USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 44
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The corner stone was cemented in its place with Masonic cere- monies, conducted by Webster D. Anthony, Deputy Grand Master of Colorado. The metallic box inserted in the cavity prepared for it, contained much historical matter relating to the city and Territory, of which few, if any copies now exist, and which, could it be recovered and utilized, would add important interest to these chronicles. Judge H. P. H. Bromwell, a man pre-eminently qualified to do full justice to the subject, delivered the oration.
Three of the lots occupied by this building were donated to the local Board for school purposes, by Amos Steck. Five others were purchased by the Board for the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars. In November, 1872, bonds to the amount of seventy-five thousand dollars, bearing ten per cent. interest and running five years, were issued to complete the improvements projected. The Arapahoe street school was regarded as a fine model for the time, but has since been so improved upon in matters of architecture and conveniences as to render it wholly obsolete. It was sold in 1889, and the site given up to business purposes.
The reader who has patiently followed us thus far, will not fail to discover in the data given, the remarkable stimulus imparted to every element of our internal economy by the recent introduction of steam power. As a further example, showing the trend of public sen- timent as expressed in legislative action, let us glance hurriedly over the appropriations enumerated in the draft of a bill reported by the Committee on Appropriations to the Assembly in the session of 1871-72. It will serve to illustrate the difference between the cost of the Territorial and State governments, if no other important purpose.
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The items covered everything for which the Territory was responsible, omitting of course the per diem and mileage allowances by the Federal government, the salaries of the Governor, Secretary, Judges and other Federal officers. It should also be stated in this connection, that the Territory allowed each of the three Justices of the Supreme court, two thousand dollars per annum in addition to the pay given them by con- gressional law. The fixed and estimated charges given below were for the biennial term.
For the pay of officers and members of the Legislature, $13,500 ; salaries of the Supreme Court, $12,000 ; salaries of Territorial officers, $16,200; District Attorneys $4,100, and for penitentiary expenses, $30,000. The last item provoked much acrid discussion. The capacity of the prison was only equal to the accommodation of thirty-nine pris- oners. The United States owned it, and demanded one dollar per day, or three hundred and sixty-five dollars per annum for subsisting each Territorial prisoner confined therein. While the protests against these exorbitant demands were loud and deep, there was no relief.
The sums allowed the various Territorial officers for contingent expenses, were-the Auditor, $800 ; Treasurer, $500 ; Adjutant Gen- eral, $400 ; Librarian, $1,200; Superintendent of Public Instruction, $500 ; Governor, $600 ; support of lunatic paupers in the common jails, for we had no asylum, $5,000 ; Legislative printing, $2,650 ; Legislative newspapers, $200 ; Legislative postage, $200 ; other incidental expenses, $400 ; a safe for the Treasurer, $800 ; storing Territorial arms, $500 ; making a total of $89,550 for two years, or $44,775 per annum.
In addition there were special appropriations for the Board of Immigration, maintenance of deaf mutes, etc., aggregating $22,630 which, added to the general appropriations, made a total of $112, 180.
The Rocky Mountain "News" in commenting upon the apparent extravagance of these appropriations, and undoubtedly appalled by their magnitude, addressed the Assembly in these words: "Gentlemen of the Assembly, these are large figures, and we beg of you to consider them well ; as you value your reputations as loyal and intelligent legislators
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do not increase them by the amount of a single dollar." Under the pressure of public opinion the sum total was finally pruned down to about $100,000. The curious may find interesting employment by com- paring these expenditures with those of the Assembly of 1889 for example, but in doing so they should make due allowance for the vast difference in taxable property, population, and the needs attending the greater development.
The treasury statement showed a surplus of cash on hand amount- ing to fifty-five thousand dollars. As the fixed and estimated charges were only about fifty thousand per annum, the Legislature wisely pro- vided that no tax should be levied in 1872, and that the assessment for 1873 should not exceed one and a half mills. Our assemblies of the olden time may have been slow, but they were forced to be economical. It is safe to say that the precedent thus established is without parallel in the history of Colorado, and that we shall never see its like again.
