History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 83

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

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FIRE DEPARTMENT.

The Canon City Fire Department was or- ganized January 27, 1879, and consisted of one hook and ladder company, with twenty members. In November, 1880, the F. A. Reynolds Hose Company No. 1 was organ- ized, and joined the department with thirteen men. Present report of department:

Relief Hook and Ladder Company No. 1- George T. Conway, Foreman; Ike Stone, First Assistant; J. F. Rodgers, Second Assistant; and twenty-three men.

F. A. Raynolds Hose Company No. 1-S. T. Ferrier, Foreman; J. A. Hawker, First As-

sistant; R. A. Johnson, Second Assistant; and twenty men.

James H. Peabody, Chief; Robert S. Lewis, Assistant Chief.

The people are justly proud of their effect- ive fire department, as well as of their hand- some appearance in uniform.

NOTABLE BUILDINGS.

July 9, 1881, was a day in Canon City that is indelibly impressed upon all the people of our county who were so fortunate as to be present. It was the laying of the corner- stone of two of the finest edifices yet erected in the county-the court house, and a Masonic temple-by the Masonic order, assisted by other orders, the band and firemen in regalia and uniforms, and county and city officials, with citizens en masse. The present Board of County Commissioners-Edwin Lobach, Louis Muehlbach and Joseph J. Phelps -deserve greater respect than is usually paid to public servants. They were foremost in persuading the people that the best thing to do was to vote bonds and build a court house. When they were voted, they negotiated them at above par, and selected a plan approved by every one for its symmetrical appearance and stability. The people's money has been faith- fully appropriated, and they are more than satisfied-they are exceedingly well pleased.

COLORADO COLLEGIATE AND MILITARY INSTITUTE.

Board of Trustees, 1881-F. A. Raynolds, President; D. G. Peabody, Vice President; W. R. Fowler, Secretary; J. F. Campbell, Treasurer; E. H. Sawyer, J. L. Prentiss, A. Rudd, Samuel Bradbury, J. J. Phelps.

Collegiate Committee- E. T. Alling, Esq., Mrs. M. M. Sheetz, G. O. Baldwin, Reuben Jeffries, D. D., J. Fletcher, D. D., J. B. Hen. nesly, E. C. Brooks, S. Cornelius, D. D., M. B. Thatcher, L. F. Cornwell, E. P. Stevens, J. R. Palmer, D. D.

Military Committee-Gov. W. F. Pitkin, Capt. B. F. Rockafellow, Hon, J. B. Chaffee, Hon J. B. Belford, Capt. J. J. Lambert, Judge R. A. Bain, Hon: N. P. Hill, Gen. D. J. Cook, Hon. H. M. Teller, Col. W. B. Felton, Judge W. Colburn.

Corps of Instruction-Collegiate Staff-E.

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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.

H. Sawyer, M. A., D. D., President, Professor of Moral and Mental Science, and Instructor

in Ancient Languages; * Professor of Military Science and Tactics and Instructer in Civil Engineering; H. S. Westgate, M. A., Professor of Mathematics and Instructor in Physical Science; Frank Prentiss, B. L., Pro- fessor of History, Geography and Civil Gov- ernment; J. M. Willard, M. A., Professor of Modern Languages and Assistant in Greek and Latin; C. Uttermoehlen, B. A., B. M., Pro- fessor of Vocal, Instrumental and Band Music.

Military Staff-Col. E. H. Sawyer, Com- mandant; -- ,+ Adjutant; Rev. M. Dodge, B. D., Chaplain; T. H. Craven, M. D., Sur- geon; Samuel Bradbury, Quartermaster and Commissary; Maj. J. F. Campbell, Treas- urer and Paymaster; -- , Aids-de-Camp.

OTHER TOWNS.

Florence was platted in the spring of 1872, being the center of a rich farming neighbor- hood, and point of junction of Coal Branch of Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. It has a post office, Adams express office, and had at one time a lodge of Patrons of Husbandry. Has a large district schoolhouse.

Labran, one-half mile east, was platted about the same time, but afterward vacated.

Coal Creek-The settlement was commenced in 1871; to this date, has been the center of operations of the C. C. I. Co. in Canon City Coal Field; had a population of 500 at the census of 1880; is irregularly laid out- - exactly as Boston was-on the cattle trails; has several stores, carrying large stocks; plenty of saloons, drug store, bakery, post office, ex- press office, etc., and has a good trade with the country.

Rockvale, three-fourths of a mile west, on Oak Creek, is the terminus of the Pueblo & Arkansas Valley Railroad, and to be the center of operations of the Canon City Coal Company; plat will be recorded September 1; has now about one hundred inhabitants.

