History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 102

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080

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WILLIAM S. SMITH.

This gentleman, one of Silver Cliff's lead- ing lumber merchants, was born on a farm, in Onondaga County, N. Y., in November, 1837. After acquiring a good common-school educa- tion, he engaged in the mercantile business. In the fall of 1856, he removed to Beloit, Wis., continuing the same business. He made one trip across the plains, in 1860, to Colorado, where he spent the summer and returned home. He came to Colorado again, in 1869, locating permanently in the State, engaging in the mercantile business, in Den- ver; in 1873, he removed from Denver to Mor- ristown, where he continued in the same bus- iness until July, 1878. He came to Silver Cliff in the following February, and engaged in the lumber business. Mr. Smith is one of Silver Cliff's substantial business men; he

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was elected City Treasurer, in April, 1880. He was married, December 1, 1880, to Miss Louisa Montgomery, daughter of Harvey Montgomery, of Rochester, N. Y.

W. L. STEVENS.

Mr. Stevens, proprietor of the Silver Cliff Mine, was born in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1845, where his father was a law partner of Secre- tary S. J. Kirkwood. He was educated at Delaware, Ohio, and, in 1860, accompanied his father's family to Kansas City. Though a boy, he entered the Union army, on the breaking-out of the war, and fought bravely for three years. After the war, he entered the United States mail service, where he re- mained, until, in 1870, he went into partner- ship with his brother, in a grain elevator in Kansas City. In 1875, he came to Colorado, merely on a pleasure trip, but finally bought an interest in the Alamosa Independent, and passed three years at that place, Garland and La Veta. In September, 1878, he removed to Silver Cliff, bought an interest in the Rosita Index, and established the first paper in Silver Cliff, the Miner, November 28, 1878. Subse- quently, he also purchased a half-interest in a paper brought as far as Cañon, by A. F. Wonderly, delayed there for lack of funds, and named it the Prospector, now the Prospect. In March, 1880, he was appointed Deputy United States Marshal by Marshal P. P. Wil- cox. Mr. Stevens is own cousin to James G. Blaine and the Ewings of Ohio and is also a near relative of Hugh J. Jewett, of New York. He is personally a very handsome-looking man, generous and free-hearted and universally popular. He is modest and unassuming in his manners, and, though often urged for office, has never yet accepted. He was mar- ried, December 17, 1879, to Miss Flora Ellice Bishop, of Denver. Mrs. Stevens deserves a mention in these pages, as having been con- nected, intimately, with the press of Colorado, both before and since her marriage. She was born in Lecompton, Kan., but is almost pure- ly a Colorado lady, her parents having re- moved here when she was quite young. She was, for a number of years, a student at Wolfe Hall, Denver, where she won the gold medal. In 1877, she entered the Denver High

School, where she graduated in the first class, being poet for that year. Her first literary work was done on the Colorado Farmer, she having charge of the household and children's department of that paper when but fifteen. During her last year at school, and for a year afterward, she corresponded and wrote for Eastern papers and magazines, among them Appleton's, Peterson's and the New York Sun. In the winter of 1878, she entered upon a position on the staff of the Denver News, as art and society editor, which position she retained until her marriage. She was the first lady in the State to be admitted to membership in the State Press Association. Since her marriage, she has corresponded for the Denver News and Inter-Ocean, and Eastern journals, besides assisting her husband on the Miner. In the spring of 1881, she published a small volume of poems. She is a near rel- ative of Margaret Fuller.

ALEXANDER STEWART.

Mr. Stewart was born in St. Joseph County, Mich., in January, 1845. He was engaged in farming and in the mercantile business in his native county until 1873, and three years in the lumber business in Mecosta County. He held the office of Justice of the Peace in Moseley, same county, until 1880, when he came to Silver Cliff and was elected Justice of the Peace, November following, which office he still holds. He was married, in December, 1868, to Miss Lucinda Fletcher.

REGINALD S. SWEETLAND.

Mr. Sweetland, a native of England, was born in Devonshire in June, 1849. He came to this country in 1870, and located, in El Paso County, where he engaged in the stock business; in 1872, he removed to Custer County, and located in Wet Mountain Valley on his present farm, where he engaged in dairying for two years; he has been engaged in the butcher business, in Silver Cliff, since the town started. He has been identified with the educational interests of the county since its organization; he has been a member of the School Board of his district for six years; he was one of the prime movers in starting the first circulating library in the

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county; he was a member of the Board of County Commissioners one term. Mr. Sweet- land is an active citizen and politician.

