USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 61
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 61
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 61
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595
CUSTER, DELTA.
Custer, formerly a portion of Frémont, from which it was cut off in 1877, is a small county, lying on the east slope of the Sangre de Cristo range. It con- tains the El Mojada or Wet mountain valley, an ele- vated basin with an undulating surface, sentineled by lofty peaks, and offering some of the finest scenery in the state. The extent of the valley, which is watered by Grape creek, a tributary of the Arkansas river, is twenty-five miles in length by ten in width. Its ele- vation, from 6,500 to 7,000 feet, does not prevent it being a good farming region, although the lower and smaller Hardscrabble valley, twenty miles east, is more productive, with a shorter and less severe win- ter season. Wet mountain valley was for some years overlooked or neglected, owing to the difficulty, or rather, impossibility, of taking wagons through the cañons of Oak and Hardscrabble creeks leading into it; and although it was prospected for minerals in 1863, it had not a single settler before 1869. It was selected about this time for the seat of a German col- ony numbering 367 souls, who settled there in 1870.37
37 The first prospectors in the valley were S. Smith, Melrose, and Wetmore, of Pueblo. The first settlers, in 1869, were Voris, Home, and Taylor, who took land claims that year. Brinckley & Hartwell, Southern Colo, 99. The history of the Colfax Agricultural and Industrial Colonization company is as follows : Prof. Carl Wulsten, impelled by a desire to ameliorate the condition of persons of his own nationality, 'condemned by a cruel fate to work in greasy, ill-ventilated, and nerve-destroying factories of the great city of Chi- cago,' formed a colony of about 100 families, and brought them to Wet Mountain valley, in his eyes a paradise of beauty, fertility, and health-giving air. But the colonists, used to city habits, and at a loss what to do in a naked country, however beautiful, proved ungrateful for the favor conferred, and in 6 months the organization had collapsed, every man following his own devices. It was doubtless best so, for every one of the colonists was in a few years in good circumstances, and the benefit aimed at was achieved independently of organization. About 30 families took land claims, which speedily became productive farms; the others went to different parts of the territory, but all remaining in it. William Ackelbein, John and William Knuth, O. Groeske, Carson Kunrath, William Shultz, Ruester, father and son, Dietz, Menzel, Klose, John and Frederick Piorth, Kettler, Philips, Katzenstein, Henjes, Falkenberg, and others were among those who remained. Abstract of an ac- count of the colony, by its founder, in Brinckley and Hartwell's Colo, 106-7. Roads were made, farms opened, and the colonists, being joined by others, soon made this portion of Fremont county blossom as the rose. But had it remained purely an agricultural community, its separate organization as Cus- ter county might not have occurred. The ubiquitous prospector, in the per- sons of Daniel Baker and C, M. Grimes, from Black Hawk, discovered a
596
COUNTIES OF COLORADO.
Delta is a new county, cut off from Gunnison in February 1883, lying on both sides of the north fork of Gunnison river. What has been said of the lead- ing features of the Gunnison country in a previous
crevice containing metal in 1871. Grimes was a pioneer, and had been a lead- ing man in Gilpin co. as sheriff and territorial representative. He was of that genial, liberal, merry making disposition which secured for him the affection- ate appellation of 'old Grimes,' according to mountain custom. Wulsten, in 1869, took to Chicago pieces of rock from the vicinity of later discoveries at Gold Hill, which assayed 12 ounces in gold, and 37 ounces in silver, per ton. The Black Hawk mine, later called the Senator, began to pay in 1873; the Pocahontas and Humboldt in 1874. These were the initial point in the mining district named Hardscrabble, in which more than 600 locations were made previous to 1874. Mining was carried on, and some small smelters introduced, but no excitement was created for some years. Meantime, the mining town of Rosita had grown up, overshadowing the pioneer settlement of Ula, situ- . ated on Grape creek, in a location thought favorable to future greatness. Joseph A. Davis was the first settler at Ula, in Sept. 1871. Soon after he erected the Ula hotel, and kept a store in it. The town grew, and the peo- ple having petitioned for a post-office, it was established, under the name of Ula, at Davis' store. The Wet Mountain Valley Library association was founded in 1874 by R. S. Sweetland and Dr Richter, who was one of the ori- ginal colonists. The interests of the district and valley seeming to demand it, the legislature created the county of Custer in March 1877, and the com- missioners, R. S. Sweetland, H. E. Austin, and T. W. Hull, named Ula as the county seat, but it was removed soon after, by election, to Rosita. This step in advance was greatly hastened by the remarkable discovery of the Maine gold and silver mine, by Edmund C. Bassick, who named it after his native state. This was in many respects a phenomenal mine, consisting of a chimney of circular form, filled with boulders, and from six to 25 feet in diameter. The ores, both of gold and silver, were new to mineralogists. They consisted of a true conglomerate, the kernels of which were trachytic, prophyry, and quartz, encased in a cement of a telluride of gold and silver, exceedingly rich. For