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James H. Baker, who assumed the presidency in 1892. tells that he once called on President Hale and found him puttying up the cracks in the window.
Dr. Baker was successful in building up this institu- tion. Through his efforts it was carried over a very try- ing time. When the State University appropriation of $110,000 was not avail- able, and there was doubt that the sum would ever be paid, Governor Thon- as, after consultation with Dr. Baker, authorized a loan to cover the State's deficiency. Dr. Baker or- ganized a committee. and the loan was secured. mostly from the people of Boulder. Denver and Pueblo. The State after- wards made good the loan.
The State of Colo- rado owes Dr. Baker a debt of gratitude for the Dr. James H. Baker advancement and splendid educational standing of this institution.
The University of Colorado is the culmination of the public school system of the State, and is maintained by the State, to provide. at a minimum cost, higher and pro- fessional education for those graduated in the high
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schools. It enables them to pursue their studies at any extent and in any direction they may choose.
The university ranks in high standards and in all that pertains to true university work with such state uni- versities as those of Michigan, Wisconsin and California.
The Chautauqua at Boulder is a magnet throughout the session for educators, clergymen and cultured people.
Boulder and Colorado Springs claimed the right to the anniversary of the quarto-centennial of Colorado as a State, and both towns celebrated. At Boulder, the pio- neer days, the industrial and educational development of Territory and State, were reviewed by Governor James B. Orman, Senator H. M. Teller, Congressman James C. Bell, State Senator Barela, Mrs. Helen M. Grenfell, then State superintendent of public instruction, and the newly elected United States Senator, T. M. Patterson.
The city of Boulder is, at this writing, one of the most beautiful and bustling little cities in the State. The far-famed "Switzerland Trail," a railroad trip that is taken by thousands of tourists annually, is located in Boulder County.
South Boulder canyon, through which the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad runs to the top of the Conti- nental Divide, is also located in this county.
Switzerland Trail
Boulder County pro- duces heavily in all ave- nues of agricultural de- velopment. The lignite fields of northern Colo- rado are in Boulder County, at Louisville and Lafayette. These supply most of the steam coal used in Denver.
PART V THE TERRITORY OF COLORADO
CHAPTER XII"
ESTABLISHING LAW AND ORDER
THE MIGRATORY LEGISLATURE
The creation of the Territory by Congress gave the country a government of unquestioned authority, and the effect was in every way beneficial.
William Gilpin, upon assuming the duties of office in 1861, ordered a census taken, which showed a popula- tion of 25,331 in the Ter- ritory and 3,000 in Den- ver.
For a time the loca- tion of the capital was un- certain. The governor called the First Territorial Legislature, which was composed of thirteen rep- resentatives and nine councilmen from desig- nated districts, to meet in Denver September 9, 1861. A small frame building where the Mcclintock block now stands was rented for the House of Representatives, and the Council was located in a building on Larimer
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William Gilpin
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street. At that session of the Legislature, by an act ap- proved November 5, Colorado City was made the capital, and the time fixed for the meeting of the next session there in June, 1862.
Judge Wilbur F. Stone, who was a member of that Legislature, says :
"In the meantime, Congress, at that December ses- sion. had amended the organic act by increasing the num- ber of the Territorial Council to thirteen members and the House to twenty-six, and these additional members were elected in December, 1861. Near the first of June. 1862. Delegate Bennet, at Washington, discovered that if the Legislature met in June there was no appropria- tion to pay for it, as June was in the same fiscal year as the preceding session, so he had Congress pass a joint resolution to change the date of the Legislative session. from June to July. The members of the southern dis- tricts not having heard of this change met at Colorado City at the June date, where they learned the news and had to journey back home horseback, some of them one hundred and fifty miles.
"The Legislature assembled at Colorado City July 7th, the postponed date fixed by Congress, and organized by electing the speaker of the House, the president of the Council and the other requisite officers. but there were no conveniences for transacting business, or even living, in the little almost unoccupied village. The House met in the one room of a rough board building. unfinished and unfurnished. while the Council convened in a room used as the dining room and kitchen of the only boarding house in the place-a log structure kept by 'Mother Mag- gard.'
