Henry Thomas Galbreath

     Mr. Galbreath was born in Andrain County, Missouri, December  31, 1842, where he resided until he was seventeen years of age. He attended such schools as the country afforded during his boyhood. In 1860 he came to Colorado. The following year he was engaged in teaming between the Missouri River and points west and hauling lumber from the forest to Denver. In January of 1862 Mr. Galbreath went to Omaha where he remained but a short time before he proceeded to Missouri. In July following he returned to the mountains but his stay was short as he went to Fort Wise (now Ft. Lyon) in the Arkansas Valley in August of the same year where he was engaged in hauling hay for the government for a season. Immediately afterward, he was employed on a ranch belonging to a Mr. Haynes until the spring of 1863. At this time he made his first purchase of cattle, which consisted of 10 head of yearling steers. The following few months he was engaged in freighting, having taken a load of government goods from Denver to Ft. Garland. He then proceeded to Ft. Lyon and again furnished hay for the government. After concluding his contract he went to Cherry Creek near Denver and remained until February when he returned to the Arkansas Valley and commenced herding cattle for William Innis. He moved the stock to Mace's Hole, remaining with them until November. During the summer he built the first cabin ever constructed in that place. He did not winter there, but drove his herd down the Arkansas Valley to a point east of Pueblo, where he remained until the spring of 1865 when he returned to Mace's Hole in the employ of N.W. Cresswell. In the following July he drove the herd to Ft. Sumner, New Mexico and sold them to the government to feed the Navajo Indians. From this point Mr. Galbreath walked to Denver where he took passage aboard a mule train for his old home in Missouri, from which he had been absent six years. In the spring of 1866 he bought 70 head of one and two year old cattle and brought them to the Arkansas Valley, west of Pueblo.    He was also employed by C.D. Peck in herding cattle on a little creek that empties into the Arkansas river which is known as Tom's Creek having been named for one of Mr. Galbreath's given names. In February of 1868 he sold his cattle to L. Haden and returned to Missouri, remaining until May. Again he found his way to Colorado. On the road he purchased 124 head of cattle of Mr. S. M. Hayes of Council Grove, Kansas. The herd was in the Arkansas Valley where he kept them until the spring of 1869 when he traded them to Tom Patterson, a well known Texas drover, for a herd of steers and then went to Missouri. In June 1869 Mr. Galbreath was married to Miss Virginia Switzer. He now (1881) resides in Catlin, Bent County, Colorado, engaged in stock raising.   

From History of The Arkansas Valley. Published in 1881      Lib.#978.8