History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 99

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

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The Central Presbyterian Church of Silver Cliff was organized on the 15th of June, 1875, with ten members. During the sum- mer, a church property, worth $3,000, church, parsonage, etc., were erected. Rev. W. P. Teitsworth was Pastor until November 1, 1880, when he was succeeded by Rev. Josiah McLain. There is a membership of fifty-two persons, and an average attendance of eighty at the Sabbath school. The church building is not completed.

Rev. J. H. Scott, of Rosita, organized the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Silver Cliff on the 29th of June, 1879. The first Pastor was Rev. William G. B. Lewis, who was appointed on the 10th of July, 1879. From the 7th of June, 1880, to August 12, of the same year, Rev. S. D. Longhead, of Ros- ita, officiated as Pastor, when Rev. J. H. Merritt, formerly Presiding Elder, was ap- pointed Pastor, which position he still fills.

In 1880, a church was built and dedicated, on the 12th of September of that year; cost of building, etc., $2,500; number of members, fifty-two; of Sabbath school scholars, on roll, 212.

The Roman Catholic Church of Silver Cliff is a fine structure, neatly finished, beau- tifully ornamented with altar furniture and paintings, and the only plastered public edi- fice in the city. The congregation is large and wealthy. Father Finneran, the resident priest, is noted for his zeal and liberality, and is beloved by his parishioners. This church

has an excellent organ, proportioned to the church building; has also a well-drilled choir, and is in a flourishing condition.

There is a Presbyterian Church building at Ula, but for reasons to the writer unknown, ser- vices are seldom held there now. Dora, Black- burn's ranch and the upper end of the valley are still without houses of worship, but will not be so long, if we may judge by the in- crease of population and wealth in those places. There are not, as yet, either Uni- tarian Churches or Liberal Halls in Custer County, though there are many sympathizers capable of sustaining such institutions.

CRIMES, JUMPING MINES AND MURDERS.

While Custer County is noted for its fine schools, its numerous churches, the great pro- portion of families for a mining section, and its good society, there have been several atro- cious crimes committed within its borders since the county was settled. Passing over the lesser cases, the first cold-blooded murder of which official notice was taken, was that of Mr. Bruce, an old citizen of Fremont County, whose son, Russell Bruce, afterward settled and married in Wet Mountain Valley. The old man was shot dead, 'in 1863, by the Espanosias, who had started in to murder all the whites they could. They were two fanat- ical Mexican desperadoes, from Conejos, Colo., and kept a diary of their exploits, one-half of which was a mess of prayers to the saints and the Holy Virgin, in Spanish, and the rest an account of their victims. They seemed to think that if they made themselves "terrors in the land," they would get pardoned for their crimes, and be bribed by a good office under the Government, to array themselves on the side of the law, which is often the case in Old Mexico with noted robbers. These Espanosias killed twenty-three men, accord- ing to their diary, before they were killed themselves-one, near Canon City, by a party who had followed their trail through the mountains, around the eastern edge of the South Park, in which section they had killed several persons; the other was killed by Tom Tobin, a noted mountaineer and scout, living near Fort Garland, who took a few soldiers with him, and surprised them

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(there were two again, a nephew having joined the old one that escaped), in their camp, in the Veta Pass. It seems they passed through Wet Mountain Valley, going north from the Huer- fano, and killed the first white man they saw, Mr. Bruce, who was working at a saw-mill near the mouth of Hardscrabble Canon. He was found shot through the head.

Reginald Neave was killed by Theodore Pryce, an Englishman, who was a guest of his at the time (in December, 1872). It was unprovoked and cold-blooded murder. Pryce, having called Mr. Neave out-of-doors, in the dark, stabbed him through the heart; he died in a few minutes. ' The only pallia- tion, if there can be any, for such base ingrat- itude, was that Pryce had been drinking to excess for some days, and was not in his sober senses at the time of the murder. He did n t try to escape, but admitted that he had killed his best friend, and tried to get a pistol to shoot himself with. He was convicted of the murder, and sentenced to imprisonment for life, though his relatives in England sent over a "distinguished barrister" to defend him, and have made strenuous efforts for his release several times since his punishment began. He still remains "a prisoner for life" in the Canon City Penitentiary. He was severely punished, for refusing to work, last winter, and is now dragging out a weary existence, which will probably be hastened to an early end by suicide or insanity.

