History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 92

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

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This gentleman is one of those self-made men in every sense of the word. He was born upon a farm near Columbus, Ohio, November 23, 1838. He never attended school but nine months. in his life. At the age of twenty years, he re- moved to Kansas, and engaged in freighting and trading with the Indians. In 1866, he came to Colorado, and located at Canon City. At the age of thirty-five years, he went into the office of Augustus Macon to study law, and was admitted to the bar in 1876, when he opened an office in Canon City, and has had a good practice ever since. He was married to Mary King in 1868. He has one daughter and one son.

WILLIAM A. STUMP.

Among the enterprising farmers of Colorado is found William A. Stump. He was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, April 14, 1843. After receiving a good common-school educa- tion, and remaining at home with his father till twenty-one years of age, he went to Oskaloosa, Iowa, and at once engaged to Col. Johnson to drive an ox team across the plains to Colorado. After reaching Cass County, Iowa, the Indians being so troublesome, they concluded to lay up with their train till spring. They then finished their journey, locating in Fremont County, Colo., where the subject of this sketch has since lived, engaged in stock-raising and farm- ing. He has an elegant farm on Four Mile Creek, upon which is an elegant grove of immense oak trees, and a beautiful stream of water running past their door, and on a sum- mer's day it is a place one is loath to leave. He

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was married, in 1875, to Mary Rader, daughter of Jesse Rader.

MILBY SMITH.

Milby Smith, called by everybody " Grand- pa," was father of John T. Smith. They were from the eastern shore of Maryland to this county. He was in the war of 1812-was an exemplary, Christian old gentleman, fond of field sports and angling. All remember his well-kept garden. Once when he came for his mail to Cañon, the writer, who was Postmas- ter at the time, said : "Grandpa, I am afraid your folks have forgotten you this time." The old gentleman replied, in his deliberate way : " Ah, yes. I am afraid I have ontlived all my friends." That he had not, was evidenced by the deep feeling of sadness in the community when the good old man died.

RUFUS E. SMITH, M. D.

Dr. Smith was born in Pointe Coupée Parish, La., December 9, 1839. His parents were farmers, owning a large plantation and several slaves. At the age of eighteen years, he went to New Orleans, and entered the Jackson Med- cal Institute; remained at this school two years. He then taught school for two years. In the spring of 1862, he joined the Confeder- ate army, and after serving one year and a half, he was taken prisoner by the Federal forces, and was taken to Fort Morton, Indiana, where he was confined till the close of the war. He then came to Colorado. He was in various portions of the State till 1872, when he came to Fremont County, and has practiced his profes- sion since. He was married to Mollie A. Arthur in March, 1867.

CHALMERS W. TALBOT.

Mr. Talbot was born in Lewiston, Ill., in 1842. He received his education in Lewiston Academy. In 1860, accepted a position as book-keeper in the Bank of Kentucky, Colum- bus, Ky., and remained there during that por- tion of the war, to the fall of 1862, and was appointed agent of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which then had its terminus at that point, which position he held for two years, when he engaged in the grocery trade in the same place for five years, where he built up a large business, and had a branch in a neigli- boring town. In 1869, he came by rail to

Cheyenne, and thence by coach to Denver and Central. Visiting the several portions of the State in search of location, he decided upon Wet Mountain Valley, before the road to it was built, and getting lost on the route in. In a few months, he made an engagement in the cattle business for a term of five years, with Mr. George C. Beckwith. It was a very large paying business at that time, owing to the immense range as yet unoccupied by smaller herds. In the winter of 1865, he was married to Miss Ella Hastings. About the same time, he embarked in the drug business in Canon City, in a small way, and, by close application, with honorable dealing, built up a retail and jobbing business that has enabled him recently to retire to the cool shades of the mountains and the enjoyments of Eastern travel, without taking thought for the morrow, except in its relations to mankind. He has been for several years an Elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Cañon City. Is a Republican, though he has taken but little part in politics. Is a good pattern of a true-hearted, upright citizen.

STEPHEN J. TANNER.

Mr. Tanner was born in Kentucky Jannary 28, 1837. His father was a tanner, and he early learned the trade, and worked at it with his father till 1856. when he removed to Lamar County, Texas. Here he carried on the same business, connected with merchandising. Mr. Tanner is a man of strong Southern principles. He entered Bragg's army as Lieutenant, and served the Confederate cause three years in that capacity. In 1871, he came to Colorado, and has been extensively engaged in farming near Florence, Fremont County, since. He has a very nice ranch of four hundred acres.

