USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 84
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 84
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 84
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George T. Morgan, an Englishmen, came to Wyoming in 1876 to look about with the view of introducing choice English stock. In 1878 he came again in charge of a consignment of Hereford bulls to A. H. Swan, the first introduced into Wyoming, and cost $10,000 to import. In 1883 and 1884 they imported 500 head of thoroughbred cattle. The Swan brothers, with Morgan for manager, established the Wyoming Hereford association, the largest and finest blooded breeding farm in the world, consisting of 40,000 acres under fence, with good buildings, windmills for lifting water, and other improvements.
Hiram S. Manville, born in Mass in1829, came to Wyoming in 1879. About 1881 A. R. Converse combined with him, forming the Converse Cattle com- pany, with a capital of $500,000. The officers of the company were: A. R. Converse, prest; W. C. Irvine, vice-prest; James S. Peck, sec. and treas- urer; H. S. Manville, gen. manager; and Judge A. C. May, all of whom were trustees.
Samuel Haas, a native of Pa, is a very prominent cattle man of Lara- mie co.
A. T. Babbitt, member of the executive committee of the stock growers' association, came to Cheyenne in 1878. In 1881 he organized the Standard Cattle co., consisting of A. T. Babbitt of Ohio, George R. Blanchard of New York, and R. M. Alley of Boston, of which Babbitt was manager. Babbitt is the author of the comprehensive Report on the Grazing Interest and
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was organized for the purpose of irrigating a tract of 60,000 acres lying southeast of Big Laramie river, and eighty miles northwest of Cheyenne in Laramie county. This land is considered as among the fin- est in the territory for agricultural purposes. The soil is deep, some of it being of a clay formation, but the greater portion consisting of a rich sandy loam, well adapted to irrigation. Its fertility has already been demonstrated by the raising thereon of a succes- sion of valuable crops.21
Beef Supply, 1884. He organized in 1882 the Wyoming Copper co., whose works are located at Fairbanks, 100 miles n. of Cheyenne, in which was in- vested $200,000, and which produced in 1883, 100,000 pounds of copper bullion.
Harry Olerichs, born in Baltimore in 1854 came to Cheyenne in 1878; en- gaged successfully in the cattle business. He was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1880, and was talked of for governor when Hale de- ceased.
H. E. Teschmacher was born in Mass in 1856; came to Wyoming in 1879. In 1885 he owned, with his brother, Arthur, 6 ranchos and a residence in Cheyenne. He served in the territorial legislature in both houses. His father, H. F. Teschmacher, came to Cal. in 1842, and was alcalde of San Francisco.
Thomas W. Peters, born in Philadelphia, came to Wyoming in 1879; is a wealthy and influential citizen, being a successful cattle raiser.
T. B. Hord, born in Ohio in 1850, came to Wyoming in 1880 to engage in stockraising, and invested judiciously.
John Chase, born in N. Y. in 1842, migrated to Atchison, Kan., in 1863, and from there to Denver the same year. The party for Colo consisted of Gen. Bela M. Hughes, William R. Ford, and Thomas Stevens. He remained in Denver 10 years in the banking business. From Denver he came to Chey- enne in 1873, where he kept the Inter-Ocean hotel, the first in the world to be lighted with an electric lamp in every room.
C. A. Campbell, born in lower Canada in 1850, came to Colo in 1871. In 1876 he went to Chicago. In 1880 he returned west, settling at Cheyenne, and engaging in stock-raising.
Charles Hecht was born in Germany in 1842. During the civil war he was agent for purchasing horses for the govt. In 1866 he went to Colo. In his experience he had many skirmishes with Indians. He now owns several ranges stocked with blooded horses and cattle.
C. S. Morgan was appointed territorial secretary in 1880, and reap- pointed in 1884. During most of this period he was acting-governor of Wyoming. Having selected Cheyenne for his home, he is doubly interested in the development of the country. Morgan is from Pa, and was a member of the legislature of that state for 5 years before his appointment to Wyoming.
Deane Monahan, born in Ireland in 1836, came to the U. S. in 1848, joined the army, and served until 1884, when he was honorably retired on account of injuries received by his horse falling with him on the ice. He was with Crook in his Bighorn expedition in 1876.
