USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume II > Part 102
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assets over the liabilities are one hundred and forty million dollars. An extensive business has been developed in the Denver territory under the direction of Mr. Gemmill, who is a most forceful and resourceful man, possessing marked executive power, keen discrimination and notable ability in coordinating seemingly diverse or unrelated inter- ests into a harmonious whole.
On the 5th of February, 1916, Mr. Gemmill was married in Denver, Colorado, to Miss Eleanor Eicholtz, a native of Denver and a daughter of Leonard H. and Ellen (Inslee) Eicholtz, who were pioneer residents of this city, where the father passed away. Mr. and Mrs. Gemmill were parents of a son, John Reed, Jr., who was born in Denver, April 28, 1917, and died August 14, 1918.
In politics Mr. Gemmill maintains an independent course, voting according to the dictates of his judgment without regard to party ties. He belongs to Phi Gamma Delta, a college fraternity, and also has membership with the University Club and with the Denver Civic and Commercial Association-a fact which indicates his interest in all that pertains to the welfare, upbuilding and development of the city and its many interests. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Central Presbyterian church and he is serving on its board of session. His life has ever been actuated by high and honorable principles and measures up to advanced standards. Mr. Gemmill deserves great credit for what he has accomplished, as he worked his way through college and has been self-supporting from the age of ten years, when he began to earn his living as a newspaper carrier in York, Pennsylvania, where he had a morning and evening route, starting out at three o'clock in the morning to deliver papers. The same unfaltering spirit has characterized him through all the passing years and has brought him to his present creditable and enviable position, in which he is known as one of the prominent representatives of insurance interests in the west.
EDWIN E. BAKER.
There is probably no other man who has been so closely identified with irrigation projects in northern Colorado as Edwin E. Baker, of Greeley. Scarcely is there a large storage reservoir along the Platte or the lower Poudre in the construction of which he has had no part. He is today considered one of the foremost authorities on irrigation and canalization and in important positions has done much toward opening up this country to the agricultural settler. He has served as water commissioner of this district and also was for some time superintendent of Union Colony No. 2 ditch, and the Greeley and Loveland canal. To his positions he has not only brought wide experience, sound judgment and untiring energy, but a love for this work which has lifted him into a posi- tion of prominence in regard to irrigation problems.
Edwin E. Baker was born near Fort Wayne, Indiana, on August 16, 1845. His parents, George R. and Hannah (Hicks) Baker, were natives of New York state, who removed to Indiana, subsequently proceeding westward to Wisconsin. In 1871 the parents came to Greeley, Colorado, where the father engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1880, when he removed to Fort Morgan, this state, where he passed away in 1898. He was successful in his enterprises and highly regarded in the communities in which he lived. His wife has also passed away.
Mr. Baker of this review was educated in Wisconsin. In 1863, at the age of eighteen, his patriotic spirit was roused to such a pitch that he ran away from home in order to join the army in defense of the Union and enlisted in Madison, Wisconsin, in Company B, Third United States Cavalry. He was stationed near Little Rock, Arkansas, and there remained until the surrender of Lee. He then crossed the plains to Arizona with his troop and completed his term of enlistment fighting the Indians, remaining under the colors for three years. He was honorably discharged in New Mexico and from there rode back to his Wisconsin home on an Indian pony. In 1871 he proceeded with his parents to Colorado and joined the Union Colony. Shortly afterward he engaged in the profession of civil engineering, giving particular attention to irrigation problems, and he has ever since been connected with that line of business, either as engineer or in some other capacity. He has been at the head or in charge of enterprises of that charac- ter in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho and California and his name is known all over the west as one of the foremost irrigation authorities. He served as superintendent of old No. 2 ditch, the first one built on the uplands in the state, and afterwards was superintendent of the Greeley and Loveland canal. In association with Engineer McNitt, he was engaged in the construction of the Fort Morgan canal and the Platt and Beaver canals near Brush. He huilt the first large reservoir for irrigation purposes in Colorado
EDWIN E. BAKER
Vol. 11-46
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at Terry Lake, near Fort Collins, and it may be said that his entire life since 1871 has been devoted to irrigation work. What irrigation has done for the west is well recog- nized and to realize the important part Mr. Baker has taken in this work it need only be mentioned that he stood up for irrigation projects and in every way tried to promote them at a time when practically all communities were against such work. Since 1916 he has largely lived retired in Greeley, in the enjoyment of a fair competence, surrounded by his family and many friends. In the form of an autobiography Mr. Baker has written a most extensive article on the Development of Irrigation, which was published in the Weld County News and which at greater length treats of the important projects with which he was connected. It is a wonderful article, reaching back to pioneer times, cov- ering all the phases of agricultural development since the pioneers came to this country in order to transform its wild stretches of land into bountiful harvest fields. Mr. Baker's part in this accomplishment is quite evident and we would like to reproduce the complete article, but space forbids. However, the historians cannot refrain from citing part of this article in order to give an idea of the important work which Mr. Baker has done in making his part of the state what it is today.
