Newsman Beshoar adept at medicine, politics, too

June 15--The Pueblo Chieftain had one humdinger of a dad.

Michael Beshoar was surgeon, druggist, rancher, gold miner, judge and state legislator. He was welleducated, well-read and well-spoken, an eccentric whose neatly trimmed black hair reached his shoulders and whose trademark red vest concealed a Colt revolver. He was known to play poker at all-night, liquor- lubricated games with cronies in Trinidad, and just as readily to travel many miles in bad weather to aid the dying or help a new baby into the world.

And Beshoar was the Pennsylvania-born, one-time Confederate who came west and recognized that the vast territory between Denver and Santa Fe, N.M., lacked a newspaper. He filled the void by starting the Colorado Chieftain, a weekly whose first edition was published June 1, 1868. (The publication became the Colorado Daily Chieftain in 1872 and The Pueblo Chieftain in 1876.) From humble quarters in the 100 block of East Fourth Street, Beshoar and the Chieftain set sail with these words: "We make no windy promises of what we shall do either to increase or retard the earth's motion . . . We think, however, that we may without ostentation congratulate Southern Colorado upon the issue of our paper -- the first in this part of the territory . . ."

The editorial suggested the newspaper could be regarded as "another of the harbingers of the onward march of civilization westward."

The first Chieftain had no advertising on its front page (a departure from other newspapers in the territory), a seven-column layout on the front page and four pages total.

In addition to the editorial greeting, the first edition contained news that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had been nominated for the presidency; U.S. and Santa Fe Telegraph Co. line had first reached Pueblo days earlier; and scout and former Indian agent Kit Carson had died in Las Animas.

'A civilizing influence'

When Beshoar started his newspaper here, it had been less than four years since the Sand Creek Massacre in eastern Colorado and 13 years since the Christmas Massacre at the old El Pueblo trading post, the scant remains of which weren't far from the newspaper office. Many of the town's 200 inhabitants lived in adobe houses. Mail came to Pueblo twice a week by stage.

Beshoar had experience at newspapers in Pocahontas, Ark., and Nebraska Territory, and realized he'd be plenty busy soliciting subscriptions and print jobs over the Chieftain's huge territory, in addition to keeping up with the medical practices he'd launched in Pueblo and Trinidad. So he chose an editorial board of local learned men to do much of the writing; they included Wilbur Stone, who later became chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court;

the Rev. F.S. Winslow, rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church; and George Hinsdale, who recently had served as lieutenant governor of Colorado Territory.

Beshoar acted as a correspondent for the newspaper on his trips outside Pueblo and wrote feature articles.

Sam McBride was the Colorado Chieftain's printer and foreman, and the business offered "every variety, plain and fancy printing, executed at the lowest prices." The newspaper itself could be had for $5 a year, $3 for six months or 25 cents a copy.

Beshoar was a Democrat and thought his newspaper should be a political, but not a party voice for the town.

"He thought it should play a promotional role by luring new settlers and new money, and that it should be a civilizing influence to insure law, order and decency. And he hoped to make some money out of the venture," wrote the newspaperman's grandson, Barron B.

Beshoar, on the 100th anniversary of The Chieftain.

The Colorado Chieftain ran articles on the "Indian problem," Negro riots in the South, science, medicine, the Pueblo area's geography, people and potential.

Beshoar was especially interested in learning and writing about the Pueblo Indians and their customs.

Public official

Michael Beshoar sold the Chieftain to McBride in February 1869, and McBride sold it to J.J.

Lambert, a quartermaster at Fort Reynolds, in June 1870.

Beshoar didn't lapse into quiet retirement, however. If anything, he grew even busier after selling the Pueblo newspaper. Back in Trinidad -- "a tough town, a gathering place for roughs of all kinds" -- he kept his City Drug Store open long hours to meet the needs of Santa Fe Trail travelers. He served one term as assessor, was county clerk and an expert witness at coroner's inquests. He married Annie Maupin in 1872 and 400 guests from Southern Colorado and northern New Mexico attended the festivities -- cattle kings, lawyers, public officials, saloonkeepers and sheepherders among them. The couple had five children.

Beshoar was elected vice president and a director of the newly organized Las Animas Railway & Telegraph Co., which aimed to build a railroad from Trinidad to La Junta. He acquired land along the proposed route, and he bought into the sheep business and took advantage of the free range outside of Trinidad to pasture them. Beshoar was elected a probate judge in 1875 and he joined with other citizens in a campaign for Trinidad to be incorporated and was appointed to its first board of trustees. He sought the office of lieutenant governor in 1876 but was defeated by his Republican challenger. In 1880, he was elected to the Colorado Legislature.

Beshoar also started a steam laundry and a brickyard, and he mined for gold in Mexico.

He took another turn at newspapering in 1882 when he bought the weekly Trinidad Democrat and changed it to the Trinidad Daily Advertiser in 1883. The following year he added the Cattleman's Advertiser and the Spanish language publication El Anunciador.

Beshoar kept up his medical practice and was active in a number of medical organizations, including the Colorado state board of health. He was a Mason for more than 50 years and a member of the Elks as well.

He retired in February 1906 and died Sept. 5, 1907. He was buried with his family in a mausoleum overlooking Trinidad.

Sources include "Hippocrates in a Red Vest," by Barron B. Beshoar; "A Penny Earned: Story of the Pueblo Star-Journal and Chieftain," by Erin Warner; "Trinidad, Colorado Territory," by Morris Taylor; "The History of Colorado," Volume 3, by Wilbur Stone.

maryp@chieftain.com

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