USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 15
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
171
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Wyoming, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Arizona, California, Idaho and New Mexico.
The Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Kiowas of whom the early immi- grants had most intimate knowledge through frequent encounters, were strong, warlike and cruel. There was a report that the Arapahoes were descended from the Blackfeet; that a hunting party accompanied by their families came down from the north to the Platte about seventy-five years ago, and being cut off by a severe snowstorm, wintered here. The season in this latitude being mild and pleasant, the country abound- ing in game, and generally a better region to live in than the one they had left, they decided to remain. How much truth there may be in the story, if any, we are unable to say. We found them here and know that they roamed the plains in large numbers from the country of the Paw- nees to the bases of the mountains and down into the valley of the Arkan- sas River. Schoolcraft gives color to the report by stating that they were of Blackfeet stock.
The Cheyennes were pushed westward from Dakota by the more pow- erful Sioux, and located first in the Black Hills where they divided and scattered, the larger portion moving westward and uniting with the Ara- pahoes, a union which continued unbroken to the last. Intensely war- like, of robust physique, scarcely less skillful than the Sioux, the two tribes were in almost constant conflict with their enemies of other nations, but more especially with the Utes, whom they hated with unquenchable malevolence, and by whom the feeling was fully reciprocated.
Many of our readers of the olden time remember the sanguinary engagement between General Harney and a war party of Sioux on the plains in 1855, in which a great many braves, squaws and children were slain; also the later battles in the Powder River region, in 1866-8, wherein Colonel Fetterman and his entire command were massacred ; the careers of the celebrated chief Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, who figured prominently in later days. Schoolcraft tells us that Red Cloud "was born at the Forks of the Platte in 1820; was made a chief for bravery in battle, and rose to be head chief in 1850. He is said to have been in
172
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
eighty-seven engagements, and frequently wounded." Red Cloud stood six feet six in his moccasins, possessed wonderful sagacity, marvelous eloquence in council, and wielded until he became too old for the field, absolute power over his tribe.
The Comanches made their home in Texas, but frequently instituted wild raids upon the plains, up to the mountains, and over into New Mexico. Brave, expert horsemen, shrewd and skillful in battle, they were perhaps the most formidable of all the tribes when in action.
The Utes, members of the Snake family, have held the parks and valleys to be their exclusive property from time immemorial, and con- tended for their rights successfully against all comers. Though attacked periodically and in force by other nations, they were never dislodged, and never yielded an inch of their domain until compelled to part with it under recent treaties. They confederated with the bloodthirsty Apaches in forays against the Mexicans from the earliest settlement of the neighboring territory, and were no less brave and cruel than their exemplars of the Arizona Mountains.
The Kiowas, a branch of the Shoshones, ranged along the Platte and Arkansas Rivers down to the Canadian, and not infrequently to the Rio Grande. They took a prominent part by themselves and in con- junction with the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, in the wars which began in 1864, and continued with brief intermissions down to the completion of the Kansas Pacific Railway in 1870, which ran across their trails. What became of these various bands of nomads, will appear in the course of our history.
173
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PANIC OF 1857-EMIGRATION TO THE WEST-DISCOVERIES OF GOLD IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS FROM 1595 TO 1860-GREEN RUSSELL AND THE CHEROKEES-PROSPECT- ING THE TRIBUTARIES OF THE PLATTE-THE FOUNDING OF MONTANA, COLORADO CITY, AURARIA, BOULDER AND DENVER-STATE OF SOCIETY-FIRST MOVEMENT FOR POLITICAL ORGANIZATION-FOUNDING OF THE "ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS."
We are now advanced in the orderly arrangement of events to the second era, in which irregular trails were developed into broad and reg- ular highways, the desert converted into blooming fields, the mountain sides and gulches, known hitherto only to the Indian and the trapper, forced to yield up their hidden treasure, and the wholesale reclamation of a vast wilderness was entered upon.
