USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 41
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FIRST BRICK HOUSE BUILT IN FORT COLLINS
Masons, who used it for a lodge room until 1885. Mr. Matthews retired from the firm in 1874 and Mr. Stover continued the business until 1880, when he sold it to the Fort Collins Mercantile Company, composed of himself, Albert B. Tomlin and others, relinquishing the management to Mr. Tomlin. From the time that Mr. Stover located here, in 1870, until the Agricultural Colony came, in 1872, there was but little change either in the appearance or business affairs of the town. There were a few additions to the population, otherwise conditions re- mained about the same as they had been for several years, unless we except the location of the Colorado Agricultural College here by an act of the Terri- torial Legislature, passed in 1871. The bill for this act was introduced by Hon. Mathew S. Taylor, who represented the county in that Legislature, and who secured its passage and approval. The history of the rise and growth of this excellent institution is given in detail elsewhere in this book.
Agricultural Colony
Perhaps the most notable event in the early day history of Fort Collins was the location here in the fall of 1872 of what was known as the "Agricultu- ral Colony." This project originated with General
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R. A. Cameron, First Vice-President and Superin- tendent of the Greeley Colony and he, aided by several members of that Colony and a number of local citizens, carried it into effect. Circular No. 1, issued December 9th by the promoters, gives the names of the officers and trustees as follows:
President and Superintendent, Gen. R. A. Came- ron; Vice-President, John C. Matthews; Secre- tary and Treasurer, William E. Pabor; Trustees : Judge A. F. Howes, Jared L. Brush, Rev. E. Hollister, Hon. J. M. Sherwood, B. H. Eaton, Col. J. E. Remington, N. H. Meldrum, E. W. Whit- comb, Jacob Welch, B. T. Whedbee, Joseph Mason.
After describing the location, its resources and ad- vantages, climate, scenery, etc., it goes on and sets out the inducements to become a member in the following language:
"Any person may join the Fort Collins Agri- cultural Colony who is possessed of a good moral character by the purchase from the Secretary and Treasurer by draft or money order on Greeley, Colorado, or by registered letter, of a certificate of membership. These certificates are graded as fol- lows: $50.00, $150.00 and $250.00. A $50.00 membership will entitle the holder to locate one town lot, appraised at not more than $100; a $150 membership will entitle the holder to locate a busi- ness lot and a residence lot, or in lieu thereof, a piece of outlying land, or a water right for a government or railroad 80-acre tract; a $250 membership will entitle the holder to locate a business lot, a residence lot and an outlying tract of land, or in place of the latter, a water right to a government or railroad 80-acre tract. Business lots will be appraised from $100 to $300; residence lots from $50 to $150. The lands immediately adjoining town will be subdivided into 10, 20 and 40-acre tracts. The town is being laid out with streets 100 feet wide and avenues 140 feet wide. Blocks will be 400 feet square; business lots will be 25 by 190 feet; resi- dence lots will be 50 and 100 feet front by 190 feet deep.
"As soon as the lots and lands are surveyed one- fifth will be opened for selection at a drawing of which public notice will be given. The second fifth will be opened for drawing on the first Tues- day in April, 1873; the third fifth on the second Tuesday in May, 1873; the fourth fifth on the first Tuesday in October, 1873, and the final drawing for the balance on the second Tuesday in May, 1874."
Speaking of some of the important plans of the colony the circular says :
"Choice locations are reserved for a college, sem- inary, graded schools and for church buildings for each religious denomination, for a first-class hotel, county buildings and for other public buildings, for public parks, for a zoological garden and for a cemetery. It will be the special care of the Colony to make this point a superior one for educational facilities."
Speaking of what the town then contained, what was wanted and what not wanted, the circular adds :
"We have at present a postoffice, a grist mill, two stores, a drug store, two blacksmith shops, a harness shop and two small hotels.
"What we need immediately are a good county newspaper with a press for job work; a saw mill and planer; a hardware store; a furniture store; a wagon shop; a livery stable; a number of good stores; a bank, and any quantity of farmers, me- chanics and industrious people.
"What we do not want is whiskey saloons or gambling halls. There is not a place in the county where liquor is legally or publically sold as a bever- age, neither do we intend that there shall if we can help it."
