USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 11
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J. E. Washburn and Wm. B. Osborn and others presented a petition for the laying out and estab- lishing of public highways in the Big Thompson valley. These were the first petitions to come be- fore the board asking for public highways.
Samuel E. Brown of Denver, was employed by the board to collect from the United States the money expended by the county in raising 90-day men for military service in 1864, for which he was to be paid 33 1-3 per cent of the amount collected. If he failed in his endeavor he was to receive no compensation.
At the next meeting held February 6th, 1866, the first road petition acted upon was granted and a highway described as follows laid out and estab- lished: "Commencing at a point on the southern boundary line of the military reservation of Fort Collins, running parallel with the township line be- tween ranges 68 and 69 west and three-fourths of a mile west from said township line and running due south to the southern line of the county of Larimer, in conformity with the petition of John E. Wash- burn and 29 others." This road was afterwards vacated and laid upon the section line and is now
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
known as the College Avenue road. It was the first public road laid out and established in Larimer county.
The records do not show that another meeting of the board was held until January 12th, 1867, a per- iod of more than a year having elapsed since the pre- vious meeting, though the blank pages from page 10 to page 24, inclusive, in the record book, indicate that meetings were held dur- ing the interim and, for some reason, no record made of them. This session was main- ly devoted to acting upon road petitions, re- bating taxes and auditing bills. The members pres- ent were Abner Loomis, J. B. Arthur and W. A. Bean. On January 23rd, another meeting was held with Commissioners Loomis and Arthur present. At this meeting W. DeW. Taft, late deputy county clerk, on behalf of H. W. Chamberlin, late county clerk, turned over to Edward C. Smith, his successor in office, certain books, records, and papers pertaining to and belonging to the office of county clerk." The session was occupied mainly in audit- ing bills .. The sum of $200 was appropriated for the purchase of a bridge over the Big Thompson at Washburn crossing.
On the 11th of February the board granted per- mission to W. H. Oviatt, agent, Brice Viers, A. H. Reed, agent, and Alexander Stewart to graze cattle in Larimer county. The record does not give the residences of the grantees, but they were presumably citizens of Wyoming. Harris Stratton was ap- pointed a justice of the peace in and for Larimer county. On the 3rd of June, 1867, the salary of J. M. Sherwood, probate judge, was fixed at $150 for the first year of his term of office, and Fred Wallace was appointed a justice of peace. Judges of elec- tion were also appointed at this session as follows:
Precinct No. 1, John H. Mandeville, Charles Howard, John R. Brown.
Precinct No. 2, John Davis, John Stotts, Eben- ezer Davis.
Precinct No. 3, George L. Luce, John J. Ryan, Charles M. Brough.
Precinct No. 4, N. P. Cooper, Joshua Ames, John G. Coy.
In 1867, the Colorado Central & Pacific Rail- road company, which had been chartered by the Territorial legislature to build a railroad from Georgetown, via Boulder, St. Vrain and thence through Larimer county in a northeasterly direction to a junction with the Union Pacific railroad then being built westward from Omaha, asked the county to subscribe to the capital stock of the company in
the sum of $25,000, and to pay for the same in the corporate bonds of the county. The company agreed to locate its line of road not more than one mile east of the mouth of Boxelder Creek. In furtherance of the proposition the board of commissioners, at a meeting held August 10th, at Laporte, adopted a resolution providing for submitting to a vote of the people the question of issuing the bonds of the county for that purpose. The election was called for August 13th, and it was held on that day, but the records fail to show whether or not the bonds were voted. The fact remains, however, that they were never issued and the road was never built. It was not until ten years later that a railroad was built into and through the county, that road being the Colorado Central, as it was then and for several years afterwards called, but now known as the Colo- rado & Southern. It passed by the sites of the pres- ent towns of Berthoud and the present city of Love- land and was completed and put into operation in October 1877. A depot and telegraph station were opened in Fort Collins on the 7th day of October. The towns of Loveland and Berthoud had their ori- gin soon after the road was completed. The Greeley Salt Lake and Pacific railroad from Greeley west- ward through Fort Collins was built in 1882, and a few months later the two roads fell into the possess- ion of the Union Pacific Railroad company which, in 1884, took up the rails on the Colorado Central from Fort Collins to Cheyenne, thus cutting Lari- mer county off from direct communication with Wyoming.
