n}\
41
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01066 9452
HISTORY
OF THE
STATE OF COLORADO
EMBRACING ACCOUNTS OF THE
PRE-HISTORIC RACES AND THEIR REMAINS; THE EARLIEST SPANISH, FRENCH AND
AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS ; THE LIVES OF THE PRIMITIVE HUNTERS, TRAP-
PERS AND TRADERS ; THE COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES ; THE FIRST
AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS FOUNDED ; THE ORIGINAL DISCOVERIES
OF GOLD IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS ; THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CITIES AND TOWNS, WITH THE VARIOUS PHASES
OF INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL TRANSITION,
FROM 1858 TO 1890.
ir-4 F~CDi_ji=? \rcDi_x_jivi
ILLUSTRATED.
BY
FRANK HALL,
FOR THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HISTORICAL COMPANY.
CHICAGO:
THE BLAKELY rRINTING COMPANY.
1889.
Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year iSSg, by
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HISTORICAL CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington D. C
^ PREFATORY.
V, 118S741
^ Every earnest endeavor to trace out the archaeology of Colorado,
^ will inevitably lead to an investigation of the prehistoric races and con-
ditions of the American continent. About all the light we have con-
J cerning the peculiar race which ages ago occupied a portion of the
\^ southwestern division of our State, lies in the very full and extremely
L •/ interesting reports rendered by Holmes and Jackson of the United
States Geological Survey, and published in Prof. F. V. Hayden's report
of 1876, which, together with the opinions of eminent ethnologists who
have given close attention to the subject, have been freely quoted in
the following pages wherein our ancient beginnings are epitomized. It
is well to state in this connection, that the manuscript of the first five
chapters of this work was submitted to, and approved by Mr. Jackson,
who has been for some years an honored resident of Denver. As to the
character of the people who built the remarkable structures described,
and the ethnical, relations of the modern Pueblos to them, it is a fair
presumption that we derive some knowledge of their civilization, habits,
customs, industries and home life, from the writings of Castaneda, the
historian of Coronado's expedition, for it may be assumed that the
natives whom he met were much the same in matters of habit
and modes of living as their ancestors, who first occupied the region.
It would be superfluous to discuss the question of their antiquity here.
iv PREFATORY.
since the best conclusions of ethnological science thus far developed,
have been given in the text.
What may be termed the ante-historic period of our State, is made
up of the scraps and fragments of information that have been handed
down to us respecting the original Spanish, French and American
explorations of the plains and mountains, the lives, trails, trading posts
and the commerce incident to the times of the primitive hunters and
trappers, to which considerable space has been devoted, in the hope that
they will not be found the least interesting portion of these chronicles.
The modern historic period opens with the expedition of the
Cherokees, accompanied by Green Russell and party from Georgia, and
the record of their prospecting for gold along the tributaries of the
Platte River, which is the beginning of American occupation of the
Rocky Mountain region, and formed the base of our settlement here.
The first dozen years of this record is but the relation of the trying
experiences of the pioneers in their heroic efforts to establish a perma-
nent foothold upon the soil, by the discovery and utilization of its
natural resources. The annals of the Territory from 1859 ^^ 1872, com-
prise the discoveries of the gold hunters and the progress of the
chief settlements created by the miscellaneous immigration which fol-
lowed the disclosures made by George A. Jackson, John Gregory and
Green Russell, wars with the aborigines, and political transitions. Many
towns and camps that were prominent centers of activity during the first
five years have been wholly eliminated through abandonment and decay,
while others, principally those founded in the agricultural divisions, have
grown strong, rich and powerful, through the fruitage of wisely directed
husbandry.
The plan of this work is to pursue in chronological order, the events
attending the development of our commonwealth, from the earliest
times down to the present, in order to insure comprehensive complete-
ness of detail. Let it be borne in mind that there was no Leadville until
PREFATORY. v
1878-9 ; that the great mines of the San Juan country were not peopled
until 1871 ; that until 1871 Denver contained less than five thousand
inhabitants, and the Territory less than fifty thousand ; that Pueblo,
Trinidad, Canon City, Boulder and Golden City were but small and feeble
settlements ; that Colorado Springs, Manitou, Greeley, Fort Collins,
Longmont, Las Animas, Buena Vista, Silver Cliff, Montrose, Grand
Junction and many other towns that have acquired gratifying promi-
nence since 1870 were until then unknown, and some of them undreampt
of, and that therefore the first volume of our history which closes with
1872, is necessarily largely confined to the movements and developments
transpiring at points of greatest lodgment and industrial prominence.
The design in extending our work through four volumes instead of con-
densing it into one or two, was to insure space enough for every record
which properly belongs to the legitimate chronicles of the country, and
when these shall have been exhausted, to find a place for interestintr
reminiscences and personal reviews of the strong hearted men who
founded and have been conspicuous in building the State.
Our aim at the outset was to search for a beginning somewhere, and
then trace the multifarious lines and threads down through their various
channels to the present time, so that the historian of the future who
shall write of the first generation long after it has passed into the inter-
minable list of the forgotten, may have the most accurate guide which
could be furnished during the lifetime of those who planted the seeds of
civilization here. I am fully aware of the fact that in the conscientious
pursuit of this purpose it will be necessary to collate the annals of every
town and county in modern Colorado, and it is to this that the larger
part of the second and third volumes will be devoted, so that the people
of every section may feel that they have been treated fairl)- and
impartially.
The second volume, which it is anticipated will be published not
vi PREFATORY.
later than September next, will open with an exhaustive treatise on the
ancient fossil remains that have been so widely distributed over many
portions of Colorado, and the mining geology of the principal districts
that are now pouring their treasures into the coffers of the nation, pre-
pared by Prof. R. C. Hills, late president of the Colorado Scientific
Society, and now the most eminent authority on those subjects in the
State. This division of our work has been deferred for the reason that
until well within the last decade the more important revelations of
science respecting the geological structure of the Rocky Mountains and
the great mineral deposits found in them had not been disclosed, nor had
the great mining sections of Summit and the South Park, Leadville,
Aspen, the San Juan, or those of Gilpin, Clear Creek and Boulder been
subjected to more than cursory investigation. What has been deter-
mined in regard to them by the most learned and skillful investigators
who have labored patiently, intelligently and continuously to solve the
great problems before them in geological and metallurgical science, will
then be very fully set forth.
The general history relating to political, industrial and commercial
advancement will be continued as heretofore, and upon substantially the
same plan as herein defined. Much of the matter for the next volume
has been prepared. A list containing the officers and members of every
Territorial and State Legislature from 1861 to 1889 inclusive, with the
first messages of Governor R. W. Steele and William Gilpin, both inter-
esting relics of the olden time ; the officers and members of the several
constitutional conventions ; the mayors and councils of Denver from
1 86 1 to 1889 ' t^"'^ diar)' of Geo. A. Jackson written in 1858-9 — and
relating the daily events attending the discovery of gold made by him
on Vasquez P'ork, together with the names of more than five hundred of
the pioneers in the Pike's Peak region, will be made a part of the
appendix to that volume.
PREFATORY. vii
The selection of portraits has been made with especial reference to
the identification of the individuals with the historic events in which
they were the principal actors or participators, in the belief that this plan
will be more satisfactory than miscellaneous distribution without regard
to fitness. This design will in future be varied by the introduction of
some fine scenic views of picturesque farms and ranches, and noted
points in the mountains.
In conclusion I take infinite pleasure in publicly acknowledging my
indebtedness to Capt. E. L. Berthoud for interesting notes of the
itinerary of Padres Escalante and Garcia ; of De Bourgmont's expedition
to Kansas, and facts relating to the early Spanish explorations ; to Col.
J. M. Chivington for the very complete annals of the First Regiment
Colorado Volunteers ; to General George West for important memo-
randa added to Berthoud's sketch of the Second Regiment ; to \Vm. N.
Byers for files of the Rocky Mountain " News" from 1859 ^^ 1867 ; for
his careful reading and just criticism of all manuscript prepared for this
volume, and for many valuable notes and additions ; to George A.
Jackson for the use of his diary of 1858-9, containing the particulars of
his travels through the country in that time ; to W. H. Jackson, Gov-
ernor Alva Adams, Capt. J. J. Lambert, editor of the Pueblo "Chief-
tain," and Halsey M. Rhoads for valuable old books loaned me ; and to
General Edward L. Bartlett and Librarian Allison of Santa Fe, for
much interesting data relating to early Spanish expeditions which form
a part of the ancient archives of the city of Holy Faith, and finally to
Mr. Charles R. Dudley. Librarian of the Chamber of Commerce, for
innumerable favors in aid of the collection of important data. With
this hasty introduction, the first volume of our History of Colorado is
respectfully submitted, by
The Author.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
1528 TO 1542. Expedition of pamfilio narvaez — landing at tampa bay — explo-
rations INLAND ABANDONED BY THE FLEET— WRECK OF THEIR BOATS — CABEZA
DE VACA AND HIS COMPANIONS THROWN UPON THE COAST OF LOUISIANA — ENSLAVE-
MENT BY THE INDIANS — THEIR ESCAPE AFTER SIX YEARS — JOURNEY ACROSS THE
CONTINENT — INDIAN TRIBES MET WITH EN ROUTE — EXPERIENCES AMONG THE PU-
EBLOS, OR TOWN-DWELLING PEOPLES FIRST MEETING WITH SPANISH TROOPS — EFFECT
OF DE VACa's ADVENTURES UPON THE CONQUERORS OF MEXICO CONQUEST OF FLO-
RIDA BY DE SOTO — TRAILS OF FIRE AND BLOOD — DEATH OF DE SOTO — LOUIS MOSCO-
SQ's MARCH TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. - - - - -I?
CHAPTER n.
1530 TO 1540, Expeditions from the southwest — friar marcos de niza and his
GUIDE, ESTEVANICO — CORONADO'S MARCH TO THE SEVEN WONDERFUL CITIES OF
CIBOLA DESCRIPTION OF THE INHABITANTS, THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, MANNERS
AND CUSTOMS — RESISTANCE TO THE INVADERS — DESTRUCTION AND SLAUGHTER
PARTIAL CONQUEST OF THE COUNTRY — INEFFECTUAL SEARCH FOR THE
MYTHICAL CITY OF QUIVIRA — DISCOVERY OF THE GRAND CANYON OF THE
COLORADO — THE CLIFF DWELLERS, THEIR CHARACTER, HABITS AND HOMES —
TRAVERSING THE PLAINS OF KANSAS RETURN OF THE ARMY TO MEXICO — THE
author's VISIT TO THE PUEBLOS — INTERVIEW WITH A VENERABLE CACIQUE
SOME OLD MANUSCRIPTS — PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS OF THESE PECULIAR PEOPLE. 27
CHAPTER HI.
The RUINS in southwestern Colorado — descriptions by holmes and jackson of
THE U. S. geological SURVEY NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE CLIFF AND CAVE
dwellings — HOW THEY WERE BUILT ENORMOUS LABOR INVOLVED — REMAINS OF
THE RIO MANCOS, THE SAN JUAN, DOLORES, CHELLEY, AND IN CHACO CANYON — DIS-
COVERIES AMONG THE RUINS — INDIAN PICTOGRAPHY COMPARISON OF ANCIENT
(viii)
CONTENTS.
IX
AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE — ANTIQUITY OF THE PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBABLE
ORIGIN — AZTEC TRADITIONS — RECENT DISCOVERY OF SIMILAR TOWNS AND PEOPLE
IN MOROCCO. ........ 40
CHAPTER IV.
Our PREHISTORIC RACES — ETHNOLOGICAL REVELATIONS — ANCIENT INHABITANTS AND
THEIR WORKS — SOME HIGHLY INTERESTING DISCOVERIES — OPINIONS OF SCIENTISTS —
EACH CONTINENT MAY HAVE PRODUCED ITS OWN RACE — OLD THEORIES OF ORIG-
INAL MIGRATIONS OVERTURNED BY THE EXHUMATION OF HUMAN REMAINS AT GREAT
DEPTHS THE LIGHT OF MODERN INVESTIGATION LEADS TO STARTLING CONCLU-
SIONS— DISCOVERY OF THE MOUND BUILDERS — EMIGRATION OF THE ANCIENT RACES
WESTWARD DESCENT OF THE AZTECS FROM THE NORTHWEST UPON THE TOLTECS
OF MEXICO THE BUILDERS OF THE SPLENDID TEMPLES IN YUCATAN — ANTIQUITY
OF MAN UPON THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA. ... ^9
CHAPTER V.
Indian character, traditions, and religious impressions — the ancient aztecs
and modern pueblos— were the ruins in colorado of aztec or toltec de-
velopment ? legend of the expulsion of the cliff dwellers from the san
juan mountains, and their dispersion through new mexico and arizona
remote antiquity of these ruins vast population of the ancient towns
traditions of the moquis and zunis primeval reservoirs and irrigation
beauty and comprehensiveness of the aztec language. - - 74
CHAPTER VI.
1582 TO 1806. Revival of explorations from mexico — the expedition of don
JUAN DE ONATE — COLONIZATION OF NEW MEXICO — DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE
SAN LUIS VALLEY MARCHES OF ONATE AND PENALOSA TO THE MISSOURI RIVER
FRENCH EXPEDITIONS FROM NEW ORLEANS — THE PILGRIMAGE OF FATHERS ESCA-
LANTE AND GARCIA TO THE SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS, AND THROUGH VARIOUS PARTS
OF COLORADO THE EXPLORATIONS OF LIEUT. ZEBULON M. PIKE AND HIS CAPTURE
BY THE SPANIARDS THE FIRST DISCOVERER OF GOLD ON THE UPPER ARKANSAS
ORIGINAL AMERICAN VISITORS TO THIS REGION. - - - ' ^5
CHAPTER VII.
1812 TO 1840 ROBERT STEWART'S JOURNEY FROM CALIFORNIA MAJOR LONG'S
EXPLORATIONS — ASCENT OF PIKE's PEAK — ORIGIN OF THE COMMERCE OF THE
PRAIRIES — THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL THE GREAT TEXAS-SANTA FE EXPEDITION
X CONTENTS.
CAPTURED BY DIMASIO SALEZAR AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES AND NOTED PIONEERS
— GEN. ASHLEY CAPT. BONNEVILLE DECLINE OF THE FUR TRADE AND ITS CAUSES
THE PRIMITIVE HUNTERS AND TRAPPERS, THEIR HABITS AND CHARACTER. 99
CHAPTER VIII.
1840 TO 1853 — COL. Fremont's five expeditions to the rocky mountains —
GUIDED BY KIT CARSON ADVENTURES IN THE WIND RIVER AND SANGRE DE
CRISTO RANGES OLD PARSON BILL WILLIAMS — CAMPING ON THE PRESENT SITE
OF DENVER — ST. VRAIN'S FORT OLD PUEBLO VISITING THE BOILING SPRINGS AT
MANITOU TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES IN CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS ARRIVAL AT
TAOS PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDITIONS PACIFIC RAILWAYS FORESHADOWED
PUBLIC REJOICING IN ST. LOUIS. - - - - - II4
CHAPTER IX.
1846 to 1857 OUTBREAK OF THE MEXICAN WAR DONIPHAN'S EXPEDITION DARING
EXPLOITS OF MAJOR WILLIAM GILPIN PURSUIT OF INDIANS IN THE SAN JUAN
MOUNTAINS SURVEYS FOR A PACIFIC RAILROAD CAPT. GUNNISON's EXPEDITION
AND ITS TRAGIC ENDING CAPT. MARCY's MIDWINTER MARCH FROM FORT
BRIDGER TO FORT MASSACHUSETTS TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS CAMPING AT MANI-
TOU AND DENVER DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CHERRY CREEK. - - 128
CHAPTER X.
Lives of the hunters and trappers — their part in the history of our
country bridger, baker, goodale, sublette and fitzpatrick — sir george
GORE AND HIS INIIGHTY RETINUE BAKER's FIGHT WITH GRIZZLIES TORN BY A
REPEATING RIFLE KIT CARSON's WONDERFUL CAREER EPITOME OF HIS LIFE
AND CHARACTER. .-.-..-. 146
CHAPTER XI.
Historic settlements in Colorado between 1826 and 185S — arrival of the
bents and ST. VRAIN — FIRST STOCKADE ON THE ARKANSAS AND TRADING POSTS
subsequently ERECTED TRAFFIC AMONG THE INDIANS TRAGIC DEATH OF
CHARLES BENT SETTLEMENTS ON ADOBE CREEK AND THE GREENHORN THE OLD
PUEBLO FORT INDIAN MASSACRE FORT MASSACHUSETTS POSTS IN NORTHERN
COLORADO VASQUEZ, LUPTON AND ST. VRAIN INDIAN TRIBES OF THE PLAINS,
THEIR ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS. ----.. 162
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XII.
The panic of 1857 — emigration to the west — discoveries of gold in the rocky
mountains from 1595 to i860 green russell and the cherokees — prospect-
ing the tributaries of the platte the founding of montana, colorado
city, auraria, boulder and denver state of society first movement for
political organization founding of the "rocky mountain news." - 173
CHAPTER XIII.
1858-9 — PROGRESS OF MINING ON THE PLAINS — STEADY INCREMENT OF POPULATION
— GEORGE A. Jackson's discovery on Chicago creek — explorations of the
VALLEY — JOHN H. GREGORY'S GREAT FIND ON THE NORTH FORK OF VASQUEZ
RIVER D. K. wall's EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE VISIT OF HORACE GREELEY
— FRUITS OF THE FIRST SEASON'S WORK — DISCOVERY OF RUSSELL's GULCH — A. D.
GAMBELL's narrative — GOLD IN BOULDER AND THE SOUTH PARK — STAMP MILLS
— NEWSPAPERS — MINING LAWS. ...... 186
CHAPTER XIV.
1859 — ATTEMPTS TO INSTITUTE SOCIAL AND CIVIL ORDER MOVEMENT FOR STATE
ORGANIZATION CONSTITUTION REJECTED — ELECTION OF B. D. WILLIAMS TO CON-
GRESS THE TERRITORY OF JEFFERSON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT LEAVEN-
WORTH AND pike's peak EXPRESS AMOS STECK AND THE U. S. MAILS DUEL
BETWEEN R. E. WHITSITT AND PARK m'CLURE INCEPTION OF WHEAT CULTURE
— PROF. O. J. GOLDRICK — FOUNDING OF SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES — APPEAL TO
CONGRESS FOR A STABLE GOVERNMENT PEOPLE'S COURTS HOW THE MINERS
PUNISHED CRIMINALS — LAWLESSNESS IN DENVER. ... 206
CHAPTER XV.
Canon city, golden, boulder, Hamilton, fairplay, and other towns in 1859 —
MR. LOVELAND's project FOR A RAILWAY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS HORACE
GREELEY's involuntary BATH — ADVENTURES OF BOULDER's PIONEERS WITH LEFT
HAND AND BEAR HEAD INDIAN PROPHECY — MINING ON VASQUEZ, IN THE SOUTH,
AND ON THE BLUE — MOUNTAIN CITY — PACIFIC RAILWAY LEGISLATION — INFLU-
ENCE OF SETTLEMENT IN COLORADO UPON THAT .MEASURE, - - 223
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
i860 — PROGRESS OF DENVER — CRYSTALIZATION OF BUSINESS — A CHAPTER OF HOR-
RORS DUEL BETWEEN LEW BLISS AND DR. STONE ROMANTIC TRAGEDY IN
FAIRPLAY TOM WARREN CHALLENGES W. N. BYERS CHARLEY HARRISON JOHN
SCUDDER KILLS P. T, BASSETT BLOODY CAREER OF JAMES A. GORDON — FEARFUL
RIOT IN LEAVENWORTH TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF GORDON CARROLL WOOD's
ATTACK ON THE "NEWS" OFFICE KILLING OF STEELE EXPATRIATION OF THE
GANG OF OUTLAWS. ..-.-.- 233
CHAPTER XVH.
i860 MEASURES FOR ORGANIZING THE TERRITORY DIFFICULTY IN SELECTING A
TITLE VARIOUS NAMES PROPOSED PROGRESS OF THE BILL IN CONGRESS EFFORTS
OF SCHUYLER COLFAX IN OUR BEHALF OPPOSITION OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS
DEFEATS THE BILL— POLITIC AL MOVEMENTS IN COLORADO RETURN OF DELEGATE
WILLIAMS CONSOLIDATION OF AURARIA AND DENVER HEAVY IMMIGRATION —
DISCOVERY OF GOLD ON THE ARKANSAS RIVER — CALIFORNIA GULCH INDIAN
FORAYS — THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY D. H. MOFFAT
jR JOHN M. CHIVINGTON CLARK & GRUBER's COINAGE MINT U. S. MAILS
DISCOVERY OF SILVER. ....... 244
CHAPTER XVHI.
1861 ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF COLORADO DEBATES IN THE SENATE
AND HOUSE OVERSHADOWING INFLUENCE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION STEPHEN
A. DOUGLAS VEHEMENTLY OPPOSES THE BILL SYNOPSIS OF HIS ARGUMENTS —
PASSAGE OF THE ORGANIC ACT OFFICERS APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN
ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR GILPIN — PUBLIC MEETINGS — -CENSUS OF THE POPULATION
ORGANIZATION OF THE SUPREME COURT — BENCH AND BAR — UNION OR DISUNION
MOBILIZATION OF TROOPS — GILPIn's DRAFTS ON THE NATIONAL TREASURY —
THEIR FINAL PAYMENT — BIOGRAPHY OF OUR FIRST GOVERNOR. - 258
CHAPTER XIX.
1861-1862 ACTIVITY OF THE SECESSIONISTS PLOT TO CAPTURE COLORADO AND NEW
MEXICO ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST REGIMENT COLORADO VOLUNTEERS ITS
MARCH TO FORT UNION BATTLES OF APACHE CANON AND PIGEON'S RANCH
GALLANT EXPLOITS OF MAJOR CHIVINGTON — SLOUGH's RESIGNATION CHIVING-
TON APPOINTED TO COMMAND HIS ABILITY AS A LEADER SERVICE RENDERED
BY CAPTAINS DODD AND FORD — m'lAIN's BATTERY. - - - 275
CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER XX.
1862-1864 — STATE OF POLITICAL FEELING — BENNETT AND GILPIN CANDIDATES FOR
CONGRESS — Bennett's services to the territory — opening the branch
MINT removal of THE CAPITAL TO COLORADO CITY COL. JESSE H. LEAVEN-
WORTH HISTORY OF THE SECOND AND THIRD REGIMENTS OF COLORADO VOLUN-
TEERS— DENVER SWEPT BY FIRE — THE CONSTRUCTION OF TELEGRAPH LINES —
MAYOR STECK's MESSAGE A STALWART SENTIMENT FROM THE PACIFIC SLOPE
PROTRACTED DROUTH FOLLOWED BY A SEVERE WINTER THE RAPID RISE OF
GOLD SALE OF COLORADO MINES IN NEW YORK THE GREAT FLOOD IN CHERRY
CREEK THE STATE MOVEMENT OF 1864 — REJECTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 289
CHAPTER XXI.
1864 INVASION OF THE SOUTH PARK BY TEXAN GUERRILLAS THEIR PURSUIT, CAP-
TURE AND SUMMARY EXECUTION TITLES TO MINING PROPERTY GOVERNOR
EVANS BEGINS A MOVEMENT FOR THE EQUITABLE ADJUSTMENT OF MINERS*
RIGHTS — PROCEEDINGS IN WASHINGTON TO EXTRACT REVENUE FROM THE MINES
BY DIRECT TAXATION THE VARIOUS SCHEMES PROPOSED —GEORGE W. JULIAN's
BILL FERNANDO WOOD's RESOLUTION TO EXPEL THE MINERS THE INCEPTION
OF A LONG SERIES OF INDIAN WARS — REVIEW OF THE EVENTS WHICH CULMI-
NATED IN THE BATTLE OF SAND CREEK — MAJOR WYNKOOP's VISIT TO BLACK
kettle's CAMP RESCUE OF WHITE PRISONERS — GOVERNOR EVANS' CORRESPOND-
ENCE WITH THE AUTHORITIES IN WASHINGTON. - - - 313
CHAPTER XXn.
1864 CONTINUED AWFUL CRUELTIES PRACTICED BY INDIANS UPON THEIR CAPTIVES
HORRIBLE TREATMENT OF WHITE WOMEN STAKED OUT AND RAVISHED MEN
TORTURED AND BURNED COUNCIL WITH BLACK KETTLE AND OTHER CHIEFS AT
CAMP WELD GOVERNOR EVANS TURNS THEM OVER TO THE MILITARY COLONEL
CHIVINGTON's ULTIMATUM THEIR RETURN TO THE ARKANSAS RIVER PRO-
CEEDINGS AT FORT LYON WYNKOOP SUPERSEDED BY SCOTT J. ANTHONY
FURTHER CONFERENCES WITH THE INDIANS SOME HISTORICAL ERRORS COR-
RECTED THIRD REGIMENT OF COLORADO CAVALRY ITS MARCH TO FORT LYON
THE BATTLE OF SAND CREEK CRITICISM OF CHIVINGTON's ORDERS. - ;^^6
CHAPTER XXni.
1865 GEN. P. E. CONNOR DEATH OF MAJOR JOHN S. FILLMORE HIS LIFE AND
CHARACTER EFFECTS OF THE SAND CREEK IMASSACRE RENEWAL OF THE WAR
xiv CONTENTS.
— FURTHER APPEALS FOR TROOPS — COLONEL MOONLIGHT DECLARES MARTIAL
LAW MILITIA CALLED OUT DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY BANKS AND BANK-
ING FOUNDING OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK CHAFFEE AND MOFFAT
ARRIVAL OF SCHUYLER COLFAX MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN TO THE
MINERS OF THE WEST THE PACIFIC RAILROAD REVIVAL OF THE STATE MOVE-
MENT—CONSTITUTION RATIFIED SAND CREEK AN ELEMENT IN THE CAMPAIGN
NEGRO SUFFRAGE — ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR CUMMINGS — A TURBULENT ADMIN-
ISTRATION— ROUNDING UP THE TERRITORIAL OFFICERS— HIS ATTACK ON SECRE-
TARY ELBERT — SOME RACY CORRESPONDENCE — ALIENATING THE JEWS — A SEA-
SON OF BITTER POLITICAL WARFARE — ELBERT RESIGNS, AND THE AUTHOR IS
APPOINTED TO SUCCEED HIM — FEARFUL SCENES IN SOUTH PARK — THE BLOODY
ESPINOSAS. - - - - - - - - 357
CHAPTER XXIV.
1866 STATE BILLS BEFORE CONGRESS — SECOND VETO ATTE.MPTED BARGAIN WITH
EVANS AND CHAFFEE ORGANIC ACTS AMENDED EVANS REVIEWS THE VETO
CHILCOTT AND HUNT FOR CONGRESS — MORE OF CUMMINGS' PERFORMANCES — A
MIDNIGHT MESSAGE TO THE PRESIDENT SECRETARY HALL REMOVED SENATE
REFUSES TO CONFIRM A SUCCESSOR — CAUSTIC REVIEW OF CUMMINGs' ACTS BY A
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE — CHILCOTT SEATED — HUNT APPOINTED GOVERNOR —
LOVELAND AND THE CLEAR CREEK RAILWAY FINAL LOCATION OF THE PACIFIC
RAILROAD — FIRST PIONEERS* ASSOCIATION KOUNTZE BROS. AND THE COLORADO
NATIONAL BANK GEORGE T. CLARK ARRIVAL OF BAYARD TAYLOR AND GEN-
ERAL SHERMAN FIRST BALLOTS CAST BY THE BLACKS EARLY HISTORY OF
CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS — FIRST REPUBLICAN CLUB. ... 382
CHAPTER XXV.
THE BUILDING OF OUR FIRST RAILWAYS GENERAL HUGHES AND THE OVERLAND
STAGE LINE — BUTTERFIELD's LINE THROUGH THE SMOKY HILLS — LOVELAND AND
carter's proposition to DENVER — ARRIVAL OF COLONEL JAMES ARCHER —
ORGANIZATION OF A BOARD OF TRADE HISTORY OF THE DENVER PACIFIC
RAILWAY— REMOVAL OF THE TERRITORIAL CAPITAL INAUGURATION OF WORK
ON THE COLORADO CENTRAL GOVERNOR EVANS UTTERS A PROPHECY GENERAL
WM, J. PALMER — SKETCH OF THE UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY. - - 409
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE MURDERERS OF PONT NEUF CAXGX THEIR PURSUIT BY THE VIGILANTES OF
MONTANA A THRILLING I'NCIDENT OF THE FRONTIER — OVERLAND MERCHANDISE
CONTENTS.
MV
TRAFFIC COLORADO AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION THE BOSTON &: COLORADO
SMELTIXO WORKS OPENING OF A NEW ERA — GOVERNOR HUNT's ADMINIS-
TRATION TRIALS AND DIFFICULTIES DESTRUCTION OF CROPS BY GRASSHOPPERS
THE AMERICAN HOTEL RENEWAL OF THE STATE MOVEMENT LOCATION OF
THE TERRITORIAL PENITENTIARY RIOT IN TRINIDAD ARRIVAL OF GRANT,
SHERMAN AND SHERIDAN RETURN OF SCHUYLER COLFAX CHILCOTT'S RECORD
IN CONGRESS THE INDIAN WAR OF 1868 GREAT EXCITEMENT THE COLFAX
PARTY ENDANGERED PURSUIT OF THE INDIANS BY SHERIDAN TERRIBLE EXPE-
RIENCE OF COLONEL FORSYTHE ON THE REPUBLICAN. ... 438
CHAPTER XXVII.
1S68-187I ARRIVAL OF ROSCOE CONKLING, PROFESSOR AGASSIZ, SECRETARY WM. H.
SEWARD, GENERAL J. I\I. SCHOFIELD, AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED MEN AGASSIZ'S
OPINION OF COLORADO RESIGNATION OF SENATORS EVANS AND CHAFFEE GAS
WORKS ESTABLISHED ANNUAL ISIEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRADE PROGRESS
OF THE COLORADO CENTRAL ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH SMELTING WORKS — GOV-
ERNOR HUNT SUPERSEDED BY GEN, m'COOK HAYDEN's GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
THE ROBBING OF ORSON BROOKS — PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE OUTLAWS —
FRANKLIN KILLED, DOUGAN LYNCHED A GHASTLY SPECTER BY MOONLIGHT
THE LYNCHING OF MUSGROVE BY DENVER VIGILANTES DEVELOPMENT OF BOULDER,
CLEAR CREEK, PUEBLO AND CANON CITY FOUNDING OF IRON WORKS THE
AUTHOR DINES WITH ANSON RUDD PIONEER COURTS — DEALINGS WITH THIEVES
AUNT CLARA BROWN CHRISTENING THE GARDEN OF THE GODS TRADITIONS
OF MANITOU. . - - ^ - _ - - 464
CHAPTER XXVIII.
1870-72 — FURTHER HISTORY OV THE DENVER PACIFIC — OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS FOR
1870 — GOVERNOR EVANS' DONATION TO ARAPAHOE COUNTY — DRIVING THE SILVER
SPIKE THE LOCOMOTIVE D. H. MOFFAT GREAT MASONIC DEMONSTRATION — LAYING
THE CORNER STONE OF THE UNION DEPOT — BUILDING THE KANSAS PACIFIC —
CONSTANT ANNOYANCE FROM INDIANS THE TOWN OF KIT CARSON— GRADING
FROM DENVER EASTWARD BRISK WORK BY EICHOLTZ AND WEED FINAL COM-
PLETION OF THE ROAD OPENING A NEW ERA OF PROGRESS REAL ESTATE IN
DENVER STATISTICAL DATA FIRST THROUGH PULLMAN CAR FREIGHT TARIFFS
DENVER ii BOULDER VALLEY R. R. THE DENVER & RIO GRANDE RAILWAY
ITS FIRST TRAINS UTOPIAN CHARACTER OF THE ENTERPRISE FOUNDING COL-
ORADO SPRINGS AND MANITOU FITZHUGH LUDLOW's DRKAM DESCRIPTION OF
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS— EXTENSION OF THE RIO (IRANDE TO PUEBLO RECEP-
TION AND r.ANCJUET EFFECT OF RAILWAY CONNECTION ON THE TOWN. - 486
xvi CONTEXTS.
CHAPTER XXIX.
1870-72 — DATA SHOWING THE GROWTH OF THE TERRITORY EFFECT OF RAILWAYS
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUEBLO TERRITORIAL ASSESSMENTS AND EXPENDI-
TURES— RALPH Meeker's tribute to bvers, evans and moffat— develop-
ment OF THE public SCHOOLS— THE SUPERINTENDENC Y OF W. C. LOTHROP
ARAPAHOE STREET SCHOOL LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS FIRST BUREAU OF
IMMIGRATION EFFECTS OF TOO FREE ADVERTISING THE ADMINISTRATION OF
JOSEPH E. BATES AS MAYOR DEPLORABLE LACK OF PUBLIC PARKS — CONSERVA-
TISM OF THE PEOPLE HENRY M. STANLEY, THE RENOWNED EXPLORER HIS
CAREER IN THE WEST FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF FOUNTAIN COLONY FIRST YEAR's
PROGRESS FORT COLLINS COLONY ORGANIZATION OF COLORADO PIONEERS
VISIT OF THE GRAND DUKE ALEXIS OF RUSSIA SETTLEMENT OF THE SAN JUAN-
COUNTRY. ........ ^09
CHAPTER XXX.
Organization, location and early history of union colony — visit of n. c.
MEEKER attempt TO LOCATE IN THE SOUTH PARK ARRIVAL OF HORACE
GREELEY FATE OF THE FIRST AND ONLY SALOON EVER OPENED IN GREELEY
CARL WULSTEn's COLONY IN THE WET MOUNTAIN VALLEY REVIEW OF IRRIGA-
TION— TREE PLANTING AND FRUIT CULTURE — THE CHICAGO-COLORADO COLONY
ESTABLISH LONGMONT — COLORADO WHEAT AND FLOUR IN THE EAST. - 53 1
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOL. I.
Bowles, James W. . ,
Meek, C. F
BURCHINELL, Wm. K.
Daily, James M
, Frontispiece
64
80
96
Brisbane, W. H 112
Brewster, A. W 128
Teller, T. C i
44
Hawkins, Thos. H 160
Machebeuf, J. P 176
McCreery, James W 192
Creswell, Joseph 208
Perky, Jno. S 224
Bell, E. M 240
Burchard, O. R 256
Baerresen, H. W 272
Harvey, William 288
Place, A. B 304
Tynon, James S 320
Kendrick, Frank C 336
Taylor, C. E 352
Ball, J. J. T 368
Hooper, J. D 384
Chamberlin, J. T 400
Martin, Herman H 416
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER I.
1528 TO 1542. Expedition of pamfilio narvaez — landing at tampa bay — explo-
rations INLAND abandoned BY THE FLEET WRECK OF THEIR BOATS — CABEZA
DE VACA AND HIS COMPANIONS THROWN UPON THE COAST OF LOUISIANA ENSLAVE-
MENT BY THE INDIANS — THEIR ESCAPE AFTER SIX YEARS JOURNEY ACROSS THE
CONTINENT INDIAN TRIBES MET WITH EN ROUTE EXPERIENCES AMONG THE PU-
EBLOS, OR TOWN-DWELLING PEOPLES FIRST MEETING WITH SPANISH TROOPS EFFECT
OF DE VACa's ADVENTURES UPON THE CONQUERORS OF MEXICO CONQUEST OF FLO-
RIDA BY DE SOTO TRAILS OF FIRE AND BLOOD — DEATH OF DE SOTO LOUIS MOSCO-
SO'S MARCH TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
That we may pursue our investigations of the antiquity and the
archaeology of Colorado, with a proper understanding of the prehistoric
races and their works, as handed down to us, it is important to expunge
for the time being, modern boundaries of the States and Territories
west of the Mississippi, and view the country and its inhabitants as they
existed at the time of the conquest of Mexico and the Floridas by the
Spaniards. The vast region lying between St. Augustine and the Mis-
sissippi (Espirito Santo) was then designated as Florida, and thence
westward to the Pacific, in general, as New Spain. The first explorers
were the survivors of the ill-fated expedition of Pamfilio Narvaez, who
sailed from the West Indies in 1528, with four ships containing four
hundred men, eighty horses, and the requisite equipments, with the
intention of prosecuting a thorough exploration of the country which
had been previously discovered by Ponce de Leon, Diego Meruelo,
17
18 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Lucas, Vasquez de Allyon, and others, but not penetrated by them
beyond the coast. Narvaez landed in Tampa Bay in April of that year,
and proceeded some distance inland, leaving those in charge of the fleet
with instructions to follow along the Gulf, and await the commander at
some convenient harbor. After sailing about for some months without
hearing any tidings from the explorers, the officers of the fleet, giving
them up as lost, sailed for Havana. In due time the adventurers re-
turned to the coast, only to find themselves utterly abandoned. They
then constructed boats, with the view of proceeding along the gulf to
the river Panuco, whence they resolved to journey overland to the
Spanish settlements in Mexico. It is related that for this purpose, they
converted their stirrups, spurs, and every other piece of metal they pos-
sessed into saws, nails, etc., cut up and sewed together their shirts for
sails, and wove cordage from the tails and manes of their horses, the
animals being subsequently slaughtered, and their flesh dried for pro-
visions en route. Thus scantily provided they embarked, and after
varying fortunes some of the boats reached the coast of Louisiana, or
Texas, where all were wrecked or thrown upon the beach by furious
gales. Among those who survived, were Alvar Nunez Cabeza de
Vaca, the treasurer of Narvaez' expedition, a wise, prudent, sagacious,
and withal a godly man, of excellent repute in his native land, and three
companions.
As this forms the beginning of one of the most remarkable and
interesting expeditions ever accomplished by any member of the human
race on this continent, and also the first transcontinental reconnoisance
of which we have any knowledge, the narrative which follows is es-
pecially commended to the reader by the importance of its bearing upon
the events relating to the Spanish Conquest, detailed in the chapters
following. The material incidents have been extracted, and as far as
possible condensed, from Cabeza de Vaca's personal account, and will
repay careful attention. It is the dawn of our local history, and while
it relates but distantly to our own occupation, it is the original historic
light thrown upon the problem of the races which we call prehistoric.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 19
the widely scattered remnants of whose works are left as a guide to
their antiquity.
The boat commanded by Cabeza de Vaca was cast upon an island,
possibly Galveston, or some one of those in Matagorda Bay. At all
events, from the grievous sufferings and misfortunes of the party, it was
christened " Malhado," or Bad Luck, where, and upon the adjacent
mainland, they remained captives among the Indians for nearly six
years. De Vaca, as were all the rest, was enslaved by them, but by
virtue of certain miraculous powers which he was believed to possess
for healing the sick, he was treated with greater leniency than the
others, and allowed many special and much valued privileges, among
them that of visiting and trading with the tribes occupying interior
provinces. Finally, with three others, one of whom was a Barbary
negro named Estevanico, to whose extraordinary performances we shall
have occasion to refer later on, plans were concerted for their escape,
and an earnest effort to discover the settlements founded by Cortez and
other Spanish chieftains on the Pacific. In the course of time, but not
without many trials and disappointments owing to the constant vigilance
of their captors, this was accomplished. Employing his reputation as a
heaven-descended healer to the utmost, Cabeza and his associates jour-
neyed westward from tribe to tribe, by whom he was always cordially
received and kindly treated. He says he simply made the sign of the
cross over them, and commended them to God, whereupon the pains
and aches departed, and they were made whole. Out of their unspeak-
able gratitude they loaded him with presents, expressing in every way
reverential obedience, and making smooth his pathway across the coun-
try, his fame preceding him from point to point. The natives accom-
panied him in great numbers, bringing their sick to be cured, furnishing
guides, and protecting him from all danger, "When upon the plains,''
says the narrator, "we traveled through so many sorts of people of such
divers languages that memory fails to recall them. They ever plun-
dered each other, and those that lost, like those that gained, were fully
content. We drew so many followers that we had not use for their
20 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
services. Whatever they killed, or found, was put before us without
themselves daring to take anything until we had blessed it, though they
should be expiring of hunger, they having established this rule since
marching with us. Frequently we were accompanied by three or four
thousand people, and as we had to breathe upon and sanctify the food
and drink for each, and grant permission to do the many things they
would come to ask, it may be seen how great was the annoyance," In
due time they arrived at the Rio Grande, which is described as "a great
river coming from the north."
From this point, bearing northward for a time, they encountered a
different race of Indians living in "fixed dwellings of civilization," being
" the finest persons of any we saw, and of the greatest activity and
strength, who best understood us and most intelligently answered our
inquiries. We called them the Cow Nation," from the great numbers
of cattle (buffalo) in that region, upon which the natives depended for
meat and clothing. This section was very thickly populated. The
people cultivated the soil, possessed flocks and herds, occupied sub-
stantial dwellings, and were wholly distinct in physique, manners and
customs from the wild, roving tribes theretofore discovered. It will be
seen that the travelers had entered the country of the inhabited Pu-
eblos. In some of these "they gave us cotton shawls, better than those
of New Spain ; many beads and certain corals found in the South Sea,
and fine turquoises that came from the North," obtained undoubtedly
by themselves or other tribes from the Chalchiuitl Mountains near the
Modern Cerillos, about twenty miles south of Santa Fe, whence the
Pueblos of the present day obtain considerable supplies. " Indeed,"
continues de Vaca, " they gave us all they had. To me they gave five
emeralds made into arrow heads, which they use at their singing and
dancing. I asked whence they got these, and they said the stones were
brought from some lofty mountains that stand toward the North, where
were populous towns and very large houses, and that they purchased
them with plumes and feathers of parrots. * * * We possessed
great influence and authority ; to preserve both we seldom talked with
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 21
them. The negro (Estevanico) was in constant conversation ; he in-
formed himself about the ways we wished to take, of the towns there
were, and the matters we desired to know. We passed through many
and dissimilar tongues. Our Lord granted us favor with the people
who spake them, for they always understood us, and we them. We
questioned them, and received their answers by signs, just as if they
spoke our language, and we theirs, for although we knew six languages
we could not everywhere avail ourselves of them, there being a thou-
sand differences. Throughout all these countries the people who were
at war, immediately made friends, that they might come to meet us,
and bring what they possessed. In this way we left all the land at
peace, and we taught all the inhabitants, by signs which they under-
stood, that in heaven was a man we called God, who had created the
sky and the earth. Him we worshiped, and had for our Master ; that
we did what He commanded, and from His hand came all good ; and
would they do as we did, all would be well with them. They are a
people of good condition and substance, capable in any pursuit.''
Here we discover the initiative of the marvelous missionary work
undertaken and vigorously pursued by the devotees of Catholicism
among the primitive races of men, which have been reached by the
avant cotiriers of the Apostolic Church. Utterly naked as when they
came into the world, scarred and scored from shoulders to feet by the
innumerable hardships through which they had passed in their terrible
pilgrimage, they disseminated the doctrines of their faith and the bless-
ings of Christianity the entire length of their trail, from the shores of the
Atlantic to those of the Pacific; vehemently condemned, and, for a time,
put an end to the cruelties and robberies of marauding bands of their
own race, which came up from Mexico for the single purpose of pil-
laging and enslaving these thrifty, intelligent and peace-loving peoples.
Continuing their journey westward, they traversed other villages
and witnessed further manifestations of this admirable civilization. At
the Pueblo of Corazones they found the first trace of their vicinity to
European settlements. One of the Indians met here, was seen wearing
22 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
as an ornament the buckle of a Spanish sword belt, and, with it, the nail
of a horseshoe. Questioning developed the story that a party of Span-
ish soldiers had, some time previous, ridden from the West up to the
river near by, and left these relics there by accident. By this state-
ment they were apprised of the accuracy of their course. Shortly after
they met one of the mounted bands of the marauders, forced them to
abandon their mission, and accompanied them back to Mexico. The
party, having arrived at Culiacan, their wonderful adventures were re-
cited over and over again, creating, as may well be imagined, profound
astonishment. On the 25th of July, 1536, they reached the City of
Mexico, whence, some time later, Cabeza de Vaca sailed for Lisbon.
This, briefly told, is the chronicle of the original explorers of the
great plains which now are ribbed with so many bands of steel, to carry
an important part of the commerce of our magnificent Republic. We
shall find, as we proceed, further disclosures of character, arts and
architecture of the prehistoric races, ancestors of those already des-
cribed, whose remains are at this time attracting the attention of anti-
quarians throughout the world; how they were subjugated and dispersed,
and, incidentally, the causes, in a well-connected chain of testimony,
which led to the migration westward of different ancient races and their
occupation of the great empire, extending from the Mississippi to the
shores of the Pacific; touching also their descent from the earliest
antiquity of which any trace appears, to the present epoch.
It is established by manuscripts and books, prepared by the early
chroniclers who witnessed the scenes they described, that the Spanish
army of invasion from the South, organized and conducted by Her-
nando de Soto, whose entire route became a ghastly trail of fire and
blood, was the first to discover the Rocky Mountains of the West, and
to set foot upon the soil of the territory now embraced by the State of
Colorado. Before considering the explorations projected from the Pa-
cific by Coronado and others, let us examine briefly that which has been
mentioned from the southeast, admirably portrayed by Theodore
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 23
Irving,* and obtained from the archives of Madrid, v/hich fell into his
hands while a student in that city. The first was entitled, " The Flor-
ida of the Inca, or the History of the Adelantado Fernando de Soto,
Governor and Captain General of the Kingdom of Florida, and of other
heroic cavaliers, Spaniards and Indians, written by the Inca Garcilaso
de la Vega," and the second, a narrative on the same subject, written
by a Portuguese soldier, who accompanied the expedition. We are told
that Vega was a man of rank and honor, descended from an ancient
family. His narrative was originally taken down by himself from the
lips of a friend, "a cavalier of worth and respectability, who had been
an officer under De Soto," and supported by the written journals of two
others who had served under the great commander. The Portuguese
participated in all of the thrilling adventures which marked the
pilgrimage of the conquering host.
De Soto acquired vast wealth with Pizarro in the conquest of Peru,
displaying in that long series of bloody events a rare combination of
prudence and valor, wisdom in council, dauntless courage in every per-
ilous exploit. By virtue of his pre-eminent qualifications for leadership,
Pizarro made him his lieutenant. He returned to Spain laden with
spoils of the Peruvian war, and became a conspicuous figure at the court
of the great Emperor, Charles V. At the height of his renown Alvar
Nunez Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain, and there related the circum-
stances attending the fate of Pamfilio de Narvaez. His account of the
marvelous extent and richness of the lands he had traversed, at once
inspired the Spanish cavaliers with an intense desire to visit them, under
the conviction that some portions must contain inexhaustible mines
of gold and precious stones. De Soto was quick to see in this an op-
portunity to rival and, possibly, to eclipse the glory which surrounded
the name and exploits of Cortez. He asked permission of the emperor
to undertake the conquest at his own expense, which was readily
granted, and De Soto created Governor and Captain General for life
of the island of Cuba and the Floridas. In due time he grathered an
*Conquest of Florida, published 1851.
24 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
army of nine hundred and fifty Spaniards and Portuguese, and with it
sailed for Cuba, where he landed about the last of May, 1538. For the
details of the voyage and the events attending the conquest, the reader
is referred to the work uader consideration. It is sufficient for our
present purpose to trace this expedition through the West after its
passage of the Mississippi.
It is believed that De Soto crossed this river at the lowest Chick-
asaw bluff, between the thirty-fourth and the thirty- fifth parallels, and,
proceeding in a northwesterly direction, soon entered the country of the
Kaskaskia Indians. Prolonging his march in that direction, impelled
by the hope of finding the object of his search, he came out upon the
plains of Eastern Kansas, at what point cannot be ascertained. Fail-
ing to discover any traces of gold or precious stones, and the country
becoming more and more barren, and the health of the commander
having been greatly impaired by the trials he had undergone, the army
returned to the Mississippi by a different route, where De Soto died.
The command then devolved upon Louis de Moscoso. A council
of war was held to determine whether they should follow the course
of the river to the sea, or again strike westward in quest of the pre-
cious metals, and, failing in that, joni the Spanish settlements of
Mexico. On the previous expedition they had been told by the Indians
that " not far to the westward there were other Spaniards who were
going about conquering the country." It was therefore decided by the
council that " the Spaniards to the West must have sallied forth from
Mexico to conquer new kingdoms ; and as, according to the account of
the Indians, they could not be far distant, it was determined to march
with all speed in that direction, and join them in their career of con-
quest." The march began on, or about the 5th of June, 1542. We
can only follow them by imaginary lines, for it is impossible to trace
their movements by the descriptions given. It is probable, however,
that they proceeded westward from a point not far below Memphis, and
bearing to the north and west, in due season found themselves between
the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers. It is evident that they passed the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 25
salt marshes of the Sahne Fork of the Arkansas, for they halted there
and obtained supphes of salt, — of which they were in great need, —
from the Indians, who made it an article of merchandise ; also that they
encountered and had frequent bloody skirmishes with the warlike
Osages and Pawnees, or their immediate predecessors in possession
of the country. The Spanish historian affirms that they saw great
chains of mountains and forests to the west, which they understood
were uninhabited. At this point, which we will assume was the Ar-
kansas River, possibly in the neighborhood of the old Santa Fe trail,
Moscoso encamped and sent out scouting parties across the river, to
discover what lay beyond, each in a different direction ; and these pen-
etrated to the distance of thirty leagues. " They found the country
sterile, thinly populated, and it appeared worse and worse the further
they proceeded. They captured some of the inhabitants, who assured
them that further on it was still more destitute ; the natives did not live
in villages, neither did they cultivate the soil, but were a wandering
people, roving in bands, gathering fruits and herbs and roots of spon-
taneous growth, and depending occasionally upon hunting and fishing
for subsistence ; passing from place to place according as the seasons
were favorable to their pursuits."
These scouting parties were absent for fifteen days, when they
returned, each bringing substantially the same accounts, all of which
were extremely unfavorable. The command being greatly discouraged,
it was decided to return to the Mississippi, build boats and make their
way down that stream to the coast, and thence to the island of
Cuba.
To summarize, it will be remembered that Moscoso left the Father
of Waters for the West early in June, and did not get back until the
beginning of December, therefore a period of six months was con-
sumed in the march to the Rocky Mountains, and in the countermarch.
As all were mounted, it is not difficult to determine the fact that they
proceeded to, and possibly beyond, the present confines of New Mex-
ico. The chroniclers quoted, distinctly assert that they "saw vast
26 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
chains of mountains," and describe the inhabitants, otherwise the native
Indians, and the face of the country, precisely as they undoubtedly
existed at that time. The detached expeditions sent out from the
banks of the great river, explored the country round about for a dis-
tance of thirty leagues, which must have taken some of them well up
to the base of the chain.
De Soto's army of invasion landed at Tampa Bay, as we have
seen, on the 25th of May, 1538. Moscoso's command departed for
the West on the 5th of June, and returned in December, 1542. Thus
the exploration of Florida and the plains occupied nearly four years.
Had they resolutely prolonged their journey beyond the plains of the
Arkansas River, they might have formed a junction with the settle-
ments of Northern Mexico, though not with the forces under Coronado,
who before their arrival had completed their conquest of the "Seven
Cities," and retired to the interior of New Spain.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 27
CHAPTER II.
1530 TO 1540. Expeditions from the southwest — friar marcos de niza and his
GUIDE, ESTEVANICO — CORONADO's MARCH TO THE SEVEN WONDERFUL CITIES OF
CIBOLA DESCRIPTION OF THE INHABITANTS, THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, MANNERS
AND CUSTOMS — RESISTANCE TO THE INVADERS — DESTRUCTION AND SLAUGHTER
PARTIAL CONQUEST OF THE COUNTRY — INEFFECTUAL SEARCH FOR THE
MYTHICAL CITY OF QUIVIRA — DISCOVERY OF THE GRAND CANYON OF THE
COLORADO THE CLIFF DWELLERS, THEIR CHARACTER, HABITS AND HOMES
TRAVERSING THE PLAINS OF KANSAS RETURN OF THE ARMY TO MEXICO THE
author's VISIT TO THE PUEBLQS — INTERVIEW WITH A VENERABLE CACIQUE —
SOME OLD MANUSCRIPTS — PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS OF THESE PECULIAR PEOPLE.
The procession of mighty events in the world's history thus
inaugurated, leads us in regular sequence to the conquest of that por-
tion of New Spain modernly designated New Mexico, or New Biscay.
To avoid a multiplicity of foot note references, it is here announced
that the material facts of this chapter have been condensed from the
latest accepted authorities, mainly from the very complete account pre-
pared by Lieutenant J. H. Simpson, U. S. A,, who compiled his details
from the journals of Castaneda and others who accompanied the
expedition, and narrated the events as they occurred.
In the year of 1530, Nuno de Guzman, president of New Spain
under Charles V., was informed by his slave, an Indian from the prov-
ince of Tejos, in the northern part of Mexico, that in his travels he
had seen cities so large as to be justly comparable to the City of Mex-
ico itself ; that they were seven in number, and had streets which were
exclusively occupied by workers in gold and silver, which metals were
28 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
very abundant ; that to reach them it would be necessary to travel a
long distance northward, between the two oceans, and undergo the
perils and hardships of a desert which was almost destitute of vege-
tation, etc., etc. Many years previous to his enslavement by the
Spaniards, his father, who was a merchant or dealer in ornamental
feather work — an art, by the way, of remote antiquity among Aztecs,
who brought it to a very high state of perfection — visited these cities
for the purpose of selling such goods, receiving therefor great quan-
tities of gold and silver. Having accompanied his father on one or
two occasions, he spoke advisedly as to the richness of the country.
As every report, however improbable, which pointed the way
to the discovery of precious metals and stones, was certain to enlist
the eager attention of Spaniards from time immemorial, and is as
true of the present as of any other period, Guzman, placing im-
plicit confidence in the tales of his bondman, proceeded to organize an
expedition. It consisted of four hundred Spaniards, and twenty
thousand Indian allies, who in due time set out in search of the
" Seven Wonderful Cities of Cibola." Naturally enough they en-
countered unexpected difficulties, and were subjected to innumerable
hardships in traversing a trackless region wholly unknown to them.
Possessing neither the courage nor the enduring qualities of their coun-
trymen who surmounted the obstructions vv^hich beset de Soto's forces
from Florida to the Mississippi, and thence to the Rocky Mountains,
nor leaders calculated to enforce the requisite discipline, in a short time
all became discouraged, and the greater part returned to the point of
departure. Guzman established himself at Culiacan and proceeded to
colonize the country. He remained as Governor for eight years.
Meanwhile the Indian who had been the moving impulse of the unfort-
unate expedition, died. Guzman was removed from his position, and
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a native of Salamanca, succeeded him.
Coronado was a man of great wealth, high character, and widely es-
teemed. Soon after his elevation, about the year 1538, Alvar Nunez
Cabeza de Vaca and his companions appeared upon the scene. Their
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 29
adventures excited universal interest, and having been communicated
to the viceroy in an elaborate detailed report describing the Pueblo
towns, and their inhabitants, telling of powerful cities where there
were houses four and five stories in height, with other particulars, and
by him to Coronado, he quickly decided to send out what, in these
days, would be called a committee of investigation, at the same time
changing his headquarters to Culiacan. He took with him the negro
Estevanico, the companion, and to a large extent the interpreter of
Cabeza de Vaca, and three Franciscan friars, Marcos de Niza, and
Daniel and Antonio de Santa Maria, who were sent forward to explore
the country. The reverend fathers were soon shocked by the very
unexemplary conduct of their dusky guide, who possessed an un-
quenchable passion for appropriating to his own use the native women
and such movable plunder as chanced to come in his way, but as he
knew the country and they did not, they tolerated him, but kept him
well in advance of their slower movements. By certain signs, usually
crosses of different sizes, sent back by Indian runners, he apprised
them of his discoveries from time to time. At length Estevanico suc-
ceeded in reaching the Seven Cities, and taking advantage of his oppor-
tunity, robbed the natives of their most valuable goods, and captured
and maltreated a number of their women. The last overstrained their
patience, and they rose up and killed him.
All along the route Friar Marcos received from the natives whom
he met, glowing accounts of the wealth and power of the great cities to
the north. He was duly apprised also while yet afar off, of the catas-
trophe which had overtaken his avant courier. Believing the same fate
would be meted out to him, should he venture into Cibola, yet deter-
mined to see for himself, thouo^h at a safe distance, something of the
marvels revealed to him, he proceeded to a high point from which the
towns could be reconnoitered. In his report to Coronado, he says :
"The houses are builded in order, according, as the Indians told me,
all made of stone with divers stories and flat roofs, as far as I could
discern from the mountain. The people are somewhat white ; they
30 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
wear apparel, and lie in beds ; their weapons are bows ; they have
-emeralds and other jewels, though they esteem none so much as tur-
quoises wherewith they adorn the walls of the porches of their houses,
and their apparel and vessels, and they use them instead of money
through all the country. They use vessels of gold and silver, for they
have no other metal, whereof there is greater use and more abundance
than in Peru." It will appear by subsequent events that Friar Marcos,
like many another pioneer of modern civilization, drew mainly upon his
vmagination for his facts, and trusted rather too implicitly the natives
'vho accompanied him.
After delivering his highly-colored account to the Governor,
Marcos and his associates proceeded to retail to the populace on the
streets at great length and with monstrous exaggerations, the story of
their discoveries. A short time afterward Coronado set out at the
head of an army composed of three hundred Spaniards and eight hun-
dred Indians, resolved to see for himself what the country contained.
The historian of the expedition was Pedro de Castaiieda de Nagera,
who kept a diary of the marches, and subsequently elaborated his daily
minutes into a detailed narrative, from which all accounts from that
day to the present have been drawn. Friar Marcos accompanied the
army as guide. At Culiacan he left the main body of his troops with
orders to follow a fortnight later, and selecting a small detachment of
picked men, departed for Chichilticale on the border of the desert.
After a disheartening march of fifteen days he succeeded in crossing
the desert, and then found himself to be within eight leagues of Cibola,
located on the banks of a river which they called Vermijo (Little Colo-
rado). It was here that the first Indians were encountered, who, when
they saw the Spaniards advancing upon them, fled and alarmed the
villages. Next day Coronado entered Cibola, the first of the
Seven Cities. "On beholding it the army broke forth in maledictions
upon the friars," who, by their false representations of its treasures of
silver and gold, had fired the hearts of the Spaniards with zeal to
undertake the long and perilous journey. Castaiieda writes, "Cibola is
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 31
built upon a rock, and is so small that in truth there are many farms in
New Spain that make a better appearance. It may contain two hundred
warriors. The houses are built in three or four stories; they are small,
not spacious, and have no courts, as a single court serves for a whole
quarter. It is composed of seven towns, some of which are larger and
better fortified than Cibola. The Indians, ranged in good order,
awaited us at some distance from the village." As they were unwilling
to accept the terms of peace offered, a struggle ensued; the troops
charged upon, and, after a sharp skirmish, dispersed them. Neverthe-
less, it was necessary to get possession of Cibola, which was no easy
achievement, for the road leading to it was both narrow and winding.
The General was knocked down by the blow of a stone as he mounted
in the assault. Large numbers were unhorsed and stricken down with
stones hurled at them from above, still in the course of an hour the
citadel was taken. "It was found filled with provisions, which were
most needed, and in a short time the whole province was forced to
accept peace."
Here the remainder of the army, which had been left at Culiacan,
rejoined Coronado. It is needless for the purpose of this work to
trace the various branch expeditions by sea, land and river, which are
described at length in the several reports. Returning to Coronado at
Cibola, we find that, like a true pioneer, he began from this advanced
post a series of expeditions into the surrounding country, still in quest
of the promised land, glittering with gems and precious metals. His
attention was next directed to a distant province said to possess seven
towns similar to those of Cibola, and at once sent a part of his force
under Don Pedro de Tobar, in that direction. "The rumor had spread
among its inhabitants that Cibola was captured by a very ferocious
race of people, who bestrode horses that devoured men; and as they
knew nothing of horses, this information filled them with the greatest
astonishment." Here, as at Cibola, some resistance was made, but the
natives were speedily overcome, and compelled by the vigor of the on-
slaughts to sue for peace, "offering, as inducements, presents of cotton
32 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
stuff, tanned hides, flour, pine nuts, native fowls and some turquoises."
They told the conquerors of "a great river on which there were In-
dians living, who were very tall." This being repeated to Coronado,
he dispatched Don Pedro de Tobar with a small force in the direction
indicated. According to the narrative, "The party passed through
Tusayan again on its way to the river, and obtained supplies and
guides from the natives. ''' * ^ After a journey of twenty days
through a desert they reached a river whose banks were so high that
they thought themselves elevated three or four leagues in the air."
They had discovered the great Canon of the Colorado River. With-
out further result of importance Tobar returned to Cibola.
We now pass to the consideration of Coronado's subsequent ex-
ploration from Cibola to the eastward. Says our chronicler: "While
the discoveries mentioned above were being made, some Indians living
seventy leagues toward the east in a province called Cicuye, arrived at
Cibola. There was with them a cacique surnamed Bigotes (Mus-
taches). They had heard of the Spaniards, and came to offer their
services and their friendship. They offered gifts of tanned skins,
shields and helmets, which the General reciprocated by giving them
necklaces of glass beads and bells, which they had never before be-
held." They informed him of animals which existed in great numbers
in their country (the buffalo), and exhibited one of their number, upon
whose body a rude effigy of a buffalo cow had been painted. Coro-
nado directed Captain Hernando d'Alvarado to take twenty men and
accompany these savages to their country, with instructions to return
in eighty days. Five days later they arrived at Acuco (the present
Pueblo of Acoma) which was built upon a rocky promontory, "The
inhabitants, who are able to send about two hundred warriors into the
field, are the most formidable brigands in the province. This village
was very strongly posted, inasmuch as it was reached by only one path
and was built upon a rock precipitous on all its other sides, and at such
a height that the ball from an arquebuse could scarcely reach its
summit. It was entered by a stairway, cut by the hand of man, which
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 33
began at the bottom of the declivitous rock, and led up to the village.
* * * On the summit there was a great arsenal of huge stones
which the defenders, without exposing themselves, could roll down on
the assailants, so that no army, no matter what its strength might be,
could force this passage. There was on the top a sufficient space of
ground to cultivate and store a large supply of corn, as well as cisterns
(reservoirs) to contain water and snow."
This part of the narrative is especially interesting in view of the
many speculations by modern writers and explorers concerning the
manner in which the dwellers in these lofty heights obtained their sup-
plies of food and water, many of the ruins being at this date remote
from cultivated fields, springs, or running streams.
Nothwithstanding the difficulties presented, and the resistance
offered, these apparently impregnable positions were taken, and their
defenders reduced to abject submission. Three days later Alvarado
entered a province called Tiguex, where, on accountof his guide Bigotes,
whom the people knew, he was kindly welcomed. The country and
the climate being extremely inviting, Coronado was advised to come
and winter in the region. After a short period in camp, Alvarado next
invaded Cicuye, "a village very strongly fortified, and whose houses
had four stories." While here he fell in with "an Indian slave who
was a native of the country adjacent to Florida, the interior of which
Fernando De Soto had lately explored." This Indian, whom the Span-
iards christened il Turco (The Turk) on account of his resemblance to
the natives of Turkey, was a true representative of the grand army of
liars incident to every country and every age, drawing freely upon his
fertile imagination for florid descriptions of great towns and boundless
stores of gold and silver which filled the land of Quivira, to which he
belonged. While this mysterious region has never been definitely
located, the Turk placed it adjacent to the Floridas, in other words, at
some point between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi. Alva-
rado's guide defined it in general terms as "the country of the bison."
The commander, in the course of his expedition, found the bison in
34 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
great numbers, but neither cities nor towns. Meanwhile Coronado had
received accounts of still another province, composed of eight towns,
which he visited. The eight villages were found to be not like those
of Cibola, built of stone, but of earth. They discovered also, "houses
of seven stories, which were seen nowhere else. These belonged to
private individuals, and served as fortresses. They rise so far above
the others that they have the appearance of towns. There are embra-
sures and loopholes, from which lances may be thrown, and the place
defended. As all these villages have no streets, all the roofs are fiat
and common for all the inhabitants ; it is therefore necessary to take
possession, first of all, of those large houses which serve as defences."
Finally the army reached Tiguex only to find the entire province in
revolt over the destruction of their villages by some of Coronado's
troops, who in his absence had been perpetrating various atrocities
upon the natives. The place was besieged, and, after a struggle of
fifty days, captured. In due course all the others were brought under
submission.
The army appears to have wintered upon the Rio Grande in 1540,
and in May following resumed its march eastward toward the country
of Ouivira. They crossed a range of mountains, and, as nearly as can
be ascertained, came down upon the plains of Colorado about the
valley of the Arkansas, where they discovered vast herds of buffalo
and other animals. At the place called Quivira they found nothing
worthy of mention, and here their guide confessed that by instigation
of the Indians he had purposely decoyed the Spaniards into this wil-
derness to kill the horses, and thus render the soldiers helpless, that
they might be delivered into the hands of their enemies. Coronado
strangled him and retreated at once to Tiguex, and thence back to the
seat of his government in Mexico.
It is generally conceded that his march in the vain search for
Ouivira extended through a portion of Southern Colorado, and a long
distance into Kansas ; just how far cannot be determined. Castaneda
says Ouivira was situated "in the midst of the countries which ad-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 35
joined the mountains that skirt the sea," which challenges research
beyond the skill of the present author. The following is more definite,
yet leaves the locality as obscure as before : " It is in this country that
the great River of Espirito Santo (Mississippi) which Fernando De
Soto discovered in Florida, takes its rise ; it afterward passes through
a province called Arache. Its sources were not seen ; they are very
distant, and on the slope of the mountain range which borders the
plains. It traverses them entirely as well as the Atlantic range, and its
mouth is three hundred leagues from the place where De Soto and his
comrades embarked." It is at least probable that the Missouri was
seen and mistaken for the Mississippi, and its source located in our
mountains instead of those of the North.
Jaramillo, one of Coronado's captains, describes the villages of
the country thus : " The houses are of straw, very many being circular
in shape. The straw reaches almost to the ground like walls ; on the
outside on top is a kind of chapel or cupola, having an entrance where
the Indians sit or lie down." Nowhere else in any of the narratives are
such houses mentioned. "1 jl 86 /'^l
Judge Prince of Santa Fe, who in 1883 published one of the most
interesting histories of New Mexico ever written, in referring to this
subject — the eastern terminus of Coronado's march — says Jaramillo's
description of the houses, "together with the direction taken, and the
distance traveled, make it almost beyond question that it was the same
city of Ouivira which Penalosa crossed the plains to visit one hundred
and twenty years later, and the route followed cannot have been far
different. Forty-eight days' march from the canons of the Canadian,"
(which were undoubtedly visited) "would carry Coronado to the Mis-
souri without difficulty, and all things considered, we can well believe
that he traversed parts of the Indian Territory and Kansas, and finally
stopped on the borders of Missouri, somewhere between Kansas City
and Council Bluffs." We think very few students of Castaiieda will
agree with him.
Returning to the Pueblo towns discovered and conquered in New
36 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Mexico, which were unquestionably inhabited by like people with those
on the Chaco, the Chelley, the Dolores, the San Juan and the Rio
Mancos of our own State, we cannot refrain from adding some further
accounts of their domestic life given by Castaneda. Of those in the
province of Tiguex, he says: " The houses are built in common. The
women mix the mortar and build the walls. The men bring the wood
and construct the frames. They have no lime, but they make a mix-
ture of ashes, earth and charcoal, which takes its place very well ; for
although they build their houses four stories high, the walls are not
more than three feet thick. The young men who are not yet married,
serve the public in general. They go after firewood, and pile it up in
the court or plaza, where the women go to get it for the use of their
houses. They live in the estufas, which are underground in the plazas
of the villages, and of which some are square, and some are round.
The roofs are supported by pillars made of the trunks of pine trees. I
have seen some with twelve pillars, each of twelve feet in circum-
ference ; but usually they have only four pillars. They are paved with
large, polished stones like the baths of Europe. In the center is a fire-
place, with a fire burning therein, on which they throw from time to
time a handful of sage, which suffices to keep up the heat, so that one
is kept as if in a bath. The roof is on a level with the ground. Some
of these estufas are as large as a tennis court. When a young man
marries, it is by order of the aged men who govern. He has to spin
and weave a mantle ; they then bring the young girl to him, he covers
her shoulders with it, and she becomes his wife. The houses belong to
the women, and the estufas to the men. The women are forbidden to
sleep in them, or even to enter, except to bring food to their husbands
or sons. The men spin and weave, the women take care of the chil-
dren, and cook the food. The soil is so fertile that it does not need to
be worked when they sow; the snow falling covers the seed, and the
corn starts underneath. The harvest of one year is sufficient for seven.
When they begin to sow, the fields are still covered with corn that has
not yet been gathered. Their villages are very neat ; the houses are
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 37
well distributed and kept in good order ; one room is devoted to cook-
ing, and another to grinding grain. The latter is apart, and contains a
fireplace and three stones set in masonry; three women sit down be-
fore the stones; the first breaks the grain, the second crushes it, and
the third grinds it to powder. In all the province glazed pottery
abounded, and the vases were of really curious form and workman-
ship." He describes all the people of the pueblos as mild and gentle,
and received the Spaniards hospitably. They wore garments of
dressed skins and cotton cloth, subsisted upon maize, beans, pumpkins
and other products of the soil. It is also established that they raised
cotton, the oriorinal plant havincr been broucjht to them from the South
and in some way unexplained, acquired knowledge of its manufacture
into cloth. The invaders of the Sixteenth Century, as well as the ex-
plorers of our own time, discovered vast quantities of pottery in various
forms, much of it crudely though neatly decorated. Their forms of
government, religious rites, manners and customs, differed but little
from those of the present generation of the same race ; though the
primitive missionaries reinforced by the sword, too frequently with bar-
baric zeal attempted to uproot the ancient faith and plant the seeds of
the church in this virgin soil, it is only with the present generation under
moderate counsels that material success has been attained. Even now
it is at the best only a partial acceptance of the Catholic religion, con-
fined chiefly to the forms and ceremonies. Certain rites of the old
worship are still retained, and secretly, if not openly, practiced. Since
the preparation of this work began, the writer has inspected some of
the pueblos in the valley of the Rio Grande, conversed with their
patriarchs, and observed their condition closely. One of the principal
men, a venerable Cacique, was found possessed of superior intelligence,
with a disposition to talk of his people and their ancient gran.deur. A
church stood in one corner of the plaza, constructed of adobe, like all
their dwel'ings, but the roof had fallen in, and all about it were evi-
dences of neglect and decay, not witnessed in their homes or fields.
The old man who had long been the honored Governor of the pueblo,
38 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
dwelt with impassioned earnestness upon the history of his race, refer-
ring to the battles of his forefathers with the invaders on horseback ;
pointed out the spot where a fierce contest had been waged, and
seemed to feel as acutely as they the loss of liberty which their sub-
jugation entailed. He had been to Washington (1850) and visited
President Fillmore, who gave him one of the ponderous silver medals
then Issued to visiting chiefs. In one corner of the room hung a silver
mounted ebony cane, presented by President Lincoln in 1863, during
his second and last visit. Of these mementoes of his acquaintance
with the Great Fathers, he was very proud. At length he produced a
collection of manuscripts neatly engrossed in Spanish, containing an
account of the wars of his tribe with the Spaniards, from which he read
in a distinct yet plaintive tone the incidents narrated. When asked
his name he replied with stately dignity, " I will write it for you," and
did so in a perfectly legible, though somewhat tremulous hand, thus :
''Carlos Vigil Tunga, aged 80." The priests taught him to read^ and
probably the rudiments of penmanship, though he insisted that the
latter accomplishment had been acquired by patiently copying the
manuscripts, and exhibited with evident pride several scraps of paper
on which these efforts had been laboriously traced.
The women grind the corn and bake the tortillas upon heated
stones, precisely as their ancestors did in prehistoric times. The men
and women still retain the cotton garments, adding the modern blankets
for cool weather. In all New Mexico no lands are better tilled, or orch-
ards more extensive and fruitful than theirs ; none that are more intel-
ligently cared for or preserved. They are well clothed, comfortably
housed, are temperate, sturdily industrious, honest, truthful and thrifty.
Though rejecting modern implements of husbandry, the soil is none
the less effectively plowed with the crooked stick, carefully planted,
properly Irrigated, and watched from seedtime to harvest. There are
no beggars, and apparently no destitute among them ; some are com-
paratively wealthy, and all independent of their neighbors of different
blood. The chief engineer of one of the railways recently constructed
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 39
in the Rio Grande Valley, informed me of his unbounded confidence
in the integrity and truthfulness of these Indians. Said he: "I have
intrusted them with tens of thousands in gold and silver, sent them
with great packages of money, — telling them of their contents, — many
miles to different stations on the line for the payment of my working
forces, and in every instance the mission was faithfully executed. One
might leave hundreds of thousands in these pueblos for any length of
time with perfect assurance that not a dollar would be taken. Treat
them kindly, and they will protect you and your property from harm."
Lieutenant J. H. Simpson, of the United States Army, who visited
some of the more prominent pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona in
1849, writes of their religious belief, "The tribes differ somewhat in
their religious customs. In relation to Montezuma, however, the
different pueblo Indians, although speaking different languages, have
the same belief." He asked a Jemez Indian whether they now looked
upon God and the sun as the same being, and was answered that they
did. "The question was then put, whether they still worshiped the
sun as God, with contrition of heart. His reply was, 'Why not? He
governs the world.' From this Indian I also learned that they worship
the sun with most pleasure in the morning, and that they have priests
to administer their own religion which they like better than the Roman
Catholic, which he says has been forced upon them, and which they do
not understand. He said they were all children of Montezuma, and a
tradition had been current among them that they were to be delivered
by a people who would come from the East ; that in consequence of
the good treatment they were receiving from the Americans, they were
beginning to believe that that people had come."
40 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER HI.
The ruins in southwestern Colorado — descriptions by holmes and jackson of
THE U. S. geological SURVEY NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE CLIFF AND CAVE
dwellings — HOW THEY WERE BUILT — ENORMOUS LABOR INVOLVED — REMAINS OF
THE RIO MANCOS, THE SAN JUAN, DOLORES, CHELLEY, AND IN CHACO CANYON — DIS-
COVERIES AMONG THE RUINS — INDIAN PICTOGRAPHY COMPARISON OF ANCIENT
AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE ANTIQUITY OF THE PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBABLE
ORIGIN — AZTEC TRADITIONS — RECENT DISCOVERY OF SIMILAR TOWNS AND PEOPLE
IN MOROCCO.
The basis of the account which we shall give of the ruins in
Southwestern Colorado, is that which has been and necessarily must
be consulted by. all writers upon the subject, namely, the reports of
Holmes and Jackson, of the U. S. Geological Survey, published by the
Department of the Interior in 1875-6. Omitting the minor details the
greater part of the chapter will be devoted to a general outline of the
works erected by our prehistoric races.
The district* embraces an area of about 6,000 square miles mainly
in Colorado, but including narrow belts in the adjacent territories of
New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. It lies wholly on the Pacific slope,
and belongs entirely to the drainage system of the Rio San Juan, a
tributary of the Colorado of the West.
Lying along the west base of the mountains in a comparatively
dat country, the eastern border of the great plateau region that reaches
westward toward the Sierras, the surface geology is chiefly cretaceous,
and the various large streams found on the west slope of the Rocky
Mountains, have cut long cafioned valleys down through the nearly
horizontal beds. In the greater part of this region there is little mois-
Holmes.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 41
ture, apart from these streams, and, as a consequence, vegetation is
very sparse, and the general aspect of the country is barren and for-
bidding. It is probable that far back in the twilight of time when
these people selected it for their abiding place, there were streams
which have no existence at this day, fertile lands, and possibly, dense
forests. At all events, whatever the conditions, a great population
maintained itself in comparative abundance and comfort. Since then
vast changes have occurred, and to the observer who examines it now,
it seems impossible for any considerable settlements to have wrested
even a scanty living from the soil.
Mr. Holmes continues: "There is scarcely a square mile in the
6,000 examined, that does not furnish evidence of previous occupation,
by a race totally distinct from the nomadic savages who hold it now
(the Utes), and in many ways superior to them." But the people
named never were nomads. They constructed and inhabited towns,
villages, fortresses and caves, had fixed habitations, tilled the soil,
raised flocks and herds, manufactured fabrics, and in every way pos-
sessed a higher and better civilization, as evinced by their works,
than their neighbors and contemporaries who roved the plains, dwelt
in tents or in wigwams, and moved about from place to place as the
fancy seized them. These were the warlike, predatory bands who peri-
odically assailed the villages, and whose frequent incursions compelled
the erection of defensive structures.
The major part of the ruins stand upon, or near, springs and run-
ning streams, and here are seen grassy meadows and broad strips of
alluvial bottom land. Most of the structures are of stone, and all in
the last stages of decay. Classified, we find that the lowland villages
were occupied by the division which produced the crops and other
supplies. The same may have been true of the cave dwellers. Un-
doubtedly the cliff houses were fortresses to which the people fled for
protection in time of war.
In the valleys were situated the pueblos or communities. "They
form parallelograms or circles, marked out, where the nature of the
42 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
ground permitted, with great regularity, and all built of stone carefully
laid, and the crevices filled with clay and mud." The circular ruins
"are sometimes those of towers," used as sicrnal stations, "or buildino-s
sixty feet or more in diameter, inclosing several series of little apart-
ments with one in the center, often half underground, to which the
Spaniards have given the name of estufasT
These estufas, which form a part of all settlements, and every
group of houses, appear to have been used as council chambers, and
for the practice of religious and other mysterious rites. They are so
used among the pueblos of the present day ; notwithstanding all the
efforts of the Catholic missionaries, supplemented by Spanish laws,
enforced by Spanish troops, for their suppression, they have been pow-
erless to obliterate the ancient forms of worship, and engraft the Chris-
tian religion upon these people. Some have accepted the outward
forms, but nearly all cling tenaciously to the ancient heathen rites.
The testimony given by Mariano Ruiz, a Spaniard who lived for a
long time amongst the Pecos Indians, is to the effect that they pre-
served the sacred fire in an estufa until 1840, when the five families
who alone survived, became affiliated with another tribe. The fire was
kept in a kind of oven, and was never allowed to emit flames. Ruiz
himself was, in his turn, charged to keep it up, but he refused, influ-
enced by the superstitious fear of the Indians that he who should leave
his brethren after having watched over the sacred fire, would inevitably
perish within a year. On account of his refusal he was never allowed
to enter estufas. " It is certain* that these estufas occur in all habita-
tions, even in those situated above precipices or on rocks not to be
scaled without extreme difficulty, so that it is evident that great im-
portance was attached to them.'"
" The cliff housesf could only have been used as places of refuge
and defence. During seasons of invasion and war, families were prob-
ably sent to them for security, while the warriors defended their
property, or went forth to battle.
Nadaillac. Prehistoric America. f Holmes.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 43
" In form the parallelogram and the circle predominate, and a con-
siderable degree of architectural skill is displayed. Where the confor-
mation of the ground permits, the squares are perfect squares, and the
circles perfect circles. The greater part of the ordinary structures are
square or rectangular ; while attached to each group, and sometimes
without indications of contiguous buildings, are circular ruins, fre-
quently resembling towers. These are often as much as forty feet in
diameter, in many cases having double or triple walls. They are
solidly built of hewn stone, dressed on the outside to the curve, neatly
jointed, and laid in mortar." Imagine these patient workmen and the
herculean task before them, fashioning these blocks with the crudest of
stone implements, and jointing the whole in a perfect masonry which
has endured through many centuries, how many no man can tell, and
undisturbed, will outlive many generations to come.
" Almost invariably a circular depression or estufa occupies the
center of the inclosure. The smaller single walled towns which are
scattered at intervals along the river courses and canons, frequently
in commanding situations, were probably watch or signal towers." The
cave dwellings are simply irregular excavations in the faces of the
bluffs, the fronts of which were either walled up or left open, according
as peace or war obtained. " The cliff houses conform in shape to the
floor of the niche or shelf on which they are built. They are of firm,
neat masonry, and the manner in which they are attached or cemented
to the cliffs, is simply marvelous. Their construction has cost a great
deal of labor, the rock and mortar having been brought for hundreds
of feet up the most precipitous places. They have a much more
modern appearance than the valley and cave remains, and are probably
more recent." Which implies that the agricultural settlements, being
exposed to attacks from nomadic savages, these lofty fortresses were
rendered necessary as places of refuge in the event of defeat, or as the
means employed for the safety of their families, whenever it became
imperative for the strong men to fight for their property, or invade
the neighboring territory.
44 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
"Of works of art, other than architectural, that might assist in
throwing Hght upon the grade of civiHzation reached by these people,
but meager discoveries were made." The facts concealed can only be
made known by patient and prolonged exhumation, which it is believed
the interest lately awakened by the reports of the various scientific
schools, will at no distant day cause to be undertaken.
Of the remains found and now preserved in the National Museum,
there are many arrow-heads of flint and obsidian, stone implements,
and articles of fictile manufacture, "that maybe fairly attributed to
the age of the cliff dwellers. There are no evidences whatever that
metals were used. Numerous rock inscriptions were observed, both
engraved and painted upon the cliffs," and in some of the burial places
three entire skeletons were obtained, one from the banks of Hoven-
weep Creek, near the ruins known as " Hovenweep Castle," the others
from a freshly excavated arroya in an ancient village near Abiquiu,
New Mexico. A skull was obtained by Captain Moss from a grave on
the Rio San Juan, near the mouth of the Mancos. The greater por-
tion of what are supposed to be burial places, occur on the summits of
hills, or on high, barren promontories that overlook the valleys and
caiions, but in all their excavations they failed to discover the least
trace of human remains, though in each, layers of charcoal or charred
wood were found, which suggested the idea of cremation. Many writ-
ers agree that this method of disposing of the dead was practiced by
these and other prehistoric peoples. Holmes continues: "That the
placing of the stone inclosures'', which bore the appearance of ceme-
teries, "occurred at a very early date, is attested by the growth of for-
est, which is at least three or four hundred years old. In a number of
cases the stones are deeply embedded in the sides and roots of the
trees." Similar remains were observed on a high promontory between
the McElmo and Hovenweep Caiions.
After describinor an ancient irreo;ular villaoe on the Rio La Plata,
some twenty-five miles above its junction with the San Juan, and south
of the line between Colorado and New Mexico, which stands on a low
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 45
terrace above the river bed, in a large, fertile valley, this writer says :
" Nowhere about these ruins are there any considerable indications of
defensive works, and the village, which is scattered over an area fully
two miles in circuit, has no natural defensive advantages whatever.
Neither are there traces of ditches nor anything else that might throw
important light upon the habits and customs of the people. A few
arrowheads and minute cutting implements were picked up. Countless
chips of jasper, obsidian, and flint were scattered around, and the soil
was literally full of fragments of painted and indented pottery."
In the neighborhood of the cave dwellings and towers of the Rio
San Juan, "about thirty-five miles below the mouth of the La Plata,
and ten miles above the Mancos, the river is bordered by low lines of
bluffs, and at this particular place the vertical bluff face is from thirty-
five to forty feet in height. Here are the remains of a ruined tower
and a number of cave-like openings on the cliff face." In a large group
situated on the Mancos, about ten miles above its mouth, "the walls
were in many places quite well preserved and new-looking, while all
about, high and low, were others in all stages of decay. In one place
in particular a picturesque outstanding promontory has been full of
dwellings — literally honeycombed by this earth-burrowing race. * '"' *
On the brink of the promontory above stands the ruin of a tower, still
twelve feet high, and similar in most respects to those already described.
These round towers are very numerous in the valley of the Mancos.
* * * In dimensions they range from ten to sixteen feet in diame-
ter, and from five to fifteen feet in height, while the walls are from one
to two feet in thickness. They are in nearly every case connected with
other structures, nearly rectangular in form.'' This indicates very
clearly the purpose of their construction. From these stations the sur-
rounding country could be observed by the sentinels posted there, and
warning immediately conveyed to the villagers of the approach of hos-
tile forces.
"At the mouth of the Mancos, however, a double circle occurs, the
smaller one having been the tower proper. It is fifteen feet in diame-
46 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
ter, and from eight to ten feet in height. The large circular wall is
forty feet in diameter, and from two to four feet high, and is built tan-
gent to the smaller. The ruin is at the point where the Mancos reaches
the alluvial soil bordering the Rio San Juan, and about one mile above
its junction with that river. * * ''^ No single mile of the lower fifty
of the Mancos is without such remains.
"Fifteen miles from its junction with the San Juan the Mancos
emerges from the southwest border of the Mesa Verde, through which
it has cut its way." This mesa comprises about seven hundred square
miles of irregular tableland. The canon is about thirty miles long,
and from one to two thousand feet in depth. " It seems to have been
a favorite resort of the cliff-building people, and traces of their indus-
try may be found everywhere, along the bottoms, in the cliffs, and on
the high, dry tablelands above." In some of these ruins various imple-
ments, some complete pottery vessels, and many fragments of others,
charred corn, with here and there traces of fires, were observed, the
walls and ceilings of some of the buildings being blackened by smoke.
The inevitable circular estufa was also a feature of each group. "It
has been supposed heretofore that the occupants of these houses ob-
tained water either from the river below or from springs on the mesa
above ; but the immense labor of carrying water up these cliffs, as well
as the impossibility of securing a supply in case of siege," suggest the
existence of springs or reservoirs in the cliffs themselves, or on the
mesas. That they were so supplied will hereafter appear. In some of
these places living springs exist to this day, but in others, where no
traces are seen, it may be taken for granted that they did exist some-
where near at hand, but have been filled and buried by drifting sands
or dust storms, and thus concealed from the explorers of our time.
"Between the Mesa Verde and the Late Mountains, of which Ute
Peak is the culminating point, there is a long, deep valley, or strip of
lowland, that connects the great lowland of the Lower Mancos with
the cafion-cut plain that rises toward the Dolores. The southern end
of this depressed strip drains into the Mancos, the northern into the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 47
McElmo. The latter stream heads along the north base of the Mesa
Verde, within five miles of the Mancos at the point where it enters this
canon, and flows westward, passing along the north base of Ute Moun-
tain, curving around to the southwest, and reaching the San Juan nearly
ten miles beyond the Utah line. The large depressed area drained by
this stream, contains a great number of ruins, many of which have
been," not at all, or only casually, examined.
The most imposing pile of masonry yet found in Colorado, is at
Aztec Spring, between the Mesa Verde and Late Mountains, near the
divide between the McElmo and the Lower Mancos drainage. " The
whole group covers an area of about 480,000 square feet, and has an
average depth of from three to four feet. This would give in the vicin-
ity of 1,500,000 solid feet of stone work. The stone used is chiefly
fossiliferous limestone, that outcrops along the base of the Mesa Verde,
a mile or more away, and its transportation to this place has doubtless
been a great work for a people so totally without facilities. The upper
house is rectangular, measures 80 by 100 feet, and is built with the car-
dinal points to within five degrees. The pile is from twelve to fifteen
feet in height, and its massiveness suggests an original height at least
twice as great. The walls seem to have been double, with a space of
seven feet between ; a number of cross walls at regular intervals, indi-
cate that this space has been divided into apartments. The walls are
twenty-six inches thick, and are built of roughly dressed stones, which
were probably laid in mortar, as in other cases. * ^ * Inclosing
this great house is a network of fallen walls, so completely reduced that
none of the stones seem to remain in place." The purpose of the
structure is, of course, unknown. Here again we find two estufas in
the southern wing. "The lower house is two hundred feet in length
by one hundred and eighty feet in width, and its walls vary fifteen de-
grees from the cardinal points. The northern wall is double, and con-
tains a row of eight apartments about seven feet wide by twenty-four
in length. The walls of the other sides are low, and seem to have
48 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
served simply to inclose the great court, near the center of which is a
large walled depression.
"The dry, sloping plain between the Mesa Verde and the Rio Dol-
ores seems also to have been a favorite resort of the town-building
tribes. Numerous ruins occur along the borders of the canons that drain
into the McElmo, and especially near the heads of these canons, where
springs usually occur. At the south bend of the Dolores there are a
great number of ruins, many of which compare favorably with the low-
land ruins farther south." About the sources of the Hovenweep and
Montezuma Creeks there are occasional ruins, but of inconsiderable
importance. A very large and interesting one is seen on the Animas
River, which Dr. Newberry describes as follows :
"The houses are many of them large, and all of them built of
stone, hammer dressed on the exposed faces. Fragments of pot-
tery are exceedingly common, though, like the buildings, showing
great age. There is every evidence that a large population resided
here for many years, perhaps centuries, and that they deserted it sev-
eral hundred years ago ; that they were pueblo Indians, and hence
peaceful, industrious, and agricultural. The ruins of several reservoirs,
built of masonry, may be seen at Suronara, and there are traces of
acequias which led to these, through which water was brought, perhaps
from a oreat distance." Bourke,* who visited the Moquis in 1884, men-
tions an old pueblo situated fourteen miles from the Moqui agency,
near which is a marked depression of not less than one hundred acres
in area, which was undoubtedly used as a reservoir for storing water
from melted snow and rain. Later, while with the Zunis, they informed
him of similar reservoirs on the summit of Toyalani Mountain, near
their town, which were constructed by their ancestors, and adds that
"the prehistoric race inhabiting this part of America, the ancestors of
the present Moquis and Zunis, must have been farmers of extended ac-
quirements for savages. They are to be credited with the construction
of reservoirs wherever needed, near their building sites, with the exca-
* Snake Dance of the Moquis, John G. Bourke, U. S. A., 1884.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 49
vation of irrigating ditches, the utilization of all springs and tanks, and
all other provisions against the contingency of drouth." In another
part of his work he speaks of following an old trail leading to a reser-
voir, "still holding many hundreds of gallons of water. Sand had
drifted in, and the masonry-retaining walls had been broken away, but
with very little labor it might be restored, and made as good as ever,
with a capacity of from 15,000 to 20,000 gallons."
Holmes describes the ruins of Ojo Caliente and those near Abi-
quiu, New Mexico, and compares them with those of Colorado. At the
former the buildings are chiefly of adobe, and contain rows of apartments
surrounding a number of large open courts, and including, as every-
where else, the estufas, without which no village was complete. He
devotes a page to pictographic writings, and while it cannot be posi-
tively asserted that these belong to the age of the cliff builders, the evi-
dence points very strongly in that direction. Some are found on the
cliffs and in the niches with the lofty dwellings, while all are in locali-
ties that must have been the frequent resorts of the ancient peoples.
Some are found in the canons of the Mancos, others on the bluffs of
the San Juan, and many in the canons further west. They are chipped
into the rock by some very hard implement, and rudely represent
human figures. He regards them, not as attempts to represent na-
ture, but rather as arbitrary forms intended to symbolize imaginary be-
ings. Others are painted in red and white clay upon the smooth sur-
faces of the rocks. These, he concludes, were certainly the work of
the cliff builders, and executed while the houses were being constructed,
the material being identical with the plaster then employed.
"Again, on the Rio San Juan, about ten miles below the mouth of
the Rio La Plata, a low line of bluffs, composed of light-colored mas-
sive sandstones that break down in great smooth-faced blocks, rises
from the river level, and sweeps around to the north. Each of these
great blocks has offered a tempting tablet to the graver of the primi-
tive artist, and many of them contain curious and interesting inscrip.
tions. * * * They are all engraved or cut into the face of the
4
60 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
rock, and the whole body of each figure has generally been chipped
out, frequently to the depth of one-fourth or one-half an inch." On
some of the larger groups some skill and great labor have been ex-
pended, and evidently with a view to the perpetuity of the record
thus perfected. Nearly all bear the traces of great age. "Among all
the figures given of the ancient work there is no animal that resembles
a horse, and we can hardly suppose that artists who could so cleverly
delineate birds and deer and men, would fail in an attempt to represent
an animal of so marked a character." We find in the narrative of Cor-
onado's march that the natives were astounded at sight of the horses,
and were inclined to worship them as gods. Like incidents occurred
all along the line of De Soto's expedition from Tampa to Kansas. As
Coronado brought the first sheep to the cliff and cave dwellers of the
West, so De Soto gave to the aborigines of the South their first knowl-
edge of swine. It is quite clear that up to the time of these invasions
the natives of both sections were utterly ignorant of these animals.
One of the most striking inscriptions consists of "a great proces-
sion of men, birds, beasts, and fanciful figures. The whole picture as
placed upon the rock, is highly spirited, and the idea of a general move-
ment toward the right skillfully portrayed. A pair of winged figures
hover above the train, as if to watch or direct its movements ; behind
these are a number of odd figures, followed by an antlered animal, re-
sembling a deer, which seems to be drawing a notched sledge, contain-
ing two figures of men. The figures forming the main body of the
procession appear to be tied together in a continuous line, and in form
resemble one living creature about as little as another. Many of the
smaller figures above and below are certainly intended to represent
dogs, while a number of men are stationed about here and there as if
to keep the procession in order."
The meaning of this labored and ill-defined pictography is, of
course, untranslatable. It may be accepted as a myth, or the crude
portrayal of some historical event, attending the migration of the race
from another home to this ; the annals of some victory accomplished.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 61
or remarkable incident in the life, or among the traditions of their race.
Darkness envelopes its definition, and it will probably forever remain
unsolved.
Holmes next proceeds to give an account of the ancient pottery
found among the ruins, the invariable accompaniment of ancient re-
mains the world over. He fmds the study of the different wares to be
highly interesting, and the immense quantity a constant source of won-
der. A collection of the fragments of vessels, of manifestly different
designs, within a certain space, resulted in the discovery that within ten
feet square there were pieces of fifty-five different vessels. He says,
"The pottery of the ancient tribes of the San Juan Valley is undoubt-
edly superior in many respects to that of the town building tribes of
to-day," and especially in composition and surface finish. But in form
and ornamentation it is inferior to like wares found among the Moquis
and Zunis, yet "there is great similarity in every respect, and the dif-
ferences do not seem greater than could be expected in the manufact-
ure of the same people at periods separated by a few generations, or
even of related tribes of the same time, surrounded by different phys-
ical features, or by different neighbors."
The material used was a fine clay — obtainable in any part of the
country — tempered with sand, or pulverized shells. " The modeling
was done almost exclusively with the hand ; no wheel has been used,
and no implement whatever, except for the surface creasings or indent-
ings." Nearly all had been baked or burned, evidently by sinking them
in the ground and building light fires about them. Most of the vessels
were coated with some preparation of mineral paint or varnish, which
gave them an attractive finish.
Fragments of pottery of like character to that collected in the San
Juan country, have been obtained and preserved by government ex-
ploring parties in the South and West, and the best of them placed in
the National Museum. A comparison of these with the specimens
gathered in the San Juan, shows them to be identical in every respect.
This fact has an important bearing upon the declaration that the cliff
52 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and cave dwellers of ancient times were distributed over an immense
area, and leads us nearer and nearer to the conclusion that the Zuni
and the Moqui Indians of the present day are the direct descendants
of those tribes. We shall discover other connections in the progress
of our inquiries, though we may never penetrate far enough into the
darkness of past ages to discover the source from which they sprang.
Mr. Holmes concludes his report with the following deductions :
"The ancient peoples of the San Juan country were doubtless the
ancestors of the present pueblo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona. A
comparison of the ancient and the modern architecture, and a considera-
tion of the geographical relation of the ancient and modern pueblos, lead
very decidedly to this conclusion. They have at one time or other occu-
pied a very extensive area, which includes the greater part of the drainage
of the Rio Colorado. Their occupation of this region dates back very many
centuries, as attested by the extent of the remains, and their advanced
stage of decay. The final abandonment of the cliff and cave dwellings
has occurred at a comparatively recent date, certainly subsequent to the
Spanish conquest. The lowland remains, the extensive pueblos and
great towers are generally in a very much more advanced state of ruin
than the cliff defences. It is possible that the latter owe their construc-
tion to events that immediately preceded the expulsion of the pueblo
tribes from this region. The cliff builders were probably not greatly
superior to the modern pueblos in any of the arts, and I doubt if they
could boast of a state of civilization equally advanced." Finally, it is
believed that when properly directed excavations of the more important
ruins shall be undertaken by experienced antiquarians, much new light
will be obtained.
Here it may be pertinent to interject a suggestion of duty to the
State authorities, that these wonderful remains should be protected by
law from the vandalism of our own citizens and the multitude of tour-
ists who, at no distant day, will make pilgrimage to them. Here are
the records of our ancient history ; and unless shielded from further
destruction, by statutes faithfully enforced, in a few years they will have
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 53
passed entirely away. Clay models of the better classes of these an-
tique dwellings, have already been made by the general government.
Duplicates should be secured and placed in the museum of the State
Capitol when completed, with the collection of the State Historical So-
ciety, and thus preserved for the study of those who are unable to visit
the originals.
In W. H. Jackson's* report, which follows that of Holmes, many
interesting details respecting the construction of the cliff and cave
dwellings are given. About twelve miles below the Montezuma, upon
a bluff something over two hundred feet in height above the stream,
there is a very large circular cave which occupies nearly the entire face
of the bluff. " It runs back in a semi-circular sweep to a depth of one
hundred feet; the top is a perfect half dome, and the lower half only
less so from the accumulation of debris, and the thick, brushy foliage.
The houses occupy the left hand or eastern half of the cave, for the
reason, probably, that the ledge was wider on that side, and the wall
back of it receded in such a manner as to give considerable additional
room for the second floor, or for the upper part of the one-story rooms.
It is about fifty feet from the outer edge of the cave to the first
building, a small structure, sixteen feet long and three feet wide at the
outer end, and four at the opposite end. Then succeeded an open
space eleven feet wide and nine deep, that served probably as a sort of
workshop. Four holes were drilled into the smooth rock floor about
six feet equi-distant apart, each from six to ten inches deep and five in
diameter, as perfectly round as if drilled by machinery.'' This sug-
gested the probability of looms and weaving, with which we know-
some of these people were at one time familiar, and that these drill
holes served to keep the loom in place. Here also were a number of
grooves worn into the rock, which appear to have been used for
polishing stone implements. "The main building comes next, occu-
pying the widest portion of the ledge, v/hich gives an average width of
ten feet inside ; it is forty-eight feet long outside, and twelve high,
*Mr. Jackson has for some years been a resident of Denver.
54 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
divided inside into three rooms, the first two 13^ feet each in length,
and the third 16 feet, divided into two stories, the lower and upper
five feet in height. ^ * "' Window-like apertures afforded com-
munication between the rooms all through the second story, excepting
that which opened out to the back of the cave.'' In each lower room,
looking out to the open country, there was a small window about a foot
square, while in the upper the openings were very much smaller. In
the large building there were twelve apartments of irregular sizes, all
connected by apertures like those mentioned above. No trace of
roofing or flooring material was found, as everything of that kind had
been thoroughly burned away, or otherwise removed. "In the central
room of the main building we found a circular, basin-like depression
thirty inches across and ten deep, that had served as a fireplace, being
still filled with the ashes and cinders of aboriginal fires, the sur-
rounding walls being blackened with smoke and soot." This is sup-
posed to have been the kitchen of the primitive mansion, but some of
the others appear to have served a like purpose. " The masonry dis-
played in the construction of the walls is very creditable ; a sym-
metrical curve is preserved throughout the whole line, and every
portion perfectly plumb ; the subdivisions are at right angles to the
front. The stones employed are of the size used in all similar
structures, and are roughly broken to a uniform size. More attention
seems to have been paid to securing a smooth appearance upon the
exterior than the interior surfaces, the clay cement being spread to a
perfectly plane surface, something like stucco finish." On much of this
work the imprint of the fashioning hand is left, showing even the
delicate lines of the thumbs and fingers. Being small and shapely, it is
quite clear that the finishing coat was laid by women. " In the mortar
between the stones several corn cobs were found embedded, and in
other places the whole ear of corn had been pressed into the clay,
leaving its impression. The ears were quite small, none more than five
inches long." A few implements of stone, arrowheads, and fragments
of pottery, were the only remains. According to Mr. Jackson, the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 55
general appearance of the place and its surroundings indicated that
these people were of rather aristocratic pretensions, several degrees
above the common herd of their people. Under this impression he
weaves the following picturesque vision of the family and the scene as
they may have appeared in the olden time : " Looking out from one
of their houses, with a great dome of solid rock overhead, that echoed
and re-echoed every word uttered with marvelous distinctness, and
below them a steep descent of one hundred feet to the broad fertile
valley of the Rio San Juan, covered with waving fields of maize and
scattered groves of majestic cottonwoods, these old people, whom even
the imagination can hardly clothe with reality, must have felt a sense
of security that even the incursions of their barbarous foes could hardly
have disturbed." And so to sanctify the vision, he christens this ruin
" Casa del Eco."
The ruins along the Rio De Chelley are next described, all resem-
bling, or at least bearing the same general characteristics of structure,
with pottery accompaniments, as along the Hovenweep and other
streams. On Epsom Creek there are many cave dwellings ; indeed,
wherever these indefatigable explorers penetrated were traces of the
same people and the same periods of time. Mr. Jackson considers the
ruins on the Chaco Canon of Northern New Mexico as pre-eminently
the finest examples of the numerous remains of these ancient builders
to be found north of the seat of the ancient Aztec empire. The
dwellings here are identical in structure, position, and the uses to which
they were put with those of the pueblos further south, and now inhab-
ited, and were entered in the same manner by means of ladders.
"The masonry as it is displayed in the construction of the walls, is the
most wonderful feature in these ancient habitations, and is in striking
contrast to the careless and rude methods shown in the dwellinors of
the existing pueblos. Those of Moqui, Taos, and probably Acoma,
were in no better condition when first discovered by the Spaniards
nearly three hundred and fifty years ago, than they are now, and how
much older these perfect buildings were then than the rude piles of
56 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
adobe and uncut stone found by the first conquerors, the past can only
tell, and that is dead and buried."
Speaking of the pueblo of Chettro Kettle, or the Rain Pueblo,
the largest of the old perfect rectangles, he affirms that in this ruin
there was at one time a line of wall running around three sides of the
building nine hundred and thirty-five feet in length, and about forty
feet in height, giving 37,400 square feet of surface, and as an average
of fifty pieces of stone appeared within the space of every square foot,
this would give nearly two million pieces for the outer surface of the
wall alone ; multiplying this by the opposite surface, and also by the
interior and transverse lines of masonry, and supposing a symmetrical
terracing, we will find that it will swell the total up into more than
thirty millions embraced within about 315,000 cubic feet of masonry.
Let the modern observer conceive, if he can, what is involved in this
well nigh incredible achievement; the enormous labor, the patient
energy, the perfect discipline, and withal, the inborn patriotism of these
people in raising these vast monuments which testify to all succeeding
generations of their civilization, industry and enterprise. All the
stones had first to be quarried with the rude implements which only
were known to them, and these of stone or wood ; brought by hand
great distances to the building site, and there each particular block
fashioned to fit the place designed for it. Then, too, there were
massive timbers to be felled in the forests, hewn to exact measurement,
and conveyed by hand, for they had no animals, and then fitted to their
places in the great edifice. One can well imagine that hundreds, and
perhaps thousands, were employed on this edifice, and that years were
consumed in bringing it to completion.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman, the ethnologist of the expedition, in describ-
ing and commenting upon the crania discovered by Jackson, in Chaco
Canon, endeavors to find in their structure some traces of the origin
of these ancient races. He writes : "It has been supposed by various
prominent ethnologists, and old writers, that there had been, in remote
times, a migration toward the regions in various directions northward
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 57
from Mexico. In time a return is traced, some assuming Aztlan to have
been the point of departure, while a large and long continued influx
of people came from a country or kingdom in the Northeast. Lan-
guage has left its impression among various existing races, and we find
great affinity between that of the Natchez, who formerly occupied the
lower portion of the Mississippi Valley, and the Mayas (of Yucatan).
Greater affinity is observable among many of the tribes scattered south-
ward through Mexico into Central America, and similar customs, to a
remarkable degree, can be traced." Among these is head flattening, a
custom practiced by many tribes of North American Indians, begin-
ning soon after birth, and continuing until the effect desired w^as pro-
duced. He finds a relationship, not only between the ancient cliff dwell-
ers and the modern pueblos, but with the Aztecs. "The general de-
signs in ornamentation appear traceable in the Aztec pottery and the
ruins at Mitla, Mexico, only in a higher state of cultivation. At the lat-
ter place the designs have appeared upon the walls of the ruined tem-
ple, and upon a grander scale. The Aztec traditions of a northwest
origin, are strongly in favor of such a hypothesis, besides numerous
arguments which might be brought to bear upon the subject." In a
succeeding chapter, the question of origin will be more fully consid-
ered. The most remarkable feature of the pottery wares found in the
pueblos of Arizona "is that there are numerous fac similes of those
found upon the walls of Mitla," and gives rise to the presumption, at
least, "that the Moquis, Zunis, and the Pueblos were more closely al-
lied in remote times, and that to this alliance belonged the cliff dwell-
ers whose identity appears to have merged with the Aztecs."
Since the foregoing was prepared, a New York paper has published
the discovery of cliff dwellings, in great numbers, in Morocco, "which
are now, and probably have been inhabited from the time of their first
construction. These dwellings, in all particulars, are like those found
in Arizona and New Mexico. It was not until last year that the Moors
would permit any examination of the cliff dwellings, which have long
been known to exist, some days' journey to the southwest of the city
58 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of Morocco. The strange city of the cave dwellers is almost exactly
like some of those in New Mexico, and other Territories, which
archaeologists have explored. The dwellings were dug out of the
solid rock, and many of them are over two hundred feet above the
bottom of the valley. The face of the cliff is in places perpendicular,
and it is believed that the troglodytes could have reached their dwell-
ings only with the aid of rope ladders. Some of them contain three
rooms, the largest of which are about 17x9 feet, and the walls of the
larger rooms are generally pierced by windows. Nothing is known as
to who these cave dwellers are."
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 59
CHAPTER IV.
Our prehistoric races — ethnological revelations — ancient inhabitants AN^
THEIR WORKS — SOME HIGHLY INTERESTING DISCOVERIES — OPINIONS OF SCIENTISTS-
EACH CONTINENT MAY HAVE PRODUCED ITS OWN RACE — OLD THEORIES OF ORIG-.
INAL MIGRATIONS OVERTURNED BY THE EXHUMATION OF HUMAN REMAINS AT GREAT
DEPTHS — THE LIGHT OF MODERN INVESTIGATION LEADS TO STARTLING CONCLU-
SIONS— DISCOVERY OF THE MOUND BUILDERS — EMIGRATION OF THE ANCIENT RACES
WESTWARD — DESCENT OF THE AZTECS FROM THE NORTHWEST UPON THE TOLTECS
OF MEXICO — THE BUILDERS OF THE SPLENDID TEMPLES IN YUCATAN — ANTIQUITY
OF MAN UPON THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA.
Intelligent and vigorously prosecuted researcii through monu-
mental and other remains for the origin of the prehistoric races of our
continent by eminent ethnologists, of the Old and New Worlds, has
dispelled much of the mystery that formerly enveloped them. The
traces found by early explorers have been persistently and patiently
followed, and the hieroglyphs deciphered, one by one, until the revela-
tion, if not complete, is at least made so clear that all may understand
its meaning. One of the more recent and valuable papers on the sub-
ject was read before the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, in August, 1887, by Daniel G. Brinton, Vice-President and
Chairman of the Section of Anthropology, in which it is stated that
the prehistoric period of America dates back from the discovery of the
several parts of the continent, and to reconstruct the history of the
various nations who inhabited both Americas at this period, resort is
had, by many writers, to the testimony furnished by legends and tradi-
tions. While these often bear a strong resemblance to Semitic or other
oriental myths, they prove but little, and are not regarded as trustwor-
thy sources of information. The annals of the Mexicans, the Mayas
60 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of Yucatan, and the Quichuas of Peru, he declares, carry us scarcely
600 years beyond the voyage of Columbus. The more savage tribes,
particularly, remember nothing more remote than a couple of centu-
ries. The more famous of the monumental remains are the stone build-
ings of Mexico, Peru, and Central America. Many give to these an
antiquity of thousands of years, but a calm weighing of the testimony
places them all well within our era, and most of them within a few cen-
turies of the discovery. Pursuing the argument, it is found that the
celebrated remains of Tiahuanuco in Peru are no exception. Some of
the artificial shell heaps, along the coast, are of greater antiquity.
These contain bones and shells of extinct species, in intimate connec-
tion with stone implements and pottery, and furnish data to prove that
the land was inhabited several thousand years ago. Again, the indus-
trial activity of man in America may be traced by the remains of his
weapons, ornaments, and tools, made of stone, bone, and shell. In
most of the deposits examined, specimens of polished stone and pot-
tery testify to a reasonably developed skill ; but in the Trenton grav-
els, and a few other localities, genuine paleolithic remains have been
found, putting man in America at a date coeval with the close of the
glacial age, if not earlier. The vast antiquity of the American race is
further proved by the extensive dissemination of maize (corn) and to-
bacco,— tropical plants of Southern Mexico, — which were cultivated
from the latitude of Canada to that of Patagonia.
Turning to the matter of language, it is believed there are about
two hundred radically different languages in North and South Amer-
ica. Such a confusion of tongues, he thinks, could only have arisen
in hundreds of centuries. The study of these languages and of the
gradual growth of their dialects, supplies valuable data for the ancient
history of the continent.
But here follows the most remarkable declaration of all, that the
American race 2s as distinctively a race by itself as the African, or
White race. Although varying in many points, it has a marked fixed-
ness of ethnic anatomy, and always had. The oldest American crania,
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
61
collected from the most ancient quaternary deposits, are thoroughly
American in type. Finally, as the discovery of implements in the gla-
cial deposits locates man on this continent, at least, at the close of the
glacial epoch, this carries his residence here to about 35,000 years ago.
But there is no likelihood that he came into being on this continent.
He could not have been developed from any of the known fossil mam-
malia which dwelt here. More probably some colonies first migrated
along the pre-glacial land bridge which once connected Northern Amer-
ica with Western Europe. Later, others came from Asia. At that
time the physical geography of the northern hemisphere was widely
different from the present.
The same line of thought and study leads Nadaillac, the eminent
French scientist, to exclaim, after long and patient but ineffectual effort
to solve the mystery : " Who and what were the first inhabitants of
America ? Whence did they come ? To what immigration was their
arrival due ? By what disaster were they destroyed ? By what route
did they reach these unknown lands ? Must we admit different centers
of creation ? And were the primeval Americans born on American
soil ? Could evolution and natural selection, those principles so fully
accepted by the modern school, have produced on the shores of the
Atlantic and the Pacific a type of man resembling the European and
the Asiatic, alike in the structure of his frame, and in his intellectual
development.?" Great and formidable problems these, but men have
undertaken to solve them, with what effect we shall discover in the
course of this compilation from the discoveries and opinions of many
distinguished writers. But, answering his own inquiries cited above,
Nadaillac declares that " we are already in a position to assert that the
earliest vestiges of man in America and in Europe resemble each other
exactly, and by no means the least extraordinary part of the case is,
that in the New as in the Old World, men began the struggle for exist-
ence with almost identical means." And now comes the veteran
Schoolcraft, with many volumes of notes gathered during the greater
part of a long life passed among the different tribes of Indians, with
62 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the tacit yet half-reluctant admission that each continent may have
produced, and probably did produce, its own race. He says, " The
results of scientific investigation thus far, though incomplete, render it
by no means improbable that man is as old here as anywhere else."
Professor Agassiz was of the opinion that "so far as her physical
history is concerned, America has been falsely denominated the New
World. Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters, hers the
first shore washed by the ocean that enveloped all the earth beside, and
while Europe was represented by islands rising here and there above
the sea, America already stretched an unbroken line of land from
Nova Scotia to the Far West."
H. H. Bancroft asserts that "no theory of foreign origin has been
proved, or even fairly sustained. The particulars in which the Amer-
icans are shown to resemble any given people of the Old World, are
insignificant in comparison with the particulars in which they do not
resemble them. If this continent was peopled from the Old World, it
must have been at a period far remote." All modern investigators are
in full accord upon this point, however widely they may differ as to the
main question involved.
Bancroft concludes very properly since nothing definite is known,
that "the question must be settled in accordance, not with the old
chronology, but with the discoveries of modern science," upon which
there is no disagreement. Bunsen claims for the Indian an antiquity
of at least twenty thousand years, based on a common origin of
language. On the whole, it seems probable that each continent has
had its aboriginal stock, peculiar in color and in character, and that
each has experienced repeated modifications by immigrating, or ship-
wrecked colonists from abroad. All the present distinct types of races
were equally well defined when human history begins. No variety
has since been originated. "The best of the argument as to this
unsettled question — the unity of the human race," — says Wallace, the
naturalist, "is with those who maintain the primitive diversity of man."
The late Prof. J. W. Foster, in contemplating the remains of the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 63
Mound Builders, was led to believe that " their civilization was of an
older and higher order than that of the Aztecs, and that they were of
Southern origin." Also that " the ruins of Central America are more
recent than the mounds of the Mississippi Valley." His examination
of the crania of the Mound Builders induced the inference that they
were distinctly separated from existing races, and especially from those
of North America. Reasoning from "the distinctive character of
these structures (the mounds) and the traditions which have come
down to us," Foster says, " they indicate that these people were
expelled from the Mississippi Valley by a fierce and barbarous race, and
that they found a refuge in the more genial climate of Central
America, where they developed their germs of civilization originally
planted there^ attaining a perfection which has elicited the admiration
of every modern explorer." Is it not possible, to say nothing of the
probability, that in the migration of these people, — the Mound
Builders, — to the west and southward, some remnants may have halted
and established themselves in the valley of the San Juan, the Rio
Grande, and in New Mexico, while the main body continued on toward
Anahuac ? Davis* tells us that "the first Spaniards who penetrated
into New Mexico, found the Indians in substantially the same con-
dition as they are at the present time, and when Cortez entered
Southern Mexico he encountered a race of men inhabitinof that
country almost identical with the Pueblo Indians, in style of living,
manners and customs." Gallatin and other well-informed writers
declare that the language of the Indian gives no trace of his origin.
" No theories of derivation from the Old World," according to Hayden,
" have stood the test of grammatical construction. All traces of the
fugitive tribes of Israel, supposed to be found here, are again lost.
Neither Phoenician, nor Hindoo, nor Chinese, nor Welsh, nor Scan-
dinavian, have left any impression of their national syntax behind
them." Nearly all races of men have preserved some legend of a
deluge which covered the earth and destroyed all save a limited
*E1 Gringo.
64 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
number, in some cases a family, in others an individual, and in others
still, only a pair, whence sprang the new races and the rehabilitation of
mankind. And it is equally interesting to know that in every instance
it was the ancestry of the people who related the legend, reminding
one of Dante's Inferno, which peoples Hades with Italians, and devises
the most awful punishments for those who in their lifetime persecuted
him, his family, or particular friends. Among these traditions are
many which relate to the arrival of Europeans about the close of the
tenth century. " Most of the tribes possess traditions of the first
appearance of white men amongst them, and some name the place."
" Montezuma told Cortez''^' of a foreign connection between the Aztecs
and the natives of the Old World, and led him to assure the con-
queror of a relationship with the Spanish crown in the line of
sovereigns." Clavigero, in confirmation of this idea, reports the fol-
lowing speech by Montezuma to Cortez : " I would have you to under-
stand before you begin your discourse, that we are not ignorant, or
stand in need of your persuasions to believe that the great Prince you
obey is descended from our ancient Ouetzalcoatl, Lord of the Seven
Caves of the Navatlaques, and lawful king of those seven nations
which gave beginning to our Mexican Empire. By one of his
prophecies, which we receive as an infallible truth, and by a tradition
of many ages preserved in our annals, we know that he departed from
these countries to conquer new regions in the East, leaving a promise
that in process of time his descendants should return to model our
laws, and mend our government."
"But whatever their origin," says Schoolcraft, "when first ob-
served, the Indians presented all the leading traits and characteristics
of the present day. Of all races on the face of the earth, in features,
manners and customs, they have apparently changed the least, pre-
serving their physical and mental types with the fewest alterations.
They continue to reproduce themselves as a race, even when their
manners are comparatively polished and their intellects enlightened, as
*Schoolcraft.
-4^$^^^^^
HISTORY OF COLORADO 65
if they were bound by the iron fetters of an unchanging type. In
this unvarying and indomitable individuahty, and in their fixity of
opinion and general idiosyncracy, they certainly remind the reader of
Oriental races — of the Semitic family of man. The same indestruct-
ibility of type, the same non-progressiveness of the Indian-Oriental
mind, is perceived in the race in every part of the continent. The
Indian mind appears to have no intellectual propulsion, no analytic
tendencies. It reproduces the same ideas in 1880 as in 1492."
In cultivation, intelligence, forms of government, discipline,
councils of peace or war, the same variations appear in the tribes of
to-day as have characterized all ages. While some are rich and pros-
perous, well governed and powerful, others occupy the lowest stations.
For example, compare the Sioux with the Diggers. Verily, our
historians are correct in defining the situation of the Indian of all prior
epochs as unchanging and unchangeable, making no progress, and
without ambition, except for war and the chase.,
The Aztecs descended upon, overthrew the Toltecs, and occupied
their country about three centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards,
founding their capital on the site of the present City of Mexico. Thus
they became the rulers of an immense empire, extending from the
Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. As one tribe after another rebelled and
repossessed themselves of their hereditary territory, the original limits
were from time to time restricted. When Cortez came the Toltec mal-
contents joined him in his war upon the Aztecs, and rendered excellent
service in his campaigns. When asked as to the country of their
origin, the Toltecs, Chichimecs and Aztecs alike pointed to the north.
They moved southward because the lands were more fertile, and the
climate more genial. It is not improbable that their exodus southward
was hastened by a more barbarous and warlike people. Pursuing this
line of thought, we are led to the Mound Builders as the progenitors
of all the southern and western races, until we are met by a counter
proposition evolved from recent discoveries, that there is no reasonable
ground for supposing that the builders of the remarkable and fre-
5
6Q HISTORY OF COLORADO.
quently beautiful monuments and temples in Mexico, and those in
Central America, were in any way connected.
Nadaillac concludes his investigations with this striking summary:
•' Multitudes of races and nations have arisen upon the American Con-
tinent, and have disappeared, leaving no trace but ruins, mounds, a few
wrought stones, or fragments of pottery. * * * All those whom
we are disposed to call aborigines are, perhaps, but the conquerors of
other races that preceded them. Conquerors and conquered are for-
gotten in a common oblivion, and the names of both have passed from
the memory of man."" But he finds one fact to be incontestibly estab-
lished, that "man existed in the Old World in the quaternary period.
He was the contemporary, and often the victim, of large animals, the
strength of which can be estimated from the skeletons preserved in the
museums." Again, we have undeniable proof that " the first Ameri-
cans too, were contemporary with gigantic animals, which, like their con-
querors of Europe, have passed away, never to return."
Referring to the glacial period, and the inundations, accompanied
by violent torrents, which ensued, whereby we have the modifications
of the earth's surface of the present time, Putnam says, " Man lived
through these convulsions ; he survived the floods, as the recent dis-
coveries by Dr. Abbott, in the glacial deposits of the Delaware, near
Trenton, New Jersey, seem to prove beyond a doubt." Like testimony,
in the form of human and animal remains, with stone and other imple-
ments, curiously and quaintly fashioned, which could only have been
done by the hand of man, is abundant in many localities.
Bancroft relates that, in the Sierra Nevadas, and at various places
on the Pacific coast, numerous traces of the presence of man are met
with. " The discovery of implements or weapons, at a depth of sev-
eral hundred feet, in diversely stratified beds, showing no trace of dis-
placement, simply implies that the country was peopled many centuries
before the arrival of the Spaniards, and that the inhabitants were wit-
nesses of the convulsions of nature, of the volcanic phenomena which
brought about such remarkable changes. But when the bones of man,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. GT
and the results of his very primitive industry, are associated with the
remains of animals which have been extinct for a period of time of
which it is difficult to estimate the length, it is impossible not to date
the existence of that man from the most remote antiquity. These facts
are confirmed in California, Colorado, and Wyoming, wherever a search
has been possible."
At many points throughout the country, traces of ancient mining,
too, are found, manifestly long anterior to the Spanish invasion. This
is notably true of the old cinnabar mines, in California, in one of which,
beneath a mass of debris, the skeletons of primitive miners were found,
and beside them the rude implements with which the excavations were
made. The same is true of some of the copper mines of Lake Supe-
rior. But perhaps the most remarkable discovery has been announced
by Professor J. D. Whitney, which, for a time, until more fully investi-
gated, gave rise to doubt, and was seriously questioned by scientists.
Whitney was the director of the Geological Survey of California, and
in the course of his explorations, discovered in Calaveras county a
skull nearly complete, at a depth of about one hundred and thirty feet,
in a bed of auriferous gravel. "The deposit rested upon a bed of lava,
and was covered with several layers, some of lava, some of volcanic
deposits, overlying beds of gravel." From which Nadaillac aro-ues :
"If the facts reported be correct, the waters have more than once in-
vaded the districts inhabited by man, and burning lava from volcanoes
has dried up the rivers at their sources. The skull was embedded in
consolidated gravel, in which were several other fragments of human
bones, the remains of some small mammals, which it was impossible to
class, and a shell of a land snail. Beside these lay some completely fos-
silized wood." Gravels identical with those just mentioned, in various
sections of the Sierra Nevadas, have yielded the remains of extinct
animals. "There are deposits in California and Oregon where, to use
a popular expression, the remains of elephants and mastodons might be
had by the wagon load." Certain sections of Colorado, Kansas, and
Nebraska, once covered by a vast inland sea, are filled with wonderful
68 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
remains of the cretaceous age, but thus far, we beHeve, few remains
of importance have been exhumed. In the regions previously men-
tioned, gigantic pachydermata, with the Palaeolama, the Elotherium,
the bones of extinct oxen, Hipparion, and several kinds of horses,
have been brought to light.
Professor Whitney sustains his theory respecting the great antiq-
uity of man upon the Pacific Coast, by citing the discovery of many
implements, as lance points, stone hatchets, mortars for pulverizing
maize, and so on, all buried deeply beneath beds of lava and gravel.
He writes: " My chief interest now centers in the human remains, and
in the works from the hand of man, that have been found in the ter-
tiary strata of California, the existence of which I have been able to
verify within the last few months. Evidence has now accumulated to such
an extent that I feel no hesitation in saying that we have unequivocal
proofs of the existence of man on the Pacific Coast prior to the glacial
period, prior to the period of the mastodon and the elephant, at a time
when animal and vegetable life were entirely different from what they
are now, and since which a vertical erosion of from two to three thou-
sand feet of hard rock strata has taken place." This positive announce-
ment gave rise to some rather heated discussions among the wise men
of the schools; but, though doubted, the statement has not been over-
thrown. The American editor of Nadaillac, after a critical survey of
all the facts, comes to Whitney's support with the declaration that "no
reasonable person, who has impartially reviewed the evidence brought
together by Whitney, and who saw, as we did, the Calaveras skull, in
its original condition, can doubt that it was found, as alleged by the
discoverers, in the auriferous gravels below the lava," but adds, "The
only question to which some uncertainty still attaches itself among ge-
olosfists, is that of the true a^e of these travels, in oreolocrical time, and
whether all the extinct species of which remains are found in them were
contemporaneous with the deposition of the gravels, and with the then
undoubted presence of man." Nadaillac himself continues, "If, how-
ever, we hesitate as vet to admit" — observe the caution — "the exist-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 69
ence of man on the American Continent in the tertiary period, it is
difficult to deny that long centuries have rolled by since the time when
these unknown men lived amongst animals as little known as them-
selves. This is, in the present stage of prehistoric science, the only
decision possible."
This much, however, has been settled beyond controversy, that
men inhabited caves, notably in various parts of France and Belgium
in the quaternary period, since their remains in a remarkable state of
preservation have been found. Like remains have also been dis-
covered by the very earliest explorers in the ancient caves of Kentucky,
Tennessee and Virginia. Add to this the well authenticated dis-
coveries nearer home in California, among caves, whose walls were
covered with admirably preserved drawings representing men and
animals of which we have little if any knowledge, and in others of well
preserved mummies, brought to light by the Spaniards when they
came and began to scour the country in their fierce thirst for gold and
valuable plunder accumulated, and, as they believed, concealed by the
natives, and the story is measurably complete. Clavigero writes that
"these men differed as much in their features as in the garments with
which they were covered, from the races met with by the Spaniards."
Again, we are told by authority of those who saw, that from a
cave in the Rio Narvaez Valley in the State of Durango, Mexico,
a considerable number of mummies have been taken, of an appear-
ance very distinct from the present inhabitants. Near them were the
characteristic implements and weapons of their race, hatchets, arrow
points and pottery vases, the decorations of the latter resembling those
of the ancient Egyptians. Other discoveries of mummies have been
found in our own day, within the present year, upon the Gila River,
evidently of much antiquity.
