History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 93

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

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690

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

Beautiful Snow, to the door of the wicky-up, where she had been engaged in scraping the hair off a deer-hide with a piece of bone. Taking in the situation, while Yellow Dog was taking in the 'find,' she at once ordered him to divide the choice morsel with his younger brothers; but he would not, regardless alike of filial duty, fraternal affection or maternal injunctions; he flew to the bluff, while the tid- bit rapidly disappeared between his eager lips. Beautiful Snow, giving the other younger sons a piece of raw liver, returned to her work with mingled rage and sorrow depicted upon her wrinkled brow. Who shall say what her thoughts were at that time? As the poet proudly remarks,

'What tears adown that dusky cheek have rolled What secrets could that leathern breast unfold.'

As Victor Hugo has remarked on a similar occasion: 'In the presence of such grief we are dumb,' and we pass on."

There were a few settlers in Hardscrabble Park before Wet Mountain Valley was settled, and Si Smith, Sheriff of Pueblo County, his brother, Stephen Smith (afterward discoverer of the Stephen Mine, at Rosita), Hugh Mel- rose and William H. Holmes, of Pueblo, came into the valley from the Huerfano, in 1863, to look for mines and "spy out the land." They were in search of the Doyle Mine, which Jim Doyle, of the Lower Huerfano, reported he had found a few days' ride from his ranch, that it cropped out four feet wide, on a little ridge running down to a creek, and, that some of the ore he had knocked off and taken to Santa Fé, was tested and proved to be over one-half pure silver. The story was believed, as Doyle was considered an honest and relia- ble old mountaineer, and, having died before he could return, this Smith party undertook to find the mine from the slight description he had given. They examined the head of Grape Creek Cañon and the heads of Hardscrabble Creek, in June, 1863, and located several mines in Smith's Mining District, on the Hardscrabble Creek, about ten miles east of Rosita, and made a sort of a wagon road up to that point. The ore they found contained both gold and silver, and was quartz, carrying oxide of iron and a copper stain, the veins

being true fissures in the granite formation, and well-defined; but the ore was low grade. They had other business to attend to, and Smith's District (ten miles square), with their locators, made in July, 1863, were duly re- corded at Canon City, the county-seat of Fre- mont County, and have been neglected ever since.

The first actual settlers in Wet Mountain Valley were Elisha P. Horn, John Taylor and William Vorhis, who came in, located ranches and built cabins in 1869. Mr. Horn settled on the west side of the valley, at the foot of Horn's Peak, where he still lives, and where a jolly party of his friends lately cele- brated his seventieth birthday, and the old man amused them by telling how the ante- lope chased him into his cabin in the early days, and how the trout in Grape Creek would collect by the hundred as he approached the stream, and would snatch the bait before it touched the water and try to pull him in.

John Taylor settled on Taylor Creek, one of the main tributaries of Grape Creek, on which Ula has since been built.

William Vorhis settled above, where Dora has lately been built, on the beautiful bottoms of Grape Creek, where he still flourishes with his children and their children, settled around him.

In 1806, Lieut. Zebulon Pike (after whom Pike's Peak is named) is supposed to have passed through Wet Mountain Valley, late in the fall, and with great difficulty, on account of deep snows, got out through Mosca Pass into the Lower San Luis Valley, and to Taos, where his party was captured, in a friendly way, by the Spanish authorities, taken to Santa Fé, and sent to Chihuahua, where they were allowed to go in peace to the United States, on explaining why they invaded the sacred soil of New Spain.

The Mexicans who settled around Taos, Red River and La Costilla, made a campaign against the Utes, who had been committing depredations, in 1848 and 1849, under Col. St. Vrain, Kit Carson and other American mount- ain men. They followed the Utes across Mosca Pass and through Wet Mountain Valley and up the Arkansas River, overtaking and giving them a severe lesson, near the Twin Lakes,

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

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which made them peaceable for a few years. During this campaign, it is supposed the lit- tle fort, now in ruins, at the head of Grape Creek Cañon, near Dora, was built, as a base of supplies, and, it is said, the few Americans who held it against a large war party of Utes, did some " wonderful good holding," and the Utes retired after several vain attempts to carry it by " a rush."

