USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 41
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 41
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 41
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At the second annual election of the provisional government, October 22d, its officers were elected by a vote so insignificant as hardly to deserve the name of an election. The legislature, however, met in No- vember, and held its second session, unnoticed by the people, its doings never being published. It would hardly have survived to a third session had it not been supplanted as it was by a government erected by congress.
That the effort to firmly establish a provisional gov- ernment was well meant and patriotic I do not doubt. Its failure depended partly upon one of the causes of its creation, the conflicting claims of five several ter- ritories, whose boundaries were included in the Pike's peak region; namly the eastern part of Utah, the northern part of New Mexico, and the western parts
9 Robert W. Steele, governor of the provisional territory of Jefferson, was an energetic, sanguine man, tall, angular, rather rough, but possessing good common sense and honesty. He was born in Ohio in 1820; removed in 1846 to Iowa, where he studied law; and to Omaha in 1855, where he was a member of the legislature of 1858-9. Then he went to Denver and to Cen- tral City, where he was president of the Consolidated Ditch Co. He was governor until June 1861, when the duly appointed officers of Colorado ter- ritory arrived. He settled his family at Golden, but removed to Empire in 1862, and afterward to Georgetown. In 1864 he was one of the party which discovered the Argentine district and Belmont lode-the first paying silver deposit in Colorado. This mine was named after August Belmont of New York, and brought $100,000. It was later called the Johnson.
Theodore P. Boyd, justice sup. ct prov. govt, was from Pa; in 1849 came to Cal., and finally to Golden, where he erected the third house. In the winter of 1859-60 he located farms for himself and sons on Clear creek, 7 miles east of Golden.
411
JEFFERSON AND COLORADO.
of Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota.1º Had every man in the mines been willing to yield allegiance to the independent government, these other governments were likely to interfere, and probably would have done so, had time been given or complaint been made. There were other reasons, in the instability of the population and the avoidance of the cost of a govern- ment. There was nothing in the public acts of the officers or legislators of "Jefferson territory" which was not intended for the public good. They were a portion of the same people who, in their people's courts, settled all matters of law and justice as effi- ciently as it could have been done anywhere.11
10 That part of Kansas which lay west of the east boundary of New Mex- ico was confined to the territory between the 38th and 40th parallels. St Vrain and Boulder creek mines, and many farms, were therefore out of this jurisdiction. Breckenridge was in Utah, and California gulch was on debatable ground.
11 The first people's court at Canon City was organized by Wilbur F. Stone, who drafted a code for the government of that community. Stone was born at Litchfield, Conn., in 1833, but removed to western New York at the age of 6 years, and later to Mich., Ind., and Iowa. He was educated at Asbury university, and the state university of Indiana, where he graduated from the law department. Settling at Evansville, he practised his professiou and edited the Daily Inquirer. For a short time he resided at Omaha, edit- ing the Nebraskian, but came to Colorado in the spring of 1860. He was a member of the Colorado legislature from Park county in 1862, and again in 1864-5. In 1866 he returned to Ind., and married Minnie Sadler, after which he settled at Pueblo until 1877, when he was elected to the bench of the supreme court. From 1862 to 1866 he was assistant U. S. atty for Col- orado. In 1868 he was appointed by the gov. Ist dist atty of the 3d judicial dist of Colo. In 1868 he gave a portion of his time to editing the Pueblo Chieftain, the only newspaper south of the divide at that time; and after- ward wrote for the People's Newspaper, and other journals until 1874. He aided largely in building up Pueblo during a 12 years' residence, and was one of those who secured the completion of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé railroad to that place. He was a member of the state constitutional con- vention, and judge of the supreme court. He had ever at command a vast fund of information, which during my researches in Colorado in 1884 were generously placed at my disposal, and which kindness resulted in valuable manuscript contributions to history, entitled General View of Colorado and Land Grants.