SAMUEL A. SQUIER.

Mr. Squier, Mayor of Silver Cliff, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Worthington, Octo- ber 9, 1839. He received a thorough com- mercial education, and, at the age of twenty- two years, embarked in the mercantile busi- ness. He was connected, for fifteen years, with the firm of Clement, Morton & Co., of Chicago. He came to Colorado, in 1878, and located at Silver Cliff and engaged in the real estate and mining business. He was elected Mayor of the city, April, 1880. He was mar- ried, to Miss Catharine G. McElHinney, in 1868, and has four children.

ALEXANDER THORNTON.

Alexander Thornton, manager of the Hum- boldt Mine, was born near Edinburgh, Scot- land, in 1833, and came to the United States in 1849, where he engagad in coal mining in Pennsylvania until 1854, when he went to Illinois, following the same business until the spring of 1860, when he caught the Pike's Peak fever and came to Colorado, taking a few chances in the gold mines of Gilpin County. In 1862, the Boise Basin fever caught him, and he went to Idaho Territory, remaining there until 1869, following the different min- ing excitements from camp to camp, over Idaho and Montana. The White Pine rush carried him south into Nevada, from which place he prospected through Southern Utah into Arizona. After spending one season prospecting around Prescott and the San Francisco Mountains, he, with a party of four others, concluded to come to the San Juan country in Colorado. At the Moqui villages, a few days' travel north of the Little Colorado River, they procured a Navajo Indian boy, who had been taken prisoner by the Moquis and was condemned to death, who proved inval- uable to the small party, as he knew all the water tanks and springs in the country through which they passed, which is a miser- able sandstone desert, traversed by a few nar- row, dry cañons, that is almost unknown to this day, though it is probable that some of

the numerous railroads now building in Colo- rado will send an extension down from the San Juan River across that broken desert to the mines of Arizona before many years shall pass. Arriving in the San Juan country, our little party prospected Sierra Abajo and some of the northern branches of the San Juan River until provisions gave out, when a fresh supply was obtained and a little rest enjoyed at the Mexican town of Sierra Amarilla, in New Mexico, whence, in April, Alexander Thornton, James Pringle and W. J. Robinson alone returned to their golden search, and carefully examined the head-waters of the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers, and the Sierra la Sal Mountains in Utah. Not finding mines to suit their high ideas, they returned by way of Uncompahgre and Gunnison Rivers. While prospecting on the head-waters of the West Fork of the Gunnison River, the party found small pieces of anthracite coal (washed down from the higher mountains) in the bed of what is now known as Anthracite Creek. This was in October, 1870. His companions did not know what it was, but Mr. Thornton's experience in the coal mines of Pennsylvania told him at a glance what it was, and subse- quent tests of a small specimen, made in Philadelphia, Penn., the next winter, proved his judgment correct. The vein was found three and a half feet thick and three miles higher up the stream, and located in Sep- tember, 1872. The South Fork of Anthra- cite Creek, on which it was found, is now lo- cated by railroad companies and private indi- viduals for four miles along this vein of an- thracite coal, being the only extensive and ac- cessible deposit of that valuable mineral known to exist in the United States outside of Pennsylvania. The winter of 1870 and 1871 was spent hunting in the vicinity of Canon City, and the summer of 1871 in pros- pecting branches of Gunnison River from its source in Saguache Range to the Roaring Fork, returning again to spend the winter in the vicinity of Canon City. In the spring of 1872, Mr. Thornton opened the Canon City Coal Banks for the Colorado Central Improve- ment Company, and managed them for the company for a year, when it was time to be off on another prospecting trip, this time, in

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company with W. J. Robinson and Richard Irwin, along the eastern edge of San Luis Valley, through the mountains, from Music Pass to Taos, N. M., and returning through the mountains on the western side of the val- ley, via Ojo Caliente and Conejos to Fort Gar- land, where Mr. Thornton engaged as guide to Lieut. Prout, of Lieut. Ruffner's party of sur- veyors, and piloted them through the San Juan and Gunnison countries, returning via Lake Creek Pass and Arkansas River to Rosita, from which place, after a brief rest, he, in company with James Pringle, started on a prospecting trip to the North Fork of Gun- nison River, where " ounce diggings " were re- ported to have been discovered. They were caught by severe snow-storms in November and compelled to return via Cochetope Pass. The winter of 1871-72 was spent in Rosita, and the next year devoted to prospecting in that vicinity. In July, 1874, Mr. Thornton pur- chased the Humboldt Mine for himself and some Pennsylvania friends, and has managed it since that time, taking out over $400,000 and sinking the main shaft 718 feet. He still has charge of it.