E. R. Hurd, born in England in 1852, came to Cheyenne in 1876; is & successful contractor and builder.
21 In order to bring water upon this tract it was necessary to tunnel 3,000 feet through a mountain, and to conduct the water of the Laramie river into HIST. NEV. 51
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RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
Blue Grass creek, thence into Sabille, and from the Latter stream into a canal, the whole distance being 86 miles, more than half of which was dug out. Two hundred miles of lateral ditches were required to irrigate the tract. Nearly half a million dollars was expended in completing the work, which was finished in 1886. It is estimated that the tract thus reclaimed will support a farming population of 3,750, and cause the building of a town of 2,000 inhabitants. The elevation of this tract is from 4,500 to 5,000 feet, and consequently its climate will not interfere with the raising of any farm products that can be matured anywhere in the neighboring states and terri- tories. The founders of this enterprise were J. M. Carey, H. C. Plunkett, Thomas Sturgis, M. E. Post, A. Gilchrist, W. C. Irvine, and W. P. Max- well. Another land company was organized in 1884 under the name of Wyoming Central Land and Improvement company, the object of which was to acquire agricultural, mineral, grazing, and timbered lands and railroad lands, and to sell, lease, or develop them at pleasure; to engage in stock- growing or mining, or to cultivate by irrigating and farming any portion of them suited to agriculture.
Andrew Gilchrist, general manager of the W. D. co., was born in Avr- shire, Scotland, in 1841; came to Wyoming and engaged in the cattle busi- ness, having several ranchos, and meeting with much success.
The advancement making in the farming interest is further illustrated by the enterprise of Thomas W. Rutledge and Benjamin Hellman, who in 1883 dug ditches by which 10,000 acres, 42 miles north-west of Cheyenne, were reclaimed. In 1885 the whole tract was fenced with wire, and half of it well irrigated and cultivated. Their principal ditch was 27 miles in length, 20 feet wide at the mouth, and 6 feet at the lower end. On the irri- gated land they raised two and a half tons of hay per acre, oats weighing 52 pounds to the bushel, and wheat which averaged 47 bushels per acre. One potato having 22 eyes produced 22 hills of potatoes.
Rutledge was born in Canada in 1828. He migrated to Denver in 1865. and to Cheyenne in 1867.
The future of the country, whether devoted to farming or grazing, de- pends largely upon irrigation, although it is almost universally conceded that since settlement began, there has been a change in the climate and a greater rainfall. In 1889 over 5,000 miles of canal had been constructed, whereby some 2,000,000 acres had been reclaimed, and it was estimated that 4,000,000 additional acres could be placed under cultivation. The legislature of 1873 asked for the aid of congress in irrigating arid lands, and congress, as I have before mentioned, has legislated on the subject of artesian wells in the territories. The territorial laws also deal with the subject of irrigation, each county being authorized to appropriate $3,500 for the purpose of sinking arte- sian wells at the county seats, or at any town where there is a voting popula- tion of 400 or more. The legislature of 1879 protested by memorial to congress against the great cattle companies fencing streams of water away from the public, where they had no title to the lands enclosed, or only a portion. So difficult is it to combat a reputation established, however falsely, that no effort was made in the first ten years of the history of the territory to in- troduce farming anywhere except in a few small and comparatively low val- leys. The census of 1880 contained a most discouraging report, the number of acres given as improved being less than 2,000, and the number of bushels of wheat raised in 1879 less than 5,000. This was increased to 25,000 in 1882, which was good evidence of what the country could produce should farming be undertaken in earnest. The oat crop for 1882 was 47,000 bush- els. The value of these crops was $53, 500. The potato crop amounted to 85,000 bushels, worth $94,050. The farmers of Wind river valley alone raised 48,329 bushels of grain. It must be remembered that the agricul- tural or land improvement companies had not then got their land under cul- tivation, and that the increase in production would be rapid after they were colonized or settled. The amount of cultivable land in the territory was estimated in 1884 to be not less than 8,000,000 acres, and the productions
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which might be considered as sure, were wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, roots generally, garden vegetables, and all the hardier fruits. There were raised 1,000,000 bushels of oats in 1887.
