History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 89

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

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"The report was widely copied throughout the country as the first specific, dis- interested and trustworthy account of the newly-discovered placers."

It was this that received its first publication in Colorado's first extra. The statement was published to the exclusion of almost everything else with the fol- lowing prefatory note by Mr. Byers :

"We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. Williams of the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express for the following report from Messrs. Greeley, Richardson and Villard, which will give satisfaction to the public mind, and at once set at rest the cry of 'humbug' reiterated by the returning emigration from this region. The names of the gentlemen signed to this report are sufficient to give it credence without further comment from us, and the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Wil- liams to get it before the public are commendable."

The printer who set up this statement for the extra was Gen. George West, who later became proprietor of the Golden Transcript. Concerning its publication, General West wrote to Curator Ferril of the Colorado State Historical Society :

Vol. 1-50

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"According to my recollection, it was June roth (Saturday) that it was printed, but it might have been dated the next day. My party had just arrived from across the plains, and about noon were pulling through the sand of Cherry Creek at the Blake Street crossing, twenty or thirty teams of us, when we heard a shout from a man, standing on a little foot-bridge which crossed the creek at that point. It proved to be old man Gibson of The News. 'Hey, there!' he ejaculated, 'are there any printers in this crowd?'

"I told him there were two or three of us. He then asked us to go into camp and come up and set up an extra for him.

"As we were uncertain about what we were going to do, even now that we had reached Pike's Peak, we concluded to do as he requested. Bill Summers, Mark Blunt, late of Pueblo, and I went to the office, then located in a one and a half- story log cabin on Ferry Street, now Eleventh Street, where we found Horace Greeley, A. D. Richardson and Henry Villard, who had just returned from the mountains, and The News wanted to publish their report in an extra. We then buckled to, set it up and worked off, I believe, 500 copies on the old Washington hand press. For this we received five pennyweight of gold dust."

The difficulties in obtaining news, even for a weekly paper, in 1859, can well be imagined. The telegraph lines ended at St. Joseph, Missouri, and the mails were transmitted to Denver by stage with exasperating irregularity. Moreover, the private stage company at one time charged as much as twenty-five cents for the transportation of every letter. Reference has been made to the difficulty of obtaining white paper and to the fact that the famous Greeley extra was printed on brown wrapping paper.

When the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Company began operations the postmaster at Leavenworth received instructions from Washington to deliver all the mail matter from the Pike's Peak region to the company as long as the coaches would carry it across the plains free of expense to the Government. This gave the express company and its successor a monopoly in handling the mail that continued until midsummer of 1860.

NEWS BECOMES A DAILY

On August 27, 1860, The Rocky Mountain News became a daily paper. Early in November it began publishing telegraphic news, the first newspaper service of that kind received in Denver. These dispatches did not come all the way through by wire, for, as has been stated, no telegraph wires were nearer Denver than 500 miles.

The first dispatch with the news of Lincoln's election left St. Joseph by pony express on the afternoon of November 8th, and was published in The News No- vember 13th.

This service was continued in 1861 from the westward-moving terminus of the overland telegraph until the wires connected Denver with the outside world.

The difficulties of conducting a newspaper were principally those incident to the delays in getting supplies and news from the outside world in the days of the stage coach and pony express. In 1859 the nearest postoffice was at Fort Laramie, 220 miles to the north, and mails from that point arrived in Denver but once or twice a month.

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On May 1, 1859, the founders of The News sent a special messenger to Fort Laramie and after many hardships and much suffering he returned with a mule that carried a heavy load of messages, letters and newspapers. Thus were the first "exchanges" brought to the News office and they supplied all the important news of the great world beyond.

Frank A. Root, author of "The Overland Stage to California," who was mes- senger in charge of the express business and an agent of the postoffice department in the '6os to look after the transportation of the mails across the plains to the mountains and to California, recalls some interesting facts concerning The News in war times. In his book he writes :

"I was a regular subscriber to The News during the most of 1864 and remem- ber the paper as plainly as if it were only yesterday. A few times it came out printed on tissue, with only a few short columns. This was after the Indians had placed an embargo on all commerce of the plains over the Platte Valley route for 300 miles, and for at least two or three weeks business of every kind along the line was at a standstill-practically paralyzed.

