The Tragic Tale of Baby Doe Tabor: Colorado's Silver Queen
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- Baby Doe Tabor's story is a classic American tale of fortune and downfall. Born Elizabeth McCourt in 1854, she moved to Colorado, marrying wealthy silver magnate Horace Tabor in 1883 after his scandalous divorce. They lived extravagantly until the silver crash of 1893 devastated their wealth.
Her life, marked by dramatic highs and tragic lows, became legendary in Colorado history, symbolizing the volatile nature of fortune during the American silver boom.
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I live in Colorado and my college professor was related to her. She would throw rocks at people if they came to close. She really had a sad life at the end. Thanks so much Paul
I'm surprised your professor kept their job with a habit like that
Which professor? I got my BA and MA in history at two colleges in Colorado. Is it one of the Colorado history professors; like Dr Leonard?
@@bunnygirl2448 He taught at Pikes Peak Community College in Colo Springs. It was so long ago that I don't remember his name
@@mairinderk4656😂
@@deniseleplatt1616if you remember the year and time of year you took the class (like spring semester/fall/etc) you could totally find out, if your curious to remember your professors’ name.
My family had a cabin in the Colorado Rockies and I grew up hearing about H.A.W. Tabor and Baby Doe. I am now 76. I learned from their story that good times don't last forever and neither do bad times. I remember hearing that her brother wouldn't speak to her because she had broken up Tabor's first marriage (like Tabor had nothing to do with it) but he was happy to go to their parties and benefit from being HAW Tabor's brother-in-law. I was about ten at the time and was outraged at this. People like that still infuriate me.
I learned a great deal hearing their story.🇺🇸
They always blame the new wife, as if the man can't make his own choices. Clearly he was unhappy in his previous marriage, for whatever reasons he had. No one likes to get divorced, but staying together when one party is unhappy doesn't make a marriage. We've seen how that had ended with many a man poisoned with arsenic, on this channel 😅
😂@@mimsydreams
It seems like women so often get the blame. Even when it’s not our fault or it’s equally our fault.
@mimsydeeams 😂😂
That's not really fair though, because his wife had already left before she came into the picture. He broke up his own marriage.
I grew up in Leadville. One of my first summer jobs (early 90s) was a tour guide at the Matchless Mine. I did the mine shaft and blacksmith shop tours. My mom would drop me off in the mornings. At the end of the day I'd bomb back down East 7th Street on my skateboard back to town/home. I remember, during my lunch breaks, id hike into the woods and sit on a hillside over looking the entire mine. On that same hillside i stumbled upon a Red Fox den with a mom dad and three baby foxes. I would sit and observe the foxes and watch the babies play. Those foxes got pretty comfortable with me by the end of that summer. Just a cool random memory i thought id share ✌️
Lovely memory, foxes are cool little guys, I look after a couple of young ones who were badly stricken by mange, but I got the meds for them and now everyone is amazed when they follow me around the garden and up the street. They remember a good turn.
Great memory story…brought me with you 😊. Thanks
Thank you for sharing xx
Very cool, thanks for sharing that memeory with us 😊
Why don't more people share random good memories?
I grew up in Colorado and know Baby Doe's story well. But I love hearing you tell it! If I remember correctly, Molly Brown, the Titanic suvivor, was one of the few Denver socialites to receive Baby Doe socially.
Molly Brown was also snubbed by the high society as a nouveau riche...
Mommy brown also lived in our near here in Leadville as well if I’m not mistaken. Before her and jj struck it rich
Poor Baby Doe - she didn't deserve what she experienced in her later life at all. What an admirable woman, to work hard, to persevere, to be so independent, despite all the adversity she faced, and to do so with grace. What a fascinating and enigmatic woman.
I'm a Colorado native and have performed in the orchestra in productions, including the premiere, of The Ballad of Baby Doe by Carlisle Floyd at the Central City Opera Festival.
Thank you for this thorough and sympathetic account of Baby Doe's life.
I was there! You haven't heard Baby Doe until you see it at Central City Opera.
Not Carlisle Floyd. Douglas Moore. And a very fine work.
