USA > Colorado > Larimer County > History of Larimer County, Colorado > Part 82
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LEONIDAS LOOMIS is a native of Pleasant Valley, Larimer county, born July 20th, 1863. He was the second white boy born in the Cache la Poudre valley and the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Abner Loomis. He was educated in the public schools and at the State Agricultural college, graduating there- from in 1884, with the first class to receive diplomas from that institution. He then engaged in the cattle business in Wyoming, finally selling out and returning to Fort Collins. He married Lovina Hayes in 1902, and then spent a few years on a stock ranch in North Park. He is now a prosperous Caché la Poudre valley farmer.
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Sao B, arthur 1
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
JAMES B. ARTHUR .- The "Great American trust, but there were from four to five months each year that low water in the river kept the steamers tied to the levees and James went on to the Great lakes so as not to be idle and exhaust his earnings. He first steamboated on lake Erie between Buffalo and Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit and there he was also known as a trustworthy, reliable employe; and many positions of trust he held. The panic of 1857 decided Mr. Arthur's future. That great financial disaster paralyzed all industry and plunged the whole country east of the Missouri river in gloom. Realizing that hard times would hold all business in its grip for months, Mr. Arthur went to Kansas City where his brother John lived. That was in 1858. The gold strike in Gregory gulch took Desert" extended from the Missouri river to the California line as depicted in Mitchell's geography and atlas. It was thought by early explorers to be an almost arid waste, thousands of square miles in extent and unfitted for the habitations of civilized men, yet time has proved the utter falsity of that statement as it often proves the errors of history. The gold excitement of 1849 was the beckoning finger of thousands and the Plains were covered with wagons bearing their human freight and household goods to California. Five years later gold, that lure for all men, was found in Gregory gulch, Nebraska territory, afterwards Colorado. The human tide was checked in its roll to the Pacific and stopped at the new find, till but a few months elapsed when that , possession of him and he with several others section of our state had a goodly number of hardy started across the Plains with oxen and wagons and plenty of provisions. James B. Arthur was a money maker. He was shrewd, far seeing and bold in undertaking. Arriving in Colorado during the gold fever height he staid around Gregory gulch for a few weeks doing his share at placer mining. But he plainly saw that washing or mining for gold was a speculation and that there were far more blanks than prizes in the drawing. He did not expect to get rich in a day, month, or year, but he did aim to acquire a competence, something that would pay him for time and trouble spent and for that reason gold mining did not appeal to him. Hay at the camps was worth from $75 to $150 a ton and the public domain-the Plains-were covered with rich buffalo and gramma grass. Having teams and wagons he saw a better chance to make money in hay than at placer mining and he went on to the white men, men who staid and reared families, till today it ranks high in the sisterhood union. Among those who came afoot, on horseback or with ox team was James B. Arthur, reaching the promised land in the month of June 1860. This young man was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, March, 1835. His progenitors were Scotch Highlanders and, like thousands of their neighbors, they had to seek shelter in other lands, owing to the religious and civil wars that swept over Auld Scotia for so many years. The Arthurs were Presbyterians, a stalwart breed that would worship God as they pleased, even if to do so they had to wield claymore, dirk or pike. They were kin to those who settled in the North and South Carolinas, crossed the Alleghenies, spread over Kentucky and the Ohio bottoms; the men who conquered the wilderness from its savage possessors and finally ended all British pretentions to the United States by whipping Packingham and his red-coated veterans of a hundred battles at New Orleans. And James B. Arthur was a good type of his clan. At fourteen years of age he left his native town and took passage on the Cathnesshire. He was bound for Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where a sister resided. The youngster staid in "The Smoky City" for a few months, working in a store, but the river life had attractions for him that he could not resist. In those days the floating palaces that plied between Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans and intermediate ports were the chosen means of travel and they afforded just the excitement for a full blooded, hardy, daring boy. All through late fall, winter and early spring young Arthur made his trips and by his honesty and atten- tion to business he was promoted to positions of
