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Horace Austin Warner Tabor[tA´bur] Pronunciation Key, 1830–99, American prospector, known as Silver Dollar Tabor, b. Holland, Vt. From the Matchless Mine at Leadville, Colo., he gained tremendous wealth by mining silver, and he spent money lavishly in Leadville and Denver. He became (1878) the first mayor of Leadville, served (1878–83) as lieutenant governor of Colorado, and sat in the U.S. Senate for about one month to complete an unexpired term (1883). He lost most of his fortune and at his death begged his second wife, Elizabeth McCourt Tabor, 1862–1935, known as Baby Doe, to hold the Matchless Mine, which he believed would again yield wealth. She was found frozen to death in a shack near the mine, where she had lived alone for many years. Douglas Moore's opera The Ballad of Baby Doe (1956) portrays the love affair of Tabor and Baby Doe.
See G. L. Hall, The Two Lives of Baby Doe (1962); D. A. Smith, Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend (1973).
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