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Mr. Sopris was an active and useful citizen in Den- ver, and, in 1881, he was appointed park commissioner. He immediately began the difficult task of making a park out of the three hundred and twenty acres which the city had purchased from the State. He raised a fund of five hundred dollars from the owners of land in the vicinity and set out cottonwood trees, which formed the first shaded drives and walks in the City park.
He died at the age of eighty, and his son, S. T. So- pris, erected a four thousand dollar gate at the Seven- teenth avenue entrance to the City park, which is a last- ing testimonial to the public-spirited pioneer, Captain Richard Sopris.
Elizabeth Allen Sopris, his wife, was prominent in the work of establishing religious organizations in Den- ver. Her home was often the meeting place of pioneers interested in church and Sunday school work. She and her two daughters, Indiana and Irene, aided greatly in giving Denver its first Protestant churches. Mrs. Sopris was one of the founders of the First Congregational Church, and, until old age prevented, a constant attendant and an earnest worker in its upbuilding. She lived to see the "settlement at the mouth of Cherry creek" grow into a metropolitan city and its log cabin churches changed into the stately edifices of today. Her death oc- curred on December 18, 1911, at the age of ninety-seven.
PART IV THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIONEER ENTERPRISES
CHAPTER X
ESTABLISHING FORCES OF CIVILIZATION
CHURCHES
In relating the stories of how the pioneers built the city and the state, it will be impossible to take in the long list of pioneers. Each one has left the impress of his individuality upon the land which he adopted as his home, and my effort is to show how the influences, created and set in motion by the early settlers, have been woven into the social, industrial and political fabric of our State.
The influence of the Christian religion was present in Denver from the beginning. In the fall of 1858, the Rev. G. W. Fisher preached in the open, under cotton- wood trees, and in the homes of the pioneers.
The directors of the two town companies encouraged church building by donating lots. The Auraria Town Company, January 17, 1859, unanimously adopted the following resolution :
"Resolved, That there be and there is hereby do- nated to the first four religious societies that will build a church or house of worship in the city of Auraria, one lot to each, to be selected by anyone appointed by the societies for that purpose."
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REV. JACOB ADRIANCE
JACOB ADRIANCE'S CABIN
MRS WHITEMAN
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I
REV. WILLIAM H. GOODE
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THE OLD "LAWRENCE STREET. CHURCH"
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PETER WINNE
TRINITY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
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The Rev. Mr. Fisher preached faithfully to the iso- lated community during the winter of '58-'59, but there were no churches built.
Albert D. Richardson, in June. 1859, wrote: "When I asked a miner if there was any church, he replied, 'No. but we are going to build one before next Sunday.'" This clearly illustrates the pioneer spirit.
Richardson vividly describes a "Sunday morning.
"One Sunday morning, while walking through the diggings, revealed nearly all the miners disguised in clean clothing. Some were reading and writing. some minis- tering to the sick, and some enacting the part of every- man-his-own-washer-woman, rubbing valiantly away at the tub. Several hundred men in the open air were at- tending public religious worship. perhaps the first ever held in the. Rocky Mountains. They were roughly clad. displaying weapons at their belts, and represented ever" section of the Union and almost every nation of the earth. They sat upon logs and stumps, a most attentive congre- gation, while the clergyman, upon a rude log platform. preached from the text : 'Behold. I bring you good tid- ings of great joy.' It was an impressive spectacle-that motley gathering of goldseekers among the mountains. a thousand miles from home and civilization. to hear the good tidings forever old and vet forever new."
When spring opened, the prospects were dismal; it was doubtful whether the infant city would live to see another winter. And, when the gold excitement broke out in May, there was no time for church building. How- ever, the Rev. Mr. Fisher kept on talking of the "gold that was sure and pure."
Mr. Goode, a Methodist minister, organized the first church in Denver. August. 1859, with Jacob Adriance as secretary, which was the beginning of the Trinity Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
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The first Methodist Episcopal Church Society was incorporated July 22, 1863. The Lawrence street church was the first building owned by the society.
On the first day of April, 1888, the first services were held in the basement of the present Trinity church, and $60,000 was raised in less than one hour towards the cost of completing the church building.