But everything seemed to be launched on the highway of a long season of unbroken prosperity. The few clouds bore silver linings. The mines were productive, railways were being extended in every direction, capital and immigration poured in, and many new industries were established.
The Legislature of 1872 passed an act providing for a Bureau of Immigration, the first and only measure of the kind that has ever been recorded among our statutes. The Governor appointed Jacob F. L. Schirmer and E. P. Hollister of Arapahoe, David C. Collier of Gilpin, Joseph M. Sherwood of Larimer, and A. W. Archibald of Las Animas, a Board of Commissioners. George T. Clark, Territorial Librarian, was chosen Secretary, and executed a large part of the labor involved. The commissioners met on the 20th of February following, and defined a plan of procedure. They were required to adopt and execute such measures as would best promote immigration to Colorado, and to collate, publish and disseminate information relating to the resources of the country. Each member of the commission assumed such branch of the work as he was best qualified to execute. In due
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time a very creditable pamphlet was issued, and widely distributed. As a result the increase of immigration was very large, too great in fact for the Board to manage. As no proper steps had been taken to locate the new arrivals in places where they were needed ; where the farmers could be placed upon vacant lands, mechanics furnished employment and the miscellaneous element disposed of, they were in the main left to shift for themselves.
The sum appropriated was insufficient to meet the demands of the overwhelming tide, therefore great confusion, intense disgust and a gen- eral retreat ensued. Such effects are liable to follow wholesale invita- tions without adequate preparation for the consequences. In reports such as this Board issued, the lustrous side of the picture is always pre- sented. None of its shadows are seen. But all Boards of Immigration take the same course, in the belief that unless the attractions are floridly colored they will not be seen, or if seen, passed by unheeded. In this instance hordes of immigrants of all avocations arrived, but were not directed into channels where employment could be found, hence the universal dissatisfaction. It is better to have no Board of Immigration at all, better not to waste time and money in advertising and entreating unless proper avenues are opened and the way cleared for such worthy people as may respond and are disposed to remain. As a consequence of the disappointment arising from this effort to awaken a great tide of immigration to Colorado, the Territory was vindictively denounced from one end of the Union to the other, and for years thereafter, indeed until the proclamation of the great discoveries at Leadville in 1878-79, we were almost wholly debarred from doing any advertising at all.
At the municipal election held in April, 1872, Joseph E. Bates, who for many years had been identified with public affairs, as a member of the City Council and the Legislative Assembly, and well qualified to accurately measure the drift of events and to meet the requirements of the new development, was chosen Mayor of Denver. Realizing the deplorable lack of public improvements, and that an advance commen- surate with the rapid growth in all other directions should be made, his
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inaugural address contained numerous recommendations for such improvements, which, with the hearty co-operation of the council were put into execution as fast as the limited funds at their disposal would permit. The Mayor elect strenuously urged among other things, the laying of sidewalks, the few we had being sadly in need of repair, and their extension from the business center to the residence streets, where there were none. But few of the streets were graded, and these received early attention. The erection of public buildings, the purchase of lands for public parks, the organization of police, fire and health departments, was insisted upon. One of the first acts of his adminis- tration was to order a thorough cleansing of the streets and alleys. New ordinances in regard to gas, water and sewerage were earnestly advocated. In brief, Mayor Bates gave early evidence of executive ability of a high order, and during his term of office many improvements were added. While not all were wholly supplied, the police, and fire and health departments were organized and equipped for greater useful- ness, the public thoroughfares vastly improved, and the basis laid for the present efficient methods.
