USA > Colorado > Colorado pioneers in picture and story > Part 26
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"Having now exhausted our mess-box, we went in search of ants, and peeled the bark of the trees and the old logs until they looked as if they had been struck by lightning. Ant lunch is pretty good when you can get enough of them. That sort of wrestling for life continued until there ceased to be any fun in it.
"A pedestrian tour over rocks and snow is not near so entrancing as watching the scenery from a car window.
"We subsisted for three days upon our vitals. rather expensive victuals, too-and there was an ominous wild- ness in the hungry eyes of the men that made me suspect they would soon be forced to cannibalism. As I was the smallest man in the party. I stood a fair chance of making the next meal.
"As night drew on this conviction preyed upon my mind. until every time I lost consciousness I had visions
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of drawn daggers and glaring, fiendish eyes, that startled me broad awake.
"After the camp-fire had died away, I gathered up my blankets and stealthily crept to another spot, but not to sleep, and as I lay there, I saw the two men approach the place I had deserted, feel around on their hands and knees, and foiled in their murderous designs, slink back to their blankets.
"The sun had scarcely awakened the sleeping world when I crawled out of my retreat and confronted the men with what I had seen, and announced my intention to leave them. One of them expressed a desire to accompany me, and take in the route we had decided upon the day before. The other man went alone.
"As we continued our tramp over the mountains, the days seemed like years, and the hunger-pain kept gnaw- ing at our vitals until strength was gone. If we fell to the ground it was almost impossible to regain our feet.
"My friend was of robust physique, and could stand the 'racket' better than I.
"I had fallen off until my clothes were large enough for a dozen of my size.
"We struggled along for fourteen days, and I reached a pile of rock from which the snow had melted, and felt resigned to lie there and die; my lower limbs were al- ready dead to my thighs.
"My companion, with painful effort, climbed to the top of what is now known in the San Juan country as Henson Mountain. He looked around at me with his face as bright as a Chinese lantern, and shouted. 'Brace up. Charlie! we are all right. Another outfit in the valley.' That was about the happiest moment I have any recollec- tion of.
"The party in the valley came to our rescue. They carried me into camp, and I pulled the scales at forty-
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1
SILVERTON. COLO
OTTO
MEARS
DURANGO, COLO
eight pounds. They handled me as if I was a child; put my legs in boiling water, but I didn't feel it.
"It was Ben Eaton's party that rescued us. They fed me on water gruel for several days, but I didn't gain much fat on that kind of diet. Finally Ben made the awful announcement that I must die.
"He was absent a few days, and when he returned I told him they were starving me to death. He again gave me the pleasant information that I had to die, and I might as well eat everything I wanted.
"I did, with the appetite of an alligator.
"When I got on my feet again the boys would hardly have been more surprised if they had seen an Egyptian mummy rise up and walk."
The vast region of Colorado known as the San Juan country comprises the counties of San Juan, Rio Grande, Hinsdale, Ouray, Dolores, Montezuma, La Plata and San Miguel. Its principal mining towns are Durango, Silver- ton, Lake City, Creede, Rico, Telluride and Ouray.
Otto Mears was one of the earliest settlers in the San Juan district. In fact, when he built his house in 1865, at Saguache, his house was Saguache, and during the various Indian scares, it was a place of refuge.
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Mr. Mears tells the following :
"In 1874, I made a trip to the Uncompahgre agency, where the city of Montrose now stands. Ouray was head chief then, and I wanted to see him. The distance was one hundred and fifty miles, and I went in a buggy with my wife and baby. When we were nearly to the place, we found that the river was badly flooded and we could not ford it. We had to get across, for we could not stay where we were. Finally, I thought of a plan.
"I had two empty oat sacks, for of course we had to carry all our provisions and fodder for the horses with us. I filled these sacks with rocks and tied one on each end of the back axle and drove my rig full speed. The horses swam, dragging the buggy after them. The buggy could not upset, because the two loaded sacks held it down, just as two anchors would. The water rose to our waists as we sat in the buggy. My wife held the baby up in her arms I tried to guide the ponies. When we reached the other side I heard the firing of guns and an Indian ran past me. Ouray came out and called to me to come into his house as quickly as I could.