Mr. Peter Winne, who is a man of splendid charac- ter and sterling worth, has been a member of this church for fifty-two years. He was a potential factor in the building of the church, and, at the age of seventy-five years, he is still an active member.
From the choir in this church, Mrs. Wilberforce Whiteman has lifted her rich contralto voice in God's praise for nineteen years.
Rev. J. H. Kehler, an Episcopalian, who was famil- iarly called Father Kehler. came to Denver, January, 1860. with his four daughters. Immediately upon Mr. Kehler's arrival, he inaugurated regular services at Gold- rick's school house. One stormy Sunday morning there were only two persons in the church, Mr. Amos Steck and Colonel J. H. Dudley. They thought, of course, they would be dismissed without a sermon, but Father Kehler. equal to the situation, selected the text: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name. there will I be. in the midst of them," and thereupon preached an ex- cellent sermon.
John M. Chivington of the Methodist Episcopal church came in May, 1860. In that same year, W. M. Bradford of the Methodist Episcopal Church South put up the first building that was erected for church purposes in Denver, but the Civil war scattered many of the mem- bers, including Preacher Bradford, who hastened away to the South. The church was closed for awhile, and it was sold later to the Episcopalians, when it became St. John's Church in the Wilderness.
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Following Father Kehler came Rev. H. B. Hitchings, who preached six years and was succeeded by Rev. George
REV FATHER KELLER
DR. HITCHINGS
BISHOP RANDALL
M. Randall, a learned, eloquent man. greatly beloved by his congregation. Later, he became bishop.
Rev. Walter Moore followed. and was in turn succeeded by E. V. Finch.
While on a trip around the DEAN H. MARTYN HART world Rev. H. Martyn Hart of Eng- land stopped in Denver and preached a sermon in that little church, which was followed by a call to the parish. A man of honest purpose, untiring energy and unlimited faith is this dean of St. John's Cathedral. His daughter. Miss Hart. is an earnest worker in the church.
Bishop Joseph P. Machebeuf was the founder of Catholicism in Colorado. He was sent by the bishop of Santa Fe, with Rev. J. B. Raverdy, to take charge of the Catholic mission in the Pike's Peak region. They reached here October 22. 1860. The directors of the Den- ver Town Company had donated the whole block bounded by Fifteenth and Stout and Sixteenth and California to Rev. J. B. Miege, who had come to Denver to establish a church. But funds ran out and the building stopped half finished. Bishop Machebeuf bent his energies to the fund problem. and by the end of the year the building
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was ready for service. It was through his influence that the first organ came from St. Louis in 1862, and with it came an eight hundred-pound bell. It was the first church bell, and it was hung in a tower in front of the church. Said a pioneer : "The first sound of a church bell that broke the stillness of these valleys and echoed among the pine-clad hills stirred emotion in the heart of many a strong man and brought Bishop J. P. Machebeuf tears to the eyes of many a pio- neer woman who had been wooed and wedded and had worshipped to the sound of church chimes."
Christmas night. in 1864. the storm blew down the tower and the bell was broken in several pieces. But the bishop was tire- less in the service and ad- vancement of his church. A new bell was brought from St. Louis, which was hung in the church tower. This building re- mained the cathedral un- til the new onthedral was built, which is the. most magnificent church edifice in Colorado.
In 1860 Isadore Deitsch. A. Jacobs. A. Goldsmith. Julius Mit- chell and Fred Z. Salomon organized a small society.
Immaculate Conception Cathedral
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which became the nucleus of the present Jewish Temple Emanuel congregation. In 1878 the society was reorgan- ized as the Congregation Emanuel. The first Temple Emanuel was built at Nineteenth and Curtis. and Rabbi Fleisher conducted the first services held in it. The present Temple Emanuel was erected in 1898. and dedicated January 29. 1899. Rabbi William S. Fried-
man. learned man and eloquent speaker, conducts the services in it.
RABBI WN S. FRIEDMAN
Following out the purpose of this book. I have written only of the churches that were established in the early pio- neer days. The pioneers brought BYTEMPLE EMANUEL no prejudices. po- litical. social or religious. I remember hearing the good Bishop Machebeuf tell of asking Colonel Chivington for money to help build his church. "But." said Colonel Chivington, "I am just about building a church of my own." "Very well," said the bishop, "you are about to begin, but I have already begun: my case is the most urgent." The colonel regarded the argument as good and handed him a liberal donation.
