USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 76
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 76
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 76
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
5 Worden Noble was the first merchant in these parts. He was born at Sackett's Harbor in 1847, and came to Fort Laramie in 1866, taking a situa- tion as book-keeper for E. Coffee & Caney. He went to South pass in the spring of 1868, when he was attacked by Indians. He remained here mer- chandizing one year, when he commenced contracting for Camp Stambaugh, afterward a permanent post, and continued in this business for 7 years, after which he engaged in stock-raising near Lander, being a pioneer in this busi- ness. In 1880, he removed to the Shoshone agency. In 1880, he erected a quartz-mill at Atlantic City, doing custom work as well as reducing his own ores. He organized the Nevada Clover Valley Land and Cattle co. at Gol- conda, Nev., with a capital of $500,000, and 60,000 acres of land, of which he became president, and also engaged in sheep raising in 1882. In 1877 he was elected to the upper house of the Wyoming legislature from Sweetwater co., and was county commissioner from 1871 to 1877,
733
WYOMING.
questioned, and various opinions exist among the best informed miners regarding the value of the quartz in the Sweetwater country. The country rock is slate, and the gold where found is free milling; but the rock is what miners designate as spotted, or pockety, and consequently not altogether profitable6 to work, although considerable metal has been taken out of this region.
Contemporaneously with the first mining on the summit of the Rocky mountains in Dakota, the pro- gress of railroad construction had brought to the North Platte country a working and a vagabond pop-
RAILROAD BUILDERS' FORT.
ulation, one to prey upon the other, and together they formed several communities on the line of the road, the most important of which was Cheyenne, situated at the base of the Laramie range, in the vicinity of several military posts, at the point nearest Denver and its banking facilities, and where the railroad com- pany placed its shops, which alone gave it a valuable business from the start.7
At this point in July 1867 the land agent of the Union Pacific railroad erected a rude structure, which had for company several canvas houses. Lots sold
6 The Bullion mine, discovered at Lewiston, on the Sweetwater, by H. G. Niekerson, in 1868, was considered a good mine. The Buckeye, discovered in 1869, on the north Sweetwater, yielded in 1871, $25,000 in a 10-stamp mill. Louis P. Vidal located the Buckeye Extension. John D. Woodruff located a claim in 1870, which he abandoned, out of which another locator took $27,000.
¡ Rept Sec. Int., in U. S. Mess. & Doc. Abridg't, 655, 1867-8; Byers' Centen- nial State, MS., 36-7,
734
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND MATERIAL AFFAIRS.
at a good figure at this early period, and the popula tion rapidly increased. A city government was formed in the autumn of 1867, with a good police system and a determination on the part of the permanent inhabi- tants to prevent, if possible, the disorders which had attended the early development of cities in the sur- rounding mining territories. That it was found im- possible without resorting to the vigilant system was not the fault of the founders. Cheyenne received many settlers from Colorado.9
The first actual settler at Cheyenne was J. R. Whitehead, followed the same day by Thomas E. McLeland, Robert M. Beers, and three others, with their families. The railroad company sold lots for $150, one third cash, and the same lots sold one month later for $1,000, increasing in price at the rate of $1,000 per month during the summer. In August the city government was formed, H. M. Hook being chosen
8 One of the first permanent settlers in Cheyenne was Morton E. Post, who located himself in the Platte valley, 75 miles below Denver, removing to Cheyenne in 1867. Purchasing two lots of the land agent, he was return- ing to Denver to make arrangements for building, when he fell in with a man at Willow springs, who had made a coal discovery, and was afraid to return to it on account of Indians in the vicinity, but being very anxious about it, persuaded Post to return with him. He found the coal mine 16 miles from Cheyenne, and staked off claims. In August he erected a store at the corner of 17th and Ferguson streets, selling the fractional parts of his two lots, which cost him $600, for $5,600. In 1877, he purchased a gold mine in Deadwood, and erected the first quartz-mill in that section, making the first shipment of gold bullion from the Black hills. In 1878, he opened a banking- house, under the style of Stebbins, Post & Co., in the Deadwood country. He was elected a commissioner for Laramie county in 1872, together with T. Dyer and J. H. Nichols. The county was at this time $40,000 in debt, its warrants worth 40 cents on the dollar, and it owned no property except a worthless old safe. At the expiration of their second term the old county debt was paid, and a jail and court-house costing $40,000 erected; the county warrants were at par, with a bonded indebtedness of $30,000. Substantial school buildings had also been built, and a surplus remained in the treasury. In 1878 Post was elected to the territorial council, doing good service, and securing, against strong opposition, the repeal of the law licensing lotteries. In 1880 he was elected delegate to congress, reelected in 1882, and nominated again in 1884, when he declined. Poore's Cong. Direct y, 48th cong., Ist sess., p. 79; House Jour., 1884-5, 923.