In 1873, "the winter of our discontent" was upon us in Rosita. Times were very dull, and the camp was very dead. No ore was being shipped out, and no sales of mines were being made. The Hoyt Mining Com- pany's boarding-house, the only hotel in town, and kept by John Hannenkratt, lingered along in solemn suspense, the proprietor being doubtful whether to shut down and lose all bills due, or to keep on and lose more. The only store in town (Frank Kirkham and Louis Herfort, proprietors), under the heavy pressure of the popular credit system at home, and the disadvantage of a light credit with the whole- sale dealer abroad, soon succumbed to the inev- itable and many who had fared sumptuously on canned goods and sugar-cured hams were compelled, by the exigencies of the situation

and the yearnings of their bowels to strike out with the rifle in hand and scour the hills for the festive rabbit, the melancholy grouse, or, perchance, the substantial black-tail deer. Thus passed the winter. In 1874, a bonanza was opened in the Humboldt and Pocahontas Mines, and the boom that was bound to come overtook us. Ores running high in the hun- dreds were shipped by the car-load. Lawyers were called in to help divide the various con- flicting claims among themselves and the original owners "according to the statutes in such cases made and provided." The creation of wealth in the mines, the payment of good wages for putting up buildings and extracting the ore, made a good market for the valley produce, and the valley folks in turn became mildly extravagant in the purchase of the nec- essaries of life, which helped out the mer- chants in the town, who, in their turn, built beyond the requirements of the time and place. Thus we had good times all around. Such a state of affairs always attracts the dan- gerous criminal classes, and they came to Rosita. There had been considerable wran- gling over the boundary line between the Hum- boldt and Pocahontas claims. A Gen. Adams, of New York, bonded an interest in the Poca- hontas, and enjoined (for a short time) work on the Humboldt. He afterward purchased this interest, and sold it to Theo W. Herr, of Denver, and then died. Both mines were worked without further trouble until the fall of 1878, when "Col." Boyd, of Baxter Springs, Kan., arrived at Rosita and went into the banking business with a Mr. Stewart, from Denver. They purchased some of the old claims in the Pocahontas Mine, and engaged "Maj." Graham, an ex-convict, who had been previously shot and captured near Rosita, where he had escaped from prison two years before, and imported several rowdies to jump the mine, which was done with the connivance of Mr. Topping, Herr's Superintendent, who kept on at work with those of the miners who cared to stay and work for the new claimants. It was thus held for a week, when Graham and his gang went a little too far. While down town drinking, one night, they fired off their pistols, and James Pringle, one of the old-timers of the camp, was shot in the foot

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while returning from his work at the Virginia Mine. Next morning, October 13, the few saloons in town were ordered closed, and the main roads leading from town were guarded. A party marching up to take the rowdies pris- ones met Graham coming down from the mine, and shot him dead. The rest of the gang fled from the mine, and were pursued by men on foot and others on horseback. A few shots from Sharp's rifles caused them to hoist a white handkerchief on a pole, when they sur- rendered, and were permitted to leave camp at once, which they gladly did, leaving Gra- ham to be buried by the people. The Herr party then took possession of the mine again, and thus ended the Pocahontas war. Col. Boyd was kept prisoner for a few hours, then allowed to go. His partner, Mr. Stewart, had sniffed the danger beforehand and escaped, but was shortly after arrested and sent to the New York State Prison for forgeries com- mitted years before. The men who worked for the new claimants got no pay. When the bank safe was opened, some worthless Kansas bonds and a few postage stamps were all the valuable assets it contained. Shortly after the first tidal wave of prosperity reached Silver Cliff, in 1879, Leslie McCoy, the black sheep of a respectable family in Georgetown, Colo., without provocation, shot a gambler named Green, in the eye, at a gaming table. one night, and was shot through the body and instantly killed by Green, who has since be- come a preacher of the Gospel, and is living a respectable life in Iowa.

Shortly after the Bassick Mine began pro- ducing largely, in October, 1877, an old citizen of Rosita, named W. A. Roche, noted for his in- dustry, honesty and sobriety, while at work at that mine assorting ore, was shot from behind over the shoulder and through the thigh, by a drunken fellow named William Fulbrite. There was no provocation nor any warning in this case. ' Mr. Roche was over sixty years of age, a little deaf, and had a family to sup- port by his labor. He was probably the best friend Fulbrite had at the mine, where he had been an ore-sorter, and was generally disliked. Fulbrite was bound over in the sum of $400 to appear at the next term of the District Court. While Mr. Roche had a doctor's bill to

pay, and was not able to work again for a long time, Fulbrite made his arrangements leis- urely, and left the country, and his bonds re- main unpaid to this day. Had he been sus- pected of stealing a calf, he could not have escaped so easily.