!n summing up his conclusions of the Mound Builders, Nadaillac
decides, after a complete analysis of all the testimony that has been
adduced, that the mystery hitherto surrounding them disappears under
the statement from easily traceable sources of their history that they
70 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
were no more or less than the ancestors of the very Indians whom De
Soto encountered in his wonderful tour of conquest from Tampa Bay
to the Mississippi. "As in the far north, the Aleuts, up to the time of
their discovery were, by the testimony of the shell heaps, as well as
their language, the direct successors of the early Eskimo, so in the
fertile basin of the Mississippi, the Indians were the builders of the
singular and varied structures, to which scientists have for years
directed their keenest researches." This opinion is shared by a
large number of eminent archaeologists, and is generally accepted as
conclusive.
Carr, a distinguished authority, says, " Summing up the results that
have been obtained, it may be safely said that so far from there being
any a priori reason why the red Indians could not have erected these
works, the evidence shows conclusively that in New York and the Gulf
States they did build the mounds and embankments that are essen-
tially of the same character as those found in Ohio. In view of these
results, and of the additional fact that these same Indians are the only
people, except the whites, who, so far as we know, ever held the region
over which these works were scattered, it is believed we are fully
justified in claiming that the mounds and inclosures of Ohio, like those
of New York and the Gulf States, were the work of the red Indians,
or of their immediate ancestors. To deny this conclusion, and to
accept its alternative, ascribing these remains to a mythical people of a
different civilization, is to reject a simple fact in favor of one that is
far-fetched and incomplete, and this is neither science nor logic."
Thus one by one the scientific iconoclasts have overturned and
cast down our cherished idols, dissipated our myths and legends until
it would appear that all the shadowy mysteries which have shrouded
antiquity, are but mere commonplace events, no more striking or
startling than the current history of our own day and generation.
Since 1812, when the explorer Stephens made his famous and very
charming report on the celebrated ruins of Yucatan, we have been lost
in wonder as to who could have built them. In the absence of facts
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 71
the imagination raised from the depths of time a people different from
any of the known races, and induced the conviction that owing to their
similarity in some respects to the remotest works of the Egyptians, the
builders might have migrated from that country to this by some means
unknown to us, and continued in a strange land the labors interrupted
by some historic change. But now comes the French ethnologist, M.
De Charnay, with the latest developments of incontestible evidence
gathered by himself on the spot, under the joint patronage of Pierre
Lorillard of New York, and the Mexican Government, in a full and
explicit publication of the facts. It is unnecessary for our present
purpose to probe deeper into this interesting record than to recite the
essential particulars. These are obtained from a review of De
Charnay's elaborate work, entitled " The Ancient Cities of the New
World," which appeared in "Harper's Magazine" for October, 1887.
In dedicating the book to Mr. Lorillard, he expresses the belief that he
has accomplished the main object of his mission, which was the recon-
struction of the civilizations that have passed away, but more particu-
larly in demonstrating that these civilizations had but one and the
same origin ; that they were Toltec, and comparatively modern.
Humboldt, Stephens, and other learned investigators reached similar
conclusions many years ago, but from less extensive examination. But
M. De Charnay feels entirely convinced that he has proven beyond all
reasonable doubt that " the original inhabitants of the continent came
from the extreme East, and long after the flood," basing his conclusions
upon the fact that their "architecture is so like that of the Japanese as
to seem identical with it ; that their decorative designs resemble those
of the Chinese, and that their customs, habits, sculpture, language,
castes, and policy, recall those of the Malays." The Toltecs, he states,
"were one of the Nahuan tribes, which from the seventh to the
fourteenth centuries spread over Mexico and Central America. They
were, by common consent of historians, the most cultured of all their
race, and better acquainted with the methods of perpetuating the
traditions of their antiquity and their origin. They invented hiero-
72 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
glyphs and characters which, arranged after a certain method, recorded
their history, on skins of animals, on aloe, or palm leaves ; or they pre-
served their annals by means of knots of different colors, and also by
simple allegorical songs. This manner of writing history by maps, knots
(the knots are Chinese), and of songs, was handed down from father to
son, and thus has come to the present time. All that the Toltecs did
was well done, and their art and architecture were not only graceful,
but delicate," as evidenced by their pottery and other works. Leaving
the question of origin to conjecture, or later revelations, and confining
himself to historical testimony, he begins with the arrival of the
cultured Toltecs in Mexico, noting their establishment by colonies
in the Valley of the Tula, their development on high plateaux,
the disruption of their empire, showing how their industries and
mechanical arts were transmitted from generation to generation, and to
their successors, the Aztecs, and finally following them in their
exodus, traces their civilization throughout Central America, where we
will leave them, and resume the thread of our narrative, which relates
more especially to the prehistoric peoples of our own country, or
Colorado.
And now, after a careful examination of the better authorities v/ho
have attempted to discover the origin of man upon this continent, and
especially the origin of the people who built the cliff dwellings, the
ancient pueblos, who excavated and inhabited the caves found within
our State, in New Mexico and Arizona, we go back to the original
question, — Were they Toltec or Aztec? without a definite answer. All
we know, or can unravel, is that they were a very ancient people, and
here our knowledge ends.
Since the foregoing was written, Mr. W. H. Jackson, whose
report has been quoted, has intimated to me a project he has long
had under serious contemplation, of returning to the ruins in South-
western Colorado, and making a more thorough examination of them
and of those in Chaco Canon than it was possible to accomplish during
the first visit. He proposed to enter upon, in this connection, a very
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 73
extensive system of excavations, and thereby endeavor to exhume
some further and more interesting traces of the ancient history of this
remarkable people, and, it may be added, he has strong hopes of
finding numerous skeletons, implements and other remains that will
enable our antiquarians to determine something more than is now
known concerning them. Mr, Jackson is better qualified for such an
undertaking than any other explorer of our time, and being convinced
by the observations he made while attached to the United States
Geological Survey in 1874-5 that wisely conducted exploitation will
bring to light much new evidence relating to their antiquity, and pos-
sibly to their origin, we trust his purpose will be carried into effect.
As yet we have only the surface indications, which give the outlines
merely, leaving the deeper secrets to conjecture. All men who may
be interested in the solution of the mystery will unite with us in
hoping that his enterprise will be wholly successful. It is not improb-
able that the expedition will be undertaken during the current year
— 1889. With his permission, the discoveries he shall make, if
important, will be summarized in one of the succeeding volumes of
this history. It is one of the great enigmas sent down from the ages,
and it may be that our highly respected fellow-citizen has been
raised up for the disclosure, if not of as complete a record in this field
of inquiry as M. De Charnay has given us from his late researches
among the old temples of Yucatan, at least some fresh traces that will
lead to a better conception of the subject.
74 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER V.
Indian character, traditions, and religious impressions — the ancient aztecs
and modern pueblos — were the ruins in colorado of aztec or toltec de-
velopment?— legend of the expulsion of the cliff dwellers from the san
juan mountains, and their dispersion through new mexico and arizona —
remote antiquity of these ruins vast population of the ancient towns —
traditions of the moquis and zunis primeval reservoirs and irrigation
beauty and comprehensiveness of the aztec language.
The oral traditions of the Indian, founded in fact, no doubt, but
in transmission from generation to generation becoming strongly tinc-
tured with fiction, are all we have from that source to indicate his de-
scent of the ages. We have the statement from one who dwelt many
years among the roving tribes of the West, that wherever an Indian
sentiment is expressed, there is a tendency to the pensive and the rem-
iniscent. In old age his mind dwells longest and most fervently upon
the past, the achievements of his fathers, the battles won and lost, the
glories of their heroic deeds, and his own; the warriors slain, and cap-
tives taken ; of hosts overcome in the field, and lastly, with deep sor-
row and lamentation, over the rapid decay of his race. Therefore,
when we attempt to discover the hidden secrets of their lives, and
those of their ancestors, having first gained their confidence in our sin-
cerity and worth, it is always their desire to tell, as ours to hear, what-
ever they may have retained from the past. Though often interwoven
with poetic fiction, much truth is secured by these recitals, thousands
of which have been gathered into books, which constitute the base of
much of our knowledge of the primitive history of our continent.
Some of their ideas and legends are foun-d graphically portrayed in pic-
ture writing upon rocks, the walls of their dwellings, upon skins, and
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 7o
the bark of trees. This is their literature, crudely, but oftentimes pow-
erfully, communicated. To the unlettered in these forms of expres-
sion, their pictography is a dead language, with no apparent meaning,
but interpreted it is the meaning of Homer to the Greeks, or of Virgil
to the Latins. In the procession of the ages, there has been but little
change in the habits, temperament, or ambition of the savage races.
Born in the open air, where his whole life is passed, addicted to war
and the chase, he has peopled earth and air, the wind, the forests and
streams, the clouds and the firmament, with an imagery as fanciful, and
often as beautiful, as any known to man. It is written that the Great
Spirit of the Indian worship is a purer deity than the Greeks or
Romans, with all their refinement, possessed. We have innumerable
accounts of their beliefs respecting the future life, the power of good
and evil spirits ; legends of their dealings with men, and of their after
pilgrimage beyond the stars, the works and wonders wrought for them
by the Great Master of Life here on earth. Said a venerable chief of
one of the plains tribes, when informed that a railroad to the Pacific
was to be built through his hunting grounds, in forecasting its effect
upon the herds of buffalo, which were his sole means of subsistence :
" The Great Father, who made us and gave us these lands to live upon,
made also the buffalo and other game to afford us the means of life ;
his meat is our food ; with his skin we clothe ourselves, and build our
houses ; he is our only means of life — food, fuel, and raiment. I fear
we shall soon be deprived of the buffalo ; then starvation and cold will
diminish our numbers, and we shall all be swept away. The buffalo is
fast disappearing. As the white man advances, our game and our
means of life grow less, and before many years they will all be gone.^'
How speedily this prophecy was to be literally fulfilled, not even
this white haired patriarch could have foretold. In less than a quarter
of a century since the Pacific Railway was projected, the buffalo, the
deer, and the antelope, which once thronged the plains in countless
numbers, have passed away, and are no longer seen except in zoolog-
76 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
ical gardens, as effigies in our museums, or, at best, the last expiring
remnant, in the solitude of our mountain fastnesses.
A few additional reflections, with here and there such further tes-
timony as can be obtained from records and traditions at our command,
and we are done with this branch of the subject.
Were the remote ancestors of our pueblo Indians Aztec or Tol-
tec? No writer on the subject has yet dared to make a positive selec-
tion. The Aztecs of Mexico insisted that they came from the North,
or Northwest, and that they proceeded southward by regular stages of
emigration, halting from time to time, and remaining for years, pos-
sibly through generations, in each place adapted to their tastes and re-
quirements, and finally swept down in vast hordes upon the Toltecs in
the Valley of Anahuac, driving them out, and taking possession of
their country. In the course of this migration, one hundred and fifty
years were passed. Castaneda favors the theory of a starting point in
the far Northwest. It is assumed, indeed known with reasonable cer-
tainty, that the whole tribe or nation did not move together continu-
ously. Undoubtedly, large numbers were left behind, from choice, and
as probably built the cities and towns whose remains are found in
Southwestern Colorado and in New Mexico. Immense tracts, covered
with the ruins of their habitations and fragments of their pottery, are
found at intervals all the way from the San Juan Mountains to Mexico,
on the route assumed to have been pursued by the original host. Baron
von Humboldt, by authority of the Catholic missionaries he met on his
travels through the country, who were as familiar with the Aztec as
with the Spanish language, employing it in their missionary work and
in their sermons, affirms that it differs essentially from that spoken by
these natives, and from this argues that they were not of the same
race of people. Still this is by no means conclusive. Castaneda as-
serts that the Indians of New Mexico were entirely unknown to the
people of Southern Mexico, and that the latter first learned of them
through Cabeza de Vaca. Who shall number the centuries that lie be-
tween the migrations of the Aztecs and the discovery of the pueblos
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 77
by Cabeza and Coronado? The similitude in the methods of building,
customs, dress, physique, and forms of worship, with here and there
traces of identity of language, seem to indicate, if they do not prove,
an Aztec origin.
When found by the Europeans, in the sixteenth century, the cliff
and cave dwellers were living peacefully, and, no doubt, contentedly,
in their well-protected abodes. Excepting occasional incursions by
nomadic and warlike tribes, it is presumed, from what we know of their
amiability and industry, that they lived upon the fruits of toil, until
finally dispersed. The following legend, related to Captain Moss by
one of the venerable Moqui chiefs, and subsequently published in an
Eastern paper, indicates more clearly than any other the probable cause
of their final abandonment of the caves and cliff houses:
" Formerly the aborigines inhabited all this country as far west as
the head waters of the San Juan, as far north as the Dolores, west some
distance into Utah, and south and southwest through Arizona, and
down into Mexico. They had lived there from time immemorial —
since the earth was a small island, which augmented as its inhabitants
multiplied. They cultivated the valley, fashioned very neatly and
handsomely whatever utensils and tools they needed, out of clay, and
wood, and stone, not knowing any of the useful metals ; built their
homes, and kept their flocks and herds in the fertile river bottoms, and
worshiped the sun. They were an eminently peaceful and prosperous
people, living by agriculture, rather than by the chase. About a thou-
sand years ago, however, they were visited by savage strangers from
the North, whom they treated hospitably. Soon these visits became
more frequent and annoying. Then their troublesome neighbors — an-
cestors of the present Utes — began to forage upon them, and at last
to massacre them and devastate their farms ; so, to save their lives, at
least, they built houses high up on the cliffs, where they could store
food and hide away till the bold raiders left. But one summer the in-
vaders did not go back to their mountains, as the people expected, but
brought their families with them, and settled down. So, driven from
78 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
their homes and lands, starving in their Httle niches on the high chffs,
they could only steal away, during the night, and wander across the
cheerless uplands. To one who has traveled these steppes, such a flight
seems terrible, and the mind hesitates to picture the sufferings of the
sad fugitives.
"At the Christone they halted, and probably found friends, for the
rocks and caves are full of the nests of these human wrens and swal-
lows. Here they collected, erected stone fortifications and watch tow-
ers, dug reservoirs in the rocks, to hold a supply of water, which, at all
times, is precarious in this latitude, and once more stood at bay. Their
foes came, and for one long month fought, and were beaten back, but
returned, day after day, to the attack, as merciless and inevitable as the
tide. Meantime, the families of the defenders were evacuating and
moving south, and bravely did their protectors shield them till they
were all safely a hundred miles away. The besiegers were beaten
back, and went away ; but the narrative tells us that the hollows of the
rocks were filled to the brim with the mingled blood of conquerors
and conquered, and red rivers of it ran down into the canon. It was
such a victory as they could not afford to win again, and they were
glad, when the long fight was over, to follow their wives and little
ones to the south. There, in the deserts of Arizona, on well nigh
unapproachable, isolated cliffs, they built new towns, and their few de-
scendants— the Moquis — live in them to this day, preserving more care-
fully and purely the history and veneration of their forefathers than
their skill or wisdom."
Contrary to the usual legend, this reads like a well considered
chapter of history, and in many respects accords with the modern
apprehension of the causes of their expulsion from the lofty slopes of
the San Juan, the Mancos and the Dolores. It is exactly the kind of
history which any careful observer of their remains would construct
for these people after studying the ruins. It is clear that they were
abandoned long anterior to the Spanish invasion of New Mexico.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 79
The conquerors knew nothing of them until they were discovered by
Fathers Escalante and Garcia in 1775-7.
When discovered by the Europeans in the sixteenth century, these
brave and intelHgent people were living at peace with all the world
they knew, in their comfortable and well protected pueblos of adobe
and stone. The Spaniards came, overran the country, burned many of
their villages, slaughtered thousands, and in the course of time reduced
them to abject servitude. Nor did their cruel work stop, even at that
point of degradation; they were forced to abandon their ancient
religions and accept Christianity at the point of the sword, according
to the Spanish plan of salvation. Though they rebelled again and
again, the iron hand struck them down as repeatedly, until they became
so reduced in numbers as to render them powerless for further resist-
ance. Hence the arts and refinements they once possessed, and in
which they surpassed many of the European races in prehistoric times,
have been lost in their rapid degeneration. We have seen how their
ancestors dressed in cotton and other fabrics of their own weavinof,
how well and industriously they built. These broken descendants
manufacture little enough now, build nothing at all, and seem content
to be let alone, to pursue their uneventful lives according to the
slender means still left to them.
Davis relates some of the curious superstitions of the Pueblos,
among them the following from the Pecos Indians. It is said that in
the estufa the sacred fire was kept constantly burning, having been
originally kindled by Montezuma. It was in a basin of a small altar,
and in order to prevent its becoming extinguished, a watch was kept
over it day and night. The tradition runs that Montezuma enjoined
upon their ancestors not to allow it to expire until he should return to
deliver them from the Spaniards, and hence their devotion to it. He
was expected to appear with the rising sun, and every morning the
Indians went upon the housetops, and with eyes turned toward the
east, looked for the coming of their monarch. Alas ! for them, he
never came, and alas! too, for the lovers of these picturesque tradi-
80 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
tions, It is probable that they never knew of Montezuma, except
through their conquerors.
That some idea of the numbers which occupied the pueblos before
their decimation by wars and pestilences may be obtained, we give the
estimates afforded by the chronicler of Espejo's expedition in 1582.
In one of the provinces visited there was a town, or cluster of towns,
estimated to contain 40,000 souls, possessing great herds of cattle, and
raising large crops of cotton and vegetables; in another 14,000 were
found, with markets and plazas, where the people congregated for
trading purposes. Many of the dwellings were plastered, and painted
in various colors, and the better class wore beautiful and curious
mantles of their own weaving. In another there were 30,000, and at a
distance of twenty-eight leagues from Cibola (Zuni), direction not
stated, was a province containing 50,000. The last visited had 40,000.
When the smoldering embers had expired, they gave up all hope of
deliverance, and sought homes elsewhere. The task of watching the
sacred fires was assigned to the warriors, who served by turns for a
period of two days and two nights at a time, without eating or
drinking, while some say they remained on duty until death or
exhaustion relieved them from their post. The remains of those who
died from the effect of watching are said to have been carried to
the den of a great serpent, which appears to have lived upon these
delicacies alone.
Gregg* says: "This huge snake — invented no doubt by the
lovers of the marvelous to account for the constant disappearance
of the Indians — was represented as the idol which they worshiped, and
as subsisting entirely upon" the fiesh of his devotees. The story
of this wonderful serpent was so firmly believed in by many ignorant
people that on one occasion I heard an honest ranchero assert that
upon entering a village very early upon a winter's morning he
saw the huge trail of the reptile in the snow, as large as that
of a dragging ox."
*Commerce of the Prairies.
i^/ LtLZ Ohx^^-^l^cAj)
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 81
Gregg gives it as his opinion that the Navajoes are a remnant
of the Aztec race, which remained in the north when that people
migrated toward Anahuac, and mentions the superiority of their
skill in the manufacture of blankets, cotton goods, embroidery in
feathers, and so forth. The alliance is further suggested by the
wonderful skill of both ancient and modern Mexicans in feather work.
Humboldt fixes the country of the Navajoes as the region inhabited
by the Aztecs of the twelfth century.
Among the recent works relating to the pueblo Indians, is one
published in 1884 by John G. Bourke, U. S. A.,* who visited that
country in 1881. Having seen in their estufas many seashells, and
having inquired where they were found, the following legend was
related to him by one of the old men of the tribe :
" Many years ago, the Moquis lived upon the other side of a high
mountain (range) beyond the San Juan River, in the southwestern corner
of Colorado. The chief of those who lived there thought he would take
a trip down the big river, to see where it went to. He made a boat
from a hollow cottonwood log, took some provisions, and started down.
The stream carried him to the seashore, where he found the shells.
When he arrived on the beach, he saw on the top of a cliff a number
of houses, in which lived many men and women. They had white un-
der their eyes, and below that a white mark. That night he took unto
himself one of the women as his wife. Shortly after his return to his
home, the woman gave birth to snakes, and this was the origin of the
Snake family (gens or clans), which manages this dance. When she
gave birth to these snakes, they bit a number of the children of the
Moquis. The Moquis then moved in a body (down from the San
Juan) to their present villages, and they have this dance to conciliate
the snakes, so they wont bite their children."
Says Bourke: "My own suspicion is that one of the minor
objects of the Snake Dance has been the perpetuation in dramatic
form of the legend of the origin and growth of the Moqui family.
* Snake Dances of the Moquis of Arizona.
6
82 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
For example, salt water, sand and seashells seen in the estufas may
have symbolized their emergence from the ocean — their landing
upon the western coast, with their huddling together, and smoking
in company with the crawling reptiles, in all probability conserved
the tradition of a prehistoric life in caves which snakes infested."
We learn from Sylvester Baxter* that the Zunis believe their
gods brought them to a dry and sterile country for a home, but
that their forefathers taught them the prayers and songs whereby that
land might be blessed with rain. They therefore addressed their
prayers to spirits dwelling in the ocean, the home of all water, as the
source from which their blessings came. They believe their prayers
brought the clouds from the ocean, guided by the spirits of their
ancestors, and the clouds gave them rain. The Zunis have had
a knowledge of the oceans from time immemorial, and besides the
Atlantic and the "Ocean of Hot Water" (Gulf of Mexico), they speak
of the "Ocean of Sunset" and the "Ocean of the Place of Ever-
lasting Snow," and they include all four under the name of the
"Waters embracing the World." When asked how it was that they
knew all about the ocean, one of them replied : '' Farther back than a
long time ago our fathers told their children about the ' Ocean of the
Sunrise.' We ourselves did not know it. We had not seen it. We
knew it in the prayers they had taught us, and by the things they
had handed down to us, and which came from its waters."
At the council when Nai-in-tchi was told that he had been chosen
to go to Washington with Gushing, he repeated the ancient Zuni
tradition of the people that had gone to the eastward in the days when
all mankind was one, and said that now our " Lost Others," as they
were called, might be coming back to meet them in the shape of
Americans. They talked incessantly of the Americans, repeated all
the traditions within their recollection, and among them this : "A
strange and unknown people are the Americans, and in a far-off
and unknown land they live. Thus said our ' Old Ones' — ancestors."
*"Century Magazine," August, 1SS2.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 83
Bourke says one of the Moqui Indians told him that human
sacrifice was the custom of his ancestors, and that if the tribes
to the south in Mexico (the Aztecs) " did that, they were one people
with us. We have one religion, and human sacrifice was the practice
of our forefathers."
At Zuni also, a venerable chief who talked Spanish quite fiuently,
said to him : " In the days of long ago all the Pueblos, Moquis, Zunis,
Acoma, Laguna, Jemez, and others, had the religion of human sacrifice
at the time of the feast of fire. The victim had his throat cut, and his
breast opened, and his heart taken out by one of the Cochinas (priests).
That was their method of asking good fortune, The Mexicans (Span-
iards) came, and they had another method ; they went to church and
prayed to God. They would not allow the Pueblos to keep up the
good old custom."
These traditions have been cited to illustrate the drift of the
Indian mind in regard to his ancestry. If they were handed down
from a remote period, of which there is at least a certain probability,
they also indicate a connection between these people and the Aztecs.
The distinguished historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, who has
given in his " Native Races" much valuable information concerning the
Aztec language, says: "It was the court language of American
civilization, the Latin of mediaeval, and the French of modern times ; it
was used as the means of holding intercourse with non-Aztec speaking
peoples, also by all ambassadors, and in all official communications.
* * * It is also possible that it may at one time have been used
even east of the Mississippi, as will appear from the statements of
Acosta and Sahagun. The latter says that the Apalaches, living east
of the Mississippi, extended their expeditions far into Mexico, and
were proud to show to the first conquerors of their country the great
highways in which they traveled. Acosta affirms that the Mexicans
called these Apalaches Natuices, or mountaineers. * * Of all
the languages spoken on the American continent, the Aztec is the
most perfect and finished, approaching in this respect the tongues of
84 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Europe and Asia, and actually surpassing many of them by Its elegance
of expression." Mendleta says that " it Is not excelled In beauty by
the Latin, displaying even more art in its construction and abounding
in tropes and metaphors." Clavigero says It is copious, polite and
expressive.
In bringing this prolific subject to a close, the reader is invited
to take Into just consideration the fact that even a rapid digest would
extend It beyond the limit of this volume. He will therefore readily
pardon the brevity of its treatment here. It Is not our purpose to
burden these pages with more than is essential to a correct apprehen-
sion of the origin, so far as any one has been enlightened, of the people
who ages ago inhabited a small portion of Colorado. This object has
been as fully met in the foregoing chapters as it is possible for any
history thus far published to attain.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 85
CHAPTER VI.
1582 TO 1806. Revival of explorations from Mexico — the expedition of don
JUAN DE ONATE — COLONIZATION OF NEW MEXICO — DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE
SAN LUIS VALLEY — MARCHES OF ONATE AND PENALOSA TO THE MISSOURI RIVER —
FRENCH EXPEDITIONS FROM NEW ORLEANS THE PILGRIMAGE OF FATHERS ESCA-
LANTE AND GARCIA TO THE SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS, AND THROUGH VARIOUS PARTS
OF COLORADO — THE EXPLORATIONS OF LIEUT, ZEBULON M. PIKE AND HIS CAPTURE
BY THE SPANIARDS THE FIRST DISCOVERER OF GOLD ON THE UPPER ARKANSAS
ORIGINAL AMERICAN VISITORS TO THIS REGION.
December 10, 1582, an expedition commanded by Don Antonio de
Espejo, marched up from Mexico to the Rio Grande in the vicinity of
Albuquerque. After a cursory examination of the country, he returned
by way of the Pecos Valley, passing down into Northwestern Texas.
He was followed in 1591 by Don Juan de Onate, a wealthy and vigorous
cavalier of Zacatecas, with the especial purpose of establishing colonies
at various points, and thus confirming the Spanish title to the country.
He came also in search of the precious metals, and, more fortunate than
his predecessors, found many valuable mines. The first colony was
located on the north side of the Chama in a beautiful valley just above
its junction with the Rio Grande. The settlement remains to the pres-
ent day, and while not large, is thrifty, and, to all appearances, pros-
perous. In the course of his numerous explorations, Onate penetrated
the San Luis Park, between the Culebra and Trinchera above Fort Gar-
land,and, it is said, located and partly opened mines containing gold and
silver. Returning to the colony on the Chama, he projected a still more
extensive journey which carried him between the Arkansas and Platte
Rivers, and it is believed, very nearly if not quite to the Missouri.
On the 6th of March, 1662, Don DieQfo de Penalosa, with a con-
86 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
siderable force, left Mexico for Santa Fe, and from there passed down
into Kansas to its eastern borders.
In 1724 M. De Bourgmont, then in command of the French forces
stationed at Fort Orleans, on the Missouri River, not far from the pres-
ent site of Kansas City, — more precisely near Camden, or the mouth of
Grand River — was directed to make an " exploratory voyage " westward,
for a twofold object. First, to bring the Osage, Kaw or Kansas Indians,
the Otoes and the Padoucas or Pawnees into council, and to conclude
with them a durable treaty. Second, by this means to assure a per-
manent peace between these constantly warring tribes, and thereby
promote the fur trade, which was too frequently interrupted by tribal
conflicts. Next, the government of Louisiana hoped to attach all these
Indians to the interests of France^ by inducing them to abandon their
traffic with the Spaniards of New Mexico, for which concession the
French agreed to aid and protect them against their enemies. In July,
De Bourgmont proceeded westward a distance of something over one
hundred and fifty miles. He was taken ill and returned to Fort Orleans,
but left a part of his command and all his goods with the Kansas Indians.
Returning in September, this officer advanced further west on the same
parallel to a point not far from Fort Ellsworth, in Western Kansas.
Here he concluded a treaty with the Kansas and Pawnees, and an agree-
ment that peace should be preserved between them. He discovered in
this expedition that the Kansas River and its tributaries extended west'
ward some four hundred to five hundred miles ; that the Padoucas had
villages on the Platte, the head of the Smoky Hill and near the sources
of the Republican Fork in our present state of Colorado ; that the Span-
iards traded with the Padoucas ; that the latter obtained from them
cattle and horses ; also that the Spaniards mined great quantities of
silver, and the Indians explained to him their methods of producing it.
It will be remembered that after the final subjugation of the natives,
years after Coronado's invasion, these people were enslaved and put to
work in the mines.
This is the first authentic account we have of the Kansas and
HISTORY OF COLORADO. ST
Colorado prairies since the sixteenth century, when Louis Moscoso and
Coronado explored them as recorded in a previous chapter. There is
evidence, however, that both before and after De Bourgmont's expedi-
tions, Spanish exploring parties had in the eighteenth century, penetrated
northward from Santa Fe to the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.
This was established by the capture, about 1720, of a Spanish map which
gave as then drawn, an altogether misleading idea of the Missouri, and
its headwaters as conceived by Spaniards from New Mexico.
In 1740-50 the Spaniards, who had for one hundred and sixty
years frequented the Valley of the Arkansas, the South and North Platte
Rivers and the heads of the Kansas, had at times attempted to secure
a foothold in that region, but never succeeded in establishing them-
selves permanently at any point northeast of the Raton and Sangre
de Cristo ranges. Still the remains of old acequias, house foundations,
etc., that for thirty or forty miles below the present city of Pueblo may
be seen along the Arkansas River, indicate a very restricted occupation.
Although Spanish grants had been made extending for miles below
the Huerfano, permanent settlements never could have been maintained
there, exposed, as they must have been, to frequent attacks from the
war-like Apaches and other nomadic tribes who made this region their
hunting grounds. Nevertheless, in the years mentioned above, the
Spaniards kept a picket post on the Huerfano where the trail led to the
Sangre de Cristo Pass. When Lieut. Pike led his expedition up the
Arkansas in 1806-7, he passed the spot where Pueblo now stands, but
neither houses nor settlers were there at that period. Indeed, the entire
valley was deserted even by the Indians, except now and then a war
or hunting party. Pike discovered, hovvever, that Spanish goods and
wares were not uncommon among the prairie Indians, and that a troop
of Spanish cavalry had not long before penetrated to the headwaters of
the Kansas and Republican Rivers. But at that time no route existed
known to any one, which led to the settlements of New Mexico from
the Missouri. The Santa Fe trail was not opened nor traveled until
88 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
after 1820. Yet, in 1824-26 Spanish troops had escorted trains to the
Arkansas en route for trade at St. Louis or Independence, Mo.
In 1775 two Spanish padres, Escalante and Garcia, began a lonely
pilgrimage northward. From Valencia, south of Albuquerque they
passed northwest to Pajorito ; thence inclined a little south of west
across the Puerco, reaching the pueblo of Laguna, situated on a small
stream then called Rio de Belen ; thence southwest to Acoma, one of
the ancient rock fortresses of the pueblo Indians. From Acoma they
passed to Coquina, a few miles south of the Ojo de Zuni, probably the
place now known as Deer Springs. The itinerary of the fathers does
not claim to be exact as to the cardinal points. Here, inclining some
1 5" to the north, they crossed what is denominated by them the Sierra
de las Casninos, a dividing plateau between Zuni and the head of the
Colorado Chiquito, and reached a spring which they located, and is the
same as is now designated "Navajo Spring," or perhaps "Jacob's
Well ; " continuing on the same course, crossing the Puerco of the
west, they arrived at Hualpi, one of the seven Moqui towns, thence
to another pueblo, marked on their map as Mosconobi, where a trail is
indicated as leading direct to San Bernardino in California, a road
known and traveled from Santa F'e via CeboUeta on the Rio Belen
above Laguna ; thence to the Great Colorado at San Pedro, and thence
to San Bernardino. Without following the sinuosities of their desul-
tory course, it is found that they eventually passed by Sevier River
and the Vegas de Santa Clara to near Lake Utah, and thence nort'hward.
From the trading post on Great Salt Lake the padres returned
southward along their trail to near Lake Utah ; thence by the head of
Provo and Weber Rivers, across the Wahsatch Range, striking Green
River about thirty miles south of White or Uintah River, keeping a
southwest course after leaving Green River. They crossed the Grand
and the San Miguel or Dolores Rivers, and reached the head branches
of the San Juan, called by them Rios San Coyetano and De Velas-
quez, to a place on the Rio de Velasquez, called Santa Maria de los
Nieves (Saint Mary of the Snows). This point was at the base of the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 89
San Juan Mountains, shown on their map and designated as Sierra
de las Gruellas or Crane Mountains. Here they turned to a northeast
course over the San Juan Mountains, reaching the Valley of the Del
Norte at San Pedro, a point which cannot be intelligently located.
Here they turned about to a course of south by 25° east, indicating
Hot Springs at the head of a river called Otter or Nutrias River.
Undoubtedly Father Escalante attempted to locate in his itinerary the
Pagosa hot springs, but he makes the stream from the springs flow
into and form a part of the Rio de Chama, an affluent of the Del
Norte, while the Rio Nutria to-day heads in the mountains ten miles
northwest of Pagosa, and Pagosa is on the San Juan River, of which
Nutria is an affluent. Another hypothesis might locate the Hot
Springs on the Rio Navajo, from which it is a comparatively short dis-
tance to the Rio de Chama, but the Hot Springs of the padres' route
are too far north to give it much probability. Having arrived at a
point about twenty miles north of the parallel of 2>T i^oi'th latitude,
a place they christened San Pablo Piedra Lumbra, they altered their
itinerary to an east-southeast course, reaching the Chama at Santa
Clara, thence down that stream to a point called Gomez ; thence to
San Ildefonso on the Del Norte, and finally to Santa Fe.
In the light that to-day is thrown over the whole region, explored
one hundred and ten years ago by these indefatigable priests, we must
accord them the merit of great endurance and fearless courage. But
this has been from time immemorial a characteristic of the church
and its missionaries. To perpetuate his fame, a great range of moun-
tains has been christened for Father Escalante, who with his companion
was doubtless the first European to set foot upon them, and they were
probably the first white discoverers also of the Great Salt Lake.
Notwithstanding the considerable numbers of Spaniards — priests,
laymen and soldiers — who explored the country to the north of New
Mexico, and as far east as the Arkansas and the Platte, they planted
no missions, established no churches, and left no traces whatever of
their visitations in any portion of the country. There are no vestiges
1)0 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of early Catholic establishments from the Rio Grande to the Missouri,
neither in the Rocky Mountains nor upon the plains east or south.
In the diary kept by Escalante, several places are noted where
ancient ruins were observed, among them on the banks of the Dolores
River, situated on a height, and built upon the same plan as those
in New Mexico, "as shown by the ruins which we examined." At
another point (the Rio de San Cosme) "we saw near by a ruin of a
very ancient town, in which were fragments of metals and pottery. The
form of the town was circular, as shown by the ruins now almost
leveled to the ground." Again, in the canon of another stream,
" Toward the south there is quite a high cliff on which we saw rudely
painted three shields and a spear head. Lower down on the north
side, we saw another painting which represented in a confused manner
two men fighting, for which reason we named it the Canon Pintado."
But the expeditions of greatest importance to the people of
the United States, measured by the events which followed the publica-
tion of their reports, were conducted, the first by Captains Lewis and
Clarke, and Lieutenant — subsequently Major — Zebulon M. Pike, by
order of Thomas Jefferson, very soon after the Louisiana purchase, for
the dual purpose of exploring the then unknown wilds of our western
country, and, as Pike quaintly expresses it, "of obtaining information
founded on scientific pursuits, and with a view of entering into a chain
of philanthropic arrangements for ameliorating the condition of the
Indians who inhabit those vast plains and deserts." But the actual
purpose may be summarized in the fact that, having secured an im-
mense territory, only a small portion of which had been settled, and
but a fraction traversed, the government was seized by a strong desire
to ascertain what the trackless wilderness of forests, plains and moun-
tains contained in the way of natural resources which might at the
proper time be developed for the benefit of the incipient Republic.
Therefore, Captain Merriweather Lewis, in conjunction with Cap-
tain C. Clarke, was directed to proceed to the sources of the Missouri,
and Lieut. Pike to the Mississippi and the headwaters of the Platte.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 91
As we are more especially interested in the latter expedition, that only
will be considered, leaving the reader to consult the reports of Lewis
and Clarke, which may be found in any well-selected library. Pike's
journal being out of print, is rarely obtainable. The work as published,
is simply a quaint, and at times grotesque, diary in which the principal
occurrences of each day are briefly narrated.
After exploring the Mississippi for some distance, he was recalled
and directed to examine the country between the Missouri and the
Rocky Mountains; to discover the sources of the Arkansas, Platte
and Red Rivers, take note of everything worthy of record, and "to
acquire such geographical knowledge of the southwestern boundary
of Louisiana, as to enable the government to enter into a definite ar-
rangement for a line of demarkation between that territory and North
Mexico." He was further instructed to pay especial attention to the
various Indian tribes met with on the way, and to report everything of
importance concerning them. To insure greater accuracy of surveys,
he was provided with a complete outfit of astronomical and mathe-
matical instruments.
On the nth of July, 1806, the expedition, comprising two lieu-
tenants, one surgeon, one sergeant, two corporals, sixteen privates, and
an interpreter well versed in the Indian languages, embarked from
Bellefontaine, Mo., and was accompanied by several Osage and Pawnee
chiefs who had been to Washington for a conference, and were then
returning to their homes. Omitting the details of the voyage up the
Osage River, which they ascended in boats to the head of navigation,
we find that they crossed thence overland to the Kansas River, and fin-
ally to the Arkansas, marching along the course of that stream. On
the 23d of November they arrived at the Third Fork, now known as
the St. Charles or San Carlos. Here, on the 24th, a breastwork of logs
was thrown up, and a detachment left to defend it, while with the re-
mainder Pike advanced to the Second, or " Grand Fork," and encamped
near the present site of Pueblo. If any fixed settlers or habitations
existed there at that early period, no mention is made of them, and
92 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
it is unlikely that features of so much importance would have escaped
observation. They next pursued the left or south side of the Foun-
taine qui Bouille northward, keeping near the mountains, and in due
time found themselves at the base of Cheyenne (Shian) Mountain, in
front of the " High Peak." On the 27th, says the journal, "We com-
menced ascending, and found it very difficult, being obliged to climb
up rocks, sometimes almost perpendicular ; and after marching all
day, we encamped in a cave without blankets, victuals, or water. *
^' " Some distance up we found buffalo ; higher still the new
species of deer," (probably mountain sheep) " and pheasants," (grouse).
Next morning, after a wretched night in the cave on the steep moun-
tain-side, they arose "hungry, dry, and extremely sore from the un-
equality of the rocks on which we had been all night, but were amply
compensated for our toil by the sublimity of the prospect below. The
unbounded prairie was overhung with clouds which appeared like the
ocean in a storm ; wave piled on wave and foaming, whilst the sky was
perfectly clear where we were." Continuing the ascent, after an hour
of climbing, they reached the summit, where they found the snow waist-
deep, and the mercury at 4° below zero. Pike in scaling this mountain
anticipated that it would lead him to the apex of that stupendous
elevation which now bears his name, and was both astonished and cha-
grined to find it apparently as he says, "Fifteen or sixteen miles away,
and as high again as what we had ascended, and would have taken a
whole day's march to have arrived at its base, when, I believe, no
human being could have ascended to its pinnacle. This, with the con-
dition of my soldiers, who had only light overalls on, and no stockings,"
to say nothing of the principal objection that they were half-frozen,
had nothing to eat and no prospect of killing any game, decided him
not to undertake it. Arrived at the foot of Cheyenne Peak, a heavy
snowstorm set in, and " we sought shelter under the side of a projecting
rock where we all four made a meal on one partridge and a piece of
deer's ribs, the first we had eaten in that forty-eight hours.'' None but
the early pioneer gold hunters of our time can fully appreciate the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 93
terrible hardships of these brave men, floundering about in snow two or
three feet deep, thinly clad, without stockings, shod with coarse army
shoes, and without food for two days and nights, all in the pursuit of
knowledge for " philanthropic uses," and without hope of further
reward. With all his labor Pike never reached the summit, or even
the base of "High Peak," nor lived to enjoy the honor of its christening,
which fell to Dr. James, who, with two others attached to Major Long's
party, made the ascent to the highest point. It was known for many
years as "James' Peak." Neither of them could have imagined or
dreamed of the picturesque beauty since added to the scenes of their
exploits by their countrymen of a later generation, though Fitzhugh
Ludlow, who came sixty years after Pike, when that section of country,
though thinly populated, was practically unchanged, foresaw as in a
prophetic vision the future of Manitou and the magnificent canon
of the Fountaine, and photographed them from this impression in his
"Heart of the Continent," published in 1868.
November 28, weary, half-frozen, destitute and disappointed, the
party retreated to their starting point on the Arkansas. While crossing
the hills they shot a buffalo and made the first hearty meal they had
enjoyed in three days. Pike says, — "The land here is very rich, and
covered with old Teton (Comanche) camps." While at the base of
Cheyenne Mountain he measured by triangulation the altitude of "Grand
Peak," with the following result: "The perpendicular height of the
mountain from the level of the prairie, was 10,581 feet, and admitting
that the prairie was 8,000 feet from the level of the sea, it would make
the elevation of this peak 18,581 feet. * * * Indeed, it was so
remarkable as to be known by all the savage nations for hundreds of
miles around, and to be spoken of with admiration by the Spaniards of
New Mexico, and was the bounds of their travels northwest. Indeed,
in our wanderings in the mountains it was never out of our sight, except
when in a valley, from the 14th of November to the 27th of January."
Resting a short time at the mouth of the Fountaine, they next
marched up the Arkansas. On the ist of December a violent snow-
94 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
storm occurred, causing men and beasts intense suffering. "Our horses
were obliged to scrape the snow away to obtain their miserable pit-
tance, and to increase their misfortunes, the poor animals were attacked
by magpies, who, attracted by the scent of their sore backs, alighted on
them, and in defiance of their wincing and kicking, pecked many places
quite raw. The difficulty of procuring food rendered these birds so bold
as to light on our men's arms and eat out of their hands." Later on,
buffalo, deer and wild turkeys were killed.
An encampment was made near the spot now occupied by Canon
City. From this point Pike took a small detachment, and, as near as
can be ascertained from his diary, passed into the mountains via
Currant Creek, and thence to the South Park, which was explored to
the sources of the Platte. They also visited the Salt Marsh (now
Hall's Ranch), and appear to have crossed the divide on or near the
present line of the South Park Railway, descending Trout Creek to
the valley of the Arkansas, mistaking it for the Red River, which they
were strongly instructed to explore. With this erroneous under-
standing, they ascended the stream nearly to its source ; then, as if its
identity had been unmistakably established, turned about and followed
its course down through the magnificent caiion, only to find themselves
on reachino- its debouchure, after a month of immeasurable sufferins^,
back at the starting point, and the Red River of their quest still as
much of an unknown quantity in their calculations as before. Pike did
not learn until long afterward that he had passed the sources of this
stream while en route to the Arkansas.
But the indomitable Lieutenant, bent upon making the discovery
at all hazards, as soon as the weather permitted, struck south through
the Wet Mountain Valley, and across the Sangre de Cristo Range to
the Rio Del Norte, which he was now entirely convinced was the Red
River. The point from which it was first discovered must have been,
from the description, near the present site of Fort Garland. He
descended the Rio Grande some eighteen miles to the Conejos River.
On the north bank of this river, five miles above its confluence with
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 95
the Rio Grande, he erected a strong stockade as a rallying point and
base for future operations, and with the further intention of tracing the
river to its sources in the mountains. Struck with the loveliness of the
San Luis Park, as every visitor to that picturesque valley must be, he
gives rein to his descriptive powers thus: "From a high hill south
of our camp we had a view of all the prairie and rivers to the north of
us. It was, at the same time, one of the most sublime and beautiful
inland prospects ever presented to the eyes of man. The prairie, lying
nearly north and south, was probably sixty miles by forty-five. The
main river, bursting out of the western mountain, and meeting from
the northeast a large branch which divides the chain of mountains, pro-
ceeds down the prairie, making many large and beautiful islands, one of
which I judge contains 10,000 acres of land, all meadow ground,
covered with innumerable herds of deer. In short, this view combined
the sublime and the beautiful. The great and lofty mountains, covered
with eternal snows, seemed to surround the luxuriant vale, crowned
with perennial flowers, like a terrestrial paradise shut out from the
view of man."
But his occupation of the fort was of brief duration. Shortly
after its completion a troop of Mexican cavalry appeared upon the
scene, and to his astonishment, informed him that he had invaded
Spanish territory ; that he was not upon the Red River, but upon the
Rio Grande, and that Governor Allencaster, the executive head of
New Mexico, desired to see him. Notwithstanding his explanations
and protests, they politely but firmly compelled him to accompany them
to Santa Fe. He was taken to headquarters, then, as now, " the
Palace," searchingly examined respecting his invasion of the country of
a friendly power, and subsequently transferred to Chihuahua, whence,
some months afterward, he made his way back to the United States,
through Texas.
While in the South Park, and near the headwaters of the
Arkansas, he reports having discovered the remains of immense Indian
encampments. "The sign made by their horses was astonishing, and
96 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
would have taken a thousand horses some months to have produced
the marks left by them." In some of these camps were great quan-
tities of corn cobs, which he concluded might have been from maize of
their own cultivation, but more probably obtained from the Mexicans
by purchase or theft. At another place they discovered a camp which
had been occupied by three thousand Indians at least, "with a large
cross in the middle," from which he decides that this particular brand
of savage was of the Roman Catholic persuasion. All these observa-
tions have some bearing, more or less important, upon facts which will
be elaborated hereafter, namely, that the South Park and upper
Arkansas Valley were for centuries perhaps, certainly for long periods,
the favorite resorts and undoubtedly places of refuge of the Shoshone,
Snake, Arapahoe, Ute and other nomadic tribes.
In the appendix to his diary, written after his return from Mexico,
Pike pays some attention to the physical conditions of the country lying
between the Missouri and the Sierras. The following extract is inter-
esting in view of the present stage of its development. He writes : "In
this western traverse of Louisiana the following general observations
may be made, viz.: That from the Missouri to the head of the Osage
River, a distance in a straight line of probably three hundred miles, the
country will admit of a numerous, extensive and compact population.
From thence on, the rivers Kanzes,La Platte, Arkansaw and their various
branches, it appears to me to be only possible to introduce a limited
population on their banks." He therefore advises such people to give
their undivided attention to raising cattle, horses, sheep and goats, "all
of which they can raise in abundance." He anticipates, however, that
the lack of timber, which renders the country unfit for habitation, may
one day be filled by the discovery of coal. Here is another conclusion:
" But from these immense prairies may arise one great advantage to the
United States, viz., the restriction of our population to some certain
limits, and thereby a continuation of the Union; our citizens being so
i:)rone to rambling and extending themselves on the frontiers, will
through necessity be constrained to limit their extent in the West to
'/^^^
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 97
the borders of the Missouri and Mississippi, while they leave the
prairies, incapable of ciiUivatioii, to the wandering and uncivilized
aborigines of the country."*
But Kansas had not then bled, Ireland suffered for home rule, nor
Germany poured out her millions upon our shores. The enormous
volume of population which eventually swept straight westward, rarely
or never southward, — for the cause of a mighty rebellion and awful
sacrifice lay slumbering there, — and distributed itself over all these
vast prairies, however sterile, which Pike traversed, causing them
in process of time to blossom as the rose, had not then commenced its
migration. How could he bridge the next half century, and behold the
vision of marvelous consequences of which his little book was the
beginning ?
The original discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains, if the
record before us is trustworthy, was made by one James Pursley, whom
Pike met in Santa Fe, and who came to the western prairies from
Bairdstown, Kentucky, in 1802. Leaving St. Louis with two com-
panions, he hunted and trapped for a time, experiencing some violent
encounters with the Indians, and passing through a long series of
strange adventures. In the course of time Pursley, according to
his own account, reached the headwaters of the Platte. "He assured
me," says Pike, " that he had found gold on the head of La Platte, and
had carried some of the virgin mineral in his shot pouch for months,
but that, being in doubt whether he should ever again behold the
civilized world, and losing in his mind all the ideal value which man-
kind has stamped upon that metal, he threw it away," — which may
be taken cum grano salis. The Spaniards frequently importuned him
to conduct them to the place where the gold was found, but he steadily
refused.
While Pike assumes, and so states, that Pursley was the first
American to cross the plains into Spanish territory, in another portion
*Following are some of the tribes then in possession of the country : Tetons (Comanches), Pota-
wattamies, Arkansaws, Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Padoucas, Caddoes, Osages, Pawnees, Reynards,
Sacs, Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Otoes, Missouris, Mahaws (Omahas), Kans (Kansas).
98 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of his diary he relates that, in consequence of information obtained by
the trappers, through the Indians, relative to this isolated region, a
merchant of Kaskaskia, named Morrison, had already dispatched, as
early as 1804, a French Creole named La Lande up the Platte River,
with directions to push his way into Santa Fe, if the passage was at all
practicable. It appears that this Creole succeeded in reaching Santa
Fe, but neither returned nor rendered any account of his trip to his
employer.
In concluding our account of Lieutenant Pike's expedition, which,
owing to the lateness of the season when he reached the mountains,
was filled with suffering and disasters, it is proper to state that he was
killed in December, 18 13, at Little York, Canada, by an explosion
during a battle in which he was engaged, and that it v/as not until some
few years prior to the discovery of gold in Cherry Creek, in 1859, that
the prodigious promontory took his name, and became the rallying
point of thousands of gold hunters from that date until long after the
organization of the Territory of Colorado, in 1861.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 99
CHAPTER VH.
1812 TO 1840 — ROBERT STEWART's JOURNEY FROM CALIFORNIA — MAJOR LONO's
EXPLORATIONS — ASCENT OF PIKE's PEAK ORIGIN OF THE COMMERCE OF THE
PRAIRIES THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL — THE GREAT TEXAS-SANTA FE EXPEDITION
CAPTURED BY DIMASIO SALEZAR AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES AND NOTED PIONEERS
GENERAL ASHLEY CAPT. BONNEVILLE DECLINE OF THE FUR TRADE AND ITS
CAUSES THE PRIMITIVE HUNTERS AND TRAPPERS, THEIR HABITS AND CHARACTER.
Toward the latter part of June, 18 12, one Robert Stewart, con-
nected with the Pacific Fur Company, started from San Francisco over-
land for New York, accompanied by Crooks and McLellan, two famous
frontiersmen, as guides. They had accomplished about seven hundred
miles of their long and tedious journey — how long, tiresome and
monotonous only those who passed over the old military trail years
prior to stage coaches or railways can comprehend — when they met a
man named Joseph Miller en route to the mouth of the Columbia
River. In relating his adventures, he stated that he had fallen in with
two tribes called Black- Arms and Arapahoes, who generally occupied
the sources of the Arkansas; that they had stolen everything he pos-
sessed, and at the time of this meeting he was naked and well nigh
starved. Soon afterward Stewart and his party were met by a band of
Crow Indians who, after treating them with marked insolence, took all
their horses and decamped. On foot Stewart and his Frenchmen con-
tinued their journey toward the Rocky Mountains, and finally reached
the head v/aters of the North Fork of the Platte, which they descended
to its continence with the main stream, and thence to the Missouri.
The next great expedition to follow that of Lieut. Pike was inaug-
urated in the }ear 18 19 by order of John C. Calhoun, Secretary of
100 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
War, — to whom the published result is dedicated, — who directed Major
Stephen S. Long, of the Topographical Engineers, to explore the Mis-
souri and its principal branches, and thence in succession the still mys-
terious Red River, the Arkansas, and Mississippi above the mouth of
the ^Missouri.
Major Long left Pittsburg, Pa., early in April, 1819, and after
having partially executed the first paragraph of his instructions,
returned and went into winter quarters at a point twenty-five miles
north of the mouth of the Platte, on the west bank of that river,
which was first called Council Bluff, and later Fort Calhoun. It was
about fifteen miles north from the present city of Council Bluffs. At
the period under consideration it took the name of " Engineer Can-
tonment." Here the time until the following spring was occupied in
acquiring general information of the neighboring country, the lan-
guages, religious rites, manners, customs and traditions of the numerous
tribes of Indians. During their stay they were visited by the some-
what celebrated frontier soldier, Major O'Fallon, who had been for
sometime engaged in alternately chastising and treating with the turbu-
lent savages. Having felt the edge of his sword in many a contest,
they were inspired with great respect and reverence for this powerful
chieftain.
The name and exploits of this gallant ofificer have been perpet-
uated to this day in St. Louis and along the old frontier. "O'Fallon's
Bluffs," on the Platte River route to Oregon, California and the Rocky
^Mountains was a prominent landmark with all travelers by that
thoroughfare.
The Missouri, Arkansas, American and other fur companies estab-
lished their base of supplies in the region mentioned above, whence
their trappers and hunters ranged through Indian Territory and
Northern Texas on the south, and to the Rocky Mountains on the
west. This, it can well be conceived, was not only an immense but an
exceedingly rich field for their traffic, and some of the colossal fortunes
enjoyed by the first families of the Mound City had their origin there,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 101
Captain Riley, for whom a prominent military post in Kansas was
named years afterward, commanded a company in Major G'Falion's
small but vigrorous army. Their mission among the Indians was to
quiet the internecine disturbances which interfered seriously with all
trading operations.
Major Long's instructions were to proceed to the eastern base
of the mountains and follow along the same to the Arkansas River,
and then return. He marched from Engineer Cantonment on the
6th of June, 1820, accompanied by geologists, topographers, bota-
nists, naturalists, physicians, surgeons, landscape painters and inter-
preters, with a journalist to "write up" the interesting details, the
whole guarded and protected by one corporal and six privates. To
this formidable array were subsequently added two French Canadians
from one of the Pawnee villages. The Indians about the mouth of
the Platte affected amazement at the temerity of this party in
attempting so great a journey, and predicted its failure, as the country
swarmed with hostile bands, and besides, was for long distances wholly
destitute of water and grass.
They proceeded up the Platte Valley, meeting with no serious
difficulties en route. On the 30th of June the early morning splendor
of the magnificent Cordilleras burst upon their vision, and toward
evening they descried far to the southward the lofty crest of the peak
discovered by Lieut. Pike fourteen years before. "On the 3d of July,"
says Long, "we passed the mouths of three large creeks heading in
the mountains, and entering the Platte from the northwest. One of
these, nearly opposite to which we encamped, is called Pateros Creek
(probably the Cache la Poudre), from a Frenchman of that name who
is said to have been bewildered upon it, wandering about for twenty
days, almost without food. He was found by a band of Kiowas who
frequent this part of the country, and restored to his companions, a
party of hunters at that time camping on the Arkansas."
On the 5th of July they camped near the site of old Fort Lupton.
From this point Dr. James and a few others endeavored to reach the
102 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
base of Long's Peak, but after traveling five or six hours without
apparently diminishing the distance, they returned. Like all first vis-
itors, they were the victims of an optical illusion.
On the 6th they passed the spot on which Denver now stands,
and reached the base of the mountains at the mouth of Platte Canon,
whence a general survey of the surrounding country was made. The
next reconnoisance took them up Plum Creek, across the divide, down
Monument Creek to the Fountain qui Bouille, named by Long " Boil-
ing Spring Creek," and thence to the present site of beautiful Man-
itou. From this encampment Dr. James and two others of the party
made the ascent of Pike's Peak, to its highest point, and on their
return to the valley Major Long christened it "James Peak," in honor
of the intrepid botanist, who was undoubtedly the first white man to
set foot upon its crest.
The expedition next passed in a southwesterly direction, along
the base of the mountains to the confluence of the Fountain with the
Arkansas (Pueblo), expecting to find Pike's block house there, but no
trace of it remained. They marched up the Arkansas to the mineral
springs just above Canon City, where they encamped for a short time.
On the 19th they turned their backs upon the mountains, and followed
the line of the Arkansas River some distance, thence crossed to Red
River, and thence back to the States.
Major Long's book is one of the most complete and interesting
epitomes of the country traversed by him that has ever been written,
abounding in valuable information respecting the savage tribes, the
geology, fauna and flora, and the general configuration of the plains and
mountains, the principal streams, and their tributaries. The magnifi-
cent peak which bears his name was not so designated on the maps
until many years afterward.
The publication of Lieutenant Pike's report may be said to have
given rise to the extensive commerce of the prairies, to which it is now
proper to give such attention as will afford the reader a general idea of
its origin, initial points, and the magnitude of its operations from the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 103
earliest times to the dates when trails beaten by innumerable caravans
became crowded thoroughfares between the United States, the Spanish
settlements in New Mexico, and the British Possessions of the North-
west. For much of these data we are indebted to one of the more
intelligent of the early pioneers, Josiah Gregg,'"'' who wrote from the
experience of nine years in the Santa Fe trade, and who has undoubt-
edly written the most complete and comprehensive review of it ever
published. According to this eminent authority, an expedition was
fitted out in 1812 under the auspices of McKnight, Beard, Chambers
and ten or twelve others, who followed the directions laid down by
Pike, and in due time arrived in Santa Fe without serious mishap. The
province happened to be engaged in one of its periodical revolutions at
the time, and as all Americans were even thus early viewed with suspi-
cion, they were seized as spies, their goods confiscated, and the entire
party thrown into prison, where they languished until the next turn in
the revolt set them at liberty. " It is said that two of the party con-
trived, early in 182 1, to return to the United States in a canoe which
they succeeded in forcing down the Canadian Fork of the Arkansas."
Notwithstanding their misfortunes, the tales they recited, tinctured
more or less with extravagant romancing, of Santa Fe, the wild exciting
life on the plains and the character of the Mexican settlements, the
enormous prices paid for the cheapest American merchandise, and the
opportunities open for this kind of traffic, inflamed other adventurous
spirits with an unquenchable passion to attempt the experiment, ahvavs
under the sanguine impression that they could succeed, no matter who
failed. Among the foremost of these was a merchant of Ohio named
Glenn, who at the time had an Indian trading house near the mouth of
the Verdigris River. He also loaded up a stock of goods and taking the
Arkansas River route, after encountering innumerable difficulties event-
ually reached Santa Fe about the close of 1821. "During the same
year Captain Becknell, of Missouri, with four trusty companions, went
out to Santa Fe by the far Western route." This caravan started from
* Commerce of the Prairies, 1S31.
104 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the vicinity of Franklin, Missouri, with the intention of trading with
the Tetons or Comanches, but fell in en route with a party of Mex-
icans who persuaded the owners to proceed direct to the "City of
Holy Faith." Becknell returned to the States alone the following
winter. His report being favorable, " it stimulated others to embark in
the trade, and early the following May Colonel Cooper and sons from
the same neighborhood proceeded to Taos," Some time later Beck-
nell took $5,000 worth of merchandise and launched forth again upon
this always difficult and ofttimes perilous enterprise. He pursued a
more direct route on this occasion, but encountered appalling hardships
in crossing the desert east of the Cimarron.
" It is from this period — the year 1822 — that the virtual commence-
ment of the Santa Fe trade may be dated. The next remarkable era
in its history is the attempt to introduce wagons in these expeditions,"
all prior caravans having been composed of pack animals. This was
successfully accomplished in 1824 by a company of traders, about eighty
in number, carrying $25,000 to $30,000 worth of assorted goods, with
which they arrived in safety. But it was not until some years later
"that adventurers with large capital began seriously to embark in the
Santa Fe trade."
Thus far none of the caravans had been seriously molested by
Indians, but the savages now began to comprehend their advantages,
and the value of the plunder to be obtained by sudden surprises and
bold, quick dashes. The Arapahoes and Cheyennes, then strong in
numbers, well mounted and armed with bows and arrows, began to be
especially active in swooping down upon and robbing the richly laden
trains. After many outrages had been committed, the traders were
compelled to invoke the protection of government troops. Thereupon
Major Riley, with three companies of infantry and one of riflemen, was
ordered to escort the caravan which left in the spring of 1829, as far
as Chouteau's Island, on the Arkansas. Here, considering the remainder
of the journey free from danger, the troops turned back, but they had
taken no note of a band of Kiowas who had been stealthily lurking in
HISTORY (3F COLORADO. 105
their neighborhod, and keenly watching every movement. The troops
were no sooner out of sight than they descended upon the defenceless
traders. A swift courier was immediately dispatched after Riley, who
returned in time to save the train from destruction.
" This escort by Major Riley, and one composed of about sixty
dragoons, commanded by Captain Wharton in 1834, constituted the
only government protection ever afforded to the Santa Fe trade until
1843, when large escorts under Captain Cook accompanied two differ-
ent caravans as far as the Arkansas River."
The central point of departure of trains destined for New Mexico
was the town of Franklin, on the Missouri River, about one hundred
and fifty miles west of St. Louis, which seems to have been the actual
birthplace of the trade, notwithstanding the common impression that it
originated in St. Louis. Franklin and towns in the vicinity continued
for many years to furnish the larger proportion of the caravans and
traders, and even after 1831 a number of wagons were taken over the
several routes. Subsequently, however, the main depot was transferred
to the new town of Independence, in the same State, situated only
twelve miles from the border of the Indian country. From this point
also, traders, trappers and emigrants bound for Oregon, took their
departure. By this time, likewise, the rugged life and the healthful
atmosphere of the plains became widely known as a certain cure for
invalids, and more particularly professional men emaciated by over-
work or afflicted with dyspepsia or pulmonary diseases, many of whom
joined these expeditions and were speedily restored. Gregg himself,
a confirmed dyspeptic, adopted this life for sanitary reasons, and pur-
sued it uninterruptedly for nine years. In process of time the Arkan-
sas crossing became a conspicuous point as a halting place where the
trains were repaired, reloaded, and put in order for the final stage of
tlie long and trying journey.
A few of the original traders marched directly west to the Rocky
Mountains, and thence by a circuitous and difficult route, to Taos.
Later they proceeded along a line parallel to that now occupied by the
100 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, across the Raton Range to
the Rio Grande. But the route which found greatest favor, was most
frequently taken by wagon trains, and which may properly be desig-
nated "The Santa Fe trail," lay along the Arkansas, and via the Cim-
arron to Las Vegas, San Miguel and Santa Fe. The time consumed
in the passage was from sixty to seventy days, according to the course
pursued, but the return trip was made in about forty days.
On the i8th of June, 1841, a great expedition, gathered from vari-
ous points in Louisiana and Texas, left Austin, now the capital of the
latter State, for Santa Fe. Its course was nearly due north and after
the usual difficulties it reached the river Pecos in New Mexico. The
journalist of this force was George Wilkins Kendall, one of the editors
of the New Orleans "Picayune," who, much broken in health from the
too ardent pursuit of his profession, joined it in the hope of recuper-
ation. His narrative in two volumes, published in 1844, like that of
Gregg, is a rare collection of the thrilling experiences of these early
pioneers of Western exploration, each in itself an interesting epitome
of the trials and dangers passed through by such as possessed the cour-
age to venture out into the then trackless wilds of the Louisiana pur-
chase. Although long out of print, a copy is occasionally found among
the dingy second-hand bookstores of New York, whence were brought
to Denver some years ago by the present Governor of our State, the
works consulted in framing this sketch. Both accounts in their time
attained wide circulation, assisted by extracts reproduced by the lead-
ing newspapers.
On arriving at the Pecos the Texans were intercepted by a troop
of Mexican soldiers, roughly dressed but well mounted, some armed
with lances, swords and escopetas, others with bows and arrows. The
officer in command proved to be the notorious ruffian Dimasio Salezar,
who rode up, and though his ferocious aspect belied his words, saluted
the Texans as friends. As they were entering Spanish territory he
observed blandly that it would scarcely be proper to proceed with arms
in their hands, and trusted they would have no objection to surren-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 107
dering their weapons into his charge, each so labeled that its owner
would be able to identify it when returned, after their business with the
authorities should be arranged. Finding it useless to resist, as they
were completely surrounded, and trusting to the friendly assurances of
Salezar, they gave up their arms, which he at once distributed among
his own followers. Next, their papers were required. When every-
thing of value they possessed had passed into his hands, the atmosphere
of cordiality which had up to that moment prevailed, suddenly changed
to one of almost fiendish ferocity. He formed the hapless Texans in
line as if for instant execution, and ordered twelve of his ruffians, who
appeared to be ready for any crime, however revolting, all armed with
muskets and carbines, to march up in front of the line and shoot them
down. But he was finally dissuaded by a Mexican named Vijil, who,
moved by a touch of humanity, implored him not to murder his defence-
less prisoners, and so the order to fire was suspended. In the march
which followed, many of the Texans perished from natural causes, as
subsequently reported, and some were shot on the charge of insubordi-
nation. The survivors finally reached Santa Fe, and were entombed
in the loathsome prisons of that city. All through the march Salezar
visited his immeasurable brutality upon these unfortunate men, seeking
every occasion to humiliate and torture them.
In 1S67-8 Mr. Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, passed much time in
and about Santa Fe. The streets swarmed with mendicants, but, said
he to the author, "the most abject, miserably ragged and destitute of
the entire horde, in the last stage of wretchedness, and totally blind,
was the once renowned and powerful Colonel Dimasio Salezar,
despised by every one, and most intensely by his own countrymen, to
v.hom his barbarity to the Texans was well known. Omnipotent wrath
had been slow in coming, but when it came, a most crushing judgment
fell upon one of the most hardened criminals of his day. It was openly
related in Santa Fe that during their terrible journey across the Jornada
the Texans reported by Salezar as having died from sickness, were in
fact killed by him ; that he cut off the ears of the slain and made a
108 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
necklace of them for his war horse, and finally turned them in to the
Governor as his account of the shortage of prisoners.
The Northwest division of the Rocky Mountains was brought into
great prominence by the accounts given of the Lewis and Clarke explo-
rations, which opened the way for a vast commerce in furs, and for a
considerable lodgment of people, while the region we now occupy was
but little known until 1858-9, when the discovery of gold brought it to
universal attention. All the romance associated with the stirring
adventures of a host of hunters and trappers, and emphasized by the
fierce contests waged between the Hudson's Bay Company, and the
Northwest Company led by John Jacob Astor, centered there, while
the Western chain which towers grandly above us to-day, was wholly
without history or romance, except such as may be attached to the pre-
historic remains of the San Juan. Nevertheless, it is eminently proper
to interpolate here a brief epitome of the fur trade as a fitting intro-
duction to the primitive commerce of the prairies.
The Missouri Fur Company was organized about the year 1807,
and was composed of twelve partners. St. Louis was at that time a
small frontier settlement or trading post, on the northern border of the
French territory of Louisiana. Irving tells us* "that it possessed a
motley population, composed of the Creole descendants of the original
French Colonists, the keen traders from the Atlantic States, the back-
woodsmen of Kentucky and Tennessee, the Indians and half breeds of
the prairies, together with a singular aquatic race that had grown up
from the navigation of the rivers, the boatmen of the Mississippi who
possessed habits, manners and almost a language of their own, and
strongly technical. The old French houses engaged in the Indian
trade had gathered around them a train of dependents, mongrel Indians
and mongrel Frenchmen, who had intermarried with Indians." It was
from this source that the hunters and trappers in the years following
Pike's explorations drifted out toward the headwaters of the Missouri,
and the Arkansas and Platte and their tributaries. The Missouri Fur
*Astoria.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 109
Company employed two or three hundred men, Americans, Frenchmen,
Creoles and Canadians.
Shortly after 1808 Mr. Wilson P. Hunt of the Northwest Com-
pany appeared in St. Louis, with the intention of planting a separate
post there. Naturally enough he met with strong opposition from the
existing company, but finally succeeded in accomplishing his purpose.
At the beginning their operations were confined to the Northwest, but
were subsequently extended westward to the Wind River Range and
to the Columbia. The American fur companies' men were worsted in
their struggle with the great Hudson's Bay syndicate.
In 1822 General William H. Ashley, one of the most celebrated
of the early residents of St. Louis, inaugurated a movement looking to
the unification of the Indians throughout the Rocky Mountain region
of the Northwest in a great scheme of hunting and trapping. His
associates in this enterprise were William Sublette, Jim Bridger, Robert
Campbell and Major Thomas Fitzpatrick, who together directed a force
of about three hundred men. Regardless of the adversities of their pred-
ecessors, they pushed this force straight across the prairies into the
British stronghold, where they wrestled with, and if they did not over-
come the English company, at least succeeded in holding their own.
In a few years General Ashley amassed a handsome fortune from the
trade and retired. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri
upon the admission of that State into the Union, and from 1831 to
1837 ^"^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ Representatives in Congress.
Thenceforward the association which he had conducted so bril-
liantly became known as the " Rocky Mountain Fur Company," with
Captain William Sublette, a renowned frontiersman, at the head. Its
operations extended to the division of the Far West embraced within
the limits of Colorado. Later this trade fell into the hands of Pierre
Chouteau and his associates.
In May, 1832, Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville, of the 7th U. S. infantry,
inspired with an irresistible passion for exploring the Rocky Mount
ains, obtained leave of absence until October, 1833. Instead of the
110 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
allotted time he was absent until 1835. From the date of his depar-
ture from the frontier nothing was heard of him. His leave expired,
he was given up for lost, and his name stricken from the army rolls. It
appears that he left Fort Osage, on the Missouri,* in May, 1832, and
marched for the Kansas River. From the middle to the end of May
he pursued a westerly course, and in June reached the Platte, twenty-
five miles below Great (now Grand) Island, passing thence to the
North Fork, which he followed to the Wind River range, and thence to
the Northwest country. Bonneville combined profit with pleasure in
this expedition, by engaging quite vigorously for a time in hunting,
trapping and trading on his own account.
Washington Irving,f in company with a large and distinguished
party of huntsmen, came West on a pleasure excursion in October,
1830, halting at Fort Gibson, a frontier post on the Neosho or Grand
River, near its confluence with the Arkansas. Just beyond the cross-
ing of the Verdigris River, a few miles west of Fort Gibson, stood
the Osage Indian agency, where Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, had a
large post filled with stores for his various expeditions. The route
taken by Irving's party lay parallel with the Arkansas, "with the gen-
eral plan of crossing that stream just above where the Red Fork (of
the Canadian) falls into it," and thence westerly to the great forest
known as "Cross Timbers." They came on to the North Fork of the
Canadian, and then took a southerly route home.
At the early period under consideration game of all kinds native
to the country was everywhere abundant, and especially numerous in all
the beautiful grass covered parks of the Rocky Mountains. Of these,
however, the South Park was- especially favored, because it formed
one of the finest grazing sections of the country, but was rendered
particularly inviting by the salt marshes and springs, which gave it
the name of Bayou Salado among early hunters and explorers. Here
were found vast herds of buffalo, big horns or mountain sheep, elk,
* Washington Irving. Capt. Bonneville.
f A Tour on the Prairies.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. Ill
deer and antelope, and along the streams were hundreds of beaver and
fur-bearing animals. This region had also been the Snug Harbor
of the Yutas, Eutaws or Utes for generations, but was frequently
invaded by their hereditary enemies of the plains, when of course,
bloody conflicts ensued.
The beaver fur long ago passed out of the uses which then gave it
greatest value, and with the fashion disappeared the intelligent and
industrious animal which attracted thousands to its slaughter. Even
as early as 1845-6 the depreciation in value became very depressing to
the trade, the decline falling from six and eight dollars per pound to
one dollar and less, which soon discouraged, and eventually deprived
the trapper of his vocation. This state of things was hastened chiefly
by the French invention and application of silk to the manufacture of
fashionable hats, and the substitution of seal and other furs for beaver
in wraps and garments.
Ruxton,* who spent the winter of 1847 hunting on the Fountaine-
qui-bouille and in the parks, says : "The trappers of the Rocky Mount-
ains belong to a genus more approximating to the primitive savage
than perhaps any other class of civilized men. Their lives being spent
in the remote wilderness, with no other companion than nature herself,
their habits and character assume a most singular cast of simplicity,
mingled with ferocity, appearing to take their coloring from the scenes
and objects which surround them." Their wants were simple and
easily supplied. Their food was obtained by the rifle from among the
swarms of animal life all about them ; their clothing, traps and powder
from the traders to whom they sold the products of their expeditions,
and as for their natural enemies, the Indians, they took the chances,
in which by virtue of their dauntless bravery and unerring marksman-
ship, they were pretty certain to secure more scalps than they surren-
dered. " Keen observers of nature, they rival the beasts of prey in
discovering the haunts and habits of game and their skill and cunning
in capturing it. Constantly exposed to perils of all kinds, tli.ey become
♦Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains.
112 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
callous to any feeling of danger, and destroy human as well as animal
life with as little scruple and as freely, as they expose their own. Of
laws human or divine they neither know nor care to know. Their wish
is their law, and to attain it they do not scruple as to the ways and
means." While there were exceptions to the rule, they were by no
means common. To this general summary of their characteristics may
be added a colossal faculty for lying. But what is true of the trappers,
may be urged with equal force respecting many who drifted out upon
the plains with the early pioneers of Kansas and Nebraska, and later of
Colorado, or the "Pike's Peak region,^' as it was then termed. Be it
remembered, the country was wild and almost trackless ; there were no
restraints of moral or statute law to curb the evil passions of men dis-
posed to yield to them. Therefore, perfect liberty quickly degenerated
into unbridled license, and the graves of the victims dotted all the
trails. Many of the worst desperadoes of the frontier were the sons of
wealthy, refined and cultivated people. Once launched upon the
adventurous sea of Western life, they plunged into its wildest extrav-
agances, led on by drinking and gaming.
In due course we shall have ample opportunity to portray the
development of the frontier spirit in the initial pages of the history of
Denver. Proceeding with Ruxton's portrait of the typical trapper, we
find him "strong, active, hardy ; facing peril at every step, he soon
becomes an expert in seeking out his victims, and also in due time fell
into just what uncivilized white men might be supposed to be in a brute
state." They ransacked singly and in bands every nook and corner of
the plains and mountains, and in the course of years stripped them of
everything which could be turned into merchandise. They were, in
fact, the pathfinders and primitive geographers of the country, pointing
the way and blazing the trails for the millions who were to follow in the
coming years, and who have founded Territories and States in the
lands which their footsteps had traced, and where their traps had been
set for the luckless beaver.
The season over, they flocked to the previously appointed ren-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 113
dezvous, laden with spoils to be bartered for such goods as the trader
might have for them, but chiefly for a long period of riot, gambling and
debauchery. Coin there was none ; even the picturesque State cur-
rency was unknown. According to the author quoted, " The goods
brouG:ht to the rendezvous, although of the most inferior quality, are
sold at enormous prices. For example, coffee twenty and thirty shil-
lings a pint cup, which is the usual measure ; tobacco ten and fifteen
shillings a plug ; whisky twenty to thirty shillings a pint ; gunpowder
sixteen shillings a pint cup, and all articles at proportionately exorbi-
tant prices."
The scenes which followed these meetings of trappers and hunters
gathered from all quarters for the seasonal " round up," were exciting
in the extreme. They drank, gambled, fought and killed each other :
the more reckless losing everything they possessed, first to the more
skilful gamesters, and they in turn to the bland and patient trader who
rarely failed to inherit the substance of the prodigals, who when the
next season came round, went into debt for another outfit. And so the
years passed until they perished, or, finding their occupation gone,
drifted into other scenes and vocations, while the trader, and his prin-
cipals back of him in the great cities, the Astors, the Ashleys and the
Chouteaus built colossal fortunes, and left them as corner stones to the
present structure of American aristocracy.
114 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER VHI.
1840 TO 1853 — COL. FREMONT'S FIVE EXPEDITIONS TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS —
GUIDED BY KIT CARSON — ADVENTURES IN THE WIND RIVER AND SANGRE DE
CRISTO RANGES — OLD PARSON BILL WILLIAMS — CAMPING ON THE PRESENT SITE
OF DENVER— ST. VRAIN's FORT OLD PUEBLO — VISITING THE BOILING SPRINGS AT
MANITOU TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES IN CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS ARRIVAL AT
TAOS — PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDITIONS — PACIFIC RAILWAYS FORESHADOWED —
PUBLIC REJOICING IN ST. LOUIS.
Thirty-six years after Lieutenant Pike, and twenty-three after
Major Long, came Lieutenant John C. Fremont, then in the bloom of
a vio-orous manhood, filled with the love of adventure, ambitious of
great achievements, and imbued with an unquenchable longing for the
applause of his countrymen. Thoroughly educated in the science of
his chosen profession, brave to rashness, possessing withal qualities for
leadership from which spring commanders and heroes, the mission
assigned him could scarcely have been intrusted to better hands.
For some time previous to his appointment, the attention of the
government had been directed to the necessity of resisting the
encroachments of Great Britain conducted under cover of its great
Hudson's Bay Company upon our Northwest Territory, the boundary
line between the British Possessions and the United States not having
been definitely determined. Taking advantage of this unsettled con-
dition of things, the Hudson's Bay Company proceeded to occupy and
colonize the better portion of Oregon, and particularly the Valley of
the Columbia River. That part of the country being but little known,
these aggressions were not strenuously opposed. The general impres-
sion seemed to be that it was barren of resources, bleak and well
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 115
nigh uninhabitable, and though of vast extent, scarcely worth fighting
for. After 1840 it was discovered that many emigrants were going
there from the Western border, and their remonstrances, together with
intelligent representations of its value, aroused our statesmen to the
importance of an investigation.
In connection with this emigration to Oregon, it may be stated
that Fremont's first expedition in that interest was conceived, not by
the government, but by himself. Being then a Lieutenant in the
Corps of Topographical Engineers, appointed from civil life by Presi-
dent Jackson, he solicited orders from his chief to make an exploration
of our western territory with the view of discovering a shorter and more
direct emigrant route to the Northwest, and by lodging considerable
numbers of Americans in that region, to check, if not overcome, the
hold which the trespassers were making upon it. Col. Abert issued
an order for Fremont to go to the frontier beyond the Mississippi,
which was subsequently changed so as to embrace also the South Pass
of the Rocky Mountains. Here was the beginning, not only of the
more direct lines of primitive emigration beyond the great water
courses of the eastern half of the continent, but ultimately of the trans-
continental highways of iron and steel, the creation of six new States
and as many Territories, with the endless procession of events which
fill their annals.
It is but justice to say, that no man of his time executed a more
difficult or important work for his country than this bold explorer, was
better fitted for the great enterprises under his charge, or awakened
deeper attention to their value during their progress.
Since many volumes containing his discoveries and exploits in
detail have been given to the world, and are accessible to all who
desire to peruse them, only the material incidents bearing upon the
history of our State need be introduced.
The first expedition was composed of twenty-two men, chiefly Cre-
oles and Canadian voyageurs skilled in the ways and byways of the
frontier, through long service with the fur companies. It left St. Louis
116 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
June lo, 1842, ascending the Missouri River by boat to Chouteau's
Landing, situated on the right bank of the Kansas River about ten
miles above its mouth. Kit Carson, even then a famous hunter, trap-
per, Indian fighter and guide, was engaged to pilot the party to its des-
tination. No more fitting selection could have been made, yet it was
purely accidental. For sixteen years, from boyhood, in fact, Carson, im-
bued with an irresistible passion for frontier adventure, had hunted and
trapped, and fought the enemies of his race over nearly every section of
the plains and mountains between the eastern border and the western
sea. Then, seized with a longing to revisit the scenes of his childhood,
the old homestead in Kentucky, his parents and friends, he left the
exciting pursuit in which he had grown to manhood, and returned. It
is worthy of note in passing, that the State in which he was born may
justly be called the cradle of American pioneers and explorers, since it
has produced a greater number of historic characters whose deeds are
stamped upon the early chronicles of the nation, than any of its con-
temporaries.
Arrived at his old home he found that everything had changed, his
parents were gone, and even the log cabin where his eyes first saw the
light, had disappeared. He went to St. Louis, then scarcely more than a
large frontier outfitting and trading post, with but little commerce or
importance. Here he remained ten days, a stranger, alone and unno-
ticed, in a strange land. Among his fellows he had been a mighty
leader, revered and obeyed by all. Here he was but a floating atom
without prestige or influence. Soon realizing the hopelessness of such
a life as he must lead if he remained, he fled once more to his favorite
haunts. On the boat which conveyed him up the river were Fremont
and his party, bound for the Rocky Mountains. Neither had seen or
heard of the other, prior to this meeting. Fremont was in search of a
competent guide, Carson was in need of employment. He applied for
the position, and after due inquiry as to his qualifications, was accepted
at a salary of one hundred dollars per month. How well and faithfully
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 117
he executed this trust, and all others confided to him, are matters of
history, and such history as but few men have been born to create.
Accompanied a short distance on its journey by Cyprian Chouteau,
at whose post the final preparations were made, the expedition passed
along the south bank of the Kansas to its upper ford, and here crossed
to the Blue River, following the general course of the latter stream
northwesterly, and thence to the Platte at the head of Grand Island,
where an encampment was made, and further plans outlined. Pursuing
its journey west to the North Fork, the party was divided, the larger
part, commanded by Clement Lambert, proceeding to the American
Fur Company's post at Fort Laramie, with orders to await the second
division at that place, while Fremont with the remainder followed the
South Fork to St. Vrain's Fort, situated directly east of the base of
Long's Peak, near Thompson's Creek. This post, established some
years before, had become a noted rendezvous for hunters, trappers and
Indians.
Fremont's purpose in making this diversion was principally to
obtain pack animals for the second stage of his enterprise, but with the
added object of forming a correct idea of the country, which compre-
hended also the location of posts on a line to connect the settlements
with the South Pass ; in other words, the establishment of a short and
direct route for emigrants passing from the border to the Columbia.
On his way up the South Fork he found the remains of a considerable
fort, constructed of the trunks of large cottonwood trees. In the words
of his report, "It was apparently very old, and had probably been the
scene of some hostile encounter among roving tribes. Its solitude
formed an impressive contrast to the picture which our imaginations
involuntarily drew of the busy scenes which had been enacted here."
Buffalo absolutely covered the plains on both sides of the river, and a
large band of wild horses was seen grazing at a safe distance.
On the 9th of July, when about sixty miles below Long's Peak, he
met two white men and a mulatto, the latter found to be the somewhat
celebrated Jim Beckwourth, who had left St. Louis when a boy and
118 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
wandered out among the Crow Indians, by whom he was adopted.
Having in the course of time distinguished himself in the wars of that
tribe, he was made a chief, which position he held until his separation
from them some years later. On reaching a large island in the Platte,
it was found to be occupied by a frontiersman named Chabonard, who
named it St. Helena. Here he met Beckwourth's wife, a comely Mex-
ican woman of Taos. Forty-five miles above St. Helena he came
to St. Vrain's Fort, where he was kindly received, and hospitably
entertained.
Halting but a few days, Fremont struck out across the country on
a line a little east of north at first, and then northwesterly to Fort Lar-
amie. Here he met Jim Bridger, who, with Carson and others,
entreated him not to proceed farther northward, as the country swarmed
with hostile Indians. Their representations of the danger created a
panic among their followers, who resolved to desert should the march in
that direction be ordered. Lambert, however, bolder, or possibly less
discreet than his colleagues, sided openly with Fremont, who was not
to be diverted from the execution of any part of his cherished plans.
The march proceeded, fortunately without interference from the
hostiles. Eight days later they entered the South Pass, whence
their route lay along the southerly bases of the Wind River Mount-
ains to the head waters of Green River. Fremont mounted to the
pinnacle of the highest peak in the range, and planted the standard
of his country thereon. In his report he designates this as the high-
est point in the v/hole Rocky Mountain chain, 13,750 feet above the
Gulf of Mexico. So far as known he was the first white man to make
this difficult and perilous ascent, a feat of which he and his biographers
have not failed to make conspicuous mention.
On their return they repassed the point where the waters of
the Platte and Green Rivers pursue their respective courses, the one
to the Pacific and the other to the Atlantic Ocean, and finally em-
barking in rubber boats provided for the excursion, upon the North
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 119
Fork, passed down the same to the main stream, and thence to the
Missouri.
Arrived in Washington, Fremont prepared and submitted his
report, which, through the efforts of Senator Benton, was immediately
called for by the Senate, then engaged in a heated discussion of the
Northwest boundary question. Therefore the reception of this intelli-
gence was timely, adding much to the general information on a sub-
ject just then of absorbing interest. One thousand extra copies were
ordered printed. The press took it up and widened its circulation
among the people.
The fame of the young engineer soon became national, and thereby
excited the malevolent envy of the West Point graduates who could
boast of no achievements. However, being strongly supported by Sen-
ator Benton, the attacks of his enemies fell harmless. He received
orders to undertake a second expedition and to connect his lines of the
preceding year with the surveys of Commander Wilkes on the Pacific
coast, so as to afford a continuous view of the great interior of the
continent.
The execution of this order began in the spring of 1843, and, as
before, at the mouth of the Kansas River. On this occasion his mili-
tary equipment was ample for all purposes of attack and defence,
including a small mountain howitzer. He had scarcely entered upon
his journey before a sharp reprimand for taking such precautions, with
orders countermanding his march, were dispatched post haste to St.
Louis. His faithful wife received and opened the packet, and divining
the effect upon the ambitious spirit of her gallant husband if forwarded
to him, she put it in a pigeonhole, where it remained until his return.
When a few days out Fremont was joined by William Gilpin (sub-
sequently first Governor of Colorado), " who, intending this year to visit
the settlements in Oregon, had been invited to accompany us, and
proved a useful and agreeable addition to the party." He ascended the
Kansas River to the mouth of the Republican Fork, followed the line
of the latter stream some distance, and then took a northwesterly
120 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
course across the country to the South Platte below Beaver Creek ;
thence along the route of the previous expedition to St. Vrains, where
he arrived on the 4th of July. Remaining here but two days, the
march extended up the Platte, passing en route Fort Lupton, then
Fort Lancaster. Says Fremont, " This post was beginning to assume
the appearance of a comfortable farm ; stock, hogs and cattle were
ranging about the prairie ; there were different kinds of poultry, and
there was the wreck of a promising garden in which a considerable
variety of vegetables had been in a flourishing condition, but had been
almost entirely ruined by recent high waters." A few days later the
party encamped upon the present site of Denver. Near by were one
hundred and sixty lodges of Arapahoe Indians, "who behaved very
courteously." On the river bottom they discovered a large grizzly
bear, " which, raising himself on his hind legs, took a deliberate sur-
vey of us that did not appear to be very satisfactory to him, so he
scrambled off into the river, and swam to the opposite side." P>om this
point they diverged from the course originally contemplated, following
up Cherry Creek, and prolonging the march to the Bijou Basin.
Snow fell heavily in the mountains during the night of their stay here
(July 9), affording them a magnificent view of the whitened range
when they awoke in the morning. From the Bijou they returned
southwesterly to the Fountaine-qui-bouille, pursuing its course to the
Arkansas. The condition of the settlement at that time is thus
described : "A short distance above our encampment on the left bank
of the Arkansas is a ' pueblo' (as the Mexicans call their civilized Indian
villages), where a number of mountaineers who have married Spanish
women in the Valley of Taos, had collected together and occupied
themselves in farming, carrying on at the same time a desultory Indian
trade. They were principally Americans, and treated us v/ith all the
rude hospitality their situation admitted."
At Pueblo he met and again secured the invaluable aid of his old
comrade. Kit Carson. Finding it impossible to obtain supplies either
here or at Taos, he retraced his steps to St. Vrain's, but by a differ-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 121
ent route, having first dispatched Carson to Bent's Fort for a reinforce-
ment of pack animals, with orders to join him at the designated station
on the South Platte. Proceeding up the Fountain, the party reached
the present site of Manitou, where the first object to engage Fremont's
serious attention and point out the locality of the famous waters whose
praises had been sounded by all the mountaineers he knew, was that of
a large fat deer refreshing himself at the lower spring of the series
(probably that now designated ''Shoshone"). Finding that he had
wandered into a terrestrial paradise, Fremont threw himself prone
upon the ground, and drank from the spring. After a brief rest he
sketched the picturesque loveliness of the surroundings which have
made this one of the celebrated watering places of the continent, and
published it on his return to Washington, together with an analysis of
the waters.
They next crossed the Fountain and advanced to the head of the
canon ; thence into the South Park, and to the top of the divide which
separates the headwaters of the Platte and Arkansas, and so on into
the North Park, in both of which Carson, with Gaunt, had trapped, and
explored every stream as early as 1831 — and thence down to St. Vrain's.
Meanwhile Carson had arrived from Bent's Fort with ten excellent
pack animals and the requisite equipments for the remainder of the
journey. Writing from this point, Fremont says: " I had been unable
to procure certain information in regard to the character of the passes
in this portion of the mountain range, which had always been repre-
sented to us as impracticable for carriages, but the exploration of which
was incidentally contemplated in my instructions, with the view of
finding some convenient point of passage for the road of emigration
which would enable it to reach, in a more direct line, the usual ford of
the Great Colorado (Green River). It is singular that immediately at
the foot of the mountains I could find no one sufficiently acquainted
with them to guide us to the plains at their western base ; but the race
of trappers who formerly lived in their recesses has almost entirely
disappeared — dwindled to a few scattered individuals, some one or two
122 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of whom are regularly killed in the course of each year by the Indians.
You will remember that in the previous year I brought with me to
their village near this post, and hospitably treated on the way, several
Cheyenne Indians whom I had met on the lower Platte. Shortly after
their arrival here they were out with a party of Indians (themselves
the principal men), which discovered a few trappers in the neighboring
mountains whom they immediately murdered, although one of them
had been nearly !^thirty years in the country, and was perfectly well
known, as he had grown gray among them." The foregoing illustrates
but too faithfully the nature of the roving tribes, and their unconquer-
able enmity to trespassers upon their especial domain. While some
escaped by reason of their keen instinct of approaching danger, or by
other fortuitous circumstances, many perished in the pursuit of their
calling, and their bodies were left to rot where they fell.
Fremont at length resolved to traverse the eastern side of the
Medicine Bow Mountains in search of a pass through them, and to
this end his force was again divided, the larger part under command of
Thomas Fitzpatrick being directed to reach Laramie, and from there
go to Fort Hall on the Snake, or Lewis Fork, of the Columbia, and
await the arrival of their chief.
Passincr throuc^h Medicine Bow Pass, Fremont's division followed
the north fork of the North Platte to the Sweetwater, crossing the
divide along the southern rim of the South Pass ; thence to Bear
River and Great Salt Lake, taking a northwest course from the latter
point to the Columbia, and finally after incredible trials, reached
California.
On the return trip he made cursory examinations of the North,
Middle and South Parks, " where the great rivers of the Platte, the
Arkansas and the Colorado, severally take their rise." In 1845, ^^ a
reward for the great service he had rendered the government. President
Tyler promoted him to a Captaincy in the Topographical Corps.
Of his third expedition, inaugurated in May, 1845, it is unneces-
sary to say more than that he advanced along the Arkansas until near
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 123
the mountains, then the boundary line of the country ; thence to the
south side of Great Salt Lake, and reached California via the Sierra
Nevada Mountains. The final result was the acquisition of Califcrnia
by the United States.
The fourth came dangerously near being his last. It is a pitiful
story of trials, hardships and immeasurable suffering for himself and all
who attended him upon that ill-fated, because unfortunately timed expe-
dition. This march began October 19, 1848. It is inexplicable to the
reader of our times, that one who comprehended, as Fremont unques-
tionably did, the severity of the winters here and the impassability of
the ranges he designed crossing, should have projected such a journey
so late in the season. But it was one of the chief characteristics of the
man, neither to hesitate nor shrink from any peril, however appalling to
others, when duty or ambition pointed the way. The expedition,
though accounted rash to insanity by most contemporaries, was, never-
theless, the precursor of many important events.
The cost of this expedition, for reasons that will be stated later on,
was borne partly by Fremont, but strongly supplemented by generous
contributions of money, equipage and supplies from wealthy citizens of
St. Louis. The route taken passed south of the Kansas River to
the Smoky Hill Fork, with the view of locating a more southerly line,
which might be used to better advantage for railway purposes than
those previously reconnoitered, owing to its greater immunity from
heavy snows in winter. From the headwaters of the Smoky Hill the
party passed to Bent's Fort, which they reached on the 17th of No-
vember. The Indians encamped about the trading post warned him
that the snow was deeper on the Sangre de Cristo than had been
known in many years, and predicted a winter of unusual severity.
In a letter to his v/ife, dated the 27th of January, 1849, Fremont
details the horrors of his campaign in the mountains, from which the
following is condensed : From Bent's Fort he proceeded to the upper
Pueblo of the Arkansas, whence he departed with thirty-three men and
a hundred and twenty mules, with forage for the same. The fatal
124 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
error, as subsequently reported, was in the selection of his guide, a
mountaineer named Bill Williams, who, whatever his experience may
have been, proved wholly incompetent for the mission intrusted to him
on this occasion.
It is possible that neither the historian of Fremont's expedition,
nor the Pathfinder himself, were wholly just to the guide who led this
ill-fated and ill-advised enterprise. Carson, Fitzpatrick and other
famous contemporaries, who knew him as " Parson Williams," from the
fact of his having been in early life a Methodist preacher, were more
charitable, hence this digression for a brief statement of facts. Wil-
liams had lived among the greater part of the Indian tribes from the
Missouri River to the Pacific, and had hunted and trapped all over the
Rocky Mountains, and, presumably, from the San Luis Valley to the
Arkansas. In the pursuit of his erratic career he wandered from one
band to another, remaining a sufficient time with each to master Its
language, then passing to another, becoming In the course of years an
accomplished Interpreter. Whether he knew the region In detail
through which he was engaged to lead Col. Fremont, or only in a gen-
eral way, cannot be stated, but of his extensive knowledge of the
Rocky Mountains there can be no doubt. As a rule, the guild to
which he belonged did not bivouac in the mountains during the severest
winters, of whose approach they were apprised by certain unmistakable
signs, but sought the trading posts on the plains, where they remained
until the passes were free from snow, and the streams of Ice. There-
fore, in this perhaps one of the longest and most tempestuous seasons
within the knowledge of white men, it Is not surprising that he should
have been bewildered by the obliteration of familiar landmarks, and
thus led the entire party to disaster. Williams was killed by the
Indians some years afterward while on one of his trapping excursions.
But whatever the cause, for nearly twenty days they plunged
about In the depths, pursuing first one course and then another In their
desperate efforts to reach an accessible outlet. "On the 12th of De-
cember," says Fremont, "we found ourselves at the north of the Del
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 125
Norte Canon, where that river (the Rio Grande) issues from the St.
Johns (San Juan) Mountains, one of the highest, most rugged and
impracticable of all the Rocky Mountain ranges, inaccessible to trap-
pers and hunters, even in the summer time." Nevertheless, Williams
with characteristic insistance upon the accuracy of his trail, took them
across this elevated range in spite of all protests, for though their
confidence in him had been impaired, they were compelled to trust to
his guidance, being utterly ignorant of the country, and therefore
unable to discover the right course. At the lowest points in the val-
leys and along the river bottoms the animals sunk to their bellies, and
the men to their waists in the soft yielding mass, and as the snow
fell almost continuously, those of our early pioneers who have crossed
the ranges in midwinter or early spring can readily imagine the ter-
ribleness of their situation. To make matters still more intolerable,
the weather was very cold, and intensified by strong, bitter winds. As
they approached the summit the snow deepened. They were five
days in climbing to the top of the ridge above timber line. Here
they were further harassed by frequent " pouderies " — light, dry snow
which every passing breeze took up and dashed in their faces in
blinding clouds. A dozen or more of the men were severely frozen,
faces, hands and feet. The guide himself barely escaped with his
life. Dead mules and their burdens strewed the dreadful trail ; not-
withstanding the bitter cold, snow fell without intermission. It became
impossible to open a pathway except by beating trenches with mauls
fashioned from the trunks of trees. Again the Pathfinder writes from
the depths of his unspeakable wretchedness: "The trail showed as if
a defeated party had passed by ; pack-saddles and packs, scattered
articles of clothing and dead mules strewed along ; a continuance of
the storm paralyzed all movement. We were encamped somewhere
about 12,000 feet above the sea. Westward the country was buried
in deep snow. It was impossible to advance, and to turn back was
equally impracticable. We were overtaken by sudden and inevitable
ruin." At lenirth, after herculean effort, the surviving men and ani-
126 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
mals, with what remained of the baggage, were moved down to the
Rio Grande. From there a party was sent forward to the Spanish
settlements for aid, and provisions for the continuance of their journey
to Taos. For this desperate enterprise volunteers were solicited, and
four accepted. Meanwhile, those who remained established an encamp-
ment on the bank of the river, and there awaited the further assaults
of misfortune. When sixteen days had passed without tidings from
the "forlorn hope," Fremont, becoming alarmed, started out in search
of them. At the end of the sixth day they were found, only three of
the four, however, " the most miserable objects," writes the narrator,
" I have ever seen. They had been starving. King — the leader — had
starved to death a few days before." On the 20th of January they
reached a Spanish settlement, " having traveled through snow and on
foot one hundred and sixty miles."
In due time Fremont and those with him in the advance reached
Taos and were welcomed by Kit Carson and family, who had taken up
their residence there. Eleven of the brave company were lost in the
mountains, and the greater part of the survivors did not arrive until
some days later. While here Fremont was visited by Ceran St. Vrain,
who had come up from Santa Fe, en route to the Missouri River,
and it was by his hand the historic letter was sent by Fremont to his
wife describing the awful experiences of hie command.
On the 24th of February he arrived in Socorro, New Mexico,
having passed down the Rio Grande via Albuquerque, thence between
the Rio Grande and the heads of the Gila to Tucson, and across the
Colorado to Aqua Caliente and to California. General Marcy asserts
that Fremont crossed the range fifty miles " south of Cochetopa Pass.''
During his absence the people of St. Louis, taking, as we have
seen, an absorbing interest in this expedition, and acting upon the
presumption that a practicable railway route had been discovered, on
the 2 1st of February held a great mass meeting, which was addressed
by prominent orators of the time. The following resolution was
adopted :
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 127
Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be tendered to Colonel John C. Fre-
mont for his intrepid perseverance and valuable scientific explorations in the region of
the Rocky and Californian Mountains, by which we have been furnished with a knowl-
edge of the passes and altitudes of those mountams, and are now able to judge of the
entire practicability of constructing a railroad over them from St. Louis to San Fran-
cisco, in California," etc., etc.
Happily they had no report of the fearful trials their explorer had
encountered. It was the general belief at that period that he had
passed the ranges in safety, and was then in California. Omitting
further details, it is sufficient to state, that, having been largely instru-
mental in saving California to the United States, on its admission to
the Union September 9, 1850, he was chosen to be one of its Sena-
tors. Here, again, however, ill-fortune attended him. In drawing
lots for terms with his colleague, the short term, which expired March
4, 1 85 1, fell to Fremont. Being unable to attend the short term of
the XXXIst Congress, his entire career as a Senator was limited to
what remained of the long session which terminated September 30th,
leaving him but twenty-one days.
At the close of the session of Congress March, 1852, through the
efforts of Senator Chase an appropriation was made for the survey of
three routes to the Pacific Ocean, with the view of obtaining further
information as a basis of legislation for a national highway between
the Mississippi Valley and the coast of California. Fremont being at
that time in Paris, he returned, with the fixed resolve to fit out a
fifth expedition at his own expense, and complete the survey which
was lost in his fourth endeavor, and which he regarded as the most
direct and practicable route. In August, 1853, he set out, proceeding
over the original course. On reaching Bent's Fort he discovered that
only the ruins remained. The result of this final journey was admi-
rably epitomized by Senator Benton, who said, " He went straight to
the spot where the guide had gone astray, followed the course
described by the mountain men, and found safe and easy passes all
the way to California, through a good country, and upon the straight
line of 38 and 39 degrees. It is the route for the Central Pacific Rail-
road which the structure of the country invites, and every natural
consideration demands."
128 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER IX.
1846 to 1857 OUTBREAK OF THE MEXICAN WAR — DONIPHAn's EXPEDITION DARING
EXPLOITS OF MAJOR WILLIAM GILPIN PURSUIT OF INDIANS IN THE SAN JUAN
MOUNTAINS — SURVEYS FOR A PACIFIC RAILROAD — CAPT. GUNNISOn's EXPEDITION
AND ITS TRAGIC ENDING CAPT. MARCY'S MIDWINTER MARCH FROM FORT
BRIDGER TO FORT MASSACHUSETTS TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS — CAMPING AT MANI-
TOU AND DENVER — DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CHERRY CREEK.
The annexation of Texas in 1846 brought a declaration of war
from Mexico, followed immediately by the movement of a strong force
across the Rio Grande. In May of the same year, the American Con-
gress accepted the gage of battle thus presented, and authorized Pres-
ident Polk to call into service fifty thousand volunteers. The number
responded promptly to the proclamation, and were mobilized. These
proceedings naturally created great excitement throughout the country.
The overland division, to which we shall confine our attention, was
intrusted to the command of Colonel Stephen W. Kearney of the regu-
lar army. A force of one thousand Missouri volunteers under Colonel
A. W. Doniphan, was ordered to Santa Fe. From the rendezvous at
Fort Leavenworth the campaign began. Here an election for field
officers took olace on the iSth of June. Doniphan was chosen Colonel,
C. F. Ruff Lieutenant-Colonel, and William Gilpin Major. The entire
force consisted of sixteen hundred and fifty-eight men, with sixteen
pieces of ordnance. On the 26th the advance began under Doniphan,
Kearney following on the 29th with the rear guard. The route lay
along the well known Santa F6 trail, and in due time the invaders
reached Bent's Fort where they halted to await the arrival of Kearney.
This fort was subsequently converted into a general depot of supplies.
y^^-X^-o^C^.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 129
The divisions uniting at this point, as soon as the requisite preparations
could be made, Kearney crossed into Mexican territory for his descent
upon Santa Fe. On the 3d of August the command entered the
dreaded Cimarron Desert, which was utterly destitute of anything to
support human or animal life, and in appearance and by reason of the
terrible sufferings experienced by all travelers by this route, fit-
tingly christened "the Journey of Death." Soldiers were stricken
down, and animals perished by the score. At length they arrived at
the mouth of the Purgatoire or Purgatory River, and there obtained
their first view of the magnificent snow-capped Spanish Peaks, and the
ranges bordering the beautiful valley of the San Luis. At the Mora,
ihey were at the beginning of the Mexican settlements. Charles Bent,
with a companion named Estes, who had been sent out to reconnoiter,
returned and reported that two thousand Mexicans awaited Kearney in
a narrow, lonely canon six miles from Las Vegas, and that the posi-
tion was apparently impregnable, if stoutly held. While engaged in
preparations for the attack, Kearney received his commission as Briga-
dier General in command of all the troops operating in New Mexico.
The army advanced in line of battle, prepared for a stubborn resistance,
but when it reached the pass it was found that the enemy had retired.
Entering Santa Fe, Kearney took possession of the territory, and at
once proceeded to the organization of a civil government, appointing
Charles Bent, Governor; Don Aduciano Vijil, Secretary; Richard Dal-
ian, Marshal; Frank P. Blair, District Attorney, and Joab Houghton,
Antonio Jose Otero, and Charles Beaubien Judges of the Supreme
Court.
The principal interest of our citizens in this narrative beyond
which it is needless to extend it, lies in the prominent part taken by
the first Governor of Colorado, William Gilpin, in the conquest.
Therefore, omitting the incidental movements, we find that on the i8th
of September, Major Gilpin, with a squadron of two companies, was
ordered to the old town of Abiquiu on the Rio de Chama, for the
purpose of chastising the Utes and other tribes who were committing
130 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
serious depredations in that quarter. Having been remarkably success-
ful in executing this order, some time later he returned to headquarters
brineine a largfe number of Indians, for a conference with General
Kearney. At the same time, writes Captain John T. Hughes (a
nephew of General Bela M. Hughes of Denver), from whose account
of the expedition from its opening to the close this description is
mainly compiled, "an express arrived from Colonel Sterling Price"
(noted during the war of the rebellion under the pseudonym of "old
Pap Price,") "informing General Kearney that he was short of provisions,
and asking for supplies. This was the first and only reliable informa-
tion we had received of the Colonel and his forces since they left Fort
Leavenworth. They were then at Cimarron Springs nearly three hun-
dred miles from Santa Fe." .
In October, orders were dispatched to Major Gilpin at Abiquiu,
directing him to penetrate the country of the Navajoes, where there
were evidences of a formidable uprising, to give the Indians battle
wherever they appeared to be hostile, and hold the captured chiefs as
hostages for future good behavior. On the 2 2d of November Gilpin
left his encampment on the Chama and began his march against the
Navajoes, completing in six days more than six hundred miles,* having
followed the Rio de Chama to its source in the snowy regions, tran-
scending the elevated range of mountains which separates the waters of
two great oceans of the world, and descending into the valley of the
San Juan, a branch of the Western Colorado." He was attended in
this long and trying journey by sixty-five Mexicans and pueblo Indians,
as guides and general utility men. "The perils, hardships and sufTer-
ings of this march were almost incredible.* * * The rugged ways,
the precipitous mountains, the dangerous defiles, the narrow passes, the
yawning chasms and fissures in vitreous rocks * * * which ob-
structed their passage, rendered the march arduous beyond the power of
language to describe." The author quoted glowingly compares the
*We follow the author, but this feat was physically impossible. The distance could not have been
made in the time mentioned.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 131
march of Major Gilpin on this occasion with that of the Carthaginian
General of the Apennines, and of Napoleon over the Alps. Snow fell
frequently, and in great masses; avalanches plunged down the mountain
sides threatening the devoted band with destruction. Meanwhile the
Indians of whom they were in pursuit occupied lofty eminences, con-
templating with infinite satisfaction the frightful hardships encoun-
tered by the enemy. Great as the difficulties were, however, Gilpin
charged them, but, as may be imagined, without success. Finally
they came to his camp for a parley. Gilpin sent one of their number
to Col. Doniphan with a letter stating his position. He then moved
with his voluntary captives down the San Juan River toward the
Tunichi Mountains, which were crossed. The men floundered through
the deep snows; many of the animals fell over the precipices and were
dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks below. Here the Indian whom
he had sent to Doniphan rejoined him, bearing an order from his
chief to meet him at Bear Springs. " The snow was now deep, and
the weather excessively cold. The fierce winds whistled along the
rugged granite hills and peaks. The prospect was terrible. Half the
animals had given out and were abandoned. Half the men were on
foot, carrying their arms, stinted in provisions, destitute of shoes and
clothing. Sometimes when they lay down at night, wrapped in their
blankets and the skins of wild beasts, before morning they would be
completely enveloped in a new crop of snow, and they rose at day-
dawn with benumbed limbs and bristling icicles frozen to their long hair
and whiskers." At length they encamped on the summit of Tunichi
range. "The desolateness of the place was dreadful.'' But "the
descent was even more terrible than the ascent had been. * ^ The
crevices in the rocks were filled with driven snow many fathoms deep,
so that man and horse would often plunge into these through mis-
take, from which it was difficult to extricate themselves. Having
accomplished the descent at sunset, the men built their campfires — for
they had no tents — on a brook issuing from a cleft in the mountain
side, where they found wood and grass." Here the long and bitter
133 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
travail ended, the remainder of the journey to Bear Springs being
accomplished without difficulty.
Meanwhile, Doniphan had been scouring the country in other
directions in search of Navajoes, and having made numerous captures,
met Gilpin at Bear Springs, when a council was held and a treaty of
peace signed, which terminated present disorders. Their next move-
ment brought them to the pueblo of Zuni. " During the entire march
into the San Juan Mountains," writes Hughes, "there appeared
numerous indications of the precious metals abounding. Blossoms of
gold, silver and lead, and some specimens of copper were seen. This
whole region of country is unquestionably rich in mineral wealth." At
Zuni another council was held, and terms of peace between the Pueblos
and the Navajoes negotiated.
This business having been concluded, Gilpin's detachment pro-
ceeded to the Valley of the Del Norte by way of Laguna. The results
are thus summarized : " The march of the squadron under command of
Major Gilpin ranks among the brightest achievements of the war. His
passage over the Cordilleras and Tunichi Mountains, accomplished as
it was in the depth of winter, when the elements and obstacles were
ten times more dreadful than the foe, with men destitute of everything
but arms and resolution, meets not with a parallel in the annals of his-
tory. From the time of his leaving Santa Fe, including the diversion
he made into the country of the Yutas, his column marched at least
seven hundred and fifty miles before reaching Valverde, over the loft-
iest mountains and most inaccessible regions on the continent. The
success of the celebrated Navajo treaty was not less owing to the gal-
lantry and energy of this column, in hunting up and bringing in the
chiefs of that nation, than to the skill and diplomacy of Col. Doniphan,
who brought the negotiations to a happy issue."
While on this expedition Major Gilpin acquired much of the
knowledge, not only of the configuration of the Rocky Mountains in
the Southwest, and the geography of the region penetrated, but of the
existence of gold and silver bearing ores, which led in after years,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 133
during his brief administration as the Executive of Colorado Terri-
tory, to the organization of an exploring party into the section where
at this time are being developed some of the richest mines in the
world. His tramps with Fremont in previous years suggested that
this country contained vast treasures. Its promulgation wherever he
could find an audience, led to revelations that have built the State.
Here he discovered che actual demonstration.
Excepting the conflicts with savage tribes, the burden of which fell
upon Gilpin, the conquest of New Mexico was bloodless. It is unne-
cessary to follow the further advances of the army into California. It
is sufficient to say that both Doniphan and Gilpin bore conspicuous
parts in the war, participating in numerous bloody engagements,
which gave ample proof of their valor, and which have been woven into
the history of that memorable struggle.
Col. Doniphan died in Missouri in August, 1887, but Gilpin lives
to witness the fruition of his prophecies made years before its birth in
regard to the Central State of the great Western Empire.
We now take up one of the three principal surveys designed for
the location of a route for a Pacific Railway through a portion of the
vast territory which fell into the hands of the government as one of the
results of the Mexican war.
By authority of an act of Congress approved March 3, 1853,
directing such explorations and surveys as may be necessary to
ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from
the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, the War Department, by
Jefferson Davis, its Secretary, ordered the survey of a line through the
Rocky Mountains near the headwaters of the Rio del Norte by way of
the Huerfano and Cochetopa, or some other eligible pass, into the
region of Grand and Green Rivers, and westerly to the Vegas de vSanta
Clara and Nicollet Rivers, to the Great Basin, and thence northward
to the vicinity of Lake Utah on a return route, with the view of
exploring the most available passes and canons of the Wahsatch range,,
and the South Pass to Fort Laramie. At the head of tliis expedition
134 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
was placed Capt. J. W. Gunnison, of the Topographical Engineers,
with Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith, of the Third Artillery, as assistant,
and Captain R. M. Morris in command of the escort.
Outfitting in St. Louis, and taking a detachment of troops from
Fort Leavenworth, the company made its general rendezvous at West-
port. On the 17th of June, 1853, it advanced along the old Santa Fe
trail, pursuing the general level of the country between the Kansas and
Osage Rivers to a point on the Arkansas three miles below the original
Bent's Fort, where it encamped. Lieutenant Beckwith in his report
observes that this fort was abandoned in 1849, "but not until the
owner had destroyed it." As they met William Bent at the ford, it is
assumed that the information came from him. At that time the adobe
walls, with here and there a tower or chimney, were still standing, and
some of the remains in a fair state of preservation may be seen at this
late day. The report comments at some length upon the peculiar
advantages of this position for a strong military post, because of its
accessibility from all points, the abundance of grass and fuel, and its
central position on natural lines from the east, from Santa Fe, from
Taos, — then one of the strongest trading posts on the extreme fron-
tier,— through the Sangre de Cristo, and from Fort Laramie, a well
known and frequently traveled route. Says Beckwith, " It is on an
emigrant road from Southern Missouri and Arkansas, either by the
North Park or Cochetopa Pass; and it is in the heart of the Indian
country, accessible to the resorts of the Comanches, Cheyennes, Ara-
pahoes, Kiowas, and some bands of Apaches, and even occasionally of
the Utahs of New Mexico." Exactly why the government persistently
ignored the eligibility of this noted crossing and ultimately established
Fort Wise, and still later Fort Lyon, a long distance below on the
Arkansas in less desirable situations, cannot be related. But the fact
remains that Beckwith was entirely correct in his opinion of its value.
Fording the river below the fort, they passed the mouth of Tim-
pas Creek and marched to the Apishpa, mistaking it for the Huerfano,
and were thereby led into many errors and much needless investigation.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 135
From the Apishpa via the Sangre de Cristo to Robideau Pass via
Cochetopa and Grand River Valley to the Blue River (Nah-un-kah-
rea); thence to Green, White and San Rafael Rivers to the Wahsatch
Mountains. Since but little beyond the original report which appears
in the long list of government publications relating to Pacific railway
surveys, is known to the majority of our people, and as this was one
of the most important historic expeditions ever projected into and
through the Rocky Mountains, a more extended account is thought to
be desirable.
Mistaking the Apishpa for the Huerfano, which he should have
followed, it was pursued some distance toward its head. Then advancing
in the direction of the Spanish Peaks, he bore to the west and struck
a wagon trail, leading from Fort Laramie via the Raton Pass to Santa
Fe. This was followed to the Cuchara, which was forded, and the
party encamped two miles above the point of crossing. Here Captain
Gunnison conceived the idea of ascending the neighboring butte,
obtaining from its apex a glorious view of the surrounding country,
which he tersely describes as follows : " Pike's Peak to the north, the
Spanish Peaks to the south, the Sierra Mojada to the west, and the
plains from the Arkansas, undulating with hills along the route we have
come, but sweeping up in a gentle rise where we should have come
(via the Huerfano), with the valleys of the Cuchara and Huerfano,
make the finest prospect it has ever fallen to my lot to have seen."
This was Gunnison's first experience in the Rocky Mountains, there-
fore it is not surprising that he should have risen to ecstacies over the
splendors spread out before him. As his explorations proceeded the
incomparable panorama unfolded with each prominent point attained
impressed him and all his followers with the unspeakable grandeur of
nature's work in this division of the continent.
From the encampment at the butte, which remained fixed for a
time, until the neighborhood could be reconnoitered, Gunnison took a
detachment and rode out in search of the settlements on the Green-
horn, with the hope of obtaining an experienced guide. He passed
136 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
west-northwest directly toward the Wet Mountains, recrossing the
Cuchara at the point reached the previous day. Ten miles further on
he descended from the tableland, and striking the Huerfano, crossed it
and advanced to Apache Creek ; thence more to the north, reaching
in due course the old trail from Taos to the Greenhorn. This he fol-
lowed northeasterly to a spur of the Wet Mountains, when he discov-
ered the camp of a trading party en route from Fort Laramie to Santa
Fe. From here he passed over another sharp ridge, descending into
the Valley of the Greenhorn, "a stream two feet wide and three or
four inches deep." At this point the looked for settlement was found,
consisting of six Mexican families, from one of which he secured a
guide named Massalino to conduct them to Fort Massachusetts in the
San Luis Valley. He then returned to camp, but by a route some-
what west of the one by which he came.
In his itinerary of this excursion, Gunnison recommends that the line
taken by him be not followed by the proposed railway; on the contrary
it should "strike up a valley or plain ten miles from the mouth of the
Apishpa in a course for the Spanish Peaks, cross the Cuchara near
our camp of August 5, and continue over to the Huerfano.''
Following the guide Massalino, the company moved up the Huer-
fano several miles along its southern bank, then crossed to the north
side to the ford of the Taos trail, but instead of pursuing it over the
Sangre de Cristo, they kept on up the river. They next passed along
the valley between two spurs of the main chain of the Sierra Blanca,
and then turned east, encamping at the head of an adjacent valley. Next
day they ascended a giant mountain spur along the top of which they
proceeded some distance, and thence over to Sangre de Cristo Creek.
In brief terms, their route lay from Huerfano Butte to the base of the
Sierra Blanca; thence to the summit of the Sangre de Cristo, down
the creek of that name into the San Luis valley, encamping on Utah
Creek a short distance below Fort Massachusetts, a government post
situated just under the Sierra Blanca in a sheltered valley of Utah
Creek, about seventeen miles from the summit of the pass. It may be
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 137
observed in passing that this primitive fort, constructed of logs and
adobe was dismantled and destroyed many years ago, and was succeeded
by Fort Garland near the head of the valley, now a station on the
Denver & Rio Grande railway, but long since abandoned for military
purposes, the buildings which once sheltered a considerable body of
troops who had many sharp conflicts with roving bands of hostile Indians
in their time, being occupied by recent settlers, among them the famous
Tom Tobins, whose romantic career will be given in a subsequent chap-
ter, and a son of the renowned Kit Carson. The flagstaff still occupies
the parade ground within the inclosure, but carries no standard except
upon memorable occasions like the Fourth of July or other national
holidays.
Having completed his preliminary examinations of the mountains
south of the Spanish Peaks, by ascending Gold Branch from its junc-
tion with the Sangre de Cristo, and having obtained from people
familiar with the region much valuable information respecting the cli-
mate in winter, the amount of snow fall and other important data,
Captain Gunnison went directly to Taos, then the headquarters of expe-
rienced mountaineers and guides. In the course of his investigations
in and about the San Luis valley he visited Costilla, then a new settle-
ment just developing into an excellent farming community; the Rio
Colorado, or Red River of the Rio Grande, where he found another
large settlement, and many other localities. At Taos he secured a noted
guide named Antoine Leroux; after examining Cochetopa, Mosca,
Gunnison and Robideau passes, Poncha Creek, and the section and
river which now bear his name, he proceeded to the valley of the
Arkansas. Here he found, like all his predecessors in that country, a
number of heavy Indian trails, "attesting the frequent use made of
Poncha Pass in going to the South Park and to the Wet Mountain
valley, and back to the Rio Grande and Cochetopa." A short descrip-
tion of his route may be given thus: From Robideau Pass, via the
Cochetopa to the Blue (now Gunnison) River, and from the Blue cross-
138 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
In'^ to Green, White and San Rafael Rivers to the eastern foot of the
Wahsatch range, thence to Sevier River and Sevier Lake.
We have now to relate the shocking details attending the fate of
this brave and accomplished engineer of the first railway route estab-
lished in and through this portion of the Rocky Mountains. Much of
the region over which he passed is now traversed by one of the most
prosperous railway systems in the world, and occupied by tens of thou-
sands of thrifty and industrious people. Though nearly thirty years in
advance of the need, it is none the less true that the engineers who
came after to lay the routes of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and
the Denver and Rio Grande railways, derived material advantage from
the knowledge which he imparted.
On the 26th of October, 1853, Captain Gunnison, with eleven men
from his military escort, left their camp on Sevier River, Utah, for the
purpose of exploring the neighborhood of Sevier Lake, understood to
be something over sixteen miles distant. What befel him in this ill-
timed expedition, is related by his faithful Lieutenant, E. G. Beckwith.
The next morning Beckwith's party who remained in camp and were
conducting explorations in other directions, "were met by a man weak
and exhausted, reeling breathless into camp, barely able to communi-
cate by a few broken sentences, as he sank into a seat, the painful intel-
ligence that Captain Gunnison's party had been surprised in their camp
by a large party of Indians, and he thought, all but himself massacred.
Orders were instantly given by Captain Morris, and promptly obeyed
by all the men remaining with him of his escort, to replenish their
ammunition; and having saddled up their horses, in thirty minutes they
were moving rapidly toward the scene of that fatal disaster, hoping to
rescue all who might yet survive, and perform the last mournful duties
of humanity to those who were known to have fallen. "'' * "'' Cap-
tain Gunnison had encamped early in the afternoon while the wind and
storm were yet fresh, and doubtless feeling the security which men
come to indulge after passing long periods of time surrounded by sav-
ages without actually encountering them. The abundant grass and
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 139
fuel of the little nook in the river bottom, sheltered by the high sec-
ond bank of the river on one side, and thick willows distant scarcely
thirty yards on two of the others, with the river in front, offered a
tempting place of comfort and utility, which was perhaps accepted with-
out even a thought of danger. It was known to the party that a band
of Indians was near them, for we had seen their fires daily since
entering the valley ; but an unusual feeling of security against them
was felt, as Capt. Gunnison had learned that a recent quarrel, resulting
in several deaths, which they had had with emigrants had terminated,
and that, notwithstanding this difficulty, they had remained at peace with
the neighboring settlers, which had been confirmed and guaranteed for
the future in a ' talk' held with some of the Indians of this band by an
agent of the Governor of the Territory, during our stay near Fillmore.
This information Captain Gunnison told me before leaving, relieved
him from any apprehension he might otherwise have felt regarding this
band, and was the reason for his having asked for so small an escort to
accompany him, which he, as well as his guide, an experienced citizen
of the Territory, deemed sufficient.
" The usual precaution of a camp guard had been taken, each of
the party — including the commander — in turn having performed that
duty during the night. At the break of day all arose, and at once
engaged in the usual duties of a camp preparatory to an early start to
reach that day the most distant point of exploration the present season.
The sun had not risen, most of the party being at breakfast, when the
surrounding quietness and silence of the vast plain was broken by the
discharge of a volley of rifles and a shower of arrows through that
devoted camp, mingled with the savage yells of a large band of Pah-
Utah Indians almost in the midst of the camp, for under cover of the
thick bushes they had approached undiscovered to within twenty-five
yards of the camp fire. The surprise was complete. At the first dis-
charge the call to 'Seize your arms' had little effect. All was confusion.
Capt. Gunnison stepping from his tent, called to his savage murderers
that he was their friend, but this had no effect. They rushed into camp
140 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and only those escaped who succeeded in mounting their horses, and
even they were pursued for many miles. Capt. Gunnison fell, pierced
with fifteen arrows. The bodies of the slain were not all found at dark,
and hope still lingered, as a bright fire was built to assure any survivors
of safety. But the long weary night, rendered hideous by the howling
of wolves, wore away, as this little band of armed men, barely larger
than that which had already been sacrificed lay near the fatal spot, and
day dawned only to discover the mutilated remains of their recent com-
rades, none of them being scalped. * * * Some of their arms were,
however, cut off at the elbows, and entrails cut open."
It was reported at the time and widely believed that the Mormons,
bitterly opposed to further encroachments upon the solitude of their set-
tlement at Salt Lake, and apprehending that a survey might be followed
by a railroad, and the consequent incursion of a great horde of elements
hostile to their particular institution, had instigated the Indians to this
attack upon Gunnison's party, but Lieutenant Beckwith stoutly opposes
this theory and places the animating spirit of the massacre where it
belongs — to the inherent hostility of the Indians, who, discovering an
opportunity to butcher a defenseless party without danger to themselves,
yielded to it.
By order of the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant
Beckwith completed the survey to the Pacific coast and rendered the
report, including notes taken by Capt. Gunnison.
What may be termed the historic period, years anterior to the rise
of the Pike's Peak gold fever, is replete with tales of suffering endured
by those who from choice made their homes in the mountains, or who
from other reasons were compelled to traverse them when the valleys
were buried in snow and the lofty ranges swept by fierce gales which
froze the blood of such as were so unfortunate as to encounter them.
These incidents of the days which broke and bruised the strong men
who blazed the trails and marked the highways for the aftermath of a
surging tide of immigration that now occupies the Great American
Sahara, richly merit a place in the history of its progress. We make
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 141
no apology for introducing them, because no true record of the State
we are proud to call our own can be framed without them. And the
writer, a relic of a later but still primitive epoch, feels that he would be
recreant to his trust, if they were omitted.*
Among them was the march of Captain (afterward General)
Randolph B. Marcy, which is scarcely excelled in thrilling adventures
by the account heretofore given of the marvelous escape of John C.
Fremont from the midwinter clutch of the Sangre de Cristo in 1849, or
of Major Gilpin in the mountains of the San Juan. Moreover, we shall
discover as the story proceeds, the immediate origin of the rush which
brought our pioneers to Denver and the gold regions a year or so
later.
While stationed at Fort Bridger in November, 1857, there came to
Captain Marcy an order to move his company across the mountains by
the most direct route into New Mexico, with the object of procuring
supplies for General Joseph E. Johnston's army, and thereby enabling
him to prosecute his designs against the Mormons of Salt Lake then
in rebellion against the authority of the United States. The Mormons
harassed his march by intercepting his trains so that before reaching
Salt Lake his stock of animals and provisions were sadly in need of
replenishment.
In his report for 1858 the Secretary of War In referring to this
expedition, says: "It maybe safely affirmed that in the whole catalogue
of hazardous expeditions scattered so thickly through the history of our
border warfare, filled as many of them are with appalling tales of priva-
tion, hardship and suffering, not one surpasses this, and in some par-
ticulars has not been equaled by any. Capt. Marcy departed from
Fort Bridger on the 24th day of November with forty enlisted men and
*The author was informed by Col. Chas. Page, Surgeon General U. S. A. who visited Denver
in September, 1888, that he was attached to Colonel Sanborn's corps of mounted rifles which in 1S52
was sent to the Rocky Mountains to chastise the Comanche Indians. The command marched from
Leavenworth along the Santa Fe trail to the Arkansas River, thence to the old Pueblo fort and up the
Fountaine-qui-bouille to the Springs where it encamped. From that point it crossed tiie divide to Cherry
Creek and encamped on the present site of Denver, whence it passed on to Laramie by the usual
route.
