History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 101

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954

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Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Notwithstanding the proverbial neglect of authorship in the Rocky Mountain country, a great deal of which is still wilderness, there is something of a literary atmosphere pervading the Pike's Peak region, whose picturesque nooks and recesses were loved by Helen Hunt Jackson. As might be expected in a city that was for many years the home of this gifted lady and later became the abid- ing place of choice spirits like Virginia Donaghe McClurg, Agnes K. Gibbs, Sara R. Schlesinger, Anna Twitchell Spencer, Andy Adams, William M. Stri kler, Walter L. Wilder and other pen workers, the production of literature is encour- aged here. Professors and students of Colorado College have high standards of literary excellence. Professor Florian Cajori (1859- ), who has the reputation of being one of the greatest mathematicians in the world, varies class work with the writing of mathematical treatises, one of his books being "A History of Elementary Mathematics, with Hints on Methods of Teaching" (1916). Elijah Clarence Hills ( 1867- ) compiled an anthology, "Pike's Peak Region in Song and Myth" (1913) and wrote a number of Spanish textbooks. John Carl Parish (1881- ) has taken Iowa history as his province and presented the results of his investigations in several entertaining volumes. Edward Smith Parsons (1863- ) edited Milton's Minor Poems and wrote "The Social Message of Jesus" (19II). Work of a different order, but exact and painstaking, is that of the eminent nat- uralist, Edward Royal Warren (1860- ), in "The Mammals of Colorado" (1910). George Irving Finlay (1876- ) wrote "Introduction to the Study of Igneous Rocks" (1913), also a guidebook to Colorado Springs, describing the rock forma- tions in the vicinity. George Hapgood Stone (1841-1914) prepared a solid work on "World Money" (1909), discussing world problems of stable money. The former curator of Colorado College Museum, William Lutley Sclater (1863- ), with an ornithologist's enthusiasm described 392 species of our birds in an elabo- rate tome, "The Birds of Colorado" (1912).

Brief reference may be made here to Dr. William H. Bergtold's bird studies and to the geological writings of Richard Charles Hills (1846- ), also to Lucius Merle Wilcox's "Irrigation Farming" (1902) and Eustace Robert Parsons' "Dry Farming" (1913). Examples of technical writing in another field are Harmon Howard Rice's "Concrete Block Manufacture" (1901) and Frank Eugene Kid- der's "Handbook for Architects and Builders" (11th ed., 1893). In the realm of medical literature is Edward Curtis Hill's "Pain and Its Indications" (1904). Dr. Sherman Grant Bonney wrote "Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Its Complica- tions" (1908). A really meritorious performance is Dr. Howell T. Pershing's "Disorders of Speech" (1897). Dr. John Henry Tilden's book on food and dieting gives sensible advice to those who are addicted to overeating ; his language is easy to understand. Space is lacking to comment on the writings of Hall. Hines, Williams, Grant, etc.

III

While Colorado has had no great philosophers, it has had its share of thinkers, men who have been seriously occupied with problems of time and eternity, men who have dipped into the occult and the mystical, men who have made excursions into the domain of esthetics. Among the citizens of Colorado there have been men who have loved the truth and sought knowledge for its own sake. The

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books written by Colorado's spiritual leaders, dreamers and idealists would, if gathered together, fill a good-sized bookcase. There have been men and women, too, among us who have agitated reforms. They have cared for the higher life. They have helped make Colorado a better state to live in.

In "The Physical Basis of Mind and Morals" (1906; 2d ed., 1908) Michael Hendrick Fitch, of Pueblo, gives a lucid exposition of the principles of evolution- ary ethics.

John Franklin Spalding ( 1828-1902), who was for a long while bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Colorado, is to be ranked among the fore- most of Colorado's religious and theological writers. "The Church and Its Apostolic Ministry" (1887) is in his best vein. Dean Henry Martyn Hart (1838- ) made a searching examination of the claims of Christian Science in "Way That Seemeth Right" (1897). Another of his volumes is "Ten Com- mandments in the Twentieth Century" ( 1905).

