USA > Colorado > Colorado pioneers in picture and story > Part 28
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"Yes," said he, pulling his mustache in a meditative way; "we are only waiting for someone to suggest some- thing that we haven't, and we will immediately send a prospector into the mountains to find it."
THE ROYAL GORGE
It was with a sigh of regret that I left Gunnison and the many delightful people I met there.
We returned via the Rio Grande railway, and soon the little engine was panting and groaning in its toilsome ascent of the Marshall Pass. We were now approaching perilous heights; indeed, we seemed to be suspended, like Mahomet's coffin, midway between heaven and earth. Yet we had ceased to hold our breath to assist the locomotive. for one becomes accustomed to swinging on the ragged edge of the mountains in the course of a tour through them.
It was very cold when we reached the summit, and a tremulous inspection of the situation increased our chilly sensations.
The scenery along the Arkansas in its passage through the Rocky Mountains is varied and beautiful. At times the river glides smoothly through a wide valley, between vine-covered banks, and again rushes impetuously through
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a narrow defile, roaring and foaming over its rocky bed until again soothed to rest in a broad, open park.
The prospect becomes more and more sublime until the Royal Gorge is reached, where the towering rocks. thousands of feet above us, bend their heads together like the fabled Sympleg- ades through which the Argonauts passed in their search for the Golden Fleece.
Our hearts seemed to sink and almost stop beat- ing while contemplating this chasm, the supremest possible ideal of awe-in- spiring grandeur. We may not see the face of God and live, but we can look upon His creation. learn of Him, believe and Royal Gorge tremble. Soon we are whirled from this deep wrinkle in the dread frown of nature to the broad, smiling prairies. Earth. from the loftiest mountain tops and deepest valleys. the flowers that blossom over its wide plains, the stars that twinkle in the heavens, the elements that speak in thunder tones. or sigh in the gentle zephyrs, bids man join in the glad anthem :
"The hand that made us is divine."
PART IX THE TOWNS OF THE PLAINS
CHAPTER XXVI
THE GARDEN SPOT OF COLORADO
CANON CITY
Canon City, called the "Gate City of the Rocky Mountains," and the "garden spot of Colorado." certainly makes excellent provision for tourists and-convicts.
The penitentiary, which is located here, surpasses any I have ever seen in the perfection of all its parts, and the hotel accommodations of the town are satisfactory. We were furnished a private parlor without extra charge, which is something unique in a traveler's experience.
We went to the mineral springs, just at the edge of the city, and found many invalids there, lolling in the rustic arbor, and drinking freely of the health-giving waters, which are said to cure chronic, cutaneous and blood diseases.
The next on the programme was Talbott Hill, where Professor Marsh of Yale College, and Professor Cope of the Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia. exhumed bones of animals of enormous size.
Limited time prevented our visiting the orchard of Mr. Jesse Frazier, who succeeded in growing the first orchard in Colorado. He has now nearly three thousand apple trees bearing.
Canon City has been settled twice. In 1860-61 it was almost as large and important as Denver, but the
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diversion of travel to the South Park mines by another route, and a great many of her citizens having entered the army at the outbreak of the war, soon brought the place to ruin. In 1863 it was almost entirely depopulated, Mr. Anson Rudd and family being left its sole occupants. Any man who could remain in a frontier town while it was indulging in a Rip Van Winkle sleep of five or six years ought to be worth interviewing, and so, accom-
Sky-Line Drive, Canon City
panied by Judge Felton of the Record, I called at his residence, and found him to be a pleasant, genial gentle- man, full of genuine wit and humor. He invited us to a rustic seat under the apple trees, that were literally breaking down with fruit.
In answer to my questioning he said: "I knew of the coal, iron and mineral springs in this vicinity, and saw that Nature had arranged things for a city, when the peo- ple should be ready, so concluded to 'bide my time.' I
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told them I was too poor to provide my family with pro- visions during a journey to some other place. Twelve others remained. but they were crippled or deranged, and as I was the only sound one, I was said to be the only man left. The loneliness and stillness were oppressive at times, and the large, empty stone houses that had been so full of noisy life intensified the loneliness. For a long time our existence as a community was ignored: we had not even the advantage of a mail: apart from an occa- sional visit from the Indians, there was nothing to break the monotony."