Yorkville, Galena, Wetmore, Cotopaxi and Palmer are the leading centers for rich min- ing camps.

#It is expected that this chair will be filled by an . fficer detailed from the regular army.

+Officer detailed from the United States Army.

COLORADO STATE PENITENTIARY .*

The Colorado State Penitentiary was first open for the reception of convicts on the 1st of June, 1881, with M. A. Shaffenburg as Warden, and Albert Walters, J. Holt Rice and M. Dueber as guards. At that time, there was one cell building, containing forty-two cells. In April, 1874, the institution was turned over to the Territory of Colorado by the United States Government. The institu- tion was of very slow growth up to 1877, at that time consisting of the cell building be- fore mentioned, and two or three other small buildings. Since the spring, of 1877, its growth, in substantial permanent improve- ments, has been rapid, and it is now assuming the proportions and appointments of first-class institutions of like character in the older States.

The State now owns thirty-six acres of land for penitentiary purpose, upon which is a sandstone and lime quarry. About five acres are inclosed by a stone wall twenty feet high and four feet thick. There are two cell build- ings, one 170 feet by 44 feet, and 28 feet high, containing forty-two double cells and 120 single cells. The other is 70 feet by 44 feet, and 28 feet high, containing forty-eight cells. The boot and shoe shop is 150 feet long, 40 feet wide and 42 feet high. The office building at the front entrance is a two- story stone building, 44x44 feet. The din -. ing-room, kitchen, blacksmith-shop, carpenter- shop and bath and wash room, are all in a long, narrow building, 350 feet long and 20 feet wide. The boiler house is 40x28 feet, and contains two large boilers for supplying the institution with steam for heating and cooking purposes, and a boiler for supplying kitchen, bath and wash rooms with hot water. All of these buildings, except the boiler build- ing, are substantial stone buildings, walls two feet thick and well put up. The boiler build- ing is built of brick. The institution has the benefit of the excellent water works of Cañon City.

The industries carried on at the institution are the manufacture of boots and shoes by the Colorado Boot and Shoe Company (they employ forty convicts); the burning of lime, *Furnithed by Hon. W. B. Felton.

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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.

which is shipped to all parts of the State; quarrying and cutting stone, which is used upon permanent improvements of the institu- tion and for sale; and, during the summer seasons, brick are manufactured.

Between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 bricks will be made by convict labor during this summer (1881). About three thousand bush- els of lime are burned per week.

Anson Rudd, of Canon City, was the first Territorial Warden, and was followed by David Prosser and B. F. Allen.

M. N. Megrue was the first Warden ap- pointed under the State Government, having been appointed in April, 1877. In February, 1879, he was re-appointed.

In December, 1880, he resigned, and W. B. Felton, one of the Commissioners, was ap- pointed to fill the vacancy, and in February, 1881, was appointed for two years. Under the State Government, there is a board of three Commissioners, who have a general superintendence of the affairs of the prison. The first board was appointed in the spring of 1874, and consisted of B. H. Eaton, Joseph T. Boyd and John B. Rice. In February, 1876, O. H. P. Baxter was appointed in place of John B. Rice. In February, 1879, D. H. Nichols and W. B. Felton were appointed in place of B. H. Eaton and Joseph T. Boyd. In April, 1880, O. H. P. Baxter resigned, and W. S. Mccutcheon was appointed in his place. In December, W. B. Felton was appointed Warden, and resigned his position as Com- missioner, and Frank A. Taylor was appointed in his place. The present officers are as fol- lows: Commissioners, W. S. Mccutcheon, President of the Board; D. H. Nichols, Sec- retary; and Frank A. Taylor, Warden; W. B. Felten, Deputy Warden; M. Dueber, Phys- ician; J. W. Dawson. There are (August 20, 1881) twenty-nine guards and 221 convicts, all males. The health of the institution has been and is better than that of any like insti- tution in the country.

POST OFFICES.

Ten years ago, there were but two post of- fices in the county. Now, the number is em- braced in the following list. At most places are stores, and centers of considerable local trade:

Canon City, Colo., Coal Creek, Cotopaxi, Currant Creek, Florence, Galena, Glendale, Wetmore (old), Greenwood, Wellsville, Palmer, Hayden Creek, Parkdale, Pleasant Valley, Texas Creek, Toof, Yorkville, Fairy, Fidler, Ford, Juniper.

Names of Postmasters who have filled the office in Canon City:

M. G. Pratt, to 1863; J. A. Draper, 1863 and 1864; Anson Rudd, W. R. Fowler, 1864 to 1865; Samuel M. Cox, 1865 to 1869; B. F. Rockafellow, 1869 to 1879; A. D. Cooper, present incumbent.

