USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 55
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 55
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 55
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545
CATTLE.
When not irrigated, it is only a few inches high, but grows to two feet in height when furnished with water, and is better feed than any native grass known. This grows near the mountains, buffalo grass on the plains, and bunch grass on the mountain sides. Besides these three there were exhibited at the expo- sition in Denver, in 1884, over a hundred varieties of native grasses, all having a seed on the side, except the bunch grasses.27 Cattle so well fed will live a week with nothing to eat, and a snowfall seldom lasts a longer time. Should the snow remain, the cattle stampede to the Arkansas valley ; so that, with the advantages of the climate and the sagacity of the animals, the owners sustain few losses. Still, pru- dence will more and more dictate the saving of hay for winter feeding.
With the growth of the business of cattle-raising there came the formation of incorporated companies, and legislative enactments. Among other laws which concern the branding, herding, protection from dis- ease, and other necessary regulations, is a statute authorizing a commissioner to attend the annual round-ups, and to seize and sell all unbranded cattle for the benefit of the common school fund.28 A state
board of inspectors exists by law. The objectionable feature of the stock business would seem to be the absolute control of immense tracts of country, with the springs and streams, by companies or individuals, as for example, the possession of many thousands of acres of rich bottom land, and forty miles of water front on the Arkansas river, by one man, J. W. Prowers. The Prairie Cattle company have over $3,000,000 invested in cattle, and control many miles of water front, and hundreds of thousands of acres of fenced pasture, in Bent county. In northern Colo- rado the stock companies are chiefly in Weld and Arapahoe counties ; south of the divide thev are for
27 Stone's General View, MS., 9-10; Hollister's Mines of Colorado, 426-9.
28 Roller's Colorado Sketches, MS., 3; Farrel's Colo as It is, 53-5.
546
AGRICULTURE AND STOCK RAISING.
the most part in Bent, Las Animas, Elbert, and Pueblo. There are two stock associations, one at Den- ver " and the other at Pueblo. Each holds an annual meeting30 for the discussion of subjects connected with its interests.31 The Colorado Cattle company secured 81,000 acres near Pueblo, under patent from the government,32 and individual owners control other large tracts in this portion of the state, requiring a separate organization. The whole number of cattle in Colorado in the spring of 1884 was given at 1,005,- 000.33 The number of sheep in the state, in May of that year, was put down at 1,497,000. Shepherding has made rapid advancement since 1871, about which time sheep began to be imported in considerable num-
29 Joseph L. Bailey was an active organizer of the Colorado Cattle-growers' association, with headquarters at Denver, and for two years its president. He was from Pa, and arrived at Cherry creek in June 1859. He made some money working for the Pike's Peak Express co., with which, and with credit, he started in a meat market, clearing, with his partner, over $30,000 in 18 months. There being no banks in the country, the money was deposited in the earth under their shop, and was stolen by their book-keeper, leaving them bankrupt. Bailey then took offices under the Denver city government as street commissioner and marshal; and was deputy provost-marshal under Wanless, and deputy U. S. marshal under A. C. Hunt. He was also in the secret service of the treasury department, to hunt out the counterfeiters which infested the territory for a time. He was deputy sheriff under Sopris, Kent, Wilson, and Cook for a number of years, and was twice chosen a. member of the city council. The fire department of Denver owes much to his exertions during two years while he was chief. He organized the Fire men's Officers' association, to consult upon matters pertaining to the depart- ment. In 1865 he established Bull's Head corral, the rendezvous of the leading stock men of the western states.
30 The pres. of the northern association in 1883 was Jacob Scherrer; vice- pres., J. F. Brown; sec., L. R. Tucker; treas., J. A. Cooper; ex. committee, R. G. Webster, W. H. H. Cranmer, Joseph W. Bowles, H. H. Metcalf, J. W. Snyder; state inspection commissioners, J. W. Prowers of Bent co., J. L. Brush of Weld, Nelson Hallock of Lake, L. R. Tucker of Elbert, and George W. Thompson, Jr, of La Plata. Colo Stock Laws, 3, a compilation according to act of the legislative assembly of 1883 of all the acts relating to stock, is a good authority on stock matters.
31 Life on a Ranch, by R. Aldridge, contains an account of cattle-raising in Colorado, Kansas, and Texas. Hall's Annual Rept Chamb. Com. contains statistics, 133-6. E. P. Tenney's Colo, and Homes in the New West, 16-19, gives a condensed account of the grazing interest; also Hayden, Great West, 134-8, and The Grazing Interest and the Beef Supply, by A. T. Babbitt, MS., 11, a dictation from the manager of the Standard Cattle company of Wy- oming.