It is not only singular but astonishing that, with the opportunities at the disposal of the original town companies of East and West Denver, not a single acre nor fraction of land in all the broad areas of their respective town sites was set aside for a public park. Now that we need them, now that the city has grown far beyond the anticipations and pre- dictions of its founders, we are lost in amazement at the greediness or want of foresight which induced the platting of two great towns without the slightest provision for the resorts which every community should have, and which when supplied are unmixed blessings to invalids and the toiling classes who seek them as inviting retreats from the heat and dust of the summer months. Even at the time when Mayor Bates took up the matter though late, a more liberal spirit might have accomplished such reservations. Land, though greatly enhanced in value, was never- theless extremely cheap compared with present values. Still nothing could be done, because the city had no funds that could be applied to
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such purposes. The people, dreading taxation and abhorring the idea of a municipal debt, would not give their consent to an issue of bonds. And so it has gone on from year to year. For the want of timely action the opportunity has passed away forever. It seems extraor- dinary, also, that nearly every proposed expenditure for public improve- ment-the Holly water system, the gas works, the paid fire department, uniformed and disciplined police, the board of health, fire steamers, the patrol wagon, the erection of a city hall-were all accomplished under serious opposition. Even the Court House, which as soon as built became a source of universal pride, was erected where it stands under a whirlwind of disapproval. It can be accounted for by no other course of reasoning than that the rigid, almost Puritanical conservatism of the people impelled them to move slowly and keep out of debt rather than to advance rapidly under heavy burdens of taxation. It is ascribable in some degree, also, to the long stress of patient economy which they had been forced to practice for the want of means to afford the luxuries. The little wealth they possessed had been acquired by hard work, liter- ally by the sweat of their brows. All the pioneers came here poor, and every dollar they earned had to be applied to some new want of their condition. Again, very few were over-sanguine of the future. This is indicated by the character of their buildings, the modesty of their dwellings, and by the close economy everywhere observable.
I have heard the sage predictions of some of our most enter- prising and loyal business men, that some day in the distant future Denver would probably attain a population of fifty thousand. This was the utmost limit of their aspirations. The man who soared to the anticipation of one hundred thousand was considered a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. Men dreamed of a city of fifty thousand souls as if it were a remote possibility, but there they drew the line. There are some among our rich men of to-day, made opulent through the phe- nomenal expansion of things, who have no more faith in the future than they had twenty years ago. It is the optimists that have built the town.
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When the State constitution of 1876 was framed, it was a constant struggle to discover the least expensive methods of instituting and conducting an independent government. Salaries and every other element touching financial questions-in other words, that looked to an increase of expenditures from the economical base to which the taxpayers had been so long accustomed, were rigidly scrutinized, and in revising thoroughly pruned, so that when the instrument was sent to the people for approval, it was commended as the best and cheapest arrangement that could be made. Pending the election, the news- papers devoted to the change paid special attention to the economic questions, arguing incessantly to convince their readers that while the State would, undeniably, be a trifle more expensive than the Territory, the difference would be made up by immigration and railroads, the increase of taxable property and so forth, so that the rate of assessment would not be increased. Though the sentiment of the time was rather more favorable than it had been in 1864-65, the charter of 1876 was by no means enthusiastically accepted.
With these facts in mind, the reader will readily comprehend the difficulty of the undertaking which Mayor Bates assumed when he pro- posed to lift the city of Denver out of its normal condition of an over- grown village to the plane of a great inland metropolis. He saw the need of broad and liberal plans for the coming years, possibly foresaw something of the development that fifteen years later made this the focus of wonderful enterprises, and so far as he might be able, intended to keep the municipal machinery abreast of, if not in advance of the time. But it was not until his second administration in 1885, however, that he was enabled to carry out more fully the conceptions formed in 1872.
