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After that time the banker never admitted strangers into his private office.
Mr. Moffat was also one of the great railroad builders of the State. In 1869, after he had made some money in mining and in banking, he co-operated with Governor Evans in building the Denver Pacific, and later became identified with the construction of many railroads in the State. When he was unable to raise the money from capitalists for a railroad, he would say, "Very well, I'll build it myself." For this expression he was called the conqueror of the mountains.
He built the Boulder Valley railroad to the Marshall coal fields with his own money and first used that expres- sion. When the Rio Grande refused to build a branch of its road from Florence to Cripple Creek, Moffat built that line, and it was afterwards taken over by the Rio Grande system.
For many years he studied the possibilities of Routt County, and the idea of a direct line connecting Denver
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with Salt Lake gradually took possession of him and became his life dream.
When the financiers of Wall street, with the money market at their command, refused to advance money for this enterprise, he answered. "I'll build it myself."
The enterprise required millions. Railroad men of long experience laughed at Moffat's dream of opening new empires. This aroused his fighting blood, and made him more determined. It is said that he converted nine millions of personal securities into cash, and began the construction of the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific.
This was the last of Mr. Moffat's great undertakings. The opposition of powerful business and commercial interests was met by him single-handed and alone. Many of the trials and tribulations connected with the feat have gone to the grave with him; he never told half the story. The public saw only the result. As an engi- neering feat it is one of the wonders of the world.
The ambitions of David H. Moffat were more than personal. He loved the State which he had helped to build, and often remarked, "If I succeed in putting Denver on a trans-continental line, I will then think that I have done something for my State."
He lived to see railroad trains running across the Continental Divide, and the pathway to the Pacific ocean opened. But the much desired tunnel through the moun- tain, which was to make this line the competitor of others, had failed to materialize. His inability to secure the necessary funds for this enterprise, and the entanglement of his own fortune in his work for the public good, undoubtedly hastened his death, which occurred in New York City, while there on business connected with the Moffat tunnel.
He grew with Denver from the beginning; became a promoter and constructor of public utilities; a mil- lionaire mine owner. a railroad builder; and all combined
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to make him a State builder. He came in 1860 intending to return when he had made $75,000, but he remained more than fifty years, and won a fortune estimated at millions, which in the last years of his life sadly dwindled.
CHAPTER XIX SETTLEMENT BY COLONIES
THE UNION COLONY
A movement towards settlement by colony closely followed the arrival of the railroad in Colorado.
N. C. Meeker was for many years agricultural editor of the New York Tribune, which position he resigned in 1869. to found a colony on the Cache la Poudre, under the pat- ronage and hearty support of Horace Greeley, whose name it bears.
N. C. Meeker
An organization was per- fected and named the Union Col- ony. A constitution and by-laws written by Meeker was adopted. Meeker was elected president of the colony, General R. A. Cam- eron. vice-president, and Horace Greeley, treasurer.
They had their share of hard- ships the first four or five years. There were continual Indian scares. The winter of 1873 was the worst Greeley has ever suffered. Antelopes, nearly starved, came into town by the hundreds.
"When speaking of the 'Union Colony' now, they say 'it was a great success, and people should always immi- grate in colonies.' But at that time there was much dis- satisfaction, and the colony officers were obliged to bear a great deal of abuse. Still they never lost courage. Poor Mr. Meeker, who was as sensitive as a woman. would have
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been made very unhappy at that time if his fellow- worker, General Cameron, had not taken the brunt of the work in guiding the people, and explaining contin- ually that the project was bound to succeed. Curses and sneers rolled off his broad shoulders like water off a duck's back.
"When he would say cheerily, 'My friends, it is all right, this thing is bound to succeed. and Greeley will be one of the finest farming regions on the face of the earth !' some one in the crowd would retort, 'O, ves. I bet that "feller" gets four dollars a day for lying.
"Greeley has never had a whisky saloon. It was long known as Saints Rest, and is often so called now. The name arose from the fact that they had no wicked- ness and no need of police.
