Background
David Halliday Moffat was born on July 22, 1839, at Washingtonville, Orange County, New York. His parents were David Halliday and Katherine (Gregg) Moffat.
David Halliday Moffat was born on July 22, 1839, at Washingtonville, Orange County, New York. His parents were David Halliday and Katherine (Gregg) Moffat.
Moffat attended common-school.
After a common-school education, Moffat started work as a bank messenger in New York City (1851) and rose to the position of assistant teller. In 1855, he joined a brother at Des Moines, Iowa, and the following year became a teller of the Bank of Nebraska at Omaha. When the bank closed in 1860, Moffat and a partner drove a wagonload of books and stationery to the new mining center at Denver. There they opened a store which soon handled also groceries, newspapers, and wall paper, contained the post office, and held the agency for the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1861, Moffat returned East. In 1865, he became cashier of the First National Bank, Denver, and fifteen years later, president. He was a factor in the affairs of the Boulder Valley Railroad, built to Boulder; of the Denver, South Park & Pacific, opened between Denver and Leadville; and of the Denver & New Orleans, making connections to the Gulf. The last two of these roads are now parts of the Colorado & Southern. Moffat was also a director of the Denver & Rio Grande from 1883, and president from 1884 to 1891.
It was chartered in 1902 to create a direct route from Denver to Salt Lake City. The main difficulty encountered in building it was a tunnel at Long's Peak. Moffat planned a two and a half mile tunnel, but when it was completed it was six miles long. The chief promoter spent a considerable share of his personal fortune on the construction of the road, but by 1908 had been able to complete only 211 miles of a scenic line rising to 11, 600 feet, as far as Steamboat Springs. His efforts to raise money in the East were blocked by E. H. Harriman, who preferred not to have new competition. Moffat died in 1911, while on a trip to New York to finance the road. After his death the line became the Denver & Salt Lake, and the tunnel was completed in 1926 by means of public taxation.
Moffat invested widely in mining properties during and after the latter seventies. Among his best-known mines were the "Little Pittsburgh, " "Robert E. Lee, " and "Maid of Erin, " and he was particularly interested in the regions of Leadville, Cripple Creek, and Creede. He was adjutant-general of the Colorado militia in 1865 and territorial treasurer, 1874-76. He helped organize the Denver Clearing House in 1885, was part owner of the Denver Times until 1902, was a director and sometime president of the Denver water company which built the Cheesman dam, was interested in the Denver Tramway Company during the nineties and later; and was an incorporator and director of the Central Colorado Power Company. He was also a large owner of Colorado farming lands and Denver real estate. His most lucrative road was the Florence & Cripple Creek, built in the middle nineties to connect the Cripple Creek mines with the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande, but the best known was the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific, still called "the Moffat road. "
Moffat was one of the men who realized that Denver's future importance depended largely on the adequacy of its transportational facilities. He saw Denver as a railroad center, with roads radiating in every direction. When it became certain that the Union Pacific would not touch the town he became one of the backers of the Denver & Pacific, of which he was treasurer and John Evans president.
On December 11, 1861, Moffat married a boyhood sweetheart, Fannie A. Buckhout of Mechanicsville, New York, taking her to Colorado with him.
19 March 1780 - 23 October 1863
13 October 1793 - 21 February 1862
20 April 1829 - 1910
3 June 1826 - 23 December 1886
13 July 1835 - 23 September 1914
16 June 1843 - 24 October 1926
