USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 51
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 51
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 51
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9 At a meeting on the 14th of Jan., 1878, at which 18 citizens were present in Gilbert's wagon-shop, where Robinson's block now stands, at the corner of Chestnut and Pine streets, steps were taken to organize the town, and give it a name. It was suggested to call it Harrison, after the owner of the first smelter; and Agassiz, after the great naturalist; and Carbonateville, after its ores; but Leadville, proposed by J. C. Cramer, was finally adopted. The town then had 70 houses and tents. On the 26th the governor issued a proclamation for an election of town officers Feb. 2d. H. A. W. Tabor was chosen mayor, C. Mater, Wm Nye, and J. C. Cramer trustees, and C. E. Anderson clerk and recorder. Kent's Leadville in Your Pocket, 32-3.
10 Meyer & Co. purchased the first ore in 1876, and shipped 300 tons to St Louis by ox-teams, which did not pay for the expense of transportation and reducing; but as the grade increased by development, 50 tons shipped in the spring of 1877 proved very well worth the handling. Meyer & Co. estab- lished the first sampling works in 1877; Burdell and Witherell in Nov. 1877; Eddy & James in July 1878. Loomis' Leadville, 19-20.
ll The works of J. B. Grant commenced running on the Ist of October. 1,643 tons of ore purchased averaged 84 ounces of silver to the ton; and 305 tons averaged 325 ounces. On the 9th of Oct. the Adelaide company com- menced smelting. During 11 days in blast before the 1st of Dec., 90 tons of bullion were produced from 240 tons of ore. The Malta smelting works, J. B. Dickson & Co., started up on the 12th of October. By the Ist of Dec., they had smelted 1,081 tons of ore, and produced 181 tons of bullion, valued at $38,538. The average number of ounces of silver to the ton of ore was 47; to the ton of bullion, 170. On the 28th of Oct. the smelter of Burdell & Witherell began operations, and 970 tons of ore were turned into 210 tons of bullion worth $85,000. These were all low grade. The high grade ores were reduced olsewhere at first. In 1879 A. Eilers erected a smelter at Leadville, which he ran for two years. Eilers was born in Germany in 1839, and edu-
510
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.
settled the question of the value of the Leadville mines, and the growth of the town in 1879 was phe- nomenal, even for a mining country. In the first four months of the year the increase of population was 1,000 a month ; after that it ran up to 3,000 a month ; about the last of the year there were 35,000 resi- dents. Real estate was held at high figures, and lot jumping was practised, as in early times at Denver. A hotel with accommodations for 500 guests, several lesser ones, a church and a theatre were erected dur- ing the summer, besides private dwellings and mining improvements, which required 1,000,000 feet of lum- ber per week.
This activity was joyful madness. Men seemed to tread on air, so elated with hope were they, and not only with hope but with realization. In 1879 Lead- ville was created a city of the second class, with an efficient police and fire department, water and gas- works under construction, telegraphic communication, a local railroad company organized, hospital accom- modations, and other concomitants of modern civiliza- tion It had a post-office requiring ten clerks, with a money-order department issuing orders at the rate of $355,911 per year, and cancelling stamps at the rate of over $32,000 annually. In 1879 the Denver and South park railway was within thirty miles of Leadville, and at the same time the Denver and Rio Grande road was extending a branch to Leadville, where it arrrived in August 1880.12
cated at the mining school of Clausthal and university of Gottingen. At the age of 20 years he graduated, and immigrated to the U. S., being em- ployed by mining engineers in New York for several years. In 1869 he was appointed deputy U. S. mining statistician, which position he held until 1876. He then migrated to Salt Lake, where he erected the second Germania smelter in 1877-8. He then came to Colorado, and erected a smelter at Leadville, which he sold, and went to Europe in 1881, where he spent two years. On returning to Colorado he organized the Colorado Smelting company in Pueblo, where a furnace was started up in Aug. 1883, the works in 1886 having 4 furnaces, with a capacity of 200 tons daily, and employing 125 men.
12 George W. Cook, born in Bradford, Ind., in 1850, was appointed super- intendent and general agent of the Leadville division of the Denver and Rio Grande road, upon its completion. Cook ran away from home at 12 years of age to enlist as a drummer-boy, and was mustered out in Jan, 1866. That he
511
BANKING.