prairie, put up his tent and with assistance the grass was cut and dried and when cut was baled. Scythes and hand rakes were used and hard work it proved to be, but it meant money. There were no mowing machines or hay balers in Colorado those days and everything done was on the primitive order. A box was used as a baler. This was about 3 by 6 feet, and from 4 to 5 feet high. Ropes were placed at end and sides, inside this crude affair; hay was pitched in and a man tramped it down till the box was filled, then the ropes were hauled taut and tied. This plan kept the hay in place and for hauling to points of destination was far superior to loose hay on a rack. But the loads were too bulky for their weight and Mr. Arthur put in practice a method he had seen hundreds of times on the Mississippi river at New Orleans. He obtained an old cotton press and put it to use. He and John Hahn, now
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HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
of Loveland, were the first men to use this machine in Colorado and it paid them for they put as much hay in half the space as by the box method, con- sequently they could haul more and in better shape. Mr. Arthur had located a claim on the Caché la Poudre, when he engaged in the hay business, situated a few miles below the present site of Fort Collins. It was a lonely spot. The neighbors could be counted on the fingers of one hand and the nearest one was miles away. In this connec- tion it is well to note the effort of government that then prevailed in the Poudre and Big Thompson valleys among the ranchers. There being no regular form a Claim Club had been organized with by-laws and officers and all questions in dispute were settled by it. The justice of the peace (one of the officers) gave his decision first, then it was given to the president of the club and how he decided was con- sidered final. A great many people labor under the impression that the territory before being named Colorado was a part of Kansas. This is an error as the following copy of the certificate for the land located by Mr. Arthur will show:
Claim 63,
Book A, Page 32, Club record, J. B. Arthur, 160 acres. Colona City, N. T., July 25, 1860. William G. Goodwin, Recorder.
N. T. stands for Nebraska territory, so Colorado was partitioned off from Nebraska instead of from Kansas. From farming Mr. Arthur developed into a stock man, buying his first bunch of cattle in Mis- souri and trailing them across the Plains. Years after he went to New Mexico, Wyoming, Oregon, Utah, and Idaho after stock and at times owned 5,000 head. At that business he made the bulk of his fortune. But in the early '80's he saw that the open range was doomed and he sold every hoof in 1883, then devoted his time and money to other pursuits. He invested in irrigation ditch proposi- tions, bought and sold land; he became an active member of the Empson Packing company of Long- mont; also bought and opened to trade the gypsum beds at Red Butte, Wyoming; and organized the
Rocky Mountain Plaster, Stucco and Manufac- turing company. He was director of the Poudre Valley bank for years and its vice-president at his death. While not a politician, Mr. Arthur was a staunch believer in good government and honest officials. He never truckled to those high in au- thority, nor curried public favor. In those early days Governor Evans, appreciating his solid worth, appointed him to the Board of Commissioners to perfect the organization of Larimer county, and on the expiration of his term he was twice elected to succeed himself. He was also a member of Fort Collins council for two terms; mayor for one term ; and state senator to fill a vacancy. He was a zealous worker in Masonry and for years he was a member of all the Masonic orders in Fort Collins. Also a member of El Jebel Mystic Shrine of Den- ver; and a member of De Molay Commandery No. 13, K. T. of Fort Collins, Colorado. He held many Masonic offices, serving as Master of lodge No. 19 A. F. & A. M., Fort Collins; Eminent Commander of the commandery of that city. Mr. Arthur was also an ardent Episcopalian and worked for years as vestryman in the upbuilding of St. Luke's church in his home town. James B. Arthur was married to Mary A. Kelley in Bay City, Michigan, in the early spring of 1870, and there is a thread of romance to this tale of true love. The couple knew each other in 1855 and in time there grew an at- tachment. When he determined to go west and seek his fortune they plighted their troth, but it was nearly twelve years before they again met, though a correspondence was kept up between them and when the marriage tie made them one they were as one-through the years they lived together -till death called him hence, August 11, 1905. James B. Arthur was one of Nature's noblemen. There was not a more conscientious man. He de- tested a liar; had no use for the fellow given to sharp, questionable practices; but was a staunch, steadfast friend to those who proved their worth, no matter whether they were poor or rich. He was fearless, but not rash, and no matter whether in a mining camp in a city or town or on the cattle drive, he stood by his principles and never weakened, no matter how strong the opposition. And those days when he was constantly on the move he was welcome to all camp fires and his word was as good as negotiable paper from Oregon to the Missouri, from Mexico to the Canadian line. And as he lived so he died-a brave and honest gentleman.