I just adore your story telling, Mr. Brodie. This story is so sad yet so intriguing. Baby Doe obviously loved Tabor so much that she honour his dying wish for the rest of her life. And she proved she was not a gold digger for she stayed at his side even when they lost everything. Such a sad end for Baby Doe.
I think the saddest part of this story is that people couldn't seem to find any kindness in their hearts and simply neglected her, including her own daughter. Of course if she was throwing rocks at people...still she might have stopped if someone had persisted in some small way. Maybe calling out a greeting from a safe distance. Very sad.
If she worked in a haberdashery she probably became a Mad Hatter
@@WVgrl59 😁
I think it's fair to say that a woman who will get into the damn mine and actually dig has definitely earned her share. When good times rolled, she joyfully rolled with them. But when the bad times rolled in, she rolled up her sleeves and got stuck in. She didn't stay in a bad marriage, but when the man she loved hit hard times she stuck to him. I do feel for the children. The older girl having been grown in wealth and ease couldn't deal with such poverty as her Mother was used to from her childhood. The younger stuck to Mum and did her best. But such upset in young lives was bound to have an impact.
Sad and ignoble end for such a bold, brave and determined woman. If natural justice existed she'd have ended in a comfortable place where she could sit and tell her tales of travels, mining, of the great gifts life can hand you and how it can all vanish like fairy gold.
Sad story sensitively told as always. Nice to wake up to this bright sunny morning. Have a good day everyone!
Silver Dollar, what a name.
So is Baby Doe. I was like wtf.
@@Presca1Baby Doe was just a nickname
@@barbie3423 She was quite beautiful like her mom. Poor girl.
@@katkat1080and Silver Dollar’s baptism name appears to be Rosemary.
We visited the one room shack she lived and died in. When we were there, the Matchless hoist to the mine was still there, but the hole was closed off. Thank you for sharing.
I cannot imagine facing those Leadville winters that she survived alone. That city is 2 miles high in elevation and gets FEET of snow when weather hits.
I grew up hearing Baby Doe's story from my grandma, who was a tour guide for the state with great interest in history. Thanks for covering this one, Paul. Cheers from Colorado!
Wow. What a great presentation on a woman I have never heard of. She had a remarkable life, and is indeed someone to be remembered.
You make a wonderful travel guide, sir. Even if the tales are grim, you make the trip bearable.
Thank you, Brian ☺
@@WellINever I love listening to you. it may be grim tales, but you handle them with gravitas.
A tale of such loneliness, as it turned out, and sad-- so sad!
Thank you for bringing it to us.
It's a GREAT day when we get a story from Paul. ❤
So very true.
Absolutely
I am glad she is known now and remembered despite the very sad end of her life. Lovely work as always Paul ❤
The story of her kids is tragic too. They had such an advantageous start in life, yet Silver Dollar died mysteriously. He other daughter refused to be associated with the Tabor name.
The Tabor name is all over Colorado.
Thanks for covering this story. There are more such as the Griffiths sisters of Enily Griffith fame, also Anton Woode.
I respect her immensely, she didn’t do anything wrong and stayed true to herself, not accepting charity, stood her ground and by her man, lived how she wanted, I feel so sorry for her. She was an incredible woman 👍✌️🙏❤️
Thankyou Paul. What a remarkable women. Societies envy and jealousy is an acrid destructive thing. I often find it interesting, that 'good' Christian people easily assume the role of Jesus.......! Being the judge of others, without considering their own short comings. Forgiveness is a liberating ideal. Until you have to forgive someone. 🤨😳❤
She didn't do Anything wrong, you say. She broke up a marriage not giving a damn about the real wife. I would say that was wrong. What age was, was unwise.
@@HarryMarsee-fw9ot Why is it the womans fault? He was known for cheating well before he met Baby Doe. The marriage wasn't working, and he had tried to get a divorce.
@@kevinmott6205Yes exactly, “take the plank out of your own eye before you take the splinter out of someone else’s “
And how could she break up a marriage that was broken, I find it amazing the way Christian’s blame the woman as if the man had no part…. I thought people were getting wiser to that
@@HarryMarsee-fw9ot So you're ignoring the whole part where Horace was known to be spending time and money on other women while married long before Baby Doe?
