USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 42
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Its population at the present time is about 2,600. The title is singularly appro- priate, since it occupies a central position between Black Hawk and Nevada, the extremes of settlement in the inhabited ravines. Its origin is thus explained by Mr. Hugh A. Campbell, an old settler, who relates that in 1859 he and Jesse Trotter opened a miner's supply store in a cabin built for the purpose, at the corner where Main and Lawrence streets unite ; that they put over the door a sign calling it the Central City store, and persuaded the miners and others who called, to change the addresses of their mail matter from the regular postoffice at Mountain City to Central City, and by persistently pushing it to the front, finally secured its general adoption. It was not recognized as a town, indeed there were only a few scattered cabins and sheeted wagons in that vicinity when the writer passed it, en route to the valley of South Clear Creek, in June, 1860. By 1861, however, it had become the principal center
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
of business and population, a prestige which has ever since obtained. It was surveyed and platted in 1866 by a local engineer named George H. Hill, when a patent to the town site was applied for by the municipal authorities. The area embraced in the application was a fraction over 629 acres, and the patent received was for that amount, less fifty-one acres, already covered by mining claims. Says Burrell, one of the histo- rians of the county, "The question of superior rights, as between mine owners and town lot owners, came up very early in the history of the city, and was not definitely settled until August 7th, 1871. At that time the claim of Theodore H. Becker vs. the citizens of Central had been in contest in the land office department for nearly two years. He claimed fifty feet in width of surface ground with his lode, through the heart of the city, and because his claim antedated on the records the town lots in some instances, he expected to obtain patents for the surface ground as well as for his mine." This the Secretary of the Interior declined to grant. "Here the matter rested until the second application of the city for its town site occurred May 27th, 1874, when Mr. Becker, probably to still further test, and if possible, to settle the question, objected to its being granted without a special reservation in favor of the mines to hold the surface. The Commissioner of the General Land Office, however, December 23d, 1875, issued a patent to the city in trust for the owners of city property, with the proviso that no title should be thereby acquired to any mine of gold, silver, cinnabar or copper, or to any valid mining claim or possession held under existing laws.
From 1859 to about the close of 1866, Central City, although not so populous as Denver, was in some respects the most important town in the Territory, and with its colleagues, Black Hawk and Nevada, exercised a controlling influence in political affairs. The more important of the Territorial Courts were held there, and the number and brilliancy of its lawyers gave it the first rank in legal circles. They furnished both of the great political parties some of their most efficient leaders. The county gave one of the two senators chosen by the first legislature of 1865, both sen- ators elected under the constitution of 1876, and Mr. Chaffee's successor in 1879; the first Representative in Congress elected under the State government,-James B. Belford -and, under the administration of President Arthur, the first Secretary of the Interior Department ever appointed from the region west of the Missouri River. It gave four justices of the Territorial Supreme Court, Charles F. Holly, James B. Belford, Wm. R. Gorsline, and Ebenezer T. Wells; two secretaries of Colorado Territory, Weld and Hall; and one governor, E. M. McCook; one Territorial treasurer, Columbus Nuckolls, who served two terms; one delegate in Congress, Chaffee, who served two terms; one superintendent of public instruction, Horace M. Hale, who served three terms, and is now president of the State University; one United States district attorney, Lewis C. Rockwell; the first Territorial assayer, E. E. Burlingame; the first Territorial and State geologist, J. Alden Smith; one of the most accomplished cadets ever graduated at the West Point Military Academy, Irving Hale; three distinguished historians, Ovando J. Hollister, Frank Fossett and Samuel Cushman, besides a number of valuable legislators. It furnished also, a battalion of troops for the repression of hostile Indians, and, in later years, has given Denver some of its most eminent financiers and useful citizens, with two of its mayors, Richard Sopris and W. J. Barker. It is the only county that has fully solved the geological problems incident to deep mining,
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
matters of great moment to lode miners throughout the State. The mill managers also have met and mastered the complex questions involved in the science of crushing, amalgamation and concentration, the processes whereby the highest attainable saving of the precious metals by stamping, etc., may be secured. It has contributed more gold to the channels of commerce than all the other counties of the State combined, and is still producing from only a small number of its well opened lodes, about two and a half millions each year. It has the only perfected system of mining railway operated by steam power, whose trains run to and collect the marketable ores from shafts and tunnels in all the region round about, delivering one class to the mills, and the other to the sampling works, the latter after testing the value, transferring them via the Colorado Central Railroad to the smelters on the plains. To it was built the first narrow gauge commercial railway that ever penetrated the Rocky Mountains.
