USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 34
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ing that the Indians were certainly still one hundred and fifty miles away, but leaving behind for a Mon- day's rest a fresh stage load of eager gold seekers and Salt Lake merchants, whom our scruples on the subject of Sunday traveling had thrown one day be- hind. But they were solaced by the arguments that we would make the path straight for them above, that they must stop somewhere, and that here was the best food and the prettiest cook on the line.
"Virginia Dale deserves its pretty name. A pearly, lively-looking stream runs through a beauti- ful basin of perhaps one hundred acres, among the mountains-for we are within the entrance of the great hills-stretching away in smooth and rising pasture to nooks and crannies of the wooded range; fronted by rock embankment, and flanked by the snowy peaks themselves; warm with a June sun, and rare and pure with an air into which no fetid breath has poured itself-it is difficult to imagine a more loveable spot in Nature's kingdom. It is one hundred miles north from Denver, half of the way along the foot of the hills, crossing frequent streams, swollen and angry with melting snows, and watering the only really green acres we have seen since leaving Kansas; and half the road wind- ing over and around and between the hills that form the approaches to the Rocky Mountains. Only the station of the stage line occupies the dale; a house, a barn, a blacksmith shop; the keeper and his wife, the latter as sweet, as gentle and as lady-like as if just transplanted from Eastern society, yet prepar- ing bountiful meals for twice-daily stage loads of hungry and dirty passengers; the stock tender and his assistant-these were all the inhabitants of the spot, and no neighbors within fifteen miles. For the day, our party and its escort-the soldiers lying off in the grass by the water with their camp fire and their baggage wagon-made unusual life, and gave a peculiar picturesqueness to the sequestered spot."
Joseph A. Slade was the first white man to locate in what is now known as Virginia Dale. He built a division station on Dale creek for the Overland stage company in 1862 and had charge of the station for the company for about one year. He was suc- ceeded by William S. Taylor and he by S. C. Leach. When the station was abandoned by the Overland stage company in 1868, Mr. Leach pur- chased the property and lived there until 1885, when he sold out to W. C. Stover and moved to Wyoming, where he died several years ago. It was not until the spring of 1872 that other settlers be-
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gan to come and locate along the streams and estab- lish homes. Among the first of these were Andrew Boyd and Joseph H. George who took up ranches on Dale creek a few miles below the old station. Peter Gealow took up a ranch that year on Dead- man creek, a tributary of Dale creek. Thomas B. Bishopp located on Dale creek about a mile below the old station in 1873 and still lives on the ranch he took up then. Andrew Boyd and Peter Gealow also still occupy the ranches they settled on in 1872. Joseph H. George remained on his ranch until 1909 when he sold it to John Muse. These early settlers were followed soon afterwards by I. G. Stafford, D. C. Young, C. B. Mendenhall, J. M. McCain, Moses Morrison, W. B. Woodruff, Frank Kibler, W. H. Harriman, Daniel Heckart, Mrs. Holliday, Alexander Murchland, Fred Christman and W. T. Webber. Some of the first settlers have since died and others have moved away, but their ranches are occupied by new comers.
Many others have located in Virginia Dale since then, so that in 1908, 38 votes were polled in that precinct. The first school house built at Virginia Dale was erected in 1874 and it is still in use. C. B. Mendenhall and W. H. Harriman were mem- bers of the board of school directors at that time, and a school was taught in the new building that year. Miss Emma Stafford and Joseph and Alex Murchland were among those who attended the first school. Frank Kibler and his wife were the first couple married in Virginia Dale, and Rachael Boyd, daughter of Andrew Boyd, was the first child born there. The first settlers of Virginia, Dale were attracted there by its superior advantages as a stock country and the opportunities for dairying, an industry that is still carried on with excellent success. The parks and hillsides afford fine grazing and the valleys along the streams have been con- verted into splendid meadows, gardens and orchards. It is a well watered region, its principal streams being Dale creek, Fish creek, Deadman creek, and Six and Ten Mile creeks. These streams furnish an abundance of water for stock and for the irriga- tion of meadows, gardens and orchards.
A church has been erected at Deadman crossing of the Laramie road, in which services are held once in two weeks the year round, the pulpit being supplied by Rev. Franklin Moore of Fossil Creek. The finding of the body of a man who had evi- dently been killed near the stream by the Indians, gave rise to the name "Deadman", by which the creek has since been known. The bones of the un- fortunate unknown rest in the soil of a knoll im-
mediately west of the house built by Fred Christ- man in 1875. The ranch is now owned by W. H. Aldrich, postmaster at Virginia Dale.