THE COLORADO PIONEER ASSOCIATION.

The Colorado Pioneer Association of Fre- mont County was formed in March, 1881; object, as expressed, " to cultivate social inter- course, form a more perfect union among its members, and create a fund for charitable pur- poses in their behalf; to collect and preserve information connected with the older settle- ment, and subsequent history of the country, aud to perpetuate the memory of those whose sagacity, energy and enterprise induced them to settle in the wilderness and become the founders of a new State. Signed Anson Rudd, President; J. H. Terry, Vice President; Eu- gene Weston, Secretary, and W. A. Helm, Treasurer; and the following members, all of whom came to Colorado on or before 1860: Paul S. Ross, William Shepherd, Reuben J. Frazier, W. H. Emery, John A. Kounts, Thomas S. Wells, G. W. Burdette, William Cooper, Jesse Frazer, L. U. Coffman, A. D. Cooper, Edward Pauls, H. H. DeMary, J. J. Phelps, C. F. Wilson, J. A. Toof, James Lewis. As many more will be present and sign at the next meeting."

PERSONAL MENTION, INCIDENTS, ETC.

When Hon. James A. McCandless, with seven families, with ox teams outfitted at Kansas City April 1, 1864, it was then no more pretentious than some of our foothill cities now. They fell in company with seven- ty-five persons, having fifty-eight wagons, at Cow Creek, about fifty miles east of Great Bend; traveled with them to Fort Larned, where their families stopped, owing to a large force of Indians passing them the day pre-

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vious. The fifty-eight wagons, loaded with merchandise for Fort Sumner, N. M., went on, and next morning were attacked by about one thousand Arapahoes and Cheyennes, and all their arms, money, goods and stock stolen, and wagons burned, but none were killed, all getting back to the fort that night. In a week, Mr. McCandless and party had a chance to start out with a detachment of soldiers bound for Fort Lyon. Their oxen seemed to realize they were in a region of hostiles, and kept up with the mules for two days, finally seceding from the long-eared party, not meet- ing with any trouble until they reached Sand Creek, about the time of the Cherry Creek flood. The Arkansas River was then three miles wide, and they turned off to the hills up Sand Creek and ran into a camp of 500 Arapahoes and Cheyennes, the same afterward engaged in the Chivington unpleasantness in the fall, and about twenty-five miles above, having drawn rations from the post-old Fort Lyon-while their braves were out commit- ting depredations. However, their party were with the Indians two weeks unmolested, and furnished antelope meat in exchange for am- munition to shoot the game with. They here learned how to cross quicksand streams. Mr. Boggs, who now lives on Purgatoire, came to their camp with a mule outfit, and, fearing to trust the treacherous Indian character, pro- posed to Mr. McCandless to give him $25 and insure safety of his oxen if he would pack the quicksand for them in the crossing. He con- sented, and, stringing his oxen out, straddled the lead near ox, and pressed forward. Under and out they plunged, in the seething of water, mud and quicksand. He said he thought Boggs was in for it sure on the insurance money. They noticed the teams that followed did better and, as they struggled through, concluded to try again. Working better each time, they kept crossing and re-crossing until it became sufficiently hard so that the mule train safely crossed. They then bade the Indians good-bye and crossed their own outfit. On arriving at the Fountain, they found that in the same swollen condition. They hired some Mexicans, for $10, to get on each side of the oxen and herd them across. They gave such unearthly gibberish and yells

in Mexican that it nearly frightened their American oxen to death, and, notwithstand- ing the water went over the wagon boxes, they were snaked through in safety.

Pueblo then had about a dozen houses. John A. Thatcher had the only store, in which goods were considered cheap for the times. For instance, they paid him $2.50 for a gallon tin pail. On the way up to Canon City, Mc- Candless says he shot his first jack rabbit, which, as all jack rabbits have done before and since, went off on three legs, with pil- grims in pursuit, expecting to pick up the game next jump; but, oh, no! that is not the intention of that kind of an eared animal. He says he has always had a spite against them since, as he followed the rabbit for miles.