"Many left Greeley declaring it was a fraud. there was no chance to sell whisky, the soil was not good for anything, and Horace Greeley and Mr. Meeker were fools. After the 'soreheads' had taken their departure there was less talking done and more work. Men adapted themselves to their new surroundings, and a man in overalls, shirt sleeves and old straw hat. was as likely to be a minister, doctor or lawyer as a common workman. It was as if people were going about in disguise. for men cannot wear fine clothes while making adobe bricks. and that was the occupation of many during the first sum- mer."
Mecker started a paper. which he called the Greeley Tribune. The first issue appeared two days before Greeley's arrival. The paper is still in existence and has. perhaps. the most unique headline of any paper in the country. Greeley wrote the headline for Meeker and a photo-engraving was made of his writing. It is still used. When the paper was changed from a weekly to a daily, the postoffice authorities ordered that the word "daily" be inserted in the title. So the historic old head-
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line was taken off and replaced with plain print. The community arose in arms and demanded the return of the headline. To satisfy both government and the citi- zens, the word "daily" was "faked" to resemble the rest of Greeley's almost illegible writing.
Few pioneer communities have been blessed by more forceful individuals than those of the Greeley Colony.
Jared L. Brush crossed the plains in an ox team during the P. P. excitement of 1859. In 1870 he became a member of the Union Colony and located at Greeley. He was a freighter. a farmer, a "cattle man" and a banker. In the course of time he became one of the best known and most prominent men in the history of the State. He was elected to the first State Legislature and re-elected. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor under Governor McIntyre and re-elected under Governor Adams.
Mr. Brush took an active part in educational affairs and was influential in securing the location of the State Normal School at Greeley.
Benjamin H. Eaton was attracted by the gold excite- ment and reached Colorado in an ox-team in 1859. He immediately commenced to farm.
It is related of him that "his first crops were snakes from sand dunes. while grasshoppers and other pests thrived better than wheat or potatoes, and there was lit- tle promise in the land." After he joined the Greeley Colony he became one of its greatest moving powers. In connection with farming he early became a large con- tractor and constructed the first irrigating ditch from the Cache la Poudre, which was the beginning of a splendid system of irrigation.
He became the largest individual holder of land and the wealthiest farmer in the State. His principal crops were wheat, alfalfa and potatoes.
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He had many fine characteristics and many warm friends. He was elected to the Territorial Council and later made Governor of Colorado.
The sad fate of Mr. Meeker will be found in the following brief sketch of the Ute War:
Naturally philanthropic, among other things he made a careful study of the condition of the Indians. and believing that, with the earnest support of the gov- ernment, they could be made to accept civilization, he applied for and obtained the agency for the White River tribe of Utes in 1877.
Arriving at the agency he found that many of the Indians had left the reservation. and great dissatisfac- tion existed among them, because of alleged ill-treatment by former agents. True to the main purpose of his mis- sion he soon succeeded in restoring quiet among the mal- contents.
It was a favorite theory with him that it was possible to make the agency self-supporting by teaching these sav- ages to adopt stock raising and agriculture. He also thought the young might be induced to attend school. and grow up educated in the English language and trained in the manner of civilized society.
The agency was removed during Mr. Meeker's admin- istration twenty miles from White River to Powell's bot- tom, one of the most beautiful tracts of land on the con- tinent. Here he began to teach the unsophisticated chil- dren of nature how to cultivate the soil. The experiment worked well until the spring of 1879. Mr. Meeker fenced the ground, dug wells, and built irrigating ditches. The Indians made serious complaints of these innovations. To the fence they objected strenuously. because it injured the feet and legs of their ponies.
They made frequent protests to Mr. Meeker, and finally sent a delegation of four to lay their grievances before Governor Pitkin.
