Dennis Sheedy was an American stockman, merchant, capitalist, and organizer.
Background
He was born on September 26, 1846 in Ireland, youngest of the twelve children of John and Margaret (Fitzpatrick) Sheedy. Both parents were educated. The father, who was a middle-class farmer, brought his family to the United States when Dennis was an infant. After settling near Rockport, Massachussets, they moved in 1858 to Lyons, Iowa, where the father soon died.
Education
He studied a winter in a commercial school in Chicago. Being entirely unfamiliar with the methods and problems of smelting he set about to learn with the help of a teacher and by private study.
Career
Dennis began work by clerking in a store, but at sixteen he determined to seek his fortune farther west. He first went by wagon train to Denver, where he obtained employment in a store; two years later he was in Montana, engaged in placer mining and then in merchandising. He was very successful with freighting and trading in Utah and Montana and at nineteen had accumulated $30, 000. He bought a wagon train and loaded it with stoves, which he freighted to Salt Lake City and sold at a handsome profit, taking produce in trade. This he took to the Montana mines and sold for gold dust.
In 1870, after having been in Nevada, California, and Arizona, he went through New Orleans to Texas, bought 2, 000 head of cattle, and drove them north to Abilene. A year later he bought 7, 000 more. Having driven them north, with narrow escapes from outlaws, he sold all but 3, 000. These he drove to Humboldt Wells, Nev. , where he established a ranch that he held three years while he increased his stock and ran other herds in Texas, Nebraska, and Colorado.
In 1878 the Cheyennes under Chief Dull Knife raided some of his herds and caused him much trouble and loss; the next year he consolidated his cattle interests on the North Platte River. He was now buying 10, 000 head annually and branding 3, 000 calves each year, but cold winters entailed heavy losses, about thirty percent in 1883. Foreseeing the end of the free range, he sold out his cattle interests - 32, 000 cattle and 400 horses - in 1884.
He desired to lead a more settled life. Going to Denver, he bought stock in the Colorado National Bank of Denver and became vice-president. When in 1886-87 the Holden Smelting Works of Denver, upon which the bank had made heavy loans, had financial difficulties, he was asked to work out a solution. He reorganized the smelting company, effected economies, and placed it on a paying basis.
His work with the railroads for favorable rates and with Congress for a protective tariff on lead ores contributed to the success of the company, with which he retained his connection until 1910.
He died in Denver. His record of his experiences, The Autobiography of Dennis Sheedy, was privately printed in 1922.
Achievements
Connections
He married, February 15, 1882, to Catherine V. Ryan of Leavenworth. After the death of his first wife in 1895, he married Mary Teresa Burke of Chicago on November 24, 1898. The two children born to her died in their youth. His widow and two of the six children of the first marriage survived him.