Irving Howbert

Born in Columbus, Indiana, in 1846, he moved west with his family as a boy and settled in what became the Colorado Springs area. After time in farming, freighting, ranch work, and storekeeping, he became deeply involved in the growth of El Paso County and the young community of Colorado Springs.

He served as El Paso County clerk and recorder and worked in real estate, helping secure land connected with the development of Colorado Springs and Old Colorado City. He was also active as a businessman and investor, with interests tied to banking, mining, and rail transportation in the Pikes Peak region.

He is remembered not only as a civic leader but also as a writer of local history. His memoirs and reminiscences preserve firsthand details about early Colorado life, though they come from a frontier era that included violence and dispossession; as a young soldier in the 3rd Colorado Cavalry, he took part in the Sand Creek campaign. He died in Colorado Springs in 1934.