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These commissioners bewailed bitterly the agent's effort to cultivate the ground, and his daughter's attempt to teach their children the ways of the white man. They wanted him restricted to supplying them with food, and compelled to allow them to live their lives in their own way. They assumed a hostile position during the entire summer, at times committing horrible depredations on the white man's side of the line, and the miners or prospec- tors who ventured on their reservation to dig for gold. were shot down like dogs. They wandered up and down the country, burning the forests and grasses, leaving a trail of fire from the Wyoming line to the boundary of New Mexico.
Meanwhile. certain members of the tribe became very troublesome to Meeker. On one occasion he was brutally assaulted by Chief Johnson and quite seriously injured. Immediately after this occurrence Mr. Meeker applied for troops for protection. and Major Thornburg. commanding at Fort Steele on the Union Pacific railroad. was at once ordered to use all dispatch in reaching the Indian country.
During this time the Utes were secretly preparing for a massacre. They purchased. at exterior points, arms of the most improved pattern. and ammunition in large quantities.
Everything being in readiness. Chief Douglass visited the agency on the morning set for the massacre. He made some remarks about the soldiers coming. Mr. Meeker assured him that their coming did not mean war. Apparently convinced, but at heart resolved to do mur- der. Douglass ate dinner with them, and lingered long after the meal. laughing and talking in a very pleasant manner with Mr. Meeker. Miss Josephine and Mrs. Meeker. Suddenly he left. He was thought by the peo- ple of the agency to possess many good qualities, but he proved himself to be one of the most cruel and heartless.
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as well as one of the most treacherous of the band. A few minutes after his departure the firing began. The women and children, in great alarm, sought a hiding place, and when they were driven from their shelter the cruel work had been accomplished. The agent and his employees were murdered, and no white person survives who witnessed it. Mrs. Meeker, after emerging from concealment, in passing across the grounds, came close to the side of her dead husband, with whom she had passed twenty-five years of contented married life. She stopped to kiss the cold blue lips, but was rudely ordered by Douglass to pass on.
The men were dead. Miss Josephine, young and intelligent, and Mrs. Meeker, sixty-four years old, one of the gentlest, most motherly of women, were in the hands of the barbarians.
The Six Days' Siege
Major T. T. Thornburg. in obedience to orders, left Rawlins immediately for White River agency. When his command reached the point where the road crosses Milk river they were attacked by about three hundred warriors lying in ambush. Major Thornburg. at the head of twenty men, made a bold charge upon the enemy. In this valorous dash the gallant leader was killed and Cap- tain Payne came into command.
The third day of the siege they were reinforced by a company of colored cavalry, under the command of Cap- tain Dodge, who had been notified by a Rawlins courier of the distress of their white brethren in arms.
And still the murderous work went on, ceasing at night, but with the first dawn of day the alert foe. securely hidden behind the sheltering bluffs, renewed their fire. On the fifth day General Merritt came to their rescue with a considerable body of troops.
Observing the strong reinforcements. and realizing
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their inability to maintain the fight any longer, the hos- tiles withdrew, leaving the field to General Merritt, who immediately marched to the agency, where he found the bodies of the unfortunate men, who were slain at the beginning of the outbreak, and buried them in a beautiful spot near the crystal waters of White river.
He then started at the head of seven hundred men for the camp of the hostiles who held the captive women. and which he had every reason to believe was located on Grand or Blue river. After a march of about six hours he received orders to suspend operations against the Indians, as negotiations for peace were in progress, and it was believed they would agree to surrender the captives and deliver the warriors who had led the outbreak. The military and the country generally considered this a dis- graceful termination of the campaign, but were, of course. powerless to prevent it.
Ouray, the head chief of the Utes, had started on a big hunt which was to have lasted three months, but news of the trouble at White river caused his speedy return. He sent a positive command to the hostile Utes to cease fighting.
The Rescue by General Adams
General Adams was agent for the White River Utes in 1870-71. At the time of the Ute war he was special agent for the United States Postoffice Department, with headquarters at Denver. He received telegraphic notifi- cation that at the request of Secretary Schurz he had been detailed for special work as representative of the Interior Department among the Indians. This was soon followed by another dispatch conveying specific instruc- tions as to his mission and how to proceed.
