USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 18
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Despite a period of depression shortly after the founding of the town, when the prospectors poured from the South Park and from the Blue River district, claiming that the diggings there were no good, the Colorado City settlement, in its weak state, managed to survive and by the middle of autumn settlers once more began to come in, houses were erected in great numbers and in all the new town began to prosper and grow amazingly. However, Colorado City never became the metropolis which the founders hoped for and desired. A direct road was laid out from Denver and Auraria to the South Park and Blue River district, which became the established line of communication, also the Indian depreda- tions along the Arkansas trails in the years which followed diverted much of the travel to the northern routes along the Platte and South Platte rivers.
CAÑON CITY
The Town of Canon City was established about the middle of October, 1859, when a number of the residents of Fountain City and Pueblo, namely: Josiah F. Smith and his brother Stephen, William Kroenig, Charles D. Peck, Robert Ber- caw and William H. Young, being apprised of the gold discoveries in the South Park, went up the Arkansas River to a point just below the mouth of the gorge and there platted the new town. The only improvement made by them at this time consisted of a small log cabin, in which Robert Middleton and his wife,
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former members of the Lawrence Company of Argonauts, lived during the winter months following. In the spring of 1860, upon the discovery of gold in California Gulch at the head of the Arkansas River, near Leadville, another and much larger party of men from Auraria-Denver, took possession of the Cañon City site and much additional land, making in all about one thousand two hundred and eighty acres. A new platting was made, but the town name of Cañon City was retained.
OTHER TOWNS OF 1859
Of the many other towns founded in the year 1859, one of the principal ones was Golden Gate. In July, 1859, the "Golden Gate Town Company" was organ- ized by Thomas L. Golden, J. S. Rogers, Charles Fletcher, H. S. Hawley and W. G. Preston, 640 acres of land two miles north of Golden City was selected, and a town platted there and named Golden Gate. The town grew to some size and became a rival of Golden City, but after a few years of apparent prosperity it declined and finally disappeared.
In October "Mount Vernon," another city of the ephemeral type, was sur- veyed upon a site five miles south of Golden, upon the highway to several of the better diggings. Mount Vernon existed but a few years. Three miles north of the mouth of the Platte Canon another collection of log cabins was given the name of "Piedmont." Another-"Huntsville"-on the road from Denver to the South Park, was a small settlement, also "Bradford City" which was sixteen miles southwest of the mouth of Cherry Creek.
Tarryall, Jefferson City, Hamilton City, Montgomery and Buckskin Joe are other towns now but a memory, with the exception of Fairplay and Buckskin Joe, although there is a small station on the Colorado & South Park Railroad now named Jefferson City.
CENTRAL CITY
Near the close of the summer of 1860 Nathaniel Albertson, John Armour and Harrison G. Otis founded and platted "Central City," its site "being nearly central between the locality of the Gregory Diggings and that of the upper mines in Nevada Gulch." By the end of the year Central City had assumed great im- portance as a mining center for the North Fork of Clear Creek district and was made the county seat of Gilpin County when the latter was organized in the winter of 1861-62. Mountain City, near by, lost its postoffice to Central City and soon began to merge with the newer and more energetic community.
"Empire City," near Georgetown, was another Clear Creek town which was created during 1860.
"Oro City," the metropolis of the California Gulch diggings and the ancestor of Leadville, rose to a height of great prosperity in 1860 and was a typical mining town of the wild West. However, after a few years Oro City declined, when the richest of the placer gold had been worked out, but it continued to be a strong producer until 1877, when the discovery of the lead and silver carbonates gave it the name of Leadville and a boom of world-wide fame.
Breckenridge, founded in the late spring of 1860, proved to be the first town
W.A.STORE OLESALE &RETAIL
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VIEWS OF CENTRAL CITY IN 1864
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of permanence established upon Colorado's western slope. However, prior to the start of Breckenridge, there were two other town propositions in the western part of the Territory. In April, 1860, a meeting was held at Mountain City by those interested, for the purpose of organizing two town companies. At an- other meeting, held May 5th in Mountain City the "Grand Junction Town Com- pany" and the "Saratoga Town Company" were organized, both to form a town in what is now Grand County. Grand Junction was located at the junction of the Grand and Blue rivers and Saratoga West, as it was called, was situated on the site of the present Sulphur Springs. Neither one of these town projects was successful, however, for within three or four years they had been completely abandoned.