The Mexicans who settled around the Span- ish Peaks. and on the Huerfano River, thirty years ago, must have known this valley well, as it was easy of access from the Upper Huer- fano, but finding it too high and cold for the culture of corn, and too wet for sheep, they made no settlement, though they came here often to trade with the Indians, with whom it was a favorite camping-ground. Messrs. Horn, Taylor and Vorhis were soon followed into the valley, in 1870, by a crowd of "good fellows," who made a road around from Canon City, through Eight Mile Park across the Pass, Arkansas River and up Webster Canon, to Texas Creek and the lower end of Wet Mountain Valley. A few wagons also passed out through Oak Creek Canon, which was a rough trip then, considerable skill being re- quired to keep an empty wagon from upset- ting in several places. Among the new arriv- als were the Bruce brothers, Russell and Thad from Hardscrabble; Trapper Smith (who still lives in the ranch he then took up); Daniel Baker and family and his brother-in-law, Azor Palmer, and family, from Cherry Creek, Colo .; Edward P. and W. H. H. Smith (cous- ins), of Colorado Springs; Remine brothers (Alonzo and William), and "Pap" Grimes, of Gilpin County, Colo .; George Jarvis and fam- ily; William Potter and John Biddle, of Clear Creek County, Colo .; John Wilson, Frank Case, Charles Haines and Fred Baker, of Den- ver; Hon. Charles Sieber, Jake Venable and James Lowrie, from Montana, etc. The French colony-Messrs. Nels and Benjamin Jarvis, Peter Garnier, H. Y. Young, John Albert and J. Hennequin-also moved in with their families, and settled near where they yet live in the valley. The German Colony, the Mormon Colony and several cattle men moved into the valley in 1870, among them William Beckwith, of Philadelphia, who brought in

about 1,500 head of wild Texas cattle, and settled at the lower end of the valley, and Brannon & Co., who located with some 400 head of cattle in the eastern side of the val- ley. The valley filled up rapidly. The first winter of its settlement proved the old mountaineer stories of deep snows, were exag- gerations, and that this was a highly favored land.

Among others, who came in to look at the valley, in the spring of 1870, was John Lap- ham, of Pueblo. Seeing what a great loss he was sustaining by not having a herd of cattle to fatten on the luxuriant and nutritious grasses of the valley, that were yearly going to waste, he went out to Pueblo again, where he soon arranged with Hon. George M. Chil- cott for a herd "on the shares," which he brought in in the fall of that year.

In 1871, W. J. Schoolfield, of Mill City, Clear Creek Co., Colo., drove in a herd of cat- tle, bought out "Pap" Grimes and the Remine Bros., and moved his family into the valley, where he has, at the present time, in addition to his herd of cattle, one of the finest residences in the valley, and some 300 acres of good hay lands. The Bothwell brothers settled near Ula, and Charles Aldrich, of Black Hawk, Colo., also moved in with his family and located on the Meadow ranch, where he now resides, within two miles of the metropo- lis.

In 1872, William T. Frink drove in a herd of some 400 head of cattle, from Pueblo, and located a few miles east of where Rosita now is, and afterward bought out Haines & Baker, and located where he lives at the present time, on one of the largest ranches in the upper end of the valley, where he can look after the 3,000 head of cattle belonging to the firm of W. T. Frink & Co., which firm consists of himself and J. C. Cowles, Esq., who resides at their ranch, and has probably the best library in Custer County.

James Chatham, an old-timer in Colorado, drove in a herd of cattle and located on the eastern edge of the valley, in 1872, also. The Hardscrabble Cañon road was fixed up and made passable, in the winter of 1872-73, by subscriptions, from Pueblo and Rosita, V. B. Hoyt having charge of the work, and Frank

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

Roff (afterward Mayor of Silver Cliff) doing a good deal of the work by contract. Jake Riser, Thomas Virden, Messrs. Lowther, Perry, Gowdy and many others, came into the valley aud located, in 1871 and 1872; so that most of the available land in the valley was taken up, when the mines were first worked at Rosita, in the spring of 1873. But we must not forget the colonies.

In December, 1869, Carl Wulsten, Theodore Hanlein and Rudolf Jeske, a committee ap- pointed by a German Colony, organized in Chi- cago, to select lands for their location and set- tlement in Colorado, after looking the land over, from north to south, and hill and plain, wisely concluded to locate their colony in the beautiful Wet Mountain Valley, but not so wisely selecting the higher and colder southern end of it, as the sight of their future greatness. A contract was let to E. P. Horn to lay down foundations to hold the land, and the committee returned to Chicago and reported favorably. The next spring, quite early, the colony, con- sisting of ninety-seven members, sixty-five families, and, in all, 367 persons, started to make a new home in a new land. Arriving by rail at Wallace Station, on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, they were furnished a Gov- ernment transportation, a United States mule train, from that point, by the Arkansas River, Pueblo, the Huerfano and Muddy, to their selected site at the southern end of the valley, where they arrived on the 21st of March, 1870. The town of Colfax was established at once, and, from the first start, there was dis- sension in the colony. Carl Wulsten had been elected President, and had been appointed Brigadier General of the State Militia, soon after he arrived in the State. It was rumored that the party in power at Washington, in- tended this colony as an experiment, to reclaim Southern Colorado from her Democratic folly, and which, if successful in this case, would be followed by several others, to be similarly assisted by the United States Government, and to be located in the San Luis Valley and other suitable points, so that when Colorado became a State (as was then soon expected), there would be a surething of two Republican United States Senators, and one Republican