General Adams arrived at Ouray's camp on the night of the 18th, and the chief of the Utes confirmed his reputation as a friend of the white man, by giving his aid
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and advice in perfecting the plans for the trip to the Grand river, one hundred miles north, where the captives were then known to be.
The following morning the general started on his journey, accompanied by three chiefs and ten other Indians.
There was also in the company a special correspond- ent of the Denver Tribune and Captain Cline, an experi- enced scout and frontiersman, with two men to drive wagons and take care of the camping outfit.
The chiefs who escorted the general were named, Sapavanaro, Shavano and Colorow.
When the general reached the Indian camp he made Chief Douglass understand that he had been sent by the government to say "it did not want to fight, but the white squaws must be returned to their friends."
Then commenced a council which lasted five hours. Chief Sapavanaro stood by the general, who formally made known his errand; then one after another of the hostile chiefs spoke, the majority of them refusing their consent to the surrender of the prisoners. The pipe was passed around, but Adams refused to smoke with them until they should agree to his request. Sapavanaro also refused to smoke. Shavano became angry and withdrew from the council. At this Sapavanaro strode resolutely into the circle and made a powerful speech. He told them he bore the mandate of Ouray: that unless the Indians surrendered the captives to General Adams they would be cut off from all communication with their head chief, who would join with the whites in forcing them to terms.
During the speech there was a great pow-wow and considerable excitement in the council. but it had the desired effect.
The captive women were surrendered to General Adams. They were escorted to Chief Ouray's house and
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there met by Ralph Meeker, eldest son of the murdered agent. He took them to their home in Greeley and the poor sorrow-stricken women were once more among lov- ing friends.
THE GROWTH OF THE STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE OF COLORADO
Twenty-five years ago the State Legislature estab- lished the State Normal School at Greeley. The school began on a very modest basis. There were four teachers and about eighty students. They occupied what is now the east wing of the administration building, in which there were five or six class rooms. The campus of forty acres was little more than a sand waste where sage brush. cacti and jack-rabbits were plentiful.
In 1891 President Snyder assumed charge of the school. He began at once to develop a unit plan of building and campus improve- ments. As a result no State in- stitution in Colorado presents a more useful and pleasing arrange- ment of its buildings and other improvements. The campus has become one of the beauty spots of the State. In it is found grow- ing every tree and shrub that will grow in this climate: and what was once a sand waste has been converted into a great outdoor Z. X. Snyder museum and laboratory for the use of Colorado's citizens.
Because of the standard of work done at the Normal school at Greeley. the Legislature in 1911 changed the name of the school and it is now officially known as the State Teachers' College of Colorado.
The State Normal School faculty of four in 1890.
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instructing a student body of eighty, has grown from year to year until in this year of 1915 the State Teachers College of Colorado has a faculty of ninety-six, instruct- ing a student body of fifteen hundred students. In 1891 there were twelve persons graduated from the school : in 1914 the college gave four hundred and fifty-nine diplomas to its graduates. From 1891 to the present date the school has graduated 3,419 teachers and sent them into the public schools of this and other states. where they have done and are now doing great service in the cause of education.
For a quarter of a century Dr. Z. X. Snyder has labored diligently to make the State Teachers' College of Colorado one of the foremost schools of its kind in the United States. He has given the best of his life to the cause.
As a result of his masterful teaching thousands of young men and women have come to a realization of the true values of life. His name will go down in our his- tory as one who has had a powerful influence upon educa- tional thought and practice in this country.
The success of the Greeley Colony led the Chicago- Colorado Colony to select the site of Longmont, envir- oned by splendid agricultural lands. The town was established in 1871.
Mr. H. D. Emery, then editor of the Prairie Farmer. was chairman of the locating committee.
Longmont is one of Colorado's towns made prosper- ous by sugar beets. It is a busy city with prettily kept streets and parks and is one of the best known gateways to Estes and Rocky Mountain National parks.
Loveland is a beautiful city of 6000 people; it is the hub of an agricultural district where many of Colo- rado's superlative achievements have been made.