instance, a lump 12 inches long and wide and six inches in thickness weighed 43 pounds, and assayed $7,000 per ton. Engineering and Mining Journal in Yankee Fork Herald, Oct. 18, 1879. The proportion of gold and silver was 70 per cent of the former to 30 of the latter. Some of these nodules had the telluride coating covered with crystallized blende and copper pyrites. Altogether, the Bassick mine was a discovery of much inter- est to the scientific world, as it was of profit to its finder, for it sold for over $1,000,000 when it was down nearly 300 feet. Its yearly yield after 1880 was nearly $1,000,000. The Bassick mine, as it is now called, was situated on the top of a conical hill, two miles and a half north-west from Rosita; and it appeared as if it might have been at some period of the earth's history a gey- ser which had built this mound. The suggestion led to prospecting in the direction of other similar eminences, and the discovery, three iniles westerly from Rosita, of the Golden Eagle, a true fissure vein in black granite, carry- ing from two to five ounces of free gold per ton.
In 1878 a miner named Edwards, while passing by a long sloping hill which from its abrupt termination at one end was called the cliff, knocked off a piece of rock, which he had assayed, and which returned twenty-seven ounces in silver per ton, not enough to pay the expense of smelting. He thought no more of it for several months, when, weary of unfruitful prospect- ing, he returned with his partner, Powell, to the cliff, and soon found rock which assayed $1,700 per ton. Taking in another partner. Spoffard, they made further investigations, and located the mines later celebrated as the Racine Boy, Horn Silver and Plata Verde situated on the mountain which
597
DOLORES, DOUGLAS.
chapter pertains also to this division. The town of Delta is the county seat. Escalante and Dominguez are two other new towns.
Dolores county was established in 1881. It con- tains in its eastern part the great carbonate district
they called Silver Cliff. This district soon bade fair to rival Leadville, the ores being chlorides, which needed no roasting. In 1879 the discovery mine was sold in New York to Senator Jones, of Nevada, and James Keene, and stocked for $10,000,000. The other two sold equally well. Other chloride mines were soon after discovered, and more recently a second mine, like the Bassick, called the Bull Domingo. I have not space to mention the many important - mineral discoveries which have made the new and small county of Custer notable and prosperous among its older neighbors. Its most important towns are Rosita and Silver Cliff, besides which there are several busy mining camps. Rosita. that is to say, little rose, was founded early in 1873, as the capital of the mining district of Hardscrabble, organized Nov. 15th of the year previous. The miners gathered in the district at this time were the Remine brothers from Central City, Jarvis and son from Georgetown, School- field brothers from Mill City, Jasper Brown from Fort Garland, Hedges, V. B. Hoyt, James Pringle, William J. Robinson, Charles Ragnan, Nicholas Mast, Thomas Barrett, and John Palmer. When the town was laid off Frank S. Roff was the first blacksmith-he was afterward mayor of Silver Cliff-Frank Kirkham and Lewis Herfort, storekeepers, James Duncan and Charles Nelson, carpenters, James A. Gooch, afterward postmaster, George S. Adams, the first lawyer, J. M. Hobson, Woodruff brothers, Alexander and Thomas Thornton, Charles Fisher, keeper of the first meat market, and livery stable, Ed C. Smith, saloon keeper, John Hahnenkratt, boarding house keeper for the Hoyt Mining company, who afterward built the Grand View hotel, A. V. Temple, who surveyed the town site, Malcolm C. Duncan, and others. In the autumn of 1874 the town consisted of 400 houses, with over 1,000 inhabitants. It had by this time several stores and hotels, a newspaper, the Rosita Index, owned by Charles Baker, and edited by Lane Posey, and a bank, owned by Boyd and Stewart. These bankers claimed to have secured an interest in the Pocahontas mine, which was in possession of Herr broth- ers, and, aided by the superintendent, Topping, assumed tne management, Topping retaining most of the miners, and keeping a reserve of rough char- acters to fight, if fighting it came to, in the struggle for mastery. The leader of this gang was one Graham, an ex-convict. James Pringle having been wounded by one of Graham's men, without provocation, a committee of safety was organized, the roads guarded to prevent escape, and the mine surrounded. Graham appearing, armed, was ordered to surrender, but turn- ing to fly was shot down. The remainder of the gang attempted to escape in a body, but were intercepted, and being much frightened at the attitude of the citizens, displayed a white flag, and were finally permitted to leave town. Boyd, who had been seized and confined, was also permitted to depart. Stewart had already fled. It was later discovered that he was a forger, be- ing sought by the police of New York, having served a 20 years' term in the Sing Sing state prison. Thus ended an attempt at the piracy of a mine. The same property was embarrassed by litigation, in which Ballard of Ky figured, but ultimately emerged from its troubles to be a good property. There were the usual unsuccessful attempts at the reduction of ores, but the Penn. works situated in the town, erected to treat the Humboldt ores, per- formed the same for other mines. The richer ores were sent to Canon City or Pueblo. The Denver and Rio Grande extended a branch to Silver Cliff in 1881, which facilitated their transportation. The population in 1880 was 1,200. Elevation of the town 8,200.