"He lived in a 'doby' house and after we went in he barred the doors and windows. He said that the Indian we had seen had been sent out by the Northern Utes to try to induce his Indians to rebel and join with them in an insurrection against Ouray as chief.
"When Ouray heard this he ordered the Indian shot. He told us that there would be trouble during the night. We did not sleep much, but kept on the lookout, as Ouray felt that the Northern Utes would come down on him. We were not particularly comfortable in between these two fires, the Northern Utes on one hand and Ouray with his Indians on the other, but nothing happened that night.
"The next morning, all being quiet, I hitched up and drove on to the government agency, ten miles away. On the road we passed the dead body of the Indian we had
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seen shot the night before. We stayed at the agency ten days, and when we came back, the body still lay as we had seen it. It was badly decayed and covered with buz- zards, who were eating the flesh, but not one of Ouray's Indians could be induced to bury it."
Soon after this, the Indians warned all of the white people out of the country. The San Juan was left undis- turbed by prospectors until 1870, when the town of Sil- verton was founded and became a nucleus for the great mining development of the present day.
Until the treaty with the United States government. in 1874, all this country was the undisputed domain of the Ute Indian. Its settlement by white men form many thrilling stories of hardship and suffering.
OURAY
The town of Ouray is called the "Gem of the Rock ies." It is set at the bottom of a perfect bowl-a Titanic bowl, lined with red granite. European travelers declare that Switzerland has no grander scenery than that around Ouray.
The town bears the name of the great Indian chief who made his summer camp here for many years.
He was renowned in his tribe for his wisdom, and his friendship for the white man made him very helpful in the material progress of Colorado. Up to the time of his death, in 1880, he lived at his home in the Uncompahgre with his wife, Chipeta, who, like Ouray, was kind and well disposed towards the whites. His home was a com- fortable adobe built for him by the government. He took great pleasure in cultivating his farm and was anxious to surrender the reins of government to some younger man, desiring only to be known as Ouray, "the white man's friend."
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He had but one son, who was stolen from him by the Arapahoes during a war many years ago be- tween the Utes and that tribe. It was a source of great grief to him. The government made an effort to restore the boy to his home, and while General Adams was agent he ac- companied Ouray to Wash- ington, where, according to agreement, he was to meet the chief of the Arap- ahoes and receive his long Chief Ouray and Chipeta lost boy. When the young Indian was brought in, he walked up to Ouray and asked him how much he was worth, and how many ponies he had to give him. The old chief eyed the mercenary young man sadly and said, "He is not my boy. If he was, I would feel it in my heart," and turned away grievously disappointed.
They never met again.
In the county of Ouray is the famous Camp Bird mine, which added the name of Thomas F. Walsh to the list of millionaires.
GRAND JUNCTION
The story of the precious metals of the Western Slope is enthralling and some may regard it in that light exclusively, but nothing could be farther from the truth. It is Colorado's banner fruit-growing district. The Grand Junction peaches have a more succulent flavor than the
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BENTON CANNON
GRAND JUNCTION
peaches of any other State, and the sugar factory at Grand Junction takes all the beets that the farmers can raise. GLENWOOD SPRINGS The Western Slope apples bring the highest price of any apples in the nation. The Carbondale potatoes are grown on the Western Slope.
Grand Junction is the leading fruit-shipping point between the Missouri river and the Pacific coast.
Honorable Benton Cannon, who now resides at Grand Junction, is a Colorado pioneer, coming to Colo- rado when it was a part of Kansas, and settling in those early days down in Huerfano county. Mr. Cannon has been unusually active in the making of Colorado history. He accumulated a comfortable fortune while a resident of Huerfano county, and removed to Grand Junction be- fore the coal mines of Huerfano county were developed. and before, if they were known at all, there was little knowledge of their extent or worth.
