USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 45
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The climate and soil of this region are unexcelled, the crops among the most abundant produced in any portion of the State. The colony located here was organized on substantially the same basis as that at Greeley and Colorado Springs. General R. A. Cameron, the veteran organizer and director of the greater part of our prosperous colonies, was chosen President and Superintendent, and W. E. Pabor Secretary and Treasurer. The Vice-President was J. C. Matthews ; the trustees were Judge Hawes, ex-Sheriff Brush, Judge J. M. Sherwood, B. H. Eaton-afterward Governor of Colorado-Sheriff Mason, Norman H. Meldrum-afterward Lieutenant Governor-E. W. Whitcomb and B. T. Whedbee. Under rightly directed influences this colony has devel- oped into a strong and prosperous center of trade. At each recurring season bountiful harvests have rewarded the husbandman, and it seems destined to be one of the larger towns of the State.
The Colony Company secured one-half of the town lots and
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suburban lands adjoining the town proper, owned by the Larimer County Land Improvement Company, for the purpose of holding in trust the lands lying adjacent to the agricultural college for the use and benefit of actual settlers ; also for the purpose of making rapid develop- ment of the country, thereby giving to each fixed settler co-operative participation in the gains derivable from the enhancement of real values from existing prices. Upon a broad and enlightened public policy, aided by a thrifty and enterprising people, Fort Collins has made great advances. It has two railroads, with the prospect of one or two more in the near future. In the near vicinity have been developed numerous extensive quarries of fine building and paving stone, whence several towns in Colorado, and many in neighboring States draw much of their building material.
Toward the last of January, 1872, a meeting of the pioneers of 1858-59 was held in Cutler's Hall in the city of Denver, to advise concerning the expediency of organizing an association for social entertainment, the exercise of a broader charity toward the more unfortunate of the guild, for the collection of historical data and inter- esting reminiscences, and with the view of providing for the greater comfort of the destitute, and for the interment of the dead. A. H. Barker presided, and O. J. Goldrick was chosen Secretary. Mr. Wm. N. Byers, in an address of some length, proposed the formation of a strong cohesive association similar to that of the forty-niners of Cali- fornia, having for one of its chief purposes the perpetuation of the early history of the Pike's Peak region ; the preparation of a system of records containing the names and, so far as possible, the discoveries and noteworthy exploits of the pioneers; the adoption of a symbol or badge for identification of the early explorers from the common herd of tenderfeet, annual reunions and banquets, and the cementing of fraternal ties between those who had borne honorable parts in the annals of the country.
A few days later, all needful preliminaries having been arranged, an adjourned meeting was held in the same place, sixty pioneers
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being present, when a constitution, with appropriate by-laws, rules and regulations, was adopted. The organization was perfected by the election of the following officers :
President, Hiram P. Bennett ; Vice-Presidents, Dr. J. H. Mor- rison and Richard Sopris; Secretary, William N. Byers ; Treasurer, F. Z. Salomon ; Marshal, John L. Dailey. The Board of Trustees comprised the officers named, with James M. Broadwell and John Armor. The society thus united exists to the present day, but its rules were subsequently modified to embrace all who came to the country prior to 1861. It is an honorable and a devoted brother- hood, extending its beneficences to the living, and paying the last honors to its dead. As in the Grand Army of the Republic, the sword of death cuts great gaps in its ranks each year, and soon the record will be closed forever.
Colorado has been visited by many distinguished men, statesmen, soldiers, authors and scientists in its time, but down to the latest period embraced in this volume, it has been honored by the presence of but one representative of royalty. On the 23d of January, 1872, the Grand Duke Alexis, youngest son of Emperor Alexander of Russia, with a numerous retinue, arrived in Denver. The enthusiastic greet- ing accorded the son of that distinguished ruler in New York and wherever he traveled, was simply an expression by the people of the Northern States of their appreciation of the steadfast friendliness of Russia to the cause of the Union during the war. Therefore, Alexis was literally overwhelmed with courtesies and ovations from the begin- ning to the close of his American tour.
