USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 39
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
Some County Statistics .- El Paso County's material progress is proven by compar- isons. Her assessed acres and their valuation were in 1870, 66,649 acres valued at $156,206. In 1880, 250,434 acres, $828,525, and in 1889, 458,750, valued at $1,473,135, while in 1889, 80,000 acres were reclaimed and added to the taxable acreage.
Its property was assessed in 1870 at less than half a million, while in 1880 it was $4,320,000, and in 1889, $9,908,500. The total assessed valuation for 1890, shows an 'increase over 1888 of over one million dollars.
The agricultural statistics for 1888 (the last prepared up to the time of this writing) are not so encouraging perhaps, as those of earlier years, for the crops of 1888 were seriously affected by drouth and early frost, and no fruits were harvested that year except in the Fountain Valley where irrigation was possible. The table shows that on land without irrigation in many parts, the following cereals can be raised in this county which in former times had been thought only suitable for grazing purposes:
Number of acres under irrigation
22,835
Number of acres pasture land.
401,62I
Wheat,
acres
205, bushels.
2,333
Oats,
I264,
24,619
Raspberries,
2,170
Rye,
. .
386, ..
3,247
Forest trees, acres.
59/2
Corn,
..
739, . .
13,485
Pounds cheese manufactured.
90,500
Potatoes,
1804,
86,412
Pounds butter
83,655
Timothy,
552,
tons
620
No. beehives. 132
Clover,
164,
159
Honey, pounds 4,125
Alfalfa,
1057
4,241
Wool shorn, pounds.
496,600
Orchard-Apples, bushels.
572
Small fruits-Blackberries, quarts. 150
Currants, 5,795
Gooseberries,
3,635
Barley,
I39,
800
Strawberries, 890
In 1886, from 2,665 acres 65,805 bushels were harvested; from 1,021 acres over 30,000 bushels of corn; and in that year were grown 18,495 quarts of strawberries; 27,645 quarts of currants; and four tons of grapes.
El Paso's Progress .- The material progress of El Paso County has been regular and rapid. The following table aptly illustrates this, and gives the number of acres of land assessed, with their valuation, for a majority of years since 1870:
387
HISTORY OF EL PASO COUNTY.
Acres.
Valuation.
Acres.
Valuation.
IS70
66 649
$ 156,206
1885.
310,142
$ 893,745
1871.
94,320
395,095
1886.
333.679
966,400
1872
129,920
478,886
1887.
354,732
1,132, 160
1873.
147,760
874,205
1888.
379 346
1,329, 195
1879.
214,790
753,715
1889.
458,750
1,473,135
1880.
250,434
828,625
and it will be seen from the above table that nearly 80,000 acres were reclaimed and added to the taxable acreage during 1889.
We here append a table which shows the valuation of El Paso's property for a majority of years since 1870:
1870
$524,905
1880.
.$4,320,320
1871
869,810
1882.
4,879,375
1872
1,289,756
1885.
4,960,935
1873.
2,108,045
1886 ..
5,262,270
1874
3,160,323
1887.
6,551,920
1877.
3,141,250
1888.
8,624,840
1878.
4,076,395
1889
9,908,500
The county's total assessed valuation for 1890 (which is given below) shows an increase over the preceding year of over $1,000,000, as have the annual reports since 1886.
Agricultural Lands, 41 235 acres 387,405
Vehicles, 2,308.
$ 70,065
Grazing Lands, 390,270 acres.
697,815
Money and Credits
211,570
Improvements on Lands.
349,150
Capital in Manufacture.
48,055
Improvements on Public Lands
56,050
Merchandise.
430,835
Town and City Lots
2,959,200
Stocks and Shares.
118,425
Improvements on Lots.
2,262,240
Household Furniture
99.340
· Horses, 8,224
234,795
Jewelry, gold and silver plate.
7,080
Mules, 432.
14,155
Pullman Cars.
20,855
Cattle, 37,573
331,890
Telegraph and Telephone Lines
14,400
Sheep, 58,831.
58,885
Swine, 707.
2,380
All Other Property
70,460
Other Animals, 51.
470
Clocks and Watches, 1,072.
20, 120
Grand Total.
$10,910, 195
Musical Instruments, 534.
