The Cotten Family
Oliver M. Cotten was born in Indiana and received his education in Olivet College, after which he engaged in teaching. With the news of the discovery of gold in Colorado, he decided to try his fortune in the great mountain regions of the west. He drove across the plains in 1959 with a team of horses, following the Platte River and making his way to Gregory Gulch near Central City. He and his brothers owned an interest in the famous Bobtail mine, and later purchased another mining property at California Gulch near Leadville. In 1860 he returned east for his wife, and upon his return he homesteaded a ranch on the Fountain Creek and started a cattle herd. He continued his mining interests for several years, but repeated attacks of rheumatism forced him to discontinue mining and settle down to life of farming and ranching. He constructed a number of ditches to irrigate his land, one of the first in the region to do so. Politically he was a radical Republican who took an interest in public affairs, and he was well known among the pioneers of El Paso County. He was appointed the first postmaster of El Paso County, and continued to work in the office until his death. As a member of the school board he assisted in the organization of county school districts and in the construction of needed buildings, and he spent a number of years as county commissioner. Oliver Cotten died 1886 at the age of fifty-nine, and he is buried at Wilson Cemetery adjacent to the Hanna Ranch property.
Oliver's father, William Cotten Sr., was the son of a Revolutionary soldier from Virginia who established his home on a farm in Berrien County, Michigan. Oliver's brother, William Jr., was a member of the Third Colorado Cavalry during the Civil war. He took part in the battle of Sand Creek, also known as the Sand Creek Massacre.
Nancy Cotten
Oliver's wife, Nancy, was from Mocksville, N. C., and her father Joseph served as a captain in the Black Hawk war. She had seven brothers and sisters; Sarah, Elizabeth, Caroline, William, Isom, Calvin and J. Newton. Her son Edwin died at only four years old, her daughter moved to Denver, and her son Frank stayed in the Colorado Springs area and became a successful businessman. Nancy died on October 30, 1897.
Frank Cotten
Frank Cotten, one of Colorado Springs' most progressive businessmen, spent his entire life in El Paso County, and was born at his father's home in the Buttes area on June 5, 1863. From sixteen to nineteen years of age he was a student in Colorado College, after which he spent one summer in mining at Leadville and one year in cultivating the family farm. For three years he taught school in his home district, and then accepted a position as deputy county assessor, a capacity in which he served for eight years.
Like many other business men in Colorado at the turn of the century, Frank Cotten attempted to make his fortune in gold mining. He had an interest in the Theresa mine on Bull Hill, Cripple Creek, which was considered valuable property, and he also held some other claims other parts of the state. In addition to his mining interests Frank operated his own real estate business (Irvine, Cotten & Jones.) as well as a loan and insurance business. He was a member of the El Paso County Pioneers' Society, Lodge No. 38, I.O.O.F., and the Y.M.C.A. In the Second Presbyterian Church, of which he was also a member and president of the board of trustees. Politically he was a Republican.
Frank married Sarah McShane from Monument, Colorado, who was also a member of a pioneering family. They had two children, Chester and Frank, and the family lived at No. 9 Boulder Place, in Colorado Springs.
Sources: Portrait and Biographical record of the State of Colorado, 1899
Find a Grave volunteer Ron West
