Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, Number 2, 1959

WILLIAM JACKSON PALMER (1836-1909) William J. Palmer was born in Delaware. He was well educated, worked for the Hempfield Railroad, later was affiliated with the Westmoreland Coal Company, and still later was secretary to the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He served in the Civil War, emerging as a brevet brigadier-general, and in 1894 received the Congressional Medal of Honor. After the war he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, leaving it in 1870 for the D. & R.G. In the eighties he promoted railroads in Mexico. He was a founder of Colorado Springs and Colorado College, was first president of the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, and laid out part of Pueblo.