143 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
twenty-five mounted men, besides packers and guides. Their course
laythroucjh an almost trackless wilderness over lofty and rugged mount-
ains, without a pathway or human habitation to guide or direct, in the
very depth of winter through snows, for many miles together reaching
to the depth of five feet. Their beasts of burden very rapidly perished
until few were left; their supplies gave out; their luggage was aban-
doned; they were driven to subsist upon the carcasses of their dead
horses and mules; all the men became greatly emaciated; some were
frostbitten, yet not one murmur of discontent escaped the lips of a
single man. Their mission was one of extreme importance to the
movements of the army, and great disaster might befall the command
if these devoted men failed to bring succor to the camp."
This terrible march, extending to Fort Massachusetts in the San
Luis valley, thence to Taos and Fort Union, was accomplished in fifty-
one days, but might have been completed in twenty days at a more
favorable season.
When they left Bridger there was very little snow. The command
passed down Henry's Fork to Green River, which was forded, and on
the opposite side struck a trail leading to the foot of the range which
divides the Green from the Grand. Here Marcy engaged a Digger
Ute Indian as guide, and ascended to the summit of the range Jim
Baker, a character well known to early settlers in this region, had been
brought from the fort as interpreter, but evidently not as guide.
During the first night the Indian, after stealing everything he could
lay his hands upon without detection, disappeared, and was seen no
more. The next advance took them along the elevated tableland bor-
dering the Valley of the Grand, and two thousand feet above it. Baker
was directed to find the trail leading down into the valley, and suc-
ceeded. After great difficulty the animals were brought down to the
level of the river, where the grass was green and no evidence of winter
except upon the surrounding slopes. The point indicated was undoubt-
edly a portion of the beautiful valley below the junction of the Eagle
River, as Marcy speaks of moving up the Eagle en route to the San
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 143
Luis. Ascending the mountains again, they struggled along under the
guidance of a Mexican who professed to understand the route, and after
many days reached the Valley of the Rio del Norte, when the guide,
pointing to a mountain which seemed one hundred miles away, said that
was near Fort Massachusetts. The snow became so deep in places
that progress could only be made by those in the advance falling upon
their hands and knees, and literally plowing their way through the
drifts. Everything that could be spared had been cast away to lighten
the burdens of the men and animals. Their provisions being exhausted,
the mules were killed and their flesh eaten raw ; their clothing was
torn to shreds ; their shoes gone, and their places filled with wrappings
of cloth, hides, sacking, anything that would protect them from the
bitter cold. On reaching the Rio Grande, Marcy sent forward his
Mexican guide, with one companion, mounted on the only mules left
to the command, with a letter to the officer in charge of Fort Massa-
chusetts stating his condition, and imploring immediate assistance.
Meanwhile his force continued its labored march as best it could, half
starved, and well nigh perishing with the hardships undergone. At the
close of the eleventh day they observed two horsemen at a great dis-
tance approaching their camp. They proved to be the couriers sent for
supplies. In a short time they arrived and spread the glad tidings of
abundant stores on the road fifty miles back, and which would soon
reach them. The men shouted, danced, and cried for joy. Captain
Marcy declares that he had not slept half an hour at a time for twenty
days and nights, and was reduced in the interim from one hundred and
seventy to one hundred and thirty-one pounds. He at once turned the
guide back toward the train with orders to the teamsters to drive day
and night. Next day they met the train, when a scene ensued which
no pen can portray. Among the stores were several bottles of brandy,
from which the captain served to the men moderate doses of the fiery
liquor, but taken upon stomachs long empty of nourishing food, they
all became intoxicated. Their chief felt that after all they had under=
gone they were entitled to this indulgence, and made no effort to
144 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
restrain them. Four days later they reached the fort, where they were
gladly welcomed, and all their wants supplied. The officer in charge
at first mistook them for a band of Indians, as may well be imagined
from their appearance, for Marcy says, " Not more than half the men
had any caps, and but few had any remains of trousers below the
knees. Their feet were tied up with mule hides, pieces of blankets,
coat tails, etc. As for myself, I am confident my own wife would not
have recognized me.""
From Fort Massachusetts they went to Taos, and thence to Fort
Union, procuring the animals and supplies which were the objects of
the expedition, and on the 15th of March returned via Pueblo and
the Fountaine-qui-bouille to the vicinity of Pike's Peak, where Marcy
received an order to halt and await reinforcements from New Mexico,
as it was apprehended that the Mormons would intercept and destroy
his small force while in the mountains. Therefore the command went
into camp at Manitou Springs, where it remained about thirty days,
passing the time in hunting elk, mountain sheep and black-tailed
deer, all of which were very numerous in the neighborhood. At one
time from the door of his tent Captain Marcy discovered a herd of at
least five hundred elk, "drawn up in line like a troop of cavalry horses,
with their heads all turned in the same direction, and from the crest
of a high projecting cliff looking in apparent wonder and bewilderment
directly down upon us.""
Reinforcements having arrived, on the 30th of April the march to
Utah was resumed over the divide and down the Platte to the mouth
of Cherry Creek. The spring flood had swollen the river to an extent
which prevented fording, so they constructed rafts and pushed them
over to the opposite shore. " There was not at that time," writes
Marcy, " but one white man living within one hundred and fifty miles
of the place, and he was an Indian trader named Jack Audeby''^' upon
the Arkansas." In treating the local history of Pueblo we shall have
*CharIes Auto^ees, a half-breed French trapper of St. Louis. Capt. Marcy was misinformed as to the
first name, and misspelled the last.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 145
occasion to meet Mr. Autobees again, and to relate his connection
therewith.
Continuing his narrative, Marcy says : " While our 'ferryboat' was
being constructed, one of our citizen employes washed from the sands
of Cherry Creek a small amount of gold dust which he showed to me.
Soon afterward he was discharged and went to St. Louis, and in a short
time the miners commenced flocking to the locality and laid out a town
which has continued to flourish ever since, and at this time (1866), con-
tains several thousand inhabitants. It is called Denver City, and I
feel confident that the representations made by our discharged teamster
in St. Louis and other places were the origin of the location and the
establishment of a new city and Territory.'' We shall have occasion to
correct this error in a subsequent chapter. The command proceeded
from the then unoccupied site of the future "Queen City of the Plains,"
to the Cache la Poudre, and reached Fort Bridger without further
memorable incident.
146 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER X.
Lives of the hunters and trappers — their part in the history of our
country bridger, baker, goodale, sublette and fitzpatrick — sir george
GORE AND HIS MIGHTY RETINUE BAKEr's FIGHT WITH GRIZZLIES TORN BY A
REPEATING RIFLE KIT CARSON's WONDERFUL CAREER EPITOME OF HIS LIFE
AND CHARACTER.
The lives and exploits of the hunters and trappers, idealized and
presented with elaborate displays of rhetorical fireworks, have perhaps
too large a place in the literature of the land. As a matter of fact,
they were to the last degree practical and real, most of them coarse and
brutal. All the romance and most of the poetry are the creation of highly ,
imaginative people who knew very little about them. Nevertheless,
these characters were in their time essential features of our State and
National development. The history of every State, and of every Ter-
ritory has its beginning with the conflicts engendered between the rightful
owners of the soil, and those who came with force of arms to dispossess
them. The record of the Country west of the Mississippi originating
with the agents and employes of the various fur companies, amounts in
the abstract to this and nothing more, — that they marked the trails by
constant tramping, and stripped the face of nature of all animals whose
hides were valuable in the great marts of trade. They robbed the
beaver to furnish the heads of men and the shoulders of women with
fashionable apparel. They built nothing, founded nothing, and with
the exception of a trading post here and there, left no trace that could
lead to the betterment of mankind, save their ability to guide those
whose cultivated intelligence fitted them for the higher aim of advanc-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 14T
ing the progress of the nation. The average trapper was a white man
reduced to savagery, consorting with exemplars more savage than him-
self, only because to the manner born, engaged in unremitting warfare
tribe against tribe, and not infrequently uniting to oppose the encroach-
ments of a race they both hated and feared. One was a marauder bent
only upon pillage; the other a defender of his home and property, which
included the wild animals. The gradual intermingling of whites and
French Canadians with the aborigines produced a race of half-breeds,
more intelligent, cunninor and cruel than the sources of their beinor.
Yet in the class distinguished as trappers we find many notable,
and some admirable exceptions to the rule. Where shall we discover
finer types of native American manhood than Carson, the early Bents,
the St. Vrains, Bridger and Baker, Fitzpatrick and Sublette ? Even the
Indians with whom they battled for the right to pursue their vocation
undisturbed, in the long run revered them for their courage, and loved
them for their honesty and kindness of heart. There never lived in
any land a braver, truer man than Carson, albeit few who have slain so
many antagonists in personal encounters, yet withal possessing a
womanly nature, pathetically tender, and devotedly self-sacrificing. Of
all the heroes we have known or read of, there is none whose presence
and bearing gave less outward evidence in repose, of heroism or the
qualities of leadership. In physical mould and stature he was not unlike
the great Napoleon, but in voice and action in ordinary life the person-
ification of amiability and retiring modesty. But when roused by
great events portending danger to himself or others who for the time
being were under his protection, he became a whirlwind of vengeance
tempered and restrained from rashness by the keenest sagacity and
most marvelous generalship. Bridger and Baker, Gaunt and Williams,
Maxwell, Fitzpatrick and Sublette with the renowned French voyageurs,
were cast in a different mould. Some of them were of large, robust
physique, the ideal frontiersmen, whom it was a pleasure for the
neophyte to look upon and allow his imagination to revel in the perils
they had met and mastered. They stood majestically to the front as
148 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
leaders and commanders, but to the diminutive, mild eyed Carson who
possessed no majesty of walk or mien, these stalwarts and all others of
their kind rendered homage as the greatest and grandest of the guild.
He never failed or flinched. A mission intrusted to Carson, whether
to thread alone by day or night the trackless wilderness in pursuit of an
enemy; as the bearer of good or evil tidings, or as the leader of a force
to contend in the field against twice or thrice the number of hostiles,
the result was the same, he came out victorious. In the pursuit of
their dangerous calling the senses of these men became preternaturally
strong and acute. They were trespassers in a country not their own,
at least not so regarded by the natives, destroying game and property
not their own. Therefore they must be ready to hear the crack of the
rifle or the sharp twang of the bow string speeding its arrow to their
hearts from ambuscades, and the always terrifying war whoop.
The men who dig our canals and build our railways ; who pilot
steamships and engineer the trains, are the underlying forces of modern
civilization. The pioneers of the West beat the pathways through
unknown lands, penetrated the interiors, conquered the aborigines and
prepared the way for the surveyor, and he in turn for the locomotive
and the palace car. Carson and his contemporaries blazed the trails
for Fremont, who mapped the routes for the Pacific railways. Hence
we assert that the primeval hunters and trappers, though they founded
no cities, erected no enduring monuments, were, notwithstanding, the
actual creators of our internal commerce, leading the way for the
builders of brick and stone. We are indebted to them for the knowl-
edge which led science and capital to develop the results now before
us. This is their part in the imperishable renown of our country, and
it is by no means an unimportant part.
In the formative period of our settlement in the Rocky Mountains,
Jim Bridger was a familiar figure, with a long and untarnished record.
He was a tall, lank, thin man whose face gave bronzed evidence of the
life he led, generous, frank and kind, albeit uncouth, uneducated and
without a trace of modern refinement. Like Carson, he was a mighty
HISTORY OF COLORADO. U9
hunter and strategist, whose years were filled with adventure. In
battle he was bold and fearless. He was born in Virginia, but when
quite a young man struck out beyond the developed frontier to the
heart of the Continent. Here there was but one course open to him,
the adoption of the career of those who preceded and came after. In
working out his destiny he explored all the broad land between the
great rivers and the western ocean. At length, weary of tramping and
trailing, killing and skinning, he established a trading post on Block's
Fork of Green River, which became the rendezvous of his class and of
all Indians who were disposed to be friendly. In due course he be-
came possessed of large flocks and herds, and a modest fortune in
money and goods. His influence broadened until it dominated the
region roundabout. Viewing the rise of his power with malignant
hatred, and resolved to crush it, Brigham Young sent his "Avenging
Angels '' down there, and blotted him out ; that is to say, destroyed his
post and appropriated all his movable property. Bridger fled to the
mountains, and finally located at Fort Laramie.
In the days of his prosperity there came to him in 1855 an Irish
peer, named Sir George Gore, with a great retinue of servants, secre-
taries, horses, dogs and guns, bent upon a protracted hunt in the
Rocky Mountains. Bridger became his adviser, and guide into the
region of quadruped game. Sir George possessed a rent roll of $200,-
000 a year, a magnificent house and estate, with all that vast wealth
and a lordly position could command. Not content with the ordinary
sports of his native country, he felt impelled to do something that
would eclipse the fame of old Nimrod himself in the untrodden fields
of the New West, where everything was rude and v/ild, and where
buffalo and antelope, big horns and deer could be counted by thou-
sands, with a boundless plain for the chase. He brought no less than
fifty servants, scores of dogs, bundles of fishing rods, the latest im-
proved fire-arms, and thirty wagons laden with commissary stores suf-
ficient for an army. He remained two years, traversed the North,
Middle and South Parks, and most of the country between the Platte
150 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and the Columbia. It was from him the Gore Range derived its
name. In the record of this unprecedented excursion, are noted the
slaughter of forty grizzlies, nearly three thousand buffaloes, and thou-
sands of antelope and deer.
Among the noted guides of the period between 1846 and 1855 ^^^
Tim Goodale, all the better because quickened and enlightened by a fair
common school education. He had spent many years on the frontier
and prolonged his trips to the Pacific when California was but a prim-
itive settlement.
Jim Baker, kind-hearted, honest and reliable, the very epitome
and essence of the ideal hunter in form and presence, scarred from
scalp to moccasin by the battles he has fought and won over bears and
Indians, whose portrait hangs in one of the art galleries of our city,
which no person passes without pausing to contemplate the torn,
creased and grizzled features that tell him here is a man with a history;
was a native of Illinois, leaving the paternal roof at the age of
eighteen, to enter the employ of the American Fur Company whose
headquarters beyond the Missouri were established at Fort Laramie.
Dwelling among the Indians and marrying into the tribe to which he
attached himself, he in time became a veritable aborigine, adopting
their customs, habits, dress, and even their superstitions, which in the
fulness of his years he still retains. Sober, Jim Baker is a man worth
knowing ; drunk and irritated, one to be avoided. But to his credit be
it said, he rarely touches whisky except when in the settlements at
long intervals, when a spree is the inevitable result. Years ago he fell
often a prey to the gamblers. On one occasion, when he had been
especially fortunate in gathering a large stock of furs, and had made up
his mind to return to the States, buy a farm and settle down for the
remainder of his days, on reaching a rendezvous where many of his
o-uild were assembled, he was enticed into a game of Spanish monte,
and lost all he possessed, the value of his peltries being about nine
thousand dollars. Then he went back to the mountains where he re-
mains to this day. Spanish monte was a favorite method of gambling,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 151
and many a trapper has fallen a victim to its seductions. Baker might
have been comparatively rich had he saved the earnings of his industry,
but at the close of each season everything was sacrificed in the usual
way. Thus the traders were enriched, while the trappers plodded
along in poverty.
At one time he established a trading post on his own account at
the emigrant crossing of Green River, but was driven out by men more
acute and less scrupulous than himself. He was familiarly known and
highly respected by the Utes, Arapahoes and Cheyennes. When the
Pike's Peak immigration poured its long columns into Denver, he came
occasionally, but only for brief visits. The ways of civilization were
not his ways, so he fled to his tepee in the parks. After the war a mis-
guided friend presented him with a Henry repeating rifle, then a recent
invention. Somehow in firing it for practice and " to get the hang of
the thing " the magazine exploded, and striking his face, tore one side
away. The doctors sewed up the ragged wound, but the scars remain
to attest its severity. Meeting him shortly after the accident, and see-
ing the plight he was in, I inquired the cause. He said, "Well, you
see I got one of them new repeatin' rifles, and the first shot I fired the
d d thing bust and split my jaw." But it seemed to him a mere
trifle that would soon mend, — interfere with his eating for a few days,
perhaps, nothing more serious. He had been shot and mangled and
lacerated too many times to mind a scratch like that.
Capt. Marcy relates an anecdote of Baker, the main particulars
told by himself: "On one occasion while he was setting his traps with
a companion on the head waters of Grand River, they came suddenly
upon two young grizzly bears about the size of well-grown dogs. He
remarked to his companion that if 'they could pitch in and skulp the
varmints with their knives,' it would be an exploit to boast of. They
accordingly laid aside their rifles and 'went in,' Baker attacking one,
and his companion the other. The bears immediately raised them-
selves upon their haunches, and were ready for the encounter. He ran
around, endeavoring to get an opportunity to give a blow from behind
152 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
with his long knife, but the young brute was too quick for him, and
turned as he passed around, so as always to confront him face to face.
He knew if he came within reach of his paws, that, although young, he
could inflict a formidable blow ; moreover, he felt great apprehensions
that the piteous howls set up by the cubs, would bring the infuriated
dam to their rescue, when their chances for escape would be small, so
he determined to end the contest at once. He made many des-
perate lunges at the bear, but the animal invariably warded them off
with his fore paws like a pugilist, and protected his body at the
expense of several severe cuts upon his legs. This, however, only served
to exasperate him, and at length he took the offensive, and with his
mouth frothing with rage he bounded toward Baker, who grappled
with him and gave him a death wound under the ribs. While all
this was going on, his companion had been furiously fighting the
other bear, and by this time had become greatly exhausted, and the
odds were turning decidedly against him. He entreated Baker to
come to his assistance at once, which he did ; but much to his
astonishment, as soon as he entered the second combat his com-
panion ran off, leaving him to fight the battle alone. He was, how-
ever, again victorious, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing his
two antagonists stretched out lifeless before him ; but he firmly
resolved never ao^ain to make war on a bear with a huntinof knife,
saying, he would ' never fight nary another grizzly without a good
shootin'-iron in his paws.'"
At this writing Jim Baker occupies a tepee on Snake River
Fork of Yampa River in the northern part of Routt County, about
one hundred miles west of North Park, and lives as he has done
from the beginning, after the manner of the Indians. He comes to
Denver occasionally, but at long intervals. He is unable to endure for
more than a few days the restraints of modern clothing and the man-
ner of those who dwell in towns and cities. His thick shock of chest-
nut hair which curls in rinorlets all over his head is even now, thouo^h
he has passed threescore and ten, but slightly grizzled, and his
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 153
stalwart form but slightly bent. In conversation he is the ideal
mountaineer, but like Carson, with a mild, pleasant voice, almost
feminine in its soft cadences. He is eminently good natured, and
thoroughly devoted to his friends. The companion to whom he was
most deeply attached. Major D. C. Cakes, died in 1886, since when
Baker has not appeared.
All the remaining space in this volume might be filled with
interesting reminiscences of Kit (Christopher) Carson. To say that
he was one of the most remarkable men of his time would be but a
feeble exposition of his worth. It may be truthfully said, however, that
no man of his class attained the exalted position which he held in the
admiration and esteem of all who knew him. Had he been endowed
at the proper age with the advantages of the better schools of learning,
there is reason to believe from the inherent force displayed in every
crisis of his career that he would have become eminent in any pursuit
to which his energies were directed. Men of his mould are irre-
sistible forces, and rise inevitably to the loftiest positions for which
they are fitted. This man was a rare combination of dauntless courage,
keen penetration, true nobility of mind, and generous impulses tempered
with discretion and sound common sense, which enabled him to choose,
under most circumstances, the right course, both in war and peace.
He was pre-eminently honest with himself and with those who trusted
and relied upon him. His devotion to duty has never been excelled.
His biographer'"^' says of him, "The chief points of his character were
determined perseverance, indomitable will, unflinching courage, quick-
ness and shrewdness of perception, and promptitude in execution.'"
Any man who possesses these masterful qualities, supported by physical
strength and good impulses, is a controlling factor in the sphere in
which he moves.
Carson appears to have been in constant action from the date of
his entree upon the scenes which demanded the broadest exercise of
*Col. DeWittC. Peters, "Pioneer Life and Frontier Adventure" whose work is followed in the prepara-
tion of this sketch.
154 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the power within him. The hst of his expeditions is well nigh inter-
minable. He was never at rest, never permitted even in the closing
years, to enjoy for more than a few days or weeks the peace and quiet
of his home and family. Though often attempted, it was no sooner
begun than there came appeals for his skillful guidance through fields
bristling with dangers. His judgment and valor distinguished him
as a sort of Nestorian mascot, without whom no trying journey should
be undertaken. He led scouting parties and armies, emigrant trains
and forlorn hopes, hunters, trappers and explorers with consummate skill
through every peril to the harbor of safety.
The subject of this sketch was born in Madison County, Kentucky,
December 24, 1809. His parents were among the original settlers of
the State, and his father was a celebrated hunter. At the age of
fifteen Kit was apprenticed to a trade that was distasteful to him, but in
obedience to his father's desire he pursued it some years. In early
manhood he began to hear of the romantic adventures of the Rocky
Mountain hunters, and resolved to join them at the first opportunity.
In 1826 he attached himself to a party bound for Santa Fe. From the
latter point he went to Taos, then and long afterward the resort of
frontiersmen, where he soon learned to speak the Spanish language like
a native, which in after years was of great service to him. His next
venture led him to Chihuahua, and from there to California. In the
years which followed, his reputation as an Indian fighter became estab-
lished far and wide. In the period under consideration it was impos-
sible to avoid these conflicts. To meet an Indian was to provoke a
challenge ; they swarmed everywhere. Somehow, owing to the traits
we have named, he was uniformly successful, whether in command of a
party, or unattended. If a desperate chance were to be taken, or a
dangerous enterprise to be led, Carson was chosen to direct it. On
returning from the Pacific he located at Green River for a time, but
learning that his old friend Captain Gaunt was then trapping in the
South Park, he with four companions, joined him there. They trapped
through all the parks until the approach of winter, when they went
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 155
down to the Arkansas in the region of Pueblo and Bent's Fort, where
they had a sharp skirmish with a band of Crow Indians. Speaking of
Carson, Fremont says, "Mounted on a fine horse without a saddle, and
scouring bareheaded over the prairie, Kit was one of the finest pictures
of a horseman I have ever seen."
Said an old trapper, who was an ardent admirer, — "If a man has a
serious quarrel with Kit Carson, he had better not let him get the first
sight over his rifle; for if he succeeds in this his adversary is as good as
dead." Yet he was never known to originate a quarrel among his
fellows, but often avoided difficulties instigated by others.
After eight years of mountaineering, the rapid decline in the price
of beaver skins owing to the introduction of silk for the manufacture of
genteel headgear, together with the scarcity of fur bearing animals, the
occupation was no longer profitable, so Carson, accompanied by "Parson
Bill Williams," went to Bent's Fort to ascertain what employment there
might be for them at that place. By this time Carson, had become
familiar v/ith every trail and pass in the Rocky Mountains, and it is not
extravagant but wholly just to say, that PVemont owed much of his
renown as a pathfinder to the man who guided him with unerring cer-
tainty to the points he was instructed to examine.
Arrived at the fort he was at once employed as hunter, with the
responsibility of providing game for its sometimes numerous inhabitants.
When buffalo, antelope and deer were abundant there was no difficulty,
but when scarce, as often happened, he was compelled to search for it,
frequently over a vast scope of plain or mountainous region. While in
the mountains he married an Indian girl, to whom he was devotedly
attached. The issue of this union was a daughter, and soon after, his
wife died. When arrived at the proper age, Carson sent the child to
St. Louis, where she received a very thorough education.
Kit was always thoughtful, sober and moral, rarely tasted liquor,
gambled not at all, and was perhaps the finest model of a true and
noble character known to his kind.
When General Kearney appointed Charles Bent Governor of
156 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
New Mexico, this act severed his connection with the fort, and Carson
became an important figure in the war with Mexico.
As related in a previous chapter, he visited his birthplace in 1842
and on his return led Fremont to the Wind River Mountains. Having
accomplished this mission he returned to Taos, and in February, 1843,
married a Mexican woman named Senora Josepha Jaramillo, who bore
him three children. In the following spring he was engaged to escort
a train belonging to Bent and St. Vrain back to the States, but when
two-thirds of the trip had been accomplished, news was received that a
large party of Texans were posted some distance below for the purpose
of capturing it. Therefore the manager halted, and sent Carson back
to Santa Fe for reinforcements. On his arrival, he discovered that
they had been sent by the Governor on prior information. The Texans
subsequently encountered this reinforcement and annihilated it, but the
train reached the Missouri River in safety. On his return to Bent's
Fort these facts were made known to him, so he proceeded no further.
Shortly afterward he joined Fremont, then upon his second expedition,
at the close of which (1845) ^^^ settled down in Taos, and in company
with a friend named Richard Owens, established a ranch on the Little
Cimarron with the intention of raising flocks and herds, and cultivating
the soil. These preparations were but fairly inaugurated when the
irrepressible Fremont called him for his third expedition, which took
him again to California. In 1846 he was sent as bearer of dispatches
to Washington, but on the 6th of October he met General Kearney en
route to Santa Fe. This officer realizing the value of the man before
him as aid and guide for the work he had undertaken in New Mexico,
sent the dispatches to Fort Leavenworth by Major Tom Fitzpatrick,
retaining Kit as chief of scouts. In California Carson left Kearney
and rejoined Fremont, and in March, 1847, was again sent to the
National Capital with dispatches, where he arrived the following June,
was met by Mrs. Fremont at the depot, taken to her home and treated
with all the affectionate consideration and hospitality which that noble
and gifted woman felt to be the just due of this trusted comrade and
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 157
friend of her husband. He remained some time in Washington where,
his fame having preceded him, he was naturally the hero of the day.
Through the influence of Senator Benton he was appointed a lieutenant
in the rifle corps of the United States Army, and ordered as bearer of
dispatches to the officer in command of California. At Fort Leaven-
worth he was furnished an escort of fifty men. With the exception of
a fight with the Comanches at Point of Rocks, the command reached
Santa Fe without further incident of importance. Here Carson dis-
missed his escort, and with sixteen employes hired for the journey,
proceeded to the Pacific, reporting at Monterey for orders, which
assigned him to duty as lieutenant in the dragoons at Los Angeles.
After a winter passed in campaigning, mainly against hostile Indians,
he was a third time ordered to Washington as bearer of dispatches.
On this journey he visited his home in Taos, proceeded thence to Santa
Fe and from there, as near as we can discover, to the Arkansas at
Pueblo, thence to Bijou Basin, thence to the South Platte, following
the latter stream to Fort Kearney, whence he crossed to the Repub-
lican, and so on to Fort Leavenworth.
This circuitous route was taken to avoid numerous bands of
unfriendly Indians.
On this occasion he waited but a few days at the seat of gov-
ernment. Returning to Taos, he settled down for a season of rest
from years of hardship and incessant toil, but was a few days later
summoned to act as guide to the First Dragoons in a foray against
the Apaches, who were committing terrible depredations. They
passed through the Sangre de Cristo to the Arkansas and scouted the
country thoroughly, but without encountering any considerable nurn-
' bers of the tribe they were seeking. When through with this expe-
' dition Carson, with Lucien Maxwell, settled in the beautiful valley of
Rayado, fifty-five miles east of Taos, where they hoped to pass the
balance of their days. But as with every previous undertaking of this
nature, there seemed to be neither peace nor rest for this intrepid
hunter. He was soon called for another raid against the Apaches,
158 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
who had agaui taken the war path. In May, 1850, with Tim Goodale
he took a herd of horses and mules to Fort Laramie, where they dis-
posed of them to good advantage. After this commercial venture, he
again settled down to farming, but his pursuit of husbandry was fre-
quently interrupted for the more exciting pursuit of Indians. His next
commercial enterprise was undertaken with Maxwell. They drove
6,500 sheep across the country to California, then in the height of gold
mining excitement, where they sold them for $5.50 per head. This
gave them a considerable fund for future operations, but on returning
to Taos in 1853 Carson was informed of his appointment as agent for
the Yutas, Jiccarilla Apaches and several other tribes, which gave
both him and the Indians great satisfaction. Nevertheless, the lat-
ter caused him an immense amount of trouble, and kept the troops
busy with countless uprisings. During the latter part of 1854-5 the
Apaches and Yutas (Utes) frequently confederated in wars upon the
Mexicans and antagonistic savages. The Muache Apaches and the
Utes some time later united in a formidable war, and Immediately
began a series of fiendish atrocities upon the inhabitants of the ranches
and small villages, spreading consternation throughout the country.
At length the Governor of the Territory and the commanding General
resolved to send a strong force against them. Volunteers were called
for, and the quotas were soon filled. On being organized they were
placed under the command of Mr. Ceran St. Vrain of Taos, with the
rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Meanwhile, Col. T. T. Fauntleroy
marched up from Fort Union with two companies of dragoons and a
rifle corps, and assumed command of the entire force. Carson was
engaged as guide and chief of scouts. When fully prepared they
marched to Fort Massachusetts. The weather was very cold and
stormy. Following the Rio Grande to the point where Fremont met
with such appalling disasters in the Sangre de Cristo range, Carson,
who was in advance, discovered the trail of the Indians, which led
through Saguache Pass, and just beyond which he found the enemy
drawn up in line of battle under the celebrated Chief Blanco to resist
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 159
the passage of the troops. The latter charged, and, as usual, the
Indians fled, but were overtaken, when a long running fight ensued.
Several were slain, but the survivors took to the hills and escaped.
Next day with Carson leading, as before, the trail was again discov-
ered and the Indians overtaken, when a sharp action occurred in which
many were killed. But the American horses being no match for the
Indian ponies in this sort of work, soon gave out, when the troops
returned to Fort Massachusetts for fresh animals and further supplies.
After a few weeks of rest the force was divided, St. Vrain with the vol-
unteers and Fauntleroy with the regulars, each taking a different
direction. The latter moved along the base of the mountains to the
head of the valley and thence to Poncha Pass, which is the main
opening through the mountains that bound the San Luis on the north.
From this point he advanced to the head waters of the Arkansas, where
he struck a fresh trail which indicated the presence, farther on, of a
large body of Indians. At daybreak in the morning the camp was
discovered, and, as anticipated, it was a very large one. Fauntleroy
moved his force quietly and as secretly as possible to within a short
distance of the village, poured a deadly volley into it, and then charged.
The savages, though taken by surprise, made a stout resistance for a
time, and then fled, hotly pursued by the troops. The camp with all
Its plunder, fell into the hands of the regulars. A great many Indians
were killed on the field, and many more in the pursuit. This was one
of the bloodiest battles ever fought in the Rocky Mountains, and
occurred near the site of the present city of Leadvllle. Meanwhile St.
Vrain and his volunteers had been equally successful in meeting and
chastising the redskins on the route of their march, and this closed
the war.
Again Carson located at Taos and assumed the duties of his
office. When the war of the Rebellion broke out he at once declared
for the Union. At an early period, in recognition of his great serv-
ices he was appointed Colonel of the F'^irst Regiment New Mexico
Volunteers under command of General Canby. Kit's first battle
160 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
occurred at Valverde against the Texans under Sibley, who were after-
ward soundly thrashed by the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers.
Subsequently his regiment was engaged in detached service under Gen.
Carleton against the Indians, in which Kit performed valiant duty in
frequent engagements with Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahoes and
Navajoes. In one of his campaigns against the latter he was badly
defeated, but soon turned the rout into a victory. At the head of
two thousand picked men, Californians, Mexicans and his own brave
mountaineers, he drove the Indians into a ravine and captured the
entire force, probably the largest capture of the kind ever known.
Peters places the number at ten thousand, which we are inclined to
doubt. However, this put an end to Navajo wars and depredations for
a long period of time. For this exploit he was breveted a Brigadier
General of Volunteers, and was retained in his rank and command long
after the close of the war of the Rebellion. Later, when the Sioux
became very troublesome and threatened a formidable outbreak, Carson
was sent to them as a Peace Commissioner, with power to negotiate
a treaty, which was accomplished to the entire satisfaction of the
contracting parties.
In 1864 he commanded at Fort Union, New Mexico, and in 1865-6
at Fort Garland in the San Luis Valley. In 1867 he settled with his
family at Boggsville, in Bent County. At this time his health began
to suffer from the prodigious strain of the life he had led, and was
fatally undermined by a severe cold contracted while on a visit to
Washington with a party of Ute chiefs in charge of A. C. Hunt. On
reaching Denver on his return from this trip he was confined to his
bed at the old Planter's House, situated on the corner of Blake and G
streets (now Sixteenth), on the site of the present Witter Block. When
sufficiently recovered he was taken to his home. He died May 24, 1868,
his cherished wife having preceded him by only a few days. They
were buried side by side in the garden of Mr. C. L. Rite, at Boggsville,
but the remains were exhumed some time afterward and reinterred at
Taos.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 161
The first number of the Pueblo "Chieftain," issued June i, 1868,
contains an eloquent eulogy of Christopher Carson, written by Judge
Wilbur F. Stone, from which the following testimonial is extracted :
" He stood pre-eminent among the pathfinders and founders of empire
in the Great West, and his long career, ennobled by hardship and
danger, is unsullied by the record of a littleness or meanness. He was
nature's model of a gentleman, kindly of heart, tolerant to all men,
good in virtues of disposition rather than great in qualities of mind
He has passed away — dying as through his life-long he had lived — in
peace and charity with all, and leaving behind him a name and memory
to be cherished by his countrymen so long as modesty, valor, unobtru-
sive worth, charity and true chivalry survive among men.'
II
162 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XI.
Historic settlements in Colorado between 1826 and 1858 — arrival of the
BENTS ANO ST. VRAIN — FIRST STOCKADE ON THE ARKANSAS AND TRADING POSTS
subsequently erected TRAFFIC AMONG THE INDIANS — TRAGIC DEATH OF
CHARLES BENT SETTLEMENTS ON ADOBE CREEK AND THE GREENHORN THE OLD
PUEBLO FORT INDIAN MASSACRE FORT MASSACHUSETTS POSTS IN NORTHERN
COLORADO VASQUEZ, LUPTON AND ST. VRAIN INDIAN TRIBES OF THE PLAINS,
THEIR ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS.
Before introducing the great epoch of modern enterprise that
began with the discovery of gold, the period in which the furrows were
plowed, the seeds planted and the fissures opened for the bounteous
harvest which ultimately gave Colorado her enviable place in the sister-
hood of the States, it is proper to collect and weave together numerous
and widely scattered fragments relating to the period between 1826
and 1858. The connection will then be historically complete, and there
will be little occasion to retrace our steps for further inquiry.
Undoubtedly the first human habitation erected v/ithin the limits
of our State, excepting the tepees or wigwams of the aborigines, was in
the form of a blockhouse or stockade built for winter quarters by Lieu-
tenant Zebulon M. Pike, in 1806-7, on the Arkansas River near the
present town of Caiion. The next was established in the San Luis
Valley by the same officer, under the erroneous impression that in the
Rio Grande he had discovered the long sought Red River of the West.
Between the dates last mentioned and 1826 there is absolutely nothing
on the face of the country or in recorded testimony to indicate that
any white man built a fixed abode at any point in the 106,475 square
miles of territory which now comprises our prosperous commonwealth.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 363
Pike's report created great interest for a time, as a sort of
romantic story from some wonderland which he alone had penetrated,
as we received the accounts of Livingston and Stanley from the myste-
rious interior of Africa, but without creating a desire to enter in and
occupy a land so trackless, wild and inhospitable. There were illimit-
able regions of rich, fertile and abundantly-timbered lands along the
great water courses between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi to be
peopled and reclaimed. Emigrants came not to our shores by thou-
sands annually then as now, but in small numbers, by the slow sailing
vessels. Consequently the States developed gradually, attaining in
half a century a growth which in the later eras under the rapid transit
steamships was accomplished in a single decade. Instead of marching
out to the Western prairies to wrestle with savages for no adequate
reward, the pioneers of the East preferred to remain and finish the
conquest of those which obstructed their progress, itself the work of
several generations. In those days, too, distances were not annihilated
by steam and electric forces. Hence the region remained a wilderness
until the time arrived for its incorporation into the broad and compre-
hensive plan of development which began in i860.
In tracing the stream to its source, we find that in 1826, shortly
after the movement of the fur trade in this direction, and the opening
of our inland commerce with Santa Fe, Charles Bent, with three
brothers, William, Robert and George, and Ceran St. Vrain, all hunt-
ers and trappers of the class known as French Canadians, long engaged
with the American Fur Company in the mountains of the Northwest,
arrived on the Arkansas River and erected a stockade of long stakes
or pickets driven into the ground, which, when sealed and roofed, served
the purpose of a rude trading post. It was located at a point on the
left or north bank of the stream, about midway between Pueblo and
Canon City, and was occupied by its builders for about two years. In
1828, finding it necessary to be in closer proximity to the richer hunting
grounds cf the Arkansas Valley, the Bents moved down to a point twelve
miles northeast of the present town of Las Animas, and there began
164 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the construction of a larger and more pretentious structure of adobe or
sun dried bricks. But for some reason unexplained It was not com-
pleted until 1832. Meanwhile, it is assumed the founders lived in
tents of skins like the natives, when shelter was required from the hot
suns and storms of summer and the chilling blasts of winter. When
finished the station was named " Fort William," in honor of " Colonel "
or William Bent, who was the animating spirit of the enterprise, and
indeed the principal trader, who took long journeys out among the
Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas and Comanches, and perhaps other
tribes, along the rivers far to the east and southwest, exchanging the
goods he carried upon pack animals, and which the Indians eagerly
coveted, for the furs and peltries they had gathered. On one of these
expeditions he married a comely Cheyenne maiden, the daughter of a
powerful chief.
A remarkable man in his day was William Bent, not perhaps
according to the aesthetic standard, but in the estimation of his fellows
and of the red men, where his iron firmness yet kindly manners, his
integrity, truthfulness and courage, not only compelled admiration, but
endeared him to them. As a consequence, no such harvests as he gath-
ered were open to his competitors in the traffic, and when his heavily
laden trains reached St. Louis, bearing the fruits of his enterprise,
they came like ships bearing coveted cargoes from foreign lands.
The post which bore his name, and prospered under his subtle man-
agement— for both Charles and St. Vrain resided mainly in Taos, —
became the popular resort of mountaineers and plainsmen, and was
generally surrounded by large encampments of Indians. It was
destroyed In 1852 under the following circumstances:
It appears that the Federal government by whom it had been used
as an interior base of supplies for General Kearney's troops in the
conquest of New Mexico, began negotiations for its purchase. Col.
Bent had but one price — $16,000. The representatives of the govern-
ment offered $12,000, which he refused. Wearying of the controversy,
the Colonel while in a passion removed all his goods except some kegs
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 165
of gunpowder, and then set fire to the old landmark. When the flames
reached the powder there was an explosion which shattered and threw
down portions of the walls, but did not wholly destroy them. The
remains of this once noted structure stand to this day, melancholy
relics of an epoch that marks the primordial settlement of white men
upon this division of the continent.
In 1852 the site of a third and much more imposing station was
selected by the indomitable Colonel, forty miles above or west of the
one just considered, on the same side of the Arkansas, at a point then
known as "Big Timbers,'" Respecting this venture Judge R. M.
Moore of Las Animas, a son-in-law of William Bent, writes the
author as follows : " Leaving ten men in camp to get out stone for the
new post. Col. Bent took a part of his outfit and went to a Kiowa
village about two hundred miles southwest, and remained there all
winter, trading with the Kiowas and Comanches. In the spring of
1853 he returned to Big Timbers, when the construction of the new
post was begun, and the work continued until completed in the
summer of 1854; and it was used as a trading post until the owner
leased it to the government in the autumn of 1859. Col. Sedgwick*
had been sent out to fight the Kiowas that year, and in the fall a
large quantity of commissary stores had been sent to him. Col. Bent
then moved up the river to a point just above the mouth of the Purg-
atoire, and built several rooms of cottonwood pickets and there spent
the winter. In the spring of i860 Col. Sedgwick began the construc-
tion of officers' buildings, company quarters, corrals and stables, all of
stone, and named the place Fort Wise, in honor of Gov. Wise of
Virginia. In 1861 the name was changed to Fort Lyon, in honor of
Gen. Lyon, who was killed at the battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri."
In the spring of 1866 the Arkansas River overflowed its banks,
swept up into the fort, and undermining the walls, rendered it unten-
able for military purposes. The camp was moved to a point twenty
miles below, and new Fort Lyon erected. The old post was repaired
*The lamented General Sedgwick, killed at Spottsylvania, Va., May 2, 1S64.
166 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and used as a stage stPtion by Barlow, Sanderson & Co., who ran a
mail, express and passenger line between Kansas City and Santa Fe,
with a branch from Pueblo.
When Gen. Kearney occupied Santa Fe in 1846, he appointed
Charles Bent civil Governor of New Mexico. In the latter part of
December, 1847, after the departure of Col. Doniphan from the Ter-
ritory, a conspiracy was hatched by Mexicans and certain Pueblo
Indians of Taos to recapture the country from the Americans. But
the plot was discovered, and a number of the leaders arrested and
imprisoned. This, it was believed, would put an end to the contem-
plated uprising, but the embers of revolt soon broke out afresh. Gov-
ernor Bent,^ "supposing all danger past, left the capital on January 14,
1848, to visit his home and family at Taos. He was accompanied by
five persons, including the Sheriff, Prefect of the County, and the Cir-
cuit Attorney. On the night of the 19th a large body of men, partly
Mexicans and partly Pueblo Indians, attacked his residence and suc-
ceeded not only in killing the Governor, but also the Sheriff of the
county, Stephen Lee ; J. W. Leal, the Circuit Attorney ; Cornelio
Vijil, the Prefect; Narcisso Baubien, a son of Judge Baubien, and
Pablo Jaramillo."
From an historical sketch of Fremont County by Hon. B. F.
Rockafellow, we find that a French trader named Maurice, who came
west from Detroit, established a trading post at Adobe Creek in that
county about the year 1830. A small party of Mexicans followed, and
engaged in farming. In 1838 the Mexicans, affrighted at the approach
of a war party of Sioux and Arapahoes, took refuge in Maurice's fort.
The Indians came to demand of Maurice a Ute squaw who was living
at the post. The trader put them off with parleys for delay until he
could dispatch a swift messenger to a large band of Utes encamped in
the Wet Mountain Valley. They came at once in response to the
summons, and met their old antagonists in a long and bloody battle, in
which the Utes were victorious.
Prince, History of New Mexico.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 167
According to the same authority Charles Bent, Lupton, St. Vrain,
Baubien and Lucien Maxwell founded an American settlement on
Adobe Creek in 1840, which remained until 1846 and then disappeared.
There were a few Mexican settlers, with American hunters and trap-
pers, on the Greenhorn and Huerfano about the same period.
The Pueblo fort, from which the second city in our State derived
its name, is said to have been built about the year 1842 by George
Simpson and two associates named Barclay and Doyle. Ruxton, who
stopped there in 1847, ^^ route from Mexico to the States, says at that
time it was "a small square fort of adobe with circular bastions at the
corners, no part of the walls being more than eight feet high, and
round the inside of the yard or corral are built some half dozen little
rooms inhabited by as many Indian traders and mountain men. They
live entirely upon game, and the greater part of the year without even
bread, since but little maize is cultivated. As soon as their supply of
meat is exhausted, they start to the mountains with two or three pack
animals and bring them back in two or three days loaded with buffalo
or venison. In the immediate vicinity of the fort game is very scarce,
and the buffalo have within a few years deserted the neighboring prai-
ries, but they are always found in the mountain valleys, particularly in
one called Bayou Salado (South Park), which abounds in every
species of game, including elk, bears, deer, big horns or Rocky Moun-
tain sheep, buffalo, antelope, etc.''
Further research into the origin of Pueblo leads to the belief that it
was established in 1840, and Hardscrabble, thirty miles above on the
Arkansas, about 1843. Indian agent Fitzpatrick, one of the most exper-
ienced of Western trappers, writes from Bent's Fort in 1847, "About
seventy-five miles above this place, and immediately on the Arkansas
River, there is a small settlement, the principal part of which is composed
of old trappers and hunters; the male part of it are mostly Americans,
Missouri P>ench, Canadians and Mexicans. They have a tolerable sup-
ply of cattle, horses, mules, etc., and I am informed that this year they
have raised a good crop of wheat, corn, beans, pumpkins and other veg-
108 HISTORY OF COLORADO
etables. They number about one hundred and fifty souls, and of this
number, about sixty men, nearly all have wives and some have two.
These wives are of various Indian tribes as follows, viz: Blackfeet, Assi-
niboines, Arickarees, Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Snake, Simpitch
(from west of the Great Lake) Chinock (from the mouth of the Colum-
bia) Mexicans and Americans. The American women are Mormons, a
party of Mormons having wintered there, and on their departure for
California left behind them two families. These people are living in two
separate establishments, near each other, one called "Punble" (Pueblo)
and the other Hardscrabble. Both villages are fortified by a wall twelve
feet high, composed of adobe. These villages are becoming the resort
of all idlers and loafers. They are also becoming depots for the smug-
glers of liquors from New Mexico into this C3untry."*
In addition to the settlements, if they may be so dignified, of Bent's
Fort and Pueblo, we have Fort Massachusetts, established on the west
bank of Utah Creek, eighty-five miles north of Taos, in what is now the
San Luis Valley, June 22, 1852. The fort was dismantled June 24,
1858, and a new post built and called Fort Garland. The first was con-
structed of logs, the latter of adobe. Both were important military
stations in their day, and the troops stationed there had many a fierce
contest with roving bands of Indians. Here ends for the present the
earlier annals of Southern and Southwestern Colorado.
Let us now cross the divide to the northward and discover the origin
of settlement along the now rich and well populated valley of the Platte,
which, with its tributaries, has been converted into the agricultural gar-
den of the State.
*From Gen. R. M. Stevenson's sketch of the early history of Pueblo County, we condense the
details of a tragic event as related to him by Charley Autobees, a French trapper and mountaineer.
On Christmas Day, 1854, the Pueblo fort w^as occupied by seventeen trappers and hunters who assem-
bled to celebrate the winter holiday, having obtained a quantity of Mexican whisky known as "Taos
lightning." While engaged in feasting and drinking, a band of Mountain Utes came along and were
invited to join the festivities, which they eagerly accepted. In due course all became furiously drunk,
and in the riotous proceedings which followed, the Indians killed every white man on the premises.
Such as escaped were followed and shot. One of the party, and the only one who survived to tell the
tale, was a teamster who, in the morning of the fatal day had gone to .St. Charles for supplies, and
returning in the evening, discovered the mutilated bodies of his comrades.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 169
In this valley we have the record of four conspicuous stations, the
first built by Louis Vasquez in 1832, opposite the mouth of the Vasquez
Fork (Clear Creek) four miles below Denver. It was formed of cotton-
wood logs and, like all its contemporaries, garrisoned by hunters and
trappers. The second was named Fort Lancaster, and situated on the
east side of the Platte six miles above the station on the Burlington
and Missouri Railway known as Lupton; the third Fort Lupton, and
the fourth St. Vrains, the latter founded about the year 1840. With the
lapse and decay of time, all save Lupton have disappeared. There was
a distinctly marked business method in the location and dates of the
respective posts. At first the buffalo and other quadruped game made
their feeding grounds along the bases of the mountains near the run-
ning streams. Being constantly pursued by the tireless hunters they
crossed the Platte and fled to the verdant plains to the eastward, where
new posts near the newer ranges became a necessity.
It seems eminently proper to submit at this time a brief statement
relating to such of the Indian tribes — the aboriginal owners of the Terri-
tory lying between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, as may
have a bearing upon the prehistoric annals of the country. To attempt
anything like a history of all the tribes would lead us too far from the
general purpose of this work, besides occupying space that may be
more profitably devoted to other matters. But the subject is at least one
well worthy of passing consideration. The enlightened emigrant of
1858 — and his followers in subsequent years, given to close observation,
naturally expended some earnest thought upon the natives he encoun-
tered, and, naturally enough, wondered how and when they came, or, if
they had always roamed up and down the country spending their time In
war and the chase. He met the remnants of once numerous and power-
ful nations, now decimated and degraded to mere fragments, stripped of
power, and reduced to beggary. What were they in the zenith of their
strength? Their destiny was already manifest, requiring no prophetic
vision to foretell the closing scene. Overborne by the surging tide of
an Irresistible movemen:, there could be but one result — their extinction.
170 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
If men sow not, neither shall they reap. These red men stubbornly
refused to accept the conditions held out to them by modern law, so they
were plowed under and forgotten. The whirlwind of civilized force
swept over and blotted them out. Though renowned in war with their
own species, they became helpless as babes before the resistless tor-
rent. Humanitarians call it harsh, barbarous and cruel, but it was pre-
destined. The march of progress from Plymouth Rock to the West-
ern rivers had been marked by trails of fire and blood. The Christian
fathers carried their guns, and torches as we ours, and aimed to kill.
There was no middle course. The crusade begun from the anchorage
of the Mayflower was not ordained to stop until it had mastered the con-
tinent. We could not halt at the Mississippi or the Missouri and declare
that all east of that line should belong to the white man, and all west of
it to the Red; that half of the continent should be devoted to the pur-
suits of civilization, and the balance permitted to continue unimproved
and under the rule of savages who would neither toil nor spin. And so
the sanguinary procession advanced, the white man took possession, and
the barbarian disappeared.
We learn from the veteran Schoolcraft that west of the Mississippi
there were two generic stocks of great importance, the Dakotas or Sioux,
and the Shoshones, and that they occupied an immense territory — that
is to say, claimed it as a hereditary right, hunted over it, and fought all
trespassers upon it. Of these the Sioux were numerically, intellectually
and, as a rule, physically superior to the Shoshones. It is believed that
they originated in the South, and embraced the Arkansas, Ouappas, Cad-
does, Wichitas, Osages, Kansas, Pawnees, lowas, Otoes, Poncas,
Omahas, Missouris, Arickarees, Minnetarees, Tetons, Yanktons and
others, including the Crows and the Mandans.
On the other hand, the Shoshones or Snakes and their various tribal
divisions, from the remotest times occupied the plateaus and parks of
the Rocky Mountains, until driven out by the present generation of
settlers. In Texas they are Comanches, in Colorado Utes. The range
of this group covered all the country now embraced in Texas, Colorado,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 171
Wyoming, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Arizona, California, Idaho and
New Mexico.
The Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Kiowas of whom the early immi-
grants had most intimate knowledge through frequent encounters, were
strong, warlike and cruel. There was a report that the Arapahoes were
descended from the Blackfeet ; that a hunting party accompanied by
their families came down from the north to the Platte about seventy-five
years ago, and being cut off by a severe snowstorm, wintered here.
The season in this latitude being mild and pleasant, the country abound-
ing in game, and generally a better region to live in than the one they
had left, they decided to remain. How much truth there may be in the
stor)% If any, we are unable to say. We found them here and know that
they roamed the plains in large numbers from the country of the Paw-
nees to the bases of the mountains and down into the valley of the Arkan-
sas River. Schoolcraft gives color to the report by stating that they
were of Blackfeet stock.
The Cheyennes were pushed westward from Dakota by the more pow-
erful Sioux, and located first in the Black Hills where they divided and
scattered, the larger portion moving westward and uniting with the Ara-
pahoes, a union which continued unbroken to the last. Intensely war-
like, of robust physique, scarcely less skillful than the Sioux, the two
tribes were in almost constant conflict with their enemies of other nations,
but more especially with the Utes, whom they hated with unquenchable
malevolence, and by whom the feeling was fully reciprocated.
Many of our readers of the olden time remember the sanguinary
engagement between General Harney and a war party of Sioux on the
plains in 1855, in which a great many braves, squaws and children were
slain; also the later battles in the Powder River region, in 1866-8,
wherein Colonel Fetterman and his entire command were massacred ; the
careers of the celebrated chief Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, who figured
prominently In later days. Schoolcraft tells us that Red Cloud "was
born at the Forks of the Platte In 1820; was made a chief for bravery
in battle, and rose to be head chief in 18 so. He is said to have been in
172 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
eighty-seven engagements, and frequently wounded." Red Cloud stood
six feet six in his moccasins, possessed wonderful sagacity, marvelous
eloquence in council, and wielded until he became too old for the field,
absolute power over his tribe.
The Comanches made their home in Texas, but frequently instituted
wild raids upon the plains, up to the mountains, and over into New
Mexico. Brave, expert horsemen, shrewd and skillful in battle, they
were perhaps the most formidable of all the tribes when in action.
The Utes, members of the Snake family, have held the parks and
valleys to be their exclusive property from time immemorial, and con-
tended for their rights successfully against all comers. Though attacked
periodically and in force by other nations, they w^ere never dislodged,
and never yielded an inch of their domain until compelled to part with
it under recent treaties. They confederated with the bloodthirsty
Apaches in forays against the Mexicans from the earliest settlement of
the neighboring territory, and were no less brave and cruel than their
exemplars of the Arizona Mountains.
The Kiowas, a branch of the Shoshones, ranged along the Platte
and Arkansas Rivers down to the Canadian, and not infrequently to the
Rio Grande. They took a prominent part by themselves and in con-
junction with the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, in the wars wdiich began
in 1864, and continued with brief intermissions down to the completion
of the Kansas Pacific Railway in 1870, which ran across their trails.
What became of these various bands of nomads, will appear in the course
of our history.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 173
CHAPTER XII.
The panic of 1857 — emigration to the west — discoveries of gold in the rocky
mountains from 1595 to 1860 green russell and the cherokees — prospect-
ING THE TRIBUTARIES OF THE PLATTE THE FOUNDING OF MONTANA, COLORADO
CITY, AURARIA, BOULDER AND DENVER STATE OF SOCIETY FIRST MOVEMENT FOR
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION FOUNDING OF THE "ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS."
We are now advanced in the orderly arrangement of events to the
second era, in which irregular trails were developed into broad and reg-
ular highways, the desert converted into blooming fields, the mountain
sides and gulches, known hitherto only to the Indian and the trapper,
forced to yield up their hidden treasure, and the wholesale reclamation
of a vast wilderness was entered upon.
The panic of 1857 swept over the country like a tornado, uprooting,
leveling and scattering the systems built upon State banks, reckless
credits and mistaken theories of government, as applied to the law of
trade. Our manufacturing industries just springing into vigorous life,
fell in the common ruin. Innumerable depositories of public and private
funds went down, taking with them the savings of the poor and the
modest fortunes of the middle class. The millions of notes which ill-
advised State laws permitted them to issue and distribute broadcast,
instantly became waste paper. For the time being the boasted nerve,
energy and power of the young Republic seemed paralyzed by the fearful
crash and crumbling. The national treasury, well nigh empty, was pow-
erless to check the force of the storm. Despair filled all hearts save
those of the few who chanced to be well fortified against such disasters.
There are always a few, who, though the heavens fall, rise sublimely
174 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
above the tumult, and calmly weather every tempest. But the bent and
broken sat upon the wrecks of their homes and business, looking with
moistened eyes upon the brief horizon of their prospects, appalled by
the devastation all around them. Happily, however, such periods are of
short duration. The crisis past, the worst that could happen made
known, the spirit of American manhood reasserted itself and began anew.
The work of rebuilding the prostrate fabrics had scarcely more than com-
menced, Avhen there came from beyond the frontier glowing reports of
another California at the base of the Rocky Mountains ; that the streams
and valleys and the granite hills were rich in gold, awaiting the open
sesame of rightly applied effort to pour their glittering contents into the
hands of the seekers, and fill them with marvelous abundance. The
seductive tales gathered volume as they flew. In the more conservative
East they made little impression, in other words they were not credited,
but in the West, then less powerful than now, and wdiere the shock of
the panic had fallen even more heavily because its people were less pre-
pared for it, the revelation w^as accepted, and the march began. Early
in 1858 the vanguard came, followed by interminable processions in
1859 ^"^ '^o. Shortly afterward the rumblings of an "irrepressible
conflict " began to be heard from the national conventions in Charleston
and Chicago, when thousands on the point of emigrating, paused to
listen, and while listening, the war clouds broke over Sumter.
In such a period the Territory of Colorado w^as born. Let us follow
the more important incidents which led to that memorable event.
Though an oft told tale of the early fathers, succeeding generations may
find some interest in the causes which produced such wondrous results.
While the testimony is brief, and perhaps not fully authenticated, it
is nevertheless recorded among the annals of New Mexico that Don
Juan de Onate who explored a large part of the Southern mountains and
subsequently ranged the valleys of the Arkansas and Platte, far to the
eastward, while examining the San Luis Valley, discovered gold mines
at a point somewhere between the Culebra and Trinchera. This was
about 1595. He went there in search of mines, and with his fol-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 175
lowers, had already located many deposits of the precious metals at various
places on their journey northward, extending from Socorro on the south
to the Picurias and Sandias to the north, including the Placiers, the
Cerrillos and other sections, and so having acquired some knowledge of
the formations which contained them, and the fact being clearly stated,
we accept the reported discovery in the San Luis as being the first made
within the limits of our State.
The next trace is found in the narrative of James Pursley to Lieu-
tenant Pike, and embraced in that officer's account of the first American
exploration to the sources of the Platte and Arkansas Rivers in 1806.
The author is informed by William N. Byers, who traversed this country
in 1852, on the authority of "Pike" Vasquez a trader, that the hunters
and trappers occasionally brought small quantities of gold from the
mountains to the trading post at the mouth of Clear Creek, at intervals
between 1832 and 1836, but the relator, strange to say, neither inquired
where they obtained it, nor manifested any special interest in the matter.
Says Mr. Byers in addition, "There were rumors of gold having been
found on the Sweetwater and in other localities as early as 1852, but
they created no excitement and were given very little attention," for the
reason, it may be assumed, that no great deposits had been unearthed.
In a sketch of Park County, written some years ago by R. S. Allen,
it is stated that " Old Parson Bill Williams," in one of his trapping ex-
cursions in the South Park after returnino^ from California, duo; out a
few samples.
Again, we are told that another trapper named Rufus B. Sage, made
public the fact that while encamped upon the present site of Golden City
in the winter of 1843-4, he struck out into the mountains toward the
head of Vasquez Fork, and there found mineral which he believed to
contain gold. Why so many of these professional tramps failed to
achieve glory and riches when they had an opportunity to do so, is
answered by the general statement, that they were searching for game,
directing all their enterprises with an eye single to the capture of mer-
chandise, while Gregory and Russell gave their undivided attention to
176 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the higher subject, leaving the fur-bearing quadrupeds to pursue their
way, unvexed by rifles and knives.
In the summer of 1888 the author made the acquaintance of Colonel
William H. Paine, a noted civil engineer — attached in regular succession
to the Headquarters Staff of every general commanding the Army of
the Potomac from McDowell to Grant, and who is said to have super-
vised the construction of that marvel of modern engineering, the Brook-
lyn bridge, from the plans of the illustrious Roebling — who stated that
while en route to California in 1853, a man named Captain Norton, at
the head of quite a strong party overtook him and his associates on the
North Platte near Laramie, saying he had been prospecting the Pike's
Peak region, and had found some gold, which he exhibited. But the
quantity was not large, only a few pennyweights, still sufficient to attest
his veracity. Norton made no distinct location of the find, but embraced
the country named, in general terms, as Pike's Peak.
Judge Wilbur F. Stone in his historical sketch of Pueblo County,
alludes briefly to a report that the children of William Bent, while return-
ing from Fort Bridger to Bent's Fort in 1848, found some nuggets of
ofold on Crow Creek.
A trapper named John Orlbert, years ago related that in 1851 while
trapping near the old town site of Hamilton in the South Park, he and
his party built the log cabins which excited so much inquiry concerning
their origin in the minds of the hunters who took possession of that part
of the country in 1859-60. Orlbert, more honest than some of his clans-
men, laid no claim to having found anything more valuable than beaver
skins.
We pass now from the vacuity of apocryphal statement to the
dawn of historical narration which may be trusted, where the remainder
of our investigations will be more profitably conducted. By following
Mr. B. F. Rockafellow's admirable sketch of Fremont County, we dis-
cover the actual origin of the forces which led to the attraction of our
own pioneers and their occupation of one of the richest mineral regions
on the globe, as related by a venerable resident of Canon City named
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 177
Philander Simmons, who was a member of the party which visited that
part of the Arkansas Valley now celebrated as the fruit garden of the
Rocky Mountain region, with Bent's traders in 1842, and also of Green
Russell's expedition which came in 1858.
In the spring of 1849, about the initial period of the great emigra-
tion to California, a small band of Cherokee Indians went to the Pacific
Coast by the Arkansas route, over the old trail by the Squirrel Creek
divide, and the head of Cherry Creek. They had lived in Georgia and
were familiar with the always fascinating pursuit of mining — when it
pays. Bringing their shovels, picks and pans, they halted from time to
time and prospected the streams, in many of which they found gold, but
not in sufficient quantity to divert them from the main purpose of the
trip. They passed down the Platte, and thence across the country by
the emigrant roads to California, but failing to locate themselves satis-
factorily, and by this time firmly convinced that equally good mines
existed in the Rocky Mountains, they returned home, and in 1858 organ-
ized an expedition to prospect them extensively and thoroughly. Inform-
ation of this design was communicated to some of their friends in Geor-
gia with a request to join them. In this manner news of their intention
reached Green Russell, who, eager for the enterprise, wrote the projectors
asking permission to go with them at the head of a party of Americans.
Assent was readily obtained and Russell's company, equipped with the
requisite appliances for gold mining and washing, overtook the Cherokees
forty miles west of the Pawnee Forks. Meanwhile, Mr. Simmons was
engaged in lead mining in Southwest Missouri, and having had some
experience on the plains and in the mountains, and being also cognizant
of the proposed expedition, sought and obtained permission to join it.
Thus organized, the company reached Bent's Fort, whence they pro-
ceeded to the Fountaine-qui-bouille, and from there to the Squirrel Creek
pineries, where the Cherokees had found gold on their previous journe)'.
Having inspected this region without satisfactory results they came down
to Cherry Creek where it was expected they would find extensive placers,
but were again disappointed. Says Simmons, — "Having no faith in the
178 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
mines, I went on a hunt and on my return found them discouraged, and
in a few days we started for the Platte River where we arrived in two
days' travel. Cherry Creek we crossed a little below where Blake street
is now located, camping that night in a large grove of cottonwoods.
Hunting being good, the Indians killed several deer where the town
(Denver) is now built, and some of the Indians remarked that 'there' — ,.
pointing to the present town site, — was a splendid location for a ciiy, and
that there would probably be a town built there in the course of a hun-
dred years." It was pretty well started in less than six months from the
date of this prophecy.
At a point thirty miles north of the Platte they prospected again,
prolonging their examinations to the Cache la Poudre, but without suc-
cess. Here some of Russell's party became disheartened at the repeated
failures, and soon afterward returned to Georgia. But the greater
number remained, searched the streams and dry channels through the
season, "keeping up the excitement by reporting great discoveries and
big strikes which in reality were never made."*
Here we have, in condensed form, what appears to be a well authen-
ticated statement of the origin of practical, systematic gold hunting in
this part of our country, and while it differs but little in the main from
the many other accounts published, there is a material difference in the
details.
It is also a matter of record, that in April, 1858, a party of traders
under a leader named Cantrill while returning to the Missouri River
from a trip to Utah, discovered gold near the base of the mountains on
Ralston Creek.
While these events were occurring, reports more or less highly
colored reached the border towns of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri, and as
anticipated, caused much excitement. From the date of the appearance
of Russell and the Cherokees upon the scene, though the slopes were
*Russell returned to Georgia in the fall, meeting en route hither a large party from Plattsmouth, among
them D. C. Oakes, A. li. Barker and Joseph Harper. lie came out again in the spring of 1859, with 170
followers.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 179
covered with snow, there was no cessation of prospecting. Confident,
strong and hardy, these people never doubted the ultimate issue, not-
withstanding their disappointments. It was as clear to them as the
morning sun that the yellow metal contained in the streams had its source
in some great deposit or series of veins in the higher altitudes. Hun-
dreds of immigrants were arriving from all quarters, the greater part
encamping on Cherry Creek. Some of the more enterprising overran
the neighborhood, turning up the sands and gravels; others drifted into
the mountains above Boulder, where promising indications were found.
But the snow prevented intelligent examination, so they met with only
meager results until later in the spring.
By this time the principal rendezvous became a fixed abiding place
and base of supplies. It passed from a camp to a town with surprising
rapidity, In spite of the rather unpromising outlook. While there are
several claims to precedence in the building of habitations, it is pretty
well established that the first dwelling erected on Cherry Creek was the
work of an old trapper named John Smith in the fall of 1857, and used as
a trading post. The second may be credited to a member of Russell's
|mrty who built early in 1858. The universal instinct for social and civil
order found its earliest expression however, in the organization of a town
at a mining camp on the Platte about six miles above Cherry Creek,
which the founders called "Montana," and this was the first ever built in
this region of country. In this, Jason Younker and others of the orig-
inal Lawrence party, with certain of the Georgians, took an active part.
About twenty log cabins were erected, but the fledgling survived only a
single winter. It was abandoned in the spring of 1859, when the leaders
came down to the original seat and started the town of Auraria, on the
west side.
Since this history was begun, the author received a communication
from a man named Philip Schweikert, a resident of Columbus, Ohio,
stating that Montana was the first settlement located here, he being
one of the founders. Schweikert was a barber, and indirectly apjieals
for the historical distinction of having been the "only original" t'mso-
180 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
rial artist in the Pike's Peak region. We take pleasure in elevating
this important fact to the scroll of fame. He concludes by saying he
sold his house and lot for three dollars and went to Mexico.
The tract upon which the Georgia company did the greater part
of their mining was subsequently taken up as a ranch by Jim Beck-
wourth, the mulatto mountaineer, ex-chief of the Crows, etc., and is
now held conjointly by the A. B. Daniels estate, Mrs. Mary H. Mech-
lin, Rufus Clark, George Tritch and William N. Byers.
Simultaneously with the events recorded above, a small army of
prospectors from Lawrence, Kansas, following the Arkansas River
from Dodge City, arrived in the valley of the Fountaine-qui-bouille
and there commenced operations. Referring to this particular migra-
tion, Mr. A. Z. Sheldon, the historian of El Paso county, relates a
number of interesting incidents, whereby it appears that a man named
Georore Earle, who had been in California, returned to Lawrence and
related his experiences in the mining regions of the Pacific slope.
Between the alluring tales of late discoveries in the Sierra Nevadas and
the Rocky Mountains, the prevailing hard times and the universal
desire to strike out somewhere, with the idea that fortunes might be
made without serious effort, the people of every struggling community
in the West were eager for an opportunity, or even a reasonable
excuse to emigrate. In the course of frequent allusions to the subject,
Earle expressed the opinion that gold could be washed from any of the
water courses heading in the western mountains, even from the banks
of the Kaw River. Being put to the test, he took a pan, gathered some
dirt, reduced it by the usual process, and lo ! several small "colors"
appeared. This was deemed proof conclusive, and the feeling of unrest
deepened. Reports of the discoveries made by the Cherokees began
to arrive. Therefore, in the spring of 1858 an exploring party was
formed under the leadership of one John Turney. They reached the
spot on which the beautiful town of Colorado Springs now stands in
aesthetic pride, in July following. By persistent digging and panning
they found evidence sufficient to justify a permanent settlement and
HISTORY OF COLORADO 181
more extended investigations of the neighboring hillsides, hence the
location of a town site which was named "Colorado City." Though
not very large, and never very prominent until about the year i8SS, it
attained the exalted dignity of being for a single season the capital
of the Territory.
Meanwhile digging, "rocking" and sluicing continued, but only
moderate prospects were found. In the autumn some of the inhab-
itants returned to Lawrence for supplies and reinforcements, and while
there, improved the occasion by extolling the beauty of the country, the
richness of the mines, the fertility of the soil, and the vast mineral
wealth everywhere distributed. Their purpose was quickly accom-
plished. In 1859 multitudes flocked to the scene, among them several
who became historic characters, for example, Richard E, Whitsitt, W.
P. McClure, Lewis N. Tappan, M. S. Beach, S. W. Waggoner, and
others.
Recurring to the original encampment and the first series of gold
hunters who pushed their examinations in the hills above Boulder,
we find the names of Judge Townsley of Iowa City; B. F. Langley,
of California, A. Vennage and J. Ely, of Iowa; H. Bolton, A. Becker,
D. McCown and J. W. Wainwright, of St. Louis, with forty or fifty
others. Amos Bixby, the historian of Boulder County, relates that
gold was discovered in the district of Gold Run on the i6thof January,
1859, by a party composed of Charles Clauser, J. S. Bull, William
Huey, W. W. Jones, James Aikins and David Wooley. Still the
clutch of winter was upon the ground, the streams frozen, and the
face of nature wrapped in snow. Energetic and persevering as these
men undoubtedly were, they could do little beyond satisfying them-
selves that here was a region in which their best efforts might be
profitably expended in a more favorable season.
After Montana, the town of Auraria was founded, and after
Auraria, St. Charles, the latter on the east bank of Cherry Creek.
A. H. Barker is said to have erected the first cabin in Auraria, after
those of Smith and the Georgians, and John J. Riethmann claims to
182 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
have been the original builder in East Denver. The chroniclers of the
period, however, affirm that General William Larimer was clearly
entitled to the honor of having built the first house on the east side,
and that his dwelling was established on the bank of the creek between
Blake and Wazee streets before any other person had ventured so far
as to take up a residence in the new town. In November, 185S,
Richard E. Whitsitt, General Larimer and others organized the Den-
ver Town Company. The name of St. Charles was displaced by that
of Denver, in compliment to the then executive head of Kansas Ter-
ritory, in its results one of the proudest monuments ever erected to
any man on the American continent. Yet thouorh still livincr he has
honored it with but a single visit, and that many years ago.
Auraria had become strong and confident by the steady increment
of population. The town company of one hundred members surveyed
the site and took in about twelve hundred acres, whereby it is apparent
these stalwart fathers proposed not only to do something handsome for
themselves, but provide generously for their posterity, In less than
thirty years the entire space has been covered with buildings, and the
town extended over an area much greater to the southward. The
founders have lived to find that their anticipations were none too
large, though at the time they were simply tremendous.
The first house erected after the survey was owned by Ross
Hutchins, who located on Ferry Street. It was built of cottonwood
logs with a dirt roof, which, like many others, kept out the sunshine
and let in the rain for days after the storm was over. During the fall
and winter of 1858 about one hundred and twenty-five houses were
built. In due course several grocery and provision stores were estab-
lished, the first by Blake & Williams. Then came John Kinna and
John A. Nye with a stock of hardware, stoves, etc., than which nothing
was more needed. Uncle Dick Wootton of blessed memory ^brought
his family and a large stock of miscellaneous supplies. Thus the infant
colony grew and flourished, notwithstanding the rather discouraging
prospect for a great mining region.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 183
Denver advanced more slowly. It was chiefly a city of lents and
magnificent expectations. The first child born in the latter city was a
son to the Indian wife of William McGaa, alias "Jack Jones,'' one of
the old frontiersmen who came long anterior to the great procession.
According to his own story, related when drunk — for he was seldom
sober — McGaa was educated for the priesthood in the city of Dublin,
but ran away to New York, and in the course of time made his way
out to the plains, where he joined the Arapahoes and married into
the tribe. Though of good family and undoubtedly well educated, he
grew to be a notorious liar and vagabond, without a redeeming trait
save his unquenchable good nature. His squaw was a rather comely
woman, of amiable disposition and engaging manners, for an Indian,
and thoroughly devoted to her husband. McGaa died some years
afterward in the county jail, of excessive Intemperance.
On the 28th of March, 1859, an election for county officers, jus-
tices of the peace and minor places was held. But as the supreme
authority was supposed to lie in the Territory of Kansas, and the seat
of power nearly six hundred miles from Cherry Creek, it was decided
to install the officers elect, set the machinery of civil order in motion
at once without waiting for consent or orders, and it was done. Many
lawless characters had drifted in with the tide, men who carried from
one to three revolvers in their belts, bowie knives in their bootlegs,
and rejoiced in being denominated " holy terrors." It was not long
after the opening of a number of saloons where a villainous compound
labeled " pure Kentucky whisky," was dispensed at fifty cents a glass,
that these desperadoes conceived the idea that they ought to and
would run the town. But they were mistaken. Up to this time, there
being neither social nor legal restraints, every man was a law unto
himself, settling his quarrels if he had any, in his own way, usually by
force of arms. In such a state of society absolute liberty quickly
degenerated into unrestrained license. Duels, murders and robberies
were of frequent occurrence, hence there was work for the newly
184 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
elected guardians of the law, which soon put their courage to the cru-
cial test. But of this hereafter.
Messrs. Cooper & Wyatt having established a sawmill in the
Cherry Creek pineries, on the 21st of April two memorable events
occurred — the first load of lumber arrived in town, and simultaneously
William N. Byers and Thomas Gibson, with a wagon train bearing a
printing press and material for a newspaper. The city of log cabins
was soon supplanted by one of neat frame dwellings and business
houses. On the 23d the initial number of the Rocky Mountain
" News " appeared, and thus a new and powerful factor in shaping
the destiny of the great West was introduced. On the same day, per-
haps a few hours earlier, was issued the first and only number of the
Cherry Creek "Pioneer" by John L. Merrick. The " News " at once
became the champion of the country, collating and publishing correct
intelligence from the mines already discovered, and conveying compre-
hensive views of the entire situation. Its editorials evinced the spirit
of men who realized that they had undertaken a great mission, and
were prepared to execute it. Mr. Byers made personal visits to the
various camps and collected trustworthy information concerning them,
besides taking notes of the general surroundings. With a well con-
ducted journal to support them, the better elements were immediately
elevated to higher planes of thought and action. There were no mails,
no newspapers from the homes they had left, and many of them had
had no communication with the States since their emigration.
On the nth of April a convention was held to consider the expe-
diency of organizing a State government. General William Larimer
presided, and Henry McCoy was chosen Secretary. In proclaiming
their reasons for this extraordinary movement, it was declared, among
other things, that the country was " rich in gold, timber, rock and ci^ys-
tal water; a country with a soil capable of producing food for its inhab-
itants, if not equal to the richest Western agricultural States, at least
superior" (mark the arrogance) "to those of New England." After duly
considerinnf the scheme a convention was called to meet on the first
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 185
Monday in June, 1859, ^'^^ ^^^^ purpose of framing a constitution, and
to provide for the election of State ofificers, members of the Legislature,
Senators and representatives in Congress. Note the dashing boldness
of these resolute pioneers. Here was a convention representing less
than two thousand people, less than half of them fixed residents, before
any great mines had been opened, or even discovered ; before the capa-
bilities of the soil were known ; before an acre of land had been
planted, and whilst every soul was in doubt whether or not there ever
would be a basis for support of even a small population, taking meas-
ures without precedent, without authority of law, and without the
slightest prospect of ratification, for the creation of an independent
commonwealth. Yet with marvelous effrontery the well dressed " ten-
derfoot" of to-day condescends to tolerate the remnant that is left if
he can only be permitted to designate them as "barnacles," and thus in
effect put them under his feet. They were going to elect Senators,
and as many Representatives as they felt themselves entitled to, and
have them admitted to the National councils forthwith. We shall dis-
cover as we proceed, the fate of this movement, and in the succeeding
chapter the light of a wonderful revelation which dispelled all doubts,
lifted the mists of uncertainty, and laid broad and deep the foundations
of an enduring prosperity.
In October, 1858, the town of Boulder was founded. During the
same year a party of four from St. Louis laid out the town of Foun-
tain City near the present site of Pueblo. The buildings were all of
adobe, the walls of the old trading post being utilized as far as they
would go in their construction.
186 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XHI.
185S-9 — PROGRESS OF MINING ON THE PLAINS — STEADY INCREMENT OF POPULATION
— GEORGE A. Jackson's discovery on Chicago creek — explorations of the
VALLEY — JOHN H. GREGORY'S GREAT FIND ON THE NORTH FORK OF VASQUEZ
RIVER — D. K. wall's EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE VISIT OF HORACE GREELEY
FRUITS OF THE FIRST SEASON'S WORK — DISCOVERY OF RUSSELL's GULCH — A. D.
GAMBELL's NARRATIVE GOLD IN BOULDER AND THE SOUTH PARK STAMP MILLS
NEWSPAPERS MINING LAWS.
We have been tracing hitherto the movements of the advanced
skirmish Hne, so to speak, in its unsatisfactory but not altogether inef-
fectual attempts to capture the golden citadel. After more than a
year of unremitting effort, it had become a self-evident proposition
that it was not upon the plains, but near the head waters of the
streams that traverse them. From about the beginning of 1858 to
May, 1859, the plains were thoroughly examined, but without much
encouragement. The promise of gold mining, though shadowy, was
even more stable than the prospect for agriculture. The soil was
uninviting except in narrow strips along the water courses, the cli-
mate dry and apparently unfavorable to the growth of crops. Other
industries were wholly out of the question. Such was the aspect of
affairs in the primitive stage, and all agreed that there was little
enough to inspire the hope of a permanent lodgment. Besides the
rather lean diggings at Arapahoe, just east of Golden, a few choice
spots on Dry Creek, the Deadwood placers near Boulder, and a claim
or two on Ralston, there was nothing-. Meanwhile emicrrants, attracted
by the florid reports sent abroad, came in endless processions by the
Platte, Smoky Hill and Arkansas routes. The prevailing thought
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 187
resolved itself Into the universal inquiry, " Where are your gold
mines?" They came for gold, and nothing else. When the facts
appeared, hundreds became disheartened, and, without pausing to
investigate for themselves, accepted the unflattering accounts given
them and turned back upon the long, dreary trail, empty-handed but
wiser. Every man of course had preconceived a different situation,
expecting, in short, to find gold mines ready made into which he could
step and at once begin to shovel out nuggets and dust. The illusion
dispelled by the necessity which confronted him at the very threshold
of applying himself to hard work, with perhaps one chance in a thou-
sand of success, appalled him, and he fled. Only the brave deserved
or inherited the magnificent legacy which awaited them. The later
arrivals who came in palace cars, after the war, when the planting was
done and the harvest ripened, can have but a faint conception of the
nerve requisite to meet the conditions of the period under consider-
ation. We are accustomed to idealize and load with panegyric the
chiefs who led our armies to victory and brought new glory to the
nation ; great men of letters ; builders of grand institutions ; our dis-
tinguished scholars and statesmen, and to forget the equally deserving
heroes who founded the States of the West upon fields reclaimed from
savagery and rendered fruitful by their labor. It seems to me that
some small tribute of respect, if not homage, is due to the men and
women who made possible the splendid triumphs now before us. By
the hardships they endured and the sacrifices they made ; by the toil
and suffering which embittered their lives, and by the unfaltering brav-
ery with which they met and overcame the obstacles in their way, they
are entitled to this recognition, and this small measure of appreciation.
They are passing away as the snows melt from the mountain sides. Of
the once powerful contingent only a remnant remains.
The original discoverer of gold bearing placers in the Rocky
Mountains, as also the first to open the same, was George A. Jackson,
a native of Glasgow, Missouri. As this constitutes the initial chapter
of the series now to be related, it will be interesting to accompany this
188 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
pioneer from the starting point to the finish. The incidents were taken
from his diary, supplemented by a personal interview in which further
material points were elicited by the author, but never before given to
the public in this form.
Mr. Jackson left the mines of California in 1857, returning to his
home in Missouri. In the spring of 1858 he came to the " Pike's Peak
region," rather more with the view of hunting and trapping than
searching for gold. Arriving at Cherry Creek, he encamped at John
Smith's trading post on the west side, the original base of Auraria,
Having brought some Indian goods he sold them, and then proceeded
to the Cache la Poudre, where, with Antoine Janiss, an old trap-
per, he prospected for gold and founded a trading post, which was
called " Laporte." In August some prospecting w^as done about the St.
Vrain and Vasquez Forks. Later, in company with Tom Golden and
Jim Sanders, winter quarters were established at the base of the mount-
ains, upon the site now occupied by the town of Golden, so designated
for his companion of that name, and not, as many have conjectured,
from its being the entrepot of the gold regions. From this point
excursions were made to Lupton's Fork (now Bear Creek), and to the
Boulder. During the winter, with a comrade who bore the aboriginal
sobriquet of " Black Hawk,'' he passed into the mountains via Mount
Vernon Caiion, toward the head of Vasquez Fork. Arrived in what is
now known as Bergen Park, they discovered a large herd of elk which
they pursued to the brink of a precipice (Jackson's Hill), at the foot
of which they saw Vasquez River, frozen solid. The next day Jack-
son started out alone, resolved to explore the valley. Descending to
the level of the stream, he followed its course to Grass Valley. As he
advanced he observed a dense bluish mist arising from one of the
canons, and suspecting it to be from an encampment of Ute Indians, he
climbed the mountain side (Soda Hill), floundering through snow waist
deep to the brink overlooking Soda Creek, and peering cautiously
over to ascertain the origin of the mysterious smoke, found it to be a
thick vapor mounting from the hot spring located there, which in later
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 189
years made Idaho a famous summer resort. Hundreds of mountain
sheep had gathered about the place, not only to drink the waters of the
cold spring adjoining, but to graze upon the herbage from which the
warm vapors had melted the snow.
Prospecting in this vicinity affording little satisfaction, he advanced
to the stream afterward named Chicago Creek, and shortly above its
confluence with Vasquez Fork, built a rousing fire of logs and brush,
which thawed the ground and enabled him to dig with a hunting knife,
the only implement he possessed for the purpose. As a rude substitute
for a gold pan, he used a large tin cup. After digging and washing for
some time he found himself the fortunate owner of nine dollars in gold
dust. Convinced that he had made an important discovery, the spot
was so marked as to be readily identified, and he returned to Golden,
after an absence of two weeks. This discovery occurred on the 7th of
January, 1859.
Having secured the requisite supplies and tools for mining, but
awaiting the subsidence of the heavy snow from the gulches, on the 17th
of April, accompanied by twenty-two men, chiefly from Chicago — whence
the name of the stream — with teams and wagons, the men cutting the
roadway in advance, they returned to the spot which Jackson had
located in January. In many places it was found impossible to proceed
with the wagons, hence they were unloaded, taken to pieces, and packed
by the men over the obstruction, when they were put together again,
reloaded, and the journey resumed, until it became necessary to repeat
the laborious process. After a long, and what in these days would be
regarded as a fearful experience, the Dorado of their hopes was reached,
about the first of May, and the work of mining begun in earnest.
Havino; no lumber, the waofon boxes were converted into sluices.
The proceeds of the first seven days' work netted them nineteen
hundred dollars. Jackson brought the gold to Auraria, then quite a
brisk settlement, and turned it over to Henry Allen, at the same time
suggesting that it be used in buying up the provisions of disgusted
immigrants and prospectors who were about to return to the States.
190 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
By paying- for the goods in dust it soon became known that a great
"find" had been made, hence Jackson's movements were closely
watched. He was followed constantly, and importuned to reveal his
secret, which he finally consented to do.
Prior to entering upon the second trip to the Chicago diggings, he
met John Gregory to whom he related his discovery on Vasquez Fork,
in the early part of the year. Gregory agreed to join him there, and
as Jackson relates the incident, it was while attempting to reach the
point designated, that Gregory, mistaking the direction, followed the
north branch instead of the south, and was thus led, providentially per-
haps, to his great discovery and his fortune, as hereinafter set forth.
Jackson sold his interest in the Chicago Creek claims and returned
to Golden, when he discovered that his old comrades had staked out a
town site, which afterward became a formidable rival to Denver. In the
spring of i860 he went to California Gulch, and in 1861 returned to
Missouri, and joined the Confederate army, taking command of the
Arizona Sharpshooters. After the war he revisited Colorado, and is
now a resident of Ouray County.
On the 13th of May, William N. Byers, Richard Sopris, William M.
Slaughter and Henry Allen, with six or eight others, left Denver for
Jackson's Bar, arriving there on the 14th. On the 15th, having secured
a claim, they set up a "long tom" which they had taken with them, and
began sluicing. Only indifferent results were obtained. On the i6th,
Byers and Allen explored the valley of Vasquez Fork to the junction
of its two sources which rise in the mountains above the present town
of Empire and Georgetown respectively. The entire face of Douglas
Mountain was examined, and evidences of lodes observed. In all
probability these were the first white men to penetrate this region. On
the 17th, en route to the point of departure, they found Andrew Sagen-
dorf and O. E. Lehow staking off claims on Spanish Bar, and each
took a claim adjoining theirs. On the i8th Mr. Byers and Ransford
Smith, an old California miner, prospected the mountain sides north of
the creek between Idaho and Fall River, discovering a number of
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 191
quartz veins, some of which have since been quite extensively opened.
Returning to Jackson's Bar they received^ by way of Denver, the news
of Gregory's great discovery, on North Vasquez, which created a gen-
eral stampede to that locality. The crowd made a wild, indiscriminate
rush over the hills, through Virginia Canon, each indifferent to his
neighbors or comrades in his desperate endeavors to reach the coveted
spot in advance of all competitors. Mounting the summit of the divide
some took the wrong direction, following RusselPs Gulch down to its
junction with Clear Creek; others took the direct route down by Mis-
souri Flats, Spring and Gregory Gulches, to the place indicated. Then
ensued a frenzied search for claims, the examination of Gregory's find,
which amazed all beholders, and the formation of a camp.
John H. Gregory left Georgia in 1858, and went to Fort Laramie
as the driver of a government team, with the intention of joining the
excited column then moving to Frazier River from California. He
wintered at the post, doing duty as a common laborer. In the winter
of 1858-9, he learned that gold had been found along the South Platte,
and immediately changing his plans, came over on a general prospect-
ing tour, and in the next few months had examined all the more favor-
able localities between the Cache la Poudre and Pike's Peak, tracing
some of the streams to their sources. " At length," we follow Hollis-
ter's description, — "he arrived at the Vasquez Fork of the South Platte
which he followed up alone, his plan being to prospect thoroughly
wherever the creek forked, and to follow the branch which gave most
promise. In this way he toiled up the canon, perhaps the first white
man who had ever invaded its solitude, to the main forks of the creek,
fourteen miles above Golden City; then up the north branch to the
gulch that bears his name, seven miles, beyond which he could obtain
nothing of consequence. Here he left the creek and took up the
gulch. Where the little ravine, immediately southeast of the Gregory
Lode, comes in, he again prospected, and finding it the richer of the
two, he turned aside into it; but as he approached its head the 'color'
grew less, and finally entirely failed. Gregory now felt certain that he
192 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
had found the gold. But before he could satisfy himself a heavy snow-
storm occurred, during which he nearly perished. Upon its clearing up,
he was obliged to return to the valley for provisions, and leave his dis-
covery unperfected."
A considerable encampment existed among the foothills about
Golden City. Here Gregory fell in with David K. Wall, an experi-
enced Californian (now and for nearly thirty years one of the strong
business men of Denver, whose career as associated with the later
development of the country will be outlined hereafter), who, after
listening to his story, supplied him with provisions for a second expe-
dition. We digress for a moment to state that Mr. Wall was undoubt-
edly the originator of garden farming in this region by the systematic
plan of irrigation, his knowledge having been acquired on the Pacific
slope. In the spring of 1859 ^^ planted two acres in the bottomland,
near the present depot of the Colorado Central Railway at Golden,
realizing about $2,000 from the sale of its products. A year later he
seeded seven or eight acres, which netted him $1,000 per acre.
Amply fortified for his journey, Gregory persuaded Wilkes De-
frees, of South Bend, Indiana, and William Ziegler, of Missouri, to
accompany him. They arrived at Gregory Gulch on the 6th of May,
1859. Ice and snow covered the ground, but they began digging.
Again we quote :* " He was confident he had found the identical spot
where the gold lay, and climbing the hill about where the wash would
naturally come from, he scraped away the grass and leaves, and filled
his gold pan with dirt. Upon panning it down his wildest anticipations
were more than realized. There was four dollars' worth of gold in it !
He dropped the pan, and immediately summoned the gods of the
Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, Persians, and even, it is said, of the He-
brews and Christians, to witness his astounding triumph. That night
he did not close his eyes. Defrees dropped asleep about three o'clock
in the morning and left him talking; Defrees awoke at daybreak, and
Ilollister's Mines of Colorado.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 193
he was still talking. They washed out forty pans of dirt and obtained
forty dollars. Then they returned to the valley to get their friends."
Assuming the glowing account to be wholly true, which it is not,
is it surprising that he should have been transported to the seventh
heaven of joy? From the drudgery of common labor, from a life of
unremitting toil, hardship and poverty, he saw before him visions of a
princely fortune, an endless supply of shining metal. Stronger and
wiser heads than his have been turned by such sudden awakenings, and
it is difficult to conceive a temperament so stolid as to be utterly indif-
ferent to the marvelous revelation here portrayed. Many accounts of
Gregory's discovery have been published, but the following, related by
Mr, Wilkes Defrees to Mr. Byers, and by him to the author, is
undoubtedly the correct one.
Having been supplied by Mr. Wall with provisions and suitable
implements for systematic mining, and guided by experience, having
reached the spot to be prospected, he requested Defrees to dig first
at a point in the main gulch near the southeast corner of the present
Briggs mill building. As the dirt was thrown out Gregory examined it
critically, and then panned it, obtaining fair but unsatisfactory pros-
pects. The character of the gold indicated to him that it must have orig-
inated further up the slope. So they abandoned the gulch and passed
up the little ravine which intersects it from the southeast, and after
examining the ground he said to Defrees, " Dig there, for it looks well."
Fragments of "blossom rock," or surface quartz, dislodged from the
lode by elemental erosion, were scattered over the ground. After dig-
ging for a time, Gregory observed that the dirt looked extremely prom-
ising. Defrees filled the pan, when Gregory took it down to the little
ravine and panned it, obtaining nearly or quite half an ounce of gold.
The effect was simply astounding, and if he did not invoke the gods of
the Hebrews, Egyptians and Persians, as related by Hollister, there
was ample reason for such indulgence in the vision that dazzled his
eyes. After further panning and more intelligent examination, the
course and extent of the vein was defined, when each staked off claims
194 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
upon it, Gregory taking two by right of discovery. Though the find
occurred on the loth, it was not until the i6th that sluices were pre-
pared and orderly work begun.
On the 19th of May, Mr. Byers having arrived from the Jackson
diggings, called on Gregory, introduced himself, and elicited some
important facts. The hero of the time sat upon a log with his head-
between his hands deeply ruminating, breaking forth occasionally with
incoherent mutterings relating to the facts about him. He had
scooped out a place for a lodging in the hillside and built a rude brush
house over it. He seemed completely dazed by his good fortune, his
mind apparently unsettled, and occupied with dreams of the future ;
talked of his wife and children, and the changed destiny awaiting them.
"My wife will be a lady, and my children will be educated," he said.
Paying but little attention to his visitor at first, he softened and became
communicative as the conversation proceeded, and gave Mr. Byers a
very full account of his progress. Reaching out into an adjacent thicket,
where lay his frying pan reversed, he raised it and thereby uncovered
three large masses of solid gold which had been gathered from the
sluices and rudely " retorted " or fused in his camp fire, the result of
three days' work, the whole amounting to about one thousand dollars.
He had ceased operations, under the strong apprehension that he
would be robbed if it became known that he had a large amount of
treasure. In his great anxiety he slept but little. On the date men-
tioned there were only seventeen men in the gulch. The following
day there were at least one hundred and fifty, mainly from Jackson's
Bar, and thenceforward, as the reports spread, there was a continued
inpouring of people.
On the 24th of June Mr. Byers, accompanied by Wilkes Defrees,
left Denver with a fast team and a light wagon for Omaha, taking with
them the gold extracted by Gregory and others, amounting to some-
thing over four thousand dollars. Fearing robbery, they traveled day
and night, securing fresh horses en route, and reached their destination
in twelve days. Byers exhibited the gold in his office in that city.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 195
which created much excitement. Crowds gathered to see it, but many
openly declared it to be a fraud; there was no gold in the Pike's Peak
reo-ion; hundreds had returned pronouncing it a swindle, and this was
spurious, manufactured expressly to excite emigration, etc. A public
meeting was held which Byers addressed, relating all the circumstances of
the various discoveries and declaring his unbounded confidence in the
great richness of the country, which produced its effect, and brought
large accessions from that section.
It is the common belief of those who are familiar with the general
details of this memorable event, that Gregory found his gold in the
gulch below the main thoroughfare between Black Hawk and Central,
but the strike really occurred on the hillside at Claim Number Five of
the Gregory lode, four hundred feet above the road. The discoverer's
narrative, as related to Horace Greeley, who came out in June, was sub-
stantially as follows: "Encouraged by this success, we all staked out
claims, and found the 'lead' (lode) consisting of burnt quartz, resem-
bling the Georgia mines in which I had previously worked. Snow and
ice prevented the regular working of the 'lead' till May i6th. From then
until the 23d I worked it three days with two hands and cleaned up
$972. Soon afterward I sold my two claims for $21,000, the parties
buying to pay me, after deducting their expenses, all they made from
the claims to the amount of $500 per week until the whole was paid."
Later he engaged to prospect for others at the rate of two hundred
dollars per diem — probably the most munificent salary drawn by any
person in the United States in that period, and one which permitted
the employe, if so inclined, to indulge in some slight extravagances.
While thus engaged he struck another lode, the extension of the
original, on the southeasterly side of the Gulch which took and retained
for some years, the title of "Gregory Second." Again we have recourse
to Greeley''s account: "Some forty or fifty sluices commenced are not
yet in operation, but the owners inform us that their prospecting shows
from ten cents to five dollars to the pan. As the lodes are all found in
the hills, many of the miners are constructing trenches to carry water
19G HISTORY OF COLORADO.
to them instead of building their sluices in the ravine and carrying the
dirt thither in wagons or sacks." It seems that the veteran journalist
observed even the minor details of the work going on about him, and,
accustomed to keen analysis of every subject worthy of attention, saw
here an inexcusable waste of labor from the lack of systematic arrange-
ment, in other words, a waste of power. Again, he discovered that
"many persons who have come here, without provisions or money, are
compelled to work as common laborers, at from one dollar to three
dollars per day and board." It is an historical fact to be noted in pass-
ing, that washes were lower in the two years following these remark-
able discoveries than they have been at any subsequent period. Great
numbers of strong men labored in the mines in that epoch, ten hours
a day for four and six dollars per week and subsistence of the com-
monest variety, — chiefly bread, beans and bacon, and coarse black cof-
fee without milk or sugar — and grew fat upon it. The number of
mines being insufficient for the multitude, the many worked for the
more fortunate few. Says Greeley, "Others not finding gold the third
day, or disliking the work necessary to obtaining it, leave the mines in
disgust, declaring there is no gold here in paying quantities." These
were simply pretexts employed by the weak and vacillating to excuse
their rather cowardly retreat. No maledictions were so loud and bitter
as those of the "Go Backs." This was no paradise for any man who
paled before difficulties. We shall see in due course how some of them
proposed to institute the communistic plan of "subtraction, division
and silence," and the result.
No observe- comprehended the situation more thoroughly than
Horace Greeley. He discovered at a glance that "gold mining is a
business which eminently requires of its votaries, capital, experience,
energy and endurance, and in which the higher qualities do not always
command success. There are said to be 5,000 people already in this
ravine, and hundreds pouring into it daily. Tens of thousands more
have been passed by us on our rapid journey to this place, or heard ot
as on their way hither by other routes. For all these nearly every
HISTORY OF COLORADO. VJ7
pound of provisions and supplies of every kind must be hauled by teams
from the Missouri River some seven hundred miles distant, over roads
which are mere trails, crossing countless unbridged water courses,
always steep banked and often miry, and at times so swollen by rains
as to be utterly impassable by wagons. Part of the distance is a desert
yielding grass, wood and water only at intervals of several miles,
and then very scantily. To attempt to cross this desert on foot is
madness — suicide — murder." Nevertheless, thousands did cross it
in that manner, the writer among them ; indeed, most of the immigrants
came on foot, for they could neither afford the expense, nor endure the
luxury (?) of a seat in the coaches of the time. One more quotation
from the venerable Horace, and we are done: "A few months hence,
probably by the middle of October — this whole Alpine region will be
snowed under and frozen up so as to put a stop to the working of
sluices if not to mining altogether. There, then, for a period of at
least six months, will be neither employment, food nor shelter within
five hundred miles for the thousands pressing hither under the delusion
that gold may be picked up like pebbles on the seashore, and that when
they arrive here, even though without provisions or money, their for-
tunes are made. Great disappointment, great suffering are inevitable."
But strange to relate, none of the calamities occurred which were
thus rather gloomily foreshadowed. There was little or no actual desti-
tution. Those who had, generously shared with those who had not, and
all having become inured to exposure and privation, they managed
to subsist on what was offered. Hundreds without claims or employ-
ment, frightened by the reports of "old mountaineers" like Jack Jones
and Jim Beckwourth, who rarely told the truth if it could be evaded,
who predicted that the snows would fill up the gulches even with the
mountain tops, fled to Cherry Creek and wintered there, or went back
to the States. Others decided to remain and take the chances. Cabins
were built and mining operations prosecuted through the winter, which
proved exceedingly mild and pleasant, with but little snow. Most of
them keenly enjoyed, as we have heard them relate, the new and novel
198 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
experience. Such as were full handed, deriving revenue from their
claims, were content ; the less fortunate worked for them with the hope,
constantly alight, of striking a rich lode or placer in the spring. Nearly
all were young men, full of virile strength and sustained by lively imag-
inings of cherished dreams fulfilled ; there were college graduates, sons
of wealthy families reared in luxury, the educated and the ignorant, the
rich and poverty stricken uniting in one common brotherhood reduced
to a common level, each firmly resolved never to go back home till he
had " made his pile."
Froni Hollister v/e extract the following epitome of fruits gathered
the first season : " It was not unusual for four or five men to wash out
from the Gregory, Bates, Bobtail, Mammoth, Hunter and many other
lodes then newly discovered, one hundred and fifty dollars a day for
weeks together. Single pans of dirt could be taken up carefully from
any of a dozen lodes, that would yield five dollars. Ziegler, Spain &
Co. ran a sluice three weeks on the Gregory and cleaned up 3,000
pennyweights; Sopris, Henderson & Co. took out $607 in four days ;
Shears & Co., two days, $853, all taken from within three feet of the
surface. Brown & Co., one and a half days, $260; John H. Gregory
three days, $972 ; Casto, Kendall & Co., one day, $225 ; S. G. Jones &
Co., two days, $450; Bates & Co., one and a half days, $135; Coleman,
King & Co., one-half day, $75 ; Defrees & Co., twelve days with one
sluice, $2,080. In one day Leper, Gridley & Co. obtained $1,009 from
three sluices. One sluice washed out in one day $510. Foote & Sim-
mons realized $300 in three days. The Illinois Company obtained
$175 in their first day's sluicing from the Brown lode in Russell district.
Walden & Co. took in one day from a lode in the same district, $125.
John Pogue took $500 from a lode in the same district in three days.
Three men took from the Kansas lode in two days, $500. Kehler,
Patton & Fletcher averaged with five hands on the Bates lode, $100 a
day for two months. Day & Crane on the same lode with seven or
eight hands, sluiced for ten weeks, their smallest weekly run being $180,
their largest $357. J. C. Ross & Co. with four hands, averaged $100
HISTORY OF COLORADO 109
a day on the Fisk lode for four months. F. M. Cobb & Co. on the
Bobtail lode with four men, averaged from $75 to $100 a day for two
months. Heffner, McLain & Cooper worked four men at a sluice on
the Clay County lode, averaging $100 a day for ten weeks. Shoog &
Co. averaged $100 a day for three months sluicing with five men on the
Maryland lode."
Such is the well authenticated record of a portion only of the
initial season, and it is transferred to these pages that it may be carried
through the life of this history for use when the original shall have dis-
appeared. It is the beginning of all things fixed and permanent which
exists here to-day. It established and fortified the institutions since
created. It gave a substantial basis for the population then on the
ground, and for hundreds of thousands who followed. It was one of the
marked events of the century, the opening chapter of our chronicles.
Here in Gregory Gulch was the cradle of our State, and from it were
evolved its leading statesmen.
And here it may be well to inscribe the fact that the original dis-
coveries have maintained their importance as producers, through every
stage of progress. The principal mines of 1859 are the largest pro-
ducers of 1888, and being true fissure veins, will endure so lonof as it
shall be possible to operate them.
About the first of June, Green Russell's new company from Geor-
gia, consisting of one hundred and seventy members, appeared in
Gregory, but passed on to the district above Central City which bears
his name, and there made a discovery which, for the time being, and in
the immediate results attained, was scarcely less important than Greg-
ory's. The first week's work with five or six men brought seventy-six
ounces of gold. The entire gulch was immediately divided into claims,
and soon about nine hundred men were employed digging and sluicing,
"producing," says Hollister, "an average weekly of thirty-five thousand
dollars." At the same time some two hundred men were tearing up the
tributary gulches — Nevada, Illinois and Missouri Flats, each yielding
about nine thousand dollars per week. But the supply of water being
L^OO HISTORY OF COLORADO.
limited, and the area mined, becommg daily more extended, measures
for increasing the volume became imperative, and as this could only be
accomplished by artificial means, a company was formed to construct a
canal twelve miles in length, and thereby convey the waters of Fall
River from its source, across the intervening hills to the mining fields.
It was completed in the spring of i860, at a cost of $100,000.
We digress from the main subject to say that the subsequent
possession of the "Consolidated Ditch" under chartered rights has
been, from the date of the desertion of the worked-out gulches and flats,
an unmixed cur3e to the whole region. It passed into the hands of a
syndicate of New York shareholders that would neither sell except at
an exorbitant price which the people, though in great need, prop-
erly refused to pay, nor make such improvements as would afford
them the benefit of the water it claimed. There have been times
when the possession of this valuable franchise by the people of Gilpin
County would have been of incalculable advantage, but they were
unable to secure it without unwarranted sacrifices. Still it has not
profited its owners for more than twenty years. It stands to-day an
incumbrance that can neither be removed nor made to serve any useful
purpose.
Notwithstanding the numerous discoveries, only a small minority
of the people could secure a permanent foothold. To make the dis-
tribution fair and equitable, each lode was subdivided into locations of
one hundred feet in length along the vein, by fifty feet in width, for
surface dumpage and general accumulation, the discoverer being, how-
ever, entitled to two hundred feet. But even this liberal provision
failed to meet the demand. Hence it behooved the surplus to seek
new fields. This brought about several discoveries in Boulder County,
in Twelve Mile diggings, at the head of North Clear Creek, on Left
Hand and various tributaries of the Boulder. Quartz veins of exceed-
ing richness were struck at Gold Hill, and about the first of October
a rude quartz mill was started there. All the Boulder diggings paid
from three to five dollars per day.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 201
Early in May a man named A. D. Gambell with a party of friends
arrived in Denver, and, following an old trail, reached the town site
of Golden. From thence they bore to the right, passing along the
foothills to Boulder Canon, where they halted and began hunting game
to supply themselves with a provision of meat for the next stage,
which would take them far up into the mountains. Those who were
encamped in the vicinity endeavored to dissuade Gambell from his pur-
pose, saying they had been there, and "it was a humbug" — no chance
of finding anything but snow and ice. Nevertheless, they went with
all their possessions mounted on pack mules. Proceeding up the
beautiful cailon of the Boulder, when near the summit they encoun-
tered a fearful snowstorm. Having no forage, the mules w^ere sent
back to the valley. The men took their burdens upon their shoul-
ders and plunged into the snow-covered ravines. Trudging along
under great difficulties, they came at length to a tributary of the
Boulder, where a gulch intersected and formed a flat. Here they
camped and built a house, or hut, of brush to protect them from the
storms — a frail habitation, to be sure, but better than no shelter. The
next day they advanced up the gulch. The ground was frozen, yet
they found indications of an excellent placer. There was no water ; to
dig was extremely difficult. Gambell finally hit upon the device of
building a huge fire of logs upon which the dirt taken out could be
thawed, and panned in water obtained from melted snow. The pros-
pect secured convinced him that he had made a strike of consider-
able importance. The place was named " Gambell's Gulch," and
became ultimately a noted producer. The "find" was made on the 5th
of June, 1859. From the original small excavation Gambell took out
eight dollars worth of gold. Convinced that nothing in the way of
legitimate endeavor could be undertaken until the frost and snow dis-
appeared, they descended to the valley for supplies. The next move
was to cut a wagon road up to the mine and whip-saw lumber for a
cabin and sluices.
Requiring certain articles which could only be obtained in Denver,
202 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and having very little money, Gambell perforated a piece of tin and
sifted through it a large quantity of the auriferous dirt from his claim,
obtaining by this rude process about ninety dollars in coarse gold.
Then, with a companion named Bolinger he came to Denver and
attended Horace Greeley's lecture delivered the same evening. Se-
lecting such supplies as were needed, and paying for them in gold,
of which they seemed to have an abundance, their movements
attracted general attention, and frequent inquiries were made as to
where they found it. Says Gambell in his quaint but until now unpub-
lished narrative: "We footed it to Golden, waded the stream, and
when on the opposite side, it being quite dark, we rolled ourselves up
in our blankets and slept the sleep of the just. On arising in the
morninof we saw about a dozen covered was^ons on the south side.
They had watched and followed us. Five men came over where we
were and told us to go to their camp and get breakfast, and then show
them where we got that gold, and if we could not they would hang us
to a tree. We went over with them. That day at five o'clock we
were back in Gambell Gulch.''
But it appears that this discoverer remained there only a short
time. He was of a roving disposition and had seen much of the world
in his time. Governor Steele came to the camp and induced him to
go on a further prospecting expedition, which led them to the presen.t
town of Nevada. Ben Burroughs had just discovered his famous
lode. Gambell stopped awhile and staked out a gulch claim just below
that of Burroughs ; built a cabin there — one of the first in the district.
A few days afterward Gambell and Sam Link organized a mining dis-
trict after the customary formula, which was brief and to the point, dis-
tinguishing it as " New Nevada.'' Gambell states that he recorded the
first town lot in the district. About the same time the somewhat
renowned " Pat Casey" began to open a claim he had taken on the
Burroughs lode. After a short time spent here the subject of this
sketch crossed over into the Valley of Clear Creek, visiting the soli-
tudes of its head waters and passing over into Middle Park.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 203
We present this sketch with the view of illustrating the character
of the strong men who blazed the early trails and discovered some of
our greatest mining sections. Hundreds more might be related, but it
is unnecessary.
By this time the entire scene of mining transactions had been
transferred to the mountains, spreading over a vast territory. Groups
crossed from Russell into Clear Creek, locating on Grass Valley, Soda
Creek, Illinois, Payne's and Spanish Bars, whence they scattered over
the Western ranges into the South Park, and to the Arkansas. Some
of the earliest were met and killed by the Ute Indians. In the fall
many important discoveries were made — under the shadows of Mount
Lincoln, at Buckskin Joe near the Mosquito Range, at Fairplay, and
Tarryall, Hamilton, and other points. The Phillips mine at Buck-
skin Joe was in its time the most prominent in the region. The dis-
trict was named for Joseph Higginbottom, one of a party of six pros-
pectors. This occurred in September 1859. But it was not until
i860 that this section acquired its renown, when a town was laid out
by Jacob B. Stansell, Miles Dodge and J. W. Hibbard, who gave it
the name of Laurette. A rude stamp mill was brought in and began
reducing the surface quartz of the Phillips, which was very rich and
easily treated. At one time there were twenty-four stamps and a
dozen arastras at work upon the ores of this and neighboring mines.
The district prospered amazingly, saloons multiplied, and Buckskin
developed into one of the very brisk and breezy settlements of the
country.
Let us now return to the original base and note the progress
made there in the months between May and December.
Excepting Russell's, few of the gulches yielded remarkable returns,
though several of them paid handsomely. In the lower section it
became apparent that sluicing must be supplemented by crushing
mills in order to secure the gold retained in the quartz. All that
had been gained by the primitive appliances was a collection of the
loose metal sprinkled through the more complete decompositions.
204 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
As a cheap but exasperatingly slow and tedious substitute for stamps,
Mexican arastras were adopted, and several constructed during the
autumn. Says Cushman, "One Mr. Red exhibited the quality of his
genius in a trip hammer, pivoted on a stump, the hammer head pound-
ing quartz in a wooden trough. For obvious reasons this was dubbed
the ' Woodpecker Mill/ The next was a home made six stamper,
built by Charles Giles of Galloway County, Ohio, run by water power
and situated near the mouth of Chase Gulch. The stamp stems —
shod with iron — the cam-shaft, cams and mortar were of wood. This
rude concern netted the owner $6,000 that summer and fall. The
first imported mill was the little three stamper of T. T. Prosser,
which was set up in Prosser Gulch. About the middle of September.
Colman & Le Fevre brought in a six stamp mill." Quite a number
of others followed, and when all were in operation, the monotonous
pounding of stamps was heard all along the line from Central to
Black Hawk, lending an air of progressive industry which has not been
presented in any other district, because only a few have employed such
methods of reduction. The pioneer newspaper of the Gregory dig-
gings was established August 8, 1859, by Thomas Gibson, and entitled
" The Rocky Mountain Gold Reporter and Mountain City Herald."
Though of modest dimensions, scarcely larger than an ordinary double
letter sheet, it contained all the news of tlie time in well condensed
articles and items. It ran until the snows began to fall, and was then
suspended until the following spring, when its publication was resumed
in Denver, and the papers distributed to its mountain readers by
express. In time it developed into the " Herald," and finally to the
" Denver Commonwealth," owned by Thomas Gibson and edited by
Lewis Ledyard Weld and O. J. Hollister.
All the available space in the gulches and upon the mountain
sides was covered with tents and wagons, with occasionally a log cabin.
William N. Byers occupied a not very commodious canvas backed
residence in Central City, and was the first to suggest its name, this
particular locality affording at least sufficient level ground for a town
HISTORY OF COLORADO. liOo
site, and being- equi-distant from Black Hawk and Nevada. It ap-
pears that Mr. Byers had come over from the Jackson Dig-gings on
Clear Creek, and when arrived at the point where the "Register" block
now stands, he looked down the gulch toward Gregory, and espied
John L. Dailey and Thomas Gibson cutting timber out of the road.
They soon met and established their camp at the junction of what
became when the town was founded, Main and Lawrence streets.
It was not long before some kind of an organization became an
absolute necessity. In such a heterogeneous mass of human beings great
disorder prevailed. Loud complaints arose from the majority against
the order of things which permitted those who came in May and June
to absorb all the profitable ground. They demanded a division.
Therefore, to quiet the clamor a mass meeting was held at Gregory
Point, over which Wilkes Defrees presided, and which, through Green
Russell's party acting in conjunction with the early comers, was
controlled wholly in that interest. A committee of twelve was
appointed to draft a code of laws, rules and regulations. The bound-
aries of the district were defined, the size of lode claims fixed, the
method of locating determined, and a court of arbitration created for
the settlement of disputes between claimants. At a subsequent meet-
ing held on the 9th of July, another resolution was adopted, providing
for the election of a Sheriff, a President, Secretary, and Recorder of
Claims, the ballot to be taken forthwith. It resulted in the election of
Richard Sopris, President, C. A. Roberts, Recorder, and Charles Peck,
Sheriff. Before adjournment a committee was appointed to codify the
laws of the district which up to that time had been based upon a series
of resolutions.
206 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XIV.
1859 — ATTEMPTS TO INSTITUTE SOCIAL AND CIVIL ORDER — MOVEMENT FOR STATE
ORGANIZATION CONSTITUTION REJECTED ELECTION OF B. D. WILLIAMS TO CON-
GRESS THE TERRITORY OF JEFFERSON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT LEAVEN-
WORTH AND pike's peak EXPRESS AMOS STECK AND THE U. S. MAILS DUEL
BETWEEN R. E. WHITSITT AND PARK m'CLURE INCEPTION OF WHEAT CULTURE
PROF. O. J. GOLDRICK FOUNDING OF SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES APPEAL TO
CONGRESS FOR A STABLE GOVERNMENT PEOPLE'S COURTS HOW THE MINERS
PUNISHED CRIMINALS LAWLESSNESS IN DENVER.
The year 1859 ^^^^> i^ many respects, the most interesting period
of our history. Heterogeneous masses, collected by groups from the
different States, made up of all grades — collegians, embryonic states-
men, lawyers, aspiring politicians, slaveholders, abolitionists, merchants,
clerks, mechanics, farmers, teamsters, gamblers, laborers, desperadoes,
criminals of every sort, fugitives from justice, crowding, pushing and
rudely jostling each other in a wild, indiscriminate scramble for spoils,
assembled upon the extreme frontier over which there was no jurisdic-
tion of law, local, state or federal. In this strange conglomeration
there was but one thought, the hope of gain through the single pursuit
of gold mining or its natural correlatives. To reduce these incongruous
and disorderly elements to a state of homogeneity, was the impelling
purpose of the frequent political movements which began in March,
and sprang up at intervals throughout the year. The absence of the
controlling force in every form of modern civilization — the gentler sex
—intensified and widened the confusion. There were neither wives,
daughters, sisters nor homes. It is not possible for any community
composed wholly of males to perfect or maintain a well directed sys-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 207
tern of civil order. It may be accomplished within the narrow and
exclusive limits of a secret society, perhaps, wherein every member is
subject to arbitrary rules, but never in the ordinary walks of life. It
is the gentler element alone which modifies, regulates, restrains the
evil passions, purifies, elevates and ennobles mankind, and fits him for
supreme direction. Nowhere in the history of our race upon this con-
tinent is this fact more fully exemplified than in the formative stages
of its great mining camps. There was no orderly administration of
justice, no well adjusted scheme of government here until the wives
and daughters of the pioneers appeared and began to exercise their
influence in the establishment of churches, schools and missions, and
incidentally upon the organization of society. For more than twelve
months there were but few women or children to soften and put the
brutal instincts of misguided man to shame.
When these resistless civilizers were supplied, lo ! a wondrous
transformation began. Theretofore the miscellaneous horde dwelt in
tents, or the rudest of log habitations, doing their own cooking, wash-
ing, and other household duties, in which there was a lamentable
omission of cleanliness. All carried deadly weapons, to protect them-
selves from the lawless. Thefts, robberies, murders and a general
assortment of outrages occurred, but there was no remedy save that of
the always to be deprecated form of justice meted out by irresponsible
vigilance committees, and this was sparingly exercised. For the want
of comfortable households the unoccupied majority spent their time in
the saloons making beasts of themselves, or gambling away their pos-
sessions. Lacking beds, they rolled themselves in blankets and lay
down upon the ground under the shining stars. Lacking families, they
congregated in unholy places and fell under the temptations there pre-
sented. I have seen hundreds of men about the gambling tables, pre-
sided over by men whose only object was to cheat and deceive, betting
away, first their money, next their fire arms, next their clothing, and
finally their teams, wagons and contents, everything of value they pos-
sessed, upon the turn of a card in the hands of dexterous three card
208 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
monte dealers. Such men, stripped and helpless, became fit subjects
for any desperate adventure that might be suggested to them. Some
of the tables were conducted by women, richly appareled, handsome of
face and form, but possessed of devils that were more devilish and
ruinous than the coarser habits of their male employers and coadjutors.
When the victim fell at such resorts he usually dropped to the lowest
depths of degradation.
On the 6th of November, 1858, when there were less than two
hundred men in this region, an effort was made to create a civil gov-
ernment. A meeting was convened and an election held for delegate
to Congress, and for a representative in the Kansas Legislature. The
first was solemnly charged to proceed to Washington forthwith, and
employ his best endeavors toward securing the organization of a sepa-
rate territorial institution. To Hiram J. Graham was delegated the
higher mission, while A. J. Smith took the lesser distinction. Both
tailed.
In a previous chapter reference was made to a second attempt
which was inaugurated in April, 1859, whereby it was proposed to
soar much higher and create a sovereign commonwealth. The consti-
tutional convention then provided for met in Blake & Williams' Hall,
on Blake street, and after discussing the proposition at some length,
adjourned to the first of August, at which time one hundred and sixty-
seven delegates, representing thirty-seven precincts, assembled to delib-
erate further upon the momentous issues involved. The permanent
organization effected, a brisk debate ensued as to whether they would
have a State or only a Territorial form of procedure. It was decided
ultimately in favor of the larger enterprise. A constitution was framed
in accordance with this decision, submitted to the people, and over-
whelmingly defeated. But the projectors, though silenced in regard to
this proposition, were by no means disheartened. Another convention
sprang up immediately afterward and gave birth to a second appeal for
an assemblage of deputations on the first Monday in October, and the
institution of a provisional government. The delegates assembled and
t^;7^^^ ^^i^^^-&^
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 209
organized. After the committee of the whole had risen and reported
that it was expedient to form such a government, H. P. A. Smith
entered an emphatic protest on the ground —
First. That they had all the laws that existed in Eastern Kan-
sas, adopted under the constitution of the United States.
Secojid. That they had no legal right to form such a government.
Third. That it was not called for by the people, nor was it neces-
sary or proper.
Fourth. It would abrogate all the legal rights, and throw the
country upon the results of a gigantic vigilance committee.
Fifth. That they had elected a delegate to Congress with
instructions to ask for a territorial form of government, and by the
action taken the convention clearly repudiated his election, and, at the
same time, the laws of the United States.
No attention whatever was paid to this remonstrance. The com-
mittee simply took up the business where it left off when interrupted,
and proceeded to complete its programme. The address to the people
took the position that the laws of Kansas could not be extended over
this region, because the Indian title remained unextinguished, citing in
proof the nineteenth section of the organic act of that Territory, wherein
it was expressly stated that all such territory to which the Indian title had
not been extinguished should be excepted out of the boundaries and form
no part of the Territory of Kansas, until said tribe should signify their
assent to the President of the United States to be included within the
said Territory. And it was correct. Again it was declared that there
were no courts of criminal jurisdiction or of appeal, and that the so-called
organization of Arapahoe County, if contested, could not be sustained.
The upshot of the matter was the production of a constitution for a
provisional government of the Territory of Jefferson, which was adopted,
and an election ordered for the 24th of October.
At this election R. W. Steele of Florence, Nebraska, was chosen to
be Governor ; Lucien W. Bliss, Secretary of State ; Charles R. Bissell,
Auditor; G. W. Cook, Treasurer; Samuel McLean, Attorney-General;
14
tilO HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and Oscar B. Totten, Clerk of the Supreme Court, composed of A. J.
Allison, Chief-Justice, with John M. Odell and E. Fitzgerald as Asso-
ciates. John L. Merrick became Marshal, and H. H. McAfee Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction.
Intelligence of this unauthorized proceeding was quickly conveyed
to the seat of government in Kansas, where it excited very general con-
sternation, resulting in an order from the Executive to the people to
hold an election for delegate to Congress, and officers for Arapahoe
County, under the laws of that Territory. This order being disapproved,
it was wholly ignored
The original Constitutional Convention held in August, made pro-
vision for the election of a delegate to Congress on the first Monday in
October, in the event of the rejection of their fundamental charter, which
as we have seen, went to the wall. Therefore, the next move in order
was the holding of such election. Eight candidates entered the field
—Beverley D.Williams, R. W. Steele, C. A. Roberts, J. H. St. Matthew,
George M. Willing, Samuel Adams and Hiram J. Graham. There being
no laws, no penalty for fraudulent registration or voting, no systematic
arrangement of election machinery, frauds were committed that were not
only gigantic, but in some cases highly amusing. This was especially
true of the more populous mining districts where we have heard related
by some of the perpetrators, many ludicrous incidents of the manner in
which this first campaign was conducted. As the result, Williams
received a majority of the votes cast, went to Congress, and there
remained until the ultimate passage of the organic act creating the
Territory of Colorado, in the spring of 1861.
But we are not yet done with the prevailing mania for the free and
frequent enjoyment of the elective franchise. After the erection of the
Provisional Government came the Provisional Legislature, composed of
a Council, or Senate, of eight members, and a House of Representatives
of twenty-one. The first consisted of N. G. Wyatt, Henry Allen, Eli
Carter, Mark A. Moore, James M. Wood, James Emmerson, W. D.
Arnett and D. Shafer; and the House, of the following: John C. Moore,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 211
W. P. McClure, William M. Slaughter, M. D. Hickman, David K. Wall,
Miles Patton, J. S. Stone, J. N. Hallock, J. S. Allen, A. J. Edwards,
A. McFadden, Edwin James, T. S. Golden, J. A. Gray, Z. Jackson,
S. B. Kellogg, William Davidson, C. C. Post, Asa Smith and C. P. Hall.
On the 7th of November, the two bodies convened in joint
session, when Governor Steele delivered his message, a well-considered
document that compares favorably with any since issued. It reviewed
the entire situation from the point of actual developments, giving suc-
cinctly the needs and reasons for the creation of the Provisional structure,
and explaining why the attempts made by Kansas to exercise her jurisdic-
tion had proven abortive. Having been denied protection to life and
property, the people, who were sovereign, had taken the only measures
left them to secure it.
In announcing the consummation of the scheme, the " News," after
taking down from its headlines the Territory of Kansas and substituting
that of Jefferson, gave utterance to the rather, at this date, interesting
prophecy: "We hope and expect to see it stand until we can boast of
a million of people, and look upon a city of a hundred thousand souls
having all the comforts and luxuries of the most favored. Then we will
hear the whistle of the locomotive and the rattle of trains arriving and
departing on their way to and from the Atlantic and Pacific. "^^ "' -
The future of Jefferson Territory — soon to be a Sovereign State — is
glorious with promise. No country in the world in so short a time has
developed so many resources of wealth." Let the reader bear in mind
the significant fact that this prediction was published nearly thirty years
ago, in a city of less than two thousand fixed residents, and in a Territory
which cast less than three thousand legal votes ; when flour was worth
$14 to $20 per 100 lbs.; corn meal $10, bacon, sugar and coffee 25 cents
per pound, salt 12, beans i2|-, butter 75, lard 50, crackers 20, bread 15,
lumber $60 per 1,000, nails $20 per keg, and common window glass $10
to $12 per box. Happily, the writer of the editorial quoted has lived to
witness and enjoy the verification of his dream in everything, and In even
212 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
greater measure than his imagination then portrayed, save the milhon of
inhabitants, but the balance are coming.
The Legislature proceeded with its duties, paying respectful attention
to the suggestions of the inaugural. Some valuable laws were enacted,
among them a charter incorporating the city of Denver ; providing for
the organization of nine counties, and the election of officers therein ;
levying a poll tax of one dollar per capita to provide a revenue, and for
the appointment of a committee to prepare and report to an adjourned
session on the 23d of January, i860, full civil and criminal codes.
The levy of the per capita tax was strenuously opposed. By insti-
gation of the malcontents who omitted no effort to bring the provisional
establishment into disrepute, the miners were informed that the legisla-
ture before adjourning had enacted a law taxing them six to seven
dollars each, to be collected at once, and in addition placed a tax of a
certain percentage upon all mining claims at their estimated value. The
rumor spread like wildfire, and incited a general revolt. A sharp remon-
strance signed by six or seven hundred miners was sent in, repudiating
in effect the government and all its acts. Its reception here created a
lively sensation among a cloud of political aspirants, coming as it did
on the eve of the municipal election under the recently granted charter.
Many candidates withdrew precipitately from the field under the appre-
hension that the entire fabric which had been erected with so much care
had fallen into ruin. But through the efforts of the more patriotic, quiet
was soon restored by the dissemination of the facts.
The election for municipal officers was held at the appointed time,
and John C. Moore elevated to the office of Mayor, who succeeded in
instituting a strong and effective administration. Being a Southerner by
birth, when the rebellion broke out he went home and became an officer
in the Confederate service.
We will now consider the measures taken for the introduction of
other essential elements of progress. For twelve months the people had
been without mails or any means of communication with the States, save
the passage to and fro of emigrant and merchandise trains. Up to
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 213
June 7th the mails destined for this city had been carried by the Salt
Lake stages, and dropped at Fort Laramie. Later they were forwarded
from the old California crossing of the Platte. The charge on each
letter was fifty cents, and on newspapers ten cents, and when received
were from one to three months old.
On Saturday, June 7th, two coaches of the "Leavenworth & Pike's
Peak Express" arrived, bringing nine through passengers, — among them
Horace Greeley, editor of the New York "Tribune," Albert D. Richard-
son, staff correspondent of the Boston "Journal," and Henry Villard of the
Cincinnati "Commercial." These gentlemen came on the long and try-
ing journey expressly to investigate the reputed discoveries of gold in
the Rocky Mountains. Fortunately for the result, John Gregory had
made his valuable discovery just a month previous, hence when these
visitors arrived and proceeded to the gulch as they did immediately, there
was something substantial to exhibit. Their conclusions are set forth in
the preceding chapter. The coaches in which they came left Leaven-
worth on the 28th of March, and were followed April ist by a long train
of wagons bearing materials for the equipment of the road, — camp sup-
plies and so forth for the requisite stations, established at intervals of
twenty-five miles. The route pursued was from Leavenworth to Riley,
thence along the divide between the Republican and Solomon Forks of
the Kansas, crossing the heads of its tributaries for some distance, and
then bearing northward to the Republican, the south side of which it
followed to a point near its source ; thence to the heads of the Beaver,
Bijou and Kiowa Creeks through the pineries to Cherry Creek, and so
on to Denver. The entire length of the line was six hundred and eighty-
seven miles, which was, however, subsequently reduced seventy or eighth-
miles by " cut offs." Wood, water and grazing lands were abundant
along the greater part of the route. The company had purchased fifty-
two Concord coaches, one of which left either end of the line dail)-, and
when established made the trip in ten to twelve days. John S. Jones
was the resident agent at Leavenworth, and Dr. J. M. Fox in Denver,
while Nelson Sargent, still a resident of this city, and at a later period,
214 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
proprietor of the old Tremont House on the West side — managed the
western division. This estabHshed a convenient medium of rapid (?)
transit, and a safer tlioroughfare for immigrants who thereupon aban-
doned the Indian-infested and inhospitable Smoky Hill. The line was
laid out by B. D. Williams, our first duly accredited delegate to Con-
gress, as noted elsewhere. Mr. Williams is at this time a practicing
attorney in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. He has made but one
visit to Denver since the early days in which he assumed a prominent
part, and that in 1887.
