USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume II > Part 31
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Having safely launched the new ship of state, it is proper to retrace our steps for the purpose of defining some of the more important measures in progress, calculated to advance the rapid development of our internal resources, in which the reader will find some rather inter- esting incidents that are not likely to be repeated in the future.
Track laying on the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, then, as now, our most essential and widely extended artery of inter-communication with the principal productive stations, was completed from Colorado Springs to Pueblo, June 29th, 1872. The Arkansas Valley branch, extending thirty-eight miles up the Arkansas River to the coal mines in Fremont County, was put in operation November Ist, 1872. The receipts of the company for that year aggregated $281,400.29, and the net profits above operating expenses, $106,193.97. From the report made to the stockholders April Ist, 1873, it was shown that the company possessed the following inventory of rolling stock : Twelve locomotives, seven passenger cars, four baggage, mail and express cars, four open observation cars, two hundred and fifty-eight freight cars, twenty-two dump cars, twenty-one hand and push cars, and two snow plows. Com- pare this modest exhibit of rolling stock with the splendid equipment of
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to-day (1889), the completeness of detail, the fifteen hundred miles of well-ballasted track and the prodigious traffic which covers the line, the cities and towns established, and you will have some conception of the vast range of development that has taken place in the country it tra- verses, which at the beginning of this enterprise was virtually a trackless wilderness.
The second annual report published in the fall of 1874, gave the following statement :
Earnings of the main line 118 miles, for the year 1873,-freight, $200,129.49 ; passenger, $190,986.34 ; miscellaneous, $1,538.06; total, $392,653.89, yielding a profit above operating expenses of $195,529.58, an increase of 8812 per cent. over 1872. The tonnage of the main line, exclusive of construction material, increased from 36,272 in 1872, to 59,229 in 1873 ; the number of paying passengers increased from 25, 158 in 1872, to 34,696 in 1873. Eighty-eight per cent. of the traffic was purely local. Of the 34,696 passengers carried, only 718 were ticketed to, or from points off the line. In preceding chapters some attention has been given to the sterile, bleak and inhospitable appearance of the country at the beginning of 1871, when the daring progenitors of this railway resolved to strike out from Denver to El Paso, Texas. The average number of passengers conveyed by stages between Denver and Pueblo, did not exceed three daily. The endeavor to maintain this stage line bankrupted its owners Yet two years later we find this little experimental narrow gauge carrying nearly thirty-five thousand people, in the course of its second year. It seems almost incredible that such marvelous changes should have taken place in so short a time and under conditions so unpromising. It forms a remarkable feature of our annals, that the supplanting of stages and the ordinary modes of conveyance by iron rails and steam power, should effect such sudden and mighty revolutions in the progress of the State, as are here exhibited, yet this was only the beginning of the initial chapter. Still more stupendous transformations have marked each successive epoch. But the road had
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to pass through some terrible convulsions, involving wars, bankruptcy and partial ruin before these later triumphs were achieved.
The number of narrow gauge lines in the United States and Canada had increased at the close of 1873 to about 1,400 miles, built and in operation ; there were 1,500 miles under construction, and about 10,000 miles projected. All that had been completed, including those which had been partly built, had adopted the three foot gauge. The four counties traversed by the Rio Grande road up to 1874, had increased their taxable wealth from a total of $6,689,003 in 1870, to $18,602,217 in 1873, and the gain has been correspondingly strong from that time to the present. The increase in the twenty-one counties of the Territory then organized was from $16,015,521 in 1870, to $35,669,030 in 1873, or nearly one hundred and twenty-three per cent. In population Pueblo had quadrupled, Arapahoe and El Paso more than trebled, and Douglas had doubled.