Virginia Dale Church
The first religious work done at Virginia Dale was the organization of a Sunday School in 1878. The first preaching was by Rev. D. E. Finks, pastor of the Fort Collins Presbyterian church. He held services in the school house. The church was first built as a union church near the present home of Daniel Heckart in 1880. In 1881 it was dedi- cated as a Methodist church by Rev. Merritt, Presiding Elder. The congregation was served thereafter by Revs. Allen, Coyle, Long and Trow- bridge. In 1885 the church building was moved to its present site on Fred Christman's ranch on Dead- man creek, Mr. Christman donating the site. In 1889 the Methodists abandoned the field and for three years no services were held there. In 1893, Rev. Franklin Moore took charge of the work and a Presbyterian church was organized, Rev. T. C. Kirkwood, officating. The work has since been carried on by Rev. Moore, with the exception of three years when he was stationed at Hillsboro. He resumed services in 1907 and is still in charge of the work.
Livermore
Livermore derives its name from a combination of the names of two of its earliest permanent settlers, Adolphus Livernash and Stephen Moore-who built a cabin in 1863 on the ranch recently owned by Andrew Brooker, one fourth of a mile south of the present Livermore hotel, store and postoffice, and engaged in prospecting for coal and precious min- erals. Livernash, then a sixteen year old boy, a native of Wisconsin, remained only a few months with Moore, returning to Laporte where he secured employment. In 1874 he married Sarah E. Isard, James H. Swan, a Justice of the Peace, performing the ceremony. Later Mr. Livernash moved to Boulder county and engaged in mining. He was killed by lightning in 1883, while working in a mine. His widow and three children, two daugh- ters and son, are residents of Fort Collins, the son Edward J. Livernash being associated with his brother-in-law, Walter P. Hurley, in the drug business, and proprietors of the Owl Drug Store. Moore held on to his claim in Livermore until 1871 when he sold it to Russell Fisk. Shortly after
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that Moore disappeared and his present where- abouts, if he is still living, is unknown. At the time Moore and Livernash built their little one- room cabin on the banks of the North fork of the Caché la Poudre, what is now known as Livermore, extended from Laporte west to the Continental Divide and from the southern boundary of Larimer county north to the present state line between Colo- rado and Wyoming, and the human occupants of that vast extent of territory were a band of Ute Indians who made their home in North Park. It was a vast unsurveyed and, save for the Overland stage road, an untracked wilderness. The smile of a white woman had never been seen and the prattle of a child had never been heard within its borders. Game and fur bearing animals were numerous and it was the hunter's and trapper's paradise. As early as 1824 hunters and trappers in the employ of the Hudson Bay Fur Company built their cabins along the streams in the fall of the year and carried on their operations of trapping beaver and killing other fur bearing animals during the winter season, leaving in the spring with their packs of furs for their Northern rendezvous, only to return the fol- lowing fall to resume operations. These annual invasions of hunters and trappers from the North continued until about 1850 and until they had practically exhausted the supply of beaver and were then known no more.
In the fall of 1861, N. C. Alford of Fort Collins, Jacob Cornelison of Virginia Dale, and the late William Calloway, established a hunters' camp on Meadow creek, fifteen miles north of the present Livermore postoffice, where they spent the succeed- ing winter hunting game for the Denver market. That same fall another hunting party established a camp at the mouth of Lone Pine canon on the ranch now owned by Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Bellairs. The country was rich at that time in meat produc- ing wild animals, such as deer, antelope and elk, and these hunting parties were very successful.
Out of that portion of the country named Liver- more by Livernash and Moore in 1863, has since been carved the entire county of Jackson, also the following election precincts in Larimer county : Home, Laramie, St. Cloud, Virginia Dale, Estes Park, Pinewood, Buffum, Stratton Park, Drake, Buckhorn and Livermore, containing in 1908, a voting population of 663. It must be remembered that these are all mountain precincts and do not include any part of Jackson county.