"Most of the members camped out, slept in their blankets in tents or on the open ground, cooked their own 'grub' and 'bached,' as in the mining camps. After spending four or five days in a grotesque sort of 'horse
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play,' the Assembly, by joint resolution, adjourned to hold the session in Denver. It was near sundown when. after much wrangling and many comic motions, resolu- tions and 'bills' were offered and ruled 'out of order." that the joint resolution to adjourn-for a 'change of venue'-was adopted, and in fifteen minutes afterwards the Assembly broke camp, hitched up teams, saddled horses and mules, and a long caravan started up Monu- ment creek toward the 'Divide' for Denver.
"The outfit traveled all night, singing songs and mak- ing speeches. At sunrise a stop was made for breakfast -such as could be had for man and beast-at Coberty's ranch, near Castle Rock, and about two o'clock of that day the dusty and very thirsty caravan trooped into Ferry street, West Denver, every man singing 'Old John Brown's Body' at the top of his voice.
"A detailed description of that nocturnal exodus of the pioneer Legislature from the first capital at the foot of Pike's Peak to the mouth of Cherry creek would pre- sent the most amusing historic episode in the annals of Colorado's genesis and evolution.
"That Legislature, which was held in Denver in com- modious and well-furnished rooms on the west side of Cherry creek. contained as members a large proportion of men of distinguished ability and legislative experience. They passed a code of laws, civil and criminal. of an ex- cellent character, and so well adapted to the needs and exigencies of the people, their pursuits, and the condi- tions of this country, that many of them. in substance. remain the laws of the State to this day."
At this session the capital was located at Golden City, where it remained until December 9. 1867, when an act was passed making Denver the capital, but this loca- tion was not made permanent until after statehood, when it was fixed by a popular vote of the State. under a pro-
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vision of the State constitution, authorizing a general election for such purpose.
H. C. BROWN'S GIFT
Way out on the brow of what is now Capitol Hill, Henry C. Brown built a little frame house, in the spring of 1864, as evidence of his homestead right to one hun- dred and sixty acres-a quarter section-for which he had
STATE CAPITOL OF COLORADO
HENRY C. BROWN
JAMES A.BROWN
FIRST CAPITOL
filed a claim. When Mr. Brown began building his claim cabin, R. E. Whit- sitt of the
Denver Town Company appeared on the scene and wanted to know what he was doing there.
"I seem to be building a little house," replied Mr. Brown.
"You have no business to be building houses here,"
said Whitsitt. "This is included in the original plat of Denver City. You get right out."
"Dick. this is my land," said Mr. Brown, stepping
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forward and emphasizing his words with his hammer. "I am not going to get out, and you can't make me."
Mr. Whitsitt uttered a sulphurous remark about "land jumper" and dashed down the hill. The town company entered no further protest against Brown's right to his one hundred and sixty acre tract. It is now known as H. C. Brown's Addition and Second Addition to Denver.
December 9, 1867, the Territorial Legislature moved the capital of Colorado from Golden City to Denver.
January 11, 1868, H. C. Brown donated to the Ter- ritory out of the heart of said tract, the ten acres bounded by Colfax, Grant, Thirteenth and Lincoln avenues, under the above act, as a site whereon to erect the capitol and other buildings. He did this upon the assurance and ex- pectation that lands contemporaneously donated by John W. Smith, Henry M. Porter and Judge Clements would be at once sold and the moneys devoted to the erection of the capitol buildings thereon.
The Territory did nothing. August 1, 1876, Colo- rado was admitted into the Union as a State, and the location of its capital left to be determined by a subse- quent vote of the people.
May 9, 1879, nothing having been done, Mr. Brown determined to force either the erection of the building. or else an abandonment of all claim to the land.
He therefore, on May 9, 1879, filed a deed of revoca- tion and commenced to build a board fence around the land. As he anticipated, the State brought suit to re- cover the land, and, in 1881, passed an act levying a half-mill tax to erect a capitol building, and in 1883 voted $300,000 in bonds for the same purpose. The liti- gation was protracted. It went to the Supreme Court of the State, and twice to the Supreme Court of the United States. James H. Brown, the son of Henry C.
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Brown, barely twenty-one at the time, represented his father therein.
January 4. 1886. the decision of the United States Supreme Court ended the litigation in favor of the State. The State then purchased the adjoining block between Lincoln avenue and Broadway from W. S. Cheesman and George W. Kassler for $100,000, and immediately commenced the construction of the present capitol build- ing.
