George and Betsy Phelps settled in Colorado at the turn of the century with eight of their ten children, who eventually scattered across the state. Henry, a storyteller and poet, freighted from Denver to Leadville with his team of oxen and later ran sawmills in Florissant and Meeker; Andrew, a self-described capitalist who suffered from tuberculosis, owned one of the first billiard halls in Colorado Springs, where he rubbed shoulders with some of the millionaires who made their money from Cripple Creek gold; Dan, a miner in Victor who had a beautiful voice and loved to sing, ran away to Mexico after leaving his wife, married a beautiful se–orita and lost touch with his family; Jim, tough-as-nails who did whatever it took to make a living, claimed 160 acres on Sixmile Creek alongside his father and kept both homesteads in the family through the Great Depression and the difficult years that followed.
George and BetsyÕs four daughters were dearly devoted sisters: Nettie, whose husband was a gold miner, led Bible classes at the Christian Church in Cripple Creek and served as president of its Ladies Aid Society; Mary Lucretia and Nellie raised their babies together in nearby Florissant, a thriving lumber center that was the ÒGateway to Cripple Creek;Ó Addie, the youngest, married a cattleman whose ranch near the town of Buffalo Creek became the center of family gatherings.
The Phelps men and women werenÕt famous and you wonÕt read about them in history books, but each one left stories behind that are worth telling. How they got to Colorado is where those stories begin.