Notwithstanding the stagnation which followed the panic of 1873, continuing until the beginning of 1879, the genius, energy and invincible power of Gen. W. J. Palmer, ably seconded by his corps of vigorous young lieutenants, kept the Rio Grande road pushed onward to the accomplishment of the great designs in view. Leaving South Pueblo, it struck southward to the bluffs of the San Carlos, to the Greenhorn and down into the San Luis Valley, over one of the most rugged, diffi- cult and costly routes which had ever been attempted, developing at the same time some surprising feats of railway engineering. Meanwhile, not a little ill feeling had been engendered between Palmer and the managers of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, out of which came, a few years later, the greatest conflict of its class in modern times. The difficulty arose from questions relating to the distribution of traffic, and the interchange of commercial amenities. The Rio Grande, in the full tide of its prosperity, was disposed to be aggressive, acting upon the theory that, having entered and taken possession of the southern country, so to speak, and by the force of its progressive influence redeemed it from a semi-savage state, it was fairly entitled to such advantages as
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were to be gained. The Santa Fe came to be regarded as an interloper, forced in from its headquarters in Boston, to overawe a native of the land and usurp its rights. The standard gauge magnates resisted, and a war of words ensued, but happily, worse results were, for the time being, averted. The officers of the rival companies met at Pueblo, talked over their differences and reached an amicable understanding.
When the little road reached Veta Pass, it began to experience serious financial embarrassment, owing to the rapidity of its extensions and the stringency of the money market. It had failed to meet the interest on its mortgage bonds. Palmer proposed the funding of the three interest coupons to May Ist, 1878, and it was accepted. The road, according to the statements rendered, was doing a paying business, but was in danger of losing a considerable part of its profitable traffic unless it could be extended still further to the southward. The com- pletion of the Santa Fé to Pueblo, had reduced its carrying trade to some extent, and there was a prospect that the Kansas Pacific or the Santa Fé would strike toward New Mexico and gather in the trade of that Territory by a line from Trinidad, or toward the San Juan country, then coming into prominence. The narrow gauge had been built from El Moro to La Veta, but it could not be safely allowed to rest there. It was of the utmost importance to push it over the pass to Fort Garland, in the San Luis Valley, where it would be comparatively secure from exterior influences. From causes already defined, much difficulty was found in procuring the aid of new capital, and the resources of the company were severely strained to meet the more pressing demands and continue the work. To increase its embar- rassments, early in August, 1877, a bill in equity was filed by some of the bondholders, in the United States Circuit Court at Denver, for default of the 1877 interest, and a motion entered for the appointment of a receiver. This action was denied by Judge Hallett, because the affairs of the company were not shown to be in a condition to justify such interference. The same application was made to Judge Dillon and by him also denied. The proposition advanced by Palmer to fund
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the coupons to May Ist, 1878, into ten year certificates, and apply the intermediate earnings to the payment of floating indebtedness, and to the extension of the road to the Rio Grande River, had received the assent of a majority of the bondholders, and there was reason to believe that the company would soon be relieved from its financial squeeze. The road was completed to Garland about the 15th of September, 1877, which gave it the trade of the Southwest, and to Alamosa, July 6th, 1878.
From the first of March, 1876, when the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley branch of the Santa Fé was finished to Pueblo and opened, the records of this company and of the Rio Grande were, for some years, almost inseparably connected. The formal inauguration of the enter- prise just mentioned was celebrated on the 7th of March, in which sev- eral communities joined. Trains bearing guests arrived from Denver, from Cañon City and from various points along the Santa Fé and the Rio Grande roads. They were met by the people of Pueblo, and escorted to the Lindell Hotel, where they were welcomed by Hon. James Rice (now in his second term as Secretary of State), Mayor of the city.
What is now the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé road, was orig- inally chartered February 11th, 1859, under the name of the Atchison & Topeka Railroad Company. The existing title was assumed in March, 1863. The first incorporators obtained a land grant from Con- gress, which was transferred to the latter corporation. By act of Con- gress March 3d, 1863, there was granted this line in Kansas, ten sections of land per mile, or a total of 2,934,659 acres. Little or nothing in the way of improvement was done until 1868, when a new company composed of Boston capitalists purchased the franchise. To- ward the close of 1869, twenty-eight miles of road had been built. A year later the line between Topeka and Emporia, sixty-two miles, was completed. In 1871 it was extended to Newton, seventy-four miles west of Emporia. The next movement was to build three hundred and forty miles to the Colorado boundary line, which, under the terms of
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the charter, had to be completed within two years or the land grant would be forfeited. In 1872 the directors voted to proceed and finish the line to Colorado, within the time allotted. In December, 1873, a company was formed at Pueblo to build a railroad from that city to the western terminus of the Santa Fé road. The directors were M. A. Shaffenburg, W. R. Orman, George M. Chilcott, O. H. P. Baxter, J. N. Carlisle, P. K. Dotson, Moses Anker, M. D. Thatcher and J. Ray- nolds. The officers chosen by these directors, were Moses Anker, Pres- ident; M. D. Thatcher, Vice-President; J. Raynolds, Treasurer ; and G. W. Morgan, Secretary. The solicitors were Hugh Butler of Denver and H. C. Thatcher of Pueblo.
