USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 78
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Complete returns gave the total vote as follows : For, 35,698; against, 29,461, showing a majority of 6,237 for woman suffrage.
After the convassing boards of the respective counties had announced the result of the election, Governor Waite issued his proclamation declaring the enfranchisement of the women and Section I of the Act submitting the ques- tion to the people became of full force and effect ; it read as follows:
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"Section I. That every female person shall be entitled to vote at all elec- tions in the same manner in all respects as male persons are, or shall be entitled to vote by the constitution and laws of this state, and the same qualification as to age, citizenship and time of residence in the state, county, city, ward and pre- cinct and all other qualifications required by law to entitle male persons to vote shall be required to entitle female persons to vote."
Mrs. John L. Routt was the first woman registered in the state. The greater number of them have registered and voted at all subsequent elections. Many of them have become adepts in the knowledge of statecraft and political affairs and not a few have been elected to office, though as a rule, the women who fought the battles for equal suffrage have not sought public preferment.
February, 1894, the Woman's Industrial Legion, a populist secret order, opened headquarters in Denver and organized branch societies throughout the state. The Woman's Populist League of Denver was their leading organization. It continued its work through the municipal and county campaigns of 1895, and the state and national campaign of 1896, with Mrs. Alice W. Faulkner as its president. In practical campaign work the populist women, for the most part, concentrated their efforts with the men in the committee and club organizations of the party, though they maintained numerous clubs of their own in the state.
At the People's Party Arapahoe County Convention in September, 1894, Mrs. H. S. Stansbury, Mrs. Marian Sheridan and Mrs. Nellie E. Matteson of Denver, were nominated candidates for the General Assembly and these were the only legislative nominees among the women in the state by that party. The repub- licans nominated Mrs. Clara Cressingham, Denver ; Mrs. Carrie C. Holly, Pueblo; Mrs. Frances S. Klock, Denver, all of whom were elected.
In March, 1894, the women, irrespective of party, performed their first work in the political field under appointment as canvassers to register the female vote. The first woman to aspire to office was Miss Carrie West, who was nominated by the republicans for town clerk of Highlands, then a suburb of Denver, but de- feated.
June, 1894, the annual convention of the National Republican League clubs was held in Denver. At that time there was no organization of the republican women in the state. The republican leaders, realizing the need of such organi- zation, selected Mrs. Frank Hall, whom they persuaded to take charge of the woman's department of the campaign work, under the general direction of the Republican State Central Committee. Her first and most important duty was that of organizing women's republican clubs in all the counties of the state.
For the democratic women the campaign presented a complex state of af- fairs. Owing to a division in their party, and the acknowledged possibility of its success in that race, the women realized that they were in an uncertain atti- tude, unorganized and without leaders. But it was this condition that created leaders among them, developing an unknown wealth of latent talent with which they had been peculiarly endowed for use in the time of need.
The first democratic women to take action upon this decision were Mrs. Anna Marshall Cochran and Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver. By arrangement between these two, the first meeting of democratic women was held at the resi- dence of Mrs. Bradford in May, 1894, and the first women's democratic club was organized. "The Colorado Women's Democratic Club" was the name given
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
this organization, and it started on its mission with a membership of only nine. Mrs. Mary V. Macon was chosen president, Mrs. Anna Marshall Cochran, sec- retary, and Mrs. Mary Holland Kincaid, treasurer. The membership of the club rapidly increased, and, to the honor of its promoters, in a short time it was accepted by the National Democratic Committee as the only straight democratic organization in Colorado. By this authority Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford was appointed as state organizer. Mrs. Cochran in her capacity of secretary, raised the necessary funds to pay the expenses of the organizer and started her upon her mission. Mrs. Bradford canvassed the state, making a number of speeches. In this tour she added to her reputation the highest encomiums of the press for her delightful oratory and her superior reasoning powers. Taking letters from each chairman of the two State Central committees, wherever she appeared she usually succeeded in drawing both factions to her meetings. She organized twelve strong clubs in the state and started them to work under her own instruc- tion. Mrs. Cochran was practically at the head of the democratic women's cam- paign, and she and her able assistants did more than the men to reunite the factions.
