Frank Mulligan had been a Denver cop since 1904 when he was snared in a scandal that screamed across Denver’s newspapers for weeks in 1918. It began with a quiet, middle-of-the-night ride in the country for Mrs. Irene Nolan and her priest, Father Garrett Burke. It was New Year’s Eve 1917 and Mr. Nolan, …
On a beautiful breezy day in June 2011, the Fairmount Heritage Foundation met with a Shine TV film crew at Riverside Cemetery to film an episode for the National Geographic Channel. An advance team had already met with Patricia Carmody and Ray Thal in May that year to view the archival documents and take some …
Peter Joseph was born in New Orleans La. in 1842. The son of a slave, Margaret Syphax, and an Austrian merchant, Spaero Narravitch. His mother, Margaret Syphax, was a descendent of the prominent Washington, D.C. Syphax clan. Margaret had seen to it that the merchant paid her owner for the baby boy in order to secure …
FHF FUN FACT QUIZ Can you name a well-known historic Denver citizen that was buried at both Riverside and Fairmount??? ANSWER: JOHN WESLEY ILIFF ABOUT JOHN WESLEY ILIFF: He was born in Ohio in 1831 He attended Ohio Wesleyan University Moved to Denver in 1859 and began a mercantile store To get a supply of …
Life journeys some time take us to places we never expected to go. It was fully expected that Maine born Timothy Reirdan Stinson would spend his life at sea, sailing from port to port and always at a distance from his family. It is no surprise to find “Mariner” next to his name in the …
RUFUS “POTATO” CLARK (1834 – 1911) Of the many Colorado pioneers buried at Riverside Cemetery, one of the more interesting was Rufus “Potato” Clark. He arrived here from Iowa in an ox-pulled covered wagon with his wife and child in July of 1859. He immediately staked out a large farm in an area that is …
As February is Black history month, and the month of Valentine’s Day, it seems appropriate to write about a Black soldier named Cupid. I have to admit to being curious about a man named Cupid, especially when he also was a Sergeant in the US Army. My first thought was, this must have been one tough …
Oliver Marcelle (1897-1949) Riverside Cemetery is the final resting place of Ollie “The Ghost” Marcelle, one of the greatest African-American baseball players. He is credited with integrating professional baseball in Denver 13 years before Jackie Robinson officially integrated major league baseball in 1947. Ollie was just a decent hitter, but he was an outstanding third …