USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 37
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On the 26th of June, Senator Harlan introduced a bill authorizing the Denver Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company to connect its road and telegraph with the Union Pacific near Cheyenne, acquiring thereby the privileges, and assuming the obligations of the other branches of the U. P. road, and becoming entitled to similar grants of land, with right of way upon the completion of the Eastern Division to Denver, the construction of the line from the latter point to Cheyenne being taken in lieu of its construction by the Eastern Division company, and acquiring for that portion the same rights and privileges as though it had been built by the latter.
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During all this time the line to be pursued from Platte crossing northward, remained unlocated, and we believe unsurveyed, conse- quently the work of grading stopped for the want of its determination. Senator Harlan's bill did not pass before the Congressional recess, and no satisfaction could be obtained from the U. P. Directors. It became . quite painfully apparent to the harassed forces at this end of the line that they were staving off a decision, and possibly seeking an oppor- tunity to abrogate their contract. Gen. Pierce went on to meet them, but the trip was a failure. The Eastern Division people were in an equally depressing plight. Their hopes of obtaining a subsidy for the extension of their road by the southern route to California had gone by the board. They opposed Harlan's bill conveying their land grant to the Denver Pacific, which prevented its passage. Just before the adjournment of Congress, however, a mutual understanding was brought about through the efforts of Governor Evans, and their oppo- sition was withdrawn. But it was then too late to get the measure through, and thus another heavy blow was dealt to the Colorado enter- prise which was severely damaging. Governor Evans secured an assignment in writing from the president of the Eastern Division Com- pany of its right of way and grant of lands. If the bill had passed, it would have given the Denver company a substantial basis for its secu- rities, and enabled both companies to issue, under a law of Congress, mortgage bonds on their roads to the amount of thirty-two thousand dollars per mile. When the bill became a law as it did at the en- suing session, these conditions rendered the company comparatively independent.
In an address delivered by Governor Evans about this time, he out- lined a system of railroads for Colorado which was to make this city a great railway center, as follows; Denver to Golden City, Central and Georgetown; to the coal fields of Boulder County; up the Platte Cañon to the South Park and beyond into the Valley of the Blue; to Pueblo, Trinidad and the San Luis Park, and another to run the entire length of the Arkansas Valley in Colorado.
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Verily these were vast campaigns for the commander-in-chief of one little struggling railroad to plan so far in advance of the beggarly pittance required to grade and tie that road one hundred and ten miles. But as already stated, there were some giants in those days, who never faltered in their faith that Denver, through their efforts, could be made a marvelous city, and the thinly populated Territory of Colorado a wonderful State. Most of those robust projectors have lived to wit- ness the fulfillment of their dreams.
Having secured the land grant, the company began to take positive measures for a vigorous advance. They waited no longer for the Union Pacific directors to locate the disputed portion of the line, but located it themselves. They realized that with the road bed fully prepared for the iron, no serious difficulty would be met in discovering the means to put it in running order. The grading was only half completed.
The first annual meeting of the stockholders of the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company was held on Monday December 14th, 1868, when William M. Clayton was elected chairman, and R. R. McCormick, Secretary. At this meeting, John Evans, W. M. Clayton, John W. Smith, F. W. Cram, D. H. Moffat, Jr., John Pierce, Joseph E. Bates, A. B. Daniels and F. Z. Salomon were chosen directors, who at a subsequent meeting elected John Evans President ; John Pierce Vice- President; R. R. McCormick Secretary and Auditor ; D. H. Moffat, Jr., Treasurer ; F. M. Case Chief Engineer ; and John Pierce Con- sulting Engineer. At this time the Eastern Division company had located its line to Denver, and thence via the valleys of the Platte and Cache la Poudre to a point of connection with the main line of the Pacific road west of the Black Hills, and their lands had been withdrawn from the market. But it appears the St. Louis company had not wholly abandoned the plan of making a through line to the Pacific, for they surveyed a route from a point east of the Raton Mountains all the way to the coast. Among the reports of the officers rendered to the Denver Pacific at the annual meeting, was one which stated that the agreement with the Union Pacific directors contemplated the extension 28
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of the Denver, Central and Georgetown road in connection with the Denver Pacific.