Rev. Rosselle Theodore Cross was a popular Congregational preacher of Denver in the '80s. He gathered a series of his talks to young folks into a book, "Clear as Crystal" (1887), and brought out other writings on religious subjects.

William Fraser McDowell (1858- ) is remembered for his distinguished serv- ices to Methodism, when Chancellor of Denver University and later. Among his religious writings is "In the School of Christ" (1910).

The versatile Dr. Louis Albert Banks (1855- ), who was pastor of Trinity M. E. Church in Denver, poured forth a stream of homiletical writings, one of them being entitled "Great Saints of the Bible" (1901). Another Methodist minister, Christian Fichthorne Reisner (1870- ), became known for his resource- ful leadership as pastor of Grace M. E. Church in Denver, especially for novel- ties in advertising church services. Among his writings are "Workable Plans for Wideawake Churches" ( 1906) and "Social Plans for Young People" (1908).

The eloquent pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, Robert Fran- cis Coyle (1850-1917), published two volumes of his intellectual discourses, "The Church and the Times" ( 1905) and "Rocks and Flowers" (1910).

Rev. Richard Montague, a scholarly Baptist minister of Colorado Springs, gave the world a selection of his pulpit efforts in the book entitled "Chancel Sermons." Kerr Boyce Tupper, J. Harvey Gunn, J. B. Harl and other Baptist ministers are to be numbered among Colorado authors.

Charles Edgar Prather, in "Divine Science" (1916), is a forceful expounder of Mrs. Eddy's teachings.

Space is lacking to comment on the religious writings of Robert Casy, J. L. Brandt, I. H. Beardsley, F. T. Bayley and other Colorado clergymen.

Sarah Stanley Grimke, Alexander J. McIvor Tyndall and others have writ- ten of ghosts and other strange phenomena.

"Christianity and Infallibility" (1891) is a noteworthy book on Papal Infal- libility by Daniel Lyons, a Denver priest of some learning.

One of Denver's most popular preachers in the '80s and '90s, Rev. Myron Winslow Reed (1836-99), published "Temple Talks" (1898), a collection of liberal addresses that make appeal to all sorts and conditions of men. The nobility of the man shines forth in his incisive utterances; his memory lives on after his death. Mrs. Reed wrote a religious book, "One life ; One Law" (1890).

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Paul Tyner gained a temporary prominence when he edited The Temple, published in Denver. Some of his books are: "Through the Invisible" (1897), "Bodily Immortality" (1897) and "Living Christ" (1897).

Another expounder of occult philosophy and mysticism is Grace Mann Brown, author of "Studies in Spiritual Harmony" (1903) and "Soul Songs" (1907).

Agnes Leonard Hill (1842-1917) was a woman of journalistic ability who occasionally occupied a pulpit. One of her forgotten books has the title, "Divine Law of Divorce."

Celia Baldwin Whitehead is well known for her leadership in movements looking toward the spiritual uplift of Denver. Her little volume, "What's the Matter?" is a protest against some of the absurdities of women's fashions.

Elsa Denison deals with a large subject in a large way in a thoughtful volume on "Helping School Children" (1913).

Another social reformer is Edwin A. Brown, author of that extraordinary book, "Broke: The Man without a Dime" (1913).

A Denver writer who has a vein of philosophy in him is Harmon Howard Rice (1870- ), author of "The Life That Now Is" (1907).

Literature is to be classed as one of the wants and needs of an advanced civilization, along with the other fine arts. Now and then the Colorado product runs to intellectuality. Wilbur Fisk Stone, Jr. (1867- ), is a man of keen mind who in "Questions on the Philosophy of Art" (1897) made a suggestive study of art-works, including architecture, sculpture, painting, music, literature and the drama. His "Richard Wagner and the Style of the Music-Drama" (1897) is a thoroughgoing discussion of Wagner's works and ideas. His mother, Mrs. Wilbur F. Stone, wrote "A Colorado Woman in Italy" (1888) and a number of other volumes.

