History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 91

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 91

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).

As will be remembered, at that time Gen. Stuart was raiding about Gen. McClellan's army, and was their special terror. President Lincoln, complacently turning toward the officers, said, "Gentlemen, I should much rather see Gen. Stuart than all of you." The brigade were in the main true to their promise, killing him in an engagement May 11, 1864. Capt. R. took an active part in many of the im- portant engagements and raids of Gen. Sheri- dan's cavalry when Second Lieutenant, in command of company, at the time of the bat- tle of Gettysburg. His company was part of a force of 140 men intrusted with important duty of going to rear of Gen. Lee's army and destroying his ponton boats and train at Fall- ing Waters. Leaving Frederick City on the 3d and marching all night, they surprised the rebel forces, numbering several hundred, who were guarding the ponton trains, on the morn- ing of July 4, 1863, giving them such an un- expected salute at daybreak of that memorable

day, that most of them fled in consternation, offering but faint resistance. The men of his command swam the Potomac under fire to get possession of the first ponton, and take others across to scuttle and set adrift all the pontons which were supposed by the rebels to be safe- ly swung to the Virginia shore. They killed one, wounded several, and captured fifteen prisoners ; they captured a large quantity of ammunition, which was consigned to the waters of the Potomac. When after destroying part of the immense ponton train, they brought their prisoners and rebel baggage wagons, well filled with goods that had been stolen from Maryland and Pennsylvania stores, across, and made a hurried march to Hagerstown and out that night, being between the rebel forces 'at Williamsport and those approaching them on retreat from Gettysburg. Gen. Lee stated in his official report, that owing to the great rise in the river and the loss of his ponton trains at Falling Waters, that his army was delayed seven days. He was assigned to the command of the First Division at Camp Stoneman, near Washington, while unable for field duty from effect of his wounds. The duties were to equip, mount and forward recruits, who were sent in large numbers to fill the decimated ranks of the cavalry divisions, having counterpart organizations in this camp. Upon reaching City Point, Va., from Sheridan's famous Char- lottesville and James River raid, of February and March, 1865, on which large numbers of cavalry were dismounted, he was appointed Quartermaster of Sheridan's Remount camp at that place, which required an officer of his active habits, as receiving ordnance, garrison equipage, horses and other quartermaster stores, and fitting out men belonging to scores of regi- ments daily, with the utmost dispatch and without losses, was no trifling undertaking, not having aid of experienced clerks. After

the rebellion closed, he was on Gen. P. E. Connor's Powder River Indian Expedition, during the close of which the three years' serv- ice of the brigade expired and the men who had been mustered in to fill the gaps in the old regiments were ordered, November, 1865, to Fort Bridger to be consolidated into the First Michigan Veteran Cavalry, and Capt. R., by or- der of Gen. Dodge, assigned to command of Company D, that regiment, and ordered to Camp Douglas, Salt Lake. With the exception

676

BIOGRAPHICAL:

of too much dress parade for old soldiers, the winter passed off pleasantly, and he gained much information about the " Saints " without fighting for it. Was mustered out in March, 1866, and came by teams to Denver, having quite an eventful trip. Here he met his father, who came to the State in 1860. They mined the placer below Hamilton that season with hydraulic, and in the fall moved to Canon City. That winter he returned to the States via the Arkansas River route, and sold their mines to Philadelphia parties. April 30, following, he was married to Miss Kittie M. King, of Michigan, and they took up their perma- nent home at Canon City. He embarked in trade in 1869, doing a large business, and was appointed Postmaster in August, 1869, which position he held to May 15, 1879. He labored unceasingly for the opening and improvement of the wagon roads connecting Canon with the mountain mining districts, and to secure rail- roads and all other improvements. What he has accomplished has been through the most persistent effort, surmounting difficulties that his friends advised him were unsurmountable. As to his feeling for his adopted home, Frank Warner, cditor of the Avalanche, said, when giving a pen portrait of him as President of a newly elected Board of Trustees of Canon City, " That he would go further, and work harder, in worse weather, for the good of Canon than any other man in it." Be that as it may, he has done his share of pioneer work, and is entitled to rest. He is a Royal Arch Mason, an active Republican in politics, Secretary of the C. C. H. & I. Co., of Continental Divide Mining Company, and of the Canon City Coal Company ; is a farmer and amatenr orchardist in the Cañon Park, and has mercantile interests at Salida and Rockvale.