"When the first settlers of Greeley arrived (about one thousand to twelve hundred in number), the late Governor B. H. Eaton, a builder and not a promoter, expressed wonder at how they were going to get enough to live on. Three years later he wondered where they would ever find a market for the large quantity of produce they raised. * * * When the Colony first came it found but few settlers, engaged in every occupation known to the country. In an agricultural way their products were native hay, grain grown from feed, and a limited amount of potatoes, butter and milk. These products were for the most part hauled to Denver or into the mines. There were the Eatons, Wyatts, J. S. Plumb, of Boulder Creek, the Arthurs, Judges Hammitt and Wheeler of the Platte valley, the Brushes, Hills, Bruce Johnson, and others who helped manfully in the early days. Some of them looked askance on our extravagant ideas of irrigating the upland but others associated themselves closely with the colonists, and to their advice and whole-souled assistance much of the success of the colony was due. While agriculture was carried on in a modest way, these people depended for the greater part on cattle for a livelihood. There was a little irrigation on the lowlands adjoining the rivers, watering in the state probably not more than twenty-five or thirty thousand acres in a primitive and inefficient way. Most of the irrigation was designed merely to increase the growth of native hay. The results were sufficiently gratifying, however, to encourage the colonists to greater efforts.
"On the 28th of May, 1871, the writer arrived in Greeley. At that time the heads of the Union Colony canals Nos. 2 and 3 were located as they now are. Soon after the work of construction was begun and ditches built on the lines located. The building of No. 2 canal was first attempted on the North American continent by a modern civiliza- tion to irrigate the uplands.
« * * * No. 3 ditch was about ten miles long. Its principal dimension was its length. The farmers saw it lacked capacity and they went to work to increase the capacity and continued to enlarge and lengthen the ditch until their most urgent demands were met. So the first lesson in irrigation learned by hard experience by the early settlers was to build ditches of sufficient capacity.
"In the first construction of ditches the contracts for the construction were usually let by the cubic yard. Afterwards the enlargements were made by the stockholders on assessments. Some of the farmers worked out their assessments. Their stock was poor and small and of a frivolous disposition. Most of the horses were gotten from nearby herds, and looked large and beautiful on the range, but when put on the scales they did not demonstrate the avoirdupois they appeared to have. Each horse had his own idea of his destination, taking the opposite direction from his mate, which was disturbing for the driver and scraper holder. Frequently the scraper caught and the holder vaulted over it into the heels of the animals. At such times it was fully as agreeable to have the team going in several directions as to have it kicking in one. In the course of a week or so the force would get settled down to something like decorum, and only occasionally was the work enlivened by some unexpected happening, not subject to reasonable expla- .nation, all of which was part of the game, but which nevertheless made one wonder if any creditable results could be obtained.