"Essays on Human Nature" (1906), by Dr. William Mayberry Strickler (1838-1908), belongs to the realm of literature.

Generally speaking, the writings of newspaper workers are not to be placed in the category of literature. A brilliant exception to the rule was Frederick William White (1849-1917), who for a quarter of a century was dramatic critic on the Denver Post or on the staff of the News. His page in the Sunday Post contained many comments on literature and life. A reviewer superior to the average was Helen Ring Robinson, so long connected with the News.

Space is lacking for mention of magazine writers of Denver, some of whom have done very clever work. It would be considerable of a task to tell of the rise and fall of the magazines of Denver-the Great Divide, Western World, the Great Southwest, etc. The Student-Writer still goes on. Its talented editor, Willard Hawkins (1887- ), in his masterful book, "Helps for Student-Writers" (1917), writes crisply and illuminatingly of literary technique. Eugene Parsons, who was formerly associate editor of the World To-Day magazine in Chicago, edited the Farringford Tennyson (10 vols.), furnishing introductions and notes. William Sterne Friedman and Charles David Spivak have by their occasional writings made noteworthy contributions to the intellectual life of Denver. Doctor Spivak collaborated with Solomon Bloomgarden in the preparation of a Yiddish- English dictionary (1910). "The Navajo and his Blanket" (1903), by Gen. Uriah S. Hollister (1838- ), is a fascinating volume, artistically illustrated with colored plates and many engravings.

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Ever since the coming of the Green Russell expedition Colorado has been a land of romance. Gold seekers, miners, stage drivers, cowboys, sheepherders, trappers, Indians, Mexicans-what more romantic characters than these? The lives of frontiersmen and pioneers were full of adventures. Fiction writers have found here abundant material for short stories and novels. Wolcott Balestier, Emma Homan Thayer, Hamlin Garland, Frank Spearman, Francis Lynde and other story writers have come to Colorado for color and thrilling incidents. Fic- tion has flourished in Colorado from the time of Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson to that of present-day romancers. Although Colorado has produced no Bret Harte, the tale tellers of this Rocky Mountain country have made a creditable showing.

Cy Warman (1855-1914) knocked about Colorado a good deal in the '80s, and the experiences and observations of this clever man were utilized by him in "The Express Messenger and Other Stories of the Rail" (1897), "Tales of an Engineer," "Frontier Stories" (1898), etc. In these well-told tales one may find humor, pathos, bravery, love, tragedy and other elements out of which the romancer weaves vivid pictures and touching episodes. There is plenty of action in them, and they are popular with novel readers.

Frederick Thickstun Clark's "Mexican Girl" (1888), "In the Valley of Havilah" (1890) and "On Cloud Mountain" (1894) have had considerable of a vogue with those who enjoy romance in mild doses. The scenes are laid in Colo- rado ("Collyraydo" the name was pronounced a quarter of a century ago), and Mr. Clark puts in fine bits of description here and there.

James Edward Le Rossignol (1866- ), who was for many years a professor in Denver University, is the author of "Jean Baptiste: a Story of French Que- bec" (1915), a narrative of unusual power and charm.

The stories of William Macleod Raine (1871- ) are "wildly popular-they are hardly ever in," says an attendant in the Denver Public Library. For more than a dozen years Mr. Raine has been turning out well-constructed narratives of cowboys, rangers, highgraders, mavericks, trails and other features of life in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. He goes in for the romantic, as is evident from such titles as "Pirate of Panama; a Tale of the Fight for Buried Treasure" (1914), "The Yukon Trail; a Tale of the North" (1917). Raine is the Colorado Cooper, modernized. His romances have been criticised on the ground of improbability. Mr. Raine knows parts of our state pretty well, and yet the question arises, Are his characters true Coloradoans?