He then invited us to the house to see a picture pre- sented to him by friends on his sixty-fourth birthday. It is called "Ye Old Timer," or "How I came to this Country." With a merry twinkle in his eve he said, "There is the buckboard to show how I came, and the rest of the picture is thus explained: Once, while out hunting with a party of friends, I saw the back of a jackass above the sage brush. and, taking it to be a bear. I crawled on my hands and knees until near enough, and fired-killing my jack-after which I sat upon a cactus, that caused me to take my meals standing for a-week or two. This picture was presented to me by Judge Felton. in a very graceful speech. under the apple trees-a sur- prise party, they called it."
He escorted us through his fine orchard. plucking and presenting us in a hospitable manner with luscious apples and pears. There was no "forbidden fruit" in that garden.
THE RELIGIOUS WAR
The late Hon. Thomas Macon, in speaking of Canon, said: "The first settlement was made up of all classes. The second settlement began in 1864, and the settlers were of the highly moral order, and, like the Puritans of old,
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were determined to lay the foundation of social and sound moral principles, allowing everyone to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience, provided always the conscience was so far enlightened as to accept their theology.
"With this high and holy purpose, about twenty fam- ilies arrived at Canon in July, 1864, and at once resolved. first, that the earth belonged to the saints; second. that they were the saints; and, proceeding to act upon their conclusion, took possession of the vacant houses in the town.
"They were of the old-fashioned orthodox Baptist creed; looked upon infant baptism as a sin against the Holy Ghost, and missionary enterprises as casting the children's bread to the dogs.
"They came without a shepherd, but they had a 'sing- ing master,' who taught them to sing, and with his assist- ance they praised the Lord on Sunday.
"For a time all went on smoothly, but in an evil hour a wolf came to harass this flock of lambs, in the shape of a Universalist preacher. and they were sore distressed.
"The idea of taking from them their favorite hell was more than they could endure. One old lady, a sort of 'mother in Israel.' declared that fire was as necessary to salvation as water. and she would as soon give up baptism as hell.
"It was plain that they must have a shepherd, one who could fight with the weapons of faith. So, in process of time, they lit upon the very man they needed. He was fresh from Missouri, and rejoiced in the annihilation of all heretics. He arrived early in the spring of 1865. and at once began to prepare for war.
"He threw down his glove (buckskin, of course), and it was promptly taken up by Beelzebub, as the enemy was called, and for several months the entire community was agitated with profound discussions of original sin.
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total depravity, the efficacy of good works, the nature of faith and the mysteries of redemption, atonement, fore- ordination and election.
"At length Satan and his ambassadors were van- quished and fled the country, leaving our Baptist friends and their preacher master of the field. A great revival and many baptisms were the result of the victory, and it became necessary to court the favor of the church to gain or hold popularity.
"The politicians all became Baptists, and for a few years the church was omnipotent in Fremont County. But prosperity proved their ruin. Like Jeshuran, they 'waxed fat and kicked.' Having no external foes, they quarreled among themselves, and their preacher, or elder. as he was called, attempting to compose their differences. as is usual in such cases, incurred the hostility of both' factions, and in a solemn assembly of the church he was put upon trial for slander, convicted, and in the presence of his weeping family dismissed, not only from his pul- pit, but from the church.
"To the eye of flesh the good elder was lost, but the eye of faith saw further into the millstone. He was cast down, but not dismayed; discomfited, but not conquered. He bent before the storm, but did not break. His ene- mies boasted of their victory, and taunted him in his distress. He went on in the even tenor of his way, and devoted himself to making friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. They did not dream of the resources of one possessed of such unfaltering faith as he had. They forgot, if indeed they had ever known the proverb, 'Pride goeth before destruction. and a haughty spirit before a fall.'
"The good elder had taken the precaution to appeal or move for a new trial, and before the momentous day for that had arrived he was prepared. He had laid their grievances before the sinners of Canon City, and they were in the church in force, determined to see fair play.
