USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume II > Part 18
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Wheat
28 bushels per acre.
Corn
35 bushels per acre.
Oats. 55
Potatoes 200
.€
Barley 40
Onions . 250
But there were exceptional instances where, with superior land care- fully irrigated and well cultivated, immense crops were realized. "For example," says Governor Elbert, "for three successive years the pre- mium crops of wheat exhibited at the Territorial Fairs ranged from sixty- seven to seventy-three bushels per acre. In one year two fields of corn were sworn to as having yielded over 200 bushels per acre ; potatoes have given from 400 to 600 bushels per acre ; onions have reached 1,000 bushels per acre. A cabbage of eighty-two pounds' weight has been sold in the Denver market. Those of forty to sixty pounds each are plentiful at every annual fair. Car loads have been shipped away in which the closely trimmed heads averaged throughout twenty-three pounds each."
The railways completed and in operation at the close of 1873, embraced 624 miles. The estimated cost of their construction and equipment at an average of $18,000 per mile, cash, was $11,132,000. At this period, 544 miles additional were in course of construction. The gross earnings for the year mentioned of all the railways, amounted to $2,205,000.
We had at that time 1,017 miles of telegraph lines, at an approx- imated valuation of $400,000 ; one hundred and twenty-five churches valued at $450,000 ; one hundred and eighty public school buildings,
14 II.
210
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
valued at $260, 183.46 ; smelting and other reduction works, valued at $3,000,000. Two hundred thousand acres of land were under cultivation.
At the January, 1874, election for officers and directors of the First National Bank of Denver, W. S. Cheesman was chosen Vice-Presi- dent vice George W. Clayton, who declined a re-election. George Wells, who had been assistant cashier of this bank for a number of years, died in April, 1874, and was succeeded by Mr. Geo. W. Kassler. In the same year Mr. Charles B. Kountze was made President of the Colorado National. The First . National Bank of Central City began business January 4th, 1874, as successor to Thatcher, Standley & Co., private bankers. Joseph A. Thatcher was chosen President, Otto Sauer Vice- President, and Frank C. Young, Cashier. Thatcher had been in the bank- ing business since 1863, when he took charge for Warren Hussey & Co., with whom he remained until 1870, when the banking house of Thatcher, Standley & Co. succeeded Hussey & Co. The Rocky Mountain Na- tional was organized some years earlier by the Kountze Brothers.
The German National Bank of Denver was organized in February, 1874, and commenced business May 4th of that year, with John J. Reithmann President, George Tritch Vice-President and C. A. Fischer Cashier. The cash capital was $100,000. The first directors were L. F. Bartels, M. D. Clifford, John Good, J. M. Eckhart, Conrad Walbrach, Joseph L. Bailey and Walter A. Stewart. The bank was opened on Fifteenth street between Larimer and Holladay streets. The First National Bank moved from Blake and Fifteenth streets to the McClin- tock Block on the corner of Larimer and Sixteenth streets, and recom- menced business there on Monday, January 10th, 1876.
The Miner's National Bank at Georgetown, which had been organ- ized in the summer of 1874, with a capital of $50,000, suspended in December, 1875, when Mr. Samuel N. Wood, now cashier of the First National, was appointed Receiver by the Comptroller of the Treasury, and at once took charge of its affairs. Mr. Wood was succeeded by Col. L. C. Ellsworth, by whom all its accounts were settled as far as they could be.
211
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
On the Ist of March, 1875, the Bank of Clear Creek County opened. The incorporators were D. D. Mallory of Baltimore, Md., L. C. Kilham of New York, Francis G. King of Denver, Charles R. . Fish of Georgetown, and Charles Reuter. Mr. Fish was made Presi- dent, Mr. King Vice-President, and Mr. Reuter Cashier. The paid up capital was $100,000.
At the May meeting of the directors of the German National in 1876, Mr. Reithmann retired from the presidency, when George Tritch was elected in his stead, and Job A. Cooper, at present writing Gov- ernor of Colorado, was elected Vice-President. H. Suhr was re-elected Cashier.