The panic of 1857 swept over the country like a tornado, uprooting, leveling and scattering the systems built upon State banks, reckless credits and mistaken theories of government, as applied to the law of trade. Our manufacturing industries just springing into vigorous life, fell in the common ruin. Innumerable depositories of public and private funds went down, taking with them the savings of the poor and the modest fortunes of the middle class. The millions of notes which ill- advised State laws permitted them to issue and distribute broadcast, instantly became waste paper. For the time being the boasted nerve, energy and power of the young Republic seemed paralyzed by the fearful crash and crumbling. The national treasury, well nigh empty, was pow- erless to check the force of the storm. Despair filled all hearts save those of the few who chanced to be well fortified against such disasters. There are always a few, who, though the heavens fall, rise sublimely
174
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
above the tumult, and calmly weather every tempest. But the bent and broken sat upon the wrecks of their homes and business, looking with moistened eyes upon the brief horizon of their prospects, appalled by the devastation all around them. Happily, however, such periods are of short duration. The crisis past, the worst that could happen made known, the spirit of American manhood reasserted itself and began anew. The work of rebuilding the prostrate fabrics had scarcely more than com- menced, when there came from beyond the frontier glowing reports of another California at the base of the Rocky Mountains ; that the streams and valleys and the granite hills were rich in gold, awaiting the open sesame of rightly applied effort to pour their glittering contents into the hands of the seekers, and fill them with marvelous abundance. The seductive tales gathered volume as they flew. In the more conservative East they made little impression, in other words they were not credited, but in the West, then less powerful than now, and where the shock of the panic had fallen even more heavily because its people were less pre- pared for it, the revelation was accepted, and the march began. Early in 1858 the vanguard came, followed by interminable processions in 1859 and '60. Shortly afterward the rumblings of an " irrepressible conflict " began to be heard from the national conventions in Charleston and Chicago, when thousands on the point of emigrating, paused to listen, and while listening, the war clouds broke over Sumter.
In such a period the Territory of Colorado was born. Let us follow the more important incidents which led to that memorable event. Though an oft told tale of the early fathers, succeeding generations may find some interest in the causes which produced such wondrous results.
While the testimony is brief, and perhaps not fully authenticated, it is nevertheless recorded among the annals of New Mexico that Don Juan de Oñate who explored a large part of the Southern mountains and subsequently ranged the valleys of the Arkansas and Platte, far to the eastward, while examining the San Luis Valley, discovered gold mines at a point somewhere between the Culebra and Trinchera. This was about 1595. He went there in search of mines, and with his fol-
175
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
lowers, had already located many deposits of the precious metals at various places on their journey northward, extending from Socorro on the south to the Picurias and Sandias to the north, including the Placiers, the Cerrillos and other sections, and so having acquired some knowledge of the formations which contained them, and the fact being clearly stated, we accept the reported discovery in the San Luis as being the first made within the limits of our State.
The next trace is found in the narrative of James Pursley to Lieu- tenant Pike, and embraced in that officer's account of the first American exploration to the sources of the Platte and Arkansas Rivers in 1806. The author is informed by William N. Byers, who traversed this country in 1852, on the authority of "Pike" Vasquez a trader, that the hunters and trappers occasionally brought small quantities of gold from the mountains to the trading post at the mouth of Clear Creek, at intervals between 1832 and 1836, but the relator, strange to say, neither inquired where they obtained it, nor manifested any special interest in the matter. Says Mr. Byers in addition, "There were rumors of gold having been found on the Sweetwater and in other localities as early as 1852, but they created no excitement and were given very little attention," for the reason, it may be assumed, that no great deposits had been unearthed.
In a sketch of Park County, written some years ago by R. S. Allen, it is stated that " Old Parson Bill Williams," in one of his trapping ex- cursions in the South Park after returning from California, dug out a few samples.
Again, we are told that another trapper named Rufus B. Sage, made public the fact that while encamped upon the present site of Golden City in the winter of 1843-4, he struck out into the mountains toward the head of Vasquez Fork, and there found mineral which he believed to contain gold. Why so many of these professional tramps failed to achieve glory and riches when they had an opportunity to do so, is answered by the general statement, that they were searching for game, directing all their enterprises with an eye single to the capture of mer- chandise, while Gregory and Russell gave their undivided attention to
176
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the higher subject, leaving the fur-bearing quadrupeds to pursue their way, unvexed by rifles and knives.
