USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 34
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The Colony Company intended Nevada avenue for the principal residence street in Colorado Springs. With this end in view, the center of the wide street was improved by a double row of trees; Cascade avenue was to be the business street. But in the year 1876 a disastrous fire originating in a livery stable swept away all the buildings on Cascade avenue and Huerfano street, and business retired precipitately to Tejon street, where it has ever since remained. Cascade avenue later became the favorite site for handsome residences because of its uninterrupted view of the mountains and magnifi- cent driveway.
The early expenditures in church edifices were liberal. In 1872-73 a Presbyterian church was built at a cost of $8,000. The Methodist Episcopal organization which had originally belonged to Colorado City was also organized, and built a $1,500 building at the corner of Huerfano street in eight weeks. In 1874 Grace Episcopal Church was constructed, costing 812,000, an artistic building of sandstone. Canon Charles Kings-
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ley preached the first sermon on July 12th, 1874. Colossians, Chap. iii: 15, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." Miss Kingsley presided at the organ. Charles Kingsley also delivered in the town hall a fine lecture on Westminster Abbey.
The author of "Water Babies" could not fail to be an enthusiastic naturalist. When Kingsley was in the midst of an eloquent period, a rare moth flitted by. Without a moment's hesitation or change of countenance the lecturer seized the prize. He con- tinued his lecture, while examining its beauties and kept it clutched tightly in his hand till his last sentence left him free to devote himself to his treasure.
A Baptist society was organized in 1872, and built a brick edifice in 1874. During the same year a Cumberland Presbyterian Church was erected, costing $2,000, and a Southern Methodist for $1,500. This year also witnessed the organization of a Congre- gational society.
In 1873 there was an Indian panic and Colorado Springs organized and armed two companies. One was not called to the field. The other, joined by Denver forces, sur- rounded the hostiles at nightfall. Brilliant plans were made for the attack next day, but morning disclosed an abandoned camp, and the military were obliged to return without other spoils than the arrows, water bottles, etc., the Indians had left behind. The only death was that of George Trimble's horse which was shot accidentally by its owner. In this year was effected the removal of the county seat from Colorado City to Colorado Springs.
Prohibition could not be said, like religion, to be "walking in her silver slippers " at this time, even with the help afforded by the colony's stringent regulations. A strong anti-prohibition party was very active in trying to defeat them. The Wanless Block was, in 1873, the scene of tempestuous meetings, at which more than one revolver was drawn. J. E. Liller, rising one evening to speak in behalf of prohibition, was greeted with a storm of hisses, missiles, etc. "Do not disturb yourselves, gentlemen," he said coolly-"all the evening is before me; I am in no hurry, and will wait till you have quite finished."
In the report of the National Land & Improvement Co. for 1874, it was said that Colorado was comparatively unaffected by the panic then felt in the East, and the fol- lowing improvements had taken place in Colorado Springs: "Within three years ground was broken for the Colorado Springs Hotel, since which 427 business lots, 515 residence lots and 2,252 acres of outlaying land have been sold. The city has now a fixed popu- lation of 3,200, and 850 buildings, many of them costly stone and brick stores and dwellings."
This year witnessed the inauguration at Colorado Springs of Colorado College; the Territorial legislature provided for the establishment here of an institute for the deaf and dumb.
In 1875 the effects of the Eastern panic reached the West, and a depression of Colorado real estate followed. There were three consecutive visitations of locusts or "grasshoppers," and general discouragement was felt. In 1876 silver mine claims were staked out upon Cheyenne Mountain but have since been abandoned. The Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia drew all travel thitherward, and the great new West was neglected.
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In 1877 Colorado Springs was agitated by one of the most mysterious events of its history. Mr. Schlesinger, private secretary to General Palmer, belonging to a well known Eastern family of German extraction, was a temporary resident of the city during 1877, and prominent in the little society gathered here. One bright September Sunday young Schlesinger rode on horseback out of the city, face turned eastward and was never seen alive again. When his body was found on the Lawson Ranch, there was a bullet hole in his breast, and over his heart a woman's lace handkerchief soaked in his blood. Paces were marked off as for a duel. The marks of carriage wheels were traced on the plain, to and from the fatal spot, but no light has ever been shed upon the mystery.