Father Dyer, so called because he was one of the first ministers of the Gospel who settled in the Rocky Moun- tain region, preached in the streets, in the saloons, in the gambling houses. and wherever he could gather a crowd. He would fearlessly proclaim the truth, and. at the close of the service. some self-appointed steward would pass the "hat" among the "boys" and Father Dyer's exchequer
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would be greatly enlarged with the "gold dust from the diggings," as that was the "circulating medium" of those days.
Though he would terrifically portray the awful ca- lamity that would surely come upon his hearers if they did not repent of their sins, his genial manner, quaint humor and ready wit insured him a welcome in every miner's cabin.
A man who had become dissatisfied with the church because of some difficulty. and had withdrawn from it. said to Father Dyer : "I have been out of the church three years and have been watching church members all that time, and I have come to the conclusion that they do not live up to their professions."
"My dear brother," replied Father Dyer, "I think you have been out on picket duty long enough : you had better come into headquarters and be relieved."
It is the earnest man with earnest work to do who. in unexpected moments, flashes wit like that. Often there is as much religion in laughing as in crying. The melancholy frog always croaks; he never gets very high above the earth. but the lark. all life and song and joy. brushes with its wings the gates of heaven.
The following incident was told to me by Father Dyer: "In the spring of 1864 I received my mail at Laurette, better known as 'Buckskin Joe.' in Park County. Colorado. I was sent there by the Conference to take charge of a church. Falling short of funds. I took the contract of carrying the mail every week on snow-shoes from the above place to Cache Creek, via California Gulch, seventy-five miles and back. Somebody got a corner on flour, and it went up to $40 per sack, and, for once, I had a sack to spare. Some of my friends urged me to take it over there, as they were nearly out. I could not find a pony for sale, but I found a man who said he had a cow that would pack, and I bought her. I procured a pack-
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saddle, sewed a gunny-sack over the bag of flour, and girted it on as tight as I could. Then I tied my cow to a post and went in the hotel to eat my breakfast. An old friend, Mr. Moody, offered to help me start, but by this time my cow got mad. We each had a rope; Mr. Moody led and I was to drive her. He started and the cow trod after him on a down grade. He ran his best: the cow jumped just as high and far as she could and struck just behind him. I held on as tight as possible, and at the length of two blocks he took around the corner
and she after him. Just then the girth broke, and away went pack-saddle and flour. After this novel scene I gave up the idea of trying to feed the hungry with tem- poral bread, but continued in my effort to dispense the bread of life. Some minister might think the above was unbecoming, but I had either to leave the work and Con- ference, or earn a living, and I was not educated up to the point that a man was justified in leaving because the people did not pay a good salary."
Stories of the pioneer preachers would fill a volume. I rejoice that it was my privilege to know Father Dver. Bishop Machebeuf and Bishop Randall. There are men in Colorado today who hold them in sacred remembrance. The goldseekers. dreadfully in earnest after earthly riches, saw that these men were just as much in earnest after the better riches of the world to come-men all aflame with celestial fire-and they yielded them what Christian earnestness always compels from men-respect. admiration. confidence and a following.
SCHOOLS
The arrival of O. J. Goldrick, the pioneer school teacher, in August, 1859, was spectacular. He was clothed in a faultless suit of black broadcloth, immaculate linen. wore a glossy silk hat of the style then called "plug," and was teaching an ox-team the meaning of "Get up"
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by the heavy lash of a whip. He was born in Ireland and was a Dublin University graduate. Following his natural inclinations. he became the first school teacher in Denver. and the Beau Brummel of pioneer days. He seldom appeared except in black broadcloth, which made him a conspicuous figure on the streets of Denver. Soon after his arrival he circulated a subscription paper in Denver and Auraria and secured pledges amounting to $250 in support of a school. On the third of October he opened his school, in a log cabin in Auraria. with thir- teen children in attendance. In a week or two the num- ber increased to twenty.