The Denver, South Park & Rio Grande Railway Company had also been organized for the purpose of constructing a line up the valley of the Platte to the South Park, and thence to the valley of the Rio Grande del Norte, with a branch to the Middle Park on the line of the Blue River, and a grant of lands in aid of its construction had been applied for. They had organized as another important enterprise, the Denver & Santa Fé Railway Company, upon a route leading along the base of the mountains to the southern line of the Territory, via Col- orado City, Pueblo and Trinidad.
The Denver Pacific Telegraph line was completed to Cheyenne January Ist, 1869, when congratulatory messages were exchanged between Mayor W. M. Clayton of this city, and Mayor Luke Murrin of Cheyenne. This line was constructed in less than two months' time, under contract with the U. S. & Mexico Telegraph Company, and this in very cold and stormy weather.
In January, 1869, a bill was introduced in Congress which autho- rized the Eastern Division company to contract with the Denver Pacific company for the construction, operation and maintenance of that part of the line between Denver and its point of connection with the Union Pacific, and to take its grant of lands ; also that the Eastern Division company should extend its road to the city of Denver, so as to form, with that part, a continuous line from Kansas City via Denver to Cheyenne, and both companies were authorized to mortgage their respective roads on a basis of thirty-two thousand dollars per mile. This bill passed on the 2d of March and was approved on the 5th, when Governor Evans, who had gone to Washington to look after the measure, left for Colorado. The rejoicing here over this event was spontaneous and universal. The people improvised a celebration, exploded fireworks, lighted great bonfires in the streets, and in every way manifested their delight over the auspicious opening of a more prosperous era. The graders resumed work, the bridge builders began
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anew, and at last it seemed as if the road were to be pushed to a finish. On the day the bill passed Governor Evans gave a dinner to the Coloradoans then in Washington. Governor Hunt, J. B. Chaffee, Judge Bradford, George M. Chilcott, B. B. Stiles, H. P. Bennett, John B. Wolff, O. A. Whittemore, George T. Clark, John Hughes, Isadore Deitsch, Mark A. Shaffenburg, M. M. De Lano, George Ban- croft, George H. Vickroy, Col. Webster, S. M. Hoyt, George W. Brown, E. M. Ashley, and others who had gone down to the capital to lend what aid they could toward the good cause, were present. Governor Evans returned March 25th, and on the 27th was given a reception at the Methodist church.
On the 27th of July, 1869, Gen. Wm. J. Palmer, superintendent of the Eastern Division, arrived to confer with the Denver company, and to close negotiations which had been pending for some time, for the completion of the Denver Pacific, the contract with the Union Pacific having been nullified, under the following circumstances : Evans went to Boston and New York to urge the Union Pacific directors to com- pliance with their agreement. After evading him for nearly a month on one pretext and another, he brought them to bay at last, when they confessed their inability by reason of financial embarrassments to meet their engagements, But they generously offered to sell him the iron if he could raise the money to pay for it. Of course the negotiations terminated at once. The Governor went to capitalists in Philadelphia and St. Louis who were interested in the Kansas road, and finding them favorable, a scheme was perfected whereby the Kansas or Eastern division company agreed to furnish the iron and other mate- rials for the immediate completion of at least one-half of the Denver Pacific. Meanwhile, the Eastern Division company was compelled to raise nine millions of dollars wherewith to build its road on to Denver, a task which, after great difficulty, was at length accomplished.
Governor Evans, Gen. Carr, D. H. Moffat, Walter S. Cheesman and others took the contract to complete the Denver Pacific ; sold its bonds to the amount of a million dollars, purchased the iron, and in
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September, 1869, track laying began from Cheyenne southward, and was completed to the town of Evans, in Weld county, December 13th, 1869. Here a long halt was made, awaiting negotiations for the completion of the other half. These were finally consummated, and on the 15th of June, 1870, the first locomotive rolled into Denver, where it was met with great rejoicing. The Eastern Division, now the Kansas Pacific, reached the same point about the middle of August in the same year.