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PRESIDENTS OF THE COLORADO STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
ELMER E. EDWARDS ALSTON ELLIS
CHARLES A. LORY
CHARLES L. INGERSOLL BARTON O. AYLESWORTH
HISTORY OF LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
Work of the Colorado Agricultural College
S UPPLEMENTARY to the very concise and accurate history of the Colorado Agri- cultural college, located at Fort Collins, which appears elsewhere in this volume, a brief sketch of its present organization and work may be of interest and value to the reader. The influences of the modern college are not confined to the class room, to the student body, nor to its campus, but reach out in many directions, and mani- fest themselves along many lines of endeavor. This is especially true of the Colorado Agricultural col- lege, organized, as it is, not alone for the training and education of the youth of the state along prac- tical and industrial lines, but also for the investiga- tion and solution of the many prob' - which are constantly arising in every phase of the agricultural industry, and which in an irrigated country are often new and strange, and for carrying the in- formation thus obtained and the facts thus demon- strated to the homes of the people by the means of bulletins, lectures and institutes held at central points in the agricultural portions of the State. This three fold work of the college may be char- acterized as educational, research work and exten- sion work.
The educational work of the college has been defined by the two Morrill Bills, under which it received its land grant, and its annual donations of money from the National Government, for giv- ing instruction in the following topics: Military Tactics, Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts, the English Language, Economics and the various branches of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences. These requirements, which have assumed the nature of a contract between the State of Colo- rado and the National Government, are being faith- fully carried out by the college, both in letter and spirit. The division of Agriculture offers courses in Agronomy, Animal Husbandry, Entomology, For- estry and Horticulture. The studies of the first two years of these courses are identical, specializa- tion in the respective courses being with the junior year. The instruction in this division is designed to meet the needs of two classes of students-those who desire to take up some branch of farming as a business pursuit in life, and those who desire to be- come agricultural experts, teachers or investigators.
The facilities in these various lines are ample and complete. The great college farm, the college herds, the Government horse breeding plant, the insect collections in the museum, which number 75,000 specimens, not to mention the numerous buildings, with their highly equipped class rooms and laboratories are all aids to the work of the student. Furthermore the college is surrounded by the most highly cultivated and productive agri- cultural region in all Colorado, where agriculture by irrigation has reached its highest and best de- velopment, and the student is therefore afforded ample opportunity for observation and practical experience. For in Colorado, as in all the states of the Rocky Mountain west, agriculture in all of its varied forms rests upon irrigation, and it there- fore becomes a highly specialized science. In addi- tion to the knowledge required of the average far- mer in the humid states,- the farmer, orchardist or gardener, in the arid west, must understand the use of water in the production of crops-when to apply it, its use on different soils, the amount re- quired in the varying soils, altitudes and climatic conditions of different seasons-the proper prepara- tions of the fields for the successful application of water, the proper construction of ditches and later- als for its most economical and intelligent dis- tribution-in brief agriculture by irrigation is in itself a science which must be mastered in order to assure the most profitable results. Instruction is given to include these special conditions. No other institution is so advantageously situated for giving instruction in arid, high altitude and irrigated agri- culture.
