Winfield Scott Stratton

On July 22, 1848, Stratton was born in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Stratton's parents were Mary and Myron Stratton. Stratton is a descendant from the Windsor, Connecticut line of the Stratton family. Stratton's mother had twelve children; of four boys, he is said to be the only one who lived beyond childhood. == Education ==

Stratton learned carpentry in his father's shipyards. After he moved to Colorado, he studied geology at Colorado College and studied metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines in 1874. ==Career==

In August 1872, Stratton worked as a carpenter for $3 a day in Colorado Springs, Colorado area. Stratton joined the Carpenter's Union, and built furniture and homes during the winter, including working on the house of Helen Hunt Jackson and the McAllister House. In 1874, he began prospecting for gold and silver in the summers. Stratton also had an interest in the Portland mine. Stratton invested in real estate in Denver, Colorado. ==Philanthropy==

He provided the land to build the Colorado Springs City Hall, Mining Exchange building, and Post Office and Federal Courthouse in Colorado Springs. He is said to have written a check for $5,000 to "Crazy Bob" Womack, the prospector who first discovered gold at Cripple, but was down on his luck. He gave $20,000 to Horace A. W. Tabor when Tabor was broke. ==Personal life==

Stratton lived a simple life in a wooden house on Weber Street after he became wealthy. He had a housekeeper for many years named Eliza, with whom he could be brusque. She was called the "suffering but faithful housekeeper Eliza" in the Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West book. Stratton was fond of a quote by William Henry Channing, 19th-century religious thinker and part of the Transcendental movement: When he died, most of his estate went towards the creation and maintenance of the Myron Stratton Home. He did, though leave $50,000 each to his son, Harry Stratton of Toulon, Illinois and other relatives. ==Legacy==

Stratton left the bulk of his estate for the establishment of the Myron Stratton Home, for "the aged poor and dependent children." It is named for his father Myron Stratton. A bronze statue of Stratton by Nellie Walker was placed on the grounds of his estate in 1909. Another casting of Walker's statue of Stratton stands in downtown Colorado Springs. Stratton was inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame. In 1967, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Places named after Stratton • The town of Stratton, Colorado, on the state's eastern plains. • Stratton Park, Colorado Springs. • Stratton Hall at Colorado School of Mines, completed in 1904, was named after Stratton, who gave the school its first philanthropic gift of $25,000. He had been appointed as a CSM trustee in 1899 and was elected president of the board in 1901. • Stratton Spring; a mineral spring drilled to a depth of 283 feet completed February 21, 1936 at the loop where the trolleys turned around at 955 Manitou Avenue in Manitou Springs, Colorado. • Winfield Scott Stratton Post Office in Colorado Springs; named by an act of Congress in 1995; Stratton had sold the land the post office was built on to the federal government at a fraction of its value with the understanding that it would be used for the post office. • Stratton Elementary School in Colorado Springs. • Three connected streets in Colorado Springs, named Winfield, Scott, and Stratton streets. Popular culture The actor Gene Evans was cast as Stratton in the 1964 episode, "Sixty-seven Miles of Gold", on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days. hosted by Stanley Andrews. James Best and Jack Albertson played Jimmy Burns and Pearlman, respectively. In the story line, Stratton strikes it rich just as he signs over his mining claim to a syndicate. ==Notes==