Sad yet brilliantly narrated story. Thank you kindly ❤
Thank you, Paul, for another interesting and poignant story. We should all live by the motto of 'do unto others'. How sad that Baby Doe was judged so harshly and treated so cruely. She did, at least, have the undying love of a good man. Thank you, again, I look forward to next week!
The opera about her life called “The Ballad of Baby Doe” was written by American composer Douglas Moore and includes The Willow Song aria.
You can find recordings of it online.
Thank you Paul for another sensitive video. Your work and voice and superb. ❤️
I played the role of Augusta Tabor in a performance of The Ballad of Baby Doe for an opera scenes course in college and found this story while doing character research. It’s such an unfortunate story, but also undeniably interesting in historical context. Plus some of those names were wild. Solid vid 💚
As a 40+ year resident of Denver I'm always delighted to see a slice of our history shared with the world. Thank you for doing a proper job (as always) with Baby Doe's story!
I'm an Australian fan and I'd never heard of Baby Doe. I thank you for telling her story Paul
Thank you Mr brodie for a fantastic video it's amazing how much time as changed you Mr brodie are a star I love your stories xx
Thank you for this story. I live not far from Leadville and she is definitely a known figure in local.history. A happy and sad story. I visited the Matchless a few years ago. It's a lonely place. I hope she had moments of love and happiness. ❤
The Hollywood film you mentioned is “Silver Dollar” (1932), starring Edward G. Robinson, Bebe Daniels and Aline McMahon. The names are changed and the story fictionalized, but it’s a good movie.
Let me guess they made it look like it ended a lot better?
@@Ashley.Michell22 No, Horace and Baby still ended up poor. The movie ends with his death.
What a sad story! Thank you
I'm here for any story you've got to tell. It was a breath of fresh air. ❤
She was a better man than I Gunga Din! Wheee this is a new one for me. Even though I completely get into each of your presentations I actually felt this one. It has quite taken a piece of my heart.
Same here. I kept hoping to hear, even to the very end, that her devotion to her dead husband paid off and the mine proved to be valuable.
Wow, this woman was a warrior. Thank you for the upload.
I grew up in Colorado and we’d study her in primary and elementary schools. Always loved her gumption, she and Molly brown are the 2 Colorado heroines every school child learned about there
She was from Wisconsin, not Colorado.
She was a woman ahead of her time ❤
Indeed. Most women seem mad these days.
@@resnonverba137 4chan is thataway, incels ---->
Thank you for making this video. I love history and don't recall ever hearing her story. Very sad but from what I gathered she lived her life the way she wanted which I respect her for.
Fascinating story, thank you. Poor Baby Doe. As I live in Scotland I've never heard of her before but I really liked her. A strong woman too modern for the era in which she lived. Today she would have thrived xx
I love it when you cover Colorado cases! 🖤 Fun fact: Leadville is the highest city in the US with an elevation of 10,158 ft
There's sooo many! The origins of Norman Bates hotel came from Colorado.
@@robbobsjobs8456 is it the Stanley? I haven't heard that before
Fascinating as always, thank you again and regards.
I ate at Baby Doe's restaurant on my 18th birthday. It had always been the one thing I wanted to do! It was ok, a little overpriced for the quality. But I'll never forget that night! In my head, it was only yesterday. In reality, it was nearly 28 years ago. 😳
I’ve dined at the Baby Doe’s location in Dallas (perhaps three decades ago now) which I believe is the only one still in operation. Fine dining, rather pricey but delicious.
Augusta Tabor was a brave and strong woman, one of the first to live in the mining camps. She was a true partner to Horace until he fell in love with the high life and then with Baby Doe. This version of events (faulting Augusta's "sharp comments and shrewish nature") is a harsh treatment of an iconic and admirable woman. She lived wisely and passed a fortune to her son with Horace...whom he also 21:50 walked out on. He even did his best to cheat Augusta out of her part of their money (so he could buy a 70,000K wedding dress and diamond diaper pins?!)
If you think Jeff Bezos was courageous to leave MacKenzie Scott and his kids for Lauren Sanchez, well then, Horace Tabor is your man. Their stories are strikingly similar.