"When The News was being regularly issued as a daily and the Pacific tele- graph had reached a point one hundred miles west of Fort Kearney, the reports were taken off at Cottonwood Springs; and still later, at old Julesburg, one hun- dred miles farther west, and still two hundred miles east of Denver, but for a time the nearest point where news was received by wire-nearly forty-eight hours away."

On July 12, 1860, a series of murders and outrages began in Denver. The first act of violence, the one that led directly to the historic attack on The News office, was the shooting of Stark, a Mexican negro, by Charles Harrison, a noto- rious gambler and desperado. No arrest was made. The negro died of his wounds on July 21st.

The next act in the sanguinary drama was that of James A. Gordon, who shot Frank O'Neill, a barkeeper. A few days afterward the desperado fired at one of his own kind, but missed. A few hours later Gordon set upon John Gantz, another barkeeper, knocked him down, held him by the hair, and shot him through the head after snapping his revolver ineffectually four times.

The Law and Order League got into action immediately, but Gordon escaped to New Mexico. A month later he was arrested by Sheriff Middaugh, brought back to Denver, tried by a people's court and hanged.

The Rocky Mountain News, in its issue of July 25th, denounced these and other outrages and was especially trenchant in its condemnation of Harrison for his unprovoked murder of Stark.

For several days the outlaws and thugs brooded in rage over the excoriation. On July 31st, headed By the notorious Carroll Wood, they attacked The News office, fully armed. Being wholly unprepared for the assault, the employes were unable to resist and the desperadoes seized Byers and took him to the Criterion saloon to account to Harrison.

The ringleader, despite his vicious character, was a man of more prudence than his associates, and his intelligence probably forewarned him of the doom that awaited the outlaw band. At one time he had been a Mason and he recognized Byers as a member of the society.

Leading the editor away from the furious desperadoes, who were flourishing

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revolvers and making terrible threats, he conducted him to a rear room of the saloon on the pretense of settling with him alone. As quickly as possible Harrison let Byers out of a back door and a few minutes later raised a hue and cry that his prisoner had escaped.

When The News became a daily paper, a lively journalistic contest was in- augurated. Thomas Gibson had established the Rocky Mountain Herald. The war of the rebellion soon began ; news was exciting, and the mining communities were eager to receive information as quickly as possible. Both newspapers, at great cost, established and maintained pony express lines to Central City, Black- hawk and other points, and employed many agents and carriers. To sustain such a service it was necessary to charge a high price for the paper, which was sold to the subscribers for $24 a year.

Daily, weekly and frequently tri-weekly papers were issued to catch the moun- tain mails.

The News scarcely had weathered the financial storm caused by the fire of 1863, which swept away a large part of its patronage, when a new disaster befell it. The Cherry Creek flood of May 19, 1864, washed away The News building, which had been constructed in the bed of the creek so as to cause no ill feeling among the people of the rival towns of Auraria and Denver.

After the flood no paper was printed by the News for more than a month, but on June 27, 1864, publication was resumed, Byers and Dailey having bought the Commonwealth newspaper and plant.

In 1866 a new building was erected for the News at 369 Larimer Street, and in 1870 with the advent of the railroad it became a morning newspaper, the first issue run off on new presses and with new equipment appearing early in June of that year. In this year also Mr. Byers became sole proprietor, having bought out the interest of John L. Dailey. In 1876 the Rocky Mountain News Printing Com- pany was organized, Mr. Byers owning practically all of the stock.

In May, 1878, the town and state were surprised to learn of the sale of the entire plant to W. A. H. Loveland, who at once changed it from a republican to a democratic daily, enlarging it in July, 1879, to an eight page form. On January I, 1880, the new company began the publication of the Leadville Democrat, Love- land having been persuaded to undertake the new venture by John Arkins, then his managing editor in Denver. In 1881 the Democrat was sold by Loveland. In June, 1880, John Arkins bought a third interest in the News, and on March 15, 1886, the entire Loveland holding was taken over by John Arkins, James M. Bur- nell and Maurice Arkins.