A literary atmosphere pervades and suffuses the novels by Robert Ames Ben- net (1870- ), the son of an honored pioneer. Bennet's best-known novels are: "For the White Christ ; a Story of the Days of Charlemagne" ( 1905) and "Into the Primitive" (1908). His books are successful, some of them having passed through many editions, and two or three of them have some historical value.

Hattie Horner Louthan (1865- ) has written three novels-"In Passion's Dragnet" (1904), "This Was a Man" (1907), and "A Rocky Mountain Feud" (1910)-which are distinct additions to Colorado literature, although they are not to be characterized as "thrillers." There is power in "A Rocky Mountain Feud," the story of a man who marries the sister of his mortal foe. "This Was

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a Man" (1906) is a romance of extraordinary interest. It tells of the victory of a character over circumstances. The scene is laid in Colorado.

Andy Adams (1859- ) is a realistic storywriter whose "Log of a Cowboy" (1903), "Reed Anthony, Cowman" (1907), and other novels of cattlemen are much read and are well worth reading. His characters are true to life. He wrote of "the palmy days of the Golden West, with its indefinable charm, now past and gone and never to return."

Verner Zevola Reed (1863- ) writes things that are more lurid, and he makes no pretensions to historical accuracy. His "Lo-To-Kah" (1895) and "Adobeland Stories" (1899) are imaginative narrations, intended merely to amuse and entertain.

Emma Ghent Curtis (1860-1918) wrote many poems and short stories. One of her novelettes, "The Administratrix" (1891) is a story of cowboy life, highly colored and exaggerated.

A Montrose attorney and politician, John C. Bell (1851- ), put forth a volume, "The Pilgrim and Pioneer" (1906), which may be described as fiction based upon fact; it deals with social and material conditions in western Colorado in the '8os and '90s.

Josiah Mason Ward (1858- ) wrote "Come With Me Into Babylon" (1902), a fascinating narrative of ancient Nineveh.

George Leonard Knapp (1872- ), who used to be on the editorial staff of the Rocky Mountain News, tossed off in intervals of leisure "The Scales of Justice" ( 1910), a sensational story of newspaper men and financial schemers.

Space is lacking to comment here on the mining tales of Dennis H. Stovall and the novels of Helen H. Jackson, John Harbottle, Isaac Newton Stevens, . Edwin Le Grand Sabin, Richard Linthicum, Patience Stapleton, Winifred Black, Ellis Meredith Clements, Lelah Palmer Morath, Lewis B. France, Robert Mc- Reynolds, Robert B. H. Bell, Marion Reid Girardot and Benjamin Barr Lindsay, also of the short stories written by Edward Fayette Eldridge, Clara Evangeline Smitch, Catherine H. Brady, Marguerite Zearing, Chauncey Thomas and Willard Hawkins, and Wilbur D. Steele.

Scores of Colorado's verse-writers have published books or booklets of poems, and hundreds of other Coloradoans, both men and women, have the dower of minstrelsy-they have composed occasional lyrics or sonnets possessing real poetical merit.

Even in the '6os some of the stalwart settlers in the Pike's Peak gold country scribbled rhymes. On the memorable occasion of the Centennial Celebration of the 4th of July, 1876, Denver's patriotic citizens gathered and listened to a "Cen- tennial Poem," written by Laurence Nichols Greenleaf (1838- ).

T. O. Bigney's "Month with the Muses" ( 1875) contains crude metrical nar- ratives of territorial happenings. His verses have some historical interest, if not much literary finish.

Another Puebloan of the long ago, William B. Ebbert, published a booklet of poems, "On Colorado's Fair Mesas" (1897), in which may be found happy conceits in rhyme.

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Among the amusing things in "Landscapes and Waterscapes" (1908), by Mrs. Lottie Schoolcraft Felter, of Cañon City, one finds moralizing strains chanted by a woman who has in her some real greatness of spirit. The longest poem in the collection is "The Sigh of the Civilized Navajo."

"Hours at Home" (1895), published anonymously at Cripple Creek, is a small volume of very ordinary poems.