The business of Leadville demanded banks almost at once, and in May 1878, the first in Leadville was established under the name of Lake County bank. Soon afterward it organized as the First National bank with a cash capital of $60,000. The exchange for 1879 amounted to $10,000,000.13 In October the
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LEADVILLE AND VICINITY.
drummed through the war to fall on his feet in Leadville was a rare manifes- tation of the favor of the fickle goddess.
13 The officers and stockholders were F. A. Reynolds, pres .; Nelson Hal- lock, vice-pres .; John W. Zollars, cashier; A. L. Ordean, asst cashier; Aug- ust R. Meyer, J B. Grant, J. S. Raynolds, Charles Mater, J. C. Cramer, Charles I. Thompson, Peter Finerty, E. D. Long, J. H. Clemer, Charles T. Limberg, Rufus Shute.
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512
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.
bank of Leadville was opened with a capital of about a million dollars, and drew $11,500,000 14 exchange during 1879. Others soon followed and in 1880 there were five, since which another has been opened.15 Newspapers, schools, and churches enjoyed the bene- fits of abundant money. All this prosperity was the result of mining, and it would be superfluous to go into further details concerning individual mines or miners. It is sufficient before proceeding with the history of discovery to state in evidence of the perma- nance of the Leadville mines that the average output of mineral from them for the first half of 1885 was 10,000 tons per day,
It could not be expected that a community with a growth so marvellous, and founded upon mineral wealth should have no other or more dramatic inci- dents in its career than comes from rapid growth. The richer the country, as a rule, the more poisonous the parasites which it attracts to fester in the body politic ; hence vigilance committees and midnight hangings had to have their day in Leadville,16 Two
14 H. A. W. Tabor, pres .; N. M. Tabor, vice-pres .; George R. Fisher, cash- ier. The Miners' Exchange bank, James H. B. McFerran, pres .; and George W. Trimble, cashier; and the Miners' and Mechanic's bank were the next in order in 1879. In April 1880, the City bank of Leadville was incorporated with a capital stock of $50.000. J. Warren Faxon, president; C. C. Howell, vice-president; and John Kerr, cashier. At the close of 1880 the organization was surrendered, and a private bank opened, C. C. Howell & Co. proprietors. Leadville Democrat, Dec. 31, 1881. In August 1883 the Carbonate bank was opened. John L. McNeil, the first cashier, and subsequently president, was born in Tioga co., N. Y., in 1849, and came to Colorado in 1870. He was employed as chief clerk of the office of the Denver Pacific R. R. for a few months, when he took a position as teller in the Colorado National bank, and held it until 1876, during which year a bank was opened at Del Norte, of which he was chosen manager. In 1880 this bank was moved to Alamosa, where it became the First National bank of that place. At the request of citizens of Leadville, McNeil, as above, organized the Carbonate bank.
15 Loomis' Leadville; Leadville Chronicle Annual, 1881.
16 At the first meeting of the town board T. H. Harrison was appointed marshal, T. J. Campbell police magistrate, and A. K. Updegraff town attor- ney. Harrison was soon driven out of town by the lawless element. At the second election in April George O'Connor was chosen marshal, and four police- men assigned to support his authority. Suspecting one of them of complicity with the 'roughs,' he was about to remove him from the force when he was killed by him, only 18 days after assuming the office. The ruffian's name was James Bloodsworth, who escaped arrest. At a special meeting of the board next morning, Martin Duggan was appointed marshal, and accepted the office. Almost immediately he received written notice that he would be
513
POPULAR TRIBUNALS.
men named Frodshem and Stewart were taken from the sheriff and hanged November 20, 1879 ; following which the criminal and vicious class, to the number of several hundred, organized and threatened to retal- iate by killing some of the supposed vigilants, and burning the newspaper offices. A few days of intense excitement followed, the city being patrolled nightly by the Wolf Tone guards and Tabor light cavalry. The action of the committee was approved by the majority of responsible citizens, who regarded it as necessary under the provocation given by the men who were hanged. This sentiment, together with the firmness of the militia, finally awed the vengeful would-be rioters, and the city was restored to order.17
In the latter part of May following, however, another kind of mob violence was threatened, the men employed in several mines being upon a strike. The disturbances increased gradually for several weeks, all business being brought to a stand, and some of the most vicious of the idlers, who were glad of the opportunity to harrass better men, inciting the discontented miners to a riot. On the 12th of June, owing to threats, all the places of business in the city were closed, and a procession of citizens paraded, in the hope of impressing the strikers with their solid force. A proclamation was read in front of the opera house, signed by the Citizens' Executive Committee of One Hundred, declaring that men who desired to
killed unless he should leave town within 24 hours. Duggan made no sign that he had received the warning, but took precautions against seizure. Within a few days a murder was committed at a saloon by a negro, and the police had taken the wretch to jail, when the outlaw organization attempted his release. Duggan faced the mob with a revolver in each hand, and made them understand that he had the nerve to shoot any bold enough to interfere with the execution of the laws, and they retired. Duggan served his term, declining reelection, P. A. Kelly being his successor. But Kelly was intim- idated, and the city council telegraphed for Duggan, then in Mich., to return and take the marshalship. He complied, and served out Kelly's term, but refused reelection. He remained in Leadville, however engaged in mining. Duggan was born in Ireland, migrating to the U. S. at the age of 6 years, and living in N. Y. until 16 years old, when he went to Kansas, and from Leavenworth to Colorado, where he engaged in mining and freighting.