39,560
Number of Military Polls
2,542
The water commissioner's report for 1890 gives the number of completed reservoirs in El Paso County as thirty-one, constructed at an estimated cost of $100,000, and four partially completed reservoirs which will have cost $31,100. Sixty irrigating canals are reported of one hundred and seventy-eight miles' total length, by which means 3,000 acres of alfalfa; 4,867 acres of natural grass; 779 of seeded grass, and 3,366 acres of crops are grown.
The county assessor gives the following table as the assessed valuations (for 1890) of the incorporated cities and towns of El Paso County:
Colorado Springs.
$4,926,930 Palmer Lake. . .
$151,530
Manitou .. .
667,000
Green Mountain Falls.
55,410
Colorado City
288,105
Monument
48,815
Railroads, 2,486, 6-100.
2,404,995
388
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
FREMONT COUNTY.
BOUNDARIES AND RESOURCES-ORGANIZATION-VISIT OF ZEBULON PIKE -FIRST SET- TLERS-MODERN SETTLEMENTS-FOUNDING OF CANON CITY-PEOPLE'S COURTS- INDUSTRIAL IMPROVEMENTS-DISCOVERY OF PETROLEUM-UNION FLAG RAISING -THE TOWN ABANDONED-REVIVAL IN 1865-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS-STATE PENITENTIARY-RAILROADS-DEATH OF COLONEL GREENWOOD-PRESENT CON- DITION-NEWSPAPERS-OIL FIELDS AT FLORENCE.
As originally instituted by the legislature of 1861, this county embraced, out- side of its present boundaries, all the territory now covered by the county of Custer, and Canon City-which then aspired to headship of all towns in the Pike's Peak region, by virtue of its position at the mouth of the great and wonderful Canon of the Ar- kansas River, as the gateway of the principal route to the rich placer mines of the Upper Arkansas and the sources of the Platte River in the South Park, or Bayou Salado, was designated the county seat. It was named in honor of Colonel John C. Fremont, and now has an area of 1,559 square miles. It is bounded on the east by Pueblo, south by Custer, west by Chaffee and Saguache, on the northwest by Park, and north by El Paso. According to the census of 1890, its population was 9,148. It is divided near the mid- dle from east to west by the Arkansas River, which furnishes an ample supply of water for irrigating and for manufacturing uses. On the north side are Tallahassee, Cotton- wood, Currant, Wilson, Sand, Four or Oil, Eight Mile and Beaver Creeks, all small streams; and on the south, Texas, Grape, Oak, Coal, Newland, Adobe and Hardscrabble Creeks. Along the course of the great river mentioned, and on most of its affluents just enumerated, are settlements of farmers and stockgrowers. It is also the most advanced in fruit raising of any county in the State. As will appear in the course of our narrative, these industries are in a very high stage of development and prosperity. In the midst of the agricultural zone lie vast deposits of coal and petroleum, well devel- oped, and very profitable. Added to these sources of wealth, are in neighboring mountains mines of gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, zinc, with illimitable quarries of granite, variously colored sandstones, limestones, marble, with ochre and potter's clay, paint and cement, and near the principal town, hot and cold mineral springs, and immense beds of fossil remains of extinct animals and reptiles, fine specimens of which are to be found in the various archaeological museums of the United States, a large number in Yale College.
To perfect the organization of the county and afford it a legal government, Gov- ernor William Gilpin appointed J. B. Cooper, Louis Conley and Anson Rudd Commis- sioners. Mr. Rudd was the first sheriff, and David Powell County Clerk and Recorder.
389
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
In the spring of 1863 the People's Court was superseded by a regularly authorized tribunal, or District Court, with Justice B. F. Hall presiding. He was succeeded at a later time by Allen A, Bradford.
The annals of Fremont County, made up of loose fragments, extend back to the time when Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike encamped upon the site of Canon City in 1806, while in the earnest and somewhat perilous execution of his orders from Thomas Jefferson "to acquire such geographical knowledge of the southwestern boundary of Louisiana as to enable the government to enter into a definite arrangement for a line of demarkation between that territory and North New Mexico." He was also especially enjoined to discover and definitely locate the sources of the Arkansas and Red Rivers, taking careful note of everything worthy of record pertaining to the trackless wilds he was instructed to traverse. He discovered the sources of the Platte and Arkansas in midwinter when snow and ice encompassed the land, but the fearful journey came near costing him and his little band of soldiers their lives. Red River he failed to find, for the reason that it lay far to the southward, out of the line of his calculations, although at that early epoch before any accurate maps of the western part of the "Louisiana purchase" had been drawn, it was believed to take its rise in the central part of the Rocky Mountains.