PUEBLO CITY
It has been stated before that the City of Pueblo was preceded by "Fountain City." This latter community became demoralized to a great extent during the year 1859 and those who composed the better class of citizens decided that a new town would be the most desirable thing. Also the California Gulch gold strikes influenced this move to a great extent, while the Fountain River trail from the north was a factor. Various accounts have placed the actual formation of the Pueblo Town Company during the winter of 1859-60, but this is in error. Milo Lee Whittaker, in his "Pathbreakers and Pioneers of the Pueblo Region," (1917) states :
"On the 22nd of May, 1860, a meeting was called for the purpose of con- sidering the organization of a town.
"According to the records of the Southern Colorado Pioneers' Association, the following persons were present at this meeting: Jack Allen, John Kearns, Albert Bercaw, W. H. Ricker, Dr. Catterson, Wesley Catterson, Ed Cozzens, A. C. Wright, Mrs. A. C. Wright and Mrs. Mary Simms. These records further state that it was on July 1, 1860, that the town was formally 'laid out' and named Pueblo in honor of the old fort which had stood for so many years on the opposite bank of the Arkansas, a single prophecy of 'things yet to be'."
Among the prominent founders of Pueblo City were Col. William H. Green and Albert F. Bercaw, who were associated with the organization of the Foun- tain City Company ; Dr. W. A. Catterson and his brother, Wesley ; Dr. George Belt, Silas Warren, Edward Cozzens and Josiah Smith. These were men who recognized the worth of the location and the need for a better and more pro- gressive city. That their dreams were of stable quality is proved by the growth of Pueblo since that time to the rank of second city in Colorado.
The Pueblo site, bounded on the east by the Fontaine qui Bouille and on the south by the Arkansas, was surveyed and laid out into streets, blocks and lots in the summer of 1860 by George B. Buell and E. D. Boyd, of Denver. Judge Wilbur F. Stone, who came to Pueblo in 1860, has written that the site "extended from the river back two or three miles toward the divide, and from the Fontaine qui Bouille on the east to Buzzard's Ranch on the west."
Fountain City, the site of which is now known as East Pueblo, soon lost her identity and the citizens became residents of the new town-Pueblo.
DPECK&CO
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VIEW IN PUEBLO in 1868 The street shown is a part of Santa Fé Avenue.
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VIEW IN PUEBLO IN 1872, FROM AN ELEVATION EAST OF SANTA FE AVENUE The large building in the upper right-hand corner of the picture was the Pueblo County Courthouse.
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LEADVILLE
The founding of the City of Leadville was the direct result of the discovery of silver mines in that district. Something of the California Gulch strike and the rise of Oro City is given elsewhere in this and other chapters. After a period of depression following the exodus of the miners from this locality there. came the silver strike made by the three Gallagher brothers in the winter of 1876-77 and in the following spring hundreds of prospectors came to the district, followed during the year by many more. In June a town was started and in January, 1878, this community had grown to such an extent that it was incorpo- rated as the City of Leadville. For a few years after 1880 Leadville equaled Denver in population.
GRAND JUNCTION
Grand Junction, the county seat of Mesa County, was founded in the autumn of 1881 by George A. Crawford. In September of that year Crawford, with William McGinley, R. D. Mobley, M. R. Warner and others, went to the junction of the Grand and Gunnison rivers and on the 26th claimed 640 acres of land there for a townsite, the same now being the central part of Grand Junction. McGinley remained upon the ground, while Crawford and the others returned to Gunnison. There, on October 10th, the "Grand Junction Town Company" was organized, with Crawford, J. W. Bucklin, R. D. Mobley, H. E. Rood, M. R. Warner and Allison White as the incorporators. In the meantime McGinley erected a cabin on the site, which was the first building of Grand Junction. John Allen, a settler, was living in a tent there also in October, when Crawford and Mobley returned, and was calling the place West Denver. However, within a few days fully a half hundred people had located there and at a public meeting held November 5th it was decided to name the community "Grand Junction." The townsite was platted in January, 1882, by Samuel Wade, a surveyor, and thereafter building construction proceeded rapidly.
