Samuel Hitt Elbert

Elbert was born in Logan County, Ohio. His parents were Achsa Hitt, the daughter of Rev. Samuel Hitt, and John Downs Elbert, a physician and surgeon. He descends from early colonists and Huguenots. His great-grandfather, Dr. John Lodman Elbert, was a surgeon during the American Revolution. He attended public school, where the curriculum included agriculture. He was then admitted to the bar in Ohio in 1856. He moved to Plattsmouth in the Nebraska Territory in the spring of 1857 to practice law. ==Career==

In Nebraska, Elbert became active in the newly formed Republican Party. He attended the Republican National Convention in 1860 in Chicago, where Abraham Lincoln was nominated for president. He resigned in 1888 due to his poor health, and went abroad. He received an honorary LLD from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1880. ==Personal life==

After a two-year courtship, Elbert married 18 year old Josephine Evans in June 1865. She was the daughter of Territorial Governor John Evans built by John Evans after the death of his daughter, Josephine The Elberts lived in a red brick house on E Street, now 14th Street. Josephine gave birth to their only child, John Evans Elbert about late March 1868. He died on August 10, 1868. Josephine, who had consumption (tuberculosis), died in October 1868. Her father built the Evans Memorial Chapel in her memory in 1878. It is located at the University of Denver campus. After having been in failing health for some time, Elbert died on November 27, 1899, in Galveston, Texas and is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Denver, as are Josephine and their son John. ==Legacy==

Elbert County, Colorado; Elbert, Colorado; and Mount Elbert, the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains, are named in honor of Elbert. Grateful miners named Mount Elbert after the governor because he facilitated a treaty with the Ute tribe, which opened up more than of Indian reservation to mining and railroad activity. ==See also==