USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 24
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[128]
HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
and frame buildings, modern in all respects, con- veniently located, well arranged and thoroughly equipped with up-to-date appliances, have taken the places of the sod and log huts which served such a useful purpose in the pioneer days. At the pres- ent time there are fifty-three organized school dis- tricts in the county in which schools are maintained from four to nine months each year. In three of these districts, Fort Collins, Loveland and Berthoud, High schools have been conducted for several years, whose courses of study articulate closely with the higher institutions of learning in the state. All of them are in the accredited class, and their graduates pass directly into the freshman year at the State University. About one-half of the districts support graded schools in which work is carried through the tenth grade, and all of them offer a thorough common school course, thus fitting pupils for the High schools, the Normal school or the Agricul- tural college. A course of study has been adopted which is practically in general use all over the county and which not only adds uniformity to the system, but also affords to every child completing the prescribed course the requisites of intelligent citizenship and the knowledge necessary in the ordi- nary business affairs of life. Nearly all of the schools in the county are supplied with free text books, and all of them will be so supplied within a very short period of time. Free text books enables the teacher to classify her school, do better work and get better results. The free text book system also places all the pupils upon a common level so far as text books are concerned. No distinction is made between rich and poor; all are seated at the same desks, receive the same instruction and have like advantages.
Many of the graded schools and all of the High schools have libraries to which new books are added from time to time and to which pupils have free access under appropriate regulations. These libraries contain between 7,000 and 8,000 choice and wisely selected books. No state in the Union offers to the young better educational advantages than Colorado and no county in the state better than those afforded in Larimer county. Fort Col- lins was the first town west of St. Louis to intro- duce and test the kindergarten and subsequently to make it a part of her system of free schools. It was introduced in 1880 by Judge Jay H. Bouton, who was then President of the Board of Education, and the undertaking was attended by such marked success and such manifestly beneficent results that the legislature was induced, in 1893, to enact a
law making the kindergarten an integral part of the public school system of the state. Since then the kindergarten has been introduced in nearly all the larger centers of population in Colorado, and is steadily working its way into popular favor in all parts of the state. With a kindergarten training at the beginning of a child's school life and ending with a High school course, with a perfect system of grading intervening and the honest, conscientious work of a competent and enthusiastic corps of teach- ers, such and only such as the school authorities of the county employ, it is not surprising that the pub- lic schools of Larimer county rank second to none in the whole country. Four years before a single school district had been organized and establishcd and before a public school had been opened in Lari- mer county, Mrs. Albina L. Washburn, wife of the late Judge John E. Washburn and mother of Mrs. W. W. Taylor of Fort Collins, taught a small private school in a log cabin that stood on the site of the present city of Loveland. This was in 1864, and Mrs. Washburn received the munificent sum of $10 per month for her services. She had ten pupils and their names were: Theodore A. Chub- buck, Clarence L. Chubbuck, Frank G. Bartholf, Kitty Bartholf, Byron Bartholf, John Bartholf, Willie Bartholf, George Luce, Lawrence Luce and Winona Washburn, daughter of the teacher. The school was opened about the first of January and was in session three months. I am unable to learn whether a school was taught in the Big Thompson valley between that time and the date of the open- ing of the first public school at what was then known as Namaqua, in 1868. That year public schools were also opened at Old St. Louis, about a mile and a half east of the present city of Love- land, and at Hillsborough, six miles east of that city. The schools at Namaqua, Old St. Louis and Hillsborough were all in the Big Thompson valley. A school was organized at Laporte in 1865 and a school taught there that year, but the public records contains no mention of the district, the teacher or the pupils.
School District No. 5, known as Fort Collins, was not legally organized and established until 1870. There is no record in existence showing who the officers were at this time, but tradition informs us that Peter Anderson was the first President of the Board of Directors. There must have been some sort of an organization previous to 1870, for Mrs. Elizabeth Keays taught a school here in the winter of 1866, and the officers of the district then, as she remembers, were N. P. Cooper, president; W.