The eastern terminus of the Union Pacific railroad was fixed at Council Bluffs, Iowa, by the decision of General U. S. Grant, who was empowered by law to establish the initial point of that road. The pro- jector of this colossal enterprise whose rapid whirl across the conti- nent astonished the civilized world and is without precedent in history, was Professor Asa Whitney, of California, who, from the time of its in- ception worked unremittingly toward its accomplishment. It was next taken up by Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri, whose interest had been stimulated by the various expeditions made by his son-in-law John C. Fremont. He introduced the original Pacific railway bill in 1849, and in 1853 as stated in the chapter relating to Capt. Gunnison's survey, an act was passed providing for the survey of three lines, with the view of adopting the most feasible of the series. Little more was done until 1864-5, when Congress passed an act providing for a subsidy in bonds bearing six per cent. interest, at the rate of sixteen thousand dollars per mile from the Missouri River to the base of the Rocky Mountains; thence for a distance of three hundred miles a subsidy of forty-eight thousand per mile, and thence to the Sierra Nevada Mountains sixteen thousand per mile. This liberal offer was further supplemented by twenty sections of land for each mile of road constructed, or a total of twenty-five million acres. In addition, discovering that even this munifi- cence failed to arouse the interest of capital, Congress relinquished its first lien and took a second mortgage, allowing the company which should build it to issue its own bonds at the same rate per mile and securing them by a first lien. The Central Pacific company commenced
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work in 1863. The first two sections of twenty miles each, west from Omaha, were completed in 1865. The entire road was opened to traffic May 12th, 1869. Under the marvelous direction of the Casement brothers, managers of the construction from a point west of Fremont to Ogden, the road seemed to fly across the plains. There were many days in which two, three and four miles of track were laid, and as an illustration of what they could do and thus challenge the world to equal the performance, they laid eight miles in one day.
The preliminary surveys for the Union Pacific cost more than a million of dollars. Its length is ten hundred and twenty-nine miles, and that of the Central Pacific eight hundred and eighty-one miles. The cost of the lines is thus summarized by Appleton's Cyclopedia: "Of the Union Pacific in capital stock, mortgage bonds and land grant income and Government bonds was reported to the Secretary of the Interior at $112,259,360, or an average of $108,778 per mile, but the liabilities of the company at the date of the completion of the road were $116,730,052, or an average of $113, 110 per mile. Jesse L. Williams, one of the government Directors, and a civil engineer of great expe- rience, in a report to the Secretary of the Interior dated November 14th, 1868, gave the approximate cost of the Union Pacific in cash at $38,824,821, or an average of about $35,000 per mile. The cost of the Central Pacific and branches, 1,222 miles in stock, bonds, and liabilities of every sort was reported in 1874 at $139,746,311, or an average of $114,358 per mile."
The first sleeping cars were patented in 1858, but were superseded by the invention of George M. Pullman, whose first cars were built in 1864. The Pullman Palace Car Company was organized in 1867. Mr. Pullman was for two or three years a resident of Colorado.
The passenger fare on the Union Pacific from Cheyenne to Omaha in 1868, was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents, and from Denver-the in- terval by stage-it was sixty-one dollars and fifty cents. The freight rates were, Omaha to Cheyenne,-first-class $3.85, second class $3.70, and third class, $3.55 per 100 pounds.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
THE MURDERERS OF PONT NEUF CANON-THEIR PURSUIT BY THE VIGILANTES OF MONTANA-A THRILLING INCIDENT OF THE FRONTIER-OVERLAND MERCHANDISE TRAFFIC-COLORADO AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION-THE BOSTON & COLORADO SMELTING WORKS-OPENING OF A NEW ERA-GOVERNOR HUNT'S ADMINIS- TRATION-TRIALS AND DIFFICULTIES-DESTRUCTION OF CROPS BY GRASSHOPPERS -THE AMERICAN HOTEL-RENEWAL OF THE STATE MOVEMENT-LOCATION OF THE TERRITORIAL PENITENTIARY-RIOT IN TRINIDAD-ARRIVAL OF GRANT, SHERMAN AND SHERIDAN-RETURN OF SCHUYLER COLFAX-CHILCOTT'S RECORD IN CONGRESS-THE INDIAN WAR OF 1868-GREAT EXCITEMENT-THE COLFAX PARTY ENDANGERED-PURSUIT OF THE INDIANS BY SHERIDAN-TERRIBLE EXPE- RIENCE OF COLONEL FORSYTHE ON THE REPUBLICAN.
