USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 19
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Still another event worthy of more than passing attention was the arrival of " Professor " O. J. Goldrick, one of the historic characters of every stage from that time until his death in 1886, who marched into town clad in irreproachable broadcloth, wearing the inhibited " boiled shirt,' and crowned with a hat of lustrous silk, his long and rather shapely hands protected from the burning sun by kid gloves, yet driving an ox team with a regular orthodox bull-whacker's whip. Probably no entry of that or any other year attracted so much attention, or elicited more diverse comment. But the Professor was not born to blush unseen, nor to live in a community, whatever its character, without making his influence felt. He had a place to fill in the affairs of this new country, and he was found to be equal to the responsibility, however grotesque the manner of his introduction. A few days later he was engaged in organizing a Sunday School embracing all sects and denominations, under the pious direction of the Reverends George W. Fisher and Jacob Adriance, and assisted by Lewis N. Tappan, D. C. Collier and others, in a lowly cabin on the west side. There being a few women and children, the next venture was the opening of a day school. To fortify himself with proper methods from the fountain head of authority in such matters, he began a correspondence with Professor John D. Phillbrick of Boston, from whom he received the textbooks applied
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for, together with an autograph letter from the eminent educator, stating that he had taken occasion to allude to Goldrick's application in general terms as a fresh and striking illustration of the advance of popular education westward with the course of empire. "And now," he continues, "imagine my arm extended with the speed of thought from this cradle of the free school on the Atlantic shore, over the Allegha- nies, over the 'Father of Waters,' to give you a cordial greeting in your ' Union School' on the frontier of civilization at the foot of the Rocky Mountains." How little he comprehended in that distant day that twenty-four years later he would be making a pilgrimage to the magnificent tree of education that sprang from this primitive root, attracted by the national reputation it had then acquired, urged thereto by the commendations of the National Commissioner of Education, and at the close of his examination be able to class it among the best in the world. Goldrick was for many years city editor of the "News" after it became a daily, and while yet a weekly publication, its traveling correspondent. Toward the close of 1859 John L. Dailey purchased Thomas Gibson's interest in the paper.
On the first of January, 1860, ex-Governor W. S. Beall, of Wis- consin, prepared a lengthy memorial to the President of the United States, setting forth the exact condition of affairs on this frontier from the beginning to that date, reviewing the various stages of progress, the discoveries made, the extent of country developed, the institutions estab- lished, the evident permanency of the population, and concluding by the presentation of two distinct propositions. The first invoked the inter- position of Congress for the early extinguishment of the Indian title, for the survey and sale of the public lands and the establishment of an assay office for the benefit of the miners ; that Congress enable the peo- ple to form a State organization, but in the event of its refusal, that an enabling act be passed providing that if on the first day of July, 1860, thirty thousand resident inhabitants should be found within the limits of the mineral region, a Territorial government should be constituted ; or
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if, on the first day of September, 1860, one hundred and fifty thousand were returned, then a State organization was to be granted.
We venture the assertion that Congress never before or since had under consideration, if indeed it was ever presented, so remarkable a proposition. But it must be remembered that all through this year of rapid transitions, the idea of organization and the desperate need of protection pervaded all classes here upon the plains, though it was less manifest in the mining camps. Up among the hills they were not wedded to the political intrigues carried on in Denver, had no sympathy with any of the movements instituted for State or Territorial centrali- zation, because the necessity was less urgent. If one of their people killed another in a square stand up fight, they simply took the victor to the nearest saloon and lionized him by filling him with villainous whisky. If a thief broke into a cabin or tent and stole anything of value, they hung him, or soundly thrashed and then banished him from the district. If a man murdered another in cold blood, they called a meeting, gave him a fair trial, and when convicted he quickly joined the silent majority at the end of a rope. Here is an example of their method of dealing with unpardonable crimes. A man was convicted in Mountain City of stealing a pair of blankets. He confessed his guilt, so the proceedings in his case were brief. He was sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes upon his bare back, well laid on. The muscular thrasher selected took infinite pleasure in laying them on. Then to have one side of his head shaved and be ordered to leave the camp, never to appear there again under penalty of being shot.
