Richard Sopris

{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox Politician | name = Richard Sopris | image = Richard Sopris.jpg | caption = Sopris, circa 1881 | birth_date = June 26, 1813 | birth_place = Bucks County, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1893|4|7|1813|6|26}} | death_place = Denver, Colorado, U.S. | order = 15th | office = Mayor of Denver | term_start = 1878 | term_end = 1881 | predecessor = Baxter B. Stiles | successor = Robert Morris | party = }} '''Richard Sopris''' (1813–1893) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Denver, Colorado from 1878 to 1881.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the Office of the Mayor |url=https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/mayors-office/about-the-office-of-the-mayor/history-of-the-office.html |website=City and County of Denver |access-date=1 September 2018}}</ref><ref name="McGrath">{{cite book | first = Maria Davies | last = McGrath | title = The Real Pioneers of Colorado | publisher = The Denver Museum | year = 1934 | access-date = April 30, 2014 | url = http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16079coll15/id/1400/rec/19 | page = 478–479, 480, 485 | archive-date = May 2, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140502013345/http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16079coll15/id/1400/rec/19 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Prior to that, he was a prospector, Captain in the 1st Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, and a representative for what is now Colorado in the Kansas Territorial legislature.

==Early and personal life== Richard Sopris was born on June 26, 1813<ref name="McGrath" /> or July 26, 1813<ref name="Argonauts" /><ref name="Index">{{cite web|url=https://history.denverlibrary.org/sites/history/files/Genealogical_Index_to_the_Records_of_the_Society_of_Colorado_Pioneers.pdf|title=Genealogical Index to the Records of the Society of Colorado Pioneers|publisher=Denver Public Library|page=271|access-date=July 8, 2018}}</ref> in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was married near Philadelphia to Elizabeth Allen of Trenton, New Jersey on June 3, 1836, and they moved to Indiana that year. They had eight children by 1860, and a total of ten children.<ref name="McGrath" /> His daughter, Indiana Sopris opened a school in May 1860. She was the first white woman to teach school in the city {{which?|date=October 2018}} and she is credited as the first woman teacher in Colorado.<ref>Thomas F. Dawson, “Colorado's First Woman School Teacher” ''The Colorado Magazine'' 6(July 1929): 130-31.</ref><ref>[http://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/files/Researchers/Mss.02269.pdf Biographical Note] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722050021/http://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/files/Researchers/Mss.02269.pdf |date=July 22, 2016 }}, Lydia Maria Ring Collection, History Colorado.</ref>

==Career== He began working as a house carpenter.<ref name="McGrath" /> Sopris was also a canal builder and steamboat captain.<ref name="Bjorklund" />

In 1858, he traveled by stage to Omaha, Nebraska and then traveled across the plains in a one-horse wagon with George H. Bryant arriving in February or March 1859 in Arapahoe County of Kansas Territory, which would become the Colorado Territory.<ref name="McGrath" /><ref name="Argonauts">{{cite web|url=https://history.denverlibrary.org/sites/history/files/FiftyninersCoArgonauts.pdf|title=Fifty-niners Colorado Argonauts|publisher=Denver Library|pages=54, 235, 275, 286, 329–330|access-date=July 8, 2018}}</ref> He was one of the original shareholders of the town of Auraria and prospected for gold in the winter and spring.<ref name="McGrath" /> Sopris was one of the trustees for a Presbyterian church established at Pollock House. Services began June 15, 1859.<ref name="Argonauts" />

He began mining at the Gregory and Bates lode in April 1859.<ref name="McGrath" /> He was President of the Gregory Association of Miners and a member of the Mammoth Quartz Lead Mining Company. He built the first house there considered to be worthy of a family at Mountain City, later called Central City. It was located on High Street. Mountain City Lodge A.F. & A.M was established in 1859, and Sopris was Worshipful Master.<ref name="Argonauts" /> He also lived in Auraria and was Worshipful Master of the Auraria Lodge.<ref name="Argonauts" />

In 1860, he traveled back to Michigan City, Indiana and returned to Colorado with his family via train to Atchison, Kansas and then by covered wagon. They lived on the 1300 block of Stout Street.<ref name="McGrath" /><ref name="Argonauts" /><ref name="Bjorklund">Linda Bjorklund, ''Richard Sopris in Early Denver: Captain, Mayor & Colorado Fifty-Niner'' (Arcadia Publishing 2016). {{ISBN|9781439656938}}</ref> He helped organize the 1st Regiment of Colorado Volunteers. He fought Native Americans at Glorieta Pass in north-central New Mexico and Confederate forces in New Mexico and Arizona. He attained the rank of captain of Company C of the regiment.<ref name="McGrath" />

He represented Colorado in the Kansas territorial legislature and helped draft mining laws. He was elected mayor of Denver.<ref name="McGrath" /><ref name="Argonauts" /> Richard Sopris died on April 7, 1893, and was buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Denver. His wife died on December 18, 1911.<ref name="Index" /> He is the namesake of Mount Sopris, having surveyed the area in 1860.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dziezynski|first=James|title=Best Summit Hikes in Colorado: An Opinionated Guide to 50+ Ascents of Classic and Little-Known Peaks from 8,144 to 14,433 Feet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KT0Uf6MLtisC&pg=PA231|date=1 August 2012|publisher=Wilderness Press|isbn=978-0-89997-713-3|page=231}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sopris, Richard}} Category:Mayors of Denver Category:1813 births Category:1893 deaths Category:19th-century mayors of places in Colorado Category:People from Colorado Territory Category:Burials at Riverside Cemetery (Denver, Colorado)