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HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
D. Hayes, secretary, and Capt. Asaph Allen, treas- urer. The summer before that Mrs. Stratton taught a private school in her room in the hotel kept by "Auntie Stone." This hotel stood where the City Hotel now stands on Jefferson street. She opened this school for the benefit of her young son, William P. Keays, but she had not been teach- ing him long until other children asked to come in and study with him. In the fall of 1866 a room was fitted up in one of the buildings that had been occupied a few months before as officers' quarters when the soldiers were here, and Mrs. Stratton was employed to teach a six months' term-the first reg- ular term of a public school taught in Fort Collins. Among her pupils were Kate Smith, William P. Keays, John O'Brien, two of Michael (Ranger) Jones' children, two of Mr. Cooper's children and three or four of Austin Mason's children. Miss Geneva Cooper, sister of Mrs. A. J. Ames, who afterwards became Mrs. W. D. Hays, succeeded Mrs. Stratton as teacher the next term, Mrs. Strat- ton having married Mr. Stratton in the meantime.
Mrs. Stratton relates many amusing incidents that occurred while she was employed as teacher. On one occasion she happened to look up from her work and discovered Chief Friday of the Arapahoes and some of his Indians peering into the one window of her room. The children were considerably fright- ened at the sight of the visitors and she admits that she was herself a little nervous at their sudden appearance. The Indians seemed to be greatly amused at the spectacle of a woman teaching so many children, and when their curiosity had been satisfied they departed without molesting anyone or anything.
After the district had been legally organized in 1870, a small frame school house was erected on Riverside avenue, between what are now known as Peterson and Whedbee streets, at a cost of $1,100. Henry C. Peterson was the contractor and builder. This building was used for school purposes until the winter of 1879, when the school was moved into the Remington school building, which had just been completed. The old school house was then sold to the Catholic Church and used by that congregation until the new Catholic Church was built in 1901 on West Mountain ave- nue. Miss Maggie Meldrum, sister of former Lieut. Governor Norman H. Meldrum, taught the first term of school in the old (then new) school house in 1871. She was succeeded in 1872 by Miss Alice M. Watrous, now Mrs. A. H. Patterson.
Judge J. W. Barnes, now of Golden, Colo., taught in the old building in 1876-7-8.
On the first Monday in September, 1879, schools were opened in all of the rooms of the fully com- pleted Remington building. One of the rooms that had been hurriedly finished was, however, occupied as a school room in the winter of 1878-9. The teachers employed to open the schools in the new building were: Prof. John Lord, principal; Eu- gene Holmes, first assistant, and Miss Frances Whitaker, second assistant.
From the indefinite, incomplete and unsatisfac- tory records of the county superintendent's office, it is impossible to give in detail the rise and progress down to 1874, of the public schools of Larimer county. Important dates regarding the formation of school districts, the terms of school, names of the teachers, number of pupils, wages paid teachers and reports of school officers, as well as much other information that would be valuable at this time in compiling an accurate history of the grandest institution of the county, were omitted in the early day records. No system seems to have been employed in making and preserving these important records, as they are neither logically nor chronolog- ically arranged and were apparently kept in a sort of a hap-hazard manner. Beginning with 1874, the records were better made up, some system being fol- lowed, so that it is possible to obtain from them a fairly good idea of the history of the public school system from that date down to the present time. Because of these defective pioneer records I am un- able to trace the history of each school district in the county from the beginning with any satisfac- tory degree of accuracy and must, therefore, omit interesting details and be content with a general summary of the results.