They didn't need any law in the mountains-they were a law unto themselves, and we have yet to hear of a single instance wherein any man was unfairly tried or punished, or, if guilty, acquitted by any of these impromptu tribunals, probably because lawyers were prohibited from practicing before them.
People's courts under the judicial system established by the moun- taineers, were improvised assemblies or mass meetings of the people, con- vened to adjudicate criminal causes, and were presided over by an officer,
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chosen by general election. The penalties inflicted according to the grade of the crime committed, were hanging by rope to the nearest tree, thrashing, and banishment. The miners' courts were convened upon call where the commission of crimes or felonies rendered them necessary, and were composed of the people of the district, a sort of public jury who heard the evidence and disposed of it according to their best judgment. They elected their president and secretary, sheriff, col- lector and recorder, who were subject to the general meeting of miners. They heard and determined all cases brought before them. There was no appeal from their decisions, and their judgments were promptly executed.
Nevertheless, there was much reason for the popular clamor for gov- ernment and civil order in Denver. Here the people were subjected to conditions less easily controlled. Degraded and dissolute men thronged the streets, and the better class was in imminent danger of being over- ridden by them. In January, 1860, the citizens on both sides of the creek were aroused to the absolute necessity of arming in self defence. In Denver a party of men took forcible possession of a portion of the town site and began to erect buildings thereon for their own benefit. As usual, a public meeting was called and resolutions adopted providing for the appointment of a committee to warn the jumpers to desist from further interference with vested rights. The committee was met by a strong battery of loaded rifles in the hands of resolute men. After a parley they retreated. Intense excitement prevailed. That night, the intruders having left their claims, a party went out and destroyed the improvements they had made. This only added fresh fuel to the flame. Suspecting Dick Whitsitt, secretary of the Town Company of the deed, they " went gunning" for him. He was found, and would have been killed but for the timely interference of friends. Good old Major Brad- ford undertook to explain matters, but they denounced him as a liar and fired three shots at him, neither of which took effect. Another meeting was called. The belligerents, weary of further contention, sent in a prop- osition which was accepted, and thus the rebellion terminated.
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In Auraria a different state of disorder prevailed. The town was infested by a gang of thieves who stole under cover of darkness every- thing they could lay their hands upon. The annoyance becoming intol- erable, the public tribunal was convened, testimony convicting certain men of theft adduced, and the gang was ordered to leave the place within five hours. W. H. Middaugh, one of the principal witnesses, was twice fired upon, but escaped unhurt. A military company known as the " Rangers," was called into service and patroled the streets that night. The next day the thieves disappeared. We contend that the citizens of both towns would have saved themselves much trouble by adopting the miners' plan of thrashing and banishment.
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CHAPTER XV.
CANON CITY, GOLDEN. BOULDER, HAMILTON, FAIRPLAY, AND OTHER TOWNS IN 1859- MR. LOVELAND'S PROJECT FOR A RAILWAY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS-HORACE GREELEY'S INVOLUNTARY BATH-ADVENTURES OF BOULDER'S PIONEERS WITH LEFT HAND AND BEAR HEAD-INDIAN PROPHECY-MINING ON VASQUEZ, IN THE SOUTH, AND ON THE BLUE-MOUNTAIN CITY-PACIFIC RAILWAY LEGISLATION-INFLU- ENCE OF SETTLEMENT IN COLORADO UPON THAT MEASURE.
Cañon City, situated at the gateway of the magnificent cañon of the Arkansas River, and the natural thoroughfare for immigrants arriving by the Arkansas route to the mines of the South Park, was located though scarcely founded, since but one cabin was built, in October, 1859. This cabin was planted just above the well-known Soda Spring, and was the joint effort of a party of six, some of whom had been connected with the town of Fountain, near Pueblo. This work completed, they proceeded to lay out a road to the Tarryall diggings then attracting much attention. Little more was done until 1860, when there came a crowd, hungering and thirsting for real estate and the concomitant profits of a possible metropolis, who took summary possession of the town site and began making permanent improvements thereon. The developments about Golden were among the most active of the year. Scores of arrivals encamped there, attracted not only by the picturesqueness of the little nook in the foothills, but by the gold mines that were under vigorous operation at Arapahoe, just below the entrance to Table Mountain Cañon. W. A. H. Loveland, John M. Ferrell, E. L. Berthoud, Fox Diefendorf and P. B. Cheney-the latter as the years passed, one of the most widely advertised men in the region, through the misguided indus- try of Goldrick and Capt. George West-were among the first arrivals.
