USA > Colorado > Colorado pioneers in picture and story > Part 22
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"Joseph Standley, Joe Thatcher's partner in Central, is with him in the Denver National. Standley owned the California mine, with its shaft 2.200 feet deep, for many years the deepest mine in the United States.
"Henry R. Wolcott, assistant manager of the Boston and Colorado smelter, became State senator, and was long a Republican leader in Colorado, now retired. and lives quietly in Honolulu, where he has bought a mag- nificent estate.
"Still another United States Senator who lived in Gregory gulch long enough to feel the Midas touch was W. A. Clark. He too worked the Bobtail, but never identified himself with the camp life. He took his money and went to Montana. where he became a copper magnate and millionaire.
"George M. Pullman made a brief but busy stay here. He took out the money which enabled him to build sleep- ing cars and give to the world a degree of luxury in travel never dreamed of before. When he made enough money to float his sleeping car project he quietly sold his interest and disappeared. to be heard from again when his fame as an inventor had girdled the earth.
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"Eben Smith! Ah, that is a name to conjure with !" said General Hall. "He formed a partnership with Chaffee, and was very successful. He and Chaffee were among the first to make a success of the Bobtail mine. When Chaffee died, Smith formed an alliance with D. H. Moffat, and they opened up many mines in Leadville. Cripple Creek and other camps.
MAJOR HAL SAYRE
"Major Hal Sayre was the pioneer surveyor and civil engineer of Gilpin County, beginning in 1859. In his duties of civil engineer he had much to do with the earliest definition of mining claims under the miners' law. Subsequently when Congress passed the first act fixing the boundaries of claims and defining miners' rights, his duties were materially enlarged. As a conse- quence he became one of the busiest men in all that re- gion. In due course of time he fell in love with a Miss Elizabeth Dart, and, after a swift courtship, married her. Of this marriage three children, two boys and one girl, were born. The girl became the wife of Wm. B. Berger, cashier of the Colorado National Bank. The elder son, Hal, went into the United States army of the Philippines, and later met his death in New Mexico ; the other son, Robert, is now at the head of some impor- tant mining enterprises in Gilpin and Clear Creek coun- ties. Robert is a graduate of Harvard. Hal Sayre, Sr .. is a highly educated man and delightful in conversa- tion. His wife is refined, with gentle manners, and they contributed much to the social life of Central City, while they resided there. He built, and now occupies, a fine resi- dence, in the Moorish style of architecture, at the corner of Eighth avenue and Logan street. Denver. Here Mr. and Mrs. Savre have established one of the most charm-
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ing home circles to be found in this municipality, where it is always a delight to visit.
"E. O. Wolcott," Mr. Hall went on, "was a pictur- esque character, a handsome man, with a commanding presence. He possessed a brilliant intellect, and was a born orator. Mining and milling did not appeal to him, so he taught school; he became a member of the local lyceum and gave his oratorical powers full play. He was naturally inclined to politics, and when the oppor- tunity came he crossed over to Georgetown, where he lived for many years. In the course of time he was elected district attorney, and then his progress was rapid. He became leader of the Republican party, and in 1889 was elected to the United States Senate-the fourth Gregory gulch man to attain that honor."
I had listened with bewilderment to the long cata- logue of distinguished men, and made rapid notes while the general talked.
"It seems to me," I said, "that everybody of note lived in this narrow little gorge at one time."
"That is true," he replied, "and when they found themselves in this happy canyon among the everlasting hills, at an altitude approximately 9,000 feet, and seven hundred miles away from the end of the nearest railroad, life was not so intolerable as some might suppose. The camp had its society, with lines not so clearly drawn as in New York. still well defined. There were wholesome amusements of various kinds. The theater was managed by Jack Langrishe, who gave everything from East Lynne to Othello. We had a lyceum, a singing school, spelling bees and church sociables; men and women of culture were there," he said in conclusion, "and, you know, refined brains are always at a premium."