Mr. Cannon is now the treasurer of Mesa county. filling his third term. Whether the Democrats or the Re- publicans win at the election, Mr. Cannon has so com- pletely acquired the confidence of Mesa county voters that he is retained in his position. Knowing that his statements could be relied upon. I asked him for infor- mation about the settlement of Grand Junction. He wrote the following :
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"I located in Grand Junction in 1886 and engaged in the mercantile business first, and later in the banking business. In 1889 the Interior Department at Washing- ton held up and refused to issue a patent on 640 acres of land that covered the townsite of Grand Junction. The town was growing rapidly and there was not a lot in town that could show a valid title.
"The homes and investments of the pioneers of our town were in jeopardy. There was war and rumors of war, and public sentiment was wrought up to high pres- sure. The good people of our community were divided in their opinions as to the best course to pursue in this emergency. One side wanted to petition the government to cancel the entry and file a new townsite. The opposi- tion favored petitoning the department at Washington to issue patents to the original town company, thereby sav- ing the homes and investments of our people. The emergency was pressing and something had to be done quickly and decisively to prevent serious results.
"I took upon myself the responsibility of selecting a committee of fifteen from the business men of our town and appealed to the citizens to endorse my action, which they did, and I was requested by the committee to act as their chairman. We met every day for three weeks and finally concluded to ask the property owners to join us in a petition to the Interior Department at Washington to grant patent to the original town company at the earli- est possible moment, thereby preventing serious conse- quences to our citizens. The late Honorable Henry M. Teller was Secretary of the Interior at the time, and the patent was promptly issued and the controversy ended, with peace and happiness restored.
"The next dark cloud that appeared on the horizon of our desert valley and frontier town was in the autumn of
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1889. A declaration of war was issued between the irri- gation company and the landowners of the valley. Pistols and shotguns were quietly discussed on the streets of our town. The irrigation canal and its laterals covered about 40,000 acres of land and brought water for irrigation to the orchards and fields of our valley.
"This irrigation system was promoted by the late T. C. Henry and financed by the Travelers' Insurance Com- pany of Hartford. The pioneer settlers had bought and paid for their water rights, but the expense of operation to the company was more than the income. The company wanted the annual charges increased and the landowners 'balked' and the 'devil' was to pay in general. I stepped into the breach again and named another committee of fifteen from the ranks of pioneer farmers and fruit grow- ers of the valley. My action was endorsed by the people and I was requested to act as chairman. We met every day for a month and considered the matters in hand.
"The net result was that the Travelers' Insurance Company wiped off the slate their investment of about $1,000,000 and their equity fell into the hands of the late T. C. Henry and Mr. John P. Brockway, the Denver at- torney, got it from Mr. Henry, and our committee of fifteen secured an option on the entire irrigation system for the water right holders in the old company for $40,000.00, and in due course the option was taken up. and there was not a gun fired or a man killed. and the clouds of depression passed away from Grand Valley, and sunshine and happiness took their place."
Glenwood Springs. the famous summer resort. is on the Western Slope.
Congressman Edward T. Taylor has resided in Glen- wood Springs since 1887. and practiced his profession. For many years he has been associated in the practice of 15
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the law with his brother, Charles W. Taylor. In 1887 he was elected district attorney of the ninth judicial district : 1896 he was elected State Senator for the twenty-first senatorial district. and re-elected in 1900 and 1904, his twelve years' service ending December, 1908; was presi- dent pro tempore of the Senate one term, and was the author of forty statutes and five constitutional amend- ments adopted by a general vote of the people; he also served five terms as city attorney and two terms as county attorney of his home town and county. He is a Mys- tic Shriner and an Elk, and served two terms as eminent commander of the Glenwood Commandery of Knights Templar; has been president of the Rocky Mountain Alumni Association of the Uni- versity of Michigan, and vice-president of the State Bar Association, and is now vice-president of the State Association of the Sons of Colorado, and has E. T. Taylor taken an active part in public affairs in Colorado He is now and has during
for over a third of a century. the past six years, been the Colorado member of the Demo- cratic national congressional committee. He is married and has three children. He was elected to the Sixty-first, Sixty-second and Sixty-third Congresses as Congressman- at-large. When the State was redistricted his home county was placed in the fourth congressional district, and
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he was re-elected from that district to the Sixty-fourth Congress. While in Congress he has secured the enact- ment of many laws of commanding importance to the State.