O. P. TOWNSEND.

The subject of this sketch was born in Lodi, N. Y., in August, 1842. His early life was spent on a farm and learning the brewing business. He subsequently spent five years at sea, being two years in the United States Navy; came to Colorado in the spring of 1874 and started the Rosita Brewery, beginning on a small scale and increasing their capacity from time to time, until now they have a building 34x80 feet, with a capacity of twenty barrels. Mr. Townsend was married, in April, 1865, to Miss Marcia Sampson of Spencer, Mass.

JAMES WALTS.

Mr. Walts, who is one of Custer County's prominent citizens and old-timers, was born in November, 1825, in Floyd County, Ind. Until attaining his majority, he resided on a farm, receiving a very meager education. He spent the year of 1846 in the Mexican war. He then returned to Indiana. He was mar- ried to Miss Maria Hickman in 1849, and, in the fall of that year, removed to Illinois and

settled on a farm, where he remained sixteen years, engaged in farming. He served one year in the late war as First Lieutenant. In the fall of 1865, he moved to Missouri, where he engaged in farming four years. . He re- moved from there to Arkansas, and, in 1872, came to Colorado and located in. Wet Mount- ain Valley. He has one of the first farms in the valley, nine miles from Silver Cliff, which, is much resorted to in the summer time by people from the city. Mr. Walts has made farming and stock-raising his principal busi- ness since coming to Colorado, although he is the senior member of the firm of Walts & Mel- vin, real estate and mining agents, of Silver Cliff. He served three years on the Board of County Commissioners, two years as Chairman.

HON. JOHN W. WARNER.

Hon. John W. Warner, one of the leading lawyers of the county, was born in Darke County, Ohio, June 6, 1826. He received his education at Bloomington, Ill., and, for six years thereafter, taught school and read law, and was admitted to the Eaton, Ohio, bar. He practiced his profession one year in his native State, and then removed to Leon, Iowa, where he remained until 1873, when he re- moved to Colorado and settled in Hardscrabble Park, and engaged in farming. In 1876, he removed to Rosita and resumed the practice of law. He has been successful in several mining ventures, and is largely interested in mining property. He was State's Attorney of Iowa eight years, and represented his district in the State Senate four years. He was mar- ried, in 1851, to Miss M. W. Martin, and has six sons.

WILLIAM H. WETMORE.

W. H. Wetmore was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., August 23, 1848; moved with his parents to Illinois and settled in De Kalb, De Kalb Co., in 1861; went to Colorado; arrived in Denver April 23; went to California Gulch; moved to Southern Colorado same fall, and clerked for a Kansas City firm until early in the spring of 1863, then rode pony express from Fairplay to Pueblo; engaged in mining in 1866; was special Deputy Marshal in 1877, in Lake County; in the fall of 1868, went to Denver and commenced clerking for Londoner

Jours July forny W Stautori

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& Bro .; had charge of census office in Denver in 1870; in the fall of 1870, went to Pueblo and commenced surveying for Government; in the fall of 1871, went to work for the Colo- rado Chieftain as agent and correspondent, and, after the Daily Chieftain started, took charge of the local department, and remained on the Chieftain until February, 1873; was married, in January, 1873, to Miss Frances Stayton, of Independence, Mo .; went into the stock * business in 1875, and remained in that business until 1878, and then accepted an ap- pointment in the Internal Revenue service, and moved into Custer County; was one of the delegates to Denver, in May, 1880, to the convention to select delegates to the National Convention same year; was Chairman of Cus- ter County delegation at State Convention at Leadville; farmer by occupation.

CARL HERMAN REINHOLD WULSTEN.

