Baby Doe Tabor

Abstract

Postcard showing a photo of Baby Doe Tabor that has been trimmed and mounted on a charcoal drawing. In 1883 Horace Tabor, who was a wealthy silver mine owner and community leader in Leadville, divorced his wife Augusta and married the young divorcee Elizabeth McCourt Doe (Baby Doe). This created a scandal that rocked Colorado society. Their wedding was attended by Leadville's most prominent men, but their wives snubbed Baby Doe and stayed away. They had two daughters, Elizabeth Bonduel Lillie and Rose Mary Echo (Silver Dollar). Poor investments and the crash of the silver market in 1893 depleted the Tabors' wealth. Horace Tabor died penniless in 1899. Afer his death, Baby Doe tried unsuccessfully to obtain funding to repurchase the Matchless Mine, which had produced millions of dollars in silver for them. The owners of the Matchless Mine gave her permission to move into the supply cabin next to the mine shaft, and she lived there in poverty until the time of her death from a heart attack in 1935. Baby Doe's frozen body was discovered in the cabin by the neighbors a week later.