The Pike's Peak Express had been operated only a short time when
it w^as purchased by John S, Jones, and Messrs. Russell, Majors and
Waddell, — contractors for the transportation of government supplies to
the troops in Utah, — and a new company organized, which also absorbed
the Hockaday passenger and express line plying between the INIissouri
River and Salt Lake City. Under the charter granted by the Kansas
legislature it took the title of the "Central Overland, California and
Pike's Peak Express Company," abbreviated to " C. O. C. & P. P.
Express." An office was opened in Denver on the site now occupied by
Henry C. Brown's building at the corner of Sixteenth and Holladay
streets, with Judge Amos Steck in charge, who politely delivered up
letters for twenty-five cents each. A more accommodating or efficient
agent could not have been named. Possessed of a remarkably retentive
memory for names, faces and events, it was the work of an instant for
him to answer any inquir)- that might be made. No matter how com-
plex, strange or unpronounceable the name of the applicant, if there
was or was not a letter for him, Steck knew it without examining the
boxes. If a man applied at any time thereafter, even after a lapse of a
year, Steck recognized him immediately, and called him by name. He
rarely made a mistake. His efficiency and his breezy w^elcomes became
the subject of current talk all over the land. To this day the pioneers
at their annual or periodical gatherings take infinite pride in relating
their experiences at the office of the C. O. C. & P. P. Express.
As discovered in after times when the company fell under financial
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 215
disaster, it started out extravagantly, with insufficient capital and with a
considerable debt. The expense of re-establishing the line was neces-
sarily heavy. It was not long before serious embarrassment began to be
felt. General Bela M. Hughes, its manager, struggled heroically against
the tide. He built the new line not only to Denver but to Salt Lake,
taking the shorter and better Platte route. Their capital exhausted,
resort was had to borrowing, and Ben Holladay became the lender.
Large sums were advanced from time to time to relieve the company
from its financial straits. As a natural result there was a morteacre cov-
es C5
ering its entire property. Whether justly or not, we do not care to
inquire, the mortgage was foreclosed, and the property passed under
Holladay's control. General Hughes managed it superbly for a yean
and then resigned.
In i860 the Butterfield Southern Overland Express Company,
which ran a line of coaches through Texas and Arizona to California, en-
deavored to capture the long coveted U. S. mails from the Pacific Steam-
ship Company by a demonstration of more rapid time. Its trial trip was
made in twenty-one days as against twenty-three days by water. But
the scheme did not succeed. Meanwhile, W. H. Russell, who was also a
sharp competitor for the contract, made preparations with the utmost
secrecy for a grand cotip d'etat designed to overwhelm his rivals by an
unprecedented sweep of enterprise. His project comprehended the
establishment of a Pony Express between St. Joseph, Missouri, and
Sacramento. When everything was in readiness, he published a card in
the New York "Herald," stating that on a certain date he would begin
carrying letters between the points named, guaranteeing their delivery in
nine days. For letters weighing two ounces or less, the charge was five
dollars, other mail matter being subject to special contract. Of course
this bold challenge created profound astonishment, but was received with
great rejoicing by merchants and bankers doing business in California.
Pony riders started simultaneously from each end of the route on
the morning of April 9th, i860, in the presence of a great multitude
attracted to the scene by this altogether novel event in the way of
21(3 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
overland dispatch. At St. Joseph the animal led out was a beautiful,
delicate limbed, but strong and fleet pony of jet black, groomed to the
highest state of perfection. At Sacramento a pure white steed of equal
value took a like position. So great was the interest in San Francisco
that a thousand or more citizens of that metropolis accompanied horse
and rider by steamer to Sacramento. At a given signal both riders
mounted and were off like the wind, each speeding to his appointed
station. Each rider covered from fifty to seventy-five miles, and at the
end another horse and rider stood ready to receive his burden. The
saddle bags were transferred without delay, passed to the next, and so
on to the end. The first trip was accomplished in eight days and
four hours.
As a result of this daring exploit, " Uncle Billy Russell " gathered
in the government contract for transporting the United States mails
to Salt Lake, and subsequently to Denver.
On the 4th of March, i860, a line of coaches was established
between Denver and Gregory by Kehler & Montgomery. About the
same time Hinckley & Co. put on a similar line. Both were swallowed
up by the parent line from the East, which thereafter maintained its
supremacy.
On the 19th of October, 1859, ^^ go back a few months with the
intention of picking up the scattered threads of events, there occurred
one of the melancholy incidents that give a sad coloring to many fron-
tier communities, the shadow of which in this case hung over the
participants for years afterward.
From some cause never published, and into which we have no
inclination to penetrate, a quarrel occurred between William P. Mc-
Clure and Richard E. Whitsitt, which could only be settled by a hos-
tile meeting. The challenge was sent by McClure's second, John
C. Moore, on the i8th, was promptly accepted by Whitsitt, Colt's
navy revolvers named as the weapons, a mile above the city on Cherry
Creek designated as the battleground, and the hour the following even-
ing— distance ten paces, Morton C. F^isher acting for the party chal-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 217
lenged. When the ground had been measured and the principals
placed In position, the Sheriff appeared and endeavored to stop the
proceeding, but without avail. The parties fired simultaneously at the
word of command. For a few moments each of the combatants
retained his position, but soon McClure was observed to recoil a step
or two, saying to his surgeon, who had approached, " I am hit." The
parties to the encounter, and the bystanders, about two hundred in
number, returned to town, when McClure's injuries were examined.
The ball, which had taken effect in the groin, was extracted, and thirty
days later the wound healed.
In the autumn of 1859 the town of Highlands, now North Denver,
was organized, but made slight progress until recent years.
The Provisional Legislature adjourned December 7th, and on the
8th an election was held for a representative in the Kansas Legislature
from Arapahoe County, when Richard Sopris was chosen.
In the latter part of the same year the town of Auraria, now
West Denver, began to assume a more substantial and metropolitan
appearance by the introduction of two-story buildings devoted to busi-
ness. To supply and cultivate the literary tastes of the people, Arthur
E, Pierce — now a resident of South Denver — opened a news stand
with a circulating library, on a rough pine table under the shade of a
Cottonwood tree. It was soon ascertained that he had punctured a
vein of appetite which developed by what it fed upon. In a short time
the profits of his trade enabled him to enlarge his stock and open a sec-
ond department in Graham's Pioneer, or "City Drug Store," situated
on the east side. Says the local chronicler of the period, in rounding
off the item, though we fail to perceive its relevancy, " From this small
beginning sprang the trade that is now (1866) so extensively carried on
by Messrs. Woolworth & Moffat on Larimer street, and George W.
Kassler & Co. on Blake street."
We find in a curious incident of the time the possible beginning of
wheat culture in Colorado, which brings to mind the antiquated maxim
that "great oaks from little acorns grow." In passing the cultivated
218 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
garden of W. H. Parkinson, a citizen observed in a sheltered corner
two vagrant stalks of wheat, well headed with plump and beautiful
grain, thoroughly ripened. Though an apparently insignificant circum-
stance, it attracted serious attention, owing to the universal interest in
the unsolved problem relating to the extent to which the cultivation of
cereals could be carried upon the uplands. It had been already dem-
onstrated that vegetables in profusion could be raised along the rich
loams of the bottoms bordering the streams, but here seemed to be at
least a partial solution of the main question. By years of experi-
menting it has been practically evolved that no soil in the world pro-
duces finer wheat or more abundantly than the uplands of our State,
when properly tilled and watered.
Still another event worthy of more than passing attention was the
arrival of " Professor" O. J. Goldrick, one of the historic characters of
every stage from that time until his death in 1 886, who marched into town
clad in irreproachable broadcloth, wearing the inhibited " boiled shirt,'
and crowned with a hat of lustrous silk, his long and rather shapely
hands protected from the burning sun by kid gloves, yet driving an ox
team with a regular orthodox bull-whacker's whip. Probably no entry
of that or any other year attracted so much attention, or elicited more
diverse comment. But the Professor was not born to blush unseen,
nor to live in a community, whatever its character, without making his
influence felt. He had a place to fill in the affairs of this new country,
and he was found to be equal to the responsibility, however grotesque
the manner of his introduction. A few days later he was engaged in
organizing a Sunday School embracing all sects and denominations,
under the pious direction of the Reverends George W. Fisher and
Jacob Adriance, and assisted by Lewis N. Tappan, D. C. Collier and
others, in a lowly cabin on the west side. There being a few women
and children, the next venture was the opening of a day school. To
fortify himself with proper methods from the fountain head of authority
in such matters, he began a correspondence with Professor John D.
Phillbrick of Boston, from v.hom he received the textbooks applied
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 219
for, together with an autograph letter from the eminent educator,
stating that he had taken occasion to allude to Goldrick's application
in general terms as a fresh and striking illustration of the advance of
popular education westward with the course of empire. "And now," he
continues, " imagine my arm extended with the speed of thought from
this cradle of the free school on the Atlantic shore, over the Allegha-
nies, over the ' Father of Waters,' to give you a cordial greeting in
your ' Union School ' on the frontier of civilization at the foot of the
Rocky Mountains." How little he comprehended in that distant day
that twenty-four years later he would be making a pilgrimage to the
magnificent tree of education that sprang from this primitive root,
attracted by the national reputation it had then acquired, urged thereto
by the commendations of the National Commissioner of Education,
and at the close of his examination be able to class it among the best in
the world. Goldrick was for many years city editor of the " News "
after it became a daily, and while yet a weekly publication, its traveling
correspondent. Toward the close of 1859 John L. Dailey purchased
Thomas Gibson's interest in the paper.
On the first of January, i860, ex-Governor W. S. Beall, of Wis-
consin, prepared a lengthy memorial to the President of the United
States, setting forth the exact condition of affairs on this frontier from
the beginning to that date, reviewing the various stages of progress, the
discoveries made, the extent of country developed, the institutions estab-
lished, the evident permanency of the population, and concluding by the
presentation of two distinct propositions. The first invoked the inter-
position of Congress for the early extinguishment of the Indian title,
for the survey and sale of the public lands and the establishment of an
assay office for the benefit of the miners ; that Congress enable the peo-
ple to form a State organization, but in the event of its refusal, that an
enabling act be passed providing that if on the first day of July, i860,
thirty thousand resident inhabitants should be found within the limits of
the mineral region, a Territorial government should be constituted ; or
220 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
if, on the first day of September, i860, one hundred and fifty thousand
were returned, then a State organization was to be granted.
We venture the assertion that Congress never before or since had
under consideration, if indeed it was ever presented, so remarkable a
proposition. But it must be remembered that all through this year of
rapid transitions, the idea of organization and the desperate need of
protection pervaded all classes here upon the plains, though it was less
manifest in the mining camps. Up among the hills they were not
w^edded to the political intrigues carried on in Denver, had no sympathy
with any of the movements instituted for State or Territorial centrali-
zation, because the necessity was less urgent. If one of their people
killed another in a square stand up fight, they simply took the victor to
the nearest saloon and lionized him by filling him with villainous
whisky. If a thief broke into a cabin or tent and stole anything of
value, they hung him, or soundly thrashed and then banished him from
the district. If a man murdered another in cold blood, they called a
meeting, gave him a fair trial, and when convicted he quickly joined the
silent majority at the end of a rope. Here is an example of their
method of dealing with unpardonable crimes. A man was convicted in
Mountain City of stealing a pair of blankets. He confessed his guilt,
so the proceedings in his case were brief. He w^as sentenced to receive
thirty-nine lashes upon his bare back, well laid on. The muscular
thrasher selected took infinite pleasure in laying them on. Then to
have one side of his head shaved and be ordered to leave the camp,
never to appear there again under penalty of being shot.
They didn't need any law in the mountains — they were a law unto
themselves, and we have yet to hear of a single instance wherein any
man was unfairly tried or punished, or, if guilty, acquitted by any of
these impromptu tribunals, probably because lawyers were prohibited
from practicing before them.
People's courts under the judicial system established by the moun-
taineers, were improvised assemblies or mass meetings of the people, con-
vened to adjudicate criminal causes, and were presided over by an officer,
HISTORY OF COLORADO 221
chosen by general election. The penalties inflicted according to the
grade of the crime committed, were hanging by rope to the nearest
tree, thrashing, and banishment. The miners' courts were convened
upon call where the commission of crimes or felonies rendered them
necessary, and were composed of the people of the district, a sort of
public jury who heard the evidence and disposed of it according to their
best judgment. They elected their president and secretary, sheriff, col-
lector and recorder, who were subject to the general meeting of miners.
They heard and determined all cases brought before them. There was
no appeal from their decisions, and their judgments were promptly
executed.
Nevertheless, there was much reason for the popular clamor for gov-
ernment and civil order in Denver. Here the people were subjected to
conditions less easily controlled. Degraded and dissolute men thronged
the streets, and the better class was in imminent danger of being over-
ridden by them. In January, i860, the citizens on both sides of the
creek were aroused to the absolute necessity of arming in self defence.
In Denver a party of men took forcible possession of a portion of the
town site and began to erect buildings thereon for their own benefit. As
usual, a public meeting was called and resolutions adopted providing for
the appointment of a committee to warn the jumpers to desist from
further interference with vested rights. The committee was met by a
strong battery of loaded rifles in the hands of resolute men. After a
parley they retreated. Intense excitement prevailed. That night, the
intruders having left their claims, a party went out and destroyed the
improvements they had made. This only added fresh fuel to the flame.
Suspecting Dick Whitsitt, secretary of the Town Company of the deed,
they " went gunning" for him. He was found, and would have been
killed but for the timely interference of friends. Good old Major Brad-
ford undertook to explain matters, but they denounced him as a liar and
fired three shots at him, neither of which took effect. Another meeting
was called. The belligerents, weary of further contention, sent in a prop-
osition which was accepted, and thus the rebellion terminated.
222 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
In Auraria a different state of disorder prevailed. The town was
infested by a gang of thieves who stole under cover of darkness every-
thing they could lay their hands upon. The annoyance becoming intol-
erable, the public tribunal was convened, testimony convicting certain
men of theft adduced, and the gang was ordered to leave the place within
five hours. W. H. Middaugh, one of the principal witnesses, was twice
fired upon, but escaped unhurt. A military company known as the
" Rangers," was called into service and patroled the streets that night.
The next day the thieves disappeared. We contend that the citizens of
both towns would have saved themselves much trouble by adopting the
miners' plan of thrashing and banishment.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 223
CHAPTER XV.
Canon city, golden, boulder, Hamilton, fairplay, and other towns in 1859 —
MR. LOVELAND'S project FOR A RAILWAY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS HORACE
Greeley's involuntary bath — adventures of boulder's pioneers with left
hand and bear head indian prophecy mining on vasquez, in the south,
and on the blue mountain city pacific railway legislation influ-
ence of settlement in colorado upon that measure.
Canon City, situated at the gateway of the magnificent canon of the
Arkansas River, and the natural thoroughfare for immigrants arriving by
the Arkansas route to the mines of the South Park, was located though
scarcely founded, since but one cabin was built, in October, 1859. This
cabin was planted just above the well-known Soda Spring, and was the
joint effort of a party of six, some of whom had been connected with the
town of Fountain, near Pueblo. This work completed, they proceeded
to lay out a road to the Tarryall diggings then attracting much attention.
Little more was done until i860, when there came a crowd, hungering
and thirsting for real estate and the concomitant profits of a possible
metropolis, who took summary possession of the town site and began
making permanent improvements thereon. The developments about
Golden were among the most active of the year. Scores of arrivals
encamped there, attracted not only by the picturesqueness of the little
nook in the foothills, but by the gold mines that were under vigorous
operation at Arapahoe, just below the entrance to Table Mountain
Canon. W. A. H. Loveland, John M. Ferrell, E. L. Berthoud, Fox
Diefendorf and P. B. Cheney — the latter as the years passed, one of the
most widely advertised men in the region, through the misguided indus-
try of Goldrick and Capt. George West — were among the first arrivals.
224 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Their judgment of its strength as a commercially strategic point was
confirmed when the Gregory mines burst into prominence, and the great
columns began to march in that direction. Here, they conceived, lay
the key to the whole situation, present and future, and entertained no
doubt that their Golden fledgling would one day be the political capital,
as well as the commercial emporium of the Great West. Under this
conviction the survey was made and the site platted. No town devel-
oped so rapidly as Golden. It became at once the rival of Denver,
and a dangerous competitor for the supreme position. Mr. Loveland
saw at the beginning that if railways were ever constructed to the
Rocky Mountains, a prospect far enough away then, notwithstanding
the germs of a Pacific road were assuming tangible outlines — the only
feasible route lay through the channel cut by glaciers and forming the
defile of Vasquez Fork. From that moment until its consummation he
never lost sight of the scheme, nor missed an opportunity to commend
its advantages. As we shall have occasion to review his somewhat
remarkable career at the proper time, it is only essential at present to
state here that under his direction the town grew and prospered until
the shadows of 1 86 1-2 fell upon it, quenching for some years the prestige
of the initial stage.
To facilitate the passage of emigrant and supply trains to the mines,
Mr. Ferrell threw a log bridge over Clear Creek (anathemas upon the
man or men who changed it from Vasquez), then a raging torrent from
the melting snows. When nearly completed, along came the editor of
the "New York Tribune," of whose unfortunate experience in crossing,
Capt. Berthoud relates the following incident :
"Horace Greeley, mounted on a mule, dressed in the rough garb of
a traveler, with his old white hat firmly pressed upon his head, rode
up to the bank. He was bound to see all that Pike's Peak promised to
its votaries. He had heard that Vasquez Fork, like another Pactolus,
rolled over golden sands; that in the mountain peaks west of the Platte
the miners had discovered gold everywhere, and that all that was needed
was work and small capital to produce untold wealth for all. In view of
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 225
this he had sallied out, and now before him roared a vicious, impetuous
mountain torrent that must be passed. Fearlessly he plunged in, mule
and all, and right manfully did he buffet the angry waves ; but the waves
prevailed ; mule and rider and old white hat stood not upon the order of
their going, but danced merrily down to swell the turbid Platte. Horror-
struck at the accident, the whole population ran to the rescue. The
mule landed first. A sturdy miner with a boat hook soon rescued the
dripping and half-drowned editor, and by the seat of his unmentionables
drew him ashore."
Among the members of the town company were Ferrell, D. K.
Wall, J. C. Kirby, J. C. Bowles, H. J. Carter and E. L. Berthoud. The
site embraced twelve hundred and eighty acres. A second bridge was
built. The population increased daily. Some erected homes, others
business houses. Stocks of goods multiplied, some of them equal to the
largest on Cherry Creek, and designed for the mountain trade. Saw-
mills placed in the well timbered hills hard by, furnished ample supplies
of building material. Fair diggings were reported to have been found
in Guy Gulch. Excitement prevailed on every side. George West
established the Western " Mountaineer," which gave the place an earnest
advocate. Albert D. Richardson, and the afterward famous war corre-
spondent of the New York " Herald," Thomas Knox, became associate
editors and correspondents. Explorations about the vicinity revealed
the existence of valuable coal beds, and on Ralston Creek the Murphy
mine was opened, from which good and cheap fuel was furnished.
Passing along the bases of the mountains to old Fort St. Vrain, the
record shows that a party arrived there from the Platte in October,
1858, and was composed of Captain Thomas Aikins, his son, and S. J.
Aikins, a nephew, A. A. Brookfield, Charles Clouser, Captain Yount,
Daniel Gordon, John Rothrock, Theodore Squires, Thomas Lorton, the
Wheelock Brothers, and a number of others whose names are not pre-
served. On the 17th they encamped at " Red Rock," near the existing
town of Boulder. Some distance away stood the smoke tanned tepees
of a considerable band of Arapahoe Indians under the chief. Left Hand,
15
226 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
who, discovering the presence of white men, went over and warned them
to get out of the country. But he was soon conciHated by the kindly
manner of his reception and recalled his order, saying there was room
enough and they could dwell together in amity. " But another chief"—
we quote from Bixby — "named Bear Head, seeing Left Hand's mistake,
repudiated the agreement, and soon after went to the Red Rock
encampment and began his complaint against the intruders by a super-
stitious allusion to the comet then visible. Said he, ' Do you remember
when the stars fell?' He was answered, in 1832. 'That is right,' said
Bear Head ; ' it was in that year white man first came. Do you know
what that star (the comet) with a pointer means ? The pointer points
back to when the stars fell as thick as the tears of our women shall
fall when you come to drive us away.' He then gave the party three
days in which to leave the country, intimating that serious trouble
might be anticipated in the event of their failure to do so. Meanwhile,
instead of decamping as ordered, the immigrants fortified themselves
against surprise, and calmly awaited the next adventure. At the
appointed time Bear Head approached alone, and was invited to enter.
He came to relate a dream, to the effect that he stood upon a hill
and saw the Boulder Creek swelled to a flood ; that while his people
were swallowed up by the rush of waters, all the white people were
saved, — thereby indicating his idea of their inevitable fate." While the
recital of this prophetic vision may have impressed his auditors pro-
foundly, it in no wise altered their determination. They had come to
stay, and through their enterprise, though the Indians hovered about
for some weeks, the town of Boulder was founded, and has become one
of the loveliest in the State, the seat of an incomparable agricultural
section, and a joy to its inhabitants. On the plains for miles around
quadruped game abounded, so that they found no dif^culty in procuring
supplies. The original explorations for gold during the winter of 1858
and the spring of 1859 h^ve been already related.
During the year last mentioned, parties who had been disappointed
in their search for paying claims in Gregory, passed over the divide into
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 227
the valley of Clear Creek, where locations were made along the stream
for miles above and below Idaho Springs. Several Mexicans located on
Spanish Bar — whence its name — and were highly successful, taking out
a large amount of gold. Others followed, and soon the bar swarmed
with industrious diggers and sluicers. The tide passed up as far as
Downieville, where, however, only moderate results were obtained.
But the largest yields were taken from Illinois and Grass Valley Bars,
below Idaho. The various tributaries were explored, and some valuable
claims worked. Jackson and party, among them W. W. Whipple, now
of this city, secured some excellent results in Chicago Creek. During
the year George Griffith discovered a quartz lode on the mountain side
near the forks of South Clear Creek, from which it is said he sluiced
one hundred dollars in two days. But it was by no means difficult for
even a neophyte in mining to find such veins, for they cropped out all
along the slopes. Still, to the present day, no really great results have
been secured. Though rich in places, the seams are narrow and the
rock extremely hard, involving large expense.
Again the restless and indomitable hunters scattered out into the
wilderness, a few into Middle, others toward the South Park, the latter
via Chicago Creek to its sources, and over the intervening high range.
Some of the very earliest explorers were massacred.
About the middle of July, 1859, the Hamilton diggings, half a mile
below the town site of that name, were opened, but were neither very rich
nor extensive. The most profitable ground of the period was discovered
two miles above Hamilton, and the camp called "Tarryall." Hamilton
became the base of supplies and the center of settlement. A mining
district was organized, and claims staked out by the first comers, who
secured all the valuable ground as a matter of course, and withal of rioht,
framed and adopted laws, and thus began developments whereby they
were richly rewarded. Intelligence of the strike spread quickly, and
thousands rushed over the mountains to share in the harvest. Hamilton
blossomed into a miniature city. The multitude here as elsewhere, find-
iuL;- the discoverers possessed of the fat of the land, demanded a division.
228 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
but the organizers stood firm. There were the laws, and they must be
respected. There were so many clahiis in the gulch, and all were
occupied. If the complainants wanted mining ground they must hunt
for it.
Later, other discoveries occurred on the Platte, so the crowd went
over and established "Fairplay," as a living reproach to their "Grab-all"
neighbors. Here there appeared to be abundant room. The high bars
above the stream contained sufficient gold to justify a large and per-
manent town.
Jefferson City sprang up near Georgia Pass six miles north of
Tarryall. All the towns founded in the early epoch, save Fairplay, have
disappeared from the face of the Park, itself as resplendent a vision
viewed from the elevated ranges which wall it in, as the sun ever shone
upon.
A company of one hundred crossed through Georgia Pass to the
Swan, a tributary of the Blue, but the majority soon returned empty-
handed, hastened by reports of murders being committed by the Utes,
whom every one feared, knowing their unconquerable hostility to the tres-
passers on their cherished domain. Those who remained made some
excellent discoveries at Gold Run and in Galena, American and Humbug
Gulches. Others occurred in Negro, French, Gibson and Corkscrew
districts, these titles being applied by the locators. These and several
others were quite extensively worked in i860, and for two or three years
afterward.
Returning to Gregory, we find that the enforcement of such laws
as were immediately available devolved primarily upon Jack Kehler, the
authorized sheriff of Arapahoe County, which comprehended every-
thing. His deputy in the mines was a stalwart named William Z.
Cozens, than whom no man was better qualified for the trying position.
He had to deal with some of the most desperate characters on the
frontier, but his method of treatment caused him to be feared and
respected by the most abandoned outlaws. We shall meet Mr. Cozens
again in the course of this history.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 229
In August the segregation of the rather large district began, by the
setting off of Nevada and Russell into distinct communities, each gov-
erned by its own laws.
Later in the season, the first theatrical troupe arrived from Denver
and catered to the universal appetite for the lighter order of dramatic
entertainment, liberally interspersed w^ith singing and dancing. The
original temple of Thespis was situated in Gregory's Gulch at the inter-
section of two roads from Central, just above the center of Mountain
City. The reader, if a recent comer, should have seen this primitive
play-house, in the full glory of its opening night, for it was a novelty to
be remembered. Located on the "upper deck" or loft of a rather large
log cabin, the stage rudely curtained off from the auditorium, candles for
footlights, with no scenery to speak of; the auditors placed upon rough
wooden benches, the greater part wearing slouch hats, and bristling with
fire-arms, puffing clouds of tobacco smoke from innumerable pipes, and
applauding or condemning boisterously as the play touched or displeased
them, it was as motley and queer an assemblage as could well be imag-
ined. Yet no theater since established has given greater pleasure, or is
remembered with greater satisfaction. An anecdote comes down from
the period, which is worth repeating. During the performance of a
blood-curdling melodrama in one of the Denver theaters, the "heavy
villain" appeared suddenly upon the stage and, after the customary
statement of his love and grievances, seized the innocent heroine and
was about to carry her off, when a broad chested miner who had been
watching the play with an earnestness which made it intensely real to
him, strode up to the footlights and leveling his revolver, exclaimed, "No
you don't, mister ! you just drop that ere gal or I'll blow the top of your
head off." It is unnecessary to state that his order was promptly
obeyed.
Intermingled with the rougher element of the mountains, there were
many cultured and scholarly men. The original bar of Gilpin County
when crystallized in court embraced as keen intellects and as great legal
attainments as have marked the profession in any stage of our progress.
230 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Among the discoverers of great mines, that are still extraordinary
producers of gold, Avas Harry Gunnell, a tall, finely proportioned and
rather handsome young man, well bred, possessed of a fair education, a
welcome guest everywhere, and therefore a general favorite. After
searching ineffectually for some time, he struck the celebrated lode
which took his name, and from comparative poverty was elevated to
affluence, for the vein was exceedingly rich, and yielded largely from
the outset. The transformation bewildered him by its amazing sud-
denness. A steady stream of gold poured in upon him, and being of a
generous disposition, he lavished it with reckless extravagance upon boon
companions in riotous living. In a few years everything vanished,
and he was left a pauper. It is only one of many, yet it seems a more
melancholy case in some of its aspects than any that has come under
our observation.
In contrast, John Gregory, the mule driver, the father and founder
of quartz mining in the Rocky Mountains, left for his home in Georgia,
carrying over twenty-five thousand dollars in gold dust, the fruits of one
season's industry.
In September a subscription paper was circulated through the
streets of Auraria, and in a short time two hundred and fifty dollars were
raised to build a schoolhouse. The Denver Town Company donated
several building lots to the enterprise. Goldrick published a card in
the "News," announcing to the people of both cities that on the 3d of
October he would open a day school.
While no churches were built, there were zealous missionaries in
the field ; the first being the Rev. G. W. Fisher, of the Methodist
denomination, and Rev. Jacob Adriance, of the Presbyterian.
It will be remembered that the project of constructing a transconti-
nental railway had been under consideration in and out of Congress,
more especially in St. Louis, where it was persistently urged, from the
date of John C. Fremont's explorations in 1842. In the session begin-
ning in December it was anticipated that some definite action would be
taken. In expectation that a bill would then be passed, Mr. Byers pub-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. ' 231
lished an editorial on the 24th of November, in which it was assumed
that the route selected must necessarily pass from the Missouri River
through the South Platte gold fields, and consequently through Denver.
This point being determined, he proceeds to map out a feasible line to
the westward, thus :
" From here westward the route may deflect a little to the north-
ward, passing through the Cache la Poudre Pass of the Black Hills,
crossing the Laramie plains and entering the great basin through
Bridger's Pass ; or it may continue from here directly westward, enter-
ing the mountains by the Platte Canon, following up that stream to the
junction of the North and South Forks ; thence up the North Fork to
the South Park, cross a low mountain summit, and thence down the
waters of the Colorado into the heart of the great basin. This route
we consider entirely practicable, presenting less obstacles — if we except
the first fifteen miles after entering the Platte Canon, and even they are
not at all insurmountable — than have been overcome on the Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad, and traversing: the orold field in the exact direction of
the great leads, and its greatest known length, for a distance of not less
than five hundred miles." He contends that even at this early stage a
single track railway between the river and Denver would secure the
immense traffic of this region, and the cost of construction being insig-
nificant in comparison with the ordinary expense of building through
the States east of that stream, it would be largely profitable. But it
was not to be. Before this gigantic enterprise could be undertaken, the
country was to pass through the deluge of a stupendous war. Even
while he wrote, fires were beino^ licrhted in the South that were to
spread over the continent. It was only at the end of this mighty strug-
gle that the government had time to contemplate any other matters
than its own salvation. The route suggested by Mr. B)'ers was then
examined, but not chosen.
Thus we close our account of the year 1859, ^^^^ prepare to con-
sider the next series of developments, industrial and political. It has
been seen that with a mere handful of determined men, results that
233 - HISTORY OF COLORADO.
shaped the destiny of all this great region were accomplished. In this
brief interval of time events which led to revelations of supreme import-
ance to the nation were evolved. Our lodgment here unquestionably
influenced in no slight degree the construction of the Union Pacific
Railroad. Our soldiers prevented the conquest of New Mexico, and the
occupation of this region by the Southern Confederacy ; our miners
have contributed more than three hundred millions toward the extinc-
tion of the national debt, leaving millions more in reserve for the wants
of commerce.
Moreover, a great central station has been established upon the
Western plains, supported, enlivened and constantly expanded by sys-
tems of railway whose lines, after penetrating in their ramifications the
widely diffused mining settlements of the Rocky Mountains, shoot west-
ward to the Pacific Sea, southward to the Gulf of Mexico, eastward to
the ereat water courses, and northward to the Territories founded there.
o
A splendid commonwealth covers the desert of thirty years ago ; the
aboriginal inhabitants and their titles have been extinguished, their
hunting grounds covered with cities and blossoming farms. The multi-
plied industries of progressive communities have supplanted the buffalo
and the dusky warrior, peace and plenty dwell on every side, and the
miidine hand of Providence is over all.
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XVI.
i860 — PROGRESS OF DENVER — CRYSTALIZATION OF BUSINESS — A CHAPTER OF HOR-
RORS— DUEL BETWEEN LEW BLISS AND DR. STONE ROMANTIC TRAGEDY IN
FAIRPLAY TOM WARREN CHALLENGES W. N. BYERS — CHARLEY HARRISON — JOHN
SCUDDER KILLS P. T. BASSETT — BLOODY CAREER OF JAMES A. GORDON FEARFUL
RIOT IN LEAVENWORTH TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF GORDON — CARROLL WOOD's
ATTACK ON THE "NEWS" OFFICE — KILLING OF STEELE — EXPATRIATION OF THE
GANG OF OUTLAWS.
In the early part of i860, indeed, until midsummer, the main por-
tion of the embryonic metropolis was limited to Blake and Wazee
streets, with a few business houses and dwellings scattered along
McGaa— (now Holladay), Fifteenth and Sixteenth (then F and G)
Larimer, Lawrence and Arapahoe, the latter being the exterior boundary
line in that direction. Auraria contained a much larger population,
was more substantially built, and carried the wholesale, with a material
part of the retail traffic. The principal resort on the east side was a
large frame building, originally of logs, known far and wide as Denver
Hall, later known as the Elephant Corral, and just west of the build-
ing now occupied by the Palace Theater (a standing menace to
society, of a character more dangerous and polluting if possible than the
primitive gambling hell), where thousands of immigrants were attracted
to their demoralization and ruin. It was here that Horace Greeley
delivered his fatherly address to the people of "Pike's Peak," standing
behind a table from which the cards and other devices had been tem-
porarily removed to afford him the opportunity. Saloons were on
every side, the favorite haunts of desperadoes and abandoned women.
234 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
from whose doors crime stalked with a bold front to spread death and
destruction upon the streets.
Larimer assumed a degree of importance from the fact that James
M. Broadwell had built upon the corner now occupied by the Tabor
Block, the largest hotel in the city, which became the headquarters of
the better element. On F and Larimer, where now stands in tasteful
majesty the "Pioneer Block," stood a row of cheaply built one-story
frame houses, occupied in part as gambling dens, the principal one
devoted to Spanish monte. Tents and covered wagons filled all the
available places, lined the banks of Cherry Creek, and stretched far
down the Platte, where at night hundreds of campfires gleamed among
the cottonwoods. The "News" office stood near the center of Cherry
Creek at the McGaa street crossing.
On the 5th of March a man named Conklin gave a dinner at the
Broadwell House to a large number of his friends. Dr. J. S. Stone, a
member of the Provisional Les^islature, beincrone of the oruests. When
the hour for toasts arrived. Lew Bliss, Secretary, and in the absence of
Mr. Steele, acting Governor of the Territory, intentionally but in exe-
crable taste, offered one which cast serious reflections upon the fair
fame of Dr. Stone, whereupon, calling Capt. W. H. Bates to. his side, he
arose and left the room. The effect of this ghastly specter upon the
company can be more easily imagined than described. Bliss, antici-
pating the result, selected Edward W. Wynkoop as his second. The
challenge came promptly, and was immediately accepted. At three
o'clock on Wednesday the combatants met on the ground chosen, oppo-
site the city on the north side of the Platte. A great crowd assembled
to witness the bloody proceeding. Drake McDowell, son of the cele-
brated Dr. Alexander McDowell, of St. Louis, acting as master of cer-
emonies, read the articles of agreement framed by the seconds and
adopted by the principals, whereby the weapons were to be shot guns,
and the distance thirty paces. At the word of command Stone fired
an instant in advance of his adversary, at the discharge of whose gun
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 235
he fell to the ground mortally wounded, the ball having entered his
left thigh, penetrating the bladder, and passing through his body.
The victim of this unholy practice lingered in great agony until
the loth of October, and then passed to his account.
The records of Park County contain the details of a duel in which
a just retribution overtook the principal offender. Two Texans named
respectively Pemly and Sanford, who had been playmates in boyhood,
classmates in college and firm friends after graduation, met there in
mortal combat. It appears that Sanford won the affections of Pemly's
only sister, then ruined and deserted her. Knowing the consequences,
he fled to Australia. Pemly discovered his trail and followed it, but
when he arrived his enemy had shipped to New Zealand. Still the
pursuer kept close upon his track, tracing him to Frazier River, to Cal-
ifornia and finally to Fairplay. Here the fugitive no doubt considered
himself so entirely secluded as to be beyond the reach of vengeance,
but he was mistaken. One morning while at work in a gravel pit, he
looked up and there stood Pemly, with rifle to shoulder, prepared to
kill. Sanford, recognizing his doom, shouted, "Give me a chance ! "
which was granted. He came up out of the pit when the preliminaries
were soon arranged. The weapons used were rifles at the distance of
thirty paces. At the first fire both fell, Sanford shot through the heart,
Pemly falling from the shock of a scalp wound. The miners assembled
in court, Pemly explained the circumstances, and was instantly
acquitted.
November 17th, 1859, Thomas Warren, one of the noted men of
Denver, challenged William N. Byers to meet him on the " field of
honor," incited by a notice which had appeared in the " News," and
which he deemed offensive, though it had no reference to him, but
attacked one of his friends. Those were turbulent times, when the
editor, if true to his conviction of duty, fully expected and rarely failed
to be called to account for the publication of unwelcome truths.
Byers had been frequently threatened with assassination, and the utter
demolition of his office. In declining the challenge to step out and be
236 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
slain, he wrote : " To any one who may feel like calling us out, we
have only to remark that you are wasting your time in sending us chal-
lenges or other belligerent epistles. You may murder us, but never on
the so-called field of honor, under the dignified name of a duel." In
common with the supporters of order, he regarded the practice with
horror as a relic of barbarism from the dark ages, and, in conclusion,
declared that the man who upheld it was more fit to live among sav-
ages than under a government controlled by law. The message was
not repeated.
The entire summer of i860 was marked by trails of blood. A
wild frenzy seemed to pervade the brutalized class, stimulated by the
villainous compounds dealt out from the bars. Such scenes became so
frequent as to attract little attention, except when especially atrocious.
The crack of pistols and rifles was heard at nearly all hours of the
day and night. A powerful vigilance committee, composed of the bet-
ter citizens had been formed, and in the absence of courts assumed the
power of a People's Tribunal, hearing testimony, and pronouncing
judgment. The recognized leader of the desperate crew was a young
man named Charley Harrison, a Southerner by birth. The day after
the author's arrival, meeting an acquaintance whom he had known in
Central New York, and who claimed some intimacy with Harrison, he
was shown a revolver with which it was asserted Harrison had killed
five men, here and elsewhere, and he was then only at the beginning of
his career. July 12th he shot a Mexican negro named Stark, for which
he was tried, but acquitted on the plea of self-defense.
On the 13th of March William Young, of Leavenworth, deliber-
ately killed his friend and companion, Moses West, with a shotgun
loaded with buckshot. The murderer was arrested by William E.
Sisty, deputy Sheriff, tried by the Vigilantes, convicted and hanged
the next day.
At the close of the same month Jack O'Neill, of Auraria, was
killed by John Rooker. The first proposition by O'Neill, after the
quarrel which they felt could only b^ settled by the death of one or
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 237
both, was, that they lock themselves up in a dark room and fight it out
with knives. Rooker declined, which only increased the bitterness,
and terminated in the assassination of his adversary.
On the i6th of April, 1859. John Scudder shot and killed Peleg
T. Bassett. Bad blood had existed between them for some time, and
Bassett lost no opportunity to traduce his enemy. Reports of his
slanders were conveyed to Scudder, whereupon he went to Bassett's
cabin after nightfall, knocked at the door, and Bassett appearing, he
was asked if he had circulated the statements, which he at first denied,
but his anger rising, finally admitted. He then, according to the testi-
mony, raised a billet of wood and advanced upon Scudder, whereupon
the latter fired and inflicted a mortal wound. The immediate cause of
the difficulty grew out of bitter contentions between the rival towns,
Denver and Auraria. By the advice of friends, who apprehended mob
violence, Scudder fled to Salt Lake City. Some months later, when
the excitement had passed and the incident was forgotten in the still
more violent scenes which ensued, Scudder returned and voluntarily
surrendered himself for trial. The prosecution was represented by W.
P. McClure and the defendant by H. P. Bennett, A. C. Ford and John
C. Moore. The prisoner was acquitted on the plea of self-defense,
clearly established.
But perhaps the most remarkable incident in the long train of
horrors that disgraced this or any other era, was a tragedy in several
acts by James A. Gordon, commonly known as "Jim Gordon," a
bright and rather handsome young man, with light flaxen hair, a clear
and fresh complexion, deep blue eyes, tall and well proportioned frame,
and just arrived at the threshold of manhood. This description fitted
him when sober. Under the influence of liquor he became a crazy
fiend, capable of devilish crimes, and utterly uncontrollable. He
belonged to the class known as sporting men, and was part owner of
the Cibola drinking saloon. On the evening of July i8th he began a
protracted spree, and being heavily armed proceeded to create disturb-
ances wherever he went. His first adventure of consequence was the
238 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
shooting of a harmless young man whom he met in a disreputable
house on Arapahoe street. During that night and the two days fol-
lowing he Instituted a veritable reign of terror. On Friday night he
was unusually quarrelsome, visiting all the saloons and drinking reck-
lessly. In Denver Hall, crowded as usual with gamesters, he began
firing his pistol at whatever or whomsoever attracted his attention.
From thence he entered a neighboring saloon, where his first act was
to shoot a dog that crouched by his master's side. He then crossed
into Auraria, visiting a bar-room and calling for whisky for himself and
two companions, which was no sooner swallowed than the glasses were
hurled upon the floor as a prelude to another scene of blasphemy and
boisterous demonstration. The inmates, frightened by the unprece-
dented exhibition, fled from the room. A German named John Gantz
stood at one corner of the bar. Gordon, In his blind rage, struck him
in the face, knocking him down. He rose and rushed to the street.
Gordon followed, caught and dragged him back, beating him about the
head with his revolver. Then seizing him by the hair with his left
hand, while Gantz lay upon the floor, he shot and killed him. Sobered
by the awful deed the trio fled, Gordon going In the direction of Fort
Lupton. The next day an armed posse led by a man named Babcock,
started in pursuit. Arriving at the fort and learning that the fugitive
was within, it v»ras put under guard and a messenger sent to Denver for
reinforcements, but before their arrival the gates were thrown open,
when Gordon, mounted on a fleet horse, dashed out, his belt filled with
firearms. Brandishing a revolver about his head he plunged through
the guard, defying them to shoot or follow him. As he galloped away
several shots were fired after him, but without effect. Three men,
among them Babcock, pursued on horseback. The latter, after a chase
of ten miles, came within shooting distance and fired, disabling Gor-
don's horse, and It was thought severely injuring the rider. Dis-
mounted, he pushed toward the Indian Territory on foot. Another
party with fresh horses kept the trail for some distance, but were
unable to overtake him.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 239
On Monday evening the Vigilance Committee met, and after
hearing the reports from the field, dispatched W. H. Middaugh, who
volunteered for the undertaking, after the assassin. He went to Leav-
enworth, procured a warrant, was appointed a deputy sheriff, and, with
a regular deputy named Armstrong, started again upon the trail, track-
ing the fugitive from point to point through the wilds of Indian Ter-
ritory, and finally captured him. He was taken to Leavenworth and
turned over to the authorities for trial.
Court convened, the cause was heard and the prisoner released on
the flimsy pretext of no jurisdiction. This astounding result created
intense excitement among the large class of Germans who were famil-
iar with the crime.
A turbulent mob surrounded the building and filled the court room,
and when the decision was made known their anger passed all bounds.
From a shouting crowd it became a body of frantic rioters. Yells of
"Kill him !^' "Hang him!" "Shoot him!" were heard on every side.
The mayor summoned a posse, surrounded the prisoner, and marched
him to the city prison for safety. Down into the surging tempest they
went and slowly made their way, but resisted at every step. The pris-
oner was no sooner landed in jail than the rioters surrounded it, beat-
ing upon the doors for admission. Meantime, combustibles had been
collected, and soon the red light of a great bonfire burst upon the
scene. The crowd danced, howled, and loaded the air with impreca-
tions against the authorities who had robbed them of their vengeance.
Reinforcements, armed with muskets, carbines, shotguns, knives and
clubs, flocked to the grounds. Others brought hempen ropes with
nooses fixed for lynching. The mayor, appalled by the turn of events
endeavored to pacify them by conciliatory speeches, but without avail.
He might as well have attempted to calm a raging sea lashed by a
cyclone. It was finally agreed between himself and the leaders that if
he would turn the prisoner over to Middaugh the tumult should cease.
Gordon was brought out and delivered to the officer who captured him.
Now the tempest broke forth with a violence that could not be
240 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
restrained. The mob rushed upon Gordon, with cries of "Kill him !''
" Hang him !'' But the officers, Armstrong and another deputy who
joined Middaugh, were equal to the responsibility. Several times halt-
ers were thrown over the prisoner's head, but each time the rope was
cut. A fierce struggle ensued in which Gordon's clothes were ripped
clean from his body, leaving him entirely nude, and the officers were
severely injured. At length they succeeded in reaching the Planter's
House, and paused there a moment, but it was instantly surrounded, and
the demands for the prisoner renewed. At this point a company of
United States troops appeared, demanded the prisoner, and received
him. He was then taken to the military prison. The officers refusing
to surrender Gordon to Middaugh, the latter took coach for Denver,
where letters and testimony showing the appalling nature of his crime
were at once prepared, and with these Middaugh returned to Leaven-
worth, and after a show of reluctance Gordon was given into his cus-
tody. He returned with him to Denver, and surrendered him to Sheriff
Kehler. The next step was the organization of a court for the trial.
Meanwhile Gordon was placed under a strong guard of deputies, and
lodged in a building on G street near Holladay. He was heavily
ironed, hands and feet, with a log chain about his waist. A meeting of
citizens to discuss the case was held upon a pile of lumber under a large
Cottonwood tree on G street just below Wazee.
One of the hardest characters in the town, Tom Warren, the same
who challenged Byers, became Gordon's champion, exerting himself
unremittingly in his cause. As Dick Whitsitt was equally zealous on
the side of law and order, a collision occurred between them, when
Warren challenged Whitsitt. He accepted at once, but through the
intervention of Mr. Sagendorf and other friends, the fight was
prevented.
The court convened in front of the Tremont House, being in
readiness, with A. C. Hunt as presiding judge, Charles Bartlett and
Charles Pierson as associates; the prisoner with his counsel, J. H.
Sherman, Ham. R. Hunt, S. W. Waggoner, W. P. McClure and John
^\ A^- /?
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 241
C. Moore were summoned before it. H. P. Bennett, James T. Cole-
man and Jacob Downing conducted the prosecution. After a long- and
impartial examination, the case was submitted to the jury and a ver-
dict of guilty returned. The judges stood upon the balcony of the
Tremont House and announced the result to Gordon, who stood upon
the ground below. Judge Hunt then sentenced him to be hanged the
following Saturday afternoon. The cause for this unusual leniency was
a statement that Gordon's mother was on the way to be with her erring
son in his last hours, and would arrive before that time.
Was there ever a case of this nature which did not elicit the ten-
derest sympathy of womankind ? Apparently the more atrocious the
crime the more profoundly sympathetic the feminine soul, and the more
active its efforts to secure mercy for the culprit. In the present case
the few that were here immediately circulated a petition for a reprieve,
which, though unsuccessful, gave rise to much bitterness of feeling.
As a last resort, a meeting of Gordon's friends assembled. Judge
Bennett being present, and called upon for an expression of his views,
rehearsed the crime in all its enormity, the facts of the trial, the pur-
suit and capture, the testimony, etc., and admonished his hearers against
any attempt to interfere with the course of justice, which put an end to
further efforts for clemency.
Gordon was executed according to the sentence pronounced upon
him, Middaugh at his request being the executioner. But this was not
the finale of these tragic events.
Two or three years later, Middaugh, while on his way to the States,
was shot and killed from an ambush near Julesburg by an enemy said
to have been one of Gordon's friends who had sworn to avenge him.
The "News" as the advocate of the people, severely denounced the
outrages so frequently perpetrated. There was no mincing of words,
no ambiguous phrases designed to soften the effect of its blows. The
language employed, though tempered by discretion, was unmistakable.
A crisis had arrived, and measures must be taken to terminate the
reign of disorder and bloodshed. Its attack upon Harrison for the
242 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
killing of Stark was especially pronounced. A mob of Harrison's friends,
habitues of the notorious Criterion saloon, led by the desperado Carroll
Wood, assembled, and having fortified their valor by frequent draughts
of liquor, marched over to the "News" office, and entered. Wood,
flourishing a pistol and uttering a volley of oaths, seized Mr. Byers by
the collar, and thrusting the weapon into his face demanded that he go
with them, and meet Harrison. Meanwhile, the employes of the office
seized their fire arms, and calmly awaited the issue. Byers was taken
to the- Criterion, accompanied by his partners. Harrison was sent for
and soon arrived, but manifested no signs of ill feeling; on the contrary,
rather deprecated what had been done. After conversing pleasantly
for a moment, Harrison motioned Byers toward the back door, as if
for a private conference, but immediately opened it and told him to go.
When Wood and his comrades discovered the ruse and the escape of
their intended victim, they mounted horses and, armed with shot guns,
galloped toward the "News" office, but prudently halted and concealed
themselves behind a large cabin some two rods distant. A crowd
assembled on the banks of Cherry Creek, attracted by the strange pro-
ceedincr. One of Wood's lieutenants named Georo^e Steele, advanced
to the door but did not enter, suspecting no doubt that the inmates,
warned by the previous visit, were prepared to give him a warm recep-
tion. Returning to his chief, a hurried conference was held, after
which Steele advanced a second time, mounted on Wood's horse. Pass-
ing the office to the bridge he turned suddenly and fired into the build-
ing, the ball entering the business office but without doing any damage.
A moment later he fired a second time, the missile shattering a window
pane. The printers returned the fire, sending two shots, one of which
being well aimed, struck Steele in the shoulder, inflicting a severe
wound. The desperado reeled under the shock, but retained his seat.
Riding swiftly in the direction of Platte River, followed by a crowd, he
shortly after reappeared in town and when at Bradford's Corner was
shot and killed.
The excitement over this became universal, and the indignation
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 243
reached the fighting point. Wood and his followers, alarmed at the
killing of Steele and the demonstrations against themselves, fled to the
prairie but soon returned, when they were arrested. Many favored
lynching, but more moderate counsels prevailed. Wood was put under
guard and tried next day before A. C. Hunt, Judge of the People's
Court, convened in a large unfinished building just back of the present
Lindell Hotel. Mr. Byers was called and gave his evidence, which was
fully confirmed by a number of witnesses. Speeches were made by Dr.
Casto, Judge Purkins, H. P. Bennett and others, strongly advocatin<T
the preservation of law and order, but at the same time giving emphatic
expression to the general resolve that such occurrences would be no
longer tolerated.
The jury retired for consultation, and took a vote, when it was
found that they stood eleven to one for conviction. The solitary juror
who would not be convinced, remaining obdurate to the last, the facts
were reported to the court, and there being no probability of an agree-
ment, the case was referred to the people, by whom it was decided that
since Wood had killed no one in this affray, but was a tough citizen on
general principles, the best thing they could do was to banish him.
Wood mounted his horse, and by order of the citizens was accom-
panied by the marshal and twenty-five men to the eastern limit of the
city, directed to set his face toward the rising sun, and return no
more.
With such a chapter of horrors in mind, including many others not
yet related, is it surprising that the people were clamorous for some
sort of stable government ?
244: HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XVn.
i860 — MEASURES FOR ORGANIZING THE TERRITORY — DIFFICULTY IN SELECTING A
TITLE — VARIOUS NAMES PROPOSED — PROGRESS OF THE BILL IN CONGRESS EFFORTS
OF SCHUYLER COLFAX IN OUR BEHALF — OPPOSITION OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS
DEFEATS THE BILL— POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN COLORADO RETURN OF DELEGATE
WILLIAMS — CONSOLIDATION OF AURARIA AND DENVER — HEAVY IMMIGRATION —
DISCOVERY OF GOLD ON THE ARKANSAS RIVER —CALIFORNIA GULCH — INDIAN
FORAYS — THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY D. H. MOFFAT
JR. — JOHN M. CHIVINGTON — CLARK & GRUBEr's COINAGE MINT — U. S. MAILS —
DISCOVERY OF SILVER.
In January, i860, there began in Congress a movement, which,
though protracted eventually gave our people a fixed and stable gov-
ernment. Delegate Williams, though not recognized as one represent-
ing a State or Territory, was nevertheless admitted to the floor of the
House, but without other privileges than those usually accorded to
"lobby members," permitted by courtesy to lay his petitions before the
members and privately solicit their co-operation. He had access also to
the departments, where he made excellent use of his opportunities for
urging upon the Postmaster-General the great need of mail service.
On the 26th of February the Post Office committee of the House by
vote authorized its Chairman, Schuyler Colfax, to report a measure
which he had drawn, for expediting and cheapening the postal service
between the Atlantic and Pacific States. It directed the Postmaster-
General to advertise for proposals to carry the entire Pacific mail over-
land, embracing also proposals for supplying Denver and Salt Lake
cities, by branch lines weekly from the main route.
At the same session the Senate passed a resolution, authorizing a
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 2i5
treaty to be made with the Indians for the lands embraced within the
Territory occupied and known as the Pike's Peak region. Its commit-
tee on Territories had under consideration and agreed to report favor-
ably, a bill to provide for the organization of the new Territory. But
there were objections to the name of Jefferson because of a ruling or
decision not to name Territories for the Presidents, as there were not
enough to go round.
The chief difficulty lay, however, in the unsettled condition of the
Kansas- Nebraska controversy. The contest over their admission as
states had reached no conclusion ; therefore, until disposed of, nothing-
could be done for the later applicants. An attempt had been made in
the senate to enlarge the boundary of the proposed state of Kansas
so as to include the settled portion of Nebraska as far north as the
Platte River, but it failed.
As stated, an organic act had been prepared by the chairman of
the Senate Committee on Territories, Senator Green, who had dis-
placed Stephen A. Douglas. One of the perplexities which consumed
much time was the name to be given the new aspirant from the Rocky
Mountains. "Jefferson " they would not have. So the following list
was presented to assist the committee in making a selection : "Tampa,',
"Idaho," " Nemara," "Colorado," "San Juan," " Lula," "Arapahoe,"
and — the saints defend us — " Weappollao." " Idaho'' was chosen, and
so inserted.
The House Committee also having a bill for the same purpose
under consideration, wrestled long with a similar difficulty, but solved
it by inserting " Tahosa," signifying Dwellers on the Mountain Tops.
"Lafayette," "Columbus," "Franklin," " Idaho,'' and "Colona," the
latter by Mr. Colfax, were also suggested. It was understood that
either " Tahosa" or "Idaho" would be the permanent title.
Simultaneously, bills for the organization of Nevada, Dakota and
Arizona were being digested. During the first week in April Senator
Green reported measures for Idaho and Arizona, with the intention of
calling them up early in May. The Kansas question was still under
246 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
debate, but it was generally conceded that its admission could not be
much longer delayed, when the field would be clear for the other Ter-
ritories. Mr. Colfax, then in the first bloom of his remarkable career,
manifested enthusiastic interest in our bill, exerting his vast influence
not only in this direction, but for the establishment of a regular postal
service. With General Bela M. Hughes he called on the head of that
department, and induced him to place Denver on the routes to be sup-
plied, and then instituted measures for the requisite appropriations to
carry it into effect.
One of the great propositions before this Congress was the con-
struction of a Pacific railroad, and naturally every Pike's Peaker in
Washington felt that if the bill passed, Denver would be named as the
terminal point east of the Rocky Mountains. Indeed, it was so inserted
in the bill, but stricken out by the committee in advance of its
presentation.
Our bill for organization embraced the general formula used for
Kansas and Nebraska, and the boundaries were substantially the same
as those defined in our Provisional Constitution.
Early in May the bill to organize the Territory of " Idaho'' was
reported to the House.'''* But here a tornado struck it. Just prior to
its introduction, Bingham of Ohio plunged a firebrand into that explo-
sive assembly by reporting a bill to repeal that portion of the law
passed by the legislature of New Mexico which recognized the exist-
ence of slavery in that Territory, and upon it called the previous ques-
tion. The bill passed amid great confusion. The Southerners became
so enraged at this new and unexpected assault upon their pet insti-
tution as to seek revenge by killing off all the other Territorial meas-
* Schuyler Colfax had been deeply interested in this particular organization from the first. January 24,
1859, he writes in a personal letter: "I have worked up the Territorial Committee (two-thirds bitterly pro-
slavery) to recede from their former vote against the new Territory I proposed, and they will now report in
favor of it. This is quite a success, as the President (Buchanan) was dead against it, openly and ear-
nestly. But the committee, while reporting it, will put in pro-slavery provisions that we cannot vote for.
You cannot imagine the devices of the slave power until you look it in the eye and watch its acts. They
decided against my name (Colona), which I didn't altogether like myself, preferring 'Montana' or 'Cen-
tralia,' but the name doesn't matter."
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 247
ures by tabling them, ours among the number. But it was reported
again at the first opportunity and made the special order for the last
day of the week. Nevada came next, but was immediately laid upon
the table. On Saturday Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania presented
" Idaho," but in a somewhat different form, which provoked a long and
heated debate, with the result that it went down under the storm of
slaveholding opposition. Each measure contained the following pro-
viso: "That whereas slavery has no legal existence in said Territory,
nothing herein shall be construed to authorize or prohibit its existence
therein.'"
The North was still compromising upon the dominant issue, gain-
ing by gradual approaches the main object in view, the restriction of
slavery to certain limits. But the thinly disguised olive branch was not
accepted. All the bills were shelved, and there remained until the fol-
lowing winter. Political elements were in a high state of fermentation.
Premonitions of the great contest in preparation were beginning to be
felt and understood. The Charleston convention had adjourned, leav-
ing the Democratic party torn to pieces by internal dissensions. Three
candidates were in the field, and Abraham Lincoln had been nominated
at Cliicago with an enthusiasm never before witnessed in the history of
political assemblies. The foundations of the great deep were broken
up by the shuddering of the irrepressible crisis, and in a short time
all Christendom felt the shock of our great civil war.
Congress having adjourned without providing any relief for this
region, the people were on the verge of despair. The condition of
affairs during the early summer had been lamentable. The Provisional
government had not been accepted to any extent outside of- Denver, and
even here it was powerless to enforce its decrees. The chief reliance
of the citizens lay in the Committee of Safety. The government had
no money, was known to be illegal, and therefore was practically inoper-
ative. On the 7th of August a new movement for state organization
made its appearance, this time in Golden City. A convention met in
Loveland's Hall; Dr. I. E. Hardy was called to the chair, and VV. L.
248 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Rothrock made Secretary. Addresses setting forth the need of a
government that would govern were made by G. W. Purkins, W. P.
McClure, H. P. Bennett and Albert D. Richardson. Then came the
inevitable resolutions to this effect, that, whereas. Congress failed to
respond to our appeal for protection, therefore, resolved that we will
unite with our fellow-citizens of all portions of the gold region in the
hearty support of any just, practical and uniform system of laws upon
which the people will agree. Finally, they pledged themselves to
unite with the gold region in forming a State government at the ear-
liest practicable date. This action distinctly repudiated the Provisional
machine.
But the people of Mountain City, more impulsive, went a step
further. Unaccustomed to temporizing with public grievances, they
met this emergency with characteristic boldness. A delegation of lead-
ers assembled in Daniel Doyle's Hall, — which was a saloon where five
cent whisky was dispensed at twenty-five cents a glass, — on the 30th
day of July, a little in advance of the Golden meeting. Mr. Michael
Storms took the chair, and C. C. Post the secretary's table. The
speeches were eloquent, and the orators dramatic. The government
was roundly denounced for its indifference to the petitions of this
great and growing country. The resolutions declared among other
things, that after long continued opposition to the Provisional govern-
ment they were at last compelled to recognize it as better than no
government at all, and therefore would not only lend it their sanction,
but support it to the full extent of their power until a State or Terri-
torial organization should be provided in regular form. They repudi-
ated at one -fell swoop all allegiance to the laws of Kansas, and de-
clared that they would never submit to be included in that jurisdiction.
A call issued for a convention to be held in Denver, to frame a
State constitution, with the added resolve to apply for immediate admis-
sion into the American Union, and, as a clincher, meant to be pasted
in the Congressional hat, that "we will not cease our applications until
such admission shall be frranted."
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 249
All these and several other projects of like nature ended in smoke.
The politicians having ventilated their sentiments, the ship of state
resumed the regular order and drifted on without helm or keel, in the
old way.
On the 1 8th of September Governor Steele issued his proclama-
tion for another election of officers, members of the Legislative Assem-
bly, etc., to be held October 2 2d. Notwithstanding the fact that the
call neither asked nor contemplated an expression of sentiment respect-
ing the Provisional Government, a large majority of the votes cast in
Denver declared against it on general principles, but at the same time
elected the regular ticket headed by Governor Steele.
September 22d the delegates chosen under the Mountain City
call, assembled in Apollo Hall and proceeded to draft a constitution.
It would be a waste of time to pursue this threadbare subject further.
It is sufficient to say that the various projects soon came to nought
through the regular organization by Congress in February, 1861.
The Provisional Legislature met November 20th^ received the
Executive message, and proceeded to the enactment of laws regular,
irregular and special, as in its first session, strengthened perhaps by the
more encouraging attitude of the mountaineers, but under a distinct re-
pudiation at home, as shown by the popular, though unauthorized vote.
Delegate Williams returned from Washington August 20th, and
was cordially welcomed. Though not according to the measure of the
popular desire, it is undeniable that he accomplished as much as any
representative could have done under the circumstances, which have been
explained. He laid the groundwork, so to speak, for a legal organiza-
tion, leaving the proposition in shape to be reopened and fully consum-
mated at the next session. The bills were presented too late for definite
action, if opposed. He succeeded, however, in promoting to an issue
by the aid of Mr. Colfax, arrangements for transporting the mails
weekly from Julesburg. The coach which bore him to Denver brought
also the first instalment of letters and papers, to the infinite gratifi-
cation of the people.
250 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
During the last week in March, a mass meeting was held in
Aiiraria to consider a proposition for the consolidation of the two cities.
A. C. Hunt presided, with A. Jacobs as Secretary. Andrew Sagendorf
presented a resolution embodying the general sentiment to the effect
that the twain were, and ought to be declared one, and that henceforth
Auraria should be known as Denver City, West Division. The Board
of Directors was authorized to change the name on the plat in ac-
cordance with this expression, reserving the right to make its own
municipal regulations, hold the title to the town site as before, and
maintain its organization as a town company. A few days later the
citizens of the now united Denver met upon the bond of union, the
Larimer street bridge, where the resolutions were ratified, and number-
less congratulations exchanged.
Great waves of immigrants poured in during the spring and sum-
mer, far exceeding the increment of 1859, unequaled indeed, in the
history of the West, with the single exception of the California period.
It was estimated in the month of May there were no less than eleven
thousand wagons upon the plains moving toward Denver. It will be
understood that a considerable proportion were merchandise trains, but
a large majority were the conveyances of emigrants, each attended by
from three to eight persons. It seemed as if half the population of
Iowa, with immense numbers from Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas had
emigrated. The processions thronged the principal thoroughfares, with
only here and there intervals of a few miles between the companies.
Thousands came to this city, but went no further. Some remained and
became fixed residents; others engaged in farming; hundreds, resolved
to see the mines, took the trails to the mountains where they located or
returned, according as the prospect seemed favorable or otherwise.
In March gold bearing gravel beds of considerable magnitude were
prospected with satisfactory results, on the Arkansas River below Cali-
fornia Gulch, where Kelly's or Cherokee district was organized. A
Denver party which left here February 15th, passed through Colorado
City, thence by way of Ute Pass to the point named, and assisted in
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 251
the ceremonies. But the ground was frozen, and the pay dirt had to
be thawed before it could be washed. Even under this disadvantage
some of the miners realized from two to five dollars per day with small
rockers. The gold was fine, bright and pure, in thin scales like that
found on Cherry Creek and the Platte. This intelligence spread
among the settlements, causing the customary stampede. These dig-
gings were, as a matter of fact, discovered late in the fall of 1859, the
secret being preserved until spring.
About the 25th of April much excitement arose from the reported
discovery by S. S. Slater & Co., of very rich deposits in a gulch twenty
miles above Kelly's Bar, and which, owing to the immediate influx of
a large number of Californians, took the name of California Gulch,
Whilst the snow was very deep, the work done indicated that beneath
the thick white covering lay one of the richest placers in the Rocky
Mountains, which subsequent developments fully verified. The gulch
is ten miles in length by fifty to one hundred feet in width, and at the
time was filled with clay and decomposed quartz containing gold, the
mass when penetrated, being of the consistency of soft mortar inter-
mixed with hard quartz, iron pyrites and fragments of volcanic scoria
and iron ore. It resembled the decompositions found at the surface
of the Gregory, Gunnell and other lodes, and admirably adapted to
washing by the same methods there employed. Overlying the pay dirt
was a layer of native cement or "hard pan," a conglomerate of cemented
gravel and scoria, from six to eighteen inches thick. The water course
in favorable seasons was about equal to supplying five or six lines of
sluices. Prospected, the material yielded an average of fifteen cents
to the pan, much of the product being in coarse nuggets somewhat dis-
colored by iron stains, but the finer particles were clean and bright.
The discoverers were T. L. Currier, S. S. Slater, A. Lee, Mr. Stevens
and two others. During the first season some of the better claims
yielded $50,000 to $60,000 each. A number of the largest and most val-
uable nuggets known to the country were taken out. When the ex-
tent and value of these mines became known, thousands went over and
252 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
formed a great settlement there at the lower end of the gulch. This,
with the discoveries in Georgia and French Gulches and other places
on the Blue, that were duly reported in the eastern press, caused
the large immigration of this year.
Undoubtedly California was the richest placer ever opened in
the Rocky Mountains, and produced greater quantities of the precious
metal. It was here that Senator Tabor received his primary lesson
in the science of mining, though his fortune was delayed until 1879,
when the Leadville blanket veins opened their treasures to him.
Returning to the valley once more, on the 17th of May a large
war party of Arapahoes came to Denver from an expedition against
the Utes in the valley of the Rio Grande, rejoicing in the possession
of four or five scalps and a large number of ponies taken from their
hereditary foes. They went into camp on the bluffs across the Platte
and began a series of scalp dances in celebration of their victory.
The following day they were joined by other bands of the same tribe.
Anxious to display the fruits of their prowess before the multitude of
pale faces, they formed in procession with drums beating and banners
flying, and marched into town, where they gave exhibitions upon the
public streets to the edification and amusement of the populace. At
least one thousand savages were in and about the city at that time.
Nor were they always friendly and peaceable, except when overawed
by superior force, as here.
Numerous petty depredations were committed upon isolated set-
tlers though nothing very serious transpired. From six to ten thou-
sand Indians, Sioux, Comanches, Apaches, Arapahoes, Cheyennes and
Kiowas hovered about the Arkansas below Pueblo, but no difficulties
were reported except when vicious white men furnished them whisky.
It was soon made apparent that the two races could not dwell to-
gether in harmony, and that unless the government should take early
measures for the removal of the red men, ugly consequences were un-
avoidable. June loth, about five hundred allies composed of the
various tribes encamped about the city, set out for a general assault
HISTORY OF COLORADO. iio3
upon the Utes in their stronghold, the South Park. Jim Beckwourth
and Kit Carson, who had arrived from New Mexico a few days previous,
advised them against the contemplated foray, but they could not be
swerved from their purpose. On one of the forks of the Platte in the
southern edge of the Park they surprised a camp of Utes, killing a
number of women and children, and taking four little boys prisoners.
The Utes soon rallied, attacked the allies and drove them out in great
confusion. On their return the allies, feeling themselves secure from
immediate danger, halted beside a spring, and after refreshing them-
selves, lighted their pipes for a quiet smoke. But every movement had
been watched by their crafty enemies who, seeing their advantage,
swept down upon them with savage yells, and by the slaughter that
ensued amply avenged the surprise themselves had suffered.
When the allies returned to Denver, as they did in hot haste, they
presented about as complete a picture of a defeated and thoroughly
demoralized army of redskins as ever was seen. Being present on that
occasion I observed with some surprise that there were a great many
wounded, and that most of them had been shot in the back with arrows
(but few of any tribe possessed rifles or other firearms) . A sullen gloom
had settled upon the entire encampment, in striking contrast to the
rather jubilant spirit which animated them on their departure for the
battlefield.
The chief sent for Kit Carson, who promptly responded, when a
conference was held in an unfinished frame building at the lower end
of Sixteenth street. The great explorer reminding them of his warn-
ing, had few words of comfort for them, though listening patiently to
their rather lengthy account of their unfortunate adventure. The
interview lasted an hour or more, after which the crowd called Carson
out and he rehearsed the battles as related to him. In the course
of the story he remarked sententiously that when two bands of Indians
got to fighting it didn't make much difference to white people which
whipped.
The captive children were taken from them by the authorities.
254: HISTORY OF COLORADO.
One was adopted by Richard E. Whitsitt ; what became of the others
I am unable to state. For some days afterward the dismal lamenta-
tions of the women were heard from the tepees down among the cot-
tonwoods, bewailing the loss of their braves and the disasters attend-
ing their ill-timed expedition.
As the year advanced the elements began to crystalize into dis-
tinct charitable, religious, educational, and social orders. The Ladies'
Union Aid Society took the initiative, with Mrs. Byers as President,
Miss E. C. Miles, Secretary, and Miss F. C. Miles, Treasurer. Jan-
uary 2ist an informal gathering of Episcopalians occurred, L. Badollet
presiding, with the view of establishing a society, and with the ultimate
aim of building some kind of a house of worship. After prayer by the
Rev. J. H. Kehler, a venerable patriarch in the cause, a committee of
thirteen was appointed to make temporary arrangements for holding
service the following Sunday, and from this beginning sprang St.
John's Church in the Wilderness, now a large and flourishing congre-
gation with an imposing cathedral. The first church of this society, a
small and extremely modest structure, occupied the corner of Four-
teenth and Arapahoe streets, where now stands the Haish Manual
Training School of the Denver University.
It is well, perhaps, in view of his subsequent association with his-
toric events, to mention en passant that on the 1 7th of March Mr.
David H. Moffat, Jr., arrived from Omaha with a wagonload of books
and stationery, and withal quite skillfully engineering a sore footed mule
team. The stock was exposed for sale in a not very pretentious build-
ing on Ferry street, West Denver, opposite the old Vasquez House.
The journalists of the period, delighted with this literary acquisition,
took early occasion to scrape acquaintance with Mr. Moffat, and to
assure the public through their papers that they would find him a gra-
cious and accommodating gentleman.
May 7th Miss Indiana Sopris opened a select school on Ferry
street, and on the same date " Professor " Goldrick, with Miss Miller as
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 255
assistant, began a course of juvenile instruction in the then well estab-
lished Union School.
On the 19th of the same month, Rev. John M. Chivington, pre-
siding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church North for the Rocky
Mountain District, Kansas and Nebraska Conference, made his first
appearance upon a scene in which he was destined to assume roles then
undreampt of. He began at once with irresistible energy to institute a
thorough system of church work, with results that will appear in the
progress of this history.
On the 23d arrived Messrs. Lee, Judd & Lee with the famous
Black Hawk quartz mill, which became the leading pulverizer of its
class, and, as reconstructed years afterward by Jerome B. Chaffee, —
then with Eben Smith, the owner and manager of a separate mill
located in Lake Valley — is still the largest and perhaps the finest that
has been erected in this country.
Jun-e 2d the Jefferson Medical Association was founded. Dr. Drake
McDowell in the chair.
July 20th Clark, Gruber & Co. opened a coinage mint, the only
one we ever possessed, upon the spot and in the building now owned
and used as an assay office by the Federal government, at the corner
of Sixteenth and Holladay streets. Only ten dollar gold pieces were
struck. These coins were of pure gold taken from the neighboring
mines, bearing upon the face a well engraved representation of Pike's
Peak, at its base a forest of pines, and beneath the legend, " Pike's
Peak Gold," and below this the words " Denver " and " Ten D." On
the reverse side the American eagle, encircled by "Clark, Gruber &
Co.," and beneath, the date "i860." Some thousands of these coins
were issued, but they are rare curiosities now, and worth to numis-
matists many times their face value. Other mints were established in
the gold regions, one in Georgia Gulch, and another in Tarryall, in
both of which the gold was coined into slugs as taken from the ground.
It contained more or less silver, but no alloys were used.
August I St Rev. A. T. Rankin arrived to establish the Presbyte-
25G HISTORY OF COLORADO.
rian Church. Mis initial sermon was deHvered in the hall over Gra-
ham's drugstore, on the east bank of Cherry Creek (opposite the pres-
ent City Hall), on Sunday, the 12th.
The first United States mail arrived August loth, to the general
rejoicing, though it was then unknown whether its transmission was
intentional and to be continuous, or only accidental. About the same
time J. S. Langrishe came down from Laramie to engage the Apollo
Theater for a season of dramatic entertainments.
During the summer the mining excitement received new impetus
from reported discoveries of silver in the Gregory district, on the Blue,
near the head waters of the Platte, and in divers other localities.
Miners in Georgia Gulch frequently took from their toms and sluices
small pieces of apparently pure silver, intermixed with the coarse gold.
This was especially true of the Fairplay and Buckskin Joe diggings,
and naturally awakened new interest in the already brilliant prospects
for the future.
In November the Western Union Telegraph was extended west
to Fort Kearney, with the design of completing it to Salt Lake and
California. Press telegrams and private messages were brought
thence to Denver by coach. Those for the East were transmitted by
D. H. Moffat, the telegraph agent.
Late in the fall, through the circulation of sensational reports, a
rush was made for the San Juan Mountains, where it was said some
valuable mines had been found. All who undertook the hazardous
journey suffered severely, and some men lost their lives in the snows
which fell to great depths.
Toward the close of the year the Denver Chamber of Commerce
was organized, with Frank J. Marshall as President. Like many
other associations formed in this memorable year, it was short lived.
A census of the population taken in the autumn returned a total
of about 48,000 souls within the Territory of Jefferson. The incom-
ing tide diminished rapidly after July, its height having been reached
in June. From that time there was a steady outpouring of disen-
<:;^^^w72/^-i>T-c.-^^cl^,-r^^_
HlSTORV OF COLORADO. 257
craved nilo-rims who had been unwilling or unable to abide in the
wilderness. When the waves receded only a fraction remained to hold
and develop the empire it had conquered. Henceforth there were few
material accessions of permanent strength until the arrival of the first
railway in 1870.
17
258 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XVHI.
1861 — ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF COLORADO — DEBATES IN THE SENATE
AND HOUSE OVERSHADOWING INFLUENCE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION STEPHEN
A. DOUGLAS VEHEMENTLY OPPOSES THE BILL SYNOPSIS OF HIS ARGUMENTS
PASSAGE OF THE ORGANIC ACT — OFFICERS APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN —
ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR GILPIN — PUBLIC MEETINGS — CENSUS OF THE POPULATION
ORGANIZATION OF THE SUPREME COURT BENCH AND BAR UNION OR DISUNION
MOBILIZATION OF TROOPS — GILPIN's DRAFTS ON THE NATIONAL TREASURY
THEIR FINAL PAYMENT BIOGRAPHY OF OUR FIRST GOVERNOR.
February 2d, 1861, Senator James S. Green of Missouri, moved to
take up the bill organizing the Territory of "Idaho" for the purpose
of having it placed upon the files as unfinished business. On the
4th it was explained that a slight change of boundary had been made,
and the same, with some minor amendments having been accepted,
Senator Wilson of Massachusetts moved to amend the name of the
Territory by striking out " Idaho" and inserting "Colorado." This
was done at the suggestion of Delegate Williams, for the reason that
the Colorado River arose in its mountains, hence there was a peculiar
fitness in the name. The amendment being agreed to, the new name
was inserted, when the bill passed.
The next day Mr. Nicholson of Tennessee moved a reconsid-
eration of the vote on the passage of the bill, but after some discus-
sion further proceedings were deferred until the 6th, when Stephen
A. Douglas opened a general debate upon the slavery question by
moving to take up the motion to reconsider the vote whereby the
bill to organize the Territory of Colorado was passed. Thereupon
Benjamin Wade of Ohio arose with an emphatic protest. The bill
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 259
had passed, been sent to the House for its action, and therefore was
beyond reach of reconsideration. But Mr. Douglas was not to be
deprived of another opportunity to overhaul and dissect the entire sub-
ject of the organization of new Territories, until the paramount issue
of slavery involved in every measure of that nature should be fully dis-
cussed and adjusted. He felt that the Senate had acted discourteously,
to put it mildly, in taking advantage of his temporary absence from the
Chamber, and thereby preventing him from offering a substitute for the
pending bill, on which he was entitled to the floor. The substitute, he
explained, embraced a provision allowing the people to elect such
officers as were not Federal, but purely Territorial in their duties, but
when in the act of presenting it he was called out, and before he could
return the bill had passed. It irritated his pride to realize that both
sides of the Senate should have come to an agreement upon the polit-
ical and judicial features of this measure without his knowledge or con-
sent, hence he determined to have it recalled.
This awakened Senator Green, who announced that the bill as
passed was very simple in its provisions, containing nothing which
infringed upon anybody's peculiar views. But Mr. Douglas was not
to be pacified, and vehemently renewed his motion. While Mr. Wade
was not unreservedly favorable to the bill, it was, nevertheless, a com-
promise on which both parties had agreed, and for that reason he voted
for it. Again Mr. Douglas inveighed passionately against the com-
promise for the sole reason, apparently, that it had been effected
without his knowledge. He objected also to the change of boun-
dary, because it cut off a large portion of New Mexico, and
annexed it to Colorado. The land titles of that portion were derived
from the Republic of Mexico, the inhabitants were mostly Mexi-
cans, governed by laws and usages totally foreign, and incompatible
with those made by and for Americans. Again, by the laws of
New Mexico, that had been made slave territory; slavery existed
there at that moment, and by detaching that portion of slave terri-
tory, a strip of country occupied by people of Mexican birth
260 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and habits, identified with the old country and not with Colorado,
there could be no such thing as proper assimilation. "Is the effect
of this bill to abolish slavery in that part of the territory thus cut
off, and make it free territory.^" he asked. "Is that the compromise
that has been made.^" If so, he was not disposed to interfere.
But "I find that after it is cut off, a peculiar provision is inserted
that the Territorial Legislature (of Colorado) shall pass no law
destroying the rights of private property. What is the meaning of
that ? Does it mean that the Territorial Legislature shall pass no law
whereby the right to hold slaves according to the laws of New
Mexico shall be abolished? Is that the object? Certainly there is
some object in inserting that provision. If it had been the result
of a compromise by which the Republican side agreed that this
slave territory shall be incorporated into the other territory, and
that the legislature shall never exclude slavery from it, I do not
wish to interfere with it."
But this was not all. He had still another objection which was,
in effect, that in providing that the legislature should pass no law
destructive of the rights of private property, it was thereby deprived
of the power to lay out roads railroads, or any description of highway.
He had encountered opposition for years to the Kansas-Nebraska bill
on the ground that the people should not be permitted to elect their
own local officers. In his substitute for the Colorado bill he had
provided that they should elect such of their officers as were Terri-
torial, and have the President and Senate appoint only such as were
Federal, etc.
Senator Green replied to Mr. Douglas and his substitute, deny-
ing that any discourtesy was intended or implied. He declared his pur-
pose to vote against reconsideration. Respecting the objection to
the strip taken from New Mexico, said he, "It does not cut off five
inhabitants, and not a single nigger. The idea, therefore, of throw-
ing slave property into a new organization where it is doubtful whether
it will be protected or not, 'is all in my eye.' Now, Mr. President,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 261
here are Union loving and Union saving people petitioning for 2,C^'^
30', to be the line between slave and non-slaveholding territory.
The line of this Territory is 37^. This bill does not prohibit
slavery anywhere, and it does not establish slavery anywhere; it is a
perfect carU blanche, without expression on the subject either way."
The power to elect officers was opposed solely because the administra-
tion according to all precedents since Jackson's time, should enjoy the
patronage. Besides, the privilege would give the Territories a larger
degree of independence than it was safe to permit, bringing them, in
fact, too near the exalted dignity of statehood.
Mr. Wade took the floor, and declared in so many words that the
bill to organize the Territory of Colorado was the result of a com-
promise between the slavery and anti-slavery divisions of the senate.
It was a well-known fact, he said, that the two sides of the cham-
ber differed on the provisions of the bill. They could not organize
it upon the principles that either party held, yet it was very essential
that some form of government be provided. The contestants could
not agree in carrying out the principles they maintained, for one side
desired to make it a slave Territory, while the other insisted upon
a prohibitory clause. Finally, they agreed to say nothing about slavery
one way or the other. In this form it had been submitted to the
senate and passed without controversy, the only way it could have
been passed.
Toward the last Senator Gwin of California sustained the mo-
tion to reconsider, because he wanted to abstract the name out of the
bill and give it to Arizona. He unhesitatingly affirmed that it was
"the handsomest name that could be given to any Territory or State,"
and he desired to have it stricken out so that it might be presented
as a supreme compliment to the newer candidate. Senator Gwin
was disappointed. The motion to reconsider was refused; yeas, 10.
nays, 31.
On the 9th of February the House passed the senate bill with
an amendment offered by Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania, to the
262 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
clause relating to the courts, as a further concession to the sensitive-
ness of the South, which read as follows: "Except only that in all
cases involving titles to slaves, the said writs of error or appeal shall be
allowed and decided by the said Supreme Court without regard to the
value of the matter, property or title in controversy ; and except also
that a writ of error or appeal shall also be allowed to the Supreme
Court of the United States from the decision of the said Supreme
Court created by this act or of any judge thereof, or of the district
courts created by this act, or of any judge thereof, upon any writ of
habeas corpus involving the question of personal freedom."
Mr. Green moved to concur, which brought Mr. Douglas to his
feet again with the remark that the amendment involved a very import-
ant principle in the Territorial system. So far as these bills were
predicated on the principle of non-interference by Congress with the
slavery question, he fully concurred in them. The pending bill
appeared to have been based on the theory that the words "slavery"
or "slave" should be stricken out wherever they appeared, and in
pursuance of that theory they had stricken out in the first section
the words, "and that when the said Territory shall be admitted into
the Union as a State, it shall be received with slavery or without,
as its constituents may prescribe at the time of admission." Then
another provision had been inserted in the sixth section, to the
effect that the Territorial^ Legislature shall pass no law abolishing or
impairing the rights of private property. That would be understood
by the senator from Missouri (Mr. Green) and others thinking with him
as prohibiting such legislature from abolishing or prohibiting slavery.
He could well conceive why the other side of the chamber were willing
to make the decision of the Territorial courts final so long as they
appointed the judges. They were to be appointed by Mr. Lincoln, and it
was a natural presumption that therefore they would be in accord with
the Republican theory of the slavery question. Judges would be
appointed who held to the doctrine that there was no such thing as a right
of property in slaves, hence the decisions on all matters involving such
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 263
right would be adverse to slavery. It was his desire to base these
Territorial measures on sound principles which could be applied
alike under a Republican or a Democratic administration. He felt
that the law should stand as it was, giving an appeal to the Supreme*
court of the United States in such cases, instead of making the
decision of the Territorial judges final, and depriving the party aggrieved
of the right of appeal.''^
After some further discussion, in every case reverting to the com-
promise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska controversy, a vote was taken,
and the House amendment concurred in by twenty-six to eighteen.
President Buchanan signed the bill on the 28th, when it became a law.
He did not avail himself, however, of the opportunity thereby afforded
to forestall his successor by appointing the officers. His mind was just
then too deeply occupied with more important affairs.
On the 4th of March intelligence of the adopted organic act arrived
in Denver. At this time Edward M. McCook was representing the
County of Arapahoe in the Kansas legislature and Judge Morgan the
people generally as a lobby member of Congress. March 2 2d the Pres-
ident sent the followintr nominations to the Senate :
*Schuyler Colfax writing of the matter, subsequently said: "They organized three Territories — Colo-
rado, Nevada, Dakota — without a word about slavery in either of the bills, because, under a fair adminis-
tration, which would not use its armies and its influence for slavery, and with Governors and judges who
were not hostile to free principles, they felt willing to risk the issue and to waive a positive prohibition,
which would have only inflamed the public mind, and thwarted the organization by a veto from Mr.
Buchanan. To answer the clamor about Personal Liberty bills, they voted for a resolution in which Re-
publicans as radical as Mr. Lovejoy joined, recommending the repeal of such as were not constitutional.
To show that they had no designs on slavery in the States, as was so falsely charged upon them by their
enemies, they voted unanimously that Congress had no right or power to interfere therein. When it
was urged that possibly but seven slave States might remain in the Union, and that the North, with Pike's
Peak — Colorado and Nebraska, might soon number twenty-one free States, and that then, by a three-fourths
vote, the constitution might legally be so amended as to enable them to exercise that power, a large propor-
tion of the Republicans aided in proposing to the States, as a proffer of peace, a constitutional amendment,
declaring that under all circumstances the constitution shall remain on that question exactly as it came from
the hands of Washington and Madison — unchangeable, thus assuring to the border States absolute pro-
tection against all interference. But when demands were made in the shape of the Crittenden and of the
Border State Compromise, that it should be declared that in all Territories south of 36° 30', slavery should
exist and slaves be protected as property irrespective of and even in opposition to the public will, by con-
stitutional sanction, which should also be irrepealable, and that thus the constitution should absolutely
prohibit the people of the Territories in question from establishing freedom, even if they unanimously
desired it, the answer was. No !
264 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
For Governor — William Gilpin of Missouri.
For Secretary — Lewis Ledyard Weld of Colorado.
For Attorney General — William L. Stoughton of Illinois.
For Surveyor General — Francis M. Case of Ohio.
For Marshal — Copeland Townsend of Colorado.
For Judges of the Supreme Court — B. F. Hall of New York ; S.
Newton Pettis of Pennsylvania, and Charles Lee Armour of Ohio, and
they were immediately confirmed.
General William Larimer had been a candidate for Governor, and
his claims were presented, but mainly through the influence of Frank P.
Blair, then a prominent member of the House, Gilpin secured the prize.
Mr. Weld, a young lawyer of fine attainments, came out with the
early emigrants, remained in Denver for a time, and then located in the
Gregory mines with the intention of practicing law ; but when it was
discovered that the Territorial orcjanization would be granted, he left at
once for the national capital to advance his aspirations to the ofiice
which he received. Townsend had been in business on Blake street
and was well known to the people here and in the mines. The balance
of the appointees were strangers.
On the 15th of April, anticipating the early arrival of the Governor
elect, and considering it a solemn duty to accord him a hearty welcome ;
rejoicing that here upon the eve of the threatened rebellion by the slave-
holding States, presaging a possible dissolution of the Union, Congress
had conceded a fixed and stable government, about which the loyal ele-
ment might rally for its own defense and that of the constitution, the
leading spirits called a meeting to be held in the City Council Chamber
for the consideration of measures to that end. H. P. Bennett presided.
A committee of arrangements was appointed, consisting of H. P. Ben-
nett, Col. A. G. Boone, Amos Steck, R. B. Bradford, Charles A. Cook,
T. J. Bayaud, Dr. Hobbs, A. C. Hunt, J. C. Moore, Edward Bliss,
Thomas Gibson, Matt Taylor, Richard Sopris, William R. Shaffer,
George T. Clark and J. B. Jones.
These gentlemen had ample time in which to perfect the most elab-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 265
orate preparations for the event, since the Governor's arrival was post-
poned for nearly two months.
In the meantime, as the news from the east grew more and more
exciting, public sentiment began to find expression upon the momentous
issues distracting the country. The entire continent was beginning to
feel the pulsations of the impending crisis. Toward the last of April a
great Union mass meeting convened in front of the Tremont House and
organized with Richard Sopris as Chairman and Scott J. Anthony as
Secretary. Judge Bennett and other orators delivered speeches which
awakened the depths of patriotism. In the general confusion there
were many whose views had taken no distinct form. They were bewil-
dered by the suddenness of the gigantic upheaval, but scarcely compre-
hending that it really meant a dissolution of the Union, a complete rev-
olution of the order under which they had been bred and schooled.
These men were aroused from their torpor and made to feel that they
must instantly declare to themselves and their fellows where they stood
upon the issues presented. It is needless to say that a very large major-
ity declared for their country, one and indivisible. Among these were
many staunch Democrats, who aligned themselves shoulder to shoulder
with the most ardent Republicans, and thus the Union sentiment crys-
tallized Into a solid phalanx. Bennett, Slaughter, Wildman, Williams,
Waggoner, Whitsitt and Hunt were appointed a committee to draft res-
olutions, which w^ien formulated declared unfaltering devotion to the old
flag and all it represented or implied. The chairman, Captain Sopris,
sent this dispatch to President Lincoln :
" The eyes of the whole world are upon you ; the sympathies of the
American people are with you ; and may the god of battles sustain the
stars and stripes."
Like meetings were held in Central City, Boulder, and other points
'n the mountains, heralding fealty to the constitution and the laws, leav-
ing no doubt that the youngest of the territories was in full accord with
the oldest and most patriotic of the states.
On the 7 7th of May Marshal Townsend arrived, and on the 20th
2Q6 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Governor Gilpin. The same evening a reception was held at the Tre-
mont House, which the greater part of the inhabitants attended. The
hotel was illuminated and handsomely decorated with flags. Judge Ben-
nett introduced His Excellency to the multitude from the balcony, say-
ing, " We accept you as Governor of Colorado under the palladium of
the Union and the principles of the Constitution. Our people, situated
on the domain of the United States, having been, like the people of old,
without law or protection, claimed for themselves the birthright of Amer-
ican citizens — the rieht of ofovernment — and so formed themselves under
a protective system of legislation," referring to the Provisional scheme.
It was hoped that the Governor would so construe the laws thus enacted
as to give the people all the rights of liberty consistent with the funda-
mental law.
The Governor responded in a characteristic address of great length,
reminding them that he had explored this region in 1843, ^^^ returning
thanks "from a heart strong with profound emotions for the cordiality of
their greeting." While traversing what is now Colorado and as far west
as the Pacific, he had then regarded it as the most attractive and inter-
esting section of "our glorious country," and was proud to return to it
now as a legitimate representative of our constitutional government.
He alluded briefly to the troubled condition of the Union, but felt that
it would soon be amicably adjusted through the patriotism of the people.
Upon the advent of Governor Gilpin, his provisional predecessor
Governor Steele, issued a proclamation in which, after announcing the
changed status of affairs, he says, 'T deem it but obligatory upon me by
virtue of my office to 'yield unto Caesar the things that are CcEsar's,' and
I hereby command and direct that all officers holding commissions under
me, especially all judges, justices of the peace, etc., etc., shall surrender
the same, and from and after this date, shall abstain from exercising the
duties of all the oflices they may have held, and yield obedience to the
laws of the United States, and do it by attending to their proper and
legitimate avocations whether agriculture or mining." Done at Denver
June 6th, 1861.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 267
Handbills containing the proclamation were circulated in Denver
and throughout the territory.
The first business in hand, by instruction of Congress was a census
of the population. In September the official returns were published by
the U. S. Marshal as follows:
White males over 21 years of age 18,136
Under 21 years of age 2,622
Females 4,484
Negroes ., 89
Total population 25,331
The enumeration for Denver returned less than three thousand,
whereas the general estimate had been five thousand. Both results were
disappointing. We had counted the hundreds coming in as thousands,
but failed to take note of the outgoing throngs. The population was
indisputably much lighter in 1861 than in i860, for the reason that
thousands had returned to the states, to join the Union or the Confed-
erate forces, as their sympathies directed.
Governor Gilpin's first official act of record was to swear in the
judges of the Supreme Court. Up to the first of July only Judges Hall
and Pettis had arrived. The next was to organize the judicial districts
and assign the judges. The first district comprised all the territory east
of the meridian line passing through the town of Arapahoe ; Court at
Denver, Chief-Justice Hall.
The second district embraced all the territory west of the same
meridian and north of the parallel of the town of Bradford; Court at
Central City, S. Newton Pettis presiding.
The third district took in all the territory west of said meridian, and
south of the parallel of the town of Bradford ; Court at Caiion City,
Charles Lee Armour, presiding.
The Governor made a general tour of the settlements, especially
the mining regions, was everywhere cordially welcomed, and by his
addresses produced a favorable impression.
268 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
On the 2d of August Secretary Weld felt it to be incumbent upon
him to advise Secretary Seward of the state of affairs in the territory.
He mentioned the fact that the officers had been received with much
enthusiasm by the people, who hailed with delight their advent among
them as the sure promise of relief from a disorganized and chaotic state
of law and society from which they earnestly desired to be freed.
Though separated by seven hundred miles of uninhabited plains from
their homes in the states, the people were entirely loyal to the Union
and the constitution, watching with the intensest anxiety the progress of
events at the east, and earnestly and patiently applying themselves to
the development of the resources of the soil and the mines of precious
metals. Several of the officers had not arrived, and until they were on
the ground it would be quite impossible to set the machinery of govern-
ment in order. If much longer delayed, he suggested the propriety of
appointing others in their places. James E. Dalliba was recommended
for District Attorney. He was eventually appointed.
The Supreme Court organized July loth being opened with prayer
by the venerable Dr. Kehler ; Judge Hall presided, and Baxter B. Stiles
was appointed Clerk. Rules were promulgated, and a number of
attorneys admitted to practice. William B. Likins, John P. Slough,
Allyn Weston, I. N. Bassett, and J. T. Coleman were appointed to
examine applicants for admission to practice.* Leavitt L. Bowen was
appointed District Attorney pro tempore.
The first Territorial legislature convened September 9th. In the
temporary organization of the House, Mr. Chaffee was elected speaker,
being succeeded in the regular order by Charles F. Holly. H. F.
Parker was chosen president of the Council. In due time Governor Gil-
pin delivered his message, and both Houses passed resolutions of loyalty
to the Union, which were duly transmitted to Washington. The volume
*The following were reported: Moses Hallett, A. M. Cassidy, Selden Hetzel, Jacob Downing,
James E. Dalliba, Baxter B. Stiles, Leavitt L Bowen, George Wilson, George W. Purkins, Edward C.
Jacobs, William Perry, George F. Crocker, N. G. Wyatt, Lewis B France, Amos Steck, John Wanless,
John C. Moore, Samuel L. Baker, David C. Collier, Gilbert B. Reed, William PL Earner, H. R. Hunt. J.
PL Sherman, John P. Slough, James T. Coleman, L N. Bassett, Allyn Weston, William B. Likins, J.
Bright Smith, William Gilpin, Lewis Ledyard Weld.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 269
of laws enacted during the session of sixty days, form the basis of all the
present statutes, being modeled chiefiy from those of the state of
Illinois.
On the I St of July a convention of the Union party was held at
Golden City to nominate a candidate for Delegate to Congress. Amos
Steck presided. H. P. Bennett received the nomination. Beverley D.
Williams was placed at the head of the People's ticket. Mr. Bennett
carried the election by nearly a two-thirds majority.
To illustrate briefly the condition of public feeling upon the great
national issues, and to indicate the direction taken by the opposing
forces, the following incidents are given : S. W. Waggoner, " the
bravest of the brave,'' and W. P. McClure were intimate friends, though
widely separated in sentiment respecting the impending conflict. Mc-
Clure was a secessionist of the most ardent type, while Waggoner was
equally pronounced in his devotion to the Union. McClure had been
appointed Postmaster at Denver by President Buchanan. He informed
Waggoner that he was expecting a beautiful silk Confederate flag from
St. Louis, and when received he would like to show it to him. When
the emblem of disunion arrived by mail, Waggoner sat in the postoffice
reading a late paper and eagerly scanning the developments of the w^ar,
Avhen McClure, in the presence of two or three sympathizers, opened
the package containing the flag and spread it out to their admiring
gaze. He called Waggoner to look at it, but without avail. Finally,
after much importuning, he arose and said : " I want to see none but the
flag of my country." They insisted upon a closer inspection, which net-
tled him, and being a furious tobacco chewer, as they brought the
emblem for a closer examination, he spat the contents of his mouth
upon it, exclaiming, " There, that's what I think of your infernal rebel
rag !" and marched out. Anticipating a challenge he prepared for it,
but received instead a letter demanding an apology. This he declined
to make, but sent a reply in which, after reminding McClure of their
long and close friendship, he w^rote, " I didn't mean to insult you per-
270 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
sonally, but to express my contempt for the cause you represent." The
explanation was accepted and there the matter ended.
A Confederate flag was raised one day over WalHngford & Mur-
phy's store, situated on Larimer street near Sixteenth. A crowd
assembled, and while some were disposed to remove it by force, the
majority favored ridiculing it by passing all sorts of humorous remarks
upon it. Still, there was that in the spirit of the audience which gave
the owners warning that the flag must be taken down, or serious conse-
quences would follow. In a few moments it disappeared, when the
owners received notice that Denver was a Union city, and no other than
the Stars and Stripes would be permited to float over it.
Judge Bennett being of the party, proposed as in some sense a test
of the patriotism of the community, to raise a flag over his residence on
the West Side. He had traded a lot in Golden City to George West of
the Boston Company for the grand old banner, and felt that it ought to
be displayed. The town was invited to the ceremony, and the greater
part attended. The demonstration proved sufficient to denote an over-
whelming majority for the Union cause. Hitherto the secession element
had been rampant and boisterous. Afterward they made little or no
parade of their disloyalty. The voice of the public had been heard.
Among the more outspoken, resolute and emphatic, was Jacob Downing,
who pronounced in unmistakable terms his condemnation of all who were
against their country.
At the first sound of the approaching crisis, Gilpin, like an exper-
ienced soldier, took what were suggested to his mind as proper measures
in preparation for the storm. At his instigation a number of military
companies were enrolled, and put under drill and discipline, so that
an armed force might be in readiness for any emergency. Toward the
latter part of July, John P. Slough received a commission to recruit
two companies for the United States Army, with the design as then
stated, when filled, of sending them to Fort Garland, to relieve the ree-
ular troops stationed there, which were to be sent to the states. Samuel
F. Tappan recruited a company in and about Gregory Point, Black
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 271
Hawk and Central. The Governor in his zeal for the cause assumed
entire control of military affairs, claiming authority from the Secretary of
War to raise a full regiment of volunteers. He appointed a military
staff, with R. E, Whitsitt as Adjutant General, Samuel Moer Quarter-
master, John S. Fillmore Paymaster and Morton C. Fisher purchasing
agent. The latter was sent out to buy and collect all the arms that
could be obtained. As every settler and emigrant had brought at least
one rifle or shotgun, the supply was large. By this process the Union
men were disarmed and rendered powerless for their own defense, while
the secessionists who refused to sell theirs were united and in order for
a contest, if need be. Many of the weapons were bought at extravagant
prices, and the miscellaneous collection turned in to the common arsenal
for the equipment of the troops. As the enlisted men had to be fed,
clothed and otherwise provided for, and there being no other way of
meeting the expense, the Governor issued drafts direct upon the Sec-
retary of the Treasury. These drafts were readily accepted by the
merchants and others who furnished supplies, upon the assumption,
nowhere disputed, that he, as the accredited officer of the government,
possessed the right to issue them. His entry among the people had
been auspicious. His enthusiastic interest in the country, his unwearying
exertions to make its resources known of all men, and the wisdom of his
official acts thus far, inspired unbounded respect and confidence. They
never suspected for an instant that he had no more authority to write
these drafts than the merchant who sold the goods, or any other citizen.
The executive department assumed the dual character of a civil and a
military establishment, the latter predominating. Gilpin's orders to the
troops were respected and obeyed. Having been apprised that Col.
Philip St. George Cooke and Major Pleasanton were marching from Salt
Lake eastward with the remnants of General Johnston's army, he sent a
messenger to intercept and if possible to divert their march to Denver.
Col. Cooke was advised by letter that this was the great line to be
defended, and as he (Gilpin) was already engaged in raising troops for
the field, the regulars should come here and support them. But he
272 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
declined to disobey his orders to march to Washington, so that project
had to be abandoned.
In the course of his administration, drafts amounting to about
$375,000 were issued. When they reached Washington for collection
the head of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, was simply astounded.
Our delegate in Congress, Mr. Bennett, wrote the governor that they
would not be paid, that the entire business was irregular, and could not
be recognized. The government was under a heavy strain for ways
and means to meet its own expenses. The treasury was empty, and a
loan seemed impossible. But the merchants here were in dire distress.
They had exhausted their stocks, and must have new ones to meet cur-
rent orders. When informed of the repudiation of the drafts they were
in despair. Trade languished, money grew scarcer and scarcer and the
whole situation was deplorable in the extreme. They opened and
poured out the vials of their wrath upon the governor. Public
indignation rose to a lofty pitch. Ruin stared many in the face.
His Excellency was beset and bedeviled on all sides, but he was
powerless to afford relief. The troops were in camp idle, many of
them vicious, some mutinous. It became evident that something
must be done to avoid a serious ebullition. In hopes of being
able to still the tempest, by securing some sort of recognition
of his claims, the governor went to Washington. Meanwhile
Secretary Chase had sent for delegate Bennett and given him a
fearful lecture upon the manner in which this business had been man-
aged by the people of Colorado. The delegate explained that the
people were not chargeable with the misguided acts of the govern-
ment officials. They were wholly unfamiliar with the treasury methods
but understood that Gilpin had full authority for his acts. The matter
went to a Cabinet meeting but reached no conclusion there. Gilpin
was removed, and Dr. John Evans, of Illinois, appointed. While
there may have been intrigues against him growing out of the general
ascerbity of feeling, these were less effective in accelerating his down-
fall than his own unwarranted acts. No one doubts that his defensive
(^:t-^-^-2y^.e^ ^^--r^^.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 273
measures, though unauthorized, were prompted by the loftiest patriot-
ism; no one denies that in the sequel his wisdom and promptitude pre-
served the Territory from hostile invasion, and prevented the subver-
sion of the Union control over New Mexico, and therefore the anom-
alous course pursued was, viewed in this light, fully justified. His
habits of life, thought and action had been, first essentially those of the
well trained soldier, but they were overshadowed by the persistent bent
of his mind toward the abstruse sciences. He had had no schooling in
financial problems. His thoughts were constantly soaring above and
beyond the petty details of existence, lost in the immeasurable expanse
of vast projects for the regeneration of continents and worlds. Com-
pelled to recognize the necessity which confronted the nation, and that
portion of it which he had been sent to govern, the military spirit took
possession, and while organizing he met the contingencies in the only
way he could think of. He saw the black tempest of war in the
heavens and, without pausing to consider whether his course was legal
or illegal, put his forces in line of battle to protect his people.
The holders of the drafts finally placed their claims, in the form of
itemized vouchers, in the hands of Paymaster Fillmore who took them
to Washington, and the First Regiment having meanwhile rendered
splendid service in New Mexico, they were audited, first by the War
Department, and next by the Treasury, and duly paid. The drafts were
simply canceled, and probably destroyed. Fillmore received the ap-
pointment of paymaster of volunteers, but neither he nor Whitsitt were
allowed any compensation for their services on the governor's staff.
Thus ended a matter which had not only excited acrimonious discord
in the local government, but came dangerously near bankrupting the
infantile metropolis.
Governor Gilpin was born October 4th, 1822, on the old battle-
field of Brandywine, upon which his father had taken a tract for a
homestead. At the age of ten years he was sent to England where he
remained under tuition for three years. Returning to the United
States, he entered the junior class at the University of Pennsylvania
18
274 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and having graduated, was appointed a cadet at West Point, graduating
from that institution in 1836. Having been commissioned a lieutenant
in the Second Dragoons, he reported to General Harney at St. Louis
with whom he marched to Florida to engage in the Seminole war ; at its
close he resigned from the army, locating in St. Louis. In 1841 he
moved to Independence, Missouri, where he served two years as secre-
tary of the legislature. Having studied law at West Point, he en-
gaged in the practice of that profession. In 1843 ^^ came west with
Fremont as already mentioned in a previous chapter, passing on to the
mouth of the Columbia River. The few white settlers on the Willa-
mette composed of Americans, French Canadians, and employes of the
British fur companies, whalemen. Catholic missionaries, etc, resolved to
form a territory. Gilpin drew up their memorial to Congress and was
commissioned by them to lay it before that body. This mission was
only partially successful. He claims to have founded the city of
Portland, Oregon. His military services in subjugating the Indians of
New Mexico and in the Mexican war, have been related. From 1848
to 1 86 1 he resided in Independence. While his administration lasted
but a single year, he had the satisfaction of knowing before its close
that the troops he had organized with so much difficulty, and under
such extraordinary circumstances, had crushed the attempted invasion
of New Mexico and Colorado by the Confederate arms.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 275
CHAPTER XIX.
1861-1862 — ACTIVITY OF THE SECESSIONISTS — PLOT TO CAPTURE COLORADO AND NEW
MEXICO — ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST REGIMENT COLORADO VOLUNTEERS — ITS
MARCH TO FORT UNION — BATTLES OF APACHE CANON AND PIGEOn's RANCH —
GALLANT EXPLOITS OF MAJOR CHIVINGTON SLOUGh's RESIGNATION CHIVING-
TON APPOINTED TO COMMAND HIS ABILITY AS A LEADER SERVICE RENDERED
BY CAPTAINS DODD AND FORD — m'lAIn's BATTERY.
During the organization of the troops called for by Governor Gilpin,
the sympathizers with and abettors of the Southern Confederacy resolved
upon a counter movement, which was inaugurated by the posting of
handbills in all conspicuous places between Denver and the mining camps,
designating certain places where the highest prices would be paid for
arms of every description, and for powder, lead, shot and percussion caps.
Simultaneously, a small force was collected and put under discipline to
cooperate with parties expected from Arkansas and Texas who were to
take possession, first of Colorado and subsequently of New Mexico,
anticipating the easy capture of the Federal troops and stores located
there. Being apprised of these movements, the governor immediately
decided to enlist a full regiment of volunteers. John P. Slough was
appointed Colonel, Sam. F. Tappan Lieut.-Colonel, and J. M. Chivington
Major, with the following company officers:
Company A, E. W. Wynkoop Captain, J. R. Shaffer and J. C.
Davidson Lieutenants ; Company B, S. M. Logan Captain, Isaac Gray
and E. A. Jacobs Lieutenants ; Company C, Richard Sopris Captain.
Alfred S. Cobb and Clark Chambers Lieutenants ; Company D, Jacol^
Downing Captain, W. H. Roath and Eli Dickerson Lieutenants ; Com-
276 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
pany E, Scott J. Anthony Captain, J. O. Buell and J. A. Dawson Lieu-
tenants ; Company F, Samuel H. Cook Captain, George Nelson and
W. F. Marshall Lieutenants ; Company G, J. W. Hambelton Captain,
W. F. Wilder and John C. Anderson Lieutenants ; Company H, George
F. Sanborn Captain, J. P. Bonesteel and B. N. Sanford Lieutenants ; Com-
pany I, Charles Mallie Captain, Charles Kerber and John Baker Lieu-
tenants ; Company K, C. P. Marion Captain, George S. Eayers and
Robert McDonald Lieutenants. Recruiting offices were opened in Den-
ver, Boulder, Colorado City, Canon City, and all the mining sections of
the territory. Enlistments proceeded rapidly, and the regiment was
completely filled about the middle of September,
Without telegraphs or railroads nearer than the Missouri River, and
wholly dependent upon the overland mail coach for communication with
the states and the authorities at Washington, all news was at least a
week old when received here. Thus in a condition of doubt and extreme
anxiety, the troops passed the time until the 6th of January, 1862, when
information arrived that an invading force under Gen. H. H. Sibley from
San Antonio, Texas, was approaching the southern border of New
Mexico, and had already captured Forts Fillmore and Bliss, taking pris-
oners their garrisons without firing a gun, and securing all their stock
and supplies.
Immediately upon the receipt of this intelligence, efforts were made
to obtain the consent of, or orders from General Hunter commanding
the department at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for the regiment to go to
the relief of General Canby, then in command of the department of New
^lexico. On the 20th of February orders came from Gen. Hunter direct-
ing Colonel Slough and the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers to
proceed with all possible dispatch to Fort Union, or Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and report to Gen. Canby for service.
Two days thereafter the command marched out of Camp Weld two
miles up the Platte River, and in due time encamped at Pueblo, on the
Arkansas Riven At this point further advices were received from Canby
stating that he had encountered the enemy at Valverde, ten miles north
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 277
of Fort Craig, but owing to the inefficiency of the newly raised New
Mexican volunteers, was compelled to retire. The Texans under Sibley
marched on up the Rio Grande River levying tribute upon the inhab-
itants for their support. The Colorado troops were urged to the greatest
possible haste in reaching Fort Union where they were to unite with
such regular troops as could be concentrated at that post, and thus aid
in saving the fort and its supplies from falling into Confederate hands.
Early on the following morning the order was given to proceed to Union
by forced marches, and it is doubtful if the same number of men ever
marched a like distance in the same length of time.
When at the summit of Raton Pass, another carrier from Canby
met the command, who informed Col. Slough that the Texans had
already captured Albuquerque and Santa Fe with all the troops stationed
at those places, together with the supplies stored there, and that they
were then marching on Fort Union.
Arriving at Red River about sundown, the regiment was drawn up
in line and this information imparted to the men. The request was then
made for all who were willing to undertake a forced night march to step
two paces to the front, when every man advanced to the new alignment.
After a hasty supper the march was resumed, and at sunrise the next
morning they reached Maxwell's Ranch on the Cimarron, having made
sixty-four miles in twenty-four hours. At ten o'clock on the second
night thereafter the command entered Fort Union. It was here discov-
ered that Colonel Paul in charge of the post had mined the fort, given
orders for the removal of the women and children, and was preparing. to
blow up all the supplies and march to Fort Garland or some other post
to the northward, on the first approach of the Confederates.
The troops remained at Union from the 13th to the 2 2d of I\Iarch.
when by order of Colonel Slough they proceeded in the direction of
Santa Fe. The command consisted of the First Colorado X'olunteers,
two light batteries, one commanded by Captain Ritter and the other by
Captain Claflin ; Ford's company of Colorado Volunteers unattached,
278 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
two companies of the Fifth Infantry (regulars) and two companies of
the Seventh U. S. Cavalr)^
This force encamped at Burnell's Springs, where Col. Slough
determined to organize a detachment to enter Santa Fe by night with
the view of surprising the enemy, spiking his guns, and after doing what
other damage could be accomplished without a general action, falling
back on the main body. The detachment chosen comprised sixty men
each from Companies A, D and E of the Colorado regiment, with Com-
pany F of the same, mounted, and thirty men each from the companies
of Captains Ford and Howland of the Seventh Cavalry, the whole com-
manded by Major Chivington. At sundown on the 25th of March it
reached Cosloskie's Ranch, where Chivington was informed that the
enemy's pickets were in the vicinity. He went into camp at once, and
about 9 o'clock the same evening sent out Lieut. Nelson of the First
Colorado with thirty men of Company F, who captured the Texan pick-
ets while they were engaged in a game of cards at Pigeon's Ranch, and
before daylight on the morning of the 26th, reported at camp with his
prisoners. After breakfast, the major being thus apprised of the enemy's
whereabouts proceeded cautiously, keeping his advance guard well to the
front. While ascending the pass near its summit the officer in command
of the advance met the Confederate advance consisting of a First lieu-
tenant and thirty men, captured them without firing a gun, and returning.
met the main body and surrendered the prisoners to the commanding
off^.cer.
The Confederate lieutenant declared that they had received no
intimation of the advance from Fort Union, but themselves expected to
be there four days later.
Descending Apache Canon for a distance of half a mile, Chiving-
ton's force observed the approaching Texans about six hundred strong,
w^ith three pieces of artillery, who, on discovering the Federals, halted,
formed line and battery, and opened fire. Chivington drew up his cav-
alry as a reserve under cover deployed Company D under Capt. Down^
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 27'J
ing to the right, and Companies A and E under Captains Wynkoop and
Anthony to the left, directing them to ascend the mountain side until
they were above the elevation of the enemy's artillery, and thus flank
him, at the same time directing Captain Howland, he being the ranking
cavalry officer, to closely observe the enemy and when he retreated, with-
out further orders to charge with the cavalry. This disposition of the
troops proved wise and successful. The Texans soon broke battery and
retreated down the canon a mile or more, but from some cause Capt.
Howland failed to charge as ordered, which enabled the Confederates to
take up a new and strong position where they formed battery, threw
their supports well up the sides of the mountain, and again opened fire.
Chivington dismounted Captains Howland and Lord with their
regulars, leaving their horses in charge of every fourth man, and ordered
them to join Captain Downing on the left, taking orders from him. Our
skirmishers advanced, and flanking the enemy's supports, drove them
pell mell down the mountain side, when Captain Samuel Cook, with
Company F, First Colorado, being signaled by the major, made as gallant
and successful a charore throuo^h the canon, through the ranks of the
Confederates and back, and through again and back, as was ever per-
formed. Meanwhile, our infantry advanced rapidly, and when the enemy
commenced his retreat a second time, they were well ahead of him on the
mountain sides and poured a galling fire into him, which thoroughly
demoralized and broke him up, compelling the entire body to seek shel-
ter among the rocks down the canon and in some cabins that stood by
the wayside.
After an hour spent in collecting the prisoners, caring for the
wounded, both Federal and Confederate, the latter having lost in killed,
wounded and prisoners, a number equal to our force in the field, the first
baptism by fire of our volunteers terminated. The victory was decided
and complete. Night intervening, and there being no water in the
canon, the little command fell back to Pigeon's Ranch, whence a courier
was dispatched to Colonel Slough, advising him of the engagement and
its result, and requesting him to bring forward the main command as
280 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
rapidly as possible, as the enemy with all his forces had moved from
Santa Fe toward Fort Union.
After interring the dead and making a comfortable hospital for the
wounded, on the afternoon of the 27th Chivington fell back to the Pecos
river at Cosloskie's Ranch and encamped. On receiving news from
Apache Canon, Col. Slough put his forces in motion and at 1 1 r. m. of
the 27th joined Chivington at Cosloskie's. At daybreak on the 28th the
"Assembly" was sounded, and the entire force resumed its march. F'ive
miles out from their encampment Major Chivington in command of a
detachment composed of companies A, B, H and E of the First Colo-
rado, and Captain Ford's company unattached, with Captain Lewis' com-
pany of the Fifth Infantry was ordered to take the Gallisteo road, and
by a detour through the mountains to gain the enemy's rear, if possible
at the west end of Apache Canon, while Slough advanced slowly with
the main body and gained his front about the same time, thus devising
an attack in front and rear. About ten o'clock while making his way
through the scrub pine and cedar brush in the mountains. Major Chiving-
ton and his command heard cannonading to the right, and were thereby
apprised that Colonel Slough and his men had met the enemy. About
twelve o'clock he arrived with his men on the summit of the mountain
which overlooked the enemy's supply wagons, which had been left in the
charge of a strong guard with one piece of artillery mounted on an eleva-
tion commanding the camp and mouth of the canon. With great diffi-
culty Chivington's force descended the precipitous mountain, charged,
took and spiked the gun, ran together the enemy's supply wagons of
commissary, quartermaster and ordnance stores, set them on fire, blew
and burned them up, bayoneted his mules in corral, took the guard pris-
oners and reascended the mountain, where about dark he was met by
Lieutenant Cobb, Aid de Camp on Col. Slough's staff, with the infor-
mation that Slough and his men had been defeated and had fallen back
to Cosloskie's with directions to join him there. Upon the supposition
that this information was correct, Chivington under the guidance of a
French Catholic priest, in the intensest darkness, with great difiiculty
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 281
made his way with his command through the mountains without road
or trail, and joined Colonel Slough about midnight.
Meanwhile, after Chivington and -his detachment had left in the
morning, Colonel Slough with the main body proceeded up the cailon,
and arriving at Pigeon's Ranch, gave orders for the troops to stack arms
in the road and supply their canteens with water, as that would be the
last opportunity before reaching the further end of Apache Canon.
While thus supplying themselves with water and visiting the wounded
in the hospital at Pigeon's Ranch, being entirely off their guard, they
were suddenly startled by a courier from the advance guard dashing
at full speed down the road and informing them that the enemy was
close at hand. Orders were immediately given to fall in and take arms,
but before the order could be obeyed the enemy had formed battery
and commenced shelling them. They formed as quickly as possible,
the Colonel ordering Captain Downing with Company D First Col-
orado Volunteers to advance on the left, and Capt. Kerber with Com-
pany I, First Colorado, to advance on the right. In the meantime
Ritter and Claflin opened a return fire on the enemy with their batter-
ies. Captain Downing advanced and fought desperately, meeting a
largely superior force in point of numbers, until he was almost over-
powered and surrounded ; when happily Captain Wilder of Company
G First Colorado, with a detachment of his company, came to his re-
lief, and extricated him and that part of his company not slaughtered.
While on the opposite side, the right. Company I had advanced into
an open space, feeling the enemy, and ambitious of capturing his
battery, when they were surprised by a detachment which was con-
cealed in an arroya, and which, when Kerber and his men were within
forty feet of it, opened a galling fire upon them. Kerber lost heavily
(Lieutenant Baker being wounded) and fell back. In the meantime
the enemy masked and made five successive charges on our batteries,
determined to capture them as they had captured Canby\s at Valverde.
At one time they were within forty yards of Slough's batteries, their
slouch hats drawn down over their faces, and rushing on with deafening
282 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
yells. It seemed inevitable that they would make their capture, when
Captain Claflin gave the order to "cease firing," and Captain Samuel
Robbins with his Company K First Colorado arose from the ground
like ghosts, delivered a galling fire, charged bayonets, and on the
double quick put the rebels to flight.
During the whole of this time the cavalry under Captain Howland
were held in reserve, never moving except to fall back and keep out of
danger, with the exception of Captain Samuel Cook's men who dis-
mounted and fought as infantry. From the opening of the battle to
its close the odds were against Colonel Slough and his force ; the enemy
being greatly superior in numbers with a better armament of artillery
and equally well armed otherwise. But every inch of ground was stub-
bornly contested. In no instance did Slough's forces fall back until
they were in danger of being flanked and surrounded, and for nine hours
without rest or refreshment, the battle raged incessantly. At one time
Claflin gave orders to double shot his guns, they being nothing but
little brass howitzers, and then stood and counted, " One, two, three,
four" until one of his gun carriages capsized and fell down into the gulch ;
from which place Captain Samuel Robbins and his company K extricated
it and thus saved it from falling into the enemy's hands.
Being compelled to give ground all through the day. Colonel
Slough, between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, issued orders to
retreat. About the same time Gen. Sibley received information from
the rear of the destruction of his supply trains, and ordered a flag of
truce to be sent to Colonel Slough, which did not reach him, however,
until he had arrived at Cosloskie's. A truce was entered into until nine
o'clock the next morning, which was afterward extended to twenty-
four hours, and under which Sibley with his demoralized forces fell back
to Santa Fe, laying that town under tribute to supply his forces.
The 29th was spent in burying our dead as well as those of the
Confederates, which they left on the field, and in caring for the wounded.
Orders were received from Gen. Canby directing Colonel Slough to
fall back on Ft. Union, which so incensed the Colonel that while
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 283
he obeyed, he forwarded his resignation and soon afterward left the
command.
April 5th Col. Paul, now the senior ofificer, and consequently in
command of the troops in Northern New Mexico, issued an order for
all available troops at Fort Union to prepare themselves with all speed,
and at dark that day the men received orders to march and moved out
of the post.
Some surprise was manifested at this order. It seemed like the
army in Flanders that marched up the hill and then marched down
again. But Major Chivington briefly addressed the First Colorados,
stating that Canby had left Fort Craig on the ist instant, and they were
ordered out to divert the enemy's attention, or to assist in drivine him
out of the country. After which short explanation all murmuring ceased
and the men marched out with alacrity, anxious to finish the task they
had so gloriously commenced on the 26th ultimo. They marched to
Loma and went into camp. Early on the following morning they broke
camp and pursued the march, during which nothing worthy of note
occurred until the 13th when a junction was made with Gen. Canby and
his forces at Carnuel Pass, where Colonel Slouch's resig^nation was
accepted. On petition of all the commissioned officers of the First
Colorado Volunteers, presented by Lieut.-Col. S. F. Tappan to Gen.
Canby, Major Chivington was promoted to the Colonelcy in his stead.
The men had never liked Slough, and in one of their battles it was
asserted that some of them had tried to shoot him. He had little con-
trol over them, since they had neither confidence in nor respect for him.
On the other hand Chivington was their idol. With him and for him
they would have fought anything he commanded them to do. They
could easily have annihilated Sibley's forces after the battle of Pigeon's
Ranch, but for some cause, never explained, they were not permitted to.
Early on the morning of April 14th, Gen. Canby with his entire
force, including the First Colorado, took up the line of march down the
Rio Grande in pursuit of the fleeing Texan forces. At about midnight
the command arrived at or near Peralta where the enemy was encamped,
284 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and were directed to rest on their arms until daylight. Here one of the
most singular and inexplicable incidents of the campaign occurred. It
was ascertained by spies sent in advance by Col. Chivington that there
was no commissioned officer on duty in the enemy's camp. They were
holding high carnival at the residence of Gov. Conley, where they were
drinking and dancing in seeming forgetfulness of the defeats they had
recently met with. Chivington went in person to Gen. Canby and
requested the privilege of surprising and capturing their camp that
nip-ht. Canby, always cautious, and now fearful of disaster, declined to
accede to the request, but Chivington was persistent and urged his plea,
offering with his own regiment to make the capture. Canby said he
would consider the matter, and if he could overcome his doubts as to the
propriety of a night attack he would send for Chivington and let him
make the attempt. But the next knowledge Chivington had of Canby's
whereabouts or intentions was at daylight the next morning when he,
with his servant, was seen kindling a fire to make his morning coffee,
and almost simultaneous with the flash of the match to light the fire was
the flash of the rebel guns, and the first shot took the head off' one of
Canby's mules in very close proximity to the General himself.
Soon after a part of the rebel command that had encamped about
two miles above on the bank of the river, with one piece of artillery was
discovered making an attempt to join their main force. A detachment
of the First Colorado Volunteers was instantly dispatched, and captured
the entire rebel detachment with its baggage, ammunition and gun.
At about nine o'clock Col. Paul in command of the regular cavalry
and of the First Colorado Volunteers was directed to clear the woods of
rebels, but to be sure not to bring on a general engagement. For five
hours, in a broiling sun, he, with his men, drawn up in line of battle,
stood receiving the fire of the rebel batteries under the cover of adobe
walls, and of heavy cottonwood timber; — indeed, the entire day was
spent in standing up to be shot at by the rebels without the privilege of
returning the fire except as our artillery occasionally answered them
from the place which Gen. Canby had occupied in the morning. Our
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 285
loss was comparatively light, and it is not known that the rebels sus-
tained any loss in killed or wounded.
That night, under cover of darkness, Sibley and his command crossed
the Rio Grande and pursued their way down the river on the opposite
side. And thus for several consecutive days were the Union and Con-
federate forces on opposite sides of the river almost constantly in sight
of each other ; the rebels making all haste to escape from the country, and
the Union forces endeavoring to get sufTficiently in advance of them to
cross the Rio Grande and cut them off, which they were never enabled
to do. Frequently the forces would stop and exchange a few shots from
their artillery, and then resume their march, until the night of the 17th
when the enemy, in the midst of one of the severest wind and sand
storms ever known in that section of the country, burned all his wagons
excepting two ambulances, packed his scanty supplies upon his transpor-
tation mules, and left the river, takino- to the mountains to avoid beine
captured. Next morning left Gen. Canby free to cross the river with
his command and proceed leisurely on his way to Fort Craig, where he
arrived on the 2 2d.
Here for the ensuing six weeks the First Colorado Volunteers had
the severest test to which they were ever put. The command of Gen.
Canby had traveled faster than its supplies, and from necessity they were
put on quarter rations. Day after day supplies were expected and
looked for; and the reader may imagine the astonishment of those need-
ing supplies when the first train of twenty wagons, of six mules each,
arrived and they found it was loaded with nothing but whisky and vin-
egar ; not a pound nor an ounce of anything else. Six ounces of flour
per day, and the poorest, old, unshorn sheep for rations, was what they
subsisted upon. Tobacco ran out ; the men and officers grew cross and
morose, and mutiny was threatened.
Having issued an order putting Colonel Chivington in command of
the district of Southern New Mexico, Gen. Canby with his staff and all
the regular troops in the department took their leave for Santa Fe head-
quarters of the department. On the 4th of Jul)' Colonel Howe, Third
280 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
United States Cavalry, arrived at Fort Craig and relieved Colonel Chiv-
ington of the command of the district of Southern New Mexico.
He then proceeded to Santa Fe and procured an order from Gen.