32 Helena Independent, Aug. 14, 1879.
33 These figures are taken from a list of county productions in Descriptive America, May 4, 1884, p. 26; but a circular on Live-stock Movement, issued in 1884, by Wood brothers of Chicago places the production of Colorado at 991,700 cattle, and 1,260,000 sheep.
547
SHEEP AND HORSES.
bers. There was at first active hostility between the owners of neat cattle and the sheep graziers, because the pastures overrun by sheep were practically de- stroyed for cattle. In the autumn of 1873 the own- ers of flocks in Huerfano county complained to the governor that parties had been attacked and killed, or their animals scattered, with the avowed purpose of driving this kind of stock out of the country. But the legislature interposed with laws for the protection of all stock-owners equally, and sheep raising is now the third industry in the state, if it is separated from cattle raising on one side, and agriculture on the other. One-year-old lambs average four pounds, ewes five or six, and rams twelve to fifteen pounds of wool. The yearly clip exceeds 7,000,000 pounds, having a value of $1,500,000. The flocks consist mainly of Mexican sheep, improved by the introduc- tion of thoroughbred Merino rams. Money invested in sheep by care and good fortune could be doubled in three years; but as snow storms and late, cold, spring rains have more power to harm sheep than other stock, some allowance is made, in calculating profits, for these contingencies." Alfalfa ,as it was found to be superior feed for sheep, as well as all kinds of stock, began to be cultivated in the agricultural counties with success, although it was found difficult of introduction without irrigation. Horses were longer in becoming so much objects of the stockmen's care as in Nevada and Montana, requiring, as they do, more attention than cattle, besides being more expensive. In the whole state there were in 1886 about 100,000 horses and mules, and 25,000 uther kinds of stock, comprising swine, and cashmere, angora, and common goats.
34 Pabor, Colo as an Agricultural State, 193-201; Harper's Mag., 193-210, Jan. 1880; Denver Rocky Mountain News, Nov. 29, 1870; Colorado Condensed, 42; Denver Tribune, Oct. 10, 1884; Proceedings 1st Nat. Conv. Cattle-men, 12- 13; Tenth Census, vol. 3, 144; Gunnison Sun, Jan. 5, 1884.
CHAPTER XI.
DENVER AND ARAPAHOE COUNTY.
1859-1886.
SURVEY-DENVER LANDS-MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION-THE QUESTION OF CAPITAL-POST-OFFICE AND ASSAY OFFICE-RAILWAYS-TELEGRAPHS- STREET RAILWAYS-PUBLIC BUILDINGS-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE-WATER SYSTEM AND DRAINAGE-MANUFACTURES- SMELTERS-CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-EXPOSITION GROUNDS AND BUILD- INGS-BANKING-SOCIETY AND CULTURE-BIOGRAPHY.
CONSIDERING the resources of the state to be first mining, second stock-raising, and third agriculture, a brief history of each of the counties will afford an opportunity to speak of manufactures where they occur, and of mineral resources not yet noted.
Arapahoe, first alphabetically, as well as in point of time, had an irregular existence before the organi- zation of the territory of Colorado, as the reader will remember. In 1861 its boundaries were defined by survey, its area being 4,860 square miles in the form of a parallelogram. The first gold discovery was made in the western end of the country, but these placers were soon exhausted and no new ones discov- ered. The county was treeless and arid except immediately upon the streams, of which it had a good number, and its prospects in 1866, viewed from almost any standpoint, were not flattering. Two things have redeemed Arapahoe from poverty, first the prosperity of Denver as the metropolis, and later the redemption of its arid lands by irrigation, of which I have already spoken The value of its live stock in 1884 was $1,- 540,000. Of its agricultural productions in the past
(548)
549
PROGRESS OF THE CITY.
there is no record, but that there will be none in the future the increasing area of irrigated land renders improbable.