The City National Bank opened for business June 10th, 1872, with the following organization : Directors, Henry Crow, Frank Palmer, J, Sidney Brown, John R. Hanna and William Barth. Officers, Henry Crow President, Frank Palmer Vice-President, John R. Hanna Cashier. Capital $100,000. The original base was the banking house of Warren Hussey & Co.
The first bank in Pueblo was established by the Thatcher Brothers, in January, 1871. It was changed to the First National Bank in June following.
On the 22d of May, 1874, the entire business center of Central City, in Gilpin County, was destroyed by fire through the lack of a proper water supply and an efficient fire department. The confla- gration originated in a Chinese laundry on Spring street, shortly after 10 o'clock in the morning. It was a beautiful day, the atmosphere clear and tranquil. The flames made slow progress at the beginning, and might have been easily suppressed, or at least confined to the frame building occupied by the celestials, by a well organized body of trained men supported by suitable facilities for such emergencies. The citizens flocked to the scene, where great confusion prevailed, and but little effective work was done. As a natural consequence the flames soon leaped to adjoining structures, and within an hour were spreading over the city in lurid torrents which no department, however well sus-
212
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
tained and directed, could have checked. The town was largely com- posed of wooden buildings that were as inflammable as tinder. Soon Spring street to Bridge, and thence down Main street on both sides to Lawrence and Eureka, were enveloped in flames, sweeping onward unchecked and with fearful rapidity; thence up Eureka to the Teller House and "Register" block, the former of brick and the latter of stone, where they were stopped. But the destruction continued on down Lawrence until there was nothing more to burn, and at last died out. Two brick buildings on Main Street and one or two on Lawrence were all that remained of the business part of the town. When night fell, the people from their homes upon the hillsides looked down upon a mass of smoking embers. Throughout that memorable day Henry M. and Willard Teller, W. H. Bush, and D. C. Collier of the "Miner's Register," assumed the direction of the working forces, exerting all their power to avert the awful catastrophe, but in vain. Next day the work of rebuilding began, and within a year a more substantial city of brick and stone arose from the blackened ruins.
On the 5th of August, 1874, the contending elements of the Re- publican party, torn and distracted by factional divisions arising from the incidents attending the removal of Elbert and the reappointment of Gen. McCook, met in Territorial convention at Denver to nominate a candidate for delegate in Congress. The impossibility of proceeding harmoniously was apparent before the convention assembled. The bit- terness of antecedent contests remained, cropping out at every stage of the preliminary caucusing. Premonitory evidences of coming defeat were unmistakably manifest. All attempts to establish peace and order were unsuccessful.
The choice fell upon Judge H. P. H. Bromwell, one of the ablest and purest men in the party, a lawyer of acknowledged eminence; had been a member of Congress from Illinois, an honorable, upright man, worthy of profound respect, for whom all who knew him entertained highest esteem, and, as far as it was possible to be, he was disassociated from the factional animosities which affected nearly every person con-
213
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
nected with politics. As it happened, however, the trend of events indi- cated Bromwell to be the choice of those who favored the restoration of the McCook regime. Belford, the orator of the party, in a desperate endeavor to promote unity of action by all the elements attached to the organization, delivered an elaborate and well considered speech from the platform, but it fell upon stony ground. The rupture appeared to be irreconcilable. In this state of feeling the party entered the cam- paign against a united and confident Democracy led by Thomas M. Patterson, a recent comer, who emigrated to Colorado in December, 1872, from Crawfordsville, Indiana, and began the practice of law. He was but little known outside of the city of Denver, while his antag- onist was held in good repute throughout the Territory.
At the election which occurred in September, the vote was much lighter than usual, from the causes stated. The lukewarm support given Bromwell by the press and people was the outgrowth of a rancorous desire on the part of leading Republicans to rebuke President Grant for his acts, and to visit, by the defeat of their candidate, em- phatic condemnation upon those who were held accountable for the disorders which they felt had been wantonly precipitated by the McCook faction. As a result, Mr. Patterson was elected by a large majority. Of the twenty-five counties, Patterson carried nineteen and Bromwell six. The total vote was only 16,552, a decrease of about 5,000 from that of 1873. Bromwell was slaughtered in the house of his friends.
