History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 109

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

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PUEBLO COUNTY.

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1866, when, again quitting the service, he re- turned on a visit to his old home in Maine. In July following, he came to Colorado, and about the middle of August located at Pueblo, where he has since resided, practicing his profession with eminent success. He was married at Pueblo September 30, 1871, to a Miss Shaw. On May 1, 1879, Dr. Thombs was appointed, by the Governor, Superintendent and Resident Physician of the Hospital for the Insane at Pueblo, which position he has since continued to fill to the entire satisfaction of the State. The institution is one of the most important in the State, and under the vigilant eye and care- ful management of Dr. Thombs, it is steadily improving. The last Legislature made an ap- propriation of $55,000 for new buildings, which are now being erected, and which, when com- pleted, will prove a notable credit to the com- monwealth.

THOMAS J. TARSNEY.

Mr. Tarsney's history is interesting. He is the son of a blacksmith and was born in the small village of Medina, Lenawee Co., Mich., September 16, 1842. To do a larger business than he was doing in Medina, his father changed his residence to Ransom, Hillsdale Co., in 1854, removing his son from the place of his birth at an early age, and just as he was becoming of an age to appreciate a birthplace's happy and sacred associations. He lived at Ransom, working on a farm, excepting the first three winters, which were spent at school, till he was nineteen. At the first call of the United States in 1861, for volunteers, he enlisted for three months, in Company E, Fort Wayne Rifles, Indiana Volunteers, and was discharged at the close of his term of enlistment at Fort Wayne. That was a prelude to the life which was ad- mirably adapted to his nature and which he was destined to follow six years, in a war which was second to few, if any, which have been waged on the globe. Two of his brothers were in Company E, Fourth Michigan Volunteers, and to be with them he went to Washington where their regiment was, and joined their company, enlisting for three years. Fighting was "the order of the day " with the Fourth and he began a soldier's life in earnest shortly after his enlistment. Gaincs' Mill was the first battle in which he was engaged. In the Penin- sular campaign he took part in the battles of

Savage Station, White Oak Swamp and the big battle of Malvern Hill. He was at Bull Run, but not in the fight. In Mcclellan's command he marched against Lee in Maryland and was in the fight of Antietam, and at Mayre's Heights in the Fredericksburg campaign. Un- der Hooker, he fought at Chancellorville. Win- ter quarters were endured on the Rappahannock. In the spring of 1865, he joined the veteran organization, and received a thirty-day furlough, which he used by going to Michigan on a visit. When he returned from his visit, the command of the Army of the Potomac had been given to Gen. Meade and with his amassed forces he marched into Maryland and carried the colors of the company at Gettysburg and in the chase of the confederates into Virginia. After the re-organization of the army under Gen. Grant, he was wounded by a ball in the shoulder-blade at the battle of the Wilderness, on the 6th of May, and did not again join his company till fall, but in time to be in the fights of Yellow House Tavern and Gravely Run. Only two companies of the old Fourth veteranized ; they served with the First Michigan, and at the close of the war were ordered to join their own regiment, Col. Jairus W. Hall commanding, which had been fighting in Tennessee and was on its way to Texas. He overtook his regi- ment at New Orleans, and with it went to San Antonio. There he resigned the office of Or- derly Sergeant, to which he had been elected by his company in 1864, to accept of the ap- pointment of Orderly on the Colonel's Staff. The mustering-out of the United States service, of this regiment and his return to Hudson, Mich., occurred in the summer of 1865. He and Miss Lucy A. Smith were married May 8, 1866. From that date he began railroading ; first as fireman on the Wabash Railroad, being promoted to engineer in three years, and given an engine on the Michigan Central Railroad, which he ran two years. He then took an en- gine on the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad ; then one on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, which he ran till 1878. Taking an active part in the great railroad strike of that year, he was imprisoned at Topeka until the trouble was over. Since his release, he has run an engine on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and one on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. At the present time, he is proprietor of the Clifton House, South Pueblo, Colo., and does a fair

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BIOGRAPHICAL:

share of the general hotel business, besides receiving an extra share of the patronage of railroad men.

EDGAR A. TIBBETTS.

