MARRIED
In 1878 Tabor and his first wife were respectable citizens and suitably wed. He kept a general store in the booming mining town of Leadville and she, the mayor’s wife, had boarders to increase the family earnings and budget.
In those days the Tabor residence stood on Harrison Avenue; and can be seen toward the rear of this sketch, occupying the space between the Clarendon Hotel and some new stores. Augusta’s boarders would have looked exactly like these men. Although most of her boarders in 1878 were Tabor’s clerks, they spent every hour of their free time searching the hills for silver like everyone else. This was a typical prospecting outfit.
DIVORCED
Tabor hardly looks like the sort of Lothario who would have been the idol of two remarkable women. But such he was. Both wives were courageous, articulate and full of initiative, besides adoring. The first liked to work; the second to play. The first was downright; the second, flattering. The first hated to show off; the second loved the limelight. The first was economical and the second, extravagant. But both were unusual women who made history. A detailed treatment of the second Mrs. Tabor’s life will be found in the illustrated booklet, “Silver Queen: The Fabulous Story of Baby Doe Tabor.” It is a rags-to-riches and riches-to-rags tale, full of pathos.
The photographs of Horace Tabor and Baby Doe, below, have never been published before; also the photograph of Baby Doe on the next page. The following sketch of Augusta, as a young woman with curls, was printed with a write-up of the scandal in the national Police Gazette.