Every bill introduced or urged by women in the two sessions of the Legis- lature following their admission to suffrage was designed for an improvement of social conditions. In the session of 1895 the law raising the age of protection from sixteen to eighteen years, the law giving the mother an equal right to her children, and the law creating a home for friendless and incorrigible girls were secured by the women ; and they aided in securing the home for dependent chil- dren. The bills introduced and advocated by them, but failing of passage were: Initiative and referendum, civil service reform, state control of the liquor traf- fic, Guttenburg system of license, indeterminate sentence, the new primary law, which was designed to abolish the convention and its attendant evils. In 1897 they secured the Curfew law, an appropriation for the Home for Dependent Chil- dren and advocated many measures for the improvement of domestic and indus- trial conditions.
The list of reform legislative measures to whose establishment the work of the women has largely contributed, is a long one, and in addition to those enu- merated, especial mention should be made of the following acts: Establishing parental or truant schools; making father and mother joint heirs of deceased child ; making it a misdemeanor to fail to support aged and infirm parents ; making education compulsory for all children between the ages of eight and sixteen; other strict compulsory education measures and laws against child labor; providing for the examination of the eyes, ears, teeth, and breathing capacity of school chil- dren (the bill from which this law was enacted was prepared by a woman physician and is the most comprehensive of all such laws in existence in the United States) ; requiring lessons in the public schools on the humane treatment of animals : prohibiting men from being supported by the earnings of immoral women; abolishing the binding out of girls committed to the State Industrial School; enabling school boards to pension teachers; requiring the joint signature of husband and wife to every chattel mortgage, sale of household goods used by the family or conveyance or mortgage of a homestead; validating the wills of married women; factory inspection, requiring three inspectors, one of whom shall be a woman ; establishing a State Traveling Library Commission consisting
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
of women; establishing the indeterminate sentence for prisoners; for the in- spection of private eleemosynary institutions by the State Board of Charities; making the methods of the sweat-box in connection with the examination of prisoners a felony ; requiring that at least three of the six members of county visiting boards shall be women; a pure food law; for tree preservation; prohibit- ing the killing of doves except in August; eight hour law for women; minimum wage law; and mothers' compensation act.
Women have been nominated for many positions by all the political parties since the granting of suffrage. They have endured the fate of men who aspire to office, and been defeated when they accepted place on a losing ticket. The prohibition party has numbered more women candidates than any other party -the socialists being a close second. Mrs. Antoinette A. Hawley was candidate for mayor of the City of Denver on the prohibition ticket and "points with pride" to the fact that she received some five hundred votes. After the granting of suffrage, the republican party nominated three women who were elected to the Legislature. These members of the Tenth General Assembly who accepted and discharged the highest privileges consequent upon the duties of citizenship were Mrs. Frances S. Klock, Mrs. Carrie Cressingham, both of Denver, and Mrs .. Carrie Clyde Holly of Pueblo. Mrs. Frances S. Klock had been a resident of Denver thirty-six years.
At the second election the populist party, once defeated, but still numbering a large voting contingent, united with the democrats and a wing of the repub- licans, calling themselves the National Silver Republicans, and they carried the state. Each party nominated women; Mrs. Evangeline Heartz was selected by the populist party and the silver republicans nominated two women, Mrs. Martha A. B. Conine and Mrs. Olive Butler. These women were all from Denver, and were elected to the Eleventh General Assembly.
The women of the state, with continued zeal, two years from this election, sent three more women to the Twelfth General Assembly. Two were nominated and elected to represent the women of Arapahoe County, being residents of Den- ver, and the third was elected from Pueblo County. This member, Dr. Mary F. Barry, was a practising physician in Pueblo, where she had been previously pub- licly honored by being appointed county physician.
Of the two Denver women representatives, Mrs. Frances S. Lee was the youngest woman ever elected to such a positioin and one of the youngest mem- bers of the House. She was a graduate of Denver schools and had been for a time school teacher. She introduced several bills relating to the lighting and sanitation of school buildings.
Mrs. Harriet G. R. Wright, the other member, has been for over forty years a resident of Colorado. Her husband came in the days of "fifty-nine" and took part in many of the early enterprises that helped to build the financial future of this state.
The Thirteenth General Assembly was represented by but one woman-Mrs. Evangeline Heartz. The Fourteenth General Assembly witnessed the same con- dition as the thirteenth, there having been but one woman representative. The democratic party of Denver nominated and elected Mrs. Alice M. Ruble, who was the lone woman in that assembly. She had been in 1898 a member of the
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Board of Control of the State Industrial School for Girls and served with zeal and faithfulness.
The Fifteenth General Assembly was without representation by the women, and the sixteenth was also lacking women representation.
