USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 40
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place. Strongly inclined to return to Colorado, but not as a private citizen, he investigated Mr. Hunt's tenure, and finding it vulnerable brought every influence to bear upon President Grant for the place. While favorably impressed with Governor Hunt, and unwilling to super- sede him, the President was nevertheless induced to yield to an old comrade in arms, and so made the change.
The statement that General McCook was stimulated to extraor- dinary effort in this case by the appropriations to be expended under the superintendency of Indian affairs in this department, is fully justified by the facts. He saw an opportunity to exercise great influence, and probably for the acquisition of material advantages through the large sum of money that would be placed at his disposal. He arrived in Denver on the 11th of June. After a short conference in my office, we drove out to call upon ex-Governor Hunt who had gone into retire- ment, deeply wounded by his summary and wholly unwarranted official decapitation. A friendly consultation was held in which it was arranged that as Hunt had virtually secured the appropriations, he would be per- mitted to carry out his plan for their expenditure under the direction of the Governor-elect. In this, as will appear at the proper time, he was the victim of still deeper treachery.
On the 17th of June, Secretary William H. Seward with a party of friends comprising his son Frederick and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. L. Wilson of the "Chicago Evening Journal," Mrs. Farrar, mother of Mrs. Wilson, Abijah Fitch of Auburn, New York, and Colonel Emory of the Ninth U. S. Infantry, arrived in Denver. A reception occurred at the American House the same evening. On the 18th they took car- riages for Central City and Idaho Springs, and were accompanied by Governor McCook and myself. After a short stay in this region the party returned to the East.
Early in July, Dr. F. V. Hayden, chief of the U. S. Geological survey, arrived with his corps of assistants for the purpose of making a preliminary examination of the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains from Cheyenne to Santa Fé, giving careful attention to the mineral
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and coal resources. He devoted a part of the season to investiga- tions along the line of the Union Pacific railroad, collecting several tons of specimens of coal, fossils, samples of rock, minerals and ores. The result of his examination of the Marshall coal mine near Boulder, with analysis of the product, appeared in his report published in 1876. Accompanied by ex-Governor Gilpin, he visited the San Luis Park. He inspected with infinite care and zeal the mining regions about Central. Black Hawk and Georgetown. His report exerted much influence toward strengthening the faith of our people in the resources of the country, and especially in the permanency of the mines.
On the 15th of July General J. M. Schofield and staff arrived, and following the general course of tourists, made the pilgrimage of the mountains.
November 20th, 1868, Mr. Orson Brooks, a venerable and highly respected citizen, while en route to his home in the suburbs just after dark, was attacked by footpads in the then unlighted and lonely quarter near the corner of Sixteenth and Lawrence streets, "held up" and robbed of about one hundred and twenty-five dollars. This bold assault fol- lowing upon two or three others of like nature, aroused the police under City Marshal D. J. Cook to vigorous pursuit of the nocturnal outlaws. With U. S. Deputy Marshal Haskell, he discovered the trail and quickly followed the robbers to Golden City, where they were discovered to be two old and notorious criminals, Ed Franklin and Sam Dougan, who, after a rapid career in this region had emigrated to, and for some time were engaged in nefarious operations in the different towns on the Pacific railroad west of Cheyenne. Having been driven out of Laramie by threats of lynching, they reappeared in their old haunts, and being destitute of funds attacked Mr. Brooks with the result stated, leaving at once for Golden City in the hope of escaping the officers of the law. Cook and his assistant followed. On their arrival it was found that Dougan and Franklin had spent the intervening time in drinking and rioting, and that the latter, being thoroughly stupefied by frequent pota- tions, had retired to bed in the Overland house. But they found Dougan
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in a saloon, who, as soon as he recognized the officers, cursed and defied them, and at the same time fired at them with his revolver. They immediately returned the fire, when he fled through a back door and escaped in the darkness. In the melee the barkeeper was shot and severely wounded. Dougan having eluded his search, Cook next turned his attention to securing Franklin, dead or alive, as the circumstances should warrant. Proceeding to his room, Cook with a cocked revolver in his hand, awakened the sleeper. Franklin realizing the danger, sprang instantly for his revolver, resisting all attempts at capture. Cook knowing the desperate character of the man, and that extreme meas- ures would be justified, fired and killed him. The body, encased in a rough box, was brought to Denver and buried.