CHAPTER XXIV LEADVILLE
HOW THE MINING EXCITEMENT STARTED
Gold was discovered here in April, 1860, by pros- pectors from California, who had been prospecting along the Arkansas river. When they found the rich mineral, one man exclaimed, "This is California." and from that remark the region took the name of California Gulch, and the mining town was named Oro City. Then followed
LEADVILLE
Leadville in 1879
a mining excitement. The placer grounds were very rich in gold, and extended along the gulch nearly two miles on the north side of the Arkansas river, but as no gold- bearing ore was then found in the vicinity, the impatient fortune hunters began to prospect for more tempting fields, and in 1866 the camp was about depopulated, after
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more than a million dollars had been washed out of the gulch.
In 1876, "Uncle Billy Stevens" found the heavy sand known as carbonates, and then opened the marvelous car- bonate era, which astonished the world with its riches. Owing to the lead carbonates, the name of the camp was changed to Leadville, and the little settlement of a few log cabins and tents suddenly arose to a city of 40,000 people.
The Greeks have enumerated seven wonders of the world, and Leadville, the magic city of the Rocky Moun- tains, deserves to be added to the list, for it grew to har- monious proportions and enduring strength in a few months. In 1877-78. it had gas and waterworks, tele- graph and telephone lines, street railways, letter carrier system, fine public schools, several large smelting and re- duction works, stamp and sampling mills, a fine opera house, several extensive wholesale and retail grocery, dry goods and hardware houses; three daily newspapers, the Chronicle, Herald and Democrat : corner lots worth $5.000 to $10,000, and everything that goes to form a full-fledged city, with a thick pine forest on three sides, and at an altitude of 10,000 feet above sea level.
The older districts, proud of their orthodox fissure veins, derisively called this camp the district of sand mines.
Many of these miners are still rich, but as in every other mining country. the majority of them are poor. Nine out of ten who made from five to twenty thousand spent it and philosophically returned to the pick and shovel as day laborers.
The men who invested in the carbonate belt and de- veloped the rich blanket deposits are almost national celebrities ; their names are household words throughout the country, and we felt privileged to talk about them. L. Z. Leiter, millionaire capitalist of Chicago, made his
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stake in Leadville; Meyer Guggenheim, founder of the house of Guggenheim; Samuel Newhouse. These are but a few of the men who are known nationally and who saw the inception of their prosperity in Leadville. Simon Guggenheim, son of Meyer Guggenheim, has been United States Senator from Colorado and has donated four large buildings to the colleges of this State.
REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM R. OWEN
While talking in a random manner, we were joined by Mr. William R. Owen, who is the only living member of the board of trustees of the town of Leadville, and I considered myself fortunate in having the opportunity of talking to an old-timer who, long ago, blazed the trail on these mountain tops.
"One who has lived in Leadville," said Mr. Owen. "always preserves a warm spot in his heart for the old camp and often returns. There is no doubt that Lead- ville has been the inspiration of thousands of men. While I was traveling for Daniels & Fisher I heard that this was a good camp and so I decided to come here.
"I reached the camp December 31, 1877, bought a lot at the corner of Chestnut and Pine streets, put up a build- ing of logs twenty by fifty feet and opened a store.
"I started on $2,500, which was borrowed, and in ten months cleared up $20,000. I often sold goods from day- break to one o'clock in the morning. Leadville was in its heydey, gold was pouring into the city in a marvelous stream and men were becoming millionaires over night. It brings to my mind the greatest struggle of strong men for wealth that this country has ever known. It is diffi- cult for the people of today to realize that 40,000 people crowded within the city limits at that time. It was al- most impossible to walk the streets, if going in an oppo- site direction to that of the crowd. Such a conglomera-
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tion of humanity has never been seen before or since. Rep- resentatives of every nation of the earth were here, ex- cept China. Leadville never allowed the Celestials within its limits. Millionaires, tramps, miners, ministers, gam-
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W. R. Owen
blers, dudes and prospectors all jostled against each other. The buildings were not large enough to acommo- date the gamblers, and some of us had to play on the streets." Mr. Owen gave a quiet sort of laugh and con- tinued :
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"There were one hundred and thirty saloons, all doing a thriving business, and all supplied thirsty cus- tomers with a substantial lunch; no matter how poor one was, he or she never went hungry. Money was made quickly and spent the same way. When a man went broke, all he had to do was to go to the hills, stake out a claim and sell it. Anything in the shape of a hole in the ground could be sold.