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JOSEPH A. THATCHER
While I sat in the rotunda of the Teller house. Joseph A. Thatcher came forward to greet me. His name will ever be
associated with the early days of Central City. and it is picturesquely interwoven with Colorado's bank- ing history. His
strong, clear-cut features are touched with a benign expression and ennobled with white hair, white mustache and im- perial. He is a native of Ken - tucky, and, al- though fifty-five years in the West.
his accent and bearing are dis- tinctively south- ern. He is a man Joseph A. Thatcher of keen intellect, quick wit and a broad view of life.
Mr. Thatcher is delightful in conversation; bright thoughts and words leap from his brain. A lady once asked him, "What keeps you so young?" "Flattery and vanity," he replied. "When I am told that I look young. I always straighten up my shoulders and step quicker."
"How did you get into the banking business?" I asked. "Through failing," he replied, with a laugh, as
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he seated himself in a chair. "My chum, John Ralston, wanted me to go in partnership with him, and bring a stock of goods to Colorado. He had some money; I did not have any, so I was willing to go in partnership with him. He was a fine fellow, but he stuttered, and it took him a long time to say 'damn,' but when he did succeed. it was expressive." Mr. Thatcher laughed as if in his mind's eye he was looking back on those days. "We started from Kansas City with ten wagons, loaded with merchandise, and drawn by oxen. We had bought the merchandise and the oxen, too, mostly on credit. A negro cook prepared the meals for the caravan.
"Among the team men I hired was one from Massa- chusetts. All the men were armed, and the Bay State man carried a gun big enough for a piece of artillery. One day as dark came on I, as was my custom, rode ahead to find a camping place. When I had selected a place about three hundred yards in advance of the teams. I heard three shots in rapid succession. I turned my pony and galloped back. Behind the last wagon sat this man in the middle of the road. and Ralston was standing by him. Colonel Bent, with his Indian wife and two men from Georgia, were traveling through to Bent's Fort in an ambulance. They had a lot of loose horses, and this fellow, in his excited fear, had fired off his piece of ar- tillery at them. Two of the bullets went through the bottom of the ambulance, and Bent and his Indian wife tumbled out. Colonel Bent was mad and the squaw was furious; she wanted to kill the man there and then, and insisted upon it.
""'What is the matter?' I asked.
"Ralston explained that the hired men had practiced upon the credulity of this fellow: had told him extrava- gant stories about Indians, which had upset his reason.
" 'He is an infernal scoundrel,' said Bent, 'and should be hung : for your own safety you ought to hang him.'
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"Colonel Bent then looked us over.
"'What are you kids doing out in this country, any- how ?' he demanded. 'You are a pretty looking pair to be on an expedition like this.' The whole affair seemed to fill him with disgust. We finally succeeded in appeas- ing him, and he went on his way.
"I decided to go ahead of my teams, and three days before reaching Denver I fell in company with a deserter from the troops stationed at Santa Fe; we became fellow travelers. The deserter's great fear was that someone would steal his horse, but after looking him over care- fully I quieted his fears, for his horse and mine were equally no good. When we stopped for supper we took an inventory of our supplies. He had ground coffee, and nothing else, and I had stale bread and uncooked bacon. We drank our coffee from the pot it was made in, and varied our menu by having coffee first for breakfast and
last for dinner. On July 17, 1860, I rode into Denver on my little old pony, after forty-seven days out from Kansas City. The pony could not go any farther, so I took off the bridle and saddle and turned him out on the plains now called Denver. I never saw him again. No doubt some undesirable citizen who had received per- emptory orders from the People's court to leave the city used him in complying with the notice.
"Five days later my wagons and teams arrived in charge of my partner, John Ralston, and we turned our cattle out where the Brown Palace now stands. In Den- ver there was a mixed, straggling, excited, unsettled population ; doubt and uncertainty were in the minds of most of the people, and the principal business was done by saloons and gambling houses.
"After a few days we hitched up and struck out for Central, and reached here in nine days, encountering ac- cidents, floods and breakdowns. At Golden we had to 13
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unload our wagons, and were half a day getting up the side of the first mountain. the oxen pulling the empty wagon. Then, packing our stuff up, we reloaded, and in going down the other side we cut a tree and fastened on behind as a brake. One of my drivers left on the second day out. and I whacked his team of bulls into the camp myself. We reached Central in nine days.