598
COUNTIES OF COLORADO.
of the San Juan country already described, and in its western part good grazing grounds, which, if irrigated, would be cultivable. Rico is the county seat, and the seat of the smelters erected to reduce the rich ores of the district to bullion. The population in 1883 was 2,000, of which 750 were at Rico. Bowen, Narra- quinep Spring. and Dolores are rising towns. The assessed valuation was $552,310, and the bullion pro- duction $200,000. Besides silver and gold mines, some of the best coal in the state is found here.
Douglas county was organized by the first terri- torial legislature, since which time it has lost the larger portion of its area. It resembles Arapahoe, which it adjoins, and is principally occupied by a graz- ing and farming population, with dealers in lumber and building stone, which find a ready market in Den-
Silver Cliff took root with the erection of the first house in Sept. 1878 by McIlhenney and Wilson, and grew so surprisingly that when it was a year old it had 1,200 inhabitants and houses for their accommodation, with all the usual concomitants of comfortable living, and some of the luxuries of older communities. The town site was patented Dec. 8, 1879. The population was at one time 4,000, but since the rush has passed has settled back to 1,500. Mills and reduction works are being introduced. In 1882 the Silver Cliff mines were under a cloud from the difficulty of finding the exact processes for the deeper ores, none, however, except one, being down more than 700 feet, the Humboldt being 1,800. At this time there was a 40-stamp mill in operation on the property of the Silver Cliff Mills company, treating 100 tons daily of the Racine Boy ore. The sampling establishment of the Milling company, with a capacity of 50 tons daily, adjoined the mill. The Plata Verde also had a 40-stamp mill near the town, which was the base of supplies for these works. The town was incorporated in 1879. Its first mayor, elected in Feb., was J. J. Smith; recorder, G. B. McAulay; trustees, Frank S. Roff, Walter B. Janness, Mark W. Atkins, Samuel Baeden. In April Roff was chosen mayor; Webb L. Allen, Samuel Baeden, Samuel Wat- son, and O. E. Henry, trustees. In April 1880 S. A. Squire was chosen mayor; C. D. Wright, recorder; O. E. Henry, John Dietz, William French, and Alfred Wood, trustees. In 1881 H. H. Buckwalter was elected mayor; George W. Hinkel, recorder; R. Rounds, W. T. Ulman, William Feigle, and E. Meyers, trustees. In 1882 Oney Carstarphen was elected mayor, and re- elected in 1883 and 1884. Carstarphen was born in Mo. in 1844, came to Colorado in 1879, and settled at Silver Cliff. He was elected to the state legislature in 1884, and became interested in various mining properties. Querida is a town which has grown up about the Bassick mine, with a population of 400. Dora is another little place built up about Chambers' concentrator, 6 miles N. E. from Silver Cliff, which has a capacity of 20 tons daily. Blackburn is 12 miles from Silver Cliff. Westcliff and Bassick- ville are also mining camps. Other settlements are Benton, Blumenau, Colfax, Comargo, Govetown, Hardscrabble Canon, Hollan Springs, Millville, Round Mountain, Silver Circle, Silver Creek, Silver Park, South Hard- scrabble, Wetmore, Wet Mountain Valley, Wixon Park.
