Logan County, Colorado

Robert E. and Adell Strahorn, Denver



ROBERT'S FAMILY

In 1850 Centre County, Pennsylvania, Thomas Strahorn 26 is a millwright, Rebecca Strahorn 24, and John Strahorn 1 .

Robert was born in 1852.

Rebecca Emmert Strayhorn BIRTH 1826 Centre County, Pennsylvania, DEATH 1863 Centre County, Pennsylvania, BURIAL Boalsburg Cemetery Boalsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, PLOT Section 1 row 17 plot 4 MEMORIAL ID 86813579 .

Thomas Foster Strahorn BIRTH 1824 Union County, Pennsylvania, DEATH 18 May 1886 Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, BURIAL Angelus Rosedale Cemetery Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, PLOT Section O, Lot 74, Grave 1SW MEMORIAL ID 105495304.
"Thomas, his second wife Rebecca Jane, and their son Frank Kellog Strahorn are all buried in the same plot in Rosedale Cemetery, just west of downtown Los Angeles. I suspect the headstone was installed by his son Robert Edmund Strahorn after he became wealthy, since Thomas was a man of modest means. A much more smaller stone can be seen in front of the larger one, which reads, "T.F.S. Husband." No headstone is in evidence for Rebecca Jane Kellogg, but she was not Robert's mother.

Rebecca Jane 'Jennie' Kellogg Strahorn BIRTH 17 Mar 1842 DEATH Feb 1913 Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, BURIAL Angelus Rosedale Cemetery Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, PLOT Section O, Lot 74, Grave 2SW MEMORIAL ID 106055180.


John Calvin Strahorn BIRTH 14 Mar 1849 Centre County, Pennsylvania, DEATH 27 Nov 1933 Highland Park, Los Angeles County, California, BURIAL Forest Lawn Memorial Park Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, PLOT Great Mausoleum, Sanct. of Faith #3407 MEMORIAL ID 105168371.
"John Calvin Strahorn. beloved husband of Sarah E. Strahorn, father of A. T. Strahorn of Washington, D. C. and Mrs. G. A. Zentmyer of Los Angeles: grandfather of John Miles Zentmyer and George A. Zentmyer, brother of Robert E. Strahorn of San Francisco and Mrs. W. W. Scott of Los Angeles. Memorial services at Cresse's, Highland Park, today at 3 P.m."

ROBERT'S EARLY CAREER

In 1870 Sedalia, Missouri, Addie M. Easty is 35, Estelle Easty 8, Kate Smith 16, Mary A. Moses 59, and Robt. Strayhorn 19 a printer, born in Pennsylvania, William A. Farley 26, and Charles Gatewood .

"More widely known than any other, Cody's reputation was based not so much as a scout, as that of his experience as a Pony-Express Rider, and his famed Wild West Show. Aside from Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, perhaps no American name was more familiar to people throughout the world than was his.
Cody has been so much written about that little can be said of him that is new, for the story of his life is familiar to almost every one in the land. Not so many, however, were intimate with him, or could sit down with him to dinner, or to visit with him and talk with him over old west times. That was a privilege of the writer on many occasions.
And he was a delightful conversationalist and a perfect gentleman at all times and he had a high sense of humor as was illustrated once at the writer's home when Iron Tail was with him. He introduced the Chief to enact in pantomime, his winning of a game of poker he once played with army officers in a frontier camp in the old days. A card table was set before him and having adjusted himself at one side, he picked up, shuffled and dealt imaginary hands to three others and himself. He gathered up his cards and looking them over, placed his ante in the center of the table, waiting for the other players to place their coin in the pot - discarded, and began dealing again, - one card, two cards and three to others, and one to himself. Promptly, he shoved his bet into the "kitty" - and waited, his face expressionless as marble statuary. After time for others to stack their bets, he repeated the gesture once more, waited a moment for them to place their bets, then he swung his arm in circular motion, and swept the entire pile of imaginary gold into his blanket and rose from the table and strutted away. It was a superb piece of burlesque drama and excruciatingly funny. No one but an Indian could do it.
Like the other two war scouts, Captain Jack and Bob Strahorn, Cody would not discuss the Slim Butte affair - but did reveal in detail, his notorious pony express ride, to fill the section left riderless when killed by Indians. And he described his fight with Tall Bull, and his duel with Yellow Hand, - both of whom he killed at short range.

"On his summer campaign in 1876, the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, the general arranged to bring a full complement of the writing fraternity: Robert Strahorn of the Chicago Tribune, who had charged on the Cheyenne village on the Powder River in March; T. C. McMillan of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, despite a persistent cough that suggested tuberculosis; Joseph Wasson, part owner of the Owyhee Avalanchein Idaho, who had accompanied Crook on previous Indian-fighting campaigns; John F. Finerty of the Chicago Times, game for any adventure; and Reuben Davenport of the New York Herald, youngest of the reporters at twenty-four."