Another high authority on early government matters is Hallett's Courts, Law, and Litigation, MS. Moses Hallett was born in Daviess county, Ill., in 1834, and resided there, with the exception of a few years spent away from home in acquiring an education, and in the study of the law in Chicago, until the spring of 1860, when he came to Colorado. He settled at Denver, and after a trial of mining entered upon the practice of his profession. He served two terms in the territorial council. In 1866 he was appointed chief justice of the territory, which position he held for 10 years, after which he was appointed judge for the U. S. dist. of Colorado. Tall and dark com- plexioned, with an intellectual face and affable manners, he enjoyed the
412
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
So many petitions had gone forth for a territorial organizatian by congress that a bill to provide for the
friendship and admiration of the best men. Hallett explains even more fully than Stone the peculiarities, merits, and eccentricities of the people's and miner's courts. He tells us there were arbitrary executions every year, down to 1877. In that year a man name Musgrove, the leader of a gang of horse thieves, was hanged off the end of Larimer street bridge, in open day, without concealment of any sort. The people seldom interfered with the administration of the laws. One instance is, however, given of a territorial judge, who was on his way to Golden to make some order affecting a railroad company, being taken from a train, carried off, and kept 24 hours in durance to prevent the order being made. Courts, Law, and Litigation, MS., 6-7.
Wolfe Londoner, in a manuscript on Vigilance Committees in Colorado, giving an account of 'all the judgments of capital punishment, and all the executions of the people's courts in Denver,' is a valuable authority. He ex- plains that there were other trials by the same kind of courts, but no other sentences or punishments. The first murder was committed by John Stofel, son-in-law of a German named Beincroff. Stofel killed one of his young brothers-in-law, on Vasquez fork or Clear creek, April 7, 1859. He was sus- pected, arrested, examined before H. P. A. Smith, admitted his guilt, and, as there was no prison in the country, it was determined to hang him. The examination was held in the second building below what is now Holladay street, east side of Ferry, now 11th street. The execution took place at tlie corner of Holladay and 10th streets, where Stofel was hanged on a tree; by Noisy Tom, executioner for the occasion. On the 12th of March, 1860, Wil- liam West was shot by Moses Young, on the west side of Cherry creek, near Larimer street bridge. Young was tried next day, found guilty, a scaffold erected on the spot where the murder was committed, and the day after the trial and conviction he was hanged. On the 12th of June, 1860, Jacob Rce- der and family passed through Denver en route for South park, in company with Marcus Gredler and others. Roeder and Gredler quarrelled, and Roeder was killed and buried by Gredler in revenge. The murderer was arrested, and on compulsion showed the grave of his victim. He was tried, sentenced, . and hanged the next day, on a scaffold at the foot of the bluff where Curtis street enters Cherry creek bottom on the east side. On the 20th of June two freighters quarrelled, and, on the road near Denver, Hadley stabbed Card so that he died. Hadley was brought back on the 22d, a court organized under a clump of cottonwood trees which stood on 16th street, opposite the Plant- er's house, this being the only court held in the open air. He was sentenced io be hanged on the 25th, but escaped fromhis jailers. On the 20th of July, 1860, occurred the murder of Jacob Gantz, by J. A. Gordon, of which I have given an account. Gordon was executed at the same place as Gredler. On the 30tìm of Nov., 1860, Thomas R. Freeman was killed by Patrick Waters. Freeman lived alone, 2 miles below Denver, and was one of the few who at- tempted farming that year, raising vegetables for market. Waters was a hanger-on of better men, and accompanied Freeman down the Platte to buy hay, murdering him for his money, near Fort Lupton. The body being dis- covered, Welters was arrested in Neb., tried at Denver, and executed on a gallows at the farther end of 15th street bridge. The prosecution in this case made the first presentment in writing, as follows: 'The people of the Pike's peak gold region versus Patrick Waters. The people of the Pike's peak gold region, assembled at the city of Denver the 19th day of Dec., 1860, do find and present that on the 30th of Nov., A. D. 1860, at the said Pike's peak gold region, one Patrick Waters did make a felonious assault on one Thomas R. Freeman, then and there being, and him, the said Thomas R. Freeman, with premeditated malice, did murder and slay, contrary to all the laws of God and man.
413
BOUNDARIES.
erection of a new territory was at length introduced,12 which passed both houses and became a law February 28, 1861. The name of Colorado was given to it at the suggestion of the man selected for its first gov- ernor. 13 The boundaries of Colorado, as described in the organic act, included all the territory between the. thirty-seventh and forty-first parallels of north lati- tude, and the twenty-fifth and thirty-second meridians of west longitude, forming an oblong square contain- ing 104,500 square miles, or 66,880,000 acres of land, with the usual proviso, that nothing contained in the act should be construed to impair the rights of the Indians while they remained unextinguished by treaty, or prevent the government from again dividing the territory at pleasure, the act in all respects resembling other organic acts establishing temporary govern- ments. The territorial officers commissioned by the president were William Gilpin governor, Lewis Led- pard Weld secretary, Benjamin F. Hall chief justice, S. Newton Pettis and Charles Lee Armor associate justices, Copeland Townsend marshal, James D. Dal- liba attorney-general, and F. M. Case surveyor-gen- eral. They arrived May 29th, and were cordially welcomed, even by the unpaid officers of the pro- visional government, whose functions ceased with the appearance of the presidential appointees.
