USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 41
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From Judge W. B. Felton, editor of the "Canon City Record," an entirely trust- worthy authority, we learn that M. P. Felch, Joseph and Benjamin De Cory, Thomas Murphy, Daniel Cutler and one or two others sunk a well; when down three hundred and twelve feet they struck quick sand and were unable to proceed further. Morse went
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
to Denver to telegraph East for casing. In those days it took a long time to get such things, and before anything was done, litigation commenced against the company, and the work was dropped. Finally the property passed into the hands of General Hayes of New York. James Murphy had control of it for several years. He commenced suit against the company and finally obtained a judgment for $7,000. The property was sold, Murphy bidding it in. In 1862, when Mr. Cassidy took up the land, he laid Sioux scrip upon it. When Murphy purchased, he endeavored to get the land sur- veyed with a view to secure a government title, but did not succeed.
In the summer of 1871 or 1872, Murphy went to Ojo Caliente for his health. In his absence the scrip was taken off by Cassidy, and the land re-located by one Ken- nedy, and others. They sold to Cassidy, who obtained a government title to it. In 1872 or 1873, Jack Brown of Pennsylvania and a Mr. Pease of Denver leased the land from Cassidy and begun another well near that which had been sunk in 1866. At a depth of 342 feet, quicksand was encountered. They endeavored to use stove pipe for casing, but it failed to answer the purpose. Next the tools became fastened at the bottom, when operations were suspended.
In the well of 1866 and in that of 1872, oil in small quantity was found near the surface, but none below sixty feet. At one time James Murphy sunk a shaft some five feet in diameter and sixty feet deep, in which he found a large quantity of oil, baling it out by hand.
Between 1871 and 1874, Mr. Cassidy, inspired by his faith in the ultimate destiny of these oil deposits, induced Lewis Blake, Henry Bishop, Charles H. Williams and C. O. Godfrey, to purchase large tracts of land about the existing pretty town of Florence, some of which have since become the most productive in petroleum of any in all that region, now owned by various operating corporations. Dr. Bigelow also was one of the large investors. In 1877 Mr. Cassidy, Dr. M. H. Slater, Isaac Canfield and others, sunk a well about 900 feet deep on the Arkansas River, in Macon's addition to Cañon City, but without satisfactory results. In 1881 another well was put down at the Canfield coal mine on Coal Creek, three to four miles from the present center at Florence. This well, sunk for water, under Cassidy's direction, discovered oil at 1,260 feet. He was at that time operating a mine belonging to the Grand Cañon Coal Com- pany. They took out several barrels of oil, when one of the sucker rods was broken off in the well, and never extracted therefrom. Litigation over the coal lands supervened, putting a stop to both mine and well.
We now take up the statement of Mr. D. G. Peabody, as to his part in the dis- covery and development of these now vastly productive enterprises. The well sunk by him on Lobach's farm was the first put down in the immediate vicinity of Florence, and from it spread the excitement that brought the business into great prominence. Mr. Pea- body explains to the author the circumstances whereby he was led to his conclusions and subsequent experiments. While out riding in the summer of 1880, at a point some fifteen miles below Cañon City, he discovered certain indications of oil on Brush Creek, and also on Eight Mile Creek, the Muddy, and at other places. These evidences con- vinced him that he had found the outer rim of the petroleum belt, and that sinking there would open the main deposit. He made a trip to Bradford, Pennsylvania, con- versed with the experts of that noted section, examined the oil regions and acquired
26 III.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
much valuable information on the whole subject of indications, machinery for boring and the more advanced methods employed. In the summer of 1882, having meanwhile perfected the requisite preliminary arrangements, he organized the " Land Investment Coal & Oil Company " at Canon City, as follows: D. G. Peabody, president and gen- eral manager; George O. Baldwin, secretary and treasurer; J. J. Phelps, Ed. Lobach, Thomas Willey, W. B. McGee and E. B. Alling, directors. Mr. E. T. Alling also was interested in the company, but not in an official capacity. They spent much time in examining the country, and in securing leases to lands. Mr. Peabody selected the location for the well in Mr. Lobach's cornfield, marking with a spade the precise spot where the well was to be started. He purchased in Pennsylvania a complete outfit of machinery for the company, and they began drilling in November (1882), which was continued until April 7th, 1883, when at a depth of 1,205 feet, oil was found. The experiment had cost all told, about $20,000. For a time the flow was only a few barrels daily, but a year later it was torpedoed, since which time it has not been productive.