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"After the usual formalities, it came to a vote, and the sinners voted him back into the church and pulpit: his most active enemies were censured and suspended until they should repent and ask the good man's par- don, which they never did. When the elder placed an organ in the church, it caused further defections, and in the spring of 1868 all but four of the original families who entered Canon in 1864 sold out and removed to Mis- souri.
"In the summer of 1867 Bishop Randall of the Epis- copal Church made his first visit to Canon, and his clerical garb at once indicated his sacred character. It was quite plain he was not a Baptist, and the before- mentioned elder, in his zeal for the protection of his own. took the alarm, and after some inquiry. decided the bishop was a Roman Catholic priest. This was at once communicated to the faithful, and they were warned to keep away from him and his meetings.
"But they were assured by the bishop that he was an Episcopalian, and on the next day a few of the Baptist brethren, anxious to see the new form of worship. disre- garded the warnings and ventured out.
"They were horror-stricken when the bishop appeared in his robes; but curiosity held them. and they sat with what composure they could command until the 'creed' was recited, and 'I believe in the Holy Catholic Church' was said, when with one accord they rushed out of the church, declaring the bishop to be a Roman Catholic. and proving it by the creed.
THE HUNT
Taking the baby railroad* for Pueblo, we found our- selves in company with a party of Nimrods, who were
*These tiny toy-like trains went over the heights and down into the valleys for many years, till superseded by the standard gauge.
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returning from a big hunt. They were enthusiastic on the subject, and talked freely of their exploits, as the follow- ing will attest: "We left Denver for a month's hunt in Southwestern Colorado, in the Ute country, from which the Indians had a short time previously been removed. The Rio Grande railroad was at that time building its Salt Lake line, and was just reaching the reservation. We arrived in Delta (now a flourishing town, but then the toughest place in the West) at midnight, and camped in the sand and sage brush. Talmadge said Leadville. in its booming days, surpassed anything he ever saw in the way of wickedness, but he should have visited a rail- road camp when the graders and miners were making a night of it. We concluded the Utes had not been re- moved.
"We traveled up the wide valley of the Gunnison. thence up Tongue and Surface creeks until we reached the Grand Mesa, a country that can only be described by saying that ten by thirty miles in extent, it seemed like a tall range of mountains, from which the tops had been cut off, leaving a beautiful rolling mesa 5,000 feet above the surrounding country, and from the edge of which the grandest and most beautiful view is obtained.
"Far below, on the steep side of the mountains up which we had threaded our way, we could see the effects of the autumn frost and sun on the foliage. The colors were in great patches. There were the dark green of the spruce, then the red and green of the oak, further on a long belt of cedar, and patches of the brightest crimson- a mountain shrub-and mingled with the whole, large clumps of yellow quaking-asps.
"Farther away, thirty miles from where we stood. through the center of a dark, dust-colored valley about twenty miles in width, flowed the Gunnison river, and to us, with its fringe of yellow trees, it looked like a wind-
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ing thread of gold, with an occasional flush of silver, when the sunlight was reflected from some part of it.
"Beyond the river rose the Elk mountains, whose dark shadows and perpetual snows told us they were part of one of the highest ranges in the country. We pushed on through a succession of parks, each surrounded with trees, and generally a mountain stream or lake added to the beauty of the scene.
"We camped in a dark clump of spruce, near us a little stream, and in front a large lake of the coldest and clearest water, fairly alive with trout. At the peep of day we were up and prepared for a tramp before break- fast; there was a splash far off in the lake, the sharp ring of a rifle, a heavy plunge, and a little later V. K. brought in for our breakfast the first deer of the hunt.
"Besides a great many deer, as the result of our rifles, we found in the willows and on the hill-sides grouse as large as turkey hens, on the lakes splendid ducks, and in the streams trout enough to satisfy any number of raven- ous appetites.
"One night, by moonlight, we watched the beavers at work. One morning, at sunrise, we were a few feet above the clouds; below us it was snowing; before us, as far as the eye could reach, in great, rolling masses, that were brilliantly white in the morning sun, were the clouds that to us looked like a sea of snow, with here and there a rocky island, as some mountain, taller than its com- panions, reared its head above the storm.