Denver, the county seat, has had its beginnings narrated. It was incorporated first by the provisional legislature, and organized a city government Decem- ber 19, 1859, by the election of John C. Moore, mayor. The government was not, however, strong enough to prevent a conflict of lot owners and lot jumpers the following summer, which had nearly ter- minated in bloodshed, the secretary of the town com- pany, Whitsitt, and others narrowly escaping being shot by the irate squatters. A committee of citizens maintained order until congress, in May 1864, passed an act for their relief, by extending to Denver the operation of the act of May 23, 1844, and authorizing the probate judge of Arapahoe county to enter at the minimum price, in trust for the righful occupants according to their respective interests, section 33, and the west half of section 34, in township 3, south of range 68, west of the 6th principal meridian, reserv- ing only such blocks and lots for government purposes as the commissioner of the general land office should designate.1 Thus was the question of titles settled. In the meantime there had been a change of govern- ment, and Denver was re-incorporated under the laws of the first territorial legislature, November 7, 1861. The first mayor was Charles A. Cook, the first board of alderman H. J. Brendlinger, John A. Nye, L. Mayer, W W. Barlow, J. E. Vawter, and L. Buttrick. P. P. Wilcox was police magistrate, W. M. Keith city marshal, J. Bright Smith city clerk and attor- ney, E. D. Boyd city, surveyor, George W. Brown treasurer and collector.2 D. D. Palmer street com- missioner, and George E. Thornton chief of police.3
* Cong. Globe, 1863-4, app. 168; U. S. Mess. and Doc., 1856-66, 251-2.
2 Brown resigned in Dec., and Joseph B. Cass was elected.
3 The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Denver, with amendments from 1861 to 1875, compiled by Alfred C. Phelps, Denver, 1878, contains the names
550
DENVER AND ARAPAHOE COUNTY.
The city authorities had for a few years the same trouble with the outlaw class which every border town of any magnitude has had, in which the ordinary course of justice was sometimes accelerated by the vigilants of society. It suffered by flood and fire, as I have before mentioned4 in its early history.
Merchants
Excelsior Mill
Ditch
South
Ditch
Platte
River
ed
of Platte
PLAN OF DENVER, 1862.
It was a question with the early settlers of Colo- rado whether Denver or Canon City should be the metropolis of the country. All depended upon the route taken by the principal part of the immigration
of the several boards of city officers during that period, for which I have not room. The town site of Denver absorbed Auraria, and touched upon the site of Highland, later North Denver.
4 The fire broke out April 19, 1863, between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morn- ing. In spite of great exertions, the business portion of the city was almost entirely destroyed in a few hours. Many who lost everything at that time were later among the solid men of Denver; but many more never recovered from the disaster.
old
551
ROADS AND RAILROADS.
and freight. In 1859-60 the Platte and Arkansas routes divided the travel. Denver was south of the travelled route to Utah, Nevada, and California, and was supposed by its rival to be almost hopelessly iso- lated. But fortune, in collusion with the stage com- pany, settled that matter. The Pike's peak company having removed its line from the Smoky Hill fork of Kansas river, which line terminated at Denver by the route since followed by the Kansas Pacific railway to the Platte route, was itself no longer on the main line, but was forced to accept a branch from Jules- burg, where the overland mail crossed the north side of the Platte. The distance saved in the length of the line to San Francisco by adopting the northern route was 600 miles. The men of Denver used their influence to procure a survey of a direct route from their city to Salt Lake, and in 1861 E. L. Berthoud was employed by W. H. Russell and Ben Holladay, interested in transportation, to examine the country west of Denver for such a route. The survey demon- strated that a road could be laid down White river and other streams which would shorten the distance from the Missouri to the Pacific 250 miles. But the Platte or old immigrant route continued to be used until the railroad era succeeded to stage lines, and Denver, although left aside, was still nearer to the trans-continental artery than any other town in Colo- rado, and with that advantage had to be content.
Denver next secured the mint, which although not a mint, but only a United States assaying office, was
5 The first postmaster of Auraria was Henry Allen, appointed in the spring of 1859, at which time there was no mail route created, and none was estab- lished before the autumn of 1860. Allen soon resigned, and Park W. Mc- Clure was appointed, the first who had any office. When the war began he joined the confederacy, and Samuel S. Curtis was appointed; but he also left the place to take a commission in the federal army. His deputy acted as post- master until the spring of 1864, when William N. Byers was appointed, who held the office 23 years before resigning. This covers the pioneer period. Byers was appointed again in 1879. Previous to the U. S. appointments the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express company, which was the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express company under a new name, had postmasters of its own, the first of whom was Amos Steck. Byers' Hist. Colo, MS., 27-8.