ANSON RUDD.

Anson Rudd was born in Springfield, Erie Co., Penn., July 12, 1819; he lived on a farm until 1833, when his father moved to Columbus, Ohio, where his grandfather, Judge Jarvis Pike (cousin of Gen. Pike, for whom Pike's Peak was named) was living, who was then publishing the Thompsonian Recorder, into which office young Anson was duly installed as boy of all work. During his stay in the office, he acquired a partial knowledge of the mysterious art of printing, but just at this time, owing to the

death of his mother and grandfather, his father determined to return to Pennsylvania, whither Anson accompanied him, this being in the spring of 1836. During the following summer and fall, he followed the occupation of sailor on Lake Erie. The following November found himself and father again on the move, this time for the Far West. They arrived in Pittsfield, county seat of Pike County, Ill., on the 1st of January, 1837. The following summer, Anson made a trip into the Indian country west of the Missouri River ; returned to Pittsfield and learned the blacksmith's trade, and remained there until the war with Mexico, when he vol- unteered in Company K, First Regiment Illinois Volunteer, second requisition, commanded by Col. Newby, of Mount Sterling, Brown County, Ill. After a short rendezvous at Alton, his command was ordered to take steamer for Leavenworth, there to make final preparations for a pedestrian journey across the plains to Santa Fe, which, after a toilsome march of nearly three months ( July, August and Sep- tember), they arrived at their destination, where, after remaining a short time, they again took up their line of march down the Rio Grande, en route for Old Mexico, Chihuahua being their objective point. After marching about 200 miles below Santa Fé, which consumed about one month of time, they were ordered back to Santa Fé, by Brig. Gen. Pat Price, of Missouri, who was placed in command of all the forces in the New Mexican Department, thereby leav- ing Newby's command to do post duty at Santa Fe, and placing the Missouri troops in the field in front. After returning to Santa Fe, Rudd was detailed on detective duty, which position he held till the close of the war. Taking his discharge in Santa Fé, he attached himself to a merchant train going into Old Mexico. He went as far as Chihuahua, and after remaining there a few months returned again to Santa Fe. Here he followed the occupation of painter, and assisted in painting the first two theaters in Santa Fe, the Mexican and American, and the first play put upon the stage was written by old Gen. Thomas, then a Lieutenant in the regular service, its hero and characters were soldiers in Mexico, under Gen. Taylor. Rudd next went on the police force, and was em- ployed in that duty and guarding the com- missary of the post for Col. Washington, then in command, until he started for California,

Plochafellow

677

FREMONT COUNTY.

in March, 1849. During his police experi- ence, Santa Fé could boast more specimens of depraved humanity than any place of the same amount of population. It had absorbed all of the camp followers of the North western division of the army in Mexico; the old mountaineers, representing almost every na- tionality ; renegades from the Indian nations; gamblers from many parts of the world, and the Mexican population doubly demoralized by their contact with this vicious element which the war introduced. In fact it was pandemonium intensified, and to bring order out of this chaotic, discordant, and corrupt element he found no boy's play, but instead a rather serious job. Cutting and shooting were the order of the day, and the terpsi- chorean votaries were taxed to their utmost capacity to keep in successful operation the three or four fandangoes that were in full blast every night in different parts of the city, and to look after these and the numer- ous gambling dens that ramified every possi- ble locality where they could attract victims, kept a policeman busy night and day. There was no moral, religious or secular law in Mexico restraining or regulating this vice of gambling in any manner. Priest and laymen sat at the same table betting at their favor- ite game (monte). Rich and poor, bond and free, women in high life, and peons of the most degraded character drank and bet at the same bank on the most familiar terms. It was no unusual sight to see a priest, deep in his cups, recklessly betting the money that he had obtained from his parishoners for shriving them of sins of which he was the putrid embodiment. Here it was that Rudd formed the acquaintance of many of the old mountaineers, of which Bill Williams and Joe Walker were illustrious types. Kit Carson was of more recent date, and was greatly in- debted for his notoriety to his association with Gen. Fremont; Williams and Walker ante- dated him by several years, and approached nearer to the ideal mountaineer than any other men in the Rocky Mountains, having commenced their career in the mountains as trappers and hunters nearly seventy years ago. He met Fremont and party in Santa Fé at the. time of Fremont's disastrous attempt to cross the mountains in the winter of 1848- 49, and tried to get a place in his corps to