This strike on Lobach's farm caused some excitement, and out of it ultimately grew the town of Florence.
The capital stock of this company was originally $200,000, but was subsequently increased to $1,000,000. Judge Felton states that another vein was opened in this well at a depth of 1,440 feet, and still another at about 1,465 feet.
Almost immediately a number of companies were formed to develop this new and more prolific field. The Arkansas Valley Oil Company, incorporated September 15th, 1881, by Bernard Murray, Ira W. Pendleton, Elias R. Barton, Isaac Canfield, A. M. Cassidy and D. R. Cassidy.
The Arkansas Valley Land & Oil Company, September Ist, 1883, by Daniel P. Eells, W. H. Harris, George E. Hutchinson, George W. Short, H. M. Claflin, John Coon and A. M. Cassidy.
The Canon City Oil Company, May Ist, 1883, by Dr. E. C. Gray, George R. Shaefer, James Clelland, J. M. Harding, Lyman Robinson, and others.
The Colorado Oil Company, November, 1885, by David G. Peabody, Jacob Wal- lace, Isaiah Josephi, E. H. Brownell and Ad. Kaster. At later periods still further companies were formed.
After sinking their second well, the Land Investment Coal & Oil Company became financially embarrassed, and the property was sold under a trust deed and mortgage held by W. B. McGee, and bought in by D. G. Peabody, who then proceeded to New York, and there organized the Colorado Oil Company. Peabody was succeeded later on by A. R. Gumaer as manager, and he in turn, December, 1886, by S. A. Josephi. Under the management of these three men some sixteen wells had been sunk, when the company was merged into the Colorado Oil Trust Company (now the United Oil Company).
The Arkansas Valley Land & Oil Company, which had been formed by Mr. A. M. Cassidy, in Cleveland, Ohio, after Peabody's discovery at Florence, also sunk wells with good results. This company, impelled by its increased output, built a refinery of a capacity of two hundred barrels daily, which was subsequently enlarged. This concern also refines the product of the Colorado Oil Company.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Lyman Robinson and W. E. Johnson sunk a well 1,750 feet in 1883-'84, at a point nearly two miles north of that first developed by Peabody, and found some oil.
In the autumn of 1883, Mr. Cassidy put down two wells about two miles south of Florence, discovering the object of his search. A little later he sunk another for the Consolidated Oil & Land Company, about three miles east of Florence, in which he and O. R. Burchard, J. A. Dubbs, D. R. Cassidy, B. F. Montgomery, A. H. Cronkhite, T. G. Clark and W. H. Yankee, were interested. This well was drilled by Max Grossmayer to a depth of 779 feet, when the work ceased, no oil and but slight indications of its presence having been found. In 1887 Mr. Grossmayer organized the Fremont County Oil Company, with Sidney Williams, Judge Wilbur F. Stone, J. B. Cooper, T. J. Cooper, Oliver B. Liddell, L. R. Rhodes and Theodore A. Sloan. They sunk two wells, the first on ground three miles south of Florence, finding oil at 1,255 feet ; another one and a quarter miles further southeast, where a small quantity was found at 1,775 feet. Selling out his interest in March, 1888, Mr. Grossmayer drilled a well adjoining Florence, which became a fine producer. Veins were opened at 950 feet, and also at 1,055 and 1,100 feet.
