USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 18
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Denver and from there to Fort Collins to a post then called Virginia Dale, Little Laramie, Big Laramie, Cheyenne and on to Bridger. We were guarding the U. S. mail, which was carried by stage. We left Fort Collins the latter part of June, 1866, and glad we were to get away from there. It used to take a month to get a letter from home.
"A man by the name of Mason built a concrete store at Collins just before we got there and Mrs. Stone's little home was only a little ways from it. I bought bread, pies, and milk from her; 50 cents per quart for milk, $1.50 for a pound of butter. I forgot what we did pay for bread. We paid Mason 25 cents for a small glass of beer, $3.00 for a pint of whiskey. I once paid $1.50 for 13 apples. Who would want to live out there? No work going on; why one would have to live on prairie dogs and rattlesnakes in order to get along.
"Now I see Fort Collins has a population of 8,000 or 9,000, and I saw a picture of all your public buildings. They are fine, and were I able to stand the expenses of going out there on a visit, I certainly would go. The winter I was in Collins, there was about three or four inches of snow. Some of the officers built sleighs out of old boards and had a sleigh ride. It only lasted a few days. I could tell quite a lot of things that went on during the year I was on the Plains (that's what we used to call it) ; so, wishing you and your family and all the people of Fort Collins a prosperous future, I am Most respectfully, PATRICK GLYNN, 127 E. Albany St., Oswego, N. Y."
An Early Day Election
An election was held in Larimer county in Sep- tember, 1868, and James S. Arthur, F. W. Sher- wood and John Arthur were appointed to register the names of all persons entitled to vote at that elec- tion. The board met on the 18th day of August and was sworn in by J. M. Sherwood, probate judge. The board proceeded to register the names of the following voters: James B. Arthur, James S. Arthur, John Arthur, Andrew Ames, Joshua Ames, Geo. E. Buss, Philander Bradley, N. P. Cooper, Fritz Cooper, Cowles, Thomas Cline, A. R. Chaffee, David Davis, John Davis, Ebenezer Davis, Simon Duncan, John B. Decsgin, Thomas Earnest, James Earnest, Paul Flick, Charles George, Stephen George, Lewis Haskell, James Hall, Claiborne Howell, John Henderson, Ira Henderson, James Israel, Joshua P. Johnson,
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Michael Jones, Revilo Loveland, Isaac Loveland, John Lucy, Herman Manner, John Malsby, C. J. McDivitt, Michael Norton, Jerry Olney, Joseph Prendergast, Allen Packer, Edward Rogers, Jesse M. Sherwood, F. W. Sherwood, A. H. Stearns, Robert Strauss, Elias Smith, Sidney Stone, Paul Thorpe, Rufus Wygal.
The registration book does not show what the election was to be held for, nor the names of per- sons to be voted for, but it was probably a general election as the book also contains the names of voters registered for an election held August 23rd, 1869 and August 24th, 1870. The board of registration for 1870 was composed of Thos. A. McCrystal, Joseph Prendergast and John Arthur. Those named for the board in 1869 are not given in this old book, though it contains the names of persons registered for an election held in 1869. The book was found by Deputy Sheriff Pindell in some old papers that had found lodgment in the sheriff's office and, so far as I have been able to find out, is the only record in existence pertaining to elections held in Larimer county between the years 1866 and 1878. As will be seen it contains the names of 49 persons entitled to vote in 1868. The precinct included all the territory lying east of the Coy farm to the county line and north of the Big Thompson divide to the north line of the Territory.