On the night of the 18th of May, 1879, E. A. Egglestone shot and killed William H. Connett, whom he had induced to come out to Colorado from Newark, N. J., to take a posi- tion as Cashier, on a good salary, of an imag- inary bank. Connett had been in the employ of George Opdyke & Co., bankers, of New York, for twenty years, and was induced to come through correspondence with Egglestone that grew out of a newspaper article Eggle- stone had written to some Eastern paper. He was a smooth and versatile writer, but utterly without principle or character. He had tried to get up an excitement about Silver Circle, on the head of the St. Charles Creek, about seventeen miles east of Rosita, in Pueblo County, and did make a living out of the swindle for about two years, when, getting starved out there, he inflicted himself on the people of Rosita, where he continued his old practices of writing for the papers, and with such adroitness that his letters were published in the Boston Post, Louisville Courier-Journal, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, New Orleans Times, New York Mining Record, etc., etc., and he fared sumptuously on the results of his vil- lainy, though several times exposed in Colo- rado papers, and published as a fraud and a confidence man. He was merciless in his swindling, and was known to draw sum after sum (small amounts) of money from a poor widow by the basest sort of misrepresentation in reference to fictitious mining claims, and which was shown up in the Rosita Index at the time. Most of his ill-gotten money went for whisky and at the gambling table. It seemed as if there was no getting rid of him. He corresponded with his victims under var- ious fictitious names, as H. H. Horton, M. D., C. D. Crestone, etc., but, as there were prob- ably no such persons in existence, there was no false personation nor forgery, and the amounts he got from each individual were not sufficient to warrant arrest for swindling, with the chances of the law against punish-

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY.

738

ment, and he " cheeked it through like a mar- tyr " He had borrowed some money from Mr. Connett, who was preparing to leave. It hardly seems possible he could have deliber- ately planned the murder of the man he had robbed, but the evidence at the inquest showed clearly that he had done so. His pistol had been fired several times and re-loaded. His victim left a family. The murderer was taken prisoner half an hour after the shooting. He was bound over as usual, and got bonds as usual for his appearance at the next term of the District Court, and did not appear, as usual, and as usual, the bonds were not paid, being "straw bail." As " Hugh Marshall," he kept a little store at the Cerrillos Mines, near Santa Fe, N. M., where he was arrested, in May, 1881, but, after being arrested, he managed to elude the vigilance of the officers, and is again "at liberty in a free land."

SUICIDES.

It is always a matter of surprise when any sane person attempts to hurry up the inevita- ble hour that awaits us all, and tries prema- turely to shuffle off this mortal coil, especially in a land so tempting to live in as Custer County, Colo. There are some places that furnish so few attractions, or are so disagree- able, that any person of liberal ideas and ex- tensive experience would hardly regret leaving under any but the most painful terms. But such is not the case with Custer County, and yet there have been several suicides committed here, though the question of sanity might be raised in each case.

Conrad Schmit shot himself dead at the house of Mr. Rathjen, in Rosita, in the sum- mer of 1876. He was worried over the loss of a ranch situate about two miles from town, and worth about $3.75, through his neglect in complying with the United States laws on that subject, and which was relocated by Mr. Rains. The next one had even less cause for leaving this sweet world of ours, unprepared and uncalled for. He was a young man - named Armstrong, infatuated with a young woman who would not reciprocate his infatua- tion, and, while thinking over the worthless- ness of this world without her love, etc., he blew his brains out one night on Tyndal

street, Rosita, a few yards from the business part of town. In Silver Cliff, in the spring of 1880, William Giles, while on a spree, or " tapering off," took a dose of poison to ease his mind, and passed on to that bourn whence no traveler returns, and where head- aches are unknown. While in a fit of tempo- rary insanity, Mrs. Susan B. Johnston, of Silver Cliff, committed suicide by poisoning, early in August, 1881.

ACCIDENTAL DEATHS-SHOOTING, ETC.

