History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 64

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

USA > Colorado > History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado > Part 64

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).

three years, his health again failed him, and continued so to do during the succeeding two years. He then felt the necessity of another change of climate, and with that view came to Colorado and located at Greeley, Weld County, where he carried on contracting and building one year. In the spring of 1870, he came to El Paso County, having taken the contract to build Gen. W. J. Palmer's residence at Glen Eyrie. During the season of 1871, he continued that occupation at Pueblo. In 1872, he located in Colorado Springs, where he has since resided, engaged in contracting and building. During the past thirteen years, Mr. Whipple's health has been such that he has not been able to do manual labor, yet he lias very successfully car- ried on business, keeping from five to twenty men at work, and at times has a much greater number in his employ. Mr. Whipple was mar- ried in 1856 to Miss Irene S. Benson, of Tunk- hannock, Penn., and has one daughter.

WILLIAM B. WALKER.

Mr. Walker, the proprietor of a general mer- cantile store at Monument, El Paso County, was born in Winchester, Va., May 22, 1842. He attended school in his native town until four- teen years of age, then removed with his par- ents to Petersburg, Ill. The succeeding four years he attended school during winters and clerked in a dry goods store during summers. In August, 1862, he enlisted iu Company C, Twenty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served until July 25, 1865, when he was honor- ably mustered out of the service, at Clarksville, Texas. He then went to Taylorsville, Ill., where he clerked in a general mercantile store seven years. In the fall of 1872, he came to Colorado, located at South Water Station, on the Denver & Rio Grand Railroad, in El Paso County, where, during the succeeding eight months, he was engaged in the general mercantile business. He then removed his store to Monument, where he has since resided, successfully engaged in that business. Mr. Walker was married in 1871 to Miss Isabella Walker, of Shelbyville, Ill.

CHARLES F. WILSON.

This gentleman, known as " Dick Wilson " all over Colorado, was boru in Kentucky February 2, 1830. He remained at home on the farm until he was twenty-one years old ; the next five years were spent working by the month on a

476

BIOGRAPHICAL:

farm and teaming. He then moved a man and his family, with a team, to Alabama ; he remained with this man, as overseer of his plantation, two years. He then went to Hunts- ·ville, Ala., and engaged in the grocery business till April 29, 1859, when he started for Colo- rado. He went to work by the day in the mines in Russell Gulch, near Central. The next spring, he started out prospecting, and was one of the party who first discovered mineral in California Gulch. From this time till 1876, he spent most of his time in mining in different camps ; then he located on a cattle-ranch near Pike's Peak, and twenty miles from Canon City, where he still resides and owns a large herd of cattle. In 1866, he went East to visit his parents, but soon got homesick and came back to his adopted State. He is a bachelor, having never found the lady with whom he wished to share his fortune.

JAMES C. WOODBURY.

It is unnecessary to comment upon the prac- tical benefits which have accrued to El Paso County through the commendable efforts, en- terprise and public spirit of some of its pio- neers, notwithstanding losses and difficulties which would have staggered less hardy men. Among those, there are few men who can pre- sent a more interesting record than James C. Woodbury. He is of English descent, and was born in Franklin County, Mass., December 16, 1826. At an early age, he removed with his parents to Putnam County, Ill., where his early life was spent on a farm and in acquiring an education, which he completed at the college at Palatine, Ill., in 1852. During the succeed- ing three years, he traveled for a mercantile house ; then removed to Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he was engaged in a general mercantile business five years. In the spring of 1860, owing to failing health-hemorrhage of the lungs-he closed up his business and started for this health-restoring climate, arriving in Den- ver April 3. The succeeding two and a half years, were spent in traveling, prospecting and mining in the mountains of Colorado. He then located in El Paso County, and homesteaded 160 acres of land among the rich agricultural and pastoral lands of the Fontaine Qui Boille Valley, twenty miles south of the present site

of Colorado Springs, and engaged in farming and stock-raising. He also opened a general mercantile store on his ranch, which was on the line of travel between Denver, Pueblo and New Mexico, and continued the same until 1871. He then sold his ranch and store, and purchased another ranch near there, where he has since resided, engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, the success of which is attested by his increased lands, being at present one of the largest land-owners in El Paso County. In the fall of 1870, he was elected County Commis- sioner of El Paso County for a term of two years, the duties of which office he so ably and creditably discharged that he has since retained that position by re-election at the expiration of each term of office. Mr. Woodbury was mar- ried, in 1871, to Miss Jane A. Sylvester, of Medina County, Ohio, and has a family of three daughters.