The Seventeenth. General Assembly found Mrs. Alma V. Lafferty in the House. In the Eighteenth General Assembly Mrs. Alma V. Lafferty, Mrs. Louise M. Kerwin, Mrs. Louise U. Jones and Mrs. Agnes L. Riddle were in the House. In the Nineteenth General Assembly, Mrs. Helen Ring Robinson was in the Senate and Mrs. Frances S. Lee and Mrs. Agnes L. Riddle were in the House. In the Twentieth General Assembly Mrs. Robinson was in the Senate and Mrs. Evangeline Heartz in the House. In the Twenty-first General Assembly Mrs. Riddle was in the Senate and Mrs. Heartz in the House.
NUMBER OF WOMEN IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES SINCE WOMEN RECEIVED SUFFRAGE
General Assembly
Number of Women
10th
3
11th
3
12th
3
13th
I
14th
I
1 5th
None
16th
None
17th
I
18th
4 in House
19th
2 in House, I in Senate
20th
I in House, I in Senate
2Ist
I in House, I in Senate
Of those women who took active part in the campaign of 1893 and won the victory for equal rights, there is a long list of unrecorded names, and it is pos- sible to perpetuate upon these pages only the names of a few of the leaders in different parts of the state, including some of the leading men of those times. Among those in and around Denver were: Mrs. John L. Routt, president of the Denver City League, and Mesdames T. M. Patterson, N. P. Hill, John R. Hanna, Rev. William Bayard Craig, Kerr B. Tupper, the Misses Patterson and Miss Hill of the Young Women's League; Mrs. S. M. Casper, Twenty-second Avenue League ; Dora Phelps Buell and Mrs. Herbert George, of the Highlands League; Mrs. J. Eppley, Colfax ; Mrs. A. D. Taggart, Berkeley ; Mrs. Hartzell, South Den- ver; Mrs. Margie Gibson, Provident Park; Mrs. Hutchins, Lower Clear Creek ; Mrs. E. J. Webber, Globeville ; Mrs. L. L. Leland, Swansea ; Mrs. B. C. Chinn, Central; Mrs. H. S. Stansbury, Professor Hale, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. J. H. Platt, Den- ver; Mrs. E. W. Middleton, Harris; Mrs. Frank Caley, Littleton; Miss Lillian McKercher, Young People's League ; Mrs. Marion C. Lucas, City Park League; Mrs. Mabel Chinn, Eva Johnson, Ida De Priest, Esther Morris, Lois Allison, Mary E. Clark, Dudley Clark, Richard K. De Priest, Martha Spratlin, W. H. Wade, Al- berta Battles, Henry O. Wagoner, Misses Mattie and Matie Rutherford, Agnes
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
Cummings, Dora Dean, Mrs. Nannie Laur, Col. Irving Hale, Col. Byron L. Carr and Mrs. Mary Carr of Longmont.
Buena Vista-Mrs. Mary Gafford, President E. S. L .; Mrs. Joseph Newitt, Mrs. Julia Logan, Mrs. Ernest Wilbur, Miss Flora Kennedy, Mrs. Grace Wallace, Mrs. George Wallace, Mrs. Jennie Berry, Mrs. J. Halsey, Mrs. Laura C. Holt- schneider.
Harman, 1893-Mesdames Laura A. France, M. A. Smith, Anna Burchard, Lizzie I. Lamont, L. A. Walker, L. B. Leonard, Emergene McGowan, Sarah J. Taylor, Emma Ingerson, Carrie Fluecken, Bertha G. Smith, M. E. Yaeger, S. Fullman, Mabel Finnerty, Misses Tude, McChesney, Julia L. Wheeler, Nellie Fullman, Margaret Compton, Sophie Compton, M. E. Smith, Mary Masters, Irene I. Smith, Kate D. McChesney, Martha A. McChesney, and Messrs. Harry E. Nevin, B. A. Bennett, G. H. Ingersoll, Charles Fullman, Fred Smith, Uri Walker, James Hackshaw, C. H. Smith, Joseph H. Richardson, W. C. Barnhart, Norman Clifford.