552
DENVER AND ARAPAHOE COUNTY.
a power, besides being a temptation, the first embez- zlement of importance occurring in Denver being perpetrated by the pay clerk, who absconded with $37,000, most of which was recovered, together with the thief. Defalcations had not been frequent in the history of Colorado, and this one stirred pro- foundly the moral sense of its people. Denver also succeeded in retaining the capital, as has been before stated, against several attempts to locate it elsewhere. But it has been to the energy with which the public- spirited men of Denver have labored for the concen- tration of railroads at this point that the continued ascendency of this city has been due. Originally, and when Berthoud surveyed the mail route to Salt Lake, it was expected that the central line of Pacific railroad would come to Denver; but its engineers finding a more feasible route north, finally passed just within the line of the territory, injuring rather than benefitting it. This inspired the friends of Colorado, and particularly the leading men of Denver, with the purpose of building a branch road to the Union Pacific at Cheyenne. The Kansas Pacific was slowly making its way westward, and was likely enough at that time to come to Pueblo, the most formidable rival of Denver. Whether to build a road toward Cheyenne or Pueblo was for a time a moot question.
6 As early as 1861 a railroad called the Colorado Central was projected to connect Golden with Denver, and to be extended to the other mining towns, which road was chartered in 1865. In 1867 a proposition was made by the Union Pacific to assist in completing a branch road into Colorado, if the grading should be done by the Coloradans. The first meeting to consider this proposition, and of building the Colorado Central, was called July 10, 1867, at Denver, and was thinly attended. It was resolved, however, to re- quest the county commissioners to order an election for the purpose of voting on the proposition to issue bonds for $200,000 in aid of the branch road, and such an election was ordered for the 6th of August. In the interim it be- came known that the managers of the Colorado Central were working in the interest of Golden as the future capital, and designed taking the road on the north and west side of the Platte instead of first to Denver, a movement in which they were supported by the mountain towns. On this discovery the commissioners of Arapahoe county so changed the order of election as to make the issue of bonds dependent upon the road being constructed on the east side of the Platte. The vote on this proposition stood 1,160 for to 157 against. But the Colorado Central company in September declined the conditional bonds. In November a director of the Kansas Pacific company, James Archer,
553
RAILROADS.
While the claims of Colorado were receiving but scant recognition from the transcontinental line, Gen-
visited Denver, and made it known that only by the contribution of $2,000,000 in county bonds could the building of the Kansas Pacific to that point be se- cured. As this proposal was not to be entertained, it was determined to make another effort to secure connection with the Union Pacific, and to facili- tate negotiations a board of trade was organized on the 13th of November. On the following day George Francis Train addressed the board, and steps were taken to organize a railroad company. On the 17th and 18th other meetings were held, and on the latter day the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph company was organized, with a capital stock of $2,000,000, and a board of directors. The officers elected on the 19th were B. M. Hughes, president; Luther Kountze, vice-president; D. H. Moffat, Jr, treasurer; W. T. Johnson, secretary; F. M. Case, chief engineer; John Pierce, consulting engineer. In three days $300,000 had been subscribed, and an attempt was made to induce the Colorado Central to accept the county bonds and join forces, but without success. In December the county commissioners issued a call for another special election in Jan. 1868, to vote upon the proposition to issue $500,000 in bonds to aid the railroads, for which the county was to re- ceive the same amount in stock. The vote stood 1,259 in favor of to 47 against the issue of the bonds, and soon after an arrangement was entered into with the Union Pacific by which that company agreed to complete the road whenever it should be ready for the rails. A bill was introduced in con- gress early in the session of 1867-8 for the usual land grant to the Denver Pacific; but before any action was taken, the Kansas Pacific road agreed to transfer its land grant between Cheyenne and Denver to the Denver Pacific, and the bill was amended to grant a subsidy in bonds to the latter company, and in this form was passed in the senate July 25, 1868. Nothing more bind- ing than a verbal agreement had been passed between the Union and Denver Pacific companies, when in March 1868 Gov. Evans and Surveyor-gen. Pierce, representing the latter, met the directors of the Union Pacific co. in New York and reduced to writing the terms finally agreed upon, which were, on the part of the Denver company, that the road should be graded and the ties laid; that the Denver Central and Georgetown Railroad company should be organized; and that application should be made for a grant of land to the Denver Pacific road. A line having been decided upon, work was com- menced May 18, 1868, in the presence of a concourse of people. At the end of three months the grading had been completed to Evans, half the distance, and in the autumn the road-bed was completed to Cheyenne. But so far the Union Pacific company made no movement toward completing any part of the road, and, indeed, the subsidy bill which had passed the senate had failed in the lower house of congress, all of which delayed progress. On the 3d of March, 1869, however, another bill embodying the important features of the former one was passed, and became a law. The grading and ties be- ing ready, the Union Pacific was called upon to fulfil its contract, which it did not do, owing to financial embarrassment. About this time, the presi- dent of the Denver Pacific having died, Evans was elected to fill that posi- tion, and he proposed to the Union Pacific to sell the iron to the Denver Pacific, which would complete its own road. The former contract was cancelled, and an arrangement entered into with the Kansas Pacific which took a certain amount of the stock of the Denver Pacific, and proceeded with the completion of the road, which was opened to Denver June 22, 1870, the Georgetown miners contributing the silver spike which was used at the in- auguration ceremonies, when, also, the corner-stone of the depot at Denver was laid, with imposing rites, masonic and civic. Thus, after three years of unintermitted effort, Denver established itself as the initial railroad point in Colorado. In August of the same year the Kansas Pacific reached Denver. The Denver Pacific was not for the first ten years financially remunerative,
554
DENVER AND ARAPAHOE COUNTY.