From the records it appears that six school dis- tricts were created and established in 1868, when J. M. Smith was county superintendent, and these were No. 1, Namaqua; No. 2, St. Louis (now Love- land ) ; No. 3, Hillsborough; No. 4, Laporte; No. 5, Fort Collins, and No. 6, Sherwood (now Tim- nath.) In October of that year four of these dis- tricts, Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 6, submitted partial reports to the county superintendent. These reports con- tain nothing more than a statement showing the number of children of school age in each at that time, as follows :
No. 2, W. B. Osborn, secretary. .24
No. 4, E. N. Garbutt, secretary. .35
No. 5, W. D. Hayes, secretary 19
No. 6 (secretary not named) 17
Total 95
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HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
That year it appears that the sum of $1,200 public money was apportioned to the districts then organized. In 1869 seven districts made partial reports, from which it appears that the school popu- lation of the county had increased from 95 to 159, no division as to sex being given. The number re- ported from each of the districts was as follows :
No. 1, Lucas Brandt, secretary. .16
No. 2, W. B. Osborn, secretary. 24
No. 3 (secretary not named ) 8
No. 4 (secretary not named) . .40
No. 5 (secretary not named) 35
No. 6 (secretary not named) 17
No. 7 (secretary not named). 19
Total. 159
At that time all children between the ages of 5 and 21 were supposed to be reported. It does not appear that any public money was apportioned to the several districts that year, but the records show that in 1870 the county superintendent apportioned to the districts the following sums:
No. 1, Ed. Clark, treasurer $208.50
No. 2, Thomas Cross, treasurer 408.60
No. 3 (treasurer not named) 102.00
No. 4 (treasurer not named) 535.00
No. 5, Harris Stratton, treasurer 430.00
No. 6, J. B. Arthur, treasurer 218.50
No. 7, Fred Smith, treasurer 244.00
In October, 1870, the school population of the county had increased to 203, the number reported from each district being as follows:
No. 1, Lucas Brandt, secretary.
18
No. 2, Thos. Sprague, secretary.
20
No. 3, W. A. Bean, secretary.
18
No. 4, E. N. Garbutt, secretary. 43
No. 5, C. C. Hawley, secretary .. 51
No. 6 (secretary not named) .21
No. 7, P. J. Bosworth, secretary 22
No. 8, J. R. Oliver, secretary. 14
Total. 203
Pages 15 and 16 of the county superintendent's records are missing, causing a break in the contin- uity, so that details of the growth and expansion of the county school system from 1870, year by year, cannot be given. Suffice it to say that succeed- ing pages show that a steady growth in school popu- lation and greater interest in popular education year by year, the greatest expansion taking place in the decade ending June 30th, 1909. In the an- nual report of Miss Pearl L. Moore, county super- intendent, dated September 20th, 1909, we find the following interesting statistics relating to school matters :
Statistics
Number of school districts in the County ...... Number of districts in which schools were taught during the year ending June 30th, 1909
53
53
Number of high schools.
3
Number enrolled in high schools. 540
Number enrolled in graded schools below high
school 5,223
Number enrolled in rural schools. 1,391-7,154
Number completing eighth grade work .. 232 Number of teachers employed in graded schools 125
Number employed in rural schools. 48
Average monthly salary-Grade teachers, male, $101; female, $59.
Average monthly salary-Rural schools, male, $55.50; female, $47.
Total receipts, general fund. $ 49,387.00
Total receipts, special tax. 123,835.19
Total receipts from all other sources. 14,914.79
Total. $212,978.07
Paid out for teachers' salaries. $ 87,132.14
Paid out for fuel, rent, insurance and current expenses, buildings. . 37,993.54
Paid out for sites, furniture and permanent improvements 36,580.00
Paid out for library purposes. 1,037.47
Paid out for redemption of bonds. 5,787.70
Paid out for interest on bonds. 7,513.36
Paid out for other purposes. 2,921.93
Paid out for interest on registered warrants .. 3,419.73
Total.
$182,385.95
Balance on hand.
30,592.12
School Population Between 6 and 21 Years
Males
4,094
Females
4,924
Total.
