Background
William Austin Hamilton Loveland was born on May 30, 1826 in Chatham, Massachusetts, United States. His parents, Leonard and Elizabeth (Eldridge) Loveland moved to Illinois in 1837, settling first in Alton and then in Brighton.
Businessman merchant politician
William Austin Hamilton Loveland was born on May 30, 1826 in Chatham, Massachusetts, United States. His parents, Leonard and Elizabeth (Eldridge) Loveland moved to Illinois in 1837, settling first in Alton and then in Brighton.
Loveland received as good an education as the district afforded. After attending the common schools, he was sent first to McKendree College and then to Shurtleff College, in Alton, but owing to ill health he did not complete his formal training.
Loveland was lured from home in 1847 to serve as wagonmaster in the Mexican War. Wounded, he returned to Illinois, but he had tasted the joy of adventure and in 1849 went to California. He mined in Grass Valley, traveled to Central America, and, in 1851, once more went home. A few years of mercantile life ended in another venture westward. In the spring of 1859 tales spread of rich finds of gold at Pike's Peak. Loveland sold out, packed a wagon-train with goods, crossed the plains, and reached Denver in June, at the time when everyone was hurrying to the newly discovered mines in the valley of Clear Creek. He promptly left Denver to open a store in Golden, a town at the foothill entrance to the mines. His wanderings were over; he settled down to become a prosperous merchant, a political leader, a builder of railroads, and one of the leading men of his generation in Colorado.
Loveland was always a keen man of business. He owned the largest general merchandise store in Golden, held mining properties in the nearby mountains, and invested in real estate. In 1878 he purchased the Denver Rocky Mountain News, a political as well as a business investment, and held it until 1886. In later life he was president of an ore reduction company and organizer of an electric railway between Denver and Golden.
He was a member of the council of the territorial legislature from 1862 to 1870, and president of the abortive constitutional convention of 1865. Largely owing to his influence, Golden was the seat of the territorial government from 1862 to the end of 1867. Thereafter he was not so successful. He was Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in 1876 and 1879, and for governor in 1878, but he failed of election.
The spectacular struggle of his life was for railroad connections with the eastern states. Both Denver and Golden hoped to become the railroad center of the state. Loveland promoted the Colorado Central & Pacific Railroad Company which was to effect a connection between the Kansas Pacific and the Union Pacific, through Golden. Before that road was completed, Denver was connected with the Union Pacific at Cheyenne, and Golden lost in the race. In the late seventies the Colorado Central was absorbed by the Union Pacific.
Loveland was one of the leading men of his generation in Colorado and one of the founders of the Colorado Central & Pacific Railroad Company. He played an important part in the expansion of the railroad network into the mining communities of Colorado State. He was also a prominent philanthropist whose contributions helped build the community. Loveland's name is commemorated in that of a small town on the railroad which had been his pride.
Loveland was a leader in the Democratic party.
Loveland's first wife was Philena Shaw, whom he married in Brighton, Illinois, on May 13, 1852. She died in 1854. He married his second wife Maranda Ann Montgomery in Alton on August 25, 1856.