eral William J. Palmer, who, while helping to build the Kansas Pacific, had vainly labored for its exten- sion westward by way of the grand cañon of the Ar- kansas, conceived the idea of a railway which, running southward from Denver along the base of the moun- tains, should penetrate them by branches through each available cañon and pass, and render tributary the mineral wealth which they contained. It was due no less to his foresight in the conception of this enterprise than to the ability and energy which he brought to bear on its execution, that the Denver and Rio Grande railway became the greatest factor in the development of Colorado, and in many respects the most notable of North American railroads. From 1871, when construction began, to 1878, 337 miles of road were built, connecting Denver with Canon City and the adjacent coal-fields, with the extensive beds of coking coal at El Moro, and with the town of Ala- mosa on the Rio Grande del Norte, to reach which point was made the then famous crossing of the Sangre de Cristo range at Veta pass. In the latter year began the great struggle with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé for the possession of the grand cañon of the Arkansas, a detailed account of which is elsewhere given. Emerging victorious from this conflict in 1880, the Denver and Rio Grande en- tered upon a career of great prosperity, building dur- ing the next three years 980 miles of mountain road.7
first because it could not be while it had no feeders from the mining towns, and secondly because in 1877 the Union Pacific company, failing to get con- trol of it, constructed a parallel road running to Golden, and absorbing the Colorado Central, which had completed its road to Denver, and extended to Georgetown, with branches to Black Hawk and several other mining towns. This company also, in 1881, completed a cut off from Julesburg to Evans on the Denver Pacific, which subsequently came under its control.
" The achievements of the Denver and Rio Grande railway in mountain climbing and cañon threading entitle it to its appellation of the 'scenic line of the world.' Five times it crosses the main ranges of the Rocky mountains, and at the following elevations above the sea: Veta pass, 9,392; Cumbres, 10,115; Tennessee pass, 10,418; Marshall pass, 10.852; and Fremont pass, 11,328 feet. To gain these heights a grade of over 200 feet was necessary for about 100 miles of the route. A journey over these passes abounds in thrill- ing interest, while the views may challenge comparison with the most noted of Alpine prospects. Two of the grandest of Rocky mountain cañons, the
555
THE DENVER AND RIO GRANDE.
A telegraph line was established from Omaha to Julesburg, on its way across the continent, in 1861,
grand canon of the Arkansas and the black canon of the Gunnison, together with a score of lesser ones, are traversed by this wonderful road. An idea of its great general height above the sea may be gained from the fact that about 400 miles, or one fourth of its entire length, lie wholly above 8,000 feet elevation. In 1883, Gen. Palmer resigned the presidency, and was suc- ceeded by Fred. W. Lovejoy. Various troubles, principally complications with the Denver and Rio Grande Western railway and the Colorado Coal and Iron companies, culminated in a receivership in July 1884, W. S. Jackson being appointed receiver. Reorganization was effected in 1886, with Jackson as president. Among other railways directly tributary to Denver I may mention the Denver, South Park, and Pacific, which had its organization in Denver, with Gov. John Evans at its head. It started up Platte cañon, and in 1879-80 had a race for Leadville with the D. & R. G., in which it was beaten, gaining trackage privileges, however, over its rival's line from Buena Vista
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