ROBERT AND ADELL

September 13, 1877 Denver "And, by the way, it takes a brave man to rush into matrimony while provisions are high, wages low, and money scarce, but Robert E. Strahorn, whilom of The News, later a war correspondent with Crook, and now the historian of Wyoming, informs this paper through an elegantly engraved invitation, that he is to wed on Wednesday evening, September 19th at Marengo, Illinois, Miss C. Adell Green, daughter of Dr. J. W. Green, of that city. Well, all The News has to say is that ' Bob' is worthy of a good wife and galore of happiness, all of which his many friends here will join with The News in wishing him."

September 30, 1877 "In announcing the arrival of Mr. R. E. Strahorn and bride at Omaha, the Omaha Herald says:
"Mrs. Strahorn is the accomplished daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J.W. Green, who have resided in Marengo for the past thirty years, and enjoy the respect and esteem of the entire community. The wedding was gotten up on a scale of magnificence rarely witnessed in that quarter of the globe, and was attended by over one hundred and fifty of the most distinguished personages of the county. The presents were numerous, costly and elegant."

" In 1877, when Cheyenne was ten years old, the city was visited by Mrs. Carrie A. Strahorn, whose husband, Robert E. Strahorn, was for several years in charge of the advertising and publicity department of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Some years later Mrs. Strahorn published a book entitled "Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage," in which she deseribes the scenery and resources of Wyoming. Concerning Cheyenne at that time she says:
"Of all the forlorn, homesick looking towns, Cheyenne never had an equal. * * * Without a spear of grass, without a tree within scope of the eye, without water except as it was pumped up for domestic use, with a soil sandy, hard and barrren—that was the raw Cheyenne in the '70s.'"
With the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in the early '70s, Cheyenne came into prominence as an outfitting point for prospectors and others going to the new mines. A line of stage coaches and freighters was opened to the mining districts, and Mrs. Strahorn tells of the dialogue between an outgoing and a returning freighter, in which the former, when asked of what his cargo consisted, answered: "Twenty barrels of whisky and a sack of flour." Whereupon the other laconically inquired: "What in hell are you going to do with so much flour ?"
The story is an exaggeration, but there is no question that whisky was then an important article of commerce, not only in Cheyenne, but also in the other towns and cities of the West. Mrs. Strahorn also mentions the great hail storm in the spring of 1878, the worst in the city's history. On this subject she says:
"In our home a hail stone went through a window, then through a cane seated chair, hitting the floor with force enough to bound back and make a second hole through the cane seat. Many of the stones measured seven inches in circumference and our enterprising landlady gathered enough hail stones to freeze several gallons of ice cream and gave what she called a 'hail stone party.' ""