A Woman Starts a New Industry
The first commercial cheese and, perhaps the first of any kind, except cottage cheese, manufactured in Larimer county was made by Mrs. George E. Buss in 1886, on the Buss farm near Timnath. She had been reared on a farm and had seen and helped her mother make cheese and knew how it was done. Her facilities at the start were of the crudest kind. The hoop was hollowed out of a por- tion of a cottonwood tree and the press was con- structed out of the remnants of an old grain reap- ing machine, the tongue being used for the weighted lever. Notwithstanding her lack of up-to-date facilities and appliances, she made a number one article of cheese and it found a ready sale in Fort Collins and in the surrounding country. For qual- ity, it beat the imported article all to pieces and was in great demand. The following year, encouraged by her success, Mrs. Buss obtained some galvanized iron cheese hoops and engaged more extensively in cheese making, turning out that year 7,000 pounds of first-class cream cheese. This, too, sold readily at good prices, Mrs. Buss realizing a nice little sum in
the way of profit. That year (1887) a creamery was built at Fort Collins at which cheese was also made, but Mrs. Buss' cheese was so much superior to that made at the factory that there was no sale for the latter. The owner and manager of the factory called on that lady and tried to induce her to quit the business or else to market her cheese in Greeley and Eaton, saying that the competition was injuring his business. Mrs. Buss calmly told him that she had a good home market for all the cheese she could make and that she saw no reason why she should be at the extra expense of sending her prod- uct to other markets; that, if he was not satisfied with his market, he had a perfect right to hunt up a better one. This ended the conversation.
The labor involved in making so much cheese finally began to tell upon her strength and she had to give up the business, not, however, until she had demonstrated that cheese equal to the best New York or Wisconsin cheese could be made in Colo- rado. In 1889 Mr. and Mrs. Buss sold their farm and moved to Fort Collins which has since been her home. Her husband, Capt. Buss a gallant soldier of the 21st New York cavalry, which was stationed here in 1865-6, died in 1908.
Beginning of Newspaper History in Larimer County
The appended letter from William W. Sullivan, a Larimer county pioneer, and for many years an esteemed resident and business man of Fort Collins, contains so much of the flavor of pioneer days, and details so many incidents connected with the history of Fort Collins, that I am not called upon to offer any apologies for its appearance in the History of Larimer County.
Mr. Sullivan, from September 1st, 1886 to Feb- ruary 16, 1899, was principal owner and business manager of the Fort Collins Courier, of which the writer was, and still is, editor. His letter follows:
"Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 6, 1910. 1319 S. Hope Street.
Dear Friend Watrous :
I read with much interest the early trials of Hon. W. C. Stover in a recent issue of the Courier. It is such incidents as these that decide a man's metal and, in Mr. Stover's case, proved that it was a man who had met reverses, and overcome them. It was as natural for Mr. Stover to become one of the lead- ing personalities in the development of the great West as it is for the sun to rise in the morning.
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We all had our trials in those days, even news- paper men coming in for a full share. In the fall and early winter of 1869, I was freighting from Chey- enne to Central City. I then figured that in the fut- ure a city would rise at some point on the Poudre, and calculated that it would naturally be where Fort Collins now stands. Having worked as"devil" on the Central City Register for two years, 1864- 1866, my thoughts naturally turned to establishing a newspaper ; so it was the dream of my early man- hood to found the first newspaper in Larimer county. In the winter of 1869-70 I attended Jarvis Hall at Golden, setting type at odd hours for the late Capt. George West on the Transcript. After the school term was over I continued as compositor on the Transcript until I had served the three years then necessary to entitle me to become a member of the Typographical Union. From Golden I went to Denver and became a member of the Denver Typographical Union No. 49. Here I set type on the different dailies for a long time as "sub", but finally got regular cases on the News. Things went well for a while until I had the temer- ity to oppose my own foreman in the election of officers in the union. He was a candidate for presi- dent and I opposed his election on the ground that a foreman should not hold that office. He resented by discharging me and, in 1872, I started on a regu- lar printer's tramp east, and did not return for a year. When I returned J. S. McClelland had es- tablished the first paper in Larimer county, and dream No. I was blasted.