Pulaski Smith, while riding at a round-up in the valley, in July, 1874, was thrown from his pony and had his skull fractured so that he died next day. There have been several legs and arms broken by being thrown from horses in Custer County. It is a great wonder there are no more killed, considering the number of "bronchos," or wild horses, ridden at a high rate of speed, and the number of prairie-dog holes to be avoided.

On Sunday morning, the 7th of May, 1876, Jake Webber,, a quarrelsome and fighting character, tried to break into the saloon of Townsend & Son, connected with their brew- ery at Rosita, about 2 o'clock in the morning. Some rowdies had previously taken possession of the saloon and destroyed the fixtures, and evaded the law by leaving the county. On this occasion, O. P. Townsend, the proprietor, had closed up at an early hour on Saturday night, to avoid trouble. Webber and some com- panions were breaking in the window of the saloon, when a shot, fired from within by Mr. Townsend, injured him so that he died dur- ing the day. The Coroner's inquest and sub- sequent trial acquitted Mr. Townsend of any crime in protecting his property.

A few months after Silver Cliff became a lively town, November 19, 1878, M. D. Skelton was accidentally shot by Thomas Kane, in the Silver Palace saloon, where McCoy had been shot and killed a short time before. Kane was shooting at a colored man named " Wash," who had been making a fuss and endangering the lives of those around him, and accidentally hit "Charley" Skelton in the abdomen, who died shortly after.

John Greenstreet died in March, 1878, from the effects of a broken leg and internal in-

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juries sustained by a heavy quartz bucket fall- ing down into the shaft of the Bassick Mine, where he was working at the time. The rope broke as the loaded bucket neared the surface, and, without any warning, dropped to the bot- tom of the perpendicular shaft and struck Mr. Greenstreet down.

On Christmas Eve, 1879, two prisoners were burned alive in the calaboose at Silver Cliff before the door could be broken open or the key procured. It is supposed one of them, who was arrested for drunkenness, set fire to the log building, and their cries were said to have been piteous as they burned to death in the edge of the town. But little was known of either of them. They seemed to have no friends, or friendly acquaintances there at that time.

On the 17th of July, 1880, Wilmot B. Knabb, a young man from Pennsylvania, was

killed by falling down the shaft of the Pay- well Mine, near Rosita. The shaft was 154 feet deep, and so poorly ventilated that a can- dle would hardly burn at the bottom, It seems a shot had just been fired, and Mr. Knabb went down to see the result and send up the rock it had broken. On his arrival at the bottom of the shaft, he found he was un- able to stand the foul air, and signaled to be hauled to the surface again. When up almost to the top of the shaft, he fell from the bucket, on the side of which he was standing, before he could be caught, and was imme- diately killed by the fall.

It seems, in all cases of this kind, that, in- haling the pure air at the surface, after breathing foul air, acts instantly as an anæs- thetic, and the asphyxiated person becomes helpless and unconscious.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

HON. GEORGE S. ADAMS.

Hon. George S. Adams, attorney at law and member of the bar of Rosita, is a native of Kentucky. He was born at Lexington June 12, 1832. He removed with his parents, at an early age, to Illinois, and located on a farm, preparing himself for college at Mount Sterling Academy, after which he attended, two years, the Waynesburg College, of Penn- sylvania. Subsequently, entering the law of- fice of Black & Irvin, at Mount Sterling, he was admitted to the bar in February, 1858. He then removed to Decatur County, Iowa, where he was married to Miss Emma D. Mar- tin, and commenced the practice of law. He practiced successfully in Decatur, Lucas and Mahaska Counties, until 1869, when, on ac- count of failing health, he came to Colorado. He spent the first year practicing in Denver, Black Hawk and Central, locating at Pueblo in the fall of 1870, where he still continued the practice of law. Judge Adams came to Rosita in 1875, being the first attorney in the county. He assisted in organizing the town, drew up the by-laws, etc., and was elected the first Town Attorney. The Judge is one of the representative men of his county and town, having been active in building up all of their material interests. He was appointed the first County Judge of Custer County, by Gov. John L. Routt, in the spring of 1877, holding the office until the following January, since which time he has successfully continued the practice of law, in the meantime having ac- quired interests in several valuable mining properties. Judge Adams enlisted twice dur- ing the late war, but was rejected both times on account of ill health. He has two children -a son and daughter, the former now attend- ing college at Waynesburg, Penn.

WILLIAM I. ADAMS.