November 1877 Denver

April 1881 Denver "Mr. Robert E. Strahorn, the chief of the literary bureau of the Union Pacific railroad, has lately returned here from a tour of observation, which was in many respects a remarkable journey. Accompanied by his wife, who is an intelligent and zealous companion in all his literary work, Mr. Strahorn left Omaha on the 20th of last December, and in the four months following traveled 1,000 miles by steamer, 3,000 by stage, several hundred on horseback, and over 20,000 by rail - they traveled over 500 through Yellow Stone park - explored the Salmon river and Wood river country - did Idaho thoroughly - traveled by stage from Boise City, Idaho, to Baker City, Oregon, and Walla Walla, Washington Territory, exploring thoroughly, on horseback, the country about these points - then sailed down the grand Columbian river to Portland - then south through the Willamette valley, and north again to the lumber regions of Puget sound and the salmon fisheries about Astoria — and then, on their wonderful journey they went, sometimes in the luxurious Pullman, more often in the uneasy stagecoach, and sometimes on the back of the vile and treacherous broncho, through California to Los Angeles, where they picked ripe oranges and ate strawberries in December, across the deserts of Arizona, and then back through Nevada, Utah and Colorado. In their travels they descended into every prominent mine, and they estimate the number of mines which they visited at about 1,000. They also made trips into every prominent agricultural and stock-raising region. They crossed three of the mightiest rivers in America - the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Colorado - at points where they could step over them, and followed the Columbia for over 2,000 miles down to the sea. The account which a man could give who had made such a journey as this with his eyes half shut would be interesting. Mr. Strahorn is a trained observer, whose travels are industrious searches after facts, and, guided by the experience of a young man's lifetime of such service, he allows no fact worth a note to escape him. He is intelligent, industrious and discriminating, and when he shall put into print the essence of the trunkful of notes he brought back here, it will be a contribution of almost incalculable value to the world's knowledge of this vast western domain, in which are thousands of mountains never yet sealed, innumerable rich valleys where man has never trod, and millions of treasure in gold and silver yet to be discovered.
I sat down the other day, with notebook in hand, to record some of Mr. Strahorn’s observations on the most prominent features of development in the differeut parts and the various climes of this vast region which he explored. No one who has not traveled far west of the Missouri can form an ac;urate idea, nor hardly a just conception, of the gigantic nature of the development and improvement which is now steadily progressing in the regions of the great and far west. One finds snatches of statement and items in the press which afford occasional glimpses of growth, but it seemed to me that some facts condensed, and at the same time such as might be grouped into a comprehensive view of recent development, from one who was fresh from a view’ of them, would be interesting and valuable. After one hour’s chat and note-taking, I concluded to confine the attempt to some notes principally on the latest railroad extensions in the far west. In what I shall now put in condensed statement on this point, I will not, of course, attempt to reproduce Mr. Strahorn’s interview, but, putting in my own words sometimes, will preface it all with the statement that for every line of information it contains, the readers of the Inter-Ocean will be indebted to that gentleman.
In railway extension, the Julesburg cutoff, on the route by the Union Pacific to Denver, will have an important bearing on travel between Colorado and the east. The new line, already building and to be finished by midsummer, will leave the Union Pacific at Julesburg, 377 miles west ef Omaha, and running southwest along the valley of the Platte to Evans, will make a saving in distance between Omaha and Denver of sixty-one miles as compared with the old route by Cheyenne, and will be seventyfour miles shorter than the route from the east via Kansas City. It will be a most important improvement as a route for the moving ef the vast freight business between Denver and the east, as it will, running along the Platte valley, avoid the heavy grades between Julesburg and Cheyenne and between Cheyenne and Greeley. When this line is completed, a fast Denver express will leave Omaha every night on arrival of trains from Chicago, and the favored passenger bound for Denver, without any delay at the transfer here, can in July next shorten the trip between Chicago and Denver from twelve to sixteen hours from the time now required. This will make the fourth line the Union Pacific company now runs into Denver, and ten years ago the running of one line into that place was considered among the most adventuresome railway projectors a perilous investment.
Ten railroads, in addition to six that already enter Denver, are now under construction or contract. Among these later roads, one reaches out for New Orleans, one into New Mexico and through to that new and near scene oi wonderful development, Mexico, another into Utah and Arizona, and another into the rich agricultural regions of the Republican valley in Southern Nebraska. The measure of this railroad extension and development in- Colorado is simply prodigious. Ten years ago the pioneer railroad hesitated long before it crossed the desert to. enter Colorado, and now corporations raise armies to fight for a pass through which they may build a road, which must tunnel under snow-covered mountains and blast its way to the clouds, and for the building of which the track must almost be covered with gold. On the Denver and Rio Grande road, which is a rival of the Union Pacific, one of the most notable examples of rapid railway construction ever seen may now be witnessed. Over 7,000 men are employed, while along by the side of it the Union Pacific, fighting for a route to the famous Gunnison country is building for its way a tunnel 2,000 feet through solid rock. In passing, Mr. Strahorn made a note of many of the wonderful results of| this railroad building. It amounts in many instances to the instantaneous creation of wealth, but, in bulk, this is part of what it has accomplished: Denver's population ten years ago, 5,000 ; now 45,000. Colorado territory without an ambition of statehood in 1870, had an assessed valuation of $12,000,000 and a bullion yield of $3,675,000; now a state which is the pride of the nation’s one hundred years of life, with a population of 200,000, an assessed valuation of $74,000,000, and a bullion yield which in 1880 was $22,500,000. and by conservative estimate this year will be not less than $40,000,000. In the stock interest, from nothing ten years ago, it now supports herds of cattle from which 100,000 head are each year shipped east, and from a few scattering flocks of sheep in 1870 the wool-growing interest is now described by the statistics which show 1,500,000 head of sheep in the state."

May 1881 Denver "Mr. Robert E. Strahorn, chief of the literary bureau of the Union Pacific railway, a department whiah he himself has made, arrived from Omaha last night, with his family, and will remain here in future, the company having removed the department to this point permanently. It is questionable whether there is another man who eould step into Mr. Strahorn' shoes and fill his position as he does, for he has built it up from the very roots. Mr. and Mrs. Strahorn are quartered at the American for the present, and in a few days an office will be fitted up where the business of the department will be conducted. This change on the part of the Union Pacific company will bring gladness to many hearts in Denver. for Mr. Strahorn's kindly manners and true manhood have won for him a place from which nothing can remove him."