"Not only were the ditches too narrow, but they were given too great a fall, so that they washed out and were difficult to control. In all of the older ditches it has been found necessary to expend large amounts of money in building checks in order to de- liver water where it was originally used and keep it within proper confines. But even with the excessive fall, many were skeptical as to whether the water would run through
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these canals or not. There is an old story that some one asked the engineer on the No. 2 canal if the ditch wasn't running up hill, and doubted whether water could ever be got through it. The engineer replied that he was putting one end of it in the Poudre and the other in the Platte, and that the water would certainly run one way or the other."
The era of ditch construction Mr. Baker describes as follows: "From 1871 to 1874 was the construction period of the first ditches. The summer of 1874 disclosed to our people something they never before thought serious. Eaton and Abbott in 1874 built the Collins No. 2 canal, with a capacity of one hundred and seventy-five cubic feet, also the Lake canal, with a capacity of about one hundred and sixty feet, heading near Fort Collins. Before that time the Colony ditches were the only ones of any large capacity diverting water from the river. These newer ditches in the summer ran water out on the sod until the water in the river was so depleted at the heads of the Colony ditches that irrigation became almost impossible. Some of the members of the Colony induced the owners of the upper ditches to turn the water down, so that the crops could be saved. This was the first indication of the necessity of some rule of law defining the rights of the different ditches in the river. Ultimately the first simple rules of the doctrine of appropriation, as applied by miners for their placer claims in the mountains, were adopted for irrigation ditches, and upon this doctrine the great system of laws per- taining to irrigation in the arid country has been founded. There were, however, no decrees to compel the junior appropriator to leave the water in the river for the use of the senior appropriator below, and it was not until 1881, five years after the state was admitted to the Union, that any code of procedure for the adjudication of water rights was adopted.
"A ditch, however well built, with equipment however well placed, does not insure proper irrigation. As important as these things is the systematic control and distribu- tion of the water. In order that the water in the ditch should be properly distributed, a scientific system of measurements must be established and persons experienced in the measurement and distribution of water must be in charge of the water appliances to get the best results. No one knew anything about measuring water, and the first measure- ments attempted to be applied were those used by the miners, the unit of which was the miners' inch. The measurement of water was one of the most difficult of our prob- lems. Many schemes were suggested and used. For the most part we had large open- ings next to the main canal with such openings at the delivery box, that a few straws or weeds would clog it up. Blacksmiths and carpenters and all of our tradesmen in- vented something new and useless for the measurement and distribution of water. We finally adopted what was called the 'Max Clark gate,' used it for years, and obtained probably as good results from it as we ever have from other appliances. One great thing in its favor was that the water was all delivered at the same depth, increasing or lessening the quantity by width as the delivered quantity was increased or diminished. The users understood this system better than most others. Some of them are still used on the Latham canal. In spite of the ignorance of the managers of the Colony ditches, the lack of efficient equipment and experience on the part of the ditch riders, as well as the proper laws applicable to the diversion and distribution of water, conditions kept growing better until about 1877. Those who had been able to hold on for the first year or so gained a stronger grip on what was theirs, and were pulling through with diminish- ing debts, in spite of hail, grasshoppers and other enemies."
As regards the storage plan, Mr. Baker writes as follows: "About this time the building of reservoirs commenced to be advocated. Like any other new suggestion, this immediately found opposition among very influential and intelligent people. I see on the streets every day men who have become wealthy through the raising of potatoes and late crops, wholly due to the water made available by reservoir construction, who were most bitter in their denunciation of this policy. As I early saw the necessity of and believed in the practicability of building reservoirs, I feel impelled frequently, and I trust not without some justifiable pride, to make a remark often made and as often resented, to-wit: 'I told you so!'
"One of the first reservoirs to be constructed was the Larimer and Weld reservoir, commonly known as Terry Lake, just across the river north of Fort Collins. The oppo- sition to this reservoir, particularly amoug the inhabitants of Fort Collins, was bitter and strong. They prophesied all sorts of dire results. The reservoir, they were certain, would seep so much that all of the country about would be destroyed; the dikes were so light that they would be sure to break if it was even half filled, with a consequent loss of life and property by flood.