Thus we find after an experience of nearly thirty years, many deficiencies in our municipal system that should have been supplied in the formative stages. The one fatal error for which future generations will not forgive the first, was its failure to provide public parks. The historian of to-day can scarcely write of this subject without intense
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deprecation of the omission. He cannot divest his mind of the feeling that a little generosity in the early days would have made Denver not only a more beautiful city, but infinitely more inviting to the multitudes of invalids and strangers who come here for health or pleasure. While it is true that we have now two quite extensive parks, they are so dis- tant from the heart of the city and have been so little improved as to be almost a reflection upon, instead of a credit to the city government. This too, is an outgrowth of the morbid fear of a public debt.
It was in the year 1872 that Henry M. Stanley, now the most noted explorer of modern times, plunged into the wilds of Central Africa under orders from the New York "Herald," to discover if possible the great Scotch traveler, Dr. Livingstone. Stanley was known to many in Denver, and in some of the numerous towns of Colorado. Naturally talented, possessed of a fair education, but ambitious, rest- less, and passionately fond of drifting from place to place in search of adventure, he wandered out here in 1866, and visited nearly all the prominent towns in the Territory, writing his impressions of them to the Eastern press. He accompanied General Hancock's expedition to the Indian country in 1867 as correspondent of the St. Louis " Dem- ocrat" which he kept supplied with interesting details of that rather inglorious campaign.
When Hancock retired to the eastward Stanley came on to Denver, remaining a week or two; then aspiring to the accomplishment of a feat which many had attempted, but few succeeded in executing, he procured a skiff ten or twelve feet long, filled one end with provisions, and seating himself in the other, launched his frail bark on the treach- erous bosom of the Platte with the avowed intention of sailing clear through to the Missouri River. He endured great hardships in the perilous journey, as did all of the many who had rashly entered upon similar undertakings ; was, according to his own account, repeatedly fired upon by hostile Indians, but escaped unhurt, and finally made his way to St. Louis, where an elaborate description of his adventures was prepared for and published in the " Democrat."
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We next hear of him in Omaha as a reporter on one of the news- papers of that city. Shortly afterward he fell violently in love with a captivating variety actress who lured him on, and after a time, jilted him. Stanley suffered deeply from this desertion, for it appears to have been an honest affection, and soon re-commenced his wander ings, stopping nowhere more than a few days or weeks. A short time afterward the actress came to Denver. Stanley at length engaged as correspondent of the New York "Herald," and was ordered to London, where he was assigned to General Napier's expedition against King Theodore of Abyssinia. This mission concluded, he volun- teered to penetrate the jungles of Africa in search of Dr. Livingstone.
The first anniversary meeting of the Fountain Colony Company was held at Colorado Springs the first week in August, 1872. General Wm. J. Palmer presided, and many congratulatory speeches were delivered upon the progress made and prospects for the future.
When the first locomotive of the Denver & Rio Grande road reached this point, but a single house marked the spot, and that a small log cabin with mud chinked sides and a dirt roof owned and devoted to hotel purposes, or rather of an eating station, by Captain Richard Sopris, who, as these chronicles show, was one of the most conspicuous of the Colorado pioneers. His name appears at every stage of our early annals. He was associated with nearly every prominent event, since he took part in most of the movements of historical interest; in the organization of numerous mining camps, the formation of local governments, in Denver, Auraria, Central City, Gregory, Jackson, in the San Juan country, and in the gallant record made by the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers. And now at the initial stage of Colorado Springs we find him located at the very head of the corner.