Member of Congress to be sent from the new State, to aid in reconstructing "the States lately in rebellion."

Whatever the intention was, there were no more colonies sent out under the same aus- pices. The lack of religious, or social, fanat- ical principle, and the absence of military dis- cipline, left the colony to fall to pieces from the inherent weakness, inseparable from all such combinations, where the profits of the united labors of all, are equally divided be- tween the industrious and the lazy, the awk- ward and the skillful. Where the opinions of all were to be equally consulted in all busi- ness matters, there were many left dissatisfied, and it requires more philosophy than most human beings possess, to submit quietly, and not only acquiesce, but assist in carrying out the views they consider wrong and foolish. It is a difficult matter to bring the intelligent American voter to join in with the majority, in enforcing political theories that only in- directly concern him, but which he considers erroneous; how much more difficult is it to keep many people contentedly at work, from daylight till dark, when times were hard and the united profits small, and almost every- thing done was considered a mistake and a certain failure. When Carl Wulsten resigned the onerous position, his successor, James T. Judd, was soon found out to be worse still, and the colony rapidly dissolved.

In this particular case, the death of the col- ony was assisted by a Government official, who confiscated the shingles and lumber the colonists had been making without paying the Government tax of "stumpage" for all timbers cut on the public land. The colony was beginning to get a little money together, be- fore dividing up and separating, when this blow put a sudden end to their hopes, and thus ended the career of the only political colony ever settled in Colorado.

The first of the series became the last, and soon they were all making good headway, each family for itself, in the vicinity of their complete failure as a colony.

The Smith brothers (James, Oscar and Hilliard) brought the Mormon Colony (con- sisting of the Kettles, Lees, Eldridges, Mun- kins, etc.), about eight families, from Utah to

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

the valley, in 1870. They had become dis- gusted with church treachery, tyranny aud tithings, and sought a free land, where the civil law was supreme, and the United States authority recognized; they were also in search of a new and prosperous country, and they found it all in Wet Mountain Valley, settling on Taylor Creek, above Ula, where most of them have "grown up with the country," and still remain well fixed and contented. They came together, but had no "Order of Enoch," nor any similar "community of labor" nonsense about them. Each family was independent of the others, and dependent on its own efforts for success or failure. But all were friendly, and many pleasant social parties were enjoyed in the early days by the young folks of the valley, at the "apostate" Mormon settlement. In 1871, the rich and educated Englishmen began to flock into the valley. Although they were almost helpless, when left to take care of them- selves, being ignorant of nearly all the details of every-day life in a new country; they lav- ished their money and furnished amusement for the older settlers; so they were welcomed -with their hat-boxes, their knee-breeches, their worthless, but fanciful and light double- barreled rifles, with explosive bullets "for the larger game, don't you know," their trained but useless dogs, their national English big- otry and conceit, their awkwardness and gul- libility; but what made them most welcome, was their superabundance of cash and their foolish investments. British gold (changed into American greenbacks) helped many a poor ranchman out in the early days, who felt the country was "getting too crowded," and who sold his claim, or his stock, for twice what it was worth to these green Englishmen.

Judge Hoyt, of Rosita, tells a good story of how he met one of those "nobility English- men" stranded, alone, and without his valet, and at the mercy of a playful mule-team, in Hardscrabble Canon, one mild spring day, in May, 1873. It seems that one of the traces on the near mule's harness had got loose, while pulling the empty spring wagon through an ordinary mud-hole, and the mule (having taken the measure of his distinguished driver some time previous) concluded he and his mate wanted a rest and a feed of grass, so he would