Arriving at Canon City, they found J. A. Draper, Anson Rudd and Felix Burdette in sole possession. He took possession of Wolfe Londoner's cabin, as they learned he was not one of the " hostiles," but as peaceful as mirthful. In August, he went to Lake Creek and went to work for Judge W. B. Felton (present Warden of the Penitentiary) and his partner, Tippin, working the bank diggings between Lake Creek and Granite. In 1867, he returned to North Carolina and Tennessee, and in the fall brought out forty-five of his relatives. He then lived at the Big Spring ranch at Twelve Mile Ford, since Bridge, since Parkdale Station. In March, 1868, he took up the first ranch taken in Wet Mountain Valley, which he afterward gave to William Voris, and is now owned by him. Mr. Mc- Candless did not consider it was worth hold- ing, as the valley was full of Indians. Not a single claim was taken on Texas Creek His first visit to the valley was with a party of ten, who, getting separated, he got lost, there being no good trails, and had a serious time. The following fall, 1869, he and Ral Cooper and Kurg Ellington went on a bear hunt in the Wet Mountain Valley, McCandless on horseback and they on foot. He came on a she grizzly with two cubs, chasing them and killing one with his pistol. The old bear chased him furiously, and then would run back after her cubs, when she would turn after him again and again. They let her alone. When Mr. J. J. Phelps crossed the plains,

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in April, 1865, he was inducted to the noble- ness of the Indian character by seeing the lifeless form of Mr. Storey, an old settler, just as he came to his ranch, ou Wood River, twelve miles east of Fort Kearney, on the north side. Buffalo had been crossing the river in great numbers, and Mr. Storey's two sons and sons-in-law went out on each side of the river and lay under the edge of the river bank, with guns cocked, and waited for what they supposed to be a band of buffalo coming. It proved to be half a dozen Indians on ponies. Seeing the boys had the drop on them if they wished to use it, they threw up their hands in token of surrender, saying "How ?" in a quiet way. The old gentleman was between them and the house, on bottoms, with his team. After getting well away from the boys, the Indians made directly for the old gentle- man, killing and sealping him within sight of them, and cutting his team loose and making their escape before they could get near enough to stop the fiends in their terrible work.

Mr. Joseph Lamb, who resides on Texas Creek, came from Illinois, in 1859, to Deuver, and thence to Central, seven days after the discovery of Gregory. He came to Cañon in 1860, and was in the Sand Creek fight. In 1864, in company with Deputy United States Marshal Dr. D. R. Hewitt, and George De- Mary, in pursuit of horse-thieves, they went from Mayols, now Riverside, to near Conejos, without seeing a settler. After five days' pur- suit, they came on a band of three thieves, who had stolen ten horses from Colorado Gulch. They captured one of the thieves and eight of the horses, two thieves with horses making good their escape. In 1863, Nantoose's band of thirty Ute warriors came by his mining camp in Union Gulch, on return from a war trip on the Laramie Plains, where they had stolen Bouvie's herd of ponies, and the soldiers had pursued them into Middle Park, where the Utes gave up the chase and let the ponies go. They were very mad over their being chased. They demanded flour from Mr. Lamb. He offered Nantoose what he felt he could spare, which was indignantly refused, he demanding "Sack !" He then made a speech to his warriors in Indian, then said in English to them, "Only two Americanos,"

holding up his fingers; "shoot um !" Mr. Lamb grabbed his six-shooter and bowie knife from under a pillow, and cocked his gun, eying the chief all the time, and they kept that pos- ition for fully fifteen minutes, Mr. Lamb being determined to sell his life dearly if the chief made the least motion to carry out his threat. The death-like stillness was finally broken by the chief patting his breast, saying, " Me heap good Indian; Americano heap juano; Indian hungry; flour, give me some." Mr. Lamb said, "Yes, three cups." Chief answered, " Yes, three cups wano." Mr. Lamb, John D. Hawkins and Mont Hill were the first settlers on Texas Creek, in 1869. Mr. Lamb is the most successful hunter in the county. He has been known to kill 150 deer during the hunting season, which is the latter part of fall and early winter, and as high as nine in twenty-four hours; generally gets about fifty deer in a season. In 1860, the first season he lived near Canon, he killed seven deer and a bear one week, the bear having nearly eaten up one of his deer he had left hanging to a tree. He tells a good story of the valor of old gentleman Matthew Rule, well known to our people as the Hardshell Baptist preacher. It was in the spring of 1861, when the Utes were out toward Beaver, and quite overbear- ing. He happened to stop at the house of a lady on Eight Mile, whose husband was absent, and she informed him how the In- dians were acting. Scarcely had she finished the narrative when she saw a large band com- ing over the hill in the direction of her house. Mr. Rule grabbed an ax-helve he saw near by, and stepped behind the door to await events. The Indians insisted on food for all their band. She protested she did not have it in the house, when they proceeded to take pos- session. At this juncture, the old gentleman jumped out from his hiding-place, and, welt- ing them to right and left, drove the last In- dian from the premises, and they never mo- lested that ranch in the future, and whenever any of them met him, they treated him with the utmost deference.