"Perhaps it will give some idea to the younger people of the attitude of the farmers at the inception of the reservoir building period to recite some of the events that took
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place with regard to building Terry Lake. This was the largest reservoir which had been attempted to be constructed in the valley of the Platte and its tributaries. Cham- bers Lake, holding only thirty-five million cubic feet, had broken that spring, and the No. 2 reservoir in the North Fork ditch had a capacity of not over two hundred million cubic feet.
"The idea was conceived by some of the water users under the Eaton ditch, among whom Messrs. H. G. Clark, David Wyatt, D. B. Wyatt and David Gale were prominent. They first secured the services of Mr. Stohlbrand, at that time on the faculty of the Agricultural College at Fort Collins, a graduate of West Point, and formerly an officer in the United States army. He was also deputy county surveyor. He made several surveys, pursuing his work along military lines, and at last decided that the present site of the Larimer and Weld reservoir, commonly known as Terry Lake, was the most feasible. The company secured the site as Mr. Stohlbrand surveyed it, and also pur- chased rights of way for the headgate of the feeder ditch. After my return from the east, the officers desired me to inspect the site and report upon its merits. I reported that I thought the inlet ditch was unnecessarily long and prohibitive in cost of con- struction, and as it reached the reservoir about seventy-five or one hundred feet above the high water line, it also necessitated the driving of a tunnel of considerable length. I found by surveying that a feeder not over three miles long could be located on a grade of five feet per mile, reaching the reservoir above the upper contour. By reducing the grade to two feet per mile it would give a chance to enlarge the capacity nearly one-half. After this report the company retained me to examine still other matters and prepare to push the construction in the spring of 1891. I found that all the designs were extremely expensive. Mr. Stohlbrand, like other government employes, was used to designing plans for construction upon the basis of the credit of the United States government, and not upon the financial capacity of farmers. I found that he had under- estimated the cost of the construction of the reservoir, if constructed according to his plans. I also found that in locating his dam he had excluded over forty million cubic feet of available capacity, and that his outlet works would cost twice as much as his estimate. Moreover, the dam, if located for the larger capacity, would be much more inexpensive than if built at the place Mr. Stohlbrand had located it. His upper contour was five feet too low. I am not citing these things to criticize Mr. Stohlbrand, who was in many respects an excellent engineer, but only to show how experience as an actual irrigator and farmer will easily disclose to one many things that are hidden to the best educated specialist in the world, experienced in other lines of engineering, but without actual knowledge of irrigation.
"I reported to my employers that they would have to work fast to keep ahead of the water and get some use of what was already stored. This, you will remember, was the first experience in building a large reservoir.
"In about one hundred days more or less we built a reservoir and had eighteen feet of water against the gates. During the construction and after it was done, we received constant rumors that injunctions and other court proceedings would be brouglit against us to keep us from constructing the reservoir. This tended to hurry its completion. After it was completed, I had reports that an injunction would be sought to prevent our running any water into the lower basin, which it would take our whole force to prevent. So one Sunday morning I notified the teams to move, and on my trip around where the Stohlbrand dam had been located I kicked out a little of the made dirt off the top of the cut and by the time I had reached the outlet water was rising against the outlet gates. Then I came home. A day or so later hundreds of stockholders-went up with shovels and cut the earth on the upper side of the Larimer and Weld canal and so started the water down to the lower country from a reservoir for the first time, and all before any court proceedings could be started.
"The reservoir gates had not yet been equipped with screws, and I had to raise them with levers and chains. They had not been raised a day before I was compelled to lower them again the best I could, on account of the fact that many who had no right in the reservoir were taking the water out of the ditch, and it was necessary to obtain a temporary restraining order from Judge Thompson of the county court against them. The result was that those who had not paid on their reservoir stock commenced to pay up and the shares first costing one hundred and forty dollars soon sold for five hundred dollars. The reservoir is now a pygmy in comparison with many of the larger ones in the Platte valley, among which could be numbered Jackson Lake, the Riverside, the Jumbo, the Empire, to say nothing of Cheesman Lake and the Antero reservoir ahove Denver.
