History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 72

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

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EDWARD B. STARK.

The subject of this sketch was born in Pike County, Mo., May 16, 1842; his father was one of the pioneers of that country, having moved there when the country was very new. Edward lived upon the farm until twenty-one

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BIOGRAPHICAL:

years of age, when he started out farming for himself, and remained in Pike County till 1873. He then came to Colorado Springs, where he has been very extensively engaged in cattle raising since. He is also largely interested in mines, near St. Elmo, Chaffee Co. He was married, in 1864, to Miss Mary E. Griffith, in Pike County, Mo.

WILLIAM B. THOMAS.

Mr. Thomas, one of the leading lawyers of Chaffee County, was born in Darien, Ga., October 23, 1847. At the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the Confederate service, and remained in the army till the close of the war; after the war, he clerked in a dry goods store days, and attended Bryant & Statton's Col- lege evenings. In 1866, he went to Michigan and remained two years, after which he re- turned to Georgia and ran a saw-mill for awhile. In 1873, he came to Colorado, and took up a ranch near Denver; after living upon this one year, he went to Denver, and was local editor of the Denver Democrat for a time. He then returned to McVille, Telfair Co., Ga., and commenced the study of law with C. C. Smith. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1877, and commenced his prac- tice there in McVille. In 1879, he came back to Leadville, and practiced with his brother, C. S. Thomas, till February, 1880, when he came to Buena Vista, where he has since resided, practicing his profession with success.

FRED M. TOMPKINS.

This name introduces to the reader the editor of the Poncha Herald, a young gentle- man who, among other qualities, possesses, to a marked degree, perseverance, courage and untiring energy. He was born in Neallsville, Clark Co., Wis., August 16, 1862, when clouds of civil war obscured the political sky. At a tender age, he went to Michigan, remaining eight years. From thence, he removed to Larned, Kan., where he enjoyed the instruc- tion of a business college, under the tuition of Prof. F. R. Poole. Mr. Tompkins has been a printer since he was nine years of age. At the age of sixteen, he was local editor of the Larned Chronoscope. In 1878, Mr. Tomp- kins came to Leadville, and, for a short time,

was engaged as printer in the Democrat office. Then he started the True Fissure, at Alpine, which expired with the town, about the mid- dle of January, 1880. After this, he took the editorial charge 'of the Chaffee County Press, at Nathrop. Finally, he assumed control of the Poncha Herald, which has its mission, and will diligently and vigorously perform the same, if courage and energy are adequate to the task. May he live to herald the substan- tial growth of Poncha Springs until she shall rival the prosperity of other famous watering- places in Colorado.

JOHN TOMS.

Mr. Toms is a native of England, having been born there July 1, 1837; in 1851, he came to America and was engaged in book- binding in Cincinnati, Ohio, till the breaking- out of the war. He then enlisted in the Twenty-seventh Ohio Volunteers; when his three years had expired, he re-enlisted, and when mustered out, at the close of the war, he was Chief Quartermaster of the Freedman's Bureau, at Vicksburg; afterward was ap- pointed Storekeeper in the Internal Revenue Department, at Chicago, Ill. After one year, he joined Sheridan in his expedition against the Indians; in 1869, he was appointed Chief Clerk in the Quartermaster's Department, at Camp Supply, I. T. In 1871, he went into merchandising in Miami County, Kan. In 1879, he came to Colorado and located at Cleora; when Junction City was started, he went there, and has resided there since, en- gaged in the stationery business in connection with James Martin, of Kansas City. He was married, in 1870, to Martha Ellen Blackwell, of Carlisle, Ill.

I. G. TRUE.

Mr. True was born in Brockport, N. Y., in February, 1838. He early came to Detroit, Mich., where he lived until the age of six- teen. In 1854, he came to Chicago, where he was employed in Laflin's paper house until the breaking-out of the war. He had for- merly been a member of Ellsworth's Zouaves, and now, at his country's call, he went with that gallant regiment to the front, and re- mained four years. After the war, he resided at St. Louis, and was employed by the Gov-

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CHAFFEE COUNTY.

ernment in settling the accounts of Missouri, relative to the State militia. In these trans- actions, $3,500,000 were disbursed, reflecting great credit upon Mr. True's accuracy and fidelity. After this, he served in the Auditor's department of the Kansas Pacific Railroad several years. Then he engaged in the paper business, at Chicago, but his partner having absconded to the Black Hills with $18,000, their enterprise had to be abandoned. In 1877, Mr. True came to Colorado and engaged in mining, from which he bids fair to reap success. Mr. True is an intelligent, genial man, and well liked by all who intimately know him. He is especially interested in building up the new town of Poncha Springs, which he intends to make his future home.

