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(Note: Lelon was Edwin's brother and in 1859 was the first of the Peabody's to go to and settle in Colorado.)

1859: He joined an emigrant train and traveled by ox train with 40 men and their families.

1861: In the Colorado Territorial election, an "L. Peabody" was listed as having voted at the "Lake Gulch Quincy City" precinct. Lake Gulch is located about one mile south of Blackhawk in Gilpin County. There was only other Peabody voting was a "John Peabody" in a precinct in Georgia Gulch. The presumption is that "L." was indeed Lelon, and this suggests that he was not in the Breckenridge area until a later date.

... We are now having a lively time about election, we have a great many candidates for the legislative assembly. Some of them are getting afraid that they will not be successful, and they insist in dividing the county and then they would have a larger field of action. They have no party. The candidates for the legislature are as follows: L. Peabody, Surles, Reynolds, Walker, and others too numerous to mention. L. Peabody and Surles, I think, are the people's favorites, and both are very good men, and I think as others, they would perform their duties to the fullest satisfaction of the people of Summit county. ...

We noted a few days since the importance of building a good wagon road over the range. We publish today a letter from a citizen of Summit county, announcing the fact that a corporate company has been formed for the purpose of building a good wagon road over the Ute [Boreas] Pass between Hamilton and Breckenridge. The company consists of the following gentlemen: Geo. W. Mumford, John A. Christian, W. P. Pollock, Charles Donnelly, Lelon Peabody, Robert Frazer and William H. Beery. Four thousand dollars have been raised for the purpose, and it is proposed to raise four thousand more, which amount, it is believed will complete the work. ...

Oct 15: The Rocky Mt. News reported the results of the election. L. Peabody came in fifth out of eight candidates running for two positions in the Eighth District (Summit County).

The Republicans of Summit County met in convention at Breckinridge, June 27, and elected Messrs. M. Silverthorn and Leland Peabody delegates to the Territorial Convention of the seventh, empowering either to cast the vote of the county should the other be absent. Messrs. W. H. Iliff, Leland Peabody, and W. W. Webster were appointed a county executive committee for the ensuing yar [sic]. ...

The Republican Terrirorial Convention met in People's Theater, on Tuesday at one o'clock,, p. m. ... After consultation the committee reported the persons as entitled to seats in the Convention: ... Summit-M. Silverthorne, L. Peabody ...

... In Gold Run John Shock, Peabody, Mumford, Eberlin, etc. are hard at work and are getting good pay. ...

... In Gold Run there are four companies at work. Mr. L. Peabody is employing eight men, and has two flumes, each 800 feet long, with two hydraulics. He is taking out an average of $7.50 per day to the man. ...

... I cannot close this communication without referring to a subject which has often been mentioned in the News, and that is the necessity and importance of completing a road over the range.

In September, 1867, the Hamilton and Breckinridge Road Company was organized with a capital stock of $8,000. It is composed of the most enterprising and influential citizens of Summit county ... There has been $4,400 subscribed, a small amount of which was by citizens of Hamilton and the balance by those of Summit county. This amount is being collected and expended this season, and a road is being built over the Breckinridge [Boreas] pass, shorter, better, and with an easier grade than the one now traveled.. ...

1871 Sep 18: He married Mabel Emma Rudder [Rudeler] who was born at Beaver, NY om 20 Feb 1858. [SP-683]

1872 Aug 8: From the Rocky Mt. News:
In Gold Run ... L. Peabody is working six men, four by day and two by night. He has two pits with one hydraulic at each pit, and four hundred feet of flume. About $10 a day is the general average of this mine.

1874 Aug 6: From the Rocky Mt. News in regard to delagates seated at the Republican Convention:
Summit-H. A. Spears, L. Peabody, J. A. Willoughby, proxy, J. A. Willoughby.

1878 Jul 17: Their daughter Minnie Arvilla was born at Breckenridge, Summit Co., CO. [B.SP-683]

1879: Corbett in his Directory of Mines of Colorado for this year mentions the Peabody Placer in Park County, Lelon Peabody, proprietor. [p.339]

... The Peabody placer claim, at Hamilton, is working eighteen men, in average pay.

Fossett notes that in Gold Run, L. S. Peabody had a 1879 yield of $8500 and that D. Peabody had a yield of $8000 in 1880.

1880 Dec 24: Their daughter Mabel Eve was born. (Hamilton or Breckenridge???) [B.SP-683]

Selon [sic] Peabody was over from Como last week to start his little giants in Gold Run. He has a nine mile ditch and 200 acres of choice gravel washings.