DELTA
The Town of Delta was also started by George A. Crawford, who, in Sep- tember, 1881, decided to lay out a town at the confluence of the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers. Associated with him was M. C. Vandeventer and others. The "Umcompahgre Town Company" was organized, the organizers being Craw- ford, H. A. Bailey, W. A. Bell, D. C. Dodge, M. C. Vandeventer and R. F. Weitbree. Samuel Wade platted the town in December of the same year upon the 500 acres selected. At the same time the name of the town was changed from Umcompahgre to Delta.
MONTROSE
The townsite of Montrose, consisting of 320 acres, was located in January, 1882, when the only building thereon was a cabin erected by John Baird about a month before. The town was the result of the Montrose and Uncompahgre
VIEW ON FRYER HILL, LEADVILLE
SCENES IN LEADVILLE WHEN THE GREAT CARBONATE CAMP WAS ABOUT TWO YEARS OLD
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
Ditch Company, organized in December, 1881, and incorporated by John Baird, T. H. Culbertson, O. D. Loutsenheizer, A. Pumphrey and Joseph Selig.
GLENWOOD SPRINGS
Glenwood Springs, the seat of justice for Garfield County, was founded in August, 1882, by the "Defiance Land and Town Company," an organization formed by Judge H. P. Bennet of Denver, John Blake, Isaac Cooper, William Gelder and Frank Enzensperger. First the company named the town Defiance, but in 1883 the name was changed to the present form. The first dwelling was erected in the spring of 1883 by John Blake. Glenwood Springs has become noted as a health resort, the chief attraction being the hot springs and baths there on the north bank of the Grand River.
GUNNISON
The Town of Gunnison owes its inception to the silver investigations in the surrounding district which were conducted in 1873, the details of which are given in another chapter of this work. Under the leadership of John Parsons and Dr. Sylvester Richardson, a large party of Denver people, having heard of the treasures of the country around the Gunnison site, proceeded there. Rich- ardson became enamoured with the country and resolved to found a colony there, consequently during the winter of 1873-74 he gave his full attention to this project, also enlisting the aid of several others. An organization was effected, of which Richardson was the president, and on April 21, 1874, the first group of colonists arrived on the ground later occupied by the Town of Gunnison. The land was surveyed into sections and quarter sections and each member of the company was given an allotment of 160 acres. The tract which was drawn by Doctor Richardson was made the site of a town, which he named Gunnison City, in honor of Capt. John W. Gunnison, of exploration fame. In 1876, Rich- ardson's town not having prospered, other men laid out another town adjacent to Gunnison City, but this, too, was a failure.
Not until 1879 did the community begin to take definite form as a city. In the spring of this year a rush began, as valuable ores had been found, and the prospectors made a concerted rush for the district. On June 5th an entirely new town organization was formed, the company being composed of John Evans, Henry C. 'Olney, Louden Mullin, Alonzo Hartman and Sylvester Richardson. During the following winter differences arose in the town company and a rup- ture occurred. Richardson and Mullin, with others, withdrew and negotiated with the Denver & South Park Railroad for the establishment of another town "West Gunnison." Alonzo Hartman and others remained the leaders of "East Gunnison." In 1880 the two rival towns were united under the name of Gun- nison City, and the community remains to this day as a prosperous center of the surrounding mining district.
SILVERTON
Silverton is one of the prosperous towns of southwestern Colorado which had its beginning at the start of the statehood period. Silverton was established
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in 1874 and the plat filed for record in September, by a town company consisting of Francis M. Snowden, N. E. Slaymaker and Dempsey Reese. The first cabin was built three years before by Snowden. Silverton grew very slowly, in fact, lost prestige, until the coming of the railroad in July, 1882, whereupon the com- munity took new life and became progressive.
OURAY
Ouray was founded in 1875, owing to the metal discoveries in the summer of that year by A. W. Begole, John Eckles, John Munroe, R. F. Long, A. J. Staley, Logan Whitlock, M. W. Cline and others. Many prospectors thronged to the vicinity immediately, where Cline and Long had formed a town company. D. W. Brunton surveyed the plat a few weeks afterward and a few cabins were con- structed thereon. During the winter months little building occurred, owing to the fact that the prospectors left, but in the following spring the rush began again, and Ouray, named after the celebrated chieftain of the Southern Utes, began its growth.