JAMES P. TRUE.

This gentleman is one of the proprietors of the town site of Poncha Springs, and also runs a bank of the same name. He was born at Brockport, N. Y., in 1848, and in 1850 re- moved to Detroit, Mich .; from there to Wis- consin in 1859, thence to St. Louis in 1863, thence to Montana in 1865, and to Colorado in 1871; he built the first house at Colorado Springs, and engaged in general merchan- dising under the firm name of Goodrich & True; he also built the fair grounds, which was an unsuccessful venture, financially. He removed to Poncha Springs in 1875, and laid out the town in 1877; here he engaged in general merchandise, stock-growing and pros- pecting; he has acquired a handsome compe- tence, and is greatly interested in the growth and prosperity of this new town.

JOHN F. TYLER.

Mr. Tyler was born in Cynthiana, Ky., December 12, 1846. At the age of fourteen, he entered the Naval School at Annapolis, Md., and was there three years; after this, he followed the sea for one year as midshipman, and, later on, was in the Confederate service; after leaving the army, he spent one year in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and then went to Lake Superior and was engaged in the mines for two years; from there he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and engaged in the stock business. In 1876, he came to Colorado,

and, when Maysville was started, was elected on the first Board of Trustees; he is Superin- tendent of the Defiance Mining Company. .

H. J. VAN WETERING.

This gentleman was born in Holland June 4, 1850; he was educated in Europe as a civil engineer. In 1871, he came to America and found his way at once to the mineral fields of Colorado; he was a resident of Boulder for eight years, engaged in his profession as United States Deputy Surveyor. In 1879, he removed to Buena Vista, Chaffee Co., where he is now following his profession; he has large interests in valuable mining prop- erty in Boulder. Mr. Van Wetering is a genial, whole-souled gentleman, and makes friends wherever he goes, and is said to be one of the best civil engineers in the country.

WILLIAM VAN WERDEN.

This gentleman was born in Keokuk, Iowa, January 20, 1857; he received a good com- mon-school education, and, later, attended college at Quincy, Ill., for two years, and is also a graduate of Baylie's Commercial Col- lege at Keokuk. After clerking for a time in. the drug store of Wilkenson, Bartlett & Co., of Keokuk, he went to Cheyenne, W. T., where he remained one year, and then went to Leadville, Colo .; after prospecting there for several months, he went to Buena Vista and took charge of a drug store for J. D. Hawkins; in 1880, he went to Garfield and started the drug business on his own account; was one of the Trustees, and also Treasurer of the first City Council.

JOSEPH W. WARD.

Mr. Ward was born in De Kalb County, Ala., April 22, 1850; his father was a farmer and his school facilities were poor. In 1869, he learned telegraphy in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and, later on, he went to Lexington, Ky., and was in the employ of the Western Union Com- pany until July, 1880, when he came to Buena Vista, Chaffee Co., Colo., and has been Train Dispatcher for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad at that station' since. Mr. Ward was married, in 1877, to Miss E. N. Middle- ton, of Louisville, Ky.

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BIOGRAPHICAL:

SHERMAN S. WESTFALL.

Among the substantial men of Chaffee County is numbered Sherman S. Westfall. He was born in Columbia County, N. Y., December 12, 1824; he received a good acad- emic education, and, at the age of eighteen years, went to Albany, N. Y., to clerk in a forwarding house; here he remained four years, after which he went to Rochester, N. Y., and managed a wholesale grocery house for a year. For sixteen years after this, he was in the hotel business in Buffalo, Roches- ter, Albany and New York; he made a large fortune at this business, but, like many other men, had the misfortune to lose it. He then went to the Black Hills and spent two years, and, later, had charge of the river improve- ments for the Government. He came to Colo- rado for the purpose of doing contract work on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, bring- ing with him over two hundred men, but these he soon transferred to other parties, and has since been successfully engaged in mining in Chaffee County; he has a nice ranch three miles from Buena Vista, where he now resides.

PHILO M. WESTON.