Gradually El Paso felt the reaction of brightening prospects. The small low houses, thus built because of the costliness of material, or possibly because the early settlers were not quite sure whether or no they were in the cyclone belt, were replaced by more imposing structures. At this time, D. Russ Wood's "Woodside," with its large rooms, facilities for domestic comfort, a lawn, and a flower-filled conservatory was the "show" residence of Colorado Springs. Mr. Wood was a citizen of Montreal, Canada, who came to Colorado for his health in 1873, bringing his wife and family with him, and in 1874 his home, appointed with all the luxuries possible to obtain in those days, was a center of social refinement. Mr. Wood was largely interested in church and city advancement. He died in 1880.
Life was attractive from its simplicity Bright people were as individual as they chose to be, without dread of Mrs. Grundy. With "low living" there was "high thinking." A story is told of an ancient settler who stood on a bluff near Colorado Springs, and warned a comrade against entering the place. "Don't you never go thar' pard," said he. "Don't never set foot in that ar town. Why ther' aint a place whar you can get a smile in the hull camp, and they keep six Shakespere clubs runnin' all the year 'roun' !"
A Colorado Springs woman wished to broil a steak for her husband, and had neither gridiron nor broiler. So she rushed to her piano, severed a string, and with it manu- factured so excellent a broiler that, as her veracious chronicler averred, "She thus proved her fitness to wrestle with the difficulties of pioneer life." The inference is that the practical dominated the æsthetic.
Much cheap-John wit has been leveled at the town because of these tendencies; derisively rather than in good faith, it is dubbed the " Athens," or the new "Hub." It has ever been singularly free from those unsavory manifestations which have often accompanied settlement on the frontier. As a health resort with a population embracing many enforced residents, its places are filled by men who would be wanted at the great centers, if they could exist outside the boundaries of Colorado. Lawyers, doctors, . teachers and clergymen stay in self-defense. For his health's sake, a man preached here for years on a starvation salary, who had refused to stand in Theodore Parker's pulpit in Boston.
Colorado Springs offered the virgin delights of an Arcadia. The ditches meandered through the place like so many rivulets, their edges in summer embossed with flowers. Ditch water was carried in tubs to the houses of those who had no wells, for domestic purposes, and clear cold drinking water was peddled about the streets for twenty -five cents per barrel. This came from Riggs' Ranch (now Colonel De La Vergne's resi-
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dence). Cows wandered through the thoroughfares, and it was a sight by no means rare, when a spirited damsel picketed her own horse to graze in the overgrown and fence- less plats, which the ever provident Colony Company had set aside for public parks-the Acacia Place and Alamo Square of to-day, with lawns and beds of foliage plants.
Vegetables grew chiefly in cans, and stream-beds and cañons glittered with these omnipresent signs of civilization. The market in fall and winter was crowded with game-herds of silly antelope, bewildered by snow, would permit the plains ranchmen to slaughter them, without attempt at flight. The market was supplied with them by " Antelope Jim Hamlin," a nephew of Vice-President Hamlin.
Staples were costly; luxuries extravagant. In winter the citizens had their Fort- nightly clubs and afternoon teas, with perhaps a Christmas ball at Glen Eyrie, and dances in some store building, where coffee and cakes were served on stoneware, and dim kerosene lamps lighted the charming Eastern costumes of the ladies-always a minority in early days. The fashionable afternoon promenade was to the postoffice which occupied one side of a bookstore on Tejon street. No one could doubt that Colorado Springs was a "community of broken families," who saw the anxious faces behind the grille which separated office from store. The one mail was often irregular, and as one of the exiles said:
. " Of all sad words of woe or wail, The saddest are these: No Eastern mail."
In summer society played croquet on bare places of hard ground (grass was too expensive a luxury to be trodden under foot), ate strawberries at $1.00 a box, or pears at forty cents per pound, camped in the mountains, or took overland excursions in the parks, and all the year round every one rode or drove in a perpetual picnic under the blue, sunlit sky.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad having reached Pueblo in 1876, gave El Paso another highway to the East, and colony reports of 1877-'78 spoke hopefully of the condition of the stock raising interest, and of the numbers of "health seekers." El Paso returned for assessment in 1878, 24,208 head of cattle valued at $286,985, and sheep, 109,177 head valued at $206,015. The hotel registers of Colorado Springs show over 13,000 arrivals in 1878.
