USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 40
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The first brickyard was established, and the first bricks were produced by W. C. Catlin. There are houses in the town to-day that were built of these bricks. The first hotel was opened and conducted by G. D. Jenks, but although admirable in every other respect, it proved a financial disaster to its proprietor.
James Alfred, and George H. Toof came in April, 1860, mined in Georgia Gulch that season, and at its close located farms on Adobe Creek. Captain William H. Green, Judge Piatt, and many others, some of whom are dead and others now residing in various parts of the State, were among the primitive settlers.
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The first drugstore was opened by Dr. J. Reid in the summer of 1860. He was an excellent physician, and during his lifetime, profoundly esteemed by all who knew him.
The improvements made during 1860-1861, were, as already related, of an unpre- tentious character. In the latter year the war broke out, and as in all other com- munities, each side of the issue that brought about the marshaling of hosts and the long and terrible clash of arms, had its representatives here. As one of the stirring incidents of the time, Mr. R. O. Old relates the following:
"About the middle of June, 1'861, the loyal and patriotic element, on being advised that the then newly appointed Governor-William Gilpin-was about to visit Canon City, resolved to accord him a reception. The population was nine hundred to one thousand, the rougher element and the more demonstrative being for the most part sympathizers with the Southern confederacy. At a meeting of citizens called to arrange the preliminaries for the reception, a committee of citizens was appointed of whom I was made chairman, and in that capacity it became my duty to receive His Excellency in the name of the people. The committee decided to signalize the event by a Union flag raising, therefore a large United States banner was procured, and the word 'Welcome' emblazoned in large letters across its ample folds. Speeches were to be made of course, and some one suggested that a poem would be a good thing; so I was requested to prepare the effusion and read it at the moment when the flag was about to be hoisted to its place on the staff by the Governor. Everything being in readiness, on the morning after Gilpin's arrival (June 24th) the crowd gathered at the appointed spot. After some preliminary remarks by Mr. Findlay, Gilpin raised the banner amid the plaudits of the multitude." Mr. Old recited his poem, of which a copy is before us, but too lengthy for reproduction here. Short speeches by the Governor, Secretary Weld and United States Marshal Townsend, followed, and were loudly cheered; the meeting closed in a blaze of glory, and the distinguished guests departed for the next town.
In 1863 the place was almost wholly deserted. The town record of the second and only legitimate town company, was placed in the hands of Anson Rudd by the last member of the company, he (Rudd) being the only one who had determined to stay and fight out the battle single handed. At the time of my first visit to the place in July, 1864, his was the only family in it. It was a town of stone, brick and logs, with but a single occupant. He alone of all the hundreds was imbued with unshakable confidence in its destiny, an abiding conviction that the day was not far distant when the abandoned homes and stores and warehouses would be reoccupied, by people of his own mind, and would yet build an imposing city. Only a few of the original dwellers ever returned, but other and perhaps better men took their places in the fullness of time. To quote from the chronicles of the period, probably written by Rudd himself: "An oppressive silence hung over the once busy town; there was scarcely a ripple of visible life to disturb the solitude. The strife and turmoil of men had ceased. The once active occupants had gathered what little they possessed, folded their tents and stolen away in search of more populous and prosperous towns."
In 1864 came a revival, a sort of physical resurrection, not an indiscriminate horde, but numbers of "real folks " who saw the opportunities and seized them. On the 16th
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of September, 1864, appeared the first installment of the new epoch, men with families, bringing their household goods and gods, possessed of nerve, intelligence, force and power, who, in looking over the situation quickly penetrated its advantages, realized what could be made of them; men fitted to take vigorous grasp of things, incited to build for themselves and posterity enduring monuments of enterprise ; to plow and plant, and harvest, year by year, and by the fruits thereof, by the example set forth attract to their small nucleus hundreds and thousands of similar strength and like pur- poses. On the date mentioned came Thomas Macon, who was to prove a mighty mover in public affairs; Mrs. Ann Harrison and her three sons; Mrs. George and family; John Wilson, Joseph Macon, Mr. Fletcher and wife; Augustus Sartor; Zach Irwin and others, twenty in all, from different parts of the Union. Mr. Thomas Macon, an educated lawyer, a natural orator and vigorous director of men, did much for the general advance- ment. Three years afterward he was elected to the popular branch of the Territorial legislature, and soon grew to be one of its most influential members. At that session (1867-'68) the politicians and wealthy citizens of Denver formed a sort of cabal to effect the removal of the Territorial seat of government from Golden to their own city. Fre- mont County demanded the location of the Territorial Penitentiary at its county seat. Macon adroitly stepped into the breach between the contending factions, and by pledging his own vote and those of other members from the southern division which he had secured, to the removal of the capital, upon the proviso that the Northern members should cast their votes for his bill, fixing the penitentiary at Canon, secured it. Not much of a concession it is true, one that few communities would consider a desirable acquisition, yet it was something permanent, a nucleus of patronage and power which that particular community coveted. Its effect will appear as we proceed.