A short time afterwards Clark Boughton estab- lished the second paper, the Standard. General Cameron had established a colony at Fort Collins and another town had sprung up. The fight was on between the old and the new town, and it was very bitter. The Standard was published in the new town, about where the Fort Collins National National Bank building is now located. J. S. McClelland had built his printing office about where the Masonic Temple is located. The Standard was frankly the "organ" of the colony, and as such could look for scant support from the old town. This was the situation when I bought a half interest with Clark Boughton in the Standard, in the spring of 1874. Our partnership did not last long, however, Clark fell ill with inflammatory rhumatism, and his attending physician, Dr. Smith, informed me that he was worrying over the paper, and asked me to allow Rev. Myrick to buy his interest. I did not believe we could make a living publishing the Standard unless both parties were printers, and told
Mr. Myrick so. He was getting a small income as pastor of a very small church at the time, and he suggested that he would edit the paper and his son Herbert and myself could do the mechanical work and we would share equally in the profits or the losses of the business. On these terms we entered into a partnership for a year's time. Herbert proved an apt pupil at the business, and in a remarkably short time, became an expert compositor. By exercising the strictest economy we were able to make a bare living. Mr. Myrick and Herbert batched. Frank Avery allowed me to room with him back of his office free of expense, and for a long time we batched in a little 10 x 12 shack. It was summer time and fearfully hot to go there and cook and eat meals, and the height of my ambition was to get in position to board. But I could not figure that I could afford it. Finally I made a trade with the late Captain Coon. I had become the possessor of a lot through work for the Colony, the one on which the late Jacob Welch built his stone resi- dence. This I traded for board at the Agricultural hotel, being allowed one half of my board each week in payment on the purchase price of $150 for the lot, paying the other half in cash. These were the years of the grasshopper invasion and we were barely living, and had no profit for labor or invest- ment.
Herbert thought he could manage the mechanical department with the aid of a boy, so I leased my in- terest to Mr. Myrick and started for the Black Hills in March, 1876. The grasshoppers came again and the Standard could not live, so Mr. Myrick suspended its publication. Like Mr. Stover's trials, the vicisitudes of the Standard bore its fruits. They developed the man in Herbert Myrick, and he is one of the most successful pub- lishers in the United States today.
At one time I had a prospect of continuing the publication of the Standard, and if my plans had not failed probably the newspaper history of Lari- mer county would have read quite different. Dr. Smith and W. B. Osborn were candidates for county treasurer, the doctor being successful. He declined to qualify, and the commisioners tendered the appointment to the late J. J. Ryan. He lived on the Thompson at the time and did not care to move to Fort Collins. He made me the proposition that he would appoint me his deputy and I could receive the taxes at Fort Collins and he would collect on the Thompson, each of us receiving the commissions for his collections. This would have given me about $450 per year and enabled me to continue in
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the publication of the Standard. But Mr. Osborn proposed to the commissioners that he would collect all the taxes for $250 per year, and the commis- sioners, my father being a member of the board at that time, appointed him at his price. But who shall say it was not for the best? Had the Stand- ard continued, the Courier would probably never have been established, and Ansel Watrous would probably never have entered the business in Larimer county. W. W. SULLIVAN."
Deceived Lover Kills Himself
On July 24th, 1879, a tragedy, resulting from deceit and disappointment in love, occurred at Pine Ridge agency in which William and John Provost, sons of John B. Provost of Laporte, figured as prin- cipals. The young men were both born and reared' at Laporte and were well known to all of the pioneers of the valley. Their mother was an Indian woman and when she returned to her tribe at Pine Ridge agency in 1878, the boys went with her and John, who had received a smattering of an educa- tion in English and could speak that as well as his native tongue, was employed at the agency as inter- preter. The unfortunate affair brought trouble and sorrow upon the father of the two boys, who resided at Laporte.
The particulars of the unfortunate affair, caused by love, jealousy and revenge, were published in the Fort Collins Courier as follows: "The two brothers, Billy and Johnny Provost, employed at the agency, the former stock superintendent, became enamored of a beautiful Indian girl named Soeteiva (Little Bird), daughter of Eagle Wing, a sub-chief in Red Cloud's band of Sioux. Before giving his consent, as is the custom among Indians, Eagle Wing de- manded a horse as the prize of his daughter's hand in marriage. Billy Provost not having a horse to give, consulted an Indian, who gave him a horse as his own which in reality, however, belonged to a man named Clement Bernard, who, unknown to Billy, was also suing for the affections of the dusky maiden. Following the Indian's advice, Billy took the animal and delivered it to Eagle Wing, and was about to take his prize when Bernard appeared on the scene, claiming his property and putting a stop to further ceremonies. Provost, after finding out that he had been deceived, and being ejected from the lodge by the chief, seized with grief and re- morse, placed a pistol to his head and blew his brains out.
