For my scheduled first Sunday on the month post I'm writing about Lucy Maggard. To read about the additional 'First Ladies':
Elizabeth McAllister
Cara Bell
Grace Greenwood
Trying to find the true story of Lucy Maggard is one of digging through myth, lies and a whole lot of names changes. An attempt will be made to stick to as many facts as can be verified, but some stories are just too good not to share. Those I will ask you to make up your own mind.
Lucy was born Lucy Ann Davis in New York in 1814. In 1836 when she was twenty-one Lucy married David Maggard. Then in 1854 at the age of thirty-nine she married James S. Coberly. Prior to moving to Colorado Lucy lived in Iowa and Kansas. It was while she was living in Kansas she filed for a depredation claim. In the claim she says she's a widow and her husband, David Maggard died in 1848, and she was the head of the household. For those who would like to read the whole of the claim and its outcome follow this link: Lucy Maggard Kansas claim- Google Books
In May of 1861 Lucy had a judgment against her property in Denver City and it was sold at a Marshal's sale. Whether this had anything to do with her boarding house not selling alcohol even though there were thirty-one saloons close by. According to the Colorado Heritage magazine her boarding house, known as the Temperance House, was known for its buffalo tongue pot pie with bacon and cabbage.
That didn't stop Lucy. She moved to Colorado City in that same year of 1861, the year Colorado became a territory, and opened another boarding house called the "El Paso House" in 1862 as seen in this ad from the Rocky Mountain News, July 22, 1862.
While Lucy was one of the early pioneers to the region and one of the few widows, there were others who preceded her in the area, some arriving around 1858. However her daughter, Fidelia's marriage to William H. Garvin was one of the first recorded in the region.
By 1866 Lucy had moved to Montana and appears to have started using the name of her second husband, Coberly. There seems to be some question as to when she married him, but she used that name for the rest of her life. Except for a brief time in Nebraska in 1885, Lucy spent most of the rest of her life in Montana. She died there in 1892 at the age of seventy-seven.
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| Lucy's grave marker in Montana |
For those interested in what others have to say about this women, here are two more links:
Old Colorado City Article
Granite County History Blog
Until next time happy reading and writing. Get those fingers typing for PRP has some great anthologies coming up.
Doris Gardner-McCraw -
Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History
Colorado and Women's History
Member of National League of American Pen Women,
Women Writing the West,
Pikes Peak Posse of the Westerners
Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet
For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here
Photo and Poem: Click Here
Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here
