HUMPHREY BARKER CHAMBERLIN
DENVER, COLORADO
 

     HUMPHREY BARKER CHAMBERLIN, son of Robert and Eliza (Barker) Chamberlin, was born in Manchester, England, on the 7th day of February 1847.
     His parents came to America when he was seven years of age, and after residing for a time in New York city, finally located at Oswego, "N. Y., where young Chamberlin received a good education, graduating from the Normal school in 1862. He then entered the employ of the New York, Albany & Buffalo Telegraph Company (now the Western Union), and was afterwards appointed by General Eckert to a position in the department of the Military Telegraph Corps, U. S. A., where he rendered faithful service during the last two years of the war at the headquarters of Generals Schofield, Howard, Palmer and Terry. At the close of the war he entered the drug business in the employ of James Bickford & Co., of Oswego, N. Y., and in the following year was admitted to partnership as a reward of merit. He continued in the drug business at Oswego, Fulton and Syracuse until 18T6, when, he was chosen general secretary of the Y. M. C. A. of Brooklyn, N. Y. He retained this position until 1879, when ill health, caused by over-taxation of energy, forced him to resign that position.
     In 1880 he sought, the mountains of Colorado, and a year's rest there made him feel so much better that he concluded to remain permanently, and he accordingly settled in Denver. There he entered into the real estate business, and his keen foresight, which revealed to him the marvelous possibilities of Denver's future, has made him a fortune. Mr. Chamberlin is to-day one of the recognized authorities in the West on all matters pertaining to real estate values. He has been the originator and promoter of many of the most important enterprises that have been brought before the public, in Colorado since his residence there, among which the Chamberlain Investment Company, of which he is -president, has the remarkable record of having never lost one penny for a client.
     Mr. Chamberlain has been and is now connected with many enterprises. He was president of the Denver Beaver Brook Water Company, president of the Denver, Colorado & Pacific Railroad Company, vice-president of the Kibber Stove Company, vice-president of the Denver Insurance Company, president of the State National Bank, a director of the State National Bank, and ex-president of the Denver Chamber of Commerce. At the International Convention of the T. M. C. A., held at Philadelphia, in 1890, he was chosen president of that organization. He is the founder of the Chamberlin Observatory at University Park, on which he expended over $60,000, and which now forms a Department of the University of Denver, and which is under the direction of Dr. H. A. Howe.
     Mr. Chamberlin came to Colorado less than a score of years ago with sadly impaired health; the favorable climate has restored that to him, and he in return has more than repaid the score, in the good done by him since. Modest and unostentatious in his benevolence, he-is ever ready to respond to the cry of suffering humanity and to promulgate the cause of Christianity, in which cause he has worked with untiring zeal from his early youth. Taken all in all, Mr. Chamberlin is a representative western man, in the best sense, and honored by his fellow citizens.

A Biographical history, with portraits, of prominent men of the great West, 1894

©Shauna Williams