The site on which Canon City of the present day stands, was the base of his explo- rations in search of the headwaters of all those streams. From this spot he passed into the snow bound Sierras, and to it he returned. Thence he journeyed, presumably, the exact route not being known, to the Wet Mountain Valley, via the beautiful Cañon of Grape Creek, and thence across the Sangre de Cristo Range into the San Luis Valley where, his diary tells us, he was captured by Spanish troops and conveyed a prisoner to the city of Santa Fé.
From the date of the first modern settlement to the present epoch, the inhabitants of Fremont County have taken infinite pride in pointing out to the strangers within their gates, Pike's original encampment near the mineral springs which form so inviting and valuable a feature of their domestic institutions, and his route to the southward.
The main subject under consideration, however, is that which relates to the era of actual settlement, beginning with the first recorded evidence, and tracing the various lines onward stage by stage, down to 1890 and for this purpose we shall take advantage of the facts that have been set forth by our predecessors in that field of inquiry. It has been ascertained from authentic sources, that the first locators were a French trapper and some Mexicans, whose abiding place was upon a small affluent of the Arkansas called Adobe Creek. This occurred in the year 1830, shortly after the Bents and their followers built their mud forts and trading stations on the Arkansas River, as related in our first volume. The chief actor in the enterprise was a Canadian voyageur, named Maurice. Having fixed his post at the point named, there sprang up about it a small colony from New Mexico, some of whose members engaged in rude cultivation of the soil, raising a few vegetables. Game being abundant, their efforts were neither arduous nor long continued. The country being infested by Indians, when danger threatened the Mexicans found a refuge with Maurice. They remained a number of years, probably until about 1847, when, owing to the frequency of incursions by evil minded red skins, it was dispersed.
390
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
It will be readily comprehended by those who have followed the events related in our two preceding volumes that at this time, and for more than thirty years after, the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas and Comanches swarmed over the plains below, and the Utes in the mountain parks above, and that between these races there had existed from time immemorial the deadliest hatred, that burst forth in bloody wars whenever the antagonistic elements came together. They fought, robbed and plundered each other with relentless ferocity. There was never even a temporary truce between them, nor any form of reconciliation. It was war to the knife and knife to the hilt, and when unable to prey upon one another, they assaulted the Mexican settlers over the border and stole everything of movable property they could find. This will explain why the Spanish conquerors and colonizers of New Mexico never founded any settlements north of the Rio Grande.
Next after Maurice, according to Captain Rockafellow's account, came the Bents, St. Vrain, Lucien B. Maxwell, Lupton and the Beaubiens, with their hunters and trappers about the year 1840; the record is not clear as to date, and established a temporary trading post on Adobe Creek, whence they sent out their employes to rob the peaceful, industrious and altogether commendable beaver of his beautiful hide for the adornment of the human species. The climate was and is a perennial joy, the surroundings sublimely picturesque. Possibly these rude invaders took no adequate note of any other advantages than those especially connected with their calling, the commercial aspect, the enrichment of the principals from the valuable consignments to be gathered there and marketed at the headquarters of the American Fur Company a thousand miles distant, and if so, we who came later with better trained appreciation of the splendors here so lavishly dispensed, can but commiserate them for their want of taste.
Next came a steady inflow of settlers to the Arkansas, the Fontaine-qui-Bouille, the Huerfano and the Greenhorn, the building of Fountain City and Pueblo; the dis- covery of golden treasures in the lofty altitudes of the mountains, in the South Park, on Cherry Creek and Vasquez Forks, which, excepting the tremendous hegira to California in 1849, was the most tumultuous and numerous migration of people from east to west that has occurred in this generation, whence followed the conquest of the American Desert and its almost magical transformation into populous and prosperous States. The richest placers thus far discovered in Colorado, lay near the headwaters of the Arkansas and Platte Rivers. The heaviest columns of immigration in 1859-'60-'61, pursued the Platte River route from the Missouri, but there was still another wave from the latter base which took the more southerly line along the old Santa Fe trail that led them to the same destination via the passes above Canon City, and it was this which gave the founders of Fountain City and Pueblo the conviction that the arc of the splendid amphitheater, near the debouchure of the great river from the Grand Canon, might be made a formidable rival to if not the superior of the embryonic metropolis then planted upon the banks of Cherry Creek. In October, 1859, therefore, Josiah F. Smith, his brother Stephen, William H. Young, Robert Bercaw, Charles D. Peck and William Kroenig, who no doubt entertained serious misgivings of the future greatness of the town they had begun at the mouth of the Fontaine, resolved to catch and hold the rapidly increasing immigration at the point last indicated, where Pike had made a temporary bivouac fifty-three years before. Acting upon the suggestion, they planned
391
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
an imposing city, but built only a single log house therein, into which, when completed, moved the family of Robert Middleton, the first to occupy the site.