accompany him to California, but Fremont having his full complement of men, and the conditions proposed not meeting with the views of Mr. Rudd, he concluded to assist in organizing a small company of adventurous spirits and attempt to go through on a short route which lay through Zuma Pass to Zuma Village,thence through the heart of the Apache country to the Pima villages on the Gila River. A party of thirteen had attempted the same route about a month previous, and eleven of the thirteen were killed; the names of the two that escaped were William Ward and Green Marshall. Ward escaped unhurt, but Marshall was badly wounded. The Indians, supposing they had killed the whole party, commenced rifling the packs. While they were absorbed in this, the men escaped, taking separate directions, and after many hardships arrived in California in the latter part of the ensuing summer. But nothing daunted, Rudd's party. who took up their line of march. The first point of any note made after leaving Santa Fe was the Yuma villages, about three hundred miles west of Santa Fe, where the party remained for several days partaking of the hospitality of the people. Here they added to their outfit such supplies as they thought would be necessary to last them to the Pima villages, knowing they_could obtain nothing from the Apaches, they being hostile to the Americans. After passing Red River, they arrived in the Apache country about the 1st of May. Here the party arranged a plan to meet the Apaches in council and re- present to them that they were an advance of the American army sent ont to fight the Mexi- cans, although the war with Mexico had closed, but the Apaches being unaware of this the party took this means of deceiving them and so be able to get through their country without trouble. Meeting the Indians in council they told them they were an advance of a large army and were authorized by the Government to raise a company of Indians to fight the Mexi- cans, but the Apaches having just returned from a successful raid through the States of Chihuahua and Sonora, where they had ob- tained large numbers of horses and cattle and several Mexican women and children as prison- ers, they were disposed to lay in camp and enjoy their spoils before making another raid into Mexico, but they, however, agreed to give us a safe passage through their country. The party

678

BIOGRAPHICAL:

here found themselves short of provisions, but succeeded in obtaining some dried horse meat from the Indians, this being the only pro- visions to be obtained of them. This, together with a small quantity of flour, served to keep them in a half-starved condition until they reached the Gila River, seventy miles above the Pima villages. Here the party was reduced so low that they were compelled to kill one of their horses, which served to keep them alive until the villages were reached, where relief was found. The party remained several days at the villages to recuperate and make prepara- tions for the continnance of their journey down the Gila en route to California. For provisions they obtained a quantity of penola, made of parched corn or wheat and mezquit bean ground together, and about a peck of parched corn. A short distance from the Pima villages, they in- tercepted the southern immigration, and re- ceived the first reliable information in regard to the gold discoveries toward which the party had been heading. The party arrived at the Colorado River near the present location of Fort Yuma, July 3, 1849, and crossed the river on rafts on the 4th. Here they found a large body of Yuma Indians encamped, and they showed some signs of hostility, but did not seriously molest the party. At this place, the party entered on the Great Desert, which was crossed in two nights and one day, being one hundred miles across, and this being passed they pushed on to the first settlement in Cali- fornia, arriving there on the fourth day out from the Colorado River. Here, at Warner's ranch, was obtained a supply of beef, sufficient to last to Col. Williams' ranch, thirty-six miles east of Los Angeles. Arriving at Williams' ranch, the party remained ten days to rest . up, and then continned their march for the gold mines, arriving on the Tuolumne River in the fore- part of September. Mr. Rudd remained in the mining district for five years, being in the Dig- ger Indian war. During this time he visited all the principal mining camps of California, but failed to acquire his fortune as others had done. In 1854, he started for Illinois, returning by way of the Isthmus of Panama and New Orleans, arriving in Pittsfield, Ill., about the middle of April the same year. After paying a short visit to New York, he returned and went to Iowa, here going into the cattle and mule business, buying in Northern Missouri and Southern Iowa.