9 Nathaniel Robertson, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1841, migrated with his parents to the U. S. in 1846, and to Colo in 1865, locating himself at Denver, and opening the first carriage-making establishment in that place. When Cheyenne was laid off lie removed his business to that point, and merged it into a company called the Cheyenne Carriage company, with F. E. Warren prest, Thomas Swan vice-prest, Morton E. Post treas., J. K. Jeffrey sec y, and Robertson general manager and supt.
735
WYOMING.
mayor; R. E. Tapley, W. H. Harlow, S, M. Pres- haw, J. G. Willis, and G. B. Thompson, councilmen ; J. R. Whitehead, city attorney; H. N. Meldrum, treasurer; Thomas E. McLeland, clerk ; and E. Melanger, marshal.1º
On the 19th of September N. A. Baker commenced the publication of the Cheyenne Evening Leader news- paper, which later became a morning daily. On the 25th of October the Daily Argus began publication under the management of L. L. Bedell. Telegraphic communication with the east and Denver was com- pleted the same day. On the 13th of November the railroad reached the town limits, the first passenger trains through from Omaha arriving with a special party on board, which was enthusiastically welcomed. A month later the track was laid to Fort Russell, and on the 8th of December a third newspaper, the Rocky Mountain Star, issued its first number, edited by O. T. B. Williams. Wonderful development of a
10 The first house erected on the south side of Crow ereek on the site of Cheyenne was built by a mountain man named Larimer. It was followed in July by a two-story frame house, ereeted by Whitehead, which is still stand- ing on the west side of Eddy street. Lumber was brought from Colorado, and the first houses were roofed with boards lapped; but in Aug. Thomas Murrin had a shingle roof ou his house on 17th street. Headquarters saloon built about this time was 36 by 100 feet, and stood on 16th street, where Hellman's brick block now stands. Adjoining it was a two-story hotel, owned by Ford and Durkee, the same Ford who built the fine hotel on the corner of Hill and 16th streets. Opposite the Ford and Durkee hotel was the Rollins house, owned by J. Q. A. Rollins, now a wealthy mine owner, and the founder of Rollinsville, Colo. The post-office was a 10 by 15 framne building on 16th street, but soon proving inadequate to its purpose, the postmaster, Thomas E. MeLeland, erected a building on the s. e. corner of Ferguson and 17th streets, where later was placed the banking house of Stebbins, Post & Co., of about double that size. It is stated that E. P. Snow and W. N. Monroe arrived in Cheyenne Aug. 15th as managers of the busi- ness of M. S. Hall, and in 48 hours had erected a building 55 by 25 feet. It stood on a part of the ground later occupied by the furniture establishment of F. E. Warren & Co. A large warehouse was opened in Sept. by Corn- forth & Bro. on the corner of Eddy and 19th streets. On the 25th the first bank was opened in Cornforth & Bro.'s store by J. H. Rogers, who soon after erected a building ou Eddy and 16th streets. Two other banks were estab)- lished soon after by Kauntze Bros & Co. and J. A. Ware & Co. In Oct. Gen. Stevenson caused to be erected the stone warehouse on the corner of Eddy and 15th streets, costing $20,000. The same month the mammoth corral, known as the Great Western, was completed by Hook & Moore on the cor- ner of O'Neil and 20th streets. Charles McDonald began the erection of a block of houses 88 by 90 feet, in Oct., which he used as a general merehan- dising establishment.
736
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND MATERIAL AFFAIRS,
six-months-old town in the midst of uninhabited plains ! No wonder it was named the Magic City.11 Such progress did not fail to invite that pest of new towns, the squatter. Town lots were seized, and the city police being too few to eject them, a call was made upon the commandant at Fort Russell, who sent a battalion to escort the invaders outside the city limits. 12
On the 27th of September a mass meeting was held 13 for the purpose of organizing a county. Three commissioners were appointed to district the county into three election precincts ; the county to be called Laramie, and its boundaries to be "the same as those established by the act of the legislative assembly of Dakota. The commissioners chosen by the meeting were W. L. Kuykendall, L. L. Bedell, and Thomas J. Street. It was resolved that the county-seat should be located by vote at an election to be held October 8th, when a delegate to congress and county officers should be chosen ; and that all United States
11 Slaughter's Life in Colo and Wyom., MS., 2-3; Wyom. Tribune, Oct. 8, 1870; Wyom. Misc., MS., 53-5; Hayden's Great West, 89; Beadle's Undeveloped West, 134; Strahorn's Wyoming, Black Hills, etc., 142; Goddard's Where to E.nigrate and Why, 176; Williams' Pacific Tourist, 64.