"In the spring of '61 the placer or gulch mines ceased to produce gold. The people thought there were no other industries in the country, and made their way out as fast as they could. The merchants had no one to buy goods; as a result I failed. The people who could not get away began the erection of mills for the treatment of gold ores. In 1862 I sold out my stock. mainly on credit, and closed my career as a 'merchant prince.' I took the money I got for my stock and bought a stamp mill. I moved it to Buckskin Joe, and in a short time I had nothing left-except mountain fever. Then there was a gold excitement at Montgomery. I hauled my mill over seven feet of snow to that camp. There were from eight to ten thousand people there, but in a short time the camp was deserted. I failed again, and my mill rotted away.
"I would not allow myself to become discouraged. I made a study of ores. bought and sold mines, and in a short time paid off my debts. In 1862-63 the govern- ment issued a large amount of greenbacks. Mr. Warren Hussey established a bank office for the purchase of gulch gold and placer gold. Owing to the fact that I had acquired a knowledge of mill gold value, retort and any kind of gulch gold. Warren Hussey engaged me to manage his bank.
"With the enormous issue of greenbacks by the gov- ernment, and the immediate difference between gold and currency. the banker found it profitable to purchase gold bullion and have it coined. Gold went up until it took
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two dollars in currency to buy one in gold. I worked for Warren Hussey for seven years, and then I bought him out. Why run a bank for another man for seven years, and not be able to buy him out?" asked Mr. Thatcher, with a glint of humor in his eye.
"I organized the bank of Thatcher. Standley & Co .. and during the panic of 1873 I bought gold in the day- time, made the trip to Denver every night for currency. and returned the next morning to Central City to open the doors of the bank. In 1874 I organized the First National Bank of Central City, and was made president of it. I remained at Central City banking until 1884. when I moved to Denver and organized the Denver National Bank, in company with Dennis Sullivan, Joseph Standley and others. I was made president of the Den- ver National, and occupied the president's chair for twenty-nine years."
Mr. Thatcher's banking career is one of the most interesting in the State, because running through it all is the beautiful human element. But he refused to dis- cuss any of his benefactions. However, it is well known that Joseph A. Thatcher never pushed anyone financially who he knew was doing his level best, yet was unsuccess- ful. In his bank he has cancelled the note of many an unfortunate friend. His name and his money have been factors in everything of a cultured and artistic nature in the progress of Denver. He carries into his business and his home the spirit of fairness and benevolence. and in his quiet, unostentatious way has opened the doors of education to many young men and women: his timely help to friends in his own circle has paved the way for
their success. He aided in building St. John's cathedral. St. Luke's hospital and the Young Men's Christian As- sociation. When Mr. and Mrs. Thatcher came to Denver the social doors swung wide to receive them. Mrs. Thatcher is a graceful. charming woman, averse to pub-
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licity or to securing attention through display, and has selected her friends at the dictates of her heart rather than from any motives of self-advancement. She has the distinction of writing the "social code" for Denver.
In speaking of the pioneer society, Mr. Thatcher said: "It's a sad thing to belong to that society: they are dying so rapidly. But I am interested in the so- ciety, and when I am a hundred I shall join it."
Mr. Thatcher assisted in establishing the Denver Union Stockyards, the Denver Electric Company and the Colorado Packing Company; he has also been connected with the water and gas companies. While his services have been useful in many undertakings that have con- tributed to the up-building of Denver, it has been in the management of the great banking institution of which he is the head that his well-trained financial genius is particularly manifested.