Dougan was followed the next day, and finally captured at a point between Greeley and Cheyenne, brought back and lodged in jail. Shortly afterward a temporary vigilance committee was organized. Cook deeming the Larimer street prison insecure, on the evening of December Ist concluded to remove Dougan to the city calaboose in West Denver, which was a much stronger building, and from which his desperate prisoner would be less liable to escape. Some of the vigilantes discovering his purpose, secreted themselves beneath the Larimer street bridge, and when Cook appeared with Dougan, they forcibly seized the prisoner, taking him to a cottonwood tree on Cherry street between Fourth and Fifth, where preparations for execution were speedily made. Having adjusted the noose about his neck, the prisoner was given a chance to speak or pray as he chose, but he was ordered to be quick about it. Unaccustomed to prayer, he spent the time in confession and pitiful appeals for mercy. He acknowledged having killed a man named Curtis, a quartz hauler in Black Hawk, in January, 1865, a fact well known to most of his executioners, but denied several other murders imputed to him. As to the robbery of Mr. Brooks, he first denied all participation in that offense, but subsequently admitted it. He had been a pretty tough citizen, but did not deserve such a death as was about to be visited
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upon him. The crowd about him becoming impatient, ordered the wagon in which he stood drawn from under him, when the soul of Sam Dougan, the outlaw, sped to its Maker. He was only twenty- three years of age ; had been a teamster in Black Hawk and Central for some time. After the killing of Curtis he was confined in the jail at Central, but the law's long delay in bringing him to trial at length opened the way for his escape, when he went to Laramie City, Wyoming, only to fall in with associates more evil minded than himself.
The body remained where the vigilantes left it, swinging in the moonlight, and casting its ghastly shadow upon the ground through the night and until 10 o'clock next morning, when it was cut down and buried. Then the residents of the neighborhood, to prevent the enactment of further scenes of like revolting nature, brought out their axes and removed the tree.
Some time prior to the events mentioned, a notorious desperado and stock thief named Musgrove, after long pursuit had been captured and lodged in the Larimer street prison. The day after the exe- cution of Dougan, a vigilance committee formed on Blake or Holladay street, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and in orderly procession marched to the prison and demanded the person of Musgrove. When the door opened to admit the leaders, the prisoner suspecting their purpose, seized a billet of wood and stood at bay, defying them to take him. Revolvers were drawn and several shots fired at him, but owing to the excitement, none took effect. After a sharp struggle he was overpowered and taken to the Larimer street bridge over Cherry creek, where preparations had been made for the lynching. Realizing his doom, he resolved to meet it bravely. His request to be permitted to write a hasty note to a friend was granted. The message, written in pencil on the railing, was soon finished, when he was put into a wagon and driven into the bed of the creek under the bridge, from one of the floor timbers of which dangled a noosed rope. Here he was bound, hands and feet, and the noose adjusted about his
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neck, when the order was given to drive the wagon from under him. To make death certain and immediate, Musgrove sprang into the air, and when he fell his neck was dislocated, and his death comparatively painless.
The leader of the vigilantes then addressed the assemblage briefly, saying there were a dozen or more other ruffians in the town, some of whom were well known to the committee. They were thereby warned to absent themselves within twenty-four hours, or the penalty just witnessed would be visited upon them also.
" Musgrove was an outlaw," says the "News " of that date, "who had made society his prey for several years, successively defying by boldness, when he could not outwit by cunning, the officers of justice. He was driven as a bandit from California, Nevada and Utah, and first appeared in Colorado in the role of a murderer at Fort Halleck in 1863. For this he was arrested and sent to Denver, where he was discharged by the United States commissioner for want of jurisdiction. Taking up his residence on Clear Creek at Baker's bridge, he soon became the recognized chief of a band of land pirates, who lived by running off government stock, effacing the brands and then disposing of it. His retreat, when pressed too closely by officers of the law, was at the head of the Cache la Poudre, in an almost inaccessible natural rock fortress. Here Officer Haskell, unarmed and unattended, was allowed to visit him.