Mr. Chaffee had served two terms as delegate from the Territory, and could have had a third nomination and election if desired, but on his return from Washington after the adjournment of Congress and the confirmation of McCook, he notified his friends that under no circum- stances would he accept. He secured, before the end of his term, how- ever, the passage of an act to enable the people to form a State consti- tution, and to the consummation of this great project he now bent all his remarkable energies.
The returns for the assessment of 1874 gave a total valuation of taxable property, exclusive of mines, which never have been taxed,
214
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
amounting to $44,393,806, an increase of $10,144,957.50 over 1873. As the Territory was then just on the eve of its transmutation to state- hood, it is interesting to note the financial condition of the more prom- inent counties, and the increase of wealth in each during the four years beginning with 1870. In this connection it is well to consider that property in Colorado never has been assessed at more than fifty per cent. of its actual value, and in some sections, even a lower rate has governed :
COUNTY.
1870. $4,706,881
1874. $15,088,035
Arapahoe
Pueblo
857,811
3,784,343
El Paso
524.965
3, 160,323
Bent .:
351,248
2,172,267
Boulder
1,121,972
2,547:964
Weld
854,381
2,063, 166
Douglas
624,397
1,470,638
Jefferson
1,034,738
2,034,529
The six railways constructed in the interim had nearly quadrupled the taxable wealth of the Territory at large. As an illustration of the advance in the value of land in the better portion of Boulder County, it was stated by the Boulder "News," in October, 1874, that the increase in the price of real estate during the fifteen years preceding had been from $1.25 per acre, the government price, and considered high at that, to $25 and $100 per acre for farming lands.
After a decade of freedom from the ravages of grasshoppers, the scourge appeared with renewed force and destructiveness in 1874. Scores, hundreds perhaps of the farmers in Northwestern Colorado lost from three-fourths to seven-eighths of their entire crops, and in the winter following many were without breadstuffs for their families, with no seed for the next season's planting, and almost destitute of food for their stock. The pests remained during the year, and in the autumn deposited their eggs, from which countless millions were hatched in the spring of 1875. They spread all over Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, effecting general ruin to agriculturists in that immense terri-
215
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
tory. As an example of their universal prevalence in Kansas, of their enormous multiplication from the native germ and of their unappeasable voraciousness immediately after birth, the following humorous story was told : "A woman dug up a pan full of dirt in which to plant some flower seeds. She put the pan under the stove and went out to gossip with a neighbor. On her return after an hour's absence, she found seven thousand bushels of grasshoppers, generated by the heat, literally eating her out of house and home. They first attacked the green shades on the windows, and next a green painted dustpan. A green Irish servant girl, asleep in one of the rooms, was the next victim and not a vestige was left. The stove and stove pipe followed, and then the house was torn down so they could get at the chimney, which was painted green. Boards, joists, beams, plastering, clothing, nails, hinges, door knobs, plates, tinware, everything in fact the house contained was eaten up, and when the woman arrived on the scene she saw two large hoppers sitting up on end playing mumble-peg with a carving knife as to which should have the cellar. She brought suit against the insurance company, which refused to pay the policy on the ground that the building was not destroyed by fire ; but the court rendered judgment for the plaintiff, she having proven that the grasshoppers were generated by the fire in the stove."
The destruction of crops in this Territory in 1875, though very extensive, was by no means so great as had been anticipated when the hoppers made their appearance in the spring. A great many ingenious and very effective devices had been employed to capture and destroy them before they acquired their wings. In the Cache-la-Poudre Valley, one of the richest and most extensively cultivated of that day, the devastation was chiefly confined to a strip a few miles wide, north of Greeley and west of the Denver Pacific Railway. On the Big Thompson, however, great damage was done, and on the St. Vrain the farmers lost nearly everything. On Clear Creek and the Upper Platte Valley, great losses occurred. Mr. N. C. Meeker, editor of the Greeley "Tribune," estimated the damage to crops in Weld County at $1,000,000, and
216
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
$4,000,000 more for the Territory at large. From a letter published by Mr. W. D. Arnett of Morrison, Jefferson County, one of the most intelligent and experienced of the farmers of Colorado, we obtain a very complete epitome of chronicles relating to the several appearances of locusts in this country, the effects produced, and their migrations.
