USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 66
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 66
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 66
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16 Salt was made from saline springs in Park county, which contain from
630
COUNTIES OF COLORADO.
Pitkin county, named after Governor Pitkin, was organized in 1881, being set off from Gunnison, with a fair division of the indebtedness of the elder county. It embraces the mining region about the headwaters of Roaring fork of Grand river, which produced between 1879 and 1884, $550,000 in gold and silver.17
Pueblo county was organized in 1861, and much of its history appeared in previous chapters. Its first commissioners were O. H. P. Baxter, R. L. Wooten, and William Chapman. At the first county election Chapman was chosen probate judge, and John B. Rice sheriff.18 The first term of court in the county
6to 14 per cent salt. They were first located and improved by Charles L. Hall, who manufactured salt in 1861-3. A company was formed in 1864, J. Q. A. Rollins at the head, and Hall superintendent. Works costing $25,000 were erected, and the manufacture carried on until the completion of railroads, which transported salt more cheaply than it could be made in Col- orado, caused the works to be closed. This information is taken from N. T. Bond's Early Hist. Colorado, Montana, and Idaho, MS., 21-2. As a history of Park co. it is very complete. The Hartsel mineral springs, named after their discoverer and locator, are noted for their healing qualities. From 40,000 to 50,000 cattle, 5,000 horses, and 10,000 sheep are grazed in South park. The bullion output of 1883 was $400,000, many of the mines being idle. The county was assessed, not including mining property, at $1,911,166. The population was 5,000. Fair Play, the county seat, has 800 inhabitants, Alma 900, Como 550.
Abraham Bergh, born in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1835, came to Colorado in 1859, locating himself in South park. He erected the first house in Fair Play, where he has been a hotel-keeper and merchant, as well as miner and owner in valuable mining property. He was elected to the general assembly in 1882, and again in 1884. The towns and settlements of Park county not named above are Alma, Arthur, Astroville, Bailey, Bentley's, Bordenville, Buffalo Springs, Como, Dudley, East Leadville, Estabrook, Fairville, Garo, Grant, Guirds, Guyrand's Park, Hamilton, Hall Valley, Hartsel, Holland, Horse Shoe, Hubbard, Jefferson, Jones Saw-mill, Kenosha, Lone Rock Rancho, Mountaindale, Mullenville, Park, Park Place, Platte Crossing, Platte River, Platte Station, Rocky, Sacramento, Salt Works, Spring Rancho, Slaght, Sulphur Springs, Summit, Tie Siding, Webster, Webber's Saw-mill, and Weston.
17 The valley of Roaring fork is also a good grazing country. Absence of the means of transportation has retarded the development of the mines, one of which, the Smuggler, is widely known. The population in 1083 was esti- mated at 2,500, and the assessed valuation of the county $319,107. Aspen, the county seat, is situated at the confluence of Castle, Hunter, and Maroon creeks with Roaring fork. It had a population of 750 in 1883, and was a thriving business centre for the county. Ashcroft, above it on the river, had about 500 inhabitants, and Independence 250, Sparkhill 100; besides which there were Highland, Massive City, and Sidney.
18 Stow, in his General View of Colorado, MS., says that one of the original town company, J. F. Smith, was the first police magistrate, and that Ned Cozzens, a cousin of Fred S. Cozzens, author of the Sparrowgrass Papers, was another. William H. Young and William II. Green were also of the company. Duell and Boyd were the surveyors.
631
PUEBLO.
was held by A. A. Bradford, in a house belonging to A. G. Boone, on the lower end of Santa Fé avenue, Pueblo. An adobe building was subsequently erected on the same avenue near Third street for a court- house. No jail was erected until 1868, when a stone building was rented to the county by R. N. Daniels for that purpose, which served until the commission- ers soon after erected a brick jail on Court-house square, which was in use until 1880, when the pres- ent prison was completed.19
PUEBLO 8. PUEBLO
ATCHISON TOPEKA
San Carlo
RIO GRANDE \R.R
Ft.