12 This question of squatters's rights and title to public lands claimed for town-sites was not understood by every one. Cheyenne, like every other such town, had its clouds on title to overcome. Lots were purchased from the U. P. railroad co. When the government surveys were in progress it was discovered in 1869 that no plot of the town had ever been filed in the office of the land commissioner, or in any office, or any official notice given of such a town-site on the public lands. It appeared to be the intention of the company to allow the government surveys to cut it up into sections, and then to claim the odd numbered sections. Other parties could preempt-no filing having been made-the other sections, and thus the town-site be dis- membered, and titles be brought into dispute.
13 This meeting was held at the city hall, which was on 16th street between Eddy and Thomas, north side. H. M. Hook was chairman, and J. R. White- head sec. Johnson and Tuthill, Cheyenne Dir., 1883, 11; Mont. Post, Oct. 26, 1867.
14 This refers to an act of the legislature of Dakota of Jan. 9, 1867, by which the county of Laramie was organized, and bounded east by the 104th meridian, comprehending all the territory west of it, or all of what became Wyoming. It was reorganized Jan. 3, 1868, and the western boundary placed at the 107th meridian. All the first counties of Wyoming extended from the northern to the southern boundaries.
1
.
737
WYOMING.
citizens who had been in the territory for ten days previous to the election should be eligible voters.13
The election resulted in choosing J. S. Casement, formerly of Painesville, Ohio, delegate to congress ; J. R. Whitehead representative to the Dakota legis- lature; C. L. Howell, M. H. Hissman and W. L. Hopkins county commissioners ; W. L. Kuykendall probate judge; Thomas J. Street district attorney ; D. J. Sweeney sheriff; J. H. Creighton register of deeds ; L. L. Bedell treasurer; James Irwin coroner ; J. H. Gildersleeve superintendent of schools; and F. Landberg surveyor. Cheyenne was made the county seat. The total number of votes cast was 1,900.
Whitehead returned from Yancton in January, having succeeded in his mission. The bill reorganiz- ing Laramie county made new appointments, the commissioners being Benjamin Ellinger, P. McDon- ald, and Beals; sheriff, J. L. Laird; recorder, William L. Morris; coroner, Johnson ; school superintendent, J. H. Gildersleeve; justice of the peace, A. B. Moore and A. W. Brown ; constable, S. Masterson. Kuy- kendall was retained as probate judge; S. H. Winsor was appointed county surveyor. Bills organizing a district court for this part of Dakota, and an act of incorporation of the City of Cheyenne were also passed. Laramie county was added to the second judicial district, to which the chief justice of Dakota, Asa Bartlett, was assigned; and E. P. Johnson was appointed district attorney. The first term of court was ordered for the first Monday in March. Bart- lett held two terms of court, and was a good judge. But the first courts in this new metropolis, like those in the first towns in Idaho, Montana, and Colorado were the people's courts.16
15 Corlett, Founding of Cheyenne, MS., 4-7; Carey, Politics and People, MS., 5-6.
16 Corlett says, in his Founding of Cheyenne, MS., 5, that the courts used the statutes of Colorado, with which most of the residents were familiar, so far as they were applicable in the cases tried. He performed the duties of HIST. NEV. 47
738
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND MATERIAL AFFAIRS.