A factor in the revival of public interest and confidence was the mining excitement at the "Carbonate Camp " of Leadville, from 1877 to 1880. Now the wisdom which directed the building of the Ute Pass road became manifest. It was the highway to the mines. Freight was carried at four cents per pound, and white covered wagons dotted ' every mile between Ute Pass and South Park, carrying provisions and returning with ore. Fortunes were made by freighters, trade flourished and the grocery stores in par- ticular bourgeoned out as to quantities and qualities. Several citizens of Colorado Springs were successful in their investments in Leadville mines. Hon. Irving Howbert, B. F. Crowell and J. F. Humphrey were fortunate owners of the " Robert E. Lee," as described in Vol. II, page 441, of this history.
Many and diverse were the hopes which those interested had entertained of El Paso, but at this stage of her progress, two phases of her development had clearly defined themselves-she was the " banner sheep county," and she was the favorite health resort.
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Sheep and cattle men waged war over the grassy plains, but the sheep came to stay, and the cowboy, with fluttering buckskins, sombrero and "chaps" is only an occasional figure, though a picturesque one in the El Paso landscape.
But looking eastward, where sky and plain meet, imagination defines the herder against the horizon-his slouching figure, flapping sombrero, garments of uniform dingi- ness by grace of wind and weather, his alert collie at his side, and his grimy merinos or thinner-wooled " Mexicans" feeding in contented monotony. From lambing to shearing and dipping-such was the even tenor of the shepherd's way. From solitary days (an unwilling contemplation of "the everlasting, face to face with God " between vacant plain and empty sky) he passed at evening to dug-out or log cabin, with squalor, baking powder biscuit, bacon and bunk. Such was the unvarnished picture, though sundry young Englishmen with ample means, large tracts of land and ideal ranch houses, formed poetic exceptions that proved the rule.
Storm and circumstance occasionally developed a hero in the quiet herder. In the blizzard of March, 1878, when thousands of sheep perished in eleven feet of snow, there were Spartan endurance and painstaking rescue of the foolish victims, which would have been heroic in a less prosaic cause. During that storm at the " Big Corral" near Col- orado Springs, more than a thousand sheep drifted one by one over the precipice, and plunging into the same abyss, the Mexican herder also perished.
In 1878, Colorado Springs erected a courthouse, and a city waterworks system was inaugurated.
In 1878 the hall for public amusements in Colorado Springs was a very small and inconvenient building on Huerfano street, approached by the narrowest of stairways. Handbills were posted over the city, giving in addition to a gorgeous lithograph of Harfleur, the information that on the 29th and 30th of May, 1878, George Rignold and his company would perform Henry V, in the Colorado Springs town hall, with the original scenery. As Henry V was the spectacular drama of the time, and as the scenes were fitted to Booth's theater, New York, it seemed doubtful if it could be performed upon a stage somewhat larger than a pocket handkerchief, where the ceiling was about twelve feet high. In the course of the day, the " Grand Opera House Company " was seen wandering through the streets, and was heard to demand of a ranchman (who had probably not been within the city limits for months before): "Can you tell us where your Opera House is ?"
A good play was a rare pleasure in those days, and the hall was crowded to its utmost capacity. Eight o'clock (the hour announced) came-half-past eight-quarter to nine. It was then stated that the dressing room was so small that only one character at a time could make a toilet. "Forty speaking characters were advertised on the programmes." Eventually the curtain rose, disclosing a very small part of one large scene; the "forty speaking characters" ranged at the sides behind inadequate calico curtains, and deluding themselves like the ostrich, with the fallacy that they were invis- ible. The "famous white horse Crispin " was there, too, though it was never known how he ascended the stairs, and objecting to his confined quarters, he pawed and fretted, sending the company scurrying in affright to the center of the stage, regardless of dramatic unities. When Crispin appeared on the scene, his tail touched the back of the stage, and his forefeet were firmly planted among the footlights. The climax was
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reached when King Henry, animating his dispirited troops with hot, impassioned words, waved above his head the royal standard. The spear head on the staff became im -. planted in the low ceiling, and could not be disentangled. Rignold stopped, completely overcome, saying: "This is really too ridiculous, ladies and gentlemen. You must be content simply with the beautiful words of Shakespeare, for I've nothing more to offer you." An under current of mirth ran through actors and audience, which sometimes broke out into open laughter. " Begone!" the king said sternly to the herald Montjoy, -- and then sotto voce, " But I don't know where the devil you'll go to."
