USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 40
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 40
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 40
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399
OVERLAND TRAFFIC.
extended his visit to Nevada and California, Fortun- ately for the prosperity of Colorado at this period. there was nothing to interrupt the influx of people or property. The freight trains of Russell and Majors dragged their winding length along the Arkansas or Smoky hill route day after day, bringing cargoes of goods, which were stored at their depots and sold to retail merchants on their own account,22 or carrying the goods of others. Many thousand wagons stretched in a continuous line along the Platte also, from its mouth to its source. 23 Prices were necessarily high, and likewise high because everybody who had any- thing to sell desired to become rich out of it without loss of time. Mail facilities were introduced, and more quickly than could have been anticipated corre- spondence with the east became established.24 On the 4th of March, 1860, Kehler and Montgomery started a line of coaches from Denver to the mining
22 Helm's Gate of the Mountains, MS., 2; Aux' Mining in Colo, MS., 6-7.
23 According to Davis, Hist. Colo, MS., there were between 8,000 and 10,000 men of the freighting class, mostly drivers, in Colorado, whom he de- scribes as 'turbulent fellows, spending most of their leisure and all of their money in saloons.'
24 Besides the many who travelled with conveyances of their own, there were some who took passage with transportation companies, of which Russell and Majors, of St Joseph, were the chief firm. This company organized a line of stages in the spring of 1859, the first coach for Denver leaving Leav- enworth March 9th, carrying the mail. They called themselves the Leaven- worth and Pike's Peak Express company, and charged an extra postage of 25 cents on a letter, having post offices of their own at Auraria and other towns. The postmaster at Leavenworth was directed to deliver all mail matter for Pike's peak to the express company so long as they would carry it without expense to the government. Nelson Sargent was superintendent of this company. He resigned in the autumn. In the winter of 1859-60 a charter was obtained from the Kansas legislature incorporating the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express company, which was a reorgan- ization of the former company, the principal men in it being William H. Russell, John S. Jones, William B. Waddell, Luther R. Smoot, Alexander Majors, and J. B. Simpson. The route pursued by the express companies in 1859 was via the Smoky hill fork of the Kansas river, on the line adopted by the Kansas Pacific railroad. I have already given the history of the Cal- ifornia and Salt Lake mail in my Nevada. Chorpening owned the line in conjunction with Holladay. In the winter of 1859-60 the fertile brains of W. H. Russell and B. F. Ficklen, president and superintendent of the C. O. and P. P. Express co., conceived a plan of rapid communication with the Pacific coast and intermediate points by means of the pony express, and hav- ing prepared the stations, started out their first pony, April 3, 1860, from St Joseph. The route connected with the mail near Atchison, passing through Troy and Marysville to Fort Kearny, keeping on the south side of the Platte
400
PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT.
camps. In May, Sowers and company established a line, and in June the Western Stage company another, all together being insufficient to carry the increasing crowd of passengers. To this point of progress had the Pike's peak region arrived in its second year of growth.
to Julesburg, where it sent a branch to Denver, crossing to the north side of the Platte, and continuing to Salt Lake, via Scott Bluff, Fort Laramie, and Fort Bridger. From Salt Lake it followed the route by Ruby valley and Carson to Sacramento, California. The success of this enterprise caused the transfer of the C. O. and P. P's stages and freight wagons to this route; and the successful operations of this company on the central route is said by its friends to have led to its adoption by the first overland railroad. It demon- strated that it could be travelled in winter, which had hitherto been doubted; but it was the attitude of the southern states, more than anything, which caused the central route to be adopted. These causes together, in the sum- mer of 1861, caused the transfer of the overland mail from the southern or Butterfield route to the Platte route. In that year, also, the Overland Mail co. purchased the interest of Chorpening in the western half of the overland route. Later in the year the C. O. and P. P. Express company and pony express were sold to Ben Holladay, the western half being retained by the Overland Mail, under the management of Fred Cook, Jacob King, H. S. Rumfield, general agent and superintendent. Holladay afterward secured mail contracts through the north-west.
CHAPTER V.
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
1858-1861.