This gentleman, one of Chaffee County's honored and respected citizens, was born in Broome County, N. Y., June 5, 1824; he re- mained at home, working on his father's farm summers and attending district school winters, till he was twenty-two years of age; he then went to learn the mason's trade, and, in 1850, went to Rock Island, Ill., where he worked at his trade and dealt in wood for two years; the next four years he spent in Coun- cil Bluffs, Iowa, after which he went to De Soto, Neb., where he remained working at his trade till he came to Colorado in 1859; for the next two years, he was in different camps, and in 1861 went to South Park, passing over the pass which has since borne his name (Weston Pass); here he lived till 1867, al- though he was prospecting at different times in various places. In 1867, he moved to Twin Lakes, Lake Co., and in 1868 he built the first house in Granite, and moved there and en- gaged in mining, keeping boarding-house, etc., till 1870, when he located on a ranch on

Cottonwood Creek, where he has now one of the best farms in the State. In 1876, he built him an elegant stone house, and has now all the comforts of an Eastern home.

WILLIAM D. WHITE.

William D. White, one of Colorado's live and energetic business men, was born in Brooke. County, Virginia, October 28, 1849. When he was three years of age, his parents removed to Illinois. At the age of fifteen years, he enlisted in the Seventh Illinois Vol- unteer Infantry, and served one year in the war for the Union. He then came to Colo- rado and worked upon a ranch one year near Denver; he then went to New Mexico and was mining for a time, after which he spent three years placer mining in California Gulch; later on, he was engaged in the cattle business in Park County; he was one of the first settlers on Currant Creek; afterward, he ran a saw- mill near Garland. In the spring of 1878, he started in the lumber business on the South Arkansas River, and, 'in July of the same year, bought a ranch, upon which he lives, near Maysville, and is one of the pro- prietors of a meat market in Maysville. He was married, in 1873, to Mary McCandless, sister of Hon. James A. McCandless, of Fre- mont County.

CAPT JOSEPH H. WILLARD.

Capt. Willard, the present proprietor of the Granite Hotel, Granite, Colo., was born in Tioga County, Penn., June 10, 1841; he re- ceived a good common-school education, and also attended the academy at Wellsboro, Penn. At the age of twenty years, he enlisted in the First Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served his country two and a half years; enlisted as private and was promoted to Cap- tain. In 1865, he came to Colorado; was mining in different camps for several years. In 1877, he located in Leadville and engaged in mining, and also carried on the wholesale and retail grocery business, in connection with liquors and cigars. In March, 1881, he removed to Granite, Chaffee Co., and assumed control of the Granite Hotel. Capt. Willard was married, in 1878, to Louisa V. Ahlquist, of Humboldt, Kan.

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GEORGE T. WILLIAMS.

Prominent among the ranchmen of Chaffee County is the subject of this sketch. He was born in Platte County, Mo., November 14, 1840. He remained at home upon his father's farm until nineteen years of age, when he went to Texas on account of his health; he returned to his native town in the fall of 1860, and, when the war broke out, joined the Confederate army, and was at the front in all the important engagements west of the Mis- sissippi River till 1865; he then returned to Missouri and was engaged in farming till 1874, when he emigrated to Colorado, first locating in Canon City; in the following spring, he bought a ranch in the Arkansas Valley, near where the town of Salida is now located; he has an elegant farm of 320 acres, under good improvements. He was married, in 1866, to Sallie J. Woods, in Clay County, Mo

JOSHUA W. WOOD.

Mr. Wood was born in Belmont County, Ohio, August 5, 1839. After receiving a good common-school education, he graduated at Duff's Commercial College, in Pittsburgh, in 1859; he then spent one year as book- keeper in Cincinnati, Ohio; in 1861, he went into the general merchandising in Loami, Ill., and followed this business for eighteen years. In 1879, he emigrated to Colorado and locat- ed, in the drug business, in Maysville, Chaf- fee Co. Mr. Wood was married, in 1862, to Rebecca Jane McKee, of Illinois.

JAMES T. WILSON.

Among the substantial men of Chaffee County is James T. Wilson, of St. Elmo. He was born in Kentucky August 13, 1826; his father was a farmer, and, in 1833, moved to Pike County, Mo. He received a good edu- cation, and at the age of twenty-two years, engaged in teaching, which he followed for five years, after which he was in stock busi- ness in Illinois; from 1868 to 1872, he was in

the stock-yard business in St. Louis, Mo .; he then came to Colorado and ran a livery stable in Colorado Springs until 1876, when he re- turned to St. Louis and engaged in the live- stock commission business. In 1879, he re- turned to Colorado and bought into the Chrys- olite Tunnel property, in Chaffee County, and, in February, 1881, formed it into the St. Elmo Mining and Smelting Company; he is President of the company, and also its Super- intendent; they have a tunnel now 570 feet; they expect to cut seven distinct leads, includ- ing the Jim Wilson, Maid of the Mist, Gulnare, St. Louis, Ute, Bald Back, Fish, Maggie An- derson; these all crop out on the surface.