In the year 1879 the " Forfeiture Liquor Clause," contained in all deeds given by the Colorado Springs Company, was confirmed in a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. Suit had been brought by the company in 1874, for violation of the clause against the sale of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. By the decision, the company obtained one of the most valuable lots in the city, at the southeast corner of Tejon street and Pike's Peak avenue. This year also witnessed the building of two new public schoolhouses, and the lighting of the city by gas.
In the spring of 1879 much excitement was felt in regard to the contest between the Santa Fe and the Denver & Rio Grande Roads for the occupancy of the Grand Cañon. (Chapter XVII, Volume II.)
The baggage room at the station was attacked, the local militia under Major Ma- comber, was called out. The State cavalry was ordered to Colorado Springs to preserve order. Sheriff Becker took possession of the depot, and then relinquished it to the Denver & Rio Grande authorities.
The year 1880 opened prosperously for all the State. The population of Colorado Springs had increased to 5,000, and the assessed value of property was $2,082,740, an increase of 33 per cent. over 1879. The improvements amounted to $400,000, and included a fine business block, which cost 825,000. In July the Denver & Rio Grande completed the five miles of track connecting Manitou & Colorado Springs, an incom- parable benefit to the three towns on the line.
In 1881 two wings costing $11,000 were added to the college, and the amount represented in the real estate transfers was more than $1,000,000. The construction of the Hotel Antlers was begun. The first and only execution in El Paso County, under the laws of the State of Colorado, took place during this year. The' criminal was "Canty" (so called from his "I can't," whenever a demand was made upon him). He was hung for the murder of Policeman Perkins, at Buena Vista.
The year 1882 was a period of general business depression, and Colorado Springs did not fail to feel the paralysis. With a view to opening the coal mines at Franceville a railroad was begun chiefly through the instrumentality of Hon. Matt France. This was the incipiency of the Denver & New Orleans Railroad (later Denver, Texas & Fort Worth) organized under the direction of ex-Governor Evans, with a view to open the highway for Southern trade and travel.
On the September day of 1881, when memorial services were held in commemo- ration of the death of President Garfield, a party of young men from the college scaled an unnamed peak in the range, and planting a flag on the summit, named it Mount Gar- field. The summit bears a resemblance somewhat fanciful, to a man's figure reclined at full length -- the profile is outlined against the sky, and pines form the heavy beard.
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HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
In 1883, December 31st, Colorado College lost its students' boarding house by fire, and in 1885 a fire on Pike's Peak avenue between Tejon and Cascade, swept away many stores, etc., of early date.
Colorado Springs was visited by a destructive cloud-burst in the summer of 1884. The wave divided in two branches, one sweeping down the Monument, the other passing over Shook's Run. Much property was destroyed, and Mrs. B. A. P. Eaton, wife of the county superintendent of schools, was swept away and drowned.
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EL PASO COUNTY.
(CONTINUED.)
THE COLORADO SPRINGS OF THE PRESENT-HOTELS-CHURCHES-COLORADO COLLEGE -DEAF MUTE INSTITUTE-SCHOOLS-TRANSPORTATION-WATER SUPPLY-SEWER- AGE-BANKS-ORGANIZATIONS-DAIRY RANCHES-COLORADO CITY-MANITOU -- PIKE'S PEAK RAILWAY-CAVERNS-GARDEN OF THE GODS.
Present History .- The years 1886-1887 marked an era of railroad building for El Paso. The Colorado Midland located its offices at Colorado Springs, and its lines through this region set the quiet mountain glens buzzing with new settlements. In 1888 the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific began to build to this point-another great stimulus to business interests. In 1889, with no such impetus from without, the growth of the town was greater than in any preceding year. Railroad business increased one- third over the preceding year. A million dollars worth of building was done and the census report gives it a population of 11,200, making it the third in rank of Colorado's cities, as El Paso is the third in the list of the counties.