Henderson
Apishapa'
Fort Lyon
Denver
Greenhorn B
ESANT
Rockyford
Arkansas R.
Parallel 37 58
North Latitude
Muddy
Valley-
DENVER
RANCHO FTB
COLORADO CATTLE CO.
Heavily Timbered,
Apishapa River
Timpa Cra
La Junta
Silver Cliff
gates 61
Cucharas
Cucharas
Rio Santa Clara
Oil
Rich Arable Land
Iron Sprs.
SANTA FE R. R.
Rio Las Animas
L
Lead
Spanish
Ri
Peaks
Apishapa
Heavily
Tim bered
Gold"?
NER
con
Goal YMIEL MORO
Coal
Lands
Parallel 37
Coal Lands
Trinidad
North Latitude
44-Raton Peaks
North Boundary of New Mexico
West Las Animas
Las Animas!
CANON
Rio
Pueblo to El Moro
Santa Clara
Soda
TOPEKA &
Trinidad to La Junta, 80 Miles
Cucharas to
Garland 50 Miles
86 Miles.
Sulphur Sprs.
Coal Banks Como
ATCHISON
Gulon Iron
Wagon Road
Sangre de Cristo Or.
MAN Gold and Silver
Wet Mt.
HERMOSILLO
Rd.
Napesta
LAS ANIMAS GRANT.
19 Pueblo county has no mines except of coal, and is therefore classed with the agricultural counties. Its inhabitants in its earlier years lived by grow- ing provisions, which they sold to the miners outfitting for the mountains. At present stock-raising is followed equally with farming. The beautiful Hermosillo rancho of the Colorado Cattle company, covering 91,000 acres, lies in this county, twenty miles south of Pueblo City. It belongs to an or- ganization of eastern capitalists, and grazes an immense number of cattle. This rancho is a part of the Las Animasgrant. It was obtained by Ceran St Vrain and Cornelio Vigil, of the governor of New Mexico in 1844, and com- prised all the country north of the Beaubien grant in N. M. as far as the Arkansas river, and between the Las Animas and the St Charles tributaries. The U. S. government reduced the grant subsequently to 11 leagues. A part of it was called the Nolan grant, and was sold to the company which laid out south Pueblo. There is still some question as to the rights of heirs of the original grantees. The amount of wheat raised in Pueblo county in 1SS3 was 10,696 bushels, which placed it in the fifth rank of wheat-producing
632
COUNTIES OF COLORADO.
Rio Grande county was established in 1874. It is situated on the west side of San Luis park, and is
counties, Boulder, San Miguel, Larimer, and Jefferson, in the order here given, being the leading wheat-growing districts. In corn-growing Pueblo ranked third, Weld and Boulder taking the lead. Pueblo had 213,781 acres of pasture-land, being only a little less than El Paso, Weld, and Elbert; but it had 92,422 acres under irrigation, which was more than other county, and irrigation is likely at any time to change pasture into farming lands. The county contained 50,000 cattle, 75,000 sheep, and 5,600 other domestic ani- mals. The population has increased from 7,617 in 1SS0 to 20,000 in 1883, and the total assessable valuation was $7,286,422. Like almost every county in the state, it has hot mineral springs.