With the new era begun in 1864, came the introduction of schools and churches, the organization of society, the institution of the higher and better elements of moral and social progress. With the new status, the people were encouraged to develop the wide diversity of resources; coal mining, fruit growing, floriculture, the broadening of local commerce and manufactures, the opening of roadways; of veins of gold, silver and copper. By the efforts of a few leading citizens inspired by W. R. Fowler, a religious revival took place. The first church society in the county was the Methodist, organized by Rev. Mr. Johnson of Kansas, with a membership of only eight or ten persons, but its numbers multiplied with the increase of religious fervor. Rev. George Murray then took up the work, and carried it forward with great effectiveness. In the beginning meetings were held wherever rooms could be found, but in due course churches were built, the first by the Methodists. The Baptists emulated their example and built in 1865, the movement led by Rev. B. M. Adams, who established a number of churches of that denomination in Colorado during his extended missionary labors.
The Cumberland Presbyterian society was organized in 1867, by Rev. B. F. Brown, with Steven Frazier and Dr. J. Blanchard as presiding elders. These public spirited men erected the largest and finest religious edifice in Southern Colorado at that time.
Christ Church-Protestant Episcopal, was instituted in 1872, by the efforts of Bishop George M. Randall, Rev. Samuel Edwards, rector. The First Presbyterian in 1872. by Rev. Sheldon Jackson, assisted by J. K. Brewster, ruling elder, and the pastor, Rev. George W. Partridge.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Secret Societies .- Mount Moriah Lodge No. 15, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was opened under a dispensation granted by G. M. Henry M. Teller, November 8th, 1867, and a charter was obtained in 1868 from the Grand Lodge of that year.
Canon City Lodge I. O. O. F. was established November 10th, 1868.
June 25th, 1881, a lodge of A. O. U. W. was instituted, and all have been well maintained.
The town of Canon was incorporated April Ist, 1872. December 17th, 1879, the people realizing the need of a water system for domestic purposes, and the extinguish- ment of fires, a stock company was formed by the more wealthy residents, who, after an abortive effort to sell their stock and bonds, withdrew their propositions to that end, raised the funds themselves-about $50,000, and provided the present system. The stockholders were James Clelland, J. H. Peabody, George R. Shaeffer, Ira Mulock, August Heckscher, Wilbur K. Johnson, David Caird and O. G. Stanley. The organi- zation of a fire department of two companies followed.
The Colorado Penitentiary was located and established by an act of the Territorial legislature, approved January 7th, 1868. By its provisions the acting Governor appointed three commissioners on behalf of the Territory, to select a site not more than one-half mile from the business center of Cañon City, and to contain not less than twenty-five acres of land, to be conveyed to the Territory by the person or persons holding title thereto in fee simple without charge. The site was donated by Anson Rudd, and soon afterward the work of building began. It was built by the United States, and placed in charge of Mark A. Shaffenburg, marshal for Colorado. The Territory paid the cost of feeding, guarding, maintaining and clothing its own prisoners, the Governor, Auditor and the District Attorney for the Third Judicial District being named as commissioners to contract with the United States for the same.
The original building was opened for the reception of convicts June Ist, 1871. It consisted of forty-two cells. In April, 1874, it was turned over to the Territory by the Federal authorities. Up to 1877 its growth was gradual, but since that time it has repeatedly been enlarged and improved, to meet the ever increasing demands. The State owns thirty-six acres of land for prison uses, on which immense quarries of sand- stone and limestone have been opened, and the products thereof extensively utilized. About five acres are inclosed by a stone wall twenty feet high and four feet thick. Anson Rudd was the first Territorial Warden. He was succeeded by David Prosser, and he by B. F. Allen; M. N. Megrue was the first appointed under the State govern- ment. He resigned in 1880, and Willard B. Felton, then one of the Board of Peniten- tiary Commissioners, was chosen to the vacancy. In February, 1881, he was appointed for two years. Although charges of delinquency, neglect of prisoners and of official duties, breach of trust, etc., etc., have been preferred, mostly without sufficient foun- dation, however, against some of these officials before and since, Felton's adminis- tration was free from taint or reproach.