The isolated improvement, or single happening, which made a year's history for the tiny colony nestled under the shadow of the mighty mountain, would be lost in the rush of railways, the clink of chisel, and grate of plane on hundreds of structures- would be merged in the mighty march of material progress. And together with the growth in things material, the conditions already dwelt upon will convince the reader that the opportunities for the higher life, devotional, educational, social, artistic and musical-have kept pace with the former, and have fulfilled the early promise of the Fountain Colony.
We close our sketch with a statistical mention of the extent and riches of the place to-day. The traveler may enter it by one of the six great railway lines. The east and west ends of Pike's Peak avenue are closed by two handsome stone depots, the western structure erected by the Rio Grande Road in 1877, at a cost of $26,000, and the other lately built by the Santa Fé company. If he enters by the western approach he sees long avenues of trees, stretching north and south; the original 7,000 cotton- woods have been supplemented by the maple, box-elder, acacia, ash, etc. The green city stands forth like an oasis of the plains. The original boulevards, picturesquely named after streams and mountains of the new West, form but the nucleus in the mazes of some forty "additions" to the original town.
Land has long since grown too valuable to leave large tracts of it to "range cattle"
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and grazing sheep. Where the latter nibbled, the feeding grounds are platted and planted, and the cattle are now Holsteins or Jerseys securely stalled.
The first building which is conspicuous on the north is the Albeit Glockner Memo- rial Sanitarium, erected in memory of Mr. Glockner by his widow, at a cost of $27,000. It is built of pressed brick, trimmed with red sandstone; is three stories in height, and has wide piazzas and glass-covered sun porches. It is heated by steam, has all modern conveniences, and is designed to supply invalids of restricted means with home, prop- erly-cooked food, medical attendance and nursing at a nominal rate. South of the Glockner Home are seen some of the finest residences of the city, notably those of J. J. Hagerman, the late Edmonston Gwynne and Louis R. Ehrich, and Colorado College with its dormitory and president's house. At the rear of the residence of Mr. Hager- man, low on the west bank of the Monument, and often choked by its shifting sands, is Colorado Springs' sole mineral spring, impregnated with soda and sulphur. Some day it may be developed, if only for the reason that the city may verify its name.
On Cascade avenue the Sisters of Loretto have a brick academy, accommodating one hundred pupils. Adjacent to it, is the site of the new Roman Catholic church, upon which work is begun. This edifice is to cost when completed, from $65,000 to $75,000.
In a park terraced up from the Denver & Rio Grande depot, stands the Antlers Hotel. The hotel company was incorporated May 16th, 1881, with General Palmer as president, and in June, 1883, opened the hotel to the public. Three stories are of quarry-faced lava stone with Manitou stone trimmings; the remaining two of wood. A formal reception was given during the month of June, and visitors averred there "was no such hotel west of the Missouri River." But times change and hotels change with them, and the Antlers is undergoing additions and improvements, which will bring its cost up to date to more than $250,000.
Hotels .- The Alamo is second in size of Colorado Springs' hostelries. It is four stories in height, of red Kansas City pressed brick, trimmed with sandstone and is situated near Alamo Square on Tejon street. From the central tower 109 feet in height. a fine view is obtained. Additions and improvements to this hotel in 1890 cost $35,000.
Other hotels accommodating from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty guests are the Alta Vista, The Elk, Depot Hotel, Grand View and Spaulding House.
The handsomest business block in the city, is the First National Bank Block on the corner of Pike's Peak avenue and Tejon street. It was completed in 1890, of rough pink sandstone, at a cost of $135,000, exclusive of the site. Another costly block erected within the year is the Hagerman building of pressed brick, for stores and offices, worth $90,000. The Durkee Block, to cost $30,000, is now being constructed on Pike's Peak avenue.
Colorado Springs' Opera House, costing over $80,000, was erected in 1880 by three public-spirited citizens, B. F. Crowell, J. F. Humphrey and Hon. Irving Howbert. It was opened to the public in 1881, by Maude Granger in "Camille." Souvenir pro- grammes were distributed. Mesdames Janauschek and Modjeska, Robson and Crane, Frederick Warde, Sheridan, Md'lle Rhea, Charlotte Thompson, Lawrence Barrett, the Knights, the Dalys, Oscar Wilde, Remenji, Joseffy, the Mendelssohn Quintette Club, Henry Ward Beecher and John B. Gough as lecturers, have all given entertainments
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