by Charles W. Bowman

Biographies

   When a boy, Mr. Lambert did not have the advantages many boys have. His father died when he was two years old, and many a day has he spent in the field, dropping corn for 5 cents per day. He never attended school but one year. He was employed, when only a boy, by a liveryman, living thirty miles from Rochester, N. Y., and, although only ten years of age, he drove a pair of horses and a large family carriage to Rochester three times a week. He would return at night. After driving out of the city a few miles, he would fasten the lines and go to sleep on the back seat of the carriage, and the horses would return the remainder of the distance, twenty-five miles, unguided and alone. This he did many times. After he left the livery stable, he went to Belvidere, Boone Co., Ill., where he clerked four years in a hardware store, for his brother-in-law. In company with two young men, Mr. Lambert went to Pike's Peak in 1859. He stopped in Denver a week before going to the mountains. He went beyond Golden City to Ralston and camped. Mr. Lambert's two companions returned East, but he went to Russell's Gulch and bought a claim, and mined about four months. The following winter he spent in Golden City. While there, he got out timber for a store. Very early in the spring, he went back to the mines and took along a stock of goods, but was obliged to construct a log store in which to put them. He also opened a meat market. He sold his claim for $1,100, and sent his partner to California Gulch. This was in 1861. In May, Mr. Lambert went to the Gulch. After remaining there during the summer, he sold out and went to Buckskin Gulch. For a time, he freighted from Denver to the Gulch, and at the same time bought and sold goods. In the winter of 1862, he went to Fort Lyon, and was agent for the mail company four years. Mr. Lambert kept the station and ran the stages to Fort Larned, a distance of 240 miles. There was no station between the two forts. The stages would make a run of twenty or thirty miles and then camp. While at the fort, he had a train of wagons on the plain, in charge of Frank Smith. In 1866, Mr. Lambert went onto the Purgatoire Creek and worked a ranch. He is interested in the herds of H. B. Cartter, both cattle and sheep. He has been employed for many months by Jones & Weil, as clerk, at West Las Animas. In 1862, Mr. Lambert was married to Miss Julia S. Brinsmade, by the Chaplain at Fort Lyon. They have four children - three girls and boy.