Ed Giddings
E.W. Giddings, Jr. was originally a department store owner in Colorado Springs. His store, relocated to 101-103 North Tejon, was a thriving, growing enterprise. Giddings was a respected member of the business community, sitting on the boards of the Exchange National Bank and the Short Line Railroad.
Nowhere was Giddings' sense of business more shrewd than in his partnership with William Lennox and Judge E.A. Colburn. The three invested $60,000 in a lease on the Strong Mine in 1893. The mine proved so rich that Sam Strong soon began badgering the partners to surrender their lease. When the mine was dynamited in 1894, Strong was accused of committing the crime to get the mine back from the Giddings-Colburn-Lennox syndicate.
The Strong Mine would eventually become Cripple Creek's 10th biggest producer, shipping more than $13 million in gold in its lifetime. The yield from the Strong, combined with Giddings' many other investments, gave him a net worth of $1.2 million at his death in 1913.