"Four or five small reservoirs, as reservoirs go now, were ready for use by 1894. Hundreds of reservoirs are now in operation and more will be built. The water avail-
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able for storage iu the South Platte valley has not nearly been exhausted. The con- stantly increasing irrigation of the land will add year by year more water supply, making the better supply good and the good supply better, when all ordinary years will be considered excellent and only such years as 1874, 1888, 1910 and 1911 will be called bad. We can designate them as they do such years in the east, as drought years, which they really are. When the rivers discharge less than one-half the normal amount of water something disastrous must happen. Only as a certain amount is stored in the winter and in the irrigated fields all of the time can such drought be mitigated in any degree. Even at that, some moisture is conserved in the ground every year, through the previous years of irrigation, and the later priorities will under all con- ceivable circumstances be secure.
"By 1892 we commenced to use other materials than lumber in dams, headgates and other structures. The average life of lumber was not more than a quarter of what it was in 1875, and it cost twice as much. The fact that cement costs not over half what it formerly cost has caused a great revolution in the science of irrigation con- struction.
"Since the establishment of Union Colony, a marvelous change has taken place. Irrigation has developed from an experiment into a science. This development has not been nearly so much the result of technical study or engineering knowledge, as it has been of the practical knowledge gained by the farmers. Common sense, instead of dogmatic theory and technicality, controls the best part of our irrigation engineers and agriculturists. The farmer taught the engineer what could only be taught by experience. The engineer who is wise enough to conform his work to these facts and experiences is the success of today. The remainder have generally descended to the level of experts, so-called."
On the 11th of March, 1875, in Greeley, Colorado, Mr. Baker was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte Adelle Smith, a daughter of Madison and Charlotte (Phillips) Smith, both natives of Rhode Island. They became pioneers of Colorado, having come to this state in 1871. Mr. and Mrs. Baker are the parents of three children: Hon. H. M. Baker, judge of the county court of Weld county; Mrs. Harry M. Thompson, of Greeley; and Ada A., who is yet at home.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Baker are popular in social circles and stand high among those of the state who have contributed to material, intellectual and moral advancement. Mr. Baker has served as county surveyor and is a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, having been for two years commander. In a jocular way many of his friends refer to him as "Exhibit B," he having earned that appellation while being called as a witness in innumerable cases having to do with irrigation problems. In this way he is known practically all over the west. While the west has furnished Mr. Baker with opportunities to use his talents and attain an honored position and financial independence, he has given more to his state and the west by making it possible for hundreds and thousands of agriculturists to gather fortunes from a soil which would not yield a living before irrigation transformed it into fields which bear plentifully.
THOMAS CORWIN TURNER.
Thomas Corwin Turner, a lawyer who holds to high professional standards and ideals, successfully practicing in Colorado Springs, was born on a farm in Sullivan county, Indiana, in 1867 and is a representative of one of the old families of Virginia, in which state his grandfather was born. The latter devoted his life to merchandising and removed to Clay county, Missouri, where in 1837 occurred the birth of Sidney Turner, the father of Thomas Corwin Turner. Arriving at years of maturity, Sidney. Turner was married in Illinois to Miss Sarah Fairfield Smith, removing to California soon after the marriage. In 1864 they removed to Sullivan county, Indiana, where they resided until 1877, when they became residents of Greenwood county, Kansas, where they still make their home. The father enlisted from Indiana for service in the Civil war in 1864 and remained with the army until the close of hostilities. They drove across the plains from Quincy, Illinois, to California in 1860 with ox teams, and upon the return trip in 1864 traveled by stage from Carson City, Nevada, to Atchison, Kansas. They were familiar with every phase of pioneer travel in those early days and with many experiences of western frontier life. On the 22d of April, 1918, they celebrated . their golden wedding anniversary-a notable event in the lives of any.
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