In 1887-'88, J. H. Caldwell put down three wells, one of which gave satisfactory yields.
Following are the principal companies now (1890) operating in the Florence basin :
The United Oil Company, of which Ex-Senator N. P. Hill is president, and S. F. Rathvon secretary and treasurer ; the most extensive in the field. This company was formed in July, 1887, then known as the Colorado Oil Trust. It was incorporated by N. P. Hill, president ; D. P. Eells and J. Wallace, vice-presidents; S. F. Rathvon sec- retary and treasurer, and I. E. Blake, John Coon and S. A. Josephi. Later the corporate name was changed to that first given, with Hill, Blake, Rathvon and Josephi cor- porators. It now owns 2,200 acres of patented lands, and 38,000 acres of oil rights and leases ; fifteen flowing wells with a daily output of 850 barrels. Another well is being drilled, and three new derricks erected. It has one refinery equal to 1,500 barrels a day. The product now on hand aggregates 60,000 barrels of crude oil, 60,000 fuel, and 400,000 gallons of refined.
The next large producer is the Forence Oil & Refining Company, A. H. Danforth president, A. R. Gumaer general agent, and W. E. Johnson secretary and treasurer. Dr. E. C. Gray, T. M. Harding and Frank M. Brown (the latter drowned while directing a survey of the great Canon of the Colorado River), were interested in this company. It has 6,000 acres of patented land, 4,000 acres of oil rights and leases, and 250 lots in the town of Florence ; eleven productive wells, and a daily output of 500 barrels. In March and April, 1887, a refinery was built with a capacity of 200 barrels a day, which since has been enlarged to 500 barrels. The stock on hand consists of 55,000 barrels of crude oil, 25,000 of fuel, and 400,000 gallons of refined.
The refineries of the United and Florence companies are the only ones in the district.
The Triumph Oil Company, of which Ira Canfield is president, Isaac Canfield manager, and Maud Canfield secretary and treasurer, is another of the new companies at Florence. Their territory consists of twenty acres, with two wells, and a daily output of thirty barrels a day.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
The Rocky Mountain Oil Company was incorporated February 28th, 1890, by C. S. Chamberlain, D. L. Norton, George W. Short, Joseph Caldwell, Dan P. Eells, H. M. Claflin and Major John Coon, the latter manager, Eells, president, and Claflin, secretary and treasurer. They have three thousand acres of leased lands, and two wells yielding one hundred and ten barrels daily.
The Colorado Coal & Iron Company has about five hundred acres of patented land on which a well is now being drilled.
A new syndicate has been organized, for which the corporate name is not yet announced. Its members are Henry R. Wolcott, his brother Senator E. O. Wolcott, Charles L. McIntosh, A. H. Fowler and William D. Bishop, Jr. They have leased twenty-one thousand acres from the Beaver Land Company, and begun sinking a well.
The productive wells in this region vary in depth from nine hundred and sixty to nineteen hundred and ten feet. The deepest is thirty-one hundred feet, but is not yielding. All the products are raised by pumps. The surface wash is five to fifty feet deep, the remainder varying shales. The oil is of a greenish color. The residuum used for making steam in boilers and for various other purposes, finds a market for about four hundred barrels a day, selling at one cent a gallon. The refined product is a fine quality, the average yield being about thirty-three and a third per cent. from the crude,-less than that of wells in the Eastern States. An excellent lubricating oil is produced, from which a greater per cent. is saved than from that in Pennsylvania. All the refined oil from Florence is handled by the Continental Oil Company of Denver,- Isaac E. Blake president, W. T. Jordan vice-president and treasurer. Tlie product for 1890 is about four million gallons of refined, marketed in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, and a part of New Mexico.
It is not considered essential to enter upon even a brief digest of the geological structure of this interesting region. Most of the facts thus far elicited by the few experienced geologists who have given it careful examination, are published in the reports of the Colorado State School of Mines, and to them the reader who may be interested in pursuing them is respectfully referred.