The town of Pueblo, the county seat since 1861, had a population in ISSO of 3,317, and south Pueblo, on the opposite side of the Arkansas river, 1,443, or 4,760 altogether. Together they had, three years later, four times that amount of population, and were practically one city, although still keeping up separate municipal governments. Old Pueblo is handsomely laid out, with an abundance of water and shade-trees, churches, schools, newspapers, banks, a board of trade, places of public amusement, founderies, mills, smelting- works, water-works, gas-works, and street railroads. The county buildings are among the best in the state. The state asylum for the insane is located here. I have a dictation from P. R. Thombs, who is superintendent of the insane asylum. He was in Colorado before the settlement, and acquainted with the famous traders and guides, Bridger, Carson, and others. He is a man of fine physique, medium size, fearless and genial. He gave me some bits of early history in his Mexican Colorado, MS., which I have incorporated in my work. The legislature of 1879-80 authorized the establishment of the asylum, making the necessary appropriation for their support by a tax of one fifth of a mill upon all taxable property. Previous to this date each county had taken charge of its own lunatics, for which they were reimbursed by the state. Pueblo obtained the location by donating the land required-40 acres. The board of commissioners appointed, James Macdonald, Theodore F. Brown, and J. B. Romero, purchased the residence of George M. Chilcott, near Pueblo, which served for a beginning, but the next legislature appropriated $60,000 for the erection of a new building, which not being sufficient, $80,000 was appropriated in 1883 to enlarge and furnish the asylum. A part of old Pueblo was entered under the act of congress of March 2, 1867, by Mark G. Bradford, probate judge of Pueblo co., in trust for the occupants. On Jan. 19, 1869, the present title to that portion was derived from the United States through him. Another portion was entered by the county at the same time. The town was incorporated March 22, 1870. The trustees appointed were: George A. Hinsdale, M. G. Bradford, James Rice, H. C. Thatcher, and H. H. Cooper. The first town election was held in April. It was merged in a city organization in March 1873. The first city election was held April 7th of that year, when James Rice was elected mayor, and G. P. Hayslip, O. H. P. Baxter, H. M. Morse, and Weldon Keeling aldermen. In 1871 the county voted $100,000 in bonds to aid the D. & R. G. R. R., rather than have it go south via Cañon City, which was threatened. In this same year the U. S. land-office was opened at Pueblo, with Wheeler as register, and M. G. Bradford receiver. The Pueblo People was also first issued this year in Sept., with Hinsdale editor, the office being the n. e. corner of Fourth and Summit streets. Its material was sold in 1874 to the proprietors of the Chieftain, its successor. The county court-house was completed in 1872, and was paid for from the sale of lots in a quarter-section of land preempted by the county authorities, and filed as an addition to the city, costing the tax- payers nothing. The successors to Mayor Rice were John R. Lowther, M. D. Thatcher, W. H. Hyde, and George Q. Richmond. In 1874 the present Holly system of water-works was completed, at a cost to the city of $130,-
633
RIO GRANDE.
watered by the Rio Grande river. The western por- tion of the county lies in the San Juan mountains, in
000, the contract being let to the National Building company of St Louis. Soon after a fire department was organized, consisting of two hose com- panies and a hook and ladder, W. R. Macomb chief. In 1875 the Pueblo and Arkansas valley railroad, connecting with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé, was completed to Pueblo, giving it a road to the east. The county sub- scribed $350,000 to this road, and its opening was the occasion of a monster excursion from all parts of Colorado, and from Kansas, the rejoicings last- ing for two days. The first handsome public school building was erected in 1876, the district voting $14,000 in bonds. The trustee, after realizing the money, left the country, and the county was $14,000 poorer. Mather & Geist erected large smelting-works in 1878, which treat ores from all parts of the state, and employ about 500 mnen. The methodist church south began in 1884 to organize a college at Pueblo, which is meeting fair encouragement.