@wendyandmarkpowell884 That's very interesting! I'm not sure if you meant to put this reply under *my* comment, but it's alright! It's always great to hear more information on any given topic, but for me, especially when it comes to history, and even more so when it comes to anything in Denver! I wish I could remember everything from the guided tour we did at the Molly Brown house in downtown Denver, but I think I remember learning about Doe and Tabor history. I do remember the bit about the Post Master General, and about the fact that most of the "high society" folks weren't fond of Miss Doe. Next time I go back home (Denver will always be home, regardless of how long I've not lived there 😊💙🧡), I'm going to convince my little sis to go back again. 😁
This is the craziest life story I’ve ever heard!
There were many wild lives in the Gold Rush.
Oh wow, what a story! I've been living in Colorado for almost 20 years and never heard of her. This story made me feel so emotional.. Thank you for sharing it!
Thank you for this Amazing Story, Paul. Incredible woman she was. Very sad but She finally got her recognition only much too late. RIP Baby Doe
Thank you for this story about Baby Doe. I too grew up in Colorado and as a young girl became enthralled with Baby Doe’s beauty and her story. I decided to research her life reading newspapers, books and personal accounts of people who knew her,and Horace and Augusta. What I have learned is that most accounts of Baby’s life events were made for the purpose of sensationalizing and cashing in on her story, and were largely judgmental and untruthful.
There is so much more to her life, that I wish could be told. She has both inspired and taught me, as a woman of great Faith (Catholic) and perseverance in all the forms of adversity she encountered. She never became bitter and unkind. Though many were unkind to her.
Horace was very generous to Denver when he had money.
There is much in their story we can all learn from if the truth is told.
😢😢
Wonder what Lily's problem was? She loved money more than her mother? How sad. Great story, Paul.
Me too. Maybe it's just the shame she felt for leaving her mom alone. But her mom made a choice to live there in that shed, and she had a right to leave and try to find a better life for herself, instead of chasing her dad's failed dreams.
@@mimsydreams that's what I think. I don't think it was favor of money over her mom. Her mom seemed hell bent on living in squalor.
Lily had a right to live happier than that. And who knows if she tried to help her mom but mom refused. It's definitely not cut and dry.
Sometimes you have to live for yourself. It seems like a harsh thing, assuming Lily and Doe had a good relationship to begin with.
I just can't say she loved money. I think she wanted to live life. And from the sounds of it, Silver Dollar was Doe's favored child anyway.
It's a lot to the story that I'm even speculating on. Nothing presented can make me say, "yeah, that was the issue."
I love Leadville but it takes a lot to live there fulltime. I’ve been snowed on in July. It gets really cold in the winter and summer season is short. It is just now getting more accessible but it still can get isolated during the winter. The isolation in the late 1800s and 1900s would most likely mess with you, too. After silver collaspsed, it was a small town with only a coal mine to keep it going. Now, thanks to mtn biking, 14ers, and ultra running people have rediscovered its amazing beauty. Here in the Colorado low country ( just at 6,000 feet) our museum has a bedroom set bought from the Tabors’ Denver house by a local dr who later donated his house for the historical society-Glenwood Springs.
All this is to say that listening to tales of people who said they knew her or knew someone who did, BabyDoe seemed to get along with men rather than women, embraced the isolated life, thought that living in a cold shack in a harsh environment was penance for past sins and should be considered good for their souls, and was probably a bit “get off my lawn” crazy to the other locals might have contributed to Lily turning her back on her mom. No excuses for not writing her and supporting her but I can see a reason for Lily needing to distance herself from the circumstance. It has always been a sad story to hear.
Molly Brown, who knew society rejection, sided with Augusta, I think.
@@mimsydreams She definitely had her Mother's courage to fight for herself didn't she? Fair play to her, she was right. No need for her to pay her Mother's 'penance''. Poor kid was born and spent many of her formative years soaked in wealth, I doubt she took to poverty well. And as someone else has replied, she wanted A Life and to have that she had to get away from her Mum. Silver Dollar did indeed seem to be the favourite, believed in long after she died. Whole story is sad isn't it?
Imagine a Catholic lady feeling so guilty about former wealth, when the pope in Rome lives in such obscene opulence.
Baby Doe sounds like a great lady. A never explain, never complain lady.