Governor Gilpin was a man capable of inspiring enthusiasm upon occasions. He visited all the prin- cipal settlements 14 as rapidly as possible, making him-
12 U. S. Sen. Doc., 15, 36th cong. Ist sess .; U. S. Sen. Jour., 839, 281, 36th cong. Ist sess .; Cong. Globe, 1859-60, 1502; Id., 1860-1, 639-45, 728-9, 763-4, 1205-6; Id., v .; Id., xvii .; Id., xxi.
13 Gilpin's Pioneer of 1842, MS., S. 'Some,' says Gilpin, 'wanted it called Jefferson, some Arcadia. . . . I said the people have to a great extent named the states after the great rivers of the country . . and the great feature of that country is the great Colorado river. . . "Ah," said he (Wilson of Mass.), "that is it;" and he named it Colorado.'
1: I learn from U. S. H. Ex. Doc., v., no. 56, 37th cong. 2d sess., and the History of Gunnison County, MS., by Sylvester Richardson, that Gilpin, with the assistance of old mountaineers, made a map of the territory in 1861, which was found to correspond remarkably with the subsequent surveys. Richardson was a native of Catskill, N. Y., and a man of cultivated mind, as well as an able mechanic. He came to Colorado in 1860, and resided 12 years
414
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
self acquainted with the condition and wants of the territory, and everywhere was received with festivity and favor.15 On the 8th of July he took the oath of office, and, the census being completed,16 proceeded on the 10th to assign the judges to their districts, that the supreme court might be immediately organized.11 On the 11th he issued a proclamation declaring the territory to be one congressional district, which was divided into nine council and thirteen representative districts, in which was ordered the election of dele- gate to congress and members of the legislative as- sembly to take place on the 19th of August.
In the matter of dates Colorado's history has been
in Denver. In 1873 he helped to explore the Gunnison country, and the fol- lowing year organized a colony to settle it, of which the history will be given hereafter.
15 William Gilpin was born Oct. 4, 1822, on the battlefield of Brandy- wine, and appointed to the military academy of West Point in 1836. Upon completing his studies he was commissioned lieut in the 2d dragoons, and fought in the Seminole war under Gen. Jessup, and accompanied Frémont's expedition of 1843 to Fort Vancouver. Gilpin was designed by his maker for a man of mark. Full six feet in height, of a slight frame and nervous temperament, with a fine head and expressive eyes, rather military bearing and French gestures, he was enthusiastic, while his shrewdness and courtesy were sometimes overshadowed by his generalizations. Said one of his friends to me, 'There never was a man like him, and there never will be another; for 20 minutes or so he can talk as closely to the point as any man, but after that he begins to generalize.' On the breaking out of the Mexican war, Gilpin, be- ing again in Mo., was chosen major of the first regiment of Missouri cavalry, and moved south along the great central plateau with his force until he made a junction with the main army in Mexico. In 1847, the Indians of the plains having confederated to cut off immigration westward and to make war on the frontier settlements, Gilpin, by direction of the president, led a force of 1,200 cavalry, infantry, and artillery against them to open up communication. This expedition did not leave Leavenworth until Oct., the troops wintering at Pike peak and fighting the Indians the following summer. Gilpin's Pioneer of 1842, MS .; Pitkin's Political Views, MS .; Bradford's Hist. Colorado, MS .; Elbert's Public Men and Measures, MS.
16 The census showed a population of 25,329, four-fifths of which were men. Corbett's Legis. Manual, 57. The count did not really show the whole number of inhabitants, many being prospecting in the mountains. Rocky Mountain News, July 17, 1861.
17 Byers says in his Centennial State, MS., 10, that a proclamation was issued on the 23d of July appointing a term of the sup. ct on the first Mon- day in Sept. following, to be held at Denver. He also says that the first grand jury impanelled in Colo was upon the 4th of Sept., 1861, at Denver, and consisted of Nelson Sargent, foreman, Charles A. Wright, John W. Smith, Alexander M. Smith, John L. Bogg, John G. Vauter, William D. Davis, John B. Ashland, Jonathan U. Price, Milton E. Clark, Warren Hus- sey, J. F. Gordine, James M. Iddings, Milton M. Delano, Edward H. Hart, P. H. Smith, Andrew Sargendorf, and John M. Clark. See also Rocky Mountain News, Sept. 4, 1861.