The next movement of importance was to effect the preliminary survey of a wagon road thence to Tarryall in South Park, seventy-nine miles distant. With these indefinite and inconsequential efforts the first lesson in the chronicles of Cañon closed. It is brief and of no further importance than to serve as a beginning of its annals.
In the spring of 1860, when the current of people, attracted by reported discoveries in California, Georgia, French and tributary gulches became much stronger than that of the previous year, the town site of Canon was jumped, otherwise relocated by another company, which, by the aid of a Denver firm of civil engineers, named Buell and Boyd, who had just previously located the modern Pueblo, surveyed and platted 1,280 acres. The new possessors, or claimants were, William Kroenig, A. Mayhood, W. H. Young, Dold & Co., J. B. Doyle, A. Thomas, W. H. Green, Buell and Boyd, J. D. Ramage, Henry Youngblood, W. W. Ramage, Alvord & Co., St. Vrain and Easterday, J. Graham and M. T. Green. As an earnest of their intentions, a number of log cabins were built. This exhausted their means, their enthusiasm perished with the failure of their hopes, for no further accessions occurred, the columns of marching men passed by with- out halting, and a second time the existence of the place was seriously threatened. A few farmers settled upon ranch claims, and undertook the experiment of agriculture.
It was one of the most eligible situations for a permanent town in all Southern Colorado, in latitude 28° 28' north, and longitude 105° 12' west, on the Arkansas, forty miles west of Pueblo, at the base of the Rocky Mountains at the month of one of its grandest cañons, and 5,280 feet above the level of the sea; protected on three sides by broken foothills, with a climate unexcelled, and all the requisite treasures of nature spread out in immeasurable generosity; with a soil rich in all the elements essential to the production of boundless harvests of grain and fruit, now the garden spot of the State, a very paradise for invalids, and a restful home for all classes. With such an array of advantages and resources, it is almost surprising that it did not at once outstrip every other, and become what its founders designed it to be, the metropolis of the South. But matters of such moment are not adjusted according to individual taste or choice, but rather by the higher laws which control and mould the destinies of towns and cities.
The first successful farmer was Jesse Frazer who in April, 1860, located a claim along the river about eight miles below Canon City, and in process of time became famous as the owner of the finest and most productive fruit orchard in all the Rocky Mountain region, and who still resides there, a venerable and highly respected citizen. In connection with Hosea Hoopengarner, Clark Harrington and John W. Leland he was the first to discover and mine coal, on Coal Creek, during the same month and year. Frazer took his supplies for domestic uses from the outcroppings. It is now the property of the Colorado Coal & Iron Company. It may be noted in passing, that these deposits were not systematically opened and operated until 1872. His first attempts to break up the hard adobe soil for planting were by the employment of the crotch of a cottonwood tree, using one prong for the beam and the other for a plow- share, after the fashion of the crude implements still used by the natives of Mexico.
The next claim below Frazer's was taken by William Ash, his stepson, the same
392
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
year; next came three brothers named Antoine who engaged in similar pursuits. Others followed from time to time, until that portion of the valley gave evidence of substantial and permanent occupancy.