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Their judgment of its strength as a commercially strategic point was confirmed when the Gregory mines burst into prominence, and the great columns began to march in that direction. Here, they conceived, lay the key to the whole situation, present and future, and entertained no doubt that their Golden fledgling would one day be the political capital, as well as the commercial emporium of the Great West. Under this conviction the survey was made and the site platted. No town devel- oped so rapidly as Golden. It became at once the rival of Denver, and a dangerous competitor for the supreme position. Mr. Loveland saw at the beginning that if railways were ever constructed to the Rocky Mountains, a prospect far enough away then, notwithstanding the germs of a Pacific road were assuming tangible outlines-the only feasible route lay through the channel cut by glaciers and forming the defile of Vasquez Fork. From that moment until its consummation he never lost sight of the scheme, nor missed an opportunity to commend its advantages. As we shall have occasion to review his somewhat remarkable career at the proper time, it is only essential at present to state here that under his direction the town grew and prospered until the shadows of 1861-2 fell upon it, quenching for some years the prestige of the initial stage.
To facilitate the passage of emigrant and supply trains to the mines, Mr. Ferrell threw a log bridge over Clear Creek (anathemas upon the man or men who changed it from Vasquez), then a raging torrent from the melting snows. When nearly completed, along came the editor of the "New York Tribune," of whose unfortunate experience in crossing, Capt. Berthoud relates the following incident :
"Horace Greeley, mounted on a mule, dressed in the rough garb of a traveler, with his old white hat firmly pressed upon his head, rode up to the bank. He was bound to see all that Pike's Peak promised to its votaries. He had heard that Vasquez Fork, like another Pactolus, rolled over golden sands; that in the mountain peaks west of the Platte the miners had discovered gold everywhere, and that all that was needed was work and small capital to produce untold wealth for all. In view of
Johnd. Perky.
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this he had sallied out, and now before him roared a vicious, impetuous mountain torrent that must be passed. Fearlessly he plunged in, mule and all, and right manfully did he buffet the angry waves ; but the waves prevailed ; mule and rider and old white hat stood not upon the order of their going, but danced merrily down to swell the turbid Platte. Horror- struck at the accident, the whole population ran to the rescue. The mule landed first. A sturdy miner with a boat hook soon rescued the dripping and half-drowned editor, and by the seat of his unmentionables drew him ashore."
Among the members of the town company were Ferrell, D. K. Wall, J. C. Kirby, J. C. Bowles, H. J. Carter and E. L. Berthoud. The site embraced twelve hundred and eighty acres. A second bridge was built. The population increased daily. Some erected homes, others business houses. Stocks of goods multiplied, some of them equal to the largest on Cherry Creek, and designed for the mountain trade. Saw- mills placed in the well timbered hills hard by, furnished ample supplies of building material. Fair diggings were reported to have been found in Guy Gulch. Excitement prevailed on every side. George West established the Western " Mountaineer," which gave the place an earnest advocate. Albert D. Richardson, and the afterward famous war corre- spondent of the New York " Herald," Thomas Knox, became associate editors and correspondents. Explorations about the vicinity revealed the existence of valuable coal beds, and on Ralston Creek the Murphy mine was opened, from which good and cheap fuel was furnished.