The Tenth General Assembly was the first to occupy it. in 1895.
The building received its finishing touches in 1900. and its total cost was $3.000.000. It was constructed en- tirely of granite and marble from our Colorado quarries.
In the governor's private office of the capitol building stands a life-size oil portrait of H. C. Brown. the gift of his son to the State.
LOYAL TO THE GOVERNMENT
Gilpin's appointment was at the beginning of the Civil war. There was a strong southern element in Colo- rado, and many went to join the southern army. A ma- jority of the people, however, were loyal to the govern- ment. A better illustration cannot be cited than that related by Judge Wilbur F. Stone :
"Soon after the Territorial organization, two young men who had been working for a miner at Gold Run, in Summit County, stole a large quantity of gold dust from their employer. They were pursued, captured, brought back to the gulch, tried by a 'miners' court' and sentenced to be hanged. In the meantime, A. C. Hunt, then United States marshal for the district of Colorado, learned of the affair while passing through Park County in charge of some prisoners, and at once dispatched to me a warrant for the arrest of the culprits, sending me, at the same time. a commission as deputy to execute the warrant. I
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was then at Buckskin Joe, in Park County, and, mount- ing my horse, rode with all speed over the range twenty miles to Gold Run, which I reached just as the crowd of nearly a thousand miners had gathered to see the execu- tion.
"Under a pine tree two graves had been dug, and beside them was placed a wagon, upon which the two condemned criminals were standing with ropes noosed about their necks and fastened to the tree above, looking down upon their open graves and waiting the signal when the wagon should be drawn from under them. A hollow square of men with loaded rifles inclosed the wagon.
"I jumped upon a pine log and harangued the crowd. urging them to allow the prisoners a trial in the Terri- torial courts. The people feared an escape and were in- flexible. The crisis had come. Suddenly breaking through the guard, and leaping upon the wagon. I claimed the criminals as my prisoners.
"Instantly. every rifle of the guard was leveled at me. Snatching the warrant from my pocket I held it up. showing the seal and the American eagle on the corner. and commenced in a loud voice to read the formal printed mandate of the warrant. 'The President of the United States to the Marshal of Colorado, greeting : You are hereby commanded to take the bodies of- I got no farther with the reading than this, for those words were no sooner uttered than a voice in the crowd shouted : 'Boys, we can't resist the President of the United States. Hurrah for Abe Lincoln!' The crowd echoed the cheer. 'Hurrah for Abe Lincoln " A serio-comic mixture of the sublime and the ludicrous. Immediately. the guns of the guard were brought to a 'present arms.' With my camp knife I cut the ropes which bound the prisoners. pushed them before me through the crowd. remounted my horse. and, accompanied by a single assistant-a stanch fellow named Bill Burdett. who was a faithful guard at the
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State penitentiary at Canon City-marched back across the mountains in the night, by a lonely trail, and sent the prisoners to Denver, where they were tried, convicted and sentenced to a term of years in the penitentiary at Alton, Illinois.
"And so were the foundations of law and order laid by the pioneers."
THE CIVIL WAR
News came that General Henry H. Sibley, in com- mand of the Confederate forces of Texas and New Mex- ico, contemplated a campaign against New Mexico and Colorado. The little community here was in a gloomy and discouraged position, menaced by influences that were plotting to place Colorado in the Confederacy; isolated by six hundred miles of plains from the East; in the midst of tribes of savages, one couldn't tell what might happen in the interval of long waiting.
Governor Gilpin appreciated the gravity of the sit- uation. He was a man of unwavering loyalty to the Union, and appointed his staff more on the lines of a military than a civil government. R. E. Whitsitt was adjutant general ; John S. Fillmore, paymaster; Samuel Noer, quartermaster general, and Norton C. Fisher, pur- chasing agent. This at least proved the allegiance of his own constituents to the Union.
He issued a call for a regiment of volunteer troops with which to hold the Territory for the Union. Re- cruiting offices were opened in Denver, Colorado City, Golden and Boulder. Before the close of September the regiment was formed, but there was neither arms, am- munition. nor supplies for soldiers in Denver at that time, and no money in the treasury of the Territory.