The per cent of persons engaged in farming in Wyoming in 1882 was 18, and the value for the year of farm products per capita of those engaged was $227.21. This is a low figure compared with California or Nevada, only about half that of Oregon; about two-thirds that of Colo; equal to that of Utah; and greater than that of New Mexico, Dakota, or Arizona. The locust and the grasshopper, these pests of all dry and most open countries, make periodical visits to Wyoming, but as the farmers learn how to entrap them, become less formidable. From all these facts it will be seen that the set- tlers of the future will have a choice between agriculture and grazing. Worse things might happen to Wyoming than to be altogether a cattle country, provided the land and the herds should be divided up, as in time they must be. Beef-making and dairying, added to farming, however, would secure the greatest amount of profit and permanent wealth. A large number of well-to-do men are worth more to the state than a few extraordinarily rich ones. Few phenomenal things in society have a continued existence. In the past large profits were made by buying cheap cattle, fattening them, and selling them for double the amount given. This profit decreases with the increase of cattle buying, which raises the price of the cheap cattle, but not of the beef cattle. The annual loss of from three to five per cent is interest paid on the capital invested to that amount. As the country settles up, the large herds will become unwieldy, and the owners glad to sell, because they will not have room for them on their own land, and the government is bound to protect the settler rather than the tenant. There is always the danger that the native grasses, which could not be excelled for the stock interest, may be crowded out by seed introduced by the breaking of the soil, even by the roads, in which case a change would occur in the cattle-raising; and whereas now from ten to fifteen acres a head are necessary, more land would be required; and whereas now a steer can be raised in a large herd for one dollar, and in a small herd for four or five dollars, it will then cost double, and be profitable enough at that.
The number of cattle in Wyoming in 1884 was 1,151,900, and the capital invested in the business, without the land purchased, was estimated at $100,000,000. Althoughi a superior horse-raising climate, on account of the lung power imparted by the altitude and dry air, and notwithstanding horses take care of themselves by pawing through the snow when cattle are not able, the investment in this class of stock has been only about one twentieth that put into horned stock. There were in the territory in 1885 about 500,000 head of sheep, valued at something over a million and a half, making a total invested in stock of $106,500,000. To protect such an amount of inovable property from loss by theft, accident, and disease is the object of the Wyoming Stockgrowers' association, an organization which has admitted members from Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Texas, and some of the states east of the Missouri river to its benefits. It establishes, besides, by special legislation, the laws which govern the stock interest. It employs a police force, with the best detective talent in the country, and constitutes a power from which it is difficult for offenders against the laws to escape. The inspection of cattle is an important part of the association's labor. In 1883 there were 189,838 inspected at points of shipping, and 100,000 on the ranges. Over 1,000 estrays were found, and their value returned to their owners. Over 600 were killed by the railroad, for which the law requires payment. The saving effected by the association is considerable, to say nothing of the greater security from contagion which this vigilance secures.
The mineral resources of Wyoming are yet undeveloped. Copper, as I have already stated, has been actually smelted at Fairbank, in Laramie county. It occurs in Silver Crown district, twenty-two miles west of Chey- enne, on Rawhide creek, on the Platte river west of Fort Larnmie, near Rawlins, near Laramie peak, near Inya Kara, in Crook county, in the south-
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east slope of the Wind river mountains, in Uinta county, and near the Colo- rado line in Carbon county. This pretty general dissemination of copper ores seems to promise that it will become in the future a leading industry.
The oil-basins before referred to are two of them in Frémont county, two in Carbon county, one in Crook county, one on the border between Carbon and Johnson counties, and one in Uinta county, near Aspen and Hilliard. This product is regarded as of great value to the territory, but as yet has not been more than simply tested for its quality, although several companies have been formed to sink wells. Soda and mica are the only other mineral products being worked. A mine of pure graphite was discovered near Lara- mie in 1887. The railway company erected furnaces at the soda lakes in Albany county in 1883. This deposit is a sulphate, and is several feet in thickness, over an area of fifty-six acres. There are several lakes of the bi- carbonate of soda near Independence rock, in Carbon county, aggregating 460 acres. It has been tested for glass-making, and found to be superior for that purpose. Glass works have been erected in Laramie and Cheyenne. One mica mine has been opened in Laramie county. Iron, fire-clay, natural soap, gypsum, and building stone are abundant but neglected resources.
Wyoming has not yet established a reputation as a gold and silver mining territory, notwithstanding the incorporation of various companies whose purpose was to work certain mines in certain districts. A small amount of gold has been annually extracted from the Sweetwater mines ever since 1868, but the amount has been diminishing rather than increasing, if we may believe the reports, official and otherwise. In 1879 the product was over $23,000, and but $5,000 in 1882. This report, however, takes no account of the recently discovered mining districts, applying only to Sweetwater. Manufactures have almost no existence beyond those operated by the railroad. and half a dozen breweries. The raw material still awaits the application of capital to its development.