"The greatest evidence of the former Indian occu- pants was in the lower part of the country, through which the deer in great numbers pass every spring and fall. There was a V-shaped fence of stone, each arm of the V being a stone fence fully fifteen miles long, the V opening towards the mountains from which the deer came, and the point of the V. instead of being closed.
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was open for the deer to pass, and in cunningly dug holes would be seated the Indians to kill them. The fence, which had been built entirely by the squaws, was to turn the deer all to this one point, and though it was merely a succession of stone piles, anything that has the appear- ance of having been made by man is as effectual a bar- rier to deer as the tallest fence.
"Another cunning device of the Indians is seen wher- ever there are rocks; when they see a rock about the size of a man's body, they place another about the size of a man's head on top. It is done to accustom the deer to such objects, so that an Indian sitting behind a stone with his head in full view is not likely to frighten them.
"One night, having reached the foot-hills, we camped in a belt of pinyon trees, which, at this time of year. when the nuts are ripe, is the favorite resort of bear. We had killed one that morning: Three of our party spread our blankets together, but the fourth said he would try a night in the hammock, and so went off some distance to the deserted commencement of a cabin. Logs had been piled up about seven feet high, making three sides to the intended cabin, but the front and roof had not been put on. In there he swung his hammock, and. being a cold night, tied himself in, only leaving an open- ing for his head. And, using his own words, 'I awoke in the night nearly scared to death, for there by my side, eating a stub of candle I had used, or a few feet away eating a piece of venison that hung on the wall, I could all too plainly hear a bear munching, and from the noise I knew it must be a large one. As a boy I had often heard that if you hold your breath the bear would con- sider you as dead as a door nail. and not bother himself about eating you.
""'Tied in the hammock and unarmed, I was com- pletely at the mercy of the beast if he took the notion,
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and my only way of getting out was to tip over and slide out, head first.
"'After holding my breath a few seconds, that seemed like ages, I concluded I would get out if it killed me. and out I went. As I gathered myself up I saw the bear was not by me, and therefore supposed he must be on the other side. In about three seconds I was on the top of that wall. and then I saw my bear. One of our mules had wandered over and was standing close by my hammock.
" 'The cold night and sharp wind had tingled his ears. and to keep them warm he was shaking his head with a peculiar motion that would double up his ears and make a crunching sound like a bear or other large animal eating.
"'I slept with the boys after that. "
CHAPTER XXVII MANUFACTURES AND EARLY SETTLERS
PUEBLO
At Pueblo we were entertained with sumptuous hos- pitality at the residence of Honorable Alva Adams, who, with the enthusiasm of a true Western man, pointed out to us the most attractive features of this flourishing city. In his opinion it is the new Pittsburgh of the West. Here the little giant of the initial narrow gauge of the
C. F. & I. Steel Works, Pueblo
continent. Denver and Rio Grande, turns as it were on a pivot and throws out tracks, arms and branches to every point in the mountains, which has made Pueblo one of the great markets for ore and other supplies. while the Santa Fe with its broad gauge, steel-railed track and elegant equipments places them in dircet com- munication with the East.
We drove to Bessemer. the town founded and ad-
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mirably sustained by the "Colorado Coal and Iron Com- pany," where we saw steel rails and other merchantable materials, as nails, spikes, etc., in process of manufacture.
The State Insane Asylum, situated on the outskirts of the city, is one of the most complete buildings in the West for the comfort and care of the afflicted of the race.
The motto over the portals of the Chieftain. "In God we Trust," arrested our attention and impressed us as a rather unique emblem for a newspaper. Editors are gen- erally supposed to rely mainly upon the solid bonanza idea.
We paused for a moment over the grave of Pueblo's first love, "The Old Monarch." a venerable cottonwood of huge dimensions, and read from a card the following :
"The tree that grew here was 380 years old; circum- ference, 28 ft .; height, 79 ft .; was cut down June 25th. 1883, at the cost of $250."
It was known throughout Colorado as one of the oldest land-marks in the State.