South Pueblo is a manufacturing town, the seat of the Colorado Coal and Iron company's works, one of the most extensive of the kind in the United States, where iron and steel manufactures are carried on. The works cover 40 acres of area, and the other buildings of the company 400 acres more. The town was founded by the Central Colorado Improvement company, whose officers were the officers of the D. & R. G. Co., and which was subse- quently merged in the Colorado Coal and Iron company. According to M. Sheldon of south Pueblo the D. & R. G. Co. agreed to build a station on the north side of the river should the county vote the required amount in bonds to help construct the road. Having an opportunity, in 1872, to purchase 48,000 acres of the Nolan grant, they took the name of Central Colorado Improvement company, founded a town on the south side, and removed the terminus of the railroad to that site. Sheldon was born in Trumbull co., Ohio, in 1844. He came to Colorado in 1872 for his health. South Pueblo, MS. There are 1,000 acres laid out in town lots, with wide streets, bor- dered with trees, which are irrigated by tiny canals. The town has a mayor, board of aldermen, newspapers, and post-office of its own. The only thing shared in common between the towns is gas, the new town illuminating from the gasworks of north Pueblo. Taking them together as one, Pueblo is the natural centre of commerce and railroads for south-eastern Colorado, the depot of merchandise, and convenient seat of manufactures for an immense region. These advantages, with the resources already named, are sufficient to maintain a large city. There are no other considerable towns in the county. Stone's Land Grants in Colo, 4-6; Gray's Colo, 47-51; Inter-Ocean, Jan. 10, 1883; Rocky Mtn News, May 7, 1870; The Pueblos, and Pueblo Co., Colo, being a history of the twin cities; south Pueblo Pueblo Collegiate Institute, Prospectus. W. W. Strait, born in Pa in 1839, came from Min. to Colorado in 1876, and kept the Grand Central hotel in south Pueblo for a year and a half. From him I obtained a manuscript, The Pueblos. James Rice, born in Vt in 1830, came to Colorado in 1868, locating himself at Pueblo, engaging in the book and stationery business. From him, also, I gathered some interesting details. Politics in Pueblo, MS. The towns and settlements not named are Agate, Anderson's Rancho, Andersonville, Barry Rancho, Baxter, Beulah, Booneville, Cactus, Chico, Cody Rancho, Cook Rancho, Dog's Rancho, Doyle's Mill, Dry Rancho, Fosdick's Rancho, Four-mile Rancho, Goodnight, Graneros, Greenhorn, Holliday Rancho, Horn Rancho, Huerfano, Jackson, Jones' Rancho, Juniata, Langley Rancho, Mcclellan's Rancho, McIlhaney's Rancho, Meadows, Mace's Hole, Merrie's Rancho, Mexican Plaza, Muddy Creek, Nada, Nepesta, Old Fort Reynolds, Osage Avenue, Parnassus Springs, Peck's Rancho, Piñon, Pond, Robinett Rancho, San Carlos, Skeeter Rancho. Spring Lake Rancho, St Charles, Sulphur Springs,- Swallows, Table Moun- tain, Taylorville, Undercliffe, Walker Rancho, Wilson's Rancho, Wood Valley.
634
COUNTIES OF COLORADO.
a rich mineral region. Its resources are about equally divided between mining and agriculture. The Sum-
Peter K. Dotson, born in Va in 1823, crossed the plains from Independ- ence, Mo., in 1851, intending to go to Cal., but stopped at Salt Lake, where he was employed a few months in running a distillery for Brigham Young. The following year he was engaged by an express and mail company as agent, which position he held for 9 years. In 1855 he was commissioned U. S. marshal for Utah, but being ordered away from the territory by Heber Kim- ball in 1857, he went to Washington, and came with the army of Johnson to Utah. He came to Colorado in 1860, and settled at Fountain City, (now Pueblo) and commenced the business of cattle-raising. I took a brief dicta- tion from him called Dotson's Doings, MS. One of the pioneers of Pueblo county is here briefly mentioned: J. W. Lester, born in Pa in 1828; owns 240 acres of land on the Arkansas river below Florence.
Jacob A. Betts, born in Md in 1830, was a tailor by trade. He went first to Central City on coming to Colorado, but after roving from gulch to gulch for some time, stopped for three years at Greenhorn in Pueblo co., and was sheriff of the co. in 1864 and 1865. Subsequently he removed to Pueblo, where he was in the grocery trade. He settled in the adjoining county of Fremont, and became the owner of 740 acres of land, and herds of horses and cattle.