PATTERSON BECOMES EDITOR

On August 9, 1890, Thomas M. Patterson, a leader in the party, and one of the most prominent attorneys in the state, bought a third interest in the News, securing the Burnell third interest in 1892 and control of the paper. John Arkins remained as managing editor of the paper until his death in 1894. In this venture Mr. Patterson was soon associated with Richard Campbell, his son-in-law, and in 1902 they purchased the Denver Times from David H. Moffat and associates, Mrs. John Arkins for a time retaining the old Arkins interest in the company. This was later purchased by Senator Patterson and Mr. Campbell.

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In 1910 the Times was sold to a new corporation of local capitalists.

On October 23, 1913, the News and Times and Republican were sold to Johan C. Shaffer, owner of the Chicago Evening Post, the Indianapolis Star, the Terre Haute (Ind.) Star, the Muncie (Ind.) Star and the Louisville Herald. Mr. Shaffer discontinued publication of the Denver Republican, merging it into the Denver Times and Rocky Mountain News, of which he is still in 1918 the owner.

While the Rocky Mountain News was the first permanent newspaper publi- cation in what is now Colorado, it was soon followed by other journals, most of which had but a fleeting existence. The pioneer newspaper of the Gregory dig- gings was The Rocky Mountain Gold Reporter and Mountain City Herald, a small folio which Thomas Gibson, later a prominent Omaha newspaper man, and who came to the mountains with the Byers party, issued August 8, 1859, near what is now Central City. This was discontinued during the winter, but resumed publi- cation in the spring in Denver, its long and sonorous name having been curtailed to The Daily Rocky Mountain Herald, the first daily newspaper in the Rocky Mountain country. This in. 1862 became the Daily Commonwealth and Republi- can, of which Mr. Gibson and Governor Gilpin were owners and Lewis Ledyard Weld and O. J. Hollister, editors. As already stated, it was merged with the News a month or more after the big flood of May, 1864. Gibson had, however, sold out on January 1, 1864, to representatives of Governor John Evans, and he in turn sold to Mr. Byers.

SECOND DENVER DAILY

On August 25, 1860, the second Denver daily appeared as The Daily and Weekly Mountaineer and owned by James T. Coleman and John C. Moore, then mayor of Denver. It was both democratic and Southern in its policy, and early in 1861 its proprietors sold out to the News and joined the Confederate army.

On August 27, 1860, the News began its daily and this made the third six- days-a-week publication in the metropolis of the "Diggings." The Herald and News became keen competitors, spending large sums in pony express service and in the organization of mining camp branches, which were in turn served by swift riders.

The Denver Daily Gazette, owned and published by Frederick J. Stanton, ap- peared on May 13, 1865, and remained active in the field until 1869, when it was sold to E. H. Saltiel and George Barnett, who called it The Denver Daily Times. It lasted only a few months under their management.

O. J. Goldrick, the first school teacher of Denver, revived The Rocky Moun- . tain Herald as a weekly in 1868, and remained its editor until his death in 1886.

While Merrick printed but one issue of the Cherry Creek Pioneer, the press he brought overland from St. Joseph later was used to print the first issues of Golden's Western Mountaineer. This was printed in 1860 and 1861 by A. D. Richardson and Thomas W. Knox, who later achieved fame as war correspon- dents and authors. In 1861 it printed the Cañon City Times, a short-lived pub- lication, and later, in 1862, a still shorter-lived paper at Buckskin Joe in South Park. In 1866 it was used to print the Valmont Bulletin, which later became the Boulder Valley Herald. It was then sent outside of the state, where it is prob- ably still doing service.

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THE DENVER TIMES

The Denver Times began as a theatrical program August II, 1870, and was known as The Lorgnette, with Clarence E. Hagar, an ambitious compositor on the News, as owner and editor. In 1872 this small program was enlarged to a six column folio, its name was changed to The Daily City Item, and it was issued regularly as an afternoon paper. When S. T. Sopris, another News employe, purchased an interest, the paper was called The Daily Evening Times, and its first issue under this name appeared April 8, 1872. A. J. Boyer, during the next few months purchased the interests of both Hagar and Sopris. This was in the midst of the Greeley campaign, and Boyer was an ardent supporter of the editor of the New York Tribune. On June 24th Edward Bliss, one of the members of the first Byers newspaper company, bought it and changed it from a "Greeley" to a "Grant" paper. On August 19th of that same year it became the property of Roger W. Woodbury, an able newspaper man, who enlarged it to a seven column folio and in June, 1874, moved it into its own building-an old structure -on Lawrence Street, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets. Some years later the Times Building was erected on what is now the western portion of the Golden Eagle Building. Its first home had been in the rear of Grant's bookstore on Larimer Street, moving later to the corner of Fifteenth and Lawrence, and then into the building bought by Mr. Woodbury. In 1903 it moved into the Charles Block, corner Fifteenth and Curtis streets, and there it remained until purchased by the Rocky Mountain News Company. Later when bought by local capitalists it was moved to the building owned by Herbert George, on Champa, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth, and when bought by John C. Shaffer was again published from the Rocky Mountain News Building on Welton Street.