kick, or " lay back his ears as though the beg- ger meant harm," each time the Englishman made a movement toward hitching up that trace. He had been thus trying to coax the mule to be " easy boy, easy now," and, at in- tervals, mourning over his melancholy fate, for over an hour. When Hoyt and his party, of two others, came along, talked a little " emphatic American" to the mule, straight- ened out the team, and got the Englishman in safe shape to continue on his trip toward Pueblo, when he thus unburdened himself, "Aw, thawnks, sir, thawnks; ye see I couldn't do anything with the beastly cattle; aw, sir, I nevaw, nevaw, shall venchaw out again, sir, without my man, sir. You have no ideeaw how I suffawed in this wretched situation, sir. That vile creachaw would not allow me to re- arrange its harness, sir; and really, aw, sir, I am not quite shaw I could have done so, sir, had I been permitted to make the attempt. Just fawncy my feelings, my dear sir; I asshaw you, I cawnt, positively cawnt, express my gratitude to your party for rescuing me from my perilous position; but perhaps yaw party will favaw me by pawtaking of some choice spirits impawted from the West Indies by a friend of mine in London, sir, which I happen to have with me on this memorable occasion. Aw, beg pawdon; allow me, aw." Hoyt and his companions having sampled the " spirits," returned the almost empty bottle to the Englishman, who carefully replaced it in the lower left-hand outside pocket of his ulster, and gratefully remarked, "Thawnks, aw thawnks; you Americans are really a won- derful people, sir, I asshaw you; and what beastly roads you drive ovaw; wonderful, wonderful sir, I asshaw you; aw, good-bye, sir," and pleasantly they parted. Thus, amidst the "wilds of the far West," on a " beastly road," in a narrow, rocky defile of Custer County, in the year 1873, was riveted another bond of sympathy between the two greatest nations of modern times. As Punch would say, it was "too utterly utter."

This incident reminds us of a story told of an American marine, on duty on an American man-of-war, at Naples, several years ago, when courtesies were being exchanged between the two nations, in the person of their respective

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

Admirals. It seems one of the inferior officers of the Italian Admiral's suite, in stepping awkwardly around on deck, fell down the main hatch, into the hold. The American tar watched him fall in, but made no fuss over the matter, until one of the ship's officers came around in that vicinity, when he touched his cap and reported: "One of them there kings fell down the main hatch awhile ago." The unfortunate official was soon brought on deck, when he was found to be seriously in- jured and unconscious.

Nearly all those Englishmen who remained took kindly to their changed surroundings, and have done remarkably well in anything they undertook in the business way in this section. Among those were Reginald Neave, a gener- ous, whole-souled man, who was liked by all who knew him. He and Dr. J. H. Bell pur- chased several ranches near the middle of the valley, built houses, fenced their lands in and established a cheese factory, in 1871, which they carried on successfully for over a year, making an excellent quality of cheese, which sold well in the market. This cheese factory ranch, owing to the kind and social disposi- tion of its resident proprietor, Mr. Neave, be- came the headquarters of the English visitors to the valley, and everybody was welcomed by the genial host. After the cruel murder of Mr. Neave (described elsewhere) the manufact- ure of cheese was abandoned, the cows and cattle belonging to the company were sold off, and their ranches devoted to hay culture, which has been a very successful and profita- ble business since. Dr. Bell being a promi- nent member of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Directory, has not paid much per- sonal attention to his ranch in the valley, but it has been very well managed by his agents, the Caldwell Bros., and the cheese factory to- day is one of the most extensive and profitable properties in Wet Mountain Valley. The present terminus of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in the valley (the town of West Cliff), is built on the eastern edge of this valuable property.

The Hunter Bros. (Frank and Leonard) are among the lucky Englishmen who located in Wet Mountain Valley. They drove in a herd of cattle, in 1872, and have been very success-

ful since that time. They were owners of the Johnny Bull Mine, which, consolidated with the Domingo Mine, became the celebrated Bull-Domingo. Frank Hunter was the Dem- ocratic candidate for Representative from Custer County, at the last election. H. R. Bowling, a fine musician, was one of those En- glishmen who settled in the valley; also H. B. Harrison. Mr. Legard, one of the best chemists in Colorado, and his half brother, T. R. Beaumont, also an excellent chemist and assayer, and one of the most thorough and successful hunters in this section, were among the few Englishmen who located early in the valley, and have remained. Mr. Om- many manages their ranch, near Ula; Mr. Legard is looking after their sheep in Texas, while Mr. Beaumont is engaged in mining and assaying at Silver Cliff and Rosita.

