James William Denver was born on October 23, 1817 at Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia, United States. He was of Irish descent, his grandfather, Patrick Denver, a participant in the Rebellion of ’98, having fled to the United States and settled in Virginia. His youth was spent on his father’s farm there, and at Wilmington, Clinton County, Ohio, where his parents, Frederick and Jane (Campbell) Denver, moved with their family in 1830.
Denver was educated in the local schools, studied engineering and land surveying, and in 1841 went to Missouri in the hope of procuring some survey work. This he failed to do, and so took up schoolteaching, both there and in Kentucky.
In 1842 he determined to become a lawyer, removed to Ohio, entered the Cincinnati Law School, and graduated in 1844.
Opening an office in Xenia, Ohio, Denver commenced practise, also editing The Thomas Jefferson, a local Democratic paper, but in a few months returned to Missouri, and finally settled at Platte City.
After the outbreak of the war with Mexico, in 1847 he raised a company for the 12th United States Volunteer Infantry, was commissioned captain, joined Gen. Scott’s army at Pueblo, and served throughout the subsequent campaign, participating in all the fighting, including the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. At the close of the war he returned to Platte City, resumed practise, and purchased the Platte Argus, which he edited.
In the spring of 1850, attracted by the gold discoveries in California, he traveled to Sacramento by way of Salt Lake and engaged in trading. Shortly afterward, without his knowledge or consent, he was elected state senator, and served in that capacity during 1852-53.
In 1852 Gov. Bigler placed him in command of the supply trains which had been provided by vote of the legislature for the assistance of the overland immigrants who were pouring over the mountains and meeting with great hardships. This duty he performed with complete success. Bitter criticism of the project by Edward Gilbert, editor in chief of the Daily Alta California, resulted in a duel between the latter and Denver, August 2, 1852, in which Gilbert was killed.
Public opinion was overwhelmingly with Denver, and no action was ever taken against him in the matter. Early in 1853 he became secretary of state for California, and while holding that office was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth Congress. He took his seat in December 1855, and at once became a prominent figure, being appointed chairman of the Special Committee on Pacific Railroads. He astonished the House by reporting a bill providing for three transcontinental lines, but the members declined to support even one.
At the close of his term in 1857 he was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs by President Buchanan, and in that capacity went West to negotiate treaties with the Indians.
Kansas at that period was experiencing a wave of lawlessness and chronic disorder which successive governors had failed to cope with, and President Buchanan, seeking a strong man to take charge of the situation, in the autumn of 1857 turned to Denver. He reluctantly consented and became secretary of the Territory of Kansas in December 1857, and governor in May 1858.
Acting with great decision and impartiality, and impervious to threats, in less than a year he had restored law and confidence, and when he resigned in October 1858 violence and intimidation had ceased and the government was functioning normally. The city of Denver was so named in his honor, he having provided the machinery for the civil organization of Arapahoe County, at the time when the town site was laid out.
Returning to Washington, he resumed the commissioner- ship of Indian Affairs, assisting also in the separation of Colorado from Kansas, and suggesting the name for the new Territory. He remained commissioner until March 1859.
On his retirement, he returned to California, was unsuccessful candidate for a senatorship and, realizing that he had lost touch with that state, went back to Ohio. On the outbreak of the Civil War he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers by President Lincoln, and placed in command of the troops in Kansas. He subsequently joined Halleck at Pittsburg Landing, and commanded a brigade in the Army of the Tennessee, taking part in the advance upon Corinth.
He resigned his command, however, in the spring of 1863, and saw no further service.
At the termination of the war he opened a law office in Washington, D. C. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Soldiers Convention at Cleveland, and four years later was unsuccessful candidate for Congress from Ohio. He continued active in politics, and in 1876 and 1884 his name was mentioned in connection with the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
A distorted version of his duel with Gilbert made its appearance on each occasion, much to his disadvantage. He died in Washington, D. C.
Denver was a man of fine physique, being six feet two inches in height, and broad in proportion. Remarkable for energy, tenacity and far-sightedness, he was an outstanding figure in the West, where his sincerity of purpose and absolute fearlessness in the discharge of his public duties were appreciated to the full. “Genial, dignified and urbane, he possessed peculiarly winning ways, and the faculty of making men his loyal and enduring friends”
In 1856 Denver married Louisa C. Rombach, a native of Ohio. Their son Matthew Rombach Denver was a member of Congress from Ohio.