Among my notes of 1865 is an incident, parts of which came to my knowledge at the time of its occurrence, and though very quietly con- ducted it possessed thrilling interest for the few acquainted with the facts. During the year in question, the exact date not now recalled, as many of the readers of this history will remember, a stage driver named Frank Williams, employed on the route from Salt Lake to Helena, Montana Territory, drove a coach load of passengers who carried large sums of money, into an ambuscade of "road agents" who were concealed in Pont Neuf Cañon, and with whom he was in league, where they were killed and robbed. The Vigilantes of Montana, than which no more resolute body of regulators was ever organized, took the matter in hand, pursuing every member of the gang to exile or execution. As soon as the robbers and the stage driver discovered that these terrible avengers were after them, they fled in different directions, some taking ship at San Francisco for China or Japan. Williams was traced to
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several points and finally to Salt Lake, where the clue was clearly estab- lished to his pursuers. But he got wind of them sufficiently in advance to enable him to make another attempt at concealment by coming across the mountains to Denver. Arriving here, he took a room at the old Planter's House. A short time afterward the vigilantes, two in number, entered the same hotel, and as they passed the dining room door, near which Williams was seated he espied them and divining their errand, secreted himself until the next stage went out to the eastward, when he took passage for the Missouri River. The Montana men went to the office desk, where they registered and then began some inquiries of Mr. Alonzo Rice, the clerk in charge. It was not long before they were again upon the trail of Williams, but only to find that he had escaped them a second time. Ascertaining the direction he had taken, they called for a carriage and the swiftest horses that could be had, and were soon flying after the stage. By very rapid driving it was over- taken near Godfrey's Station, some distance down the Platte. The vigilantes drove up, their horses reeking with foam, halted the driver and stepping to the door of the coach, opened it, beckoned Williams to get out, closed it and ordering the driver to proceed, took charge of their prisoner, who instantly realized that his doom was sealed. There was no opportunity for resistance or escape. They placed him in the carriage, returned to Denver and lodged him in the old jail on Larimer street near the corner of Fourteenth. The next move was to advise the Vigilance Committee here, which was composed of reputable citizens acting as a "Committee of Safety," of their capture of Williams, and the awful crime with which he was charged. Court was convened in a large room over John A. Nye's store, the prisoner brought before it, the charges preferred, testimony taken, and an impartial trial given him, which lasted about three days, in the course of which Williams made a full confession of his part in the terrible tragedy, giving the names and, as far as he knew, the whereabouts of his accomplices, fifteen in number.
Sentence of death having been pronounced upon him, he was
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taken by his captors in a close carriage to a point about four miles below the city in a cluster of cottonwood trees near the Platte River, and there hanged. When life was extinct they cut him down, buried the remains near the tree and disappeared. Some years afterward, a farmer while plowing over the spot, turned up the skeleton of Frank Williams, the stage driver of Pont Neuf Canon. He reported the fact, though ignorant of the identity of the bones, to the police of Denver, but nothing was done about it.
The author having been a guest at the Planter's House when Wil- liams and the vigilantes were there, was informed of the pursuit and capture, but the later developments were obtained from Mr. Rice dur- ing the progress of this work.
To give an idea of the amount of merchandise brought over the plains from Atchison, the principal shipping point on the Missouri River, destined for Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, the "Champion," the leading newspaper of that city, then as now edited by Col. John A. Martin, kept as full an account as could be obtained, each year from 1858 to 1865 inclusive, with the following result: 1858, 3,730,000 pounds; 1859, 4,020,905 ; 1860, 8,220,883 ; 1861, 5,438,456; 1864, 16,639,380; 1865, 24,585,000. Therefore, we have as the possible traffic to be obtained by a railway in 1865, when the Union Pacific began its march, a total of fifteen hundred and thirty-six carloads of sixteen thousand pounds each, for the three Territories named. Twenty-two years later the freight receipts of Denver alone amounted to more than one hundred thousand carloads.
In 1867 George W. Maynard, a mining engineer of great present celebrity, was appointed by Governor Cummings, Commissioner for Colorado to the Paris Exposition of that year, established on a scale of unequaled magnificence by Napoleon III.
The appointee being unable to go, declined, when Acting-Governor Hall tendered the place to J. P. Whitney of Boston, who, being largly engaged in the development of our mines, signified his willingness to accept, and also to collect a fine exhibit of rare and representative min-
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erals to be added to his already superior cabinet, and take them to the Exposition at his own expense. The effect of this representation was salutary, for it induced several eminent scientists of Europe to make exhaustive examination of the gold, silver and other resources of the Territory, whose favorable reports, when published, caused the invest- ment of much foreign capital in them. Commissioner Whitney returned October 3d, accompanied by Col. M. Heine and M. Simonin, French commissioners, who were received and entertained by the Miners' and Mechanics' Institute of Central City.