In March, 1874, Pueblo County voted a subscription to the stock of the company to the amount of $350,000. Its title was the Pueblo & Salt Lake Railroad. Subsequently Anker and Shaffenburg resigned from the Board of Directors, and James Rice and Allen A. Bradford, were elected in their stead. Soon afterward M. D. Thatcher was elected President, O. H. P. Baxter, Vice-President, and Wilbur F. Stone, Attorney.
Several corporations had been previously organized, the Colorado & New Mexico Railway Company, the Pueblo & Salt Lake, and the Pueblo & Arkansas Valley. All these were now merged into one cor- poration under the latter name, with a view to the construction of a line from Sargent, Kansas, to Pueblo. At a later period when the Atchison Company decided to unite with the corporators named, Joseph Nick- erson was elected President, Thomas Nickerson, Treasurer, and M. D. Thatcher, Secretary and Assistant Treasurer. These officers, with the exception of Thatcher, were also officers in the Atchison road, Joseph Nickerson being president of that company.
In the course of their operations the county of Bent was induced to vote bonds to the amount of $150,000 in aid of the enterprise. Such was the inception of the branch line that connected the metropolis of Southern Colorado with the Santa Fé system. It was completed Feb- ruary 26th, 1876, but not formally opened until after the Ist of March.
Commento
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This matter disposed of, we will now proceed with the course of affairs which eventuated in a prolonged and bitter strife between the Santa Fé and the Rio Grande, provoked some blood letting, harassed the courts for years, and incited general disturbance among the people of four counties.
Although traffic arrangements between the two roads had been established, there was, nevertheless, a deep-seated feeling of jealousy that seemed to require constant watchfulness. The Rio Grande people comprehended that their standard gauge rival had entered the field, not with the idea of stopping permanently at Pueblo, but to invade all the paying territory of which that point was the natural entrepot,-the South Park, the Upper Arkansas, the San Juan and Denver, a territory over which they themselves asserted exclusive jurisdiction, and it became their leading purpose to head off these projects by occupying all points of advantage, particularly the mountain passes, as fast as their means would permit. The principal difference between them lay in the fact that the Boston company had the longer purse. Gen. Palmer being heavily handicapped by debts, had the greatest difficulty in acquiring means to fortify himself against the aggressions of his formidable adversary.
About the last of February, 1878, it became apparent that the Santa Fé was preparing for another movement, but in what direction could not be ascertained, though the suspicion arose that it was to be toward Cañon City. Palmer watched every avenue closely and pre- pared to spring at the critical moment. The last week in February the secret was discovered. The Santa Fé had plotted the capture of the Raton Pass. Hundreds of men and scores of teams had been gathered with the utmost celerity and pushed into the pass, which had been sur- veyed and, to all intents and purposes, occupied by the Rio Grande. The two lines ran side by side. Naturally enough, this sudden coup created some consternation, and for a time there were open threats of an armed conflict, but none occurred. On the 26th of February the Santa Fé force completely occupied the ground in dispute and refused to be 24 II.
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dislodged. The people of Trinidad, hostile to the narrow gauge, because Palmer and Hunt had avoided them and built a rival town at El Moro, only five miles distant, openly espoused the cause of its opponent and furnished it with men and sinews of war. In the pursuit of its purposes under the forceful leadership of W. B. Strong, who had been taken from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and made Vice- President and general manager of the Atchison Company, and who developed into one of the most determined railway leaders of the West, the next advance was made in the direction of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas River, the gateway, and the only practicable one, to the mines of Park and Lake Counties.