Edgar A. Tibbetts was born at Brook- field, Carroll County, New Hampshire, De- cember 8, 1848; but Wisconsin, where he was moved at the age of six years, is entitled to the credit of being the State in which he did his studying. He early developed an insatiable love for the study of languages and mathe- matics, and in whatever situation, under favor- able or unfavorable circumstances, he has been placed in life, he has not failed to add to his knowledge of his favorite studies. He began the study of German at fourteen years of age, without an instructor, and is now the master of seventeen different languages-among them Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Sanscrit. He was a student of Ripon College, but left it before graduating. After beginning life for himself, he followed various occupations-teaching, clerk- ing in a lumber-yard, farming, and finally com- mencing business at Ida Grove, by dealing in farming implements and grain, which he dis- continued in 1880, to come to Colorado. He founded the Conejos County Times, disposing of which, he bought the South Pueblo Banner of A. J. Patrick, and is now the able editor of the latter-named paper. He is a close student, and familiar with the works of many of the great authors of the world.

CAPT. WOOD F. TOWNSEND.

It does not require many years for a man of enterprise and merit to become established in the "growing West." Although Capt. Town- send has lived in Colorado not quite three years, yet he is prominently known, and has become identified with many of the im- portant interests of South Pueblo. He was born in New York City May 3, 1841. When five years of age, his parents moved to Pennsylvania, and settled at Minequa Springs, where he was raised and educated. He enlisted in the Federal army when nineteen years of age, and served through the late war. He was in many of the famous battles in Virginia, was wounded at Antietam, and afterward detailed upon Gen. Schenck's staff. He was also for a time Enrolling Clerk for Gen. Wallace. He was mustered out of the service in 1864, but entered the army

again in a few months, having organized a company, of which he became Captain in the One Hundred and Ninety-sixth Ohio. After the war, Capt. Townsend continued his law studies, in which he had already made some progress, and was admitted to the bar on his birthday in 1866. Soon afterward, he located at Danville, Ill., and then began the practice of law, living at that place continuously for about twelve years. In 1878, his health failing, Capt. Townsend decided to come West, and in No- vember of that year he located at Pueblo. In May following, he hegan the practice of law, which he has since continued with eminent suc- cess. He assisted in organizing the South Pueblo Water Company, and is now the com- pany's Superintendent. Was one of the incor- porators of the Pueblo Street Railway, and is now a member of the Board of Directors and Attorney for the company. He is City Attor- ney for South Pueblo, and is also Local Attor- ney for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Capt. Townsend has been twice married. He was unfortunate in losing his first wife and children by death in Illinois, and was married to his present wife in November, 1878.

HON. STEPHEN WALLEY.

Mr. Walley was born September 5, 1837, near the city of Albany, Albany Co., N. Y., and worked on a farm and at the butcher's trade until he was nineteen, except a part of four winters when he was sent to school. Suc- cessful farming and speculation in stock, cattle and sheep, at home, occupied his time from his nineteenth year up to his twenty-eighth. Dis- continuing farming and dealing in stock, in 1860, he learned masonry in Chicago, and either with the trowel in hand, or contracting to fur- nish material for buildings or to build them, he has worked at his trade ever since, all but two years of speculation in horses in Topeka, Kansas, and Denver and South Pueblo, Colo- rado, to which places he shipped many car- loads of horses and realized a "margin" on them. On the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and the Kansas Pacific Railroad, he did masonry in 1868, 1869 and 1870. The breaking-up of his camp by Indians on the latter road, terminated his railroading, and the fall of 1872, after his stock speculating in Topeka and Denver, witnessed his arrival in South Pueblo with two car-loads of American

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PUEBLO COUNTY.

horses, and the exchanging of them for town property. Two years of work at his trade in South Pueblo, during dull times, resulted in his looking elsewhere for work, and the taking of a contract to build the Malta Smelter, at Malta, Lake County, and the burning by him of the first brick burnt in California Gulch. Returning to South Pueblo in December, he worked a year, and again went to Malta, and burned 40,000 bushels of coal for the Malta Smelting Company. South Pueblo was to be his home, and 1878 found him within its limits completing the Walley Block, a building 50x125 feet, occupied on the ground floor by a wholesale and retail grocery, above by room renters and . the Masonic lodge, and which brings him in a monthly rent of several hun- dred dollars. Contracting to furnish stone from a valuable stone quarry he owns, brick from a brick-yard in which he manufactures a million bricks every month, and to build buildings of any dimension is now done by him on a scale which astonishes. He has on hand and will complete them this month, July, 1881, contracts to build four wholesale houses for H. L. Holden, the large new round-house for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, the Alexander & Beacham Block, Holden Brothers Bank Block, Moore & Carlile Opera House (nearly finished), a store for L. McLaughlin, the Masonic Temple

and the Baptist Church on the mesa ; and residences each for Rev. Mr. Tompkins, Daniel Kellen and J. N. Kline. He was a member of the South Pueblo Council in 1878-79, elected Mayor of the city April, 1880, and re-elected in 1881.