17 See Denver Tribune, Nov. 22 and 23, 1879.
HIST. NEV. 33
514
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.
return to work at former wages " would be protected. A motion being made to adopt this as a resolution, the strikers, about 1,500 in number, shouted No ! and assailed the citizens with threats and opprobrious epithets. An attempt was then made by the militia companies to clear the streets," which only increased the confusion, and the belligerent attitude of the strikers. Hoping to preserve order by a show of law, the sheriff, L. R. Tucker, arrested the military com- mander, and disarmed the companies ; but just at that time a supply of arms arriving from Denver, under escort, the mob made a movement to seize them, and were met with presented carbines. A partial peace was restored at nightfall, although the strikers still held out, and the Citizens' Executive Committee of One Hundred remained in session, and the fire com- panies in readiness during the night. A number of telegrams were sent to Governor Pitkin asking that martial law should be declared, and an officer ordered to Leadville to muster into service the militia, which had disbanded on being disarmed. The governor replied by instructing the sheriff to summon to his aid every law abiding citizen,2º and promised to consider the question of martial law. Other telegrams fol- lowed the first, and about midnight a petition, headed by the sheriff, and signed by all the principal property owners in the city, was despatched to the executive, still urging martial law,21 which was thereupon pro- claimed, and Major-general David J. Cook ordered to
18 Miners received from $3 to $4 per day. Kent's Leadville in Your Pocket, 150. The cost of living was high, but diminishing as the railroads ap- proached.
13 The Wolfe Tone guards was the oldest militia organization in Lead- ville, dating from July 12, 1879. It numbered 80 privates, and 18 commis- sioned and non-commissioned officers; John Murphy, capt. The Tabor Light cavalry organized August 2d, and mustered 64 men; Cecil C. Morgan capt. There was a 3d company, the Carbonate rifles, 44 men, W. P. Minor capt., ready to act as required.
20 The law gave the sheriff this authority. Gen. Laws Colo, 1877, 237; and Laws of 1879, 135. In case of violence he might call out the military, or the aid of citizens.
21 Pitkin's Political Views, MS., 1; Boettcher, Flush Times, MS., 2-4; Den- ver Tribune, June 15, 1880; Colo Sen. Jour., 1881, 40-1.
515
MOBS AND STRIKES.
Leadville to take command of the militia, and muster in as much force as he should find necessary. In the interim, pending his arrival, William H. Jones of Leadville was commissioned a brigadier-general, to take the command and perform the duties of his position. Provost-marshal J. L. Pritchard forbade the assembling of groups of people upon the street, or in public halls, and ordered all saloons and places of business closed by ten o'clock in the evening. On the night of the 14th General Cook arrived, and found the excitement in part allayed, and some of the min- ers returning to their work. Also that W. A. H. Loveland, managing editor of the Democrat, a paper which sided with the strikers, had been deposed, and Clark, one of the editors of the Crisis,22 published to stir up disorder, had absconded. Notwithstanding the serious nature of the disturbances, no lives were lost. On the 22d of June the order of the 13th was revoked, and civil authority reinstated, the miners having returned to their work. Besides the loss to Leadville of half a summer's labor and profit, the state was taxed $19,506 for the expenses of the militia. For a time these incidents clouded the reputation, as they retarded the progress, of Leadville; but the
22 The first paper established in Leadville was the Reveille, by R. S. Allen, in 1878. The printing-office was a log house on Elm street, below Chestnut. Being a prospector by nature, Allen had pioneered journalism in several new mining camps. He published the Register at Central in early times, and the Sentinel at Fairplay somewhat later; and, when carbonates were discovered, appeared in Leadville, where for a year and a half he published the Reveille, and then suspended, and went his way. The second newspaper in Leadville was the Eclipse, a daily democratic journal, established in 1878, and sus- pended in 1879. On the 29th of June, 1879, appeared the daily Chronicle, owned by Carlyle C. Davis, John Arkins, and James M. Burnell. Their printing-office was one of the first buildings on Chestnut street, a one-story frame structure 20 by 30 feet. None of the trio had any means which was not in their business, and used the office for a lodging-house. The first issue was a small sheet of 5 columns. Its success from the start was so great that it was twice enlarged in 3 months. In May Burnell sold to the other part- ners. In Dec. they purchased a 4-horse-power steam engine, with a press capacity of 1,800 an hour. In April 1880 Arkins sold to Davis, who con- ducted the business alone, publishing a 6-column daily, quarto size, and a 9- column weekly, an able, instructive, and illustrated paper. The Democrat, and the Herald, a little later in starting, are also able papers, of which men- tion is made in another place.
