Platt Rogers (1850 – December 25, 1928) was an American politician who served as the mayor of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

from 1891 to 1893.

Life

He was born in 1850 in

Newton, New Jersey Newton, officially the ''Town of Newton'', is an incorporated municipality located in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is situated approximately by road northwest of New York City. As the location of the county's administrati ...

, shortly thereafter moving along with his family to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He later graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1873, before moving west with his family, while passing through

Greeley, Colorado Greeley is the home rule municipality city that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Weld County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,795 at the 2020 United States Census, an increase of 17.12% since the 2010 ...

he was so impressed with the town he decided he would remain in the state. He became a practicing attorney, specializing in Irrigation Law. In 1884 litigation arose regarding the

High Line Canal The High Line Canal (HLC) is a man-made waterway, used for irrigation and recreation, that serves the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area. It begins at a diversion dam on the South Platte River, some above the mouth of Waterton Canyon. From its headg ...

and he was called to Denver to represent the English group who constructed it. He served as a District Court Judge in Colorado's Second Judicial District (Denver) from 1882 to 1887. From 1891 to 1893 he served as Mayor of Denver, during this time he became known as the Iron Handed Mayor, due to his strict enforcement of the law. Unfortunately his time in office became tarred by the disastrous redevelopment of the disused City Cemetery (now

Cheesman Park Cheesman Park is an urban park and neighborhood located in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States. Geography Cheesman Park is located in central Denver, southeast of downtown. The Park has inexact borders, as it is framed on three ...

). Problems arose when an unscrupulous undertaker, contracted by the City of Denver to remove the long buried corpses and relocate them to another more suitable site, was discovered to be stuffing adult corpses into child sized coffins and other nefarious activities. Due to much media pressure Mayor Rogers then canceled the contract and instigated an investigation into the work. He continued to live in

until his death on 25 December 1928, when after years of ill health a severe cold developed into a fatal bout of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

References

Mayors of Denver 1860 births 1928 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Colorado {{Colorado-mayor-stub