In the summer of 1888 the author made the acquaintance of Colonel William H. Paine, a noted civil engineer-attached in regular succession to the Headquarters Staff of every general commanding the Army of the Potomac from McDowell to Grant, and who is said to have super- vised the construction of that marvel of modern engineering, the Brook- lyn bridge, from the plans of the illustrious Roebling-who stated that while en route to California in 1853, a man named Captain Norton, at the head of quite a strong party overtook him and his associates on the North Platte near Laramie, saying he had been prospecting the Pike's Peak region, and had found some gold, which he exhibited. But the quantity was not large, only a few pennyweights, still sufficient to attest his veracity. Norton made no distinct location of the find, but embraced the country named, in general terms, as Pike's Peak.
Judge Wilbur F. Stone in his historical sketch of Pueblo County, alludes briefly to a report that the children of William Bent, while return- ing from Fort Bridger to Bent's Fort in 1848, found some nuggets of gold on Crow Creek.
A trapper named John Orlbert, years ago related that in 1851 while trapping near the old town site of Hamilton in the South Park, he and his party built the log cabins which excited so much inquiry concerning their origin in the minds of the hunters who took possession of that part of the country in 1859-60. Orlbert, more honest than some of his clans- men, laid no claim to having found anything more valuable than beaver skins.
We pass now from the vacuity of apocryphal statement to the dawn of historical narration which may be trusted, where the remainder of our investigations will be more profitably conducted. By following Mr. B. F. Rockafellow's admirable sketch of Fremont County, we dis- cover the actual origin of the forces which led to the attraction of our own pioneers and their occupation of one of the richest mineral regions on the globe, as related by a venerable resident of Cañon City named
+8.9. machchauf
177
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Philander Simmons, who was a member of the party which visited that part of the Arkansas Valley now celebrated as the fruit garden of the Rocky Mountain region, with Bent's traders in 1842, and also of Green Russell's expedition which came in 1858.
In the spring of 1849, about the initial period of the great emigra- tion to California, a small band of Cherokee Indians went to the Pacific Coast by the Arkansas route, over the old trail by the Squirrel Creek divide, and the head of Cherry Creek. They had lived in Georgia and were familiar with the always fascinating pursuit of mining-when it pays. Bringing their shovels, picks and pans, they halted from time to time and prospected the streams, in many of which they found gold, but not in sufficient quantity to divert them from the main purpose of the trip. They passed down the Platte, and thence across the country by the emigrant roads to California, but failing to locate themselves satis- factorily, and by this time firmly convinced that equally good mines existed in the Rocky Mountains, they returned home, and in 1858 organ- ized an expedition to prospect them extensively and thoroughly. Inform- ation of this design was communicated to some of their friends in Geor- gia with a request to join them. In this manner news of their intention reached Green Russell, who, eager for the enterprise, wrote the projectors asking permission to go with them at the head of a party of Americans. Assent was readily obtained and Russell's company, equipped with the requisite appliances for gold mining and washing, overtook the Cherokees forty miles west of the Pawnee Forks. Meanwhile, Mr. Simmons was engaged in lead mining in Southwest Missouri, and having had some experience on the plains and in the mountains, and being also cognizant of the proposed expedition, sought and obtained permission to join it. Thus organized, the company reached Bent's Fort, whence they pro- ceeded to the Fountaine-qui-bouille, and from there to the Squirrel Creek pineries, where the Cherokees had found gold on their previous journey. Having inspected this region without satisfactory results they came down to Cherry Creek where it was expected they would find extensive placers, but were again disappointed. Says Simmons,-"Having no faith in the
178
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
mines, I went on a hunt and on my return found them discouraged, and in a few days we started for the Platte River where we arrived in two days' travel. Cherry Creek we crossed a little below where Blake street is now located, camping that night in a large grove of cottonwoods. Hunting being good, the Indians killed several deer where the town (Denver) is now built, and some of the Indians remarked that 'there'- . pointing to the present town site,-was a splendid location for a city, and that there would probably be a town built there in the course of a hun- dred years." It was pretty well started in less than six months from the date of this prophecy.