The executive management is vested in a board of three commissioners appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by the Senate. This Penitentiary is one of the model penal institutions of the country, in cleanliness, healthfulness and discipline. There are at this time, about five hundred inmates, who are employed in quarrying and burning lime, in quarrying and cutting sandstone, in brick making, manufacturing clothing, etc.,
MA bowles
RESIDENCE OF WARREN R. FOWLER, 3/4 M.FROM CANON CITY.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
needed for the use of the convicts. No convict labor is leased out to manufacturers, as is the case in most of the Eastern prisons. At present quite a number of convicts are employed in the construction of a ditch taken from the Arkansas River about six miles above the town, designed to water the arid lands between Canon City and Pueblo. This canal is the property of the State.
In 1890 the officers were Joseph A. Lamping, warden; Charles Boettcher, David H. Nichols and F. A. Raynolds, commissioners; George E. Dudley deputy warden, and Dr. E. C. Gray, physician.
The Postmasters of Canon have been, M. G. Pratt, to 1863; J. A. Draper, 1863-'64; Anson Rudd and W. R. Fowler, 1864 to 1865; Samuel M. Cox, to 1869; B. F. Rock- afellow, to 1879; A. D. Cooper, to 1882; J. S. Bowlby, to 1886; George G. Sharer, to 1890, and A. D. Cooper, present incumbent.
Railroads .- Soon after the beginning of the new era in 1864-65, the principal citizens realizing the advantage of rapid transit to the development of towns, united with the spirit then prevailing at Denver, which was exerting its utmost power to induce the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific Railway companies to build their main lines through Colorado. A meeting was held in Canon, and after free discussion, B. M. Adams, B. F. Rockafellow and Thomas Macon were appointed a committee to confer with Colonel A. G. Boone then about to visit his old friend John D. Perry, president of the Kansas Pacific Company, and present to him the feasibility of a line via the Arkansas Valley through the mountains to the westward. The message thus intrusted to him was by Colonel Boone delivered to President Perry, who promised to investigate. In due course a party of engineers was sent out by him, who after examination rendered a favorable report; this occurred in 1868. It was next examined by Colonel W. H. Greenwood, who urged the Kansas Pacific Directorate to adopt it, but for reasons explained in our first volume, other plans were formed.
Then came General W. J. Palmer, soon after the incorporation of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, who gave assurances that he would occupy the pass. Relying upon this assurance, the people of the county voted a subscription of $50,000 to the stock of that road, but owing to some legal technicality, the bonds were not issued.
Meantime Palmer built from Denver to Pueblo, with a branch along the Arkansas to Labran, a coal mining camp or town eight miles below Cañon, which was completed October 30th, 1872. There his operations in that direction ceased, and he began developing the coal deposits at that point, the first regularly opened in the southern division of the Territory. The people of Canon appealed in vain for the extension of this branch to their town. At length in sheer desperation they held a public meeting (January 6th, 1873), and resolved to cast their fortunes with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé. A committee composed of B. F. Rockafellow, James Clelland and B. F. Allen, was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the general sentiment. These set forth the great advantages of the route to and through the treasure laden mountains, and invited the managers to consider them. This last resort failed also, as the Santa Fé had then other projects in view, and besides was laboring under financial embarrassment. Finally negotiations with the Rio Grande were reopened. Palmer seeing his opportunity, demanded $100,000 in bonds. The people reluctantly ac- cepted the ultimatum and voted the aid, but only by a bare majority, for the opposition
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was extremely alert and bitter. The Board of County Commissioners, imbued with the popular prejudice, refused to issue the bonds. The quiet of despair ensued.
Thus matters stood until August 6th, 1874, when a new proposition to subscribe $50,000 to the stock of the Rio Grande was submitted and carried. In addition the citizens donated a certain tract for depot grounds. The extension from Labran was completed,-not to the town as it should have been, but as if directed in a spirit of malicious obstinacy,-to a point some distance below,-July Ist, 1875. The ill feeling thus engendered, instead of being allayed by the connection was simply intensified, for the railroad company withheld its cooperation, accorded no privileges and maintained an attitude of sullen opposition to local enterprises.