Commenting upon this new colony the Denver Times of December 9th, 1872, said :
"A new Colony movement has been organized for the northern part of Colorado, having for its cen- tral point Fort Collins, lately a military reservation upon the Cache la Poudre river, some 25 miles west of Greeley. The old town settlement is to be ab- sorbed in the new movement and some 3,000 acres of land adjoining are to be sub-divided into 10, 20 and 40-acre lots for the benefit of the colonists. Out- side of this are thousands of acres of government and railroad land, upon which settlements can be made for the benefit of farmers, stockmen, dairymen and others interested in kindred pursuits. The colony is formed upon somewhat the same principle as the Greeley and the Colorado Springs colonies, and has identified with it as Trustees such men as Judge A. F. Howes, Probate Judge of Larimer County, Hon. J. M. Sherwood, member of the Territorial Board of Immigration for the Territory, Rev. E. Hollister, of the Greeley Colony, and other gentle- men of position and influence in Larimer and Weld counties. It has for its location one of the finest agricultural valleys in the territory. The Agricult- ural College of Colorado is located here and for Eastern agriculturists looking for new homes, no finer point can be presented for settlement. In- formation concerning the new colony can be had by addressing the Secretary, W. E. Pabor, Esq., at
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Fort Collins. General Cameron is President and these two gentlemen cannot fail to make this new colony a great success, as their efforts at Greeley and Colorado Springs amply attest."
The immediate effect of this Colony movement was the infusion of new blood by the addition of several hundred people to the population of the town, the erection of many buildings, an increase in business enterprises and an improvement in the tone
JUDGE BOUTON'S LAW OFFICE, BUILT IN DECEMBER, 1872
of society in general. At the first drawing of lots, held in December, there were many present to take their chances with the wheel of fortune. Among the lucky ones at the drawing who have since figured quite extensively in the history of the development of Fort Collins were Jacob Welch, Franklin C. Avery, Judge Jay H. Bouton and Marcus Coon. Mr. Welch drew two lots at the corner of College and Mountain avenues where the Welch block now stands. Mr. Avery the lot next north of the Welch lots, and Judge Bouton the lots next north of Mr. Avery's, and Marcus Coon the lots at the corner of Mountain avenue and Mason street,
where the postoffice and the Fort Collins Express office now stand. One-fifth of the lots were dis- posed of at the drawing.
The old town had been surveyed practically on lines parallel with the course of the river and the new town platted by the colony was laid out square with the world-that is, its streets run east and west and north and south. When the two towns were hitched together, a good many sharp angles in the streets appeared on the plat. This caused con- siderable confusion to strangers. There was one house in the new town when the drawing was held, and that stood on the triangle now occupied by the Avery block.
It was owned and occupied by Thomas P. Hol- land, and was moved away thirty years ago.
At the close of the drawing a rush was started to get the first building constructed, and Judge Bouton won out, doing much of the work himself. This building was occupied at first by Judge Bou- ton as a law office and in 1874-5 by the Standard, the second newspaper started in Fort Collins. "Auntie" Stone's old mess house was moved to the corner of Mountain avenue and Mason street and added to and made a part of the Agricultural hotel built that year by Coon & Scranton.
The opening of the spring of 1873 witnessed the influx of many people seeking homes in Fort Collins and also a great deal of building activity. New homes and new business blocks went up al- most like magic, and the demand for building mater- ial and mechanics far exceeded the supply. Several good substantial brick business blocks were built on Jefferson street, including the A. K. & E. B. Yount bank building, Stover & Matthews' store, Joseph Mason's store, and others. Jacob Welch built a large frame veneered with brick at the corner of College and Mountain avenues in which he opened an extensive general store. This building was burned down on Feb. 3rd, 1880, and two young people employed as clerks in the store lost their lives in the conflagration. Their names were Miss Tillie Irving and Mr. A. F. Hopkins. The fire broke out about midnight when they were asleep in their rooms on the second floor and the flames spread so rapidly that they were unable to escape from the building. Mr. and Mrs. Welch were also asleep in another part of the second floor and barely missed the fate of the two young people by jumping from a window to the ground. This untoward event cast a gloom over the community, for besides the horrible fate of Miss Irving and Mr. Hopkins, the
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property loss amounted to a good many thousand dollars.