The tax levy for 1867 was fixed at 1 mill for school purposes, 3 mills for territorial purposes, and 8 mills for county purposes. Licenses to sell liquors were issued October 7th, to Peter Decora, Cornelius Maxwell and Provost & Claymore, at $100 each per annum. The rates of toll to be charged on the Laporte, Virginia Dale and Boundary Line wagon road were fixed at 25 cents for team and wagon, 2 cents per head for loose stock, 15 cents for carriages and teams, and 1 cent per head for sheep and hogs. At a special session of the board held March 12th, 1868, it was ordered that a county jail, 14 feet square, 8 feet high, be built of hewn logs. This jail was built at Laporte by B. T. Whedbee and Charles W. Ramer hauled the logs for it from the mountains with an ox-team. The tax levy for that year was fixed at 20 mills for county purposes ; 5 mills, for territorial purposes and 5 mills for school purposes, at a session of the board held July 6th. At this meeting a petition signed by 99 of the legal voters of the county, was presented asking the board
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
to call an election for the purpose of voting on a per- manent location of the county seat. The prayer of the petitioners was granted and the county clerk directed to post notices of such election in each of the voting precincts. This election was held on the 8th day of September, 1868. Old St. Louis, situated on the Big Thompson one mile east of the present city of Loveland, Laporte and Camp Collins, each as- pired to the honor of being known as the county seat, but the election resulted in favor of Camp Collins. On August 5th, the board set off and created the following elections : precincts No. 1, La- porte; No. 2, Camp Collins; No. 3, Sherwood; No. 4, Big Thompson ; No. 5, Livermore.
On the 5th of October Mason & Co. were noti- fied to immediately move the county jail, safe, books, records and papers belonging to Larimer county from Laporte to Camp Collins. This was done and the next meeting of the board was held Novem- ber 17th, 1868, at Camp Collins. Abner Loomis and James B. Arthur were the only members pres- ent. From this on for several years the sessions of the board were held in the Old Grout building erected for a sutler's store in 1865 on the site of F. P. Stover's drug store, which had been fitted up with bookcases, desks, tables, chairs and a stove for the use of the board. The room on the second floor of the building, occupied by the board of commis- sioners, was also used as a court room, for church and Sunday school purposes, theaters and balls. One of the bills allowed at this session was for $10 to C. Boulware for making a coffin for a man killed by the Indians, but who the man was and where he was killed are not divulged by the records.
Beginning with July 5th, 1869, the records of the board of commissioners were dated at Fort Collins, instead of Camp Collins, showing that the people had become ambitious and discarded the common every day term "Camp" for the more aristocratic title "Fort". From that time to the present the town has been known as Fort Collins, though, until Fort Logan was established near Denver a few years ago, there was no fort nearer than Fort Laramie, 130 miles away.
It is .apparent from the records that in 1870, stage robbers had begun to commit depredations on the Denver and Cheyenne stage line, owned by Mason & Co., for on the 4th of January that year the board offered a reward of $250 for the capture and delivery of the robbers to the Larimer county authorities. No one ever called for the reward, so it is safe to say that the robbers were not caught.
At the meeting held November 7th, 1870, Lorenzo Snyder appeared as a member in place of William A. Bean, whose term of office had expired. The new board was composed of James B. Arthur, Abner Loomis and Lorenzo Snyder, with Mr. Arthur as chairman. H. W. Chamberlin, clerk ; C. C. Hawley, assessor, and A. K. Yount, probate judge.
On the petition of A. R. Chaffee and 29 others, the board, on December 26th, 1870, laid out and established the Rist canon road from the southeast corner of John B. Provost's claim to the divide be- tween the head of Rist canon and the Redstone creek; this is the road that leads over Bingham hill. At this session of the board the grand jury sub- mitted, the following report on the county jail :
"The grand jury now in session beg leave to report to the county commissioners that the pres- ent jail is insecure and not worth repairing, and that they put it to a vote of the people if we build a new one, at the next general election. Signed, J. W. Smith, A. L. Fell, J. P. Warren, Thomas Cross, P. J. Bosworth, committee." Beyond ac- cepting the report, the board took no action, and the old log jail was continued in use.