Mr. Wulsten was born July 8, 1833, in Col- berg, Prussia, his father, a leading jurist, being at that time Mayor of that city. His mother was the older sister of Franz Kugler, the poet, historian, and biographer of Freder- ick the Great. The subject of this biograph- ical sketch was educated in the Latin School at Stargard, in Pomerania, where he received his early training. Upon a change of resi- dence of his parents to Frankfurt-upon-Oder, he attended school at the City Collegiate School there. He showed an early desire for travel and adventure, being rather unruly at his dry studies, but always at the head of his class in mathematics, natural history and geography. This desire led him away from his home at fourteen years of age, when his father apprenticed him to an old sea Captain. During seven years of absence from his home, he sailed around the world, and landed, in July, 1849, in San Francisco Bay, California, with a Scottish ship. Of course he went to the gold fields, and, during the next five years, followed gold mining; amassed several fort- unes, but was unable to keep them, and again landed at his parents' home in 1854. Here he took up his studies, and with great energy pursued them, so that he was in command of a noble ship by 1857. Not having good luck, and being engaged to be married to his pres-

ent wife, a daughter of William Graffemder, the President of the Criminal Senate of the Court of Appeal of the Province of Branden- burg, who, by her mother, was a descendant of the ancient noble family of the Von Dir- ingshofen, he resigned his career and emi- grated again to America, after having married his old love. Since he landed in New York, he led the chequered life of all the educated Germans of this country-editor, commercial agent, engineer, surveyor, school-teacher and farmer; it landed him in Wet Mountain Val- ley, then a part of Fremont County. His early training here came again to his rescue. He brought a hundred German families into this garden spot of the Rocky Mountains, in the shape of a colony, which did not hold to- gether beyond one year, when it collapsed, be- cause, as Mr. Wulsten told our reporter, "Wherever two Germans argue, there are three opinions." As early as 1871, Mr. Wul- sten gave his observations and opinions in re- gard to the mineral wealth of the Wet Mount- ain Range, in a series of letters he wrote to the Colorado Chieftain, then a weekly newspa- per, published, as now, at Pueblo, Colo. Step for step, word for word, Wulsten's predic- tions have come and proven themselves true and reliable. In 1873, Carl Wulsten built himself a log house in the then just appear- ing mining camp of Rosita. He went to work with an energy and determination which have crowned his efforts of years with success. Mining, surveying, engineering, map-making, draughting, speech-making, corresponding all over the United States with mining journals and capitalists, he slowly but steadily worked himself out of want into comfort, and through it into independence and opulence, until he is to-day one of the most wealthy and well-to-do citizens of Custer County. Mr. Wulsten's career is the history of all energetic, honest and fair-minded men. He works hard from twelve to fifteen hours a day; he works intel- ligently, and upon rational principles. He is outspoken and truthful. His word is as good as his bank check. He is a fast and reliable friend of the poor man and worker, and his hand is ever open toward the deserving needy. He has made for himself an enviable reputa- tion as man, miner, mine manager and engi-

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neer. Carl Wulsten is a stout Republican, and, as such, not a blind partisan, but he as- saults openly and energetically any and all abuses within his party. Carl Wulsten is, to some exetnt, quite an artist. His pictures in aquarelle and India ink are marvels of neat- ness, accuracy and genius. His maps of min- ing properties are already of national repu- tation, and can be found by dozens in the New York Mining offices. Carl Wulsten has raised a family of four children-two girls and two boys --- all bright and accomplished children, full of energy and vim, who will make their marks in their lifetime. He is a model father and husband; temperate, good- natured, sometimes hot of temper when pro- voked, but never vicious, and always noble in his aspirations, liberal in all his views to a fault, a Deist in his religious ideas, but un-

compromising in his disbelief of sectarianism. To Carl Wulsten, Custer County owes much -more than it ever will repay him-for mainly his energetic perseverance has brought the Wet Mountain Valley to the notice of the world. Since the summer of 1878, he has gone up rapidly. He has sold some good mining properties and made large sums of money. He was mainly instrumental in the consolidation of the Game Ridge Mines into a great stock company, of which he is the Su- perintendent, being, at the same time, one of its largest stockholders. He has lately also formed the Bunker Hill Consolidated Mining Company upon his Bunker Hill Mines, and has yet several very valuable mining proper- ties in his county. He may be considered one of the representative men of Colorado, who do not allow grass to grow under their feet.

HISTORY OF PUEBLO COUNTY.

BY R. M. STEVENSON.

CHAPTER I.

THE OX-TEAM PERIOD-EARLY SETTLEMENT-THE UTE MASSACRE-ZAN HICKLIN-FONTAINE CITY-WAR WITH MISSOURI-A LIVELY ELECTION-QUALIFICATIONS OF A PROBATE JUDGE-PUEBLO LAID OUT-JACK ALLEN-A TRANSACTION IN BACON-

" HEVEN'T YER GOT THE BEANS?" -- AN EGGNOG PARTY.