Canby for the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, relieving it from
duty in the Southern District of New Mexico and ordering it to Fort
Union, and also obtained leave of absence for the purpose of proceeding
to Washington to get his regiment transferred to the Army of the Poto-
mac and to have it changed from the infantry to the cavalry arm of the
service. He failed to obtain the transfer to the Army of the Potomac,
but by dint of great perseverance he did obtain an order of transfer to
the cavalry arm, and for the relief of his regiment from further service
in the department of New Mexico ; also for its return to Colorado for
service there, where it arrived in detachments about the first of Jan-
uary, 1863, and was mounted, and continued in the service in Colorado
and the adjacent territories during the remainder of the war. The
horses and horse equipments and change of arms, etc., were received
and the regiment was mounted soon after its arrival in the territory of
Colorado, and was then distributed at the various posts in that terri-
tory, and at several camps established to render it more effective in
holding in check the Indians who had become hostile. And it may be
observed here, that the Indian outbreak from New Ulm, Minnesota, to
the Arkansas River, was as veritable a part of the Rebellion as the
revolt of the whites in any part of the Southern states.
Soon after the resignation of his commission as Colonel of the
First Regiment, Slough proceeded to Washington, and in April was
appointed a Brigadier General and made Military Governor of the dis-
trict of Alexandria.
Though wholly unskilled in the science of war, with but little
knowledge of drill and discipline, Major Chivington, of herculean frame
and gigantic stature, possessed the courage and exhibited the discreet
boldness, dash and brilliancy in action which distinguished the more
illustrious of our volunteer officers during the war. His first encounter
with the Texans at Apache Canon was sudden, and more or less of a
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 287
surprise. The occasion demanded not only instantaneous action, but
such disposition of his force as to render it most effective against
superior numbers and the highly advantageous position of the enemy.
He seemed to comprehend at a glance the necessities of the situation,
and handled his troops like a veteran. His daring and rapid movement
across the mountains, and the total destruction of the enemy's trains
simultaneously with the battle of Pigeon's Ranch, again attested his
excellent generalship. It put an end to the war by forcing the invaders
to a precipitate flight back to their homes. He hesitated at nothing.
Sure of the devotion and gallantry of his men, he was always ready for
any adventure however desperate, which promised the discomfiture of
his adversaries. We cannot but believe that had his application for
the transfer of his regiment to the Army of the Potomac, or to any
of the great armies operating under Grant been acceded to, he would
have made a still prouder record for himself, the regiment and the
territory. That he was endowed with the capabilities of a superior
commander none who saw him in action will deny. After New Mexico
had been liberated there were no further glories, no more battlefields
for the First Colorado. Though some of its detached companies ren-
dered efhcient service in the Indian wars which ensued, as a whole its
record ended with the flight of Sibley. On a broader field, it might
have won imperishable renown.
To complete the history of the laurels gathered by our volunteers
in New Mexico, it is necessary to review certain events which trans-
pired prior to Slough's march to Fort Union. Two companies of
infantry then unattached, but subsequently incorporated with the Colo-
rado Second, were moved from their rendezvous at Canon City to Fort
Garland where they were mustered in by an officer of the regular army
and then dispatched to Santa Fe to be uniformed and equipped. The
first was commanded by Captain T. H. Dodd, and the second by James
H. Ford. After a time spent in drill and discipline, there came an
order from General Canby directing all the available troops in Santa Fe
to join him at F^ort Craig. Dodd's company marched with others to
288 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
his assistance, Ford's having been assigned to Fort Union to strengthen
the weak garrison at that point. As we have seen, the latter took an
active part with the First Colorado in the battles of Apache Canon and
Pigeon's Ranch.
On the 15th of February, Sibley made his appearance at the head
of about two thousand Texans. On the 21st, Canby's small command
met him on the field of Valverde, ten miles north of Fort Craig. The
Texans took a position in the sand hills overlooking the post. Canby
planted a battery under Capt. McRae on the bank of the Rio Grande
where an artillery duel ensued, but without effective result on either
side. At length McRae was ordered to take his guns across the river.
McRae protested against the change of position in view of the greatly
superior force of the enemy, saying his guns would be taken and his
men needlessly slaughtered. Canby insisting, he said, " I will go if
ordered, but the result will be annihilation, for I will not surrender."
As predicted, the battery was taken, its commander and nearly all his
men killed. The Texans charged furiously. The regiment of raw
Mexican troops left to support the guns fled in terror before the terrific
onslaught. Capt. Dodd's company fought like seasoned veterans, los-
ing half their number in killed and wounded, but not until they had
nearly destroyed a company of the enemy's lancers.
Feeling himself too weak to contend against Sibley's entire com-
mand, Canby retired to Fort Craig to await the expected reinforce-
ments from Denver, while the Texans advanced upon Fort Union, but
were met en route by Major Chivington and overwhelmed by him
at Apache Canon.
During the autumn of 1862, Captain W. D. McLain, by authority
recruited a four gun battery which took his name. As organized and
equipped it presented a fine appearance, and in connection with the
Second Regiment of Colorado Volunteers performed efficient service
against Sterling Price and other Confederate generals in Missouri. It
was officered by W. D. McLain, Captain; George S. Eayre, First
Lieutenant, and H. W. Baldwin, Second Lieutenant. The history of
the Second Colorado is given in a subsequent chapter.
lMxMam Jt
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 289
CHAPTER XX.
1862-1864 — STATE OF POLITICAL FEELING — BENNETT AND GILPIN CANDIDATES FOR
CONGRESS — Bennett's services to the territory — opening the branch
MINT REMOVAL OF THE CAPITAL TO COLORADO CITY COL, JESSE H. LEAVEN-
WORTH HISTORY OF THE SECOND AND THIRD REGIMENTS OF COLORADO VOLUN-
TEERS DENVER SWEPT BY FIRE THE CONSTRUCTION OF TELEGRAPH LINES
MAYOR STECK's MESSAGE A STALWART SENTIMENT FROM THE PACIFIC SLOPE
PROTRACTED DROUTH FOLLOWED BY A SEVERE WINTER THE RAPID RISE OF
GOLD SALE OF COLORADO MINES IN NEW YORK THE GREAT FLOOD IN CHERRY
CREEK THE STATE MOVEMENT OF 1864 — REJECTION OF THE CONSTITUTION.
Pursuing the regular order of events, we find that in July, 1862,
ex-Governor Gilpin, deeply incensed by his summary removal from the
executive office, but still resolved to perpetuate his name and influ-
ence, having received a call signed by some two or three hundred
citizens, to become the " People's " candidate for Congress, began an
extensive electioneering tour in that behalf. Early in August Hiram
P. Bennett was renominated for the same office by the Union Admin-
istration party. At this period old party lines were almost wholly
ignored, the electors dividing upon the single issue of union or dis-
union,— in other words, for and against the existing administration in
its efforts to suppress the rebellion. The Republican Unionists,
though largely in the majority, were strengthened and earnestly sup-
ported by many who theretofore had affiliated with the Democratic
organization. These acquisitions united with a deep and steadfast pat-
riotism with those who believed that the constitution should be pre-
served, and the laws made under it enforced. Such as were unalter-
ably opposed to coercion of the seceding states, or who accepted the
290 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
doctrine of secession as a state right, arrayed themselves in opposition,
and thus all political contests were waged upon the issue thereby
joined, until the time arrived for the resumption of antecedent divi-
sions— simon pure Republicanism and Democracy.
Hot and bitter as are the campaigns of the present epoch, local and
national in the several states and in our own, they are rarely or never so
tempestuous, nor tinctured with the same quality of personal invective,
which characterized our territorial politics. In the old days the heat of
the campaign entered into all the affairs of life, public and private, not
infrequently culminating in social ostracism. The various elements
seemed to be in constant fermentation as one party or the other was
upheld or cast down by the progress of the war. Intermixed with the
general sentiment were factions pledged to support or antagonize the
several movements in behalf of state organization. While many of the
leading Republicans or Unionists, and some Democrats vehemently
advocated admission, the majority in both parties, realizing the true pur-
pose of these periodical eruptions, the weakness of the territory in its
lack of population and property subject to taxation, and the burdens
incident to the support of a state government, resisted, and until 1876
overcame, every attempt to carry it. Notwithstanding the apparent ma-
jority of one hundred and fifty-five for the constitution of 1865, there
were many who with good reason believed that it was more apparent
than real. But of this hereafter.
Bennett's claims upon his party had been established by the energy
and success of his first term in congress, where he fortified himself
strongly in the esteem of its members. Though only a delegate, with-
out a vote, a sort of political eunuch, as it were, his power limited to the
simple privilege of introducing, and by consent, of advocating measures
for the benefit of his constituents, he nevertheless secured the respect
and confidence of the ruling majority by his affability and industry,
which gave him an influence that enabled him to obtain nearly as
many advantages as a voting member. Thus numerous bills for the
institution of important public enterprises in the territory became
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 291
laws. By the valuable aid of Schuyler Colfax and other conspicuous
lights in the House, he secured the establishment of postal routes and
postofiices in the settled portions not previously supplied ; a local land
office, which was greatly needed, since the movement of settlers
toward the pursuit of agriculture began at this time to be strongly
manifest ; the location of military posts for the protection of smaller
settlements against hostile Indians; an appropriation for carrying into
effect treaties made with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians for the
cession of their lands in Colorado ; procured the removal of the Sur-
veyor General's office from Salt Lake City to Denver, with liberal appro-
priations for surveys; the establishment of a branch mint, and sevent)-
five thousand dollars for the erection or purchase of a building and
machinery for coining gold and silver, and wrought industriously for the
passage of the Pacific railroad bill, stimulated in this instance by the
hope and belief that the road would be extended from the Missouri
river straight to Denver, and thence across the mountains by Vasquez
Fork or some other feasible route. He was also instrumental in prepar-
ing the way for the final adjustment of the numerous claims arising from
the organization of troops under Governor Gilpin's administration. The
tremendous pressure of difficulties which beset the government on all
sides demanded the well nigh exclusive attention of Congress, hence it
was no easy task for our single representative to divert it, even for a
short time, to the needs of our struec^linQ: communities on the remote
frontier.
In our local affairs Mr. Bennett had been a prominent leader. At
the election held October 7, 1862, he was re-elected by a very large plu-
rality over his strongest competitor. Governor Gilpin.
Georore W. Lane, a brother of the somewhat celebrated General
James Lane of Kansas, was appointed Superintendent of the Branch
Mint in December, 1S62. The building owned by Clark, Gruber & Co..
was purchased, but not their coining apparatus. What disposition was
made of the balance remaining from this expenditure, is not known to
the author, but it is certain that the institution has never been elevated
292 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
to the position assigned it in Mr. Bennett's bill, nor have the efforts of
his successors In ofifice been equal to the task of raising it from the
status of an assay office. It remains as It was founded in 1862, a
laboratory and a central depot for the deposit of gold bullion from the
mines. Latterly it has been converted Into an agency for the purchase
of gold for the United States treasury department. During the past
five years It has been of great service In collecting trustworthy data
relating to the annual production of the precious metals, and the con-
dition of the mining Industry.
On the 5th of January, 1863, Mr. Bennett introduced a bill for an
act to enable the people of Colorado to form a state government, the
same being supplemental to Hon. J. M. Ashley's omnibus bill brought
forward at the December session and intended to provide state gov-
ernments for Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Both were sup-
pressed, at all events were not reported by the committee to which they
were referred.
The second session of the territorial legislature which was, as a
matter of fact, but a continuation of the first session, convened at Colo-
rado City — whence the capital had been removed the previous year —
on Monday, July 7th, 1862. Soon after its organization a bill was
brought forth by a committee, which provided for a convention to frame
a constitution and other machinery of a state government. In submit-
ting the measure the committee entered upon an elaborate and far-
reaching Investigation of the conditions, political and otherwise, of the
territory, as a reason for taking this advanced step. It was boldly
declared that progress under the existing form was well nigh impos-
sible, but by mounting to the exalted position of a sovereign state, the
people would acquire at a single bound the prestige which representa-
tion In both branches of Congress would inevitably bring, and immedi-
ately capital and Increased population, with all the collateral advantages
of such acquisitions would flow in upon us to develop the phenomenal
resources with which the country had been so lavishly supplied. The
territory, though in the first year of its existence, had already become
HISTORY OF COLORADO. l>93
odious, and it was asserted (without reason) that the majority longed
and panted for the pohtical and industrial loaves and fishes which this
movement, if carried out, would shower upon them. They were now
denied the right to elect their officers — an immeasurable grievance.
Strangers without interest in, or sympathy with the pioneers, were sent
out to govern and direct. Decrepit and windbroken politicians who
clamored for the support of the general government, were preferred to
the first class native timber to be found here in exhaustless quanti-
ties. The people were compelled to bear not only these heavy afflic-
tions, but even their laws were subject to revision and possible repeal
by Congress, and so on, ad infinihim.
The bill failed. The wiser judgment of the majority comprehended
the weight of the burden sought to be imposed, and they acted accord-
ingly. On the nth of July the assembly adjourned to Denver and
there completed its labors. Thus went out in darkness the glory of
Colorado City as the capital of Colorado territory.
Governor Evans delivered his message, a document prepared with
much care, showing in its suggestions and recommendations that he
had examined the statutes already enacted, discovered the necessity of
their amendment in certain important particulars, and that he had also
made an intelligent inspection of the various settlements, and had well
digested plans for their improvement.
By authority of the war department, in February, 1862, Colonel
Jesse H. Leavenworth (son of General Henry Leavenworth of the
regular army), a graduate of West Point, who came out to " Pike's
Peak,'' with the immigrants of i860, but subsequently returned to
engage in the war, was commissioned to enlist a battalion of six com-
panies in Colorado for service in one of the eastern armies. The un-
attached companies already raised were to be added, and the whole to
constitute the Second Regiment of Colorado Volunteers. He arrived
in Denver May 12, and to all intents and purposes assumed control of
military affairs. He appointed recruiting officers who at once entered
upon their duties. The work proceeded slowly, because the minin'^-
294 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
excitement having subsided, the floating population had scattered to
the westward, or returned to the states. About this time reported dis-
coveries of rich placer mines on Salmon River — now in the territory of
Idaho, occasioned a general movement in that direction. All who were
not identified with some fixed avocation, and possessed the means to
take them to the new fields, emig^rated. Col. Leavenworth brouQrht a
battery of six guns, which had been captured from the Confederates at
Fort Donelson, manned by a contingent from the Ninth Wisconsin.
There were four companies here, two of which had seen service under
Canby and Slough in New Mexico.
While the recruiting proceeded, the following officers were
appointed :
Lieutenant-Colonel, T. H. Dodd ; Captains, J. Nelson S/nith,
Company E ; L. D. Rouell, Company F ; Wm. H. Green, Company
G ; George West, Company H ; E. D. Boyd, Company I ; S. W.
Waggoner, Company K.
In the absence of other troops, detachments were sent out against
hostile Indians, or to suppress civil disturbances whenever and wherever
the aid of military force was required. Headquarters were established
at Camp Weld for a time, but subsequently transferred to Fort Lyon,
on the Arkansas River, where they remained until April, 1863. A num-
ber of men raised in Colorado for a New Mexican regiment were
brought to Fort Union and assigned to some of the companies of the
Second Regiment.
Shortly after Lieut. -Col. Dodd marched under orders to Fort
Leavenworth with six companies, but upon the arrival of the detach-
ment at Fort Riley, Kansas, orders were received to march southward
to Fort Scott. From this point the command proceeded to Fort Gib-
son in the Cherokee nation, escorting a large train of commissary
wagons, withstanding an attack at Cabin Creek by a large force of Tex-
ans and Indians, going through to their destination without loss.
From Fort Gibson Col. Dodd's command with other troops proceeded
to Honey Springs, Arkansas, under General Blunt, where they encoun-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 205
tered about six thousand Confederates, and after a severe engagement
won a decisive victory. Col. Leavenworth was dismissed the service
in September, on charges preferred against him, but was subsequently
restored, when he at once resigned from the army, Dodd succeeding
him in command of the regiment.
In 1863 the raising of a third regiment was authorized by the
president under Col. William Larimer, but it was not filled, owing to
the scarcity of men. March 3d, 1863, this detachment under command
of Lieut. Col. S. S. Curtis, marched from Denver across the plains via
Leavenworth and St. Louis to Pilot Knob, Missouri. A consolidation
of the Second and Third infantry was effected in the winter of 1863-64,
at Benton Barracks near St. Louis, and the Second Colorado cavalry
organized with James H. Ford as Colonel, T. H. Dodd as Lieutenant-
Col; S. S. Curtis, J. Nelson Smith and Jesse L. Pritchard as Majors.
Under the consolidation the regiment comprised twelve squadrons
magnificently mounted and armed.
It is proper to state in connection with this review, that the mate-
rial facts in this portion of our history are taken from an account pre-
pared just after the war by Capt. E. L. Berthoud, the acknowledged
historian of the Second cavalry, and from notes kindly furnished the
author by Capt. George West.
When reorganized and mounted, the regiment was much better
prepared to handle the work assigned it. Col. Ford was placed in
command of sub-district No. 4, District of Central Missouri, compris-
ing Jackson, Cass and Bates counties, having in addition to his own
men the enrolled Missouri militia, a regiment of infantry from the same
state, and two companies of the Ninth Minnesota infantry. His dis-
trict staff was composed of the following officers :
Adjutant, Lieut. Edward L. Berthoud ; Provost Marshal, Capt. J.
C. W. Hall ; Commissary, Lieut. James Burrell ; Quartermaster, Capt.
Theodore Case. The troops were divided into strong detachments
and stationed at different points In the sub-district. The active service
for some time consisted of frequent skirmishes with bands of Missouri
296 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
bushwhackers, the most harassing and perilous warfare conceivable.
In one of these encounters the gallant Capt. Waggoner, one of the
bravest officers in the regiment, and nine of his men were ambushed
and killed by Todd's band of assassins.
The greater part of the year was consumed in fighting guerrillas
and in maintaining a tolerable condition of peace among the inhabi-
tants. It was the most difficult and harassing service, as well as the
most dangerous, known in the war, for the reason that our men were
constantly liable to assassination by unseen foes. Says Berthoud,
" Words cannot do justice to the horrors of such warfare ; nor can the
tragedies which cruelty, violence, rapine and the worst passions of civil
war evoked in partisan warfare ever be fully known. The worst pas-
sions had their full unlicensed range, and in the lawless career of the
leaders of guerrilla bands such as Todd, Ouantrell, Anderson and
Vaughan pity and humanity were unknown."
But they were soon to confront more formidable forces, and be
afforded the satisfaction of a fair fight on an open battle ground, with foes
worthy of their steel. Sterling Price, toward the close of September,
marched up from Arkansas with about sixteen thousand men, bent upon
the conquest of Missouri and the occupation of its principal cities.
When he struck the southeastern border of the state the Colorado troops
were widely scattered, as already mentioned. While marching on St.
Louis the Confederates met the Federals at Pilot Knob and were very
severely handled by them, which caused Price to abandon his original
plan of taking St. Louis. His next move was an advance upon Jeffer-
son City, which he attacked with great vigor, but was repulsed with
considerable loss. He then turned his attention to overrunning and
plundering the river counties, capturing in due course Booneville, Glas-
gow and Sedalia, and driving General Blunt out of Lexington. Col,
Ford's regiment, with the First Colorado battery, was in Blunt's com-
mand, but the General himself had been absent for some time in Lex-
ington. Capt. George West was sent to him from Independence with
dispatches from General Curtis, who meanwhile had reached Inde-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 297
pendence from Fort Leavenworth and assumed command of the forces
in the field. West, with his squadron, reached the environs of Lexing-
ton on the river road about dusk, and was pushing forward rapidly in
order to reach the town and deliver his dispatches to General Blunt
before dark. Shortly afterward he was informed by an officer of the
Fifteenth Kansas cavalry whom he met, that a battle had been fought
with Price, who, with sixteen thousand men, had taken possession of
the town. At nine o'clock that night Capt. West struck Blunts
retreating columns and delivered the orders from Curtis. The night
was extremely dark and rainy. Blunt read the dispatches, prepared a
hasty reply, and directed West to make all possible speed to Curtis at
Independence, forty miles distant. He arrived there at two o'clock the
next morning, having made a ride of eighty miles without a halt. Gen.
Curtis was informed by this message that the Confederates in strong
force were marching westward. Preparations to impede their advance
were begun. The Fifteenth and Eleventh Kansas cavalry, and the
Colorado Second, with the First Colorado battery, were ordered to a
point near Little Blue river, six miles east of Independence, and, com-
manded by Col. Ford, took a position on the brow of the wooded hills
west of the Blue Mills bridge. The position was an unfavorable one
for the operation, of cavalry, being intersected by rail fences and flanked
on the northeast and west by thick woods but was taken by orders from
superior officers. Price's steady veterans on foot rushed through the
woods on both their flanks, and by their superiority of fire and num-
bers soon rendered the point untenable, therefore it was evacuated.
The opening of the conflict was fierce, desperate and sanguinary, Todd
leading the Confederate cavalry, and Smith the battalion of the Second
Colorado. Almost at the first fire Major Smith fell, shot through the
heart, but Todd fell almost at the same instant, killed outright. The
firing at short range was murderous and destructive, and joined to the
shells of a battery that Price had planted near the edge of the woods,
caused a heavy loss to Ford's command. Here, some men with Major
Smith, left their bodies on the field while the woods were strewn with
298 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
dead Confederates. Well seconded by the First Colorado battery, the
brigade disputed the ground, making a last desperate stand near Inde-
pendence. After a short contest our men were overpowered when
they retreated through the town and fell back to the main body near
Big Blue river, leaving their wounded in Independence. Lively skirm-
ishing was kept up all the following day with Price's advance at and
near Big Blue, until on the second day the advance of General Pleas-
anton with a heavy cavalry force drove the Confederates from Inde-
pendence. Several hundred prisoners, with two pieces of cannon were
captured by Col. Catherwood of the Thirteenth Missouri cavalry, the
main force under Price having that day abandoned their intention of
going to Kansas City to engage Curtis and Blunt near Westport. The
Second Colorado, with the regular Kansas cavalry and the First Col-
orado battery were stationed near Westport and Brush Creek road, the
important key to the whole position, whereby the easy approach to
Kansas City was disputed by Gen. Price's advance. The brunt of the
battle was here during that brisk and severe engagement ; the whole of
Brush Creek prairie was covered by dense masses of cavalry, while close
on the rear of Price, Gen. Pleasanton was driving the enemy from
Bryan's Ford. The road at Brush Creek west of Col. Magee's house
runs between parallel solid walls of stone. Captain Green's battalion
of the Second Colorado held this road, the men dismounted. The
Confederates charged through the lane e7i masse. Green charged them
fiercely in turn, broke their ranks and, though losing heavily, routed the
collected mass crowded between the walls. Here Col. Magee of the
Confederate force was killed, almost in sight of his house. The contest
prevailed with varying fortunes until late on Sunday afternoon, when a
final charge by the Second Colorado, aided by the rapid work of the
First Colorado battery compelled the retreat of Price's men in a south-
erly direction toward Little Santa Fe. The Second cavalry camped
that night on Brush Creek, wearied out, but the Confederates had been
thwarted in their attempts to enter Kansas. Nothing remained but to
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 299
pursue the demoralized enemy, now almost surrounded, and retreating-
rapidly toward Arkansas.
The day following was spent in rear guard skirmishes which cul.
minated in the rout of Price at Osage, Mine Creek and Mound City.
At Fort Scott the troops rested a few hours, after which the Fifteenth
and Tenth Kansas cavalry, with the Second Colorado and First battery
resumed the pursuit. Mile after mile the race continued, when finally
at Newtonia, Price made his last stand. The small brigade of cavalry
with the First Colorado battery pitched in regardless of numbers or cost.
To and fro the battle raged, but with varying success. At one time a
large portion of the Second Colorado was for twenty minutes in line
without carbine ammunition, still the fire was maintained with revolvers.
Late in the afternoon the Confederates prepared to make a final charge
and then swallow up by sheer force of numbers the small brigade op-
posed to them. The Colorado battery hammered away, keeping up a
close and vigorous fire, yet the odds had been against our men. At
last General Sanborn at the critical moment appeared with reinforce-
ments. One more charge and, the rebels broken, the battle of New-
tonia was won. Col. Ford exhibited rare energy in this contest, while
among the men individual instances of great courage attested the splen-
did material developed in this long and arduous campaign. The Second
Colorado lost here forty-two men besides the wounded. The regiment
joined in the pursuit which terminated in driving Price over the Arkan-
sas river.
In December, 1864, after the return from the campaign just de-
scribed, the regiment was ordered to the district of the Arkansas to
inaugurate a campaign against the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa, and
Comanche Indians. It concentrated at Fort Riley, and there refitted
and equipped for the new service on the road between Riley and Fort
Lyon.
In the spring. Col. Ford having been promoted to the brevet rank
of Brigadier General, took command of the district of the Arkansas.
During April, May and June, 1865, heavy reinforcements of cavalry and
300 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
infantry were sent to the district, the whole effective force amounting to
something over fifty-five hundred men and two batteries. This large
force, distributed among numerous posts and stations, was fitted out for a
summer campaign south of the Arkansas river. Three columns of in-
fantry and cavalry with one battery of horse artillery to each, were to
meet in the neighborhood of the Wichita mountains, after scouring
the country from the Little Arkansas to the Cimarron crossing, one
column from the Little Arkansas moving west and southwest ; one col-
umn from above Fort Dodge from either Aubrey or Cimarron crossing
to move south or southeast, while the third column was to move from
near Larned and cross directly toward Buffalo Creek and the Wichita
mountains.
Just as everything was in readiness to move and put into effect
this extensive programme, the orders were countermanded. Irritated,
disgusted and disheartened, General Ford left Fort Larned, went to
Leavenworth, threw up his commission and retired to civil life. The
command was turned over to General Sanborn who, in August, satisfied
that nothing short of signal punishment would quiet the hostile Indians,
prepared a force to chastise them. Again on the eve of moving, the
Indian department broke up the campaign. During all the spring and
summer of 1865 the Second Colorado was kept moving incessantly, but
excepting by Capt. Kingsbury's command and some small detachments
of other squadrons, no great amount of fighting was done.
The original Second regiment was mustered out at Fort Riley June
15th, 1865, and the remainder at Fort Leavenworth in October, 1865.
It was a credit to the state and the country, doing excellent service in
the wretched warfare of the border, and winning repeated victories over
the guerrilla cut-throats, as also over the largely superior numbers
brought against it by Sterling Price.
Governor Evans received authority to organize a third regiment
in August, 1862, but as already stated, it was never completed. The
troops thus enlisted were mustered into the service February ist, 1863,
under the following officers :
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
501
Lieutenant Col, Samuel S. Curtis; Company A, Capt. R. R. Har-
bour ; Company B, Capt. E. W. Kingsbury ; Company C, E. P. Elmer ;
Company D, G. W. Norton ; Company E, Thomas Moses, Jr.
The post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Independence,
Missouri, was named " Waggoner Post" in honor of the late Capt. S.
W. Waggoner of the Second Colorado cavalry, whose remains, with
those of the brave men who fell with him, are buried in the cemetery
there. Through the exertions of the post a beautiful marble monu-
ment has been erected, bearing this inscription :
IN MEMORY OF
CAPT. S. W. WAGGONER,
Company C, 2d Colorado Cavalry^
who was killed near independence, missouri,
Jul j ■ 6, 1864,
NOBLY FIGHTING FOR HIS COUNTRY AND LEADING HIS MEN
INTO ACTION.
AGED 33 YEARS.
On the opposite side of the shaft are the names of the men who
fell with him, and whose graves surround those of their heroic leader.
On the base of the monument the followine lines are inscribed:
" Brave heroes rest beneath this sculptured stone,
In unfair conflict slain by murderous hands.
They knew no yielding to a cruel foe,
And thus this tribute to their memory stands ;
Our country's honor and a nation's pride
'Twas thus they bravely lived, and bravely died."
On the 19th of April, 1863, at two o'clock in the morning, when
the people were wrapped in slumber, a fire broke out in the Cherokee
House on the corner of Blake and F streets, now occupied by the old
Fillmore block, and before daylight the business heart of Denver was
302 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
in ashes. Most of the structures being of logs or lumber, hastily
erected and inflammable as tinder, the fiames when once under way at
that hour of the night, fanned by a brisk southerly wind, made short
work of everything except a few fireproof warehouses whose owners
had built wisely for the protection of their goods against such a catas-
trophe. The district bounded by Cherry Creek, G, Wazee and Hol-
laday streets, with the exceptions noted, was swept clean, the loss
aggregating about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the greater
part in merchandise, as the buildings were not valuable except for
shelter. Though a present disaster, it opened the way for reconstruc-
tion upon a permanent basis, and when restored impressed the stranger
with the idea of a very respectable frontier metropolis. Up to this
time (i8S8) it is the only conflagration in the history of the city which
carried off more than two or three buildings, owing to the greater care-
fulness of the citizens, and the efficiency of the fire department.
On the 22d of October, 1861, the transcontinental, or Western
Union Telegraph line was completed to San Francisco, and thereby
well entered upon its mission of engirdling the world. The rejoicing
citizens of the Pacific slope were thus placed in direct communication
with New York and the country at large, and given the latest news
fresh from the theater of the war. Up to this time, excepting that
made by the Pony Express, the average time between the Missouri
river and the Pacific coast was twenty-three days, so that when the
intelligence from the battlefields reached that remote section of the
country, it was something over three weeks old.
The first continuous message sent to New York read as follows :
"The Pacific to the Atlantic sends greeting ; and may both oceans
be dry before a foot of all the land that lies between them shall belong
to any other than one united country." A stalwart western sentiment
clearly expressing the sturdy loyalty of a robust and patriotic people.
The Pacific Telegraph Company was organized for the purpose of
connecting the then existing telegraph systems of the United States
with the Pacific coast. Congress voted an annual subsidy, as proposed
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 303
and persistently urged by Mr. Colfax, for a term of years, and its con-
struction was begun from Nebraska City and Omaha as early as 1858,
under the direction of Edward Creighton, president of the company.
The line from Nebraska City to Omaha, and thence to Fort Kearney
was constructed by Henry M. Porter, now of this city, and followed
the wagon road westward to Columbus and Grand Island, Nebraska, to
a point opposite old Fort Kearney, where it crossed the river, and
thence followed the overland stage road on the south side of the Platte
to Julesburg, where it crossed to the north side and took a northwest-
erly course to Fort Laramie, and through the Wind river range to Fort
Bridger and Salt Lake City. Brigham Young secured large contracts
for supplying poles and transportation on the Western division. The
Californians built from the west to Salt Lake.
During the years 1861, 1862, and a part of 1863 Denver's only
communication with the East was by the overland mail ; first weekly,
then semi-weekly, and at last by herculean effort, daily, via Julesburg
station, — situated on the south bank of the Platte, two hundred miles
distant, — and if more speedy communication with the river, Chicago or
New York were desired, by the telegraph wires from that point after
the extension from Fort Kearney. The absorbing interest in the pro-
gress of the war, and the important commercial and mining relations
of the later period, gave rise to a clamorous demand for direct tele-
graphic facilities, therefore early in the spring of 1863, Mr. Creighton
came to Denver and extended his investigations to Central City, the
seat of mining transactions, securing from the citizens of both places
liberal subscriptions in aid of a branch line from Julesburg to the
points named.
Mr. B. F. Woodward was engaged to take charge of the Denver
office when the line should be completed, but owing to the sudden ill-
ness and death of the foreman of construction at Julesburg where the
men and materials had been collected, he was directed to superintend
the building of the line. It was finished to Denver early in October
1863, and to Central City a month later.
S04: HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The first office was opened in a small room over the banking
house of Warren Hussey & Co., on the corner of Holladay and
Fifteenth, or F streets. Amos Steck, then mayor of the city, asked
the privilege of celebrating the advent of this important enterprise by
sending a dispatch to Mrs. Steck, then on a visit "back in the states."
The request having been granted, he prepared his message, handed it
to the operator and waited patiently for it to go, but owing to the
wretched quality of the wire used, the line kept breaking and falling to
pieces so that no dispatch could be sent over it, therefore His Honor
spent the greater part of his time for the next three or four days in
haunting the telegraph office, and as the delay lengthened, in expressing
his opinion of the line in sententious apothegms remarkable for their
energy and conciseness. Finally, at the end of a week the breaks were
repaired and regular communication established. The president of
the company, though an expert in constructing telegraphs, possessed
little or no knowledge of electric currents, hence the frequent breakages
perplexed him sorely. In the beginning he was strongly impressed
with the conviction that the Rocky Mountains and the metals and min-
erals among them., exerted an influence upon the subtle current which
would forever obstruct, if it did not wholly prevent, the successful oper-
ation of the wires, but virtuously abandoned this theory after it had
been exploded by accomplished facts.
The first messages exchanged with Omaha and other cities to the
eastward, were transmitted Oct. loth, 1863, Mayor Steck congratulated
Omaha on the happy consummation, and received assurances of "distin-
guished consideration" in return. In 1865 the Pacific Telegraph com-
pany was consolidated with the Western Union. In the same year
the latter constructed a line from Denver to Fort Bridger, via Fort
Collins and Virginia Dale, and thereafter Denver became an important
repeating station on the main line. Mr. Woodward retained the man-
agement of the Denver office until 1867, and then became division
superintendent, with jurisdiction extending over Colorado, New Mexico
and north to Cheyenne. In 1S75 he took charge of the telegraph
£^Vp-^^^^-^---
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 305
department of the Denver & Rio Grande railway, and continued in
the position until 1884.
To persons only familiar with the freight and telegraphic tarilTs of
the present era, the prices which obtained in the times under consider-
ation will appear ruinously extortionate. For example, the regular rate
for a ten word dispatch from Denver to New York was nine dollars and
ten cents, and sixty-three cents for each additional word — no discount
for cash, and no accounts opened. To Boston the rate was nine dollars
and twenty-five cents ; to Chicago and St. Louis seven dollars and fifty
cents, and to Omaha four dollars. Gradually, in the process of years,
these blood-curdling exactions were modified in this manner : To New
York eight dollars, seven tv/enty-five, six, five, three fifty, two dollars,
and in 1887 to one dollar, night messages seventy -five cents.
In corresponding ratio, during the summer of 1865, while the
Indians were amusing themselves with our transportation, wagon
freights rose to twenty-five cents per pound, and there were instances
in which the merchants were compelled to pay as high as forty cents
per pound. When such charges were applied to all classes, from corn,
hay and flour to sugar, coffee, dry goods, iron, machinery, everything in
fact, the cost of living in the Rocky Mountain region may be compre-
hended, yet there are men who insist that those were the golden days
of Colorado, because we had no railroads to cheapen prices, and the
merchant could ask what he pleased for his goods. But the truthful
historian is compelled to state that it came near bankrupting the
country.
In the fall of 1867 the United States and Mexico Railway and
Telegraph Company was organized, with Henry M. Porter, President ;
Wm. N. Byers, Vice-President; David H. Moffat, Jr., Treasurer, and
B. F. Woodward, Superintendent. Its object was to construct a rail-
way and telegraph line from Denver to the City of Mexico, via Pueblo,
Trinidad, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Durango, Zacatecas and the city of
the Montezumas. The line was completed to Santa Fe the season fol-
lowing. The existence of the railway corporation was maintained for
306 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
some years by the bedding of cross ties here and there near Denver on
the projected route — an ingenious but tolerated evasion of the statutes
in such cases made and provided — and the filing from time to time of
new incorporation papers when the law had been strained beyond
further endurance. Thus possession was held until A. C. Hunt and
General William J. Palmer came on to the scene and organized the Den-
ver & Rio Grande Railway Company, of which Mr. Moffat is at this
writing the president, and the system the greatest of its class in the
world.
The summer of 1863 was marked by a protracted drouth which
dried up the streams, and prevented the growth of crops in the limited
area then cultivated. On the plains and east of the Missouri river it was
even more destructive and disheartening, consequently prices advanced
beyond all reasonable bounds. Earlier than usual, about the middle
of October, one of the severest winters ever known in this latitude
set in, with frequent heavy snows and very cold weather. Those
who had stock on the ranges lost it ; supply trains were blockaded,
and many abandoned. It seemed impossible to maintain any sort of
communication with the states. The stages, which under ordinary
circumstances would push through when it was possible for any living
force to face the bitter blasts, were delayed ; the drivers, bewildered
and lost in the furious poztdcries, wandered about wildly on the track-
less prairies. In the mountain towns, at Black Hawk and Central
City, hay, grain, fuel and provisions rose to famine prices, and it was
but little better in Denver.
In the following spring the great masses of snow melted, flooded
the mines and expelled the miners. Rains succeeding, torrents poured
down the mountain slopes upon the hapless residents, sweeping in some
cases, their homes from their foundations, and filling others with mud
and debris. In the valleys many ranches were overwhelmed, covered
with sand and well nigh destroyed. Added to these disasters were the
rumblings of a general Indian war. Prices which had been exorbitant
enough in the fall and winter, continued to advance under the alarming
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 307
conditions. The frequent calls for troops induced our workingmen to
enter the army, many enlisting with the view of being subsisted rather
than from patriotic motives.
The event which saved the miners from despair was the rapid
advance in the price of gold, which mounted to the highest point known
in the history of the nation. This was followed by a sudden and
almost frantic demand for gold mines and mining stocks. No matter
whether they had any intrinsic value or not, the speculators wanted
them, and as the hills about Black Hawk and Central City were liter-
ally seamed with fissures, the supply became fully equal to the demand.
Our armies in the east had been defeated. The country was in a state
of consternation over the long series of disasters which befel the
troops in Virginia and everywhere else except where Grant commanded.
The war drained the Treasury at the rate of a million dollars a day,
and as a natural consequence, government notes were turned out by
the ream to meet these vast expenditures. Jay Gould and others
engineered a corner and sent gold up to 172, and the average was about
145 throughout the year.
The sale of Colorado mines in New York began late in the fall of
1863, the first being the Ophir property on the Burroughs lode in Nevada
district, subsequently managed by Mr. Ezra Humphrey, and later by
Colonel George E. Randolph. As a matter of fact, only a few of the
lode claims in Gilpin County were returning satisfactory profits. The
surface decompositions containing free gold had been exhausted by
constant working, and the resulting sulphurets could not be successfully
manipulated by the stamp mills then employed. Outside of a few
placers in Gilpin, Clear Creek, Park, Lake, and Summit counties, very
little mining was done. But the interest manifested in New York,
stimulated by the ascending scale of gold values, awakened a new spirit.
So long as the owners of "prospects" could sell out at extravagant
figures, what was the use of trying to work them? Under this state of
feeling the principal business of every man was to sell what he had, or
possessing nothing, to hunt up a hole that might be put on the market.
30S HISTORY OF COLORADO.
But the principal difficulty, next to that of treating the refractory
mineral, lay in the fact that when shafts had been sunk below three
hundred feet, such quantities of water poured in as to render steam
hoisting and pumping machinery a necessity. The work could not
be carried on with the primitive appliances theretofore employed.
Suitable machinery could only be had in Chicago, St. Louis or Pitts-
burg, and the cost of its transportation was appalling.
As the year progressed the work of the County Clerk and
Recorder multiplied to such an extent as to call for a large force of
clerks who worked day and night upon the records of claims, abstracts
of title, deeds of transfer, etc., etc. The incumbent, Mr. Bela S. Buell,
returned a net income to the government Assessor of forty thousand
dollars per annum, the largest in the territory except that of Governor
Evans, and paid the tax upon that amount. Hundreds of telegraph
dispatches passed over the wires between Central City and New York,
relating to mining deals, that cost from fifty to three hundred dollars
each.
The excitement was universal. Some of the titles were wholly, or
in great part fraudulent, and in many cases the purchasers of mines
were never able to find them.
The craze extended through the winter to the following April,
when the bottom fell out, and the boom collapsed. The companies
organized upon the more valuable properties, sent out vast quantities
of machinery unfitted for the work to be done ; expensive buildings were
erected before it was known whether the ore would pay, certainly prior
to the development by which alone profits could be realized, had begun.
An infinite variety of processes for treating the ores were invented by
scientific cranks, warranted to extract every particle of gold from the
rocks, sold to the credulous managers, and sent out to swell the tide of
misfortune.
Some of the new companies wrought quite earnestly for a time,
but gaining no profits, they shut down. When the crash came Gilpin
County seemed completely prostrated. Its population diminished,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 309
money became scarce, all industry languished, some of the operators
lost faith in the durability of the veins, and the future seemed unlighted
by even a ray of hope. In the summer the Sioux, Arapahoes and
Cheyennes confederated and ravaged the plains, breaking all our lines.
In brief, the entire year was marked by disasters, a series of bloody
tragedies and other memorable events. On the 19th of May frequent
extraordinary storms along the divide at the head of Cherry Creek filled
the channel of that erratic and repulsive stream with a flood of waters
laden with driftwood, the ruins of dwellings, horses, cattle and sheep,
swept in from the ranches. The raging torrent, plunging like the waves
of the sea under the impulse of a powerful gale, swept down to the city,
where, momentarily obstructed by several buildings erected in its bed, it
left its banks and poured over into West Denver, submerging that quar-
ter from a point above Arapahoe street to the Platte river. ■Many
houses were torn from their foundations, and all were inundated. The
scene of desolation and ruin which ensued has never been equaled by
like cause in Colorado. Among the buildings which were wholly
destroyed and carried in fragments down the Platte were the Methodist
church, the office of the Rocky Mountain "News" and the City Hall.
Great billows of muddy water, ten to fifteen feet in height rolled in upon
them, and they were crushed like egg shells. East Denver suffered but
little above Blake street, but at that point and below all the cellars and
many of the first floors were deluged. Several lost everything they pos-
sessed, even to the lots their houses stood upon. The probate, city
and commissioner's court records, old dockets, and the city safe contain-
ing maps and papers of great value, disappeared and were seen no more.
Portions of the heavy machinery of the "News" office were carried down
the river and never recovered. This destructive visitation obliterated
the last remnant of sectional jealousy and rivalry between the two sct-
tlem.ents, leaving not a shadow of doubt as to which would in the future
reign supreme. It wiped out also for more than twenty years real estate
values on the West side, for a large part of its population moved over
to the hi'jher crround on the east division. Henceforth there was to be
310 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
no room for contest, and Denver proper rose to a plane of commercial
vigor and prosperity, which, augmenting with the passing years, has
made it one of the most beautiful and progressive cities between the
Mississippi and the Pacific.
An act to enable the people of Colorado to form a state govern-
ment passed Congress, and was approved March 21st, 1864. On the
8th of April Governor Evans issued a proclamation calling an election
of representatives to a constitutional convention to be held on the first
Monday in June following. The election was held and delegates chosen
who met July 4th at 2 o'clock p. m., in Loveland's Hall, Golden City.
O. A. Whittemore was chosen president, and shortly afterward the
convention adjourned to Denver, where, on reassembling, Eli M. Ash-
ley was elected permanent secretary. A constitution was framed dur-
ing the session, and the adjournment took place July nth. There-
upon, the territorial central committee issued a call to the uncondi-
tional Union men for the election of delegates to meet in convention at
Denver, August 2d, for the purpose of nominating candidates for state
officers, and for a Representative in Congress.
The following ticket was nominated :
For Congress — Col. John M. Chivington.
For Governor — Henry D. Towne.
For Lieutenant Governor — Anson Rudd.
For Auditor of State — Uriah B. Holloway.
For Treasurer of State — Hart H. Harris.
For Superintendent of Public Instruction — Mark C. White.
For Attorney General — John O. Charles.
For Judges of the Supreme Court — Allen A. Bradford, Moses
Hallett and William R. Gorsline.
For Clerk of the Supreme Court — Webster D. Anthony.
For Presidential Electors — A. L. Dunn, David H. Nichols and
Samuel H. Elbert.
On the 13th, notification that the constitution must be submitted to
the people on the second Tuesda)- in September, was sent from
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 311
Washington. Henry D. Towne declined the nomination for Governor
and Daniel Witter took his place, by appointment, at the head of the
state ticket.
Public feeling against this movement was strong and decided from
the beginning, on the ground of its prematurity. The people at large,
more especially in the thinly settled agricultural districts and among
the mining camps, dreaded the burdens of taxation which the insti-
tution of a state government would inflict upon them, and as the entire
population was known to be less than forty thousand, the opposition
increased with the progress of the campaign. While there was no regu-
larly organized resistance, it was found to be general in all the coun-
ties except Arapahoe, and even there it had many positive and out-
spoken opponents. Governor Evans and Henry M, Teller were
named for the United States senate, as if their election were a fore-
gone conclusion. The anti-state newspapers, deeply and in some cases
vindictively prejudiced against Evans, made him the target of constant
vituperation, and wholesale misrepresentation. In process of time it
came to be understood that his candidacy for the senate would defeat
the movement. The pressure became so strong that he was finally per-
suaded to publish a card stating that he was not, and would not be
a candidate for the office of United States Senator in the event of
the adoption of the constitution. But his withdrawal failed to check the
growing opposition. It was claimed also that the nominations for state
officers were, some of them at least, highly objectionable, all the more
because the constitution and the ticket were submitted conjointly to the
popular vote with the evident purpose of compelling the people to
accept both, and thus make a complete surrender of their independence.
Bradford, who from the outset had identified himself with the opposition,
soon after his nomination to the supreme bench published his decli-
nation. He became the candidate of the anti-staters for territorial dele-
gate to Congress, and was triumphantly elected. The constitution was
defeated by a large majority. The people were not strong enough to
support an independent commonwealth, and they knew it.
312 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Probably no more hotly contested campaign was ever conducted
under the territorial system, noted throughout for tempestuous, acri-
monious and unscrupulous proceedings by both parties. It was even
asserted by the anti-state propaganda that Evans and his clan had
instigated the Indian war for the express purpose of demonstrating
the necessity of direct representation in Congress, and the added power
of state organization ; that the Third Regiment of cavalry then being
mobilized, had been raised to further the proceeding. The governor's
proclamations and his patriotic efforts to avert the storm of war, were
used as weapons against him. We shall see as our history develops,
how far and in what manner the national government was. responsible
for the great loss of life and property which ensued, through the viola-
tion of its treaties, the rascality of its agents, and its neglect to afford
protection. While the negligence of the authorities at Washington was
condoned by the argument that in the extremity of its peril it had no
succor to give the western territories, and therefore compelled them to
protect themselves, the results, nevertheless, were deplorable in the
extreme.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 313
CHAPTER XXI.
1864 INVASION OF THE SOUTH PARK BY TEXAN GUERRILLAS — THEIR PURSUIT, CAP-
TURE AND SUMMARY EXECUTION — TITLES TO MINING PROPERTY — GOVERNOR
EVANS BEGINS A MOVEMENT FOR THE EQUITABLE ADJUSTMENT OF MINERS'
RIGHTS PROCEEDINGS IN WASHINGTON TO EXTRACT REVENUE FROM THE MINES
BY DIRECT TAXATION THE VARIOUS SCHEMES PROPOSED —GEORGE W. JULIAN's
BILL FERNANDO WOOD'S RESOLUTION TO EXPEL THE MINERS THE INCEPTION
OF A LONG SERIES OF INDIAN WARS — REVIEW OF THE EVENTS WHICH CULMI-
NATED IN THE BATTLE OF SAND CREEK MAJOR WYNKOOP's VISIT TO BLACK
kettle's camp RESCUE OF WHITE PRISONERS GOVERNOR EVANS' CORRESPOND-
ENCE WITH THE AUTHORITIES IN WASHINGTON.
About the 26th of July, 1864, a band of Texan guerrillas acting
independently, that is to say, without authority of either the civil or
military branch of the Confederate government, led by a desperado
named Jim Reynolds, who in i860 was a laborer in the rich placer
mines of Park County, but went south at the outbreak of hostilities,
crossed the border and entered southern Colorado. Reynolds and one
or two others of the party knew the country thoroughly, and raised the
expedition solely for the purpose of plundering those who were gather-
ing large quantities of gold from the mines. The original band, when
it left Texas, numbered twenty-two men, as rough, uncouth, and brutal
renegades as ever entered upon a mission of evil-doing. It was dis-
covered from an account book and diary subsequently captured, that
they left Rabbit Ear Creek, Texas (date not mentioned), and the
same day captured a merchandise train of seven wagons drawn by
mules, and later a train of fourteen ox wagons, which they robbed of
everything valuable that could be of immediate use or be carried away.
314 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
It was reported that in one or both these trains they found large sums
in silver dollars which were ''cached^' or buried for future use. They
reached the Arkansas river at Fort Lyon and, unseen by the troops
stationed there, followed its course upward, passing Pueblo and Canon
City en route to the South Park. Their first exploit there was the cap-
ture of Major H. H. DeMary, of Colorado Gulch, and James Mc-
Laughlin who occupied a ranch in the Park, whom they robbed and held
close prisoners until the stage station on the regular mail route was
reached. Here they struck Billy McClellan's coach going from the
mines to Denver, carrying mail and express matter, the latter including
considerable quantities of gold, and gold amalgam. The leader rode
up to Abner Williamson, the driver, and presenting a revolver, ordered
him to get down and surrender. Williamson, though a brave man, find-
ing himself surrounded, with no opportunity for fight or flight, obeyed
orders, but with a deliberation that exasperated the ruffians to coercive
measures. Fortunately there were no passengers. McClellan, the pro-
prietor and manager of the line, was relieved of his watch and money.
The express box contained about three thousand dollars in gold, to
secure which, it was chopped open with an ax. The mail sacks contained
many letters inclosing greenbacks. These were rifled and their con-
tents appropriated. They next disabled the coach by chopping out the
spokes of the wheels. Intelligence of these bold outrages sped to the
surrounding camps and ranches, and in a short time parties of mount-
aineers started in pursuit of the outlaws, fully resolved to make short
work of them when found. A company of miners and others from
Summit County, led by Dick Sparks, was first in the field, who after a
long search discovered the marauders in camp at the head of Deer
Creek, a wild, secluded spot, where they had halted for the night. Sparks
and his comrades having first secured the horses of the band, stealthily
approached the camp by crawling on their hands and knees. When at
the proper distance the signal was given to fire, each man having been
directed to pick his robber and kill him if possible. But in the nervous
excitement which prevailed, only a few shots went to the mark intended.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 315
One of the outlaws, named Singleterry, was killed outright, and Rey-
nolds the leader, severely wounded in his right arm. Completely sur-
prised, the survivors fled in confusion without stopping to return the
fire, or to secure any part of their plunder, and under cover of darkness
and the dense timber, effected their escape. Sparks' men rushed into
the camp, securing most of the articles and money which had been taken
from the coach, their horses, McClellan's watch and other property.
One of the band named Holiman was subsequently taken by a party of
citizens at a lonely station on the road leading from Canon City to the
mines. He was conveyed to Fairplay, and under threats of immediate
execution by the rope, forced to disclose the plans and whereabouts of
his companions. At first he proved rather stubborn, but finding his
captors resolute, finally yielded, revealing all he knew. He was bound
hand and foot and laid on the floor of the principal hotel under guard,
to await the deliberations of the jury appointed to pass upon his case.
Strong pickets were stationed about the town on both sides of the
Platte, because of rumors that an attack would be made by Reynolds
during the night. The air was filled with absurd reports and the people
wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement by the apprehension
that a general massacre was contemplated. At dawn next morning one
of the guards was shot through both legs by one of his comrades, who,
seeing him depart from a lonely cabin, took him for an enemy and fired
with the result stated.
Next day all the men that could be spared from the settlement,
collected on horseback and in wagons for the pursuit of the main body,
and with their prisoner started down the road toward Canon City, the
leaders having been informed that the enemy had taken that direction
with the intention of meeting at a designated rendezvous on the top of
a mountain near Currant Creek ranch. While on the march they were
joined by a detachment of the First Colorado cavalry commanded by
Lieut. George L. Shoup, and accompanied by U. S. Marshal A. C.
Hunt, Wilbur F. Stone and others, who were bound on a like mission.
They succeeded in tracking the marauders to Canon City, where after
316 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
a prolonged search, five of them, including Reynolds, were captured in a
thicket of underbrush and turned over to Marshal Hunt, by whom they
were conveyed to Denver and lodged in the military prison. Shortly
afterward they were tried in secret by the military authorities and
ordered transferred to Fort Lyon. If any record of the trial was made
or preserved, it never came to the knowledge of the public. The
prisoners were placed in charge of Captain T .G. Cree of Company A
Third Colorado cavalry, with instructions to take them to the desig-
nated post, and should they attempt to escape, to shoot them. On the
march, when the command reached the California ranch in Douglas
County, as reported at the time, they became especially abusive and
insolent to the officers and men. Capt. Cree warned them that they
must treat his soldiers with due respect or he would not answer for the
consequences, as they were already so incensed as to be almost uncon-
trollable. A few miles beyond, at the old Russellville town site, the
wagon containing the prisoners and their guard fell behind the mounted
escort, to water the animals. Here, it was said, a concerted attempt to
escape was made^ when the guerrillas were fired upon and every one
killed. Leaving the bodies where they fell, the command returned to
Denver and reported.
The actual facts attending this tragedy were kept profoundly secret.
The statements given to the press were shadowy in the extreme.
Whether the culprits were regarded as prisoners of war, or as trans-
gressors of the civil law, the method of their taking off was unworthy
a civilized people. That they were outlaws who deserved severe
punishment for crimes committed in this jurisdiction, to say nothing of
those committed elsewhere no one will deny, but to say that an entire
company of cavalry was incompetent to guard and safely conduct five
prisoners from Denver to Fort Lyon, and that an effort to escape com-
pelled their assassination, is not only an absurdity but a reproach to
every one engaged in the bloody transaction. It was openly stated by
many that Capt. Cree received verbal orders from his superior officers
to dispatch Reynolds and his men in some such manner as herein
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 317
detailed, and that it was never intended that they should reach Fort
Lyon. Whether true or not, the fact remains substantially as stated,
so far as the public has been advised. There appeared to be a per-
sistent determination on the part of the authorities to conceal the
details, and the silence has been well maintained to the present day.
During 1863-4 much heated discussion occurred in the mining sec-
tions, more especially in Gilpin and Boulder Counties, concerning titles
to mining locations or claims. These locations having been made upon
the public domain, extravagant reports of their value being sent abroad
soon attracted the attention of Congress and the government, and sug-
gested the necessity either of obtaining a revenue from them by direct
taxation, or by the subdivision and sale of these immensely productive
tracts. In a previous chapter reference has been made to the intro-
duction of a bill termed the "Seigniorage Act" which proposed the levy
of a direct tax upon the gross product. As the principal mines were
being offered for sale in New York, the elaborate advertising that
ensued created still more animated debate in Washington, resulting in
the preparation of measures calculated to force the matter to a settle-
ment. While these proceedings were being had at the national capital,
the several mining communities, alarmed by the impending danger, pre-
pared for defense. A meeting was held at Central City, November
Sth, 1S64, to consider the subject of congressional legislation upon the
matter of titles to mineral lands. William R. Gorsline presided, and
Charles C. Post was elected secretary. Governor Evans, at whose
instigation the movement had been brought to this stage, appeared and
addressed the large concourse of people at considerable length, setting
forth the importance of the exigency confronting them, and declaring
that unless prompt action were taken, legislation that would effectually
obstruct, if it did not wholly defeat the proper development of the mines,
might be anticipated. Having formulated his views on the subject,
according to his invariable habit, he introduced a preamble and resolu-
tions and moved their adoption. This document in a series of where-
ases, outlined the various propositions presented to Congress fore-
318 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
shadowing an early change in the poHcy of the general government in
regard to the mines, and looking to the immediate realization of
revenue rather than to the extended development of our mineral
resources — indicated that through misguided views of the actual situa-
tion here, the industry which had been so auspiciously established was
in imminent danger of being permanently crippled. It remonstrated
with great emphasis against the application of any system of tenantry
on the theories advanced. The resolutions asked Congress to enact a
just law, giving the property in fee to the discoverers under proper
regulations, to the extent of one thousand lineal feet of each lode, with
the view of stimulating search for hidden wealth, and also that the titles
already acquired under district laws be confirmed ; finally, to pro-
mote the better operation of affairs, that a mining bureau be created
in the Department of the Interior, and geological surveys of the
mineral lands provided to aid the people to a more direct apprehension
of scientific development. All wise and excellent recommendations,
which, with the exception of the mining bureau, one of the most
important of the series, were subsequently adopted by Congress, the
length of claims however, being extended to fifteen hundred feet.
Empowered by the meeting to lay the proposition before Congress, on
the 1 6th of November, the governor proceeded to Washington for
the dual purpose of urging this matter, and of securing, if possible,
military protection for our lines of communication with the states east
of the Missouri river. In addition to these duties, he addressed a
memorial to the House of Representatives stating the necessity, and
urging the adoption of measures looking to the erection of a capitol
building and a territorial penitentiary in Colorado.
In his official report published in December, 1864, the Secretary of
the Interior, referring to the mines of our territory, adverted to the fact
that attention had frequently been called to the importance of securing
an income to the national treasury from the products of the lodes and
placers. By the laws of Spain and Mexico, and according to the
principles adopted in civilized countries, the property in these precious
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 319
deposits was vested in the government, exercising sovereignty and
jurisdiction over the soil. In a previous report a number of suggestions
had been advanced relating to the protection of this property, and to
securing a revenue from the annual output, since when, the same subject
had been repeatedly mentioned, but Congress had taken no action
thereon. He argued that sound policy dictated the propriety of levying
a revenue tax upon those who were engaged in gathering Individual
wealth from this national property. It was suggested, furthermore, that
the jurisdiction of the internal revenue department be extended to cover
the collection of this tax from the miners. He recommended the issu-
ance of licenses to every person engaged in placer mining upon the pub-
lic domain, and a reasonable tax on the products of all mines, which
might be graduated according to the cost of production. This plan he
thought, would be just to the government, and satisfactory to the pro-
ducers. To justify these conclusions he proceeded to illustrate by say-
ing, "When it is considered that a nominal tax of one per cent, on the
present product of the mines would yield a larger income than is now
derived from the sales of the public lands, with an expense of collecting
it comparatively small, and that the prospective revenue from this source
is so great, the impolicy of granting the mines and mineral lands in fee
without consideration, must be approved by all." But an afterthought
virtually negatived his conclusion, for he invites the attention of Con-
gress to a new proposition, already self evident to every occupant
of these lands, "that the business of developing the mineral resources
of those regions is yet in its infancy and that all special legislation bear-
ing upon it should have for its object the increase of the annual prod-
ucts of the precious metals, and should in its inception be directed to the
encouragement of the miner by affording him security in his possession
and stability in his business, rather than to obtaining an immediate
income to the treasury." In this latter declaration the Secretary placed
himself so squarely upon the principles evoked at the meeting in Central
City, we are led to the inference that in framing the first part of his report
he acted upon his own undeveloped theories, while in winding it up he
320 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
so clearly adopted the well-known views of Governor Evans as to per-
suade us that this gentleman had meanwhile conferred with him and
changed his views. At all events, the subject was dismissed with the
following significant paragraph : "With the prospect of returning peace,
and the consequent increase of emigration to the mining regions likely
thereafter to ensue, it seems to be demanded of Congress that the rights
of the miners should be defined and secured by law, and the prosperity
of those regions and the preservation of good order therein, thus
insured."
We have in these movements and recommendations the crude
beginning of subsequent legislation on the subject of mining titles,
devised in large part by Jerome B. Chaffee conjointly with Senator
Stewart of Nevada and other well informed representatives of the min-
ing states and territories, from 1866 forward. The first act, though
imperfect and in many respects not well adapted to existing circum-
stances, nevertheless prepared the way for the better system now and
since 1872 in full and, on the whole, satisfactory operation. It is not
possible to frame a general statute that will operate advantageously in all
sections, that is to say, equitably adjusted to all local contingencies,
since the conditions vary with every new district opened.
In June, 1865, George W. Julian introduced a bill in the lower
house to provide for the subdivision and sale of the gold and silver bear-
ing lands of the United States, and others containing valuable minerals ;
for the coining of the products of such lands, and for other pur-
poses. By the abstract following, it will be seen that this was the most
dangerous of all the measures proposed, and which, had it been adopted,
— and at one time it seemed alarmingly probable, — would have thrown
the entire business into confusion. This bill provided for surveys of
mines the same as for other lands, the filing of plats, and the public
advertisement in the newspapers that at such a time and place as
micrht be desifrnated, the lands so subdivided would be sold at auction to
the highest bidder, subject to such minimum price per acre as might be
placed upon them, the sale to remain open for a period of two weeks.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 321
Fortunately, owing to the vigorous resistance of the mining interest
represented in Congress and in the lobby, this bill, though seriously
considered, and by its author earnestly advocated, was defeated. During
the agitation of the matter here in Colorado, Colonel E. T. Wells of
Black Hawk, then a rising young attorney — (subsequently a justice of
the supreme court of the state, and at this time a prominent lawyer in
Denver), fresh from the battlefields of the west where he served upon
the staff of General George H. Thomas, — addressed a letter to the Hon.
John A. Kasson of Iowa, in which he set forth clearly and distinctly the
injury to the miners contemplated by the Julian bill, and indicated the
kind of legislation needed to adjust the difficulty. Mr. Kasson at this
time was a visitor in Central City, having made the long and tiresome
journey partly for pleasure, but also with the view of investigating the
new settlements of the Rocky Mountains. Col. Wells had been here
sufficiently long for a man of his keen perceptions to reach the root
of the problem, and his experience informed him what were the desires
of the people whose interests were threatened. His letter had some
part in shaping the policy adopted in 1866, and also in securing the
powerful aid of the member to whom it was addressed.
But we are not yet done with the schemes projected against our
pioneers on the mountain tops. Fernando Wood of New York, offered a
resolution in the House, which, in effect, authorized the president to take
such measures, — even to the employment of armed force — as might be
necessary, to protect the rights of the government in the mineral lands
of Colorado and Arizona. In a word, Mr. Wood proposed to have the
miners expelled from their locations, and the mines worked for the
benefit of the national treasury, not in so many words, perhaps, but
this was, unmistakably, the true meaning of his resolution. In the debate
following, he argued that the government in its dire extremity, should
hold and receive all the benefits derivable from its more valuable pos-
sessions. Some time previous delegate H. P. Bennett had made a
speech which, though intended for the lasting good of his constituents
by awakening a torrent of emigration to the far West, returned upon
3-22 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
him and them like a boomerang, by furnishing men hke Fernando Wood
with powerful arguments for the expatriation of the gold diggers. In
his address Bennett dwelt long and eloquently upon the phenomenal
richness of these lands, the fortunes made in a single season by the
more successful operators, the vastiiess of their resources in every min-
eral known to mankind which could minister to the general prosperity, ,.
the beauty of the climate, and in due course, quoted from the mint
report showing the millions which had been sent to the government coin-
ing rooms by the people he represented. It stimulated the promoters of
mining sales in New York, and was loudly applauded at home, but its
effect upon Congress was just the reverse of what was intended. In
fact, it came very near precipitating a series of calamities.
Mr. Wood, duly advised. of the proceedings in his native city, and
supported in his convictions by Bennett's statements on the floor, was
armed for a spirited contest. He declared that unless the government
acted promptly the veins and deposits would be exhausted, when the
public domain, denuded of its value, would be returned as a worthless
possession. In the course of the discussion Mr. Washburn of Illinois,
reminded the belligerent Fernando, that if he expected to raise a force
to go into the Rocky Mountains and drive out the diggers, the country
would have another civil war on its hands, not to be easily settled.
He had lived in a mining region (Galena) the better part of his life,
that was originally in precisely the same condition as that now existing
in Colorado. In 1835 Jefferson Davis had been ordered down there
with troops to expel the miners under just such instructions as Mr.
Wood proposed to have the president issue for this occasion, and after
many years of turbulence, involving vast expenditures, only succeeded in
stirring up all manner of strife, and he was at last compelled to withdraw
and leave the matter to be adjusted according to the better judgment of
the people.
In reply Mr. Wood disclaimed any intention of provoking civil war,
his chief purpose being to authorize the government to repossess itself
of these mines. As they were being offered for sale to the extent of
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 323
about fifty millions of dollars, he thought the government should derive
some benefit by selling the right to work them, inasmuch as it was the
rightful owner, and these occupants trespassers upon its rights. Suf^ce it
to say, that after the question had been fully ventilated, it was laid away
to await wiser action in 1866.
Perhaps the most startling event of the year 1864, certainly the one
which gave rise to more acrimonious discussion than any other, entering
as it did into every phase of political adventure, and invading even busi-
ness and social relations, was the battle of Sand Creek. Here, as in
most public questions, and particularly those of a political coloring, senti-
ment was hopelessly divided. That we may reach proper and unpre-
judiced conclusions, it is necessary at the outset of this investigation, to
inquire as briefly as may be into the series of events which, in the minds
of Col. Chivington and his supporters, rendered the battle a necessity
for present and future relief from repeated acts of treachery and violence
visited upon the people by the numerous hordes of Indians that infested
the plains.
Let us go back, therefore, to tne beginnmg, and by discovering the
cause of the war, trace it to the culmination just mentioned. No man
who crossed the plains with the early immigrants in 1859-60-61, could
have failed to note the effect upon the wandering nomads of the con-
stantly increasing influx of white population to their cherished hunting-
grounds, where ranged countless thousands of buffalo, antelope and deer
that constituted the only sources of subsistence they possessed. The
wanton slaughter of this quadruped game was destined a few years later
to incite a general conflict, and many scenes of indescribable horror. I
saw the tendency from the moment the train of which I was a member
entered the country of the plains Indians. Some of those who followed
the first reports of the" discovery of gold in 1859, and especially those
who came by the Smoky Hill route which, down to 1868, was the gen-
eral rendezvous of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, and often of the
Kiowas and Comanches, were severely harassed, and some of them killed.
These Indians were then strong and warlike, lacking only modern fire-
32i HISTORY OF COLORADO.
arms to render them extremely formidable. They fathomed quickly the
real intent of this enormous outpouring from the east, and knew it to
be an invasion which could only terminate in their own dispersion.
When the tide turned to the Platte route, they met it with sullen for-
bearance, but remained peaceable, biding their time. At this period the
Arapahoes and Cheyennes were poor, having but few horses, and no
arms save bows, arrows and lances. As train after train passed by they
begged, first for tobacco and provisions, and next even more eagerly for
guns, powder and lead, giving as a reason that when the white men came
they hunted and frightened the game so that it could no longer be
reached with arrows. For firearms and ammunition they would make
great sacrifices. Among the emigrants were many who outraged and
abused these wretched aborigines, gave them villainous whisky to
drink, invaded their lodges, treating the bucks with brutal contempt and
assailing the virtue of their women. Such collisions became more and
more frequent as the races became more Intimately acquainted. Here
in Denver where hundreds of the savages were encamped, parties of
ruffians, loaded with arms and " Taos lightning," frequently visited the
tepees and subjected the squaws to all manner of violence. Complaints
by the chiefs were heard, but there was no redress. At length with sen-
timents anything but friendly toward the trespassers upon their domain,
the Indians folded their tents and departed, and in their councils debated
among themselves what should be done.
A treaty made with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes at Bent's Fort in
1861, procured the cession of their lands east of the mountains to the
government. It was no sooner signed than regretted. They had been
persuaded to the point of affixing their names to the instrument which
dispossessed them of their ancient heritage by the usual means, presents
and mystification. The more the act was contemplated the more reso-
lute they became to expel the settlers and regain what they had so
foolishly surrendered. The conspiracy met hearty approval, but to
insure its success arms and ammunition were needed. Henceforth,
therefore, the moving impulse among chiefs, bucks and squaws was to
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 325
buy, beg or steal weapons that would shoot. In time the arms were
collected, their ponies fattened, and the organization and plans perfected
for a general and prolonged contest.
In his message to the legislature, delivered July iSth, 1862, Gov-
ernor Evans urged upon that body the necessity of a militia law adapted
to the convenience of the people, in view of the fact that we were sur-
rounded by large bands of Indians, who, though apparently friendly,
might at any time be incited to violence. The general government
could not be relied upon to furnish protection, because all its resources
were directed to the suppression of the rebellion. The Colorado troops
were absent in New Mexico, therefore in the event of an uprising which
must be anticipated, we would have to depend upon home forces to meet
it. The act was passed as suggested.
In September following, acting Governor Elbert issued a procla-
mation stating that the threatening attitude of <"he Indian tribes
throughout the northwest, engendered by the conflict between the
Sioux and the settlers of Minnesota, rendered it imperative that the
militia be enrolled as provided by law, and companies organized for any
emergency they might be called to meet. Repeated warnings had been
received at the executive office of anticipated trouble, and the people
must be put upon their guard to prevent disastrous surprises.
A month later Mr. Elbert gave public notice of Indian depredations
upon the stations, stock and property of the Santa Fe mail route. By
these signs it will be comprehended that the resolves of the Indian coun-
cils to equip themselves for war were being gradually carried into effect.
By attacking the traveled routes they secured horses, provisions and
arms. On the 30th of March, 1863, intelligence was received of very
extensive depredations upon settlers at the mouth of the Cache la
Poudre. While no murders were committed, horses and guns disap-
peared. In view of the consequences to be related, the attention of the
reader is especially drawn to the unraveling of the cunningly devised
plot, as taken by the author from the records of the times. He must
have these antecedent facts in order to determine whether or not
32«^ HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Col. Chivington was justified in his attack upon these savages at Sand
Creek.
Various other attacks were made along the principal thoroughfares
during 1863, in which large numbers of horses and mules, with guns and
other property, passed from their rightful owners into the hands of the
red men. They were fulfilling rapidly the conditions of their league.
In January, 1864, the troubles increasing, the militia was ordered
to be in readiness for effective service. The fact could be no longer
concealed or evaded that a formidable uprising was at hand. The con-
tinuance of Indian forays signified but too clearly that the stronger and
more warlike tribes were being put in battle order for more desperate
undertakings than had yet been projected. At one time a tremendous
panic occurred in Denver, created by sensational reports from points
east and north that a large force of Indians was advancing upon the
town to capture and burn it. Frightened men and shrieking women left
their homes and congregated at the mint and other brick buildings in
the central portion of the city, while the streets and outskirts were
patroled by pickets during the night. Governor Evans issued an exec-
utive order closing all places of business at 6:30 p. m. each day, and
requiring all able bodied citizens to meet on E street (now Fourteenth)
for enrollment and drill.
On the 17th of June Henry M. Teller, who had been appointed
Major General of the militia, was directed to take command of the same,
perfect its organization, and as speedily as possible put the companies in
condition for any service required. On the 30th of August the danger
increasing, Capt. Sam E. Browne, who had organized a full company,
was ordered to Fort Lupton for the defense of that point against a con-
templated attack. The Governor, to encourage the formation of com-
panies and to stimulate the general movement, published a proclamation
urging the citizens to organize and repel the savage marauders, and, as
a special inducement, announced that they would be entitled to all
the property belonging to hostile Indians they might capture, and
expressing the conviction that Congress would pay them for their serv-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 327
ices since the territory was manifestly unable to do so. Said he, "Any
man who kills a hostile Indian is a patriot, but there are Indians who
are friendly, and to kill one of these will involve us in greater diffi-
culties. It is important, therefore, to fight only the hostile, and no one
has been or will be restrained from this." There were some responses
to this appeal.
On the nth of August another public announcement was made
that he had sent messengers to the Indians of the plains directing the
friendly to rendezvous at Forts Lyon, Larned, Laramie and Camp
Collins for safety and protection, warning them that all hostiles would
be pursued and destroyed. The m.essengers had all returned, bringing
conclusive evidence that most of the tribes were at war, and there were
no signs of their having accepted the olive branch held out to them.
Then the dogs of war were unleashed on our side, and by proclamation
" All citizens of Colorado, whether organized or individually, are
empowered to go in pursuit of the hostiles," — scrupulously avoiding
those which had responded to the call, if any, to rendezvous at the
points named therein — "and kill and destroy them wherever found, and
to capture and hold to their own private use and benefit all the property
they could take."
Now who were these Indians? It is known that the Arapahoes and
Cheyennes, brooding over their imaginary wrongs, and constantly
urged by the Minnesota Sioux, with perhaps a few Kiowas, were the
leaders in this plot. When they had stolen stock enough for present
purposes, and become thoroughly armed by the same process, or by pur-
chase through white renegades and treacherous Mexicans, they struck
out boldly, making no concealment of their designs, enlarging the scope
of operations by wholesale killing and robbery. Horses belonging to
transportation trains, stage lines and military posts were taken, and the
men in charore killed. Staofe stations were attacked and, whenever
possible, burned ; women and children were carried into a captivity that
was a thousand times worse than death. In some cases where a des-
perate contingency demanded it, they combined and attacked in force.
328 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The spoils of these forays were rich and abundant. They had more
horses, goods, merchandise, scalps and prisoners than they knew what
to do with. From a lot of lousy, poverty-stricken vagabonds they had
been lifted up, as it were, to the level of aboriginal millionaires. Un-
interrupted successes increased their zeal in the cause. The old
bucks who were unable to stand the fatigue of a campaign, and perhaps
too conservative in their views for the younger Hotspurs, were retired to
private life with the women and children, while their offspring sought
every opportunity to distinguish themselves. His Excellency's procla-
mations, messages and entreaties received under this state of feelinij
were of no more effect than so many paper wads. When the savage
blood is up and he is bound to fight, nothing but a vigorous thrashing
will cool his ardor. Then he immediately sues for peace, and is ready
to sign any kind of a pledge that may be presented to him, with the
mental reservation to break it at the very first opportunity.
By the first of August the outbreak extended from British Co-
lumbia to New Mexico and Texas, and from the Missouri river to the
Rocky mountains. Every traveled thoroughfare was assailed ; no
white man who ventured beyond protection was safe. No government
troops were available, and so Kansas and Colorado were compelled to
rely upon such forces as they could muster from their own citizens.
General Curtis wrote in answer to repeated calls for government
troops, "We have none to spare, you must protect yourselves.'"
To make the record complete, it is essential to revert back to the
beofinnino-, and take a look at the archives of the Governor's ofifice.
These show that on the loth of April, 1863, Governor Evans apprised
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington of hostilities threat-
ened by the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, as communicated to him by
Agent Loree, agent for the Indians of the Upper Platte river, caused by
neglect and their misunderstanding of the treaty executed at Bent's
Fort in 1861. After stating all the facts thus elicited, he warns the
commissioner that unless promptly attended to, serious consequences
were inevitable.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 329
November 7th, 1863, he wrote Major S. G. Colley, agent for the
Indians on the Arkansas river, that information had been received that
a league had been entered into between the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Sioux
and Kiowas, for the prosecution of hostihties against the settlers, and
directing him not to issue arms and ammunition to them. It may be
observed en passant, that in many instances the agents proved to be the
worst enemies the settlers had to contend with in this trying period, for
the reason that they were realizing large profits from their traffic with
the red men. Supplied with annuity goods for distribution among the
tribes, they sold and traded away the greater part of each consignment,
and by this means collected large sums from both whites and Mexicans,
besides rich accumulations of furs and peltries from the Indians who
gathered about the trading posts at the close of each hunting season.
And it may be asserted as one of the truths of history, that the most
of our Indian wars have been traceable to the rascality of the appointees
of the Indian Bureau in Washington. The records are burdened
with examples, and the reader has only to consult them to find the
proof.
On the 9th of November, 1863, the Governor wrote the Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs inclosing copies of letters he had received from
trustworthy sources respecting the depredations of the Indians, and
confirmatory of the league ; also that he had met and talked with
Roman Nose and two or three of his minor chiefs, all of whom pro-
fessed friendship for themselves, but said the Cheyennes, Sioux and
Kiowas were pretty bad Indians, and were disposed to make all the
trouble they could. Now this Arapahoe chief Roman Nose was the
man who led the party which murdered the H ungate family on Run-
ning Creek in June, 1864, and really opened active hostilities. At the
time of his interview with the Governor he was to all appearances an
angel of peace, for the simple reason that he had come here to trade
off furs and skins in exchange for supplies, including all the powder,
lead and percussion caps the merchants would sell him. "He prom-
ised," writes the Governor, "to remain friendly, but declined to enter
330 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
into the treaty we had designed for them under instructions from the
department, until he could get his whole band together. It is the
opinion of John Smith who interpreted for me, and of Major Colley
who was present, that he (Roman Nose) is in league with the parties
who are preparing for war." Events proved the correctness of this
opinion.
Again, November loth, he wrote the commissioner inclosing copies
of statements made to him by responsible parties, that the Coman-
ches, Apaches, Kiowas and northern bands of Arapahoes and all of the
Cheyennes and Sioux had pledged one another to make war upon the
settlers as soon as they could procure ammunition in the spring. One
of these informers said, "I heard them discuss the matter often, and the
few who opposed it were forced to be quiet, and were really in danger
of the loss of their lives. I saw the principal chiefs pledge to each
other that they would shake hands with, and be friendly to the whites
until they procured ammunition and guns so as to be ready when they
strike. Plundering to get means has already commenced, and the plan
is to commence the war at several points in the sparse settlements early
in the spring. They wanted me to join them in the war, saying they
would take a great many white women and children, and get a heap of
property, blankets, etc." It was stated also, that a number of Mexicans
were engaged in stirring up the feeling for a general outbreak.
Copies of this correspondence were directed to Col. J. M. Chiv-
ington, commanding this military district, with orders to be prepared
for the emergency thus foreshadowed. About the middle of Decem-
ber, like statements were forwarded to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of
War, indicating beyond peradventure the existence of the confeder-
ation for the purpose named, and requesting that authority be conveyed
to the commander of the district to call out the militia in the event of
a formidable uprising; also that troops be stationed at intervals along
the two great routes of travel on the plains, the Platte and Arkansas,
and suggesting feasible points for military stations.
Such was the correspondence, filled with timely warnings of the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 331
coming storm, based upon reliable information from the agents and in-
terpreters, who knew exactly what the savages were doing. The only-
answer he received was, in effect, "Fight it out among yourselves ; we
are too busy with more weighty affairs to give you any attention or
assistance.'"
March 15th, 1864, the Governor addressed a letter to Major Colley
at his agency on the Arkansas, saying, 'T hope you will use all dili-
gence at any moderate expense to ascertain the true character of the
threatened Indian hostilities. It is of the utmost importance to the
preservation of proper relations with the Indians themselves, as well as
the preservation of our citizens from outbreaks and butchery, and all
the horrors of Indian war, that the utmost vigilance be observed. If
possible, get spies who can get into their confidence and report
promptly all you can learn."
The Governor also sent copies of his evidence to General S. R.
Curtis, commanding the department, showing the league that had been
formed, and informino- him that aofeneral rendezvous had been made on
the Smoky Hill fork of the Republican, whence parties were being sent
out to capture stock. Chivington was doing all he could with the small
force at his command, but unless reinforced he could not protect the
outlying settlements. He wrote again in May to the same officer, say-
ing the Secretary of War had at last sent carbines for the First reg-
iment, and that the depredations had begun precisely as predicted in
his communications to the war department the previous year. The
troops had had several skirmishes with the Indians, and at Cedar Canon
Major Jacob Downing, with a company of the First Colorado cavalry,
had given them severe chastisement.
Having failed in every other direction, the Governor, as a last re-
sort, turned to the commanding officer in New Mexico with an appeal
for such troops as could be spared, but without effect. At length,
pushed to desperation, he entreated the Secretary of War for authority
to raise a regiment of one hundred days volunteers, which, after a long
delay, was granted.
332 HISTORY (3F COLORADO.
About the i8th of June the starthng intelHgence was received that
a family named Hungate, residing on Running Creek, some twenty-
five miles east of Denver, had been murdered, scalped and otherwise
mutilated, their houses burned and all their movable property appro-
priated by a band of Indians, afterward discovered to be Arapahoes
under the chief Roman Nose, the same who had professed undying
friendship to Governor Evans a few months before. The mangled
bodies of the victims were brought to Denver, and the horrors of savage
cruelty submitted to public view. Then the populace knew for a
certainty that the war had begun, but where it would end was an im-
penetrable mystery. As already related, it had been apparent to the
authorities for more than a year that this was to be the result of the
league, and we have seen how earnestly and frequently they implored,
supplicated and stormed in turn for protection. This frightful evidence
of savage ferocity brought the crisis home to every living soul. The
Executive at once put the city under martial law, and enforced rapid
organization for defense. In the course of their fiendish operations many
women were taken by the savages to the most horrible fates. Several
men were burned at the stake, others suffered all the tortures of hell at
the hands of these inhuman monsters. Our annals are crimsoned with
the blood of these terrible sacrifices. Every coach that came through
from the river or departed from this point had to run the gauntlet.
Some were riddled with bullets, some were captured and the inmates
killed. Instances were known where the victims were roasted alive,
shot full of arrows, and subjected to every species of cruelty the red
devils could devise. Our hand shrinks from picturing the frightful
details of those awful barbarities. To exaggerate them would be im-
possible. Nowhere in all the long record of conflicts between the
civilized and uncivilized races on this continent do we find more terrible
examples of immeasurable fiendishness. Yet, incredible as it may
seem, there were white men and white soldiers who upheld and de-
fended the perpetrators, as we shall see.
On the 4th of September (1864) three Cheyenne Indians were
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 333
brought to Fort Lyon, then commanded by Major E. \Y. Wynkoop,
who had in their possession a letter written by George Bent, a half breed
son of Colonel Bent, at the request of Black Kettle, head chief of the
Cheyennes, which read as follows:
Cheyenne Village, )
August 29th, 1864. \
Major Collev:
We received a letter from Bent, wishing us to make peace. We held a council in
regard to it. All came to the conclusion to make peace with you, providing you make
peace with the Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes, Apaches and Sioux. We are going to
send a messenger to the Kiowas and to the other nations about our going to make
peace with you. We heard that you have some [prisoners] in Denver. We have
several prisoners of yours which we are willing to give up providing you give up yours.
There are three [of our] war parties out yet, and two of Arapahoes. They have been
out some time, and [are] expected in soon. When we held this council there were
few Arapahoes and Sioux present. [The main bodies being on the warpath.] We
want true news from you in return. That is a letter.
[Signed] Black Kettle and Other Chiefs.
Could evidence be more conclusive of the predatory acts and inten-
tions of Black Kettle and his followers, or of the existence of the con-
federation and its purposes, as forecast by the Governor and so forci-
bly presented to the military authorities nearly a year in advance of the
outbreak? Here we have over their own signatures, subsequently ac-
knowledged to have been written at their dictation, indisputable testi-
mony, not only that they themselves had been engaged in all manner
of depredations, including numerous murders, for one was but an inci-
dent of the other, of which the captives in their hands were among the
melancholy witnesses, but that the Arapahoes, Sioux, Comanches,
Kiowas and Apaches, had taken part with them. Indeed, it is shown
that all but this one band were still out on the same horrible business.
Black Kettle was the commander-in-chief of the Cheyennes, and pre-
sumably, though it is not in evidence, by reason of his great inlluence,
chief director of the league. He offers to make peace, not to surrender,
upon certain conditions, one of which was that we should deliver up our
prisoners, — a mere pretext as we had none — in exchange for the women
and children taken by him ; and the other that the terms should cover
334 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the entire confederation, not otherwise. His successes had made him
bold and insolent. The league considered itself master of the situation,
and with good reason, but winter was approaching when the savage
never makes war if he can avoid it. Their tepees were filled with
plunder, their lodge poles fringed with scalps, and they wanted to go
off to their winter rendezvous and enjoy the fruits of their prowess with-
out danger of interruption from the military, of whose gathering they
had been apprised. Hence the peaceful overtures.
At that very moment no less than five large war parties, indicated
in the letter, were out on the plains pillaging and killing, but they
would be in to attest their friendliness and accept the customary pres-
ents incident to all treaties with the government, as soon as their bloody
work could be finished.
Major Wynkoop, after conferring with the officers of the post,
decided to visit Black Kettle's camp and rescue, or more correctly
speaking, receive such prisoners as the Indians might be disposed to
surrender. Taking all the available force, amounting to one hundred
and twenty-seven men, and two pieces of artillery, he marched to the
village and was instantly confronted, and subsequently surrounded by
six to eight hundred Indians, who were prepared for peace or war, as
events should determine. It was said that the women hovered about
his guns and took early occasion to spike them with beans. Had
Wynkoop shown any disposition to force matters, he and his command
would undoubtedly have been annihilated.
The negotiations proceeded peacefully on the basis of Black
Kettle's letter to Colley, but Wynkoop and all his men found them-
selves in an extremely perilous situation. Instead of abject submission,
the Indians, realizing their advantage, had things pretty much their
own way. They had no fear of his troops, for they were hemmed in,
and could be destro}ed at pleasure should there be any signs of a war-
like movement on their part.
The preliminaries having been arranged with Black Kettle,
Wynkoop, nervous and uneasy, deemed it prudent to extricate himself
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 335
as speedily as possible from a situation which' might at any moment
become dangerously warm for him, and exercising some rather shrewd
diplomacy, withdrew to a good defensive position some twelve miles
distant and there awaited further developments, taking precautions
against a surprise. The next day the chiefs came as agreed upon, a
council was held and four white prisoners, women and children, were
turned over to him. One other, a Mrs. Snyder, finding the life of a
captive intolerable, had committed suicide rather than endure further
atrocious cruelties. Three others were with another band, but at so
great a distance they could not be restored at that time, but would be
as soon as the captors could be communicated with. While Wynkoop
assured them that he had no authority to make peace, he invited the
chiefs to accompany him to Denver for a conference with the Governor,
pledging them protection and safe return. Thus assured, Black Kettle,
his brother White Antelope, and Bull Bear of the Cheyennes, with
Neva and other chiefs representing Left Hand's tribe of Arapahoes,
came to Denver, where a council was held at Camp Weld on the 28th
of September.
336 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XXIL
1864 CONTINUED AWFUL CRUELTIES PRACTICED BY INDIANS UPON THEIR CAPTIVES
HORRIBLE TREATMENT OF WHITE WOMEN STAKED OUT AND RAVISHED — MEN
TORTURED AND BURNED — COUNCIL WITH BLACK KETTLE AND OTHER CHIEFS AT
CAMP WELD GOVERNOR EVANS TURNS THEM OVER TO THE MILITARY COLONEL
CHIVINGTON'S ultimatum THEIR RETURN TO THE ARKANSAS RIVER PRO-
CEEDINGS AT FORT LYON WYNKOOP SUPERSEDED BY SCOTT J. ANTHONY
FURTHER CONFERENCES WITH THE INDIANS SOME HISTORICAL ERRORS COR-
RECTED THIRD REGIMENT OF COLORADO CAVALRY ITS MARCH TO FORT LYON
THE BATTLE OF SAND CREEK CRITICISM OF CHIVINGTOn's ORDERS.
To afford the thousands who have settled in Colorado since 1870,
some conception of the revolting cruelties visited upon the women and
children who were carried into captivity by these bloodthirsty and
always lecherous monsters, the following account of the methods
employed is taken from a work prepared by J. P. Dunn, published in
1886, and entitled "Massacres of the Mountains," and illustrates as
forcibly as words may, the deeper horrors of an Indian war: "The
treatment of women, by any Indians, is usually bad, but by the plains
Indians especially so. When a woman is captured by a war party she
is the common property of all of them each night till they reach their
village, when she becomes the especial property of her individual captor,
who may sell or gamble her away when he likes. If she resists she is
' staked out,' that is to say, four pegs are driven into the ground and a
hand or foot tied to each to prevent struggling. She is also beaten,
mutilated, or even killed for resistance. If a woman gives out under
this treatment, she is either tied so as to prevent escape, or maimed so
as to Insure death in case of rescue, and left to die slowly." Instances
.^ /C^ ^-^^<^^6^^ ^x^r
H M. H Co.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 337
are known to have occurred in the wars under consideration, where
women after ravishment by perhaps a dozen or more, were lassoed by
their merciless captors and compelled to follow on foot — they being
mounted — and when from sheer inability to keep up, the hapless
victims fell behind, to make their sufferings more acute and therefore
more enjoyable to the red devils, their horses were urged to great
speed, the women thrown to the ground, and dragged to death. In
other cases the brutes after having satiated their appetites, hacked them
literally to pieces.
On one occasion a merchandise train was attacked on the Cache
la Poudre emigrant road near the Colorado line, the men attending
it killed, and the train destroyed. One of the attaches was captured
alive, and after being cruelly tortured, was bound with chains to a
wagon wheel, his arms and legs stretched out, large quantities of bacon
piled up around him and fired. As the flames executed their hellish
purpose, they danced and howled about him in savage glee, until he
was burned to a cinder.
We find in the records of the investigation which took place after
the battle of Sand Creek, the following testimony by one of the pris-
oners taken by Black Kettle's Cheyennes. Mrs. Ewbanks stated that on
the 8th of August, 1864 — a little more than three months prior to the
battle — her home on the Little Blue river in Kansas, was attacked,
robbed, burned, and herself and two children, with her nephew and Miss
Roper, were captured by Cheyenne Indians. Her eldest child at the
time was three years old, her youngest one, and her nephew six years
of age. They were taken south across the Republican river, and west
to a creek, the name of which she did not remember, where they
encamped for a time, but they were traveling all winter. When first
captured she was taken to the lodge of an old chief, who forced her by
the most terrible threats to yield her person to him. After a time he
traded her to Two Face, a Sioux, who compelled her to perform all the
menial labor of the squaws and frequently beat her dreadfully. Two Face
traded her to Black Foot, another Sioux, who treated her as his wife, but
22
338 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
because she resisted him the squaws abused and ill-used her, while Black
Foot beat her most unmercifully, and the Indians generally treated her
like a dog. At length Two Face traded for her again, and this time
gave her a little better treatment. Her purchase from the Cheyennes
occurred in the fall of 1864, and she remained with the Sioux until
May, 1865. During the winter the Cheyennes endeavored to re-purchase
herself and child for the purpose of burning them at the stake, but Two
Face refused to sell. Quoting her words, " During the winter we were
on the North Platte, the Indians were killing the whites all the time and
running off their stock. They would bring in the scalps of the whites
and show them to me and laugh about it. They ordered me frequently
to wean my baby, but I always refused ; for I felt convinced if he was
weaned they would take him from me, and I should never see him again."
Mrs. Ewbanks' daughter died in Denver from injuries received
among the Indians prior to her mother's release. The nephew died here
from the same causes. Miss Roper, who was surrendered to Wynkoop
with the children mentioned above, had experienced the same treatment
which every woman is subjected to after capture. Mrs. Snyder, as
already mentioned, escaped her tormentors by hanging herself.
The remainder of this chapter might be filled with similar atrocities
committed in this campaign by the Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Sioux,
but the foregoing will suffice to show why the regiment of one hundred
days' men, otherwise the Third regiment of Colorado cavalry, was raised
during the summer of 1864.
At the council held with chiefs brought up from the south by Major
Wynkoop, there were present Governor Evans, Col. Chivington, Col.
George L. Shoup, Major Wynkoop, Simeon Whitely, U. S. Indian
agent, and a number of citizens ; Black Kettle head chief, his brother
White Antelope, central chief of the Cheyennes; Bull Bear, leader of
Cheyenne Dog Soldiers ; Neva, sub-chief of Arapahoes ; Bosse, sub-
chief representing the principal Arapahoe chief. Left Hand, and John
Smith, interpreter to the Upper Arkansas agency, the same who months
before had apprised Governor Evans of the hostile intent of the Indians.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 339
The jneeting or council was, to all intents and purposes a public
affair, assuming the aspect of a court of inquiry, with especial reference
on our side to the elicitation of the part taken by these chiefs and their
bands in recent depredations, with their intentions for the future, and on
theirs to the discovery of what was going to be done about it.
Black Kettle opened the meeting with an address, evincing keen
intelligence, a thorough knowledge of the causes whereby the races had
been brought to war, expressing at the same time an earnest desire for
peace. He made no denial of the depredations committed by his tribe,
but laid the blame upon the young men who repudiated the wiser advice
of their elders, and refused to be guided by moderate counsels. He
acknowledored havino: received the Governor's circular issued in the
spring, inviting friendly Indians to rendezvous at the military stations,
and declared that as soon as he could get his people together a council
had been held and a letter sent to Major Colley, to which Major
Wynkoop had responded. This statement, as interpreted and taken
down by the stenographer does not conform in all respects to the one
made in the letter, which was a plain confession that the nation had been
at war, and many of the bands were still so engaged. There had been
no previous statement or evidence that these Indians intended or had
made any effort to respond to the Governor's appeal. To attest his
anxiety for a peaceful settlement. Governor Evans went to the head
waters of the Republican to ascertain their grievances and negotiate a
treaty, taking with him subsistence and presents for them. They agreed
to meet him. there but not a redskin came. He sent out Elbridge Gerry,
an interpreter well known to them, to find and induce them to come in,
but after an absence of two weeks he returned wuth the report that the
Indians in council had decided not to treat, and that the war must take
its course.
When Black Kettle and others had listened to, and given answer to
the several charges of bad faith, and awaited the result of the con-
ference, Governor Evans said he regretted that they had not responded
at once to his endeavors to prevent bloodshed. An alliance had been
340 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
made with the Sioux, a orreat amount of damagfe had been done, and
many Hves taken. His efforts to meet them in their own country were
treated with scorn. It was now too late, he could make no terms with
them, as the matter had been turned over to the military authorities,
with which alone they must deal.
Black Kettle readily conceded the correctness of the Governor's
charges, except the one that they had entered into an alliance with the
Sioux. Nevertheless, it was clear to every one who knew anything of
the matter, that the Sioux had been equally active in all the depre-
dations. Referring to the first meeting between his men and the troops,
Black Kettle said, "It was like going through a strong blast of fire for
Major Wynkoop's soldiers to come to our camp, and it was the same for
us to come to see you." Bull Bear said it was the plan of the Sioux to
clean out all this country, but neglected to mention that the plan orig-
inated with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes who had pledged themselves
to undertake it in the spring of 1863, and had since been engaged in its
execution.
The Governor having washed his hands of the whole affair. Colonel
Chivinorton, to whom it had been releo^ated, declared his intentions in
these words : 'T am not a big war chief, but all the soldiers in this
country are at my command ; my rule of fighting white men or Indians
is to fight them until they lay down their arms and submit to military
authority. They — the Indians — are nearer to Major Wynkoop than any
one else, and they can go to him when they get ready to do that."
Leaving matters in this indefinite shape, the council adjourned.
Nothing had been determined one way or the other, except that the Gov-
ernor would have nothing further to do with it. He reported officiall}'
to Major Colley, the agent of these Indians, that their chiefs had been
heard, and that he declined to make peace with them, "lest it might
embarrass the military operations against the hostiles of the plains. The
Arapahoes and Cheyennes being at war against the government, they
must make peace, if at all, with the military authorities. You will be
particular to impress upon these chiefs the fact that my talk with
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 341
them, was for the purpose of ascertaining their views, and not to offer
them anything whatever." All the facts, together with the conclusion
reached, were duly reported to, and approved by, the commander of the
department, General Curtis, who answered that no peace must be made
without his orders. Governor Evans then went to Washington to look
after the mining legislation mentioned in the preceding chapter, and did
not return until the next spring. He informs me that he knew nothing
of Chivington's intentions until after they had been consummated, nor
did he approve the action taken, and I am assured from other sources
that this officer kept his plans entirely secret until they were ready for
execution.
In the meantime. Black Kettle had returned to the encampment of
his tribe on the Arkansas, and reported the results. The testimony of
Major Colley before the Committee on the Conduct of the War states
that he then brought the entire village to a point near Fort Lyon, placing
them under the protection of the military ; that rations were issued to
them from the post, and they remained there in fancied security for
some time. Major Wynkoop reports the same, and John Smith, the
interpreter, who was present, confirms it. These and other witnesses
testified that the Indians considered themselves under the protection of
the military where Chivington had told them to go if they desired. A
few days later Wynkoop was relieved by Major Scott J. Anthony, under
orders from General Curtis. Anthony testified that at the time he took
command of the post " There was a band o{ Arapahoe Indians encamped
about a mile from the post, numbering in men, women and children six
hundred and fifty-two. They were visiting the post almost every day.
I met them and had a talk with them. Among them was Left Hand,
who was a chief among the Arapahoes. Fie, with his band, was with the
party at that time. I talked with them, and they proposed to do what-
ever I said." He told them he could not feed them, for there were
positive orders against it, nor would they be permitted to come into the
post. "At the same time they might remain where they were and I
would treat them as prisoners of war if they remained," but they must,
342 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
as such prisoners of war, first surrender all their arms and turn over
all stolen property they had taken from the government or citizens.
"These terms they accepted. They turned over to me some twenty
head of stock, mules and horses, and a few arms, but not a quarter of
the arms that report stated they had in their possession," and the few
turned in were a lot of trash they had no use for. " I fed them for
some ten days. At the end of that time I told them that I could not
feed them any more ; that they had better go out to the buffalo
country where they could kill game to subsist upon. I returned the
arms to theni, and they left the post. But before leaving they sent
word out to the Cheyennes that I was not very friendly to them."
By reason of the vast amount of malicious lying connected with
the testimony and the reports relating to the battle of Sand Creek, it
is extremely difficult to reach the truth. Yet it is one of the most
conspicuous events in the history of Colorado, and if treated at all, it
must be with the view of sifting out the truth, in justice to the terri-
tory, the soldiers, and all others whose names have been covered with
ignominy for their part in it. Upon the single question of veracity
between Wynkoop, Colley and Smith, on the one side, and Major
Anthony on the other, hinges the entire problem. If Anthony told
the truth, in that fact alone rests at least some, if not complete justifi-
cation of Chivington's acts. If, on the contrary, Wynkoop, Colley
and Smith testified correctly, they can never be justified. Let us
examine it.
The former makes it as clear as noonday that the Indians he
found at the post on his arrival there from Fort Larned to assume
command were Arapahoes, six hundred and fifty-two in all ; that he
talked with, fed them for a time, and then severed all relations with
them. The triumvirate, Wynkoop, Colley and Smith, give us to under-
stand that they were Black Kettle s band of Cheyennes, who came in
under the advice of Chivington. Now the massacre at Sand Creek,
soon to be described, and all the investigations of it, have been handed
down through twenty-five years upon the assumption that Anthony
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 343
had Black Kettle, and not Left Hand, Little Raven and their Arapa-
hoes under his protection, and therefore the attack by Chivington was
one of the most appalling crimes that ever stained the annals of mod-
ern warfare.
Let us follow Anthony's testimony a step further. He says, con-
tinuing the statement quoted above, "A delegation of Cheyennes,
numbering, I suppose, fifty or sixty men, came in" (from their camp
about thirty-five miles distant) "just before the Arapahoes left the
post. I met them outside of the post and talked with them. They
said they wanted to make peace ; that they had no desire to fight us
any longer. ^ " I told them I had no authority from department
headquarters to make peace with them ; that I could not permit them
to visit the post and come within the lines ; that when they had been
permitted to do so at Fort Larned, while the squaws and children of
the different tribes who visited that post were dancing in front of the
officers' quarters on the parade grounds, the Indians had made an
attack on the post, fired on the guard, and run off the stock, and I was
afraid the same thing might occur at Fort Lyon." Therefore he could
neither allow them to come within the vicinity of the fort, nor make
peace, but "told them they might go out and camp on Sand Creek and
remain there if they chose to do so." As a matter of fact, their camp
had already been established on Sand Creek, thirty-five to forty miles
from the fort. It must be understood in this connection, also, that
Major Anthony was not acting under Chivington's orders, for the post
he commanded was outside of this district, but according to instruc-
tions from the department commander, General Curtis. His district
was in General Blunt's command.
Again we quote from the testimony : " In the meantime I was
writing to district headquarters constantly, stating to them that there
was a band of Indians within forty miles of the post — a small band —
while a very large band was about one hundred miles from the post ;
that I was strong enough with the force I had with me to fight the
Indians on Sand Creek, but not strong enough to fight the main
344 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
band.'' Here he was in error, for the sequel proved that he was not
strong enoug^h for either.
A careful review of the testimony shows that the Cheyennes did
not surrender themselves to Wynkoop nor to Anthony, nor did they
give up any of their arms, but that the Arapahoes did. The former
were not encamped nearer than thirty-five miles of the post, nor were
they fed, while the Arapahoes were stationed for some time within a
mile of the post, until told by Anthony to go out into the buffalo
country and subsist upon tlie game to be found there. If the two
tribes were together when Wynkoop went down after the white pris-
oners prior to the conference at Denver, they separated subsequently,
the Arapahoes assembling near Fort Lyon, and the Cheyennes
camping on vSand Creek. If this be true, there is no apparent reason
for the condemnation of Chivington's action which has rendered his
name a by-word and a reproach. It certainly is not the state of facts
upon which Senator Ben Wade founded his report to Congress. But
it appeared some years later that Ben Wade did not write the report,
and had little or nothing to do with the investigation, according to his
own statement on the floor of the senate, after John Evans had been
elected a senator from Colorado in 1866.
Black Kettle's Indians were devotedly attached to Major Wyn-
koop, but they hated and despised Anthony. They knew his strength,
and also that he dared not attack them, for want of sufficient force.
Indeed, it is among the reports that they sent word that " if that little
red-eyed chief wants a fight we will give him all he wants."
From Major Anthony himself I learn that his correspondence with
General Blunt, whom he kept apprised of all proceedings at and about
Fort Lyon, brought a response saying that as soon as Price could be
driven out of Missouri, he (Blunt) would send force enough to put an
end to Indian wars for all time. Therefore Anthony felt it to be his
duty to temporize with the Sand Creek band until the promised rein-
forcements should arrive. He realized that he could not attack them
without brineine on a creneral war, which he was too weak to meet.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 345
Nearly half the time of their enlistment had expired before the
Third regiment received their horses and equipments. Tired of
long idleness in camp, they began to clamor to be led against the
hostile Indians or disbanded. No better or more intelligent material
was ever collected for the field than composed the rank and file of this
regiment. They had enlisted for the single purpose of putting an end
to a war which was blighting all the industries of the country, feeling
that they could well afford to devote three months to the work if in
the end the disturbances could be suppressed. Finally their horses
and equipments were provided, and in October they were removed
from the city and sent to rendezvous on the Bijou, close up against the
Divide. Here a tremendous snowstorm overtook them. Being poorly
furnished for such weather, they suffered great hardships. Chivington
having marked out his course, joined them, taking supreme command,
and at once began the march to Fort Lyon, two hundred miles dis-
tant, the greater part of the way through snow nearly two feet deep.
To prevent any intelligence from reaching the fort to which he was
destined, he captured every person whom he found going in that
direction. His appearance at the post, therefore, was a startling sur-
prise. No one there, not even the commandant, had received the
slightest intimation of his movement or purposes, Chivington kept
his secret closely, and it is doubtful if any person but himself knew
where he intended to strike until after his intentions were revealed to
Anthony and his officers. Before entering he threw a strong guard
about the fort to prevent any one leaving. The Indians had been
encamped on Sand Creek about twelve days. Anthony testified that
he placed spies in their midst to advise him of any hostile movement
made or contemplated. The main body, several thousand strong,
occupied a position in the Smoky Hills just over the divide.
In Colonel Chivington's report to the commander of the depart-
ment on the 1 6th of December, it is stated that on the 24th of Novem-
ber he joined and took command in person of the expedition, which had
been increased by a battalion of the First cavalry of Colorado ; that
346 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
hj proceeded with the utmost caution down the Arkansas river, and
on the morning of the 28th arrived at Fort Lyon to the surprise of the
garrison. On the same morning he resumed his march, being joined
by Major Scott Anthony with one hundred and twenty-five men, with
two howitzers. They advanced in a northeasterly direction, travehng
all night, and at daylight on the 29th struck Sand Creek about forty
miles from Fort Lyon. " Here was discovered an Lidian village of
one hundred and thirty lodges, composed of Black Kettle's band of
Cheyennes, and eight lodges of Arapahoes with Left Hand." His
line of battle was formed with Lieut. Wilson's battalion of the First
Colorado cavalry, numbering one hundred and twenty-five men, on
the right. Col. Shoup's Third regiment, with about four hundred and
fifty men, in the center, and Major Anthony's battalion on the left.
Wilson dashed forward and cut off the herd of horses from the
camp, leaving the Indians at the disadvantage of being compelled to
fight on foot, for which they were rarely prepared. In the battle
which continued as long as there were any Indians in sight, Chivington's
loss was eight killed and forty wounded, of whom two subsequently
died. The report is brief, omitting details and giving only this general
outline. He claimed that there were nine hundred to one thousand
Indians in the camp, and that between five and six hundred were slain.
"It may perhaps," he says laconically, "be unnecessary to state that I
captured no prisoners." His estimates of the numbers opposed to him
and of the killed are not sustained by the other reports. John Smith,
the interpreter at the Camp Weld Council, and for the Post, who went
over to the camp two days before the attack, testified before Senator
Doolittle's committee that there were about five hundred Indians, men.
women and children in the camp, and about two hundred warriors,
Describing the attack he said, "As soon as the troops were discovered
the Indians commenced flocking to the lodge of the head chief about
the camp where I was, when he (Black Kettle) ran up his flag. He
had a large American flag presented to him some years ago, and under
this he had likewise a small white flag. The troops came down on a
HISTORY OF COLORADO. ^47
charge. The Indians did not form in hne of battle, but fled promis-
cuously to the creek." The preponderance of the testimony taken by
the committee is against the statement that Black Kettle raised a flag
over his lodge. Only a few testify to having seen it, and the great
majority declare that nothing of the kind occurred.
Lieut. Cramer testified before the same committee that when Chiv-
ington moved his regiment to the front the Indians retreated up the
creek and hid under the banks. "There seemed to be no organization
among our troops, every one [fighting] on his own hook and shots
flying between our own ranks. White Antelope ran toward our col-
umns unarmed and with both hands raised, but he was killed. Several
others of the warriors were killed in the same manner. The women
and children Wv^re huddled together and most of our fire was con-
centrated on them. Sometimes I was compelled to move my company
to get out of the fire of our own men. The battery on the opposite
side of the creek kept firing at the bank while our men were in range.
The Indian warriors, about one hundred in number, fought desperately;
they did not return the fire until after our troops had fired several
rounds. Left Hand stood with his arms folded, saying he would not
fight the white men as they were his friends. The slaughter was con-
tinuous, no Indian old or young, male or female, was spared. Chiv-
ington had ordered that no prisoners be taken, that all should be
destroyed, and the soldiers obeyed him," As to the scalping and
mutilation of bodies after death, the killing of the wounded and so on,
of which so many horrible accounts have been related, the witnesses
differ widely, some declaring that all were scalped and many shockingly
cut to pieces, while others affirm with equal positiveness that only a
few were thus treated. But according to all the evidence the massacre
was complete. There is no difference of opinion or statement in this
regard. Chivington's orders were obeyed literally. It is apparent
also that the officers had little or no control over their men. Major
Anthony says, "When the encampment was first observed, the troops,
believing that here lay the perpetrators of all the atrocities they had
348 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
known or read of, the capture of innocent women and children, and the
terrible fates visited upon them ; the constant interruptions of com-
munication with the East, and the horrors which had been related by
eye witnesses, they plunged at once into the fray with the single pur-
pose of destroying these reputed fiends." Can any one wonder that
with such feelings and impressions burnt deep into their souls, the
troops escaped all control ?
According to the testimony of Lieutenant Alexander Safely, the
Indians began the firing. He swears that White Antelope advanced
with a revolver, firing at almost every step. Note the variance between
this statement and Cramer's.
Stephen Decatur swears that he never saw harder fighting by
Indians — and this was the fourth battle of the kind in which he had
taken part. As clerk for Lieut. Col. Bowen (Third cavalry), he w^ent
over the field, counted four hundred and fifty warriors dead, and no
more women and children killed than would have been in attacking a
village of whites under like circumstances. He did not think the
squaws and children could have been saved, as they were in the rifle
pits with the warriors who w^ere fighting desperately. He saw after the
battle, a man open one of a number of bundles or bales of (buffalo)
robes, and take therefrom a number of scalps of white men, women
and children. "I saw one scalp in particular that had been entirely cut
off the head of a white female, all the hair being with it. The hair was
a beautiful auburn, and very long and thick. There were two holes in
the front part ot the scalp," (indicating that the victim had been
shot through the head.) 'T saw a number of daguerreotypes, children's
wearing apparel, and part of a lady's toilet. There was no white flag
displayed at Sand Creek ; if there had been I would have seen it."
Thousands of our people knew and respected the late Dr. Caleb
S. Burdsall, as an honest, sturdily truthful and upright man. As sur-
geon of the Third regiment he testifies "that while dressing the
wounds of some soldiers in a lodge" (an Indian tepee on the battle-
field), "a soldier came to the door of the lodge and asked me to look
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 349
at five or six white scalps he held in his hand. One or two of these
white scalps I think could not have been taken from the head more
than ten days. The skin of the flesh attached to the hair was quite
moist. I examined these scalps closely, my attention having been
called to the fact of their having been recently taken."
Dr. T. P. Bell testifies that he was a surgeon in the Third regi-
ment. After the battle he saw a great many white scalps in the village
of the Indians at Sand Creek. "I have no idea how many, though
there were a great many. There were some that looked as if they
might have been taken some time ; others not so long, and one that I
saw, not over five to eight days old at farthest.''
This is important testimony, and conflicts radically unless the
surgeons were grossly mistaken as to the age of a part of these scalps,
with the theory set up by the opposition that these Indians had been
peaceful since they located on Sand Creek. They had been there
twelve days before the fight took place. We must perforce assume
either that they had been joined there by some one or more of the
war parties mentioned by Black Kettle at the Wynkoop conference as
being still out on the warpath, and that they brought these scalps with
them as trophies, or that some of the Sand Creek Indians had been
out on an independent foray while their chiefs were entreating Anthony
to make peace with them. One conclusion or the other must be
accepted.
It will be remembered that Colonel Chivington's ultimatum to the
chiefs. Black Kettle, White Antelope, and the rest was, that in order
to be regarded as earnest and sincere in their desire for peace they
must submit to the military authority by laying down their arms.
There is nothing in all the mass of testimony taken by the several
investigating committees to show that Anthony had ever asked for, or
taken a single weapon of any kind from Black Kettle's band. All that
were surrendered were given up by the Arapahoes, and those were
worthless. The hard and desperate fighting done by the Cheyennes at
Sand Creek proves by the number of men killed and wounded on our
350 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
side that the Indians had their guns, with plenty of powder and bul-
lets, and used them as best they could against overwhelming numbers,
seconded by artillery.
Major Presley Talbot of the Third regiment — now a resident of
Denver — who was severely wounded in the battle and lay in hospital at
Fort Lyon for weeks afterward, testifies that he had "several conver-
sations with Colley the Indian agent, and John Smith the interpreter.
They had considerable sympathy for me as I was wounded, but they
would do anything to damn Chivington or Major Downing ; saying they
(Colley and Smith) had lost at least six thousand dollars by the Sand
Creek fight ; that they had one hundred and five buffalo robes and two
white ponies bought at the time of the attack, independent of the
goods they had on the ground which they had never recovered, but
would make the government pay for, and damn old Chivington even-
tually. Smith and Colley both told me that they were equally inter-
ested in the trade with the Indians."
It will never be known how many Indians were killed in this battle.
Chivington reported five to six hundred, and the other statements vary
between seventy-five and three hundred, the latter being Anthony's esti-
mate. One thing is certain, that of the original encampment many
escaped to the main body on the Smoky Hill, but all who could be
reached with rifle or cannon were killed, warriors, w^omen and children
indiscriminately. That many horrible scenes occurred on this battlefield,
the work of infuriated soldiers when their enemies were at their mercy,
is undeniable. I have personally listened to the tales of some of the
perpetrators of deeds which they themselves committed, that caused my
blood to run cold, and forced me to blush with shame that any human
being could have been so inhuman, and in two instances they related to
the slaughter of women and children Avho fell into their hands. And
their warrant for it was that Chivington had commanded that no pris-
oners be taken. Whether the battle of Sand Creek was right or wrong,
these fiendish acts can never be palliated, nor can there ever be in this
world or the next any pardon for the men who were responsible for
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 351
them. It was this more than any other stain attaching to this his-
toric tragedy which brought the condemnation of mankind upon the
leaders of that terrible day, and which, strive as we may to efface it, will
remain as the deliberate judgment of history. It will not do, as some
have done, to fall back to the atrocities of the Indians upon our people
as a justification. If it was right in this case, then would Abraham
Lincoln have been justified in retaliating in kind upon the Confederate
prisoners in his hands, the awful sufferings of our men at Andersonville,
an act that would have shocked all Christendom.
On the nth of December, Colonel Chivington reports that having
sent his dead and wounded to Fort Lyon, he resumed the pursuit of
the hostiles in the direction of Camp Wynkoop on the Arkansas river,
marching all night on the 3d and 4th, in hopes of overtaking a large
encampment of Arapahoes and Cheyennes under Little Raven, but they
had been apprised of his advance, and fled. His stock was exhausted,
rendering him unable to pursue them further. Besides, the time of
enlistment of the one hundred days' men was nearly expired, therefore
he deemed it wise to return to Denver. The regiment was mustered
out on the 19th, and returned to this city on the 2 2d of December,
where it was accorded a hearty reception.
Let us now take a glance at Chivington's reasons for going to Sand
Creek. To beo^in with, a regiment of men had been drawn from the
industries of the territory for the express purpose of putting an end to
Indian depredations upon our commerce and people. Something had to
be done with it before the expiration of the term of its enlistment, or the
authorities which had made so many representations of its necessity to
the War Department would have been placed in a humiliating pre-
dicament. The Cheyennes and their confederates were on the warpath.
On the 8th of April, 1864, General Curtis, referring to depredations on
the Platte route, writes or telegraphs the commander of this district,
"^ Do not let district lines prevent pursuing and punishing them. "
Again on May 20th, he telegraphed, "Look out for Cheyennes every-
where. Especially instruct troops on the Upper Arkansas." August
352 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
8th, there came a dispatch from Fort Kearney, saying, " Nine men
killed to-day about two miles east of Plum Creek ; two women and four
children supposed to have been taken prisoners. Indians attacked three
trains, destroyed one, and killed all the men in the train." The captives
were Mrs. Ewbanks, her children, and Miss Roper. September 28th,
while the Third regiment was still waiting and longing for its horses
and equipments, Curtis telegraphs, "I shall require bad Indians deliv-
ered up ; restoration of equal numbers of stock, also hostages to secure.
I want no peace till Indians suffer more. * * " I fear agent of
Interior Department will be ready to make presents too soon ; it is
better to chastise before giving anything but a little tobacco to talk
over. No peace must be made without my direction." This order
was issued, for it is tantamount to a command, on the day of the
council with Black Kettle at Camp Weld, and accounts for the atti-
tude assumed by Evans and Chivington.
Having extracted from the record the material facts bearing upon
the battle of Sand Creek, by steering our way through the maze of
hearsay evidence, the intricate depths of falsehood, personal venom and
political entanglements, with the honest purpose of penetrating and dis-
closing the truth, we come at last to the question, was the attack itself
justifiable under the circumstances? Let us summarize briefly.
The Cheyenne Indians may have rested upon the assurances of
Wynkoop, who had no right to give them, that they were to be protected,
but they had no such assurance from Evans, Chivington or Anthon}-.
The first had surrendered his authority to the military. Chivington as
its representative had laid down his ultimatum. Curtis had forbidden
negotiations for peace. The only conditions on w^hich the red men
could have been regarded as prisoners of war, and therefore entitled
to protection, were by complete surrender and the laying down of their
arms. The Arapahoes surrendered only such arms as were of no value
to them— the Cheyennes none at all. Anthony told the deputation of
Cheyennes who came up from Sand Creek that he could make no peace
with them. He had assurances from General Blunt that he would soon
0-7^
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 353
be on the ground with force enough to clean out the Indians and close
up the war, and he was awaiting Blunt's reinforcements when Chiv-
ington arrived.
Across the " divide" forty miles distant in a direct line, but about
one hundred by the traveled route, lay the main body of the hostiles
about two thousand strong, watching every phase of development, and
doubtless receiving advices regularly from the camp at Sand Creek as to
the progress of affairs at the post, and prepared to take any course that
would secure greatest advantages to themselves. If Chivington and
Anthony had any doubts of the propriety of attacking the Sand Creek
band, they should have thrown a strong guard about it to prevent the
escape of even a single Indian, and then pushed on to the Smoky Hill
with the object of striking and severely chastising the hostiles encamped
at that point. I have good reason to believe that this plan was seriously
considered before the troops left Fort Lyon. Exactly wdiy it was aban-
doned I have been unable to discover. One of the reasons advanced
was that the troops, never under proper discipline, seeing before them in
early morning a camp where lay, as they believed, the enemy of whom
they were in search, became wholly uncontrollable and plunged in regard-
less of orders. But this view of the case is overthrown by the official
reports of the battle, which show that the attack was deliberately
planned.
There is no doubt that the Indians expected pardon. It is equally
clear that Black Kettle, Left Hand and possibly some of the sub-chiefs
with them had themselves taken no part in the depredations, endeavored
to check and restrain their young men, and made considerable effort to
bring their bands under the shelter offered by Governor Evans' circular
issued in June. Colonel Bent says they did, and no wdiite man exer-
cised greater influence among them than he. The difficulty appeared
to be that the young braves, as was so often the case, refused to be
guided and so continued their destructive expeditions.
It had been the history of such conflicts, for the Indian to pursue
his bloody work until fully satiated, or until he realized that an arm)-
23
354 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
was approaching to crush him, or that winter was at hand when he had
no stomach for war or anything else but to lounge lazily in his tepee. It
is under such circumstances that he is impelled to sue for peace,
which is rarely or never denied. A council or a treaty signified a
feast, a bountiful supply of presents, provisions, blankets, clothing,
indeed about everything he might demand as a condition precedent.
to the cessation of hostilities. It was fully understood that the gov-
ernment would at once forgive all past offences, no matter how many
lives had been taken, or how great the damage done to property, if
they came in and asked for it. They did not apprehend danger from
the troops because they knew the demand for men to suppress the
rebellion. Indeed, Left Hand is known to have said at Fort Lyon
after his return to that point from the council at Denver, that now
the white men were fighting among themselves, it was the Indians'
opportunity to expel the trespassers from their lands. I have this from
the officer to whom he made the statement.
I cannot discover any difference between a white and a red mur-
derer, except that the latter is somewhat more barbarous. It seems
to me that when a body of outlaws raid our settlements, kill the set-
tlers, carry off their women and children, and rob them of their property ;
attack and destroy lines of communication, and make themselves a
terror to all the country round about, they should be pursued and
punished, — not permitted to come in after their devilish work is done,
and by simply saying, "We confess everything, but want peace," have
it immediately granted with immeasurable gratitude for the offer.
This is just what Wynkoop, Smith, Colley and the rest who declaimed
most vehemently against the attack at Sand Creek, demanded of the
authorities.
Referring to the damaging testimony given by Smith and Colley
before the several committees appointed to investigate the affair, the
reader is invited to remember that they were, the one an interpreter, the
other an agent, and mutually interested in traffic with the Indians ; that
they lost heavily by the battle and were therefore loudest in condemning
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 355
It. Indeed, they furnished about all the condemnatory evidence there is
on record. Wynkoop obtained most of his direct information from them;
all his sympathies were from the outset with the Indians, and he
stoutly maintained their side of the case to the end. Talbot tells us
that Smith and Colley deliberately planned and persistently worked for
Chivington's downfall.
If it be assumed that these Indians were friendly, and should have
been warned of the contemplated attack, what would have been the
effect of such magnanimity ? Need any one be told that they would
have fled to their brethren on the Smoky Hill, where their force, added
to the main body, would have made it strong enough to give Chiv-
ington an overwhelming disaster, instead of a victory ?
Finally, we discover that these Indians having received no assurance
of protection, were necessarily left to be disposed of as the military
authority might direct. If they were innocent of the blood of our
people, why were so many scalps of white women found in their tepees?
and what were they doing with ladies' toilets, children's apparel and
the numberless articles belonging to the settlers they had slain ? How
came they by the prisoners surrendered to Wynkoop, every one of
whom had suffered beyond the power of words to describe, and all of
whom went to untimely graves shortly afterward because of the cruelties
practiced upon them ?
Every one familiar with the events of 1864 knows that the most
intense bitterness prevailed between the State and Anti-State factions,
and that the latter used the Sand Creek affair relentlessly in the prose-
cution of Its designs against the leaders of the State movement. This
state of feelincr had much to do with the crimson colorincr which incar-
nated the news, and has been handed down to the present day. It was
not so much the attack itself, as the awful barbarities which attended
it, that gave the opposition its greatest advantage, and they were
employed at every turn of events with added exaggerations to accom-
plish the ruin of Evans and Chivington. It is needless to say that
both went down under the load.
356 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
No doubt the gigantic Colonel felt as he surveyed the gory field
strewn with dead savages, that he had won a brilliant victory which
would cover his name with imperishable renown, and perhaps
embellish his uniform with the coveted stars of a Brigadier. He had
in mind also, General Harney's famous achievement at Ash Hollow in
September, 1855, and felt that he had eclipsed the glory of that historic
massacre, but forgot that Harney gave no orders to kill everything in
sight, and hence saved himself the disgrace of an indiscriminate
slaughter. Ash Hollow was situated on Ash Creek, a tributary of the
North Platte in western Nebraska. The troops surrounded the
encampment of hostile Sioux, who had been committing all manner of
depredations, at three o'clock in the morning.
The attack took place at sunrise. The chiefs finding themselves
hemmed in on all sides made overtures for a parley, professing friend-
ship and begging for peace, which was denied. The fight began in
very much the same manner as at Sand Creek, but leaving the Indians
not the smallest outlet for escape. Eighty-six, among them many
women and children, were killed. Nevertheless, seventy women and
children were taken prisoners and their lives spared, but the camp
with all its contents was destroyed. In the lodges, as at Sand Creek,
was found a large assortment of mail matter, women and children's
clothing, together with several scalps of white women.
To show that it is rarely possible to save the squaws and children
when an Indian camp is surprised, I have it from an officer who a few
years later charged with Custer's cavalry upon Black Kettle's camp on
the Wichita and nearly annihilated the band, that the squaws fought
more desperately and fiercely than the bucks, and it was literally impos-
sible to avoid or shield them from the storm.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 357
CHAPTER XXHI.
1865 GEN. P. E. CONNOR DEATH OF ]\IAJOR JOHN S. FILLMORE HIS LIFE AND
CHARACTER EFFECTS OF THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE RENEWAL OF THE WAR
— FURTHER APPEALS FOR TROOPS COLONEL MOONLIGHT DECLARES MARTIAL
LAW MILITIA CALLED OUT DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY BANKS AND BANK-
ING— FOUNDING OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK CHAFFEE AND MOFFAT
ARRIVAL OF SCHUVLER COLFAX MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN TO THE
MINERS OF THE WEST THE PACIFIC RAILROAD REVIVAL OF THE STATE MOVE-
MENT—CONSTITUTION RATIFIED SAND CREEK AN ELEMENT IN THE CAMPAIGN
NEGRO SUFFRAGE ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR CUMMINGS A TURBULENT ADMIN-
ISTRATION ROUNDING UP THE TERRITORIAL OFFICERS —HIS ATTACK ON SECRE-
TARY ELBERT SOME RACY CORRESPONDENCE ALIENATING THE JEWS A SEA-
SON OF BITTER POLITICAL WARFARE ELBERT RESIGNS, AND THE AUTHOR IS
APPOINTED TO SUCCEED HIM FEARFUL SCENES IN SOUTH PARK THE BLOODY
ESPINOSAS.
During the absence of the Third regiment and the greater part of
the First Colorado cavalry, that is to say, all available troops, General
P. E. Connor, already noted as an Indian fighter, arrived in Denver to
investigate the condition of affairs here, and with the view of discov-
ering ways and means for the better protection of the traveled routes
between this city and the Missouri river. At a later date, as will appear,
he was placed in command of this military district.
The last week in December, 1864, as if to fittingly close this tem-
pestuous year in which events crowded so thick and fast upon each
other, and which was rendered memorable by a series of political and
tragic incidents without parallel in our annals, dark and bloody as were
the opening chapters, the town was visited by a succession of gales
which threatened death to the inhabitants and the destruction of their
358 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
property. During the greater part of the autumn the weather had
been unusuall}^ fine up to the 23d of the closing month, with the
exception of a severe snow storm in October, mentioned in the preceding
chapter. On the date named, high winds rose and blew with increasing
fury until the 26th, when they subsided, and were followed by snow.
This was one of the severest and most protracted storms of which we
have any record.
On the night of the 23d, Major John S. Fillmore met his death.
Since i860 he had been one of the more prominent of our citizens and
business men, apart from his official position as paymaster in the army.
After he had retired to bed, the gale took off one of the chimney tops,
which, falling with a great noise upon the roof above his head, filled
him with alarm and nervous excitement, so that he arose and went
down stairs. When at the foot he turned and called to his wife, request-
ing her to come down. The words had scarcely left his lips when
he fell forward and immediately expired from a sudden hemorrhage.