CHRISTOPHER WILSON.

Mr. Wilson was of Irish parentage. He was born in Kanawha County, Va., in 1847. When ten years of age, his parents moved to Kansas and settled on a farm near Louisburg. He re- ceived a common-school education and pursued farming until 1872. In that year he came to Colorado. For about two years he was en- gaged in the lumber business, in the employ of S. P. Gutshall, at and above Colorado Springs. In 1874, he came to Pueblo and took charge of a lumber-yard for Mr. Gutshall, in which capacity he continued about two years. From October, 1876, to January, 1880, he held the office of Police Justice in South Pueblo. He was also City Clerk and Treasurer of South Pueblo from April, 1877, to April, 1879. In January, 1880, he became Deputy County Treasurer under Mr. Carlile, which position he still holds. Mr. Wilson is now popularly known, and well established in the confidence of his fellow-citizens. He was married at Pueblo June 17, 1879, to Miss Emma R. Divel- bliss.

HISTORY OF BENT COUNTY.

BY CHARLES W. BOWMAN.

CHAPTER I.

GEOGRAPHY.

FOLLOWING the thirty-fifth parallel westward across the continent, the trav- eler is directed to notice that, at the intersec- tion of his route with the 102d degree of lon- gitude, he is about to enter the region which now bears and is likely to retain the name of Bent County. Finding himself on the banks of the Arkansas River, he may diverge from his original path and follow its sinuous mean- derings for perhaps three miles further when he will pass within the Colorado and Bent County lines. Sixty miles to the north, twen- ty-four to the south, and one hundred and ten westward will comprise the dimensions of the county, making an area of 9,500 square miles. The Arkansas, the vital artery of the county, will be found traversing it from west to east a little below the middle; its principal tributary, and second in importance, the Pur- gatoire River, flowing northeastward from the Raton Mountains, and emptying into the first named about midway of the county. Smaller tributaries of the Arkansas from the south, beginning at the eastern border, are Two Butte Creek, so named from Twin Mountains standing out in the plain forty miles from its mouth, at the base of which it runs; Gra- nada, Wolf, Clay, Mud, Caddo and Rule Creeks, east of the Purgatoire; Crooked Arroya, Timpas Creek and Apishapa River, west. Most of these rise beyond the southern line of the county, and with the exception of Granada, Wolf and Clay, have considerable timber about their sources and for some dis- tance along their banks. Plum Creek, a trib- utary of Two Butte, has some fine bodies of

cottonwood. The Purgatoire, with its tribu- tary cañons, is also wooded, making a pretty continuous belt of timber ten to fifteen miles wide along the southern border from Apishapa to Two Butte Creek. The streams mentioned head in a broken and mountainous country, and all of their valleys, with numerous tribu- tary arroyas take the form of canons with precipitous rocks on either hand. This rocky and broken region adjacent to the streams and cañons is timbered with a scrubby, white cedar. On the banks of the streams are found the cottonwood, box-elder and willow, with occasionally an undergrowth of plum, mountain currant and wild grape. Crossing to the north side of the Arkansas at the Apis- hapa and traveling eastward, water-courses are met in the following order: Bob Creek, fif- teen miles long, taking its rise at Antelope Springs; Horse Creek, having for tributaries Breckenridge, Pond and Steele's Fork, all heading on the divide, and timbered about their sources with pine; Adobe, or Coffee Creek, forty miles long, marked by a few scat- tering cottonwoods; Limestone, ten miles long, with a few cottonwoods; Graveyard Arroya, ten miles long, with a few cotton- woods, so named because near its mouth was located a military burying ground; lastly, Big Sandy, which heads north of Horse Creek, flows eastward, enters the county about mid- way of its northern line and bearing south- ward reaches the Arkansas thirty miles from the eastern boundary of the county. A pecu- liarity of all the streams in the county, except- ing the Arkansas and Purgatoire, is that