8,018
Number of school houses 72
Number of school rooms. 166
Value of school property. $585,758
Number of sittings 12,120
Assessed valuation of all property in school districts $9,026,297.00
Number of district libraries. 32
Number of volumes in libraries. 7,053
The first teachers' institute held in the county convened August 20th, 1883, for a two weeks' ses- sion in the Remington school building in the city of Fort Collins. W. H. McCreery, County Super- intendent, was chosen president; W. W. Reming- ton, treasurer, and Miss Emma B. Mitchell, sec- retary. The teachers in attendance were: Eliza Ames, Julia S. Batten, Laura Budrow, Ella Bowler, M. A. Brown, Gertrude Coffin, Agnes Cummings, Mr. A. J. Cushman, Mrs. Nettie M. Delaney, Mary W. Duncan, Addie L. Foote, Carrie E. Foote, Louise Gilbertson, Maggie Goddard, Mary E. Gill, Lizzie A. Gray, Alice Haines, John C. Hanna, Eugene Holmes, Clara Jones, Mrs. E. K. Kendall, Attie Kern, Amanda Lowe, Mary E. Lyon, Jennie McLain, Alice Mitchell, Emma Murch, Emma Reaville, Mattie Reaville, Mrs.
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HISTORY OF LARIMER
COUNTY, COLORADO
Smith, Hattie Silcott, Mattie A. Simpson, Citney Watts, Helen White, Mr. V. Williamson. The workers of the institute were Dr. J. A. Sewall, President of the State University; Prof. Thomas, State University; President C. L. Ingersoll and Profs. Mead, Cassidy and Lawrence of the Agri- cultural College; Prof. A. B. Copeland of Greeley ; Prof. Remington, Mrs. Delaney and County Super- intendent McCreery of Fort Collins.
The teachers of the county are organized and hold two association meetings annually, alternating the gathering place with Fort Collins, Loveland and Berthoud. In addition to these meetings, a two-weeks' Teachers' Normal Institute is held in the county every third year, alternating with the ad- joining Counties of Boulder and Weld, which are districted with Larimer for Institute purposes. From the facts herein presented it will be seen that Larimer county is keeping step with the march of progress in educational matters as well as in other respects. Indeed, its public schools are the pride of every intelligent and well informed person in the county.
Ditches and Reservoirs
The farming lands in the Big and Little Thomp- son valleys are irrigated by water drawn from the Big Thompson river and Little Thompson creek and their tributaries, and the district is known as Water Commissioner District No. 4. To How- ard Kelley, Water Commissioner for that district, I am indebted for the information herein contained concerning the irrigating ditches which draw their water supply from the streams named :
Handy: Length, 20 miles; capacity, 200 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, February 28th, 1878.
Home Supply: Length, 25 miles; capacity, 250 cubic feet; date of appropriation, July 15th, 1881.
South Side: Length, 10 miles; capacity, 50 cubic feet; date of appropriation, November 7th, 1880.
Louden: Length, 20 miles; capacity, 200 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, October 1st, 1871.
Rist: Length, 6 miles; capacity, 200 cubic feet; date of appropriation, May 1st, 1873.
Mariana: Length, 1} miles; capacity, 5 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, May 1st, 1863.
Rist & Goss: Length, 2 miles; capacity, 5 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, March 20th, 1866.
Greeley & Loveland: Length, 25 miles; capac- ity, 300 cubic feet; date of appropriation, October 20th, 1865.
Barnes: Length, 5 miles; capacity, 800 cubic feet; date of appropriation, November 1st, 1865.
Big Thompson Manufacturing Co .: Length, 5 miles ; capacity, 40 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, April 1st, 1863.
Hillsboro: Length, 18 miles; capacity, 75 cubic feet; date of appropriation, October 15th, 1874.
Big Thompson No. 1: Length, 8 miles; capac- ity, 90 cubic feet; date of appropriation, November 10th, 1861.
Little Thompson Ditches
Osborn & Caywood: Length, 4 miles; Capac- ity, 4 cubic feet; date of appropriation, November 1st, 1861.
W. R. Blore: Length, 5 miles; capacity, 6 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, May 1, 1866.
Culver & Mahoney: Length, 8 miles; capacity, 20 cubic feet; date of appropriation, April 15th, 1867.
Lykens: Length, 2 miles; capacity, 2 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, May 1st, 1868.
Jim Eaglin: Length, 2 miles; capacity, 2 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, May 1st, 1869.