MILTON YARBERRY.

Mr. Yarberry was born in Benton County, Ark., March 1, 1854. He attended private schools until sixteen years of age, then followed freighting through Missouri, Arkansas and Texas five years. 'In 1875, he started for Cali- fornia with an ox team, but on arriving in Colo- rado, determined to remain here, and located at Alma, Park County, where he followed placer mining two years. In the fall of. 1877, he came to Colorado City, and during the winter furnished ties for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company by contract. The following summer he spent at Leadville, engaged in log- ging. During the winter of 1877-78, he freighted between Colorado and Las Vegas and Fort Union, New Mexico. In March following, he returned to Colorado City, and after working in the plaster paris mill a short time, took charge of a grain and freight house at Colorado Springs for the St. Louis Smelting Company. During the fall of 1878, Judge G. H. Stewart tendered him the position of superintendent of his plaster paris mill at Colorado City, which he accepted, and still holds. He has held the office of Precinct Constable at the latter place two years, and City Marshal one year. Mr. Yarberry was married, in 1872, to Miss Cynthia England, of Benton County, Ark., and has a family of three children-two sons and one daughter.

RES.OF CHARLES ELWELL Esq, COLORADO SPRINGS COLO.

HISTORY OF CHAFFEE COUNTY.

BY E. R. EMERSON.

THE early history of Chaffee County is also that of the larger portion of Lake County, which until February, 1879, embraced all the territory lying south of the summit of the divide at the head of the Arkansas River on the north, and drained by that river, to a line crossing the river three miles below the junction of the South Arkansas River and the Arkansas, in a straight line, a distance of some sixty-five miles. The unprecedented growth of Leadville in the northern part of old Lake County, during the year 1878, and the constantly and rapidly increasing busi- ness, seriously affected by the distance to the County Seat at Granite, the population of the new town already exceeding that of the entire county the previous year, rendered the divis- ion of the county almost imperative, and on February 8, 1879, the Legislature passed an act creating the County of Carbonate, embrac- ing all that portion of Lake County lying north of a line, where the northern boundary line of the southern tier of sections, in Town- ship 11, south of Range 78 west, continued east and west, should strike the eastern and western boundary lines of Lake County, with Leadville as the county seat.

February 10, an act was passed by the Leg- islature, and approved, changing the name of Lake County to Chaffee County, and Carbon- ate County to Lake County. The first officers of the county were, for the Board of County Commissioners: James P. True, member of the old board, but residing in Chaffee County, held over, Griffith Evans and J. E. Cole, mem- bers appointed by the Governor; Julius C.

Hughes, County Judge; George Leonhardy, appointed Clerk and Recorder; R. Mat. Johnston, appointed Treasurer; John Mear, appointed Sheriff. R. Mat. Johnson having died on the first of May, 1879, E. R. Emerson was appointed Treasurer. Chaffee County is situated in the valley between the Continental Divide on the west and the Mosquito Range and Arkansas Hills on the east, bounded on the north by Lake County, east by Park and Fremont Counties, south by Fremont and Saguache Counties, and west by Gunnison County. The western boundary line, the crest of the Continental Divide-the eastern line, the summit of the divide separating the waters of the Arkansas and Platte Rivers- the southern line, crossing the Arkansas River at a point three miles below the junction of the South Arkansas with the Arkansas, fol- lows the summit of the Sangre de Christo Range to Poncha Pass, and thence due west to the summit of the Continental Divide. It embraces an area of 1,189 square miles, and has a population of about 8,000. Nearly one- third of the territory embraced in the county limits and bordering on the river and smaller streams, is susceptible of cultivation. The soil, largely sand and gravel, except along the river bottoms of the South Arkansas, where there is more alluvium, produces adundantly under irrigation, growing heavy crops of oats, peas, potatoes and turnips; but little wheat has been sown in late years, though large crops have been raised. Hay is also produced in large quantity and finds a ready market as do all the products of the soil.

478

HISTORY OF CHAFFEE COUNTY.