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HISTORY OF BENT COUNTY.

before reaching the river their waters are absorbed by their sandy beds. In many of them there will be found at intervals ponds or holes where the water comes to the surface. It is usually fresh and appears to have a cur- rent. Near the heads of the larger ones, such as Two Butte, Big Sandy and Apishapa, the water will be found running continuously on the surface. The smaller ones, in some cases, have only a spring at their heads, with a water-hole or two below, while the remainder, of the bed appears as dry as the surrounding plains. In the rainy season these harmless and quiescent arroyas often wake to danger- ous life. The rainfalls are characteristically sudden, frequently taking the form popularly described as a "cloud-burst;" the streams draining a large area, are quickly bank-full, and the water descends in a wave, sweeping away crops, stock, buildings and even the unsuspecting camper who may have sought a night's repose amid the tempting verdure of its banks.

In a country where mineral springs are not the rule, Bent County would be consid- ered fortunate. Several are already well known within her borders and others will probably be indicated in the future. No scientific analysis has yet been made, so that the possible value of their waters may be even greater than is now supposed. The best known is the Iron Spring, situated on the Timpas, thirty-two miles from its mouth, the waters of which compare favorably with those of the Iron Ute at Manitou. Another fine spring, affording a cold, delicious iron water, is found in Spring Bottom, north side of the Arkansas, ten miles from the western county line. At the mouth of Baker Canon, fifteen miles up the Purgatoire, is a spring reputed to be beneficial in diseases of the kidneys. Its diuretic effects are very marked. Further up the Purgatoire, in Schell Canon, is found an alum spring, and at various places near alum is found in crystal form. A fourth spring is reported in Caddo Creek, twenty miles from its mouth, the general character of whose waters has not been ascertained, but no doubt exists of their medicinal properties.

The superficial appearance of Bent County is that of a grassy plain. Geologically, its

surface would be classed as belonging to the cretaceous formation. Gray, brown and red sandstone are abundant, as also gypsum and chalk. The gray sandstone measures crop out along the Arkansas, the red and brown along the Purgatoire. The Arkansas Valley or bottom averages perhaps one and a half miles in width the entire length of the county. It is described by a series of low bluffs on the south side, known as the "sand hills," and on the north side by alternating banks of whitish clay and ledges of rocks. The sur- face of the county, whether bottom or up- land, produces a short but nutritious grass, the gramma predominating on the uplands. On some choice tracts along the rivers are taller varieties, some of it seed-bearing, which, when cut and cured, is superior hay. These native grasses are peculiar, not alone in being able to survive the long summers with little or no rain, beneath the blazing rays of the sun, but in retaining in glutinous form all their rich properties through the winter, thus affording feed for countless numbers of wild and domestic animals. Originally, and up to 1872, large herds of buffalo grazed upon them, supplemented by antelope even more numerous. The latter are still found in con- siderable numbers, but the chief occupants of the plains are cattle, sheep and horses, vast herds of which subist the year round without other sustenance than that provided by the generous hand of nature.

The soil for the most part is a sandy loam of alluvial origin. Its fertility is proven by the native vegetation seen along the banks of streams and in low bottoms where the neces- sary moisture is supplied. Experiments in farming in these valleys during the last twenty-five years show that, by the processes peculiar to arid countries, generous crops can be produced.

Mammoth specimens of petrified trees have been found along the banks of Two Butte Creek, supposed to be of the pine. Samples exhibited to the writer have the appearance of agate. Large trees, it is said, are to be seen lying on the surface, broken into sec- tions from five to ten feet long, all of adaman- tine hardness, but most of the remains are buried in the soil and may be seen cropping

w. S. ward.

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HISTORY OF BENT COUNTY.

out along the banks. In the same vicinity there was picked up a few years ago a chunk of amber-colored resinous substance of the consistency of horn, which, upon trial, readily ignited and burned. The finder was unable to give it a name, but the conclusion seems reasonable that it was gum-copal, a deposit made by these same ancient pine trees.

