| Birth: | Jun. 5, 1856
Fort Wayne
Allen County
Indiana, USA | | Death: | Dec. 21, 1906
Georgetown
Clear Creek County
Colorado, USA | 
James Harvey Burkholder was once one of the most successful businessmen in Georgetown, Colorado and had the most complete line of hardware in Clear Creek County. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Daughters of Rebekah, and the Improved Order of Red Men.
His parents were Joseph Burkholder and Roxanna Emrick. His father was a Pennsylvania cabinetmaker who settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana about 1853, and later went to Ohio, but returned to Fort Wayne, where he ran a furniture factory. Roxanna died at an early age, leaving son James, a second son (who sought his fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush), and two daughters. Joseph re-married and had four more children, two sons and two daughters.
Until about fifteen years old, James lived near Shreve, Ohio and received his educational training in public schools. He then went to Fort Wayne and entered his father's furniture factory, learning the different departments of that industry. James spent one winter in Florida, and then returned once more to Fort Wayne to rebuild his father's factory after it burned. He conducted this business until 1880, when he came to Denver, Colorado and accepted employment with lumber dealers Halleck & Howard for one year.
He then went to Gunnison, Colorado and engaged in prospecting until that autumn, when he returned to Denver. In the spring of 1882 he went to Georgetown, Colorado to take charge of G. W. Hall's ore sampling and lumber mill. He was in the ore sampling business until 1891, when he left for health reasons (the dust in the mill was injurious to him). Later he prospected and mined, and helped build a mill at Empire, Colorado. He also spent a short time in Blackhawk, Colorado experimenting on tailings with a table he invented. His next position was as a mill man with Dewey Concentrator and Sampling Works, where he remained until April 1896.
Eventually, James bought out Colonel Henry Seifried and opened Burkholder Hardware in Georgetown. He greatly increased the stock and occupied a building one story high with an area of 25x96 feet, and a warehouse for heavy irons, ore cars, wheelbarrows, etc. He handled stoves, a complete line of miners' supplies, glass, paints and oils, and also offered pipe laying, plumbing and heating, and the installation of tin and iron roofing.
In 1887, James married Miss Sarah Harrison, a native of Nova Scotia, Canada. They had two children, James Edward and Hazel Mary Helen. In 1903, the Burkholders purchased Hotel de Paris from the estate of Marie Sophie (Bladier) Gally, former housekeeper and proprietor. Daughter Hazel inherited the hotel in 1932 and ran the property until 1954, the year it was acquired by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado as a museum.
www.hoteldeparismuseum.org
Family links:
Spouse:
Sarah Harrison Burkholder (____ - 1932)
Children:
James Edward Burkholder (1888 - 1945)*
Hazel Mary Helen Burkholder McAdams (1889 - 1966)*
*Calculated relationship
Note: Buried with his wife and children in unmarked graves | | | Burial:
Fairmount Cemetery
Denver
Denver County
Colorado, USA
Plot: Lot No. 45, Block No. 2 |
Created by: Kevin Kuharic
Record added: Nov 02, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 61033793 |
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