DIGRESSION-VIEWS ON INDIAN QUESTION.

It seems to be the natural conclusion for Eastern people far removed from barbarous

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savages that Indians must be noble, they say, communing with nature, in her grandest heights and deepest recesses, and most terrible moods. They forget the depravity of human nature-how uncurbed license and low asso- ciations lead downward toward beastliness always, and that, in their great centers of civ- ilization, even as vicious, unfeeling and de- praved beings exist as roam the plains, yet they never think of sympathizing with them, but fill their prisons with them as the only safeguard to life and property; yet, with holy horror raise their voices against flesh of their own flesh, and in favor of the ignoble savage, whose greatest glorification is over the scalps of our race. For shame! that men, basking in the light of the highest development, should be the sympathizers with and apologizers for the worse than Fejeeans, who consider murder an honorable action.

Verily, if man in the future is to be held accountable for not living up to the precepts of the light available to him, how great must be the moral crime our Eastern friends have at their doors to answer for, because, but for their course, the strong arm of the Govern- ment would have interposed protection in fact, instead of a sham claim to it, which has led so many brave pioneers to sacrifice their lives. The basis of the so-called humanitarian side is founded on the flimsiest fallacy-that of ownership to unlimited millions of acres of God's footstool. For, since Grandpa Adam stepped out of the Garden of Perfection, and it was decreed all creatures should eat their bread by the sweat of their brow, did not the Creator virtually decree, as governments have since, that ownership to soil shall only accrue by development with appropriation ? Gov. Bross well expressed the thought when he asked what share of Chicago any child pos- sessed, simply by reason of having been born within its limits. What outrageous nonsense that a papoose, inheriting only the beastly impulses of generation after generation of brutal ancestors, should have a property right to all the soil it can roam over!

After the close of the rebellion, the Michi- gan Cavalry Brigade, under Gen. P. Stagg, were ordered on the plains, and Capt. Rocka- fellow's Company I, Sixth Michigan Cavalry,

was with the middle column of Gen. P. E. Connor's Powder River Indian Expedition. Upon reaching the North Fork of the Chey- enne, the guides, Maj. Bridger, Juanesse and Brenan, were all at a loss as to next water at which to make camp. Gen. Connor left com- mand in camp, taking his Aid, Lieut. Jewett, of the California regiment, Capt. Rockafellow and the guides, and started in search of water, which he did not find until just night, in the Dry Fork of Powder River. Their rations be- ing exhausted, they were delighted to see a band of buffalo across the bottoms. The Gen- eral indicated his wishes by taking the lead for meat. It was a most exciting chase, as the buffalo went pell-mell to the bluffs, which were cut by numberless water-runs made in times of heavy storms and away they bounded and trundled, in and over them, the party, with feet flying from stirrups, after and shoot- ing into the buffalo at every bound. Finally, his mare he now owns, and known by all Cañon people as " Old Jule," as frisky yet as a colt, struck into a blind hole and turned a complete somersault with him, the pommel of the saddle striking his chest, crushing the cartilage and breaking a rib on his left side, where he was wounded in 1864. It is a ques- tion whether it was not a lucky fall, as up to that time he was a confirmed smoker, but then could not inhale without pain, and has never since taken up the habit. During the day, the old guide, Maj. Bridger, became detached from the others, and, watching the antelope, found their watering-place and returned to camp. The General not coming in, Col. James H. Kidd, of the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, next in command, sent out Pawnee scouts, and sent up rockets, but, no trace being found by morning, he concluded the party were killed by Indians, and, with Maj. Bridger, sole guide, he resumed the march, meeting, just at night the following day, the General, with our patient in a humped-up position on old Jule's back, where he had been obliged to ride all day. A sorrier-looking, hungrier party is seldom met with on the plains.

The command reached, in three days, the first running water on Powder River, where they established Fort Connor, since called Fort Reno. That evening, a party of bad

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Cheyennes were made " good Indians" in the hills near by, and the company of Pawnee Indian scouts with the expedition had two grand war dances, in which eight of the scalps of said Cheyennes were the central figures, suspended on poles. It proved to be a band of Cheyennes who massacred an escort to sup- ply train of the Seventh Michigan Cavalry, between Forts Collins and Halleck, and whom they tied to the wagon-wheels and piled bacon about and burnt. Photographs, memorandums and pocket articles belonging to the poor fellows were found on one of the Indians killed, who was a very plucky, gray-haired Cheyenne, who shot a whole quiver of arrows at his assailants after being mortally wounded and cornered so there was no possible show for his escape.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 83

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