The history of its development from 1862 to 1890 has been related, and it is sufficient to indicate the value and importance of the field to the State at large and to those engaged in the industry. There is no doubt that this single field is, or will soon be made sufficiently productive to supply all demands for such materials in the entire half of the continent west of the Missouri River.
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
GILPIN COUNTY.
THE CRADLE OF COLORADO-BLACK HAWK AND CENTRAL CITY-EARLY POLITICAL POWER-VANISHED GLORIES-A REMARKABLE TRAGEDY-SOME OF THE PIONEERS- THE OLD GREGORY LODE-BELA S. BUEI.L-COUNTY ORGANIZATION-NEWSPAPERS -MIXSELL'S TELEGRAPH-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-SECRET SOCIETIES-BANKS- LAND OFFICE-RAILROADS-NEVADA AND OTHER TOWNS-MINES AND MILLS- BUSINESS MEN-WATER SYSTEMS, ETC.
Although this county takes its name from William Gilpin, first Governor of Colo- rado Territory, it was adopted only after a somewhat animated discussion between the partizans of John Gregory on one side, and Gilpin on the other. There were many who insisted very strenuously upon the insertion of the name of the first discoverer of gold in that section, and had he remained on the ground until the question of organ- ization under the organic act arose, it is probable they would have succeeded. It was created by the Territorial legislature in October, 1861, the bill being approved No- vember Ist. Under the provisional government of Jefferson Territory in 1859, which divided the Territory into nine counties, it was called Mountain County. Its surface area is the smallest in the entire list, being somewhat less than twelve by fifteen miles. It is bounded on the north by Boulder, east by Jefferson, south by Clear Creek, and west by Grand. It is the only county in Colorado whose principal resource is gold mining, and it is here that the earth's crust has been penetrated to greatest depths in pursuit of treasures contained within the true fissure veins that lie between vertical, or slightly inclined walls of granite, and where the miner is never at a loss to determine the course of the vein matter.
In the series of narrow, intersecting gulches that constitute its habitable and inhab- ited territory,-Gregory, North Clear Creek, Chase, Eureka, Spring, Nevada, Russell, Lake and a few others, began the permanent history of Colorado, to which the primal shifting and unsatisfactory discoveries of gold along the tributaries of the Platte River, were but the preface or introductory. It is here, in a bleak and wholly uninviting region, where is not to be found a space sufficiently level to serve as a site for even a small circus tent, or an eligible cemetery; not a tree, shrub, flower, or grass plot to relieve the tiresome monotony of brown rocks and verdureless soil; where the hillsides are pitted and rendered still more unsightly than nature designed them to be by thousands of prospect holes, denoting the presence, or the hope of lodes or veins; where, prior to the great conflagration of 1874, which destroyed the greater part of Central City, rows of cheap and ugly frame buildings were held up in dizzy heights on stilts along the densely populated ravines; where all up and down from lower Black
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
Hawk to Nevada, Quartz Hill and Russell, were strewn the wrecks of sluices, water wheels and abandoned processes, great heaps of dirt, boulders, and the rotting simple wooden machinery that years agone was employed as aids to the extraction of gold, which suggested the melancholy remnants of fruitful and fruitless endeavors of the thousands who lived, and toiled and hoped twenty five to thirty years ago, we find the birthplace and cradle of American civilization in the great central region between the then well defined lines of the border States at the Missouri River, and the Pacific Sea. At this point began, and from it radiated the major influences that explored the Rocky Mountains from center to circumference, bringing to light in the mutations of time and the vicissitudes of human effort, treasures that have made the world richer by four hundred millions of dollars in metallic wealth, laid the foundation of agriculture and all other lines of industrial development, justified the building of many cities and towns, furnished some of its wisest lawyers, legislators, jurists, politicians and statesmen, and whence have been worked out uninterrupted rivulets of precious bullion from that time to the present.