John Provost, the interpreter, on learning of his brother's suicide, sought out the Indian who be- trayed his brother and Bernard his rival, intending to kill them. Finding both in the agent's office, he deliberately and without warning opened fire on them, killing Bernard. Several Mexicans, country- men of the murdered man, surrounded the mur- derer, and would have lynched him had it not been for the prompt action of Dr. McGillicuddy, the Indian agent, who sent young Provost under a guard of Indian soldiers to the military guardhouse at Camp Sheridan to be held pending a trial for mur- der by the civil authorities. The trial came off in due time and John was acquitted. The latest news from him is to the effect that he is living in Michi- gan and not troubled by regrets over avenging the untimely death of his brother William.
Sufferings of Soldiers During a Win- ter's March on the Plains
The following story of the intense suffering ex- perienced by Captain James W. Hanna's troop of soldiers in a march from Fort Laramie to Fort Col- lins in January, 1865, was told a Denver News re- porter by an old frontier soldier, and published in that paper in February, 1892. As it relates to in- cidents connected with the early settlement of the Caché la Poudre valley and gives a graphic descrip- tion of that early march and the fight for life the troopers had with the elements, I reproduce the story in full :
"It was in January, 1865, when Captain J. W. Hanna, then commanding Company L, Eleventh Ohio cavalry, marched from Fort Laramie, under orders to proceed to Fort Collins, Colorado, to re- inforce Major W. H. Evans, who, with Company F of the Eleventh Ohio, held that then frontier outpost. At that time the white settlers of the Caché la Paudre were few and far between. There was a stage station at Laporte a few miles above Fort Collins.
"It was a bright sunny January day when the seventy or eighty 'Buckeye boys', each clad in buck- skin, buffalo and beaver trappings, rode joyfully up the Laramie river bound for the settlement. That night they camped on the Chugwater and, over bright, blazing campfires, told over wellworn yarns and felicitated themselves upon once more seeing white girls and calico after their three years' exile among the Sioux in far-off Black Hills. That night as they lay snug and cozy amid the shelter- ing boxelder groves, a blanket of snow about a foot
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thick was silently laid over them and their horses. Next morning as they resumed their march a gen- uine western blizzard set in and the mercury kept dropping all day. That night the boys, many of them sons of the best families of Ohio, nurtured in comfort and perhaps luxury, tasted the first bitter- ness of their terrible march. But they had abund- ance of wood, and if the wind whistled fiercely over the cheerless Plains, it did not trouble them down there in the valley of the 'Chug'.
"It is true the boys suffered some as they lay upon the frozen earth, their beds banked round with snow; but there was little complaint and little sleep, for they dreaded the morrow. There was a four-days' march ahead of them over a treeless, life- less, wind-swept Plain, and a dark storm cloud hung over the hill. The next day the brave boys breasted the icy blasts silently and gloomily. The column kept well together, not because of fear of an Indian attack, but because of consciousness of unseen dangers. To straggle or lag behind meant death and a grave beneath the fast drifting snow. There were no trails or roads in those days, and not a house between Fort Laramie and Cache la Poudre. To fall behind was to die and become food for the wolves. So the column moved slowly amid the snow and keen-cutting blasts.
"That night was a night of horrors. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon they reached a depression in the apparently limitless Plains, the two wagons halted and camp was established to the windward. A few dead willows and weeds peeping above the snow, none of them thicker than a pencil, afforded the only source of fuel. With this cheerless pros- pect, amid a whistling, drifting storm of snow, Captain Hanna and his men prepared to spend the long, long night. A few of the more cheerful and enterprising troopers gathered weeds and willows, dug away a hole in the snow, sat down, built small fires sheltered by their extending legs, and with oyster cans cooked some coffee. Then the blankets and buffalo robes were spread upon the snow, the saddles were piled to break off the wind and dark- ness came slowly on. As for the horses they seemed to realize the desperate situation and, after hastily eating their corn, shivering with their tails toward the blast, they, one after another, laid down in their snowy beds. As they were well blanketed and the snow swiftly drifted over them, they were soon hidden beneath a snow bank with nothing visible except their heads.
"The men laid in rows of ten or twelve in num- ber, feet to the wind; the last man out was re-
quired to bank up the snow over the bed and then crawl beneath the pile of bedding in the center of the row. He went in feet foremost, of course. That was a long, dreary night. Every half hour or so the command went forth from the sergeant in charge of each row; 'Ready, boys! Now s-p-o-o-n!' Then over went the row of soldiers and by this means they turned over in bed without letting in the cold air. Towards daylight the snow commenced to fall again. I was one of the first to rise (having charge of the commissary stores) and I shall never forget that cheerless night. The only sign of life to be seen was the two wagons, half hidden in snow, and the heads of sixty or seventy horses just above the snow. The presence of the soldiers was indi- cated by the little jets of steaming breath coming from beneath their blankets and robes.