1882 May 8: Their son William Perdeler was born at Hamilton, Park Co., CO and died in March, 1888. [SP-683] He was buried in the cemetery at Como, Park Co., CO (a few miles south of Hamilton). His gravestone gives his death date as May 2, 1887 at age 4Ys. 11Ms. 24 Ds. and his first name as Willie.

Mr. Ahl, superintendent of the Peabody placer, is making preparations for extensive work during the season.

?ac Ahl, superintendent for the Peabody placers, has his full force at work and will continue until water gives out or the works freeze up.

The Peabody placer, superintended by Jacob Ahl, is keeping its full complement of employees.

1885 Apr 27: Arvilla Rudeler died at age 65 Ys. 3Ms. 10 Ds. and was buried in the Como cemetery next to Willie. She was Leland's first cousin (and probably Mabel's sister-in-law). She was born on Jan. 17, 1820, to Moses and Betsey (Hosmer) Peabody at Mt. Holly, VT, and married Martin Rudeler in 1845.

Who is Robert? Lelon's half brother Robert was born in New York but would have been 33 years old. There is no other likely candidate however…

1888 Sep 13: Their daughter Beatrice Jane was born (probably at Hamilton) [SP-683]. She married Frank Collard [in Como ?].

1895 March 30: "Leland Peabody was over from Como the middle of the week looking after his taxes." [Summit Co. Journal. Apparently Lelon still owned property in Summit Co.]

1898 Apr 10: He died (not a natural death according to Almeda [AP-1]). [A search for a death certificate at the Colorado Public Health Department failed to produce anything; probably no record was ever filed.]

1901: Ellis notes: ... fruition in a deed of August 7 (1901) from Clarence A. Hight to the American Company conveying the placers Peabody, Clara C., ...

1910: Federal Census, Colorado, Park Co., Precinct 5, Como:
Name		Relation	Age	Birthplace	Occupation
Cook	Allen	Head	47	Maine	Prop., Livery Stable
	Mabel	wife	51	Pennsylvania

Peabody	Frank	Head	33	Colorado	Laborer., Livery Stable
	Morris	son	10	Colorado
	Lelon	brother	25	Colorado	Laborer, Hay ranch

Collard	Frank	Head	30	Wisconsin	none
	Jamie	wife	24	Colorado
	Mabel	daughter	1	Colorado
Mitte	Fred	servant	42	Illinois	Laborer, Hay ranch

1920: Federal Census, Colorado, Summit Co., Breckenridge, Sheet 11, Line 8:
Name		Relation	Age	Birthplace	Occupation
Peabody	Frank	Head	44	Colorado	Miner, Lead mine
	Cora E.	wife	47	Colorado
	Morris	son	19	Colorado	Timberman

1936 Jan 24:"...the company (???) has purchased the old Peabody ranch and placers near Como ... install a new dredge early this spring."

1937 Mar 17: "The home Peabody ranch, near Como, has the pleasure of entertaining the following visitors: Mrs. Frank A. Peabody [Lelon's son] and daughters Dr. Myrtle A. Peabody and Lady Blythe V. Marion Cook. The latter is known to the world as the Original Mechanical Doll. Lady Blythe has been under contract with a Hollywood film company and is widely known on screen and stage, having played two seasons at Elitch's Gardens with such stars as May Buckley, Doris Keen, Henry Woodruff, Holbrook Blinn, and Edwin Arden. She is the daughter of Cora Ellen Turner Peabody, known old-timers of Park County. Her father was the founder of Turner's Gulch." [Note: Frank was a first cousin of Linnie May Peabody, and Lady Blythe a second step cousin of Edna May York.]

1954: "Back in 1954, Cora Peabody and one of her daughters, Lady Blythe, lived in the blue house…" [in Como. Echoes of Como, p. 63]

A short distance upstream [from Hamilton on the Tarryall River], where the road forks off to Boreas Pass, was the site of Leland Peabody's placer, worked through the 1870's and 1880's. For the summer of 1879 Peabody employed fifteen men, netting $7,000. The next year and for the next ten years Peabody hired Chinese, employing Alfred S. Turner (whose family figures in the story of South Park ranching) to supervise them. Today tidy rock terraces around a few of the remaining shacks at Peabody's recall the Chinese who must have laid out landscaping.

and discussing the route of the D&RG narrow gauge railroad built in 188 from Como over Boreas Pass to Breckenridge and eventually to Leadville (p. 194)

At the Peabody Placer the narrow-gauge tracks made a wide, hairpin turn to start the climb out of Tarryall Creek valley. At Peabody's, or Tarryall as the station was first called, the line had a wye and a nineteen-car spur which served the placers there and further up the valley.