415
GILPIN, GOVERNOR.
marked by periods of national importance. It was the business depression of 1857-8 and the Kansas troubles which inspired so many with a willingness to seek new homes and fortunes farther west. The territory was organized just previous to and while the civil war was impending; and lastly the state was ad- mitted on the 100th anniversary of our independence. It is with the coincidence of the territorial organiza- tion and the sudden and great strain put upon the government that I am chiefly impressed ; in connec- tion with which must be considered the manner in which the affairs of the new commonwealth were managed. Gilpin, although appointed governor by President Lincoln, was without instructions and with- out money. Washington was threatened; there were a dozen cabinet meetings a day ; and when the ap- pointee begged for writtten orders he was told there was no time to attend to such matters, but to go and do as well as he knew how and the bills would be paid. His verbal instructions, taken in the vestibule of the white house, or in the portico, conferred broad powers. He was to see that the new territory was kept in the union. If soldiers were needed, he was to call them out and command them.18 He was loyal, he was a soldier, he would be quick to see the need of an appeal to arms; but was he a statesman, and might he not be too quick to discern a danger ? These were questions the cabinet had no time to ask.
The period elapsing between the arrival of the ex- ecutive and the August election was made use of to ascertain the political bias of the majority, the pop- ulation being almost evenly divided between those who would support the government and those whose sympathies were on the side of the confederates. This equality warned the republicans to make haste slowly, and to adopt a liberal and conservative platform, lest the loyal part of the democracy should be driven to encourage disloyalty. A convention was held at 18 Gilpin's Pioneer of 1842, MS., 5-6.
416
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
Golden City on the 1st of July for the purpose of nominating a delegate to congress, Hiram P. Bennett being chosen from among eleven candidates.19 On the 24th a 'union convention' was held by the demo- crats for the same purpose, which nominated B. D. Williams. The newspaper press was divided, and issued campaign sheets, as might be expected, but were guarded in their utterances.20
Williams was beaten by the republican candidate, on election, by 3,801 votes, the total number of votes cast being 9,597.21
The legislature, which was also chiefly republican, met at Denver, and held its first session of sixty days, beginning on the 9th of September, adopting and enacting a full code of laws, civil and criminal. The original acts of the legislature recognized the le- gality of the miners' courts, confirmed their decisions, and provided for the transfer of their cases to the regular courts, thus avoiding all conflict over previous judgments.22 The adoption of the Illinois practice
19 Amos Steck was president of this convention, and L. N. Tappan secre- tary. Byers' Centennial State, MS., 8.
20 The Rocky Mountain News, though loyal, opposed drawing party lines too strictly. The publishers issued a second journal, the Miner's Record, at Tarryall, during the campaign, which did good work in preserving the loyalty of the people and determining the result of the election. The Denver Mountaineer, owned by Moore and Coleman, was a disunion journal, and was bought by Byers and Daily, and silenced in the spring of 1861. Byers' News- paper Press of Colorado, MS., 13.
21 Hiram P. Bennett was born in Mo. in 1826, and removed to Nebraska, where he was elected to the first territorial legislature in 1854. In 1859 he removed to Denver, where he practised his profession, being associated with Moses Hallett, and distinguishing himself by his successful prosecution of criminals. He served two terms in congress, obtaining the branch mint for Denver, with other benefits to the territory. He resumed his law practice in 1869, but was appointed postmaster soon after, which office he held until 1874. He was a member of the first state legislature from Arapahoe co.
22 The members of the council representing their districts in the following order were Hiram J. Graham, Amos Steck, C. W. Mather, H. F. Parker, A. U. Colby, Samuel M. Robbins, E. A. Arnold, R. B. Willis, and John M. Francisco. Colo. Jour. Council, 1861, 3. Members of the lower house, in the order of their districts, were Charles F. Holly, E. S. Wilhite, Edwin Scud- der, William A. Rankin. J. B. Chaffee, J. H. Noteware, Daniel Witter, George F. Crocker, Daniel Steel, Corydon P. Hall, Victor Garcia, Jesus Barela, and George M. Chilcott. Colo. Jour. House, 1861, 3, 19. E. A. Arnold of Lake co. was chosen president of the council, S. L. Baker, sec., David A. Cheever asst sec., E. W. Kingsbury sergeant-at-arms. Charles F. Holly of Boulder co. was elected speaker of the house of reps, F. H. Page chief clerk, E. P. Elmer sergeant-at-arms. Corbett's Legis Manual, 212,
417
CREATION OF COUNTIES.
code was another wise act, giving the territorial courts a system of practice which had been ably expounded by the supreme court of that state. No subsequent legislation was had upon this subject while the terri- torial form of government was in existence.