" The charge which exasperated the people was that of his having been the leader of one of the bands of Indians which ravaged our settlements last fall. As he was taken from the jail he said, ' I sup- pose you are going to hang me because I've been an Indian chief.' Deprecate the course as we will the fact remains, that the people re- sorted to violence because the criminal laws did not afford the pro- tection which the people had a right to demand of them."
While the better sentiment of the community abhorred the dread- ful spectacles, it is true nevertheless, that the summary execution of justice in the two cases described had a salutary and enduring effect.
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The desperate class, warned by the example made of their comrades disappeared, and there was no more orderly community on the frontier than Denver for the succeeding two years. We admit the appalling nature of such transactions, but in the cases noted they were in some degree warranted by the reasons stated. Men argued then, and they are contending to-day all over the land with acknowledged force, that the method of practice in the criminal courts, obstructs rather than advances the cause of justice, shields rather than punishes offenders who possess the means to purchase immunity, and too frequently turns them loose to work their further will upon the citizens whom they have already too far outraged. They feel that a large proportion of the taxes paid are for the enforcement of laws which are not enforced, or if executed at all, upon a class which can make only feeble resistance. Argue as we may for the preservation of law and order, many of us realize but too keenly that the law is less potential in the maintenance of order than the loyalty of the citizen who abhors disorder. In the early times as they are called, the people endured many atrocities with reasonable patience, but when some especially heinous assault was made upon their rights, their wrath exceeded all bounds and instantly rendered a judgment from which there was neither escape nor appeal. There is not an instance upon our records where an innocent person, nor one whose guilt was not clearly established, suffered injury at their hands.
Let us now take a retrospective view of the developments in other quarters of the Territory where fixed settlements were made and main- tained, and which to-day comprise the chief centers of population and permanent industry. It may be stated in this connection however, that outside of Denver-which by reason of its position as the chief trading post, the recognized seat of government, and the political influence concentrated here, acquired a prominence not equaled by any other point, and was approached only by Central City during the period of its greatest renown,-progress was in no case continuous, though many enjoyed spasmodic outbursts in which feverish excitement prevailed for
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a year or so, when all things were reduced to the common level of legitimate industry and commerce. To make the point aimed at more clear, there were towns to which many thousands rushed in a frantic impulse to gather the first fruits of what promised to be an abundant harvest, whose resources were only sufficient to maintain a few hun- dreds. The overplus being merely speculative was compelled to emi- grate. It is but a repetition of the history of mining countries the world over, and is too well understood to need further explanation.
In the agricultural sections the settlers struggled with new and adverse conditions, first to gain a substantial foothold, and then to maintain it. Except upon narrow strips of rich bottom land, bordering the streams, little could be accomplished without irrigation, and this, to begin with, was not understood; and secondly involved the expen- diture of capital which the pioneers did not possess. In Boulder County where the settlers were divided between mining and agriculture, and mutually dependent upon each other, the experiment of husbandry developed early. The miners needed vegetables, and the farmer the gold taken from the hills. Neither class knew how to meet the prob- lems which confronted it after the experimental stage had been passed, and so both groped on in comparative darkness, until by steady perse- verance in well doing the problem reached its solution.
The abundant yields of the placer mines, especially in Gold Run, Gambell's Gulch and a few other points, together with gains derived from the outcroppings of several noted lodes or quartz veins, lent a powerful stimulus to the infant colony established at the base of the mountains. The site was beautiful, the surrounding country both rich and inviting. In addition, much of it was underlaid with coal, from which Denver drew a part of its supply. Prof. F. V. Hayden said of them in his first report : "Nowhere in the world is there such a vast development of the recent coal measures, and in few places is their existence more necessary to the advancement and improvement of the region in which they occur." Amos Bixby informs us that three brothers named Wellman were the first in that county, if not the first
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in Colorado to plow land, plant seed and sow wheat. They possessed a claim, or ranch, of excellent land on Boulder Creek two and a half miles from the base of the mountains.