Muriel Wolle writes (p. 62) regarding the sign "Peabody Switch" on the Boreas Pass road:

The name "Peabody" struck me, for in studying an old map of placer camps on the Tarryall, I'd seen the words "Peabody Diggings". Then in 1950, when at the gathering of pioneers in Georgetown, I had heard speak Lady Blythe Marvin, the "Original Mechanical Doll of Stage and Screen.

Another speaker was Lady Blythe Marvin, known as the "Original Mechanical Doll of Stage and Screen". She was born in 1890 and was sponsored in her career by Mary Elitch. She made her initial public appearance in 1897 at Elitch's Gardens in Denver, where fifty years later she also gave her final public appearance, this one under the sponsorship of the Pioneer Men and Women of Colorado. In her early days, Blythe had traveled with her mother, and her performances on the Orpheum Circuit had taken her all over the world. Ripley had featured her, and she had performed before two presidents; on one occasion, when she was exhibited in a store window, a woman, convinced she was a mannequin, tried to buy her."] I made no connection between these two items until eight years later when I received a note from the lady with an enclosed postcard picturing the Doll. I learned that her grandfather, Leland Peabody, was one of the first to work placer claims on the Middle Fork of Tarryall up Deadwood Creek, six miles northwest of Como. His claims were extensive and ran on both sides of the creek for about two miles. Her letter:

My Dear One, Just a few lines to send you my Doll picture. And I hope that you will accept it. I read parts of you book Stampede to Timberline. I am so heart broken that some of the Peabody's were not around at Peabody Placer out of Como. Grandpa Leland Peabody was the first to have chinamen work in Placer in '59, he had three hundred at one time. But nothing in your book. But perhaps all were gone when you were gathering Data... I am Very Truly Your Doll. Lady Blythe M.

Placer mines were about the most exciting things in the West. All day they resounded to the labor of adventurous men tearing out the gravel of stream beds for yellow gold. At night they lay silent, the camps in their midst noisy as their miners swapped gold for revelry in tent saloon and dance hall. For the most part they flourished for a brief season and then faded away.

This is a story of a miner and his mine that marched down through the years together. He was a pioneer, a real old-timer, and his mine wasn't deep in a mountain; it was along a sunlit creek in the beautiful wooded country at the edge of South Park.

J. G. "Jimmie" Jones of 1811 Pearl Street knew this mine and this miner well, for they're tied up with his boyhood. Jimmie was born in Como of pioneer parents, grew up in that town that's now but a ghost of its former exciting self.

"Leland Peabody went in there in 1859," he began. "He started his placer work on the Middle Fork of the Tarryall, which rises on the east slope of Silverheels Mountain, as soon as could get his ditches set. He began working west from about where the present highway [US 285] crosses the creek two miles this side of Como [towards Denver].

"He struck gravel so rich that a stampede began. Miners poured in there and that built up the old town of Hamilton, which was located about two miles up the creek and North of Como. Of course there wasn't any Como then.

"Hamilton was some town while she lasted. In 1860 a Government report showed 5000 people there. It was a stage station on the line that ran over Mosquito Pass; Leadville was built over there later. The old toll road that ran over Boreas Pass also left out of Hamilton.

"When all the rest of the people pulled out of Hamilton, Leland Peabody stayed. He took up a ranch on the creek and kept right on placering. When I knew him he was known as Old Man Peabody.

"He was a man of medium height and build. He always wore a full crop of whiskers, pretty well sprinkled with grey by that time. He had a young women and a fine family-five children. The finest people in the world. That old man was one of the men who opened up that country. There never was a nicer man lived than old Leal Peabody.

"I went out there to work for him when I was 12 years old. He'd been in there 33 years then. He had one ditch which was never decreed. If it had been, it'd been the oldest ditch in that part of the country.

"He'd start working in May as soon as the ice was gone out of the creek and the ground thawed out a little. The 80 Chinamen and 20 white men that he worked had holed up there on the place or in Como. They were always glad to see the Spring break-up so they could get to work again.

"For water pressure Old Man Peabody had dammed off the whole creek. Of course he had an overflow to keep from tearing his dam out. He kept gradually working up the creek, for he had claims on both sides for about two miles.