The division of Mechanic Arts includes courses in civil and irrigation engineering, in electrical engineering and in mechanical engineering. The studies for the first two years are the same, special- ization beginning with the junior year, considerable freedom being allowed in the choice of studies dur- ing the junior and senior years. These courses are given in an especially thorough manner-a strong faculty, fine buildings, excellent equipment, library facilities and opportunities for practical work, all combining to furnish the student with opportuni- ties not surpassed by any institution in the Inter- mountain West. The best evidence of the admir-
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HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
able work that is being done in this division is the recognition given it by the National Govern- ment in the preference shown its graduates for posi- tions in the Reclamation Service, and other branches of engineering work being carried on under Federal authority and supervision. In these positions the graduates of the Agricultural college are making good, and demonstrating in their work the thor- oughness and excellence of the instruction they re- ceive during their college life. That the graduates of the college are thus enabled to step into re- sponsible and paying situations from the day of graduation constitutes a controlling reason why young men should avail themselves of the advant- ages which these courses offer to them and vin- dicates the claim made in behalf of practical and industrial education.
The Division of General Science and Home Economics is especially designed for young women and offers a broad cultural course in science, liter- ature and language, as well as a more technical course in home economics. As in the other di- visions, the studies of the first two years are the same in both courses, being basic in their character, specialization beginning in the junior year, with a liberal choice of electives in the senior year, and five credits allowed for music in the requirements for graduation. When it is stated that ninety per cent of the women in the United States do their own house work, the need of training in all matters that relate to the conduct of the home, and the activities that center about it, need hardly be pointed out. The problems of the home are fundamental in National health, wealth and character. National strength, greatness and prosperity rests upon the homes and home life of its people, and as this is pure and wholesome, well regulated and intelli- gently managed and conducted, so will all the arts of civilization be the better conserved and free in- stitutions the more surely perpetuated. Hence the importance of this course for the young women of Colorado and the west, and for which the Agri- cultural college offers unusual facilities, especially since the completion of its new, handsome and com- modious Hall of Household Arts, the gift of Sena- tor Simon Guggenheim. Particularly should this course command the attention of those who con- template following teaching as a profession since the demand for teachers of home economics is greater than the supply, and the graduates in this line of work are sought after as dietitians, lecturers in college extension work; managers of tea rooms; and demonstrators for college or club work.
The division of Veterinary Science offers a three year course of nine months each to students who wish to fit themselves for the practice of veterinary medicine. The course is based upon the require- ments of the United States Bureau of Animal In- dustry, and for thoroughness of instruction both theoretical and practical, is not surpassed by that of any institution in the whole country. It as- sures its graduates an honorable and profit- able life vocation, the opportunities for the veterinary practitioner being both numerous and varied, including not private practice alone, in which there are many inviting fields, but posi- tions as veterinarians in United States cavalry regi- ments, as investigators and inspectors in the Gov- ernment Bureau of Animal Industry and as in- structors in agricultural colleges, and as inspectors and executive officers under the quarantine and health laws and ordinances of states, towns and cities.
Under these various divisions are grouped numer- ous departments which bear a more or less intimate relation to all of them, and in which special lines of instruction are given, all basic in their character, and all bearing upon the general work of the col- lege. These are the departments of Agronomy, whose instruction relates especially to soils, plant breeding, crops, and farm management; of Ani- mal Husbandry with its instruction in the breeds of live stock, their care, feeding and propagation, dairy farming, etc., of veterinary science; of bot- any and forestry; of chemistry and geology; of civil and irrigation engineering; of English and history ; of entomology and zoology; of home eco- nomics; of horticulture; of language; of mathe- matics; of mechanical engineering; of physics and electrical engineering.
The Military department exists in accordance with the requirements of the Morrill bill of 1862, which enacts that military science and tactics shall be taught in all agricultural colleges. In accord- ance with this act, the Military department of the college has always been maintained upon the high- est basis of efficiency and forms one of the most useful and attractive features of the student's life. As the military drill affords physical training for the young men, so a physical training department is also maintained for young women.
The Conservatory of Music furnishes carefully prepared courses of study in each of the various branches taught, commencing with the most ele- mentary in each specific branch and carrying its students through to the last stages of a finished
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MEMBERS OF THE COLORADO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, A. D. 1911
HON. A. A. EDWARDS
HON, JOHN C. BELL
HON. JARED L. BRUSH HON. E. M. AMMONS
HON. FRANKLYN E. BROOKS HON. R. W. CORWIN
HON. T. J. EHRHART
HON. CHAS. PEARSON
DR. CHARLES A. LORY AND GOVERNOR JOHN F. SHAFROTH EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
HISTORY OF
LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO
musical education. Musical education in the West has steadily advanced so that the advantages are greater at home than in the East.