Meining: Length, 2 miles; capacity, 2 cubic feet; date of appropriation, October 20th, 1874.
Boulder & Larimer Co .: Length, 6 miles; capac- ity, 100 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, June 3rd, 1875.
Eagle: Length, 2 miles; capacity, 6 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, March, 1877.
Supply Lateral: Length, 4 miles; capacity, 25 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, November, 1878.
Buckhorn Ditches
Kirchner: Length, 3 miles; capacity, 6 cubic feet; date of appropriation, June 1st, 1884.
Perkins: Length, 2 miles ; capacity, 2 cubic feet; date of appropriation, June 15th, 1874.
Neville: Length, 2 miles ; capacity, 3 cubic feet ; date of appropriation, April 29th, 1879.
Buffum: Length, 2} miles; capacity, 3 cubic feet; date of appropriation, June 28th, 1879.
Thompson : Length, 2} miles; capacity, 3 cubic feet; date of appropriation, May 1st, 1886.
Union Irrigation & Reservoir: Length, 3 miles; capacity, 5 cubic feet; date of appropriation, No- vember 27th, 1889.
Hyatt: Length, 2 miles; capacity 2} cubic feet; date of appropriation, October 1st, 1887.
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HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
Buckhorn Highline: Length, 4 miles; capacity, 5 cubic feet; date of appropriation, October 22nd, 1883.
Reservoirs in the Big and Little Thompson Valleys
Name
Capacity, Cubic Feet
Lone Tree
400,000,000
Donath
30,000,000
Mariana
200,000,000
Lake Loveland
625,000,000
Lawn Lake
38,000,000
Seven Lakes.
12,000,000
Ryan Gulch No. 1.
40,000,000
Ryan Gulch No. 2.
42,000,000
Fairport
24,164,910
Rist & Benson.
24,040,600
Boyd Lake.
1,872,000,000
Buckhorn
60,000,000
Berthoud Water Works.
7,805,614
Loveland Lake.
93,521,818
Welch Lakes
300,000,000
Boulder & Larimer
204,483,708
W. T. Smith ..
6,924,142
Wilson
6,982,668
Cemetery Lake
24,000,000
Welch Lakes, 1, 2 and 5.
117,106,087
Hupp
3,624,238
Sunny Slope
11,287,683
Strever
10,271,444
Hummel
12,732,269
Coleman
22,166,980
Kline
960,760
Foster & Matz.
3,299,970
Loveland Lateral Lake.
24,437,546
Total Cubic Feet
4,236,810,437
Reservoirs in the Cache la Poudre and Boxelder Valleys
Warren Lake
126,000,000
North Gray.
12,000,000
South Gray
22,300,000
Lake Canal No. 1.
35,000,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., No. 1.
206,000,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., Nos. 2 and 3 ..
30,000,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., No. 4. 43,400,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., Long Pond. 176,000,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., Lindenmeier
40,000,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., Richards.
46,000,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., Curtis.
34,000,000
Water Supply & Storage Co., Chambers
200,000,000
Spring Canon.
2,700,000
North Poudre No. 1.
29,300,000
North Poudre No. 2 169,000,000
North Poudre No. 3.
125,000,000
North Poudre No. 4
46,000,000
North Poudre No. 5.
250,000,000
North Poudre No. 6
445,000,000
North Poudre No. 15
240,000,000 5,000,000
North Poudre, Stuchell.
North Poudre, Coal Creek
178,400,000
North Poudre, Fossil Creek.
525,000,000
North Poudre, Halligan.
280,000,000
Claymore Lake
40,000,000
Boxelder Ditch & Reservoir Co., No. 1.
25,000,000
Boxelder Ditch & Reservoir Co., No. 2. 8,500,000
Boxelder Ditch & Reservoir Co., No. 3.
34,500,000
Boxelder Ditch & Reservoir Co., No. 4. 11,000,000
Jameson Lake 3,500,000
Caverly
7,500,000
Dixon Canon
19,500,000
Mitchell Lakes, No. 1.
25,300,000
Mitchell Lakes, No. 2.