516
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.
advent of railroads in August, and the continued dis- coveries of rich ore bodies. soon restored the balance.23
Such natural wealth on the east side of the con- tinental divide was sure to inspire the desire of search upon the occidental slope. But all that country, as I have already stated, was left in reserve for the Utes. The first attempt of miners to occupy the Ute coun- try was in 1861, when a party of prospectors all per- ished at the hands of the Indians in Washington gulch, since known as Dead Men's gulch, on the head of Rock creek, a branch of Roaring fork of Grand river. A few men who were undeterred by the massacre of the first party, or who had forced
23 It will be instructive to mention the smelters in and about Leadville at the close of 1879, with their output. Little Chief, S. Tyson supt, started Aug. 5, 1879, with one furnace-silver and lead, with a trace of gold-total value of bullion, $212,775.SS. Ohio and Missouri, J. M. Rockwood supt, started July 16, 1879; one furnace; total value, $154, 8I7.89. Cummings & Finn, Frederick H. Williams supt, started July 25, 1879; three furnaces; total value, $323,039.24. Gage-Hagaman, G. W. Bryan metallurgist, started May 23, 1879, one furnace; total value, $160,454.84. Raymond, Sherman, and Mckay, started June 26, 1879; one furnace; total value, $143,837.20. Elgin Mining and Smelting company, started June 24, 1879; one furnace; total value, $425,251.20. Harrison Reduction works, started Oct. 1878; three furnaces; total value, $1,018, 164.24. J. B. Grant & Co. smelter, Grant
manager, started Sept. 23, 1878; eight furnaces; total value, $2,397,474.48. Leadville Smelting co., started May 15, 1879; one furnace; total value, $199,177.80. La Plata Mining and Smelting co., started Nov. 2, 1878; four furnaces; total value, $1,969,636.24. American Mining and Smelting co., O. H. Hahn supt, started June 5, 1879; two furnaces; total value, $223,837.36. Billing & Eiler's Utah smelter, Fritz Wolf supt, started May 14, 1879; two furnaces; total value, $1,022,670.16. California Smelting co., started Sept. 1879; two furnaces; total value, $76,870. J. D. Dickson & Co. Lizzie fur- naces, started June 1879; two furnaces; total value, $785,010.40. J. B. Steen & Co, Malta Smelting works, started June 1878; one furnace; total value, $62,560.76. Adelaide Smelting works, started 1878; one furnace; total value, $75 252.96. To sum up, 34 furnaces in less than a year, reducing 210,341,719 pounds of ore, produced 37,727,797 pounds of bullion, containing 6,913,408 ounces of silver, valued at $7,743,116.86, and 818.8 ounces of gold, valued at $16,376.37, and $1,496,437.64 worth of lead, =$9,250,928.85. Besides the ore smelted in the local works, there was sent away to be reduced $2,751,879.76 worth of ore, to be reduced in foreign smelters, and $30,000 in gold from the gold mines, making the product for the period above given $12,032, 808.61. Leadville Carbonate Chronicle, Jan. 3, 1880. The outlay was of course enormous to produce this result, but it could never be so great for any other year for these companies, and the amount of ore to be smelted must increase with time and facilities. Supposing the supply to be prac- tically unlimited, as it seems, mining becomes in Colorado a permanent in- dustry on a grand scale. The product of Lake co., in gold, silver, and lead, up to 1882, was $56,945,117.69.