In the winter of 1872-3 "Uncle Ben" Whedbee moved his store building and public hall from the corner of Jefferson and Linden streets to the cor- ner of College and Mountain avenues on to the ground now occupied by the First National bank building. "Uncle Ben" kept a small general store, including a few drugs and patent medicines and his desertion of the "old town" for the new town, caused considerable sectional feeling, which was the beginning of an "old" and "new" town fight which raged with a good deal of bitterness for more than twenty-five years, and it crops out now and then even to this day. It was the "old town" against the "new" in about everything that came up- politics included-but fortunately no tragedies ever grew out of it. There were, however, numer- ous personal conflicts among the adherents of the two factions, but they were none of them of a serious nature. This antagonism retarded the growth of the town for a few years, for new comers were loath to settle here and take sides in a sec- tional controversy and therefore went elsewhere. The feeling was so strong that measures intended for the public good inaugurated and supported by the "old town" were opposed by the "new" town through jealousy, and vice versa. It was thus that the colony movement which was designed to build up a thriving and prosperous town and make it the chief commercial center of the Cache la Poudre valley practically failed of its purpose for the time being. Nevertheless the spring of 1873 witnessed the arrival of several families and the work of providing dwellings for them and of erecting busi- ness houses went on at a lively rate of speed. Con- tracts for constructing No. 2 irrigating canal through which to water the bluff lands south and west of town was let to B. H. Eaton and John C. Abbott, who completed the work in 1874. The town ditch was built in 1873 by A. R. Chaffee.
On the 3rd of February, 1873, the Board of Commissioners for Larimer County granted the petition of citizens for a town government and appointed B. T. Whedbee, G. G. Blake, H. C. Peterson, W. C. Stover and W. S. Vescelius to act as the first Board of Trustees, until an election for such officers could be held. On the following day, February 4th, the Trustees met and organized by electing B. T. Whedbee, President; Joseph E. Shipler, Town Clerk, and Daniel O. Davis, Con- stable. The first important piece of business trans- acted by the board was to authorize the making of
a road from the north end of College avenue to the river, provided the County Commissioners built a bridge over the river at the intersection. Later the Commissioners appropriated $1,200 for the bridge and the road was built. At the next meeting of the Trustees, the old post burying ground located on the high ground where the fed- eral building is to be erected, was declared a nuis- ance and ordered abandoned. The bodies were taken up and removed to the new cemetery, southeast of the town. A six mill tax was levied and lots in the center of the colony were assessed at $30 each, while land acreage property was valued at from $20 to $25 per acre.
At the town election held in April, 1873, there were 23 votes cast. The Trustees elected were the same as the ones appointed by the County Com- missioners in February. Joseph E. Shipler was elected Town Clerk; Albert Yale, Street Super- visor and E. L. Peterson, Constable. L. R. Rhodes was appointed Town Attorney by the Trustees. The first bill allowed and ordered paid was pre- sented April 25th by C. S. Hayden and called for $136 for services rendered in surveying and platting Mountain Home Cemetery. The Larimer County Land Improvement Company was given permission to erect and operate a saw mill at the north end of Linden street.
One of the most important events that occurred in April, 1873, was the establishment of the Larimer County Express, the first newspaper published in the county. On Mountain avenue, a few feet east of where the Masonic temple now stands, a small frame building with a shed roof, had been erected. A printing press and a quantity of second-hand type purchased in Cheyenne and moved down by team was installed in this building, and on the 26th day of April the first number of the paper was issued, with Joseph S. McClelland as proprietor, editor and publisher. The first edition contained quite an extensive "write-up" of Larimer county and was circulated far and wide to advertise the pos- sibilities of its adopted home.
Unfortunately for the good of this book and future searchers after facts concerning the early his- tory of Larimer county, the files of the Express from the first issue down to 1880, were wantonly destroyed by fire and many valuable and import- ant records of interesting early incidents were blot- ted out. A more detailed account of the rise and progress of Larimer county newspapers, including the Express, will appear elsewhere in this volume.