The territory was divided into counties 23 and judi- cial districts,24 the election of county officers provided for, and a complete organization effected. The capital of the territory was located at Colorado City, and commissioners appointed to select the actual site within the surveyed limits of that town, the commission to perform its duty within a month after the adjourn- ment of the legislature.25 The location was chosen with the view of making the capital central to the future state. That it was subsequently abandoned was because it was found to be inconvenient. It was fixed at Golden City 26 in 1862, where it remained
23 The following counties were organized, with county seats temporarily located, as follows: Costilla, county seat at San Miguel; Guadalupe, county seat at the town of Guadalupe (the name of this connty was changed to Conejos the same session); Huerfano, county seat at Autubee; Pueblo, county seat at the town of Pueblo; Fremont, county seat at Canon City; El Paso, county seat at Colorado City; Douglas, county seat at Frankstown; Arapahoe, county seat at Denver; Weld, named after the secretary of territory, county seat at St Vrain; Larimer, named after George William Larimer, county seat at La Porte; Boulder, county seat at the town of Boulder; Jefferson, county seat at Golden City; Clear Creek, county seat at Idaho; Gilpin, named after the governor, county seat at Central City; Park, county seat at Tarryall; Lake, county seat at Oro City; Summit, county seat at Parkville. Colo Gen. Laws, 1861, 52-7.
24 The territory was divided into three judicial districts, the counties of Larimer, Weld, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, and El Paso constituting the Ist, to which Chief Justice Hall was assigned; Jefferson, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Park, and Summit the 2d district, to which Judge Armor was assigned; Lake, Fremont, Pueblo, Huerfano, Conejos, and Costilla, the 3d district, to which was assigned Judge Pettis. Gen. Laws Colo, 1861, 395-6.
25 The committee consisted of S. L. Baker, E. B. Cozzens, and M. Holt.
26 There were certain rivalries to be considered, as is always the case; but the chief aim seemed to be to prevent Denver having the capital, that town being accused of a desire to secure everything; therefore, at the next session, the legislature, being dissatisfied with Colorado City as a place of meeting, having to camp out and do their own cooking, adjourned to Denver, and removed the capital once more, this time to Golden City. Says Stone, 'The southern men were opposed to adjourning to Denver, and they went away and hid in the woods, and the sergeant-at-arms couldn't find them. Finally we sent men out with flags of truce to bring them in, and getting them together in Mother Maggart's hotel, under pretense of compromising the matter, locked the doors on them. finished the vote, and got the adjourn- ment to Denver.' Land Grants in Colo, MS., 11.
HIST. NEV. 27
418
ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.
until 1868, when it was taken back to Denver; but the feeling in the southern counties being strong against this point, and Pueblo being prevented from getting it in 1872 only by bribery, the constitutional convention provided that the vote of the whole people should be taken five years after the adoption of the constitution, the place receiving the greater number of votes to be declared the permanent capital. The vote was taken in 1881, and Denver, which had been growing in influence, received the majority of votes,
OF
COLO
STATE
ADO
NIL SINE
O
NUMINE
0
1876.
SEAL.
thus ending, to the chagrin of the southern counties, the long struggle for that division of power which will only come with the development of the resources of the south.
The seal adopted for the territory was an heraldic shield, bearing in chief, or on the upper portion of the same, upon a red ground, three snow capped moun- tains, above surrounding clouds ; upon the lower part of the shield, upon a golden ground, a miner's badge, being the same badge prescribed by the regular her-
419
LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
aldic rules ; as a crest above the shield the eye of God, being golden rays proceeding from the lines of a tri- angle; below the crest, and above the shield, as a scroll, the Roman fasces, bearing on a band of red, white, and blue, the words Union and Constitution ; below the whole, the motto Nil Sine Numine; the whole to be surrounded by the words Sigillum Terri- torii Coloradensis, and the figures 1861. This design was adopted by the state in 1876.
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