About the 20th of April, 1878, Mr. Strong began grading a line from Pueblo toward Canon City, with the avowed purpose of com- pleting the same within thirty days. The Atchison Company had recuperated its finances,-which at the time of entering Colorado had been at a low ebb,-and entered upon an extensive scheme of railway building. Two and a half millions had been provided for branches or feeders to the main line in Colorado, and there was a report that the Arkansas Valley branch would be extended to Denver. It became evident that Mr. Strong intended paralleling the Rio Grande into all of its most productive territory, and that he had fully resolved to break up that corporation. The situation in Southern Colorado daily became more and more exciting. Both companies were in arms and arrayed against each other in deadly hostility.
The contest for possession of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas River began on the 19th of April, 1878. The Rio Grande people having possession of the telegraph lines, discovered the ulterior designs of the Santa Fé by deciphering its cipher dispatches, and that they were about to make a sudden dash into the cañon. A spirited scramble for pre- cedence ensued. Mr. Strong was at El Moro when he heard of a move- ment by the Rio Grande engineers to cut him out. He instantly made application for a special train to convey him to the spot, but was met with a prompt refusal. One of his surveying engineers, named William
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R. Morley, was at La Junta. He was immediately telegraphed to take an engine and run with all speed to Pueblo, and from thence to outrun the Rio Grande force to Canon City. He obeyed, arriving in Pueblo at 3 o'clock on the morning of the 19th. There he asked for a narrow gauge locomotive to carry him to Cañon, but it was denied. Palmer's men had made arrangements to send a force of one hundred laborers in the same direction early that morning. Unable to procure steam power, this bold engineer mounted the swiftest horse he could find and struck out under whip and spur for the mountains. It was a ride of forty-five miles, and the desperate emergency demanded that horse and rider should be strained to the utmost. Morley felt that he must, at all hazards, beat the Rio Grande into Cañon City, and having a few hours the start, it was simply a question of endurance. When within a few miles of the goal the horse fell dead by the wayside. The rider without stopping, ran at the top of his speed the remainder of the way. Arriving in the town where the sympathy of the people was given most heartily to the Atchison cause, he quickly gathered a force of one hundred and fifty men, and with them rushed to the mouth of the cañon, two miles distant, and by the time the Rio Grande force arrived on the scene, half an hour later, had full possession. For this exploit he was presented by Mr. Strong with a splendid gold mounted Win- chester rifle, which subsequently caused his death. While acting as chief locating engineer for the Santa Fé company from Guyamas, Old Mexico, he attempted to remove the rifle from an ambulance, when the weapon exploded and he was killed.
Exciting telegrams flew thick and fast over the wires. Bodies of men were moved from point to point with the utmost expedition. Each company had grading and fighting forces in the cañon. The Santa Fé sued out writs of injunction in the local court. Chief Engineer J. A. McMurtrie and R. F. Weitbrec, the Treasurer, were placed under arrest .. Conflicts arose between the working forces. Engineers with gangs of graders seized every available point in the narrow gorge below and above. Arrests became matters of daily occurrence, but the Santa Fé
4
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appeared to have the advantage. Meanwhile, the attorneys on both sides were stripping for a gigantic wrestle in the courts over the ques- tion of prior right. Hon. Thomas Macon represented the Rio Grande, and Gilbert B. Reed the Santa Fe. On the 26th of April, District Judge Henry issued an injunction against the Santa Fé. The conflict in the canon continued, but without bloodshed. About the last of April the cause was brought up before Judge Hallett in the United States court. In the meantime, the standard gauge company held its advan- tage in the Raton Pass, and had let contracts for the continuation of its main trunk into New Mexico.