The town was organized February roth, 1859. There were fifty shareholders in the company, and the site embraced twelve hundred and forty acres. These pioneers, like their contemporaries of Auraria, expected to build a great city, and therefore gave it room to spread. During the first year about seventy log houses were built. The first schoolhouse in the Territory had its birthplace among these thrifty people. Lumber mills there were none until 1860, when Mr. A. J. Mackey secured boards enough from one located in the mountains to build quite a pretentious residence for his family.
In 1860 Messrs. Fraser & Scoville established a foundry and machine shop on half a block of ground which had been presented to them by A. C. Hunt, on the west side of Larimer street, Denver, near the present terminus of the street car track, and manufactured the various kinds of ironwork required in those days. In December of that year the works were purchased by Joseph M. Marshall. The raw material for castings was obtained by breaking up and melting useless machinery brought here for various purposes, to which it was either not adapted, or for which there was no demand. In August, 1861, Mr. Marshall began exploring the coal fields of Erie, Boulder County, for fire clay, finding the best connected with the immense coal outcrop of what is now the Marshall mine. While digging for clay he discovered an excellent quality of brown hematite iron ore. Samples were brought to Denver with the fire clay, and tested in a blacksmith's forge. The results being highly favorable, in 1863 a small experimental cold blast furnace was built near the Marshall mine, in which when completed, a very thorough test of the iron ores thereabouts was made. The furnace did not operate satisfactorily ; the hearths melted, and the concern collapsed. In 1865 it was reconstructed with hearths calculated to endure the heat. During the succeeding three months it produced about two hundred tons of fine pig iron, and here the experiment ended.
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There were very few historic incidents in the period between 1859 and 1870. Indeed, the greater part of the history of the Territory, and of the State, except such as we have related, lies in the last half of the second and in the third decades of time, and our chief purpose in reviewing the exterior fields at this stage is to preserve the record of such shreds of information as were developed, whereby we shall be enabled in the second volume to exhibit the marvelous contrast effected by the new epochs then to be considered.
Rev. Jacob Adriance, one of the advance missionaries of Denver, extended his good offices to Boulder in 1860. The Congregationalists erected the first church in 1866, but it was not dedicated until July, 1870. The other denominations worshiped wherever they could find audience room, now in the schoolhouse, again in the court rooms, and frequently in private residences.
The town of Pueblo was formally organized in the winter of 1859-60, the county in 1862. The latter included all the territory now embraced in its own, and the adjoining counties of Bent, Huerfano, and Las Animas, in area sufficient for an independent State. The first house in the town was erected by Mr. Jack Wright. From Stevenson's sketch we find that the first board of county commissioners consisted of O. H. P. Baxter, R. L. Wootton, and William Chapman ; County Clerk, Stephen Smith ; Sheriff, Henry Way. The first term of court was held by Hon. A. A. Bradford, subsequently appointed to the Supreme bench, and twice elected delegate to Congress. Prior to 1862 Pueblo occupied a rather lonely position. Its population was small, there was no regular communication by mail or otherwise with other settlements, and the original settlers had much difficulty in maintaining the position they had taken. In 1862 matters began to improve. A weekly mail was established, and J. A. Thatcher, a resident of Denver, went down there with a considerable stock of assorted merchandise adapted to the wants of the people, where, the venture proving quite profitable, his brother, M. D. Thatcher, joined him. Through close attention to business, both in process of years became very wealthy.
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The "Colorado Chieftain " was established in 1868 by Dr. M. Beshoar (now of Trinidad), Wilbur F. Stone (afterward associate justice of the Supreme Court of the State, at this writing judge of the Criminal Court of Arapahoe County), and George A. Hinsdale, two of the ablest writers in the Territory, being its editors.
The first church in Pueblo was built in 1868 by the Episcopalians, and dedicated as St. Peter's church. They were followed by the Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics in the order named.