TH HE county of Pueblo, when organized in 1862, consisted of the territory now cov- ered by the counties of Pueblo, Bent, Huer- fano and Las Animas. In those days, though land was abundant, people were few, and Judge Lynch administered even-handed jus- tice, rendering district courts and county gov- ernments almost unnecessary. It is probable that one of the first settlements within the borders of what is now Pueblo County, was located at Charlie Antobee's ranch near the point where the Huerfano River flows into the Arkansas. Charlie, who was an old hunter and trapper, formerly in the employ of the American Fur Company (and who still resides on his old ranch), seems to have taken up his residence there at an early day and drawn around him a party of Mexicans and half-breeds who looked up to him as their ruler and leader in their many skirmishes with hostile Indians. Settlements of Mexi- cans were also made at the mouth of the St. Charles and at the junction of the Fontaine qui Bouille and the Arkansas. A trading-post was afterward located near where the Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fé depot now stands in Pueblo. It was a sort of rude fort constructed partially of adobes and the remainder of cot- tonwood pickets, and furnished a good defense against hostile Indians. This place was called Napesta, the old name of the Arkansas River.

On Christmas Day, 1854, this fort was the scene of a terrible massacre. The men who occupied it were engaged in "keeping their Christmas holiday," after the manner of their more civilized brethren of the States. Tradi- tion says that a liberal supply of the liquid that both cheers and inebriates had been obtained by the inmates of the fort and in the midst of their jollity a band of wandering Utes came by and were invited to join in the revel. The "artless children of the forest," nothing loath, partook freely of the white man's "tarantula juice " and the natural result was an attack upon the whites which resulted in all of the latter being killed. Some who escaped from the fort were followed and shot, their remains being found several miles away by parties of emigrants coming in from the East several years later. One of the occu- pants of the fort had gone to the St. Charles with his team on the day of the slaughter, and on his return he found but one man alive to tell the tale, and that man died a short time afterward. Seventeen men lost their lives as the result of Christmas hospital- ity extended to Indians.

A settlement was also made on the Green- horn Creek by Alexander Hicklin, better known throughout Colorado and New Mexico as Zan Hicklin. He came up from Santa Fé and located on a portion of the Vigil and St. Vrain Grant, which he became owner of

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through his wife, who was a daughter of Col. Bent. He cultivated a large tract of land, raised immense quantities of grain, was an extensive stock-owner and gathered around him a number of Mexican peons. His house was a renowned stopping-place for travelers, and his genial humor and kindness of heart endeared him to everybody. He died a few years since in reduced circumstances.

Other settlements followed along the Ar- kansas, the Huerfano, the Fontaine and other streams in the county, and as long as corn would bring from 5 to 15 cents a pound the valleys of all these streams throughout the summer and fall were waving fields of corn. In fact the valleys of the Arkansas and its ' tributaries supplied the whole neighboring country with that variety of grain. But now things are somewhat different. According to the stories of the ranchmen the land refuses to grow corn at 12 cents a pound, and the corn-fields are far and few between. True, the climate and soil are the same and the water as abundant, but the inducement to work is not quite so great, and hence it is "never a good year for corn" in that locality nowa- days.

The discovery of gold in the sands of Cher- ry Creek brought about the outbreak of the Pike's Peak excitement, in 1858. The news was carried to St. Louis by returning plains- men, and in the fall of that year a party of adventurous spirits came across the plains by the Arkansas Valley trail and located at the mouth of the Fontaine qui Bouille, where the old trail from Santa Fé to the Laramie plains crossed the Arkansas. This party was com- posed of Josiah F. Smith, Otto Winneka, Frank Doris and George Lebaum, who were afterward joined by Capt. William H. Green, William Kroenig, Charles D. Peck, Robert Middleton, George Peck and others. Corn in those days was worth fabulous prices, and in fact provisions of all kinds were sold at outrageous rates, and these explorers thought they could make more money by farming and trading than by hunting nuggets in the mountain streams. They made friends with the Indians, who in those days wintered in large numbers in the Arkansas Valley, owing to its mild climate, and in the following spring

they took out a ditch from the Fontaine and planted crops of corn and vegetables.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 102

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 1080

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080