Major Fillmore possessed marvelous energy and great capacity for
the successful conduct of public affairs. Though his duties called him
frequently to great distances and long absences, he was nevertheless a
leading spirit in most of the public enterprises of his time. Imbued
with almost inspirational confidence in the future of this city, his plans
were laid to meet what he believed to be the coming of a period when
it would become a large and wealthy metropolis. The possessions he
acquired on the corners of the streets which have since risen to centers
of trade, attest his penetration and his faith. To him the merchants
who had taken Governor Gilpin's drafts on the United States treasury
were mainly indebted for their final adjustment. The buildings he
erected were among the best of the time in which he lived. As an
officer and citizen he was universally esteemed. His peculiar qual-
ities commanded the respect of his fellow men. The vast amount of
labor he performed, and the resistless power of his unquenchable
energy carried him through every trial, but it told severely upon his
slender physique. Traveling in those days was necessarily arduous
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 359
and fatiguing. If a distant point were to be reached he could not
select the mode of conveyance, but must proceed with the best that
offered. He frequently slept upon the open prairie or in the moun-
tains without food or shelter, sometimes exposed to pitiless storms.
In one of the last, just before his death, the hardships he endured
hastened the culmination of the disease which for some time had been
undermining his rather delicate constitution, and he fell as we have
seen, and instantly passed away.
The Sand Creek massacre scotched but failed to kill the abo-
riginal serpent. The Indians, now thoroughly infuriated, and thirsting
for vengeance, again combined and plunged headlong into assaults
upon our isolated settlers, and every line of communication, thereby
increasing a thousand fold the horrors of the preceding year. Usually
quiet in winter, they now abandoned themselves to deadly reprisals
upon our people and commerce, for the losses they had sustained.
The deluge of the most formidable uprising ever witnessed on the
frontier poured out upon it, extending from the Missouri river to Salt
Lake, and well over toward the Sierra Nevadas. It seemed as if an
army of fiends had been turned loose to work their utmost cruelty
upon mankind. So great was the necessity for immediate action,
acting Governor Elbert was forced to issue a proclamation calling
upon the territory for armed men to meet the emergency. His call
was for six companies of independent cavalry, each to consist of sixty
men, for three months' service on the plains, assuring them that Col.
George L. Shoup, a magic name with soldiers, would be placed in
command. The city was threatened with famine. Flour rose to
twenty-five dollars per one hundred pounds and all other supplies in
proportion. The redskins ravaged all our thoroughfares, cutting off
merchandise trains.
But the denunciations heaped upon Sand Creek, and the disgrace
pronounced upon that enterprise, together with the disasters of 1864,
prevented voluntary responses. The companies were not furnished,
nor did there appear to be any disposition among the people to meet
8G() HISTORY OF COLORADO.
this new phase of affairs. Owing to the great scarcity of bread-
winners, wages mounted to four, five and six dollars per diem, and
skilled mechanics were in demand at seven dollars a day.
On the 4th of January, 1865, Col. Thomas Moonlight of Kansas
(at this writing governor of Wyoming territory) assumed command of
this military district. The legislature being in session, he suggested
to that body certain amendments to the existing militia law that would
enable men when called into the service to receive pay for the same,
and providing also, for bounties and compensation for horses.
After waiting two weeks, there being no prospect of an agreement
between the two houses upon certain features of the bill, the urgency
being great, Moonlight took the bull by the horns and proclaimed
martial law, shutting up all places of business, stopping every depart-
ment of industry, including the mines and mills, in brief, suspending
every branch of industrial life until the troops called for should be
furnished.
Governor Elbert made the following apportionment : Arapahoe
county to furnish two companies ; Gilpin county, the same ; Clear
Creek and Jefferson, each one company ; Boulder, Larimer and Weld,
one company between them. This order rigidly enforced, speedily
brought the volunteers. By February 20th the several quotas were
filled and marched to the front down toward Julesburg, but not one of
the men got even so much as a glimpse of an Indian during the entire
period of their enlistment. Notwithstanding, their judicious distri-
bution along the line between Denver and Julesburg afforded pro-
tection to the stages and transportation trains.
On the iith of February General G. M. Dodge took command of
the department of Kansas, to which the district of Colorado was
attached, and immediately ordered Moonlight to throw all his available
force on the line named above. David H. Moffat, Jr., was appointed
Adjutant General of the militia, and assuming therewith the duties of
Quartermaster, collected and pushed to the front supplies and tranS'
portation. About the ist of March the districts of Utah, Colorado
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 361
and Nebraska were merged into one military district, and Brigadier
General P. E. Connor appointed to command.
On the 27th of April the militia returned to Denver, and thus
ended our part in the war so far as citizen soldiery was concerned.
The collapse of the rebellion permitted the transfer of a large force
from the East to the plains, and in due time the Indians were tempo-
rarily subjugated. A treaty of peace was entered into in October,
1865, which provided that no part of their reservation should be within
the state of Kansas. When fully understood by the Arapahoes and
Cheyennes, they discovered that by this proviso they had been forever
cast out of any permanent abiding place, in other words, that they
had neither reservation, lands nor rights except the right to make war,
and of this they promptly availed themselves. In the summer of 1867
General W. S. Hancock attacked and destroyed a Cheyenne village of
three hundred lodges, for which he was severely handled by the Indian
bureau and the peace-at-any-price people.
Next followed the treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek, October 28th,
1867, which, when concluded, took away their hunting grounds between
the Platte and the Arkansas, and exiled the entire tribe to the Indian
territory, a removal which could only be accomplished by force. A
year later Black Kettle, with the last remnant of his followers, was
attacked by General Custer in the Antelope Hills, on the Wichita
river, and the band nearly exterminated. Custer's force had been for
some time on the track of the hostiles, without, however, discovering
the trail to their headquarters. At last it was found by a fortunate
accident, and the troops followed straightway to the general encamp-
ment of both the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. It was stealthily
approached, and the charge made at daybreak by a strong force of
cavalry. The Indians, hunted to their "last ditch," so to speak,
fought desperately, the women more fiercely resisting, and more
courageously charging the troopers than the warriors. They shot to
kill, making no effort whatever to shield or save themselves. A
flanking company which had been detached to strike the rear of the
362 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
camp, unexpectedly encountered a large band of Arapahoes, and every
man was slain. Custer found them all together where they fell,
piled up in ghastly heaps, but the Indians had disappeared.
In 1873-4 General Miles had a long contest with the Southern
Cheyennes, but pursued them so hotly and continuously they were
compelled to surrender March 6th, 1874. ^^ ^^7^ the Sioux and
Northern Cheyennes united in another outbreak, which culminated in
the massacre of General Custer with his entire command at Little
Bio- Horn. On the 25th of November General Mackenzie destroyed
a large village of Cheyennes, which left them so decimated and broken
there was no alternative but to surrender and submit to being placed
on a reservation in Indian territory.
We pass now from the field of war to the development of the
country, as a sort of respite from almost incessant strife, in which
manifold new lines, industrial and commercial, were established. The
financial institutions of the city of Denver down to the year 1865 had
been personal ventures, the first banking house having been estab-
lished by George W. Brown, who was also the first Collector of
Internal Revenue, Daniel Witter being the assessor. Next came O.
D. Cass & Co., followed by Warren Hussey, who also founded a
branch in Central City, of which Mr. J. A. Thatcher (now president of
the Denver National bank) was for many years the manager, and
subsequently president of the First National in the same place, with
Mr. Frank C. Young as cashier. C. A. Cook & Co., Turner & Hobbs
and Clark & Co. carried on private banks, but we believe that Cook's
was the only one which issued a paper currency.
April 17th, 1865, the First National bank received from the first
comptroller of the treasury authority to organize, with Jerome B.
Chaffee as president, Henry J. Rogers as vice-president, and George
T. Clark, cashier, the business of Clark & Co. having been absorbed
by the new concern. The stockholders were A. M. Clark, M. E. Clark,
Bela S. Buell, J. B. Chaffee, H. J. Rogers, George T. Clark, C. A.
Cook and Eben Smith.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 363
The bank opened for business May 9th, 1865, and simultaneously
George T. Clark & Co. opened a private banking house in Central
City. Prior to this, as far back as i860, James E. Lyon, George M.
Pullman, D. A. Gage and others had carried on a money and gold
brokerage business in the mines as a substitute for regular banking.
The First National bank building Avas erected on the northeast
corner of Blake and Fifteenth streets by Eben Smith, at a cost of
about forty-five thousand dollars, and at the time was by far the
most imposing block in the city, and for many years stood as the
center of business. The first issue of currency was made August 2 2d,
1865, the first note signed having been presented to William N,
Byers, editor of the Rocky Mountain " News."
hi 1867 D. H. Moffat, Jr., of the firm of Woolworth & Moffat,
booksellers and stationers, was elected cashier of the bank, which
position he retained until 18S0, when by the retirement of Mr.
Chaffee he became its president. From the date of his election as
cashier the institution, which had not been remarkably prosperous,
owing to defective management, began to assume a dignity and sta-
bility theretofore unknown, through the introduction of methods which
evinced the presence of a masterful hand in the administration of its
affairs. It grew steadily in public confidence until it became in the
later eras one of the leading financial institutions of the West. By
the force of his genius for this kind of work, Mr. Moffat soon acquired
great power and influence, was in truth the First National person-
ified, Mr. Chaffee being absent most of the time deeply immersed in
politics and extensive mining operations. Here, too, was cemented
the extraordinary friendship existing between these two distinguished
leaders, the one in finance, the other in political affairs, which remained
unshaken until the death of Mr. Chaffee in 18S6.
On the 27th of May, 1865, arrived Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker
of the House of Representatives, Lieut. Governor Wm. Bross, of
Illinois, Albert D. Richardson, of the New York "Tribune," and
Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield "Republican." For some
864 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
time previous Mr. Colfax had made this excursion one of his cherished
projects, and only awaited a convenient opportunity for carrying it into ^
effect. In the closing session of the Thirty-sixth Congress he mapped
out the plan of a trip to California overland. From the beginning of set-
tlement here he had been the principal champion of our interests in and
out of Congress. The subject of a Pacific railroad had long engaged his
attention, and that he might be better informed and therefore fully
equipped to aid the measure then before the country, he resolved to
examine the proposed route and on his return make the result of his
observations an effective instrument for the passage of needed amend-
ments to the bill. Notwithstanding the generous offers made by Con-
gress as inducements for the construction of the road, the movement
dragged. The scheme was rather too colossal for the capitalists of that
day, who stood appalled at the enormous amount of money required for
such an undertaking. They were not accustomed to enterprises which
involved the expenditure of sixty to seventy millions of dollars, and
knowing little about the country it was intended to traverse, except that
it was, with the exception of Salt Lake City, an unsettled and compar-
atively barren region, it seemed like an extra hazardous investment. It
was to inspire a more active interest in it that Mr. Colfax was induced
to make the journey.
The war was over, the country prosperous. Having decided to
start on a certain day, he made a final call upon President Lincoln, who
said, "You are going to California, I hear. How I would rejoice to
make this trip, but public duties chain me down here, and I can only
envy you its pleasures. Now I have been thinking over a speech I
want you to make for me to the miners you may find on the journey,"
and this was the speech that Mr. Colfax delivered to the miners at a
public meeting held in Central City.
" I have," said he, "very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our
nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the
Western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and Its
development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 3G5
adding a couple of millions of dollars every day to our national debt, I
did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of the
precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now that the
rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of our
national debt, the more gold and silver we mine makes the payment of
that debt so much the easier. Now," said he, speaking with much
emphasis, " I am going to encourage that in every possible way. We
shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and many have
feared that their return home in such great numbers might paralyze
industry by furnishing suddenly a greater supply of labor than there
will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them to the hidden
wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room for all. Immi-
gration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon our shores
hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded Europe. I
intend to point them to the gold and silver that waits for them in the
West. Tell the miners from me that I shall promote their interests
to the utmost of my ability, because their prosperity is the prosperity of
the nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, "we shall
prove in a very few years that we are indeed the treasury of the world."
Such was the message and the prophecy, in the fulness of years
abundantly verified, which the immortal President bade his chosen
representative deliver to the miners of the Rocky Mountains. With
rare perspicuity he comprehended their need of willing hands to push
on the work of developing the vast resources planted here, and had
laid his plans to assist in furnishing them, as a part of the many he
had formed for the regeneration and rehabilitation of the country
after the results of the war should have been fully adjusted.
From the earliest epoch the press and people had been almost
shrieking their invitations into the ears of capital and labor at the East
to come out and take a hand in the mighty effort we were making to
found a new State in the western wilderness, and it was Mr. Lincoln's
great purpose to encourage the formation of industrial columns armed
with picks, shovels and plowshares for the new conquest of peace.
366 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
It was the last message he ever delivered, almost the last words of
his life.
In June, 1865, the political elements recommenced the agitation of
the State question, with the view of starting a new movement for organ-
ization under the Enabling Act of 1864 which they insisted was still
alive, and its provisions therefore available if the people chose to take
advantage of them. On this occasion Jerome B. Chaffee assumed the
direction of affairs, and having spent some time in the greater schools
of politics in New York and Washington, and being by taste and nature
well fitted for the conduct of political movements, he took a position
which eventuated in his elevation to the headship of the Republican
party in Colorado.
On the 13th of July a petition extensively signed, and reciting that
to secure the permanent location and construction of the Pacific railway
through this territory, and to obtain protection for our miners, with
titles to their property, It was indispensable that we should have proper
representation In the Halls of Congress, with many other well considered
reasons, was presented to the executive committees of the several polit-
ical organizations, requesting them to Issue a joint call for a constitu-
tional convention to consider the propriety of making application for
admission into the Union. The reader will comprehend the shrewdness
of this appeal, which was intended, first to silence partizan opposition
and then to bring all the elements into a general convention for the
single purpose of begetting a charter, which when obtained would leave
each party free to lay its own particular nets for the loaves and fishes In
the event of Its acceptance by the people.
The committees assenting readily to the proposition, the call was
published July 19th for a convention to be held In Denver, August 8th.
Public feeling had undergone some change since the last attempt, but
there still existed much violent opposition, owing partly to the revival of
old combinations, but chiefly to the sparslty of population. But with
the disbandment of the armies a new tide of emiorratlon beo^an to set In
from the East. It seemed as if the sjDirit of Lincoln were directing the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 367
exalted purpose of his speech. At all events we grew stronger and
more confident now that the Indian troubles had been quieted, and the
hostile influences removed from our principal thoroughfares. The minino-
sales of 1864, though ill-advised and in the main unfortunate ventures for
the purchasers, brought much new blood into the veins of local enterprise.
The convention met in the People's theater August 8th, elected W.
A. H. Loveland president, and O. J. Hollister temporary secretary.
Hollister resigned, when Webster D. Anthony was chosen permanent sec-
retary. The organization perfected, a resolution was introduced, duly
considered and adopted, declaring it expedient to proceed to the insti-
tution of a State government, and that application should be made at the
earliest possible date for admission. This time there were no embar-
rassing alliances, and but little pronounced opposition. All parties met
in harmonious deliberation for the common purpose of bettering the
general condition. The constitution as framed went to the people on
its merits as a distinct proposition without reference to State officers,
Senators or other entanglements.
After full and free discussion the vote was taken and the instru-
ment found to have received a majority of one hundred and fifty-five, a
result which demonstrated a strong current of remonstrance, and when
analyzed was discovered to be for the most part south of the Arkansas
river, where the people were rather more content with the territorial
system than those of the northern division, and it was broadly hinted
from that quarter that the meager majority had been secured by skillful
manipulation of the returns. Still, It was not seriously contested.
Here the effort to overthrow the project terminated, and the two parties
rallied their forces In a resolute endeavor to capture the spoils. Con-
ventions were held and tickets for State officers, Congress and a o-eneral
assembly put in the field. That of the Republicans or Union adminis-
tration men, convened October i6th. On the 19th Alexander Cum-
mings of Philadelphia arrived as the successor of John Evans who had
resigned as territorial governor, and thus was introduced the chief factor
in the ultimate defeat of our admission as a State, as will shortly appear.
368 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The Democrats nominated Captain William Craig for Governor;
Georee A. Hinsdale for Lieutenant-Governor ; D. D. Belden for Con-
gress ; Stanley Hatch for Secretary of State ; J. J. Mallory for Treas-
urer ; Hugh Butler for Attorney General, and Lawrence N. Greenleaf
for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Union administrationists nominated George M. Chilcott for
Congress ; William Gilpin for Governor ; Dr. Eugene F. Holland for
Lieutenant-Governor; J. H. Gest for Secretary of State; Warren
Hussey for Treasurer ; U. B. Holloway for Attorney General; Rufus
K. Frisbee for Superintendent of Public Instruction ; for the Supreme
Bench, W. R. Gorsline, A. A. Bradford and J. Bright Smith.
Sand Creek became a prominent and an incessantly intrusive feature
of the campaign. It entered into, permeated, and, it may be said, lit-
erally infested every stage of the contest. The Republicans were com-
pelled to put a plank in their platform condemning the malevolent
attacks upon the soldiers of Colorado who were engaged in that san-
guinary affair, and declaring that they would not support for political
office any person who now sympathized, or who had sympathized with
the Indians that made war upon our people and our commerce, or who
had at any time denounced the officers and men who had so gallantly
fought the battle of Sand Creek. It would seem that this pronuncia-
mento was sufficiently emphatic to satisfy the most violent Sand Creeker
— but it was not. So they resolved to have a Sand Creek ticket, pure
and unadulterated, from top to bottom. Every nominee who failed to
indorse that battle in its entirety without evasion or qualification, was to
be crucified and forever branded as the Iscariot of his race. The leaders
of this intolerant faction, bent upon the consummation of their pur-
pose, sent this ticket to the people for ratification :
For Governor, Edwin Scudder ; for Lieutenant Governor, George
L. Shoup ; for Secretary of State, J. H. Gest ; for Treasurer, Alex W.
Atkins; for Attorney General, U. B. Holloway; for Congress, George
M. Chilcott, and for Supreme Judges, Jacob Downing, William R.
Gorsline and Jesus Maria Velasquez.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 369
John M. Chivington, James M. Cavanaugh and John B. Wolff
came out as independent candidates for Congress, but the first named
soon withdrew in favor of Chilcott, deeming his record on the subject
of Sand Creek wholly irreproachable, and therefore worthy of support.
The election occurred in September, and when the returns came in it
was discovered that the Union administrationists had elected all of their
ticket excepting Lieutenant Governor and Treasurer. This party had
expended its greatest efforts upon the nominees for the General Assem-
bly, with especial reference to the subsequent election of U. S. Senators.
The legislature met in Golden City on the 1 8th of December, and
elected John Evans and Jerome B. Chaffee, Senators. Though the
question of negro suffrage had been submitted with the State ticket, it
was overwhelmingly negatived, but the assembly in joint session adopted
a resolution pledging itself to adopt the proposed amendment to the
constitution of the United States abolishing slavery, in the event of the
admission of Colorado as a State — a sop to Cerberus which failed to
satisfy him. The session continued only a few days, when it adjourned,
subject to call of the Governor. Meanwhile, on the 12th of September,
the territorial machine being still intact, a legislature was elected as pro-
vided by statute.
The advent of Governor Cummings was not hailed with enthusiasm
by any class of people except the leaders of the anti-state faction, which,
though small, was a constantly active and irritating contingent led by A.
C. Hunt. Of all the executives ever imposed upon this or any other
Territory, Cummings was perhaps the most unpopular because wholly
unfitted by the peculiar bent of his disposition to govern a free and radi-
cally independent people. The contest for supremacy which ensued
almost immediately upon his installation, increased in virulence until, after
a stormy and wholly unfruitful administration he shook the dust from
his shoes and bade us a final, but by no means reluctant farewell. He
was one of those who by nature and association seem determined to
exact homage and servile obedience from the lower stratum, and rever-
ence from all who are above them in political station. He was stiff
24
370 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
necked, obstinate, wilful and craftily able ; an Aaron Burr in fertility of
resource, but lacking his diplomacy ; educated, scholarly, a clear and
forcible writer and speaker, but pig-headed and dictatorial to the last
degree. Yet he was easily led, twisted and distorted in the wrong direc-
tion by those who were, or appeared to be, ready instruments for the
accomplishment of his designs. He hated, despised and unremittingly,
antagonized all who opposed him, and to procure their downfall pro-
ceeded to any and every extreme. He was readily approachable when
accompanied by the deference and humility which he felt to be due to
the dignity of his exalted position, of which, it is needless to say, he
entertained a grossly exaggerated estimate. He had come to Colorado
to be its Governor, in other words, according to his conception, its com-
mander. Therefore, he required of all men the respectful and suppliant
manner that is extended only to the chief magistrate of the nation. He
came, not as the servant of the people, but as their master, and believing
that the entire scheme of government should be under his personal
direction and supreme control. Among the first of his official acts was
the issuance of a proclamation of thanksgiving wherein he advised the
people to "assemble at their places of w^orship and render unto God
devout thanksgiving for the riches of his grace manifested through his
Son, Jesus Christ." This raised a storm about his ears within twenty
minutes after its promulgation. The Hebrews, even then a considerable
element of our population, considered themselves debarred from ren-
dering thanks after the manner proposed, and virtually cast out from the
national festival. It was without precedent or warrant, and in direct
violation of the spirit, if not the strict letter of the constitution. Any-
how it was deemed utterly unjustifiable, so they resented it vociferously.
Some attempts were made to induce His Excellency to modify the
offending clause, but without effect. The objections urged only riveted
his determination not to alter a syllable. It should stand as uttered, and
the Jews must make the best of it. He had intended neither dis-
courtesy nor exclusion, therefore he would not abate one jot nor tittle of
the record.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 371
The more ardent of the State leaders cherished the hope that the
State would be admitted by executive proclamation immediately after the
senators elect should have reached Washington and laid their credentials
before the President, hence it would be superfluous to hold another terri-
torial legislative session, or to treat the territorial administration as any-
thing more than a temporary affair which would soon be wholly super-
seded. But events proved that they reckoned without comprehending
the designs of the man who represented it. Cummings had no intention
of being shut out from the delicious privilege of preparing and delivering
a message to the legislature, which lay very near his heart. Finding
the impression to be widely extended that the assembly should not and
would not be convened at the time provided by law, and charging its
responsibility to the State leaders, he issued a rather venomous procla-
mation, stating that inasmuch as certain parties were attempting to dis-
courage the meeting of that body, he begged to remind them that the
State was not yet admitted, and that until admitted the territorial regime
would be observed and maintained in spite of all opposition ; also inti-
mating rather significantly that Congress was very busy reconstructing
the States lately in rebellion, and might not have time to consider the
somewhat irregular request for admission, especially in view of the fact
that the people had last year formally and legally declined to accept the
Congressional proffer of statehood. Here, then, was an unmistakable
challenge, so construed, and the gage of battle accepted by the State
men, who aligned their forces to meet it.
Cummings selected his confidential friends from those who had dis-
tinguished themselves in opposing the State, but as chief adviser A. C.
Hunt, late United States Marshal, a man of great shrewdness, indomi-
table energy, fully acquainted with every settlement, highway and cross
road, and withal eminently qualified to direct the campaign now resolved
upon. It was not long before a conflict of authority arose between the
Governor and Secretary Elbert. Suspecting Elbert of being diligently
concerned in the conspiracy to discourage the meeting of the legislature,
and knowing him to be in active sympathy with the State organization.
372 HISTORV OF COLORADO.
he soon found occasion to precipitate a quarrel, by attempting to reduce
the Secretary to the grade of a clerk and servant, subject at all times to
the royal will. Feigning alarm lest the great seal of the territory should
be put to unlawful uses, he surreptitiously entered the Secretary's office
during the temporary absence of that official, and carried off the seal to
his own quarters. Here was a supplemental declaration of hostility,
designed to be interpreted as war to the knife, and further, that no
quarter would be asked or given.
Under the strict construction of the organic act, the Secretary was
in no wise within the control of the Governor. His duties were dis-
tinctly prescribed by that instrument. He was made the custodian of
the public funds and the disbursing agent of the treasury, matters over
which the executive could exercise no legal jurisdiction whatever, and
with which he had no right to interfere. He was required to attest the
signature of the Governor to public documents, and to keep a record of
his official acts. But the irascible Philadelphian took a different view of
it. The vSecretary must submit himself to such discipline and unques-
tioning obedience as he, in defiance of law or custom, chose to exact.
Elbert, in a short but entirely respectful note, demanded the return
of the seal, making Eli M. Ashley the bearer of his message. The
Governor replied at great length, in which he opened and recklessly
poured out the vials of his wrath for all real and imaginary offences
against his administration. It was especially designed to establish the
status of his office as against that of his predecessor and his adherents ;
against the State by attacking it through one of its leading advocates, in
short, a furiously bellicose announcement that the Anti-state party with
himself at the head, intended not only to maintain its position, but to
force the fisrhtincr.
o o
He saw no reason why the Secretar)- should be the exclusive cus-
todian of the seal, and he knew of many reasons why he should not have
it at all ; that he had been extremely careless with that sacred instrument,
leaving it exposed to the public gaze when it should have been secreted,
and inferentially to public desecration ; that Elbert was none too good to
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 373
employ it in authenticating documents of a treasonable nature ; charged
him with constantly absenting himself from his office, with neglect of
duty, with crimes and conspiracies ; with leaving his door open and his
desk unlocked, so that any person could enter and work his will upon
important records and papers, and with manifold other delinquencies.
He raked him fore and aft with grape, canister, shell and solid shot,
striking with fierce venom at every point ; arraigned him before the
bar of public opinion for a most infamous fraud in connection with the
returns of votes cast at an election held under the Enabling Act, whereby
a majority for the constitution was made to appear, when as a matter of
fact it was rejected, asserting his ability to establish the crime from indis-
putable evidence. He went even further, and charged him with an
attempt to break up the Territorial government, saying : "I know per-
sonally of efforts of your own to mislead the public mind in regard to the
provisions for and necessity of the meeting of the legislative assembly
which, had they not been arrested by my action, would undoubtedl}- have
subverted the government here."
To place all the officers under his personal direction, he rented on
his own responsibility a suite of rooms for himself and them and com-
pelled their occupation. Elbert refused to obey these orders. As the
disbursing officer, accountable to the Treasury Department alone for
the expenditures, his fund limited to the last stage of attenuation, he
realized that the utmost economy must be observed to make the scanty
appropriations cover the legitimate expenses. He alone was charged
with the duty of renting apartments, therefore he very properly resisted
this unauthorized invasion of his rights.
David A. Cheever, the executive clerk under Evans, was at this
time engaged in transcribing the records, filing papers and closing up
the work of the preceding administration. The Governor, by craftily
questioning him, endeavored to worm out the darker secrets of his
employer, for such use as might be made of them to further the end
in view. The information elicited, though of no value for the purpose
in hand, by ingenious perversion was converted into serious charges.
374 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Elbert instantly sent him a Roland for his Oliver, by responding
at even greater length, and caustically reviewing the antecedents of the
belligerent Governor, paying especial attention to the latter portion of his
career. An able lawyer, and an incisive writer, the Secretary after repell-
ing every charge of his dyspeptic adversary, plunged into an exhaustive
and scathing expose of Cummings' connection with one of the most glar-
ing and eieantic swindles of the war, committed while a purchasinor assent
of the government, and intimating that in appropriating the great seal
he was simply obeying an instinct of his nature which impelled him to
seize upon any and all movable property within his reach, hence the
writer's objection to being located within reach of his hands. If Cum-
mings' letter was sharp and cuttingly severe, the rejoinder was even
more damaging. This remarkable correspondence being published,
created much excitement throughout the Territory. Thereafter, parties
and individuals governed themselves by the state of belligerency thus
positively defined.
Cummings had long been an active supporter and friend of Simon
Cameron, who stood unflinchingly by his friends, right or wrong, and it
was this quality combined with great wealth and a genius for political
strategy, which enabled him to control the destinies of the State of
Pennsylvania. While Secretary of War he appointed Cummings an
agent to purchase certain supplies for the army, which in process of
time got both into trouble. Under this commission he purchased
a mixed cargo of Scotch ale, London porter, codfish, three hundred
boxes of selected herring, a large assortment of straw hats, several
thousand pairs of linen trousers, with eight hundred condemned carbines,
and chartered the steamer Cataline to transport this extraordinary con-
signment to the troops in the field. His disbursements on this account
ran up to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The matter was
made the subject of an investigation by Congress, which put a sudden
end to his career, and became a national scandal. Then through the
influence of his patron he was sent out to govern Colorado.
Having alienated the Jews, and the State faction beyond the hope
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 375
of reconciliation, his next move was to put the territorial librarian and
all officers who would submit to his demands under his feet. The
storm he had been mainly instrumental in creating, in its counter
attacks through the press rendered him still more irritable and domi-
neering. The great question of extending the elective franchise to the
negroes came in as a disturbing problem, not to him but to the State
men. The colored people v;ere quick to observe that the results of the
civil war left the government no alternative but to grant them the
coveted right, and felt that it ought to begin in the Territories. They
demanded the opening of the public schools to their children. The
vote taken at one of the elections (in 1865) determined the case
against them, but they were not content to abide by this decision.
They drew up and circulated a petition asking the legislature to grant
them the suffrage, and admission to the schools that they were taxed
to maintain. The Governor finding in this vigorous movement a pow-
erful weapon of advantage, used it mercilessly. He sent it with a
special message to the House and Council, strongly indorsing the
appeal. The assembly falling back upon the vote of the people, declared
that it was asked to do something which the people had rejected and
flatly refused to consider it. It was a new question then; ages of
slavery had instilled the serf and slave idea so deeply it was not readily
eradicable. The dawn of a new light was necessar}' to remove the
prejudice of centuries from the minds of even the more radical sup-
porters of the Union. While some favored giving the negroes a por-
tion of the school fund for the erection of separate schools, the great
majority shrank from the idea of more intimate contact with the down-
trodden blacks. But the wheels of justice were revolving slowly though
surely, and the turn was near at hand when the American people would
be forced to a decision. Radicalism in Conq-ress, to meet the exlo-encies
of reconstruction, found itself compelled to protect the millions of
freedmen by giving them the ballot, which carried with it all the rights
of citizenship.
The principal object of our crafty Governor In taking this matter
376 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
in hand, was to commit the legislature against it by an expression that
could be employed before the radical leaders in Congress as an argu-
ment against the admission of the State. Having secured the rejection
of the petition, he prepared an elaborate paper setting forth the facts
colored to suit his purpose, an art in which he was an adept, and sent it
down to Washington.
On the 1 2th of January, 1866, Andrew Johnson sent this message
to Congress: " I transmit herewith a communication addressed to me
by Messrs. John Evans and J. B. Chaffee as U. S. Senators elect from
the State of Colorado, together with accompanying documents. Under
authority of the act of Congress, received the 21st day of March, 1864,
the people of Colorado, through a convention framed a constitution
making provision for a state government which, when submitted to the
qualified voters of the Territory, was rejected. In the summer of 1865
a second convention of the several political parties in the Territory was
called, which assembled at Denver on the 8th day of August. On the
12th of that month this convention adopted a state constitution which
was submitted to the people on the 12th day of September and ratified
by a majority of one hundred and fifty-five of the qualified voters.
The proceedings in the second instance having differed in time and
mode from those specified in the act of March 21st, 1864, I have de-
clined to issue the proclamation for which provision is made in the 5th
section of the law, and therefore submit the question for consultation
and further action of Congress.''
It was generally understood at the time that much of the President's
prejudice against Evans and Chaffee, as also against the movement they
represented, had been incited by Governor Cummings who, directly or
through influential friends, held the key to his opinions concerning Col-
orado. W. J. Hardin, the colored orator, a man of some ability, was
brought into the breach as an influence with Charles Sumner and his
coadjutors in the cause of the blacks. He was especially forceful in
advocating the right of suffrage and admission to the public schools, and
by his letters continued to exert material influence. As the fight pro-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 377
gressed the Governor became more and more aggressive. He sent in an
executive protest against admission, upon the ground of frauds in the
election and in canvassing the returns, among other weighty reasons.
Nevertheless, the lower house of the legislature passed a concurrent reso-
lution setting forth the advantages of statehood, and urging Congress to
pass the bill. The council a few days later passed the same with amend-
ments, one of which instructed Senators Evans and Chaffee to use all
honorable means to have the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad
located on the Smoky Hill route and westward through Berthoud Pass.
While the legislature was still in session Secretary Elbert left for
the East, placing E. M. Ashley in charge of his office, and its duties,
including the payment of the members and other expenses. The funds
being deposited with the superintendent of the Branch mint, Cummings
went down there and endeavored to prevent the payment of the checks,
but without avail. Ashley issued them as directed, and they were paid,
the superintendent promptly honoring Elbert's signature.
Unknown to any one except his confidential assistant, Elbert, on
the first of January, 1866, finding his connection with the executive
intolerable, sent his resignation to Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State,
who retained it without acceptance or acknowledgment until February
6th, when it was accepted. On being notified of this happy turn of
events, Cummings began to look about for a successor, and fixed upon
Mr. Frank Hall, a member of the house of representatives from Gilpin
county, who was sent for, and the proposition laid before him. Being
then engaged in the publication of a daily newspaper at Central City,
and having no ambition for political office, Mr. Hall declined the
urgently proffered distinction. But Cummings insisted, and at length
forwarded the nomination to the President. The Senate confirmed the
selection, and in due time the commission was transmitted. Though
repeatedly importuned to assume the duties of the office, I felt
unwilling to attach myself to the existing administration, all of my
sympathies and most of my social and political affiliations being with
the promoters of state organization, whom I had no intention of antag-
3TS HISTORY OF COLORADO.
onizing. Thus from February until May the appointment lay in the
Governor's hands. At last, after consulting the leading Republicans, and
obtaining their views, the office was accepted upon the reason urged
that if I refused, Cummings would secure a candidate in full accord with
his programme, and be thus enabled to work further injury to the State
movement. I assumed charge of the Secretary's office on the 2d of
May, 1866. On the 3d the Governor departed in haste for Washington.
Thereafter political affairs remained tranquil until after the regular
autumn election, when new causes of disturbance arose with the return
of his turbulent Excellency.
Through failure to discover certain facts relating to an important
event which occurred in 1863 in time for its incorporation with the
chronicles of that year, I am impelled to present it at the close of this
chapter.
In the spring of the year mentioned, the entire region of country
between Pueblo and Park counties, indeed all sections of the Territory,
became in a measure panic stricken by accounts of terrible and mys-
terious massacres of travelers on the lonely roads leading from the
southwest to the South Park. Every little while, residents of certain
localities disappeared, and upon search being instituted by friends, their
dead bodies were found. Who committed these horrible deeds no one
could comprehend, since all traces were lost. The first victim in the
neighborhood of Caiion City — we follow Capt. Rockafellow's narrative
— was William Bruce on Hardscrabble Creek. He went to his sawmill
twelve miles from his residence, but not returning to his home at the
time expected, search was made, when he was found shot through the
heart. While wondering over this tragic event, another strange murder
occurred at another sawmill in El Paso county, on the Little Foun-
taine about sixty miles from the scene mentioned above, where the body
of an old man named Harkins was found killed, apparently, with a
hatchet. Next a man named Addleman was slain, on his ranch situated
near the road leading from Colorado City to the South Park. Next a
brother of Colonel George L. Shoup, and a man named Binckley were
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 379
found butchered in the Red Hills in the Park itself. Soon after, a man
named Carter was killed at Cottage Grove near Alma. Then two men
named Lehman and Seyga shared the same fate In the Red Hills, an
admirable place for the assassins because of the concealment offered by
the thickets and timber near by. Consternation filled every mind. The
air was loaded with rumors, but not a soul could give even the faintest
clue to the origin or purpose of these appalling tragedies. A super-
stitious dread prevailed throughout the South Park region, for it was
there that the greatest number of bodies had been found. No one
dared to venture out upon the roads by day or night, for none had
escaped death who did so.
While riding through the region on horseback in the summer of
1864, the different scenes of these murders were pointed out to me, and
the principal incidents, so far as they were known, related by a com-
panion who was a resident of California Gulch. From this source I
learned that the first clue discovered occurred somewhat as follows :
The driver of an ox team who was hauling a load of lumber from the
neighborhood of what is now Alma, to Fairplay, was fired upon from a
thicket by the roadside. The shot struck his left breast, but was stopped
from entering his body by a copy of Lincoln's emancipation procla-
mation and a memorandum book in his breast pocket. Looking
instantly in the direction from which the bullet had come, he discovered
two men, whom he at first thought to be Indians from their tawny color,
but a second glance proved them to be Mexicans. He had little time
for reflection however, for his team, affrighted by the sharp report of the
rifle, ran away as fast as their legs could carry them, and though one of
the Mexicans drew his gun to shoulder for a second shot, it was not
fired. Speeding in all haste to Fairplay the driver related his experience
to the citizens, when measures were taken for pursuit.
Capt. John McCannon who led the first party in search of the
Espinosas — the name of these Mexican butchers — subsequently wrote a
detailed account of it, from which it appears that Lehman and Seyga
were residents of California Gulch, and when the news of their murder
380 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
reached the gulch, a meeting was called for the purpose of raising funds
and volunteers to track the assassins. A call for volunteers being made,
the following responded : Joseph M. Lamb, Julius Sanger, O. T.
McCannon, Thomas S. Wells, C. F. Wilson, Wm. R. McComb, John
Gilbert, Frank Miller, Fred Fredericks, Wm. Youngh, James Foley, John
Landin, Charles Nathrop, John Holtz, John Endelman, William Wood-
ward and John McCannon, the latter being elected commander of the
company.
Proceeding to the South Park, they scouted the country in every
direction, the command beinof divided into detachments. At lencrth,
after much night and day scouting, a trail was discovered which led Capt.
McCannon and the men with him to the haunt of the bloody Espinosas,
a weird canon on the west side of Four Mile Creek near a dense thicket
of willows. Here they found two horses, one hobbled, in a little park on
the south side of the gulch. Says McCannon, "I dispatched Foley,
YounMi, Fredericks and Landin with instructions to o-q around the bluff
and get into the canon below, and to carefully push their way along up the
canon while we covered the horses with our guns. Li a short time the
largest of the Espinosas came out of the willows and commenced taking
off the hobbles that held his horse. Joseph M. Lamb fired, the ball
breaking the second rib on the right side and passing directly through,
broke the second rib on the left side. Sanger fired next, with buckshot,
but the horse stumbling over the desperado, received the charge.
Espinosa raised ujd on his elbow and commenced firing at me, as I had
left my position to look after the other one, supposing that Lamb's and
Sanger's firing had done the work. Charles Carter, then fired, the ball
striking Espinosa between the eyes, and ranging back, killed him
instantly. The other one came in sight, but got off vv'ithout a shot,
through a mistake. I had my gun leveled on him, when Julius Sanger
cried out, 'For God's sake don't kill Billy Youngh !' They were about
the same size, and were dressed alike. I dropped my gun to get a better
look, and he (the Espinosa) seeing the motion, threw himself over into
the ravine and was seen no more." Making his escape back to New
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 381
Mexico, he picked up a nephew, a mere boy, and after a time returned
upon the old trail. Meanwhile, however, rewards were offered for the
murderers, by the Governor, and the relatives of some of the murdered
men, the whole amounting to fifteen hundred dollars, which stimulated
others to the chase, among them an old mountaineer named Tom
Tobins, then as now, a resident of San Luis valley. Taking a few sol-
diers from Fort Garland, Tobins began a close and rapid search for the
trail of the remaining Espinosas, and finally discovered their encanipment
by his thorough knowledge of the secrets of the mountains and of signs
in the air. Noticing a faint column of smoke ascending from a thicket,
and looking up into the air he saw ravens circling about the spot, which
indicated to his well trained mind the presence of men and the prepa-
ration of a meal in the thicket. Crawling upon his hands and knees,
using great care not to make a sound by the breaking of a twig or the
rustling of a leaf; he came close upon the encampment without discovery.
When in a good position to make his aim certain, he fired and killed
the elder Espinosa, both of them in fact, and brought the head of the
principal assassin to Fort Garland. Thus terminated the lives of two of
the worst assassins that ever cursed our country. They were religious
fanatics, and murdered as offerings to the virgin. By a memorandum
book taken from one of the Espinosas, for a long time in my posses-
sion, it was found that they had killed thirty-two Americans in the course
of their different raids. An ugly looking butcher knife taken at the
same time, was for some years among the trophies of the Adjutant-
General's office in this city.
382 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XXIV.
1866 STATE BILLS BEFORE CONGRESS — SECOND VETO ATTEMPTED BARGAIN WITH
EVANS AND CHAFFEE ORGANIC ACTS AMENDED EVANS REVIEWS THE VETO
CHILCOTT AND HUNT FOR CONGRESS MORE OF CUMMINGS' PERFORMANCES A
MIDNIGHT MESSAGE TO THE PRESIDENT SECRETARY HALL REMOVED SENATE
REFUSES TO CONFIRM A SUCCESSOR — CAUSTIC REVIEW OF CU:\rMINGS' ACTS BY A
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CHILCOTT SEATED — HUNT APPOINTED GOVERNOR
LOVELAND AND THE CLEAR CREEK RAILWAY FINAL LOCATION OF THE PACIFIC
RAILROAD FIRST PIONEERS* ASSOCIATION KOUNTZE BROS. AND THE COLORADO
NATIONAL BANK GEORGE T. CLARK ARRIVAL OF BAYARD TAYLOR AND GEN-
ERAL SHERMAN FIRST BALLOTS CAST BY THE BLACKS EARLY HISTORY OF
CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS — FIRST REPUBLICAN CLUB.
The Senate bill providing for the admission of Colorado, passed
Congress May 3d, 1866. In the lower house Mr. Washburne offered
an amendment that the word "white" be stricken from the state consti-
tution, but it was rejected by a vote of thirty-nine against fifty-nine.
The bill then passed, yeas, eighty ; nays, fifty-five. Knowing the Presi-
dent's temper, general apprehension was expressed that he would send
it back with his objections. Sure enough, on the 1 5th this expectation was
fulfilled. His first objection was, insufficiency of population. Next, that
the state government was not essential to the welfare of the people,
whose numbers did not exceed forty thousand, the greater part recent
settlers, many of whom were understood to be ready to emigrate to
other mining districts beyond the limits of the territory. The burdens
of increased taxation were urpfed as a substantial reason, but trreater
than all, it had not been satisfactorily established that a majority of the
citizens either desired or were prepared for the change, closing with the
intimation that the majority for the constitution was secured by fraud.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 383
As a natural consequence, Messrs. Evans and Chaffee applied all
their resources of argument and persuasion to secure the passage of
the bill over the veto. It was stated as a matter of fact that Andrew
Johnson had signified to our Senators elect his readiness to approve
the measure if they would pledge themselves to sustain his policy of
reconstructing the States lately in rebellion, and that both refused to
gain their ends on such terms. Nevertheless, they labored most earn-
estly with the President to remove his opposition, but ineffectually.
Political feeling ran high. Johnson adhered uncompromisingly to the
programme he had conceived, regardless of the will of Congress and
the northern sentiment. There is no doubt that he would have signed
the bill, if thereby he could have received assurances, or any accept-
able guarantee of the support of our Senators. It was premature as
every one here who reasoned independently on the subject, knew and
admitted, yet the feeling among the people at large was decidedly un-
favorable to a continuance of the kind of Territorial government which
had been accorded them. Cummings, Sam Tappan, A. C. Hunt and
others prominent in the Anti-state league, were as ardent in obstructing
the movement as the State men were in pushing its adoption, and hav-
ing the chief magistrate with them, they were much more certain of
success.
In June, 1866, Congress passed a bill amending the organic acts of
the several Territories so as to prohibit the legislatures of said Terri-
tories from passing special acts conferring corporate powers, but auth-
orizing the formation of corporations, except for banking purposes,
under the general laws, which might be altered or repealed at pleasure.
The practice of granting special charters had become an abuse of
power, and this amendment was interposed to put a stop to it.
Immediately after the veto. Governor Evans published a reply in
one of the Washington papers, and later a second article in refutation
of the arguments advanced by the President. He entered upon a gen-
eral and searching review of the condition of the Territory, showing a
steady increase of population and development of resources; also that
384 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
a number of States had been admitted with much less population than
Colorado possessed. It is probable that these publications were in-
tended not so much to affect the President, as to furnish reasons to
Senators and Representatives for passing the bill over the veto, a result
that was for some time confidently expected. But even this hope failed.
The requisite two-thirds vote, though frequently promised, was never
obtained. The only advantage accruing to the Territory from the per-
sistent zeal of our representatives at the national capital, was a very
extensive advertising which had the efTect, in time, of causing large
numbers of emigrants to locate here.
July 24th George M. Chilcott was nominated for delegate to Con-
gress by the Union Republicans, and A. C. Hunt by the Independents,
or Johnson administrationists, the latter publicly declaring himself to be
unalterably opposed to any change in our territorial condition until our
finances should be materially improved. Hunt was supported in the
canvass by the Democrats, and to all intents and purposes was their
candidate. August 13th Governor Cummings returned from the east
to afford him all the aid in his power. The campaign, though earnestly
conducted, produced no excitement. Both candidates were well known,
and each was deservedly popular with his particular friends. Mr. Chil-
cott had long held the position of register of the U. S. Land office
which brought him into familiar contact with the people. As an officer
and citizen, no man was more widely esteemed. Hunt was the very in-
carnation of energy and force. Neither could make a stump speech,
therefore each pushed his canvass upon the theory that a first-class
"single-handed talker" was more effective in securing votes than the
most eloquent orator. Hunt was an aggressive campaigner in any
field he might enter, and by the rapidity of his movements seemed more
nearly capable of being in two or more places at the same moment
than any man of his time. As the acknowledged representative of the
Anti-staters, he was naturally opposed, feared, and possibly hated by the
State leaders. He was often rash and headstrong, but rarely weak or
vacillating. He advised, led, directed and controlled the administration
iM^^^
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 385
of Alexander Cummings, a difficult task, which often exhausted his
diplomacy and his patience as well. Both candidates were strong in
the southern division of the Territory, but Chilcott had a much larger
following in the north than his opponent.
The election, which occurred on the 7th of August, gave Chilcott
a clear majority, but to what extent could only be determined by the
official count, as the race had been a close one and the balance between
the aspirants so nearly even as to leave the result for some time in
doubt. At length as the returns came in and were published in the
papers, Chilcott's election was generally conceded, hence the Governor,
who was profoundly interested, began to take measures for changing
the count to read the other way. He resolved in his own mind that
Hunt should be declared elected, no matter what the face of the returns
might develop, but to insure a reasonable show of right, he set on foot
an investigation of certain precincts in the south, and there obtained a
number of ex parte affidavits and statements relating to the manner of
conducting the election at those places, all of course alleging fraud and
corrupt practices, and giving a result widely different from that shown
in the official papers returned to the Secretary of the Territory. The
Republican newspapers of the day openly charged Col. John Wanless
with having procured the affidavits, but in a letter to the Secretary some
time afterward he declared that his only part in the transaction had
been to receive and present them, and that he never saw the papers
until they were handed to him in Denver.
His Excellency returned soon after the election. The Secretary
was in Central City supervising his business affairs at that place.
When the returns beean to demonstrate the defeat of Mr. Hunt, I was
repeatedly interviewed by different parties from Denver who seemed
anxious to be informed of the position which I, as chairman of the Ter-
ritorial Board of Canvassers, would probably assume. In due course I
went to Denver, where I was sharply interrogated by the Governor on
the same subject, in the evident hope at the outset, that I would be
willing to make concessions, and not conduct the count wholly accord-
25
386 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
ing to the face of the documents then locked up in the safe, awaiting
official action. Discovering that nothing could be gained in that direc-
tion, an attempt was made to secure a postponement of the canvass,
Cummings pleading for a week or two, in order that he might in the
meantime visit the southern part of the Territory to look after treaties
with the Ute Indians. This being also resisted, and the canvass
insisted upon, to take place the following day (September 5th), the
Governor and his principal adherents proceeded to the telegraph office
about midnight and sent dispatches to President Johnson, then on his
famous "swinor around the circle," in other words, en route to Chicao^o
to dedicate the Douglas monument in that city, stating the facts and
declaring in positive terms that the immediate removal of the Secre-
tary of Colorado was imperatively demanded in order to insure the
election of Mr. Hunt, the administration candidate.
The next morning, while passing down Fifteenth street, I was
accosted by a stranger who thrust into my hands a small bundle of
papers, saying, "Here are some original messages which I sent to the
President last night. They concern you deeply. I am night operator
in the Western Union office. All I ask is that you will not betray me
until after I have left the city, which will be in a few hours. You do
not know me, but I know you, and realizing that you ought to be
advised of the plot against you, I have taken this method of doing it."
He then turned and left me. I have neither seen nor heard of the
man from that time to the present, nor had I ever seen him before to
my knowledge.
At the first opportunity I read the dispatches which had come
thus mysteriously to my hand, finding them to be of great importance,
as stated by the operator, and in substance as stated above, — demanding
of the President my immediate removal from office. I summoned the
Board of Canvassers to meet in the executive office at 2 o'clock the
same day, notified the Governor of such action, and invited him to be
present, since the law required that the returns should be canvassed in
his presence, though he was in no legal sense a member of the board.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 387
This provision of the organic act was intended to advise him, as a
witness of the proceeding, that the votes as returned were correctly
counted, so that he might issue the certificate of election to the person
who, upon the face of the returns, should be shown to have received a
majority of the votes cast, upon the certificate of the canvassers,
nothing more or less.
The board, as provided by law, comprised the Secretary, Territo-
rial Auditor, and Territorial Treasurer. Mr. Hunt beinsfthe Treasurer,
and therefore incompetent to sit upon his own case, he resigned, when
Col. John Wanless was appointed his successor. The auditor was
Richard E. Whitsitt. At the hour appointed the board assembled,
the returns were taken from the safe and counted, to ascertain if all
the counties had reported. Quite a delegation of citizens was present.
The Governor attempted to lock them out of the room, but was
prevented by Mr. Whitsitt. It having been ascertained that the
reports were complete, the count began in regular order. When
several of the papers had been checked off, the governor, under pre-
tense of looking at the last one read, came from his desk at the oppo-
site side of the room and, adjusting his glasses to see more clearly,
bent over the mass of documents on the table as if to scrutinize
certain figures, but instantly seized the entire collection, and taking
them to his private secretary, Major Thompson, said, " Prepare to
tabulate these returns as I give them to you ; I propose to make
this canvass myself." The board protested, strenuously against this
outrageous and wholly unlawful proceeding, but in vain. There was
no way in which they could regain control of the papers save by force,
and this they did not feel warranted in employing. Cummings inti-
mated very emphatically, on several occasions that no matter what the
returns might show, the certificate of election would be given to Mr.
Hunt. On reaching the counties in which the affidavits referred to
heretofore had been obtained, he changed the returns for that county
to correspond with the figures given in the affidavits. When he had
finished the count, Major Thompson presented the figures he had put
388 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
down for each candidate, showing Hunt to have received a majority of
about eighty-seven, whereas the official returns gave Chilcott a majority
of one hundred and eight.
Hon. J. Q. Charles, Amos Steck and several other prominent law-
yers who were indignant witnesses of the Governor's act, remonstrated
against it, showing that he had no right whatever to make a personal
count of the votes ; no right to introduce and accept as part of the
returns this ex parte evidence. The territorial board was the only body
authorized to make the count, and even it had no power to go behind
the returns as rendered. This power belonged to Congress, and could
not be usurped by a lesser authority. But their protests and argu-
ments were of no avail. The Governor, intensely satisfied with the
shrewdness of his coup, remained obdurate to all appeals for justice.
He had made his point and would issue the certificate, and that was
the end of it, so far as he was concerned.
The Secretary after great difficulty recovered the papers, and, the
hour being late — nearly 6 o'clock — announced that the board would
meet and make its canvass at 8 o'clock that evening. The Governor
having accomplished his design, offered no objection and consented to
be present. Meanwhile, the report of what had occurred in the after-
noon spread over the city, exciting great indignation. At the evening
session a large crowd was present, and many were armed, anticipating
serious difficulty. While the canvass proceeded the Governor inter-
jected sneering remarks, which only intensified the bitterness against
him. On one occasion Mr. Whitsitt threw off his coat and made a
plunge at Mr. Cummings as if to strike him for his insolence, but
he was caught by the bystanders, and a collision prevented. The
feeling of those present was that an outrage had been committed.
To them it was a defiant challenge to do their worst. Either that
night or the next day the Governor telegraphed the Johnson con-
vention, then sitting in Philadelphia, that the administration candidate
for delegrate to Concrress from Colorado had been declared elected.
It was stated, but with how much truth I am unable to say, that
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 389
Cummings, fearing the storm he had raised would result in violence to
himself, was secreted by his friends for several nights succeeding the
events narrated above.
On the 6th the Board of Canvassers drew up, by the advice of J.
Bright Smith and Amos Steck, whom they consulted, a certificate
stating the result of the count. This,' with other documents relating
to the subject, was transmitted to the house of representatives in
Washington, where, after a full examination of the evidence, Mr. Chil-
cott was seated, and Mr. Hunt granted the right to contest. Some
time afterward there came up from one of the southern counties a
petition addressed to the senate and house of representatives, stating
that at an election held on the 7th of August " for delegate to repre-
sent our Territory in the Fortieth congress, many of us cast our votes
for George M. Chilcott under the erroneous impression that he was
disfavorable to the admission of said Territory as one of the sovereign
States of the Union. We therefore wish to offer our united protest
against such admission, and beg that we may be spared this new and
additional burthen that now seems more than we can bear.''
In October the Governor bundled all the executive records,
archives and other movable property of the Territory into wagons and
carted them up to Golden City, where headquarters were established
on the upper floor or loft of a rickety frame building. Here he was
at least out of reach of the tempest he had so wantonly incited, and as
the feeling against him in the actual capital was less pronounced than
at Denver, a short respite of peace was afforded him.
November 3d he took coach for the States, to be present at the
December session of Congress, and further prosecute his aims against
the State movement, when it should again appear before that body.
By virtue of an act of the legislature, a census of the population of the
Territory was taken in 1866, which returned a total of twenty-seven
thousand, nine hundred and thirty-one. The city of Denver was cred-
ited with about three thousand, five hundred souls.
The President acted promptly upon the advice given him by
390 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Governor Cummings in his nocturnal message, and at once removed
Mr. Hall, appointing a Mr. Hood, a nephew of the famous Confed-
erate general of that name, but the Senate refused to confirm. One or
two other nominations were sent in, but the Senate refusing to act
upon them, the incumbent was thereafter left in undisturbed possession.
George M. Chilcott was sworn in as the sitting delegate from Col-
orado March 20th, 1867. On the 21st the Congressional "Globe" con-
tained a full account of the investigation made of this case by the
committee having the matter in charge, from which we reproduce the
following summary : The majority report favored the seating of Chil-
cott, while the minority declared for Hunt. The majority report
stated, among other things, that " while the case was being argued,
Mr. Hunt introduced Governor Cummings as his counsel, or his
friend, to argue the case. The Governor undertook to explain to the
committee why no allusion was made in his certificate to the count of
the canvassers. He informed us that he considered himself one of the
Board of Canvassers ; that when the Secretary and Auditor agreed to
this'- (which was wholly false, for no such agreement was made or pro-
posed), "the Treasurer not agreeing to it ^' (another falsehood, though
the Treasurer sustained the Governor as against the Secretary and
Auditor), "he counted himself one of the board and united with the
Treasurer, which made a tie of the board, having no legal canvass,
therefore he was at liberty to make the certificate upon the facts as he
understood them," — in other words, as he manufactured them. Mr.
Cook, of the committee, stated in substance that Cummings, in pre-
sentincr Hunt's credentials, made such a statement of facts as in his
(Cook's) opinion rendered the paper of no validity whatever. He
(Cummings) admitted that it was given in direct contravention of the
finding of the Board of Canvassers of the Territory who canvassed the
votes cast for the candidates for delegate ; that the majority of the
board decided that Mr. Chilcott had received a majority of one
hundred and eight, and that he (Cummings) had taken it upon himself,
despite the decision of the Board of Canvassers, to give the certificate
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 391
to Mr. Hunt. " It is said," proceeds Mr. Cook, "that Governor Cum-
mings was not sworn as a witness, and could give no evidence before
the committee. But, Mr. Speaker, he could make an admission, and
he did so before the committee. If a man should come into court
with a note of hand, that note might be prima facie evidence of good
cause of action ; but if he should admit that the note of hand was a
forgery, or had been stolen, I apprehend that it would destroy his cause
of action. I look upon this paper of Mr. Hunt's, with the accompa-
nying admission of Governor Cummings, very much in the same light."
Mr. Wilson, of the committee, stated that Cummings appeared in
behalf of Mr. Hunt. "The question being propounded whether the
certificate was issued before the canvass was made, he replied that no
canvass of the vote was declared or made. He then went on of his
own suq-crestion to state the fact that two of the board were for
Mr. Chilcott and one for Mr. Hunt, and that he coincided with the
one for Mr. Hunt. The question was then put to him, 'If that was
so, what right had you to issue the certificate to Mr. Hunt?' He then,
finding himself embarrassed by his statement, said that he was not
there as a witness. The recklessness with which he trampled upon all
law in giving the certificate to a man who had not a majority of the
votes, was only equaled by the unblushing coolness with which he
appeared before the committee and attempted to justify his palpable
violation of the law. In this case Mr. Chilcott has the only certifi-
cate in accordance with the decision of the Board of Canvassers, and
the first certificate does not show that it was given to the man who
received the highest number of votes. The Governor admits that he
gave it in violation of law. It was perhaps necessary at the time, in
order to send a telegraphic dispatch to give encouragement to the cele-
brated Philadelphia convention. I do not know of any other reason."
After this explanation, the vote was taken by the House, and Mr.
Chilcott seated by a vote of ninety-one yeas to thirty-six nays, thirty-
seven members not voting. Though there was much talk of a contest,
none was made About the 21st of April, Governor Cummings
392 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
resigned his office and was appointed to the collectorship of Internal
Revenue for the Fourth District of Pennsylvania, to the great rejoicing
of his enemies in Colorado. In May, A. C. Hunt being then in Wash-
ington, by an agreement with Cummings, who exerted his influence
with the President to that end, was appointed to succeed him as Gov-
ernor. The Senate having adjourned, he simply filled a vacancy until
it should meet again. Governor Hunt arrived in Denver by coach
May 19th, and at once entered upon the duties of his office. A large
deputation of citizens paid their respects to him at his residence on the
West side — now Lincoln Park.
It has been noted in a previous chapter that the Butterfield Over-
land Dispatch company had received a charter from the legislature, and
had adopted the route to Salt Lake City via Berthoud Pass, substan-
tially the same line built by General Bela M. Hughes, on which some
forty thousand dollars had been expended. This fact caused the Over-
land Mail company to refuse to proceed any further with the work,
consequently it was abandoned. The Butterfield company in due
course fell into financial embarrassment from its unprofitable operations
in Colorado, and withdrew from the field, hence the route intended for
the Union Pacific railroad was never used.
To illustrate the value of the commerce of our Territory in 1866,
the following extract showing the shipments of freight to Colorado, is
taken from the report of a committee appointed at a railroad meeting
called for the purpose of influencing the construction of the Pacific
railway through Berthoud Pass, and over Gen. Hughes' route, thence
to Salt Lake :
Pounds.
Provisions, groceries, etc 40,000,000
Clothing 4,000,000
Hardware, mining and agricultural implements 10,000,000
Moving families 6,000,000
Machinery 14,000,000
Government stores 20,000,000
Grain 10,000,000
Total 1 04,000,000
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 393
The report also states that "the average cost of transportation has
been, for the last three years, ten cents per pound, making- a total cost
to the Territory and the government of ten millions, four hundred thou-
sand dollars for freight on the above, summer and vi^inter, ranging from
eight to thirty cents per pound/' It was estimated by the compilers of
this report, that by the expiration of one year from the completion of
the Pacific railroad through our Territory, and a consequent reduction
in the price of labor, that three times that amount of freight would be
required, or three hundred and twelve million pounds, at a cost of
three cents per pound, which would yield a revenue of nine million,
three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, and would be sufficient to
load forty cars daily with freight for Colorado, to say nothing of the
travel.
But the committee go further into detail, presenting as an induce-
ment to the company, this tempting estimate of the productions of the
soil and their value. During the year mentioned, the amount of land
under cultivation in Colorado was estimated at one hundred thousand
acres. The yield of wheat, corn and oats for the three years preceding
was — wheat twenty bushels per acre, corn twenty, and oats thirty bushels.
The prices of these products in the same period had averaged about
as follows : Wheat, six dollars per bushel ; corn, five dollars ; rye,
five dollars ; barley, four dollars, and oats three dollars and thirty cents.
On the 19th of June, 1866, the Senate passed an amendment to
the Pacific railroad bill, providing for the construction of the eastern
division — now known as the Kansas Pacific, and requiring the company
to designate the general route of its road and file a map thereof as
required by law, on or before December ist of that year ; also that the
company should connect its line with the Union Pacific at a point not
more than fifty miles westward from the meridian of Denver.
This measure passed the House and was approved June 26th. The
route selected was directly west up the Smoky Hill Fork to this city.
This bill received the ardent support of Senators Evans and Chaffee,
who used all the influence they possessed in that behalf, being then
394 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
pretty thoroughly convinced that the main line would be deflected to
the north, and that the eastern division would be certain to come
straight through.
By the unremitting labors of Mr. W. A. H. Loveland, the Colo-
rado and Clear Creek railroad company, which had been granted a
charter by the legislature of 1864, began to assume a good deal of
prominence. The route defined was " up Clear Creek Canon to
Empire and Central City, and from Golden City to Boulder, and via
Denver to Bijou." The charter was subsequently amended in the
matter of title, to read "The Colorado Central Pacific railroad," and
the company required to make a survey and finish a certain amount of
construction in a given time. The survey was made in good order and
time, but the next phase of the problem, the raising of means to build,
was rather more difficult. Mr. Loveland devoted the greater part of
his time to it. He succeeded finally in enlisting the co-operation of
Dr. W. H. Laman of New York in the enterprise, who went to
Europe, and, it was reported, secured subscriptions to the amount of
thirty millions in the stock of the road. The amended charter per-
mitted the company to build from Golden City via Clear Creek to the
western boundary of Colorado, and from the same point eastward by
two branches, to the eastern boundary, and to meet the Omaha and
Kansas Pacific roads. Meanwhile, legislation pending in Congress
looking to the revocation of the charters granted by the territorial
legislatures, alarmed capitalists, consequently there was no farther
advance for some time. This bill did not pass, however. The next
move at Washington came in the form of an amendment to the original
Pacific railroad bill, to permit the junction of the main line and the
eastern division, at or immediately west of Denver, instead of on the
one hundredth meridian. This seemed to indicate a choice of Ber-
thoud's instead of the South Pass, as the route of the transcontinental
line. The Union Pacific, by virtue of an agreement, proposed to build
the road from Denver to the western line of the Territory if the Colo-
rado Central would turn over the government subsidy for that distance.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 395
the latter company to have the use of the road by paying its propor-
tionate share for maintenance, repairs, etc. At this early period of
railway building in the West, capitalists entertained a dread of the
great cost, much exaggerated in their minds, of constructing lines in
the mountains, yet the feasibility of surmounting the difficulties
between the plains and Middle Park, as presented to them, together
with a pretty strong assurance that the main line would take this route,
inclined them to give the enterprise some earnest consideration. The
vast distance saved by this route over that via the South Pass, was an
additional inducement. The expense of building over the high range
would be greater, but it would be co'^pensated many times over by the
shorter line. I may here interpolate the observation, that if ever a
transcontinental road shall be built by the Berthoud route, as originally
outlined by Mr. Loveland and E. L. Berthoud, it will take the lion's
share of the through traffic between the Missouri river and the Pacific
ocean for the reason given, that it is shorter by nearly four hundred
miles than the present line of the Union Pacific; a consideration that
would weigh heavily against all competitors. The Union Pacific com-
pany by adopting this route in the beginning, would not perhaps have
reached Ogden quite so early as it did, but its road would have cost less
money, and its future would have been so strongly fortified as to insure
it the control of transcontinental traffic for all time. But, at this epoch,
the managers were led to believe the scheme impracticable, notwith-
standing the demonstration of its practicability laid before them by
Berthoud, Loveland and General F. M. Case. What were deemed
insurmountable obstacles then, have since become, through greater
engineering skill and experience, mere trifles, as witness the roads now
in operation all through the mountain ranges.
At length, in August, 1866, the Union Pacific engineers were
directed to accompany Capt. Berthoud over his surveyed line up Clear
Creek to the pass which bears his name. On the 15th of September
following. General G. M. Dodge, Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific,
attended by Colonel Seymour, consulting engineer, Jesse L. W^illiams,
396 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
o^overnment director, and Col. Cheesborouorh, arrived in Denver with the
view of makingr a tour of inspection of the Rocky Mountains, for the
purpose of enabhng them to report fully and finally as to the advantages
and disadvantages of the projected routes, on their return to New York.
In the, course of this mission they examined Clear Creek Canon and
Berthoud Pass, but a short time afterward public announcement was
made of the fact that the company had formally selected the route up
Lodge Pole Creek to the Cheyenne Pass, through the Black Hills and
Bridger's Pass. It was a bitter disappointment to all our people of
course, for until this blow fell, they cherished the hope that the company
would be compelled to adopt either the Clear Creek line, or that through
Boulder Canon. But we were consoled to some extent by the promise
given simultaneously, that Denver and the mountain towns would be
connected by a branch, and thus ended for the time being, all uncertainty
as to our prospects for direct intercourse by rail with the East.
The first meeting of the Pioneers' association, which included only
the immigrants of 1858 and 1859, ^^'^^ ^^^^ ^^^ organization June 2 2d,
1866. The following were present: Richard Sopris, Charles C. Post,
D. C. Oakes, W. H. Morgan, William N. Byers, Dr. Adams, Andrew
Sagendorf, E. B. Sopris, A. C. Hunt, Edward H. Willoughby, H. R.
Hunt, S. M. Logan, Wm. M. Slaughter, John S. Jones, Henry J. Rogers,
J. W. Mclntire, Dr. J. H. Morrison, A. McFadden, John J. Riethmann,
William Graham, George C. Schleier, Joseph L. Bailey, Nelson Sargent,
Fred Z. Salomon, Lewis N. Tappan, A. G. Rhoads, John O. A. Rollins,
Andrew Hiveley and John Robinson,
The meeting was called to order by Mr. Salomon. Capt. Richard
Sopris was made chairman, and Lewis N, Tappan, secretary. A com-
mittee was appointed to nominate permanent officers of the association,
who reported as follows:
For President, D. C. Oakes; for Vice-Presidents. Richard Sopris of
Arapahoe; C. L. Tourtellot of Boulder; John S. Jones of Clear Creek;
Lafayette Head of Conejos; Capt. Hendren of Costilla; George A,
Bute of El Paso ; William H. Green of Fremont ; William M.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 397
Slaughter of Gilpin ; James S. Gray of Huerfano ; W. A. H. Loveland
of Jefferson ; Robert L. Berry of Lake ; Henry B. Chubbuck of Lari-
mer ; H. A. W. Tabor of Park ; R. B. Willis of Pueblo ; Wier P. Pol-
lock of Summit ; Mark B. Houghton of Weld,
Recording Secretary, H. R. Hunt ; Corresponding Secretary, Wm.
N. Byers ; Treasurer, Henry J. Rogers. The organization was main-
tained for a short time, and years afterward was succeeded by another
and broader, which extended the privileges of fellowship to all who came
to the country during the period between 1858 and 1861. This associa-
tion is now in existence ; the bond between the members has been
strengthened by the constant thinning of their ranks by death, and the
fraternity will probably endure until the last remnant shall have
"passed over the Range" whence none return.
In August, 1866, the Kountze Brothers, who had for some years
conducted a banking business both here and in Central City, secured a
charter from the Treasury Department and immediately established the
Colorado National Bank, with Luther Kountze President, Joseph H.
Goodspeed Vice-President, and Charles B. Kountze, Cashier.
This institution was the outgrowth of a movement begun by Luther
Kountze in 1862, who opened business in a small corner of Tootle &
Leach's general store on Blake street between F and G. Six months
later it was removed to W. S. Cheesman's drugstore on the corner of
F and Blake, where it remained until the completion of the new bank-
ing house on the corner of F and Holladay. Mr. Charles B. Kountze
arrived in July, 1864, assisting his brother until 1865, when Luther went
to New York and established a branch on Wall street in that city.
Thereafter the business in Colorado was conducted by C. B. Kountze
under the name of Kountze Brothers, until the organization of the
Colorado National in 1866. A branch was established at Central City
in 1S62. The firm now has three large houses, one in Denver, another
in Omaha, and a third in New York, with strong connections in
London.
An exhibit of the growth of the Denver house appears in the fol-
398 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
lowing comparative statement. The first quarterly report published
October ist, 1866, gave — Loans and discounts $120,258.31. Deposits
$189,101.96. December 12th, 1888, the statement showed — Loans and
discounts $2,076,499.07 and deposits $3,043,224.32.
On the 4th of September, 1866, George T. Clark resigned the
cashiership of the First National bank, and was on that date succeeded
by D. H. Moffat, Jr. Fred Z. Salomon and George Wells were chosen
directors in place of Eben Smith and George T. Clark. The latter
proceeded to Central City and took personal charge of his banking
house there which had been established in 1865. He possessed great
energy and capacity for business, and but for his lavish generosity
would have attained exalted rank as a financier. His intercourse with
men w^as characterized by perennial geniality and the quaintest and
most fascinating humor. During his lifetime, and especially in the first
ten years of his residence in Colorado, many, almost innumerable op-
portunities in fact, for the acquisition of wealth were presented to him,
but he was not acquisitive. Whatever he made was freely divided with
his multitude of friends. If one were in need he had only to apply to
George Clark to find immediate relief. No charity left him without its
reward. No friend applied for aid in vain. He came into prominence
in connection with the coining mint of Clark, Gruber & Co. and later
as the agent of Hinckley's express. In the early years of the munici-
pality of Denver he was elected mayor, and gave the people a vigorous
and thoroughly honest administration; was the first cashier, as already
noted, of the First National bank, conducted two extensive private
banks, and was at times deeply immersed in local and territorial politics.
No man of his time was blessed with more or warmer friends. Gen-
erous to recklessness, companionable to a most charming degree, he
thought more of being happy and entertaining others than of money-
getting, hence at his death in 1887 after a long and eventful career,
enjoying the esteem of all who knew him, he left only a moderate
competence to his family. When by act of the Legislature a commis-
sion was created to supervise the construction of a State capitol, he
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 399
was made its secretary, which position he retained to the close of his
useful and honored life.
On the 19th of June, 1S66, Bayard Taylor with the eminent artist
Beard, arrived in Denver. Mr. Taylor lectured to a large audience
during his stay, and then made an extensive tour of the mountains,
taking notes according to his lifelong custom and, some years later,
published the results of his trip, whereby many were attracted to the
country. He was followed on September loth by General W. T.
Sherman and staff, who came in an ambulance, and was met several
miles out by a large concourse of citizens on horseback who extended
to him the hospitalities of the city. On the i ith a grand banquet was
given in his honor at the Pacific House, where he had an opportunity
to fully test the quality of his welcome, as well as the caliber of our
Western pioneers, for the hotel was crowded with guests.
In this month also, the first fair of the Colorado Agricultural So-
ciety was held, on grounds then about three miles north of town, other-
wise than by the society's buildings, wholly vacant, but now a thickly
populated suburb of the city. The exhibits made in 1866 and subse-
quently were among the most creditable that have ever been witnessed
in this section of the west.
On the loth of January, 1867, the second bill providing for the ad-
mission of Colorado as a State, passed the Senate with the following
amendment by Senator Edmunds:
*' That this act shall go into effect with the fundamental and per-
petual condition that within said State of Colorado there shall be no
abridgement or denial of the exercise of the elective franchise, or of any
other right to any person by reason of race or color, except Indians
not taxed." The Nebraska bill passed at the same time, but when the
bills reached the House it was discovered that considerable opposition
had sprung up since the last session^ in which both had been adopted
by majorities sufficient to have carried them over the veto. The
House had become in the interim even more radical than the Senate
in its prejudice against the admission of States having the word
400 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
"white'' in their constitutions, and while the Edmunds' amendment,
which satisfied Charles Sumner, was designed to remove the objection,
doubts of its successful operation were freely expressed, and numerous
other pretexts advanced for the prevention of its passage. At the
December session Hon. J. M. Ashley, chairman of the Committee on
Territories in the House, introduced a bill providing for impartial suf-
frage in all territories of the United States, and the measure was still
pending. On the iith of January Senator Wade's bill amending the
oro-anic acts of all the territories to the effect that there should be no
denial of the franchise on account of race, color and so forth, and re-
pealing all acts in conflict with the same, was taken up and passed. I"-
was immediately enrolled and transmitted to the House, where half an
hour later it went through under a call for the previous question.
Therefore, in less than two hours after its introduction by Mr. Wade,
it had passed both houses and was on its way to the President for his
approval. And this was the beginning of impartial suffrage in
Colorado.
Both bills for admission (Nebraska and Colorado) passed the
House on the i8th of February, 1867, with the further amendment
tacked on to each below that attached by Senator Edmunds, "that the
legislature of said State by a solemn act shall declare the assent of said
State to the said fundamental conditions, and shall transmit to the
President of the United States an authentic copy of said act, upon the
receipt whereof the President, by proclamation, shall forthwith an-
nounce the fact, whereupon said fundamental conditions shall be held
as part of the organic law of the State, and thereupon, without any
further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of said State
into the Union shall be considered complete. The State legislature
shall be convened by the Governor within thirty days after the passage
of this act, to act upon the conditions submitted herein." The bill
passed, ayes one hundred and six, nays fifty-five. The amendments
having been concurred in by the Senate, the measures went to the
President. Excepting the amendment just recited, the bills were the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 401
same as those adopted the previous winter. In our case the original
State legislature was revived and given authority to pass upon the
question thus submitted, Johnson promptly sent them back with a
veto which simply reiterated the objections given in the first instance.
The Nebraska bill was passed over the veto, but it was found im-
possible to carry the Colorado bill by the same means. On the ist of
March the Senate, without debate, refused to take any further action.
Though twice defeated, the ardor of our Senators elect was by no
means extinguished. They girded up their loins manfully for another
struggle, and six days after the veto. Senator Harlan introduced a third
measure, essentially the same as the last, but with a clause continuing
in force the existing territorial suffrage law and reserving the right to
enforce it and the civil rights law in the State when admitted. At the
same session, Congress changed the annual sessions of the territorial
legislature to biennial sessions, and increased the pay of the members
from four to six dollars per diem. This bill was approved March 30th,
1S67.
It was confidently expected that all the new Senators would heartily
support Senator Harlan's bill, and that the third appearance of this
already familiar and somewhat shabby specter would be finally dis-
posed of by taking it out of the hands of the President and making
Colorado a State by a two-thirds vote over his objections. This belief
was strengthened by the admission of Nebraska, and by the passage of
the reconstruction acts, tenure of office and other great measures which
for so long a time had been absorbing the attention of our statesmen.
On the 20th of March the House Committee on Territories recom-
mended the admission of Colorado. About the same time the act
granting the elective franchise and equal civil rights to the negroes be-
came a law by constitutional limitation, the President having refused
to sign it. Governor Evans advised his friends here that the prospect
for the Colorado bill was extremely favorable, since the recommendation
had been announced. Among other reports received in this period was
one which stated that Governor Cummings' administration of Indian
26
402 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
affairs had been unclereoinof investigation, and that his distribution ot
annuity goods, with other transactions in connection with a certain
treaty negotiated by him with the Utes for the cession of their lands in
Middle Park, were to some extent irregular.
At the municipal elections held April ist, 1867, the colored people
cast their first ballots. There was no objection on the part of any class
of citizens, no desire to prevent or interfere with the full and free ex-
ercise of the right granted them by law. They went to the polls at the
hour of their opening, voted quietly but quickly, and stepped aside so
as to avoid any prejudice which might remain on the part of white
citizens to this intimate contact with a downtrodden race, with an in-
telligent realization that such prejudice existed, and if irritated might
precipitate serious results. In the city of Omaha less discreet action
brought on a disgraceful riot, in which the blacks were expelled fromi
the polling places.
When it was seen that no opposition had been or would be en-
countered, no obstructions placed in their way, that their ballots were
to be cast as freely as those of the white people, they were overjoyed,
and their gratitude found expression in a public meeting held the day
following, which was addressed by W. J. Hardin, two sons of Frederick
Douglass, and other really excellent speakers. At the close, resolutions
were adopted reciting, that whereas it was the first opportunity
afforded them to exercise the sacred rigfht of castinor their votes, and
though the white voters had been largely opposed to it, their regard
for law and order impelled them to make no resistance, therefore re-
solved, that "we are proud of the respectful recognition of our right
to the franchise and grateful for the treatment we received at the
polls." Thanks were tendered to Mayor M. M. De Lano for his vigil-
ance in providing for their protection.
Before proceeding to the consideration of the interesting series of
movements which resulted in the construction of our first railways, it
may be well to give a brief epitome of the condition of the churches
that had been established, with an account of their beginning.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 403
The first services held under the Methodist organization were in-
stituted by a local preacher named George W. Fisher, in November,
1858. Meetings took place, now in a saloon, at another time in a
lowly cabin, and again in the open air, wherever auditors could be
gathered by this zealous Christian pioneer. In June, 1859, ^^^^ Kansas
Conference sent the Rev. W. H. Good to take charge of the Cherry
Creek mission. He was accompanied by the Rev. Jacob Adriancewho
became pastor of a circuit embracing Denver, Golden City, Boulder,
and all other points of settlement in the valley, that is to say, on the
plains. Mr. Good returned to Kansas, and in April Rev. J. M. Chiv-
ington was sent out by the conference of that jurisdiction, as presiding
elder of the " Rocky Mountain District." Under Elder Chivincrton's
supervision the Denver appointment was first occupied by the Rev.
Loudon Taylor of the Upper Iowa Conference, and subsequently by the
Rev. A. P. Allen of the Wisconsin Conference. In November, i860,
the regular meetings were held in what may be termed a shed or rude
addition to the old "Herald and Commonwealth" ofifice on the corner of
Twelfth and Larimer streets. West side. In the spring of 1861, Rev.
W. A. Kenney was appointed pastor of the church in Denver, and in
November of that year the society rented the brick portion of the
old Episcopal Church building on the corner of Fourteenth and Ara-
pahoe— now occupied by the Haish Manual Training School, a depart-
ment of the Denver University — where they held regular meetings until
the spring of 1862. The building was the property of the M. E. Church,
South. Mr. Kenney died in the spring of the year last mentioned, and
for a time the church was left without place or pastor. Rev. Chivington
having taken a commission in the First Regiment of Colorado volun-
teers for the war. The Rev, Dennis succeeded him as Presiding Elder.
In October, 1862, Rev. O. A. Willard was transferred from the
Wisconsin Conference and stationed at Denver. After some shifting
about from place to place, the old Methodist Church building in the bed
of Cherry Creek was secured, and in this, under the ministrations of
Mr. Willard, the society prospered in a very gratifying degree. In
404 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
June, 1863, the " Rocky Mountain," later the "Colorado Conference"
was organized, and Mr. Willard elevated to the post of Presiding Elder.
This left the society without a pastor, until Rev. George C. Betts was
appointed to the charge, which he afterward vacated, returning to the
East and entering the Episcopal ministry. During the pastorate of Mr.
Betts the flood of 1864 swept away the little church, which again inter-
rupted the regular religious exercises. At length the society secured
temporary quarters, first in the Denver Theater, and then in the Col-
orado Seminary, where meetings were held until the 12th of February,
1865, when the church on the corner of Fourteenth and Lawrence
streets was completed and dedicated. The Rev. George Richardson
officiated at the opening, and conducted services until the conference in
June of that year, when he was succeeded by the Rev. W. M. Smith,
who in time gave way to Rev, B. T. Vincent in June, 1866.
Protestant Episcopal Church. The first services of this denomi-
nation were held in a schoolhouse on McGaa — now Holladay — street
January 20th, i860. On the 19th of February a temporary vestry was
elected as follows : Charles A. Lawrence, Samuel S. Curtis, Amos Steck,
E. Waterbury, Thomas G. Wildman, D. C. Collier, C. E. Cooley, Dr.
A. F. Peck, Thomas J. Bayaud, and Richard E. Whitsitt. Mr. Bayaud
was made Senior Warden, and Mr. Curtis Junior Warden.
On Easter Monday, April 9th, i860, the first canonical election of the
church was held, when the two Wardens were retained in office, Amos
Steck chosen Treasurer, and Henry J. Rogers Secretary. The other
members of the vestry elected on this occasion were Thomas G. Wild-
man, C. A. Lawrence, Dr. Drake McDowell, H. J. Bulkley, O. P.
Ingalls, and Andrew Sagendorf. Thus St. John's Church in the Wilder-
ness was established, with Rev. J. H. Kehler as rector, which position
he occupied until his election to the chaplaincy of the First Colorado
cavalry. He delivered his farewell sermon on the 8th of June, 1862.
Mr. Kehler was succeeded by the Rev. H. B. Hitchings. By purchase,
the church became possessed of the building on the corner of Four-
teenth and Arapahoe streets, which was in due time materially enlarged.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 405
Roman Catholic Church. First services held in a private residence,
in June, i860, by the Rt. Rev. J. B. Milge, Bishop of Leavenworth,
Kansas, who subsequently visited the several towns in the Terri-
tory, and on his return the Denver Town Company donated an
entire block for the use of the church, where the cathedral now
stands. Arrangements were then made for the erection of a suit-
able edifice — the present cathedral — which, when completed, was,
next to the Methodist Church, the most imposing structure in the
city. Pending these arrangements, the Bishop received from Rome
a decree annexing this Territory to the diocese of Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and soon afterward returned to the East. The Catholics here
held a meeting and elected Judge G. W. Purkins, President of the
Church Association. Subscription books were opened, and the responses
beino- sufficient to warrant such action, the buildinor was be^un, but the
o '00'
subscriptions were not paid in very promptly, owing to the general hard-
ness of the times, therefore the workers made very little progress.
Meanwhile, Rt. Rev. J. B. Lamy, Bishop of Santa Fe, received official
notice that the Pike's Peak region had been united to his diocese, and in
October, i860, the very Rev. J. P. Machebeuf, who for ten years had
been Vicar-General of New Mexico, together with Rev. J. B. Raverdy
arrived in Denver, to take charge of the Catholic missions of the
Territory.
A new appeal for funds was made which met with better success, and
work on the building was resumed. On Christmas night following the
arrival of the Bishop, the first services were held in the unfinished build-
ing, which was not completed until 1861. In 1862 the church organ was
brought from St. Louis, and also a bell weighing eight hundred pounds,
which was hung in a temporary frame tower in front of the church.
This bell was destroyed by a furious wind storm which blew down the
tower on the night of Christmas, 1864, and completely shattered it. It
was replaced by another weighing about two thousand pounds, the one
now used. With the progress of years, the Catholic congregation has
multiplied in numbers, until it is now perhaps the largest in the city.
406 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
St. Mary's Academy was established in the fall of 1863, I" the
dwelling house of G. W. Clayton, at that time one of the largest in
town, and was subsequently purchased by the church. In August, 1864,
three sisters of the order of Loretto, opened the academy. As the
attendance increased, other sisters were brought from Santa Fe in 1S65.
Pi^esbyterian C/mrch. The first services in this church occurred on
the 15th of June, 1859, in the Pollock House, corner of Fourth and
Ferry streets, Auraria. The congregation was somewhat remarkable in
that early period, owing to the presence of several ladies. The Pollock
House having the rather phenomenal luxury of a plank floor, induced its
selection. The Rev. Mr. Hamilton, afterward of Central City, delivered
the sermon. In the spring of i860 Rev. Mr. Rankin arrived and estab-
lished a regular congregation, the trustees being Richard Sopris, Wm.
M. Clayton, R. E. Whitsitt and Daniel Moyn. Mr. Rankin officiated as
pastor for four months, when he was succeeded by Rev. A. S. Bill-
ingsley who organized the Presbyterian Church in the International
Hall on Ferry street, between Fourth and Fifth, December 15th, 1861.
The officers of the church were the three ruling elders, Simon Cort,
John Irvine and Robert Lansing. The membership numbered only
fifteen. During the administration of Mr. Billingsley, which continued
about a year, the society worshiped for a time in a room over the store
occupied by Messrs. Greenleaf & Brewer, and afterward in International
Hall.
Rev. A. R. Day succeeded Billingsley, arriving here in the fall of
1862. His first efforts were devoted to securing a permanent church
edifice, and a movement to that end was organized. Lots for the
building were donated by the United States Board of Domestic Mis-
sions for the Presbyterian church by Major John S. Fillmore. Sub-
scription books were opened, and nearly eight thousand dollars
secured. With this amount a small church was built on Fifteenth
street, between Arapahoe and Lawrence. Mr. Day remained until
the spring of 1865, when he resigned, and was succeeded in July of
that year by Rev. J. B. McClure, who arrived October iSth. In the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 407
spring of 1867 (April) the membership numbered eighty. The church
officials of that date were : Elders, John Q. Charles, Dr. W. F. McClel-
land, W. W. Slaughter, John Irwin, and John McCall ; Trustees, O.
A. Whittemore, B. F. Woodward, Moses Hallett, W. F. McClelland,
and A. E. Moyn.
Baptist Church. This society was temporarily organized by the
Rev. Walter McD. Potter in the winter of 1863-4. Its first inde-
pendent services were held in a hall in Bayaud's block on Sixteenth
street, December 27th, 1863. Meetings were continued regularly each
Sunday until May 2d, 1864, at which time a permanent organization
was effected, with the following membership : The pastor, Francis
Gallup, Henry C. Leach, Adelia Voorhies, Lucilla Birdsall, Lavinia
Hall, Lucy H. Potter, Alice Hall, and Eliza Thoroughman. The
church grew slowly until the autumn of 1865, at which time the
membership numbered seventeen.
Through all this period search was instituted for a site, and ways
and means for a building. A fund for the purpose was subscribed.
In the fall and winter of 1865 Mr. Potter hoped to have the structure
under way, but his health failing, he was compelled to leave his field of
labor. He returned to his home in the East, and in 1866 passed away.
He was succeeded by Rev. Ira D. Clark. The church services were
held during the fall and winter of 1865-6 in the U. S. court room in
McClure block, Larimer street, near the present railroad building. In
the fall of 1866 the society, which had received a considerable increase
of membership, began the erection of a fine church on the corner of
Sixteenth and Curtis streets — now occupied by the Riche block.
The basement of cut stone was completed, but winter coming on, a
temporary roof was thrown over it. The congregation worshiped
here for some time. Owing to its rather grotesque appearance it was
christened by the irreverent " the Baptist Dugout." And here the
experiment ended. The lot with its remarkable incumbrance, was sold
and finally occupied by a business block.
July 8th, 1867, a meeting was held in Cole's hall, on Larimer
408 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
street, to organize a Republican club. P. P. Wilcox, the veteran
Police Magistrate, Webster D. Anthony and E. C. Holmes were
appointed a committee on permanent organization, and Major Jacob
Downing, Gen. John Pierce and W. R. Thomas a committee on reso-
lutions. The committee on permanent organization reported the
following: For President, John Pierce; Vice-Presidents, Amos Steck,
Dr. F. R. Waggoner and O. A. Whittemore ; Recording Secretary,
J. E. Wurtzebach ; Corresponding Secretary, M. A. Rogers; Treas-
urer, Major Peabody ; Executive Committee, C. C. Clements, Dr. F.
J. Bancroft, J. O. Charles, Jacob Downing, Capt. R. W. Woodbury.
This was the first well organized and equipped Republican club
formed in Arapahoe county. Up to this time no regular organization
of the party for the Territory had been perfected. Henry M. Teller
was made chairman of the Territorial executive committee.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 409
CHAPTER XXV.
THE BUILDING OF OUR FIRST RAILWAYS — GENERAL HUGHES AND THE OVERLAND
STAGE LINE — BUTTERFIELD'S LINE THROUGH THE SMOKY HILLS LOVELAND AND
carter's PROPOSITION TO DENVER — ARRIVAL OF COLONEL JAMES ARCHER
ORGANIZATION OF A BOARD OF TRADE HISTORY OF THE DENVER PACIFIC
RAILWAY— REMOVAL OF THE TERRITORIAL CAPITAL INAUGURATION OF WORK
ON THE COLORADO CENTRAL — GOVERNOR EVANS UTTERS A PROPHECY GENERAL
WM. J. PALMER — SKETCH OF THE UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY.
While in New York and Washington, Governor Evans lost no
opportunity to freely advocate the location of the Pacific railroad
through Colorado via Clear Creek Caiion and Berthoud Pass. In
September, 1865, Gen. B. M. Hughes, the pioneer stage manager, had
constructed a wagon road from Salt Lake City via Green river to
Middle Park, and as far as the western base of the pass named above,
and while not fully completed, it was an excellent route for either a
stage or railroad. Knowing this to be the shorter, and, all things
considered, much the better line, he had pushed the work with all
possible speed. Though never utilized, its practicability had to be
admitted, and it was hoped that the railway engineers would recom-
mend it if they could ever be brought to a careful examination.
Almost simultaneously D. A. Butterfield & Co. had built a new stage
line from Atchison, Kansas, via the Smoky Hills to Denver. The
first coach arrived September 23d, 1865. A delegation of citizens
headed by Mayor George T. Clark, went out on the road to meet and
tender the proprietor of this competing stage line a cordial welcome.
Mr. Butterfield was transferred from the coach to a carriage and
escorted to the Planter's House, where James M. Cavanaugh, the
410 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
" Irish orator of the Rockies," delivered to the hero of the hour the
hospitalities of the embryonic metropolis. The legislature of 1865-6
passed an act incorporating the " Butterfield Overland Dispatch Com-
pany," and on the 30th of January, 1866, a meeting of the incorporators
was held for organization. E. P. Bray, General Wm. R. Brewster, Wm.
A. H. Loveland, Wm. H. Fogg, George E. Cook, J. H. Messinger,
George A. Hinsdale, Wm. H. Gale, and Charles A. Cook were elected
Directors. The company selected Berthoud Pass as the point through
which their route across the Snowy Range should be constructed, and
General Brewster was authorized to commence at the earliest practicable
moment the erection of a telegraph line from the eastern boundary of
the Territory to Central City, agreeably to the provisions of the act of
incorporation.
At a meeting of the Directors held on the 23d of January, 1866,
Wm. R. Brewster was elected President ; W. A. H. Loveland, Vice-
President ; George E. Cook, Treasurer, and Frank Hall, Secretary. A
resolution was adopted to the effect that this company adopted and
claimed the right to use the pass through the Snowy Range known as
the Berthoud Pass, and that the construction of said road be commenced
at the earliest practicable date. And that was about as far as it ever
proceeded.
Having pursued his one absorbing idea of building a railroad to the
mines, and with the further purpose of extending it through the Middle
Park to Salt Lake, along the line suggested by Engineer Berthoud's
reconnaissance of 1861, Mr. Loveland secured an amended charter from
the legislature in 1865, and began immediately to lay his plans for
carrying it into effect. He clung with unwearying pertinacity to this
enterprise. To him it was the keystone in the arch of the future,
realizing that if it could only be seen by the capitalists of the East as he
saw it, it could not fail, and it would, moreover, be the beginning of a
grand system of railroads penetrating to every desirable point in the
Territory. Though the route up Clear Creek Canon was pronounced
wholly impracticable by the old school railway builders, owing to the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 411
heavy grades and innumerable curvatures of the stream it must neces-
sarily follow, he held resolutely to its entire feasibility, and went forward.
In the course of events he succeeded in organizing in New York
the Colorado and Clear Creek railroad company, and received satisfac-
tory assurances that the means would be forthcoming to build the road.
General Dix, then President of the Union Pacific, had examined the sur-
veys and maps, and it was said, was favorably impressed and would
probably give it connection with the main trunk from the eastern
boundary of the territory. The matter progressed very encouragingly.
One of the directors of Loveland's company wrote, "I had, apart from
the General (Dix) a pleasant interview with Mr. Seymour, and from him
learned that he would be well pleased to find our route every way prac-
ticable for them (the U. P.) to adopt. I told him it would be satisfactory
to us to have them unite with us and make ours a part of the great
national line, and I trusted they would find inducements sufficient to
justify them in deciding upon the Clear Creek route as being in every
way the most practicable one." The plan embraced the lines now
(1889) in operation from Golden City to Black Hawk and Central City,
with the proposed main line via the junction of north and south Clear
Creeks to Berthoud Pass. J. B. Chaffee had been chosen one of the
directors of the company, and being also one of the chrectors of the
Pacific railroad company, it was believed that he would exert a salutary
influence in directing the main trunk through the mountains by this
route.
Governor Evans too, wrought unceasingly to impress its importance
upon the President and Directors of the National road, but all to no
purpose. At one time the decision for the construction of the Colorado
and Clear Creek line was so nearly accomplished in New York, Mr.
Loveland was telegraphed to go there at once and close the contracts.
Notwithstanding all these schemes went down In failure, they
sowed the seeds and prepared the way for new and successful under-
takings In the not remote future. In February, 1866, Governor Evans
addressed a letter to General Dix, Invltinc^ his careful attention to the
412 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
importance of examining the Clear Creek and Middle Park route, reiter-
ating former accounts of its advantages, insisting upon its feasibility, and
asking that it be examined by competent engineers in the employ of the
Pacific company, before finally locating the main line. To this appeal.
General Dix replied on the 12th of July, stating in substance that thei*"
engineers had examined the route and pronounced against it. Besides
the enormous cost of cutting the long tunnels, the length of time required
would prevent its adoption. While the route had not been definitely
fixed as far west as the one hundredth meridian, it was his impression,
based upon maps of surveys in his office, that the Cache la Poudre
Canon was the most favorable thus far presented, and should it be
adopted, there was little doubt but that Denver would be connected with
the main line by a branch. So that scheme went down with the rest.
Possibly the admission of the Territory as a State in 1S65, with a full
representation in Congress, could it have been consummated, might have
had some effect upon the definite location, but it is very doubtful if the
Pacific Construction Company would ever have been induced to accept
the Clear Creek route by any influence which could have been brought
to bear. They were afraid of the mountains and the tunneling, but
above all, of the delay involved in this difficult work.
General Dodge and his associates who had been sent out to inves-
tigate, having completed their examination of all the proposed railway
routes across the mountains, on the 23d of November, 1866, submitted a
detailed report on the same to the directors of their company, embracing
also the resources, advantages and disadvantages of each, and unquali-
fiedly recommending the Lone Tree and Crow Creek route, on which the
road was subsequently built. In all his estimates General Dodge included
a branch to Denver, strongly urging the importance of such connection
at the earliest practicable date, in order to secure the increasing trade of
Colorado, and its supplies of superior fuel.
The report having been fully considered by the directors, its
recommendations were adopted by unanimous vote, and the "Com-
mittee on Location " instructed to report upon the branch to Denver.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 413
In due time the committee made answer that in their judgment a
connection with the mining regions of Colorado was of supreme
interest to the company. The branch as projected, would be about
one hundred and twelve miles in length, and would be further
important as a base line of railway parallel with the main range, from
which lateral branches could be built to the mining centers ; for
example, up Clear Creek, through Boulder Canon and other valleys.
The coal lying in great profusion and of a fine quality at the base,
and the gold bearing quartz lodes on the slopes of the mountains, such
lines of railway would become essential, not only for general trans-
portation, but to bring the ores and the fuel together when the scanty
supply of timber should have been exhausted. These suggestions
forecast the future with great accuracy, and the results predicted have
been largely verified. The report was signed by Sidney Dillon, John
Duff, Jesse L. Williams, Oliver Ames and Thomas C. Durant.
On the nth of July, 1867, T. J. Carter, one of the government
directors of the Union Pacific, arrived in Denver to confer with the
citizens respecting plans for the construction of the branch contem-
plated by the Colorado Central & Pacific railway company. The
object was to build a line via Denver and Golden City to the mines of
Gilpin and Clear Creek counties. The road as thus defined would
be about one hundred miles in length, and under arrangements made,
or at least very generally and favorably considered, would be ironed
and stocked by the Union Pacific company, pr'^vided our people
would grade the bed and lay the ties. The cost of this part of the
work was placed at about six hundred thousand dollars, which it was
proposed to raise by an issue of county bonds, the company agreeing
to accept and dispose of the same. Therefore, in order to place the
matter in definite shape, a meeting was held the same evening in
Cole's Hall, and called to order by General Bela M. Hughes, who
eloquently advocated the necessity of uniting upon this or some other
proposition for immediate connection with the trunk line then under
rapid progress. He advised that in considering Mr. Carter's plan, all
414 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
differences and prejudices be laid aside, and the citizens of Denver
urged to work in absolute harmony for the general welfare. He then
nominated Governor Hunt for chairman of the meeting, and he was
chosen, R. W. Woodbury of the "Tribune," acting as secretary.
Governor Evans addressed the assemblage in much the same strain
as Gen. Hughes had done, and closed by inviting Mr. Carter to state
his proposition.
This was presented in the form of a statement that the Union
Pacific company had spent three years in preparatory surveys to
determine which was the most practicable route through the Rocky
Mountains. Their charter, greatly to their regret, compelled them to
locate their main line north of the great mineral deposits of Colorado.
A meeting had been held in January, at which a committee to inves-
tigate and report upon the best means of reaching Denver by a branch,
had been appointed. He (Carter) was made chairman. To ascer-
tain the facts, he had come to this city for a searching examination of
all the conditions. The topographical features of the mountains were
such that the main line could not be located here, but a branch was
entirely feasible, and direct connection would be thereby secured.
Under the charter the Union Pacific company had no right to build
branches ; they could construct nothing but the main trunk, but a
charter had been granted the Colorado Central company by the terri-
torial legislature, and they proposed to avail themselves of the rights
therein conceded. Accordingly, in June last an arrangement had been
effected in Boston with this company, the Colorado Central & Pacific
railway organized, and a certain amount of stock subscribed. To obtain
the requisite means, various methods had been proposed, one suggesting
individual subscriptions, another an issue of county bonds, and still
another State or Territorial bonds. At length the scheme of county
bonds had been decided upon, as the charter clearly authorized them.
But the question must be submitted to the people. Therefore, it
was for them to determine the result. The Union Pacific company,
at its meeting held in June, had agreed to place the iron and rolling
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 415
stock on every twenty miles of road as soon as graded. The surveys
were being made to discover the most practicable route. He then
presented a general review of the condition of affairs here and
throughout the country. Business was stagnant, transportation slow
and very expensive. Many people were in doubt whether to remain
and take the chances, or emigrate to more favorable lands. The remedy
for this deplorable state of things was — railway communication, which
could only be had through some such plan as he had set forth.
The proportion of bonds allotted to Arapahoe county was fixed at
two hundred thousand dollars, which, when issued, the company would
undertake to negotiate. In return the county would receive stock to the
full amount of the issue of bonds. In answer to a question by General
Pierce, concerning the intentions of the " Eastern Division," Mr. Carter
said that company had decided to go south by Santa Fe and through
Arizona to the Pacific. Mr. Loveland had the same understanding,
which — assuming these impressions to be well founded — left Denver
no alternative but to strike hands with Carter and himself, and aid
them in completing the branch.
The matter having been fully digested. Governor Evans offered
a resolution to the effect, that whereas the Colorado Central &
Pacific railway company propose to locate and construct their road so
as to connect with the main line of the Union Pacific at some eligible
point on the same, running thence by the most feasible route direct to
the city of Denver and thence to Golden City, Black Hawk, Central
City and Georgetown, in the mountains, completing the same to this
point at an early day, provided that Arapahoe County will give suitable
aid in bonds, therefore resolved, that the County Commissioners of
Arapahoe County be respectfully requested to submit the question of
issuing two hundred thousand dollars of the bonds of said County at the
approaching election, etc., etc. After some further discussion the reso-
lutions were adopted. Dr. Morrison, M. M. De Lano, Governor Evans,
F. J. Stanton, L. M. Koons, Bela M. Hughes and Governor Hunt
were appointed a committee to confer and act with the County Com-
416 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
missioners, when the meetuig adjourned, with rather jubilant feehngs
over the prospect of having a railroad.
These proceedings having been published, met the interested eye
of Isaac E. Eaton, agent of the Eastern Division railway, v/ho immedi-
ately replied in a card to the public, saying that Messrs. Carter and
Loveland had created a false impression as to the intentions of the
E. D. Company. He was authorized by the President and Directors
to say, that they would build direct to Denver at the earliest possible
date ; that a corps of engineers under charge of Colonel Greenwood
were then locating a line from the western boundary of Kansas, fifteen
miles north of Pond Creek to Denver. The company wanted neither
legislative nor other aid, but were coming anyhow, because this project
had been incorporated among their fixed plans. They intended to
accommodate the trade of Colorado with the East, and would adopt
proper means to secure it.
For some days succeeding the events just narrated, the staple
topic of conversation everywhere was the possible construction of a
railroad, with some diversity of opinion as to which should be encour-
aged, Carter or the Eastern Division. And the time had arrived for
something more tangible and forceful than mere talk. With the rapid
advance of the Union Pacific and its final deflection to the North
through the Black Hills, Denver's position was seriously threatened,
and many of its sagacious business men contemplated removing to
more favorable points. Later, the emigration to the new towns
springing up in Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming was very large. These
constant drains of population awakened the aggressive forces to prompt
action. They realized that something positive must be undertaken, or
the fabric must fall. Those who possessed fixed interests here which
could not be abandoned without ruinous consequences to themselves,
based all their hopes of the future upon the promise afforded by the
facts developed at the meeting in Cole's Hall. Upon this shred, flimsy
as it proved to be, the people anchored their confidence, and began
agitating with all their strength.
O^^i^^^^^Z^
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 417
The County Commissioners were readily persuaded to submit the
proposition of voting twenty-year eight per cent, bonds, with the pro-
viso that the road should be built to Denver, which indicated some dis-
trust of Carter and Loveland's ulterior purposes. It was felt that they
might, unless restricted, carry the road off to Golden City which had
been from the date of its founding, an aggressive though not very for-
midable rival. Intermingled with the general excitement were all
manner of conjectures, reports and rumors respecting the aims of the
Eastern Division, which figured prominently In the problem. While
the Colorado Central party circulated reports that this line was making
for Santa Fe, its officers exerted themselves to Induce the belief that
it had no such intention. Shortly, sentiment changed in favor of two
railroads, when the possibility of securing the Eastern Division be-
came apparent. Denver was but a feeble, struggling. Inchoate frontier
metropolis then, with great aspirations based upon rather insecure foun-
dations, but It had some strong men who, as the sequel proved, were
equal to the emergency of building and fortifying a great prestige. It
possessed the same spirit In 1867-8 which In later times made it famous
throughout the country, and those who were foremost In promoting
railway enterprises when the Union Pacific was rushing along the con-
tinent at the rate of three or four miles a day, are still among the
leaders of the present epoch. They had very little money, It Is true,
but they possessed the energy and fertility of resource which, rightly
applied, brings mighty consequences.
To Increase the ferment, Major Eaton produced a letter from
John D. Perry, President of the Eastern Division, who, upon being ad-
vised as to the state of affairs, announced that two surveying parties
would be sent out from Pond Creek, one to survey the route to Santa
Fe or Albuquerque, via the Purgatoire and Fort Union, the other to
proceed up the valley of the Huerfano and down the Rio Grande. A
third party in charge of Col. W. C. Greenwood would make the survey
from Pond Creek to Denver, and thence In the direction of the Union
Pacific railway of the Platte. As all railway news was good news, this
27
418 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
announcement caused much rejoicing, though it was somewhat chilled
by the contemplated detour of the main line southward to New
Mexico.
The town of Cheyenne was established, in other words, organized
under its charter, August 7th, 1867, as the terminus of the Union
Pacific east of the mountains, and here large numbers of people con-
gregated with the expectation that it would develop wonderful power,
and become the great commercial emporium of the West. In the early
stages it was a heterogeneous crowd of railroad followers, ambitious
merchants, saloonkeepers, gamblers, dance house people, etc, the in-
variable conglomerate which characterizes the founding of most phe-
nomenal towns in the West. It grew with amazing rapidity; money was
abundant, and trade brisk and profitable, while in Denver stagnation
prevailed to an extent which persuaded all who could leave, to join the
procession just over the northern boundary. The railway movement
dragged exasperatingly. In addition to the other advantages pos-
sessed by the new metropolis, a large military post was erected there.
The promise of large machine and repair shops by the Pacific company
lent an air of stability to the town, especially as the company contem-
plated spending large sums in other improvements. The disburse-
ments for labor soon found their way into the magic city, where pros-
perity and crime walked hand in hand. It became the center of the
mountain trade, drawing heavy tribute from Colorado at the expense
of our own mercantile houses.
Meanwhile, as the surveys under the auspices of the Colorado
Central progressed from Cheyenne southward into Colorado, the
direction taken and a combination of other circumstances revived the
old suspicion that Carter and Loveland had resolved to so locate the
line as to make it of much greater advantage to Golden City than to
Denver. Consequently the ardor of the voters here toward the bond
proposition began to cool. B.ut it was amended to provide that before
the bonds were issued the road must be located on the east side of
the Platte river, and come direct to Denver. This proviso quieted
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 419
public apprehension, which was caused in large degree by the fact
that Boulder county had submitted the question to its electors of
voting to subscribe fifty thousand dollars to the stock of the road,
conditioned upon its location through that town. Notwithstanding
the evident change of plans by the Colorado Central managers, the
citizens' committee here strongly urged the people to vote for the
bonds, as the change made in the proposition removed all danger of
their being issued for use against the supreme interest of the city.
Therefore, at the election held August 13th, the proposition was
carried by a large majority.
In the meantime. Gen. Hughes had opened and maintained a
correspondence with President Perry, calculated to develop the actual
intentions of the Eastern division company relative to the construction
of its road to Denver. He caused a large amount of data to be pre-
pared, showing the state of business, the resources of the country to
be develop|d under the greater advantages of rapid transit, and
expressing the' earnest hope of the people that the Kansas road would
come and cooperate with them in the great work they had undertaken.
He received the heartiest assurances of reciprocal esteem, v/ith the
positive declaration that Colonel Greenwood was then surveying the
route from Pond Creek straight to Denver, and Gen. Hughes was
instructed to assure the people of Colorado of their desire to reach
them as speedily as possible.
Col. Greenwood's party arrived about the ist of September, 1867,
and soon afterward began surveying the return line via Cedar Point.
As the Colorado Central persisted in its determination to follow the
west side of the Platte, whereby it was seen that it had no intention of
making this its terminal or principal station, it was abandoned by Den-
ver, and left to its own devices. The Eastern Division kept alive the
interest already excited in its favor, by frequent correspondence, -con-
veying every evidence of encouragement that could be desired. Noth-
ing definite occurred, however, until November 8th of the year men-
tioned, when a new impetus was imparted to the movement by the
420 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
arrival of Colonel James Archer, a prominent citizen of St. Louis,
largely interested in great enterprises there and also in the Kansas road,
who came as the representative of the Eastern Division Company to labor
with our people in that interest. The road had been stranded, so to
speak, at Pond Creek, where its government subsidy ceased. The corn-
pan)' realized that it must go somewhere, and as all attempts to carry it
south to Santa Fe had failed, its only hope lay in the Denver Extension.
The main question was how to raise the money, and this formed one of
Col. Archer's purposes in visiting this city.
A number of citizens called on him at his hotel for a general inter-
change of views. While no conclusion was reached, a committee con-
sisting of General Hughes, Governor Evans, Mayor De Lano, Gen. F.
M. Case, Major W. F. Johnson, et al., was appointed to confer with Col.
Archer on the following day. Archer told them his company desired
and intended to build to Denver, but the subsidy had given out and they
were, therefore, thrown upon their own resources. A contribution from
Colorado would hasten the issue in view. The committee, now fully
advised of the true state of affairs, resolved upon the organization of a
Board of Trade for the purpose of effecting a compact association of
the business men in a form that would enable them to operate unitedly
in any scheme that should be perfected to attain the main objects of all
interests — a railway. Dr. J. H. Morrison, Henry M. Porter and Fred
Z. Salomon were appointed to formulate a plan for such organization.
One of the propositions advanced was to bring all available influence to
bear upon Congress for the extension of the subsidy to the Eastern
Division in behalf of its construction to Denver, and failing in that, to
rely wholly upon the bonds already voted, and such cash subscriptions
as could be obtained.
The committee called a meetins: in Cole's Hall for the oro^anization
of a Board of Trade, November 13th, when the following officers were
chosen :
President, John W. Smith; First Vice-President, General John
Pierce; Second Vice-President, Isaac Brinker; Directors, William M.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 421
Clayton, J. H. Morrison, F, Z. Salomon, J. M. Strickler, George Tritch,
D. H. Moffat, Jr., R. E. Whitsitt and J. S. Brown ; Secretary, Henry
C. Leach ; Treasurer, Frank Palmer.
On the evening of the 14th, a second meeting, which took the
broader plane of a public assembly, was held in the same place. The
hall was crowded in anticipation of an address from George Francis
Train, who had arrived that day. W. M. Clayton presided, and J. M.
Strickler acted as Secretary. A committee of three — Henry C. Leach,
J. H. Morrison and F. Z. Salomon — was instructed to prepare a consti-
tution and by-laws for the Board of Trade. General Hughes made a
spirited address upon the necessity of organization, because united effort
was needed to meet the dangers then menacing the life of the city. Col.
Archer being present, was invited to speak. He had little to say except
that his road had been completed to a point twenty miles west of Hays
City, and that when it arrived at Pond Creek the company would require
aid from our citizens or it could come no further in this direction. Then
by the universal desire, George Francis Train mounted the rostrum.
Knowing the object of the large gathering, he began with the absorbing
question of how to build a railway to the Union Pacific. As every one
knows, Mr. Train arrogated to himself the distinction, in which he took
infinite pride, of being the one colossal egotist of the age. His style of
speaking, whether in private life or in public, was bombastic to the last
degree, yet intermingled with the masses of trash were many thoughts
worthy of profoundest respect. It will be comprehended by the reader
of 1889, that in those days we were like drowning men, eagerly catch-
ing at every shred of hope that offered, and while in more prosperous
times we have been inclined to accept the common verdict respecting
Mr. Train's sanity, in the days of which we are treating, in our extremity
we hailed this fanciful yet forceful prophet of good tidings and \aluable
suggestions with a heartiness that was a rare thing in his experience.
To begin with, he claimed to have been the original projector of
the Union Pacific railway, and had broken ground for it at Omaha,
thereby making that city its initial point. To supply the compan\- with
422 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
ample funds, he had introduced the French system of Finance — (Credit
Mobiher) which pushed the work forward. In considering the action
taken here, he said the people had made a mistake in throwing their
influence in favor of the Eastern Division, and by antagonizing the
Northern line. The Kansas road could not be built to Denver in two
years, and reiterated the old statement that it was going south without
any intention of coming here, even by a branch. Col. Archer had said
Denver could have his road by paying two millions of dollars for it.
The Union Pacific was only one hundred miles to the northward, why
not build in that direction when it could be done for much less money ?
It would be a comparatively easy matter; there was a natural road bed
down the Platte to Cheyenne, on which the road could be constructed
for twenty thousand per mile at the maximum, and possibly for twelve to
fourteen thousand. This road he declared must be built, or the town
would be given up, as everybody would move away. We must force the
Eastern Division to surrender its land grant through this Territory, and
the scheme must be organized at once.
On the 1 6th the Board of Trade met again, when General Pierce
offered a series of resolutions which constituted the base of the first rail-
way built upon the soil of Colorado, and therefore one of the momen-
tous events in its history. First, That a committee of five be appointed
to select corporators for a railroad company, and that these corporators
form a company to build a road from Denver to Cheyenne, or any other
point on the Union Pacific railroad, and file the papers necessary for the
same.
Second, The appointment of a committee of three to examine the
general incorporation law, and prepare such amendments as were
required, for presentation to the legislature.
Third, The appointment of a committee of five to take into con-
sideration the expediency' of building a railway from Denver to Pond
Creek.
It is needless to say, that this well digested proposition was adopted
with great enthusiasm. Pierce and his co-laborers had been thoroughly
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 423
awakened to the exigencies of the case. It was a warning to aU prop-
erty holders that they must act in unison and that quickly, to prevent
still greater depreciation of values, and the wholesale emigration of
people to the exciting fields springing up all along the continental rail-
way. Sustaining his resolutions in a speech, he entered upon a thorough
expose of subject, presenting the estimates of F. M. Case, relating to
the cost of grading, tieing and bridging the road one hundred and ten
miles, making the total expense, including engineering and incidentals,
about five hundred thousand dollars. If this sum could be raised and
the work accomplished, there was no doubt but that some company
could be found to iron it and furnish the rolling stock.
On the first resolution to form a railroad company, the chair
appointed Gen. Pierce, Bela M. Hughes, A. Steele, W. F. Johnson and
F. M. Case; and on the second, Messrs. Hughes, Evans and Clayton.
On the 1 8th a mass meeting was held in the Denver theater, with
especial reference to arousing all the people to the importance of prompt
action and earnest co-operation. W. F. Johnson presided, and John
Walker was made secretary. The chairman stated the objects and
discussed them at some length. Governor Evans followed with the
declaration, among others, that Denver could and would be made a
great railway center, an assumption that was not generally accepted.
It was too much to hope for, and the aspirations of the majority
would have been well satisfied with one railroad, even if it had to be
run by horse power — anything to put them into communication with
the outer world, and break up the intolerable monotony of isolation.
He predicted also, that in fifty years Denver would be the great bullion
center of America. No one believed that either, yet both prophecies
were verified twenty years later.
General Hughes in debate was like a war horse charging with all
his might. Always an eloquent and impassioned speaker, on this occa-
sion he surpassed himself. The time for talk and temporizing had
passed, and the time for action had come. We must strip for the work
and rely wholly upon ourselves, our energy, muscle and money. "When
424 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
we have said that the road shall be built," it was half accomplished.
Then producing the incorporation papers, he read them to the audience,
which was thereby advised of the organization of the "Denver Pacific
Railroad Company."
General Pierce dealt almost entirely with the statistical and finan-
cial features, giving estimates of the volume of traffic the road would
secure, suggesting various plans for raising the means to build it, and
advancing the idea that every property owner could well afford to
mortgage his estate for half its value in order to pay his subscriptions
to this work, since in its completion it would be worth more than
double its present value.
General Case chalked out on the blackboard a system of railroads
covering the Territory, and gave a compendium of their cost, etc.
John W. Smith, John Evans, Luther Kountze, Joseph E. Bates,
D. H. Moffat, Jr., Bela M. Hughes, John Pierce, W. F. Johnson,
and William M. Clayton were the directors of the new company, who
elected Bela M. Hughes, President ; Luther Kountze, Vice-President ;
D. H. Moffat, Jr., Treasurer; VV. F. Johnson, Secretary, and F. M.
Case, Chief Engineer. At the Board of Trade meeting held on the
19th, the result of this election was announced, whereupon Major
Johnson, in one of the powerful speeches for which he was noted,
made the systematic arrangement of the plans decided upon by the
company, and the importance of the great work to be done in which
every able-bodied citizen was urged to take part, so clear to the large
audience, there seemed to be no further occasion for public meetings, but
rather a demand that everybody now strip for action and stay in the
field until the road should be completed. He announced that subscrip-
tions would be solicited on the following conditions :
In case the city or county should issue bonds for building the road,
the stockholders would be entitled to the privilege of canceling their
individual subscriptions by taking a like amount of such bonds, only ten
per cent, to be called for during one month of time. Some had offered
to take stock and pay for it in work on the road ; others agreed to
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 425
furnish ties for ix certain distance. Committees were sent out to canvass
the entire city for donations of cash, work, or subscriptions to the stock,
and they were very successful. John H. Martin, then proprietor of the
old Planter's House, offered rooms for the use of the company free of
charge. In one day the subscriptions aggregated two hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars. This result would be regarded as almost
miraculous if obtained in 1889, but in 1867 with a poverty stricken city
of less than four thousand inhabitants, it was simply astounding. It was
a case, however, in which the only alternative was pay or perish. The
joyful news was made the subject of an associated press dispatch which
carried it all over the Union. As the enthusiasm increased, the Denver
Pacific Company, grown strong under the public support, enlarged the
sphere of its contemplated operations to cover about every practicable
route in the Territory, in furtherance of its scheme to make Denver a
great railway center. Maps were drawn and published, illustrating the
radiation of these iron highways from the common center as spokes from
a wheel hub. Not much faith was inspired by these fulminations. Den-
ver was in the strait of one perishing from hunger, who feels as if one
good square meal if he could only get it, would open the gates of para-
dise to his suffering soul. So they said, let us build one, and see how
that works, then if we need another, and can get the means, we will
build it.
In Cheyenne, where many former residents of Colorado were estab-
lished in business, the jubilation over the brightening prospect here was
scarcely less pronounced. Mr. B. L. Ford, the great caterer who had
spent some years in Denver — then established in Cheyenne — and Harry
Rogers, formerly Vice-President of the First National Bank, sent in a
generous subscription to the railway fund, amounting to thirty-seven
hundred dollars. About this time also, the Board of Trade beofan to
move in the direction of locating the territorial capital at Denver as
an eternal fixture, feeling that it had been long enough on wheels, and
should have a permanent abiding place. As the initial step to this pro-
ceeding a committee selected for the purpose began searching for a
426 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
suitable location or site for a capitol building. Naturally, this manoeuver
excited a belligerent feeling in Golden, which had long enjoyed the pres-
tige of being the capital. The rivalry between the two places had been
sharpened by Loveland and Carter's railway operations, and of course
this endeavor to rob them of their one cherished institution brought out
the full strength of their opposition.
At the meeting of the Legislature on the 2d of December, 1867, a
bill was introduced providing for the transfer, upon the condition that
the citizens of Denver should provide a suitable site and deed the same
to the Territory free of charge. Loveland, who had been the controlling
spirit of the place from its foundation, mustered his friends and girded
his loins for a long and bitter fight. Denver responded with a powerful
lobby, fortified with material inducements. After several days of hot
discussion, the bill passed and was approved, whereupon the Legislature
adjourned to meet in the new capital the following day. Quarters were
secured in the Colorado Seminary for the executive offices and the
House of Representatives, and a vacant storeroom on Larimer street
for the Council or Senate. The commissioners appointed by the acting
Governor to locate the Capitol site were A. A. Bradford of Pueblo,
William M. Roworth of Central City, and Joseph M. Marshall of
Denver.
The action taken here in the formation of a company to build a
road to Cheyenne, developed renewed entreaties from the Eastern Divi-
sion managers not to be rash, with some candid advice against trusting
our future to promises that could not be realized. But as it w^as well
known that this company w^as in deep distress for the want of funds, and
as it was impossible to raise the two millions demanded by Colonel
Archer, no further negotiations were made in that direction until after
the work of grading the Denver Pacific was completed.
On the 27th of December, the county commissioners ordered a
special election for the 20th of January, 1868, upon the question of sub-
scribing five hundred thousand dollars to the stock of the Denver
Pacific railroad. Meanwhile, Messrs. Loveland and Carter had not been
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 427
idle, though repeatedly disappointed in their endeavors to perfect their
enterprise through the enlistment of eastern capital. They had a com-
pany but no funds. Nevertheless, determined to keep the matter alive,
on the first day of January, 1868, they inaugurated work on the Colorado
Central & Pacific at a point on the northern limit of the town near the
present location of the Union Pacific freight depot. The able bodied
citizens assembled with picks and shovels, formed in procession, and
marched to the spot where the first ground was to be broken. During
the da)' about two hundred feet of road bed was graded, and ready for
the ties, but it was not until the fall of 1870 that the iron was laid and
the locomotive shrieked its entry into the beautiful basin where now
nestles one of the prettiest towns in the State. At the inauguration
ceremonies, embellished as usual with speeches, and possibly stimulated
by a few bottles of wine, Capt. E. L. Berthoud, chief engineer of the
Colorado Central, offered this prophetic sentiment :
''Golden City and Denver: May the influence of railroads extend
their borders until their streets are united, and the houses upon them
stand side by side."
Though not yet verified, who shall say that in the fulness of time,
or perhaps ten or twenty years hence at the existing rate of progress
from North Denver toward the mountains, it may not be actually
demonstrated ? Already there is a continuous line of settlement, and
though not as densely populated as the gallant Captain foresaw that one
day it would be, the complete realization of his vision is by no means
a very remote possibility.
On the evening of January 13th, 186S, Judge J. P. Usher — Secre-
tary of the Interior under Abraham Lincoln — and Ex-Governor Carney
of Kansas, addressed the Denver Board of Trade upon the crisis of the
railwa)' situation. They were here as the representatives of the Eastern
Division company, and took this method of presenting its views, prospects
and intentions. Both made exhaustive speeches, setting forth the details
of their mission, and stoutly protesting against the folly of attempting to
secure railwa)' connection b)' building to Cheyenne, concluding with a
428 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
proposition to our people to turn their energies and their means in the
direction of Pond Creek.
Major W. F. Johnson made the first reply in a ten minute speech,
which for keen analysis and powerful argument that stripped the whole
question of all the sophistries thrown around it by these wily diplomats,
Usher and Carney, was never surpassed in the annals of the period. He
left absolutely nothing to build even the shred of a hope upon that the
work begun by the Denver Pacific Company, though hampered by great
difficulties, would be abandoned. The Kansas road might come or not,
the Denver Pacific would be completed. The people had solemnly
resolved that nothing should interrupt the plans laid out. He was fol-
lowed by General Bela M. Hughes in an address of great power. He
told them that we had waited and longed for the Eastern Division to
demonstrate its good intentions, but when Col. Archer came and
demanded a bonus of two millions of dollars as the ultimatum of that
company, the people rejected it once for all, and immediately instituted
an enterprise of their own. They proposed to build and pay for their
line, and no proposition which Usher or his associates could advance
lookinof to its desertion, would be entertained for a sinq-le moment.
They would be glad to have the Kansas road, but it must come, if at
all, upon its own resources. Not content with this rebuff, a second
meeting was held the following day, but without further result.
At the election on the 20th of January the county commissioners
were authorized by a very large majority of the voters to issue the half
million of bonds to the Denver Pacific Company Among the advices
received at the time, was a letter from Gen. G. M. Dodge, which stated that
he had been to New York with Gen. Pierce to make arrangements look-
ing to the early construction of the Denver Branch. The Union Pacific
directors then announced their readiness to build the branch, provided
Denver came forward promptly with its part of the agreement, and
would have it completed by the next autumn. There would be no delay
on their part. If Denver had her money ready they would give her the
road, and that speedily.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 429
General Pierce returned from New York February 23d, and
reported to a meeting of citizens on the 24th. He had entered into a
contract which provided that as fast as the Denver company should
grade and tie a road bed from Cheyenne to this city, they would place
the iron and rolling stock thereon, the laying of the iron to commence
when the first twenty miles should be graded, and so on to the end.
The contract provided further, that the road should begin at Denver on
the east side of the Platte, and run thence to Cheyenne by the most
direct and practicable route, the location to be approved by the chief
engineer of the Union Pacific. About the last of February, General
Hughes resigned the presidency of the company, and was succeeded
by Major W. F. Johnson.
The Arapahoe County bonds having been prepared and issued,
Mr. D. H. Moffat went East to negotiate them, stopping at Cheyenne
en route, where he was invited to appear before the council of that city
and explain the programme of arrangements, since a proposition had
been made to its authorities to vote bonds in aid of the enterprise. As
a result of this conference with Mr. Moffat, a committee was appointed
by the council — our townsman Mr. Joseph T. Cornforth being one of
the number, to meet the directors of the D. P. Company with a view to
further negotiations.
Major Johnson died March 5th, 1868, and on the i6th Governor
Evans was elected his successor. He went to Chicago and delivered an
address to the Board of Trade, stating the condition of affairs here and
urging a subscription of two hundred thousand dollars to the bonds,
claiming that the amount would soon be returned to the trade of Chi-
cago through the increased business of Colorado that would follow rail-
way communication. Though he labored diligently for some time, the
effort proved wholl)^ abortive.
A contract for building the road was negotiated and signed at
Cheyenne, through the joint efforts of John W. Smith, A. B. Daniels
and Fred Z. Salomon, and the undertaking assumed by T. C. Durant
and Sidney Dillon. Denver was to expend half a million dollars in
430 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
grading, tieing and bridging, and the remainder was to be done by the
other parties to the contract.
The Board of Trade, unwilhng to accept failure in Chicago,
appointed F. Z. Salomon, J. S. Brown and Henry M. Porter a committee
to cro there and make a thorouorh canvass of the business men for sub-
scriptions to the Arapahoe County bonds, in connection with Governor
Evans, and a committee from the Chicago Board of Trade. At the
same time General Pierce was vigorously working Cheyenne on the plan
of offering contracts to parties who would agree to take thirty-three per
cent, of their pay in Denver Pacific stock.
