William Newton Byers (February 22, 1831 in

Madison County, Ohio Madison County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 43,824. Its county seat is London. The county is named for James Madison, President of the United States and was es ...

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(1901-1902 edition), at

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

– March 25, 1903) was a founding figure of Omaha, Nebraska, serving as the first deputy surveyor of the

Nebraska Territory The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebraska ...

, on the first

Omaha City Council The City Council of Omaha, Nebraska, is elected every four years on a nonpartisan basis. The next election will occur in 2025. Omaha has a strong mayor form of government. Members are elected by district. Currently seven city council districts a ...

, and as a member of the first

Nebraska Territorial Legislature The Nebraska Territorial Legislature was held from January 16, 1855 until 1865 in Omaha City, Nebraska Territory. Major issues Slavery In 1854 the Kansas–Nebraska Act created the Nebraska Territory, overturning the Missouri Compromise b ...

. He was also an early settler of

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, Colorado, and the founder and

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of the ''

Rocky Mountain News The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As ...

'' in Denver. He was married to Elizabeth Byers who was a prominent woman in Denver for her philanthropic activities. They lived in the Byers–Evans House, now a museum that is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Early life

Byers was born in Madison County, Ohio, to Moses and Mary. In 1851, he moved with his parents to Iowa, and then to

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

as the city was being laid out in 1854.

Career

In Omaha, he became the first deputy

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

in the Nebraska Territory, in which capacity he created the first official

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

of Omaha. A partnership with

Andrew J. Poppleton Andrew Jackson Poppleton (July 24, 1830 – September 9, 1896) was a lawyer and politician in pioneer Omaha, Nebraska. Serving in a variety of roles over his lifetime, his name is present throughout many of the important events of early Omaha hi ...

led Byers to make the first map of the city of Omaha. Soon afterwards he became a member of the first city council, and a member of the first session of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature, convened January 16, 1855, in Omaha. In 1859 Byers moved to

to take advantage of recent gold strikes in the area. Taking the printing presses of the defunct ''Bellevue Gazette'' by ox

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, he and J. H. Kellom were the authors of a handbook to the gold fields, published that year. Robert W. Furnas, in 1859 associated with the ''Nebraska Advertiser'', later recalled that Byers had bought the equipment of the defunct and had it taken by ox team to Denver, then in western

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

, where he used it in the publication of the ''

''. ''The Rocky Mountain News'' was the first newspaper printed in Colorado; it continued publication until 2009. In 1863 Byers purchased Hot Sulphur Springs in northern Colorado from a Minnesota Sioux woman in a shady deal, causing the real owners, the

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tribe, to unsuccessfully sue. Byers' plans to turn it into "America's Switzerland" were foiled by the failure of the railroad to arrive until 1928.

Personal life

He was married to Elizabeth Byers who came to Denver during the

Pikes Peak Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 a ...

when it was a small settlement of tents. It was primarily inhabited by rough men who frequented the saloons. She had rough experiences during her 60 years in Denver. She lost both of her children with William. One of their houses was lost to fire, and another was flooded. She was active in establishment of charitable organizations in Denver. In 1860, she founded the Ladies United Aid Society. With

Frances Wisebart Jacobs Frances Wisebart Jacobs (March 29, 1843 – November 3, 1892) was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Jewish Bavarian immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She married Abraham Jacobs, the partner of her brother Jacob, and came west with him ...

and

Margaret Gray Evans Margaret Gray Evans (August 21, 1830 – September 7, 1906) was the wife of Territorial Governor John Evans and was a philanthropist. She arrived in Denver when it was a rough city, having grown up in a privileged home in Maine. Evans was First La ...

, it was reorganized in 1872 to the Ladies Relief Society. One year later, Elizabeth Byers and Margaret Gray Evans founded the Old Ladies Home. To care for homeless girls, Byers established the Home of Good Shepherds in 1885. Upon moving to Denver he built and lived in several mansions, including the one now known as the Byers-Evans House. The Byers-Evans House is now a museum, and is located next to the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between t ...

in downtown Denver. In 1891 Byers and his wife relocated to a mansion they built on a large tract of land at 171 S. Washington St. Byers was an avid horticulturalist and planted a wide variety of tree species on his property; he used the majority of the land plot for personal farming and gardening. After the Byers couple vacated their mansion and farm, the house was demolished and the property was dedicated to the

Denver Public Schools The Denver County School District No. 1, more commonly known as the Denver Public Schools (DPS), is the public school system in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States. History In 1859, Owen J. Goldrick established the Union Scho ...

in 1921. Some of the trees he planted may still be on the property today, around the periphery of William N. Byers Junior High School (now DSST: Byers). Byers had a mistress, Hattie Sancomb, who tried to kill him. It created a scandal, and ended his political career, but Elizabeth stood by her husband. As a former territorial surveyor, it is not surprising that Byers was an accomplished outdoorsman. While living in Denver, he spent considerable time in the mountains. In 1863, the artist

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

asked him to serve as a guide, and he led Bierstadt on an expedition from

Idaho Springs, Colorado The City of Idaho Springs is the Statutory City that is the most populous municipality in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Idaho Springs is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 ...

to the summit of the mountain Bierstadt named Mount Rosalie, later known as

Mount Evans Mount Evans is the highest peak in the Mount Evans Wilderness in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The prominent 14,271-foot (4,350 m) fourteener is located southwest by south ( bearing 214°) of Idaho Springs in Clear C ...

. Bierstadt's masterpiece Storm in the rocky mountains was based on that trip.William Newton Byers, Bierstadt's Visit to Colorado -- Sketching for the famous painting "Storm in the Rocky Mountains"
Magazine of Western History
Vol. XI, No. 3, Jan. 1890; page 237. William N. Byers died on March 25, 1903 and was buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

Legacy

A 1964 episode of the

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Death Valley Days ''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...

'' purported to be the story of the establishment of the ''Rocky Mountain News'', with Byers portrayed by actor

Jerome Courtland Jerome Courtland (December 27, 1926 – March 1, 2012) was an American actor, director and producer. He acted in films in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and in television in the 1950s and 1960s. Courtland also appeared on Broadway in the musical '' ...

References

External links

Byers biography
*
Town of Hot Sulphur Springs website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byers, William Newton 1831 births 1903 deaths Politicians from Denver History of Denver Burials at Fairmount Cemetery (Denver, Colorado) American newspaper founders Members of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature 19th-century American politicians Omaha City Council members Rocky Mountain News people 19th-century American businesspeople