"He built his sluice boxes out of planks. They were four feet wide and four feet deep and sat on the ground. In the bottom were riffle blocks about six inches in diameter, enough to go across the sluice in a row. They were fastened in there by boards on each side nailed to the box. These blocks were 6 inches high and were made right there on the job by two old brothers. Maybe he'd have 50 feet of them or 100 feet. It all depended on what he had coming through there; he sampled the gravel first.

"White men loaded the wheel-barrows and the Chinamen dumped them into the sluice box. They went down to bedrock, cleaning it very carefully.

"Along about 11 o'clock in the morning Old Man Peabody'd pull that headgate and let the full force of the water go through and wash out everything except the gold. He had men along the sides with long-handled forks to throw out the big rocks.

He made two cleanups each season, which ran about five months up there. When he got ready to cleanup, he'd shut off all the water. He'd pull the riffles (blocks), gather up all the gold, black sand and everything that went in between the cracks.

"He'd take that down to the house and pan it all down. I've watched him many a time. You should have seen him handle a gold pan, he was an artist with it. He's have buckets full of gold. He'd ship that on the narrow gauge (Denver, South Park and Pacific) down to the mint in Denver.

"That old bird took out millions there but he put it all back up there in that country. He had several lode mines that he always thought were going to pan out big-but they never did. His placer mining, though, was a great success.

"He was the best placer miner on the middle fork of the Tarryall but he wasn't the only one working. Right above him was the Fortune Placer, run by old John Fortune, that had a hydraulic outfit. It went on up the creek to the Montague Placer, which went up on the sides of Silverheels Mountain."

This was a mountain named in honor of a lovely dance hall girl who stepped from the Denver stage one day in Buckskin Joe, hurrah placer mining camp. 'Tis said that the miners fought to dance with her, this girl who wore silver slippers. She repaid their devotion, for when the smallpox struck she nursed the sick, held many a man's hand at the last. Some say she took the disease herself, the pock marks erasing her beauty. Be that as it may, these Old West adventurers who knew character gave her an imperishable monument.

"Old Man Peabody shut down operations about the first of October. By that time the creek would begin freezing over. All his men and the others would make a rush for Como. What a celebration! They'd boom the devil out of things. There were six saloons in Como then.

"Old Leal kept on placering right there in that same place until he had to quit. He was still taking out gold there at the last, for I worked for him for years."

I nodded, feeling within myself a bit of the feeling in the old man's breast as he looked up the creek on that last day of work. He had come to this mountain-locked South Park, the Wintering place of the Mountain Men, when he was young. Through all the years the mine had been faithful, yielding up to his magic touch its gold. He could not but have loved its every foot.

"Years afterward," continued Jimmie, "a dredge outfit came in there and bought up Old Leal's claims, which another man had bought after his death. This dredge man was sure he'd clean up big, for he said the old man hadn't known how to save the gold. I told him he'd find out different but he only laughed at me.

"He went ahead and moved that big dredge in there and started up the creek. About two weeks later he came to me and wanted to know more about Old Leal's operations. He finally had to admit that they hadn't recovered a thing. The gravel was clean all the way down to bedrock....He believed what I told him-that Old Leal Peabody was one of the best placer miners that ever hit the West."

1880 Federal census for Colorado, Park Co., Hamilton:
NAME	AGE	OCCUPATION	BORN	COMMENT
Peabody, Leon	46	placer miner	NY
Mabel	22	wife	PA
Frank	4	son	CO	(at Gold Run)
May	2	daughter	CO	(must be Minnie Arvilla)
Benjamin	50	ranchman	NY	(Lelon's brother)

1885 Federal census for Colorado, Park Co., Hamilton:
Name		Age	Birthplace
Peabody	Leland	51	NY
	Mabel E.	27	PA
	Frank A.	9	CO
	Minnie	6	CO
	Mabel E.	4	CO
	Willie R.	3	CO
	Leland	6/12	CO
	Benjamin	55	NY
	Robert	23	NY

1900: Federal census, Colorado, Park Co., Precinct 5, Como, Sheet 14, Line 78
Name		Relation	Age	Birthplace	Comment
Cook	M. Allen	himself	37	Maine	see Cook
	Mabel E.	wife	41	Pennsylvania	Lelon's wife
Peabody	Mabel E.	step-daughter	19	Colorado
	Leon	step-son	15	Colorado
	Jane	step-daughter	11	Colorado

1920: Federal census, Colorado, Park Co., Precinct 5, Como Town:
Name		Age	Birthplace	Occupation
Peabody	Leland F (S?)	35	Colorado	Miner