 IOGRAPHIESLenawee County, Michigan |
Pages 120 - 123 Hon. Jerome R. Chaffee was born in Cambria, Niagara county, New York, April 17th, 1825. He received an academic education at Lockport, New York. He came to Adrian, Michigan, in the fall of 1844, and taught school in the Allen Chaffee district that fall and winter. In the spring of 1845 he engaged himself as a teacher, with George Brewster, and afterwards with Benjamin Hanse, then teaching in Adrian, where he remained about two years. He afterwards taught a district school, in the Selleck district. After teaching there he engaged as clerk in the dry goods store of W. S. Walker, for about a year, when he engaged in the mercantile business, which he continued about three years, and sold out to his partners and returned to Adrian, going into the dry goods again for himself , buying out Randall Palmer. He continued the same for a short time and formed a co-partnership with a Mr. Cushing, of New York city, continuing the trade for several years, and disposing of his interest to his partner, when he engaged with the Erie and Kalamazoo bank, as clerk, where he remained until its failure, afterwards continuing in the employ of the receiver for some months. After that time, having no other business on hand, he went into the freight office, at Adrian, in the employ of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad Company, with James H. Kennedy, agent, where he stayed a short time. In March, 1857, he went to the Territory of Kansas, seeking his fortune. Going first to Leavenworth city, he engaged in speculation in wild lands and city property, not only in Leavenworth, but at Atchinson, Elwood, and other places. In the fall of 1857 he formed a co-partnership with Albert L. Lee, at St. Joseph, Missouri, and started a banking business, which continued about two years, when they closed the business, and in 1860 Mr. Chaffee went to what was then called Pike’s Peak, where he immediately engaged in mining, which business he has been engaged in ever since. At the organization of the Territory of Colorado, in 1861, he was tendered the nomination and elected by the Republicans. Mr. Chaffee was offered the nomination several times, as representative in the Legislature, and declined, but was afterwards elected, and served in the years 1861-2-3, the latter year acting as speaker of the House. In 1864-5 Congress passed an enabling act, and the Territorial Legislature organized the State government and elected Mr. Chaffee the first United States Senator. Owing to his antagonism to President Johnson’s reconstruction policy, the President, at two successive sessions of Congress vetoed the bill admitting Colorado as a State, thus depriving Mr. Chaffee of the Senatorship during that time. In 1870 he was elected a delegate to Congress, and re-elected in 1872. The first bill he introduced was for the admission of Colorado as a state, which was finally carried, in March, 1875, whereupon he was again elected to the United States Senate, and served until March 4th, 1879, when his term of office expired, and in consequence of poor health, and being extensively engaged in business, he declined a re-election. In 1860 he formed a business partnership with Mr. Eben Smith, a practical California miner, under the name of Smith & Chaffee, for the purpose of mining, which in some degree, has continued ever since. Mr. Chaffee has been engaged more extensively in mining than any other individual in the State, often times employing from fifteen hundred to two thousand men, at a daily expense of from five to six thousand dollars. At the present time he employs over three hundred men in one mine. In one of his mines, “The Bobtail,” which is now organized into a company, he has been working for eighteen years, producing several millions of dollars of gold. This mine derived its name from the fact that the dirt was hauled down the mountain by a bob-tailed ox, in the year 1859, when the mine was first discovered. Mr. Chaffee is now engaged in the workings of several mines, the largest of which is known as the “Little Pittsburgh Consolidated,” located at Leadville, which is producing one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, gross, per month, working three hundred men. Over five million dollars worth of ore has already been discovered in this mine. In the Caribou mine, from seventy-five to one hundred men are employed daily. In the year 1865 he organized the First National Bank of Denver and became its president, and has remained so ever since, now fourteen years. In all the enterprises in the State, Mr. Chaffee has been closely identified, and today is more largely engaged in mining and other business than any other man in the State of Colorado. He was the oldest son of Warren Chaffee, who was born in Bellows Falls, Windham county, Vermont, where he resided until about twenty years of age, when he moved to Niagara county, New York, where he lived about thirty years. From there he went to the State of Indiana, and resided there a few years, when he removed to Adrian, Michigan, where he died, about the year 1865. Mr. Chaffee has one brother and two sisters living: his brother, Frank W., lives at Carthage, Missouri; his oldest sister, Eliza, is the wife of Darius C. Willits, of the township of Adrian; his youngest sister, Julia, is the wife of Nathan S. Crane, and lives in the city of Adrian. September 24th, 1848 he married Miss Miriam Comstock, daughter of Warner M. Comstock, of Adrian. By this marriage four children were born, two of whom died in infancy and one at the age of eight years. Only one survives Fannie Josephine, born the 16th of January, 1857. Mrs. Chaffee died November 11th, the same year. In 1870 Mr. Chaffee went to Europe for the first time, on business, and since that time has crossed the ocean five times. The first time was for the purpose of selling the Maxwell grant of land, so-called, lying in New Mexico, which sale he accomplished at a net profit of about six hundred thousand dollars. History and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, Michigan Volume I, 1879 (This book available for loan at the Lenawee County, Library) Internet Links: More on Jerome B. Chaffee About the Maxwell Land Grant Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. married Fannie Josephine Chaffee Return To The Museum |
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