I have often wondered whether any permanent settlement would have been formed in our time, in the Rocky Mountains, had it not been for the discovery of rich gold- bearing placers and richer quartz lodes in and about Gregory Gulch. It will be compre- hended by those of our readers who have followed the narrative thus far, that it was the national panic ot 1857 that drove multitudes of the poverty stricken from the border States out upon the plains, together with the frail promise of fortune held out by Green Russell's "goose quill findings" in the sands of Cherry Creek and neighboring streams. Russell made no discovery worth mentioning until after John Gregory led the way to the source of gold deposits in the mountains. The few strikes that occurred at Gold Hill above Boulder, and upon the gravel bars of South Clear Creek in 1859- 1860, were worked out and mostly deserted before the close of 1861; those at Tarryall, Fairplay, in California and Georgia Gulches, soon shared the same fate. The occu- pation of every placer in the country, which had no rich fissure veins behind it to justify permanent settlement, ceased as soon as the more valuable deposits had been gathered. Agriculture was chiefly limited to gardening until after the construction of our great system of irrigating canals in the epoch between 1875 and 1890. For more than fifteen years, the major part of our farm supplies was imported from Kansas and Nebraska. Denver and Pueblo were but straggling villages until after 1870. The permanency of the fissure veins of Gilpin County was the sheet anchor, the abiding hope, indeed the only influence which held the country together and preserved the autonomy of Colorado, from 1861 until after the meager products of bullion from that source were supplemented by the products of silver mining at Georgetown, and the establishment of the Boston & Colorado Smelting Works, at Black Hawk in 1867, 1868. Gilpin County, by virtue of its inexhaustible and almost innumerable deposits of the yellow metal, became not only the keystone of the arch but the arch itself, for had it contained only ephemeral placers, it too would have been deserted and abandoned, like all its contemporaries. What then would have been left to build a State, or even a Territory upon? It was the only section in the mountains that was not drained to a mere insignificant fraction of its, people between. 1861 and 1866, and had not its neighbor, Clear Creek come to the rescue with millions of silver, there would have been no State organization in 1876. At no time
Silas Berterthaus relais
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
prior to 1871, did the entire yearly production of precious metals in Colorado exceed $3,500,000, and in 1866-'67 it fell to less than $1,800,000, more than two-thirds from the stamp mills in and about Black Hawk.
The conclusion seems unavoidable therefore, that with the fissures of this little corner eliminated from the problem, it is certainly but reasonable to assume, that the entire structure reared by the early pioneers, must have fallen for the lack of any durable support. Silver mining, which at this time constitutes so great a share of our material wealth, sprang from the porphyry hills of the Upper Arkansas, in the year that gave birth to the State.
Much of the early annals of Gilpin County has been related in the preceding vol- umes, for every recital of the history of Colorado, either begins at, or leads back to this point. In the course of our present review of the past years, some further notice will be given of certain events that have escaped the attention of our predecessors.
Black Hawk derives its name from one of the earliest mining companies-Messrs. Lee, Judd & Lee, who brought in a quartz mill bearing the title of that once famous Indian chief, and set it up on North Clear Creek, just within the present center of the town. It was the largest and most important of the original line of reducing works planted there in the spring of 1860. Prior to this event, though no particular lines were drawn, the settlement, extending up to the intersection of Spring and Gregory Gulches, was known as Mountain City, with its center just below the present Kip & Buell Mill. It stands at the junction of Gregory and Chase Gulches with North Clear Creek, one flank extending a mile or so along the turbid stream, and another along Gregory Gulch up to Gregory Point where it is met by Central City, which covers the intervening space on toward Nevada, Quartz Hill and Russell. In 1860, and for some years afterward, its population was quite large, from two to three thousand. According to the census of 1890, it is about one thousand. The principal business carried on there, is the milling of quartz rock from the mines, the sampling and shipping of sulphuret ores-which cannot be profitably treated by the stamp mills-to the smelters near Denver. For more than a quarter of a century it has maintained a considerable iron foundry with machine shops, for the manufacture and repair of mining and milling appliances, the first enterprise of its class established in the Rocky Mountains, and its projectors were also the first to manufacture pig iron from our native iron ores. By virtue of the larger supply of water, nearly all the crushing mills have been located there. The first suc- cessful smelting furnaces built in Colorado were situated just below the town, where they remained until the exigencies of the business, and the further development of mining territory in other counties, compelled their removal to Argo in 1878. It became an incorporated city by act of the legislature, approved March 11th, 1864. The first officers elected under this charter were as follows, for 1864-1865:
Mayor-John H. Kinney.