One of Colorado's humbler poets, the Rev. B. F. Lawler, was for twenty years pastor of the Baptist Church in Trinidad. Betweenwhiles, when not pre- paring sermons or making pastoral calls, he penciled little poems, which were gathered into the booklets, "Joy and Crown" and "Domain of Grace" (1909).

The poetical impulse asserts itself here and there in the booklets of verse written by Rev. Howard Goldie, of La Junta, and Dr. McKendrie De Mott, of Pagosa Springs.

Henry Pelham Holmes Bromwell (1823-1903), a man who had in him some- thing of the Spartan spirit, came to Denver in' 1870 and for a third of a century was one of its foremost citizens. Some of his lyrics written in Colorado are much admired. "The Song of the Wahbeek" (1909) displays literary workman- ship of a high order.

Harriet L. Wason, who lived many years at Del Norte or nearby, vividly de- scribed places of the San Juan country in a popular volume of poems, "Letters from Colorado" (1887), and in "A Tale of the Santa Rita Mountains" (1904). This remarkable woman wrote musical stanzas of wondrous loveliness.

Mary Elizabeth Steele (1854- ), the daughter of a well-known pioneer, in "Stray Bits. of Song" (1902), graphically poetized of the mountain world that was so familiar to her from long residence in the Rockies.

Mrs. Marion Muir Richardson Ryan (1857- ) published "Border Memories" (1903), the lyrical records of what she saw and felt in primitive Colorado. Some of her poems reach a high level of poetic merit.

The most distinguished of Colorado's early-day singers was Mrs. Helen Maria Fiske Jackson (1831-85), who wrote many beautiful and highly original poems here.

Pike's Peak has sheltered in its shadow some lesser bards-Thomas Nelson Haskell, J. Ernest Whitney, Virginia Donaghe McClurg, Mrs. D. S. Person and Agnes K. Gibbs, author of "Songs of Colorado" (1916), in which she sings of the mighty hopes and the longings of the human spirit. Sara R. Schlesinger's dainty booklet, "Legends of Manitou" (1910), reveals a taste for romantic In- . dian tales, and there is a philosophic vein in this cultured woman. Paul Hunter Dodge practiced law in the City of Sunshine in the years 1908-10 and in hours of leisure wooed the Muse. He produced a volume of poetic studies entitled "Songs of Chivalry" (1914). Here are historic fancies clothed in strong, sinewy verse, poems of "Fire and Air," poems of travel and "Poems of Pleasure."

That rare troubadour of American letters, Eugene Field (1850-95) favored Denver with his presence two years, 1881-3, writing some exquisite poems while here-"Babyland," "A Trip to Toyland," etc.

Cy Warman (1855-1914) came to Denver in 1880 and put in some years at railroading, being for a while an engineer on the Denver and Rio Grande lines in the mountains. In his "Mountain Melodies" (1892), which passed through

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many editions, and in other fine poems he gave glowing word-paintings of locali- ties renowned for beauty and sublimity.

The heart of a man beat in the bosom of George Salmon Phelps (1847-1904), who gathered a sheaf of his finest poems into a volume, "Cloud City Chimes" (1903). He was known as the Poet Laureate of Leadville.

In 1880 Leadville became the home of Sophronia Maria Westcott Talbot (1840-1909), who spent her final years in Denver. This lovable woman wrote many lyrics that are favorites with poetry lovers, but the rich humor in "Little Boy Philosophy" (1912) is simply irresistible.

Almira Louisa Corey Frink ( 1836-1903) came to Denver- in 1887, and from time to time printed some of her choicest lyrics under the title, "Wild-Bird's Souvenir Series." The poems in "Baby-Land" (1911) rapturously express the intense interest this clever woman felt in the sayings and doings of her little children.

Harriet Horner Louthan, in the intervals of editorial work and teaching, has devoted herself assiduously to poesy, her "Thoughts Adrift" (1912) having won commendation for chaste diction and refined fancy. Her "Hill Rhymes" express her joy in Nature and the golden sunshine. Mrs. Louthan is the Colorado Sap- pho.