The Arkansas River flows through the county in a southeasterly direction and has numerous tributaries from the west, the more notable of which are Clear, Pine, Cottonwood, Chalk and Brown's Creeks, and the South Arkansas River; but few from the east, the hills rising almost abruptly from the eastern bank of the river. Trout Creek takes its rise in the gulches about the Buffalo Peaks and empties into the Arkansas about three miles below the town of Buena Vista.

The Valley of the Arkansas in the southern part of the county, with a width of six to ten miles undoubtedly formed the bed of an im- mense lake, shown in the character of the soil and the markings at the base of the sur- rounding mountains, that was drained by some great convulsion of nature that formed the Grand Canon of the Arkansas and gave to the river the present channel. At some time, early in the life of this continent, a huge glacier occupied the entire valley of the river through this county, traces of which may be seen on the sides of the mountains and in the drift-matter along the slopes. The enor- mous boulders scattered about, broken from the mountain sides and borne along by the glacier to be dropped as boundary posts, mark- ing its course, and in the worn and scratched surfaces of exposed rocks are to be found evidence not to be denied of the existence of this immense glacier. The valleys of the small streams, tributaries of the Arkansas on the west and having their source in the gulches on the eastern slope of the Continental Divide were undoubtedly the beds of smaller or later glaciers and are marked by moraines, basins and boulders that offer the finest fields for the study of glacial action to be found in the Rocky Mountains.

To the irresistible grinding power of the glaciers as they moved along the sides of the mountain and across the numerous gold bear- ing veins, many of which have already been discovered and opened, may be due the fine free gold so universally distributed through all the gravel and sand. Within the boundaries of the county are the Grand Peaks of La Plata, with an elevation of 14,126 feet above the level of the sea; Harvard, 14,386 feet; Yale, 14,101 feet; Princeton, 14,199 feet; Antero, 14,145

feet, and Shavano, 14,239 feet. In the south- ern boundary line Mount Ouray, 14,043, stands prominent, and in the eastern line the Buffalo Peaks, 13,541 feet. Timber line ranges at an elevation of from 11,000 to 11,500 feet, but above this and on the southern slopes almost to the summit of the peaks may be found grasses and most beautiful flowers, oftentimes found close by the snow that hardly disap- pears before the snows of the coming winter begin to again whiten the crests of the peaks. These grand mountains are just east of the main range that forms the western boundary line of the county and rise abruptly from the river valley, or with a gentle slope rapidly increasing until timber line is reached, up to which point the sides of the mountains are covered with a heavy growth of spruce, pine and fir, and along the courses of the streams and in moist ground the cottonwood and aspen, the lighter green of the foliage con- trasting pleasingly with the darker hues of the spruce and pine. Pinons cover the plains to a great extent and are abundant in the hills on the eastern side of the river. These trees, short bodied with rounded branching tops, seen at a little distance, remind the Eastern wanderer of the apple orchards of New York and New England.

The daring and indefatigable prospector of 1859-60 early made his way to the Arkansas River, and found everywhere in the sand and gravel of the river banks the glittering gold of which he was in search, but the first deter- mined effort to work the bars in the river was made at Kelley's Bar, so called, about four miles below Granite, by a party of prospect- ors, led by Dr. Earl, early in the spring of 1860, and prior to the discovery of gold in California Gulch; work was prosecuted here successfully during the season, and for sev- eral years yielded handsome returns. This claim, including the river for some distance above and below, is now owned by Denver parties under United States patent and is not worked.

Early in April, 1860, Messrs. H. A. W. Tabor, now Lieutenant Governor of the State, and S. B. Kellogg with others, discovered and took up claims at the mouth of the Cache Creek, whip-sawed lumber for sluice boxes,

479

HISTORY OF CHAFFEE COUNTY.

and made the first beginning in what are now the best paying placer claims in the State. The discoveries in California Gulch in the latter part of April of the same year, created such an excitement along the river that they at once abandoned everything and started for the new diggings and were among the first to open up the wonderful developments of this famous and rich gulch.

Georgia Bar, about two miles below Gran- ite, and opposite the mouth of Clear Creek, was discovered and taken up by a party of Georgians the same season; good pay was found and several thousand dollars taken out the first season, and has been worked almost continuously since, with fair returns, and is now owned by Peter Fries and Chris Kirsch, who also owns an extensive ranch on Clear Creek.