But that portion of the trip which was most enjoyable to him was the grand buffalo hunt on the Western plains under the pilotage of " Buffalo Bill"-W. F. Cody-and Generals Sheridan and Custer. This concluded, they came on to Denver for a view of the Rocky Mountains. The party was met at Cheyenne by Governor McCook, ex-Governor Evans, Mayor Bates, Col. George E. Randolph, Judge James B. Belford and others. The Grand Duke was accompanied by
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his tutor, Admiral Possuet, Count Olsenfieff, Consul General Bodisco, Count Starlingoff, Lieutenant Tudur of the Imperial Navy, a corre- spondent of the New York "Herald," and a number of servants.
General Sheridan's staff consisted of General George A. For- sythe and Col. M. V. Sheridan, aides de camp, General George A. Custer and General Sweitzer. The day following their arrival, the party was driven about the city in carriages, and in the evening "a grand ducal ball" was given in the dining room of the American House. After as thorough an examination as could be made in the limited time at their disposal, of the principal features of the town, they visited Golden City where they were entertained by the officers of the Colorado Central Railway Company. After two days in this region, the Grand Duke and suite departed via the Kansas Pacific for St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans.
During the year 1872, the mining sections of the San Juan Moun- tains were heavily peopled, through the discovery of many very rich gold and silver mines. Though several attempts had previously been made to effect a permanent lodgment in that country, no material suc- cess was gained until the year of which we write. The loftiness of the altitude, the length and severity of the winters, the great difficulty of taking in supplies, and perhaps more than all, the enormous expense of transporting heavy goods, as machinery for mining and reduction over the rocky and rugged ranges, rendered the experiment unusually hazardous. The placer mines never yielded large amounts of gold, and though the lodes and ledges were strong, well defined and extremely valuable, for the reasons stated, no considerable progress toward open- ing them was possible. How those people clung to the region through so many years before the extension of the Rio Grande rail- road to Durango and Silverton afforded them egress for their ores and ingress for supplies, is almost inexplicable. That they did not revel in luxury we know, but the puzzle is how the great majority managed to subsist at all under the trying conditions of their complete isolation. But after the railroad was built and a new era begun, many of those
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who toiled, and fasted, and suffered every deprivation save absolute starvation, reaped the reward of their courage and tenacity. To-day the San Juan region, embracing the counties of Ouray, Dolores, San Juan, La Plata and San Miguel, is one of the most extensive and pro- ductive mineral bearing sections of the State, where several large towns have been built, and from whence a considerable part of our more valuable gold and silver ores are obtained for the smelters of Denver and Pueblo. A full geological and statistical review of this and all other mining divisions of the State will appear in the second volume of this work.
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CHAPTER XXX.
ORGANIZATION, LOCATION AND EARLY HISTORY OF UNION COLONY-VISIT OF N. C. MEEKER-ATTEMPT TO LOCATE IN THE SOUTH PARK-ARRIVAL OF HORACE GREELEY-FATE OF THE FIRST AND ONLY SALOON EVER OPENED IN GREELEY- CARL WULSTEN'S COLONY IN THE WET MOUNTAIN VALLEY-REVIEW OF IRRIGA- TION-TREE PLANTING AND FRUIT CULTURE-THE CHICAGO-COLORADO COLONY ESTABLISH LONGMONT-COLORADO WHEAT AND FLOUR IN THE EAST.
The period in which many tracts of public land in Colorado were colonized, resulting in the happy settlement of several thrifty, indus- trious and well ordered communities, and the development of some of the finest towns in the commonwealth, began in 1869-70. The move- ment was inaugurated by Mr. N. C. Meeker, agricultural editor of the New York "Tribune," under the advice and patronage of Horace Greeley, who evinced a lively interest in the drift of emigration to the westward. Mr. Meeker came to the Territory in the summer of 1869 with a small party of journalists and others interested in the project, and after a general examination of the country, being deeply enam- ored of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and lost in admiration of the fruits produced by farmers already located here, conceived the plan of establishing a modest colony of fifty or sixty families at some point where an abundance of good land could be pre-empted or pur- chased, and supplied with water for irrigation. Traveling in the mountains so fascinated Meeker that he had about decided to locate his proposed colony in the southeasterly edge of the South Park, but after advising with Mr. Wm. N. Byers, who comprehended that such a selection would result disastrously, finally, but with some reluctance, abandoned this idea, and was led to consider favorably the site subse-
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quently located upon. Mr. Byers attended most of the original colony meetings in New York, and assisted largely in the preliminary organi- zation, and the movement for the ultimate location. A number of settlers, among them Peter Winne and David Barnes, had some years previous taken up a part of the lands on the Cache la Poudre, and were then cultivating them. Mr. Byers strongly urged Meeker to allow them to remain, as his people would gather much information from their experience, but Meeker insisted on buying them out, and did so.