At a point thirty miles north of the Platte they prospected again, prolonging their examinations to the Cache la Poudre, but without suc- cess. Here some of Russell's party became disheartened at the repeated failures, and soon afterward returned to Georgia. But the greater number remained, searched the streams and dry channels through the season, "keeping up the excitement by reporting great discoveries and big strikes which in reality were never made."*
Here we have, in condensed form, what appears to be a well authen- ticated statement of the origin of practical, systematic gold hunting in this part of our country, and while it differs but little in the main from the many other accounts published, there is a material difference in the details.
It is also a matter of record, that in April, 1858, a party of traders under a leader named Cantrill while returning to the Missouri River from a trip to Utah, discovered gold near the base of the mountains on Ralston Creek.
While these events were occurring, reports more or less highly colored reached the border towns of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri, and as anticipated, caused much excitement. From the date of the appearance of Russell and the Cherokees upon the scene, though the slopes were
*Russell returned to Georgia in the fall, meeting en route hither a large party from Plattsmouth, among them D. C. Oakes, A. HI. Barker and Joseph Harper. Ile came out again in the spring of 1859, with 170 followers.
179
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
covered with snow, there was no cessation of prospecting. Confident, strong and hardy, these people never doubted the ultimate issue, not- withstanding their disappointments. It was as clear to them as the morning sun that the yellow metal contained in the streams had its source in some great deposit or series of veins in the higher altitudes. Hun- dreds of immigrants were arriving from all quarters, the greater part encamping on Cherry Creek. Some of the more enterprising overran the neighborhood, turning up the sands and gravels; others drifted into the mountains above Boulder, where promising indications were found. But the snow prevented intelligent examination, so they met with only meager results until later in the spring.
By this time the principal rendezvous became a fixed abiding place and base of supplies. It passed from a camp to a town with surprising rapidity, in spite of the rather unpromising outlook. While there are several claims to precedence in the building of habitations, it is pretty well established that the first dwelling erected on Cherry Creek was the work of an old trapper named John Smith in the fall of 1857, and used as a trading post. The second may be credited to a member of Russell's party who built early in 1858. The universal instinct for social and civil order found its earliest expression however, in the organization of a town at a mining camp on the Platte about six miles above Cherry Creek, which the founders called "Montana," and this was the first ever built in this region of country. In this, Jason Younker and others of the orig. inal Lawrence party, with certain of the Georgians, took an active part. About twenty log cabins were erected, but the fledgling survived only a single winter. It was abandoned in the spring of 1859, when the leaders came down to the original seat and started the town of Auraria, on the west side.
Since this history was begun, the author received a communication from a man named Philip Schweikert, a resident of Columbus, Ohio, stating that Montana was the first settlement located here, he being one of the founders. Schweikert was a barber, and indirectly appeals for the historical distinction of having been the "only original " tonso-
180
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
rial artist in the Pike's Peak region. We take pleasure in elevating this important fact to the scroll of fame. He concludes by saying he sold his house and lot for three dollars and went to Mexico.
The tract upon which the Georgia company did the greater part of their mining was subsequently taken up as a ranch by Jim Beck- wourth, the mulatto mountaineer, ex-chief of the Crows, etc., and is now held conjointly by the A. B. Daniels estate, Mrs. Mary H. Mech- lin, Rufus Clark, George Tritch and William N. Byers.