On the 6th of May the contestants appeared in the Federal court on a motion by the Rio Grande to transfer to that tribunal the injunc- tion case begun in the State court. At a previous hearing the appli- cation had been denied, but was now renewed upon the plea of the D. & R. G. company that, owing to the prejudice of the people, it would be impossible for them to secure an impartial hearing in Fremont County. And this was substantially true, as I personally witnessed. The narrow gauge had scarcely a friend in the town of Cañon. The masses were almost indivisibly for the Atchison company, and they gave it every possible aid and encouragement. The underlying cause of their hos- tility was the same which had exasperated and alienated the people of nearly every other established town approached by the Rio Grande road, whose projectors attempted, instead of entering and aiding them to leave them to one side and build up rival settlements near their borders. It was a short-sighted, and ultimately proved a very disastrous policy. Its fruitage caused Palmer and his associates interminable trouble, that might have been avoided by a more rational and liberal course.
In the Federal court on this occasion, the Denver & Rio Grande was represented by Wells, Smith & Macon, of Denver, and H. A. Risley of Colorado Springs, and its adversary by Willard Teller, Gilbert B. Reed and Charles E. Gast. Arguments having been heard, Judge Hallett resolved to invite Judge Dillon's consideration of the case before rendering a decision, but in the meantime issued an order
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restraining both parties from working on the disputed ground, and from interfering with each other until a determination of their respective rights should be reached. He granted an injunction to the Rio Grande against the Santa Fé, and permitted the one already obtained by the latter in the State court to stand. Both parties were to withdraw from the field and remain passive until the further order of the court, and each was required to give bond in the sum of $20,000 with sureties to be approved by the court.
In obedience to this decree the laboring and fighting forces were withdrawn and discharged. Thus ended the first chapter of chronicles in this celebrated case, but the war broke out again with accentuated virulence, later on.
June Ist concurrent opinions were filed by Judges Dillon and Hallett, and orders in conformity therewith issued by the latter. It must be understood in this connection that the Santa Fé people had conducted all their operations in the name of the Canon City & San Juan Railway Company, a local organization whose franchise had been purchased by them. The effect of the orders mentioned was to permit the Cañon City & San Juan Company to resume grading in the canon, but to continue the injunction restraining it from laying rails upon the grade ; the injunction against the Rio Grande to remain unchanged. These orders were designed to operate temporarily until the case could be thoroughly examined at the regular term of the United States Circuit court to be held in July.
On the 9th of the month last named, the struggle was renewed, Judge Dillon presiding. Lengthy arguments were heard on the de- murrer of the Santa Fé to the complaint filed by its opponent. A per- petual injunction was asked for, restraining the former from constructing its road through the canon. The whole ground was gone over again for the purpose of advising Judge Dillon of all the material points in controversy. Hon. J. P. Usher appeared for the first time as chief counsel for the Rio Grande, and made an elaborate argument. He was followed by Mr. Macon, who raised the point that the Atchison com-
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pany, and not the Cañon City & San Juan was the real aggressor ; that the latter, if it possessed any rights at all under the general act of 1875, had forfeited them by not only acquiescing in the action of the Santa Fé in taking forcible possession of the line, but in practically aiding it to carry out its illegal purposes ; that the Santa Fé, having no corporate existence in this State could have no rights, and therefore both these companies should be restrained and the injunction against his clients removed, because they had the only and exclusive right of way through the cañon by virtue of the special act of Congress of 1872. The gist of Macon's plea was that the D. & R. G. really had no contestant in the case ; that the San Juan company was never organized for the purpose of building a road through the cañon ; that its capital stock originally was but $100,000, and that even if all paid up it could not build three miles of road; that it was organized for the sole purpose of a cloak for the Santa Fé, which had no rights under the law.
The attorneys for the latter made no reply, but agreed to submit the case on its merits. On the 22d the matter came up again, when a great deal of testimony was taken. J. A. McMurtrie, chief engineer for the narrow gauge, testified that he made the first survey through the cañon in January and February, 1871, from Canon City to Twelve Mile Park. In 1872 he continued the survey four miles beyond, staking the cañon all the way. In April, 1878, he ran his line three miles further, when he was stopped by the Santa Fé. Col. W. H. Greenwood testified that he had been general manager of the Rio Grande road until July, 1874 ; that the survey through the cañon was made by his direction, and for the purpose of holding that thoroughfare.
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