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Another important event of that year, but which was not so beneficent in results as the founding of the Express, was the establishment of the first bank in Larimer county. A young man named Harry Tutton, son of a Greeley colonist, came here in the spring and opened a bank in a small frame building which stood a little back from the street near where the Owl drug store now stands. For a few months the bank flourished and proved a great convenience to the settlers. Unfortunately for that institution and its trusting depositors, a financial panic, one of the worst known, swept over the country and carried down banks and business houses by the hundreds. Among others Mr. Tutton's bank. He had deposited his surplus funds with a Denver bank. One day, during the height of the financial storm, Mr. Tutton went to Denver, os- tensibly to withdraw his deposits, and never re- turned. His bank remained closed and its affairs were afterwards wound up. This failure absorbed most of the money in the county and wiped out the accumulations of a number of depositors of money they needed to tide them over until a crop could be raised. In verification of the saying that mis- fortunes never come singly, the grasshoppers, right on the heels of the bank failure, dropped down upon the country in great swarms. They spread over the farms and devoured the growing grain and vegetables, leaving the country destitute of food and the means for obtaining it. It was a gloomy period in the history of the county and embryo town. Many became discouraged and left the coun- try and progress in the work of development suf- fered severely. Others, however, with stouter hearts, more courage and more means came from the East to take their places, so that growth was not altogether retarded. The second and third years of the grasshopper scourge found the settlers better prepared to fight them and protect their crops from devastation. Through the use of various methods for accomplishing the destruction of the unwelcome invaders, the farmers were enabled to harvest, not all, but a fair share of their crops. Since 1876 the country has not been troubled with these migratory pests, and not an entire crop failure has occurred. It is useless to dwell at greater length upon this gloomy period in the history of Larimer county. Suffice it to say, that most of those who remained and those who came here in the dark grasshopper days, lived through the plague and have prospered and become firmly established amid peace and plenty.
Ordinance No. 1, relating to buildings and chim- neys, was passed and adopted by the Board of Town Trustees on May 30th, 1873. This was the begin- ning of the enactment of laws and ordinances for the government of the town of Fort Collins. On the same date an ordinance (No. 2) was passed and adopted prohibiting the granting of licenses for the sale of vinous, spirituous and intoxicating liquors in the town of Fort Collins, druggists excepted. Sev-
HARDVARET
FURNITURE
JEFFERSON STREET IN 1874
eral other ordinances were passed and adopted at the same meeting, including or relating to auction- eers and regulating the use of fire-arms in the town.
On July 20th W. S. Vescelius was appointed Fire Warden for the town. The first bill for print- ing, amounting to the sum of $20.50, was allowed and ordered paid to J. S. McClelland, editor of the Express, on Sept. 5th, 1873. Unpaid town war- rants at that time drew 12 per cent interest per annum.
On Feb. 27, 1874, the trustees ordered vacated forty feet on the north side of Riverside avenue from block "G" to the east line of the corporation ; also forty feet on the east side of Lincoln avenue. The vacation of the forty-foot strip on the north side of Riverside avenue is what caused the trouble when the Union Pacific sought a right of way over that avenue into the city in 1910, and which, in the end, cost the county several thousand dollars, paid
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for private property, on the south side of the avenue for use in widening that thoroughfare. On March 16th, 1874, Messrs. Marcus Coon, J. H. Brad- street and Lorenzo Snyder were appointed judges to conduct the spring election. Joseph E. Shipler was allowed $31 for services rendered as Clerk, Treasurer and Assessor for the year ending April 6th, 1874. This indicates that Mr. Shipler's duties could not have been onerous at that time. Notice of the spring election was ordered published in the Fort Collins Standard. At this election, held April 7th, the following officers were chosen: Trustees, Messrs. A. H. Patterson, W. C. Stover, H. C. Peterson, A. K. Yount and Marcus Coon; Treas- urer, B. T. Whedbee; Clerk, J. E. Shipler; Street Supervisor, F. C. Avery; Justice of the Peace, Ammi Smith; Constable, F. C. Thomason. On April 13th, Constable Thomason's official bond, signed by O. C. Peck and T. M. Roberts, and Clerk Shipler's bond, signed by Charles Boettcher and Abner Loomis, as sureties, were approved. The standing committees of the Board were:
On finance: Stover, Patterson and Coon. On streets, alleys and bridges: Peterson, Patterson and Stover. On public grounds and buildings: Patter- son, Coon and Peterson. A. K. Yount was elected President of the Board, and O. P. Yelton was ap- pointed Justice of the Peace in place of Ammi Smith, who failed to qualify. The official bond of F. C. Avery as Street Supervisor, signed by Joseph Mason, J. H. Bouton and William Sullivan as sureties, was approved. The contract for doing the public printing for the year was awarded to Bouton & Sullivan of the Standard. J. H. Bouton was ap- pointed Town Attorney for the year. One and a half mills was the tax levy for the town. On July 1st, F. C. Avery, Street Supervisor, reported that forty-five citizens had worked out their street tax and eleven had paid the tax in money and thirty- five were delinquent.