The declaration that the event of greatest importance to the Ter- ritory in the period under consideration was the inauguration, at Black Hawk, of the Boston and Colorado smelting works, is by no means extravagant, as we shall demonstrate by a glance at the facts. From the date of the exhaustion of the surface decompositions in the principal fissures from which, the gold being free, it was easily extracted, to the beginning of 1868, there had been no method of treatment, owing to the lack of scientific knowledge, capable of dealing with the refractory elements in the ores which supervened. The stamp mills at their best returned only a small percentage of the ascertained contents of the ores. Science and its improvements had not yet ventured to attack the great metallurgical questions opened on this remote frontier. As a matter of fact, both miners and mill men were groping in darkness, each in his particular sphere, but neither making substantial progress. The first knew only the primitive ways of sinking shafts and driving levels; the second knew how to set the machinery of his mill in motion, but only the elementary principles relating to the use and effect of chemicals in aid of amalgamation. When the "clean ups" were unsatisfactory, the gold was declared to be "rusty," therefore would not adhere to the plates; or, the ore was "lean," or so refractory it could not be worked. The concentrates, rich in gold and silver, passed over the plates, down through the sluices into the bed of Clear Creek, and thus the miner lost forever some of the richest fruits of his labor. If saved they were of no use, consequently the entire
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gulch from Nevada to Golden City and the Platte River was strewn with material which, could it have been collected and utilized, would have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Then came, in 1864-5, a cloud of "process men," each with the only conceivable remedy for meeting the emergencies of the rather deplorable situation. Every scheme but the right one offered its services : The "Keith desulphurizer," to destroy the refractory con- stituents and leave the precious metals free for amalgamation ; the "Crosby & Thompson," with its revolving cylinders and columns of fire ; the "Mason process," which operated under newly discovered conditions ; the "Monnier Metallurgical Process," that expelled the sulphur, reduced the copper and other metals to a soluble condition, and, by leaching, collected them, and so on through an interminable line. After expending all the capital that could be wrung from the investors supporting them, each attempt in turn was abandoned, and the costly machinery in due time found its way to the scrap iron heaps of the several foundries.
Then came James E. Lyon & Co. with a new patent desulphur- izer which, after repeated trials, shared the common disaster. Next he built a series of expensive smelters that for a time promised to meet the exigency, but when about two hundred and seventy thousand dollars had been squandered in the comparatively fruitless endeavor, this enterprise, also, the greatest of all, sank into irretrievable ruin.
The absolute failure of these and numerous other attempts to solve the paramount enigma, brought the mining industry and the people at large to the verge of despair. All who could leave emigrated to other fields. The hopelessness of those who remained was well nigh immeasurable. The period between 1864 and 1868 was undoubt- edly the darkest in our history. It was the period of scanty supplies, high wages, Indian wars, the incessant interruption of our commun- ications. Even these conditions, deplorable as they were, might have been more patiently endured had there been even a gleam of light ahead, or any certain prospect of eventual redemption.
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From 1856 to 1864 Nathaniel P. Hill attained much distinction as professor of chemistry in Brown university, at Providence, Rhode Island. In the year last named he was commissioned by a syndicate of Boston capitalists to examine and report upon the resources, mineral and otherwise, of the Gilpin grant in the San Luis Park, Colorado. In 1865 he returned to the Territory, and entered upon a careful inspection of the mines and minerals of Gilpin and Clear Creek coun- ties, then the only lode mining sections developed to any appreciable extent. This examination, together with proper analyses of the ores, convinced him that no part of the world presented greater possi- bilities than this. Becoming deeply interested in the subject, and resolved to pursue it to right conclusions, he collected about seventy tons of mineral from the different mines and took them to Swansea, Wales, for treatment by the smelters there, and spent the winter of 1865-6 in close application to the study of the process in all its various details. Having mastered the information sought, he returned to Boston, and in the spring of 1867 organized the Boston & Colorado smelting company, with a full paid capital of two hundred and seventy- five thousand dollars. In June following, under the direction of Pro- fessor Herman Beeger, a veteran metallurgist, experimental works, consisting of one reverberatory and one calcining furnace with the requisite machinery for crushing, pulverizing, etc., were erected. In January, 1868, the fires were lighted, and the institution opened for business.
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