The session of January 2nd, 1871, was given over to the hearing of road petitions, and quite a number were acted upon. The country was set- tling up and ranchmen were fencing their premi- ses, making it necessary that public roads be laid out and established for the convenience of the peo- ple. They could no longer drive where they pleased over the open prairie as they had done in years that had passed, so that for several years be- ginning with this period, much of the work of the county commissioners consisted in hearing and act- ing upon road petitions and in laying out and estab- lishing public highways. At the session held April 3rd, 1871, the board purchased the W. J. & O. M. Carwile toll bridge over the Little Thompson creek for $75, and the Mariana toll bridge over the Big Thompson river for $200, making them public bridges. The Buckhorn election precinct was also set off at this session, and John C. Ish, James R. Oliver and Lucas Brandt were appointed judges of election. The tax levy for the year was fixed at 7g mills for county purposes, and 4} mills for school purposes. The resignation of A. K. Yount as probate judge, was accepted, and Alfred F. Howes was appointed to fill the vacancy.
In September of that year F. W. Sherwood was elected a member of the board to succeed James B.
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HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
Arthur. Mr. Sherwood met with the board for the first time on October 6th. On February 3rd, 1872, in compliance with the petition of citizens, liquor licenses were increased from $100 to $300 per annum, and on March 4th, C. C. Hawley was ap- pointed corresponding clerk of the Colorado Im- migration society.
At the session held November 4th, the board or- dered a special election to be held December 9th, 1872, to vote on the proposition of issuing the bonds of the county to the amount of $100,000 to aid in the construction of the Cache la Poudre & Pacific railroad. The judges appointed to conduct said election were:
Precinct No. 1, Laporte-James H. Swan, W. F. Watrous, Thomas Gill.
Precinct No. 2, Fort Collins-B. T. Whedbee, J. H. Bradstreet, George Sykes.
Precinct No. 3, Sherwood-J. B. Arthur, Thomas Earnest, John Hilton.
Precinct No. 4, Big Thompson-George Litle, James S. Carwile, Thomas Cross.
Precinct No. 5, Livermore-William Calloway, Russell Fisk, John Fitz.
Precinct No. 6, Buckhorn-Ed. Clark, Frank Tower, H. Clayton.
The order calling the election was revoked No- vember 25th, at the request of the railroad com- pany, and therefore no election was held.
At the session of the board held February 3rd, 1873, a petition was presented by the taxpayers of Fort Collins, asking that said town be incorporated. The commissioners being satisfied that two-thirds of the tax payers in said town had signed the peti- tion, ordered that the town of Fort Collins be in- corporated and appointed B. T. Whedbee, G. G. Blake, H. C. Peterson, W. C. Stover and W. S. Vescelius trustees of said town to serve until their successors were elected. L. R. Rhodes was ap- pointed county attorney at this meeting, and the sum of $1200 was appropriated for the purpose of build- ing a bridge over the Cache la Poudre river at the foot of College avenue, provided the trustees of the town of Fort Collins built a good practicable road to and from said bridge.
Election precincts, No. 7 (Virginia Dale) and No. 8, (Little Thompson) were set off and estab- lished, July 20th, 1874.
At the election held in September, 1874, the fol- lowing county officers were elected: Jack Dow,
county surveyor ; Fred Wallace, assessor ; J. E. Rem- ington, probate judge; A. H. Patterson, county clerk; Joseph Mason, sheriff; John G. Coy, county commissioner ; R. W. Bosworth, county superintend- ent. The county treasurer elect failing to qualify, Wm. B. Osborn was appointed treasurer, Novem- 23th to fill the vacancy. On December 7th, 1874, thirteen road districts were formed and overseers were appointed as follows: No. 1, G. W. Collier ; No. 2, W. A. Bean; No. 3, J. J. Ryan; No. 4, Gil- bert Tower; No. 5, George W. Richart; No. 6, Lewis Kern; No. 7, Norman Platt; No. 8, W. S. Vescelius; No. 9, D. T. Jackson; No. 10, Jacob Flowers; No. 11, M. L. Sawin; No. 12, Edward Davies ; No. 13, A. J. Shotwell.
R. W. Cloud was awarded the contract on March 1st, 1875, for building the bridge over the Cache la Poudre river, to cost $864.