When the valley was first settled, there was, for a short time, a small home market fur- nished, by the necessities of the new arrivals, but, as the agricultural products of Wet Mountain Valley are limited to a small range, from potatoes to hay, it was not as beneficial as is nearly always the case in new agricult- ural regions, where the oldest settlers live off the new ones for the first few years, until they can raise for themselves. But in 1872, they had passed in Wet Mountain Valley. All the available land was settled on; the mines had not yielded anything, and hay, beef and potatoes were very cheap, hay selling for $5 per ton in the stack; beef, at 5 cents per pound, dressed; and potatoes, at 1} cents per pound. But, as usual, when there seems to be "no show," the unexpected occurred; the mines were opened, and men flocked in who bought everything they ate, or used, and lived on the cash they brought with them, until the mines could be made to pay, or, until they had to give it up as a failure, and leave for some other field of promise. In this case, they did not have to leave, though they had to wait and pull along, in many cases, on scanty fare. In 1874, the Rosita Mines and the town were booming; in 1877, when it be- came dull again, the Bassick strike gave it a fresh hoist, and, in 1878, the Silver Cliff Mines created a rush that soon bore fruit, by creat- ing the third city in the State, opening mines.

GeoH Russell MD.

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

extensively, erecting mills, and a reign of " hurrah" generally, which, though subsiding somewhat, and getting down to practical bus- iness, has left a state of active energy, well directed and more profitable than the "hur- rah " stage of affairs, all of which has helped the valley food-producers, who, in their turn, have become somewhat extravagant, and helped from the opposite side to keep up the good times. The altitude, the climate and the sur- roundings of Wet Mountain Valley were calcu- lated (according to an eminent scientist, who visited the valley in the fall of 1870) to pro- duce " the highest types of human energy and intellect, and also the finest beef and butter in the known world." The county has had a steady and rapid growth in wealth, which per- mits leisure, favors refinement and secures comfort. The mines have helped the valley out, by furnishing a home market, and the valley has helped out the mines by furnishing a cheap home supply to the extent of its ability.

The last important movement for the public good was the completion of the Silver Cliff Branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, to Silver Cliff, during the last week in May, 1881, and the starting of the new town of Westcliff, at its terminus, a mile and a half west from the town of Silver Cliff. A large brick hotel and several important business houses are " proposed to be built at this point, and, if the road should not soon be extended to Rosita, we may expect another important city to be built up in Custer County. The completion of the railway to Westcliff was followed by a celebration, in which many dis- tinguished visitors from Denver, Leadville, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Canon City and other portions of the State, participated. The festivities lasted two days, and included a visit to the most important mines and reduc- tion works, a dinner, with speeches, on Game Ridge, at Rosita, and a grand ball at Robert's Hall, in Silver Cliff, on the eve of the depart- ure of " our distinguished guests."

TOPOGRAPHY.

Custer County was " created " by act of the first session of the State Legislature, in April, 1877, out of the southern end of Fremont

County. It is about thirty miles across from the plains on the east (with an altitude of 5,500 feet) to the summit of the Sangre de Christo, or Blood of Christ, Mountains (with an altitude of 13,000 feet) on its western bor- der; and is about twenty-eight miles across Huerfano County on the south to the fourth correction line (which is the boundary between Fremont and Custer) on the north. This county contains the Wet Mountain Valley, noted for its hay lands, and the rich silver mines in the mountains surrounding it; this valley is a plateau, averaging 7,500 feet in altitude above the sea level, extends the whole length of Custer County from north to south and is about ten miles wide, reaching from the summit of the Sierra Mojada to the foot of the Sangre de Christo Range. It contains Silver Cliff, the third town in population in the State; Rosita, the county seat; Querida about two miles north from Rosita; Ula, the oldest town in the county; Dora and Westcliff, which is the present terminus of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, Silver Cliff Extension. It also contains the principal mines and settle- ments of the county with the exception of Hard- scrabble Park (at the mouth of Hardscrabble Canon on the eastern edge of the county), where a favored community of farmers and stock- men have located, the mines furnishing them a good market for their produce. And yet nearly one-half of Custer County is wild mountain land. Nearly all of the Sangre de Christo Range on the west of Wet Mountain Valley, and the Sierra Mojada Range extend- ing eastward from the valley twenty miles to Hardscrabble Park, is, with the exception of a few isolated ranches and prospectors' mining camps, an unsettled wilderness. Still the county has a population of 7,967, and Silver Cliff had 5,087 population when the last cen- sus was taken (in June, 1880), only Denver and Leadville exceeding it in number of inhabitants. The greater part of both mount- ain ranges, and of Wet Mountain Valley also, is a granite formation, though limestone and sandstone occur in great masses near the summit of the Sangre de Christo Range; and a porphyry dyke (some three miles wide and fifteen long), extends diagonally across Wet Mountain Valley from its northwest to its

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 93

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