The Livermore country was early recognized as the best grazing and stock raising section in North-
ern Colorado and nearly all of the first settlers were stockmen interested in either horses, cattle or sheep. It is bountifully watered by the Cache la Poudre river, the North fork, the North and South Lone Pine, Dale, Trail, Meadow, Rabbit and Stonewall creeks, besides numerous small branches of these streams, while numbers of open parks and grass covered hills and bluffs afford splendid pasturage. The bottom lands along the streams make fine meadows, from which thousands of tons of hay are cut annually. These advantages were not to be overlooked by the stockmen, hence they were the first to locate there and establish homes. Next to the arrival of Moore and Livernash in 1863, came Cyrus Godwin, a hunter, who located on what is now the Jack Currie ranch, in 1865. Jacob Cor- nelison, who spent the year 1863 in the Livermore country, says there were two Irishmen on the Milne place (now covered by the Halligan reservoir) who raised a crop of oats and potatoes and sold their products at Laporte for fabulous prices. William Calloway, who hunted here in 1861-2 and then went to Idaho, returned in 1867 and located on what is now known as the Cradock ranch, and in the spring of 1869 his brother, Martin and fam- ily came out from Indiana and settled on a ranch in Boxelder canon. Mrs. Calloway was the first white woman to venture into that section of the country. Her nearest white woman neighbor lived sixteen miles away. Mrs. Calloway is now a resi- dent of Fort Collins. Her husband died January 7, 1879, and she later married William Calloway, who died in 1891.
Horace and Charles Emerson spent the winter of 1869-70 in Coe & Carter's employ getting out railroad ties above the Rustic. Coe & Carter built the wagon road to the tie camp over which camp supplies were hauled. At this time Steve George, or "Dutch" George, and "French Pete" were truck gardening on what is now the Roberts Bros. ranch at the mouth of Lone Pine creek. Later "Dutch" George moved to the mouth of Elkhorn creek where he lived until 1878, when he was killed by a bear near Laramie Peak. His real name was George Neare.
In the spring of 1870, John Hardin and Fred Smith moved from Pleasant Valley into the moun- tains and settled on the ranches they still own on South Lone Pine creek, twenty-four miles west of the Livermore postoffice, both engaging in the cattle business and lumbering. Obenchain built a saw mill near them in 1872 and sold it to Smith in 1875. Quite a number of settlers located in the Livermore
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county in 1870 to engage in the stock raising busi- ness, including Charles Emerson, H. A. Keach, Sol- omon Batterson, John W. Calloway, Jacob Mitchell and others. In 1871, Stephen Moore sold the claim he and young Livernash located in 1863 to Russell Fisk. Just before that a weekly mail route had been established from Greeley to Livermore, and Moore was appointed postmaster, but had not received his commission when he transfered his property. Mr. Fisk was appointed in his place and was, therefore, Livermore's first postmaster. John Gordon of Greeley, was the first mail carrier. Before that the people of the Livermore country had to go to La- porte for their mail. Peter Huffsmith of Greeley secured the contract for carrying the mail after Gordon's time was out, and he put on a stage for the convenience of passengers, making three trips a week.
The Livermore school district was organized in 1871 and Mrs. Fisk taught the first school. She did not have many pupils, for the reason there were not many children in the country. Andrew Gil- christ located on the ranch at the mouth of Lone Pine canon now owned by Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Bellairs, in 1871. He sold it later to a Mr. Spencer who, in time, sold to George Burnham and from him it passed to Harry Gilpin-Brown, whose widow is the present Mrs. Bellairs. Gilchrist later went to Wyoming where he amassed a fortune in the sheep business. That year the Emerson Bros. embarked in the cattle business, in which they have continued to the present time with marked success. George Barlow started a blacksmith's shop at Stone- wall crossing in 1872. Lewis Wetzler settled on the Lone Pine in 1874 and he and Russell Fisk and R. O. Roberts were members of the school board that year. T. A. Gage bought the Crystal Springs ranch in 1874, and in 1876 he taught the Livermore school.