JOHN W. YELTON.

Mr. Yelton was born in Pendleton County, Ky., February 7, 1841. In 1853, he removed with his parents to Logan County, Ill. When he was twenty years of age, he enlisted in the Thirty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry as private, and was afterward promoted to First Lieutenant; he was in the service five years, and was in active service all the time; he was in eighteen hard-fought battles; at the battle of . Stone River, he successfully carried the colors all through the fight, but seven out of the ten Color Guards were killed. After the war, he removed his home from Illinois to Southwestern Missouri, and engaged in farming and merchandising. In 1877, he came to Denver, Colo., and, during the sum- mer and fall, was foreman of a coast survey- ing party; the following spring, he went into the mercantile department of Best, Clark & Co., at the end of the track of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad; he remained in their employ till February, 1881, when he went into the drug business with Dr. Manary, in Buena Vista, under the firm name of Man- ary & Yelton; in April, 1881, he was elected one of the Trustees of the city. Mr. Yelton was married, in 1866, to Miss Mary L. Dun- lap, of Springfield, Mo.

ROYAL GORGE.

HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY .*

BY CAPTAIN B. F. ROCKAFELLOW.

[Should the reader feel the same misgivings over the propriety of the following prologue to the region to be described that the writer did, he trusts that their charity may be his justifica- tion, when he admits that, without tracing old webs of description, he could find no other simile that would permit of flights of fancy that could entwine the surface and reach the hidden recesses beneath.]

The distinguishing physical features of Fre- mont County can be better understood by im- agining yourself in a position to take a bird's- eye view of some immense world's fair grounds, the principal façade of which being the Sierra Mojada and the Thirty-nine Mile Ranges, traversing the county in a north- northwesterly and south-southeasterly direc- tion, its center arc de triomphe being the Grand Canon, whose cloud canopy rests on granite panels and pilasters 2,000 feet high, carved and grained in fantastic shades and shapes by the master hand of Time. The col- onnades, being the beautiful Sierra Mojada Mountains, range to the southeast, and the Thirty-nine Mile Range to the northwest, each terminating in Grand Pavilion Mountains- the first in the high mountains of Upper Hard- scrabble, in mining district of that name, and the latter in the high peak of the Thirty-nine Mountains- in which pavilions are stored, in the one to the south, gold, silver, and the marvels of nature's mineral wealth, while in that to the north, books of mica, chalcedony

*Written and compiled by Captain B. F. Rockafellow from the pamphlet, "illustrated," entitled "Southern Colorado : Historical and Descriptive of Fremoot aud Coster Counties," etc., by permis- sion of Messrs. Binckley & Hartwell, publishers. A very worthy, modest and inexpensive work, the circulation of which we wish to recommend. Having had to present such & limited circulation, what matter is copied from it will be new to most of our readers. Also from items furnished by Jessee Frazer, Al Toof, Jotham A. Draper, Anson F.udd, Warren R. Fowler and other pioneers. As also from the Fremont County Record and official sources.

in all the forms of onyx and agates, in which are seemingly encased the delicate breath of the Frost King, and cloudy fumes from na- ture's mysterious laboratory. From out of one of the buttresses bubbles and flows the Thirty-one Mile Soda Spring.

Parks, where domestic animals graze, and the deer and her fawn sport, are interspersed between the main colonnade and the corridors of the Museum Mountains, of extinct animals, skirting Oil Creek Valley, where are ranged the Camarasaurus Supremus, the Trihedrodon, and other monsters of the wonderful past, which produced beings, compared with those of the present day as are our lives in length compared with the lives of the patriarchs. A red sandstone monument, seventy feet high, commemorates the scene where these brute Titans fell and are entombed, while the oil- wells below, by the escaping gas from the earth's hermetically sealed reservoir, are now bringing forth their fatness for the use of our generations. The marble caves northward furnish a delightfully cool retreat. The Sig- nal Mountain rears its head beyond and, looking on easterly over our portion of the Pike's Peak Range, we see its grassy glades and grottos seldom peered into by visitors. We descend to their southern base to the dormitories, or Sheep-back Range, hills of gypsum and lime, off toward Beaver, along the base of which are the troubled waters of numerous refreshing soda springs, which keep the spirits of our visitors evanescent by their joyous action.

First, in front of the right colonnade are the grand avenues from Wet Mountain Valley, of Oak and Grape Creek Canons, cut through everlasting mountain storehouses, filled with ore chambers and niches, only in later years

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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.

opened for exhibition by invincible prospect- ors.