Frank Hall, the historian of Colorado, was its editor in 1878. In 1880 Judge Albion W. Tourgee, the great novelist, was in editorial charge for a brief period. On May 20, 1882, when the new building on Lawrence Street had been occupied, the paper was sold to a company consisting of F. S. Woodbury, son of R. W. Woodbury, Thomas F. Dawson, later the biographer of Edward O. Wolcott, and Capt. R. G. Dill.

F. S. Woodbury soon became sole proprietor, and on May 28, 1888, sold the paper and plant to William H. Griffith, a young and ambitious Denver attorney, who had been associated with E. O. Wolcott. Mr. Griffith took personal charge, and, with Hal Gaylord, now publisher of the Kansas City Journal, as business manager, achieved a substantial success. On January 1, 1891, Mr. Griffith sold the Time's to H. W. Hawley and W. E. Brownlee, and in a few weeks established The Colorado Sun, a new morning paper, printing it from 1224 Fifteenth Street. Early in the spring of 1893 it came into the possession of Earl B. Coe, who changed it to an evening paper. In July, 1894, Mr. Coe and associates bought the Denver Times and consolidated it with the Sun, printing the paper under the title The Denver Times.

In the course of the next few years the paper became the property of David H. Moffat and associates, and remained under their management until it was sold to the Rocky Mountain News.

In 1910 the Water Company controversy assumed alarming proportions. A

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group of capitalists, in August of that year, purchased the paper from the News Company, having in view a newspaper representation for the interests which were then contesting with the city over the valuation and sale of the water com- pany properties.

As stated before, the Times, on October 23, 1913, became the property of John C. Shaffer.

THE REPUBLICAN

The Denver Republican for years one of the leading republican papers of the country, and which was merged with the News when both papers were pur- chased by John C. Shaffer, had its origin in 1874 not alone as a democratic paper but under the title Colorado Democrat.

In the spring of that year Thomas G. Anderson began its publication, on the east side of Sixteenth Street between Larimer and Lawrence streets, both as a daily and weekly. Within six months it became the property of Frederick J. Stanton, who in 1876, when it was printed from 322 Blake Street, again turned it over to its founder, Thomas G. Anderson, and to his associates, Joseph Farmer and Benjamin D. Spencer. The latter soon dropped out, and "Farmer & Anderson, Proprietors," was the sign put up at 371 Larimer Street, which had become its publication office. About this time W. A. H. Loveland purchased the News and made it a democratic paper. This apparently was the democrat's opportunity, and Thomas G. Anderson and the Farmer heirs sold the property to a group of ardent republicans, W. G. Brown, Henry Ward and W. H. Price, and these at once, in June, 1879, began its publication as The Denver Republican, a morning paper. Three months later the property was sold to Charles B. Wilkinson, of St. Joseph, Missouri. Local men, however, again secured control, and on November 1, 1880, the Republican Publishing Company was organized by Gen. Joseph C. Wilson, George T. Clarke and Amos Steck. On June 20, 1881, it became the property of Senator N. P. Hill and associates. In 1887 Senator Hill acquired control. It remained in the possession of the Hill heirs until its sale to John C. Shaffer in 1913. The Denver Republican under the Hill owner- ship and the editorial management of William Stapleton became one of the most influential republican journals in the country.