On Tuesday, May 4th, 1875, the board adopted a resolution requiring all persons floating timber down the Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson rivers to give bonds to secure ditch owners from damage to their dams and headgates during the timber driving season. Timber drivers on the Cache la Poudre were required to give bonds in the sum of $15,000 and those on the Big Thompson in the sum of $5,000. In those days thousands of saw logs, rail- road ties, and mine props were cut in the mountains during the winter and floated down during high water to the railroad at Greeley, where the logs were sawed into lumber and the ties and mine props shipped to points where they were needed. At times the streams would be choked with floating timber which frequently tore out dams and carried away headgates of irrigating ditches to the great damage of owners.
Estes Park was set off and organized as an elec- tion precinct in September 1875, and the board ap- propriated $300 for use in opening a county road from Bald Mountain to the Park. On November 1st, a contract was let to John W. Boyd to build a vault for use in protecting county records, books, and papers from danger of destruction by fire. For this work the contractor was to be paid the sum of $350. At this session the proposition of Charles Emerson, J. B. Flower, John C. Abbott, J. H. Boughton, James Conroy and Coon & Scranton to donate to the county the sum of $800 to be expended in erecting a building suitable for use of the county officers, was accepted. This action of the board re- sulted in bringing on a fight between the old town and the new town, which raged with much bitter-
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY,
COLORADO
ness for nearly twenty years. The old town as laid out in 1866, was extended from the river south to Mountain avenue and west from where the old foundry stood on Riverside avenue to College ave- nue, the streets running southeast and northwest, practically parallel with the river. In 1872 the colony came and laid out and platted a new town abutting on the south and west boundaries of the old town. At this time all the stores, shops, hotels and other business places, including the postoffice and tel- egraph station were located in the old town, whose inhabitants watched with a jealous eye the improve- ments that were being made, the business houses es- tablished and homes erected in the new town. The colony had donated to the county block 101, where the court house now stands, as a site for the court house and it was on this ground that the proposed county offices were to be built. With the idea of heading off and preventing the erection of the pro- posed offices in court square, by which the new town would receive a more direct benefit than the old town, W. C. Stover and A. K. Yount represent- ing the interests of the old town, submitted a coun- ter proposition as follows. "That they would build offices and vaults and give the county the use of them rent free for an indefinite period of time, or so long as the county saw fit to occupy them. The board rejected the proposition and on November 3rd, let a contract to Eph Love and Jonas Boorse to erect a small building on block 101, for county offices. The building was one story high, about 16 by 30 in size, and contained two rooms, one for the county clerk and the other for the county treasurer, for which they were to receive $490. This build- ing was used until thirteen years later when the new court house was completed and ready to occupy, then sold and moved to a lot on S. Sher- wood street where it was fitted up as a dwelling and is still used as such.
On February 1st, 1876, Joseph Mason resigned the office of sheriff and Eph Love was appointed to fill the vacancy, and on April 2nd, A. H. Patterson tendered his resignation as county clerk and re- corder, which was accepted. Charles P. Scott of Big Thompson was appointed to fill the vacancy thus created.
Previous to the adoption of the state constitution and the admission of Colorado into the Union as a sovereign state, all county officers assumed the duties of their respective positions immediately after the result of the elections held in September had been declared, but since then, acting under a state law,
they have taken their offices in the month of Janu- ary next following their election. On December 1st, 1877, Marcus Coon resigned the office of sheriff, to which he had been elected in October, 1876, and James Sweeney was appointed to succeed him until the election of 1878. At this election Mr. Sweeney was chosen by the people to succeed himself and was thereafter reelected three times in succession.
Up to February 1878, the board of county com- missioners had been accustomed to granting licenses to saloon keepers outside the limits of incorporated towns to sell liquors. At first the license fee was fixed at $100 per annum, but later increased to $300, the object of the commissioners in in- creasing the fee being to reduce the number of saloons and doggeries in the county. This failing to have the desired effect, the commissioners, on the 4th of February, 1878, passed and adopted the following resolution :
"Be it resolved, that no further licenses will be granted by the board of commissioners for the sale of spirituous, vinous, fermented and intoxicating liquors after this date."
This resolution went into effect at once and from that time down to the present, the commissioners have steadily and consistently refused to grant or issue liquor licenses in Larimer county. The mem- bers of the board then were Noah Bristol, Lewis Cross and Revilo Loveland.