Aldermen-John Atkinson and Benjamin Woodbury, for the First Ward ; S. F. Huddleston and A. J. McLouth, the Second ; J. B. Fitzpatrick and C. M. Tyler, for the Third Ward.
Police Judge-G. B. Backus.
Attorney-Alvin Marsh.
Marshal and Collector-R. A. Clark.
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
Clerk-G. B. Backus.
Treasurer-H. P. Cowenhoven.
The following were the mayors of Black Hawk, under the charter, up to 1886-'87.
John H. Kinney, 1864 to 1866; S. P. Lathrop, 1866-'67; J. B. Fitzpatrick, 1867-'68; H. P. Cowenhoven, 1868-'69 ; Benjamin Woodbury, 1869-'71 ; Professor N. P. Hill, 1871-'72 ; Alvin Marsh, 1872-'73 ; William A. Abbe, 1873-'74 ; Robert W. Mead, 1874-'75 ; N. K. Smith, 1875-'76 ; J. B. Ballard, 1876-'77, but resigned in Sep- tember ; L. C. Snyder, 1877-'78 ; Henry Hartman, 1878-'79 ; L. C. Snyder, 1879-'80 ; L. K. Smith, 1880-'81, but refusing to qualify, A. G. Bishop was elected to fill the vacancy ; A. G. Bishop, 1881-'82 ; L. C. Snyder, 1882-'83 ; D. G. Salisbury, 1883-'85 ; L. C. Snyder, 1885-'86; Ed. C. Hughes, 1886-'87.
Central City was incorporated simultaneously with Black Hawk. Its first officers were as follows, in 1864-'65 :
Mayor-John S. McCool, who resigning, was succeeded by Joseph W. Watson, elected December 23d, 1864.
Aldermen-H. M. Teller and O. H. Harker, First Ward ; L. W. Chase and J. C. McClellan, Second Ward, the latter resigning and being succeeded by G. B. Cornell, elected October 27th, 1864 ; B. F. Smith and W. C. M. Jones, Third Ward.
Police Magistrate-I. Ayres.
City Attorney-Lewis C. Rockwell.
Marshal and Collector-W. F. Sears.
City Clerk-Ed. C. Parmelee.
Treasurer-C. Nuckolls.
Assessor -- J. D. Ward. Surveyor-Hal Sayr.
Street Commissioner-L. B. Adamson.
The mayors of Central, after the first term were as follows, up to 1880 : Joseph W. Watson, 1865-'66 ; William M. Slaughter, 1866-'67 ; Robert Teats, 1867-'68 (with two city councils, the ward elections being contested) ; William M. Roworth, 1868-'69, and for two successive terms, up to 1870-'71 ; Hugh Butler, 1871-'72 ; Thomas Mullen, 1872-'73, and also the succeeding term, up to 1873-'74; H. Jacob Kruse, 1874-'75, also for the succeeding term up to 1875-'76; B. W. Wisebart, 1876-'77 ; George E. Randolph, 1877-'78 ; Peter McFarlane, 1878-'79 ; Thomas I. Richman, 1879-'80.
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