On August 12, 1884, the famous Denver Tribune was merged with the Repub- lican, and thus there passed out of existence, if not the most celebrated, surely the most picturesque of the many dailies that have occupied this field. This was founded in 1867 as The Denver Daily by L. M. Koons, from one of the group of structures on what was later the Times Building, 1547-51 Lawrence Street. On May 15, 1867, it first appeared as The Daily Colorado Tribune. Gen. R. W. Woodbury and John Walker bought into the publication in January, 1868. On December 29, 1871, The Tribune Association was organized by E. P. Hollister, E. G. Bond and associates, and purchased the paper, when it was re- moved to Sixteenth and Market streets. Henry C. Brown became its proprietor in 1872, and sold it to Herman Beckurts. In 1880 it passed into the possession of Herman Silver, G. B. Robinson and associates. This was the period in which it had on its staff Eugene Field, whose "Tribune Primer" made both him and

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his paper famous. Frederick J. Skiff, now at the head of the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago, was on its staff.

In 1881 Wilson A. Hamill bought the paper and within two years sold it to T. C. Henry, who was then conducting immense colonization projects for eastern capitalists. Mr. Henry finally merged the paper with the Denver Republican.

THE DENVER POST

The Denver Post began publication August 8, 1892, having been incorpo- rated as The Post Publishing Company by Hugh Butler, George D. Herbert, Caldwell Yeaman, R. G. McNeal, M. C. Jackson, I. C. Crose and M. J. McNa- mara. The directors included W. P. Carruthers, A. B. Mckinley, Charles J. Hughes, Jr., and Platt Rogers. The publication office was at 1744 Curtis Street. In that and the following year it had but a small following, for its owners and friends were Cleveland democrats, and that political species was under the ban in this "silver and Bryan" country. On August 29, 1893, it suspended publica- tion, but was revived in 1894, by The Post Printing Company, which incorpo- rated for $100,000 with H. J. Anderson, William Kavanaugh and Frank J. Me- dina, Jr., as incorporators. The directors included E. E. Dorsey, S. W. Shephard and J. J. Cronan.

On October 28, 1895, it was purchased by Frederick G. Bonfils, of Kansas City, and Harry H. Tammen, who have made it one of the most successful news- paper publications between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast.

THE DENVER EXPRESS

The Denver Express, a Scripps-McRae paper, was started April 26, 1906. For over a year it was printed from the Western Newspaper Union offices. It now occupies a fully-equipped building next to the mint on Cherokee Street.

FOUNDING THE CHIEFTAIN AT PUEBLO

When the Times at Canon City died early in the '6os there was for some time no newspaper published between Denver and Santa Fé, and Dr. M. Beshoar, who had had some newspaper experience in the South, found the field open for his Colorado Chieftain, in 1868. He canvassed Pueblo thoroughly and obtained some assistance for his venture. At Golden he closed an arrangement with Sam Mc- Bride, a practical printer, working on The Transcript, to take charge of the mechanical part of the publication. Judge Wilbur F. Stone, later on the supreme bench of the state, was given editorial charge, and under him was George A. Hinsdale, later lieutenant governor of the state.

In the Vicker's "History of Pueblo County" there is this comment on the editorial beginning of The Chieftain: "The first issue of the paper made its ap- pearance June 1, 1868. Governor Hinsdale was one of the finest writers in the western country. His solid argument and sonorous sentences will long be re- membered by the old readers of the Chieftain, while the sparkling wit and biting sarcasm of Judge Stone gave a spice to the sheet that rendered it popular wher- ever read."

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The building from which the paper was then printed stood on the north side of Fourth Street, between Santa Fé Avenue and Summit, on the site of its present structure. It was frame, one story in height, and originally was occu- pied as an office for a lumber yard. A small addition was made to the building, and in these limited quarters The Chieftain began its career. Bunks were erected in one end of the building, and a few of the employes slept in these. One Wash- ington hand press did both the newspaper and job work. Samuel McBride, who had been given a small interest, sold this to Doctor Beshoar, but soon after the latter sold the entire plant to McBride. Within a few months the paper became the property of Capt. John J. Lambert, under whose management it became one of the most substantial newspaper properties in the state. In 1903 I. N. Stevens, of Denver, purchased a controlling interest in the paper, and continues to conduct it as a republican journal, a policy which it has pursued for many years.

In the early days the Chieftain was often compelled to issue on Manila wrap- ping paper, the overland supply of white paper having been delayed by floods, accidents or Indians.

In 1872 the Chieftain became a daily, and in 1874 it bought The Pueblo People, a paper started in 1871 by a stock company.

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History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 89

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