JOSHUA TATMAN.

Among the worthy members of society in Canon City is Joshua Tatman. He was born in Kentucky March 11, 1829. At an early age, his parents removed to Clermont County, Ohio. He was reared upon a farm, and his education consisted of what could be gained at the com- mon district school. After becoming of age, he worked by the month in various places till 1860, when, hearing of the gold and silver fields of Colorado, he emigrated here. After taking in the different mining points for awhile, he finally settled in Fremont County, and

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bought him a farm on Four Mile Creek, where he has continued to reside till 1880. when he sold out and removed to South Canon. He was married in 1865 to Rose Fenton, of Illinois.

JOHN H. TERRY.

Judge Terry was born in Marion County, Ohio, in 1837. His early life was spent at home on the farm. He received a good com- mon-school education. He came to Colorado in 1860, and located in Black Hawk, and was engaged in mining and milling for two years. In the spring of 1863, he took charge of the Black Hawk Gold Stamp Mill, running it with marked snecess until the spring of 1868. He afterward built the Eagle Mill, which he ran for two years, and then sold to the Black Hawk Company. He then removed to Fremont County, purchasing the Warford and Frazer farms, near Canon City. He was elected Pro- hate Judge of Fremont County in 1872 for two years. After his term expired he went back to Black Hawk, and resumed his milling pur- suits for abont two years, when he returned to Fremont County. He was elected to the office of County Judge, but in the spring of 1881 he resigned, on account of too pressing private business, having added to his possessions the Rev. B. M. Adams and Cold Spring farms in Garden Park. He is extensively engaged in raising blooded stock. The Judge was mar- ried in 1865 to Lydia Ellis, who was a native of New York State, but resided at that time in Marseilles, Ohio. They have an interesting family of two little boys and one girl. They have all the comforts of a nice home around them, and no family in Fremont County stands higher in the estimation of the people than Judge Terry's.

FELIX TOUPAIN.

Mr. Toupain is a Canadian by birth, but has lived in the States most of his life. He was born in Montreal, Canada, September 30, 1835. At the age of eighteen years, he removed to Wisconsin, and later on to Nebraska. In 1857, he went to Salt Lake, Utah Territory, after which he returned to the States, and served four years in the Union army, in the Eighth Kansas. In 1867, he came to Colorado, and resided in Canon City seven years, working at the carpenter's trade, since which time he has lived at Hayden Creek, engaged in farming and

hotel-keeping. He is one of the company who have now the Hayden Pass Toll Road nearly completed across the mountains. He is a very active man in whatever he undertakes, and is very highly respected by his neighbors.

THOMAS VIRDEN.

Mr. Virden is one of the well known pioneers of Fremont County. He was born March 14, 1831. His only means of obtaining an educa- tion was the common district school, and poor at that. At an early age, he moved with his parents to Iowa. He lived with his father on the farm till he was twenty-one years of age, and then started life for himself in the real estate business, connected with farming. After three years, he went to Nebraska, and took a mail contract. He carried the mail for three years. In 1861, impelled by the exciting reports of the rich discovery of the precious metals in Colorado, he came in search of them, and for four years prospected at different points, with varied success. He then settled in Fre- mont County, where he has since resided. His occupation has been mostly stock-raising. In 1864, he served 100 days in the Third Colorado Regiment, fighting the Indians. He was in the Sand Creek fight, where 100 whites and 500 Indians were killed. He was Assessor for Fre- mont County in 1872. He was married, in 1867, to Emma Strong, of Shellsburg, Iowa.

CHARLES E. WALDO.

C. E. Waldo, attorney-at-law and member of the bar of Fremont County, was born February 28, 1846, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He is the son of Rev. L. F. Waldo. Most of his boyhood days were spent in Michigan and Illinois. He received a poor common-school education. He read law with Sam P. Dale in Illinois, and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He practiced in Beardstown, Ill., the two following years. In the fall of 1873, he came to Denver, Colo., and remained there two years, then removed to Canon City, and has since practiced in the courts of Fremont and Custer Counties. Mr. Waldo is President of the Canon School Board. He is also Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment of the Order of Odd Fellows.

HENRY WALLER.

