Colorado

About 1879 Edwin Eugene DeCoursey, eldest son of James William Coursey and Mary Murphy, left the family home in Leavenworth, Kansas to go to Colorado to try to make his fortune in the silver rush. After a few unsuccesful months in the famous mining town of Leadville, in Lake County, he moved on to a small town in neighboring Park County called Alma. There he met Mary McCormick of Dushore, Pennsylvania, who had come to Colorado with two of her sisters to join another sister, Frances, who had been living in Colorado since about 1876. Frances was married to Edward Kilduff, who was from a nearby town in Pennsylvania. A few of Edward's siblings (most notably his brother Thomas) are also known to have lived in Colorado. Ed and Mary are both enumerated in the 1880 US Federal Census living in Alma. Ed was living alone and gave blacksmith as his occupation, Mary was living with the Kilduffs and working as a laundry woman. They were married about 1882, and had six children, all born in Colorado. After moving back and forth a few times, the family left Colorado for Leavenworth for good about 1901.

Articles
• Excerpts from The Fairplay Flume, 1875-1883, (and also a couple from Denver newspapers) concerning the DeCoursey, Kilduff and Bishop families and life in Alma and Fairplay in general, starting 1875. This will be updated continually, I have lots of material going up to 1926.
• "Alma", from Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies, by Robert L. Brown. 1968.
• Biography of Thomas Kilduff, 1905
• Obituary of Edward Kilduff (1847-1914)
• Obituary of Lyda Barger (Sykes) Kilduff Walsh (1881-1967)
• "Edwin Eugene DeCoursey", by Frank E. DeCoursey, 1995
• Biography of James H. DeCoursey, Leaders In Our Town, 1952.

Business Directories
• Alma
• Fairplay
• Baer, Bishop, Coursey and Kilduff entries (Alma, Denver, Fairplay, Leadville)

Maps
• Colorado state and county maps, 1885-1920
• TopoZone: Alma (Note Buckskin Cemetery to the north west of Alma Town. Ed and Mary's son John is buried there, along with a few Kilduffs and Bishops.)
• Mapquest: Alma and Leadville
• Google Maps: Alma, street view of Main St. available

Pictures
• 1880's Images of Alma, Colorado
• Alma in 1880's and 1968.
• Alma postcards, ca 1940 and 1960's
• Home of Edwin and Mary DeCoursey in Alma, Park County.
• Park County mine
• Buckskin Cemetery, Alma: Bishop, DeCoursey and Kilduff headstones
• Satellite photo of Alma, 1999.
• Park County Local History Archives  Lots of pictures of people and places in Park County, including several of the St. Nicholas Hotel. (Under "Photos".)
• Pikes Peak Library District - Digital Photograph Archives  Lots of wonderful photos, including several of Alma.
• Denver Public Library Photography Collection  Over 100,000 photographs online, documenting the history of Colorado and the American West. Includes many of Alma.

Websites
Lake County
• Lake County GenWeb
• Colorado History.com: Lake County - History of Leadville, ghost towns, mines.
• Leadville.org - History and pictures.
• Leadville Colorado - A Capsule History
• Leadville Historic Walking Tour - Pictures and info.
• Pictures of Leadville today

Park County
• Park County GenWeb
• Park County Local History Archives
• Park County Ghost Towns, Mines and Mining Camps.  (Colorado History.com) Pictures and info.
• Alma - Colorado Ghost Town  Short history, pictures.
• Buckskin Joe mining camp and cemetery

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Erica DeCoursey © 2003-10

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