The governor met the emergency in a way that he believed right and justifiable. He ordered his militia staff to go and buy all the guns they could find in Colo-
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rado, and issued drafts, directly upon the treasury at Washington, to pay for them. A mass of weapons, dis- similar in quality and structure, were soon collected- old rifles, shotguns, old muskets, and anything that re- sembled a firearm. In a few weeks one thousand men from the mountains and the glens rallied around him, in appearance a motley crowd, clad in all the odd fash- ions ever seen in a new mountain district, but never were there better soldiers than those who constituted the First Colorado regiment. John P. Slough was appointed col- onel, Samuel F. Tappen, lieutenant colonel, and John M. Chivington, major. Chivington was asked to be the chaplain of the regiment, but he refused and asked that he be appointed to a fighting position.
This regiment received orders to proceed with all possible haste to Fort Union. New Mexico, and report to General Canby, who was in charge of the Federal troops, for service. At Fort Union they were given uniforms and arms. Pressing southward, they met Sibley's force at Glorieta Pass. Chivington, with about one-third of the command, was ordered to march to the west end of the pass, and his attack in the rear saved the day. Sib- ley's force was driven back into Texas. The heroic men of the First regiment, raised through the powerful efforts of Governor Gilpin, saved New Mexico to the Union and made the attempt to conquer Colorado a failure.
THE REMOVAL OF GILPIN
When the drafts, amounting to $375,000, which Gov- ernor Gilpin had issued, on payment of military supplies and expenses, reached Washington, they were repudiated by the Treasury Department, and went to protest. The governor had no authority to use funds for military pur- poses. He was attacked by the infuriated holders of the drafts, and there was an uproar over them at Washing- ton. He endeavored to obtain payment of the drafts by
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a personal visit, but was unsuccessful, and the matter finally became one for Cabinet consideration, which re- sulted in the removal of Governor Gilpin.
I knew him. and often talked with him. He was a man of vast historical, political and scientific informa- tion. He made a study of the onward march of civiliza- tion. I heard him talk in the early days of the possi- bilities of agriculture in Colorado by means of irriga- tion, and the development of the resources of the region by building railroads. He was the first to predict the connection of America with Northern Asia by a railroad through Alaska. It was called chimerical at that time. but would we call it so today? When Denver was just a village he made an effort to organize a company to build a railroad from Denver to the City of Mexico. He was laughed at as "visionary." but the enterprise has since been consummated. His aphorisms and quaint ex- pressions were in the mouths of everyone. He spoke of Denver as the "mining laboratory of the world : the para- gon of all geographical positions," and the mountains as the "cloud compelling peaks of the Rockies." and "the vertebrate Sierra of the continent." His constant dream was "the resplendent future of the Pacific Northwest." Above all, he was patriotic, and the saving of Colorado to the Union at the commencement of the Civil war was his greatest historic act. Colorado should never forget her debt of gratitude to Governor Gilpin.
He was an honest, brilliant man. and his personal character was beyond reproach.
Later. a second Colorado regiment was formed. and this force won great praise at the time of Price's inva- sion of Missouri in 1864.
The glorious fight made by the Colorado boys for the preservation of the Union should be kept fresh in the minds of the people.
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The State has erected a monument to the memory of the
Colorado Soldiers of the Federal Army Who Fell During the Civil War
From Milo H. Slater's dedicatory address, I quote the following : "During the Civil war, no other State or Territory in the American Union supplied to the Fed- eral army so many soldiers in proportion to its popula- tion as did the Territory of Colorado. In making this statement, I am uttering no idle boast. but merely speak- ing a significant truth. a truth which is of historical value. It is a truth which reveals a distinct feature in the composite character of Colorado pioneers."
CAPTAIN J. D. HOWLAND
In closing this chapter, I must speak of Captain John D. Howland, Colorado's famous artist, who came to Denver in 1858, when he was about sixteen years old. His precocity in art was then attracting attention. He had numerous adventures, and, in 1861, enlisted in Com- pany B, First Colorado Infantry. He went to New Mex- ico with his regiment and took part in all its campaigns. After an exciting career as a soldier, he went to Europe to study art. As a soldier, he never gave up his drawing. and the sketches he made then furnished valuable mate- rial in later years. He returned to Colorado after five years of study and travel, and became a prominent figure in the life of the State.
He served as a member of the Indian peace commis- sion, appointed by President Andrew Jackson after the massacre at Fort Kearney, and helped to bring about peace with the Sioux and other tribes. In later years. he devoted himself entirely to his art.
