Lancaster Platt Lupton (September 21, 1807 – October 1, 1885) was the son of William Lupton, Jr. (a New York City Lawyer). He attended
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
, graduating with the class of 1829. In 1835, Lieutenant Lupton was a member of
Colonel Henry Dodge's United States Regiment of Dragoons when they passed through the
South Platte Valley in what would become the state of
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
. Lupton saw the potential for a successful trading post on the banks of the South Platte River. He resigned his commission and returned the next year to build Fort Lancaster, later called
Fort Lupton.
In present Nebraska in 1838 Lupton married Tomasina, the daughter of a Cheyenne Chief. They remained married until his death in 1885.
Fort Lancaster operated as a fur trading post until 1844, when a particularly harsh blizzard caused the fort to close and Lupton moved his family south to an area near modern-day
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat of and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The ...
. Later, they moved to California during the
1849 Gold Rush. Lupton lived in California until his death in 1885.
References
Fort Lupton - Its BeginningAbout Weld County, CO
1807 births
1885 deaths
19th-century American businesspeople
United States Military Academy alumni
People from pre-statehood Colorado
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