This gentleman was born in Polk County, East Tenn., Angust 17, 1843. When the war

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broke out, in 1860, although he was bnt seven- teen, he esponsed the cause of the Confederacy, and enlisted to fight for it. He was in active service until Grant took Vicksburg, when Mr. Waller was taken prisoner. He was taken North, and held at different points until Octo- ber, 1864, when he enlisted in the Union army, and went to Dakota to fight the Indians. He

was there one year, aud was mustered out of the service. He remained in Dakota ten years engaged in trading with the Indians. During two years of this time he had a mail contract. In 1875, he removed to a farm on Fonr Mile Creek, in Fremont Connty, where he has since resided. He was married in Dakota, in 1866, to Miss Sophia Frainyard. Mr. Waller is a man highly respected in Fremont County.

ALBERT WALTER.

Among the wealthy members of the German population now in Colorado appears the name of Albert Walter. He was born in Germany January 28, 1835. In 1853, he sought a home in America. He first located in Delphos, Miami County, Ohio ; after three years, removed to Lecompton, Kan. ; after two years, he still longed to see more of the Far West, and crossed the plains to Colorado, and stopped in Denver. He at once enlisted, and served four and a half years with honor, part of the time on the staff of Gen. Henry ; was Provost Marshal part of the time in Denver. In 1870, was appointed to take charge of the prison at Canon City ; at that time it was United States property ; he remained in charge three and a half years, since which time he has been in grocery, bakery and confectionery business in Canon City. He' was a good soldier, and in private life is highly respected by the people.

HON. S. D. WEBSTER.

This gentleman was born in Nova Scotia in 1818; moved near Cleveland in 1836, lived there about ten years, when he moved to Indi- ana. His health being poor, from there he went sailing, which he followed for ten years, sailing on nearly every ocean and sea on the globe. Was on the southwest coast of Australia before white men had inhabited within a 1,000 miles, where now are large cities. Was in New Zea- land when it did not have 100 white inhabit- ants. His experience as harpooner, or boat steerer, while whaling over two years in North

Pacific Ocean, required the display of great coolness, as well as daring and courage. As so few understand the manner of taking the whale, we give it as we have heard him describe it. It was his duty to throw the harpoon into the whale, which would often dart almost with the velocity of light to the depths of the sea, taking with him one thousand to twelve hundred feet of rope, coiled in a large tub aft in the small boat. When the monster came up for air, the active sailors gathered up and coiled it, to be paid out again and again, until the strength of the whale becoming exhausted, they wonld gather up on him, when the boat header, who is also officer of the ship, exchanges places with the harpooner, and thrusts the diamond shaped instrument (on metallic rod three feet long, with handle five feet long), striking back of the shoulder blade to its vitals. If a good thrust, the sea will be crimson with blood abont him, and he will spout the dark clotted life fluid twelve to fifteen feet into the air. When dead, the whale turns upon its side, and the vessel comes alongside. The fonrfold pulley tackle, suspended from the mainmast head, are fastened with grappling hooks into a strip of the blubber about three feet wide. The outer skin being dark and soft, and the blubber, or light-colored fatty skin, twelve to eighteen inches thick, which overlays the beef-like flesh of the whale, and from which is peeled by a dozen seamen heaving on the windlass with great zest, while the officers cut the blubber in spiral courses around the body, which is steadily rolled over and over until stripped of its oil-bearing wealth. The blubber is then cut in small blocks, called horse-pieces, and then minced into thin slices, and tried out in kettles holding several barrels each. The black, or right whale, being most numerous, the sperm whale being different in its feeding habits, shape of head, etc. The black whalebone of the market comes from the upper jaw, which in a large whale is twenty feet long. The whalebone is in slabs, thick at the end, which fits in the jaw much like our own teeth. It is very wide in upper and outer portion-six to twelve inches -the thickest part being outside and about half an inch apart. The edge of the thin inner portion has hair abont as long and coarse as a horse's mane, which, when the whale feeds, lay back across the interstices, forming a seive, through which, as the water from its open month