But without reaching a definite conclusion as to a location, though many sections were examined, the party returned to New York, where Meeker made a full report of his observations in the West, and out- lined his contemplated enterprise. Mr. Greeley, delighted with the prospect, entered most ardently into the scheme, authorizing his agri- cultural editor to make free use of the columns of the "Tribune " in bringing the matter to public notice, The call for volunteers was pub- lished in the latter part of December, 1869, and in a short time no less than eight hundred responses were received. A meeting was held at Cooper Institute, New York, December 23d, when Union Colony was formally organized, and the major details perfected. Mr. Meeker was chosen President ; Gen. R. A. Cameron, Vice-President, and Horace Greeley, Treasurer. A locating committee consisting of N. C. Meeker, General Cameron, and A. C. Fisk was appointed, and, accom- panied by Mr. H. T. West, came out to the Territory to select a location.
On the 5th of April, 1870, the following telegram was sent to New York : "Union Colony No. I has located on the delta formed by the South Platte and the Cache la Poudre Rivers, and near the Denver Pacific Railroad." From a chronicle of the time we discover that the "first settlers arrived about the middle of May. On the future town site not a house, shanty, nor even a bush or twig was in sight excepting a fringe of trees bordering the Platte River. Besides these nothing was to be seen between the river and the foothills, twenty miles away,
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but a vast rolling prairie covered with cactus and the short gramma grass of the region. The next year the assessed valuation of real and personal property in Greeley, was over four hundred thousand dollars, and to-day"-in the fall of 1886-"it is nearly one million, which repre- sents far more in proportion than did the valuation of 1871."
At the outset sixty persons joined the association, each paying an initiation fee of five dollars and pledging themselves to pay one hun- dred and fifty dollars each at the call of the Treasurer, to be covered into a fund for the purchase of land. No member was permitted to buy more than one hundred and sixty acres. According to the state- ments contained in the responses to Mr. Meeker's circular, the total amount of wealth represented was something over a million dollars. Most of the trades, professions and pursuits were included, but the majority were farmers. Horace Greeley had lent the aid of his pow- erful name and benevolent countenance to the enterprise, and that was sufficient to attest its genuineness and worth. All New England, with many parts of New York, Ohio and Indiana became interested in the proposed colony. At the Cooper Institute meeting which was a very large gathering, many glowing speeches were made, and the entire proposition laid bare. General Cameron, after enlarging upon the location selected, and the prospects ; the wonderful climate, the scenic beauty of the mountains and plains, the richness of the soil and the marvelous opportunities opened to the industrious settler, observed that what the colony needed first of all to insure success was a strong organization-and money. Said he, " I went to Indiana when it was a wilderness, and to Chicago when it was a mud hole, and now I want to go to Colorado. Nowhere else on the globe is there such a country as the West. The great mining region is to be developed, and when this is done a market will be created that cannot be overstocked."
In a compilation of data prepared for the advisement of the colo- nists we find the following information : "Milch cows are worth thirty- five to sixty-five dollars each ; five year old steers, forty-five dollars ; oxen, one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty- five dollars per
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yoke; saddle ponies, seventy-five dollars each ; good farm horses, three hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars per span ; mules, three fifty to four hundred and fifty per span ; broken down stage horses, one hundred dollars each ; lumber, thirty to forty dollars per thousand feet.