BLEEDING KANSAS-REPRESENTATIVE FROM ARAPAHOE COUNTY-PROVIS- IONAL GOVERNMENT-TERRITORY OR STATE OF JEFFERSON-ELECTIONS AND CONVENTIONS-GOVERNOR STEELE-DIVERS GOVERNMENTS-POPU- LAR TRIBUNALS- THE TURKEY WAR-SQUATTERS-THE NAME COLO- RADO-TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION-GILPIN, GOVERNOR-BOUNDARIES -CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY-SEAL-MINT -- LEGISLATIVE PROCEED- INGS-GILPIN'S MILITARY OPERATIONS-THE COLORADO REGIMENTS IN THE CIVIL WAR.
WHILE gold was the spirit of the mountain miner's dreams, there was a desperate political struggle going on in Kansas between the advocates of free soil and slave soil. There were alternating territorial legisla- tures and state legislatures, and it was a question under which form of government the people were living. If Kansas were a territory it extended to the summit of the Rocky range, and embraced the Pike's peak country. If it were a state, its western bound- ary did not reach within three degrees of the historic mountain.
The little handful of Americans gathered at Au- raria in the autumn of 1858, with that facility for politics which distinguishes our people, took into con- sideration these questions as affecting their future, and proceeded in a characteristic manner to meet the diffi- culty. A mass meeting was held to organize a county, to be named Arapahoe, after one of the plains tribes of Indians, with the county seat at Auraria ; and an informal election was held for a representative from this county to proceed to the capital of Kansas and HIST. NEV. 26 (401 )
402
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
procure the sanction of the legislature to its establish- ment, the representative chosen being A. J. Smith. He was not admitted to the Kansas legislative body, but was successful in his mission, Governor Denver, with- out waiting for the action of the legislature, appoint- ing county commissioners, who proceeded at once to the performance of their duties.1 The county be- ing divided into twenty-three precincts or districts,
1 I find that all the writers who mention this subject speak of Arapahoe county as having been actually established, which was not the case. An- other error is apparent, the date of Smith's election being given as Nov. 6th in Hollister's Mines of Colorado, 18; Colorado Gazetteer, 1870, 24; and Corbett's Directory of Mines, 38; while in the History of Denver, 631, the commissioners appointed by Gov. Denver are represented as arriving Nov. 12th, 6 days after the election. Probably Smith was sent on his errand some time in ad- vance of Graham, whose mission was an afterthought. Denver, comprehend- ing the situation of the miners 600 miles from law, with no chance of an organization by the legislature for several months, simply commissioned H. P. A. Smith probate judge, and appointed for county commissioners E. W. Wynkoop, Hickory Rogers, and Joseph L. McCubbin-see Clear Creek and Boulder Val. Hist .. 468-persons about to start for the mines. There was no other organization than this informal one of Arapahoe county, Kansas. The legislature Feb. 7, 1859, passed an act creating 5 counties; namely, Montana, in which Denver was situated, El Paso, Oro, Broderick, and Fre- mont out of the mountain region where gold might be found. Montana county began on the 40th parallel, 20 miles east of the 105th meridian, and embraced the territory south to within 20 miles of the 39th parallel, and west to the summit of the Rocky mountains. Oro county lay in an oblong shape east of Montana, and also El Paso, which was south of Montana. Broderick county lay south of Oro and El Paso; and Fremont took in the South park and all the territory west of Broderick and El Paso to the summits of the Rocky mountains. The commissioners appointed were J. H. Tarney, Wil- liam H. Prentice, and A. D. Richardson for Montana county; D, Newcomb, William J. King, and George McGee for Oro county; Simon C. Gephart, W. Walters, and Charles Nichols for Broderick; T. C. Dixon, A. G. Patrick, and T. L. Whitney for Fremont; and William H. Green, G. W. Allison, and William O. Donnell for El Paso. The commissioners were required to es- tablish the county seats, and to offer for sale by public notice 200 lots in each of these towns, the proceeds of which should be applied to liquidating the expenses of location, any excess over expenses to be paid into the county . treasury. They were also required to call an election for county officers at as early a day as practicable, the officers elected, in view of the distance from the capital, being authorized to qualify and proceed to the discharge of their duties before being commissioned. The county commissioners were to be paid $5 per day and expenses for their whole term of 9 months, but the money was to come from the sale of the lots before mentioned, from which arrangement it may be inferred that not more than one, if any, could have received full payment. Kansas Laws, 1859, 57-60. Whether on this account or some other it does not appear that these counties were organized; but at the election of March 28, 1859, the following officers of Arapahoe county, having no legal existence, were chosen: probate judge :S. W. Wagoner, sheriff D. D. Cook, treasurer John L. Hiffner, register of deeds J. S. Lowrie, prosecuting attorney Marshall Cook, auditor W. W. Hooper, assessor Ross Hutchins, coroner C. M. Steinberger, supervisors L. J. Win- chester, H. Rogers, R. S. Wooten, clerk of supervisors Levi Ferguson. Byers' Hist. Colo, MS., 49.