and driving them to Minnesota to sell them. In the spring of 1857, he left Iowa and went to Kansas, remaining there three years, and on the 10th day of May, 1860, left for Colorado, arriving in Denver the 3d of July following. He went from here through the mountains, going by the way of Tarryall, Fairplay and Buckskin Joe, but finding no location to suit him, went to Canon City, arriving there on the 7th of August, and liking the place and sur- roundings, located and has clung to Canon through all its vicissitudes. Mr. Rudd was Commissioner to lay out the county, the first Sheriff, County Commissioner for two years, Provost Marshal at time of the rebellion, Oil Inspector, Postmaster, Clerk of the liveliest People's Court that ever administered justice, was candidate for Lientenant Governor, and the pioneer blacksmith, who had skill to keep the machinery and shooting-irons as well as plow- shares of the county in working order ; was one of the locators of the wagon roads leading from Canon City to Currant Creek and Sonth Park, to Wet Mountain Valley and the Upper Arkansas region; guide for the German Colony, under Carl Wolsten, to Wet Mountain Valley; President of Canon City Ditch Company for years ; first Warden of the Penitentiary under the State organization and one of the Commis- sioners who located it. He is a natural poli- tician, enjoying the success of his party-Re- publican-better than anything except a good joke, which his good wife, Mrs. Harriet Rudd, . should be able to compile an interesting volume of. His son, Anson S. Rudd, was born June 23. 1861, being the first child born in Canon City, and is truly "a worthy son of an illus- trious sire," being an only child, the solicitude for his welfare approaches devotion. This June 5, when Mr. Rudd took a fall over ten feet from a staging in a new stone house he is erect- ing, and his relatives and friends were fearing a fatal termination from the injuries he received, the smallest of which was a broken collar-bone, he rallied sufficiently to say, "I am glad it was not my boy." Mr. Rudd has always been fear- less for the right, and has been, from his first location here, warred against by bad men, whose names will go to oblivion, while his name will be treasured for his good acts and kindly im- pulses. His familiarity with the climate and products West and Southward caused him to have faith in this as a good region for frnit-rais-

679

FREMONT COUNTY.

ing, owing to its sheltered position, and early commenced its culture, being able now, in fact, to bask under his own vines and fruit, if not fig trees. He is favored by a happy muse, and on very many festal occasions has enlivened the community by his keen wit and deep in- sight into the thoughts and emotions of the people of Cañon.

J. J. RISSER.

Mr. Risser was born in Ashland County, Ohio, July 12, 1835. He was reared upon a farm till the age of eighteen years, when he went to learn the carpenter's trade. In 1856, he went to Illinois and settled in McDonough County ; here he remained till 1865, farming and working at his trade. Feeling there was a wider field open for him in the Far West, he came to Colorado and located in Fremont County. where he has since lived, engaged in farming and handling stock ; the latter business he has carried on extensively for several years. He was County Commissioner for two terms. Mr. Risser was married in McDonough County, Ill., in 1859, to Jane A. Locke.

JULIUS RUF.

Mr. Ruf was born in Germany April 11, 1841. He was educated in the common schools and also at a mechanical school. He spent six years in the German Army ; the balance of the time, till he was twenty-eight years of age, he worked at cabinet-making, when he emigrated to America. He spent the first year in Chicago ; after which he joined a German colony of over ninety families, and they came to Colorado and located in Wet Mountain Valley, in what is now Custer County, then Fremont County. The colony, after one year, dissolved, and Mr. Ruf came to Canon City and worked at his trade. In 1880, he started a large furniture establishment, and has now one of the finest stores of the kind in Southern Colorado. He was married in, 1869, to Barbara Deibler ; he has a very interesting family of three children, one son and two daughters. Mr. Ruf is highly respected and has the reputation of a fair and honest dealer.

HIRAM W. SANDERS.

The gentleman whose name appears above was born on a farm in Tennessee, November 14, 1833. He received a good common school education. At the age of twenty-one years, he

went to Trenton, Tenn., to clerk in a dry goods store; here he remained five years, after which he went to Kentucky, and, after clerking one year there, he went into business for him- self; after three years, he sold out and re- turned to Tennessee, where he clerked one year, and then went to Cincinnati, and was salesman in a wholesale dry goods house for one year. From there he went to St. Louis and occupied the same position for five years. In 1873, he came to Canon City, Colo., where he has been in the grocery and real estate business. Mr. San- ders lived a bachelor till he was forty-six years of age, when he was married to Mrs. Mollie Johnson. He is very highly respected by his neighbors. He is ever ready to lend a helping hand to all the improvements of the town.