Colorado City had sunken into ruin, and the glories of Manitou were yet to be sung. But the spirit of progress evoked by the railway soon quickened the dormant forces of nature into splendid achievements. It was discovered by the builders that here lay the foundation of a great popular resort. The springs were among the finest known, the envi-
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ronment wonderfully charming. They saw, as Fitzhugh Ludlow prophesied years before, that here was to be the chosen resort of invalids, tourists, pleasure seekers, wealth and culture from every land. So they prepared for it. Unlike the Union Pacific in its inexplicable neglect of Idaho Springs, which by the judicious and timely expenditure of a few thousands might have been made a mountain paradise, they bestowed their funds liberally in planning and perfecting a system of drives, building elegant hotels and in every way beautifying this lovely retreat. What a marvelous harvest the company has reaped from these generous contributions made at the proper time. By the same process Idaho might have been rendered equally charming, but it was withheld. What has been done toward the embellishment of this attractive valley is the work of private capital and enterprise. The railroad company has had no part in it. We are inclined to be indig- nant with a corporation which had so much to gain, which might have added so much to the development of this resort by the exercise of a little open handed liberality, but which almost tyrannically denied all sympathy, giving no sign of appreciation or encouragement. While the Rio Grande has made Manitou and Colorado Springs famous throughout Christendom, by a wisely ordered system of advertising, and has brought thousands from abroad to the enjoyment of the rich prospect, and the social life established there, Idaho, no less worthy, is comparatively unknown.
General Palmer selected for his summer residence one of the most enchanting and romantic glens in all the wonderful formations in the neighborhood of the Garden of the Gods, built a beautiful home there, and called it " Glen Eyrie." This, too, proved a wise investment, for the tourist might as well not visit Manitou at all as to miss the grandeur of Glen Eyrie.
The town site of Colorado Springs embraced seventy blocks four hundred feet square. The contract for the first hotel was let August Ist, 1871. Contracts for the Fountain and Monument irrigating canals were let August 4th of the same year. The first private resi-
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dence was put under construction August 15th. At the close of 1871, the Secretary's books showed that one hundred and ninety-seven mem- berships had been sold, two hundred and seventy-seven town lots dis- posed of at a gross valuation of twenty-four thousand dollars, with three hundred and seventy acres of farming land at a valuation of eleven thousand three hundred and fifty-nine dollars and ninety cents, making a total of thirty-six thousand and fifty-nine dollars and ninety cents, for lots and lands sold at the prices put upon them anterior to settlement.
The number of houses that had been erected in the town to the date of Secretary Pabor's report, was one hundred and fifty-nine. Contracts for fifteen others were then in the hands of builders. The total population was estimated at seven hundred and ninety-five, and the value of the buildings erected by individuals at one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
An excellent weekly newspaper had been founded. Many pros- perous business houses and two churches had been built, a free reading room opened, and a contract for a fine public school building given out. Nineteen miles of canals two and a half feet deep and six feet wide had been excavated, which, with the seven miles additional then in progress, would place all the colony lands under irrigation. Some- thing over thirteen miles of lateral canals had been put through the town, seven miles of shade trees planted, four quite extensive public parks laid out containing a combined area of one hundred and eight acres, and the educational interests of the future provided for by liberal reservations for free schools, academies and colleges.
These founders builded more wisely, perhaps, than they knew, but in preparing for the future they left nothing undone calculated to enhance the beauty and prosperity of the place. As a consequence, Colorado Springs has become in the brief space of eighteen years one of the most admirable of Western towns, the home of thousands of happy and prosperous people.
The Fort Collins military reservation, established as a protection
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to settlers during the Indian wars, was relinquished by the govern- ment and thrown open to homestead and pre-emption entries in 1872, under the provisions of an act of Congress approved May 15th of that year. July 30th General W. H. Lessig, Surveyor-General of Colorado, was instructed to complete the plats of survey and transmit diagrams of the same to the proper local land office, preparatory to the disposal of these lands to settlers as provided in the act mentioned. The reservation occupied an extensive and very fertile tract on the Cache la Poudre River, or Creek, about four and a half miles from the mountains and twenty-five from Greeley, in one of the most attractive valleys of Northern Colorado, with abundant water for irri- gation, and power for manufactures, when the time should come for its utilization in that branch of industry. The site on which the town is located commands a superb view of the mountains. The State Agri- cultural College, an institute that has accomplished more for the proper guidance of farmers, and toward the successful development of agriculture and horticulture, than all other influences combined, is located there.
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