At a meeting of the Board of Trade May 4th, Gen. Pierce
announced that Messrs. Durant and Dillon, whom he met at
Cheyenne, were not satisfied with the previous contract, and there-
fore a supplemental paper had been drawn to meet the exigencies
more fully, whereby those gentlemen agreed to build the entire road,
and a sub-contract was taken by the Denver Pacific company to expend
five hundred thousand dollars on the line, as before stated. The
route between Denver and the Platte crossing on the east side had
been approved, but between that point and Cheyenne it was disap-
proved. Durant and Dillon proposed to have it exam.ined by the
Union Pacific enofineers. Within two weeks from the date of this
report work would begin at the northern end of the line. When
finished, the Union Pacific would lease the road on terms that would
insure eight per cent, on its stock, which in efi"ect amounted to a
guaranty of our county bonds.
On Monday, May i8th, 1868, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the
work of grading the Denver Pacific began at a point about one mile
north of the city as then defined, between the grounds of the Colo-
rado Agricultural Society and the Platte River. Wagons, carriages
and all sorts of vehicles conveyed all the people they would hold to
the historic spot, and great numbers marched out in groups. It is
perhaps needless to add that a brass band was chartered for the
occasion, or that an abundant supply of "wet groceries" or dusty
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 431
throat lubricants, had a part in the enthusiastic procession. Within
the hour something over a thousand people gathered to witness the
inauguration of what to them seemed the greatest enterprise of the age.
At a quarter-past eleven the band opened with a lively quickstep, and
simultaneously two teams began plowing, Lyman Cole and T. G. Ander-
son each driving a team, while the handles were guided by Miss Nettie
Clark and Mrs. F. J. Stanton. Billy Marchant opened a keg of beer, and
General Pierce suggested three cheers, which brought forth a thundering
response. John W. Smith did the primary shovel work, and Governor
Gilpin made a characteristic speech in which some notable predictions
were advanced. This ended the preliminary ceremonies, when the
grading proceeded in the regular way by men paid for this part of the
performance.
Despite all the efforts of the committee, no considerable amount, if
indeed any part of the bonds, were negotiated in Chicago. On the 24th
of June, 1868, the capital stock of the Denver Pacific was increased
from two millions to four millions by vote of the directors, an act
impelled by their contract with the Union Pacific, which exacted a certain
amount of the stock per mile in addition to the consideration already
named. When the bonds were voted, it was upon the understanding
that the county was to receive in exchange one-fourth of the stock.
The increase reduced its share to one-eighth. But the contract left the
company no other alternative.
On the 26th of June, Senator Harlan introduced a bill authorizing
the Denver Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company to connect its
road and telegraph with the Union Pacific near Cheyenne, acquiring
thereby the privileges, and assuming the obligations of the other branches
of the U. P. road, and becoming entitled to similar grants of land, with
right of way upon the completion of the Eastern Division to Denver,
the construction of the line from the latter point to Cheyenne being
taken in lieu of its construction by the Eastern Division company,
and acquiring for that portion the same rights and privileges as though
it had been built by the latter.
432 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
During all this time the line to be pursued from Platte crossing
northward, remained unlocated, and we believe unsurveyed, conse-
quently the work of grading stopped for the want of its determination.
Senator Harlan's bill did not pass before the Congressional recess, and
no satisfaction could be obtained from the U. P. Directors. It became
quite painfully apparent to the harassed forces at this end of the line
that they were staving off a decision, and possibly seeking an oppor-
tunity to abrogate their contract. Gen. Pierce went on to meet them,
but the trip was a failure. The Eastern Division people were in an
equally depressing plight. Their hopes of obtaining a subsidy for the
extension of their road by the southern route to California had gone
by the board. They opposed Harlan's bill conveying their land grant
to the Denver Pacific, which prevented its passage. Just before the
adjournment of Congress, however, a mutual understanding was
brought about through the efforts of Governor Evans, and their opoo-
sition was withdrawn. But it was then too late to get the measure
through, and thus another heavy blow was dealt to the Colorado enter-
prise which was severely damaging. Governor Evans secured an
assignment in writing from the president of the Eastern Division Com-
pany of its right of way and grant of lands. If the bill had passed, it
would have given the Denver company a substantial basis for its secu-
rities, and enabled both companies to issue, under a law of Congress,
mortgage bonds on their roads to the amount of thirty-two thousand
dollars per mile. When the bill became a law as it did at the en-
suing session, these conditions rendered the company comparatively
independent.
In an address delivered by Governor Evans about this time, he out-
lined a system of railroads for Colorado which was to make this city a
great railway center, as follows; Denver to Golden City, Central and
Georgetown ; to the coal fields of Boulder County ; up the Platte
Canon to the South Park and beyond into the Valley of the Blue ; to
Pueblo, Trinidad and the San Luis Park, and another to run the entire
length of the Arkansas Valley in Colorado.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 433
Verily these were vast campaigns for the commander-in-chief of
one little struggling railroad to plan so far in advance of the beggarly
pittance required to grade and tie that road one hundred and ten miles.
But as already stated, there were some giants in those days, who never
faltered in their faith that Denver, through their efforts, could be made
a marvelous city, and the thinly populated Territory of Colorado a
wonderful State. Most of those robust projectors have lived to wit-
ness the fulfillment of their dreams.
Having secured the land grant, the company began to take positive
measures for a vigorous advance. They waited no longer for the Union
Pacific directors to locate the disputed portion of the line, but located it
themselves. They realized that with the road bed fully prepared for the
iron, no serious difficulty would be met in discovering the means to put
it in running order. The grading was only half completed.
The first annual meetingr of the stockholders of the Denver Pacific
o
Railway and Telegraph Company was held on Monday December 14th,
1868, when William M. Clayton was elected chairman, and R. R.
McCormick, Secretary. At this meeting, John Evans, W. M. Clayton,
John W. Smith, F. W. Cram, D. H. Moffat, Jr., John Pierce, Joseph E.
Bates, A. B. Daniels and F. Z. Salomon were chosen directors, who at a
subsequent meeting elected John Evans President; John Pierce Vice-
President; R. R. McCormick Secretary and Auditor ; D. H. Moffat,
Jr., Treasurer; F. M. Case Chief Engineer; and John Pierce Con-
sulting Engineer. At this time the Eastern Division company had
located its line to Denver, and thence via the valleys of the Platte and
Cache la Poudre to a point of connection with the main line of the
Pacific road west of the Black Hills, and their lands had been withdrawn
from the market. But it appears the St. Louis company had not
wholly abandoned the plan of making a through line to the Pacific, for
they surveyed a route from a point east of the Raton Mountains all the
way to the coast. Among the reports of the officers rendered to the
Denver Pacific at the annual meeting, was one which stated that the
agreement with the Union Pacific directors contemplated the extension
28
434 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of the Denver, Central and Georgetown road in connection with the
Denver Pacific.
The Denver, South Park Si Rio Grande Railway Company had
also been organized for the purpose of constructing a line up the valley
of the Platte to the South Park, and thence to the valley of the Rio
Grande del Norte, with a branch to the Middle Park on the line of the
Blue River, and a grant of lands in aid of its construction had been
applied for. They had organized as another important enterprise, the
Denver & Santa Fe Railway Company, upon a route leading along the
base of the mountains to the southern line of the Territory, via Col-
orado City, Pueblo and Trinidad.
The Denver Pacific Telegraph line was completed to Cheyenne
January ist, 1869, when congratulatory messages were exchanged
between Mayor W. M. Clayton of this city, and Mayor Luke Murrin
of Cheyenne. This line was constructed in less than two months'
time, under contract with the U. S. & Mexico Telegraph Company,
and this in very cold and stormy weather.
In January, 1869, a bill was introduced in Congress which autho-
rized the Eastern Division company to contract with the Denver Pacific
company for the construction, operation and maintenance of that part
of the line between Denver and its point of connection with the Union
Pacific, and to take its grant of lands ; also that the Eastern Division
company should extend its road to the city of Denver, so as to form,
with that part, a continuous line from Kansas City via Denver to
Cheyenne, and both companies were authorized to mortgage their
respective roads on a basis of thirty-two thousand dollars per mile.
This bill passed on the 2d of March and was approved on the 5th, when
Governor Evans, who had gone to Washington to look after the
measure, left for Colorado. The rejoicing here over this event was
spontaneous and universal. The people improvised a celebration,
exploded fireworks, lighted great bonfires in the streets, and in every
way manifested their delight over the auspicious opening of a more
prosperous era. The graders resumed work, the bridge builders began
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 435
anew, and at last it seemed as if the road were to be pushed to a
finish. On the day the bill passed Governor Evans gave a dinner to
the Coloradoans then in Washington. Governor Hunt, J. B. Chaffee,
Judge Bradford, George M. Chilcott, B. B. Stiles, H. P. Bennett,
John B. Wolff, O. A. Whittemore, George T. Clark, John Hughes,
Isadore Deitsch, Mark A. Shaffenburg, M. M. De Lano, George Ban-
croft, George H. Vickroy, Col. Webster, S. M. Hoyt, George W.
Brown, E. M. Ashley, and others who had gone down to the capital
to lend what aid they could toward the good cause, were present.
Governor Evans returned March 25th, and on the 27th was given a
reception at the Methodist church.
On the 27th of July, 1869, Gen. Wm. J. Palmer, superintendent of
the Eastern Division, arrived to confer with the Denver company, and
to close negotiations which had been pending for some time, for the
completion of the Denver Pacific, the contract with the Union Pacific
having been nullified, under the following circumstances : Evans went
to Boston and New York to urge the Union Pacific directors to com-
pliance with their agreement. After evading him for nearly a month
on one pretext and another, he brought them to bay at last, when they
confessed their inability by reason of financial embarrassments to meet
their engagements, But they generously offered to sell him the iron if
he could raise the money to pay for it. Of course the negotiations
terminated at once. The Governor went to capitalists in Philadelphia
and St. Louis who were interested in the Kansas road, and finding
them favorable, a scheme was perfected whereby the Kansas or
Eastern division company agreed to furnish the iron and other mate-
rials for the immediate completion of at least one-half of the Denver
Pacific. Meanwhile, the Eastern Division company was compelled to
raise nine millions of dollars wherewith to build its road on to
Denver, a task which, after great difficulty, was at length accomplished.
Governor Evans, Gen. Carr, D. H. Moffat, Walter S. Cheesman
and others took the contract to complete the Denver Pacific ; sold its
bonds to the amount of a million dollars, purchased the iron, and in
436 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
September, 1869, track laying began from Cheyenne southward, and
was completed to the town of Evans, in Weld county, December 13th,
1869. Here a long halt was made, awaiting negotiations for the
completion of the other half. These were finally consummated, and
on the 15th of June, 1870, the first locomotive rolled into Denver,
where it was met with great rejoicing. The Eastern Division, now the
Kansas Pacific, reached the same point about the middle of August in
the same year.
The eastern terminus of the Union Pacific railroad was fixed at
Council BlufTs, Iowa, by the decision of General U. S. Grant, who was
empowered by law to establish the initial point of that road. The pro-
jector of this colossal enterprise whose rapid whirl across the conti-
nent astonished the civilized world and is without precedent in history,
was Professor Asa Whitney, of California, who, from the time of its in-
ception worked unremittingly toward its accomplishment. It was next
taken up by Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri, whose interest had
been stimulated by the various expeditions made by his son-in-law John
C. Fremont. He introduced the original Pacific railway bill in 1849,
and in 1853 ^^ stated in the chapter relating to Capt. Gunnison's survey,
an act was passed providing for the survey of three lines, with the view
of adopting the most feasible of the series. Little more was done until
1864-5, when Congress passed an act providing for a subsidy in bonds
bearing six per cent, interest, at the rate of sixteen thousand dollars
per mile from the Missouri River to the base of the Rocky Mountains;
thence for a distance of three hundred miles a subsidy of forty-eight
thousand per mile, and thence to the Sierra Nevada Mountains sixteen
thousand per mile. This liberal ofTer was further supplemented by
twenty sections of land for each mile of road constructed, or a total of
twenty-five million acres. In addition, discovering that even this munifi-
cence failed to arouse the interest of capital, Congress relinquished
its first lien and took a second mortgage, allowing the company which
should build it to issue its own bonds at the same rate per mile and
securing them by a first lien. The Central Pacific compan)' commenced
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 437
work in 1S63. The first two sections of twenty miles each, west from
Omaha, were completed in 1865. The entire road was opened to traffic
May 1 2th, 1869. Under the marvelous direction of the Casement
brothers, managers of the construction from a point west of Fremont
to Ogden, the road seemed to f\y across the plains. There were many
days in which two, three and four miles of track were laid, and as an
illustration of what they could do and thus challenge the world to equal
the performance, they laid eight miles in one day.
The preliminary surveys for the Union Pacific cost more than a
million of dollars. Its length is ten hundred and twenty-nine miles,
and that of the Central Pacific eight hundred and eighty-one miles.
The cost of the lines is thus summarized by Appleton's Cyclopoedia:
"Of the Union Pacific in capital stock, mortgage bonds and land grant
income and Government bonds was reported to the Secretary of the
Interior at $112,259,360, or an average of $108,778 per mile, but the
liabilities of the company at the date of the completion of the road were
$116,730,052, or an average of $113,110 per mile. Jesse L. Williams,
one of the government Directors, and a civil engineer of great expe-
rience, in a report to the Secretary of the Interior dated November
14th, 1868, gave the approximate cost of the Union Pacific in cash at
$38,824,821, or an average of about $35,000 per mile. The cost of the
Central Pacific and branches, 1,222 miles in stock, bonds, and liabilities
of every sort was reported in 1874 at $139,746,311, or an average of
$1 14,358 per mile."
The first sleeping cars were patented in 1858, but were superseded
by the invention of George M. Pullman, whose first cars were built in
1864. The Pullman Palace Car Company was organized in 1867. Mr.
Pullman was for two or three years a resident of Colorado.
The passenger fare on the Union Pacific from Cheyenne to Omaha
in 1868, was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents, and from Denver — the in-
terval by stage — it was sixty-one dollars and fifty cents. The freight
rates were, Omaha to Cheyenne, — first-class $3.85, second class $3.70,
and third class, $3.55 per 100 pounds.
438 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE MURDERERS OF PONT NEUF CANON — THEIR PURSUIT BY THE VIGILANTES OF
MONTANA — A THRILLING INCIDENT OF THE FRONTIER — OVERLAND MERCHANDISE
TRAFFIC — COLORADO AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION — THE BOSTON & COLORADO
SMELTING WORKS OPENING OF A NEW ERA GOVERNOR HUNT's ADMINIS-
TRATION— TRIALS AND DIFFICULTIES — DESTRUCTION OF CROPS BY GRASSHOPPERS
THE AMERICAN HOTEL RENEWAL OF THE STATE MOVEMENT LOCATION OF
THE TERRITORIAL PENITENTIARY RIOT IN TRINIDAD ARRIVAL OF GRANT,
SHERMAN AND SHERIDAN — RETURN OF SCHUYLER COLFAX — CHILCOTT's RECORD
IN CONGRESS — THE INDIAN WAR OF I 868 — GREAT EXCITEMENT — THE COLFAX
PARTY ENDANGERED PURSUIT OF THE INDIANS BY SHERIDAN — TERRIBLE EXPE-
RIENCE OF COLONEL FORSYTHE ON THE REPUBLICAN.
Among my notes of 1865 is an incident, parts of which came to my
knowledge at the time of its occurrence, and though very quietly con-
ducted it possessed thrilling interest for the few acquainted with the
facts. During the year in question, the exact date not now recalled, as
many of the readers of this history will remember, a stage driver named
Frank Williams, employed on the route from Salt Lake to Helena,
Montana Territory, drove a coach load of passengers who carried large
sums of money, into an ambuscade of "road agents" who were concealed
in Pont Neuf Canon, and with whom he was in league, where they were
killed and robbed. The Vigilantes of Montana, than which no more
resolute body of regulators was ever organized, took the matter in
hand, pursuing every member of the gang to exile or execution. As
soon as the robbers and the stage driver discovered that these terrible
avengers were after them, they fied in different directions, some taking
ship at San Francisco for China or Japan. Williams was traced to
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 439
several points and finally to Salt Lake, where the clue was clearly estab-
lished to his pursuers. But he got wind of them sufficiently in advance
to enable him to make another attempt at concealment by coming
across the mountains to Denver. Arriving here, he took a room at
the old Planter's House. A short time afterward the vigilantes, two
in number, entered the same hotel, and as they passed the dining room
door, near which Williams was seated he espied them and divining their
errand, secreted himself until the next stage went out to the eastward,
when he took passage for the Missouri River. The Montana men went
to the office desk, where they registered and then began some inquiries
of Mr. Alonzo Rice, the clerk in charge. It was not long before they
were again upon the trail of Williams, but only to find that he had
escaped them a second time. Ascertaining the direction he had taken,
they called for a carriage and the swiftest horses that could be had, and
were soon flying after the stage. By very rapid driving it was over-
taken near Godfrey's Station, some distance down the Platte. The
vigilantes drove up, their horses reeking with foam, halted the driver
and stepping to the door of the coach, opened it, beckoned Williams
to get out, closed it and ordering the driver to proceed, took charge of
their prisoner, who instantly realized that his doom was sealed. There
was no opportunity for resistance or escape. They placed him in the
carriage, returned to Denver and lodged him in the old jail on Larimer
street near the corner of Fourteenth. The next move was to advise
the Vigilance Committee here, which was composed of reputable
citizens acting as a "Committee of Safety," of their capture of Williams,
and the awful crime with which he was charged. Court was convened
in a large room over John A. Nye's store, the prisoner brought before
it, the charges preferred, testimony taken, and an impartial trial given
him, which lasted about three days, in the course of which Williams
made a full confession of his part in the terrible tragedy, giving the
names and, as far as he knew, the whereabouts of his accomplices,
fifteen in number.
Sentence of death having been pronounced upon him, he was
4.0 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
taken by his captors in a close carriage to a point about four miles
below the city in a cluster of cottonwood trees near the Platte River,
and there hanged. When life was extinct they cut him down, buried
the remains near the tree and disappeared. Some years afterward, a
farmer while plowing over the spot, turned up the skeleton of Frank
Williams, the stage driver of Pont Neuf Canon. He reported the fact,
though ignorant of the identity of the bones, to the police of Denver,
but nothing was done about it.
The author having been a guest at the Planter's House when Wil-
liams and the vigilantes were there, was informed of the pursuit and
capture, but the later developments were obtained from Mr. Rice dur-
ing the progress of this work.
To give an idea of the amount of merchandise brought over the
plains from Atchison, the principal shipping point on the Missouri River,
destined for Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, the "Champion," the
leading newspaper of that city, then as now edited by Col. John A.
Martin, kept as full an account as could be obtained, each year from
1858 to 1865 inclusive, with the following result: 1858, 3,730,000 pounds;
1859, 4,020,905; i860, 8,220,883; 1861, 5,438,456; 1864, 16,639,380;
1865, 24,585,000. Therefore, we have as the possible traffic to be
obtained by a railway in 1865, when the Union Pacific began its
march, a total of fifteen hundred and thirty-six carloads of sixteen
thousand pounds each, for the three Territories named. Twenty-two
years later the freight receipts of Denver alone amounted to more
than one hundred thousand carloads.
In 1867 George W. Maynard, a mining engineer of great present
celebrity, was appointed by Governor Cummings, Commissioner for
Colorado to the Paris Exposition of that year, established on a scale
of unequaled magnificence by Napoleon HI.
The appointee being unable to go, declined, when Acting-Governor
Hall tendered the place to J. P. Whitney of Boston, who, being largly
engaged in the development of our mines, signified his willingness to
accept, and also to collect a fine exhibit of rare and representative min-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 441
erals to be added to his already superior cabinet, and take them to the
Exposition at his own expense. The effect of this representation was
salutary, for it induced several eminent scientists of Europe to make
exhaustive examination of .the gold, silver and other resources of the
Territory, whose favorable reports, when published, caused the invest-
ment of much foreign capital in them. Commissioner Whitney
returned October 3d, accompanied by Col. M. Heine and M. Simonin,
French commissioners, who were received and entertained by the
Miners' and Mechanics' Institute of Central City.
The declaration that the event of greatest importance to the Ter-
ritory in the period under consideration was the inauguration, at Black
Hawk, of the Boston and Colorado smelting works, is by no means
extravagant, as we shall demonstrate by a glance at the facts. From
the date of the exhaustion of the surface decompositions in the principal
fissures from which, the gold being free, it was easily extracted, to the
beginning of 1868, there had been no method of treatment, owing to
the lack of scientific knowledge, capable of dealing with the refractory
elements in the ores which supervened. The stamp mills at their best
returned only a small percentage of the ascertained contents of the
ores. Science and its improvements had not yet ventured to attack
the great metallurgical questions opened on this remote frontier. As a
matter of fact, both miners and mill men were groping in darkness,
each in his particular sphere, but neither making substantial progress.
The first knew only the primitive ways of sinking shafts and driving
levels ; the second knew how to set the machinery of his mill in
motion, but only the elementary principles relating to the use and
effect of chemicals in aid of amalgamation. When the " clean ups "
were unsatisfactory, the gold was declared to be " rusty," therefore
would not adhere to the plates ; or, the ore was " lean," or so
refractory it could not be worked. The concentrates, rich in gold and
silver, passed over the plates, down through the sluices into the bed of
Clear Creek, and thus the miner lost forever some of the richest fruits
of his labor. If saved they were of no use, consequently the entire
442 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
gulch from Nevada to Golden City and the Platte River was strewn
with material which, could it have been collected and utilized, v/ould
have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Then came, in 1864-5, a cloud of "process men, '^ each with the
only conceivable remedy for meeting the emergencies of the rather
deplorable situation. Every scheme but the right one offered its
services : The " Keith desulphurizer," to destroy the refractory con-
stituents and leave the precious metals free for amalgamation ; the
"Crosby & Thompson," with its revolving cylinders and columns of
fire ; the " Mason process," which operated under newly discovered
conditions ; the " Monnier Metallurgical Process," that expelled the
sulphur, reduced the copper and other metals to a soluble condition,
and, by leaching, collected them, and so on through an interminable
line. After expending all the capital that could be wrung from the
investors supporting them, each attempt in turn was abandoned, and
the costly machinery in due time found its way to the scrap iron heaps
of the several foundries.
Then came James E. Lyon & Co. with a new patent desulphur-
izer which, after repeated trials, shared the common disaster. Next
he built a series of expensive smelters that for a time promised to
meet the exigency, but when about two hundred and seventy thousand
dollars had been squandered in the comparatively fruitless endeavor,
this enterprise, also, the greatest of all, sank into irretrievable ruin.
The absolute failure of these and numerous other attempts to
solve the paramount enigma, brought the mining industry and the
people at large to the verge of despair. All who could leave emigrated
to other fields. The hopelessness of those who remained was well
nigh immeasurable. The period between 1864 and 1868 was undoubt-
edly the darkest in our history. It was the period of scanty supplies,
high wages, Indian wars, the incessant interruption of our commun-
ications. Even these conditions, deplorable as they were, might have
been more patiently endured had there been even a gleam of light
ahead, or any certain prospect of eventual redemption.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 443
From 1856 to 1864 Nathaniel P. Hill attained much distinction
as professor of chemistry in Brown university, at Providence, Rhode
Island. In the year last named he was commissioned by a syndicate
of Boston capitalists to examine and report upon the resources, mineral
and otherwise, of the Gilpin o^rant in the San Luis Park, Colorado.
In 1865 he returned to the Territory, and entered upon a careful
inspection of the mines and minerals of Gilpin and Clear Creek coun-
ties, then the only lode mining sections developed to any appreciable
extent. This examination, together with proper analyses of the ores,
convinced him that no part of the world presented greater possi-
bilities than this. Becoming deeply interested in the subject, and
resolved to pursue it to right conclusions, he collected about seventy
tons of mineral from the different mines and took them to Swansea,
Wales, for treatment by the smelters there, and spent the winter of
1S65-6 in close application to the study of the process in all its various
details. Havinor rnastered the information sought, he returned to
Boston, and in the spring of 1867 organized the Boston & Colorado
smelting company, with a full paid capital of two hundred and seventy-
live thousand dollars. In June following, under the direction of Pro-
fessor Herman Beeger, a veteran metallurgist, experimental works,
consisting of one reverberatory and one calcining furnace with the
requisite machinery for crushing, pulverizing, etc., were erected. In
January, 1868, the fires were lighted, and the institution opened for
business.
Finding a ready cash market for their products, the miners by
hundreds reoccupied their abandoned claims, the supplies multiplied
rapidly, the curtain of doubt was lifted, and the dawn of a new era
appeared. For a time the feeling prevailed that this was simply an
experiment like its predecessors, and would have the same ending, but
as the fires continued to blaze, and all the ores offered were purchased
and paid for as soon as their value could be determined, conjecture
gave way to confidence, the hills reverberated the sounds of blasting
from morning till night, and soon it became necessary to Increase the
Ui HISTORY OF COLORADO.
number of furnaces, so that in a few years the works were elevated to
the plane of the central industry of the country.
In the primary stages the deductions for treatment were neces-
sarily large. On the other hand, the producers, through fictitious
assays, had been given exaggerated conceptions of the value of their
ores. In order to impress the outside world with the importance of the
region, and thereby induce immigration and the investment of capital,
the press and most of the people in the course of their calculations
settled down upon an average of about two hundred dollars per ton as
the probable value of all the ores of the district. But the uncom-
promising tests of reduction in bulk quickly dispelled the illusion,
hence when the balances were paid, the miners felt that great injustice
had been done them. Remonstrance deepened into general clamor
against the works, and, incited by evil influences which condemned
without investigating, threatened to become serious. At length the
editor of the "Miner's Register," at the request of Professor Hill,
made an examination of the entire system and published the facts,
which quieted the opposition. While there could be no dispute as to
the excessive charges, it must be remembered that all the conditions of
the country were crude and expensive ; that there were no railways ; no
cheap transportation, and that all charges, even for the necessaries of
life, were in like degree extortionate. The products of the furnaces
instead of being refined on the ground, had to be shipped to the Missouri
River in wagons, and thence to Swansea at great expense. Wages were
high, and especially of the skilled labor here employed.
When expedient, the prices for ores were advanced, so that in time
the producers and the reducers came together upon the most amicable
understanding.
The business of the company grew rapidly, and in 1873 the capital
was increased to five hundred thousand dollars. A branch smelting
establishment was erected at Alma in Park County, with H. R. Wolcott
and Prof. Beeger in charge. At this time the Dolly Varden, Moose
and several other mines were producing large quantities of valuable
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 445
silver ores, and the works were built to accommodate them. They
were continued as smelting works until the Denver & South Park rail-
road was constructed to a neighboring place; since that time they have
been used only as sampling works, the ores being sent to Argo to be
smelted.
Probably the most important event in connection with this com-
pany's history, next to the inauguration of the enterprise in 1867, oc-
curred in this year. Until 1S73, the company confined its operations to
making matte which was sent to Vivian & Sons, Swansea, Wales, for
the separation and refining of the gold, silver and copper. Without
any previous notice, they refused to receive the matte, claiming that
they had lost heavily on the contract, therefore the Boston & Col-
orado company was suddenly left without a market for its products.
jNIatte to the value of over one hundred thousand dollars which
was then in transit between Black Hawk and Swansea, was sold in Ger-
many at a lower price than the company is now paying in Denver for
similar matte. There was but one thing left for the company to do, and
that was to go into the refining business, and send the gold, silver and
copper products to the market as pure, or nearly pure metals. This
undertaking, owing to conditions which then existed in Black Hawk,
where the company's works were still located, seemed very doubtful as
to its results. Fortunately the services of Prof. Richard Pearce, a man
who combined a thoroughly scientific education with a large practical
experience in metallurgical operations in Swansea, could be had. Under
his direction, the refining works soon began issuing the pure silver
bricks, and have continued to do so, to this time, without the loss of a
day, in the fifteen years.
At first, the copper product which still contained the gold, was
sent to Boston, where the company, under the direction of Prof.
Beeger, erected works for the purpose of manufacturing sulphate of
copper, and refining the gold ; but in a short time. Prof. Pearce dis-
covered a more economical method of separating the gold from the cop-
per, and the Boston works were abandoned.
446 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Shortly after the erection of the refining plant, Mr. Henry R.
Wolcott was appointed assistant manager, and took an active part in
the management of the affairs of the company, until he retired in 1887.
In 1878 this company, finding that it was necessary to have more
ground, the cheaper fuel afforded by the coal beds of the plains, and
better railway facilities, with an opportunity to draw supplies from
every available mining section of the State, as well as from Arizona,
New Mexico, Utah and Montana, removed its plant to a commodious
site on the north side of the Platte River, three miles below Denver,
which was appropriately christened "Argo."
The enlargement of the business consequent upon this movement
made it necessary that the capital should be increased to one million
dollars, which was done in February, 1880.
The value of the products of the works, from 186S to 1887, as
presented in the following table, affords a fair index of the enterprise of
the management.
That the growth and development of the mining industry in the
Rocky Mountain regions has been even much more rapid, is shown by
the fact, that, while for the first ten years the Boston & Colorado
Smelting Company had no competition in the business of smelting and
refining ores, during the last ten years, many other large establishments
have been built up, and are now carrying on extensive operations.
The following is the value of the gold, silver and copper produced
by the Boston & Colorado Smelting Company, from 1868 to 1887,
inclusive:
1868 $ 270,886
1869 489,875
1870 652,329
1 87 1 848,5 7 1
1872 999,954
1873 1,210,670
1874 1,638,877
1875 , 1,947,000
1876 2,097,000
1877 2,154,000
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 447
1878 $2,259,000
1879 2,449,500
1880 2,730,500
1881 3,081,000
1882 3,668,000
1883 3,907,000
1884 4,41 1,000
1885 4,012,700
1886 3,681,000
1887 3,767,685
Total $46,276,547
The ores of Colorado, in addition to the metals which can be prof-
itably extracted, viz.: Gold, silver, copper and lead, contain large quan-
tities of zinc, antimony, arsenic, and in some cases bismuth, making the
separation of silver and gold in a pure state, difficult and expensive. It
was in solving this problem by the aid of the best methods known in
Europe, supplemented by many important improvements and inventions
of his own, that the knowledge and skill of Prof. Pearce proved to be
of great value to the company.
That the investigations made by Professor Hill in 1865, and the
resultant opening of new channels whereby the great corner stone of
our subsequent prosperity was laid, was an event of supreme importance,
no one who has acquainted himself with the facts will deny. Notwith-
standing the enormous advantages that lay before him at the outset, the
success of his enterprise is directly ascribable to the superior business
management which supported his scientific attainments. Opportunities
of equal value were presented to others, but for the want of proper
direction their projects went down in disaster.
The first experiments for the smelting of ores in Colorado were
made by Prof. Caleb S. Burdsall in Nevada District, Gilpin County,
about the year 1862, but soon after demonstrating the feasibility of such
treatment, the small furnace he had erected, was destroyed. He then
came to Denver and continued his investigations until the facts sought
were thoroughly developed.
448 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
In April, 1866, Messrs. John R. Beverley, J. J. Cranmerand Albert
Gilbert conducted some experiments in the same direction, using the
Kustel furnace, employed in the early days of mining on the Pacific
slope, for reducing the Washoe silver ores. This plant was erected in
Nevada district. The capacity of the furnace mentioned was equal to
the reduction of about four tons in twenty-four hours, and was constructed
of common red brick saturated in some kind of a chemical solution.
The hearth, sixty by twenty-two inches, and the crucible, thirty-six
inches in diameter, were made of clay and a mixture of fire-proof stone
found in great abundance in the neighborhood. The results obtained
have not been recorded, but no great success attended the effort.
The State movement was again revived at the December (1867)
session of Congress with Chaffee, Chilcott and Hunt operating together
harmoniously for the cause. At the very outset of his administration,
Governor Hunt was confronted with an extensive Indian outbreak, and
having no regular troops at command, he called on the militia, which did
not respond. He then, as a der^tier resort, invited a number of gentlemen
to organize independent companies for the field, and also telegraphed
General Sherman and the President for aid, but without effect. Sher-
man was then at Omaha, and shortly after came out to see what could
be done. A number of volunteer companies reported for duty, but as
they could not be equipped from the public ordnance stores, they were
disbanded. On the 24th of June, General W. S. Hancock and staff
arrived with an escort of about seventy men, for a visit simply, and with
no intent of allaying the disturbances.
The political campaign of 1867 was rather uneventful. Hunt's
confirmation by the Senate formed one of the issues. While the more
conservative were disposed to give him a fair chance, the State leaders
proved obdurate, pursuing him for past offences and, at the same time
making his confirmation contingent upon the abandonment of his opposi-
tion to the State movement. Holding the cards, they were inclined to
play them to his discomfiture, unless he should yield the main point at
issue. For some time the Governor clung tenaciously to his heresy.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 449
The State men carried the war into all caucuses and conventions, many of
which were induced to pass resolutions opposing his confirmation.
Others, and especially those held in the southern division of the Territory,
strongly favored it. The outcome will appear in our notes of 1868.
In July and August, 1867, grasshoppers in countless myriads
sailed over from the northeast and settling down upon the cultivated
ranches, quickly destroyed the growing crops. This was the second
visitation of these destructive hosts, the first occurring in 1864. No
one who has not witnessed a great migration of these locusts, can form
any conception of theirnumbers or the devastation which ensues. The
whole atmosphere seems to be densely filled with them when on the
wing, like a dark curtain spread over the face of the sun. When the
air cools toward evening they descend to the earth, covering it as with
a blanket. When they begin eating, everything which can be eaten dis-
appears like grain before the reaper, with the difference that it is irre-
coverable. But the most appalling feature is the deposit of eggs in the
soil thus devastated, which are certain to reproduce other myriads of the
pests in the spring, which, being unable to fly, begin eating as soon as
they can walk. In the visitation of 1864 the ranchmen were entirely
helpless, knowing not what to do, but in 1867 all manner of devices for
their destruction were employed, some of which were very successful.
One of these in the form of branches of trees dragged by horses over
the ground, drove the insects into the irrigating canals, which had been
impregnated by kerosene, dripping slowly from a barrel set at the head.
This method proved one of the most effectual. Another was a sheet
iron covered with soft coal tar, drawn by horses ; the pests jumped into
the mixture where they were hopelessly fastened, and subsequently des-
troyed by fire. The loss of crops in the years of these inflictions
discouraged many farmers so that they either sold out, or incontinently
abandoned their possessions. Such as remained were very destitute
until fortune smiled upon them in later years.
September iSth, 1867, Mr. John W. Smith, at all times a vigo-
rous leader in public enterprises, realizing the demand for better hotel
29
450 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
accommodations than were afforded by the primitive structures erected
when the city was founded, having prepared all his plans, began the
demolition of a number of small buildings which then occupied the site
he had chosen, on the northeast corner of Sixteenth and Blake streets,
and erected thereon the American Hotel, for many years, indeed until
the English company came in and built the Windsor, the principal,
hostelry of the city. Increased patronage soon necessitated additions,
which were built on Blake street.
Early in 1868 the Rocky Mountain Railway & Telegraph com-
pany was organized, to build a line from Denver to the coal beds of
South Boulder, and thence to Black Hawk, Central and Georgetown,
via Ralston Creek as surveyed by Mr. A. N. Rogers. Eben vSmith of
Central City, William L. Lee (of the Black Hawk Gold Mining com-
pany) J. W. Nesmith, A. G. Langford, J. W. Watson, Alex Steele, D.
H. Moffat, Jr., J. S. Brown and Henry C. Leach were among the
incorporators.
January 3d, 1868, resolutions were introduced in the lower House
of the Colorado legislature, memorializing Congress to admit Colorado
as a State, and requesting that the portion of Dakota lying south of the
forty-second degree of north latitude and west of Nebraska, be annexed
to and made a part of Colorado. The same Assembly enacted the
first registration law for the better regulation of elections throughout
the Territory. Through the persistent zeal of the member from Fre-
mont County, Hon. Thomas Macon, combined with some rather
skillful trading on the capitol and other questions of local importance,
the Territorial Penitentiary was established at Canon City. The
commissioners appointed by the acting Governor to locate the grounds,
were Hon. Anson Rudd of Fremont, and Samuel N. Hoyt and James
M. Wilson of Arapahoe, who fixed the site now occupied by the prison.
At the close of the session January i ith, the Board of Trade hon-
ored the members with a banquet at the Pacific House. The Presi-
dent of the Council, or Senate, Hon. W. W. Webster, was on this
occasion presented with a fine gold watch by the citizens of Denver,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 451
and the House of Representatives presented its speaker, Hon. C. H.
McLaughlin, with one of silver.
On New Year morning, 1868, a serious riot occurred in the town of
Trinidad, Las Animas County. It appeared from the accounts subse-
quently gathered, that on Christmas preceding, a wrestling match of
considerable interest had attracted a miscellaneous crowd of Mexicans
and Americans, and in a dispute concerning the wrestlers, rocks were
thrown and pistols fired. In the melee a Mexican was shot, and later
died of the wound. An American named Blue was arrested for the
ofTence and committed to jail, which was guarded by an equal number
of Americans and Mexicans. Considerable excitement prevailed, and a
brother of the man who had been killed, not content to let the law take its
course, endeavored to kill the prisoner by shooting into the room where
he was confined. While he was not successful in executing his purpose,
two or three repetitions of the attempt created intense feeling which
menaced the peace of the town. The military authorities at the nearest
post, — Fort Reynolds, — were informed of the state of affairs, but took
no action. A few days later Blue was liberated by a crowd of Amer-
icans, which so angered the Mexicans that they began firing at the
rescuers, happily without damage. Naturally the fire was returned, re-
sulting in a general street fight, in which guns and pistols were freely
used. Being largely outnumbered, the Americans sought refuge in a
neighboring building which they barricaded, firing an occasional shot
from the windows. In the course of the proceedings two Mexicans
were killed, and several wounded. A courier was dispatched to Fort
Lyon, then commanded by Gen. W. H. Penrose, who sent a detachment
of cavalry to the scene. Repeated calls were made on the Executive,
for his personal aid, therefore on the 29th of January, the legislature
having adjourned, the acting Governor, accompanied byW. R. Thomas
of the Rocky Mountain "News," proceeded by coach to Trinidad, only
to find that the troops had maintained peace among the inhabitants,
and that the exercise of ordinary prudence by the civil authorities
would prevent a recurrence of the difficulty. He then extended his
453 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
journey to Fort Lyon, with the view of requesting from the com-
mandant a retention of the troops for a short time until the sheriff of
the county and other officers could get the matter well under their
control. It is sufficient to say that henceforward the races dwelt
together in amity.
On the 1 2th of February, 1868, Senator Yates, of IIHnois, intro-
duced a bill for the admission of Colorado, with the fundamental condi-
tion as to the suffrage which had been made a part of the previous
measures. Again, on June i6th, the attempt was renewed, the bill of
that date requiring the resubmission of the question to the people
within ninety days after its passage, also the election of a Legislature
which must ratify the Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the
United States. These conditions, together with that relating to suf-
frage, etc., complied with, the State and its representatives were to be
admitted without further delay. Senators Evans and Chaffee approved
the bill, and were prepared for the main issue, which was that all
officers elected in 1865 should tender their resignations and the people
proceed to an entire reorganization of the State machinery.
As a matter of fact, the results of the war and measures for the
reconstruction of the Southern States had rendered the constitution of
Colorado wholly obsolete, so far as it related to the great reforms of
the period. Various attempts were made to patch it up and bring it
mto accord with the more advanced legislation by Congress, by amend-
ment, but in every instance it proved a failure. And here the move-
ment ended, no further steps of consequence being taken until 1875-6,
when the main point was gained through the more friendly attitude of
Gen. Grant.
On the 19th of July Senator Chaffee returned to Denver after a
continuous absence since 1866, during which period he labored assidu-
ously for the emancipation of his constituents from territorial depend-
ence. Having deserved well of his party, he was to be henceforth its
leader, and the director of its destiny.
On the 7th of May, 1868, the Denver & Santa Fe telegraph line
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 453
was begun under the supervision of Henry M. Porter. Poles were set
in the streets and the wire passed to them from the Western Union
office. Mr. Wm. N. Byers had been for some time eneao-ed in
distributing the poles along the route, so that when the work of
construction began its advance was rapid. The line was completed
and congratulatory messages exchanged between Denver and Santa Fe
on the Sth of July following.
On the 2istof the month last named General Grant, who had
been nominated for the Presidency, accompanied by Generals Sherman,
Sheridan and Frederick T. Dent, arrived in Denver via the Smoky
Hill route. The following day they took coach for Central City,
Grant being seated on the box beside Billy Updike, one of the most
famous reinsmen of the time. It is needless, perhaps, to add that the
trip was heartily enjoyed. From Central they proceeded to George-
town. After their return a reception was held in Masonic Hall, in the
third story of the Tappan block, where great multitudes called to pay
their respects to this renowned trio of military chieftains. At midnight
the officers named. Mayor De Lano, the author, and two or three
others were invited to a banquet at Ford's celebrated restaurant on
Blake street between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets. No toasts were
offered nor speeches made, but General Sherman did a powerful
amount of talking. As he was one of the most charming and
instructive conversationalists of his time, the rest were more than
content to listen.
On the Sth of August following, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Repub-
lican nominee for the Vice- Presidency, accompanied by William D.
Todd (now cashier of the Union bank), Hon. William Bross, Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Illinois, Samuel Bowles and daughter, of Spring-
field, Mass., Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Matthews, daughter and niece, and
Miss Nellie Wade, afterward Mrs. Colfax, arrived by coach from
Cheyenne. They had been present at the interesting ceremony of
laying the last rail on the Atlantic slope of the Union Pacific railway
at Creston Station. Mr. Colfax addressed a mass meeting in Denver
454 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
on the night of August nth on the pohtical issues of the day, —
ex-Governor WilHam Gilpin presiding. A few days later the party
visited Central City and Georgetown, then the great mining centers
to which all visitors to the Territory made pilgrimages.
By the same coach with the Colfax party came George M. Chil-
cott, delegate to Congress, returning from a session in which he had
been extremely active in securing material benefits for his constit-
uents in the way of useful legislation. It was said of him in Wash-
ington, that through his geniality of manner and quiet but persistent
force, he rendered more efficient service in the position he held than
any other delegate from the West, wielding an influence well nigh
equal to that exerted by the average representatives of organized
States. He procured the repeal of a very obnoxious postal law, which
discriminated severely against all the remote Territories through pro-
hibitory rates of postage, thereby practically cutting them off from the
privileges in the way of printed matter enjoyed by all the States ; an
appropriation to liquidate all properly audited and approved claims
accruing from the services of the Territorial militia during the recent
Indian outbreaks; appropriations, also, for continuing the public
surveys ; appropriations for the branch mint, despite the almost malig-
nant opposition of the Secretary of the Treasury, who had resolved to
reduce it to a mere nullity, or abolish it altogether ; the establishment
of land offices in the mining districts ; an appropriation for a geolog-
ical survey of Colorado by Prof. F. V. Hayden, whose reports proved
of inestimable value to the people, and are to this day the standard
authority, consulted and followed by thousands of miners and pros-
pectors, and which more, perhaps, than any other influence, has led to
the discovery and development of the richest treasures theretofore
hidden in the mountains ; the opening of new mail routes, besides
rendering material assistance to the passage of the railway bills,
whereby the Denver Pacific and Kansas Pacific companies were
enabled to complete their respective roads. In addition, he procured
the appointment of well known citizens of Colorado to the important
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 455
offices, which broke up the old system of sending out from the east
broken mendicants to fill them. Mr. Chilcott's record in Congress
reflected credit upon the Territory, elevated him to a still higher place
in the esteem of his fellow men, and was, in connection with his many
admirable qualities, the controlling influence in his appointment by
Governor Pitkin many years afterward as a Senator to succeed Hon.
Henry M. Teller, who had been called into the cabinet by President
Arthur.
On the 22d of August, 1868, Mr. Colfax and friends left Denver
for a tour of the mountains via Turkey Creek Canon, the South Park
and the Arkansas River, in the vicinity of California Gulch. The caval-
cade consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Matthews (since deceased), Miss Sallie
Bowles (now Mrs. Hooker), Miss Nellie Wade (induced upon this
excursion to become Mrs. Colfax), Miss Carrie Matthews (now Mrs.
O. J. Hollister of Salt Lake City), Miss Sue M. Matthews (now Mrs.
Frank Hall of Denver), Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Witter, Mr. and Mrs.
Hiram Witter, Governor and Mrs. A. C. Hunt, W. D. Todd, E. G.
Matthews, Major D. C. Oakes, O. J. Hollister and Secretary Hall.
Governor Bross and Mr. Bowles had preceded them by a day or two,
but rejoined them in the South Park.
On the date last mentioned, the Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians,
with w4iom and the Kiowas and the Comanches a treaty had been nego-
tiated by the peace commissioners in the fall of 1867 at Medicine Lodge,
seventy miles south of Fort Larned, whereby their lands between the
Arkansas and Platte had been relinquished, the Indians being required
to locate on reservations provided for them in Indian Territory, began a
general assault upon the borders of Colorado. While the chiefs signed
the treaty, the young braves almost unanimously repudiated the act,
refusing to be bound by its provisions. The discontent grew hot and
bitter, until in the spring of 1868 a general uprising was threatened.
General Sheridan took command of the department in March, 1868.
The Indians were concentrated about Fort Dodge, uneasy and clamo-
rous for the arms and ammunition, clothing, etc., etc., that had been
4::j6 history of COLORADO.
promised by the peace commission. Various means were employed to
keep them quiet, but finding that nothing else would satisfy their
demands, the arms were issued. In July the encampment about Dodge
broke up, and the Indians disappeared, being next heard of on the war
path raiding the settlements of Western Kansas. Bill Comstock (Wild
Bill), who with a companion named Grover had been sent out as media-
tors to the Indians, was killed, and Grover severely wounded. Then
ensued a series of attacks on the Smoky Hill stage route, and in a short
time the war became general, the savages having about six thousand
warriors in the field. Sheridan transferred his headquarters to Fort
Hays, then the terminus of the Kansas Pacific or Eastern Division rail-
road. All the available forces at his command, consistinof of about
twelve hundred mounted men and fourteen hundred infantry were widely
scattered, and much time was consumed in concentrating them for
active movement. He decided, therefore, upon a winter campaign to
strike the hostiles in their encampments, and employed Buffalo Bill (W.
F. Cody), to discover their principal haunts. Being driven southward
into our Territory, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, well armed, clothed,
mounted and furnished with letters from the peace commission certifying
their friendly character with complete absolution for past offences, came
down en masse, and striking the settled borders of Colorado separated
into detachments, distributing themselves along the line from about Fort
Wallace to Colorado City. Being extremely affable at the outset, giving
no offense until they had fully insinuated themselves into the confidence
of the people, they penetrated to every hamlet and ranch where fine
horses and other stock were kept, taking careful inventory of the same
for future use.
On my return from the mountains on the 23d of August, having
left the Colfax party near the head of Turkey Creek Canon, the tele-
graph wires began to pour in appeals for assistance, the dispatches stat-
ing that the Indians had attacked, evidently at a preconcerted signal, all
along the border, and were burning ranches, killing people and driving
off stock. The death of Comstock was announced ; also that a number
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 457
of men had been slain, scalped and mutilated at various other points,
settlers' cabins robbed and destroyed, and their occupants horribly mas-
sacred. On the Bijou several were killed and their stock and other
movable property appropriated. A veritable reign of terror had been
inaugurated by these very friendly savages. Messengers came thick and
fast from the frontier, while the wires and mails were burdened with sup-
plications for aid. The savages had made a clean sweep of the Kiowa
and Bijou. A large band of Arapahoes swarmed about Colorado City,
taking everything they could find that could be moved and of use to
them.. A man named Teachout lost a large herd of valuable horses,
about one hundred and twenty, as near as I can recall the circumstance.
Being advised that this band had gone to the South Park via Ute
Pass, on a foray against their hereditary enemies the Utes, and fearing
that the Colfax tourists might be discovered and attacked, I dispatched
a runner named Bonser who had lived some time among these Indians
to warn them, eivinsf him letters to Governor Hunt, statinor the material
points of the outbreak, and my apprehension that the Arapahoes were
on their trail. The messenger overtook the party in camp near the
western boundary of the park, and delivered his dispatches, but to
achieve some personal glory for himself, fabricated an account of his
having encountered the hostiles en route, and been fired upon by them,
but that he escaped without further harm than a bullet hole through his
saddle, which he exhibited, though it turned out that he had not seen an
Indian on the way, but had found a bottle of whisky, the most of which
had entered his person, and was then taking effect. A party of Utes
being near at hand was sent for, and informed of the expected attack
from the Arapahoes. They immediately offered to attend the party and
protect them from all harm, which escort was gladly accepted.
The Arapahoes soon after entering the park, surprised a small
encampment of Utes, and took several scalps. Satisfied with this result
they returned to Colorado City. Meanwhile I had put forth every
endeavor for relief. Utterly without troops, the territorial treasury
empty, shorn of power to call out the militia because of the frequenc)' of
458 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
previous demands and the unsatisfactory issues attending the same, with
only a few arms and no ammunition at all in the city arsenal, there
seemed no way out of the difficulty unless General Sheridan could send
Federal troops to our assistance. This officer had reported to General
Sherman that the Indians had broken loose again in Western Kansas,
and the outrages committed by them were too horrible for description.
Orders were immediately sent him to pursue the savages and drive them
from that part of the country, but Sheridan's force was small and so
widely scattered it was impossible for him to go into the field with an
adequate number of men until they could be concentrated and moved,
upon a well digested plan of campaign.
On the evening of the 28th of August, a wagon was driven into the
city bearing the mutilated remains of Mrs. Henrietta Dieterman and her
boy about five years of age, who had been killed the day before by
Indians on Comanche Creek. The boy had been shot several times and
his neck broken. The mother had been shot through the body, her
person violated, stabbed and scalped. This was one of the most horrible
spectacles I ever witnessed. The remains were exhibited to the public,
excitinof fierce indifrnation. The streets of Denver were filled with
people crying for vengeance upon the inhuman monsters. At the corner
of Fifteenth and Larimer streets a dense mass had congregated, and
was addressed by General Sam. E. Brown, in a spirit born of the occa-
sion, intemperate and well calculated to inflame the w^orst passions of the
multitude it is true, yet in some degree warranted by the frightful scene
just witnessed, and the prevalent alarm. In the meantime I was at the
Western Union Telegraph office endeavoring to discover the where-
abouts of Generals Sherman and Sheridan, and when found commun-
icating the facts, with appeals for help. On reaching the assemblage on
Larimer street, I was seized by two or three men, lifted into an express
wagon standing in the center which had been used as a rostrum by Gen-
eral Brown, and invited to explain, first what had been done, and
secondly how the conflict could be met. After stating my efforts to
secure aid from the military authorities but without any immediate pros-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 459
pect of receiving it, volunteers to the number of fifty resolute men
who were willing to proceed at once to the field, were called for. A gen-
eral response succeeding, the crowd, by request, adjoun:ed to my office
in the Tappan block, where a few minutes later the requisite number had
been enrolled and placed under command of Major Jacob Downing, a
commander of large experience, and of unquestioned courage. The
next difficulty was to provide horses, equipments and transportation, for
it was then midnight. Mr. John Hughes fortunately supplied the
horses from a large herd owned by him, and located near the city limits.
Men were sent out to bring them in. Messrs. Gallup and Gallatin fur-
nished the saddles and bridles, and the larger merchants the commissary
stores. In the territorial armory there v/ere sufficient carbines for the
men, which, though long out of date, would answer for the emergency.
Mr. Rufus Clark, then widely known as "Potato Clark" agreed to furnish
the transportation. After straggling about in the dark for some time
the horses were corraled, the saddles and bridles fitted to them as
rapidly as possible, and at three o clock in the morning Major Downing
moved out of the city in the direction of the Bijou. M. H. Slater had
been chosen First Lieutenant and George Bancroft Second Lieutenant.
Though the command failed to discover or punish the Indians, its pres-
ence relieved the settlers from present apprehension, and that was about
the extent of it.
Meanwhile General Sheridan had telegraphed me to call on Forts
Reynolds, Hays or Wallace for troops, but it was found that neither
post could furnish them. I asked General Sherman for one thousand
rifles with accoutrements and munitions, and he ordered them sent from
Fort Leavenworth. As it would take about thirty days to get them
here, and the necessity for immediate action being urgent, I called for
volunteers to carry a message to the officer in command at Fort Wallace,
that being the only post on the frontier from which assistance could be
hoped for, Theron W. Johnson and a companion whose name I have
forgotten, were selected for this rather perilous enterprise. They were
compelled to run the oauntlet of the Indians on the border, and orreat
460 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
courage, tempered by wise judgment, was required to render the mission
successful. Mounted on swift horses they left Denver at night, and
while in the Indian country secreted themselves by day, traveling only in
the dark hours. They reached Fort Wallace in due time and delivered
my dispatches to the officer in charge. It was found that he was nearly
or quite as helpless as the commandants at Reynolds and Hays. At
length Col. George A. Forsythe, who was present, said he had about
fifty scouts, with which force, though small, he thought he could pene-
trate the lines and get through to the Colorado border. Receiving per-
mission from Colonel Bankhead, he moved out of the post, proceeding
in the direction of the Republican River. Capt. Graham with about
the same number left almost simultaneously for Kiowa and the head
of the Beaver, the two commands arranging to unite in the Bijou and
co-operate with such forces as I might have in the field. Graham
encountered a large force of Indians, who captured some of his horses.
Forsythe left Fort Wallace on the loth of September with forty-seven
men, carrying ten days' rations, and headed north, following the Indian
trail. While encamped on the Arickaree branch of the Republican a
small band of Indians made a sudden rush for his horses, but were
driven off to the main body, about seven hundred strong, near at hand.
The whole mass of savages then attacked Forsythe, who, finding himself
about to be overpowered, retreated to a small island in the Arickaree,
where the Jndians immediately surrounded him. The devoted little
band dug rifle pits, from which they met and repelled a number of
furious charges, but the Indians succeeded in killing all their animals,
and finding they could not dislodge the soldiers, laid siege to their
defenses.
While encouraging and directing his men, Forsythe was severely
wounded, and soon after his lieutenant, Beecher, was killed. The
surgeon. Dr. Mooers, while dressing Forsythe's wound, was himself shot
and mortally wounded. Twenty-one out of the forty-seven scouts were
killed, yet the survivors continued the fight, resolved to perish to the
last man rather than surrender. Thus they fought off their assailants
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 461
for three days, when the Indians began to withdraw. Meanwhile, two
intrepid volunteers crawled by night through the lines of the besiegers
and made their way to Fort Wallace, whence Col. Bankhead proceeded
with such men as he could muster to Forsythe's relief. Sheridan
telegraphed me of the ordered movements of several columns of troops
which had been hastily organized and pushed to the scene of disturbance.
Fifteen companies were then marching toward the Colorado border.
General Sully's command was still south of the Arkansas, but he had
met the Indians, killed seventeen, and wounded a large number. His
dispatch concluded in these words: "I am exceedingly sorry to have
been unable to relieve the distress on your frontier, but the fact of the
case is I have my hands full."
In Larimer county, on the 24th of August, a small band stam-
peded the herd of Mr. John Brush, driving off all the horses, twenty-
four in number, and killing four head of cattle. Some of them dashed
upon William Brush and two of his men, killing all of them. Each
was shot three times, and, In addition, tomahawked and scalped.
Horses were stolen from other residents In the neighborhood. About
dusk on the 27th a party of sixty-four settlers, under the lead of Mr.
D. B. Bailey, started In pursuit of the marauders, coming up with
them at sunrise on the morning of the 28th within ten miles of a small
settlement called Latham. The Indians discovering them, hastily
mounted and began circling around them after their usual form of
attack, but were soon driven ofi, retreating toward the Kiowa.
On the 4th of September the Governor and the Colfax party
returned from the mountains, under the escort of a band of Ute
"Indians. The next day a council was held In the Secretary's office,
where the Indian outbreak was fully canvassed. Mr. Colfax was
asked to lend his powerful Influence toward securing military aid,
whereupon he telegraphed General Schofield, Secretary of War, an
epitome of the condition of affairs on this frontier and requested him
to send a strong force of cavalry with orders to use It for the pro-
tection of isolated settlers. Copies were sent to Sherman and Sher-
462 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
idan, but the latter had already ordered such troops as were immedi-
ately available to the points most seriously endangered. In due time
peace was restored by driving the Indians out of the country, and
keeping up the pursuit until they could fight no longer, ending with
Custer's terrible decimation of the Cheyennes under Black Kettle on
the Washita.
On the 29th of October Capt. D. I. Eziekel of the Thirty-eighth
U. S. infantry, and Lieut. Whitten of the Fifth infantry, arrived in
Denver with a train of guns and ammunition which had been sent by
order of General Schofield, for use in arming the citizens. They had
nineteen wagons and a guard of thirty men.
As a fitting close to this chapter, the following brief resume of
General Sheridan's report of Custer's attack, which wound up the
power of the Cheyennes, is given, since it is really the sequel to the
battle of Sand Creek and the events just narrated. He says, "On the
23d of November, 1868, I ordered Custer to proceed with eleven com-
panies of his regiment, the Seventh cavalry, in a southerly direction
toward Antelope Hills, in search of hostile Indians. On the 26th he
struck the trail of a war party of Black Kettle's band returning from
the north, near where the eastern line of the Panhandle of Texas
crosses the main Canadian. He at once corraled his wagons and
followed in pursuit over to the head waters of the Washita, and thence
down that stream, and on the morning of the 27th surprised the camp
of Black Kettle, and, after a desperate fight, in which Black Kettle
was assisted by the Arapahoes under Little Raven, and the Kiowas
under Satanta, captured the entire camp, killing the chief. Black
Kettle, and one hundred and two warriors whose bodies were left on
the field. All their stock, ammunition, arms, lodges, robes and fifty-
three women and children were taken. Our loss was Major Elliott,
Capt. Hamilton, and nineteen enlisted men killed, and three ofiicers
and eleven enlisted men wounded. Little Raven's band of Arapahoes
and Satanta's band of Kiowas were encamped six miles below Black
Kettle's camp.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 463
" The highest credit is due to Gen. Custer and his command.
They started in a furious snow storm and traveled all the while in snow
about twelve inches deep. The families of Black Kettle and Little
Raven were among the prisoners. If we can get one or two more
good blows there will be no more Indian troubles in my department.
One white woman and a boy ten years old were brutally murdered
by the Indians when the attack commenced."
464 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XXVII
186S-1871 ARRIVAL OF ROSCOE CONKLING, PROFESSOR AGASSIZ, SECRETARY WM. H.
SEWARD, GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD, AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED MEN AGASSIZ'S
OPINION OF COLORADO RESIGNATION OF SENATORS EVANS AND CHAFFEE GAS
WORKS ESTABLISHED ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRADE PROGRESS
OF THE COLORADO CENTRAL — ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH SMELTING WORKS — GOV-
ERNOR HUNT SUPERSEDED BY GEN. m'cOOK HAYDEN's GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
THE ROBBING OF ORSON BROOKS PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE OUTLAWS
FRANKLIN KILLED, DOUGAN LYNCHED A GHASTLY SPECTER BY MOONLIGHT
THE LYNCHING OF MUSGROVE BY DENVER VIGILANTES DEVELOPMENT OF BOULDER,
CLEAR CREEK, PUEBLO AND CANON CITY FOUNDING OF IRON WORKS THE
AUTHOR DINES WITH ANSON RUDD PIONEER COURTS DEALINGS WITH THIEVES
AUNT CLARA BROWN CHRISTENING THE GARDEN OF THE GODS TRADITIONS
OF MANITOU.
On the 6th of September, 1868, Honorables Roscoe Conkling and
Samuel Hooper, a member of Congress from Boston, Professor Louis
Acrassiz of Cambridge, General W. B. Hazen and Gen. Wm. T. Palmer,
escorted by General Sherman and staff with a detachment of troops,
arrived In Denver and were quartered at the Planter's House. The
eminent geologist, Prof. Agassiz, visited the mountains, proceeding
along the valley of Clear Creek, and was reported to have said that he
found this region to be one of the most interesting geological studies
that he had ever witnessed, and that as soon as his present labors were
concluded, he intended to revisit Colorado and make an extended exam-
ination of the plains and mountains. Unhappily for us and for science,
his life was terminated before the labors in which he had long been
engaged were concluded.
On the 25th of the same month, Senators elect Evans and Chaffee
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 465
published a card, resigning their positions under the State organization
to enable the people to take up the main question free from all personal
considerations. The bill to admit the State of Colorado under certain
conditions, was then pending before Congress. If the people should
express a desire for the State in unmistakable terms, the bill would
probably become a law at the next ensuing session. They pledged
themselves to co-operate with the people in any way that might be
deemed expedient. As no action was taken, the matter rested without
further agitation for a term of seven years.
Col. Heine, who accompanied Commissioner Whitney from the
Paris Exposition as previously mentioned, returned here in the fall of
1868, and having secured the promise of a considerable amount of
French capital for Investment, about the middle of October, having
applied for a charter from the city, declared his readiness to Invest one
hundred thousand dollars In the manufacture of Illuminating gas for
Denver, and to lay five miles of pipe within six months from the time
the charter should be accorded him. A meeting of citizens was called
on the 19th of October, at which the Colonel stated that he had abun-
dant capital with which to proceed, and desired to know how much gas
would be required to accommodate the city. When this should be
ascertained, he would go East and purchase the requisite machinery. A
committee was appointed by the meeting to collect the essential data.
Heine secured a charter to build a tramway to the Erie coal fields, and
purchased a site for his gas works, coal yards, etc., but the whole enter-
prise failed. The party from whom he expected to procure the funds
disappointed him by investing them In Union Pacific securities.
November ist, 1869, Colonel James Archer submitted a propo-
sition for the erection of gas works, and meeting with suitable encour-
agement organized his company on the 13th following, with whom
the city council entered into a contract for lighting the city, Archer
agreeing to have the plant ready and pipes distributed by January ist,
1 87 1, and fixing the maximum price to consumers at five dollars per
thousand feet.
30
466 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The foundations of this enterprise were begun on the 3d, and pipe
laying in the streets on the 20th of September, 1870, the mains aggre-
gating a mile and three-quarters in length. Though the buildings were
completed and all appliances put in order about the close of that year,
owing to some mishaps and the difficulty of manufacturing gas from the
rather inferior coals first used, the promised illumination did not occur
until the beginning of February, 1871.
The first annual meeting of the Board of Trade was held January
14th, 1869, when William M. Clayton was made President, W. S. Chees-
man and D. J. Martin respectively first and second Vice-Presidents, R.
W. Woodbury Secretary, and Frank Palmer Treasurer. John W.
Smith, F. M. Case, George W. Kassler, Daniel Witter, George Tritch,
William N. Byers, F. Z. Salomon, and J. S. Brown were chosen directors
for the ensuing year. By this time the efficiency of this organization
had become thoroughly established, and its influence upon the chief
purpose for the attainment of which its members were associated, very
potential. But its good offices were not confined wholly to the advance-
ment of the Denver Pacific enterprise. It extended to matters pertain-
ing to good municipal government, and the orderly conduct of public
affairs in every department.
At the annual meeting of the Colorado Central & Pacific railroad
company held on the nth of January, 1869, Messrs. John Duff, J. G.
Tappan, T. J. Carter, J. B. Taft, A. Lambert, and F. G. Dexter of the
Union Pacific, and Henry M. Teller, Truman Whitcomb and E. K.
Baxter of Gilpin County, John Turk of Clear Creek, and W. A. H.
Loveland of Jefferson County, were elected directors.
Mr. Carter made a report of the material progress attained during
the previous year. In July, 1868, contracts had been made for the grad-
ing and masonry upon six miles of the most difficult part of the line,
which had been completed. In November the other portions of the line
were put under contract, and would be completed early the next season.
The county of Jefferson, had voted one hundred thousand dollars in
bonds, the cash proceeds of which had been applied to the construction.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 467
Thus far the company had expended eighty-six thousand six hundred
and sixty-five dollars.
In February, 1869, John W. Smith proposed to secure a charter for
the Denver Smelting & Refining Works, — to be established with a
capital of fifty thousand dollars, and to deed the company certain prop-
erty in West Denver upon certain conditions, which it is only neces-
sary to say were never complied with. Some time afterward, Charles
Hallack and associates instituted a new scheme to the same end, but,
like its predecessor, it came to naught.
On the 15th of April in the same year, Governor Hunt, who had
devoted the greater part of his brief administration to the peaceful set-
tlement of all issues between the government, the people and the Ute
Indians, and which, had he been permitted to continue would have
resulted in lasting benefit, was suddenly removed, and General Edward
M. McCook appointed his successor. Congress had been induced to
make liberal appropriations for settling the Utes upon the new reserva-
tions set apart for them, providing them with horses and cattle ; sawmills
whereby comfortable dwellings might be built for them, with barns and
sheds for their stock, and with the better implements of modern agri-
culture. The greater part, if not the entire project, had been planned by
Hunt. Being assured of the passage of the appropriations, and that
his position as Governor would not be disturbed, he had gone to Chi-
cao^o, and when the intellig^ence of his removal reached him, was en-
gaged in contracting for the machinery and implements provided for in
the bill. Mr. Hall had been reappointed by President Grant very soon
after the new administration took control. McCook came first to Col-
orado in 1859, ^"^ engaged in the practice of law. In the fall of i860
he was elected to the Kansas legislature, and from there entered the
army soon after the outbreak of the Rebellion, where by gallant service
he rose to the brevet rank of Major General. At the close of the war
he was appointed minister resident at Honolulu in the Sandwich Islands.
In the fall of 1868, tiring of the distinguished (?) honor, he resigned,
and returning to Washin<'ton beiran to look about for a more desirable
468 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
place. Strongl)- inclined to return to Colorado, but not as a private
citizen, he investigated Mr. Hunt's tenure, and finding it vulnerable
brought every influence to bear upon President Grant for the place.
While favorably impressed with Governor Hunt, and unwilling to super-
sede him, the President was nevertheless induced to yield to an old
comrade in arms, and so made the change.
The statement that General McCook was stimulated to extraor-
dinary effort in this case by the appropriations to be expended under the
superintendency of Indian affairs in this department, is fully justified
by the facts. He saw an opportunity to exercise great influence, and
probably for the acquisition of material advantages through the large
sum of money that would be placed at his disposal. He arrived in
Denver on the iithof June. After a short conference in my ofiice,
we drove out to call upon ex-Governor Hunt who had gone into retire-
ment, deeply wounded by his summary and wholly unwarranted official
decapitation. A friendly consultation was held in which it was arranged
that as Hunt had virtually secured the appropriations, he would be per-
mitted to carry out his plan for their expenditure under the direction of
the Governor-elect. In this, as will appear at the proper time, he was
the victim of still deeper treachery.
On the 17th of June, Secretary William H. Seward with a party of
friends comprising his son Frederick and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. L.
Wilson of the "Chicago Evening Journal," Mrs. Farrar, mother of Mrs.
Wilson, Abijah Fitch of Auburn, New York, and Colonel Emory of
the Ninth U. S. Infantry, arrived in Denver. A reception occurred at
the American House the same evening. On the iSth they took car-
riages for Central City and Idaho Springs, and were accompanied by
Governor McCook and myself. After a short stay in this region the
party returned to the East.
Early in July, Dr. F. V. Hayden, chief of the U. S. Geological
survey, arrived with his corps of assistants for the purpose of making a
preliminary examination of the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains
from Cheyenne to Santa Fe, giving careful attention to the mineral
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 469
and coal resources. He devoted a part of the season to investiga-
tions along the line of the Union Pacific railroad, collecting several
tons of specimens of coal, fossils, samples of rock, minerals and ores.
The result of his examination of the Marshall coal mine near Boulder,
with analysis of the product, appeared in his report published in 1876.
Accompanied by ex-Governor Gilpin, he visited the San Luis Park. He
inspected with infinite care and zeal the mining regions about Central.
Black Hawk and Georgetown. His report exerted much influence
toward strengthening the faith of our people in the resources of the
country, and especially in the permanency of the mines.
On the 15th of July General J. M. Schofield and staff arrived, and
following the general course of tourists, made the pilgrimage of the
mountains.
November 20th, 1868, Mr. Orson Brooks, a venerable and highly
respected citizen, while en route to his home in the suburbs just after
dark, was attacked by footpads in the then unlighted and lonely quarter
near the corner of Sixteenth and Lawrence streets, "held up" and robbed
of about one hundred and twenty-five dollars. This bold assault fol-
lowing upon two or three others of like nature, aroused the police under
City Marshal D. J. Cook to vigorous pursuit of the nocturnal outlaws.
With U. S. Deputy Marshal Haskell, he discovered the trail and quickly
followed the robbers to Golden City, where they were discovered to be
two old and notorious criminals, Ed Franklin and Sam Dougan, who,
after a rapid career in this region had emigrated to, and for some time
were engaged in nefarious operations in the different towns on the
Pacific railroad west of Cheyenne. Having been driven out of Laramie
by threats of lynching, they reappeared in their old haunts, and being-
destitute of funds attacked Mr. Brooks with the result stated, leaving at
once for Golden City in the hope of escaping the ofticers of the law.
Cook and his assistant followed. On their arrival it was found that
Dougan and Franklin had spent the intervening time in drinking and
rioting, and that the latter, being thoroughly stupefied by frequent pota-
tions, had retired to bed in the Overland house. But they found Dougan
470 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
in a saloon, who, as soon as he recognized the officers, cursed and
defied them, and at the same time fired at them with his revolver.
They immediately returned the fire, when he fled through a back door
and escaped in the darkness. In the melee the barkeeper was shot and
severely wounded. Dougan having eluded his search, Cook next turned
his attention to securing Franklin, dead or alive, as the circumstances
should warrant. Proceeding to his room, Cook with a cocked revolver
in his hand, awakened the sleeper. FVanklin realizing the danger,
sprang instantly for his revolver, resisting all attempts at capture. Cook
knowing the desperate character of the man, and that extreme meas-
ures would be justified, fired and killed him. The body, encased in a
rough box, was brought to Denver and buried.
Dougan was followed the next day, and finally captured at a point
betv/een Greeley and Cheyenne, brought back and lodged in jail.
Shortly afterward a temporary vigilance committee was organized.
Cook deeming the Larimer street prison insecure, on the evening of
December ist concluded to remove Dougan to the city calaboose in
West Denver, which was a much stronger building, and from which
his desperate prisoner would be less liable to escape. Some of the
vigilantes discovering his purpose, secreted themselves beneath the
Larimer street bridge, and when Cook appeared with Dougan, they
forcibly seized the prisoner, taking him to a cottonwood tree on Cherry
street between Fourth and Fifth, where preparations for execution
were speedily made. Having adjusted the noose about his neck, the
prisoner was given a chance to speak or pray as he chose, but he
was ordered to be quick about it. Unaccustomed to prayer, he
spent the time in confession and pitiful appeals for mercy. He
acknowledged having killed a man named Curtis, a quartz hauler in
Black Hawk, in January, 1865, a fact well known to most of his
executioners, but denied several other murders imputed to him. As
to the robbery of Mr. Brooks, he first denied all participation in that
offense, but subsequently admitted it. He had been a pretty tough
citizen, but did not deserve such a death as was about to be visited
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 471
upon him. The crowd about him becoming impatient, ordered the
waeon in which he stood drawn from under him, when the soul of
Sam Dougan, the outlaw, sped to its Maker. He was only twenty-
three years of age ; had been a teamster in Black Hawk and Central
for some time. After the killing of Curtis he was confined in the
jail at Central, but the law^s long delay in bringing him to trial at
length opened the way for his escape, when he went to Laramie City,
Wyoming, only to fall in with associates more evil minded than
himself.
The body remained where the vigilantes left it, swinging in the
moonlight, and casting its ghastly shadow upon the ground through
the night and until lo o'clock next morning, when it was cut down and
buried. Then the residents of the neighborhood, to prevent the
enactment of further scenes of like revolting nature, brought out their
axes and removed the tree.
Some time prior to the events mentioned, a notorious desperado
and stock thief named Musgrove, after long pursuit had been captured
and lodged in the Larimer street prison. The day after the exe-
cution of Dougan, a vigilance committee formed on Blake or Holladay
street, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and in orderly procession
marched to the prison and demanded the person of Musgrove.
When the door opened to admit the leaders, the prisoner suspecting
their purpose, seized a billet of wood and stood at bay, defying them
to take him. Revolvers were drawn and several shots fired at him,
but owing to the excitement, none took effect. After a sharp struggle
he was overpowered and taken to the Larimer street bridge over
Cherry creek, where preparations had been made for the lynching.
Realizing his doom, he resolved to meet it bravely. His request to
be permitted to write a hasty note to a friend was granted. The
message, written in pencil on the railing, was soon finished, when he
was put into a wagon and driven into the bed of the creek under the
bridge, from one of the floor timbers of which dangled a noosed rope.
Here he was bound, hands and feet, and the noose adjusted about his
472 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
neck, when the order was given to drive the wagon from under him.
To make death certain and immediate, Musgrove sprang into the air,
and when he fell his neck was dislocated, and his death comparatively-
painless.
The leader of the vigilantes then addressed the assemblage
briefly, saying there were a dozen or more other ruffians in the town,
some of whom were well known to the committee. They were thereby
warned to absent themselves within twenty-four hours, or the penalty
just witnessed would be visited upon them also.
"Musgrove was an outlaw," says the " News" of that date, "who
had made society his prey for several years, successively defying by
boldness, when he could not outwit by cunning, the officers of justice.
He was driven as a bandit from California, Nevada and Utah, and first
appeared in Colorado in the role of a murderer at Fort Halleck in
1863. For this he was arrested and sent to Denver, where he was
discharged by the United States commissioner for want of jurisdiction.
Taking up his residence on Clear Creek at Baker's bridge, he soon
became the recognized chief of a band of land pirates, who lived by
running off government stock, effacing the brands and then disposing
of it. His retreat^ when pressed too closely by officers of the law, was
at the head of the Cache la Poudre, in an almost inaccessible natural
rock fortress. Here Officer Haskell, unarmed and unattended, was
allowed to visit him.
" The charge which exasperated the people was that of his having
been the leader of one of the bands of Indians which ravaged our
settlements last fall. As he was taken from the jail he said, ' I sup-
pose you are going to hang me because I've been an Indian chief.'
Deprecate the course as we will the fact remains, that the people re-
sorted to violence because the criminal laws did not afford the pro-
tection which the people had a right to demand of them."
While the better sentiment of the community abhorred the dread-
ful spectacles, it is true nevertheless, that the summary execution of
justice in the two cases described had a salutary and enduring effect.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 473
The desperate class, warned by the example made of their comrades
disappeared, and there was no more orderly community on the frontier
than Denver for the succeeding two years. We admit the appalling
nature of such transactions, but in the cases noted they were in some
degree warranted by the reasons stated. Men argued then, and they
are contending to-day all over the land with acknowledged force, that
the method of practice in the criminal courts, obstructs rather than
advances the cause of justice, shields rather than punishes offenders
who possess the means to purchase immunity, and too frequently turns
them loose to work their further will upon the citizens whom they have
already too far outraged. They feel that a large proportion of the
taxes paid are for the enforcement of laws which are not enforced, or
if executed at all, upon a class which can make only feeble resistance.
Argue as we may for the preservation of law and order, many of us
realize but too keenly that the law is less potential in the maintenance
of order than the loyalty of the citizen who abhors disorder. In the
early times as they are called, the people endured many atrocities with
reasonable patience, but when some especially heinous assault was
made upon their rights, their wrath exceeded all bounds and instantly
rendered a judgment from which there was neither escape nor appeal.
There is not an instance upon our records where an innocent person,
nor one whose guilt was not clearly established, suffered injury at their
hands.
Let us now take a retrospective view of the developments in other
quarters of the Territory where fixed settlements were made and main-
tained, and which to-day comprise the chief centers of population and
permanent industry. It may be stated in this connection however, that
outside of Denver — which by reason of its position as the chief trading
post, the recognized seat of government, and the political influence
concentrated here, acquired a prominence not equaled by any other
point, and was approached only by Central City during the period of
its greatest renown, — progress was in no case continuous, though many
enjoyed spasmodic outbursts in which feverish excitement prevailed for
47i HISTORY OF COLORADO.
a year or so, when all things were reduced to the common level of
legitimate industry and commerce. To make the point aimed at more
clear, there were towns to which many thousands rushed in a frantic
impulse to gather the first fruits of what promised to be an abundant
harvest, whose resources were only sufficient to maintain a few hun-
dreds. The overplus being merely speculative was compelled to emi-
grate. It is but a repetition of the history of mining countries the world
over, and is too well understood to need further explanation.
In the agricultural sections the settlers struggled with new and
adverse conditions, first to gain a substantial foothold, and then to
maintain it. Except upon narrow strips of rich bottom land, bordering
the streams, little could be accomplished without irrigation, and this,
to begin with, was not understood ; and secondly involved the expen-
diture of capital which the pioneers did not possess. In Boulder
County where the settlers were divided between mining and agriculture,
and mutually dependent upon each other, the experiment of husbandry
developed early. The miners needed vegetables, and the farmer the
gold taken from the hills. Neither class knew how to meet the prob-
lems which confronted it after the experimental stage had been passed,
and so both groped on in comparative darkness, until by steady perse-
verance in well doing the problem reached its solution.
The abundant yields of the placer mines, especially in Gold Run,
Gambell's Gulch and a few other points, together with gains derived
from the outcroppings of several noted lodes or quartz veins, lent a
powerful stimulus to the infant colony established at the base of the
mountains. The site was beautiful, the surrounding country both rich
and inviting. In addition, much of it was underlaid with coal, from
which Denver drew a part of its supply. Prof. F. V. Hayden said of
them in his first report : "Nowhere in the world is there such a vast
development of the recent coal measures, and in few places is their
existence more necessary to the advancement and improvement of the
region in which they occur." Amos Bixby informs us that three
brothers named Wellman were the first in that county, if not the first
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 475
in Colorado to plow land, plant seed and sow wheat. They possessed
a claim, or ranch, of excellent land on Boulder Creek two and a half
miles from the base of the mountains.
The town was organized February loth, 1859. There were fifty
shareholders in the company, and the site embraced twelve hundred and
forty acres. These pioneers, like their contemporaries of Auraria,
expected to build a great city, and therefore gave it room to spread.
During the first year about seventy log houses were built. The first
schoolhouse in the Territory had its birthplace among these thrifty
people. Lumber mills there were none until i860, when Mr. A. J.
Mackey secured boards enough from one located in the mountains to
build quite a pretentious residence for his family.
In i860 Messrs. Fraser & Scoville established a foundry and
machine shop on half a block of ground which had been presented to
them by A. C. Hunt, on the west side of Larimer street, Denver, near
the present terminus of the street car track, and manufactured the
various kinds of ironwork required in those days. In December of that
year the works were purchased by Joseph M. Marshall. The raw
material for castings was obtained by breaking up and melting useless
machinery brought here for various purposes, to which it was either not
adapted, or for which there was no demand. In August, 1861, Mr.
Marshall began exploring the coal fields of Erie, Boulder County, for
fire clay, finding the best connected with the immense coal outcrop of
what is now the Marshall mine. While digging for clay he discovered
an excellent quality of brown hematite iron ore. Samples were brought
to Denver with the fire clay, and tested in a blacksmith's forge. The
results being highly favorable, in 1863 a small experimental cold blast
furnace was built near the Marshall mine, in which when completed, a
very thorough test of the iron ores thereabouts was made. The furnace
did not operate satisfactorily ; the hearths melted, and the concern
collapsed. In 1865 it was reconstructed with hearths calculated to
endure the heat. During the succeeding three months it produced
about two hundred tons of fine pig iron, and here the experiment ended.
476 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
There were very few historic incidents in the period between 1859
and 1870. Indeed, the greater part of the history of the Territory, and
of the State, except such as we have related, Hes in the last half of the
second and in the third decades of time, and our chief purpose in
reviewing the exterior fields at this stage is to preserve the record of
such shreds of information as were developed, whereby we shall be
enabled in the second volume to exhibit the marvelous contrast
effected by the new epochs then to be considered.
Rev. Jacob Adriance, one of the advance missionaries of Denver,
extended his good offices to Boulder in i860. The Congregationalists
erected the first church in 1866, but it was not dedicated until July,
1870. The other denominations worshiped wherever they could find
audience room, now in the schoolhouse, again in the court rooms, and
frequently in private residences.
The town of Pueblo was formally organized in the winter of
1859-60, the county in 1862. The latter included all the territory now
embraced in its own, and the adjoining counties of Bent, Huerfano,
and Las Animas, in area sufficient for an independent State. The first
house in the town was erected by Mr. Jack Wright. From Stevenson's
sketch we find that the first board of county commissioners consisted
of O. H. P. Baxter, R. L. Wootton, and William Chapman ; County
Clerk, Stephen Smith ; Sheriff, Henry Way. The first term of court
was held by Hon. A. A. Bradford, subsequently appointed to the
Supreme bench, and twice elected delegate to Congress. Prior to 1862
Pueblo occupied a rather lonely position. Its population was small,
there was no regular communication by mail or otherwise with other
settlements, and the original settlers had much difficulty in maintaining
the position they had taken. In 1862 matters began to improve. A
weekly mail was established, and J . A. Thatcher, a resident of Denver,
went down there with a considerable stock of assorted merchandise
adapted to the wants of the people, where, the venture proving quite
profitable, his brother, M. D. Thatcher, joined him. Through close
attention to business, both in process of years became very wealthy.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 477
The "Colorado Chieftain " was established in 1868 by Dr. M.
Beshoar (now of Trinidad), Wilbur F. Stone (afterward associate
justice of the Supreme Court of the State, at this writing judge of the
Criminal Court of Arapahoe County), and George A. Hinsdale, two of
the ablest writers in the Territory, being its editors.
The first church in Pueblo was built in 1868 by the Episcopalians,
and dedicated as St. Peter's church. They were followed by the
Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics in the order named.
In 1869 Thatcher Bros., Rettberg & Bartels, Berry Brothers,
James Rice (now in his second term as Secretary of State), D. G.
Peabody, and the Cooper Brothers were the principal merchants.
Judge Moses Hallett (now U. S. District Judge) presided over the
territorial court. The bar comprised A. A. Bradford, George A.
Hinsdale, Wilbur F. Stone, H. C. Thatcher (afterward Chief-Justice of
the State Supreme Court), James McDonald, J. W. Henry, and George
Q. Richmond. Pueblo became an incorporated town in 1870. Its
development into a large and flourishing city dates from the advent
of the Denver & Rio Grande railway in 1872, of which a full account
will be oriven hereafter.
Canon City. In a preceding chapter the opening scenes in the set-
tlement of this now well established town were described. In the spring
of i860 the site was relocated and extended to embrace twelve hundred
and eighty acres, the survey being made by Buell & Boyd of Denver,
who also located the town site of Pueblo. Only a few cabins were built.
Being on the natural highway to the mines of the Upper Arkansas and
the South Park, it became a point of some prominence. One of the
earliest land claims or farms, was taken up by Mr. Jesse Frazer, now a
noted fruit grower of the State — in April, i860, Mrs. Frazer, his
spouse, being the first white woman who settled in the county outside of
Canon City. "From April, i860, to September following," says Rocka-
fellow, "there were neither civil nor criminal laws in the region. In Sep-
tember, a meeting of citizens was held, and a code of laws drafted for
temporary use. W. R. Fowler, one of the prominent residents of the
478 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
present era, was chosen to administer them. He was thus made the
head of a popular tribunal, modeled after those which were so success-
fully operated in Gilpin and other mining districts in primitive times."
When winter closed the mines, the crowds of sturdy gold diggers
emigrated to the genial climate of Canon, and being somewhat boister-
ous at times, Magistrate Fowler was given frequent occasion to exercise
the functions of his autocratic position. During 1 860-61, many houses
were built to accommodate the constant accessions, among them several
rather pretentious structures of cut stone, which gave the place a more
substantial appearance than even Denver exhibited until after 1864.
In the latter year, being one of the party of citizens of Park county
who went in pursuit of the Reynolds band of robbers, I had abundant
opportunity to witness the grand preparations that had been made in
previous years to make Canon an important emporium of commerce.
At the time mentioned it had been abandoned by all but Anson Rudd
and family, who, having set their stakes for a permanent homestead and
possessing unfaltering confidence in the final outcome, stood resolutely
by it. Having been chasing over the mountains for several weeks —
tired, sun-burned, dusty, and otherwise transformed from my accustomed
appearance and habits as a town dweller, an invitation from Mr. and
Mrs. Rudd to dine with them was gratefully accepted. The recollection
of the quiet comfort, the generous hospitality, the spotless cleanliness,
and exact order prevailing everywhere about the premises, and withal,
the marvelous contrast to the life I had been leading for the preceding
month in the camps of the park and mountains, left impressions which
have been cherished as delightful memories through all the intervening
years. Happily both of these estimable people have lived to witness and
enjoy the fruition of their hopes. It required courage and faith such as
only few possessed to cling to the spot when all their neighbors and
friends had fled, and they are richly entitled to greater rewards than the
unfolding years have brought them.
At one time, between i860 and 1862, nearly a thousand people,
mostly from the mountain districts had congregated there, and it was
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 479
found necessary to frame a new code of laws and meet the inflow of dis-
order by more stringent regulations. Thereupon, Messrs. Stone and
Hinsdale, the eminent pioneer lawyers, formulated a series of statutes
covering all essential points. According to Magistrate Fowler, they
"conferred upon the court criminal and civil jurisdiction, while the court
arrogated to itself chancery and all other powers not delegated by the
code." In fact it was supreme, no provision being made for an appeal
from its decisions.
Clear Creek County. The deposits on Jackson's bar were neither
extraordinarily rich nor very extensive, therefore were soon worked out.
Then succeeded discoveries below the site of Idaho on Illinois Bar and
Grass Valley flats ; on Soda Hill, Payne's and Spanish Bars, extending
up to Fall River, and, at intervals, to Empire and Georgetown. By the
spring of 1862 most of the mines had been closed and were carried on,
if at all, in a desultory manner without profit. The people migrated.
The only town of any consequence, and this only a straggling settlement
of cabins, was Idaho, whose growth was subsequently enforced through
the fame of its mineral springs. Here F. W. Beebee built a cabin
larger than those of his neighbors, and opened a hotel.
The discovery of silver, a metal which had not been sought and
very little of which had been mined, as none knew how to treat the
ores, was first brought into prominence by the opening of the Whale
lode on the lower end of Spanish Bar, in 1861, by Dr. and Roland
Carleton. The vein was very large and extremely promising. The
quartz was taken to a stamp mill below Idaho. As the amalgam
rolled up in great ridges upon the plates, it became a source of won-
der that material could be so rich in gold, but the astonishment gave
way to something like dejection when the mass was retorted and found
to be a white metal new to the experience of the period. Neverthe-
less there was sufficient gold to slightly color the silver and it went to
the bankers for judgment and sale, by whom material reductions were
made in the usual price for gold bullion. But it was not until several
lots had been disposed of that the true value of the " Whale Gold,"
4S0 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
as it was termed, was ascertained by assay, after which the further
development of this famous property was suspended.
The beginning of the great inpouring which created a large and
extremely brisk settlement at the head of South Clear Creek occurred
in the autumn of 1S65. In September of the previous year ex-Provis-
ional Governor Steele, James Huff and Robert Layton, while prospect-
ing on the eastern slope of McClellan Mountain, discovered a vein of
mineral — afterward christened the "Belmont." Specimens taken to Cen-
tral City for assay, were found to be remarkably rich in silver. A com-
pany was formed to work the mine and some great results were obtained.
The locality of this great strike was about eight miles from Georgetown.
Reports of this and other discoveries spread with the usual rapidity, and
various colors of exaggeration to the uttermost parts, bringing a multi-
tude. As the discoveries multiplied through the industry of the groups
scattered over all the slopes of the region, the excitement increased.
The Georgetown Silver Smelting Co., John T. Herrick, Manager, estab-
lished in 1867, a few rudely constructed furnaces at a cost of about
twenty-five thousand dollars, which ran intermittently until 1869. The
value of the bullion produced is given by Cushman at fifty-five
thousand dollars. Various appliances for concentrating, reducing and
extracting, followed, as in Gilpin County, each endeavoring to enforce
a greater yield of the precious metal, than its competitor, and at less
cost. Only a few were successful. After a brief spurt of wonderful
activity, in which the principal mines were sold to investors in Eastern
cities, the customary litigation succeeded in putting a wet blanket upon
all things, and reducing the camp to the last stage of depression. No
material advances were made thereafter until the arrival of the Colo-
rado Central railway some years later, when the bulk of the mining
product found its way to the Boston & Colorado works at Black Hawk.
Spanish Bar, in the year i860, was the center of a numerous
population, nearly all engaged in extracting gold from the alluvial sands
and gravels along the old channels of Clear Creek, A few locations,
or claims were rich, but the majority were unproductive. On one of
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 481
the latter the author took his primary lesson in mining, without other
result than a valuable experience gained. Here, as elsewhere, until
after the territorial organization, justice was administered by people's
courts. At one of these meetings an incident occurred which is worth
repeating, since it is a fair illustration of the primitive methods of
protecting the "honest miner" from the criminal class.
It has been stated that among the early settlers theft was the one
unpardonable sin. A man might do many things out of the lawful
order with perfect impunity, but "thou shalt not steal" was an irrevo-
cable edict. To violate this injunction was to invite swift vengeance.
No miner locked the doors of his cabin, though there might be hun-
dreds or thousands in gold dust within, and wholly unguarded. Every
man was put upon his honor, One day there came to the Bar one of
the roughest characters I have ever beheld, a young man apparently
about twenty years of age, whose appearance and demeanor indicated
long service in several grades of crime. He stole something, exactly
what, is not now recalled. He was instantly pursued, captured, taken
before the court. Judge Turnley presiding, George Griffith, from whom
Georgetown was named, acting as clerk, and duly arraigned before a
jury of six, for trial. When the court asked his name, he answered,
" It's none of your d — d business what my name is. If you must have
a name, call me Brown, Jones or Robinson, anything, it matters not to
me." His face was red and freckled, his head covered with a heavy
shock of red, matted hair; his lips were thick and repulsive, and more-
over, discolored by tobacco stains. Throughout the trial his manner
was insolent, reckless and exasperating, as the evidence unfolded the
nature of his offence. The jury retired, and after a brief consultation,
found a verdict of " Guilty," and as it was also a part of their duty to
fix the punishment, it was decided to give him thirty-nine lashes upon
his bared back, to shave one side of his head, and banish him from the
district. This determination having been rendered to the court, it was
accepted and immediate execution of the judgment ordered, with this
31
482 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
addenda: — "If the prisoner ever returns to this bar, the residents
thereof are hereby authorized and empowered to shoot him on sight."
Thereupon the prisoner was taken to a neighboring tree, stripped
to the waist, his hands bound together with a strong cord, and
stretched up until his toes barely touched the ground, when the juror,
a man named Davis, who had been appointed to do the thrashing, pro-
duced a large and long black-snake whip. Standing at a distance
which would enable him to strike cutting blows with the cracker end
of the lash, he proceeded to his duty of laying on the ordered thirty-
nine. When the blows began to fall thick and fast, the bravado which
until then had been maintained, began to express itself in piteous
appeals for mercy, penitence for his sins, and promises to lead a correct
life in future. But there was no pause. The blows rained upon him
until the full measure had been meted out, when the victim was
unbound, and on his solemn asseveration that he would go and sin no
more, the part of the sentence which required one side of his head to
be shaved bare to the scalp, was suspended. Notwithstanding his
protestations of reform, profiting nothing from the severity of the
lesson he had received, he soon fell into his old habits, and, as we
learned some time afterward, was caught and hanged in one of the
mining camps over the Range.
A day or two later, another thief was caught on Grass Valley Bar,
when he was stretched up and unmercifully thrashed, the flesh of his
back being literally cut to shreds. The reader will at once comprehend
that these salutary admonitions were calculated to produce a happy
effect. At all events, no more robberies were committed in those
regions until after the institution of orthodox courts, which afforded
offenders more avenues of escape.
For a year or two the district of Trail Run, located on a small
stream which debouches into Clear Creek from the southwest, near the
head of Spanish Bar, enjoyed great prosperity. A riot occurred there
in 1863 through the refusal of some of the citizens to submit them-
selves to the forms and processes of the " new fangled courts," which.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 483
from its violence and duration, compelled Governor Evans to send a
troop of cavalry from Denver to suppress the malcontents.
Mines were discovered and small settlements made at Fall River,
along Mill Creek above, and at Downieville, still beyond toward the
Snowy Range. In 1861, near the town of Empire, situated twelve
miles west of Idaho, some brilliant prospects were opened which caused
hundreds of miners to locate there. Large quantities of gold were
sluiced from the decompositions of the quartz veins, for one or more
seasons, when the richer ground being exhausted, the usual hegira took
place,
While dealing with these reminiscences of the early days, it is a
pleasurable duty to include a brief sketch of the career of one whose
excellences of character, her many misfortunes, trials and afflictions,
elicited tender sympathy from every one, for all the people knew and
admired her no less for her sublime Christian zeal and fortitude than for
her patient industry. "Aunt Clara Brown" was the first of her race to
reach the Pike's Peak region. She was born a slave in the Old Dominion
in the year 1800. Her master subsequently removed to Kentucky,
taking with him his goods and chattels, Clara, then nine years old,
among the latter. She was married at the age of eighteen. The fruits
of this union were three daughters and a son. At the death of her
owner in 1835, she and her children were sold to different parties. Aunt
Clara going to Russellville, Kentucky, and the children elsewhere. At
the death of this new master she became the property of still another
purchaser by whom she was manumitted, and in 1859 emigrated with the
o^rand column marchini^: to the Pike's Peak crold re2:ion, maintaininq- her-
self by cooking and washing for the party she had joined. Locating in
Central City, and discovering an opportunity to accumulate funds for
the execution of the great purpose of her life, which was to find and
rescue her children from bondage, she opened a laundry. The hearty
sympathies of the generous miners being enlisted in her cause, every
one befriended her, so that in a few years by incessant toil and the
judicious investment of her earnings, she accumulated a modest fortunv.
484 PIISTORY OF COLORADO.
In 1866 the search began, and was continued unremittnigly until her
relatives and children were found and brought to Colorado. With the
means still remaining she educated her daughters. Unhappily, misfor-
tunes came, and deprived her of everything, and during the last years
of her melancholy life she was aided by the Pioneers' Association, and
at her death was buried by it.
At many periods in the course of the author's life in Colorado, he
has been asked how and when the series of magnificent scenic wonders
called the "Garden of the Gods" received its christening, whether it
antedated the coming of the Pike's Peak emigrants, or was attached
after the location of the Colorado -Springs colony by General R. A.
Cameron and associates. It is believed by many that Fitzhugh Ludlow
is entitled to the honor, but in a letter to a Boston paper written by
Lewis N. Tappan about the year 1870, we find the facts related substan-
tially as follows : Tappan, with three others, left Denver in August,
1859, to select a town site near the base of Pike's Peak. The place
afterward known as Colorado City, was chosen. The location having
been made, the party went out to explore the suburbs ; chased a large
wolf over the town site, and shot an antelope. Proceeding a mile to
the northward they found themselves among the picturesque monuments
and towering rocks, where a panorama of transcendant beauty lay spread
out before them. Standing upon one of the rocky prominences, one of
the party named Cable, after taking in the wondrous prospect, broke the
silence by exclaiming, " Wonderful ! a fit Garden for the Gods !" to
which his companions responded, "Amen ! We will christen it 'The Gar-
den of the Gods.' "
The name has been perpetuated to our time, and will endure with
the ages, because of its appropriateness. The vision embraced within
its scope is one of the loveliest in all the Rocky Mountain region, ex-
citing the reverence of all beholders, and forming an enchanting resort
for the thousands who seek the delicious waters of Manitou during
each recurring summer.
We close the chapter with an extract from Ruxton, the English
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 485
traveler and sportsman who visited what is now Manitou in 1S47, and
in the course of his wanderings jotted down in his notebook the fol-
lowing: "The Indians regard with awe the medicine waters of these
springs, as being the abode of a spirit who breathes through the trans-
parent water, and thus by his exhalations causes the perturbation of its
surface. The Arapahoes especially, attribute to this water god the
power of ordaining the success or miscarriage of their war expeditions ;
and as their braves pass often by the mysterious springs when in search
of their hereditary enemies, the Yutes (Utes) in the valley of Salt
(South Park), they never fail to bestow their votive offering upon the
water sprite in order to propitiate the * Manitou' of the fountain." At
the time of his visit the "basin of the spring was filled with beads, and
wampum, and pieces of red cloth and knives, while the surrounding
trees were hung with strips of deerskin, cloth and moccasins. * *
The 'sign' too around the spring, plainly showed that here a war dance
had been executed by the braves. * ''^ This country was once pos-
sessed by the Shoshone, or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of
the plains are a branch, and although many hundred miles now divide
their hunting grounds, they were once, if not the same people, tribes
of the same grand nation.''
486 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XXVHI.
1870-72 FURTHER HISTORY OF THE DENVER PACIFIC OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS FOR
1870 GOVERNOR EVANS' DONATION TO ARAPAHOE COUNTY DRIVING THE SILVER
SPIKE THE LOCOMOTIVE D. H. MOFFAT GREAT MASONIC DEMONSTRATION — LAYING
THE CORNER STONE OF THE UNION DEPOT BUILDING THE KANSAS PACIFIC —
CONSTANT ANNOYANCE FROM INDIANS THE TOWN OF KIT CARSON — GRADING
FROM DENVER EASTWARD BRISK WORK BY EICHOLTZ AND WEED FINAL COM-
PLETION OF THE ROAD OPENING A NEW ERA OF PROGRESS REAL ESTATE IN
DENVER STATISTICAL DATA FIRST THROUGH PULLMAN CAR FREIGHT TARIFFS
DENVER & BOULDER VALLEY R. R. THE DENVER & RIO GRANDE RAILWAY
ITS FIRST TRAINS UTOPIAN CHARACTER OF THE ENTERPRISE FOUNDING COL-
ORADO SPRINGS AND MANITOU — FITZHUGH LUDLOw's DREAM — DESCRIPTION OF
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS EXTENSION OF THE RIO GRANDE TO PUEBLO RECEP-
TION AND BANQUET EFFECT OF RAILWAY CONNECTION ON THE TOWN.
Continuing the subject of our first railways, with the object of
making the history of these enterprises complete down to the period
embraced in this volume, we find that on the i8th of January, 1870,
the stockholders of the Denver Pacific elected as directors for the
ensuing year, John Evans, John Pierce, Walter S. Cheesman, William
M. Clayton, Frank Palmer, and D. H. Moffat, Jr., of Denver, with
Robert E. Carr, R. H. Lamborn and William J. Palmer, who repre-
sented the Kansas Pacific interest in the company. These directors,
at a meeting held soon afterward, elected John Evans President ; John
Pierce, Vice-President ; R. R. McCormick, Secretary ; D. H. Moffat,
Jr., Treasurer, and Col. L. H. Eicholtz, Chief Engineer. Cyrus W.
Fisher was made Superintendent of the road. The Kansas Pacific
representatives, though in the minority, held, nevertheless, through
arrangements made with it for the completion of the Denver Pacific a
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 487
strong position, the men selected being well calculated by virtue of
their energy and ability to exercise a powerful, if not a controlling
influence, in the direction of its affairs.
Governor Evans, in his report rendered in January, 1870, stated
that the Union Pacific company having failed them, the company of
which he was President issued, as authorized by the act of Congress of
March, 1869, two and a half millions of first mortgage gold bonds,
bearing seven per cent, interest, the lien covering also eight hundred
thousand acres of land granted it by Congress.
Under this arrangement fifty-eight miles of the road was com-
pleted— Cheyenne to Evans — and turned over to the company Decem-
ber 1 6th, 1869. The contract for the balance was perfected in August
of that year. The road had three locomotives, two passenger cars, and
sufficient freight cars to accommodate the then rather limited trafific.
The first division was opened just after the fall trade of the Territory
had been quite fully provided for, yet the gross earnings for the
remaining fourteen days of December amounted to four thousand nine
hundred dollars, yielding a net profit over operating expenses of two
thousand five hundred and ninety-nine dollars and eighty-four cents.
In an address to the Board of Trade, his active and influential
coadjutor, early in April, 1870, the Governor, after reviewing the gen-
eral history of the Denver Pacific, said, " When, last summer, the
board of trustees of the railway company, this Board of Trade, and the
county commissioners each unanimously urged me to take a contract
to build the Denver Pacific railway, I unhesitatingly accepted. Before
taking the contract, however, the board of trustees made an effort to
reduce the capital stock of the road from four millions to two millions,
which would have enhanced the interest of the county of Arapahoe
one hundred per cent. But it was discovered that this act, if consum-
mated, would prevent the company from borrowing enough money to
complete the road, for the law prohibits the indebtedness from
exceeding the amount of the capital stock of the company. There-
fore, the only alternative, if we proceeded to complete the work in
4SS HISTORY OF COLORADO.
hand, was to leave the capital stock at its existing amount — four
millions. The stock represented all the value then existing, and it
was an absolute necessity that the stock should all be given to secure
the prosecution and completion of the work. Even then it was
doubtful if it could be made to answer the purpose, for it must eithA"
be sold for cash enough, or the assets it represented be made to serve
the purpose of borrowing enough money upon, to pay for the entire
work. Nothing but cash will build railways.
" I took the contract, therefore, to build the road with the
remaining stock. The county bonds in hand, at the best price that
could be obtained for them, were barely sufficient to finish the grading
and pay the pressing indebtedness already incurred for ties and other
material. While the contract was thus pressed upon me, and while
there were serious doubts as to the success of our efforts to make the
means accomplish the end in view, I held in mental reservation a
determination to so manage the matter as to make enough out of the
contract to enable me to donate to the county an additional half million
of the capital stock of the road.
" This purpose I did not at first allow myself to express to any
one, for fear of disappointment in making the necessary profit on the
contract to enable me to do so, and in my negotiations, I found it
absolutely necessary to place the half million capital stock in trust,
to be voted in perpetuity, but reserving to myself and my assigns
the entire right of property in the same, and all profits and dividends
arising therefrom.
"I will, therefore, have, to all intents and purposes, the whole
intrinsic value of said stock in my possession and ownership as soon
as the road shall be completed, and I now for the first time publicly
declare, that it is my full purpose and intention to donate the same to
Arapahoe County, as soon as I shall become entitled to it by com-
pliance with my contract to complete the road to the city of Denver.
This I do on the condition that the people shall go forward with the
other enterprises so necessary to our prosperity."
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 489
It may be stated in this connection, that the venture proved suc-
cessful and, in the end, highly profitable, therefore the stock was, in
due time transferred by the Governor to the Board of County Commis-
sioners and formally accepted by them on the conditions prescribed.
The Denver Pacific was fully completed and formally accepted
June 24th, 1870, though as already stated, the first locomotive, named
the D. H. Moffat, arrived with the construction train on the fifteenth
of that month. This engine previous to its purchase by this company,
had been known as number twenty-nine of the Union Pacific road, and
had something of a history. It was the first to enter the town of
Cheyenne, the first to cross the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains,
the first to signal its presence in the valley of Salt Lake, the first to
enter Colorado, and finally, with the veteran engineer, Sam Bradford,
the first to announce to the people of Denver the completion of their
first railway.
The driving of the last spike, frequently an important event, was
deferred until St. John's Day, June 24th, on which occasion all the
Masonic bodies in the city turned out to assist in celebrating the final
act. In the course of their long line of march they proceeded to the
site of the proposed Union depot, where a large concourse awaited
them to witness the imposing ceremon}^ of laying the corner stone of
that edifice. An excursion train came up from Cheyenne, bearing a
large number of Masons from that town and from Greeley,
The spike used was of pure silver, six inches in length, presented
to Governor Evans by W. E. Barton and L. J. Fay on behalf of the
people of Georgetown, with their hearty congratulations on the auspi-
cious completion of the road. On one side was engraved — "George-
town to the Denver Pacific Railway," and on the opposite, "John
Evans, President, June 24th, 1870." Later in the day Col. L. H.
Eicholtz, Superintendent of Construction, was presented with a fine
gold watch and chain by the of^cers of the road, Governor Evans
making the presentation speech.
Let us turn now to the Kansas Pacific and recount as briefly as
490 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
possible the progress of the work in that direction. About the middle
of March, 1870, General William J. Palmer and Colonel W. H. Green-
wood made preparation for grading their road from this end of their
located line eastward, to connect with the grading forces then push-
ing forward from the Pond Creek terminus. General F. M. Case
was made Chief Engineer, and Col. Eicholtz Superintendent of
Construction. Having sold six and a half millions of its securities in
Germany, the company was now equipped for continuous and rapid
work, and every effort was put forth for its extension to Denver. Soon
after crossing the Colorado line, the town of Kit Carson was founded,
the first and only settlement of any prominence that has been erected
alonof its lines within our boundaries. It was situated on the Bier
Sandy, on a perfectly level plain. The town of Sheridan near the
western line of Kansas was uprooted and removed bodily to Carson.
Two or three hundred houses of different kinds, mostly temporary,
were erected. It was one hundred and eight miles from Pueblo, and
four hundred and eighty-seven miles west of Kansas City. We speak
of it in the past tense, for it disappeared a few years later^ and noth-
ing more substantial than an isolated railway station now marks the
spot where once stood a rather busy frontier village, bristling with
life and commercial activity under the stimulus of railway traffic and
large disbursements for labor and supplies. When the base came to
be removed further toward the mountains, Carson died of inanition, its
isolated position affording it neither commerce nor the aid of develop-
ments in the surrounding country, since there were few settlers and
nothing to attract them.
During the spring and summer of 1870 the Cheyenne Indians,
venomously hostile to the construction of a railroad through their
favorite resort for winter quarters, made frequent attacks upon the
engineers and orraders, drivincr off their stock, attackinor trains and kill-
ing the drivers and herders. The annoyance becoming intolerable,
General John Pope, then in command of the department, was com-
pelled to send out troops. Four companies of cavalry and three of
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 491
infantry were stationed at the more exposed points, but even this force
was scarcely sufficient to repress the hostiles. The raids were con-
tinued at intervals until the line was finished.
Grading from Denver eastward, began May 26th, 1870, from a
point near the Denver Pacific just north of the Fair Grounds of the
Colorado Agricultural Society, under the direction of Col. Eicholtz,
with the intention of meeting the force approaching from Carson.
The first train entered this city August 15th following. On the night
of the 1 2th a gap of only ten and a quarter miles remained. Then
ensued a brisk rivalry between Colonel Weed, Superintendent of the
Eastern Division, and Eicholtz of the Western, as to which should first
reach the central station between, where a flag had been placed to
mark the spot. In the course of operations. Weed ran out of iron, but
was soon supplied from the Western section by hauling it in wagons.
It had been resolved to finish the road on the 15th, hence every energy
of the working crews was bent to this purpose. Word was passed
to the men, and the promise of a sumptuous banquet given to stimulate
them to do their utmost. Then followed some of the most extraor-
dinary work ever witnessed in the history of railway construction.
The coveted flag was reached and taken by Weed at precisely one
o clock and ten minutes. Eicholtz in turn ran out of iron, which being
slow to arrive, delayed him until three o'clock p. m., at which hour the
junction was made. The ten and a quarter miles were laid in ten
hours. Col. Eicholtz acquired his experience in rapid construction
durinor the War of the Rebellion, as chief engineer of General W. W.
Wright's division of Sherman's army from Chattanooga to Atlanta. It
will be remembered that as the Confederates under Johnston fell back
from the resistless force of our arms, they destroyed the railways
and bridges. Eicholtz restored them. In 1866 he was stationed at
Topeka as resident engineer of the Kansas Pacific road. The year
following he made the survey of the 3 2d parallel from Kansas to Cali-
fornia when the company contemplated building to the coast by that
route. A part of the line thus located is now used by the Southern
492 HISTORY OF COLORADO
Pacific. He returned via Panama, and next appeared as an engineer
of construction on the Union Pacific, where he remained until its
completion to Promontory, when he came to Denver and was
appointed chief of construction on the Denver Pacific,
A special train had gone down from Denver, and another came
up from Carson, each loaded with passengers eagerly interested in the
final consummation of the second grand artery of the future, and
anxious to witness the exciting rivalry between the tracklayers. These
trains arrived in Denver at 6:45 ^^^"^^ evening.
This, indeed, proved to be the inauguration of a new era of
progress in the development of the country from the heterogeneous
to the homogeneous. Henceforth the progress of Denver was to be
more prominently identified with the progress of the entire Terri-
tory. Here all doubts ended, the veil of uncertainty was lifted, and
the promise of a golden future assured. It was the impelling force in
the creation of the magnificent railway center since established. How
much the struggling communities around us needed the assistance of
these potential agencies in their efforts to build a powerful common-
wealth, none save those who passed the trials of the first decade can
rightly estimate. They had long been promised the light of a brilliant
dawning, but the hope had been so often deferred and so often well
nigh extinguished, there were times when it seemed impossible of
realization. General Dodge had said the town of Denver in a few
years would be a deserted village, the grass growing in its streets,
and only abandoned buildings left to indicate its fate. When he
became interested in the Carter-Loveland road from the Union Pacific
to Golden, he declared that that town was to be the metropolis of
Colorado. Never wholly friendly to this city, he appears to have
employed his influence with the Union Pacific directors in opposition
to the measures instituted for the construction of the Denver Pacific
road. But neither he nor his associates had properly measured the
latent power of the men who had undertaken this enterprise. They
were not of the caliber to be easily dismayed by threats or shaken from
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 493
their purposes by trials and disappointments. They might, had the
worst come, have buik and equipped the line from their private means.
It might have strained but it would not have exhausted their
resources. They proved themselves strong enough to secure congres-
sional legislation, which, supplemented by the county bonds and indi-
vidual subscriptions, gave them ample means for the accomplishment
of their ends. Though it cost the county half a million and the citi-
zens two hundred and fifty thousand, the entire amount was quickly
repaid by the immediate augmentation of business, the steady advance
in property values, and the added thousands of people who crowded in
to share the bounties provided. None but the men who passed
through the dark and despairing days when everything appeared to
work disaster and to threaten annihilation, can realize the state of
public feeling. Colorado seemed to be cut off and set aside as a
barren region not worth saving. Nothing but the energy and faith
of men like Evans, Moffat, Johnson, Hughes, Pierce, Cheesman,
Clayton, Salomon, and the sturdy spirits who clustered about them in
the Board of Trade, saved us from serious retrogression. The work
they performed, the gigantic obstacles they overcame, and the indom-
itable perseverance they exhibited in the plan of salvation, rescued
Denver from great peril. Though they were unable to secure the
transcontinental road, they built the branch, and, moreover, forced the
Kansas Pacific to make this city its western terminus, thereby securing .
the advantage of a trunk line to Kansas City and St. Louis, and
connection via the Denver Pacific with Omaha, Salt Lake and Cali-
fornia. Indeed, the Kansas road proved the more important of the
two, for it opened sources of supply from the rich corn, hay and grain
fields of that State which filled our wants until our own farmers were
prepared by increase of numbers and a more widely cultivated area to
meet the deficiency of agricultural products. We had little or no trade
with the West, no marked identity of interest with that region, our only
commerce for some years after the road opened being in the line of
domestic fruits.
494 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The problem of our destiny began to reach its solution imme-
diately after, and as a direct consequence of the building of the Kansas
Pacific. It became, with the branch to Cheyenne, which it subse-
quently absorbed, the focal point of many other lines that followed in
rapid succession. Our people, now thoroughly reassured, entered
upon the work before them, strong and self-reliant. Real estate, which
had had no stable value before, soon became the center of speculative
interest. Vast schemes of internal improvement were projected.
Now that capital could be brought in comfortable cars instead of joint-
racking stages, it came in generous quantities. The town, already
noted as a sanitarium, attracted scores of wealthy invalids. Lots and
lands that had been considered comparatively valueless, since they
could neither be sold, nor used as collateral for loans, or as a basis of
credit, became prominent factors in the fast accumulating wealth.
The straggling, scattered city began to put on airs and to give signs of
a wonderful development. Ground that had been taken in payment of
small debts at the grocery or drygoods stores, in lieu of the cash
which the owners could not raise, began to advance, then to double, and
finally to quadruple in value. Men who had been compelled to econ-
omize in all directions to meet their taxes upon real estate, loaded
upon them against their will, suddenly began to realize that the bur-
den was likely to enrich them. Speculators floated in, opened real
estate offices, and hung out attractive signs with the legend of " Money
to loan" emblazoned upon them in gold letters. Outlying lands
susceptible of irrigation, were picked up and measures taken to bring
them under cultivation. From that time to the present there has been
a constantly increasing anxiety to secure landed property, with a steady
increase of value. Some of the lots on the principal business streets,
that were bought for a few dollars in the early days, are to-day worth
tens of thousands. The two on Larimer street occupied by the Cole
block, purchased, one for thirty-five cents, the other for forty cents, are
now worth not far from seventy thousand dollars. Some of our
millionaires of 1889, made so largely by their acquisitions of real
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 495
estate in the ante-railway period, were in 1865-66, and even as late as
1870, among the incessant growlers about taxes. A tract of eighty
acres lying just southeast of the cemetery on the Hill, which the
author purchased for five hundred dollars in 1870, sold since the writ-
ing of this chapter began, for eighty thousand dollars, and has been
converted into one of the numerous ** additions" to the city. It is per-
haps useless to add that I had no share in this enormous advance, else
this history would not have been written.
The tract known as Capitol Hill, pre-empted from the govern-
ment by Henry C. Brown at one dollar and a quarter an acre, and
which until about the year 1878, no one would occupy as a place of res-
idence, is now densely populated and worth uncounted millions. The
same is true of the Baxter B. Stiles homestead and adjoining tracts, in
the northern division of the city. Old residents remember when his
little white house stood all alone on the open prairie, which few
thought of visiting except in a carriage, owing to its remoteness from
town. It is now at the corner of Twenty-first and Champa streets and
the site occupied by Willard Teller. These few illustrations will
indicate to the modern reader something of the changes that have
taken place since the first locomotive shrieked its entry into Denver.
At the close of 1870 the sales of real estate reported for the
year aggregated seven hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars; the
value of buildings erected in the same period was five hundred and
thirty-five thousand dollars. The volume of trade roughly approxi-
mated by the newspaper statisticians with the favorable coloring usually
given such estimates, amounted to nine millions and ninety thousand,
and the total of manufactures to eight hundred and twenty-five thou-
sand. The population of the city, taken from the official census of the
year was four thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, but the acquisi-
tions brought in by the railroads after the census account had been
closed, justified the claim of five thousand. The total business of 1S70
was undoubtedly, about one hundred per cent, greater than that
of 1869.
490 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The First National bank, with a capital of $200,000, showed a
total deposit of $674,944 ; cash on hand, including bonds and
exchange, $754,009.46; a surplus of $98,756.46, and gross footing of
$1,153,700.46.
The Colorado National bank, with a capital of $100,000, showed
deposits amounting to $478,165.47; cash, including bonds and
exchange, $450,578.64; a surplus of $20,000 and a total footing of
$69i>535-07-
Such was the state of affairs, briefly epitomized, at the end of our
first half-year's experience under the beneficent aid of railways. As
we have seen, both roads were compelled to fight their way through
combinations of every sort calculated to harass and delay, while the
people found themselves in much the same predicament as the fellow
who had the bull by the tail, neither daring to hold on nor to let go for
fear of worse disasters.
A series of excursions from St. Louis, Kansas City and other
points followed, when hundreds who had heard of Colorado as a settle-
ment on the wild Western frontier, peopled by rough riders, hunters,
trappers and miners scarcely less civilized than the untutored savage,
began to pour in to witness this romantic spot whence the ancestors of
some of the tourists representing " first families" had years before the
Pike's Peak epoch, gathered wondrous harvests of beaver skins and
other peltries, and where lay the beginning of their fortunes. The
Denver theater on the corner of Lawrence and Sixteenth streets, lonsf
closed for the want of patronage, re-opened under radiant auspices.
The alert and enterprising Mongolians came in from the Pacific,
timidly and in small groups at first, but finding their entry and residence
unopposed, finally by scores and hundreds, to open laundries, and to
engage In gold mining in the gulches and placers abandoned by white
labor because too lean to be worthy their attention. Gambling houses,
dance houses, saloons and concomitant evils which had been measurably
suppressed since 1865, partly by law but chiefly as the result of hard
times, multiplied in corresponding ratio to the increase of prosperity.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 497
The first through Pulhrian palace car from Chicago to Denver via
Kansas City, arrived October 7th, 1870, and was named "Comanche."
It was the first of the luxurious and altogether admirable additions to
the pleasures of railway travel that many of our people had ever seen,
hence it attracted much attention.
The schedule of freight tariffs via Omaha, Leavenworth & Kansas
City to Denver, published December 15th, 1870, ran as follows :
Merchandise, first-class, $2.60 per 100 pounds; second class, $2.00 ;
third class, $1.75 ; fourth class, $1.40.
The Colorado Central railroad, graded by the people of Jefferson
County, ironed and equipped by the Union Pacific Company, was com-
pleted to Golden City and opened to traffic on the 23d of September,
1870. Thereafter the stage lines plying between this city and the mines
at Black Hawk, Central City and Georgetown transferred their head-
quarters to the terminus of the road at the base of the mountains.
The Denver & Boulder Valley Railroad Company was organ-
ized in October, 1870, with a capital stock of one million dollars. The
trustees were John Evans, J, B. Chaffee, D. H. Moffat, Jr., W. S.
Cheesman, P. M. H ousel, Granville Berkley and W. J. Palmer. Mr-
Chaffee was elected President ; W. S. Cheesman, Vice-President ; R. R.
McCormick, Secretary, and D. H. Moffat, Jr., Treasurer.
Mortgage bonds to the amount of three hundred thousand dollars,
bearing seven per cent, interest, were issued and guaranteed by the Den-
ver Pacific, from the sale of which funds were derived for the construc-
tion of the road. Work began on the 24th of October in the year
named, and the road was completed to the Erie coal fields in Boulder
County on the 24th of January following, R. E. Carr and D. H. Mof-
fat beint^ the contractors. The line was fifteen miles in leno^th, extend-
ing from Hughes station on the Denver Pacific, and actually a branch
of that road. It was built to open the very extensive and excellent coal
beds existing at the point named, that the roads and the city might be
supplied with cheap fuel. For this purpose the Boulder Valley Coal
Company was organized, and the town of Erie laid out. Lots were
33
498 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
sold to the miners at low prices and on liberal terms to induce perma-
nent settlement and thereby lessen the danger of strikes. Thus another
artery of commerce which has developed into one of the more impor-
tant of the series was added to the embryotic system.
The Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company was organized in
Denver in October, 1870, articles of incorporation having been filed on
the 27th of that month, bearing the names of only three corporators —
W. J. Palmer, A. C. Hunt and W. H. Greenwood. The Board of
Directors comprised W. J. Palmer and A. C. Hunt of Colorado ; R.
H. Lamborn of Philadelphia ; W. P. Millen of New York, and Thomas
J. Wood of Ohio.
These directors or trustees elected Palmer President, Lamborn
Vice-President, and Howard Schuyler Secretary and Treasurer. Gen.
Sam E. Browne was made Solicitor, W. H. Greenwood Manager of
Construction, and J. P. Mersereau Chief Engineer.
The capital stock was placed at fourteen millions. For construction
purposes bonds of the company were issued at the rate of ten thousand
dollars per mile. The trustees for the bondholders were J. Edgar
Thompson, Samuel M. Felton and L. H. Meyer.
The work of building began in March, 1871, by the Union Contract
Company. Track laying was inaugurated at the foot of Fifteenth
street, Denver, July 27th, 18 71. The road crossed the Divide and was
completed to Colorado Springs, seventy-six miles, its first terminal,
October 21st following. The three foot gauge decided upon, was a new
and rather daring experiment, for as designed in its ultimate purpose, it
was wholly without precedent in the annals of narrow gauge con-
struction. While it is true that Palmer and his associates took as their
basis of calculation for the route to be pursued in a mountainous region
the narrow gauge roads of England, Wales and others operated on the
continent of Europe, much attention was given to that constructed from
the slate quarries of Festiniog to the quays of Portmadoc in North
Wales. But this was a two foot gauge and only thirteen and a half
miles in length, built primarily in 1832, and for many years thereafter
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 499
operated as a horse railway. It runs through a rough and rugged coun-
try, mountainous and rocky. It was originally laid with light iron rails
of only sixteen pounds to the yard. In 1862 locomotives and passenger
cars were put on to accommodate the people and the constantly increas-
ing traffic, when rails of thirty pounds to the yard were substituted.
These wearing out, they were replaced in 1870 by double headed rails of
forty-eight and a half pounds to the yard. The passenger coaches
being very narrow, the people were seated back to back, with a foot
board along the side over the wheels as in the Irish jaunting car. In
stormy weather they were protected by canvas sheets drawn to the
height of the knees.
It was by no means difficult to discover full information respecting
the cost of construction, and operation of the various narrow gauges
thus far adopted, for the reason that the war of the gauges had
been carried on for more than twenty-five years, the advocates of
each giving innumerable facts, figures and arguments in support of
their respective systems. The newspapers and magazines were filled
with them, and many books and monographs added to the volume.
Besides the Festiniog two-foot gauge in Wales, Belgium had one or
more of three feet eight, France one of three feet four, India one of
four feet, Norway and Sweden one of three feet six, the Mont Cenis
tunnel one of three feet seven and a half, and Queensland one of three
feet six.
All these experiments had been more or less successful, but
nowhere else had so vast a system as the one now projected by Palmer,
and for all purposes, been attempted. The cheapness of construction,
the ease with which heavy grades and sharp curvatures could be sur-
mounted, and the great amount of work each road was capable of
executing, seemed to set an example whereby all the more expensive
standard roads might, by a reduction of gauge, secure like profitable
results. Here, however, as in Europe, the project was fiercel)'
attacked by the old school engineers and builders. The Rio Grande
was pronounced impracticable, a wanton waste of capital, a scheme
500 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
that must, perforce, terminate in signal failure. The columns of the
press teemed with arguments for and against it, but as in all revo-
lutions, it passed through the several grades of ridicule and argument
to final adoption — after its practicability had been fully demonstrated.
But the principal source of wonder was how any company of
builders possessing sound minds and average intelligence should
imperil their honor and the money of innocent investors, by projecting
even a narrow gauge railway through a region so utterly barren of
settlers and visible resources as that between Denver and El Paso,
Texas. Excepting the small village of Littleton, twelve miles away,
and a few inhabitants scattered along the Fountaine-qui-bouille, there
was nothing to invite nor give promise of traffic for an undertaking
of such magnitude, for Pueblo was left out of the calculations. The
site of the beautiful Colorado Springs of to-day was then but an open
plain, afterward selected for a quiet, peaceful and industrious colony
town — when settlers could be persuaded to locate there. The prim-
itive town of Colorado City, for a brief period the capital of the Terri-
tory, in 1862, had declined until scarcely enough people remained to
keep the place alive, and Pueblo was but a straggling village without
much hope for the future. There was not an important industry on
the route surveyed, and very little apparent material for the creation
of enterprises, agricultural or otherwise. Parts of the Divide furnished
admirable pasturage for cattle and sheep, and there were a few tracts
of timber suitable for ordinary lumber. Still, the idea of building a
railroad through such a country for the gains in sight seemed Quixotic
to the last extreme. The stage line from Pueblo to Denver carried an
average of three passengers daily. The entire system had to be cre-
ated, from the grade to the rails, embracing every detail of equipment,
and involving plans and specifications for countless new patterns for
locomotives, wheels and cars.
The original plan contemplated a line from Denver direct to El
Paso, a distance of eight hundred and fifty miles, through a region
even more inhospitable and desolate than that just described, prac-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 501
tically, for the most part, unpeopled and unproductive. Undoubtedly
the promoters anticipated a speedy settlement, but this appeared to
the casual observer a forlorn hope.
The first rails were laid on the 27th of July, 1871. The event
drew together a number of railway men and citizens of Denver, the
author among them, all eager to witness the inauguration of the
new and novel innovation upon established methods of rapid transit.
The first spike was driven by Col. W. H. Greenwood, manager of
construction, after which Gen. Sam. E. Browne delivered an address
pertinent to the occasion, referring chiefly to the organization of the
company and the plans it had formulated, and predicting that when
the advantages of the three-foot gauge should be fully defined, all the
Western roads would alter their orauores to the new standard — a
prophecy that has in no case been verified. Hon. W. A. Pile, ex-Gov-
ernor of New Mexico, made a few remarks to the same effect. It was
not a very stirring affair, nor were any large crowds present. The
objects that attracted most attention were the diminutive cars and
locomotives which had been brought from the East to start the road,
and were then standing upon the flat cars of the Denver Pacific near at
hand. The engines were named respectively the " Tabeguache,"
"Showano," and "Montezuma," the latter designed for passenger
business, the others for freight.