In the first, majestic spruce trees furnish acceptable shade, and the moss-embossed rocks are set in beds of gauzy ferns. In the other, a Temple Cañon leads to a Royal Arch, with its pulpit, gallery and dome; next, east- erly, come the hills and vales of the Canon City Coal Basin, beneath which are stored more tons of fuel than grows in the same space in the forests of Oregon or Michigan, and which are opened by miles of entry ways and hundreds of rooms, from which are daily drawn hundreds (and soon will be thousands) of tons of clean, bright coal, by powerful en- gines stationed here and there, in this our all- time fair ground, dotted with towns filled with buildings, representing every industry -- Canon City the county seat, the grand stand. In the central foreground, on either side of the gateway, are the hot and cold soda springs, inviting the pilgrims to or from the mines to lave their limbs and dispel disease, to quaff the invigorating waters and renew age and strength. Between them courses the Arkansas River, and its companion railway, through towns, by the Brantford quarries- the best in the land-and the dome-shaped mounds of Castle Rock series, by cultivated fields, lime quarries of Beaver and grassy ranges, bearing down from the highest al- titudes, the wonderful spirit of enterprise being everywhere developed, in valleys, gulches and on mountain sides, while still further on the scene spreads out the bright picture toward Pueblo and the plains. On these vast grounds, to the west of our cen- tral arch, the everlasting mountain build- ings, containing Cotopaxi's stores of zinc, and of silver and copper in the Sangre de Christo just beyond, in Hayden Pass, while forests of spruce, pine, and silver firs line the western background, and the keepers of the herds on Texas Creek and Pleasant Valley find diversion in the ever-fortunate chase, among these evergreen-clad heights; the shape of the county being oblong, with map appearance of end of Gothic building, with its roof peak in the high range bordering Poncha Pass on the east. It is sixty miles from east to west through the center, and

thirty miles from north to south, comprising 1,500 square miles.

CLIMATE-ALTITUDE-SPRINGS.

Fremont County possesses all the favorable features of Colorado climate. The breezes common to the valleys, forerunners of storms -which are the exception, while fair weather is the rule-are said here to be the spec- ial purifiers of the air, coming down from the rarified atmosphere of higher mount- ains to the westward, by the Grand Canon route; certain it is that, though the valley portion of the county is a mile high, or, in exact figures, 5,300 feet, that the average tem- perature is as equable as the lower altitudes in the same latitude, and, in times of great bar- ometrical changes throughout the country, in winter months, the weather is usually ten de- grees more favorable here than at other points, even in our own State.

The records of the United States Signal Service at Cañon City, during the months of November, December, January, February and March, in an average season, show mean bar- ometer 24,678; mean thermometer, 42 de- grees; highest thermometer, 73 degrees; low- est thermometer, 4 degrees; and 263 of the observations during that time, taken morning and evening, were with a cloudless sky. Sea- sons that show lower thermometer seldom make but few records below zero, and never yet has fallen into the twenties. For fur- ther proof, greater success in raising all kinds of fruit is attained here than elsewhere, and this is acknowledged to be the best winter sanitarium to be found in the Rocky Mount- ain region. The mineral springs of Canon City, temperature 102 degrees, though not as hot as some in higher altitudes, are sur- charged with greater quantity of those mineral properties beneficial in restoring the diseased and debilitated system. The writer refers to the tabulated analysis given in the Denver Tribune of July 7, 1881, in by far the best article on tourists resorts in Colorado yet published, in which is given analysis of four springs at Pagosa, two Ojo Caliente, N. M., three Parnassus, six Manitou, three Wagon Wheel Gap, three Canon City, the Carlisle, Hortense and Cottonwood Springs-from

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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.

which it can be seen at a glance how Prof. Theo. Lowe, of the Wheeler Exploring Expe- dition throughout this county, was enabled to report " that of all the mineral waters of the West which I have analyzed, I find those of Canon City the best." The discovery of these springs, and the first occupation by white men of which there is any authentic record, was hy Zebulon Pike. Dr. Robinson and party, who camped, December 5, 1806, at the hot springs at the mouth of the Grand Canon, being on a Government expedition, in search of the source of the Red River, finding bison, deer and wild turkeys in great numbers, they re- mained here until the 10th, when they resumed the march toward South Park, deflecting at Salt Springs, since salt works, and, following Trout Creek down to its junction with the Ar- kansas, which they supposed to be the stream which they sought -the error of which was not learned in following down its turbed wa- ter-course until they emerged from the Grand Canon, finding at its mouth the camp they had left one month before. Here they built a small block-house, the first habitation of white men in the county.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 72

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