What a very intriguing and yet sad story about, Baby Doe Tabor. She was a woman who was a head of her time, who lived life by her own rules and made even the worst of times her best, as only she could. Thank you for sharing this story about a woman I had never heard of before, I found it very interesting and informative, as well. Great investigation and presentation, too. Take care 🦋
What a sad story, but fascinating. Thanks for telling it.
I was born in Texas but I spent my childhood growing up in the Rocky Mountains (best childhood, EVER!). I wrote my first school essay assignment on Baby Doe Tabor in the early 1960's. Her story has always mesmorized me and I have never forgotten the details of her life that I had found. Her story is part of my most formative years and I so much treasure reminders of her remarkable life. And thank you for the additional information about Tabor's first marriage which I wasn't aware of. Thank you again, for this story.
Such a sad story.
I live in Denver CO. My sister & her first husband, a highly honored graduate from the School of Mines, lived in Leadville for a few years beginning in 1969. They lived above an antique shop which was pretty cool to me at the age of 15. We went into some of the mines with her husband that others weren't allowed to go. Here in Denver we do still have the Molly Brown mansion in Capital Hill.
From wealth in the Gilded Age, to extreme poverty in the depths of the Great Depression, she lived longer and experienced more than most people of the time.
The old Tabor Theater in Leadville has an cabinet that Houdini once used. Or so said the tour 😉.
I am related to her (well, im related to Horace really, but still)! Im so excited to watch this. I've got a little bit of data on her that was part of the family genealogy that i inherited from my grandmother, but it wasn't much. She was quiet the character
Paul you guys always on point with these videos much appreciated my friend
Love Baby Doe Tabor, she always deserves a better end but she's an icon here in Colorado, especially Leadville
Thanks for exploring Colorado history!
How very sad of a way for her life to end. All alone, freezing. Trying to live a modest life after having lived in such luxury before. I don't know much about her story besides this WIN episode, but she seems to have been a good person who did nothing bad to anyone. Just a victim of circumstances in life.
It's too bad her husband was the equivalent of a crypto bro and invested everything in the silver mines, refusing to believe that cash cow had sailed for them.
There are quite a few interesting stories set in Colorado on the mining era
I can just imagine that sailing cow...lol
This was excellent! I had never heard of Baby Doe. She was the backbone of Colorado. So sad she lost the love of her life and her girls . Poor Silver Dollar. That other girl was not much of a daughter. 😢
It’s also entirely possible she has dementia or
Alzheimer’s at her age and that’s why people thought her crazy
Plus, grief and loneliness
She was also a haberdasher in Leadville which makes me think there was also lead and mercury exposure in her youth.
I can't believe it! I was born and now live in Oshkosh, WI. Thank you for this!
Thank you for your wonderful show on 21:38 Baby Doe Tabor. I’ve lived in Colorado all my 74 years and she has been a sparkling jewel in Colorado History. She has no equal to this day.
Thank you again.
Thank you for another wonderful and informative video.
Thank you for another video
She was a hard worker. I have great respect for that 🫡
so romantic and sad at the same time. thank you paul im not american so i dont know her, but you have brought her story to life and so keeping her memory alive. great job
Thank you for that amazing story, that lady lived her life the best way she could and makes other women proud. 🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️❤️
Nobody does these stories better.
I visited her cabin in Leadville. Her story fascinated me as a kid
This was a fitting and wonderful tribute to a truly independent womam who was ahead of her time. I'd never heard the telling of her life and was very touched by this presentation. Thank you!
Beautiful story. Very saddening. Through stories like this we are keeping the memory of those gone alive.
Because the day when noone remembers you is when you are truly gone.
I like all the pic.s you had there! Very good presentation!
An inspiring and tragic story of one of our most notable women here in Colorado
What a terribly, terribly sad last few decades. How people can be so cruel to leave an old woman to loneliness because she had the courage to leave an unhappy marriage
Damn. This one was really sad. I can't imagine how lonely she felt. And for no reason other than others' self-righteous spite. She didn't deserve that.
FINALLY found this channel again
Another fascinating story Paul. Thank you. Great channel. Keep them coming Sir
That was really interesting. I lived and worked in Leadville in the mid 80's. Thank you Paul.