517
THE GUNNISON COUNTRY.
themselves in at about the same time, found gold in Union park, Taylor park, German flats, and Tincup flats, but none were able to hold their ground against the Indians except a company in Union park, which erected fortifications, and mined in the intervals of hunting and skirmishing. They seem to have con- quered a peace, for this limited region continued to be occupied for twenty years.24 Very little was known of the country. Old mountaineers had traversed it. Frémont had crossed its northern portion by the White river branch of the Colorado in 1844. Gun- nison had explored it by the Grand river branch, the southern fork of which was named after him by Gov- ernor Gilpin. Expeditions under Macomb and Ives had traversed the south-west corner, following the old Spanish trail from Santa Fe to Salt Lake. Ives explored the lower Colorado in 1857-8 to a point eighty miles below Grand cañon, where he organized a land expedition and explored the plateaux traversed by it. This expedition approached from the west, and did not extend to the Gunnison country. Baker's party penetrated it to the Grand canon of the Col- orado, where they were killed by the Indians, as I have already related. In 1869 Major J. W. Powell explored the Grand cañon with an efficient company and outfit, adding much to the interest already felt in the country.26 He had been preceded in the Gunni-
24 See Richardson's History of the Gunnison Country, MS., or an account of its exploration and settlement. Sylvester Richardson was born in Albany, N. Y. Migrating first to Sheboygan, Wis., he followed architecture and boat-building, with music-teaching. In 1860 he came to Colorado, where he practised medicine 22 years. In 1861 he went into cattle-raising, but the Indian war of 1864 ruined his business. He afterward settled in the Gunni- son country.
25 In the summer of 1867 Powell visited the Colorado mountains with a party of amateur naturalists, during which expedition he explored the cañon on Grand river below Hot Sulphur springs, and also the Cedar canon, by which Grand river leaves Middle park. His curiosity thus stimulated, he determined upon further explorations. In 1868 he organized another expedi- tion, which spent the summer among the mountains, and encamped for the winter 120 miles above the mouth of White river. During the winter, which was a mild one, excursions were made southward to the Grand, down White to Green river, north to Bear river, and around the Uintah mountains. Gradually these exploring excursions had become geological and scientific,-
518
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.
son country in 1866 by Benjamin Graham, who, in 1870, conducted a second expedition,26 which spent the summer in prospecting the west slope of the Elk mountains, where they discovered many galena lodes, carrying cerussite in limestone formation, and a coal vein on Rock creek. A log fort was erected, and prospecting continued, but the Utes in 1874 burned the fort and drove out the prospectors, who lost all their property except their arms, and were compelled to make their way home, 100 miles, on foot, subsist- ing by shooting game. In this instance the Utes proved themselves able astronomers, as the 107th meridian, their eastern boundary, agreed to the year before, lay a few miles east of the Rock creek camp. In 1874 Hayden's scientific and exploring expedition passed the summer in the Gunnison country, but to these the Indians made no objection, knowing they were transient visitors, but not, perhaps, being aware that the knowledge which they gathered would send them more prospectors,27 although, as it happened, the
and were carried on under the patronage of the government. The better to carry out his project of exploring the Colorado cañons, Powell had 4 boats built in Chicago, as strong as could be made, and transported by rail to the point where the U. P. R. R. crosses Green river. On the 24th of May the fleet left Green River city, in Wyoming, provisioned for 10 months, and sup- plied with scientific instruments, arms, ammunition, and tools, and two of them decked. The boats were named and manned as follows: Emma Dean, J. W. Powell, J. C. Sumner, and William H. Dunn; Kitty Clyde's Sister, W. H. Powell and G. Y. Bradley; No Name, O. G. Howland, Seneca Howland, and Frank Goodman; Maid of the Canon, W. R. Hawkins and Andrew Hall. A summer of extraordinary travel and magnificent discovery followed, in which the object was accomplished, the examination of the grand canon of the Colorado, besides which there were several others-Contract canon, 41 miles long, with walls from 1,300 to 2,700 feet in height: Glen cañon, 149 miles long, with walls from 200 to 1,600 feet in altitude; Marble cañon, 65₺ miles long, 200 feet deep at its head, and 3,500 feet deep at its lower end; Grand cañon, 2173 miles in length, and from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in depth. Powell's Explor. Colo River, 5, 79-102.
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