Special mention need not be made of the library with its 38,000 volumes and 25,000 pamphlets, of the laboratories or the museum, all of which are supplemental to the main educational work of the college and add to its equipment as a first-class, successful institution of learning where instruction aims to train young men and young women for the industrial and practical avocations of life and to create a type of citizenship, a certain well de- fined quality of manhood and womanhood which shall constitute the very bone and sinew of the republic.
Passing from the educational work of this insti- tution, which is the imparting of knowledge, its research work, which is the creation of knowledge, deserves brief but special mention. This work is under the immediate direction of the Experiment Station, which is maintained by the Hatch Fund, an annual congressional appropriation of $15,000, which began in 1887, and by the Adams fund, which was begun in 1906 with an appropriation of $5,000, to be increased by $2,000 annually until the total should reach $15,000. These funds are also aided by occasional appropriations by the state legislature. In a new state, like Colorado, with its varying soils, altitudes and climatic conditions, with the new problems which are constantly forc- ing themselves upon the attention of farm- ers, stockmen and fruit growers, especially those relating to irrigation, this work of research, investigation and experimentation is of special value and importance. Its actual results are to increase our knowledge of facts and conditions, to enable a more intelligent prosecution of agriculture and of kindred pursuits and industries and a more suc- cessful combat of the many and various difficulties which constantly beset them, and finally to broaden our vision of agriculture as the science upon which most rests the real foundations of State and National prosperity.
The third function of the Agricultural college is Extension Work, that is, carrying the work of the college to the people. This is done by means of farmers' institutes and short courses held at various central points in many sections of the state, and by means of information bulletins. The institutes are from one to three days duration. The short courses occupy an entire week, and permit a more continu- ous and detailed presentation of the practical topics discussed by expert lecturers and professors. The
leading topics presented at these institutes and short courses vary with the leading form of industry in the locality where they are held. If it be farming purely, then the subjects presented relate especially to field crops; if it be fruit growing, then subjects which concern the orchard and garden; if it be stock growing, then subjects which bear upon animal husbandry. The beneficient effects of this extension work are already felt and are generally acknow- ledged in Colorado. To the practical information imparted, the timely hints given, the valuable sug- gestions made by the Agricultural college experts at these institutes and short courses, many individ- uals-whole communities even-owe improved methods and more prosperous conditions.
During six months of the college year there is also maintained at the college, the Colorado School of Agriculture. This is a secondary school, admitting pupils from the 8th grade of the public school, and divided into two terms of three months each. The full course occupies three years. The studies are mainly practical, and are intended for the special benefit of farmer's boys and girls, who may have neither the time nor the inclination to take an ad- vanced college course. This school has now been in operation for two years, is growing in popularity and is doing an important work in the spread of knowledge of an improved agriculture in all of its various lines.
Such is the work of the Colorado Agricultural college concisely outlined-such the threefold func- tion that is making it so influential and upbuilding a factor in the industrial development of the Com- monwealth. No institution in the state is more zealously or more worthily fulfilling the purpose for which it was founded, and on none rests a heavier weight of responsibility in the development of Colorado's vast material resources, in the crea- tion of material wealth, in the promotion of in- dustrial prosperity and in the upbuilding of all the arts of civilized life. Fortunate for the Colorado of today, thrice fortunate for the young men and young women who shall make the Colorado of the future is the fact that the college and its man- agement-the State Board of Agriculture, the President, the Dean of the Faculty; the Director of the Experiment Station and the Superintendent of Extension work-realize this responsibility, and are using their brains, time and efforts for the ac- complishment of the tasks that have been intrusted to them, ably assisted and seconded, as they are, by a faculty and a corps of instructors, each a trained expert and master in his or her line of work.
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