Passing along the bases of the mountains to old Fort St. Vrain, the record shows that a party arrived there from the Platte in October, 1858, and was composed of Captain Thomas Aikins, his son, and S. J. Aikins, a nephew, A. A. Brookfield, Charles Clouser, Captain Yount, Daniel Gordon, John Rothrock, Theodore Squires, Thomas Lorton, the Wheelock Brothers, and a number of others whose names are not pre- served. On the 17th they encamped at "Red Rock," near the existing town of Boulder. Some distance away stood the smoke tanned tepees of a considerable band of Arapahoe Indians under the chief, Left Hand,
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who, discovering the presence of white men, went over and warned them to get out of the country. But he was soon conciliated by the kindly manner of his reception and recalled his order, saying there was room enough and they could dwell together in amity. "But another chief."- we quote from Bixby-" named Bear Head, seeing Left Hand's mistake, repudiated the agreement, and soon after went to the Red Rock encampment and began his complaint against the intruders by a super- stitious allusion to the comet then visible. Said he, 'Do you remember when the stars fell ?' He was answered, in 1832. 'That is right,' said Bear Head; 'it was in that year white man first came. Do you know what that star (the comet) with a pointer means? The pointer points back to when the stars fell as thick as the tears of our women shall fall when you come to drive us away.' He then gave the party three days in which to leave the country, intimating that serious trouble might be anticipated in the event of their failure to do so. Meanwhile, instead of decamping as ordered, the immigrants fortified themselves against surprise, and calmly awaited the next adventure. At the appointed time Bear Head approached alone, and was invited to enter. He came to relate a dream, to the effect that he stood upon a hill and saw the Boulder Creek swelled to a flood ; that while his people were swallowed up by the rush of waters, all the white people were saved,-thereby indicating his idea of their inevitable fate." While the recital of this prophetic vision may have impressed his auditors pro- foundly, it in no wise altered their determination. They had come to stay, and through their enterprise, though the Indians hovered about for some weeks, the town of Boulder was founded, and has become one of the loveliest in the State, the seat of an incomparable agricultural section, and a joy to its inhabitants. On the plains for miles around quadruped game abounded, so that they found no difficulty in procuring supplies. The original explorations for gold during the winter of 1858 and the spring of 1859 have been already related.
During the year last mentioned, parties who had been disappointed in their search for paying claims in Gregory, passed over the divide into
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the valley of Clear Creek, where locations were made along the stream for miles above and below Idaho Springs. Several Mexicans located on Spanish Bar-whence its name-and were highly successful, taking out a large amount of gold. Others followed, and soon the bar swarmed with industrious diggers and sluicers. The tide passed up as far as Downieville, where, however, only moderate results were obtained. But the largest yields were taken from Illinois and Grass Valley Bars, below Idaho. The various tributaries were explored, and some valuable claims worked. Jackson and party, among them W. W. Whipple, now of this city, secured some excellent results in Chicago Creek. During the year George Griffith discovered a quartz lode on the mountain side near the forks of South Clear Creek, from which it is said he sluiced one hundred dollars in two days. But it was by no means difficult for even a neophyte in mining to find such veins, for they cropped out all along the slopes. Still, to the present day, no really great results have been secured. Though rich in places, the seams are narrow and the rock extremely hard, involving large expense.
Again the restless and indomitable hunters scattered out into the wilderness, a few into Middle, others toward the South Park, the latter via Chicago Creek to its sources, and over the intervening high range. Some of the very earliest explorers were massacred.
About the middle of July, 1859, the Hamilton diggings, half a mile below the town site of that name, were opened, but were neither very rich nor extensive. The most profitable ground of the period was discovered two miles above Hamilton, and the camp called "Tarryall." Hamilton became the base of supplies and the center of settlement. A mining district was organized, and claims staked out by the first comers, who secured all the valuable ground as a matter of course, and withal of right, framed and adopted laws, and thus began developments whereby they were richly rewarded. Intelligence of the strike spread quickly, and thousands rushed over the mountains to share in the harvest. Hamilton blossomed into a miniature city. The multitude here as elsewhere, find- ing the discoverers possessed of the fat of the land, demanded a division,
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but the organizers stood firm. There were the laws, and they must be respected. There were so many claims in the gulch, and all were occupied. If the complainants wanted mining ground they must hunt for it.
