Harry Heye Tammen
Tammen (left) standing with Buffalo Bill (right) at the Kansas City railroad depot, August 29, 1913
Tammen (left) standing with Buffalo Bill (right) at the Kansas City railroad depot, August 29, 1913
Born
Heinrich Heye Tammen

March 6, 1856
Baltimore, Maryland
DiedJuly 19, 1924 (68 years old)
Burial placeFairmount Cemetery
NationalityAmerican
Other namesH. H. Tammen
Occupation(s)Bartender
Businessman
Journalist
Publisher
EmployerThe Denver Post
Known forCo-owning The Denver Post
Parent(s)Heye Henrich (father)
Caroline Henrietta Piepenbruker (mother)

Heinrich “Harry” Heye Tammen (March 6, 1856, Baltimore, Maryland—July 19, 1924, Denver, Colorado) was an American journalist, publisher, businessman and bartender. He worked alongside Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and co-owned The Denver Post, the Kansas City Times, and the Sells Floto Circus.

Early life

Heinrich Heye Tammen was born on March 6, 1856, in Baltimore, Maryland.[1] His father was a pharmacist and supposed attaché for the Netherlands[2] named Heye Henrich. His mother was named Caroline Henrietta Piepenbruker. Both of his parents were immigrants from Hanover, Germany.[3]

He grew up working for beer gardens and became a bartender before he was 21. He moved to Philadelphia, then to Denver in 1880 to continue bartending at the Windsor Hotel.[3][4][5] In 1881, he founded the H.H. Tammen Curio Company. The company sold inauthentic skookum dolls, Navajo blankets, and arrowheads.[3][6]

Jounalism

While working at the Windsor Hotel, Tammen met his business partner, Fredrick Gilmer Bonfils. Tammen and Bonfils, known together as “Tam and Bon”,[2] bought The Denver Post in 1895.[5] With their silent partner, J. Ogden Armour, they also acquired the Kansas City Times.[7]

They also bought the Sells Brothers Circus.[8] After buying the circus, Tammen renamed it to the Sells Floto circus, naming it after Otto Floto, because he liked the name Floto.[9]

In December of 1899, he and Bonfils were shot by W.W. Anderson, an attourney representing Alferd Packer. Tammen’s life was saved by newspaper editor Polly Pry, who used her skirt to bandage the wounds.[10]

In 1900, Tammen and Bonfils were involved in the Teapot Dome scandal, after they received $250,000 in bribes from Harry Ford Sinclair to not report on the oil drilling in Teapot Rock.[4][11][12]

Tammen died on July 19, 1924 in Denver.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  2. 1 2 Bricklin, Julia (2018-09-01). Polly Pry: The Woman Who Wrote the West. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4930-3440-6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Colorado, State Historical and Natural History Society of (1927). History of Colorado. Linderman Company, Incorporated.
  4. 1 2 McCartney, Laton (2008). The Teapot Dome Scandal : how big oil bought the Harding White House and tried to steal the country. Internet Archive. New York : Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6316-1.
  5. 1 2 Leavitt, Craig; Noel, Thomas J. (2016-02-15). Herndon Davis: Painting Colorado History, 1901–1962. University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-1-60732-420-1.
  6. ↑ Rogan, Bjarne (January 2006). "Folk Art and Politics In Inter-War Europe: An Early Debate on Applied Ethnology". Folk Life. 45 (1): 7–23. doi:10.1179/flk.2006.45.1.7. ISSN 0430-8778. S2CID 147030198.
  7. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  8. ↑ Johnston, Winifred (1935). "PASSING OF THE 'WILD WEST': A Chapter in the History of American Entertainment". Southwest Review. 21 (1): 33–51. ISSN 0038-4712. JSTOR 43462218.
  9. ↑ DeArment, Robert K. (2014-04-14). Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-7073-2.
  10. ↑ "Polly Pry (1857 - 1938) | Denver Public Library History". history.denverlibrary.org. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  11. ↑ Inc, Time (1954-03-29). LIFE. Time Inc. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  12. ↑ Fowler, Gene (1974). Timber Line: A Story of Bonfils and Tammen Paperback. ISBN 978-0891740070.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.