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rushes outward, the small insects upon which it feeds, not larger than a flea, are caught, when these are wiped by the ponderous tongue, which weighs twelve hundred to two thousand pounds ; these layer bones being very short at end of nose, lengthening to ten to twelve feet at middle, and then shortening to the socket of jaw. It is cov- ered on the outside with an immense lip, which is dropped down horizontally when the whale feeds, and which permits free passage of the water between the slabs of whalebone. the lower jaw seeming to serve no purpose except to hold tongue, which bears oil also; and the great lip, which closes over the upper jaw, and completes the conformation of the head. Judge Webster came to Colorado by the Arkansas route the fall of 1860, residing in this county most of the time since. He is a steadfast Republican, and knew the political status of every voter in the county for years. Says he did not exactly approve of the way his polit- ical opponents swallowed the oath of allegiance to a nation they wished to see transformed to one resting on corner-stone of ownership in man, and with or without State's rights. He was elected to the Territorial Legislature, and served with much honor to himself during the session of 1864. Having a stock ranch in Web- ster Park, that and the Canon to Wet Mountain Valley, bears his name. He first settled in Wild-cat Park, after travel had ruined the stock range in Webster Park and Canon. He had a taste of mercantile life in Cañon one or two seasons, again returning to stock pursuits, finally selling his herd, after disposing of the Wild-cat Park ranch to William F. Bailey, Esq. He now owns a fine farm on the San Juan River, where he proposes to open a store. He has thus far in life fought clear from femi- nine influences, and thinks himself invincible to their charms.

H. CLAY WEBSTER.

Mr. Webster was born in Haddenfield, N. J., August 12, 1850. At the age of fifteen years, he engaged as a clerk in the drug store of Thomas R. Coombs, of Philadelphia, Penn. ; he was there one year and then, on account of sickness brought on by hard work, he had to leave. In 1871, he graduated at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. In 1872, he started the drug business in his native town. In July, 1875, his health failing again, he came to Colo-

rado, leaving his business with a clerk. In 1876, he sold his business East and located in Fremont County, this State, and was Surveyor for the Santa Fe Railroad for two years. In 1880, he was appointed Assessor for Fremont County, and was also elected Coroner, leading his ticket.

EUGENE WESTON.

This gentleman was born in Bloomfield, Me., September 24, 1835. He removed to Henry, Ill., in November, 1850 ; to St. Louis in June, 1858, and thence to Kansas in August. 1858. In May, 1859, he started with a company for Pike's Peak, but the company stampeded back and he was obliged to return, but he at once set out on a trading expedition to New Mexico ; returning in October, he taught school during the winter and again started for Pike's Peak in May, 1860, reaching Denver July 3, 1860. He went to California Gulch, and thence to Canon City, in November. He carried on a ranch during the summer of 1861, on St. Charles Creek. In 1862, he went to Pueblo ; was elected Constable and Sheriff, and at one time was the only executive officer in a county seventy-five by one hundred and fifty miles in extent. In the fall of 1864, he enlisted in the Third Colorado Cavalry, and took part in the battle of Sand Creek. He served as County Clerk, Clerk of the Probate Court, and Deputy Clerk of the United States District Court, and County Assessor from 1865 to 1867, inclusive ; and, from 1868 to 1870, was engaged in freighting, building and contracting. He returned to Canon City in 1871, where he has since resided. He is a Republican in politics ; a leading member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was foremost in the erection of of their church building. He is Secretary of the Pioneer Association ; is sufficient botanist to possess a great passion for flowers, and has lectured on the same on several occasions, in which he set forth in glowing terms the ad- vantages to accrue to our people in tlie cultiva- tion of fruits and flowers, and setting out shade trees. He still follows building, and has pur- chased grounds to set out a vineyard, and thus fully demonstrate his theories. . His father, now living with him, is quite aged, and is, even now, accepted as authority on many scholarly subjects. He is a Presbyterian ; a good and true and much respected gentleman. - The first school taught in Pueblo, and it is believed in

Charles locker

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the whole Lower Arkansas Valley, was by Miss Clara Weston, his sister ; unfortunately she re- ceived but about one-half the stipend agreed, on, though often undergoing great exposure from having to wade the Fontaine qui Bouille, then a large, flowing stream, twice a day-the foot bridge having been swept off and all the men away on Indian campaigns.

THOMAS ALLEN WILKINSON.