February 15th, 1877, the citizens organized the Canon City & San Juan Railway Company, and immediately took measures to improve their franchise by surveying. locating and platting the Grand Canon, filing the result with the Secretary of the Interior at Washington, as required by the Act of Congress under which they were operating. The officers of this company-which caused the Rio Grande almost endless difficulty and expense a year or two later,-were, president, Ebenezer T. Alling; secretary, B. F. Rockafellow; treasurer, James Clelland ; chief engineer, H. R. Holbrook. Alling soon after withdrew, and was succeeded by F. A. Raynolds.
If it was in the minds of the people to revenge themselves upon the Rio Grande for its persistent contumacy, the results growing out of this enterprise filled the measure of retaliation to the brim. By this time General Palmer had become engaged in a deadly grapple with the Santa Fé. The new company eagerly turned to the latter and immediately obtained the fullest recognition. Almost simultaneously the Santa Fé people seized and forcibly occupied the Raton Pass, and soon thereafter by a bold and rather brilliant manœuvre, took possession of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas. The people of Cañon City united as one in aiding by every means in their power the steps
taken by the Santa Fé Company to forestall, defeat and harass its narrow gauge adversary, gladly furnishing guides, scouts, working and fighting forces, and supplies. As a consequence, the particulars of which are given in our second volume, the battle that ensued became a veritable contest of giants, and by the force injected into it by local influence, it was rendered so costly and generally damaging to the Rio Grande interest, as to well nigh cripple it beyond redemption.
Colonel W. H. Greenwood, one of the proprietors of the Rio Grande system, who, differing with Palmer in 1874, left its employ and joined the Santa Fé, was in August, 1880, assassinated near the City of Mexico, while engaged in surveying a railway line for the Palmer-Sullivan combination. His remains were taken to the capital city of the Republic and there interred, the funeral attended by all the leading foreigners, and many prominent Mexicans. Although a vigorous effort to hunt down and apprehend his murderers was made by President Diaz, they were not discovered. At the time of his death he was only forty-eight years of age, just in the prime of his manhood.
The town or city of Canon as it stands to-day is remarkably well built of brick and stone, clean and neat, the expansive plats of its many pretty homes embellished with all manner of shade and fruit trees, reminding the visitor of the "City of the Saints," at Salt Lake, minus its objectionable domestic institutions. It is not a great city, but it certainly is inviting, prosperous and sturdily progressive. Its streets are broad,
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regular, well shaded and well kept. The mineral springs that have been tastefully and somewhat expensively improved, one of iron and the other soda, furnish delicious waters for drinking and bathing. The sewer system, and waterworks are ample for all present purposes; the streets are illuminated by electric arc lights. Telegraph and telephone lines are among its modern conveniences. The Fremont County courthouse is an imposing structure of brick and stone, built at a cost of $30,000. It has an elegant school building, an opera house, six churches, a bank and a considerable number of manufacturing establishments.
The fruit crop of the county for 1889 was valued at $75,000. Among its principal citizens are B. F. Rockafellow, Henry Earle, T. M. Harding, James H. Peabody, J. J. Phelps, R. S. Lewis, W. P. Cook, W. B. Felton, A. D. Cooper, J. J. Cone, L. L. Hard- ing, W. B. McGee, S. W. Humphrey, A. H. Davis, H. N. Beecher, W. T. Lester, Thomas S. Wells, George W. Bethel, W. T. Bridewell, George R. Cassidy, George R. Shaeffer, Anson Rudd, Fred H. Whipple, J. B. Cooper, Frank L. Smith, J. T. Reed, C. M. Cross, James Clelland, Robert Savage, J. E. Brown. Its lawyers are C. E. Waldo, S. P. Dale, C. D. Bradley, S. A. Bentley, W. H. Edmunds, C. C. Dawson, J. H. Maupin, James L. Cooper, A. Macon, D. M. Lock. Physicians, J. W. Dawson, T. H. Craven, E. C. Gray, A. E. Rogers, J. M. Bradbury, C. Q. Nelson, J. L. Prentice, F. P. Blake.