599
EAGLE, ELBERT, EL PASO.
ver. Castle Rock is the county seat. Sedalia was founded and fostered by the railway corporation. The settlements in Douglas county not named above are Acequia, Bear Cañon, Divide, Douglas, Franktown, Glen Grove, Greenland, Huntsville, Keystone, Lark- spur, Mill No. 1, Mill No. 2, Parker, Perry Park, Pine Grove, Platte cañon, Plum, Rock ridge, Spring valley, Stevens Gulch, and Virginia Rancho.
Eagle county, organized in 1883, was cut off from Summit, and contains a rich mineral district, of which Red Cliff is the metropolis and the county seat. It is broken by high mountains and lofty peaks. The population in 1884 was 2,000, confined to the south- east portion. The assessed valuation of the county in 1883 was $338,454; the yield of the mines-one group-was $940,000. Besides Red Cliff, which had at this time 500 inhabitants, there were the towns of Gold Park, with 400 population, Holy Cross, Cleve- land, Lake, Mitchell, Rock Creek, Taylor, and Eagle.
Elbert, organized in 1874, and large enough for a kingdom, is one of the great stock-raising counties of Colorado. The western portion, which joins Doug- las, is well watered, and considerably cultivated. 38
El Paso, one of the original seventeen counties, is reckoned among the agricultural divisions, and, as such, is one as yet unrivalled for resources. Its assessable property in 1885 was nearly $5,000,000,
38 There is also a large supply of pine timber in this end of the county. But the principal capital of its business men is in stock cattle. The popula- tion, at the census of 1880, was 2,500, and the valuation of assessable prop- erty $1,202,052. This gives about double the usual amount of property per capita in farming districts. The county seat is at Kiowa. Moses R. Chap- man, born in N. Y. city in 1844, was brought up in Ill. In 1859 he came to Russell's gulch, and was afterward about Central City. Becoming discour- aged, he borrowed money enough in 1865 to take him to Elbert co., where he engaged himself as a herder, and gradually worked himself into the stock business. In 1874 he married Laura A. Danks. In 1882 he was elected to the general assembly, having been county commissioner for 14 years. He owned, in 1886, a large farm and over 1,000 head of cattle. The towns and settlements of Elbert county are Agate, Arroyo, Bellevue, Boyero, Brown & Dods, Buzzards & Sharretts, Cameron, Cedar Point, Clermont, Cochran's Rancho, Elbert, Elbert Station, Elizabeth, Fork-in-Creek, Gebhard, Godfrey, Gomer's Mills, Hugo, Lake, Lake Station, Long Branch, Middle Kiowa, Monatt's Mills, Ranch, River Bend, Rock Butte, Running Creek.
600
COUNTIES OF COLORADO.
divided between farm improvements, cattle, and other stock, and town property. Immense coal deposits exist in the eastern portion of the country. Pike's peak, by which Colorado was long known, is situated in this county. In an earlier chapter I have given a narrative of its first exploration and settlement, when Colorado City aspired to be the leading town of the territory, and of the causes of its failure. The princi- pal city of El Paso is now Colorado Springs, already world-famous as a health resort.39
39 When Gen. William J. Palmer in 1870 organized the Denver and Rio Grande railway company, he likewise projected a number of auxiliary organ- izations to develop town-sites, coal lands, and other resources of the region through which the railway was expected to pass. Among these was the Colo- rado Springs co., which acquired about 10,000 acres of land near the base of Pike's peak and on both sides of Colorado City, including a large level tract through which the railroad would run, and where it was proposed to build the principal city of this region. On July 31, 1871, the first stake was driven, and the city named Colorado Springs because of its proximity to the famous soda springs at the entrance to Ute pass, which were also owned by the company. The region developed more rapidly than was expected, and early in 1872, a hotel had been erected at the springs and a little village there started, named at first La Font, but soon changed to Manitou, the Indian name of one of the springs. The president of the Colorado Springs co. was William J. Palmer. Its executive director was Henry McAllister, Jr, who was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1836, and won the title of major by his services in the army during the rebellion. At the close of the war he was elected secretary of the American Iron and Steel association, which position he resigned after seven years' service. He was at once elected president of the National Land Improvement co., organized to de- velop the lands lying along the Denver and Rio Grande railway. He was also made executive director of the Colorado Springs co. At the time Colo- rado Springs was started, the success of the Union and other colonies in Colo- rado had popularized this method of town building, and hence was formed the Fountain colony, which had no legal existence, but was simply an instru- ment of the Colorado Springs co. in the development of its property. From the beginning this company and its associate colony pursued a liberal and far-sighted policy. The profits accruing from the sale of two thirds of its property were constituted a fund for general and public improvements. Early expenditures from this fund were $44,000 for an irrigating canal, and $15,000 for the purchase and planting of 7,000 trees upon the town-site. During the first five years of the company's history, about $272,000 were thus expended. A lot was presented by the company to each of the Christian denominations, and ample reservations were also made for a public school and for a college. The officers of the colony were Robert A. Cameron vice president, William E. Pabor secretary, E. S. Nettleton chief engineer, William P. Mellen treasurer, and Maurice Kingsley assistant treasurer. The trustees were William J. Palmer, Robert H. Lamborn, Josiah C. Reiff, Robert A. Cam- eron, W. H. Greenwood, William P. Mellen. The temperance question was given prominence in the organization of the colony by the insertion in every deed given by the company of a clause forever prohibiting the manufacturing, giving, or selling of intoxicating liquors as a beverage in any place of public
601
FRÉMONT.