In September, 1861, a single army of locusts passed this point moving south, southwest. They left but few eggs which hatched out between April 10th and 20th, 1862, but did no harm. There were none here in 1863. In 1864, they came, August 26th, at 10 o'clock A. M., in force, destroying all late crops. Wheat and other small grains had been harvested ; corn was almost entirely destroyed. The same year the first army was followed by three other distinct armies. They deposited vast quantities of eggs which hatched out from April 10th to May 15th, 1865. That year the young fry destroyed nearly everything that was not pro- tected by ditches. The young climbed and descended the mountains, moving southward. On the level plains they traveled in the same course, unless arrested by water, or attracted by young crops. As soon as fledged they left. going south, southwest. In 1865 the trichnia or ichneumon fly attacked the locusts, destroying vast numbers. The full fledged locust came August 5th, and did considerable damage, but there seemed to be but one army, and they soon passed, leaving no eggs to speak of. In 1866 they came about September 9th, but as the crops were mostly harvested, and corn too ripe for them to eat, comparatively little injury was done. They deposited eggs in quantity, which caused great mischief in the spring of 1867.
From 1867 to 1874, they were not here in armies, only a few here and there. On July 22d, 1874, they came from the north en massc. The first army was followed by six other separate and distinct armies, and committed ruinous havoc. The estimated damage was half a million dollars for 1874. They deposited illimitable quantities of eggs, which commenced hatching out April 10th, 1875, and continued hatching for about six weeks, though the greater part were out in the first twenty days. The young fry traveled the same as in 1865, and when fledged
217
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
they moved in the same course, as proven by the published reports of the Hayden expedition of that year. The loss of crops that year was estimated at about $4,000,000 in Colorado alone.
The fledged locust came again from the north about August 17th, 1875, and did much injury to the late sown crops, and in most cases ruined them. They left their eggs as before, but owing to the exper- ience of farmers they did comparatively little damage as compared with other years. In 1876 the fledged locust came again from the north, August 15th, in successive armies, leaving a vast deposit of eggs; but the ichneumon fly left the germ of destruction in a very large percentage of the egg sacs. From 1873 to 1876, the locust invaded Colorado, Ne- braska, Minnesota and Iowa from the north simultaneously, and their course thereafter was south. The only difference was that the eastern wing of the army was one, two, three, four, and in Minnesota, five de- grees behind the western rim of the army. In 1876 the locust entered Nebraska at the same time as in Colorado, and passed the line of 40° north latitude, ten days behind those of Colorado in their course south. As a rule, the whole movement for the three years mentioned, was south.
The locust is remarkably gregarious. As soon as they are hatched they gather in gangs, and after they are two to five days old will all move in the same direction in good order. At hatching they hop out of the ground as if forced up by those in the egg sacs, as the "little cusses" come up apparently without effort, with their legs folded back as other things are born into the world. When they first emerge they are as white as a sheet of letter paper, but change in a few moments to a dark brown, when they begin to seek for food, often in five minutes after being hatched. They shed twice a very light skin or scales before fledging, which gives them the different shades of color noticeable in bands of them. When fledged they fasten themselves to a bush, weed or a blade of grass with their heads down, and become apparently sense- less. In a few seconds the scale breaks on the back of the neck, and afterward it gives way just back of the wings, and by continuous efforts
218
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
they draw themselves out of the scale even to the very point of their toe nails. This operation requires from ten to fifteen minutes. As soon as out, the wings appear, which they unroll with their legs and by giv- ing the wings a flying motion. They remain from one to two days sunning themselves, when they are ready to leave, never to return to that place again, unless it is by successive generations. The life of a locust is about five months. The females die immediately after deposit- ing their eggs. They drill holes in the ground with an apparatus on their tails, to a depth of three-quarters to an inch and a quarter, and there leave their eggs in a membranous, glutinous sac, which expands as the eggs develop.
No insect has more enemies than the locust. All insectivorous birds feed upon them, and in addition they are pursued by the ichneumon and parasite flies. The ichneumon destroys billions of them every year. It follows them where they are depositing their eggs and leaves a nit in many of the holes made for the reception of eggs, which develops into a grub which eats the eggs and in the spring comes out as an ichneumon fly. While the young are fledging, it seizes them by the side and stings them under the wing which soon kills them, and in about thirty hours afterward a maggot eats through the side and crawls out.