The river bed and banks for a mile and more below Granite were found to be rich in gold and is now owned by Walter H. Jones, the able Superintendent of the Gaff Mining Company, under patent from the United States Government. From below the mouth of Cache Creek to above Low Pass Creek, passing through the town of Granite, a little more than one mile, the river was also found to be good pay ground and was taken up and patented by W. H. Morgan and others, and is now owned by a party of Eastern capital- ists. Just below the town of Buena Vista and below the mouth of the Cottonwood Creek, on the western bank of the river, rich placer diggings were found and considerable gold was taken out in the early days. During the summer of 1879 these old claims below the Cottonwood were again taken up, and with improved methods of working promised to become valuable, but the gold being fine, there has been a difficulty in saving it and the returns have not been wholly satisfactory, though the claims are still worked.

Brown's Creek Canon and the river below also afforded considerable gold to the patient worker in the early days, but nothing is being done there now. ' During the " grasshopper years of 1876 and 1877, when the ranchmen lost their entire crops by the raids made by these pests many of them would have been compelled to abandon their ranches but for

the gold "rocked" out of the banks of the Arkansas.

Placer diggings were found and claims taken up about the head of Squaw Creek on the eastern slope of Mount Shavano, as early as 1863, but with the rude appliances then in use, could not be made profitable; the last season these claims were again taken up and the results so far have been encouraging.

In 1863, Mr. Frank Mayol took up a rauch bordering on the river, and now known as Leonhardy's Ranch, on Riverside, a station on . the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, about eight miles north from Buena Vista, and so successful was he the first season, selling what he had . raised to the miners along the river and at Cali- fornia Gulch, potatoes being sold for 50 cents per pound, that he claimed to have realized $5,- 000 for the first crop raised, so far as we know, in the county, and this from less than five acres of ground. During the next and following seasons he cultivated a much larger acreage and soon accumulated quite a fortune. In 1871, Mr. George Leonhardy, who had been unsuccessful in mining at Granite, leased this ranch, which he purchased the following sea- son for $3,750, a large sum to pay for a ranch at that time. During the summer of . 1872, he built a road to "Chubb's" Ranch on the divide, fourteen miles, opening a much shorter route into the South Park. This "cut off" became the regular mail route into the county, and continued such until this mail route was discontinued and the mails brought over the Denver, South Park & Pacific Rail- road. A post office was established here that summer called Riverside, and Mr. Leonhardy appointed Postmaster. Additions have been made from time to time to the ranch of land covered with a valuable growth of pine and piñon timber until it has become one of the most valuable landed properties in the county. During the last year Mr. Leonhardy has been shipping large quantities of mining timbers and charcoal to Leadville, the pinon-wood making a very firm and dense coal, nearly equal to coke for the use of the smelters.

In 1864, Andrew Bard and Frank Loan took up an extensive ranch on the Cottonwood, near the present town of Buena Vista, which from its location was readily placed under

480

HISTORY OF CHAFFEE COUNTY.

irrigation, taking the water from the Cotton- wood Creek. This tract of land, and indeed all of the land bordering on the creek was easy of cultivation, having considerable depth of soil, and producing large crops of potatoes, oats, peas and turnips. Hay was also pro- duced in abundance for which there was always a ready market at good prices. The same year Benjamin Schwander took up a ranch on the east side of the river near the mouth of Trout Creek, which he has cultivated every year since and now owns. The follow- ing season William Bale, afterward Sheriff of the county, John McPherson and J. E. Gonell, with others settled along the Cottonwood, tak- ing up the ranches now owned and occupied by Hugh and James Mahon, J. T. and E. B. Bray. James McPhelemy occupies the ranch first taken by Frank Loan, who afterward took up the ranch, a part of which is included within the corporate limits of Buena Vista, and known as Loan's Addition to Buena Vista.

August 7, 1865, Cottonwood was made an election precinct, embracing all the territory south of the bridge across the Arkansas, and J. E. Gonell, William Bale and Andrew Bard were appointed Judges of Election. During this year Galatia Sprague, R. Mat Johnston, John Gilliland, Matthew Rule and others had settled at Brown's Creek, and under the stimulus of successful farming as well as placer mining on the river near the mouth of the creek, so thriving a town had grown up that Browns- ville was made an election precinct in Novem- ber of the same year, embracing all of the county from Chalk Creek to the southern line of the county, and John Gilliland, G. M. Huntzicker and John Weldon were appointed Judges of Election, the election to be held at the house of Matthew Rule.