" Wheat is worth two and a half cents per pound ; corn and oats the same ; barley, four cents ; flour, four fifty to six dollars per hun- dred pounds ; butter, forty-five to fifty cents ; potatoes, two to three cents per pound, and eggs thirty-five to forty cents per dozen. Farm laborers command from twenty-five to forty dollars per month with board ; mechanics, five dollars per day without board ; women as cooks and housekeepers, seven to ten dollars per week with board and room."
The foregoing extract represents very fully and accurately the prices which then ruled in the towns on the plains and throughout the agricultural sections. In the mining districts somewhat higher rates prevailed.
The movement enlisted the attention of all who were disposed to emigrate. In every community there are many who, though com- fortably situated, and, as the phrase goes, doing well, are nevertheless dissatisfied with moderate gains and slow progress ; who are ever on the watch for an opportunity to change to new fields where greater promise is offered for rapid advancement. The spirits which long to venture out into the New West are awakened, but few consider the trials incident to the redemption of that mysterious region. To them it is a land flowing with milk and honey, filled with treasures to be had for the seeking, where ambition finds bountiful reward and industry countless wealth. On the bleak and dreary coasts of New England, climatic influences depress and discourage ; the soil is hard and stub- born. Hence when the committee presented its attractive facts and figures, hundreds rose up and accepted the invitation to settle in Colorado.
About five hundred paid the initiation fees and signed the mem-
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bership roll. The managers resolved at the outset that the colony should be entirely free from the sale and use of intoxicants, a pure, moral, sober and model community. Therefore they incorporated in its articles of association a clause prohibiting the manufacture and sale of liquors. The colony was established on the stock basis, the lands being purchased from the common fund and held by Horace Greeley as trustee for the shareholders, who were to become owners in fee upon compliance with the conditions named in the contracts. There were town lots for the town dwellers, larger rural plats about the town, and farm lands outside of these, the plan contemplating a series of con- centric circles with prices graduated according to location.
About the first of May, 1870, some fifty families had arrived via the Union Pacific and Denver Pacific railroads. They were not emi- grants in the common acceptation of the term, but chiefly intelligent, well-to-do people, resolved to take up the work assigned them in the redemption of the wilderness, and to pursue it earnestly by the light given them. There were farmers, merchants, bankers, mechanics, each bringing such implements, stocks, and accessories of his particular avocation, as were needed for a beginning. Tents were set up for tem- porary shelter until more substantial structures could be supplied. By the last of the month at least four hundred people had been located in the new Acadia. As a rule they were content with the prospects as they found them, anticipating the nature of the site and its surround- ings, the labor and sacrifice involved. A few whose minds had been filled with illusions, who perhaps had never been away from the com- forts of a well established homestead, and wholly unfitted to endure the privations which now confronted them, became homesick and disgusted.
But the sturdy majority who had enlisted for the war, and were determined to see the end of it, threw off their coats, rolled up their sleeves and went to work, first of all, in building homes for their fam- ilies, planting farms and gardens, setting out trees and shrubs, and then constructing a mighty canal. Mills were set up in the mountains to provide lumber for dwellings and other purposes, while orders for the
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better class of building material were sent to Chicago. The entire summer and autumn of the first year were consumed in preparatory work. The officers and the Executive Committee having studied out and matured the plans, exerted themselves manfully in directing the movements of the multitude to the end that there should be no clash- ing of the elements, and that all might move together in harmony for the common good.
Notwithstanding these wisely ordered proceedings, some discon- tent was manifested. It would have been a miraculous event if all had been wholly satisfied with the arrangements made. Reports found their way into print here and elsewhere, that the colony was in a state of disintegration, and that its members were deserting it by scores. While it was true that some were grievously disappointed, and others unwilling to abide by the regulations, abandoned the enterprise, no very serious dissension occurred. Some objected to the method of dividing and apportioning lots and lands ; others expected but failed to receive farms of one hundred and sixty acres immediately adjoining the town site, and still others complained because they had no shelter, and so on through the list. Again, there was a class who came with the view of speculating in lands and upon the necessities of the less fortunate colonists, but being checked by the rules of the association, broke out in maledictions upon the management, and finally shook the dust from their feet and departed, spreading evil tidings as they went. But the solid element, undismayed by the tempest, held sturdily to the main purpose, convinced that the mission they had undertaken would eventuate to their lasting advantage. Every day some progress marked their patriotic endeavors. They built the canals, went into the mountains and sawed out lumber, established brick yards, attended to every duty incumbent upon them, wrought patiently upon every prob- lem of the situation during the week, and on Sundays went piously to church wherever it might be held, whether in a tent or in the open air, sung the good old hymns, and worshiped God fervently as they had been taught. Such were the people that made Union Colony.