On October 2nd a petition, signed by sixty-eight citizens, was presented asking that the liquor ordi- nance be repealed. The request was refused by a vote of three nays and one aye. Those voting nay were Stover, Patterson and Peterson; aye, Coon.
The No. 3, or town ditch, built in 1873 on high ground along the west side of the townsite, began to be a good deal of a nuisance through seepage. During the irrigating season when the ditch was filled to its capacity the water soaked through the porous soil and came to the surface in the lower portion of the town, causing marshes and swamps. The ground on both sides of Laporte avenue was
covered with standing water, so much so that people had to cross on raised plank walks to get to the Methodist church, which stood a little west of the present C. & S. passenger station. The ground on the south side of Mountain avenue, between Mason street and College avenue, where the Masonic tem- ple stands, was also a swamp of standing water, breeding places for miasma and mosquitoes. At last these conditions became unbearable and the Town Trustees were appealed to to abate the nuisance. This body, at the first meeting, in January, 1875, inaugurated a movement on the petition of Dr. T. M. Smith, M. E. Hocker, Abner Loomis, W. H. Trimble, L. R. Rhodes and others, to provide for a system of drainage that would carry off this seepage water and result in reclaiming the land covered by it. Beyond ordering the ditch and its laterals cleaned out and repaired but little else was done. This was done, but it did not help matters much, and the conditions complained of remained practi- cally unimproved until the city constructed the Mountain avenue sewer in 1886. This sewer and others that were constructed later carried off the offending water and reclaimed the property covered by it. Since then the city has not been troubled by seepage water from the town ditch.
On February 5th A. K. Yount resigned as President of the Board and W. C. Stover was elected to succeed him. For the spring election in 1875, B. T. Whedbee, J. C. Matthews and S. D. Luke were appointed judges. At this election, held April 5th, ninety-seven votes were cast, and Marcus Coon, S. D. Luke, B. T. Whedbee, G. G. Blake and Albert Yale received the highest number of votes for Trustees and were declared elected. Joseph Shipler was elected Clerk, John Schenk, Constable, and W. S. Vescelius, Street Supervisor. S. D. Luke was chosen President of the Board of Trustees, and Jay H. Bouton, Town Attorney. The printing contract for that year was awarded to J. S. McClelland. The tax levy that year was five mills on the dollar. On the 5th of October the anti-license ordinance was repealed and T. J. Wil- son given a license to sell beer, wines and liquors. His was the first saloon legalized in Fort Collins, and his license cost him $150.
Up to this time the town tax had been assessed by the Town Clerk and collected by the Constable, and, as there was some doubt about the legality of the town organization, many refused to pay the amount of town taxes assessed against them, so that the collector had more or less trouble in making collections. It often occurred that as much as fifty
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per cent of the levy was delinquent, leaving the town without funds needed for contingent expenses and for public improvements. In many instances it would have done no good to try to enforce collec- tions, as the delinquent tax-payers would stand suit rather than pay and this would have cost the town
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SHETLAND FALLS, ROARING CREEK
more than the amount of the tax. At last, the Ter- ritorial Legislature passed a law requiring the County Treasurer to collect all taxes, including the town's proportion of the levy.
An apathetic feeling seemed to prevail with re- gard to town affairs, partly due, no doubt, to a re- peal of the anti-saloon ordinance and the granting of licenses to sell liquors, as there was then a strong but unorganized sentiment against the open saloon, and partly to the unsatisfactory condition of town affairs. This feeling manifested itself at the April
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