In the following spring, 1866, John Bur- nett and Nat. Rich with others, settled on the South Arkansas, near the present town of Poncha Springs, and in July of the same year the South Arkansas was declared an election precinct, embracing all of the county south of Sand Creek, and W. Christison liv- ing on Adobe Park, John Burnett and Nat. Rich were appointed Judges of Election, the election to be held at the house of Nat. Rich. At the election this year the question of the

removal of the county seat from Oro to Day- ton, near the head of the upper lake of the Twin Lakes, was voted upon, and Dayton receiving the required majority of the votes cast, was declared the county seat. Septem- ber 3, the County Commissioners, Peter Caruth, William Bale and George Leouhardy held their first meeting at Dayton. At this meeting the road from the divide, near the head of Trout Creek, was declared a public highway. The following year a road was laid out from the top of the Divide at Poncha Pass, following along Poncha Creek, crossing the South Arkansas at the bridge on claim of George Hendricks, to the schoolhouse on Brown Creek, and thence to the bridge cross- ing the Arkansas River just above the mouth of Trout Creek. These roads opened, gave comparatively easy communication between the northern and southern portions of the county, and taking into consideration the difficulties attending the building of a road along the narrow canons of the Arkansas River, as became necessary between River- side and Granite, and the thinly scattered population of this part of the county, too much credit cannot be given these hardy pio- neers for their liberal expenditures of time and money in opening up the country. Dis- coveries of mineral about the head of Clear Creek during the early part of this season, 1867, created considerable excitement, and there being a sufficient number of votes in the district, it was in July declared an elec- tion precinct, called La Plata, and embraced all of the territory drained by the waters of Clear Creek. Granite was also made an election precinct this same year.

In the spring of 1868, R. B. Newitt took up a ranch on the divide, near the head of Trout Creek, which soon became known as "Chubb's " Ranch, and was the favorite stop- · ping place for all coming from Denver and Colorado Springs into the valley of the Arkansas, and has since become the center of a mining camp, which has very promising properties. During this year Charles Nach- trieb, living on Chalk Creek, built a grist- mill, which for a time was fully supplied with wheat grown on the neighboring ranches, but as transportation became less expensive,

khustheary

483

HISTORY OF CHAFFEE COUNTY.

by the opening of new roads from Denver and Canon City, it was found that other crops could be raised to greater advantage than wheat and the cultivation of this cereal was abandoned.

Granite had now become of sufficient im- portance to aspire to the rank of "county seat," and at the election this year, there being a large majority of the votes cast in favor of Granite, it was declared the county seat, the citizens contributing liberally toward defraying the expense of removing the Court House from Dayton to Granite. The first meeting of the Board of County Commissioners was held at the new county seat October 8, 1868, Peter Caruth being Chairman, Walter H. Jones and J. G. Ehrhart members, and Thomas Keyes Clerk and Recorder.

The rich ores discovered in the lode claims about Granite, the success in placer mining along the river at Cache Creek and Lost Canon, and the abundant crops raised by the ranchmen gave a new and fresh impetus to the growth of the county, which had been somewhat checked by the diminishing prod- uct of gold from California Gulch, and for several years the county increased in wealth and population, but the failure to success- fully reduce the ores, which near the surface were free milling, but as depth was gained became refractory, reacted unfavorably and for a period of five or six years, or until about the time of the discovery of carbonates at Leadville, the county made but little prog- ress.

Some discoveries of mineral had been made about Chalk Creek in 1872; but little atten- tion, however, was paid to mining in this and the southern part of the county. This portion of the county being peculiarly well adapted to grazing, the cattle men, among whom Joseph Hutchinson for himself, and as agent for Messrs. Gaff & Bailey, invested largely in cattle, and which for a few years proved a profitable investment; but as the lands became settled and the ranges for the cattle restricted, the business became unprofitable and at the present time but few cattle, com- paratively, are owned in the county. The numerous streams coming into the Arkansas

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.

History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 64

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