In 1869 Thatcher Bros., Rettberg & Bartels, Berry Brothers, James Rice (now in his second term as Secretary of State), D. G. Peabody, and the Cooper Brothers were the principal merchants. Judge Moses Hallett (now U. S. District Judge) presided over the territorial court. The bar comprised A. A. Bradford, George A. Hinsdale, Wilbur F. Stone, H. C. Thatcher (afterward Chief-Justice of the State Supreme Court), James McDonald, J. W. Henry, and George Q. Richmond. Pueblo became an incorporated town in 1870. Its development into a large and flourishing city dates from the advent of the Denver & Rio Grande railway in 1872, of which a full account will be given hereafter.
Canon City. In a preceding chapter the opening scenes in the set- tlement of this now well established town were described. In the spring of 1860 the site was relocated and extended to embrace twelve hundred and eighty acres, the survey being made by Buell & Boyd of Denver, who also located the town site of Pueblo. Only a few cabins were built. Being on the natural highway to the mines of the Upper Arkansas and the South Park, it became a point of some prominence. One of the earliest land claims or farms, was taken up by Mr. Jesse Frazer, now a noted fruit grower of the State-in April, 1860, Mrs. Frazer, his spouse, being the first white woman who settled in the county outside of Cañon City. "From April, 1860, to September following," says Rocka- fellow, "there were neither civil nor criminal laws in the region. In Sep- tember, a meeting of citizens was held, and a code of laws drafted for temporary use. W. R. Fowler, one of the prominent residents of the
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present era, was chosen to administer them. He was thus made the head of a popular tribunal, modeled after those which were so success- fully operated in Gilpin and other mining districts in primitive times." When winter closed the mines, the crowds of sturdy gold diggers emigrated to the genial climate of Cañon, and being somewhat boister- ous at times, Magistrate Fowler was given frequent occasion to exercise the functions of his autocratic position. During 1860-61, many houses were built to accommodate the constant accessions, among them several rather pretentious structures of cut stone, which gave the place a more substantial appearance than even Denver exhibited until after 1864. In the latter year, being one of the party of citizens of Park county who went in pursuit of the Reynolds band of robbers, I had abundant opportunity to witness the grand preparations that had been made in previous years to make Cañon an important emporium of commerce. At the time mentioned it had been abandoned by all but Anson Rudd and family, who, having set their stakes for a permanent homestead and possessing unfaltering confidence in the final outcome, stood resolutely by it. , Having been chasing over the mountains for several weeks- tired, sun-burned, dusty, and otherwise transformed from my accustomed appearance and habits as a town dweller, an invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Rudd to dine with them was gratefully accepted. The recollection of the quiet comfort, the generous hospitality, the spotless cleanliness, and exact order prevailing everywhere about the premises, and withal, the marvelous contrast to the life I had been leading for the preceding month in the camps of the park and mountains, left impressions which have been cherished as delightful memories through all the intervening years. Happily both of these estimable people have lived to witness and enjoy the fruition of their hopes. It required courage and faith such as only few possessed to cling to the spot when all their neighbors and friends had fled, and they are richly entitled to greater rewards than the unfolding years have brought them.
At one time, between 1860 and 1862, nearly a thousand people, mostly from the mountain districts had congregated there, and it was
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found necessary to frame a new code of laws and meet the inflow of dis- order by more stringent regulations. Thereupon, Messrs. Stone and Hinsdale, the eminent pioneer lawyers, formulated a series of statutes covering all essential points. According to Magistrate Fowler, they "conferred upon the court criminal and civil jurisdiction, while the court arrogated to itself chancery and all other powers not delegated by the code." In fact it was supreme, no provision being made for an appeal from its decisions.
Clear Creek County. The deposits on Jackson's bar were neither extraordinarily rich nor very extensive, therefore were soon worked out. Then succeeded discoveries below the site of Idaho on Illinois Bar and Grass Valley flats ; on Soda Hill, Payne's and Spanish Bars, extending up to Fall River, and, at intervals, to Empire and Georgetown. By the spring of 1862 most of the mines had been closed and were carried on, if at all, in a desultory manner without profit. The people migrated. The only town of any consequence, and this only a straggling settlement of cabins, was Idaho, whose growth was subsequently enforced through the fame of its mineral springs. Here F. W. Beebee built a cabin larger than those of his neighbors, and opened a hotel.
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