403
TERRITORY OF JEFFERSON.
sheriff and other officers were chosen for the time from among the population of the county.
On reflection, and in view of the peculiar situation of Kansas, the politicians of Auraria conceived the idea of a separate government under the name of the Territory of Jefferson, and on the 6th of November elected Hiram J. Graham and Albert Steinberger delegates to proceed to Washington with a petition to effect this object. Graham was from New York, but had lived in Illinois and was one of the pro- jectors of Pacific City, Iowa, from which place he went to the Pike's peak country. He was a man of excellent traits and fair ability, but not likely to carry out so extraordinary a scheme as that on which he was bent, of persuading congress to erect a territory in the Rocky mountains to oblige a few hundred per- sons who did not yet know of any gold diggings of much value, whatever their faith that they should find them. Graham gained nothing by his delegate- ship but an enlarged experience of the ways of con- gressmen and the machinery of government. Stein- berger was a young man, and dropped out of the delegation at Omaha. He was afterward king of a group of islands in the Pacific, but was deposed by a British man-of-war.
During the winter the isolated community of Ara- pahoe county governed itself without friction, by the observance of some simple regulations, and the au- thority of their chosen magistrates; but on the 28th of March, 1860, an election was held, under the laws of Kansas, for the choosing of county officers. There were 774 votes polled, the population having increased at least 500 since the last election. Continuing to increase rapidly, a public meeting was held on the 11th of April at Auraria, which resolved that the different precints should be requested to appoint del- egates to meet in convention on the 15th, to take into consideration the propriety of organizing a state or territory ; and a central committee was appointed, one
404
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
of whose duties was the designation of as many new precincts as the spreading population required.
On the 7th of May an address was issued by the committee, appointing an election on the first Mon- day in June, to choose delegates to a convention to draft a constitution for the state of Jefferson. The election was held, but in most precincts by acclama- tion only, no returns ever being made. Fifty dele- gates met in June, in Wooten's hall, Denver, represent- ing thirteen precincts. W. N. Byers was chosen temporary chairman ; but on the permanent organiza- tion of the convention, S. W. Wagoner was made president, Henry Allen, E. P. Stout, R. Sopris, Levi Ferguson, and C. B. Patterson vice-presidents, Thomas Gibson and J. J. Shanley clerks.
After a two days' session, in which the chief busi- ness transacted was the appointment of committees to draft a constitution, it adjourned to meet again on the first Monday in August, the long interval being taken to observe the course of events. A. F. Garri- son was chosen president. A committee was ap- pointed by the convention to form new precincts, so that when that body reassembled there were present 167 delegates, representing forty-six precincts.
The convention was now about equally divided in favor of and against a state constitution, and discus- sion ran high. Three sets of resolutions were offered, one by H. P. A. Smith, providing that the conven- tion should dissolve, and memorialize congress for a territorial organization ; another by Beverly D. Wil- liams, providing for a committee to report to the con- vention on the expediency of forming a constitution, or memorializing congress; and a third by S. W. Beall, in favor of forming a constitution. The resolu- tions of Smith and Beall were finally withdrawn, and Williams' resolution adopted. A committee was ap- pointed, a majority of whose members reported in favor of a constitution.'
? Extracts from Early Records, MS., 4-6. Among those engaged in early
405
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
The convention remained in session one week, the constitution of the state of Jefferson being formed, with limits similar to the present state of Colorado, It was submitted to the people on the first Monday in September, with the alternative, in case of its re- jection, that an election should be held in October to choose a delegate to congress, who should endeavor to have the gold regions set off in a territory to be called Jefferson. The constitution was rejected by a vote of 2,007 to 649, demonstrating by the lightness of the vote that gold, and not politics, absorbed the public mind.