The parasite fly is about one-half the size of the common house fly. It lights on the back of a locust, holds on resolutely and leaves from three to five red nits.
Says Mr. Arnett in the course of his very interesting series of observations, for he gave the subject profound attention at every stage: "I know of no insect that exhibits the cunning of the locust after the age of five weeks. When very young they appear to have no sense at all, since they will leap into water or fire, if in their course. At four weeks they are capable of feats of cunning that would be absolutely incredible to those who have not watched them. In 1875, after they had eaten my neighbor's crop on the east, they set out for my field. I turned water between his field and my own, causing it to flow four or five feet wide in places, and allowed it to flow to the width of ten to
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
fifteen feet through my wheat. This was deemed sufficient to check their advance, but I soon found the little rascals crossing by thousands, swinging from blade to blade of the wheat that stood in the running water. I then cut out the wheat, but at the junction of the ditch with Bear Creek, I left two fence poles in the form of the letter V, the lower ends crossing near the water of the creek, and the upper ends on either side of the ditch. Now mark what they did. They soon found a passage by climbing down a pole fifteen feet long, over the waters of Bear Creek and up the other pole into my field. They were making this passage in a continuous stream when I made the discovery, and the ground and wheat were covered by those that had crossed. I could give many other examples of their cunning which to me is remarkable in insect life, but forbear.
"The locust of America is the locust of Joel's time and of the ori- ental countries, and may have been the cause of the disappearance of the extinct races of men on this continent. From the time the locusts are hatched they will move on the earth in bands in the very course they will fly after being fledged, unless arrested or attracted by the scent of grow- ing crops. It is known that certain birds will scent fresh blood for long distances, and it is believed that the locust is endowed with ability to scent crops or growing grain and vegetables. They will leave wheat or other grain, and flock from all directions to a hot-bed. The develop- ment of the locust after hatching until fledged, varies from forty-five to sixty days, according to what they feed upon, and according to its abundance. When fledged they remain in the air about five weeks, apparently without alighting, and don't come down until about the fertilizing season. In their first flight they often pass over districts, leaving them comparatively unharmed. Northern Colorado was thus favored for three years while the center and southern portions suffered severely. They move in their fixed course with system and regularity and, to all appearance, in concert and by command of leaders. After the fertilizing season begins they move forward in a leap-frog movement, and on an average of about six miles a day."
220
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Here are some experiments made by Mr. Arnett with various devices for destroying these insects : "In 1865 I endeavored to discover how soon the locust would drown. After confining them in water twelve hours they soon gave evidence of resuscitation when placed in the sunshine, and in a few minutes began to move. I tried freezing, but came to the conclusion that they could be frozen up any length of time, and when exposed again to the warm rays of the sun they would thaw out and try to emigrate. I tried animal poisons on celery, which the hoppers prefer to any other vegetable, and after observing the effect, formed the opinion that they could eat their weight of any animal poison without the slightest injury. In April, 1875, as soon as they hatched out I took a can of coal oil with a pan for the purpose of mak- ing a faggot fire to burn some that had just commenced eating my wheat. I poured the oil into the pan, and in moving about the pan two or three leaped into it. They changed color instantly, and to all appearance were dead. I then forced them in, with the same result. Sunshine failed to restore life to them. Afterward I tried coal tar with like effect. Turpentine, alcohol, alkali and croton oil will destroy them ; indeed, anything that kills vegetable life will produce like effect upon locusts under the same conditions."
The foregoing extracts from Mr. Arnett's letter are lengthy, and while perhaps not especially interesting to readers of the present era, since the State has not been revisited by the awful scourge which caused such appalling devastation in 1876 and preceding years, will nevertheless attract some attention in the agricultural districts from the minuteness and extent of the observations made by this well known and highly respected authority. It will serve also to exemplify some of the trials and discouragements which beset the farmers in the first two decades of their occupation, and may be a guide to others in the years to come, as we are by no means insured against further visitations of these insatiable devourers from the North. Again, it will lead the later residents to a faint conception, at least, of the conditions which caused many farmers to abandon their holdings in despair, and emigrate
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