Mr. Thatcher is a great financier, a great philan- thropist, and he is also a great "romancer"; indeed he may be called the Baron Munchausen of Colorado. From his interesting little book entitled "A Colorado Outing" I have taken the following :
MR. THACHER'S BEAR STORY
"We resolved to stay two or three days longer; and I concluded to try and bring some of my friends the results of my outing, and the day before we were to leave I started out rather early to a place about half a mile away from camp, where the stream was divided by a small island covered with willows. I carried, beside rod and creel, a hunting knife in the leg of my long boot and a lariat around my shoulders, which I used some- times in dangerous places, where the stream was very deep and swift and the bank too steep to fish from with safety. I had stopped at the head of the pool and had
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taken eight or ten fine trout, and thought I would cross over to the island and see what the other arm of the river looked like. I had walked a few rods through the wil- lows when I saw quite a disturbance ahead of me, and stopped. Not more than thirty rods away a huge brown bear rose up out of the willows; he stood on his hind legs and looked directly at me. I turned and made for the stream with all the speed that paralyzed fear could make. I crossed and, turning, saw the bear following me through the water. I rushed through the low brush that lined the bank and out into the open stood a fair sized tree two hundred yards away that I thought I might reach. I glanced back, and the bear was coming out of the bushes right on after me-somewhat faster, it seemed to me, than I was going. When within fifty yards of the tree another look at him convinced me he would get there about the same time I did, or probably before, so, to lighten my load and increase my speed, I dropped my rod, threw off my creel and my hat and I hastened my efforts to the utmost. As I got to the tree the bear got to my creel and stopped. I scrambled up the tree and reached a dead limb ten feet above the ground, and from there I could reach the forks of the tree about fifteen feet from the ground. When up there I saw that the bear had shaken the fish out of my creel and was eating them. He then came on to the tree, walked around it sev- eral times. then started to climb up. Seiz- ing the dead limb with his arms, he tried to pull himself up. when the limb broke off close to the body of the tree, and he fell to the ground on his back and head, the wind knocked out of him. He got up rather slowly and commenced walk- ing around the foot of the tree, acting as though he thought I had played a trick on him. I could have
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laughed outright at his sheepish look if I had not been so scared I could not open my mouth. After walking around the tree some time he went back to the creel, smelled all around it, went to my hat, took it in his mouth and shook it like a pup would an old slipper. I suppose he thought I carried trout in my hat as well as in my creel. There was no doubt but what he was hun- gry, and, not getting any fish out of the hat, he came back to the tree again, and stood on his hind legs and reached up toward me as far as he could reach. I made up my mind I must cut his paws off if he came up that tree, but he made no attempt to climb up again, and con- tinued to walk around and around, and would then stop. stand on his hind feet and reach up as far as he could. All at once the thought struck me, why not try to lariat him? I acted on the thought at once, unwound the lariat from my shoulders, fastened one end around a near fork of the tree, got the noose ready and waited for him to come directly under it. and when next he stood up 1 dropped it down over him and pulled with all the strength of desperation, and caught his forearms just behind his big paws. I tightened the rope to the utmost upon the limb, and found I had him standing on his toes. and unless he could spring up and bite the rope, I was safe, his neck being so much shorter than his arms he could not possibly reach the lariat. He jumped until he was worn out and spent from the exertion. Then I looked over the situation and found that if I climbed up some ten feet higher I could go out on a big limb. and by a good drop reach the ground. I did this, and found myself safely on the ground; then, convinced in my own mind that he could not get loose, I said to my- self, 'Old fellow, you have scared me out of ten years' growth; I would like to take your hide or your claws as a trophy.' So I pulled my long knife and approached the tree cautiously. keeping it between me and the bear.
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He seemed to be swinging helplessly, and I got squarely against the tree and gave a lunge with my knife around it, aiming at his heart. As I did so, the bear gave a last struggle and his head fell over to one side, and he was as limp as a rag, and did not move. I waited for about ten minutes, and as he did not move I felt sure that he was dead. I then went up close to him, and certainly he was a dead bear. I concluded to cut his claws and take them to camp and get Dick to come out and help skin him. I reached up and cut the rope, and the bear fell over on the ground, not moving a muscle; but the suspicious thing was that he was not bleeding at all, as far as I could see, and after studying over the situation for some little time, I concluded it was safer to run into camp and get Dick to come out and help skin him. I had never had any experience in that line. I struck camp pretty quick, and told Dick with great excitement all about it. He was very incredulous, and started out with me at once; and as I went along he roared with laughter at my account of the whole affair. When we came in sight of the tree I did not see anything around or near it. We went on to the tree, but no bear was there. My rod, creel and hat were gone. I said, 'Why, here was where I left him.' We turned and looked around about everywhere, and directly down a narrow path, lead- ing to the water, we saw the most astonishing sight that I ever beheld. We saw that bear walking on his hind legs toward the water, with my creel over his shoulders. my rod in his hand and my hat on his head.