Mr. Fisk built a hotel and store on the ranch he bought of Moore and otherwise improved the pro- perty, and in 1874 leased the hotel to R. O. Roberts for one year. When the time was up Mr. Roberts built a hotel at the Forks. Clerin Woods kept bachelor's hall on the McNey place in 1874-5 and in 1876, John McNey, John H. Sargisson, and J. S. Sloan located in Livermore. Among the new comers between that time and 1880 were Alson Weymouth, George Burnham, L. H. Chase, D. W. Harned, Pierce Riddle, Asbury Riddle, M. L. Landes, S. B. Chaffee, F. K. Chaffee, A. H. Mor-
gan, D. M. Halligan, C. M. Chase and Andrew and John Brooker. The most prominent stock- men then were Emerson Bros., H. T. Miller, T. A. Gage, Asbury and Pierce Riddle, S. B. Chaffee, S. Batterson, A. H. Morgan, R. O. Roberts, Alson Weymouth, L. H. Chase, Moody & Buzzell, John S. Williams, John McNey, Bennett Bros., William Calloway, James and Daniel Hardin, John Hardin and D. M. Halligan. Some of these were operat- ing dairies, some engaged in horse raising and others in wool growing, but most of them were in the cattle business. Among those who settled in the Livermore country in the decade following 1880 were W. E. Tibbetts, J. Cornelison, George W. Seibert, William Parcell, William Poland, Harry Gilpin-Brown, A. H. Aldrich, Dayton Robinson, George Clark, B. A. Griffith, Levi Weymouth, John Pearce and Samuel Stearley. A hotel was built on the Elkhorn in 1876, and it was quite a famous summer resort for several years. The vener- able Henry T. West, one of the pioneers of Greeley, kept the hotel in 1879-80. The building was burned down in 1886. In the fall of 1886, W. P. Keays leased the Livermore hotel of Russell Fisk and managed it until 1890. That year the County Commissioners laid out a new road which crossed the North fork a quarter of a mile above the old Fisk crossing. William Brelsford built a new hotel, store and barn at the new crossing and the old Fisk hotel was abandoned. In 1891 James H. Swan bought the Brelsford property and soon after- wards built a hall where public gatherings were held. In 1898 a telephone line was extended to Livermore from Fort Collins and an exchange established in the store. Between the years 1890 and 1900, Frank Jones, H. A. Keach, Leslie Hors- ley, Charles Cradock, C. E. Peters and A. L. Johnson become residents of Livermore. In 1901 C. W. Ramer bought the hotel and store and kept them until December, 1909, when he sold them to Malcom Bellairs, the present proprietor.
On May 20th, 1904 a cloudburst on the Stone- wall watershed caused an unprecedented flood which did many thousands of dollars damage. It carried away a number of bridges, the North Fork ditch flume over Stonewall creek, and inundated all the bottom lands from the mouth of that stream to the mouth of the North Fork. Water three feet deep poured through the hotel and the public hall was carried away bodily and completely wrecked. A piano that was used in the hall was afterwards
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found near Bellvue, having floated down stream with the flood more than twenty miles. The bridges were soon replaced and Mr. Ramer built a larger and better hall.
The first couple married in Livermore was William Calloway and Mrs. Keach, but the date of the wedding is not recalled. It probably took place in the early seventies. The honors of being the first child born lies between a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Gordon and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Hardin, named Anna.
Among the Livermore Pioneers who have passed on to their reward are William Calloway, John Weymouth, S. B. Chaffee, John McNey, W. W. Lowery, A. H. Aldrich, D. M. Halligan, William Batterson, Dayton Robinson, Harry Gilpin-Brown, Charles Gilpin-Brown, C. R. Bullard, Robert Royston and Mrs. S. Batterson.
I am indebted for much of the data concerning the early history of Livermore to an excellent paper read before the Livermore Woman's Club by Mrs. A. H. Aldrich, March 10th, 1910.
In 1895, the General Assembly of Colorado ap- propriated $16,000 for use in constructing a State road from Bellvue, via Livermore and Ute Pass, to Walden, North Park, now the county seat of Jackson county. The road was built in 1896 and opened for travel in 1897. That year a mail route with a daily line of stages, was established between Fort Collins and Walden, but the stage line only remained in operation about a year and was then dis- continued. A postoffice, with S. J. Peery as post- master, was established at Westlake on the South Lone Pine about 25 miles west of Livermore, and this, too, was discontinued when the stage was pulled off the road.