The “Resources of Idaho,” a work of 100 pages, which the Idaho legislature employed Robert E. Strahorn to write, will have a gratuitous circulation of 40,000 copies. "

November 1881 Denver "Mr. 8. F. Donnelly, managing editor of the Omaha Daily Telegram and Mr. Fred. Nye, associate editor of the Omaha Republican, with Mrs. Kimball, also of Omaha and Mrs. Robert E. Strahorn, arrived over the Omaha and Denver Short Line last night. They were met at Sterling by Mr. Strahorn and with him last night occupied a box at the Tabor Grand. Our Omaha friends express themselves as highly pleased with the new railroad, and they are thoroughly captivated by Denver's opera house. Messrs. Donnelly and Nye are at the Windsor and Mrs. Kimball is the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Strahorn."

Febuary 1882 Denver " Mr. Robert E. Strahorn went to Sterling yesterday to meet his wife, who returned from the’ East last evening."

March 1882

March 1882 " John C. Strahorn, a brother of Robert E. Strahorn, who has for a year or more been running an engine between North Plane and Sidney, has recently been placed in charge of the Union Pacific round-house and shop at Sterling, on the Omaha Short Line."

August 1882 Denver " Mr. John Strahorn, of Sterling, recently visited his brother, Robert E. Strahorn, of this city."

"J. C. Strahorn, brother of the encyclopedia, Robert E., was among visitors."

April 1884 Idaho Springs, Colorado "Mrs. R. E. Strahorn, of Denver, and her sister, Mrs. M. B. Waters, of Chicago, have been visiting Idaho this week, having rooms at the Spa."

Carrie Adell 'Dell' Green Strahorn BIRTH 1 Jan 1854 Marengo, McHenry County, Illinois, DEATH 15 Mar 1925 San Francisco, San Francisco County, California, BURIAL Riverside Memorial Park Spokane, Spokane County, Washington, MEMORIAL ID 105497669.

Daughter of a prominent Illinois physician and surgeon, Carrie accompanied her husband Robert E. Strahorn during decades of exploration and railroad-building in the western states. She authored a book published in 1911 entitled "Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage" which was illustrated by the noted artist Charles Russell and is still in re-print. Her book was quoted extensively in the Ken Burns television series "The West." She is buried in a granite and marble mausoleum in Spokane alongside her husband.

Robert Edmund Strahorn BIRTH 15 May 1852 Centre County, Pennsylvania, DEATH 31 Mar 1944 San Francisco County, California, BURIAL Riverside Memorial Park Spokane, Spokane County, Washington, MEMORIAL ID 105496015.
"Robert was the brother of my great-grandfather, John Calvin Strahorn. He was born east of Bellefonte in Haines Twp. Centre Co., Pennsylvania. He wrote later how, as a boy, he was impressed by Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858. He was a newspaper correspondent for the Denver News and New York Times during the Sioux campaigns of 1876-77, and fought alongside General Crook in the Battle of Rosebud. He was the first head of the Publicity Department of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1877-83, and wrote extensively about the resources and attractions of the western states. He was instrumental in building the Oregon Short Line Railroad from Granger, Wyoming to Huntington, Oregon and in the process founded the towns of Caldwell, Weiser, Payette, Shoshone, and Hailey in Idaho, and Ontario in Oregon. He went broke in the panic of 1893, then spent six years trading municipal bonds in Boston. He went on to found the North Coast Railroad, the builder of Union Station in Spokane on Trent Ave. (which was demolished in 1974 for the World's Fair) and almost 750 miles of track in Washington State, under a secret financial arrangement with E.H. Harriman. This clandestine arrangement earned Robert the moniker "The Sphinx." The North Coast RR was consolidated into the Oregon Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. with Robert as Vice President and General Manager. In the 1930s Robert acquired most of a city block in San Francisco, but lost it all in the Great Depression. He was a founder and trustee of the College of Idaho, Caldwell. He died in 1944 in San Francisco (not Spokane as is reported elsewhere) and his remains were interred in a granite and marble mausoleum in Spokane next to his wives. Robert had no children. Upon his death in San Francisco in 1944 his effects, including the publishing rights to his autobiography, were given to his best friend Thurlow Bryant in Caldwell, Idaho.
Thurlow's wife Nellie gave them to me in 1995 because I was the only relative who had ever inquired about him. - Gary Zentmyer"



Back to Biographies

This page is maintained by M.D. Monk.