Robert McIntyre (1851-1914), when pastor of Trinity Methodist Church in Denver, dashed off many pretty lyrics, some of them relating to Colorado. An elegant volume of his shorter efforts, "At Early Candle Light" (1899), has passed through several editions. His poems are brimful of human interest.

Alfred Damon Runyon ( 1884- ) may be called a Colorado product. He was born in Pueblo, and, when a mere lad, gathered news items for the Chieftain and the Journal. Then he saw service in the Philippines and had some adven- tures, meanwhile accumulating a mass of incidents and impressions afterward versified in "Tents of Trouble" (1911) and "Rhymes of the Firing Line" (1912). Some of his poems appeared in the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post when he was connected with those newspapers. Runyon is a lyrist of exceptional talent.

Charles Julian Downey (1873-1918) came to Colorado when a boy and at- tended the public schools in Durango, then in Pueblo, afterward studying in De Pauw University. He settled down in Denver in 1897 and was for many years editor of the Mining Record, then of Mining Science and afterward of Mining American. He gathered a number of his rhythmical productions into a thin volume-"The Maestro; Portraits and Other Poems" (1900), adding a sup- plement of spirited pieces in 1902. Three years later he published his most am- bitious performance, "The Last of the Stuarts," a historical drama founded upon the career of the exiled Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, who led the ill-starred invasion of England in 1745.

Enough has been said to show that the poetic art has been widely practiced in the Centennial State and that some of our minstrels have made important contributions to American literature. Space is lacking for comments on Arthur Chapman, Howard Vigne Sutherland, James Arthur Edgerton, Barton O. Ayls- worth, Crie Bower, Hannah M. Bryan, Leila Peabody, Fannie Isabel Sherrick Wardell, Robert V. Carr, Jean Hooper Page, Alfred Castner King, John Edward Morgan, William E. Pabor, James Barton Adams, Norris Clarion Sprigg, Elsie

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Elizabeth Johnson, Wilber Thomas, Naphtali Herz Imber, Solomon Bloom- garden, Katherine Lee Chambers, Anna Wilson Simmons, Lyman H. Sproull, Charles William Cuno, Caroline M. Butterfield, D. A. Stebbins (Nitsud), Ethel Shackelford, Addie Viola Hudson, George L. McDermott, Alice Carry Verner, Lydia H. Walker, Frances Stanton Brewster, Horace Castle and others of Colo- rado's tuneful choir.

Literature is a tremendous force in our mountain commonwealth and should be encouraged. The writer renders a valuable service. The historian helps us to know how to live. The thinker imparts instruction and ethical uplift. The essayist widens our outlook and strengthens our hold on the ideal. The romancer affords entertainment, and the novel with a purpose may lead to reforms. The poet gives us intellectual intoxication and a philosophy of life. The high-minded minstrel, with his exhortation to courage and chivalrous conduct, makes a con- tribution to the spiritual life of a people; his songs make for justice and brother- hood. Literature is an aid to culture. It fosters in us the love of the good, the true, the beautiful. It nourishes the highest emotions and aspirations, to the end that our lives may be dominated by the noble triad-God, Duty, Immortality.

CHAPTER XLIII

SPANISH NAMES

By Wilbur F. Stone

All of that part of Colorado lying south of the Arkansas River, which stream was the boundary line between the United States and Mexico prior to the cession by the latter Government to the United States under the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo in 1848, and became a part of Colorado when the territory was created by Congress in 1861, is dotted over with towns and settlements of Mexican popu- lation, and the names of such towns and counties as well as names of mountains, streams and other natural objects being in Spanish, have become so perverted in the spelling and pronunciation by the present English-speaking population, owing to their ignorance of the Spanish language, that it is deemed fitting by the editor of this work to make some mention explanatory of the meaning and pronunciation of some of the most important of these names, whether Spanish, Indian, or trapper French.

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History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 101

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 954

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954