Lewis N. Tappan, who came from Boston to Cherry Creek in the fall of '59, was walking through the streets
O. J · GOLDRICK
LEWIS N· TAPPAN
ABNER R . BROWN
of Auraria when his attention was attracted by a crowd of children engaged in the or- MISS LYDIA MARIA RING MISS INDIANA SOPRIS dinary games of childhood. He stepped into the little log cabin nearby and was met by an affable, polite gentleman who informed him that his name was O. J. Goldrick. During the conversation Tap-
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pan suggested forming a Sunday school, which should be non-sectarian. The proposition was cheerfully in- dorsed by Goldrick. Mr. Tappan then found the Rev. Mr. Fisher, the pioneer Methodist minister, and, together. they commenced the canvass of the towns for pupils.
November 3. 1859, the following notice appeared in the "News :"
Union Sunday School
A Union Sunday School for the children of Auraria and Denver will be held every Sunday at 3 o'clock p. m. at the house of preachers Fisher and Adriance. The school will be not only a union school, but a union of all denominations.
At the appointed time came twelve pupils. Mr. Tap- pan wrote to the Baptist Sunday school of Lawrence, Kansas, soliciting a supply of books. They were freighted across the plains by Jones & Cartwright, free of charge. Upon examination, Mr. Tappan discovered, to his sur- prise, that they were the same books which he had solicited from his old Bible class in the Rev. Dr. Stowe's church in Boston for the Kansas Sunday school. This box of books had an eventful history. After serving its time in Denver, it was sent to the first anti-Mormon Sunday school in Salt Lake City.
D. C. Collier was elected superintendent of the Union Sunday school, and Goldrick became a teacher. The second Sunday fifteen children took their seats on the rough wooden benches, and the school, keeping pace with the wonderful advance of the country, continued to grow. until it taxed the capacity of the two rooms. By that time denominational schools were formed, and. having passed the period of usefulness. it was discontinued, leav- ing only pleasant memories of the men who founded and guided it.
Goldrick took part in every movement for improving the environment of the pioneer. He was an educated
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man, with a sincere love for his fellow man, and his name was a household word from the day of his arrival to the day of his death.
In December, 1860, a mass meeting was held in front of the old Lindell hotel to take action toward organizing a school district. Goldrick was the leader and he used a goods box for his rostrum.
The "school act," passed by the Territorial Legisla- ture convened in Denver September, 1861, marks the ac- tual beginning of a duly organized public school system for Colorado. However, no provision was made for school funds until the second session of the Legislature, July, 1862. Under the new school law, Goldrick was chosen the first county superintendent.
In 1864, he discontinued school work and became traveling correspondent in the mining districts for the News. On one occasion, while in the mountains in Clear Creek County, he figured prominently in a lynching. A Mexican had been caught robbing a sluice box. This was his second offense and it was promptly decided that he should be hanged. Professor Goldrick had always de- clared himself as opposed to lynch law, but in this case, he said, "circumstances must occasionally induce a patri- otic citizen to revise his opinion." However, he urged that the doomed man should be given "the consolations of religion." "Pray !" he thundered at the Mexican, "I tell you, pray !" But the miserable man had no words at his command. Whereat the professor solemnly bowed his head, told, at some length, the black record of the man, which he assumed Divine Providence would accept as sufficient excuse for the hanging, and, in conclusion, said :
"This man is unfit to live. He is an outcast, and unworthy of associating with decent people, and so, O Lord. take him to Thyself !"
Denver pioneers enjoyed the peculiarities of Pro-
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fessor Goldrick and told many stories about him, which the professor listened to with calm indifference.
He wrote spicy "locals" for the Rocky Mountain News while teaching school, and, on account of one of them, he received a challenge. He was not a coward, but he had a nervous dread of firearms. However, he bravely accepted the challenge and braced himself for the trying ordeal by long swigs of whisky. He appeared on the "field of honor" thoroughly intoxicated. His opponent was in a similar condition. The seconds, who had pre- pared the affair as a practical joke, took the cartridges out of both revolvers. At the word "fire," the two weapons snapped, and Goldrick fell to the ground, his nervous system broke completely down and he believed that he was shot. His second, to carry on the joke, emptied a bottle of red ink on the fallen man's snowy shirt-front, and when the professor opened his eyes he caught a glimpse of the spreading red stain and moaned, "My God, I am dead." It took quite awhile for his second to per- suade him to the contrary.