The years 1860-61 witnessed the only considerable burst of activity that occurred between the date of the original location and 1864. In the years first indicated, many settled there, and during the winters when work ceased in the mines, hundreds came trooping down from the elevated park regions, and made winter quarters in this genial spot, sheltered from the extreme rigors of winter. Among them were George A. Hins- dale and Wilbur F. Stone, men educated to the legal profession, who subsequently became conspicuous members of the Territorial bar, the latter a chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the State, the former, chosen Lieutenant-Governor under the con- stitution that was rejected by President Johnson in 1866. There being no laws for the protection of life and property, the regulation of offenders civil and criminal, in April, 1860, a meeting of citizens was held, and Messrs. Hinsdale and Stone invited to prepare a code suited to the anomalous condition of affairs, which was done, and the draft accepted and ratified in mass convention, and afterward adopted by popular vote at the polls, notwithstanding the persistent efforts of certain parties to defeat it. This code conferred on the People's Court, criminal and civil jurisdiction over the entire region, from Canon City to Beaver Creek, and from the oil fields of our day to Hard- scrabble. At that time the population numbered about nine hundred, principally men. W. R. Fowler was elevated to the chief magistracy of this august tribunal; the police power being vested in a committee of six reputable citizens who undertook to see that its decrees were enforced. The judge was to preside over meetings of the people for the adjustment of difficulties between parties and individuals. Mr. Fowler in addition exerted himself manfully for the preservation of peace, order and good fellowship, and for the inculcation of religious and moral principles among the heterogeneous populace. He took a prominent part in every movement and measure having for its object the moral and religious advancement of the community, taking advantage of every opportunity afforded for the elevation and well being of his fellow men, not by the free use of rope and shot gun, but by the gentler exercise of a noble Christian example. Notwithstanding the difficulties in his path he persevered, and it was to his conscien- tiously and wisely directed endeavors both as the representative of the law and as missionary, that much lawlessness and crime was prevented.
By the stimulus of increased population, buildings multiplied rapidly until some two hundred dwellings and stores were completed. Large stocks of merchandise were brought in, among the more extensive that of Alex. Majors, representing the renowned freighting and contracting firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell. Another element of progress in the form of a weekly newspaper, christened the "Canon City Times," was introduced in September by H. S. Millett and Matt Riddlebarger, but its life was of. but brief duration. Then came a man named Calkins, whose original venture took the shape of a whisky shop. Being inspired with ambition for leader- ship, the performance of surprising deeds that would send his name "thundering down the ages" as the builder of a city in this part of the wilderness, he began the erection of two modest dwellings of stone, not large nor ornate, but substantial, and rather aristocratic looking when compared with their unassuming neighbors of logs. These
Thomas Wells
RESIDENCE OF THOMAS S. WELLS, CANON CITY.
393
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
completed, he began a number of two-story cut stone edifices designed for business purposes, but having exceeded the limits of his available resources, financial embar- rassments compelled their abandonment, and his abrupt departure from the town. These structures were finished at a later period, giving the place an appearance of solidity and durability, which, followed by new acquisitions who built for the future and not for the day, imparts to it something of the prestige it enjoys at this time.
To Mr. Anson Rudd, one of the original settlers, and one of the few who has retained his faith and residence from the beginning, was born the first child, a son, who in his growth to manhood has been an honor to his universally honored progenitor.
The first flouring mill in the county was built by Louis Conley, who became the first mayor or president of the Board of Trustecs of Pueblo when that town came to be incorporated in 1870. It was a small, rude affair, to be sure, but well adapted to the needs of a small community, and much better than no mill at all, though it ground but six bushels of wheat a day, the owner taking one-fourth as toll. Wheat in 1860 was worth ten to twelve cents a pound.
Lumber being in great demand with no supplies, as an inducement for some one to fill the want by the introduction of a sawmill, an "original share" in the town was offered as a premium, which prize J. B. Cooper, J. C. Moore, A. C.Chandler and a man named Harkins took by planting a mill near the mouth of Sand Creek. As a necessary adjunct, R. R. Kirkpatrick attached thereto a shingle machine, hence in a short time the wants of the public were supplied with such building materials.
In the autumn of 1860 Gabriel Bowen discovered the existence of oil springs, six miles above the town on Oil Creek, but nothing came of it until years afterward. This subject is treated at some length later on.
The first store of any importance was opened by Dold & Co., an assorted stock adapted to the modest requirements of the time, Wolfe Londoner-at this writing mayor of Denver-being its manager and chief salesman. Then followed J. B. Doyle & Co., represented by H. Z. and Fred Z. Salomon, with a considerable stock of general merchandise. C. W. Kitchen & Brother, and Stevens & Curtis also opened stores. Majors, Russell and Waddell erected a large stone building and filled it from cellar to attic with all manner of goods. Robert O. Old, now a prosperous miner at Georgetown, located in a log cabin. J. A. Draper, James Gormly, James Kitchen, G. D. Jenks, Paul Brothers, Harrison and Mason, D. P. Wilson and others arrived with stocks, therefore it will be seen that Canon was abundantly equipped for an extensive trade-greater than was ever realized. As a matter of fact it was more bountifully furnished than any other town in the Territory, and its people firmly believed and built upon the belief that it would be the most important.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.