TELLURIDE
The City of Telluride, county seat of San Miguel County, is another product of the mining activities in the '70s. Telluride, originally known as "Columbia," was founded in January, 1878, but had a slow growth until 1880, when the Rio Grande Southern Railway entered the town.
DURANGO
The Town of Durango was established in September, 1880, by the organiza- tion of the "Durango Town Company." The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad entered the town July 27, 1881, and from that time until the present Durango has enjoyed an uninterrupted life of prosperity and progress.
CHAPTER VII
COLONIZATION IN COLORADO
BEGINNING OF COLONIZATION-THE CHICAGO COLONY-THE UNION COLONY-THE CHICAGO-COLORADO COLONY-THE ST. LOUIS WESTERN COLONY-THE SOUTH- WESTERN COLONY-INSPIRING IMMIGRATION-SETTLEMENT OF COLORADO SPRINGS-SOUTH PUEBLO-BEGINNING OF FORT COLLINS
BEGINNING OF COLONIZATION
The first permanent settler in Colorado was William Green Russell, the leader of the Pike's Peak Argonauts, who came to this territory in the month of June, 1858. The settlements made by Russell and his brothers, as well as the numerous others made by gold-seekers, are described in the chapters upon gold mining. It is the purpose here to treat only of the settlements made in the state under the "colonization" scheme.
The completion of the railroads into Colorado and to the City of Denver in the summer of 1870 marked the end of the pioneer period and the beginning of the period of colonization. The railroad brought advantages of travel and freight-carrying hitherto impossible to obtain. The long and arduous journey across the plains, the hardships and imminent dangers connected with such a trip, had, in great measure, isolated the Territory of Colorado from the plains region. Prospective settlers thought twice before risking their lives and for- tunes by journeying across the Indian country to the mountains, especially when settlements could be made closer to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. How- ever, the frontier slowly pushed westward. The gold seekers invaded the land of Colorado and established their camps. These men could not be considered permanent settlers as a class, but fortune-hunters. Then came the railways and new ambitions were born. Agriculture and livestock raising claimed an increas- ing share of attention. What had been a straggling line of colonists, creeping across the plains with no fixed purpose, became organized communities, with definite purposes, the members of which had decided upon certain locations in the new country, chiefly with a view of successfully developing the agricultural resources.
THE CHICAGO OR GERMAN COLONY
The first organization established for the purpose of forming an agricultural community in Colorado Territory was known as the "Chicago Colony," also the "German Colonization Society." This body was organized in the City of Chicago
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August 24, 1869, with Carl Wulsten as the president. Later in the same year a committee was appointed and directed to proceed to Colorado Territory, there to select a suitable location for the new home. Accordingly, the committee, after some investigation, arranged to acquire about forty thousand acres of land in part of the Wet Mountain Valley. This tract is now contained within Custer County, but in 1869 Fremont County extended over it.
On March 21, 1870, eighty-six families, mostly native Germans, arrived and later in the year nearly one hundred additional families joined the community. Land cultivation was begun and a town, christened "Colfax" in honor of the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Hoosier statesman, was laid out. However, difficulties soon began to beset the new settlers. The old adage-"too many cooks spoil the broth"-was very applicable to the Colfax community. Mismanagement, ill feeling and general failure to obtain cooperation caused the unsuccessful close of this first attempt at colonization. Many of the settlers left, leaving very few to further develop their holdings, and the Town of Colfax disappeared.
THE UNION COLONY
The second colony to invade the Territory of Colorado in 1870, with the in- tention of devoting its time to agriculture, was the "Union Colony," a product of New York City.
Those responsible for the organization of the Union Colony were Nathan C. Meeker, agricultural editor of the New York Tribune and Horace Greeley, owner of the same newspaper. In the summer of 1859 Greeley had visited Colorado while journeying to the Pacific Coast. While here he was greatly impressed with the natural resources of the region and strongly realized the pos- sibilities of the country under development. Greeley voiced his convictions upon his return to New York City and among those becoming inter- ested was N. C. Meeker. In the summer of 1869 Meeker came to Colorado with a number of friends, to look over the ground and decide as to the exact character of the Pike's Peak region. South Park first claimed his attention and he hastily decided that upon this mountain-valley land a settlement should be made. However, after conferring with the citizens of Denver, he changed his decision in favor of the lowlands below the foothills. With this in mind he re- turned to New York City.