And yet there was a party which found time to press the scheme of a provisional government, and which called a mass meeting at Auraria on the 24th of September to consider the subject. An address to the people was prepared, requesting them at the Oc- tober election to vote for delegates who should meet a little later for the purpose of forming an independ- ent government.3
The election took place on the 5th of October, when, owing to the return to the states of a large part of the population, and the indifference of those who remained, only about 8,000 votes were polled. Beverly D. Williams was chosen delegate to congress, and Richard Sopris representative from Arapahoe county to the legislature of Kansas. As on the previous attempt to secure a hearing in congress, Williams accomplished nothing more than to impress the government with the pertinacity of this far off and ambitious political bantling, variously known as Pike's peak, Arapahoe, county, and Jefferson territory. Sopris was given a seat in the Kansas legislature, Governor Denver hav-
government affairs were: E. H. N. Patterson, delegate from Left Hand creek, born in Va, and was at one time formerly editor of the Placer Times, of Sacramento, in California early days, and again of the Georgetown Miner 10 years afterward; Charles C. Post, miner and lawyer from Missouri gulch; George M. Chilcott, and I. J. Pollock.
3 The leaders in this movement were Frank De La Mar, S. W. Wagoner, B. D. Williams, G. M. Willing, A. Sagendorf, H. P. A. Smith, Henry Allen, and M. C. Fisher. Byers' Hist. Colo, MS., 55.
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406
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
ing issued a proclamation to the voters of Arapahoe county to elect a representative-although no such county was known to that body.4
According to the plans arranged by the provisional government or territorial party, the election of their delegates took place, and on the 10th of October the convention met at Auraria, when eighty-six were found to be present. They adopted a constitution and proceeded to district the mining region, providing for a legislature consisting of eight councilmen, and twenty-one representatives. An election was ordered for the 24th, to choose a governor, secretary, members of the legislature, and other territorial officers, which was done with one unimportant exception, the vote standing about 1,800 to 300. R. W. Steele was elected governor of the territory of Jefferson, and Lucian W. Bliss secretary. Steele's message was creditable, and so was the action of the legislature, which met on the 7th of November and lasted forty days, during which many general and special laws were passed. Among the latter was a charter for the city of Denver. Nine counties were organized, for which probate judges were appointed by the governor, to hold until the first county elections in January 1860.5 A tax of one dollar per capita was levied to defray expenses; and the assembly adjourned to the 23d of January.
4 In Sopris, Settlement of Denver, MS., 13, he says that he obtained a charter for a ditch to bring the water of the Platte into Denver, which was perpetual, the city of Denver owning it; that he also obtained charters for roads, banking, insurance, and telegraph companies, and much necessary legislation of like character.
5 The other officers of the provisional government were: C. R. Bissell, auditor; R. L. Wooten, treasurer; Samuel McLean, attorney-general; Oscar B. Totten, clerk of sup. court; A. J. Allison, chief justice; S. J. Johnson and L. W. Borton, associate justices; Hickory Rogers, marshal; H. H. McAfee, supt of public instruction. The members of the council from the 8 council districts were N. G. Wyatt, Henry Allen, Eli Carter, Mark A. Moore, J. M. Wood, James Emmerson, W. D. Arnett, D. Shafer, in the order in which they are named. The members of the lower house were John C. Moore, W. P. McClure, W. M. Slaughter, M. D. Hickman, D. K. Wall, Miles Patton, J. S. Stone, J. N. Hallock, J. S. Allen, A. J. Edwards, A. McFadden, Edwin James, T. S. Golden, J. A. Gray, Z. Jackson, S. B. Kellogg, William Davidson, C. C. Post, Asa Smith, C. P. Hall.
407
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
The supporters of the Kansas government who had sent their representative to the capital of that terri- tory, refused to pay a tax to support the provisional government, in a remonstrance signed by six or seven hundred miners. The men of Gregory district, which the new government had erected into Mountain county, held an election on the 3d of January 1860, and rejected the county organization by a vote of 395 to 95. On the other hand, Arapahoe county, as cre- ated by the provisional legislature, acknowledged the new government, and held its election according to the law by which it was established.
