George Stillman Hazen, one of Meeker’s founding fathers was one of our earliest settlers and stockholders of the Meeker Town Company. He was born Sept. 17, 1837 in Hiram, Portage, Ohio. His brother, William was a career officer in the army who had won recognition during the Indian Wars of the Southwest before the Civil War. Both brothers served in the Civil War. George advanced during the war to First Lt. with the 9th Independent Battalion, Ohio Light Infantry. George was discharged April 28, 1864, due to asthma contracted March 1862 in London, Kentucky, during the war.
He married Pauline Lamson on Sept. 21, 1858 and had two daughters: Agnes Eveline and Grace Evangeline Hazen in Ohio before the Civil War broke out and he enlisted in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 10, 1861. In 1869, George, Pauline, and the girls headed west to Fremont, Nebraska. The family is listed in the 1870 Fremont, Platte, Nebraska census. George was a clerk in a general store. Pauline died in Fremont, Nebraska on Jan. 17, 1871.
I am not sure where the family was for the next nine years, but George and his brother William reappeared on the 1880 Census in Fort Buford, Dakota Territory. Fort Buford was named after General John Buford who died during the Civil War. The Census taker was listed as none other than George Hazen himself.
I rather think George had a sense of humor. He listed himself as “Postmaster” and his brother George as “soldier.” He neglected to mention that his brother, William was a Colonel at the post and formerly a Major General in the Civil War. According to the Sept. 5, 1885 edition of the Meeker Herald, George S. Hazen came here with the military establishment. Presumably that meant with his brother William from Fort Buford to the infant settlement surrounding the Camp on the White River and he stayed there after his illustrious brother left for Washington.
George was in perfect position to make something of himself. At the suggestion from George’s brother, Col. William B. Hazen, the post office appointed George Stillwell Hazen postmaster of Meeker, Summit County, Colorado on Oct. 4, 1880. George had some experience in this job. He was the civilian postmaster at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory on Dec. 2, 1879.
It is probable that George accompanied his brother with some of the 6th Infantry regiment from Fort Buford in July of 1880. George apparently felt his opportunity was in the White River valley. After the Army left in 1883, George was a stockholder in the Meeker Town Company. He was instrumental in dealing with the paperwork involving the purchase of the land from the U.S. government. On Sept. 5, 1885, George resigned as postmaster. In his obituary, George was reported to have served one term as Judge in Garfield County. George Stillman Hazen died July 29, 1909, in Santa Monica, California, and was interred Aug. 1, 1909, in the Los Angeles National Cemetery.