"Hard bread and frozen bacon was handed around, the shivering horses were fed and another long day's march commenced toward Colorado. The vitality of man and beast seemed to have been exhausted. The younger soldiers were freezing to death in their saddles. They seemed to be careless and indifferent, and, oh, so sleepy. Captain Hanna and his First Lieutenant, Swearingen, made details of soldiers to compel those who were dying to live awhile longer. The mode of procedure was this: When a soldier was seen to bow his head and in- dicated his desire to sleep, he was torn from his saddle and then supported by a comrade on each side, was forcibly pushed or run along the trail until animation was restored. As night again approached the half frozen expedition seemed to settle down into a state of lethargic despair. Horses exhausted, men cold, chilled to the bone, no wood, no shelter from the piercing blizzard, mercury down to thirty degrees below zero and no prospect of relief or shelter. Oh, for a fire or a cup of hot coffee. Oh, for even the shelter of a friendly bluff. No; there was nothing ahead but another long, cheerless night in the snow.
"How that night passed will ever seem like a hideous dream in the recollection of the miserable survivors. Chilled, hungry, stiff and sore, the mem- bers of the expedition clustered together in the tree- less solitude not far from the present site of Chey- enne, Wyoming. The wintry storm showed no abatement and death stared the miserable volunteer soldiers in the face. Many had frozen feet, few were unfrostbitten, all seemed indifferent as to life. The horses seemed lifeless ; many had been abandoned to the mercies of the wolves, the remainder seemed resigned to an apparently inevitable fate. New life
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and courage were suddenly imparted to the despar- ing men by an order to unload the two government wagons, stack the stores in the form a windbreak and chop the wagons into firewood.
"By clustering close together and keeping out the wind and snow with buffalo robes, a fire was se- cured. Oh, what joy, what hope, what cheer, the light of a fire imparted, that bitter stormy night on the Plains. Then to have hot, strong, fragrant coffee, the first for two days and nights. How it braced the boys up for the long winter night. A dozen at least were crippled and helpless from frozen feet and hands. These were laid side by side and were banked over with snow, after being cheered with the warmth of a cup of coffee. Food was a secondary consideration; heat was the vital neces- sity. Two fires were built and about these a circle was formed and robes and blankets spread over the shoulders of the crouching soldiers. Even then this living windbreak was insufficient to prevent the wind sweeping away the fire. Embers and ashes there were none-the storm swept all away. Men sat that night and saw their stockings burn upon their feet without feeling the pain of the fire, so cold were they and so benumbed their frozen limbs. But daylight came at last and with it the sun. Oh, what joy and cheer came up with that orb from be- yond the eastern snow banks. It brought to each a hope of life and a possible return sometime to the comforts of civilization.
"More than half the command was found to be frosted and unable to walk. More than half the horses which left Fort Laramie a few days before in good condition were either dead or too weak to carry a rider. An early start was made, a long march was made. To halt meant death to all. Stores, arms and saddles had been stacked in the snow and abandoned. In the light marching order the column pushed on for the Cache la Poudre. The sight of the scattered cottonwoods upon that stream was a welcome sight to man and beast. It meant life and comfort. The expedition struck the Poudre valley about ten miles below Fort Collins, and be- fore noon the next day the demoralized column reached the little cluster of cabins called Fort Col- lins. Never did that beautiful valley appear more glorious and fascinating than it did that bright, keen, sunny morning in January, 1865, when Capt. J. W. Hanna's command made its first advent in Colorado. Most of the frosted men recovered the use of their limbs and performed good and gallant service the next summer with General Connor on his Tongue river expedition."
The Captain J. W. Hanna mentioned in the fore- going narrative of exposure and suffering was a foster brother. of Alderman Thomas L. Moore of Fort Collins, and has often visited the scene of his experiences as a soldier in the Cache la Poudre valley. He was Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives of the Colorado General Assembly in the winter of 1891.
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