AUGUSTUS SARTOR.

Mr. Sartor was born in Prussia September 28, 1840. He came to America with his parents, in 1853, who located in Fulton, Mo .; here he remained till 1864, when he came to Colorado, and selected Canon City as his home. He has seen all the ups and downs of the town, but here he stayed when others left, and to-day he is owner of one of the best livery stables in Southern Colorado. He was County Commis- sioner six years. He was married to Mary Todd, formerly of Independence, Mo., in 1874.

B. F. SHAFFER.

Mr. Shaffer, the present Sheriff of Fremont County, was born in Crawford Co., Penn., March 11, 1832. At an early age, he learned the carpen- ter's trade, which business he carried on in his native county, excepting one year spent in Illinois, till 1857, when he went to Minnesota. spending two years there and in Dakota, and in 1859, he went to Colorado, locating in Central City aud engaged in mining for five years. He then went to Boulder, where he remained till 1869, when he removed to Fremont County. He never has been out of Colorado but once in twenty-two years. He was married, in 1865, to Anne E. Alger, formerly of Syracuse, N. Y. He was elected Sheriff of Fremont County in 1877, and re-elected in 1879.

GEORGE R. SHAFFER.

The subject of this sketch was born in Penn- sylvania October 14, 1847. His school facil- ities were very limited. When fifteen years of

680

BIOGRAPHICAL:

age, he went to learn the jeweler's trade. In 1866, he went to Missouri, and clerked in a warehouse, and was also Captain of a steamer on the Osage River when he was only nineteen years of age. In 1868, he returned to Shen- andoah, Penn., and went into the jewelry busi- ness with a capital of only $200. Here he re- mained, doing a successful business till 1879, when he emigrated to Colorado and established the same business in Canon City, under the firm name of Shaffer & Cassedy.

MRS. M. M. SHEETZ.

A lady who is worthy of especial mention in this work is one whose name appears at the head of this sketch. She was born in Tioga County, Penn., in 1832. She'was reared in Western New York, and, when fourteen years of age, moved to Illinois, then a very new country. Her advantages for school having been superior to those in her adopted State, she commenced teaching before she was fifteen years of age, and continued with but short in- terruptions for four years. The next two years were spent at Mt. Morris Seminary, and the next two as Assistant Principal in the High School at Freeport, Ill. In 1853, she was married to Mr. H. M. Sheetz, then editor and publisher of the Freeport Journal. In 1856, Mr. Sheetz sold this paper, and moved to Steele County, Minn., at that time a Territory, and started the first newspaper in the interior, or back from the Mississippi River. Young and ambitious, life seemed full of golden op- portunities in which to experience all they hoped or were willing to work for. Their efforts were abundantly rewarded, and an honorable position with a flattering future seemed before them, when, in October, 1859, Mr. Sheetz died of a prevalent typhoid fever. This changed the bright anticipations and pathways of all her after life. She con- tinued to conduct the Owatonna Journal after his death, until circumstances rendered it nec- essary for her to return to Illinois with her two young children. Here she worked in the post office at Freeport two years, and during the war devoted much time and energy to the sanitary work, as also caring for the soldiers' families at home. Her health becoming impaired by the labor necessary in providing for her own fam- ily and the self-imposed work outside her own home, she determined, in October, 1872, to re-

move with her family to Colorado for whatever benefit it might have in store for her. She spent a part of the first year in Pueblo, and then removed to Canon City, where she has since resided, beloved and respected by every one. She has labored hard for every enter- prise tending to improve her adopted city. She never forgot her own school advantages, and to her is largely due the splendid condition the school of Canon City is in at the present time. She is a member of the School Board-a po- sition she has occupied for a long time. The two fatherless daughters have grown to woman- hood, and both married-one to Fred A. Ray- nolds, the other to R. S. Lewis, both highly re- spected gentlemen of Canon City.

ORSON G. STANLEY.

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 91

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