The animal food supply of the territory has been increased by the good offices of the board of U. S. fish commissioners, for which the laws of Wyo- ming provided in addition to the national commission. The distribution for 1885 was 50,000 whitefish in each of the following streams and lakes: Bear river, Green river, the lakes north of Rawlins, Lake Creighton, and in Lake Mapalutah in Laramie county. In Lake Minnehaha, the same county, Lake Hattie in Albany county, the lakes north of Rawlins, in Green river and Bear river 40,000 lake trout each. In the streams about Evanston, 25,000 brook trout; in the streams about Rawlins, 30,000 brook trout, and in the Laramie county streams 25,000 of the same. The legislature in 1886 appro- priated 2,000 for a hatchery, which was not erected because congress failed to give a title to the land on which the improvements were to be made, since which 40 acres have been secured for the purpose. At the U. S. hatchery, 750,000 trout and whitefish were produced in 1886. The wild game of the territory is protected by law, and also by an association of citizens, who have voluntarily assumed the duties of guardians of the few herds of buffalo left on the plains, and the elk and deer of the hills, to prevent their being slaughtered merely for the peltries.
The want of Wyoming, after the settlement of the Indian troubles, was railroads. These it did not get for some time, except the Union Pacific, which merely crossed the territory at its least productive latitude, and the branch to Denver, which was of little value to the business of Wyoming. Cattle, wool, and coal were all that was to be exported over either, while everything used in the industries of the territory, or that was consumed by the people, with the exception of meat and a small proportion of their bread and vegetables, was imported at a high rate of transportation. The con- struction of the Oregon Short Line railway was a partial relief to the most western division. The Central Pacific of Wyoming, owned by the Chicago and Northwestern, was a benefit to the central and eastern divisions. But there was still the whole country between that road and the Yellowstone
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river in Montana dependent entirely upon wagon transportation. The Cheyenne and Northern was completed 120 miles to Douglas in 1888, thereby securing $400,000 from Laramie county to the Union Pacific, its owner. The Chicago and Northwestern in 1887 extended its line from Douglas-old Fort Fetterman-west to Fort Caspar, 60 miles, with the evi- dent intention of continuing westward to meet the Oregon Pacific. Rival roads soon entered the field, the Burlington and Missouri running its main line from Broken Bow in Nebraska to Fort Laramie; a branch from southern Nebraska to Cheyenne; and another branch from the main line in northern Nebraska to the Black hills and northeastern Wyoming. The projected Laramie and Denver Short line was strongly urged about this time. Indeed, it cannot be long before railroads will penetrate all the valleys of Wyoming, climbing the intervening ranges as do the Colorado lines, and extending northward and westward to British Columbia and the Pacific ocean. Where they lead, immigration will follow.
The formation of a new land district in 1887 was indicative of the drift of population, embracing as it did Johnson and Crook counties. In the eastern portion of the new county of Converse 300 settlers began farming in 1887-8. For the first time flouring-mills were erected. A flouring mill was erected at Buffalo, in Johnson co., one west of Buffalo, a third at Sheridan, in the new county of Sheridan, and a fourth at Laramie, which went into operation in 1888. The first woollen mill was erected at Laramie 1887. In the upper Platte valley there were 2,000 persons living upon farms, and 500,000 acres were sown to grain in 1888. This change would have come in time, but it was hastened by the check which was given to stock-raising by a suc- cession of severe winters, making it necessary to confine herds within limits where they could be sheltered and fed. This could not be conveniently done where the numbers were very great, the natural food supply becoming soon exhausted. Men naturally reflected that while a few became wealthy quickly under the former system, by resorting to farming a greater number would become comfortably well off, the cattle would be divided among them, population would increase, taxes diminish, and that men were of greater value to the country than herds of wild cattle.
Cheyenne and Laramie each maintained a board of trade, which published information calculated to attract the capitalist or the home-seeker. I am, inyself, indebted to them for various interesting facts of importance in history.
Among those who have assisted to build up the state are the following: Allen Thompson, born in Oswego, N. Y., in 1849, entered the union army in 1861, and served through the war. He came to Fort Laramie in 1867, and in 1869 to Cheyenne.
Charles W. Riner, born in Ohio in 1854, went to Colo for his health in 1869, and settled himself in Cheyenne in 1870. He was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1882, and to the city council in 1884.
