Martha Ready ~ "Mattie Silks"

Martha A. Ready, later known as Mattie Silks, was born about 1846 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania and raised in Indiana. She began her working career in Springfield, Illinois and became the best known madams in the West, with brothels in Dodge City, Kansas and Denver, Colorado where demand for women was high during the Colorado Gold Rush.

She was described as a very good looking woman, with spirit and a competitive nature.

From 1877 to 1897 her brothel was the most successful in Denver. She started her first brothel on Holladay Street (now Market Street) and suffered from stiff competition from other brothels. In 1881, she and another Denver madam, Kate Fulton, had the first recorded pistol duel between two women. But the fight was over love, not money ... both were involved romantically with the same man, Cortese Thomson, a local gambler and con man. The two women stood a few feet apart on the west Bank of the South Platte River and fired at each other. But only Thomson fell, due to Mattie's terrible aim. She married Cortese three years later.

 In 1898, Madam Jennie Rogers opened the House of Mirrors in Denver, and quickly became more successful than any of her competition. Jennie Rogers died in 1909, after which Silks purchased the House of Mirrors for $14,000. She continued to work as a madam, traveled and invested in real estate, making her a very wealthy woman.

Thomson lived off Mattie's money until he died in Wray, where Mattie owned a ranch in 1900. It's unknown why Mattie didn't buy him a headstone for the plot where she joined him 29 years later.

Two weeks after she fell and broke her hip on Christmas Day, she was finally taken to Denver General Hospital, where she died of complications two days later on 7 January 1929. She was buried next to Thomson under the name Martha Ready in the Fairmount Cemetery (block 12/lot 31). At the time of her death, she was married to rancher and gambler, Jack Ready, who died 2 years later in Wray. Her heir was Theresa Thomson, Cortese's daughter from an earlier marriage.

Leah Tehme ~ "House of Mirrors"

Leah J. Tehme, later known at Jennie Rogers, was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania on 4 July 1843. She was described as being six feet tall and hot-tempered. She married young to a doctor, but the union didn't last long. Wanting a life of excitement, she met and ran off with a steamboat Captain Rogers, who named his boat, the Jennie Rogers, after her.

Jennie left Captain Rogers and made her way to Denver, Colorado arriving there around 1880. Looking to establish a parlor house that would outdo the one belonging to her rival, Mattie Silks, she built a small parlour house at 1942 Market Street and began recruiting the most seductive ladies. Her place, known as the "House of Mirrors" was an intimate haven where gents could enjoy the finest cigars, the best of brandies and the most discreet companionship. It boasted a dining room, three parlours, a ball room, a wine cellar and 15 bedrooms. The mirrored ceilings captured the grand piano, a golden harp, crystal chandeliers, oriental rugs, birds's-eye maple woodwork and some anatomical wonders. Carved into the building's facade are busts of men she was supposed to have blackmailed to build the most elegant cat house in Colorado.

Jennie ran the House of Mirrors until she died in 1909. She's buried in the Fairmount Cemetery under the name Leah Wood. In 1911, Mattie Silks bought the place for $14,000 and reigned supreme until 1915, when the national inclination toward morality reached the West and Denver's red-light district shifted to other, less prominent areas of the city.