Alva Adams, born in Wis. in 1850, came to Colorado in 1871, and worked at first on the railroad at common labor. At Colorado Springs he helped to erect the first house, remaining at that place three years, when he removed to south Pueblo and engaged in hardware business for two years, selling out there and establishing a hardware store at Del Norte, Rio Grande co. In 1876 he started a branch business at Alamosa, returning in 1878 to Pueblo, leaving the branch stores in charge of others, and commencing a wholesale business in hardware at this point. He was elected a member of the first state legislature from Rio Grande co., was chosen a member of the first city council of south Pueblo, and later elected governor.
Alfred W. Geist, born in Boston in 1848, graduated from the scientific department of Yale college, and went from there to Mexico, travelling throughout the west, studying ores, smelting them, and looking for a place to locate a smelting establishment. In June 1878 he broke ground at Pueblo, starting with one furnace. The following year two more were erected. The business increased faster than his capital, compelling the formation of a stock company. The works are the largest in the world, requiring 1,000 tons per day to keep all the furnaces at work. They employ 400 men, and the com- pany paid the railway for freight in 1884, $750,000. Ores from every part of the country are purchased, and the product goes to all points from San Francisco to New York.
Henry M. Fosdick, born in Boston in 1822, was educated a civil engineer. He came to Colorado in the spring of 1859, and assisted to lay out the streets of Denver. He was chairman of the vigilance committee in the autumn of that year. In 1861 he purchased a section of land in El Paso county, and laid off the town of Colorado City, but afterward sold the land to A. Z. Sheldon. He was with Chivington in the Sand creek fight, and justifies his course. In 1864 he went to Pueblo, and assisted in laying off that town. In 1866 he purchased 1,000 acres in Pueblo co., and became a farmer and stock- raiser.
James N. Carlile crossed the plains with an ox-team in 1859. After a few days at Denver, he went to South park, where he mined for a few years. He then engaged in freighting between Denver and St Joseph, Denver and Mon- tana. and Denver and Utah. Then in 1868, in partnership with William Moore, he became a railway contractor, and subsequently went to farming and stock-raising, which resulted in the ownership of large ranchos in Pueblo co., stocked with horses and cattle, with a residence in south Pueblo.
635
ROUTT, SAGUACHE, SAN JUAN.
mit district is one of the most important in southern Colorado for gold mining. There are several stamp- mills in the district, which have produceb for several years from $200,000 to $400,000 per annum. The mines furnish an excellent market for the farm pro- ductions of the fertile San Luis valley.20
Routt county in the north-west corner of the state was cut off from Grand in 1877, but made small prog- ress until the removal of the Utes in 1882. The population the following year was 500. It is a graz- ing and agricultural district, with some placer mines and unworked quartz lodes. The assessed valuation in 1883 was $241,564, principally in stock cattle. Steamboat springs, and half a dozen hamlets, were
I. W. Stanton was born in Pa in 1835. At the age of 20 years he migrated to Pawnee City, Kan., and was there when the first Kansas legislature met, in 1855. The following year he removed to Iowa, remaining there until 1860, when he came to Colorado, driving a team. From Denver he went to Russell gulch, and later to California gulch, returning to Denver in the autumn, where he entered a store as clerk. In the spring of 1861 he walked to Canon City, but finding nothing to do there returned to Denver, and was employed as clerk in the post-officc. He enlisted in the 2d Colorado infantry in 1862, and was ordered to Leavenworth, serving until 1865. When mus- tered out he went to Washington, where he remained until he obtained the appointment of register in the land-office at Central City in 1868. In 1871 he was transferred to the land-office at Pueblo. In 1881 he was appointed postmaster at Pueblo.