W. P. Carroll came to Cheyenne in 1873, and was associated with W. W. Corlett in the practice of law. He was elected county attorney in 1874-7, and afterwards city attorney. He was appointed supreme court reporter in 1880, which office he retained for several years.
E. F. Stahle, born in San Francisco in 1880, in 1881 was appointed dept U. S. surveyor for the dist of Wyoming, and for 4 years was engaged in Cheyenne.
Charles F. Miller came to Cheyenne in 1867. In Jan. 1877 he was elected probate judge, and reelected in 1879. He has an interest in the Union Mer- cantile co. of Cheyenne, and was the projector of the gas co.
Walter S. Hurlbut, born in Mo. in 1840, migrated to Colo in 1862, and to Idaho in 1863. In 1884 he was appointed receiver in the U. S. land office.
Will R. Swan, a native of Ohio, came to Wyoming, and engaged in plumbing and gas-fitting, having branch establishments in different parts of the territory and in Iowa. Being a natural mechanic, he became interested
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RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
in this trade, personally superintending the setting up of engines and steam boilers.
James E. Tuttle, born in New Jersey in 1832, came in 1859 to Colo. He was elected treasurer of Park co. in 1862, and again in 1864. In 1866 he went to Denver, and in 1871 to Cheyenne.
E. Nagle, born in Ohio in 1833, came in 1868 to Cheyenne. He was ap- pointed penitentiary comm'r in 1881, being chairman of the board. He was elected county comm'r in 1876, and was tendered the nomination as delegate on the republican ticket in 1881.
Samuel Aughey, naturalist, born in Pa in 1832, found in his botanical researches in Wyoming 72 different species of grass, which he believed might be doubled. The govt published for him Notes on the Nature of the Food of the Birds of Nebraska, and other works of the same class. He was appointed territorial geologist of Wyoming by Gov. Hale in 1883.
A. J. Gray, born in Mass. in 1837, was with Gen. Miles in his campaign against the plains Indians in 1871; was in military service 193 years. He was a member of the Mass. Medical society, and vice-prest of the Wyoming Academy of Science, etc., of which he has been general secretary.
W. W. Crook, born in Ky in 1836, came from Kansas to Wyoming in 1875, remaining 2 years at Laramie City, then removing to Cheyenne.
Orin C. Waid, born in Ohio in 1845, went to N. Mex. in 1864, and thence to Wyoming in 1867. He states that in 1886 there were but three men in the ter. who were alone in the cattle business, namely, Charles Hecht, Charles Coffin, and himself, the others being in companies.
A. H. Reel, born in Jacksonville, Ill., in 1837, came to Colo in 1860. In 1869 he was elected a member of the city council on the democratic ticket, which office he filled until 1871, being again elected in 1878 for three years. He was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1875, to the upper house in 1877, and reelected in 1882. He was one of the originators of the Stockgrowers' association, of the city water works, and one of the incor- porators of the gas company. In 1885 he was chosen mayor of Cheyenne. He was married in Denver in 1879.
INDEX.
NOTE .- For names, as of pioneers, officials, etc., in addition to alphabetical list, see also under heading of 'Names.'
A
Adams, Gov. Alva, biog. of, 634; election of, 1886, 647.
Adams, Lt-gov. J. W., election of, 192, biog. of, 321.
Adams, Samuel, biog. of, 508. Agriculture, great basin, 21-3; Ne- vada, 1852, 73, 244-5, 262-3, 266-7, 270, 275; White Pine co., 279-80; Eureka co., 284; Colorado, soil, etc., 330; first farming, 355; 1864-8, 492; public land surveys, 533; area in cultivation, etc., 1866-70, 534-5; soil, 535-6; irrigation, 536 et seq .; canals, etc., 538-40; grain counties, 540; fruit-growing, 541; horticul- tural society and state board of agric., 542-3; stock-raising, 543 et seq .; Frémont co., 604; Weld co., 638; summary of, 639; Wyoming, 802 et seq.
Aiken, T. A., biog., 576.
Aikins, S. J. biog. of, 576.
Alamosa, town, descript. of, 593.
Albany county, Wyo., organized, 739; hist. of, 793-4.
Albertson, N., founds Central, 382.
Albrecht, C. H., mention of, 74.
Albrecht, Miss R. F., marriage con- tract of, 74.
Alexander, Col E. B., mention of, 697.
Alexander, J. F., att'y-gen., 322.
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