Mahlon Daniel Thatcher was a pioneer merchant, banker, and financier of Colorado.
Background
He was born in 1839 at New Buffalo, Perry County, Pennsylvania, a son of Henry and Lydia Ann (Albert) Thatcher. Their father had moved West from New Jersey to the Susquehanna, where he was successively a canal blacksmith, a school-teacher, and a storekeeper; their mother was the daughter of a Pennsylvania farmer of remote Swiss ancestry who had been also a justice of peace and a maker of "grandfather" clocks. The family migrated further westward gradually, following the developing railroads.
Education
He and his brothers received their education in the schools and academies of a succession of Western Pennsylvania towns.
Career
His eldest brother, John Albert Thatcher, set out for Missouri at the age of twenty-one, and in 1862, with a partner and a stock of merchandise, drove across the plains from Nebraska City, Neb. , to Denver, Colo. The following year he opened the first general store in Pueblo, then a village of frame and adobe buildings, eight days by wagon south of Denver and hundreds of miles from the nearest railroad. Mahlon joined him here in 1865; for some time he had been a partner in his father's store at Martinsburg, Pa. , and when he started West he invested $2, 900, the proceeds of the sale of his interest in that business, in a stock of goods bought in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.
A year later Frank G. Bloom, another clerk from Henry Thatcher's store, settled in Trinidad, Col. , where he became a lieutenant of the Thatchers and married their sister, Sarah. Under the style of "Thatcher Brothers, Merchants, " the brothers built up a lasting reputation for honesty and reliability. Gradually, the safe in their store at Pueblo became a repository for funds of cattlemen and miners. In 1871, as "Thatcher Brothers, Bankers, " they transferred the banking part of their growing business to a new brick building. Mahlon Thatcher now made a trip to Washington and obtained a charter (1871) for the First National Bank of Pueblo, providing a capital of $50, 000. This bank became his chief interest, and he was president from 1889 until his death.
John, meanwhile, conducted the outdoor part of their joint activities, especially the cattle and horse ventures in which they were involved. Talking and trading horses with ranchers and miners, he gathered the gossip about men's business and credit. He was known personally to more people than his brother and was popular, while Mahlon was taciturn and less approachable. The reputation of both was that of shrewd dealers, but of established honesty; they kept out of politics and out of lawsuits. They were equal partners in all their principal ventures, including the bank.
Despite the loss and suffering of the critical winter of 1878-79 and the panic of 1893 which paralyzed most western communities, the Thatchers accumulated large fortunes. Their cattle and horse enterprises came to include immense ranches in New Mexico, Colorado, South Dakota, and Canada. In 1911, on the death of David H. Moffat, Mahlon took over control of the First National Bank of Denver, the largest bank of the state; he also operated an important trust company in Denver, controlled two Pueblo banks besides the parent institution, and banks in at least six other Colorado cities. His holdings spread ultimately to nearly forty banks.
He was heavily interested in electric power in California, beet-sugar manufacturing on a large scale, cement, firebrick, smelting, and sometimes in mining. He built a huge house, "Hill Crest, " set beside his brother's "Rosemount" on the highest hill in Pueblo.
John's death had come three years before. Their sons succeeded them in the chief institutions.
Achievements
Connections
On August 1, 1876, he had married Luna Ada Jordan of Pueblo, who bore him six children; a son and three daughters survived him.