Pride of the Rockies : The Life of Colorado's Premiere Irish Patron, John Kernan Mullen

by Convery, William J., III

• ISBN13: 9780870815911
• ISBN10: 0870815911
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Colorado

Summary

This book presents the definitive biography of businessman and philanthropist John Kernan Mullen. Mullen, who fled the Irish potato famine as a child, later ruthlessly rose to control of the West's flour milling industry and was one of the architects of early Denver's transformation from a dusty supply town to the Queen City of the Mountains and the Plains. This biography presents an intimate look at Mullen's personal ups and downs, his struggles with his own family, his public fight for ethnic and religious tolerance, and his secret support of one of Colorado's best-known figures, Baby Doe Tabor.

Author Biography

William J. Convery currently is an instructor of Colorado history at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Foreword	xiii
Echoes of Charity	1	(6)
From Ireland to America: Galway, Ireland, to Oriskany Falls, New York, 1847-1867	7	(10)
The Acculturation Dilemma	12	(5)
The Grasshopper years: Oriskany Falls, New York, to Troy, Kansas, 1867-1871	17	(8)
Eastern Kansas	19	(1)
Softening a ``Strict Catholic''	20	(5)
Denver, Colorado Territory, 1871-1874	25	(10)
``I Am Only Asking for a Chance to Work''	30	(5)
``My Darling Kate'': Domestic Life, 1874-1900	35	(16)
``My Home Is My Club''	40	(11)
J. K. Mullen and Company, 1875-1879	51	(8)
``I Was the Company''	53	(6)
The Progressive Miller, 1880-1885	59	(12)
Progressive Milling	60	(3)
The hungarian Mills	63	(8)
The Lace Curtain: Community Associations, 1880-1890	71	(16)
``A Practical Catholic of Good Moral Character''	72	(4)
Politics, Class, and Ethnicity	76	(2)
The Irish-American Land League	78	(1)
Labor Relations	79	(8)
``I Am a Little Daffy on the Subject of Giving'': Philanthropy, 1880-1929	87	(12)
The Colorado Milling and Elevator Company, 1883-1886	99	(14)
Consolidation of Colorado's Flouring Mills	100	(3)
Agrarian Opposition	103	(10)
Dealer of Grain and Cattle, 1886-1895	113	(16)
Personal and Professional Difficulties	114	(3)
Cattle Companies	117	(1)
``The Black Panic'' of 1893	118	(4)
Watered-Down Bigotry: The Challenge of the APA	122	(7)
The Church of St. Leo the Great	129	(8)
The Merchant Prince, 1895-1915	137	(20)
``Every New Town Wanted a Flour Mill''	138	(2)
The Castle on Quality Hill	140	(10)
Tyson Dines	150	(7)
The Immaculate Conception Cathedral	157	(14)
The Enemy Miller, 1914-1919	171	(14)
Wartime Wheat Regulations	171	(8)
Restitution: The Broncho Buster and the University of Denver Chapel	179	(6)
The J. K. Mullen Home for the Aged	185	(10)
The ``Tidal Wave'': Postwar Prosperity and the Ku Klux Klan, 1920-1925	195	(10)
``What Would You Have Me Do?'': J. K. Mullen and the Klan	198	(7)
``For Religious, Charitable, Benevolent, and Educational Purposes'': The Mullen Library and Foundation	205	(12)
The Death of Catherine Smith Mullen	211	(6)
St. Cajetan's Catholic Church	217	(12)
Sir Knight Mullen, 1925-1929	229	(14)
``Melting into Gold''	229	(9)
``There Is Nothing Wrong with Me!''	238	(5)
The J. K. Mullen Home of Boys	243	(8)
The Legacy of John Kernan Mullen	251	(12)
Appendix A: Freehold Properties Owned by the CM&E, 1889	263	(2)
Appendix B. J: K. Mullen Estate Tax Assessment	265	(2)
Work Cited	267	(10)
Index	277