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He made a strong fight for a place in the world of artistic endeavor, and he won. For years he has enjoyed wide fame, because of his studies of the native wild ani- mals of the West, and his pictures are scattered over the earth, in salons and private collections. No one has painted the buffalo, Indian and coyote with the inspira- tional touch of "Jack" Howland. Apart from being a great artist, he possessed a strong personality, and. as Captain Howland, was delightfully interesting.
Always neatly dressed, his hat careened at a slight angle, his hair touched with gray, lending additional dis- tinction to his expressive features, Captain Howland was for many years a striking figure on the streets of Denver. The Grand Army button always gleamed from his lapel, and he walked with a vigorous military step .*
*J. D. Howland passed away recently.
CHAPTER XIII
UNDER EVANS' ADMINISTRATION
FIRE
In May, 1862, President Lincoln appointed John Evans to succeed Governor Gilpin. He was a very dif- ferent type of man from his predecessor-a captain in civil life. His adminis- tration extended to 1865 -a trying period in the pioneer life of Colorado.
On the nineteenth of April, 1863, one-half of the business part of Den- ver was destroyed by fire. The alarm was given be- tween the hours of two and three in the morning, and, before the town was fairly aroused, the flames had made such headway that all effort to extin- guish them seemed un- availing. The most that could be done was to save the contents of the burn- ing buildings.
John Evans
The loss of property by this fire exceeded two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and embraced the principal business portion of the town. Before the wreck of the burnt district was cleared away, while the ashes were still hot and smoking,
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the work of rebuilding began. The new structures were principally of brick, and the indomitable energy that characterized the pioneer caused a fine city to spring up, and commercial transactions soon resumed their former bustling activity.
DENVER'S VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
There was a volunteer fire department in the pioneer days, and the first fire extinguished by this volunteer de- partment was in August, 1860. The first chief was Phil Trounstine.
Although the business section of the town was burned in 1863, all efforts to establish a regular fire or- ganization were unsuccessful until the city was found to be at the mercy of a band of incendiaries.
A meeting was held at the grocery store of C. C. Davis and Rodney Curtis, and the Denver Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 was formed.
March 25, 1866, the company ordered a truck, left to the selection of A. Jacobs, who was in Cincinnati on business at the time. Colonel Howard had a rude truck built at the government shops in West Denver, which he offered to the company for use in drills until their truck arrived, and it was gratefully accepted. A committee was appointed to select a uniform. which was as follows: Black eight-cone leather hat with white shield, tipped with a gilt eagle head: across the top of the shield the word "Denver." and below it a figure "1" crossed by a hook and ladder: red shirt with black necktie: black leather belt with the word "Denver" in white letters be- tween a hook and ladder at the back. and black doe-skin trousers.
BOYS IN FIRE UNIFORMS
The uniforms arrived about the first of July, and on the seventh of the month the company made its first ap-
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pearance in full uniform. They took out the truck, paraded the streets, and made a run down Sixteenth street, and then down Larimer over the bridge. It must be remembered that the leading men of the town formed this fire company. The first ball of the company took place Christmas night, 1866, in Cole's hall on Larimer
CHIEF JULIUS PEARSE
ARCHER HOSE HOUSE
street. The ladies of the city lent their assistance in decorating the hall. Loads of evergreen came from the mountains, while furniture, paintings and hangings were loaned by leading citizens.
These balls were held annually and were the chief social events of the city. Tickets to the balls were $10 each, which made them a source of revenue to the com-
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pany. In 1867, the city purchased a fire bell for $1,200. and this was hoisted on a skeleton tower behind the fire house. A windstorm took the tower and bell down on Thanksgiving eve, but no damage was done. This bell was used until 1873, when a new one, weighing 3,600 pounds, cast from a piece of Spanish artillery of the date of 1697, which was captured by the United States troops at Vera Cruz, replaced it. The James Archer Hose No. 2 was organized January 31. 1872. This company had very fancy uniforms. After the ball, on one occasion, a large number went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Fisher, where an elegant supper was in readiness. It was morning when the joyous party broke up, and the Archer hose boys, in their uniforms of white duck trou- sers. blue blouses with white satin collars and cuffs, had to walk home through a blinding snowstorm.
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