Shootings were frequent, and every manner of vice abounded. Finding that Cheyenne was to be the ter- minus of the railroad for that winter, all the scum of society which had drifted along with the pay car of the railroad company as far as Julesburg took up a temporary residence here. Six thousand people win- tered in Cheyenne, the accommodations for the shelter of a large part of them being tents and sod houses, or "dug-outs." A canvas saloon would answer as well as another for gambling, drinking, and the practices of the dives. Various men and women made the place intolerable. The city authorities were powerless. Robberies and assaults with deadly weapons were of daily and nightly occurrence. Then the patience of the people failed, and the vigilance committee came to the front. Its first act was on the 11th of January, when it seized three men who had been arrested for robbery and placed under bonds to appear before the court on the 14th. These men were bound together abreast, and a large canvas attached to them bearing this legend : "$900 stole; $500 returned; thieves, F. St Clair, W. Grier, E. D. Brownville. City author- ities please not interfere until 10 o'clock A. M. Next case goes up a tree. Beware of vigilance committee." During the next six months a dozen men were hanged and shot by the vigilants, after which law became operative in Cheyenne, and the plague passed on west- ward to Laramie City and other towns which defended themselves in a similar manner.17
the city attorney during a part of Whitehead's term. This was before the irruption of the criminal class, which came with the railroad, and with whom the provisional government could not deal. There was no prison, and fines were readily paid when imposed. Boettcher, Flush Times in Colorado, MS., 1. 17 The first hanging in Cheyenne occurred on the night of the 20th of March, when Charles Martin and Charles Morgan were executed by the vig- ilance committee. Martin had killed Andrew Harris in a quarrel. He was from Lexington, Mo., and respectably connected. For some time he was wagon-master for Russell, Majors, and Waddell, but finally became reckless, and consorted with gamblers and vile associates, becoming a desperado in his habits. He had, without provocation, shot at Capt. O'Brien at Jules- burg, and was regarded as a dangerous person. Morgan was hanged for horse-stealing. The gallows on which Martin died stood where I. C. Whip- ple's house was built, the other behind the Elephant corral. Cheyenne Argus,
739
WYOMING.
Laramie City was laid off by the railroad company in April, 1868, when the early history of Cheyenne was repeated. During the first week 400 lots were sold. In a fortnight 500 dwellings and business houses of all kinds had been erected, mostly of a very transient character. The road was completed to that point in May, where the town was quickly over-run with des- peradoes and lewd women, as its predecessor had been ; and as forbearance ceased to be a virtue they were visited by those unrecognized ministers of justice the vigilants, and Laramie became a well ordered as it was a thriving town. This year also the counties of Albany and Carbon were organized by the Dakota legislature. Laramie county having elected Charles D. Bradley, brother of Judge Bradley of the supreme court of the United States, representatives who pro- cured the passage of bills for their establishment.
As early as 1865 a bill had been introduced in con- gress, by Ashley of Ohio, to provide a temporary government " for the territory of Wyoming." 18 Who it was first suggested this beautiful but misplaced name does not appear. The bill was referred to the committee on territories, where it rested. When the delegate chosen 19 on the 8th of October 1867, pre-
March 22, 1868; S. F. Alta, Ap. 10, 1868; Corlett, Founding of Cheyenne, MS., 7. Not long after a party of desperate men went carousing down Eddy street, and coming opposite a saloon kept by Tim Dyer, later the proprietor of Dyer's hotel, and a member of the city council, fired several shots into it, fortunately killing no one. They left town immediately, fearing the vig- ilants, but were followed and overtaken at Dale City and hanged, three of them, Keefe, Hays, and a very tall man nicknamed Shorty. Two men were killed and a woman wounded in a house of ill-fame, but no clue could be obtained to the murderer, although the shots were distinctly heard by many persons. The mystery engendered fear. After the committee had per- formed the service of ridding the community of its worst element, it was condemned and superseded by legalized justice, but only to be revived in later times, when a new set of desperate men as highwaymen made even railroad travel dangerous. See Popular Tribunals, this series.
18 Gong. Globe, 1864-5, 116; U. S. House Jour., 78, 256, 38 cong. 2 sess.
19 The regularly elected delegate for Dakota in 1868 was S. L. Spink, who had his friends and funds in this section. He ran on the republican ticket against Burley and Todd, in the eastern part, and Dennis J. Toohey, after- wards editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, in the western part of the territory. Carlett, Founding of Cheyenne, MS., 18; Foster's Outlines of History, 3S.
740
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND MATERIAL AFFAIRS.
sented himself at the door of congress, he was not permitted a seat, but he nevertheless was able to refresh the memories of the territorial committee. A memorial introduced in the Dakota legislature by W. W. Brooking, asking congress to organize a new territory in the southwest to be called Lincoln was also presented; 20 and in the spring a petition for a territorial organization was addressed to the house of representatives, signed by " H. Latham, agent for the people of Wyoming." When the bill before congress had reached the senate`considerable discussion took place upon the subject of the proper nomenclature to be adopted, and Wyoming was preferred by a major- ity, although Cheyenne came very near being the name chosen. 21
Without opposition or prolonged discussion the organization took place, the act being approved July 25, 1868,22 the boundaries of the new territory being the 27th and 34th meridians of longitude, and the 41st and 45th parallels of north latitude, embracing 100,284 square miles, or 64,181,700 acres.23 The western boundary took in the Green River valley, which had previously formed the northeast corner of Utah, but which since the occupation of Fort Bridger by the government, had been abandoned by the Mor- mons, and also a portion of Idaho north of this section.