Excellent video. Thank you.
Thanks for the upload, Paul.
❤Thank you for sharing this story. I grew up in Kansas City, MO. There was a restaurant here named after Baby Doe many years ago. It was gone before I was aware of it, and I occasionally wondered about the story behind it. I still don't know who opened it or why, but now I know of the determined woman behind the name. I appreciate her story!
Wow, great story.
This story reminds me of "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Her snd her husband were poor until they hit a vein in Leadville, CO. She was a Titanic survivor, too.
Like Baby Doe a native of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, I now live in Washington, DC where the Tabors married at the storied Willard Hotel just one block from the White House. Among many important historical events at the Willard, Julia Ward Howe wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his "I Have a Dream" speech a few days before delivering it at the nearby Lincoln Memorial. Decades ago, I visited the opera house in Central City, Colorado, where "The Ballad of Baby Doe" premiered as well as the Tabor Opera House in Leadville. All interesting threads through the life of this remarkable Oshkosh native.
What an unusual tale. Almost like a fictional soap opera! The most admirable part is the true love the couple had for each other. (It sounds like Tabor's first marriage had already ended when Baby Doe came along.)
What a tragic ending. The best thing you can learn from this is to live within your means and to save, save, invest, and save some more. Don't waste money on diamond diaper pins and dresses sewn with real silver. A fabulous income isn't guaranteed forever. For all of you younger people:
We had a time in our thirties when a direct sales business I had joined was doing fantastic. We lived within our means. I could have saved more than I did and wish I had of. But my husband was very wise and invested our money well and kept us living within our means. When the direct sales business I had joined bankrupted after twenty years of success, we have been able to continue to live comfortably, thank the Lord. We've been able to put our five children through college and to stay in our own home. So again, I watched this thinking of all that money the Tabors had that could have lasted them a lifetime and more by living within their means and saving and investing. I really admire my husband who was the financial leader in our family. Just as our business ended, my health took a dramatic downturn and I've lived with chronic pain for 15 years. I also admire my husband for staying by my side and helping me throughout all of the surgeries, etc that I've been through!
So yeah, this story reminded me a bit of our life except the ending. We've had a dramatic life financially and health wise, but my husband, God bless him, has kept us financially stable and helped me even when things went south financially and health wise in my life!
Young people, no matter what, do your best to live within your means and to save money, and to invest it. There are so many books that can teach and inspire you to save you from having a financial ending like this story!
So sad, such a hardworking and loyal woman.
I loved this story! I live in Denver so it’s nice to hear more history
It's interesting that both Baby Do and Molly Brown began their journeys and marriages in Leadville, their husbands became wealthy overnight from their respective mines and both families moved to Denver. That is really where the similarities end. Molly lived a grand life up to her death and was world famous for her feats of bravery on the Titanic. I wonder if the two women ever met?
There is an opera called “The Ballad of Baby Doe” that was first performed in 1956 and is one of the few American operas that is still regularly performed by opera companies around the world. I had heard of it but had never listened to a recording of it. Thanks to your informative video I am going to listen to it. Thanks.
The picture of the silver queen looked a lot like Drew Barrymore
It sure did!
Whoa, now that you mention it
My family and I have always visited Leadville whenever we’re in Colorado. Many of the Tabor buildings are still around. It’s rapidly turning into a ski resort destination. I very much hope they preserve their history and identity.
Thank you ! I need this story
This is such weird timing - I was in Leadville last week and visited the mine, the cabin she died in, and the house she lived in in town with her husband.
Like as many have said before me, she’s highly respected, admired, loved, adored, and appreciated!
She lived her life on her own terms, and that SHOULD be inspiring to all of us. I hope she’s resting peacefully in her eternal slumber.
What an interesting story. Thank you!
Thank you for another great story 🙏
Went to a restaurant in Dallas named after her. Nice to finally know the history.
At first reading of the title I thought "baby reindeer"! What a sad story! I wish people had cared enough while she was still alive.
Sad Sad Story. Thank you sir for bringing it to life as you do all your stories!!!
Well done. Familiar with her since ive been in Colorado since 1949. You added some facts I didn't know.
Thank you❤❤❤❤