This brings the commissioners' records relating to the most important matters dealt with by them during what might be called the pioneer or forma- tive period of the county, down to the time Colo- rado became a state when a new and more system- atic manner of transacting public business was inaugurated. The board was composed of the same number of members who had been elected in the same manner as their predecessors, but they held regular meetings at intervals prescribed by law, per- forming their duties in a more methodical way and a better, more complete and more business-like record of their proceedings was kept than had been the rule with their predecessors during Territorial days. From 1878 down the records of the com- missioners' proceedings have been preserved in a neat and orderly manner and are full and complete in all essential particulars. This is also true of the other departments of the county government, so since that time a full, accurate and complete record of every transaction of a public nature has been pre- served in each of the county offices. Before that
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
time, however, the public records are indefinite and incomplete, making it impossible to prepare a con- nected and intelligible transcript of them.
What Attracted People to Larimer County
The climate of Colorado is of vital importance to the thousands of invalids throughout the world, as is evidenced by the great number who have come to the state and are now enjoying renewed health, prosperity and happiness. Many such people are to be found comfortably located in Larimer county. In the summer the days are seldom hot, and it is very unusual for the mercury to rise higher than 90 degrees; even at this point there is less discom- fort than at a temperature of 80 degrees in the lower altitudes. It may be truly said that the dryer the atmosphere the less discomfort felt from heat or cold. The summer climate of Fort Collins, Love- land, Berthoud and other towns in the county east of the mountains, is equal to that of the Northern lakes and of Maine on the eastern coast. In tem- perature, the eastern part of the county may be compared with that of the Champaigne districts in France. The temperature belt corresponds with that of Scotland. The foot-hill section with that of Southern Sweden. In the mountain regions may be found all varieties of climate, from that of Nor- way to that of Southern Iceland. Citizens of Colo- rado, in a few hours travel by rail may enjoy the warmth of France or the cooler air of the approach to the Artic Circle. The dryness of the atmosphere is of great importance to the health and comfort of persons seeking a congenial climate. The pure life-giving air and the comfort of the average winters and summers, as compared with states far- ther east, are features heartily appreciated by those who have made Colorado their home. The medical profession is rapidly coming to the belief that health depends largely upon the proper assimilation of food. An excess of moisture in the atmosphere has a depressing effect upon the nervous system, govern- ing nutrition, and it is largely because of the absence of moisture in the air of Colorado that digestion is promoted and health preserved.
Sunshine is the life of everything. In Colorado the records of the weather bureau show that 320 out of 365 days of the year are "sunny days". In Switzerland, 8,500 feet is the line of perpetual snow; in Colorado the timber line is 11,000 feet. Davos Platz (5,200 feet) in Switzerland is un- questionably the most desirable health resort in Europe. The leading climatologists of London,
Glasgow, Boston and New York say that Colorado climate is far superior to Davos Platz for pulmon- ary troubles. In the eastern part of Larimer county at elevations ranging from 4,800 to 5,200 feet are large and very fruitful orchards, bearing apples, cherries and plums, while strawberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries yield enor- mous crops and grow to their greatest perfection.
Larimer county receives the first waters of sev- eral very important streams and from these streams irrigating canals have been constructed, immense reservoirs built and lateral ditches run in every direction until a large area of the plains portion of the county and many of the foothill parks are covered by a network of canals and ditches that furnish a never failing supply of water throughout the irrigating season. About 200,000 acres is the total covered by these canals in the county, but many of them extend into Weld county on the east where many thousands of acres additional are irrigated. The streams furnishing this supply are the Laramie, Grand, Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson rivers and the Little Thompson and Boxelder creeks. In addition to the supply fur- nished during the irrigating season from these streams, the different storage reservoirs already con- structed hold more than ten billion cubic feet of water, which is held in check during the spring and early summer, when the streams are running full, and drawn out into the canals later in the season when the waters of the rivers and creeks are low. These reservoirs are filled during the winter and from the surplus flood waters that flow down the streams in the spring, and they contain enough water to irrigate and mature the late crops, such as sugar beets, potatoes, etc. The eastern portion of the county is admirably adapted to irrigation farm- ing. The canals are built on a grade that carries them far out on the higher lands, and from these lateral ditches have in turn been constructed to carry the water on to the cultivated fields and meadows, so that nearly all the available land is easily and cheaply given the moisture needed to mature a crop. The streams that furnish the supply of water all have their source in the mountain snow fields, high up among the hills, and they bring down to the headgates of the various irrigating canals a lot of good mineral fertilizing material which, being spread over the land by the water used in irrigating, adds to the fertility of the soil and helps to keep it from becoming exhausted by a succession of crops.
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