo from 1897 to 1898 .
in 1883 the state democratic party nominated him to the united states senate , but the state legislature , which chose senators at that time , elected thomas m. bowen over james orman by three votes .
orman became the democratic nominee for governor in 1900 .
though colorado was generally a republican state , the republican party was divided over the free silver controversy , and the united states populist party , though in decline , was still a prominent third party in colorado .
when the silver republicans and populists endorsed orman , he was elected easily .
the greatest problem during his administration was a dispute between miners and a mining company .
on may 1 , 1901 , 350 miners led by vincent saint john , and organized by the western federation of miners , walked away from their jobs at the smuggler-union mine in telluride .
their walkout was a protest of a new method of payment , called `` contracting '' , or `` fathoms '' , which could sometimes result in a miner doing thirty days ' worth of digging , and getting paid nothing for the work .
but the contract system was worse than that ; if the miner received no pay due to failing to perform according to the contract , then he owed money to the company for tools and powder .
a shooting war was triggered when one of the strikers , believed to have been unarmed , had been shot through the throat by a deputized mine guard .
in spite of intense pressure from others , lieutenant governor david c. coates helped to persuade governor orman not to send the colorado national guard .
coates volunteered to mediate , and he was dispatched by the governor to be part of a commission sent to telluride to investigate the issues that caused the walkout .
vincent st. john and mine operator arthur l. collins finally met across the table , and the commission was able to effect a settlement between the miners and the company , resulting in more than a year of labor peace in san miguel county 's silver mines .
orman served one two-year term , as most colorado governors did at that time .
after his term as governor he moved back to pueblo and retired from politics , but was active in business .
following his death , he was buried in pueblo .
orman was married to nellie martin from 1877 until her death in 1917 .
they had two children , frederick and edna .