In a short time four other cars, two combination baggage, mail
and express, the one named "Denver" and the second "El Paso,"
arrived. They were thirty-five feet long, seven feet wide, and ten and
a half feet high, weighing about fifteen thousand pounds. For the
time, they were handsomely decorated and equipped. They were
divided into compartments, so to speak, the seats to the center being
double on one side and single on the opposite, with like interchange
thence to the rear, so as to preserve a proper equilibrium. They
were built by the Jackson & Sharp Company of Wilmington, Dela-
ware, and by reason of their novelty attracted much attention en route.
When the first train was made up, and while awaiting orders to
502 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
move southward, hundreds of interested spectators were there to enjoy
the wonderful novelty. The scene was both amusing and instructive.
It resembled, with its tiny locomotive and cars, a toy outfit for children
to play with, rather than the beginning of a colossal revolution. Year
by year the designs were enlarged and otherwise perfected, until the
trains, both freight and passenger, became equal to the immense
traffic imposed by the growth of the country. No one then dreamed
of the elegant sleepers, luxurious reclining chairs, or the tremendous
tonnage since supplied. Like the Territory, it was in its swaddling
clothes, and had yet to attain the full strength of robust manhood,
before such improvements as are now seen were possible. It is no
discredit to the builders of the mountain divisions of the Colorado
Central and of the South Park roads to say that their equipments were
furnished from the model thus provided, if not directly from the
improved patterns.
The first stake in the town site of Colorado Springs was driven
July 31st, 1 87 1, in the presence of a number of ladies and gentlemen,
who, though deeply interested, could not possibly have foreseen the
results to follow. As a foundation for the modest colony to be located
there, Palmer interested some of the wealthy stockholders in the pur-
chase of a large tract of land opposite the base of Pike's Peak, to
include the already famous, though as yet, wholly unimproved mineral
springs, and all the available land in their vicinity, which was to be
divided into villa sites. They secured ten thousand acres along Mon-
ument Creek, on which they proposed to lay out a town to be called
Colorado Springs — an absolute misnomer, since it is six miles from any
sort of springs. Manitou was originally christened "Villa La Font."
Their next plan was to construct a fine carriage road from the colony
to the springs, erect a comfortable, not to say a pretentious hotel in the
former, and with the ultimate intention of making both places fash-
ionable summer resorts. It is possible that in forming visions of the
future, they had gathered inspiration from Fitzhugh Ludlow's pro-
phetic dream, published in 1868 from notes taken during his first visit
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 503
to this romantic region in 1866-67. Ludlow, as is well known, was a
confirmed opium eater, consequently a dreamer, and it may be that in
one of the spells cast by the insidious drug, he wrote the following :
" These springs are very highly estimated among the settlers of
this region for their virtues in the cure of rheumatism, all cutaneous
diseases, and the special class for which the practitioner's sole depend-
ence has hitherto been mercury. When Colorado becomes a State,
the Springs of the Fountain will constitute its Spa. In air and scenery
no more glorious summer residence could be imagined. The Colora-
doan of the future, astonishing the echoes of the rocky foothills by a
railroad from Denver to the Colorado Springs, and running down on
Saturday night to stop over Sunday with his family, will have little
cause to envy us Easterners our Saratoga, as he paces up and down
the piazza of the Spa hotel mingling his full flavored Havana with that
lovely air, quite unbreathed before, which is floating down upon him
from the snow peaks of the Range."
How fully this portraiture of the coming eras has been perfected
by the subtle fingers of time and the agencies it has evoked from the
forces of nature, those who now enjoy the delights of Manitou, the
Garden of the Gods and the aesthetic beauties of Colorado Springs,
can realize and appreciate. In July, 1872, W. W. Nevins wrote the
Philadelphia Press this sublime description :
" Health is what Colorado most surely and absolutely offers to its
visitors. On this vast upland plateau, six thousand feet above the
level of the sea, on which as a magnificent monolith, rests the Rocky
Mountains, we have an atmosphere which itself is health.
North and South, from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico there
is raised a vast plateau of tableland from four thousand to six thou-
sand feet, and extending in width many hundred miles. On this tre-
mendous bed are built the unknown and almost limitless mountains,
their vast, brawny, irregular ranges rolling out like the waves of
the sea, in some places four hundred miles east and west. Of course,
from any near point like this, the view is of a gigantic wall which rises
504 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
sharp against the sky, with its naked stone gray faces dimbing, one
above the other, until all are relieved and lost in the snow line. Climb
what seems this wall, however, and you gain its summit only to see a
more formidable ascent in advance, and so, on and on you might go for
weary days and months. Once reach some commanding eminence
like Long's Peak, Pike's or the Spanish Peaks, and then you only gain
some idea of the mountains. Over a vast expanse of savage and des-
olate wilderness further than tlie limits of human eye can reach — a
dreary ocean of waste — stretch out the endless ranges of the centuries,
twisting, crossing and closing with each other like the contortions of
giants."
Coming back to Manitou, he concludes that it is idle to attempt a
description " of the grandeur and picturesqueness of this wild gorge.
It is a fine canon, the walls of rock rising on either side almost perpen-
dicularly, two thousand feet. As you make your way through this
titanic fissure, so narrow at times that it seems itself as if a single span
might bridge it, the walls appear to close in and shut you up in
chambers of eternal rock. This magnificent canon closes its series of
beautiful shifting views Vv^ith an airy waterfall three hundred feet in
height, broken, however, in its descent into three dalles or descents.
Down into the cool fastnesses of this caiion will be the attractions of
the place, although now the professional tourist pays his respects to
the Garden of the Gods and the bubbling springs, which constitute
the regulation trip."
From May until November Manitou is a scene of picturesque love-
liness unparalleled in the Rocky Mountains. Two railways — the Rio
Grande and the Midland, hourly wake the echoes of this wonderland ;
the slopes where once buffalo, deer, antelope and elk roamed in unchal-
lenged freedom, are now dotted with beautiful villas ; the springs are
crowded with invalids seeking their health-imparting waters, and the
piazzas of not one, but half a dozen hotels, are thronged with guests.
Manitou has many rivals, but few equals.
Colorado Springs was organized, primarily, as the " Fountain
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 505
Colony of Colorado." All the profits derived from the sale of lots
and lands were to be expended in public improvements. Titles to lots
were made contingent upon the completion of certain improvements
within four months. The manufacture and sale of intoxicants was
strictly inhibited, and, as at Greeley, this condition entered into all con-
tracts between the company and the settler.
General R. A. Cameron was made Vice-President, Superintendent
and General Manager. It was with him that I made my first excursion
to the famous springs, and he who suggested the appropriateness of the
Indian name for the resort. At that time he was projecting and carry-
ing into effect the plans for improvements which have given the two
points a national, almost world-wide celebrity.
His faithful co-operators were W. E. Pabor Secretary, and E. S.
Nettleton Chief Engineer, in charge of the scientific branches of the
several enterprises. All the site back of the bluff line where now stands
the splendid Antler's Hotel, and along which to the northward some of
the most elegant residences have been built, was dotted here and there,
though at wide intervals, with rude frame cabins. There was then not
the shadow of promise of the present broad, smooth, well kept streets,
lined with trees and beautiful homes, peopled with choice spirits from
many climes, the center of wealth, culture and refinement that have
caused it to be known, and deservedly, as the "Athens of Colorado ;" nor
of its handsome parks, its well ordered government, the multitudes
upon its thoroughfares, the great business houses established, its fine
schools, seminaries and colleges. The region had been but little
advanced from the state in which Lieutenant Pike found it in 1806.
In the spring of 1871, General Palmer and ex-Governor Hunt insti-
tuted a brisk movement toward the extension of their railway to Pueblo
where the people had caught the prevailing fever, and having acquired
material accessions of population, began to assert their right to more
conspicuous recognition. As nothing could be done without a public
meeting, the leading citizens were called together the first week in
March, to whom two distinct propositions were read, one from Palmer
506 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and Munt, on behalf of the Rio Grande, and the other from General R.
E. Carr of the Kansas Pacific. In the first it was clearly stated that the
Rio Grande Company would extend its road from Colorado Springs to
Pueblo, notwithstanding the fact that it was not on its projected line,
provided the county would subsidize it to the amount of two hundred
thousand dollars in bonds.
General Carr proposed to construct a branch from his main line at
Kit Carson, to P^ort Lyon and thence up the Arkansas River, on condi-
tion that Pueblo County would aid it with a certain amount of bonds.
Here was a choice to be sure, but the meeting rather favored the "baby
road." As to the cost, there was no difference. Pueblo, never rash,
took time for reflection. In June following, having meanwhile made
her choice, a proposition to aid the Rio Grande was submitted to the
electors and carried.
In the spring of 1872 the grade was extended down the fertile
valley of the Fountaine-qui-bouille to the rising metropolis of the
Arkansas Valley. While awaiting the rather slow arrival of the iron, a
cloud of laborers were put upon the branch thence up the Arkansas
River to the coal fields, about midway between Pueblo and Caiion City,
with the further intention of proceeding southward toward Trinidad and
the Raton Range of mountains as soon as the unfinished divisions were
completed. It was anticipated that the company would construct some-
thing over one hundred and fifty miles of road during 1872. In March
of that year. General Palmer and ex-Governor Hunt went to the
Republic of Mexico, whence General Rosecrans had preceded them,
and had been negotiating with the Juarez government for concessions to
the proposed construction of a system of narrow gauge roads in that
country. Rosecrans had made considerable progress, but Palmer's
eminent skill was required to perfect the scheme. It may as well be
stated here as elsewhere, that the project failed, largely through the
intervention of English influence, and to some extent by reason of the
hostility of the people to Americans. Some years later the negotia-
tions were renewed, and out of them sprang the Mexico National railway
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 507
Track laying began the last week in March, 1872, from Colorado
Springs toward Pueblo, to which point the road was completed on the
29th of June following. Hundreds of people assembled at the terminus
to give the "baby road" a cordial welcome. On the 2d of July a train
load of excursionists comprising the Governor, Territorial officers, the
municipal authorities of Denver, representatives of the press, a number
of prominent railway managers and many citizens went down to aid their
brethren In celebrating the happy consummation of the union between
the valleys of the Platte and Arkansas — the capital of the North with
the first city of the South. The train was drawn by the quaint little
engine "Ouray," which whirled it across the divide at the rate of twenty
miles an hour. The excursionists reached Pueblo at one o'clock p. m.,
where the principal part of the inhabitants congregated to accord their
guests of the day a cordial greeting. F'orming in procession, all
marched to the Court House where a sumptuous banquet had been pro-
vided. George O. Richmond, the orator of the occasion, in a well con-
sidered speech, formally welcomed the visitors. "The consummation of
this enterprise," he said, "had brought the people of Pueblo and of
Southern Colorado into close fraternal contact with the Northern and
Western divisions of the Territory, whence would arise a spirit of
friendly strife between the two principal cities, each representing the
central station of one-half the Territory. The natural tendency would
be toward the building of more railroads on the narrow gauge plan until
all material points were brought into the alliance. And thus we should
soon be prepared for Statehood." The speech expressed very fully the
enthusiasm of the people over the beginning of a more progressive era.
Grace Greenwood, General Sam E. Browne, Col. W. H. Greenwood, C.
J. Reid, editor of the " Chieftain," Hon. H. P. Bennett, G. M. Chilcott,
General R. A. Cameron and others, followed in appropriate remarks.
Taken altogether, it was the happiest day in the history of the
town, for, like the first born of woman, the advent of this tiny railroad
was hailed with greater joy than all the rest which followed in the fulness
of time.
508 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The first depot was located on the Fountain north of the Court
House, but was shortly afterward transferred to the present site.
Crowds of immigrants came, hundreds of houses were built, trade flour-
ished as never before ; dance halls, theaters of questionable repute,
gambling dens and the customary accessories inseparable from the excite-
ment incident to the building of frontier towns, multiplied rapidly.
Gradually the character of the place underwent a general transform-
ation. From a quiet, unpretentious village, with a mixed population
of Americans and Mexicans dwelling in long rows of primitive adobe
houses which gave it the tone of a Mexican settlement with indo-
lent, easy movement that signified, "We are at peace with all the world
and hope to remain so," it suddenly assumed the habiliments of a new
civilization, and with them loftier aims and purposes actuated every
element of fixed society. In due time the mud houses disappeared and
were replaced by substantial residences and business houses of brick and
stone. Business methods changed from the old to new principles of
conduct in mercantile affairs. While before it had borne some likeness
to the cit}^ of Santa Fe, in that it resembled a brick yard, it now took
on the nature of an American town which had the foundation of modern
ideas and taste, and would henceforth be identified with the United
States instead of Mexico in thought, feeling and action. Prices of
goods cheapened, well assorted stocks adapted to the new epoch, were
placed on sale. Public schools and churches began to appear. The
hotels, though neither palatial nor imposing, were fair. But one
essential element was left out of calculation which might then have been
easily supplied, and is still lacking — there were neither trees nor public
parks in all the wide boundaries of the town.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 509
CHAPTER XXIX.
1870-72 — DAxA SHOWING THE GROWTH OF THE TERRITORY EFFECT OF RAILWAYS
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUEBLO TERRITORIAL ASSESSMENTS AND EXPENDI-
TURES RALPH MEEKER's TRIBUTE TO BYERS, EVANS AND MOFFAT— DEVELOP-
MENT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF W. C. LOTHROP
ARAPAHOE STREET SCHOOL LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS FIRST BUREAU OF
IMJIIGRATION EFFECTS OF TOO FREE ADVERTISING THE ADMINISTRATION OF
JOSEPH E. BATES AS MAYOR DEPLORABLE LACK OF PUBLIC PARKS — CONSERVA-
TISM OF THE PEOPLE HENRY M. STANLEY, THE RENOWNED EXPLORER HIS
CAREER IN THE WEST FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF FOUNTAIN COLONY FIRST YEAR's
PROGRESS — FORT COLLINS COLONY ORGANIZATION OF COLORADO PIONEERS
VISIT OF THE GRAND DUKE ALEXIS OF RUSSIA SETTLEMENT OF THE SAN JUAN
COUNTRY.
The influence which operated most effectively toward the adjustment
of our troubles with the hostile Indians, in all parts of the Territory was
the coming of railways in 1870. With the first locomotive there came a
radical change pregnant of momentous consequences for the new West.
While the field of agriculture constantly expanded with the passing
years, we are wholly without trustworthy data of the products, because
they have never been collected. Though many attempts have been
made to compile accurate statistics of the crops, none have succeeded.
In all the mass of Territorial and State publications there is not one
book nor pamphlet, report or compilation of any kind to which the
earnest inquirer may turn and discover even a respectable glossary of
facts relating to this very important branch of industry. The State,
which should have reliable figures of the yields from every section culti-
vated, has only a few fragmentary reports — nothing complete, for the
simple reason that no adequate provision has been made to achieve
510 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
better results. Hence the seeker after facts is compelled to rely upon
estimates, no two of which are in agreement. If one should accost
twenty different persons and ask each his opinion of the quantities of
corn, wheat, oats and barley produced in Colorado in any given year,
he would be likely to receive twenty different estimates, and the volume
of information thus derived would be about as valuable as most of the
published statistics on the subject.
The confession is humiliating, but true. The responsibility for this
unfortunate state of affairs should rest where it belongs — with the Terri-
torial and State Legislatures, which have uniformly treated the matter
as one of no consequence whatever. Some of the members have even
gone so far as to denounce every attempt to throw light upon such pro-
ductions, under the apprehension probably, that if the facts are made
known ruinous competition will ensue. Intellects of this caliber should
emigrate to Mexico, or to some of the remote islands of the Pacific Sea
where light and progress are unknown.
The value of the agricultural crop of 1868, to illustrate how little
is known of such matters — was estimated at two millions seven hundred
thousand dollars, and that of 1869 at three and a half millions ; not a
recorded syllable as to the nature of the products, nor even a guess at
the amount of each, measured by pounds or bushels. Those of 1870-71,
were said to have been about the same as that of 1869. While there
was an increase in the number of acres sown, there was a manifest
decrease of yield per acre, owing to protracted drouths. The bullion
product from the mines, estimated by the same rule, showed an increase
of about one million dollars, the gross amount being placed at four
millions six hundred and sixty-three thousand. Since it was deemed
essential to have some kind of an exhibit for advertisement abroad, to
show that the Territory was not retrograding but making rapid strides
toward the front, the yields of the farms and mines thus collated were
bunched together, and the total of eight millions seven hundred thousand
set clown as the result of our industrial activity.
The business of the United States land office, where records
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 511
were available, exhibited a material increase in the sale of public
lands, and, inferentially, a decided augmentation of settlers. At the
branch mint the miners had deposited one million ninety-two thousand
six hundred dollars' worth of gold bullion, an increase of one hundred
and twenty-five thousand one hundred and fifty-two dollars over the
deposits of the previous year. The business of the postofifice showed a
marked advance. The receipts of the Denver Pacific railway in freight
amounted to eighty-seven million seven hundred and thirty-one thou-
sand five hundred and thirty pounds, including the coal traffic of the
Boulder Valley road. In the same period the freight receipts of the
Kansas Pacific were sixty-nine million one hundred and thirty thousand
three hundred and seventy-three pounds.
That there ensued a pronounced increase of wealth and population
is indicated by the growth of towns and cities, and the number of farms
put under cultivation. In Boulder, Golden, Colorado Springs, Canon
City, and especially at Denver and Pueblo, the movement was remark-
able. From a summary published in the " Chieftain " at the close of
187 1, the following data, showing the development of Pueblo in that
year, are extracted :
The number of buildings erected was one hundred and seven, of
which twenty were brick, thirty-three frame, and fifty-one of adobe.
The cost of these structures amounted to two hundred and fifteen
thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars. The freight receipts aggre-
gated nearly five million pounds. Four hundred thousand pounds of
wool were purchased by local dealers. Also six hundred and thirty-
eight thousand dollars' worth of merchandise. Half a million bricks
were made to meet the demands of the builders. There were two
hundred and sixty-one transfers of real estate, the value, as expressed in
the conveyances, being one hundred and thirty-three thousand two
hundred and six dollars and fifty cents. The U. S. land office sold
eighty thousand seven hundred and nineteen acres of government land.
While these figures are but an outline, they denote progress, since in
prior years there had been no activity at all in real estate, and only a
512 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
turbid rtow in the channels of commerce. But the raihvays had quick-
ened the arteries by infusing new blood into them, and this is the
evidence of it. It was manifest on every hand in a thousand ways. It
was observable all along the lines, but most apparent at the terminals
of the iron thoroughfares.
While dealing with the statistics of the time it is interesting to
glance over the report of the Territorial Auditor, Major J. B. Thompson,
for the year 1870, which shows a total of revenue receipts from the
entire Territory for the biennial term, of eighty-eight thousand five
hundred and twenty-nine dollars and eight cents. The Treasurer's
report gives an epitome of the expenditures of the Territory from the
date of its organization in 1861 to the close of 1871, amounting to two
hundred and twenty-nine thousand one hundred and ninety-five dollars
and eighty-six cents. At the close of 1871 the accounts showed a
balance of cash on hand amounting to fifty-five thousand one hundred
and four dollars and thirty-two cents.
The assessed valuation of property for that year was $24,112,-
078.37. The expenses for the biennial term of 1872-3 were estimated
at $85,387.42, or $42,693.71 per annum. The resources for the term
were placed at $194,743.32, of which sixty per cent, was unavailable,
being delinquent taxes which could not be collected.
The assessed valuation of property in Arapahoe county for the
year 1871 was $9,058,405. The increase of valuation in the Territory
over 1870 was $7,334,073.37, of which $4,351,524, or more than one-
half, was in Arapahoe County. The counties paying the largest pro-
portions of territorial revenue were Arapahoe, Gilpin, Clear Creek,
Pueblo, Jefferson, Boulder and Weld.
Ralph Meeker wrote the New York " Standard " in January,
1872, concerning the transformations effected in 1871, the first year of
the second decade, and of the new era, as follows :
" Pages might be written of the improvements that mark the year
1 87 1. Twelve years ago Colorado had only a few miserable cabins,
with scarcely a house between the Missouri River and the Snowy
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 513
Range, while an unbroken wilderness stretched from the north pole
down to the cathedrals of old Mexico. The schoolboys can well
remember when the postage on a single letter was twenty-five cents;
when flour sold for one hundred dollars a sack ; when thirty-five
thousand people fled from Denver as from a pestilence ; when Colorado
was a desert covered with dead men's bones. To-day the trains of five
railroads glide in and out of this wonderful city. Well may its people
point to the beautiful buildings, to the Union depot, the newspaper
offices, the banks, and churches, and schools, and to the new civilization
which is springing up under the shadows of these sublime mountains.
Its founders need no monuments to carry their memories into the
coming years. Neither storm nor flood can obliterate the footprints of
Green Russell, the discoverer, and the day is approaching when Byers
and Evans, and Moffat, and their coadjutors shall stand higher than
Ceesar or Alexander. Sesostris chiseled his royal name in the temples
of Egypt, but one greater than Sesostris has blasted the name
'Gregory' into the walls of the Rocky Mountains."
In no other department was the advance made during the early
stages of the railway epoch more manifest than in the development of
the public schools. If popular education be the corner stone and
guide of modern civilization, it has found out here in the wilds of
Colorado some of its noblest exemplifications. Up to this period the
growth, while steady, had not in the matter of management been
wholly satisfactory. It was evident that the system needed a strong,
forceful head to organize and conduct ; to harmonize the discordant
elements that had somehow crept in, and resolve the whole into an
orderly, methodical and smoothly running machine.
Wilbur C. Lothrop was elected county superintendent of schools
in the autumn of 1869, and in 1870, by virtue of his developed capa-
bilities was appointed by the Governor, Territorial Superintendent of
Public Instruction, which enlarged the field of action and gave him
ample opportunities for the display of his organizing abilities. His
report rendered in 1871-72 was a lengthy and carefully prepared docu-
53
514 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
ment, giving in tabulated form the vital statistics of the schools through-
out the Territory, accompanied by suggestions and recommendations
respecting their improvement through amendments to existing laws.
It is unnecessary to go into detail, but a glance at some of the figures
presented, will indicate the status of educational affairs at the opening
of this decade, whence by wise and capable direction and the munifi-
cent liberality of our people in providing every essential requisite for
the purpose, has been evolved one of the grandest structures built
upon American soil, the pride of our own citizens, and the admiration
of all contemporaries.
Mr. Lothrop gives the number of persons ot school age in 187 1
at 7,742, an increase of 1,325 over the previous year. The number of
school districts was one hundred and sixty, an increase of fifty in the
same period In 187 1 the number of male pupils was 2,324, and the
average attendance, 1,477 > female pupils, 2,033 — average attendance,
1,134. The number of teachers employed was 164, eighty male and
eighty-four female. The average salary of male teachers was sixty-
nine dollars per month, and of the female fifty-four dollars.
In 1870 there were sixty-eight schoolhouses in the Territory, and
in 1 871 there were eighty. The aggregate value of school property in
1870 was $66, 106.55, and in 1871, $82,574 05. The average rate of
school tax levied was four and one-tenth mills. The total amount of
school fund raised in 1870 was $64,839.39, and in 1871, $81,274,02.
The amount expended in 1870, was $53,763.14, and in 1871 , $67,39548.
Of the amount of school fund collected, Arapahoe County con-
tributed $29,049.80 ; Gilpin, $14,032.93 ; Jefferson, $6,238.29 ; Pueblo,
$5,999.32; Boulder, $4,871.19 ; El Paso, $4,776.78; Weld, $4,409.48;
Larimer, $4,119.56; and Clear Creek, $2,785.46. The other counties
furnished less than $2,000 each.
The corner stone of the Arapahoe street school building, the first
of the series of splendid structures erected in Denver and elsewhere
throughout the Territory, was laid June 24th, 1872, and was made the
occasion for an imposing demonstration. All the school children, the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 515
police, fire department, civic societies, the supreme judges, members of
the bar, city and county officials, Odd Fellows and Masons, the Grand
Lodge of the latter body escorted by the Knights Templar in full
uniform and mounted, with a long line of citizens in carriages, was a
gathering that evinced the depth and breadth of popular interest in
the event.
The corner stone was cemented in its place with Masonic cere-
monies, conducted by Webster D. Anthony, Deputy Grand Master of
Colorado. The metallic box inserted in the cavity prepared for it,
contained much historical matter relating to the city and Territory, of
v/hich few, if any copies now exist, and which, could it be recovered
and utilized, would add important interest to these chronicles. Judge
H. P. H. Bromwell, a man pre-eminently qualified to do full justice to
the subject, delivered the oration.
Three of the lots occupied by this building were donated to the
local Board for school purposes, by Amos Steck. Five others were
purchased by the Board for the sum of three thousand five hundred
dollars. In November, 1872, bonds to the amount of seventy-five
thousand dollars, bearing ten per cent, interest and running five years,
were issued to complete the improvements projected. The Arapahoe
street school was regarded as a fine model for the time, but has since
been so improved upon in matters of architecture and conveniences as
to render it wholly obsolete. It was sold in 1889, and the site given
up to business purposes.
The reader who has patiently followed us thus far, will not fail to
discover in the data given, the remarkable stimulus imparted to
every element of our internal economy by the recent introduction of
steam power. As a further example, showing the trend of public sen-
timent as expressed in legislative action, let us glance hurriedly over
the appropriations enumerated in the draft of a bill reported by the
Committee on Appropriations to the Assembly in the session of
1871-72. It will serve to illustrate the difference between the cost of
the Territorial and State eovernments. if no other important purpose.
516 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
The items covered everything for which the Territory was responsible,
omitting of course the per diem and mileage allowances by the Federal
government, the salaries of the Governor, Secretary, Judges and other
Federal officers. It should also be stated in this connection, that the
Territory allowed each of the three Justices of the Supreme court, two
thousand dollars per annum in addition to the pay given them by con-
gressional law. The fixed and estimated charges given below were for
the biennial term.
For the pay of officers and members of the Legislature, $13,500;
salaries of the Supreme Court, $12,000; salaries of Territorial officers,
$16,200; District Attorneys $4,100, and for penitentiary expenses,
$30,000. The last item provoked much acrid discussion. The capacity
of the prison was only equal to the accommodation of thirty-nine pris-
oners. The United States owned it, and demanded one dollar per day,
or three hundred and sixty-five dollars per annum for subsisting each
Territorial prisoner confined therein. While the protests against
these exorbitant demands were loud and deep, there was no relief.
The sums allowed the various Territorial officers for contingent
expenses, were — the Auditor, $800 ; Treasurer, $500 ; Adjutant Gen-
eral, $400; Librarian, $1,200 ; Superintendent of Public Instruction,
$500 ; Governor, $600 ; support of lunatic paupers in the common jails,
for we had no asylum, $5,000 ; Legislative printing, $2,650 ; Legislative
newspapers, $200; Legislative postage, $200; other incidental expenses,
$400 ; a safe for the Treasurer, $800 ; storing Territorial arms, $500 ;
making a total of $89,550 for two years, or $44,775 per annum.
In addition there were special appropriations for the Board of
Immigration, maintenance of deaf mutes, etc., aggregating $22,630
which, added to the general appropriations, made a total of $112,180.
The Rocky Mountain "News" in commenting upon the apparent
extravagance of these appropriations, and undoubtedly appalled by their
magnitude, addressed the Assembly in these words : "Gentlemen of the
Assembly, these are large figures, and we beg of you to consider them
well ; as you value your reputations as loyal and intelligent legislators
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 517
do not increase them by the amount of a single dollar." Under the
pressure of public opinion the sum total was finally pruned down to
about $100,000. The curious may find interesting employment b)' com-
paring these expenditures with those of the Assembly of 18S9 for
example, but in doing so they should make due allowance for the vast
difference in taxable property, population, and the needs attending
the greater development.
The treasury statement showed a surplus of cash on hand amount-
ing to fifty-five thousand dollars. As the fixed and estimated charges
were only about fifty thousand per annum, the Legislature wisely pro-
vided that no tax should be levied in 1872, and that the assessment for
1873 should not exceed one and a half mills. Our assemblies of the
olden time may have been slow, but they were forced to be economical.
It is safe to say that the precedent thus established is without parallel in
the history of Colorado, and that we shall never see its like again.
But everything seemeci to be launched on the highway of a long
season of unbroken prosperity. The few clouds bore silver linings.
The mines were productive, railways were being extended in every
direction, capital and immigration poured in, and many new industries
were established.
The Legislature of 1872 passed an act providing for a Bureau of
Immigration, the first and only measure of the kind that has ever
been recorded among our statutes. The Governor appointed Jacob F.
L. vSchirmer and E. P. Hollister of Arapahoe, David C. Collier of
Gilpin, Joseph M. Sherwood of Larimer, and A. W. Archibald of Las
Animas, a Board of Commissioners. George T. Clark, Territorial
Librarian, was chosen vSecretary, and executed a large part of the labor
involved. The commissioners met on the 20th of February following,
and defined a plan of procedure. They were required to adopt and
execute such measures as would best promote immigration to Colorado,
and to collate, publish and disseminate information relating to the
resources of the country. Each member of the commission assumed
such branch of the work as he was best qualified to execute. In due
518 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
time a very creditable pamphlet was issued, and widely distributed. As
a result the increase of immigration was very large, too great in fact for
the Board to manage. As no proper steps had been taken to locate the
new arrivals in places where they were needed ; where the farmers could
be placed upon vacant lands, mechanics furnished employment and the
miscellaneous element disposed of, they were in the main left to shift for
themselves.
The sum appropriated was insufficient to meet the demands of the
overwhelming tide, therefore great confusion, intense disgust and a gen-
eral retreat ensued. Such effects are liable to follow wholesale invita-
tions without adequate preparation for the consequences. In reports
such as this Board issued, the lustrous side of the picture is always pre-
sented. None of its shadows are seen. But all Boards of Immigration
take the same course, in the belief that unless the attractions are tioridly
colored they will not be seen, or if seen, passed by unheeded. In this
instance hordes of immigrants of all avocations arrived, but were not
directed into channels where employment could be found, hence the
universal dissatisfaction. It is better to have no Board of Immigration
at all, better not to waste time and money in advertising and entreating
unless proper avenues are opened and the way cleared for such worthy
people as may respond and are disposed to remain. As a consequence
of the disappointment arising from this effort to awaken a great tide
of immigration to Colorado, the Territory was vindictively denounced
from one end of the Union to the other, and for years thereafter, indeed
until the proclamation of the great discoveries at Leadville in 1878-79,
we were almost wholl)' debarred from doing any advertising at all.
At the municipal election held in April, 1872, Joseph E. Bates, who
for many years had been identified with public affairs, as a member of
the City Council and the Legislative Assembl)', and well qualified to
accurately measure the drift of events and to meet the requirements of
the new development, was chosen Mayor of Denver. Realizing the
deplorable lack of public improvements, and that an advance commen-
surate with the rapid growth in all other directions should be made, his
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 519
inaugural address contained numerous recommendations for such
improvements, which, with the hearty co-operation of the council were
put into execution as fast as the limited funds at their disposal would
permit. The Mayor elect strenuously urged among other things, the
laying of sidewalks, the few we had being sadly in need of repair, and
their extension from the business center to the residence streets, where
there were none. But few of the streets were graded, and these
received early attention. The erection of public buildings, the purchase
of lands for public parks, the organization of police, fire and health
departments, was insisted upon. One of the first acts of his adminis-
tration was to order a thorough cleansing of the streets and alleys.
New ordinances in regard to gas, water and sewerage were earnestl)'
advocated. In brief. Mayor Bates gave early evidence of executive
ability of a high order, and during his term of office many improvements
were added. While not all were wholly supplied, the police, and fire
and health departments were organized and equipped for greater useful-
ness, the public thoroughfares vastly improved, and the basis laid for the
present efficient methods.
It is not only singular but astonishing that, with the opportunities at
the disposal of the original town companies of East and West Denver,
not a single acre nor fraction of land in all the broad areas of their
respective town sites was set aside for a public park. Now that we need
them, now that the city has grown far beyond the anticipations and pre-
dictions of its founders, we are lost in amazement at the greediness or
want of foresight which induced the platting of two great towns without
the slightest provision for the resorts which every community should
have, and which when supplied are unmixed blessings to invalids and the
toiling classes who seek them as inviting retreats from the heat and dust
of the summer months. Even at the time when Mayor Bates took up
the matter though late, a more liberal spirit might have accomplished
such reservations. Land, though greatly enhanced in value, was never-
theless extremely cheap compared with present values. Still nothing
could be done, because the city had no funds that could be applied to
520 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
such purposes. The people, dreading taxation and abhorring the idea of
a municipal debt, would not give their consent to an issue of bonds.
And so it has gone on from year to year. For the want of timely
action the opportunity has passed away forever. It seems extraor-
dinary, also, that nearly every proposed expenditure for public improve-
ment— the Holly water system, the gas works, the paid fire department,
uniformed and disciplined police, the board of health, fire steamers, the
patrol wagon, the erection of a city hall — were all accomplished under
serious opposition. Even the Court House, which as soon as bui't
became a source of universal pride, was erected where it stands under a
whirlwind of disapproval. It can be accounted for by no other cour -^
of reasoning than that the rigid, almost Puritanical conservatii-m of the
people impelled them to move slowly and keep out of debt rather th::n
to advance rapidly under heavy burdens of taxation. It is ascribable in
some degree, also, to the long stress of patient economy which the}- had
been forced to practice for the want of means to afford the luxuries.
The little wealth they possessed had been acquired by hard work, liter-
ally by the sweat of their brows. All the pioneers came here poor, and
every dollar they earned had to be applied to some new want of their
condition. Again, very few were over-sanguine of the future. This is
indicated by the character of their buildings, the modesty of their
dwellings, and by the close economy everywhere observable.
I have heard the sage predictions of some of our most enter-
prising and loyal business men, that some day in the distant future
Denver would probably attain a population of fifty thousand. This
was the utmost limit of their aspirations. The man who soared to the
anticipation of one hundred thousand was considered a fit subject for a
lunatic asylum. Men dreamed of a city of fifty thousand souls as if it
were a remote possibility, but there they drew the line. There are
some among our rich men of to-day, made opulent through the phe-
nomenal expansion of things, who have no more faith in the future
than they had twenty years ago. It is the optimists that have built
the town.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 521
When the State constitution of 1876 was framed, it was a constant
struggle to discover the least expensive methods of instituting and
conducting an independent government. Salaries and every other
element touching financial questions — in other words, that looked to
an increase of expenditures from the economical base to which the
taxpayers had been so long accustomed^ were rigidly scrutinized, and
in revising thoroughly pruned, so that when the instrument was sent to
the people for approval, it was commended as the best and cheapest
arrangement that could be made. Pending the election, the news-
papers devoted to the change paid special attention to the economic
questions, arguing incessantly to convince their readers that while the
State would, undeniably, be a trifle more expensive than the Territory,
the difference would be made up by immigration and railroads, the
increase of taxable property and so forth, so that the rate of assessment
would not be increased. Though the sentiment of the time was rather
more favorable than it had been in 1864-65, the charter of 1876 was by
no means enthusiastically accepted.
With these facts in mind, the reader vv^ill readily comprehend the
difficulty of the undertaking which Mayor Bates assumed when he pro-
posed to lift the city of Denver out of its normal condition of an over-
grown village to the plane of a great inland metropolis. He saw the
need of broad and liberal plans for the coming years, possibly foresaw
something of the development that fifteen years later made this the
focus of wonderful enterprises, and so far as he might be able, intended
to keep the municipal machinery abreast of, if not in advance of the
time. But it was not until his second administration in 1885, however,
that he was enabled to carry out more fully the conceptions formed
in 1872.
Thus we find after an experience of nearly thirty years, many
deficiencies in our municipal system that should have been supplied in
the formative stages. The one fatal error for which future generations
will not forgive the first, was its failure to provide public parks. The
historian of to-day can scarcely write of this subject without intense
522 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
deprecation of the omission. He cannot divest his mind of the feehng
that a Httle generosity in the early days would have made Denver not
only a more beautiful city, but infinitely more inviting to the multitudes
of invalids and strangers who come here for health or pleasure. While
it is true that we have now two quite extensive parks, they are so dis-
tant from the heart of the city and have been so little improved as to
be almost a reflection upon, instead of a credit to the city government.
This too, is an outgrowth of the morbid fear of a public debt.
It was in the year 1872 that Henry M. Stanley, now the most
noted explorer of modern times, plunged into the wilds of Central
Africa under orders from the New York "Herald," to discover if possible
the great Scotch traveler, Dr. Livingstone. Stanley was known to
many in Denver, and in some of the numerous towns of Colorado.
Naturally talented, possessed of a fair education, but ambitious, rest-
less, and passionately fond of drifting from place to place in search of
adventure, he wandered out here in 1866, and visited nearly all the
prominent towns in the Territory, writing his impressions of them to
the Eastern press. He accompanied General Hancock's expedition to
the Indian country in 1867 as correspondent of the St. Louis " Dem-
ocrat" which he kept supplied with interesting details of that rather
inglorious campaign.
When Hancock retired to the eastward Stanley came on to Denver,
remaining a week or two ; then aspiring to the accomplishment of a
feat which many had attempted, but few succeeded in executing, he
procured a skiff ten or twelve feet long, filled one end with provisions,
and seating himself in the other, launched his frail bark on the treach-
erous bosom of the Platte with the avowed intention of sailing clear
through to the Missouri River. He endured great hardships in the
perilous journey, as did all of the many who had rashly entered upon
similar undertakings ; was, according to his own account, repeatedly
fired upon by hostile Indians, but escaped unhurt, and finally made his
way to St. Louis, where an elaborate description of his adventures
was prepared for and published in the " Democrat."
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 523
We next hear of him in Omaha as a reporter on one of the news-
papers of that city. Shortly afterward he fell violently in love with a
captivating variety actress who lured him on, and after a time, jilted
him. Stanley suffered deeply from this desertion, for it appears to
have been an honest affection, and soon re-commenced his wander
ings, stopping nowhere more than a few days or weeks. A short time
afterward the actress came to Denver. Stanley at length engaged as
correspondent of the New York " Herald," and was ordered to
London, where he was assigned to General Napier's expedition against
King Theodore of Abyssinia. This mission concluded, he volun-
teered to penetrate the jungles of Africa in search of Dr. Livingstone.
The first anniversary meeting of the Fountain Colony Company
was held at Colorado Springs the first week in August, 1872. General
Wm. J. Palmer presided, and many congratulatory speeches were
delivered upon the progress made and prospects for the future.
When the first locomotive of the Denver & Rio Grande road
reached this point, but a single house marked the spot, and that a small
log cabin with mud chinked sides and a dirt roof owned and devoted
to hotel purposes, or rather of an eating station, by Captain Richard
Sopris, who, as these chronicles show, was one of the most conspicuous
of the Colorado pioneers. His name appears at every stage of our
early annals. He was associated with nearly every prominent event,
since he took part in most of the movements of historical interest ; in
the organization of numerous mining camps, the formation of local
governments, in Denver, Auraria, Central City, Gregory, Jackson, in
the San Juan country, and in the gallant record made by the First
Re2:iment of Colorado Volunteers. And now at the initial stas^e of
Colorado Springs we find him located at the very head of the corner.
Colorado City had sunken into ruin, and the glories of Manitou
were yet to be sung. But the spirit of progress evoked by the railway
soon quickened the dormant forces of nature into splendid achievements.
It was discovered by the builders that here lay the foundation of a great
popular resort. The springs were among the finest known, the envi-
52i HISTORY OF COLORADO.
ronment wonderfully charming. They saw, as Fitzhugh Ludlow
prophesied years before, that here was to be the chosen resort of
invalids, tourists, pleasure seekers, wealth and culture from every land.
So they prepared for it. Unlike the Union Pacific in its inexplicable
neglect of Idaho Springs, which by the judicious and timely expenditure
of a few thousands might have been made a mountain paradise, they
bestowed their funds liberally in planning and perfecting a system of
drives, building elegant hotels and in every v/ay beautifying this lovely
retreat. What a marvelous harvest the company has reaped from
these generous contributions made at the proper time. By the same
process Idaho might have been rendered equally charming, but it was
withheld. What has been done toward the embellishment of this
attractive valley is the work of private capital and enterprise. The
railroad company has had no part in it. We are inclined to be indig-
nant with a corporation which had so much to gain, which might have
added so much to the development of this resort by the exercise of a
little open handed liberality, but which almost tyrannically denied all
sympathy, giving no sign of appreciation or encouragement. While
the Rio Grande has made Manitou and Colorado Springs famous
throughout Christendom, by a wisely ordered system of advertising,
and has brought thousands from abroad to the enjoyment of the rich
prospect, and the social life established there, Idaho, no less worthy, is
comparatively unknown.
General Palmer selected for his summer residence one of the most
enchantinor and romantic orlens in all the wonderful formations in the
neighborhood of the Garden of the Gods, built a beautiful home there,
and called it " Glen Eyrie.'' This, too, proved a wise investment, for
the tourist might as well not visit Manitou at all as to miss the
grandeur of Glen Eyrie.
The town site of Colorado Springs embraced seventy blocks four
hundred feet square. The contract for the first hotel was let August
ist, 1 871. Contracts for the Fountain and Monument irrigating
canals were let August 4th of the same year. The first private resi-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 525
dence was put under construction August 15th. At the close of 1871,
the Secretary's books showed that one hundred and ninety-seven mem-
berships had been sold, two hundred and seventy-seven town lots dis-
posed of at a gross valuation of twenty-four thousand dollars, with
three hundred and seventy acres of farming land at a valuation of
eleven thousand three hundred and fifty-nine dollars and ninety cents,
making a total of thirty-six thousand and fifty-nine dollars and ninety
cents, for lots and lands sold at the prices put upon them anterior to
settlement.
The number of houses that had been erected in the town to the
date of Secretary Pabor's report, was one hundred and fifty-nine.
Contracts for fifteen others were then in the hands of builders. The
total population was estimated at seven hundred and ninety-five, and
the value of the buildings erected by individuals at one hundred and
sixty thousand dollars.
An excellent weekly newspaper had been founded. Many pros-
perous business houses and two churches had been built, a free reading
room opened, and a contract for a fine public school building given
out. Nineteen miles of canals two and a half feet deep and six feet
wide had been excavated, which, with the seven miles additional then in
progress, would place all the colony lands under irrigation. Some-
thing over thirteen miles of lateral canals had been put through the
town, seven miles of shade trees planted, four quite extensive public
parks laid out containing a combined area of one hundred and eight
acres, and the educational interests of the future provided for by
liberal reservations for free schools, academies and colleges.
These founders builded more wisely, perhaps, than they knew, but
in preparing for the future they left nothing undone calculated to
enhance the beauty and prosperity of the place. As a consequence,
Colorado Springs has become in the brief space of eighteen years one
of the most admirable of Western towns, the home of thousands of
happy and prosperous people.
The Fort Collins military reservation, established as a protection
526 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
to settlers during the Indian wars, was relinquished by the govern-
ment and thrown open to homestead and pre-emption entries in 1872,
under the provisions of an act of Congress approved May 15th of
that year. July 30th General W. H. Lessig, Surveyor-General of
Colorado, was instructed to complete the plats of survey and transmit
diagrams of the same to the proper local land office, preparatory to
the disposal of these lands to settlers as provided in the act mentioned.
The reservation occupied an extensive and very fertile tract on the
Cache la Poudre River, or Creek, about four and a half miles from
the mountains and twenty-five from Greeley, in one of the most
attractive valleys of Northern Colorado, with abundant water for irri-
gation, and power for manufactures, when the time should come for its
utilization in that branch of industry. The site on which the town is
located commands a superb view of the mountains. The State Agri-
cultural College, an institute that has accomplished more for the
proper guidance of farmers, and toward the successful development of
agriculture and horticulture, than all other influences combined, is
located there.
The climate and soil of this region are unexcelled, the crops among
the most abundant produced in any portion of the State. The colony
located here was organized on substantially the same basis as that at
Greeley and Colorado Springs. General R. A. Cameron, the veteran
organizer and director of the greater part of our prosperous colonies,
was chosen President and Superintendent, and W. E. Pabor Secretary
and Treasurer. The Vice-President was J. C. Matthews ; the trustees
were Judge Hawes, ex-Sheriff Brush, Judge J. M. Sherwood, B. H.
Eaton — afterward Governor of Colorado — Sheriff Mason, Norman H.
Meldrum — afterward Lieutenant Governor — E. W. Whitcomb and B.
T. Whedbee. Under rightly directed influences this colony has devel-
oped into a strong and prosperous center of trade. At each recurring
season bountiful harvests have rewarded the husbandman, and it seems
destined to be one of the larger towns of the State.
The Colony Company secured one-half of the town lots and
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 527
suburban lands adjoining the town proper, owned by the Larimer
County Land Improvement Company, for the purpose of holding in
trust the lands lying adjacent to the agricultural college for the use and
benefit of actual settlers ; also for the purpose of making rapid develop-
ment of the country, thereby giving to each fixed settler co-operative
participation in the gains derivable from the enhancement of real values
from existing prices. Upon a broad and enlightened public policy,
aided by a thrifty and enterprising people, Fort Collins has made great
advances. It has two railroads, with the prospect of one or two more
in the near future. In the near vicinity have been developed numerous
extensive quarries of fine building and paving stone, whence several
towns in Colorado, and many in neighboring States draw much of their
building material.
Toward the last of January, 1872, a meeting of the pioneers
of 1858-59 was held in Cutler's Hall in the city of Denver, to advise
concerning the expediency of organizing an association for social
entertainment, the exercise of a broader charity toward the more
unfortunate of the guild, for the collection of historical data and inter-
esting reminiscences, and with the view of providing for the greater
comfort of the destitute, and for the interment of the dead. A. H.
Barker presided, and O. J. Goldrick was chosen Secretary. Mr. W^m.
N. Byers, in an address of some length, proposed the formation of a
strong cohesive association similar to that of the forty-niners of Cali-
fornia, having for one of its chief purposes the perpetuation of the
early history of the Pike's Peak region ; the preparation of a system
of records containing the names and, so far as possible, the discoveries
and noteworthy exploits of the pioneers; the adoption of a symbol or
badge for identification of the early explorers from the common herd
of tenderfeet, annual reunions and banquets, and the cementing of
fraternal ties between those who had borne honorable parts in the
annals of the country.
A few days later, all needful preliminaries having been arranged,
an adjourned meeting was held in the same place, sixty pioneers
528 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
being present, when a constitution, with appropriate by-laws, rules and
regulations, was adopted. The organization was perfected by the
election of the following officers :
President, Hiram P. Bennett; Vice-Presidents, Dr. J. H. Mor-
rison and Richard Sopris ; Secretary, William N. Byers ; Treasurer,
F. Z. Salomon ; Marshal, John L. Dailey. The Board of Trustees
comprised the ofificers named, with James M. Broadwell and John
Armor. The society thus united exists to the present day, but its
rules were subsequently modified to embrace all who came to the
country prior to 1861. It is an honorable and a devoted brother-
hood, extending its beneficences to the living, and paying the last
honors to its dead. As in the Grand Army of the Republic, the
sword of death cuts great gaps in its ranks each year, and soon the
record will be closed forever.
Colorado has been visited by many distinguished men, statesmen,
soldiers, authors and scientists in its time, but down to the latest period
embraced in this volume, it has been honored by the presence of but
one representative of royalty. On the 23d of January, 1872, the
Grand Duke Alexis, youngest son of Emperor Alexander of Russia,
with a numerous retinue, arrived in Denver. The enthusiastic greet-
in;^^ accorded the son of that distinguished ruler in New York and
Avherever he traveled, was simply an expression by the people of the
Northern States of their appreciation of the steadfast friendliness of
Russia to the cause of the Union during the w^ar. Therefore, Alexis
was literally overwhelmed with courtesies and ovations from the begin-
ning to the close of his American tour.
But that portion of the trip which was most enjoyable to him
was the grand buffalo hunt on the Western plains under the pilotage
of *' Buffalo Bill" — W. F. Cody — and Generals Sheridan and Custer.
This concluded, they came on to Denver for a view of the Rocky
Mountains. The party was met at Cheyenne by Governor McCook,
ex- Governor Evans, Mayor Bates, Col. George E. Randolph, Judge
James B. Belford and others. The Grand Duke was accompanied by
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 529
his tutor, Admiral Possuet, Count Olsenficff, Consul General Bodisco,
Count Starlingoff, Lieutenant Tudur of the hiiperial Navy, a corre-
spondent of the New York "Herald," and a number of servants.
General Sheridan's staff consisted of General George A. For-
sythe and Col. M. V. Sheridan, aides de camp. General George A.
Custer and General Sweitzer. The day following their arrival, the party
was driven about the city in carriages, and in the evening "a grand ducal
ball" was oriven in the dininor room of the American House. After as
thorough an examination as could be made in the limited time at their
disposal, of the principal features of the town, they visited Golden City
where they were entertained by the officers of the Colorado Central
Railway Company. After two days in this region, the Grand Duke and
suite departed via the Kansas Pacific for St. Louis, Memphis and New
Orleans.
During the year 1872, the mining sections of the San Juan Moun-
tains were heavily peopled, through the discovery of many very rich
gold and silver mines. Though several attempts had previously been
made to effect a permanent lodgment in that country, no material suc-
cess was gained until the year of which we write. The loftiness of the
altitude, the length and severity of the winters, the great difficulty of
taking in supplies, and perhaps more than all, the enormous expense
of transporting heavy goods, as machinery for mining and reduction
over the rocky and rugged ranges, rendered the experiment unusually
hazardous. The placer mines never yielded large amounts of gold, and
though the lodes and ledges were strong, well defined and extremely
valuable, for the reasons stated, no considerable progress toward open-
ing them was possible. How those people clung to the region
through so many years before the extension of the Rio Grande rail-
road to Durango and Silverton afforded them egress for their ores and
ingress for supplies, is almost inexplicable. That they did not revel in
luxury we know, but the puzzle is how the great majority managed to
subsist at all under the trying conditions of their complete isolation.
But after the railroad was built and a new era begun, man)- of those
34
530 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
who toiled, and fasted, and suffered every deprivation save absolute
starvation, reaped the reward of their courage and tenacity. To-day
the San Juan region, embracing the counties of Ouray, Dolores, San
Juan, La Plata and San Miguel, is one of the most extensive and pro-
ductive mineral bearing sections of the State, where several large towns
have been built, and from whence a considerable part of our more
valuable gold and silver ores are obtained for the smelters of Denver
and Pueblo. A full geological and statistical review of this and all
other mining divisions of the State will appear in the second volume
of this work.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 531
CHAPTER XXX.
Organization, location and early history of union colony — visit of n. c.
meeker attempt to locate in the south park arrival of horace
greeley fate of the first and only saloon ever opened in greeley —
CARL WULSTEN's COLONY IN THE WET MOUNTAIN VALLEY REVIEW OF IRRIGA-
TION TREE PLANTING AND FRUIT CULTURE THE CHICAGO-COLORADO COLONY
ESTABLISH LONGMONT COLORADO WHEAT AND FLOUR IN THE EAST.
The period in which many tracts of public land in Colorado were
colonized, resulting in the happy settlement of several thrifty, indus-
trious and well ordered communities, and the development of some of
the finest towns in the commonwealth, began in 1869-70. The move-
ment was inaugurated by Mr. N. C. Meeker, agricultural editor of the
New York " Tribune," under the advice and patronage of Horace
Greeley, who evinced a lively interest in the drift of emigration to the
westward. Mr. Meeker came to the Territory in the summer of 1869
with a small party of journalists and others interested in the project,
and after a general examination of the country, being deeply enam-
ored of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and lost in admiration of
the fruits produced by farmers already located here, conceived the
plan of establishing a modest colony of fifty or sixty families at some
point^where an abundance of good land could be pre-empted or pur-
chased, and supplied with water for irrigation. Traveling in the
mountains so fascinated Meeker that he had about decided to locate his
proposed colony in the southeasterly edge of the South Park, but after
advising with Mr. Wm. N. Byers, who comprehended that such a
selection would result disastrously, finally, but with some reluctance,
abandoned this idea, and was led to consider favorably the site subse-
532 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
quently located upon. Mr. Byers attended most of the original colony
meetings in New York, and assisted largely in the preliminary organi-
zation, and the movement for the ultimate location. A number of
settlers, among them Peter Winne and David Barnes, had some years
previous taken up a part of the lands on the Cache la Poudre, and
were then cultivating them. Mr. Byers strongly urged Meeker to
allow them to remain, as his people would gather much information
from their experience, but Meeker insisted on buying them out, and
did so.
But without reaching a definite conclusion as to a location, though
many sections were examined, the party returned to New York, where
Meeker made a full report of his observations in the West, and out-
lined his contemplated enterprise. Mr. Greeley, delighted with the
prospect, entered most ardently into the scheme, authorizing his agri-
cultural editor to make free use of the columns of the " Tribune '' in
bringing the matter to public notice. The call for volunteers was pub-
lished in the latter part of December, 1869, and in a short time no
less than eight hundred responses were received. A meeting was held
at Cooper Institute, New York, December 23d, when Union Colony
was formally organized, and the major details perfected. Mr. Meeker
was chosen President ; Gen. R. A. Cameron, Vice-President, and
Horace Greeley, Treasurer. A locating committee consisting of N. C.
Meeker, General Cameron, and A. C. Fisk was appointed, and, accom-
panied by Mr. H. T. West, came out to the Territory to select a
location.
On the 5th of April, 1870, the following telegram was sent to
New York : "Union Colony No. i has located on the delta formed by
the South Platte and the Cache la Poudre Rivers, and near the Denver
Pacific Railroad." From a chronicle of the time we discover that the
"first settlers arrived about the middle of May, On the future town
site not a house, shanty, nor even a bush or twig was in sight excepting
a fringe of trees bordering the Platte River, Besides these nothing
was to be seen between the river and the foothills, twenty miles away,
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 533
but a vast rolling prairie covered with cactus and the short gramma
grass of the region. The next year the assessed valuation of real and
personal property in Greeley, was over four hundred thousand dollars,
and to-day" — in the fall of 1886 — "it is nearly one million, which repre-
sents far more in proportion than did the valuation of 1871."
At the outset sixty persons joined the association, each paying an
initiation fee of five dollars and pledging themselves to pay one hun-
dred and fifty dollars each at the call of the Treasurer, to be covered
into a fund for the purchase of land. No member was permitted to
buy more than one hundred and sixty acres. According to the state-
ments contained in the responses to Mr. Meeker's circular, the total
amount of wealth represented was something over a million dollars.
Most of the trades, professions and pursuits were included, but the
majority were farmers. Horace Greeley had lent the aid of his pow-
erful name and benevolent countenance to the enterprise, and that was
sufficient to attest its genuineness and worth. All New England, with
many parts of New York, Ohio and Indiana became interested in the
proposed colony. At the Cooper Institute meeting which was a very
large gathering, many glowing speeches were made, and the entire
proposition laid bare. General Cameron, after enlarging upon the
location selected, and the prospects ; the wonderful climate, the scenic
beauty of the mountains and plains, the richness of the soil and the
marvelous opportunities opened to the industrious settler, observed
that what the colony needed first of all to insure success was a strong
organization — and money. Said he, " I went to Indiana when it was a
wilderness, and to Chicago when it was a mud hole, and now I want to
go to Colorado. Nowhere else on the globe is there such a country as
the West. The great mining region is to be developed, and when this
is done a market will be created that cannot be overstocked."
In a compilation of data prepared for the advisement of the colo-
nists we find the following information : " Milch cows are worth thirty-
five to sixty-five dollars each ; five year old steers, forty-five dollars ;
oxen, one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty- five dollars per
534 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
yoke ; saddle ponies, seventy-five dollars each ; good farm horses,
three hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars per span ; mules, three
fifty to four hundred and fifty per span ; broken down stage horses,
one hundred dollars each ; lumber, thirty to forty dollars per thousand
feet.
" Wheat is worth two and a half cents per pound ; corn and oats
the same ; barley, four cents ; flour, four fifty to six dollars per hun-
dred pounds ; butter, forty-five to fifty cents ; potatoes, two to three
cents per pound, and eggs thirty-five to forty cents per dozen. Farm
laborers command from twenty-five to forty dollars per month with
board ; mechanics, five dollars per day without board ; women as cooks
and housekeepers, seven to ten dollars per week with board and
room."
The foregoing extract represents very fully and accurately the
prices which then ruled in the towns on the plains and throughout the
agricultural sections. In the mining districts somewhat higher rates
prevailed.
The movement enlisted the attention of all who were disposed to
emigrate. In every community there are many who, though com-
fortably situated, and, as the phrase goes, doing well, are nevertheless
dissatisfied with moderate gains and slow progress ; who are ever on
the watch for an opportunity to change to new fields where greater
promise is offered for rapid advancement. The spirits which long to
venture out into the New West are awakened, but few consider the
trials incident to the redemption of that mysterious region. To them
it is a land flowing with milk and honey, filled with treasures to be had
for the seeking, where ambition finds bountiful reward and industry
countless wealth. On the bleak and dreary coasts of New England,
climatic influences depress and discourage ; the soil is hard and stub-
born. Hence when the committee presented its attractive facts and
figures, hundreds rose up and accepted the invitation to settle in
Colorado.
About five hundred paid the initiation fees and signed the mem-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 535
bership roll. The managers resolved at the outset that the colony
should be entirely free from the sale and use of intoxicants, a pure,
moral, sober and model community. Therefore they incorporated in
its articles of association a clause prohibiting the manufacture and sale
of liquors. The colony was established on the stock basis, the lands
being purchased from the common fund and held by Horace Greeley
as trustee for the shareholders, who were to become owners in fee upon
compliance with the conditions named in the contracts. There were
town lots for the town dwellers, larger rural plats about the town, and
farm lands outside of these, the plan contemplating a series of con-
centric circles with prices graduated according to location.
About the first of May, 1870, some fifty families had arrived via
the Union Pacific and Denver Pacific railroads. They were not emi-
grants in the common acceptation of the term, but chiefly intelligent,
well-to-do people, resolved to take up the work assigned them in the
redemption of the wilderness, and to pursue it earnestly by the light
given them. There were farmers, merchants, bankers, mechanics, each
bringing such implements, stocks, and accessories of his particular
avocation, as were needed for a beginning. Tents were set up for tem-
porary shelter until more substantial structures could be supplied. By
the last of the month at least four hundred people had been located in
the new Acadia. As a rule they were content with the prospects as
they found them, anticipating the nature of the site and its surround-
ings, the labor and sacrifice involved. A few whose minds had been
filled with illusions, who perhaps had never been away from the com-
forts of a well established homestead, and wholly unfitted to endure the
privations which now confronted them, became homesick and disgusted.
But the sturdy majority who had enlisted for the war, and were
determined to see the end of it, threw off their coats, rolled up their
sleeves and went to work, first of all, in building homes for their fam-
ilies, planting farms and gardens, setting out trees and shrubs, and then
constructing a mighty canal. Mills were set up in the mountains to
provide lumber for dwellings and other purposes, while orders for the
536 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
better class of building material were sent to Chicago. The entire
summer and autumn of the first year were consumed in preparatory
work. The officers and the Executive Committee having studied out
and matured the plans, exerted themselves manfully in directing the
movements of the multitude to the end that there should be no clash-
ing of the elements, and that all might move together in harmony for
the common good.
Notwithstanding these wisely ordered proceedings, some discon-
tent was manifested. It would have been a miraculous event if all had
been wholly satisfied with the arrangements made. Reports found
their way into print here and elsewhere, that the colony was in a state
of disintegration, and that its members were deserting it by scores.
While it was true that some were grievously disappointed, and others
unwilling to abide by the regulations, abandoned the enterprise, no
very serious dissension occurred. Some objected to the method of
dividing and apportioning lots and lands ; others expected but failed to
receive farms of one hundred and sixty acres immediately adjoining
the town site, and still others complained because they had no shelter,
and so on through the list. Again, there was a class who came with
the view of speculating in lands and upon the necessities of the less
fortunate colonists, but being checked by the rules of the association,
broke out in maledictions upon the management, and finally shook the
dust from their feet and departed, spreading evil tidings as they went.
But the solid element, undismayed by the tempest, held sturdily to
the main purpose, convinced that the mission they had undertaken
would eventuate to their lasting advantage. Every day some progress
marked their patriotic endeavors. They built the canals, went into the
mountains and sawed out lumber, established brick yards, attended to
every duty incumbent upon them, wrought patiently upon every prob-
lem of the situation during the week, and on Sundays went piously to
church wherever it might be held, whether in a tent or in the open air,
sung the good old hymns, and worshiped God fervently as they had
been taught. Such were the people that made Union Colony.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 537
The projectors secured by purchase from the Denver Pacific Rail-
road Company nine thousand three hundred and twenty-four acres, and
from individual owners two thousand five hundred and ninety-two
acres, for which, including the Land office fees for preliminary occu-
pation of sixty thousand acres of public land, they paid fifty-nine thou-
sand nine hundred and seventy dollars. Drafts in payment were
drawn upon Horace Greeley, Treasurer, by Meeker and Cameron.
They had a contract also with the Denver Pacific company which
allowed them to purchase at any time within three years from May ist,
1870, fifty thousand acres, to be selected by the ofificers of the colony
within certain bounds, at prices ranging between three dollars and three
fifty per acre.
Members who were willing to take eighty acres of government
land, commencing at a distance of about four miles from the town site
for their memberships, were allowed to take an additional and adjoin-
ing eighty acres of railroad land by paying the colony the cost of the
same at the time of purchase, or three dollars per acre, until May ist,
187 1 — water for irrigation to go with the land.
A member was entitled to a lot of land as he might select, of five,
ten, twenty, forty or more acres up to the largest number the colony
could give any one for his hundred and fifty dollars, depending on the
distance from the town site. Improvements had to be made upon out-
lying tracts within one year from the date of the location of the
colony lands, viz.: April 5th, 1870, to entitle the person to a deed,
unless the same person purchased a town lot and improved that to
the satisfaction of the Executive Committee — water for irrigation to
be furnished by the latter. The colony dug the ditches, each member
being assessed his proportionate share of the cost of keeping them in
repair. The estimated cost of the canals was twenty thousand dollars.
Members were also entitled to town lots for residence or business
purposes, either or both, at the minimum price of fifty dollars for
corners, and twenty-five dollars for inside lots, deeds to be given when
they entered upon them in good faith to the satisfaction of the Execu-
538 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
tive Committee. The funds derived from the sale of town lots were
devoted to public improvements. In the beginning there were twelve
hundred and twenty-four lots ; for residence six hundred, and for busi-
ness four hundred and eighty-three, the remainder being reserved for
schools, churches, courthouse and town hall.
By virtue of their corporate organization, the members of the
colony controlled the municipal and all other affairs pertaining to local
government. Mr. Meeker received as compensation for his services,
while actively engaged in colony work, a salary of one hundred and
sixty dollars per month ; his son, Ralph Meeker, as assistant secretary,
fifty dollars per month, and General R. A. Cameron, Vice-President
and Superintendent, who received and located the colonists as they
arrived, seven dollars per day.
By the end of the first month the colony had three general pro-
vision stores, two bakeries, a like number of meat markets, one hotel,
a boarding house, a blind, sash and paint shop, an artist's studio, a
bank, postofifice, a railway depot, and a telegraph station. Much of the
lumber used in the better class of buildings was brought from Chicago
at a cost of thirty-eight dollars per thousand feet. Hundreds of fruit
and forest trees had been set out, many acres of land planted and
seeded. Prior to the completion of the canals the trees were watered
by hand from wells.
Out of the large number of arrivals this season, not more than
fifty had deserted the enterprise, the greater part of these selling out
their interests and returning to their Eastern homes, or emigrating to
other parts of the country. By the last of June about one hundred
and thirty houses had been erected and a number of farms put under
tillaofe. These facts show that a larQ^e amount of work had been done
in the short time since the first installment of colonists arrived. The
town had been established upon a firm and enduring basis, and the
germs of various industries introduced. The results accomplished
demonstrate the energy and good will which actuated the majority in
their determination to reclaim the waste places of nature. Let the
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 539
reader imagine the circumstances and the apparent inhospitable con-
ditions under which they began. If acquainted with the thrift and
comfort of New England homes he will readily comprehend the vast
difference between such scenes and the austere desolation of the Cache
la Poudre Valley in its natural state, before a house had been built, a
tree planted, or an acre plowed. Even the elements were against them,
everything was new, the forms and methods of cultivation untried.
The settler of to-day to whom the way has been opened and made
comparatively clear, will easily comprehend that great courage was
necessary to carry these pioneers over the difficulties that met and
opposed them on every hand.
About the middle of October, 1870, Horace Greeley himself, the
patron saint of Union Colony and the greatest of American journalists,
arrived in Denver via the Kansas Pacific and, by invitation, delivered
his famous lecture on "Self Made Men," to a large audience assembled
in the Lawrence Street Methodist Church. He prefaced the same
with a few personal observations relating to his first visit to the Rocky
Mountains in 1859, immediately after the discovery of gold by John
Gregory, and his gratification at the marked advance of Western set-
tlement since that time. A day or two later he went down to observe
the progress of the town which bore his name, and which he had been
so largely instrumental in founding, where he was enthusiastically wel-
comed. The platform of the railway station was crowded with colonists,
the town as profusely decorated in his honor as its limited resources
would permit. Those who had flags displayed them, and all mani-
fested in their several ways the joy that inspired them over the arrival
of their leader. A stage or rostrum had been erected in the town, to
which, after the first greetings, the committee conducted him, when
looking down over his spectacles upon the multitude of ardent admirers
he related his experiences in pioneering and farming on the prairies of
Illinois and elsewhere. He believed the location of this colony had
been wisely determined, the soil greatly superior to that of the Salt
Lake valley where the Mormons had accomplished the transformation
540 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of the desert into blooming gardens. He was a little apprehensive,
however, that the colonists had given too much attention to their town
and not enough to the chief business of farming. He had hoped to
see fewer houses in Greeley, and more upon the neighboring lands. It
was there that the greatest effort should have been made, since the
town must depend for its growth and maintenance upon the products of
the soil. While all the results for which he contended came in good
time, it was evident that he felt somewhat disappointed over the lack
of agricultural development. But as we have seen, the colony lost
nothing in the course of events by establishing and fortifying its beau-
tiful central station. It had come late, and before much could be done
with agriculture, water had to be provided, fences built and dwellings
put upon the various subdivisions. The preliminary work consumed
the first year, but in the second and each ensuing season the busi-
ness of husbandry received its full share of attention. The vener-
able Horace gave the settlers much fatherly advice regarding the
management of the colony ; the importance of working in harmony
for mutual benefit ; advocated the organization of Farmers' Clubs,
and pointed out many ways whereby, rightly pursued, their prospects
would be materially brightened.
Notwithstanding the criticism passed upon the initiatory move-
ments, it was apparent that he was deeply moved by the heartiness of
his welcome and the reverential respect exhibited toward him by the
people. Farther examination caused him to see things in a better
light, and satisfied him that the colony had been well founded and
would endure the shocks of time.
But one saloon was ever opened within the colony lines, and
that in the first year of its existence. It happened in this way, as
related by an eye witness : On Sunday morning of October 23d,
1870, a German dealer in beer and other intoxicants, who had been
doing business in the town of Evans four miles above, where the
sale of liquors was not prohibited, concluding that the people of
Greeley only needed a reasonable opportunity to abandon their teeto-
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 541
talism, went down and established himself in an old adobe building
on a ranch within the colony lines, displayed his "wet groceries," and
patiently awaited his customers. This building had been erected by
one of the first settlers in that region. Certain persons, whether
members of the colony or not is of no material consequence, took occa-
sion to patronize the bar rather freely in the morning hours, and
afterward attended church services, where the matter soon became gen-
erally known that an intruder, in direct and defiant violation of the
laws in such case made and provided, had entered upon the sacred
limits devoted to temperance and godly virtues, and begun the sale of
liquid damnation. Before, or immediately after the benediction from
the pulpit, a committee was appointed to call upon the saloon keeper
and remind him of the error of his ways. A crowd soon gathered
about him. The committee quietly but firmly insisted upon the
removal of his contraband goods to the point whence they came,
anyhow outside the Union lines. He replied that, having leased the
premises for a certain period, he proposed to stay there. The com-
mittee entertained different views, issue was joined, but the outcome
was by no means doubtful. The door of his place was instantly
closed and locked by the committee, who, desirous of avoiding violent
demonstrations, renewed their argument. The German told them he
had paid two hundred dollars for his lease, and it was unjust to turn
him out neck and heels without some sort of compensation. The
committee finally proposed to pay him the amount. Meanwhile others
of the attendants had broken Into the place and set it on fire. The
committee extinguished the flames, but they broke out again and again
until at length the cabin was burned to the ground. This proved an
effectual settlement of the question, and thus ended the first and only
attempt to trample upon and overturn one of the fundamental and
unalterable laws of this sturdy little community.
It is only necessary to add at this time, since the subject will be
resumed at a later stage of our history, that the first colony located
in Colorado continued to flourish with the passing years until it became
542 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
a noble monument to the wisdom, honesty and industry of its
founders. In all the West there is no finer example of the benefits
accruing- from well ordained colonization. The builders of this admir-
able structure understood human nature, and the better methods of its
direction under such an association of elements as were here brouofht
together, and while they may have committed numerous errors in
working out the details, the result has, so far, exceeded the highest
expectations formed of the experiment by the original members.
The town has grown and prospered, each member lending his best
endeavors toward the common desire to make it beautiful. Many of
those who came with only moderate possessions have been enriched,
while the fortunes of all have been advanced to a srreater decree
undoubtedly than could have been anticipated from the same number of
years of application to like avocations in the States whence they emi-
grated. The greater part of the lands are under splendid cultivation
and the annual fruitage is of such quality and magnitude as to render it
one of our chief sources of supply for farm and dairy products. No-
where in the West are seen prettier homes or more widespread peace
and contentment. While several other enterprises of a similar char-
acter were instituted in the same and succeeding years, not one has
attained the same decree of excellence throuo^h like influences — unaided
by corporations.
In the spring of 1870 a colony, almost wholly composed of Ger-
mans, was organized in the city of Chicago by Carl Wulsten, and
located in the Wet Mountain Valley, in what is now Custer County.
During the first season some improvements were made, and about one
hundred and twenty-five acres of land plowed and seeded ; a colony
garden of thirty acres was also provided. Each family had a house-
hold garden fifty by one hundred feet. Something over one hundred
families, and about thirty single men were located the initial year, but it
has never been remarkably prosperous, owing in the first instance to fre-
quent and very bitter dissensions among the members, but principally
due to the want of administrative capacity by the leader, Wulsten.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 543
No great irrigating- canals were constructed in Colorado prior to
1870. I do not mean to be understood that none were constructed, for
that would be untrue, but rather to convey the idea that in com-
parison with the colossal enterprises now employed, the few then
known were but mere threads upon the broad face of the plains, the
small and simple beginnings of what is now one of the most extensive
and complete systems of artificial waterways on the American conti-
nent, for we have surpassed Mexico, California and Utah in the length,
breadth, depth and capacity of such canals. For the first two years
the country districts were in the main poor, thinly settled, and groping
in darkness, making but indifferent progress in their search for light to
guide them to the finer intricacies of cultivation under new and strange
accessories. The sun rose every morning on schedule time, smiled
benignly upon them in almost perennial splendor ; the elements
rarely frowning, still more rarely weeping. Canals could not be built
by individual effort ; it must be done either by large combinations of
farmers, or by strong corporations supported by unlimited capital, and
made a distinct branch of the business. How to irrigate the uplands,
even when furnished with water, was unknown to the great majority.
It was not difficult to manage the narrow strips of bottom land along
the streams to which the bulk of production was confined, but the vast
unwatered plateaus adjoining presented difficulties which they were
unable to overcome, and these were seen to be the true great fields of
the future. Even after capital had supplied the remedy, the details of
the problem had to be worked out by incessant application and close
observation of the effects produced by too much or too little water in
the furrows, each crop requiring different treatment. They were with-
out knowledge, precedents or guides, and like the primitive miners, each
was compelled to master the details by slow and costly experimenting.
Meanwhile, the people in the towns and cities, especially in the north-
ern division of the Territory, were forced to look elsewhere, mainly to
Kansas and Nebraska for hay, corn, wheat and oats. But at the close
of the first decade, the knowledge acquired, and the waterways built, had
544 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
prepared the way for the incoming thousands who took up lands on all
the streams and diverted them Into auxiliaries for the further expansion
of husbandry. The business of supplying water soon thereafter fell
into the hands of monopolies whose exactions created in the ensuing
years a vast amount of litigation.
Tree planting and fruit culture began to develop about the year
1863, but no success worthy of mention attended these efforts until
about the year 1869, when the numerous cultivators began to com-
prehend something of the proper methods. This observation is more
directly applicable to the experiments conducted with trees and vines,
for with irrigation rightly applied there was little difificulty in producing
small fruits. In 1870-71 the trees and vines began to bear, and thence-
forward by attentive watching and the frequent interchange of views
and experiences between the farmers in their granger clubs, the pursuit
of horticulture became steadily progressive, though beset by many dis-
asters and failures. The greatest triumphs were achieved in the partic-
ularly favored region about Canon City in Fremont County, where the
geniality of the climate and the peculiar adaptability of the soil, with,
perhaps, a clearer apprehension on the part of the fruit growers, ren-
dered the experimental period less tedious and harrassing. It is there
that the more striking advances have been made, and the larger har-
vests gathered. It has been justly designated the fruit garden of the
State, and it will doubtless maintain its prestige throughout the future.
It is astonishing to see the magnificent fruitage which the still young
trees and vines bring forth with each recurring season. In the spring
the atmosphere all about this charming valley is redolent of the rich
perfume of myriad blossoms, and the scene made one of transcendent
loveliness. In the summer when the fruits are ripening, the branches
have to be supported by strong props to prevent their destruction by
breakage of the heavily burdened stems. However, scenes like this,
entrancing to the senses, as they are, wherever seen, are not confined
wholly to Canon City and its environs. Wherever like care has been
given to fruit culture, similar results have appeared, though in some
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 545
localities it has taken a longer time to secure them. Though the
people of the State are now, and for years — indeed ever since the com-
pletion of the Union Pacific railway — have been largely dependent
upon Salt Lake City and California for their supplies of domestic
fruits, the progress made and making by our own horticulturists, will, in
the procession of the cycles, render us comparatively independent of
foreign sources, in the matter of apples, grapes, pears and plums. The
quality of the fruits raised here is equal to the best produced elsewhere,
and while we may forever lack some of the varieties which are so lav-
ishly furnished by our neighbors of the Pacific slope, and by the well
matured orchards of South-ern Kansas, there is reason to hope that we
may be able to reduce the annual outflow of money for the staples
when the industry shall have been further developed.
Until after 1870-71, the city of Denver, now when viewed from any
of the surrounding heights, apparently seated in the midst of a forest,
was almost wholly destitute of trees and shrubs. It was idle to plant
them unless they could be freely watered until deeply rooted, and there
was no water for the purpose. I well remember a trip to Salt Lake
City in the summer of 1869, soon after the completion of the great
national highway, when I obtained my first view of a Pullman palace
car and of the City of the Saints. How beautiful the chief city of the
Mormons appeared, as the coach bore us up from Uintah station to
the splendidly shaded streets of the modern Zion. The blooming
gardens laden with fruitage, the aspect of bounteous plenty which met
the eye on every hand, the cool green lawns and all the evidences of
perfected cultivation, were in such marked contrast to the treeless and
literally parched brown plains within and without the city of Denver, it
seemed a veritable paradise of luxury and beauty.
The work of setting out trees along our streets came to be very
general in the spring of 1870, mainly young cottonwood saplings,
taken from the borders of the Platte River, arrangements having been
made by the council with the owners of the Platte Ditch to supply water
for them. Each thoroughfare from Broadway down to Larimer street,
35
546 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
and on Fifteenth and Sixteenth to Blake, was fringed with cottonwoods.
As business advanced further and further southward along these par-
allels the trees were cast out, and much of the beauty of the city has
been thereby destroyed. The architects in their desire to exhibit their
handiwork in the erecting of beautiful buildings, have robbed nature of
its richest jewels. Where the Tabor Opera House now stands was
once the beautiful home of Mr. A. B. Daniels, surrounded with eme-
rald lawns and filled with blossoming trees and shrubs, altogether one of
the loveliest homesteads in the city. It seemed the grossest vandalism
to destroy this charming picture of exquisite taste and homelike com-
fort, merely to plant thereon a vast monument of brick and stone.
To-day, the city of Denver by the multiplication of the better
accessions of modern civilization is a far more picturesque and beau-
tiful metropolis than Salt Lake City, five times more populous, and, it is
needless to add, no longer in unfavorable contrast to the capital of Utah.
The Chicago-Colorado colony established the town of Longmont
in Boulder county, about the first of March, 1871. Its members were
mostly Western men. The location comprised fifty-five thousand
acres, purchased from the National Land Company, of which William
N. Byers was the resident manager. The lands selected embraced
the tracts watered by the St. Vrain, the Boulder and Left Hand
Creeks, whose sources are in the lofty eminences of the Snowy Range.
They are partly watered, also, by the Little Thompson, and extend
out from the base of the mountains a distance of about twenty-five
miles. The town is situated near the center on the north bank of
the St. Vrain, and adjoining on the north the previously established
town of Burlington, which Longmont ultimately absorbed.
On the date named, according to the records, about twenty of the
colonists were on the ground actively engaged in laying the founda-
tion of their settlement. The name Longmont appears to be a com-
posite, from Long, in honor of the discoverer of the majestic peak
under whose shadow the miniature city rests, and the French mont, or
mountain. It stands upon a bluff sloping gently toward the St.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 547
Vrain, an affluent of the Platte. Toward the south and east there
are broad and fertile bottom lands, and beyond toward the Boulder
an undulating plain. To the west is the stupendous snow-capped
Sierra Madre, with its ever changing hues and incomparable cloud
effects. The whole prospect is one of great beauty and attractiveness.
The projectors and members of this colony met in the city of
Chicago on the 9th of March, 1871, to hear the final report of the
locating committee. In the absence of the President, Vincent Collyer,
William Bross, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, presided. The
chairman of the locating committee, Mr. H. D. Emery, then editor of
the " Prairie Farmer," stated that himself and associates, in visiting
Colorado, first made a very full examination of Union Colony at
Greeley, and stimulated by this notable example, which they heartily
approved in its essential details of organization and management,
they began searching for an equally eligible site with the result already
mentioned. Mr. Byers being present, was introduced, and subjected to
searching catechism respecting the climate, nature and productions of
the soil, methods of irrigation, diversity of crops producible, markets,
other settlements, experiences of the settlers already here, in short,
everything pertaining to the prospects of the proposed colony. Being
conversant with all the matters on which the meeting desired to be
enlightened, he was prepared to answer its questions satisfactorily.
By the last of May, 1871, the records exhibited a very gratifying
condition of affairs. One hundred and forty-three forty acre tracts
had been located, and deeds issued to twenty ten acre tracts, five
sixty-five acre subdivisions, three hundred and fifty-seven residence
lots, and two hundred and seventy-four business lots. Fourteen miles
of eight foot ditches had been constructed, with nine miles of four foot,
and about twelve miles of side and lateral canals. The main ditch
had been completed, and the water turned in along the streets of the
town. Crops had bten planted, and were in a flourishing condition.
Three hundred and fifteen memberships had been issued, and about
three hundred and fifty adults were on the ground, including one
548 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
hundred and fifty families. Exclusive of farmhouses there were sixty
buildings in the town. This, it will be conceded, was pretty rapid work
for a beginning. As far as practicable the general plan of Union
Colony was adopted in the distribution of lands and the organization
of municipal affairs, but the plan has not been so rigidly observed in
some of its material details. Situated in an exceedingly fertile region,
connected with the principal markets by two lines of railway, the
Colorado Central and the Denver, Utah and Pacific, Longmont has
been greatly prospered. Its further history will be given in the second
volume of this work.
In the fall of 1871 quite an extensive collection of Colorado
products, agricultural and mineral, was made up and sent to St. Louis
for display at the great annual fair held in that city, where, on account
of their excellence, they attracted much attention. Judge Capron,
then United States Commissioner of Agriculture, who was an inter-
ested examiner of the various exhibits, remarked that Colorado was
the only Territory or State which returned to the department better
wheat* than the sample that had been sent out. In other words,
according to his experience, wheat deteriorated in every State and
Territory except Colorado. This flattering tribute was by no means
exaggerated nor unwarranted. The fame of our cereals extended to
many States after opportunity for shipping them to the eastward by
railways was afforded. The average yield per acre is, as a rule,
greater than in any other State except California, but we have an
advantage over all other countries in the size and fullness of the berry,
owing to the presence of natural phosphates and to the fructifying
influence of irrigation from our mountain streams, which in the spring-
time and during the early part of summer come laden with rich veg-
etable mold, that, distributed over the grain fields, lends to them
unequaled fertilizers. The dryness of the climate and the absence of
drenching rains while the crops are ripening, is another cause.
*The wheat referred to was raised by Wm. N. Byers within the present limits of the city of Denver
in 1862, and the sample is still preserved in the National Museum at Washington.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 549
In the winter of 1871 Baxter B. Stiles, of Denver, sent two sacks
of Colorado flour, then regarded as the finest in the world, to the
proprietors of the Southern Hotel in St. Louis, both as a delicate com-
pliment to them, and as an illustration of the perfection of Colorado
agriculture. They finding it equal to all the claims made in its behalf,
instead of converting it into bread for the use of their guests, sent the
donation to the Merchants' Exchange, to be there exhibited to the
connoisseurs of that association, and then sold at public auction for the
benefit of the homeless poor of St. Louis. The members of the
Exchange, appreciating both the motive and the superiority of the
flour, made it the occasion of a spirited rivalry in bidding. Soon the
excitement became infectious, the bids mounted to the fifties and then
to the hundreds, until finally the two sacks were sold for four hundred
and sixty dollars.
Colorado manufactured flour is especially well adapted for export
to the humid States of the South, and to South American ports,
because of its dryness. In the years since 1871 large consignments
have been ordered from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia,
and many carloads have been sent to Pittsburg, New York and Boston.
In the fall of 1872 several sacks were sent to the latter city and there
exhibited on 'Change, which resulted in an order being sent to the
" Rough and Ready Mills " at Littleton, for fifty carloads.
550 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
LEGEND OF MANITOU SPRINGS.
P.Y GEORGE F. RUXTON. — 1847.
The Snakes, who, in common with all Indians, pgssess hereditary legends to account
for all natural phenomena, or any extraordinary occurrences which are beyond their ken
or comprehension, have of course, their legendary version of the causes which created in
the midst of their hunting grounds these two springs of sweet and bitter water ; which
are also intimately connected with the cause of separation between the tribes of
"Comanche" and the "Snake." Thus runs the legend:
Many hundreds of winters ago, when the cottonwoods on the Big River were no
higher than an arrow, and the red men, who hunted the buffalo on the plains all spoke
the same language, and the pipe of peace breathed its social cloud of Kinnik-Kinnick
whenever two parties of hunters met on the boundless plains — where, with hunting
grounds and game of every kind in the greatest abundance, no nation dug up the hatchet
with another because one of its hunters followed the game into their bounds, but, on
the contrary, loaded for him his back with choice and fattest meat, and ever proffered
the soothing pipe before the stranger, with well filled belly, left the village — it hap-
pened that two hunters of different nations met one day on a small rivulet where both
had repaired to quench their thirst. A little stream of water, rising from a spring on a
rock within a few feet of the bank, trickled over it, and fell splashing into the river. To
this the hunters repaired; and while one sought the spring itself, vv^here the water, cold
and clear, reflected on its surface the image of the surrounding scenery, the other, tired
by his exertions in the chase, threw himself at once to the ground, and plunged his face
into the running stream.
The latter had been unsuccessful in the chase, and perhaps his bad fortune and the
sight of the fat deer which the other hunter threw from his back before he drank at the
crystal spring, caused a feeling of jealousy and ill humor to take possession of his mind.
The other on the contrary, before he satisfied his thirst, raised in the hollow of his hand
a portion of the water, and lifting it toward the sun, reversed his hand and allowed it to
fall upon the ground — a libation to the Great Spirit who had vouchsafed him a suc-
cessful hunt and the blessing of the refreshing water with which he was about to quench
his thirst.
Seeing this, and being reminded that he had neglected the usual offering, only
increased the feeling of envy and annoyance which the unsuccessful hunter permitted
to get the ma.stery of his heart ; and the Evil Spirit at that moment entering his body,
his temper fairly flew away and he sought some pretense by which to provoke a quarrel
with the stranger Indian at the spring.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 551
"Why does a stranger," he asked, rising from the stream at the same time, "drink
at the spring head, when one to whom the fountain belongs contents himself with the
water that runs from it ?"
"The Great Spirit places the cool water at the spring," answered the other hunter,
"that his children may drink it pure and undefiled. The running water is for the beasts
which scour the plains. Au-sa-qua is a chief of the Shoshones ; he drinks at the head-
water."
"The Shoshone is but a tribe of the Comanche," returned the other : "Waco-mish
leads the grand nation. Why does a Shoshone dare to drink above him ?"
"He has said it. The Shoshone drinks at the spring-head ; other nations of the
stream which runs into the fields. Au-sa-qua is the chief of his nation. The
Comanches are brothers. Let them both drink of the same water."
"The Shoshone pays tribute to the Comanche. Waco-mish leads that nation to
war. Waco-mish is chief of the Shoshone as he is of his own people."
"Waco-mish lies ; his tongue is forked like the rattlesnake's ; his heart is black as
the Misho-tunga (bad spirit.) When the Manitou made his children, whether Shoshone
or Comanche, Arapahoe, Shian or Paine, he gave them buffalo to eat and the pure
water of the fountain to quench their thirst. He said not to one, drink here, and to
another drink there ; but gave the crystal spring to all that all might drink."
Waco-mish almost burst with rage as the other spoke ; but his coward heart alone
prevented him from provoking an encounter with the calm Shoshone. He made thirsty
by the words he had spoken, — for the red man is ever sparing of his tongue, — again
stooped down to the spring to quench his thirst, when the subtile warrior of the
Comanche suddenly threw himself upon the kneeling hunter and, forcing his head into
the bubbling water, held him down with all his strength until his victim no longer
struggled, his stiffened limbs rela.xed, and he fell forward over the spring, drowned and
dead.
Over the body stood the murderer, and no sooner was the deed of blood consum-
mated than bitter remorse took possession of his mind where before had reigned the
fiercest passion and vindictive hate. With hands clasped to his forehead he stood
transfixed with horror, intently gazing on his victim whose head still remained immersed
in the fountain. Mechanically he dragged the body a few paces from the water, which,
as soon as the head of the dead Indian was withdrawn, the Comanche saw suddenly
and strangely disturbed. Bubbles sprang up from the bottom, and rising to the surface
escaped in hissing gas. A thin vapory cloud arose and gradually dissolving, displayed
to the eyes of the trembling murderer the figure of an aged Indian whose long, snowy
hair and venerable beard, blown aside by a gentle air from his breast, discovered the well-
known totem of the great Wau-kau-aga, the father of the Comanche and Shoshone
nation whom the tradition of the tribe, handed down by skilful hieroglyphics, almost
deified for the good actions and deeds of bravery this famous warrior had performed
when on earth.
Stretching out a war club toward the affrighted murderer, the figure thus addressed
him :
"Accursed of my tribe ! this day thou hast severed the link between the mightiest
nations of the world, while the blood of the brave Shoshone cries to the Manitou for
vengeance. May the water of thy tribe be rank and bitter in their throats."
552 HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Thus saying, and swinging his ponderous war club (made from the elk's horn)
round his head, he dashed out the brains of the Comanche, who fell headlong into the
spring, which from that day to the present moment remains rank and nauseous, so
that not even when half dead with thirst, can one drink of the foul water of that spring.
The good Wau-kau-aga, however, to perpetuate the memory of the Shoshone
warrior, who was renowned in his tribe for valor and nobleness of heart, struck with
the same avenging club a hard, flat rock which overhung the rivulet, just out of
sight of this scene of blood ; and forthwith, the rock opened into a round, clear
basin which instantly filled with bubbling, sparkling water, than which no thirsty
hunter ever drank a sweeter or a cooler draught.
Thus the two springs remain, an everlasting memento of the foul murder of the
brave Shoshone and the stern justice of the good Wau-kau-aga ; and from that day two
mighty tribes of the Shoshone and Comanche have remained severed and apart ;
although a long and bloody war followed the treacherous murder of the Shoshone chief,
and many a scalp torn from the head of the Comanche paid the penalty of his death.
The American and Canadian trappers assert that the numerous springs which,
under the head of beer, soda, steamboat, springs, etc., abound in the Rocky Mountains,
are the spots where his Satanic majesty comes up from his kitchen to breathe the sweet,
fresh air, which must doubtless be refreshing to his worship after a few hours spent in
superintending the culinary process going on below.
OFFICERS THIRD COLORADO CAVALRY.
This regiment was enlisted for one hundred days, during which it fought the
battle of Sand Creek.
Colonel — George L. Shoup.
Lieutenant Colonel — Leavitt L. Bowen.
First Major— W. F. Wilder.
Second Major — Hal Sayr.
Third Major — S. M. Logan.
Surgeon — Sidney B. Morrison.
First Assistant Surgeon — Christopher P. Yates.
Second Assistant Surgeon — Caleb S. Burdsall.
Adjutants — J. J. Johnson, Samuel L Lorah.
Quartermaster — D. P. Elliott.
Regimental Commissaries of Subsistence — Harper M. Orahood, Joseph T. Boyd.
Company A — T. G. Cree, Captain ; C. L. Cass, First Lieutenant ; E. B. Sopris,
Second Lieutenant.
Company B — Hal Sayr, Captain (promoted to Major, H. M. Orahood suc-
ceeding) ; C. Hawley, First Lieutenant ; Harry Richmond, Second Lieutenant.
Company C — W. H. Morgan, Captain ; M. Wall, First Lieutenant ; J. F. Wymond,
Second Lieutenant.
HISTORY OF COLORADO. 553
Company D — D. H. Nichols, Captain ; A. J. Pennock, First Lieutenant ; Lewis
Dickson, Second Lieutenant.
Company E — Alfred Sayre, Captain, J, J. Johnson succeeding ; Samuel H. Gilson,
First Lieutenant ; O. Edson, Second Lieutenant.
Compaiy F — Edward Chase, Captain, Joseph A. Fay, succeeding ; Charles Hains,
First Lieutenant ; John L. Dailey, Second Lieutenant.
Company G — O. H. P. Baxter, Captain ; S. J. Graham, First Lieutenant ; Andy
Templeton, Second Lieutenant.
Company H — Henry B. Williams, Captain ; Thomas E. McDonald, First Lieu-
tenant ; Mariano Autobee, Second Lieutenant.
Company I — John McCannon, Captain ; Thomas J. Davis, First Lieutenant ;
Henry H. Hewitt, Second Lieutenant.
Co?fipany K — Adam L. Shock, Captam ; Wm, E. Grinnell, First Lieutenant ;
Joseph T. Boyd, Second Lieutenant.
Company Z— J. F. Phillips, Captain ; O. M. Albro, First Lieutenant ; ^L D. Bal-
singer. Second Lieutenant.
Company M — Presley Talbot, Captain ; Frank De Lamar, First Lieutenant ;
Thomas Peck, Second Lieutenant.
ir^iDE::>c
J^ PAGE.
Aborigines of Plains 169
generic stocks of 1 70
Acequias Ancient — Remains of 87
Adobe Creek - Early settlers on 167
Agassiz Prof. — Arrival of 464
Agricultural College 526
Agricultural .Society Fair of 399
Agriculture — Development of 474
paucity of statistics concerning , . . . , 509
Alexis Grand Duke — Arrival of 528
American House — Built 450
Anthony Scott J. — Testimony of 341
talk of with Cheyennes 343
Anthony, W. D 310
secretary constitutional convention. ..... 367
lays corner stone Arapahoe school 515
Anti State League 383
Appropriations — Early Territorial 516
Arapahoe County — First election in 183
state of society in 183
Gov. Evans' donation of stock to 489
Arapahoe Indians — Origin of 171
first troubles with 104
with Cheyennes declare war 327
extent of outbreak 328
Arapahoe Stieet School Building 514
Arastras— First Constructed 204
Archer, James A. — Arrival of 420
address to Board of Trade. 421
establishes gas works 466
Arkansas River — Spanish escorts to 88
first discovery of gold on 97
Arkansas Valley — Indian Battles in 159
Ash Hollow — Battle of 356
Ashley E. M 372
takes charge .Secretary's office 377
Ashley, Gen. Wm. II 109
Ashley, J. M 400
Astor, John Jacob 108
PAGE.
Auraria — Founded 181
survey of town site 182
growth of 217
daring robberies in 222
status of in i860 233
consolidated with Denver 250
Aztecs — Occupation of Mexico by 65
traditions concerning. 81
Aztec Language — Beauty of 83
Baker, Jim 142
character sketch of 150
his fight with grizzlies 151
present residence of 152
Banks and Bankers — First 362
Baptist Church — Early History of 407
Barlow, Sanderson & Co 166
Bassett, Peleg T. —Killing of 237
Bates, Joseph E 518
first administration as mayor 519
Battery —First Colorado 288
Bayou Salado 167
Beaver — Hunting for iii
Beckwith, Lieut. E. G 1 34
completes Gunnison's survey 140
Beckwourth, Jim 117
romantic career of 118
his ranch on the Platte 180
Beeger, Prof. Herman 443
Bennett, H. P 241
re-elected to Congress 269
services in Congress 290
great speech by 322
Benton, Senator Thos 119
speech on Fremont's survey 127
Bent's Fort — Fremont's departure from 123
strategic position of 134
destruction and rebuilding of 165
554
INDEX.
555
PAGE.
Bents— The )63
William— Posts built by 164
Charles— Tragic death of 166
Berthoud, E. L 223-427
Bill Williams— Sketch of 124
Black Hawk Quartz Mill 255
Black Kettle- Letter of to Colley 333
surrenders prisoners 335
council with at Camp Weld 338
Speech of in council 339
killed by Custer's troops 361
Board of Trade, Denver — Organization of. . . . 420
officers of 421
addressed by George Francis Train 421
addressed by Usher and Carney 427
banquet to legislature 450
first annual meeting of 466
Boiling Spring Creek — Named by Long k 2
Bonds County — Proposition to vote 415
proposition submitted 426
voted to Denver Pacific R. R 42S
Bonneville, Capt 109
expedition of 110
Boston & Colorado Smelting Works 441
progress of 444
gold and silver product of 446
Boulder County — Discovery of gold in iSi
town of founded 185
early mining 200
first locators 225
adventures with the Indians 226
growth of the town 475
Bowles, Samuel — with Colfax 363
Branch Mint 291
Bridger Jim 109-14S
Broadwell I louse 234
Brooks, Orson^Robbed by Footpads 469
Bross, William 3^3
Browne, S. E .326-458
Brown, J. S 43°
lirown, Aunt Clara 483
Buckskin Joe 203
Buell, Bela S 308
Buffalo Bill 456
P>urdsall, Caleb S 447
Bureau of Immigration — first 517
effect of unwise advertising 518
Butterfield Overland Express 215
Overland Dispatch Co 392
Butterfield, D. A.— new stage route 4'^9
reception in Denver 4'o
organization of company 410
Byers, Wm — observations in Santa Fe 107
establishes Rocky Mountain "News" 1S4
carries Gregory gold to Omaha 194
prediction concerning railways 231
challenged by Tom Warren 235
Cabeza de Vaca iS
captivity of and escape 19
travels from Texas to Mexico 20
Cache la Poudre Canon 412
California Gulch — discovered 251
nature of mines 251
Cameron Simon. . 374
Cameron, R. A — Manager Fountain Colony. . . 505
manager Fort Collins colony 526
Campaign — First State = 311
Campbell, Robert 109
Canon City — Founded 223
penitentiary located near 450
development of town 477
fruit garden of State 544
Captives — Treatment of by Indians 336
burning alive 337
story of Mrs. Ewbanks 337
death of Cheyenne captives 33S
Capital — Of Territory Fixed at Denver 426
commissioners to locate site 426
Carson Kit — Revisits Birthplace 116
guide to Fremont 121
personal appearance of 147
sketch of his Hfe 153
death of ... 160
in council with Indians 253
Carson Kit — Town of 49°
Carter, T. J. — Proposition to Denver 413
Case, Gen. F. M 49°
Castaneda — Narrative of 30
Catholic Religion — Adoption of by Pueblos. . 37
Catholic Church in Denver— Early History of. . 405
Cavanaugh, J. :\I \ol)
Census — First U . S 267
Central City 204
Chaffee, J. B.— Banker 362
elected to the senate 369
director U. P. R. R 411
return after three years' absence 452
Chamber of Commerce — First organized 256
Charles, J. Q 310
expounds law to Gov. Cummings. 388
Charters, Special — Prohibited by Congress . . . 3S3
Cheney, P. B 223
556
INDEX.
PAGE.
Cherokee Indians — In Search of Gold 177
Cherry Creek — Discovery of Gold in 145
first settlers on I79
great fiood in 309
Cherry Creek Pioneer 184
Cheesman, W. S 43^
Cheever, D. A 373
Cheyenne Indians— Migration of 171
Cheyenne — Town of Founded 41 S
interest in D. P. R. R 425
Chicago Creek — First Mining on 1 Sg
Chicago-Colorado Colony 546
Chilcott, G. M. — Nominated for Congress 384
contest over and seating of 390
services of in Congress 454
Chinese — Arrival of 496
Chivington, J. M. — Arrival of 255
commanding fiist regiment 275-287
military ability of 286
nominated for Congress 310
ultimatum to Black Kettle 340
reasons for going to Sand Creek 351
candidate for Congress 369
Chouteau, Cyprian 117
Churches — Early History of 403
Cibola— Seven Wonderful Cities of .'. . 28
Civil Order — Absence of 222
Civil Rights Law — Passage of 401
Claim Jumping — In Denver 221
Clark, Geo. T.— Bank of 3^3
life and character of 398
Clark, Gruber & Co.— Coining Mint 255
Clayton, W. M. — President Board of Trade . . 466
Clear Creek — Early Mining on 203-227
Clear Creek County — Development of 479
discovery of silver mines in 480
Cliff and Cave Dwellers 40
description of country ... 41
estufas and sacred fire 42
character of dwellings 43
implements and weapons 44
ruined towers 45
remains on the Mancos 46
ancient reservoirs 48
ruins of Ojo Caliente 49
on the San Juan 49
pictographic writings 50
ancient pottery 51
State should protect ruins 52
ruins on Chelley and Chaco Canon 55
crania as an evidence of origin 56
report of Dr. Hoffman 56
PAGE.
Cliff Dwellings in Morocco 57
C O. C. and P. P, Express Co 214
Colfax, Schuyler— Secures Mails for Colorado. 244
influence on organization of Territory.... 246
arrival in Denver . 363
Lincoln's message to miners, 364
second visit with friends 453
excursion to South Park 455
message of warning sent to 457
influence on settlement of Indian troubles. 46:
Coal Measures — Hayden's opinion of 474
Colorado — Historic period of 140
first settlers in 162
birth of progress in 174
steps for organization of 245
names suggested for 245
opposition of slaveholders to 246
origin of present name. . . 25S
debate in senate on bill 259
slavery question, discussion of 260
attempt to steal name of 261
amendments to organic act 262
passage and approval of bill 263
appointment of officers 264
bill for admission as a State 3S2
passage of same 400
vetoed by Pres't Johnson 401
third bill introduced 401
Colorado — Products in St. Louis 54S
wheat, fame of 54S
great sale of flour in St. Louis 549
Colorado flour in Boston. . 549
Colorado & Clear Creek R. R. Chartered 394
line examined by U, P. engineers 395
prospects for construction 411
Colorado Central R. R 413
company organized 414
surveys of route 4 1 S
inauguration of work on 427
annual meeting and election 466
progress of the road 467
completed to Golden ^97
Colorado City — Founding of i S i
capital of Territory 292
Colorado National Bank 397
condition of in 1870 496
Colorado Springs— Founding of 52
development of 503
aided by D. & R. G. R. R 524
first houses erected in 525
Colorado Volunteers
First Regiment, history of 275-237
INDEX.
557
PAGE.
Colorado Volunteers
march to New Mexico 277
battle of Apache Canon 279
battle of Pigeon's Ranch 2S1
Colorado \'olunteers 293
Second Regiment, history of 294-300
Cook, D. J.— Kills Ed. Franklin 469
Comanche Indians — Pursuit of 141
Comanche Indians — Of Texas 172
Commerce of the Plains — Rise of It2
general account of 103
Commerce — Of Colorado in 1S66 392
Western, extent of 1S5S to 1865 440
Conkling, Roscoe — Arrival of 464
Congress — Novel proposal to 219
Constitutional Convention — First 2cS
second 209
first regular ■ 310
the session of 1S65 367
constitution adopted 367
candidates for State offices 368
the Sand Creek ticket 36S
Connor, Gen. P. E 357
Cornforth, J. T 429
Coronado — March of 29
Friar Marcos and his guide 29
entering Cibola 30
searching for Quivira 34
homes of the ancients how built 36
mode of living 36
habits and character 37
Costilla — Settlement of 137
Courts and Lawyers— in Gilpin County 229
Cozens, \Vm. Z 228
Creighton, Edward. ... 303
Criminals — Miners Punishment of 220
Crops— Yield and Price of in 1866 393
value of 1S68 to 1S71 510
Cummings, Governor A 369
character of 370
alienates Hebrews 370
declares war on State faction 371
abstracts Territorial seal 372
quarrels with Sec'y Elbert 372
record as purchasing agent 374
influence with the President 376
performances in campaign of '66 3S5
midnight message to President 386
theft of election returns 387
issues certificate to Hunt 389
investigated by Congress 390
resigns as Governor 392
conduct of Indian affairs examined 402
Curtis, Gen. S. R. — Forbids peacemaking 341
Custer, Gen. Geo. A. — Battle with Cheyennes. 361
attack on and death of Black Kettle 462
Davis, Jeff — Secretary of War
Delegates — To Congress
De Bourgmont — Expedition of
Defrees Wilkes
Denver — Organization of
first mayor
destroyed by fire
first telegraph line
threatened depopulation
railroad mass meeting . .
Indian outbreak of 1S6S
growth of in 1870
predictions of its future
defects in municipal system
Denver & Boulder Valley R. R
Denver Pacific R. R. — Inception of
officers and directors
Subscriptions to stock of
contracts for building
inauguration of work
capital stock and land grant
first annual election
passage of land grant bill
contracts taken to build
second annual election
road completed to Denver
Denver & Rio Grande R. R. — Organized.
general review of enterprise
first rails laid
first trains appearance of
projected movement southward
completed to Pueblo
Denver & South Park R. R
Denver Vigilantes
Denver & Salt Lake — Contrasted
Denver Hall — Gambling den
I Denver & Santa Fe Telegraph
Dieterman, Mrs — Killed by Indians
Disasters —of 1 863
! Dodd, Capt. T. H
: Dodge, Gen. G. M
examines Clear Creek route
\ I )oniphan Col. AW
con(]uest of Navajos
death of
I )ougan Sam — Lynching of
133
-210
86
193
304
416
4-3
45S
494
520
521
497
422
4-M
425
430
431
431
433
434
435
4S6
4S9
49S
500
501
5C2
.■^05
5C6
434
430
545
233
453
45S
306
2S7
360
395
12S
13-
133
470
558
INDEX.
PAGE
Douglas, Stephen A 245
Downing, Jacob 241
heads company against Indians 459
Duel — First .. 216
second 234
Duel — Strange, in Park County 235
E.
Early Explorers — Left no traces 89
Eaton, Isaac E 416
Eastern Division R. R 416
surveys for 417
conference with Col. Archer 420
arrival of Usher and Carney 427
financial status of company 432
line located to Denver 433
authorized to contract with D. P 434
contract to build road 435
progress of construction 490
harassed by Indians 490
grading from Denver eastward 491
road completed 4g2
prospects following 492
Elbert, Samuel — Proclamation by 325
calls for troops 360
correspondence with Cummings 374
resigns secretaryship 377
El Paso County — First Settlers in 180
Enabling Act — First 310
Episcopal Church — Early History of ......... , 404
Escalante and Garcia — Explorations by 88
diary of go
Espinosas — Murders by 378
bloody career of 37g
Eicholtz. Col. L. H 486
supt. of construction E. D. R. R 490
Erie — Town of, founded. ... 497
Evans, John — Appointed Governor 272
first message of 293
candidate for the Senate 31 t
addresses Central City miners 317
his definition of miners' rights ... 318
warning in regard to Indians 325
preparations for war 326
correspondence with the departments. . . . 32S
turns Indians over to military 33g
instructions to Major Colley 340
goes to Washington 341
elected to the Senate 369
reply to Johnson's veto 383
activity in railroad matters 4og
letter to General" J )ix 41 1
'AGE.
■ 415
• 425
■ 42',*
• 432
• 432
■ 435
■ 435
433
. 465
• 49^)
, 93
, 90
, go
, 462
proposition to Carter and Loveland. . ,
predictions of railroad center
elected president D. P. R. R
procures land grant
outlines system of railways
final meeting with U. P. directors
dinner to Coloradoans in Washington.
donates stock to Arapahoe County. . . .
Evans and Chaffee — Resignation of
Excursion Trains — arrival of
Explorations — By La Lande
by Lewis and Clarke
by Lieut. Pike
Ezekiel, Capt. D. I
F.
Fairplay — Mines, discovered 223
Fauntleroy, Col. T. T 153
Festiniog Railway 499
Fillmore, Major John S 273
sketch of life and character 359
First National Bank — Organized 362
new directors of 393
condition of in 1870 496
Fitzpatrick, Thomas 109
Floods and Storms, 1863 306
Florida — Explorers of . 17
Ford, Capt. James H 2S7
Ford, B. L 425
Forsythe, Gen. G. A — Terrible adventures of. . 400
Foster, Prof. J. W 63
Fort Collins — Pounding of 526
Fort Garland — When built i63
Fort Lancaster 169
Fort Laramie — Trading post , , . 117
Fort Lupton 169
Fort Lyon 165
Fort Massachusetts 142
when built 1 63
Fort St. Vrain i6g
Fort Wise 165
Fountain City — Founded iS;
Fountain Colony 523
Fountain-qui-Bouille 180
Fowler, W. R. — Court of 478
Freight Tariffs — Early 305
Freight Rates — in 1S68 437
in 1870 497
F"remont County — First Settlers in 166
Fremont, J. C. — Explorations of 114
ordered west 115
route pursued i lO
INDEX.
559
PAGE.
visits St. Vrain's Fort. 117
observations en route 117
in Wind River Mountains 118
second expedition 119
camps on Cherry Creek 1 20
route to Arkansas River 120
camps at Manitou 121
advances to California 122
promoted to captaincy 122
third expedition 123
fourth expedition 123
crosses Sangre de Cristo 125
route to California 126
fifth expedition 127
Fi-uit Culture — Development of 544
Fur Companies 100
Northwest Company 108
Missouri Company 108
Rocky Mountain 109
Fur Trade — Beginning of in Colorado ....... 163
G.
Gage, D. A 363
Gambell's Gulch — Discovery of 201
Gantz, John — Murder of 238
Garden of the Gods — How named 484
Gas Works — Attempt to establish 465
established by Col. Archer 466
Georgia Company — The 180
Georgia Gulch — Discoveries in 228
Georgetown — Contributes silver spike. , 489
Gilpin, William i ig
elected major of volunteers 128
march after Navajos 1 30
great achievements ot 132
appointed Governor 264
preparations for reception of 264
reception accorded • 266
first official acts 267
preparations for war 271
drafts on treasury 271
effect on Secretary Chase 272
removal 272
biography of 273
candidate for Congress 289
Glen Eyrie 524
Gold — First Discoveries of 174
at head of Arkansas River. 175
in the South Park 175
on Vasquez Fork 175
near Pike's Peak 176
on Crow Creek 176
PAGE.
on Cherry Creek divide 177
Gold Mining — And Extraction in 1S64-5 442
Golden City — Origin of 188
development of 223
town company organized 225
archives transferred to 389
Goldrick, Prof. O. J.— Arrival of 218
Gold Mines — Speculation in 307
sales of in New York 307
disasters following 309
Goodale, Tim 150
Gordon, Jim 237
kills John Gantz 23S
captured by Middaugh 239
returned to Denver 240
trial and execution of 241
Gore, Sir George — Hunting Trip of 149
Graham, H.J 20S
Grant, Sherman and Sheridan — Arrival of 453
Grasshoppers — Appearance of 449
Gregory, John .... 1 90
discovers gold in mountains ig t
effect of good luck on 1 94
Gregory District — Organization of 205
Greeley, Horace — Arrival of 213
notes on Gregory mines 196
involuntary bath in Clear Creek 224
Greeley — Town of 532
Green Russell's Expedition 177
prospecting for gold 178
Greenhorn — Valley of 136
Greenwood, Col. W. H. — Arrival of 419
Guerrillas — Invade South Park 314
capture, trial and killing of 316
Gunnell, Harry 230
Gunnell Mine — Discoverer of 230
Gunnison, Capt. J. W. — Expedition of 1 34
survey for Pacific R. R 135
death of 13S
H.
Hall, Frank — Nominated for Secretary 377
takes charge of office 378
attempted removal of 3^6
reappointed 4(^7
Hallack, Charles 4f>7
Hamilton Diggings — The 227
Hancock, Gen. W. S.— Arrival of 361
Hardin, W. J. — Advocates Suffrage 37^
Hardscrabble— First Settlers in 16S
Harrison, Charley— Sanguinary Career of 236
Haydcn, Prof. F. V 454
560
INDEX.
PAGE.
first geological survey 468
Ilazen, Gen. W. B. — Arrival of 464
Heine, Col. M 4^5
Hernando De Soto 23
conquest of Florida 24
Highlands — Town of, organized 217
Hill, Prof. N. r 443
Hudson's Bay Co. — In Northwest 114
Huerfano — Early Spanish Posts on 87
Huerfano Butte — Gunnison's ascent of i35
Hughes, Gen. Bela M 215
construction of stage road 409
correspondence with E. D. Co 419
active interest in railroads 423
speech to Usher and Carney 428
Plungate family — Murder of 332
Hunt, A. C — President of Vigilantes 240
leader of anti-State faction 369
nominated for Congress 384
appointed Governor 392
administration of 44^
superseded by McCook 467
Hunters and Trappers - Character of 1 1 1
Hunters and Trappers — Canadian French.... 108
Hunters and Trappers — romances of 146
I
Idaho Springs 5'^4
Immigration — of 1S60 250
Indians — Characteristic traits of 64-65
traditions of 74
belief in Great Spirit 75
Spanish traders with 87
camps at head of Arkansas 96
hostility to trappers 122
scalp dance in Denver 252
battle with Utes 253
bearing toward emigrants 324
treaty of 1861, effect of 324
outbreaks foreshadowed 325
beginning cf depredations 326
pledged to war 330
capture of women and children. 332
tribes confederate 333
at Fort Lyon 341
bravery of squaws 356
treaty of peace 361
outbreaks renewed 361
outbreak of 1S6S 455
causes of 456
campaigns of Sheridan 4!;6
battle with, by I'orsythe. 460
PAGE.
raids in Larimer and Weld 461
Irrigation — first 192
development of 513
Iron Works — Founding of 475
blast furnaces, first 475
Irving, Washington — E.xpedition of no
J
Jackson, W. H. — Account of cliff dwellings.. 53
below Montezuma 54
in the Valley of San Juan 55
contemplated excavations 73
Jackson, George A 1S7
first discovery of gold 188
James' Peak 93
Jefferson Territory 209
Johnson, Andrew — Declines to admit State" • • • 376
reasons submitted to Congress 376
ve o of State bill 3S2
swinging round the circle 386
Johnson, Theron W. — Daring e.xploit of 459
Johnson, Major W. F. — Great speech of 424
speech to Usher and Carney 428
death of 429
Judicial systems in the mines 22a
Judicial Districts — First 267
assignment of judges to 267
K
Kassler , George W 217
Kansas Legislature — Delegate to 208
Kansas Pacific R. R. — Inception of 393
interest of in Denver Pacific 486
Kearney, Gen. S. W^ 128
conquest of New Mexico 129
Kehler, Jack 228
Kelly's Bar— Discovered 250
Kiowa Indians — Range of 1 72
Kountze Bros. — Bankers 397
Knox, Thomas — In Golden City 225
L
Lambert, Clement 117
Lane, Geo. W. — Establishes mint 292
Langrishe, J. S 256
Larimer, Gen. Wm 182
candidate for Governor 264
Lawrence, Kansas — Emigrants from iSo
Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express 213
Leavenworth — Fearful riot in 239
Leavenworth, Col. Jesse H 293
Lincoln, Abraham — Message to miners 364
plans for peopling the West ... 365
INDEX.
501
PAGE.
Living — Cost of, in Colorado 305
Long, Major S. S ico
march to Rocky Mountains lOi
march on the Arkansas 102
Longmont — Founded 546
development of 547
Lothrop, W. C. — Supt. of schools 513
Loveland, W. A. H 223
president constitutional convention 367
organizes railroad company 394
practicability of line 395
secures amended charter 410
prospects for building road 411
Lumber — First production of 184
Lyon, James E 363
M
Mails— Early condition of 213
efforts to establish 244
arrival of first regular 256
Manitou Springs — Fremont's camp at 121
Marcy's camp in 144
Indian reverence for 485
Ludlow's prophecy concerning 503
description by Nevins 504
Marcy, Capt. R. B — Great march of 141
Marshall, Joseph M 475
Maynard, Geo. W 440
Medical Association — Formed 255
Medicine Lodge — Treaty of 361
Meeker, Ralph — Eloquent tribute of 513
Methodism — Early history of 403
Mexican War — Preparations for 128
Middaugh, W. II 239
assassination of ... 24 1
Miles, General — Battles with Lulians 362
Mining — First, progress of 1S6
fruits of, in Gregory 198
original laws 205
progress of, in 1860 250
titles discussed 3 ' 7
tax proposed 319
Congressional legislation 320
Julian's bill 320
opinion by E. T. Wells 321
proposed expulsion of miners 321
Mississippi — Exploration of 91
Moffat, D. H.— Arrival of 254
as telegraph agent. ... . . 256
as adjutant general 3^*o
elected cashier 3'^'3
to negotiate D. P. bonds 429
PAGE.
locomotive named for 4S9
Monument Creek — Long's descent of 102
Moscosos' Western Expedition 24
Montezuma's Speech to Cortez 64
Moonlight, Col. T. M. — Declares martial law. 360
Mound Builders — Antiquity of 70
Montana— First town built 179
Mountain City — Politics of 248
Musgrove — Lynching of 471
McCannon, John 379
after the Espinosas 380
McCook, E. M 263
appointed Governor 467
interview with Gov. Hunt 46S
McClure, W. P 216
McDowell, Drake 234
McGaa, Wm 183
IT
New Spain — Conquest of 27
News office — Attack on 242
Newspaper — First in mountains 204
Nevada — Early settlers in 202
organization of 229
Northwest Boundary 119
Northwest Territory — British occupation of. . . 114
o
Order — Social and religious 254
aid society organized 254
Oregon — Emigration to 105-1 : 5
Organic act — Amendment of 3S3
O'Fallon, Major 100
O'Neill, Jack— Death of 236
P
Pacific Railroad — Meeting in St. Louis 127
lirst surveys for 133
influence of our settlement on 232
amended charter passed 393
linal location of line 396
Lone Tree route selected 412
branch to Denver 413
Palmer, Gen. Wm. J. — Arrival of 435
negotiations with Mexico 5oC>
Pamfilio Narvaez — I'.xpedition of 17
Panic of 1857 173
effect of on emigration i 74
Park County — Early mining in 203
Paris Exposition — Commissioner to 441
Passenger I'"ares — in 186S \}~
Pearce, Prof. Richard 444
i'cniteiUiary — Location of \~,o
562
INDEX.
PAGE.
Philbrick, Prof. John D 218
Phillips' Lode — Richness of 203
Pierce, Arthur E 217
Pierce, Gen. John 422
plans for a railroad 424
efforts in behalf of D. P. R. R 428
contracts with U. P. Co 429
negotiates with Dillon and Durant 430
Pike's Peak — First Ascent of 102
Pike's estimate of height 93
Pike, Zebulon M 90
expedition of 91
route up the Fountain 92
ascent of Shian Mountain 92
march up the Arkansas 94
crosses the Sangre de Cristo 94
captured by Mexicans 95
opinions of the plains 96
death in Canada 98
Pioneers — Part of in Western Progress 148
Pioneers' Association — First 396
the organization of 1872 527
officers of 528
Political Movements — Beginning of 206
Politics — Development of 289
Poncha Pass — Indian Trails in 137
Pony Express — Establishment of 215
Pont Neuf Canon — Tragedy of 43S
Population — First Census of 256
Porter, H. M. — Telegraph Constructor 303
commissioner to sell bonds 430
Postal Routes 291
Prehistoric Races 59
antiquity of 60
studies of the ancients 61
Agassiz' opinions of 62
Presidential Electors — First 310
Presbyterian Church — Early Annals of 406
Prospecting — Early Extent of 200
Provisional Government — the . .• 209
first legislature 210
standing of 24S
second election under 249
Public Schools — in 1 87 1-72 514
Public Parks — Neglect to IVovide 5 '9
Public Debt — Fear of 520
Pueblo — Fremont's Visit to 1 20
fort erected. . . 167
massacre in 1 68
Pueblo — Organization and Growth 476
condition at close of 1S71.... 511
first railroad built to 507
PAGE.
Pueblo, Growth incident thereto 508
Pueblo Indians — Towns of 31
various expeditions to 32
present condition of natives 38
religious belief 39
were they Aztecs or Toltecs 76
traditions concerning 77, 78
superstitions 79
population of towns 80
worship of serpents So
Pulmonary Diseases — Effects of Climate on. . . . 105
Pullman, Geo. M 363
sleeping cars of 437
Pullman Palace Car — First Through 497
Pursley James 97
9.
Quaternary Period — Existence of Man in 66
startling discovery in California 67
Mexican mummies 69
R.
Railroads — First Steps for 224
transcontinental 230
meeting in Cole's Hall 413
proposition by Carter 414
Ralston Creek survey 45"
Rankin, Rev. A. T 255
Real Estate— Advance of 495
Red Cloud— Sketch of - 171
Registry Law — First Enacted 450
Republican Club— First 40S
Richardson, A. D 225, 363
Richmond, Geo. Q 507
Riley, Captain loi
escorts Santa Fe trains 104
Rocky Mountains — First Discoverers of 22
first surveys in 138
"Rocky Mountain News" — Established 184
Roman Nose 329
Rudd, Anson — Nomination of 3'°
hospitality to author 47^
Russell's Gulch— Discovery of 199
consolidated ditch in 200
Russell, Wm. H ^^'5
S.
Salezar, Dimasio — Fate of 107
Salomon, Fred 4-9
Sand Creek— Events Leading to 3^3
Indian camp on 342
battle of 34f'
testimony concerning 347~ 35<3
INDEX.
563
PAGE.
general review of 35 '~ 355
subsequent effect of 359
Sangre de Cristo — ounnison's Crossing 136
San Juan Mountains — First Explorers 89
Gilpin's adventures in 1 30
mining excitement in 256
San Juan Mines — Opening of 529
Santa Fe Trade — initial points of 105
original trail 106
Santa Fe — Kearney takes Possession of 129
San Luis Valley — Gunnison's Account of 135
first exploration of 137
Schofield, Gen. J. M.— Arrival of 469
Schools — Public, First 219- 255
Scudder, John . 237
Secession — P'irst Movements of 269
Confederate flag raised 270
attempt to capture Territory 275
Sedgwick, Col 165
Senators, U. S. — First Elected 369
Seward, \Ym. II. — Arrival of 46S
Sherman, Gen. W. T. — Arrival of 399
escorts Conkling and Agassiz 464
Sheridan and Custer — Arrival of 529
Shoup, Lieut. Geo. L. — on the Trail 315
Silver— Discovery of 256
mining, beginning of 480
Simmons, Philander — Narrative of 177
Slavery Question — Influence of 247
Sleeping Cars — First Patented 437
Slough, John P 270
Smelting — First Experiments in 447
Smith, John W 429
proposes to build smelters 467
Society — State of in i S59 207
Sopris, Richard 217
dispatch to Lincoln 265
prominence as a pioneer 523
South Park— Game In 110
prospecting in 227
invaded by guerrillas 313
Spanish Explorations 85
Spanish Bar igo
early courts of 481
.Stage Lines — First Routes of 213
to Gregory mines , 216
Stamp Mills — First 204
Stanley, Henry M. — Adventures of 522
State Convention — First ., . . 1S5
State Organization — Movement for 247
movement of 1 862 292
State organized 310
PAGE.
Enabling Act of 1S65 366
legislature under 369
bills for admission 399
movement of i S67 44S
fundamental conditions 452
State Constitution — Framing of 521
Steck, Amos — First Postmaster 214
first telegraphic message 304
protest against Cummings' Act. 3SS
donation to public schools 515
Steele, George — Killing of 242
Steele, (jovernor — Message of 211
proclamation of surrender 266
Stewart, Robert — Adventures of 99
St. John's Church — Inception of 254
St. Louis — Early Population of 108
interest in Fremont 127
St. Vrain, Ceran 126
Indian battles of 158
Sublette, William 109
Suffrage, Negro 369
agitation of 375
first ballots cast by negroes 402
Sunday Schools — Organization of 21S
Supreme Court — First 264
organization of 2CS
attorneys admitted to 268
under first State organization 310
Supplies — Cost of in 1859 ^ii
Surveyor General's Office— First 291
T.
Tabor, H. A, W 252
Taos, Home of Carson 126
Tarryall Mines — Discovered 227
Tax on Mines — First Levied 212
Taylor, Bayard — Arrival of ... 399
Telegraph Facilities — First 256
completed to Pacific 302
first communications with Denver 303
first messages exchanged 304
extension to Fort liridger 304
cost of messages 305
line built to Santa Fc 305
line to Cheyenne 434
Teller, Henry M 311
appointed Major General 326
chairman Territorial Committee 408
Territorial Legislature — First 26S
second 292
Territorial Canvassers — Board of . 387
Territory — Developments in 473
i<j4
liNDEX.
PAGK.
growth in railway period 511
government cost of 512
value of property, 1871-2 512
Territorial Officers— Contingent Funds of. . . . 5:6
Territorial Assessment— '7i-'72 517
Texas-Santa Fc Kxpedition 106
Theaters — First 229
Theft — How Punished by Miners 48 1
Third Regiment — iMarch of 345
Thomas, W R 451
Tobins, Tom — Kills Kspinosas 3S1
Towne, Henry D 30
Trail Run— Riot in 482
Train, (ieo. FVancis — Arrival of 421
Transportation — Cost of in 1 866 393
Tree Planting — In Denver 545
Trinidad — Riot in 45 1
Troops — Organization of . . . . 270
u.
Union Colony — Founding of 53 '-542
Union Sentiment — Manifestation of 270
Union Pacific R. R — Sketch of 437
Usher, J. P. — Arrival of 427
Ute Indians — Ilome.j of 172
V.
Vasquez Fork— Exploration of 190
Vasquez, Louis — Port built by 169
Vigilantes 236
pursuit of Jim (Jordon 239
capture of Frank Williams 439
Dougan and Musgrove lynched by 471
w.
Waggoner, Capt. S. W 269
tribute to memory of 301
TAGE.
Wall, David K , 192
Wanless, John — Treasurer 387
War of Rebellion — First Signs of 265
War — Preparations for by Gilpin 270
Weld, Louis Ledyard 264
letter to Secretary Seward 26S
Wells, E. T. — On Mining Law 321
West, George 223
establishes "Western Mountaineer" 225
Whale Lode — Discovery of 481
Wheat Culture — Inception of 21S
Whitney, J. P 440
Whitsitt, Richard E 216
in great peril 221
challenged by Warren 240
territorial auditor 387
Williams, B. I) 214
services as delegate 249
Wind River — Fremont's visit to 118
Witter, Daniel 311
Wood, Carroll — Career of 242
banishment of 243
Wood, F'ernando — Proposes to Expel Miners. . 322
Woodbury, R. W 414
Woodwaril, P.. 1'' 303
Wolcott, H. R 444
Woolworth and Moffat 217
Wulsten Colony 542
Wynkoop, E. W 334
Young, Wm. — Execution of 236
Yucatan — Ancient Temples in 71
z.
Zunis and Moquis 52
Zunis— Traditions Preserved 82
^
llffHililifliBSIII
i
i
Mi
W
i
j
1
;i!l
' f?:
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11