Fort Collins was a rallying point, used by the United
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States military for protection to settlers during the Indian wars. In 1872 the town was settled by a colony similar to that of Greeley. under the superintendence of General R. A. Cameron. W. E. Pabor was secretary and treasurer. It is situated in a beautiful valley, which has become one of the most important agricultural regions of the State.
The State Agricultural College is located here. This college had its beginning in territorial days. Three citi-
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LONGMONT SUGAR BEET FACTORY
LOVELAND
zens of Fort Collins donated to the Territory two hun- dred and forty acres of land adjoining the city and later handsome buildings were erected, fully equipped for the work of the institution. Here thorough instruction is given in agriculture and the natural sciences connected with that pursuit. The college maintains four experi- ment stations which are in active operation.
An interesting relic of pioneer days is the "Aunty Stone cabin," which the pioneer women of the Cache la
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Poudre Valley have repaired. It is the only building left in Fort Collins to tell of the days when the savages roamed the plains searching for plunder and the scalps of the hated white people. The cabin was built by Lewis and Elizabeth Stone in 1864. The logs were brought from the moun- tains, six miles distant, with ox teams.
After the United States troops were with- Aunty Stone Cabin drawn, Mrs. Stone, whose husband had died, converted her home into a hotel, and was hostess to many distinguished men of the Territory and Nation.
The first school in Fort Collins was opened in this building by Mrs. Stratton, the mother of Mrs. P. J. McHugh, who is prominent in club circles and widely known throughout the State.
Mrs. Stratton, at this writing, is a frail little woman with snow white hair and pleasing personality. She talks interestingly of the early days. "A band of friendly Indians camped here," she said, "and one day it sud- denly grew dark in my school room; I looked up to find the two windows filled with Indians. They looked on quietly for a time. and left quietly." This school inspired the people to form a school district, the first one on the Cache la Poudre.
Within the walls of the Aunty Stone cabin, the pioneers hold their pleasant re-unions.
One of the most important manufacturing industries in northern Colorado is canning; vegetable products, of many kinds. peas leading in value, are canned in the northern Colorado towns. Here are located great lignite coal fields which supply the manufacturing establish-
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ments. Greeley, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, Fort Morgan, are full of opportunity for the merchant or manufacturer.
Every year sees some new manufacturing enterprise. a canning factory. a creamery, a milk condensing plant. a flour mill, placed in operation in these towns of the Platte valley.
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CHAPTER XX STATEHOOD CONSUMMATED
JEROME B. CHAFFEE
During the fifteen years that Colorado was a terri- tory, there were eight different administrations. These frequent changes in the Territorial executive and the political conditions. proved unsatisfactory to the pioneers.
In 1864 a movement was made for the admis- sion of the State-a con- stitution was framed, sub- mitted to popular vote and defeated. In 1865 another constitution was framed and adopted by a small majority. The act passed by Congress pro- viding for our admission under this constitution was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson. A third attempt was made, when Jerome B. Chaffee Congress met in Decem- ber, 1866, and at this time a bill for an enabling act wa- introduced early in the session: it was amended by the House, passed the Senate and was promptly vetoed by President Johnson. and the hopes of the State workers in Colorado were again cast down. But they did not give up. February 12. 1868, a bill for the admission
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of Colorado was introduced by Senator Yates, of Illinois, but it did not progress beyond its introductory stage. Each failure was to some extent the result of jealousies and contentions of politicians. who in seeking a comfortable place for themselves, did not hesitate to forward their own interests.
The popular judgment here had been opposed to forming a State, giving as one reason the small popula- tion. But the marked advance made by the number of new railroads, the development of new mines, the increase of agriculture and rapid accession of population, led the politicians to hope that the people would be willing to assume the responsibilities and burdens of State gov- ernment.
In the Forty-third Congress, 1873-75, Jerome B. Chaffee, our delegate in Congress, again worked for Colo- rado's recognition. He was a pioneer in legislation and gold mining, and one of the greatest political party leaders of his time.
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