In other parts of the state there were Mrs. E. M. Tanner of Fort Collins ; Mrs. C. E. Gibbs, Greeley ; Mrs. Morris E. Dunham, Boulder ; Ettie V. Parenteau, Central; Mrs. E. F. Kendall, Silver Plume; Mrs. L. B. Sinton, Mary C. C. Brad- ford, Colorado Springs ; Mrs. J. S. Sperry and Doctor Hatfield, Pueblo ; Emma G. Curtis, Cañon City (who conducted the campaign among people mainly of foreign tongue in a coal mining district and secured a majority of 200) ; Emma Greer and Dr. S. A. Goff, Louisville; Mrs. Roselle Goodrich, Red Cliff; Ina Davis, Para- chute ; Miss A. M. Murphy, Fruita ; Mrs. H. C. Olney, Gunnison ; Lillian Hartman Johnson, Durango, who had charge of the work in the Southwest; Dr. Jessie Hartwell, Salida ; Mrs. S. A. Reddin Jenkins, Mosca ; Mrs. Hazlett, Rico; Mrs. A. M. Bryant, Gilman; Mrs. S. J. Roocroft, Coalcreek ; Mrs. Job Jones, Rock- dale ; Mrs. A. W. Maxfield and Mrs. Emma Simmons, Rifle; Mrs. George Pear- son, New Castle; Miss Mollie Noonan, Glenwood Springs; Mrs. Reno, Arvada ; Mrs. Jessie Caswell, Grand Junction ; Mrs. Ashmead, De Beque; Mrs. S. M. Morris, Mancos; Mrs. J. F. Heath, Montrose; Mrs. George A. Burrows, Ouray ; Mrs. A. E. McCausland, Aspen ; Mrs. Louise Frybarger, Carlton ; Mrs. Hilla M. Griffith, Villa Grove; Mrs. M. Hollingsworth, Silverton; Dr. J. M. McCoy, Tel- luride ; Mrs. A. Guthrie Brown, Breckenridge, who, at an advanced age, as a resi- dent of Denver, was an active and enthusiastic worker in political and public affairs in general; Mrs. J. A. Pritchard, Greeley ; Mrs. Minnie Hovey, Amethyst ; Mrs. Fannie McClintock, Grand Junction ; Mrs. M. E. Timberlake, Holyoke.
Among the women of prominence in the work of the Suffrage Association were Miss M. A. Pease, the president, and Mesdames C. A. Bradley, the record- ing secretary ; M. H. Walker, J. B. Belford, Anna Steele, Grabing Craise, Hattie E. Fox, Mrs. Carrie Lane Chapman, Mrs. Jenkins of Cheyenne, Carrie Schnebele, Harriet Scott-Saxton, Eva Hulings, George Phelps, Helen Reynolds, Minnie Jay Reynolds, Georgiana Watson, Louise M. Tyler, Mrs. Mary P. Nichols, Dr. Anna Morgan, Mrs. A. J. Frincke, Mrs. Anna Marshall Cochran, Louise Forest, Mrs. Minerva Roberts, Mrs. Alma Lafferty, Mrs. Nellie Matteson, Dr. Sarah Calvert, Dora Fletcher Noxon, Mrs. A. C. Fisk, Mrs. W. A. L. Cooper, and a host of others.
Greeley-Prominent in the campaign of 1877 were Judge Levi Hanna, Mrs. Amanda Hanna, Father Nathan C. Meeker, Rosine Meeker, Mrs. Mary M.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
Gallup, David Boyd, Mrs. Sarah Boyd, Dr. Anna Marsh, Mrs. Eastman, Mrs. Adela Clark, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Stevens, Oliver Howard, Mrs. Clemma Howard, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Wilbur, Hon. Jared Brush, Florence Haines, Mrs. Doctor Law, S. S. Kennedy. In the campaign of 1893-Senator David Boyd, Mrs. Sarah Boyd, Oliver Howard, Mrs. Oliver Howard, Mrs. Doctor Hawes, Mrs. Jennie N. Pritchard, Harry N. Haynes, E. E. Clark, Mrs. H. T. West, Mrs. Carrie B. Sanborn, Mrs. C. E. Gibbs.
At Salida, leading women in the campaign of 1893 were : Mrs. M. O. E. Har- rington, Mrs. Margaret Watkins, Miss Jessie Hartwell, M. D., Mrs. E. Ford, Mrs. M. E. Densmore, Mrs. Anna J. Kennedy, Mrs. Judge Warner, Mrs. Etta Eggleston, Mrs. Cynthia Stead.
