by Charles W. Bowman

Biographies

HENRY THOMAS GALBREATH

   Mr. Galbreath was born in Audrain County, Mo., December 31, 1842, where he resided until he was seventeen years of age. He attended such schools as the county afforded during his boyhood. In 1860, he came to Colorado. The following year he was engaged in teaming between Missouri River and points west, and hauling lumber from the forest to Denver. In January of 1862, Mr. G. went to Omaha, where he remained but a short time before he proceeded to Missouri. In July following he returned to the mountains, but his stay was short, as he went to Fort Wise (now Fort Lyon), in the Arkansas Valley, in August of the same year, where he was engaged in hauling hay for the Government for a season. Immediately afterward, he was employed on a ranch belonging to a Mr. Haynes, until the spring of 1863. At this time he made his first purchase of cattle, which consisted of ten head of yearling steers. The following few months he was engaged in freighting, having taken a load of Government goods from Denver to Fort Garland. He then proceeded to Fort Lyon and again furnished hay for the Government. After concluding his contract, he went to Cherry Creek, near Denver, and remained until February, when he returned to the Arkansas Valley and commenced herding cattle for William Innis. He moved the stock to Mace's Hole, remaining with them until November. During the summer he built the first cabin ever constructed in that place. He did not winter there, but drove his herd down the Arkansas Valley to a point east of Pueblo, where he remained until the spring of 1865, when he returned to Mace's Hole, in the employ of N. W. Cresswell. In the following July, he drove the herd to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and sold them to the Government to feed the Navajo Indians. From this point Mr. G. walked to Denver, where he took passage aboard a mule train for his old home in Missouri, from which he had been absent six years. In the spring of 1866, he bought seventy head of one and two year old cattle and brought them to the Arkansas Valley, west of Pueblo. He was also employed by C.D. Peck in herding cattle on a little creek that empties into the Arkansas River, which is known as Tom's Creek, having been named for one of Mr. Galbreath's given names. February of 1868, he sold his cattle to L. Haden and returned to Missouri, remaining until May. Again he found his way to Colorado. On the road he purchased 124 head of cattle of S. M. Hays, of Council Grove, Kan. The herd was in the Arkansas Valley, where he kept them until the spring of 1869, when he traded them to Tom Patterson, a well known Texas drover, for a herd of steers, and then went to Missouri. In June, 1869, Mr. G. was married to Miss Virginia Switzer. He now resides in Catlin, Bent Co., Colo., engaged in stock-raising.