Later, other discoveries occurred on the Platte, so the crowd went over and established "Fairplay," as a living reproach to their "Grab-all" neighbors. Here there appeared to be abundant room. The high bars above the stream contained sufficient gold to justify a large and per- manent town.
Jefferson City sprang up near Georgia Pass six miles north of Tarryall. All the towns founded in the early epoch, save Fairplay, have disappeared from the face of the Park, itself as resplendent a vision viewed from the elevated ranges which wall it in, as the sun ever shone upon.
A company of one hundred crossed through Georgia Pass to the Swan, a tributary of the Blue, but the majority soon returned empty- handed, hastened by reports of murders being committed by the Utes, whom every one feared, knowing their unconquerable hostility to the tres- passers on their cherished domain. Those who remained made some excellent discoveries at Gold Run and in Galena, American and Humbug Gulches. Others occurred in Negro, French, Gibson and Corkscrew districts, these titles being applied by the locators. These and several others were quite extensively worked in 1860, and for two or three years afterward.
Returning to Gregory, we find that the enforcement of such laws as were immediately available devolved primarily upon Jack Kehler, the authorized sheriff of Arapahoe County, which comprehended every- thing. His deputy in the mines was a stalwart named William Z. Cozens, than whom no man was better qualified for the trying position. He had to deal with some of the most desperate characters on the frontier, but his method of treatment caused him to be feared and respected by the most abandoned outlaws. We shall meet Mr. Cozens again in the course of this history.
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In August the segregation of the rather large district began, by the setting off of Nevada and Russell into distinct communities, each gov- erned by its own laws.
Later in the season, the first theatrical troupe arrived from Denver and catered to the universal appetite for the lighter order of dramatic entertainment, liberally interspersed with singing and dancing. The original temple of Thespis was situated in Gregory's Gulch at the inter- section of two roads from Central, just above the center of Mountain City. The reader, if a recent comer, should have seen this primitive play-house, in the full glory of its opening night, for it was a novelty to be remembered. Located on the "upper deck" or loft of a rather large log cabin, the stage rudely curtained off from the auditorium, candles for footlights, with no scenery to speak of; the auditors placed upon rough wooden benches, the greater part wearing slouch hats, and bristling with fire-arms, puffing clouds of tobacco smoke from innumerable pipes, and applauding or condemning boisterously as the play touched or displeased them, it was as motley and queer an assemblage as could well be imag- ined. Yet no theater since established has given greater pleasure, or is remembered with greater satisfaction. An anecdote comes down from the period, which is worth repeating. During the performance of a blood-curdling melodrama in one of the Denver theaters, the "heavy villain" appeared suddenly upon the stage and, after the customary statement of his love and grievances, seized the innocent heroine and was about to carry her off, when a broad chested miner who had been watching the play with an earnestness which made it intensely real to him, strode up to the footlights and leveling his revolver, exclaimed, "No you don't, mister ! you just drop that ere gal or I'll blow the top of your head off." It is unnecessary to state that his order was promptly obeyed.
Intermingled with the rougher element of the mountains, there were many cultured and scholarly men. The original bar of Gilpin County when crystallized in court embraced as keen intellects and as great legal attainments as have marked the profession in any stage of our progress.
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Among the discoverers of great mines, that are still extraordinary producers of gold, was Harry Gunnell, a tall, finely proportioned and rather handsome young man, well bred, possessed of a fair education, a welcome guest everywhere, and therefore a general favorite. After searching ineffectually for some time, he struck the celebrated lode which took his name, and from comparative poverty was elevated to affluence, for the vein was exceedingly rich, and yielded largely from the outset. The transformation bewildered him by its amazing sud- denness. A steady stream of gold poured in upon him, and being of a generous disposition, he lavished it with reckless extravagance upon boon companions in riotous living. In a few years everything vanished, and he was left a pauper. It is only one of many, yet it seems a more melancholy case in some of its aspects than any that has come under our observation.
In contrast, John Gregory, the mule driver, the father and founder of quartz mining in the Rocky Mountains, left for his home in Georgia, carrying over twenty-five thousand dollars in gold dust, the fruits of one season's industry.
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