Grand Junction-Among those participating in the campaign of 1893 were: Mrs. Charles J. Caswell, president, and Mrs. Frank Mcclintock, vice president of the Mesa County Equal Suffrage League; Mrs. L. F. Ingersoll, Mrs. B. F. Jay, Mrs. A. R. Wadsworth, Mrs. C. F. Caswell, Mrs. Elizabeth Ashmead, Miss Alice Murphy, Miss Elizabeth Walker, Mrs. Margaret Ogilvie, Miss Nettie Stockton, Mrs. J. Telford, Dr. Ethelle Strasser, Mrs. J. L. Vallow, Miss Leander Watkins, Mrs. George Smith, Mrs. Edwin Price, Mrs. L. M. Layton, Miss Mary E. Welborn, Mrs. S. C. Buckley, Miss Minnie Carlile, Mrs. Charles Glessner, Mrs. M. E. Gambling, Mrs. G. L. Gaylord, Mrs. Jessie G. Ramey, Mrs. Esther R. Mitchell, Mrs. A. J. McCune, Miss Ollie Hensel, Miss May Cookingham, Miss Annie Sells. Equally as many leading men took an active part for the women.
Colorado Springs-Ella L. C. Dwinell, L. E. Dwinell, R. C. Hamlin, Mrs. E. L. Hamlin, Dr. Anna D. Chamberlain, Dr. F. C. Chamberlain, L. B. Fasser, Mrs. Laura A. Fasser, Mrs. Elizabeth Fasser, Dr. W. K. Sinton, Mrs. Luly B. Sinton, Mrs. O. S. Stout, Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, Mrs. Annie E. Wilder, Mrs. M. J. S. Otis, Mrs. Hattie A. Balcomb, H. C. Balcomb, Mrs. C. E. Robert- son, Miss M. C. Robertson, Emily E. Hildreth, Mrs. Mary E. Hildreth, Mrs. J. C. Smith, Mrs. A. L. Blake, Mrs. Blake.
Colorado City-Mrs Alice Finley, Louis W. Cunningham, Charles L. Cun- ningham, Mrs. Julia N. Cunningham and Mrs. E. I. Cunningham.
Manitou-Maude L. Green, Dr. Francis Cooper, Dr. Fannie Cooper.
Boulder-Hon. A. S. Baldwin, Mrs. Mary Collie, Mrs. Sallie F. Monell.
Durango-Mrs. Lillian Hartman Johnson, Judge Henry Garbonati, Charles
A. Johnson, Mrs. Olivia M. Hechtman, Mrs. Lizzie Metcalfe, Mrs. Frank Young. Silverton-Mrs. Emma Hollingsworth.
Mosca-Mrs. S. N. R. Jenkins, F. C. Hitchcock.
Cortez-Judge A. P. Edmindson, Mrs. Perley Wasson.
Mancos-Mrs. S. M. Morris, president E. S. L .; Mrs. Marion Wetheril, vice president; Mrs. A. Lemmon, secretary; George M. Carr, treasurer; W. H. Kel- ley, Hon. D. H. Lemmon, Mrs. A. J. Barber, Judge M. T. Morris.
Highlands-Mrs. Mary C. Woodburn, Mrs. Mary Butters, Mrs. Emma Olin- ger, Mrs. Hester W. Hartzell, Mrs. Ida M. Lesley, Mrs. Eva Wheeler, Mrs. Fred Kern, Miss Blanch Badger, Mrs. Bertha Corlew, Mrs. Bertha Mueller, Mrs. A. G. Channel, Mrs. Elizabeth S. Ferguson, Mrs. J. W. Jackson.
Breckenridge-Mrs. A. Guthrie Brown, Mrs. C. L. Westerman, Mrs. E. G. Brown, and Mrs. Hugh Steele.
CHAPTER XXXVI
MILITARY
THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD-SENTIMENT IN 1861-CONFEDERATE FLAG-RAISING IN DENVER-DEFEAT OF ENEMY PLANS-FIRST RECRUITING-PROCLAMATION- MENACE FROM THE SOUTH-BAYLOR'S CAMPAIGN-CONFEDERATE PURPOSES- PREPARATIONS TO RESIST SIBLEY-CONFEDERATE PREPARATIONS-THE FIRST CONFLICT-THE FIRST COLORADO-FIRST BATTLE OF LA GLORIETA PASS-THE SECOND BATTLE- THE RETREAT AND PURSUIT-DISPOSAL OF THE FIRST COLORADO -THE SECOND COLORADO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY-OTHER VOLUNTEER ORGAN- IZATIONS-MERGER OF THE SECOND AND THIRD COLORADO-CAREER OF THE SECOND CAVALRY-RAID INTO COLORADO TERRITORY-THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR-PREPARATIONS IN COLORADO-THE FIRST REGIMENT-CASUALTIES-SERV- ICE OF OTHER COLORADO TROOPS-THE WORLD WAR-COLORADO'S QUOTA-RE- CRUITING-SELECTIVE DRAFT-RED CROSS-LIBERTY LOANS-COUNCIL OF NA- TIONAL DEFENSE-OTHER PREPARATIONS-FAREWELL ADDRESS BY CAPT. J. C. W. HALL TO HIS TROOPS, 1864.
THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD
SENTIMENT IN 1861
During the winter of 1860-61, preceding the actual outbreak of hostilities be- tween the North and the South, there arose stong evidences of divided sentiment in Denver and other communities of Colorado Territory. There must be taken into consideration the fact that many of the settlers in Colorado-in the towns and mining camps-were from the South, were thoroughly imbued with the southern spirit and ideals, and naturally sympathized with the cause of the South. But there were others, from the North and in the majority, who bitterly opposed everything which smacked of the false aristocracy of the Southern States. Actual war between the states was considered remote and not until the news of Fort Sumter came to Denver did the people awaken to the true character of the situation.
The military organizations in the territory were insignificant at this time. In fact, when Governor Gilpin arrived to take over the government in the new Territory, there were no Colorado troops in existence. The Jefferson Rangers and Denver Guards, small militia companies, had been organized during the summer of 1860 in accordance with an act of the Legislative Assembly of Jefferson Ter- ritory, but were disbanded before the end of the following winter. Small forces of government troops were stationed at two places in Colorado Territory-at Fort Garland, in the San Luis Valley, and at Fort Wise, on the Arkansas River, near
701
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
the eastern part of the present Bent County. The latter post was formerly the trading station built by William Bent and which was sold to the Government in 1859; in the fall of the year 1861 the name was changed from Fort Wise to Fort Lyon, in memory of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, the Union leader who fell at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, the preceding August.
CONFEDERATE FLAG-RAISING
Governor Gilpin was a staunch supporter of the Union, but the same could not be said for many of the citizens. Rebel sympathizers could be heard on every hand, expounding their blatant views of slavery and the Southern Confederacy. The first actual demonstration of opposition to the North occurred on April 24th, just a few days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Upon this day a number of men raised the "Stars and Bars" over the store of Wallingford & Murphy, a log building which stood on the north side of Larimer Street, a short distance west of Sixteenth Street. A turbulent crowd, in which the Union men were pre- dominant, soon gathered in front of the store, and demanded that the flag be taken down. The southern adherents were equally determined that the flag should stay. A general melee seemed imminent. Shortly a young man in the crowd, Samuel M. Logan, later captain in the First Colorado Volunteers, climbed to the roof of the store and tore the emblem down, without opposition from the crowd assembled. This was the first and last open display of the Confederate flag in Colorado Territory, although it is said that a few small flags were flown from private houses later. This occurrence, however, brought the Union spirit out in force and numerous manifestations of loyalty to the North were made.
Colorado Territory was placed in a complicated situation. Territorial govern- ment had just been inaugurated and actual administration was yet in the formu- lative state ; the conditions in New Mexico heralded a Confederate menace from that direction ; Indians, covertly watching for the opportunity to spring upon the white men, roamed the plains in great numbers; great distances lay between the settlements and the beginning of civilization in the east; and, in all, many other factors contributed to the feeling of isolation and uneasiness in the territory.
DEFEAT OF ENEMY PLANS
Governor Gilpin came to Denver on May 29th and began the work of organiz- ing the new government. In the next month he formed a military staff, consisting of : Richard E. Whitsitt, adjutant-general ; Samuel Moer, quartermaster-general ; John S. Fillmore, paymaster ; and Morton C. Fisher, purchasing agent. One of the first moves made by the governor, after the organization of the staff, was to order Fisher to purchase all the small ordnance and ammunition he could find among the people. This variegated stock of weapons was not collected without opposition from the Confederates. The latter were quietly active throughout the territory, were engaged in gathering arms themselves, and were suspected to be forming a mounted force for the purpose of raiding Denver or some other of the larger communities. Under the leadership of one McKee, a Texan, these men advertised freely for guns and were becoming more and more open and boastful in their actions, when Governor Gilpin took steps to crush them. He ordered
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