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The projectors secured by purchase from the Denver Pacific Rail- road Company nine thousand three hundred and twenty-four acres, and from individual owners two thousand five hundred and ninety-two acres, for which, including the Land office fees for preliminary occu- pation of sixty thousand acres of public land, they paid fifty-nine thou- sand nine hundred and seventy dollars. Drafts in payment were drawn upon Horace Greeley, Treasurer, by Meeker and Cameron. They had a contract also with the Denver Pacific company which allowed them to purchase at any time within three years from May Ist, 1870, fifty thousand acres, to be selected by the officers of the colony within certain bounds, at prices ranging between three dollars and three fifty per acre.
Members who were willing to take eighty acres of government land, commencing at a distance of about four miles from the town site for their memberships, were allowed to take an additional and adjoin- ing eighty acres of railroad land by paying the colony the cost of the same at the time of purchase, or three dollars per acre, until May Ist, 1871-water for irrigation to go with the land.
A member was entitled to a lot of land as he might select, of five, ten, twenty, forty or more acres up to the largest number the colony could give any one for his hundred and fifty dollars, depending on the distance from the town site. Improvements had to be made upon out- lying tracts within one year from the date of the location of the colony lands, viz .: April 5th, 1870, to entitle the person to a deed, unless the same person purchased a town lot and improved that to the satisfaction of the Executive Committee-water for irrigation to be furnished by the latter. The colony dug the ditches, each member being assessed his proportionate share of the cost of keeping them in repair. The estimated cost of the canals was twenty thousand dollars.
Members were also entitled to town lots for residence or business purposes, either or both, at the minimum price of fifty dollars for corners, and twenty-five dollars for inside lots, deeds to be given when they entered upon them in good faith to the satisfaction of the Execu-
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tive Committee. The funds derived from the sale of town lots were devoted to public improvements. In the beginning there were twelve hundred and twenty-four lots ; for residence six hundred, and for busi- ness four hundred and eighty-three, the remainder being reserved for schools, churches, courthouse and town hall.
By virtue of their corporate organization, the members of the colony controlled the municipal and all other affairs pertaining to local government. Mr. Meeker received as compensation for his services, while actively engaged in colony work, a salary of one hundred and sixty dollars per month ; his son, Ralph Meeker, as assistant secretary, fifty dollars per month, and General R. A. Cameron, Vice-President and Superintendent, who received and located the colonists as they arrived, seven dollars per day.
By the end of the first month the colony had three general pro- vision stores, two bakeries, a like number of meat markets, one hotel, a boarding house, a blind, sash and paint shop, an artist's studio, a bank, postoffice, a railway depot, and a telegraph station. Much of the lumber used in the better class of buildings was brought from Chicago at a cost of thirty-eight dollars per thousand feet. Hundreds of fruit and forest trees had been set out, many acres of land planted and seeded. Prior to the completion of the canals the trees were watered by hand from wells.
Out of the large number of arrivals this season, not more than fifty had deserted the enterprise, the greater part of these selling out their interests and returning to their Eastern homes, or emigrating to other parts of the country. By the last of June about one hundred and thirty houses had been erected and a number of farms put under tillage. These facts show that a large amount of work had been done in the short time since the first installment of colonists arrived. The town had been established upon a firm and enduring basis, and the germs of various industries introduced. The results accomplished demonstrate the energy and good will which actuated the majority in their determination to reclaim the waste places of nature. Let the
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