Immediately he and Greeley began a newspaper campaign, widely advertising the merit of the Colorado country and proposing their colonization plans, asking for volunteers to go to the western country for the purpose of making a perma- nent settlement. Hundreds of readers, seeing therein an opportunity to escape the confining influences of the East and to make a new start, rallied to the cause and, at a large meeting held at the Cooper Institute in New York City December 23, 1869, the organization of the "Union Colony" was effected and the following officers elected: Nathan C. Meeker, president; Gen. Robert A. Cameron, vice president ; and Horace Greeley, treasurer. Meeker, Cameron and A. C. Fisk were appointed as a committee to go to Colorado and fix upon a proper location for the colony.
This committee came to the Territory in March, 1870, and chose a site near the confluence of the South Platte and the Cache a la Poudre rivers, in Weld
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County, and nearly twelve thousand acres of land were purchased from the Denver Pacific Railway Company and from individuals, also provisional title was secured to about sixty thousand acres of public land, the whole necessitating an immediate expenditure of about sixty thousand dollars. At this time there were a few farmers in the vicinity chosen and near the mouth of the Cache a la Poudre was a small village named Latham. The plan inaugurated by Meeker and his associates resembled that of a stock company with equitable divisions of land among the members.
Then, in May, 1870, there arrived the first party of the Union Colony settlers, numbering about fifty families. Immediately irrigating ditches were dug and the site for a town was platted and named Greeley in honor of one of its illus- trious founders. The townsite was divided into 520 business lots, 25 by 190 feet ; 673 residence lots, ranging in size from 50 by 190 to 200 by 190 feet ; and 277 lots reserved for schools, churches, public buildings and buildings of like character. The adjacent lands were divided into plats of from five to one hun- dred and twenty acres each, according to the distance from the center of town, and each member was allowed to select one of these plats under his colony cer- tificate of membership. All the lands were to be supplied with water and were not subject to assessment on any account, except for the nominal cost of keeping the irrigating canals and ditches in repair. A plaza, or public square, of ten acres was laid out in the center of the town, artificial lakes constructed, trees planted, and by June, 1870, the first canal was completed and water running through all the principal streets. An island in the river, just above the town, comprising nearly fifty acres, and shaded with native cottonwoods, was reserved for public uses and named "Island Grove Park."
During the few months after the first company of colonists came several hundred other families arrived, mostly consisting of people from New England, New York, Ohio and Indiana. The majority of the men were farmers, but there were a few of other vocations, some merchants and a few professional men.
Greeley itself prospered amazingly. Within the space of a year's time the town had become an active business center and a bank, hotels, the Greeley Tribune, several first class stores and many up-to-date dwellings had been estab- lished upon the new plat. In June, 1871, an enumeration of the population showed 1,155 people living here. Greeley enjoyed the distinction of being the first pro- hibition town in the state. One of the stipulations in the real estate deeds, given by the Union Colony to its members, was that no intoxicating liquor should either be manufactured or sold upon the town plat.
THE CHICAGO-COLORADO COLONY
The Chicago-Colorado Colony was the first of three colonial organizations established in Colorado during the spring of 1871 for agricultural purposes. The two others were the "St. Louis Western" and the "Southwestern," but the Chi- cago-Colorado was the first of the trio. This colony was organized in the City of Chicago on November 17, 1870, with Robert Collyer, a Protestant preacher, as the president temporarily ; he was succeeded shortly by Seth Terry. Like the Union Colony, a committee came to Colorado, in December, 1870, and late in January of the following year selected a location in the northeastern part of
A CABIN BUILT BY ANDREW SAGENDORF AND OSCAR E. LEHOW, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1858 Meetings of members of the Masonic order were held in this cabin,
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A. H. BARKER'S CABIN, BUILT IN THE AUTUMN OF 1858
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Boulder County, which consisted of land well drained by the St. Vrain and Left- Hand tributaries of the South Platte River. The committee purchased fifty-five thousand acres of land at this site for the colony. The general proceedings of the Chicago-Colorado Colony were modeled greatly after the Union Colony at Greeley, as the latter had proved a success.
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