"Dick turned to me and said: 'Look! Yes, you slaughtered him, Joe; no doubt about that !' and then fell upon the ground and roared with laughter, until I thought he would die. I turned and started for the camp, saying : 'Come on, Dick: don't be a fool !'
"Well, having lost my fish. rod. creel. hat and bear.
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we packed up and left for home. But as to whether that bear was possuming, or fainted from ex- haustion, or had heart failure for the time being, I could never de- termine."
FRANK C. YOUNG
Mr. Thatcher introduced me to his old-time friend and associ- ate, Mr. Frank C. Young, who is a man of rare culture and literary taste. Had he given his time to literary work instead of to bonds and stocks, he might be the Washington Irving of the West. He has written two charming books, "Across the Plains in '65" and "Echoes from Arcadia." The latter is a story of Central City.
Mr. Young, with his usual modesty, refused to talk about himself, but he soon became enthusiastic in talking of the early days of Central.
"In the fall of 1865 there was little doing in a business way, but there was great activity in poli- tics. We had three dis- tinct elections here, one of them for State affairs, and one for the Legislature. which was to meet in the winter and choose United States senators for the State that was vet to be.
Frank C. Young
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"The contest was, in the main, a good-natured one, and the continuous diversion it created proved a God- send to the depressed colony. In the third election, what- ever their earlier attitude towards statehood, all parties came into the field to compete for a share of the spoils, if the fates should decree our admission, and many and curious were the tickets and platforms which were of- fered to the consideration of the electors. Deacon Walker presented himself for Congress. as an independent can- didate, and in support of his claim upon the suffrages of his fellow-citizens declared himself 'in favor of women's rights. gold-bearing lodes, free drinks and Frei- burg pans; also all disintegrating and desulphurizing processes without let. hindrance or remorse, and without regard to smells; and 'most of all I will insist upon the substitution of an automatic wheel-barrow for the ox now employed in transporting the mails to and from the States.'
"There was no difficulty in marshalling voters to the polls. Everybody voted at all the elections and without the officious or fussy restrictions of an Australian ballot or other impertinent modern inventions. Whoever got the most ballots in the box was the best man, whether his supporters were those of a "local habitation and a name" or just arrived today with a bull team from off the plains. All were independent Americans, who were not to be defrauded of their rights, and meant to exer- cise them how and when and where they pleased. Black Hawkers voted in Central and Centralites, not to be out- done in courtesy, returned calls and voted in Black Hawk; and when the results were declared, he was a rash man indeed who would suggest a contest.
"The pioneers of various religious societies followed close upon the trail of the placer miners in their first
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invasion of Gregory gulch ; among them were the aggressive Metho- dists. Brother B. T. Vincent, their shepherd, was active, genial and extremely popular among all classes, whether in or out of his own sect. To him is due the honor of creating a Library Association. from which much intellectual ac- tivity developed for the public benefit.
"In our little community," continued Mr. Young, "everyone knew and recognized everyone B. T. Vincent else, whatever might be the posi- tive differences of social position. In this connection I might speak of Aunt Clara Brown. She was raised in old Kentucky, and with her own free- dom secured after years of persistent, patient toil, when well along in life she joined the procession of gold- seekers to Gregory gulch. Through the unusual returns of a mining camp for labor such as hers, she was able to bring out from the old plantation her children and later her children's children; and with them, whether aided by her efforts or stimulated by her example, have, year by year, come many others of her race, worthily represented by the Poynters, the Lees, the Nelsons and other families who are as tenacious of recognition as subjects of the 'little kingdom' as you or I may be.
"I must not forget to speak of the old stage driver. It is hard to suppress one's regret at seeing everything that invested the old-time journey with a bit of the pic- turesque and the romantic, and enlivened it occasionally with a spice of adventure, so ruthlessly and abruptly driven off the scene, even though the displacement repre- sented the march of progress.
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