Simultaneously with the events recorded above, a small army of prospectors from Lawrence, Kansas, following the Arkansas River from Dodge City, arrived in the valley of the Fountaine-qui-bouille and there commenced operations. Referring to this particular migra- tion, Mr. A. Z. Sheldon, the historian of El Paso county, relates a number of interesting incidents, whereby it appears that a man named George Earle, who had been in California, returned to Lawrence and related his experiences in the mining regions of the Pacific slope. Between the alluring tales of late discoveries in the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains, the prevailing hard times and the universal desire to strike out somewhere, with the idea that fortunes might be made without serious effort, the people of every struggling community in the West were eager for an opportunity, or even a reasonable excuse to emigrate. In the course of frequent allusions to the subject, Earle expressed the opinion that gold could be washed from any of the water courses heading in the western mountains, even from the banks of the Kaw River. Being put to the test, he took a pan, gathered some dirt, reduced it by the usual process, and lo ! several small "colors" appeared. This was deemed proof conclusive, and the feeling of unrest deepened. Reports of the discoveries made by the Cherokees began to arrive. Therefore, in the spring of 1858 an exploring party was formed under the leadership of one John Turney. They reached the spot on which the beautiful town of Colorado Springs now stands in æsthetic pride, in July following. By persistent digging and panning they found evidence sufficient to justify a permanent settlement and
181
HISTORY OF COLORADO
more extended investigations of the neighboring hillsides, hence the location of a town site which was named "Colorado City." Though not very large, and never very prominent until about the year 1888, it attained the exalted dignity of being for a single season the capital of the Territory.
Meanwhile digging, "rocking" and sluicing continued, but only moderate prospects were found. In the autumn some of the inhab- itants returned to Lawrence for supplies and reinforcements, and while there, improved the occasion by extolling the beauty of the country, the richness of the mines, the fertility of the soil, and the vast mineral wealth everywhere distributed. Their purpose was quickly accom- plished. In 1859 multitudes flocked to the scene, among them several who became historic characters, for example, Richard E. Whitsitt, W. P. McClure, Lewis N. Tappan, M. S. Beach, S. W. Waggoner, and others.
Recurring to the original encampment and the first series of gold hunters who pushed their examinations in the hills above Boulder, we find the names of Judge Townsley of Iowa City; B. F. Langley, of California, A. Vennage and J. Ely, of Iowa ; H. Bolton, A. Becker, D. McCown and J. W. Wainwright, of St. Louis, with forty or fifty others. Amos Bixby, the historian of Boulder County, relates that gold was discovered in the district of Gold Run on the 16th of January, 1859, by a party composed of Charles Clauser, J. S. Bull, William Huey, W. W. Jones, James Aikins and David Wooley. Still the clutch of winter was upon the ground, the streams frozen, and the face of nature wrapped in snow. Energetic and persevering as these men undoubtedly were, they could do little beyond satisfying them- selves that here was a region in which their best efforts might be profitably expended in a more favorable season.
After Montana, the town of Auraria was founded, and after Auraria, St. Charles, the latter on the east bank of Cherry Creek. A. H. Barker is said to have erected the first cabin in Auraria, after those of Smith and the Georgians, and John J. Riethmann claims to
182
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
have been the original builder in East Denver. The chroniclers of the period, however, affirm that General William Larimer was clearly entitled to the honor of having built the first house on the east side, and that his dwelling was established on the bank of the creek between Blake and Wazee streets before any other person had ventured so far as to take up a residence in the new town. In November, 1858, Richard E. Whitsitt, General Larimer and others organized the Den- ver Town Company. The name of St. Charles was displaced by that of Denver, in compliment to the then executive head of Kansas Ter- ritory, in its results one of the proudest monuments ever erected to any man on the American continent. Yet though still living, he has honored it with but a single visit, and that many years ago.
Auraria had become strong and confident by the steady increment of population. The town company of one hundred members surveyed the site and took in about twelve hundred acres, whereby it is apparent these stalwart fathers proposed not only to do something handsome for themselves, but provide generously for their posterity, In less than thirty years the entire space has been covered with buildings, and the town extended over an area much greater to the southward. The founders have lived to find that their anticipations were none too large, though at the time they were simply tremendous.
The first house erected after the survey was owned by Ross Hutchins, who located on Ferry Street. It was built of cottonwood logs with a dirt roof, which, like many others, kept out the sunshine and let in the rain for days after the storm was over. During the fall and winter of 1858 about one hundred and twenty-five houses were built. In due course several grocery and provision stores were estab- lished, the first by Blake & Williams. Then came John Kinna and John A. Nye with a stock of hardware, stoves, etc., than which nothing was more needed. Uncle Dick Wootton of blessed memory brought his family and a large stock of miscellaneous supplies. Thus the infant colony grew and flourished, notwithstanding the rather discouraging prospect for a great mining region.
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.