4,400,000
Mitchell Lakes No. 3.
4,300,000
Dowdy
15,000,000
Deer Lake
4,000,000
Erie Lake
3,000,000
Twin Lakes
2,000,000
Larimer & Weld.
390,000,000
Cache la Poudre.
415,000,000
Neece
6,000,000
Douglass
285,400,000
Agricultural Reservoir No. 3
31,000,000
Big Beaver (Hour Glass)
69,200,000
B. G. Eaton, No. 8.
670,000,000
Elder
100,000,000
Cameron Pass
34,000,000
Sheep Creek
30,000,000
Lake Agnes
10,000,000
Divide Canal Co.
100.000,000
Timberline
33,000,000
Total Cubic Feet 5,822,600,000
For the data relating to the reservoirs in the Caché la Poudre valley and in the mountains west of Fort Collins, I am indebted to John L. Arm- strong, Water Commissioner for the 3rd district, which embraces all the irrigating systems that draw their water supply from the Cache la Poudre river and its tributaries. The combined storage capacity of the reservoirs and storage basins of Larimer county, equals 10,059,410,437 cubic feet of water.
DAM OF HALLIGAN RESERVOIR
This water is drawn from the streams in the winter when it is not needed for direct irrigation, and also during the flood periods in the spring and early summer, and held in store for use in irrigating the orchards, alfalfa fields and late crops, such as potatoes and sugar beets, which mature in September and October. The reservoirs in the county, when filled to their capacity, hold water enough to cover 230,912 acres of land to a depth of one foot, and the water is used to supplement the supply fur-
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HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
nished by the streams directly, thus increasing the area of land cultivated to crops. A very large per- centage of the water stored in the reservoirs of Larimer county is turned into the channel of the river and allowed to flow down into Weld county for use in irrigating the farms of that county.
Warren Lake reservoir was the first one built in the county and the first in the Northern part of
during a portion of the irrigation season, was real- ized and felt, hence a resort to the system of storing the flood waters which flowed down stream every spring to the amount of billions of cubic feet and were lost to a beneficial use. Every lake and im- portant depression in the surface were utilized and converted into reservoirs for the conservation of water, with the result that Larimer county has the
BIG THOMPSON DAM-HEAD OF LOVELAND'S WATER WORKS SYSTEM
the state, and has paid for itself a hundred times over. It has been the means of saving millions of dollars' worth of crops from burning and bringing them through to maturity which could not have been saved had it not been for the water held back for use in time of need. As the farming sections of the county filled up with settlers, the need of more water for irrigation than the streams afforded
largest and best storage system there is in the state, The estimated . value of stored water is $50 per million cubic feet. In actual practice it sometimes ranges higher than that, even to $75 and $100 per million cubic feet. It will thus be seen that the value of the water that could be stored in the reser- voirs of the county in one season, exceeds half a million dollars.
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HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
The canals and ditches in the Cache la Poudre valley and their water appropriations and ratings are given elsewhere in this book.
Introduction of Wool Growing and Sheep Feeding
The sheep and wool growing industry was intro- duced in Larimer county about 1870, there being three bands of sheep owned, one by Mr. Weldon of the Big Thompson valley, another by J. S. May- nard of Maynard Flats, and the third by E. W. Whitcomb on Boxelder creek. In 1871 William N. Bachelder settled at Spring Canon with a bunch of sheep and he did so well with them that others en- gaged in the business until, in 1878, there were about 75,000 range sheep in the county. As the county be- came settled up and the range narrowed down, the sheep men had to move their flocks out of the county to where they could have wider and unobstructed ranges or retire from the business. Many of them preferred the latter, having accumulated a competence at the business, so that at the present time there are only one or two bands of range sheep in the county. At first the cattle- men were bitterly opposed to the placing of sheep on the range, and did all in their power to discourage the sheep men and prevent them from locating in the county. The opposition was fierce at times and personal conflicts between the cattle men and sheep men were not rare. They even carried opposition to the introduction of sheep into politics and in the early days a sheep man could not be elected to office on any ticket.
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