Frémont county, a portion of whose early history has been given, has remained in a backward condition
resort. As might be expected, this clause was soon and repeatedly vio- lated; but the cases were decided in favor of the company in the state supreme court in 1876, and the lands forfeited. On appeal to the U. S. supreme court in 1879, this judgment was affirmed. The public sentiment of the city has always sustained prohibition. Fountain Colony of Colorado, Prospectus; Denver Tribune, June 29, 1871; Faithful's Three Visits, 146-50; Graff's Colorado, 41-6; Buckman's Colorado Springs; Roberts' Colorado Springs and Manitou; Colorado Springs, by H. H .; Raper & Co.'s Directory of Colo- rad> Springs; Selections from the Enclycopedia of the New West, 5.
Colorado Springs became the ideal city of the Arkansas valley, if not of the entire Rocky mountain region, by reason of its wonderful and beautiful surroundings, its healthfulness and orderliness, its temperance, education, and refinement. Its growth from the first was healthful and uniform. At the close of the first year of its history, 277 town lots had been disposed of at a valuation of $24,700, 159 houses erected, and the population was esti- mated at 800. The value of the buildings erected by private individuals was placed at $160,000. Two church edifices were built, and a weekly newspaper was established. An enterprise most fruitful in benefit to the new city was the building in 1871 of a good wagon road through the Ute pass to the min- ing region of South park. The trade of a growing section was thus secured, contributing from the beginning no little to the commercial importance of Colorado Springs. When Leadville arose in 1878, this road became one of the chief highways to that great camp, and made Colorado Springs a prin- cipal supply point. When the railroad reached Leadville in 1880, this trade ceased, but it had sufficed to establish the commercial interests of Colorado Springs on a sound basis. At one time during the palmny days of Leadville freighting, 12,000 horses and mules were employed in transportation over the road. During 1876-7, the city suffered from the depression then gen- eral throughout the country, and also from a visitation of grasshoppers, which caused great devastation to the Rocky mountain region. Prosperity was fully restored in 1878, in which year a complete system of water works was constructed, the supply being taken from one of the sparkling streamns flowing down the sides of Pike's peak, at a distance of seven miles from the city, and at a point 1,200 feet above its level. Gas works costing $50,000 were built in 1879, in which year also new buildings to the value of $200,000 were erected. The growth of the city has since been continuous, and with slight exceptions uniformly rapid, till in 1886 it had attained a population of about 7,500, the assessed valuation of its property was $2,248,300, and its business, exclusive of real estate sales, aggregated nearly $3,000,000. Acces- sions to the population were largely of health seekers, to accommodate a portion of whom was begun in 1881 the Antler's hotel, a handsome Queen Anne structure costing $200,000, and ranking among the most noted of Rocky mountain hostleries. The public spirit of three citizens, Irving Howbert, B. F. Crowell, and J. F. Humphrey, gave to Colorado Springs a beautiful opera house, seating 750, and costing $80,000, which was opened April 18, 1881.
The public schools of Colorado Springs have always been adequate and of high grade. In 1871, Mrs Gen. Palmer established the first school, giving her services voluntarily and without compensation. In 1874, a handsome school building was erected costing $25,000. By 1879, this had become crowded, and two frame buildings were added. In 1884, a large modern brick school-house was built at a cost of $20,000, and in 1886 two others were completed. Colorado Springs is the seat of Colorado college, founded by the Colorado association of congregational churches, on the general plan of New England colleges, but with modifications. T. N. Haskell, formerly of the state university of Wisconsin, was selected as financial agent. The prepar-
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