20 There were in 1883, 30,000 cattle, 40,000 sheep, and 20,000 horses and inules in the county. The population was 3,000, and the assessed valuation $1,013,417. Del Norte, the county seat, was first settled in the winter of 1871-72. The population in 1883 was 800. It is situated at a point where the mountains from the north and south approach so closely to the river as to leave only an elevated bench, a quarter of a mile in width between their rocky cliffs, on the southern margin. The view of the San Luis valley, the tree-fringed river winding below, and the snow-crowned peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range, make the situation delightfully picturesque. Del Norte has a good trade, several fine, large blocks of stores, built of stone, where whole- sale and retail merchandising is carried on, good county buildings, schools, a local newspaper, and wide streets, shaded by rows of trees, irrigated after the prevailing custom of the mountain towns. In the suburbs and surround- ing country there is a considerable Mexican population, which is domiciled in houses built of adobe. Timber is abundant in the mountains, and there are a number of saw-mills in the county run by water-power, of which there is an abundance.
Twenty-nine miles west of Del Norte is the romantic summer resort of Wagon-wheel gap, where there are hot sulphur springs; altitude 8,459 feet; climate healthful. The name comes from a narrow pass of several miles through a range of mountains, with vertical cliffs from 500 to 1,500 feet in height, of reddish-gray sand stone, with only room between them, as it was supposed, for the river and a wagon-road. Summitville in Summit mining district had in 1886 a population of 400. Jasper, Adams' Springs, La Loma del Norte, Lariat Piedra, and South Fork are small villages.
636
COUNTIES OF COLORADO.
all the settlements at this time. Hahn's peak is the county seat.
Saguache county was organized in 1866. Its bound- aries have been several times altered, its present area comprising 3,200 square miles, the principal part of which is agricultural and grazing land. Notwith- standing its favorable situation in the centre of the state, and embracing the northern portion of the San Luis valley, it is very little developed.21
San Juan county, organized in 1876, has been quite fully spoken of in a previous chapter. The discoveries in Lake county, which followed immediately after the San Juan country had taken its first grand start, with- drew a large portion of its population, and diverted capital to Leadville. Its original area has also been curtailed, until it is now one of the smallest counties in the state, and strictly devoted to mining, although lumbering, and every kind of milling might be profit- ably carried on here, timber and water power being abundant. The bullion output of 1883 was $418,954, a small yield for a county with so many good mines. The assessment valuation, which excludes mining property, was $1,045,597. The population of the county was 5,000. The town of Silverton had 1,750 inhabitants, and Animas Forks 450. Eureka, Min-
21 This neglect was owing to its being partly covered by a Spanish grant, which was sold to Europeans who had not attempted to make it profitable. According to Wallihan's Colorado Gazetteer, 58, Ex-governor Gilpin sold a portion of Saguache county for $2,500,000. It is, however, settling up with farmers, who sold in 1883 $300,000 worth of agricultural products. The cat- tle and sheep in the county were valued at about $485,000, and other prop- erty at $911,931. From the mines in the Kerber creek district $100,000 in bullion was produced. The population of the county was estimated at 6,000. Saguache is the county seat. It has a fine location on the San Luis river. There were 900 inhabitants in 1883. Bonanza, situated in Kerber district, had a population of 500. Carnero, Claytonia, Crestone, Iron Mine, Alder, Marshalltown, Sedgwick, and Shirley were villages of 100 or 150 inhabi- tants. The list of settlements comprises Bismarck, Blakeville, Bonanza, Bonito, Burnt Gulch, Camp Sanderson, Cebolla River, Cedar Creek Mines, Christione, Cochetopa, Cotton Creek, Cottonwood, Elkhorn Rancho, Ex- chequer, Franklin, Frisco, Garibaldi, Garner Creek, Gray Siding, Hauman, Jackson, Kerber Creek, Kimbrell, Kerberville, Los Pinos Agency, Marshall Pass, Milton, Oriental, Plaza, Poll Creek Mines, Rito Alto, River Meade, Rock Cliff, Sangre de Cristo. San Isabel, Sargent, Sheep Mount, Silver Hill, Silvery City, Star Branch, Uncomphagre, Venerables, White Earth, Willow Dale.
637
SAN MIGUEL, SUMMIT, WELD.
eral Point, Howardsville, Poughkeepsie Gulch, Con- gress, Cunningham Gulch, Del Mine, and half a dozen other small villages were all the settlements worth mention.
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