On the 2d of January, a mass meeting was held at Denver, at which a memorial was adopted, addressed to the president, asking for a territorial organization, and S. W. Beall was delegated to carry it to Wash- ington, but no notice was taken of the petition. The assembly met again on the 23d, pursuant to adjourn- ment, and completed a civil and criminal code, which was observed and enforced in some parts of the " Ter- ritory of Jefferson," while in others the miners' courts held sway, and the Kansas government was least observed of any.6
The miners had invented a system of regulations, and were satisfied with them, and inclined to reject innovations. Each district had its president or judge, recorder, and sheriff, elected by ballot,' the rules laid down for their governance being simple and expedi- tious. Claim clubs, for the protection of agricultural or town site claims, with similar regulations, served the purpose of legal statutes, the expounding of which was too often accompanied by aggravating delays and ruinous costs. There was little anxiety therefore for change, except among professional politicians and their friends. But the people being generally order loving
6 In the autumn of 1860 Edward M. McCook was elected to the Kansas legislature, but secured no benefits, and probably no pay. Corbett's Dir. of Mines, 42.
7 Jack Keeler was elected sheriff of Arapahoe district in 1860, and his. deputy was William Z. Cozens.
408
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
and law abiding, obeyed without question either form of government, whose officers happened to be estab- lished in their midst, which obedience averted any injurious collision of authorities. Occasionally a change of venue was taken from one government to the other, when the litigants suffered by having heavy costs to pay. And occasionally crimes were com- mitted, which demanded a strong and recognized gov- ernment for their punishment. In the absence of that, the people defended themselves as those of California and each of the new mining territories had done, by committees which dispensed a rude and vigorous justice without appeal.8 They acted spontaneously and openly, and were known as the people's courts, electing their judges and marshal as required, and taking no notice of any but felonious offences. In some parts of the country they became, from the neces- sities of the case, vigilance committees, and dealt with horse and cattle thieves. The penalties inflicted were in accordance with the crime, and might be either hanging, whipping, or banishment. Of the first three homicides, one escaped, one was tried before Judge H. P. A. Smith and hanged, and the third was tried before Judge Hyatt and acquitted.
Denver being the principal town had most need of the people's courts. In the latter part of January the unruly element became alarmingly conspicuous. Among the disturbances occasioned by this portion of the population was what was known as the Turkey war. It originated in the plundering by them of a party of hunters from the southern part of the terri- tory with a great number of wild turkeys for sale. A committee was organized to punish the thieves ; but it was found that they had many defenders, and it was with difficulty that a bloody conflict was avoided.
' Previous to April 1860 there were two duels in Denver. In one of them J. S. Stone, a member of the provisional legislature, was killed by L. W. Bliss, secretary and acting governor of Jefferson territory, who at a public dinner made an offensive remark in allusion to Stone, which called out the challenge.
409
CLAIM CLUB.
The next excitement was over the jumping of town lots by squatters who had settled on the outskirts of Denver, and claimed the land under the agricultural preemption law. Several times deadly weapons were discharged in altercations over town property, though no lives were sacrificed. This led to the organiza- tion of a claim club at Denver, the members being bound to defend the town company against squatters, several of whom were banished. In July a still more threatening affair warned the people to be on their
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COLORADO IN 1863.
guard. The office of the Rocky Mountain News was attacked by a desperate man named Carl Wood, be- cause the paper had condemned the killing of a negro named Starks by a confederate, Charles Harrison, and Byers narrowly escaped being killed. Wood was taken, tried, and banished by the decree of Judge H. P. Bennett.
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410
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
back from Leavenworth for trial James Gordon, who' had, without provocation, killed Jacob Gantz in July. He was prosecuted by Bennett, before a judge ap- pointed for the occasion, defended by able lawyers, pronounced guilty by a jury of twelve responsible citizens, and hanged. Four other homicides were tried and acquitted, and three tried and hanged be- tween March and September. Several horse thieves were also punished and banished. It could not be said that there was no law and no government, but rather that government was triple-headed in these mining regions.
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