A curiosity, whether natural or not remains to be seen, is found on the Purgatoire, twenty miles from its mouth. It consists of a life- size picture of a cinnamon bear delineated on the face of the cliff. History nor tradition

has been able to give the date of its appear- ance, or a date when it was not there. The Indians testify that it was there when they came to the country. A common theory with the whites is that it is a photograph made by the lightning at an opportune moment as bruin was passing, and while the face of the rock under some atmospheric condition was sensitized. Others argue more plausibly that it is the work of some Indian artist. It is at least a curiosity, well deserving a visit from the tourist.

CHAPTER II. THE BEGINNERS.

T AVING surveyed the natural aspects of the country, we proceed from a view of the arena to discuss the actors. History, in its proper acceptation, has to do with men. Bent. County, though not presenting as much of the picturesque in nature as some of her neighbors, can perhaps antedate any of them in her annals. So far back are we enabled to go that the story even now begins to be clothed with a gauzy film of romance. The early past with its heroes rises before our vision veiled in a bluish haze like the distant mountains.

The stories of James Pursley, who, in 1802, is reputed to have crossed the plains to Santa Fé, aud of Pike, Lewis and Clark, who in 1804, explored the Arkansas to its mountain gorge, have been told. The faint traces of their footsteps had long been obliterated when the real drama opened in Bent County.

The firm of trappers known as Bent, St. Vrain & Co., consisting of Charles Bent, Ceran St. Vrain, and Robert, George and William, brothers of Charles Bent, came to the site of Bent's Fort in 1826, from the Up- per Missouri or Sioux country, whither they had gone from St. Louis in the service of the American Fur Company. They at once con- structed a picket fort, containing several rooms as a place of defense and headquarters preparatory to opening trade with the Indians.

Two years later, they commenced at the same place a large adobe fort, which was finished in 1832. These were the first improvements made by white men in Bent County, and for ten years thenceforward the firm and its em- ployes were the only white traders in the country.

They found the country occupied by the Comanches and Kiowas, who, previous to this time had had no dealings or communications with the whites. Those were halcyon days for the Indian. He had never felt the con- taminating touch of a Government treaty. He was in innocent ignorance of the use of firearms, of sugar, coffee or rum. He used a rawhide vessel for boiling his meat and a flint knife for carving it, and for war and the chase his weapons were the spear and arrow. The Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Coman- ches and a small band of Apaches peopled the plains, while the Utes, Apaches and Crows held the mountains. Between the Plains and Mountain Indians hostility had always existed. The Cheyennes also had a traditional enemy in the Pawnees. Pawnee Rock was named from a battle fought between them, at which the Pawnees resorted to the rock for defense. The Comanches numbered from 4,000 to 5,000, the Kiowas about 4,000. These two tribes, with the band of Apaches before mentioned, occupied the Arkansas River and the country

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HISTORY OF .BENT COUNTY.

south. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes occu- pied generally the country between the Ar- kansas and the Platte.

In 1836, William Bent went to the Platte and won for a wife, a Cheyenne maid, the daugh- ter of a chief, a man of large influence in his tribe. After this matrimonial alliance, the chief made frequent visits to the Arkansas Valley, always accompanied by a considerable number of his tribe. The result finally was, that the larger portion-perhaps three-fourths of the tribe-moved to the Arkansas perma- nently. From that time, there were two divisions of the Cheyennes, known as North- ern and Southern. With the exception of an occasional personal difficulty between an In- dian and the trader, the Indians were entirely friendly.

William Bent was the principal trader for the firm. With an outfit of pack mules, it was his custom to go to the Indian villages during the winter and exchange blankets, paints, trinkets, beads, cloth, sugar and coffee for furs and robes. The Indian camps or villages were moved from time to time to the places where game was most abundant. George and Robert remained at the Fort, where there was more or less trading all the time. St. Vrain spent most of his time at Santa Fe or Taos, New Mexico. Charles Bent, though the head of the firm, soon estab- lished his home at Taos.

Among those earliest in the service of the firm were William Bransford, now of Las Animas County, Ben Ryder, Metcalf, Chat DeBray, Bill Williams and John Smith. The last named was a young man of consid- erable education, from Philadelphia. He spoke the Cheyenne and Sioux languages flu- ently. It was suspected by the trappers that he had fled from home to avoid the penalty of some peccadillo, and that Smith was not his real name.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 109

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