Next in importance to the name of Goldrick in the early school annals of Denver stands that of Lydia Maria Ring. Professor Goldrick's log school house was in Au- raria. Miss Ring opened her school, May, 1860, in a little log cabin on the corner of Market and Fourteenth- the very first school in Denver before that settlement was united with Auraria.
Miss Ring was from Massachusetts, and came to the Cherry creek settlement by caravan. She was not easily daunted by the hardships and perils of those days, and lived alone in a tent for weeks before she could find com- fortable quarters. She had an attractive personality, was always well dressed, and became a social, as well as an educational, leader. In the early files of the News it tells of a living patriotic panorama, given at the old People's theater, during war times, and Miss Ring played
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the part of Columbia, with the belles of Denver grouped around her as States.
Miss Sopris, now Mrs. S. H. Cushman, taught in Auraria May 7, 1860, a few days before Miss Ring taught in Denver City.
So much for the picturesque private schools.
The first free school was opened in District No. 2 December. 1862, with Abner R. Brown as principal and Miss Ada Simonton as his assistant. A few days later. School District No. 1 opened its first public school. with
LAVING CORNER STONE ARAPAHOE SCHOOL
H. H. Lamb as principal and Miss Sopris as assist- ARAPAHOE SCHOOL BUILDING ant. The school- rooms were usual- ly in the upper MARY CC BRADFORD stories of buildings. and were furnished with long home- made benches, rough desks and a long rod. which was considered a necessary piece of furniture.
Comparatively little progress was made by the pub- lic schools of Denver until the coming of the railroads. in 1870. The population consisted mostly of men without families, who were not interested in educating other peo- ple's children. About that time, big-hearted, open-handed Amos Steck, one of Denver's pioneer builders, gave two lots on Arapahoe street. between Seventeenth and Eight- eenth. for the erection of a school building. The pioneer
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period of Denver's schools closed with the completion of the Arapahoe school building. It was proudly spoken of by the orators of that time as our magnificent temple of learning.
Mary C. C. Bradford, State superintendent of public instruction, is keenly alive to the demands of her posi- tion. When asked for information in regard to the pres- ent educational situation in Colorado, she said :
"From the humble, but inspiring, beginnings of pio- neer days, the school system of Colorado has progressed until it numbers about seven thousand persons actively engaged in educational work, and the professional spirit evidenced by the entire teaching force of Colorado is greater than ever before in the history of the State.
"The University of Colorado, State Teachers' Col- lege, State Normal School, State School of Mines. State Agricultural College, Colorado School for Deaf and Blind. State Industrial School for Boys. State Industrial School for Girls, State Home for Dependent and Neg- lected Children, State Home and Training School for Mental Defectives-all institutions either purely educa- tional or such in some phases of their activity-show cul- tural development, practical efficiency, and skill in admin- istration.
"In both city and country schools there exists a clear consciousness of the chief functions of public education -that of making citizens worthy to be entrusted with the welfare of the State. The two hundred and seventy-five thousand children of school age in Colorado are receiving increasingly practical education. an education that means the interpretation of life in terms of truth. beauty. effi- ciency and service."
Under the leadership of Governor John Evans, in 1863, the Denver Methodists laid the foundations of the Colorado Seminary. This was the first school for ad- vanced learning in the Territory of Colorado. The school
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was opened November, 1864, and maintained until 1867. when, in consequence of accumulated indebtedness, it was closed. The property was sold, and bought by Governor Evans. In 1879, the Colorado Seminary was reorganized under the original charter. A new board was appointed. and Governor Evans returned, as a gift, the seminary property he had bought twelve years before to save it. To this he added $3.000 for laboratory apparatus. Vice- President Bailey gave $13,000, and the business men gen- erally contributed liberally to reinstate the seminary. In 1880, a second and co-ordinate corporation was formed. under the name, "University of Denver." All the prop- erty is owned and the material affairs managed by the seminary corporation, while the university corporation controls and directs the higher departments of university training.
Rev. David H. Moore was elected chancellor of the new university and president of Colorado Seminary. Dr. William F. McDowell was the next chancellor, and, in January, 1900, Dr. Henry A. Buchtel entered upon the duties of chancellor. A large tract of land was donated by real estate men in South Denver, and the permanent home of the university was established there.
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