During the Pike's Peak excitement "the old tree" sheltered many a weary traveler. In 1850 thirty-six per- sons were massacred by the Indians while camping near this spot. Kit Carson, Wild Bill. Buffalo Bill and other noted Indian scouts, have built their camp fires under its wide-spreading and sheltering branches.
The place where the old fort once stood was pointed out to us. We drew upon our imagination in the effort to see a trace of it, for these old forts are interesting. inasmuch as they mark a period in the history of Colo- rado before its permanent settlement.
Fort Pueblo was the scene of one of the most terrible tragedies ever enacted in the State. On Christmas day. 1854, a number of hunters and trappers in the fort were celebrating the holiday with Mexican whisky of a brand known as "Taos lightning." A band of mountain Utes
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passing, were invited to participate. They joyously ac- cepted the invitation. Soon they were all furiously drunk, and in the midst of the hilarity that ensued, the Indians murdered every white man in the place. A team- ster who had gone that morning to Fort Charles for sup- plies escaped the terrible fate.
John A. Thatcher is called the founder of the mer- cantile business in Pueblo. He arrived in Pueblo in 1862 with only one wagonload of merchandise, which he brought across the plains in the primitive fashion of a pioneer, by an ox-team. He rented a rude adobe room. in which the goods were placed on sale, and under his careful guidance the business grew so rapidly, that in : 1885. his brother. Mahlon D. Thatcher, joined him as a partner. Within six years the brothers amassed suffi- cient wealth to venture out as financiers. They estab- lished a banking business in connection with their mercantile business. From this bank, within a year. emerged the First Na- tional Bank of Pueblo. The institution was whol- ly under their control, for only a few shares of the Mahlon D. Thatcher stock were held by others.
In the course of time they established branch banks in various mining districts of Colorado. Gradually they reached out into new realms of enterprise. They pro- moted railroad construction, also the digging of canals for irrigation, and while building up their own fortune they carried forward the enterprises that developed the resources of the State. They have contributed much toward making Pueblo the city of thrift and enterprise
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that it is today. They have the reputation of being the heaviest capitalists in the State, and are widely known as honest, earnest. progressive men. Apart from being great financiers, their use- fulness as citizens is evidenced in their homes, where they show gen- uine hospitality and refinement.
Mrs. Mahlon D. Thatcher has been prominent in the activities of women in Pueblo and in the State. She was the second presi- dent of the Colorado Federation Mrs. M. D. Thatcher of Women's Clubs. for many years a member of the Pueblo Wednesday Morning Club and a charter member of the Pueblo Associated Charities. She is a woman of distinctive personal attractions and fine intellectual train- ing.
Governor Alva Adams stands pre-eminently, one of the men needed for the prosperity of the West; a man of courage, charity, generosity, with a natural desire to aid the advancement of worthy purposes.
He was just twenty-one years old when he came to Colorado; had received a fair education in the public schools of Wisconsin, where he was born and reared, and was willing to work at anything he could find in the new country. His first employment was hauling railroad ties from the mountain forests for use in the construction of the Denver and Rio Grande line. Within a few weeks he secured a position with C. W. Sanborn. a lumber and hardware dealer at Colorado Springs. In the course of a few months he bought out his employer for about $4,000, giving his notes for the amount. From that day he became active in the mercantile business and in the great work of State-building. In the following year he
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opened a store in Pueblo, and soon established branches in the San Juan district. He became interested in poli- tics. and at twenty-six was elected to represent Rio Grande county in the State Legisla- ture. He has been twice elected gov- ernor, and his two administra- tions were char- acterized by a careful guardian- ship of the public finances.
He says : "As governor I held a solemn compact with myself that the State was en- titled to the same care and integrity that my hardware store and savings bank called for." Governor Ad- Alva Adams ams is a man of culture, has trav- eled extensively and possesses one of the finest libraries in the city. In his social life he is ably assisted by his refined and attractive wife.
Mrs. Adams is interested in the events of today and keeps in the line of progress. Her never-failing, genuine courtesy is the outcome of the great kindness which she feels for all classes and conditions. She is a social favorite and a true friend.
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Governor and Mrs. Adams have one son. Alva Blanchard Adams, a young lawyer of Pueblo.
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