The other towns in the county are Coal Creek with a population of twelve hundred, Rockvale nine hundred, Williamsburgh five hundred, Brookside five hundred, all coal mining settlements; Florence eight hundred, whose principal industries are the production of oil, agriculture and fruits.
Its newspapers are the Cañon City "Record," W. B. Felton proprietor, established in 1874, the official paper of the county and town; the Fremont County "News" estab- lished in 1887, Howell Brothers proprietors; Cañon City "Clipper," Frank P. Shaeffer proprietor, established in 1888.
As we write the American Zinc-lead Company are erecting large smelting works in south Cañon, to manufacture from the native ores, zinc-lead, pigment, copper matte, litharge and metallic zinc. The zinc mines in the cañons above the town have been very productive of that metal, and will now become even more useful than at any former time.
OIL WELLS AT FLORENCE.
HISTORY OF THEIR DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT-1859 TO 1890.
At Florence, nine miles below Canon City, in the center of a fine agricultural and fruit growing region, are the only oil wells thus far developed in the Rocky Mountains South of Wyoming. Notwithstanding the fact that indications of petroleum have been found at many points in our State, none has been elsewhere produced in quantity, and but few explorations for it made below shallow prospecting. It appears at the surface near Littleton, in Arapahoe, Morrison in Jefferson, in Pueblo, and El Paso Counties, and in the South, Middle and North Parks, showing very wide distribution, and indicating enormous undeveloped fields in reserve for future prospecting. No great amount of searching is required to discover abundant evidences of its existence at all the points named and at others not more particularly enumerated, for its presence is made knowr
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in unmistakable films upon streams, pools, shattered rocks and springs. In the very earliest time of settlement when the Ute Indians mingled freely with our people, they and their white or half breed interpreters frequently related extravagant stories of enor- mous quantities of such oil to be found over in the distant parks. The savages used it in mixing their war paints, and for the cure of rheumatic and other ills.
At the very outset of our inquiries respecting the original discovery and practical development of the product in Fremont County, where it has in recent years become one of the prominent industries of the county, we are confronted by so many conflicting accounts as to render it extremely difficult to present an entirely accurate narrative. We have taken the utmost pains to arrive at a true and continuous chain of testimony, and while that which follows is not wholly in accord with some other published accounts, we believe it to be in the main more nearly correct than any hitherto furnished. The facts have been obtained through interviews with some of the principals, and from authentic records, and every effort put forth to ascertain exact particulars.
From these authorities we conclude that the first indications of petroleum in Fre- mont County were found at Oil Springs about six miles east of north from Canon City, half a mile above the mouth of Oil Creek Canon. The late A. M. Cassidy, during his lifetime was known as the pioneer and father so to speak, of this industry in Colorado, he having spent the greater part of twenty-five years in attempting to make it what it has since become, a source of great wealth and importance to the economic systems established in this country. Mr. D. G. Peabody, another and contemporaneous laborer in the same direction, states that Joseph Lamb and other pioneers claimed to have seen the springs just mentioned in 1859, but Gabriel Bowen, from whom Mr. Cassidy purchased Oil Springs in 1862, is generally credited with the actual discovery. It is said that Cassidy's attention was more particularly drawn to these matters by reading the accounts given by early explorers, who saw, as thousands in our day have seen, the well defined outcroppings, and from them derived their conclusions. For more than twenty years desultory prospecting work was done, but without compensating results for the want of capital and experience. It was not until 1882 that any adequate fruits were secured. In March, 1862, Mr. Cassidy began collecting petroleum from Bowen's discovery. He sunk six wells altogether, first digging or sinking shafts by the only method he knew, following with a spring pole and drills, to the depth of from sixty to ninety feet. Two were sent down three hundred to five hundred feet, but oil was found only in the strata near the surface. Between 1862 and 1865 he collected, refined as best he could, and marketed 3,000 to 10,000 gallons. Both are estimates. In the absence of records or any definite information no reliable figures can be given. Much of the product was transported in wagons to Denver, Pueblo and Santa Fe and brought $1.25 to $2.85 per gallon. During the Indian wars of 1864-1865 when supplies from the East were cut off, Cassidy's oil found ready sale at 85 a gallon. In 1866 he suc- ceeded in forming a company in Boston, of which a Mr. Nichols was made president. L. Foster Morse of Roxbury, Massachusetts, was sent out as superintendent.
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