William I. Adams is a descendant of a noble family of Switzerland, who came to this

country at an early day and settled in Mary- land and Pennsylvania. The subject of this sketch was born in Huntingdon, Penn., and, at the age of eighteen, with his parents, moved to Loretta, on the Alleghany Mount- ains, where he spent several years as a student at St. Francis' College. The family moved to Davenport, Iowa, about the year 1862, W. I. remaining there seven years in the practice of dentistry, when he returned East, to Altoona, Penn., where he engaged in the manufacture of window curtains and chairs, being among thé unfortunates in being burned out twice in two years, sustaining losses to the amount of $10,000, which crippled him to such an extent that he took a partner, in Miss Susie Holler, to be a joy with his sorrows. Remaining three years in Altoona, he, with his wife, re- turned to Western Iowa, moving to Burling- ton, from where he came to Silver Cliff to en- gage in the business of mining, at which he has continued to the present day, being among the organizers of different mining companies, being interested, through the Hankey Com- pany, in the Duryea smelter. He is also the prime mover in the Silver Cliff Gas Company, in the Lake of the Clouds Water Works, and the Silver Cliff & Rosita Railroad, being one of the kind of men to make any town in which he may be, prosperous, being a live man, full of energy, which no drawbacks nor bad luck, as some men term it, can deter from success. Being among the early settlers of this won- derful camp, he has seen it prosper, with the many discouragements all new camps must have, but with full faith in it being what it has succeeded in being, sustaining his opinion by securing considerable real estate and min- ing property.

GEORGE AITKIN.

George Aitkin, another industrious and sober prospector, who has pounded quartz and shot deer from the Big Horn Mountains to the Mountains of Durango, in Old Mexico, lives

C. a. Junho

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(when he is at home) in Rosita. He was born in Vermont, of Scotch parents, in 1844. He came to Colorado in 1867, and prospected around Georgetown for three years. One year was spent in Southwestern Colorado, with Richard Irwin and John Baker; one year in Utah, two at Rosita, then two in Old Mexico, mining in the States of Durango and Sinaloe, then back to Rosita, and off to the Black Hills for two years, then to Arizona another year, and back to Rosita. He has now been several months at Tombstone, Arizona, but remembrances of the mines of Old Mexico in Chihuahua have called him farther south, hope for the "big strike," which is sure to come, keeping him beyond civilization's edge three-fourths of the time, while the attractions of home bring him often to Rosita.

CHARLES H. ALDRICH.

C. H. Aldrich, a native of New York, was born at Batavia in February, 1834, where he received a thorough academic education and learued the profession of civil engineer. He was subsequently engaged for two years in Detroit, Mich., by the Michigan Central Rail- road Company's line of steamers. In 1855, he started for the Northwest being connected with the Northwestern Railroad survey for three years, and spent the summer and winter of 1859 in the Lake Superior country. In March, 1860, he came to Colorado and located at Black Hawk, where he engaged in milling and mining for ten years. In 1865, he was married to Miss A. J. Barber, of Jackson County, Mich .; has three children-one son and two daughters, In March, 1870, he moved to Custer County and located in the Wet Mountain Valley, on his present farm, which is fine meadow land, and consists of 320 acres, two miles from the present city of Silver Cliff. Mr. Aldrich is one of the sub- stantial pioneers of the Wet Mountain Valley and of Colorado- public-spirited, and an en ergetic business man; he stands high in the estimation of the community in which he lives.

HARVEY E. AUSTIN.

Mr. Austin was born at Rouse's Point, N. Y., September 3, 1832. Seven years of his boyhood were spent as waiter on a boat on Lake Champlain. He then went to Rochester,

N. Y., and engaged in the lumber business for two years. He then went into the New York .Central Railway shops and learned the paint- ing business, being engaged in fine car paint- ing. He then removed to Rockford, Ill., and engaged in the painting business for five years. He subsequently engaged in the gro- cery business, in which he continued for four years. He was married to Miss Maria A. Hagevon in 1860. In 1865, he came to Den- ver and engaged in the grocery business on Blake street, and subsequently in the sutler business at Pond's Creek for a short time. He was then engaged in the cattle business on Running Creek for eight years. He sold out in July, 1873, and moved to Denver, where he remained one year, and then came to Rosita and engaged in the mercantile business. He was President of the Town Board of Rosita two years, and was a member of the first Board of County Commissioners. He was one of the first to move to Silver Cliff, where he has been engaged in the mercantile business, and is one of Silver Cliff's most honored citizens.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 99

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