"When I came here. I took the train to Morrison and then staged into Leadville. I left Denver at eight o'clock in the morning and reached Leadville at six the follow- ing evening. H. A. W. Tabor had a general supply store here at that time. He sold everything from a tin pan to a suit of clothes, and made money. He was one of the men confident that Leadville would be a great camp.
"One afternoon, January 28, 1879, Tabor called the trustees of Leadville together in a log cabin, which served as a city hall, to receive formally the document from the Secretary of State that lifted Leadville from a mining camp into a city. Tabor was enthusiastic over the organi- zation of a city ; he declared that in ten years we would all be millionaires, which was considered an amusing state- ment. Besides myself, the trustees were William Nye, John Carrol, R. T. Taylor, R. J. Frazer and George Fryer. W. R. Kennedy as town attorney and Martin Duggan as town marshal were also present. Duggan had just received his badge of office. The man who had pre- ceded him, George O'Connor, had been killed by James Bloodsworth, and this killing of O'Connor was the first of a long and bloody series that turned Leadville into a city of frenzy, where life counted for little and killings were common. Naturally, there was chaos, but out of chaos the better element brought order. The vigilance committee flourished and thinned out many and posted warnings that were heeded.
"While there was excitement in 1878, it was in '79
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the great rush began. The Little Pittsburg mine had be- come known throughout the world; the R. E. Lee had turned out $117,000 in twenty-four hours. The Rio Grande had pushed in to Leadville, having a famous fight with the Santa Fe for the Royal Gorge. The Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf also pushed into the great camp.
"A. V. Hunter, with George W. Trimble, started the first bank in the city, known as the Miners' Exchange Bank. It is now known as the Carbonate National, with Hunter and Trimble still at the head. Hunter is also president of the Ibex Mining Company, the largest gold producer in the State."
I found Mr. Owen was in a reminiscent mood, so I asked him to tell me something about the churches and hospitals.
"When I made the first trip into the camp Parson Uzzell climbed into the stage at Fairplay. He said some- one had told him that there was an opening for a church in Leadville. In a short time he laid the foundation of his spiritual usefulness by his religious activity, and was familiarly known as "Parson Tom." He was a man with unbounded love for humanity and broad religious toler- ance. In 1879 he built the first church in the city, and its doors were wide enough to let in all. The simple doc- trine of the golden rule was the religion he taught. The epitaph he wanted was, 'Here lies Thomas Uzzell. He did his level best.'
"Father J. Robinson, a pioneer Catholic priest. held the first mass in Leadville, with an anvil for an altar, in a blacksmith shop of the old Homestake mine. His con- gregation consisted of three, one a Catholic, one a Pres- byterian and the other an atheist. He traveled in winter on snow shoes, over a trackless waste, to minister to the spiritual needs of the isolated mining camps, and while he was working to build a church in Leadville he was
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giving assistance to the Sisters of Charity, who were raising money to build the St. Vincent hospital.
"March, 1880, claim jumpers attempted to jump the grounds surrounding the building. One night the fence was torn down, and this so aroused the citizens that a guard was formed to protect the sisters and their prop- erty. About midnight two men appeared on the scene. and when told to halt, showed fight. The guard fired and one of the jumpers fell, shot through the leg. The wounded man was taken to the hospital and nursed to convalescence by the women he had tried to injure.
"A building that attracted attention at that time was the wigwam. It was built by Tabor in 1878 for the pur- pose of holding political meetings. A notable debate took place there betweeen J. B. Belford and T. M. Patterson. rival candidates for Congress in the fall of 1878. The night of the debate the immense building was packed to the doors; about 5,000 people were wedged in. Later on the building was used as a bunkhouse. The bunks were ranged in close tiers to the ceiling. It accommodated 1,000 sleepers at a price of $1.50 each, and every night it was full.
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