Little Thompson Valley
The stream known as the Little Thompson rises at the base of two mountains, called the Twin Sis- ters. By their position they entirely cut the creek off from the waters of the Snowy Range, hence, as is well known in the summer months the Little Thompson furnishes but a meagre supply of water. This supply is now, however, supplemented by im- mense reservoirs in which the spring floods are stored for use later in the season, so that, at the present time, the entire valley, from the foothills to the east county line, is under a high state of cultivation, yielding prodigious crops of grain, potatoes, fruit,
hay and sugar beets. From the base of Twin Sisters, whose position is directly east of Long's Peak, the stream follows a winding course, the general direction of which is east until it crosses the line dividing Larimer and Weld counties and is soon thereafter merged in the Big Thompson, which empties into the South Platte a little south of the town of Evans. It follows a broad, natural basin, which is noted above all the country around for its deep, rich and very productive soil. Through this basin the creek has cut its crooked way, often to a depth of six and eight feet, without reaching the limit of the soil. In the early days, the Little Thompson was noted, too, on account of the large trees lining its banks, some of them attaining the dimension of 18 feet in circumference. For a decade or more after the first settlement the Little Thompson valley was an excellent stock range, the grasses here being unusually plentiful and nutritious. Among the first settlers of the valley were W. R. Blore and Culver & Mahoney. These men and David Lyken located in the valley near the course of the Little Thompson in 1866 and engaged quite extensively in the cattle business. At one time Cul- ver & Mahoney had as many as 3,000 head of cattle and horses on the range, but later, owing to the taking up of land by settlers and the narrowing of the range, they disposed of their herds and engaged in raising high grade cattle. They were brothers-in- law and came to the Little Thompson valley from the Home Falls mine in Boulder county. Mr. Lyken later became a noted live stock thief de- tective and had much to do in the early days in ridding the country of a class of undesirable citizens, many of whom found long homes in the state pen- itentiary. Culver & Mahoney's house was in Boulder county, but their barns, corrals and the most of their land was in Larimer county. Four miles down the creek from their ranch one William Stagg opened out a small cattle ranch, which later became the property of George Zweck of Long- mont. Two miles further down the stream James M. Eaglin located on a half section of land, on which he raised a crop of wheat, the first grain grown in the valley. Eaglin was quite a prominent man in the county, serving as County Superintend- ent from 1870 to 1872. In the summer of 1875 he sold his farm to John C. Ish, who shortly after- wards sold the west half of the tract to his brother- in-law, John W. Everhard. Mr. Ish early in the 90's sold his farm and moved to Fort Collins, which has since been his home, although he owns large
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stock and ranch interests in North Park. The market town of a wide extent of very productive Everhard farm still remains in the family. Eaglin went to North Park after selling his farm and re- engaged in mining. Later he was drowned while trying to ford Eagle river.
Mr. Ish came to Larimer county in 1869 and started a cattle ranch on the Buckhorn. Up to 1875 but few settlers located on land in the eastern part of the Little Thompson valley, but at that time there were quite a number west of the present railroad line. Among them was Lewis Cross, who was County Commissioner from 1878 to 1881; Preffer Bros; Krueger & Son; Hamlin; Henry and Hugo Hupp; Charlie Meining; Mr. Cronk and others, whose names we have been unable to obtain. Up to this time the principal industry was the running of cattle, only a few of the settlers giving any atten- tion to farming, but since that time no part of the county has developed more rapidly as a farming country than the Little Thompson valley. In 1876 there were about 2,000 bushels of grain raised in the valley; in 1877 about 6,000 bushels of wheat and oats, and in 1878 about 16,000 bushels. From this on the production of farm crops increased rapidly and within a decade thereafter of the wheat crop alone more than 200,000 bushels were mar- keted from the farms of the Little Thompson valley.
The Overland stage crossing was about a mile and a half up the stream from where the Colorado & Southern railroad bridge is now. Lewis Cross located in 1873 on a farm on the creek bottom im- mediately west of the railroad and the house he built on it is still standing. He was appointed the first postmaster of the Little Thompson post- office, an office he held for several years. In the fall of 1877, after the completion of the Colorado Central railroad (now the Colorado & Southern) from Denver to Cheyenne, the name of the post- office was changed to Berthoud, in honor of Capt. E. L. Berthoud of Golden, chief engineer, who laid out and established the line for the railroad. In 1877, Peter Turner, a Colorado pioneer, who had been successful at mining in Gilpin and Boulder counties, came to the Little Thompson valley and purchased a track of land on the bluff north of the creek, on which, in 1880, he laid off and platted the present town of Berthoud. The postoffice was soon afterwards moved to this point. To Mr. Turner belongs the honor of founding one of the prettiest as it is one of the most thrifty and pros- perous towns in Northern Colorado. It is the
farming country and has for more than twenty years, been the most extensive primary wheat mar- ket in Colorado. It has a population of about 800, with churches, high school, public halls, a newspaper, splendid water works and sewer sys- tem, flour mill, elevator, well graded streets and numerous handsome business houses and many fine private residences. Every line of business is repre- sented, and it is the shipping point for thousands of head of fat cattle, hogs and sheep annually, in ad- dition to grain, flour, foodstuffs, fruit and other farm products. Berthoud is situated 18 miles di- rectly south of Fort Collins, the county seat.
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