20 Mont. T. W. Post, Jan. 23, 1868.
21 A question arising as to the orthography of Cheyenne, the librarian of congress was appealed to, who quoted Schoolcraft as the highest authority, who says the meaning of the word is not known, and the orthography differs. The Montana Post, July 3, 1868, gives the true pronunciation Shai-en-na, 'with a prolonged breathing accent on the second syllable.' This, in fact, is the manner of pronouncing all Indian names of three syllables among the western Indians, which being condensed into two syllables or rapidly spoken lose their beauty, as no doubt their meaning. Cheyenne divided into three parts, and ending in a is as beautiful a word as Wyoming, and should have been the name adopted.
22 Corbett, Founding of Cheyenne, MS., S, 18-20; Wyom. Miscellany, MS., 4; Zabriskie, Land Laws, 848-857; H. Ex. Doc., xxv. no. 47, pt 4, p. 457, 46 cong. 3 sess .; Wyom. Gen. Laws, Ist sess., 18-24; Porter, The West Census of 1880, p. 419; U. S. H. Jour., 246, 40 cong. 2 sess .; Rept Sec. Inter., i. 124, 41 cong. 3 sess.
23 Mess. Gov. Hale, 1884, 137. Zabriskie makes it 97,883 square miles in extent. That portion of the boundary common to Nebraska was surveyed in 1870-71; the southern and western boundaries in 1874 by Alonzo V. Rich- ards; the northern boundary in 1882-83 by Rollin J. Reeves.
741
WYOMING,
The territorial officers were not appointed until April 1869, when John A. Campbell, of Cleveland, Ohio, was commissioned governor. According to his contempories, he was possessed of sufficient ability, not brilliant but industrious and conscientious, and respected most by those who knew him best.24 Ed- ward M. Lee, was appointed secretary, who was an active politician if no more; Church Howe, United States marshal, another politician ; J. M. Carey, 26 United States attorney ; John M. Howe, of Illinois, chief justice;26 W. S. Jones,21 and J. W. King-
24 Campbell had been an editor on the Cleveland Leader. In 1861 he entered the Union army as 2d lieut being from time to time promoted until he became adj. - gen. on Schofield's staff. He was in many battles, among which were Rich Mountain, Pittsburg Landing, Perryville, and all of the Atlantic campaign. He was brevetted brig. - gen. in 1864; and during the reconstruction of the south was with Scofield in Virginia, and called upon to apportion the state into senatorial and representative districts, prescrib- ing the time and manner in which elections should be held. He performed the duties of asst sec. of war from May 1868 to March 1869. He was sub- sequently, under Hayes' administration, 3d asst secretary of state. His health soon gave way, and he died of softening of the brain in 1879 at Washington. Corlett's Founding of Cheyenne, MS., 23; Wyom. Ter. Affairs, MS., 1-2.
25 Carey was born in Sussex co., Delaware, in 1845, and educated at Fort Edwards collegiate institute and Union college, N. Y. He studied law in Philadelphia, graduating from the law dept of the university of Pa, emigrat- ing to Wyoming on his appointment in J869. In 1872 he was commissioned associate U. S. justice, serving 4 years, after which he went into the business of cattle raising, and became president of the Stock Growers' association, whose property came to represent $100,000,000. He was three times mayor of Cheyenne, and enjoyed other honors which will appear in the progress of the history. A dictation from him, Politics and People, MS., is among my valued original authorities. He has ever been one of Wyoming's most prominent and public spirited men.
26 Howe, like Campbell, had served in the civil war, and risen to be a general. He was an able lawyer, and after the war was chosen circuit judge. Chicago Legal News, in Wyom. Misc., MS., 28. He was born at Riga, in Monroe co., N. Y., removing when a youth to Kingsville, Ohio, where he received a liberal education, and studied law, practising in the courts of that state for several years, after which he removed to Kewanee, Ill., in 1854. He was elected judge of the 6th judicial district of Ill., holding the office some years. Formerly a whig, he became a republican, and was efficient in politics. Corlett calls him 'peevish and fretful, although a man of pretty good ability. He was undoubtedly out of health, dyspeptic in his stomach, and in his nature, too.' Founding of Cheyenne, MS., 19-20. After serving two years he resigned, and accepted a position as secretary to a commission appointed to settle some affairs between the U. S. and Mexico, and died while holding that office, of consumption, aged abont 50 years. He was a politician, and a polished speaker. Corlett accuses him of taking advantage of the inexperience of the members of the bar. Dict. of Posey S. Wilson, MS., 3.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.