Mr. Wilkinson is one of those rare persons who believes he never gets too old to get an education, even if he did not have advantages in his boyhood days. He was born on a farm near Oswego, N. Y., October 16, 1841. At the age of sixteen he bought from his father his time till he was twenty-one, and started out in life for himself. In September, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company K, Thirty-Second Wisconsin Volunteers, and served till May, 1865. While in the army he said he found the need of a good education, and was bound to have it. In one month after leaving the army, he entered Milton College, where, after three years' hard study, he graduated with honors. While in college he was married to Anna C. Stewart, also a student in the same college. After leaving college, he followed the vocation of teacher in Kansas, till his health failed him, and he had to give it up. He was

one of the founders of Arkansas City, Kan. While here, he held the office of School Com- missioner two terms. In 1879, he was in New Mexico, in the employ of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad. In 1880, he came to Rock- dale, Fremont County, Colo., where he is run- ning a general store. He is also proprietor of the Mount Pleasant House, Pueblo. Mrs. Wilkinson is in charge of that, and it is one of the best conducted hotels in the city.

THOMAS S. WELLS.

Mr. Wells is a native of England, but an old- timer in Colorado. He was born December 16, 1838. He came to America when thirteen years of age with his parents and located in New York. In 1854, they removed to Law- rence, Kan. In 1860, he came to Colorado with an ox team and went direct to the gold diggings of California Gulch. He was Super- intendent of the first hydraulic fluming that was put in operation in Colorado. He was for a time Justice of the Peace, also Probate Judge. He was Sergeant-at-Arms of the Territorial Legislature one term. He remained a bachelor till 1880 ; he was then married to Celia Gage, of Jacksonville, Ill. He has now an elegant residence in Canon City, although he is largely interested in mining in the vicinity of Lead- ville.

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

BY RICHARD IRWIN.

THE first settlers in Wet Mountain Valley, as elsewhere in Colorado, found the Mountain Utes waging continual war with their prairie neighbors of the same race. They had been separated long enough to talk a different language, and differed in physical features; the Prairie Indians, the Sioux, Chey- ennes, Arapahoes and Kiowas, being taller and more gaudy than the squatty, broad-faced Utes, who were not so numerous nor so well- fixed (and were getting the worst of the pro- longed struggle, being frequently driven out of the North and South Parks and San Luis Valley by their prairie foes). When the all- conquering Anglo-Saxons settled along the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and, by a few Sand Creek "lessons on good behavior," so thinned out the "dog-eaters of the plains," that the dirty Utes might go out of the mount- ains on a buffalo hunting or horse-stealing expedition, with the chances in their favor of getting back again, an undertaking they never thought of attempting before, their only safety being to get far back in the mountains, or in such comparatively inaccessible valleys as the Wet Mountains or Middle Park. The great abundance of game, and pleasant climate, added to the comparative safety of Wet Mountain Valley, made it a great Ute resting and recruiting ground. Many a howling war-dance has disturbed the midnight air of this pleasant valley, and many domestic scenes of savage life have been enacted on the banks of Grape Creek, long years before the first civilized man gazed on its beauties. The chronicler of the dime-novel school might turn back the leaves of time, and thus describe life

in the valley a thousand years ago: " It was a calm afternoon in the early summer of the year 1081, that sounds of strife and exultant cries of joy, mingled with the stern commands of an exasperated female, might have been heard by the lone traveler who followed up the left bank of Grape Creek, a short distance above the head of its canon, where the cars now run daily on their iron track, and the smoke of the smelter poisons the air at the quiet little town of Dora. But whence those sounds that echo along the bluffs that inark the course of this pellucid stream, as it hurries on to lose itself in the distant sea? Gentle reader, it is the musical language of the noble Ute which strikes the ear-a language composed of stut- ters and grunts, overlapping each other in wild eloquence. It is a notice of the first strike, the first big 'find' in the Wet Mount- ain Valley. Young Yellow Dog, while playing with his brothers, Big Mouth and Hole in the Ground, had `struck it rich.' He was rapidly passing into his mouth, with both hands, what, at a first glance of the casual observer, might seem to be a long strip of rawhide, or once-white india-rubber; but which, on closer inspection, would prove to be the intestine of a deer, some two weeks old, and correspond- ingly rank in flavor, which Yellow Dog had discovered in the front yard of the wicky-np, and, with a shout of triumph, claimed, by right of discovery, as his 'exclusive owu.' Big Mouth and Hole in the Ground claimed an 'equal show,' as they were on the ground at the time of the discovery, and a fierce dis- pute immediately arose for possession, or a compromise, which brought the sad mother,

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 92

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