The record of its vanished years is replete with glorified triumphs, the sudden accumulation of fortunes, and splendid social amenities, shadowed at times with calanı- ities, failures, disappointed hopes, millions recklessly squandered, tragedies and despair. The pioneer of 1859 or 1860 who after long absence revisits the scenes of his early endeavors, finds changes on every side, even in the character of the population, a large proportion of whom are in the habit of dropping their aspirates. Many of the institutions which he may have assisted in building, have passed away with the people who raised them. The rabid, fierce and feverish exhibitions of public and private enterprise that marked the olden time, have been succeeded by quiet and deliberate, as well as more efficient movements and methods. The scores of mining companies formed in New York, New England and Pennsylvania, that built expensive buildings and filled them with costly but impracticable machinery, employed glittering but in- competent agents, and issued stocks by the million, have passed to the obscurity of the interminable forgotten, and their works have fallen into irretrievable ruin. Never- theless, the everlasting hills are as thickly ribbed with mineral veins, running into and through them down to unfathomable depths as of yore, although only a suggestion of the early years remains upon the surface in countless prospect holes.
Here is a tragic incident, which, although it has not been set down by preceding historians, is deemed worthy of brief space in the present chronicle. As a prelude, it may be stated that the first theatrical entertainments were given in the old Hadley cabin at Mountain City, by an itinerant troupe composed of Madame Wakely and the " fas- cinating Haidee Sisters." The next temple of Thespis was erected in Central City in 1862, by George Harrison, the survivor of one of the most thrilling tragedies in real life that has occurred there. This was christened the National Theater, subsequently changed to Montana by Langrishe & Dougherty, Harrison's successors. Soon after com- pleting his theater, Harrison had a fierce quarrel with a stalwart young prize fighter named Charley Switz, who kept a saloon and ran a variety show of a not very reputable character, in a building some distance below, on Lawrence street. They parted after a fight, with the mutual understanding that the next time they met, the victory would lie with the one who should quickest draw and shoot. Almost immediately Harrison went East to bring out a troupe of artists for his playhouse, and some months elapsed before his return. At length it became noised about that he and his troupe were coming up the gulch by stage. Switz put a brace of pistols in his belt, marched up to Barnes &
Flow: Shane
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
Jones' saloon, on one side of which stood the theater and on the other Ben Holladay's stage office. Around him in front of the saloon was an excited group of men anxiously awaiting the expected collision. When the stage dashed up the passengers were eagerly scrutinized, but the second party to the feud was not among them ; he had left it some distance down the road, and secretly made his way on foot to the theater, where securing a double barreled shot gun loaded with buckshot, and a revolver fully charged, he crept out unobserved to the balcony in front, which ran across the second story and com- manded a full view of the street and the crowd. Without being seen, he took deliberate aim at Switz with the gun and instantly lodged the contents of both barrels in his breast, following immediately with several discharges from his revolver. Switz reeled and fell dead, while the assassin, having finished his bloody work, coolly walked back into the house and began making preparations for his grand opening. The body of his victim was taken to his saloon, stripped, washed, and with nothing but a sheet to cover the ghastly remains, laid out in state for examination by the crowds that called. While I did not witness the killing, I saw the body, and it was one of the most remarkable examples of physical perfection I have ever beheld, probably the result of systematic training for his chosen profession. Upon his breast, in a spot scarcely larger than the palm of one's hand, was a series of concentric circles, where Harrison's buckshot had passed to the seat of life, showing the accuracy of his aim.
The murderer was arrested, but not confined, tried, but not convicted. The theater opened with the new troupe at the appointed time, and a series of plays was produced which has never been surpassed in that city. At the close of the season Harrison left the mountains, and it was said, went south and joined the Confederate army. The theater was maintained at intervals by Langrishe & Dougherty, until the great fire of 1874, which destroyed it, an account of which appears in Chapter X, second volume.
Among the more prominent of the early operators in mining on the old Gregory lode, was Edward W. Henderson. He arrived in Auraria, April 26th, 1859, and imme- diately began prospecting for gold along the affluents of the Platte and Boulder valleys. On the 16th of May, very soon after the announcement of John Gregory's important findings, he arrived on the scene and on the 29th, in connection with Amos Gridley, purchased the discovery claims, agreeing to pay $21,000 by installments as the mine produced them. During that summer they washed out $18,000. The following winter Mr. Henderson went East, "to the States," leaving his partner in charge. The next spring he returned, when a stamp mill was built, but it was not very successful. In the winter of 1853 they found a body of valuable ore which yielded about $6,000 per week. In 1864 these claims were consolidated with others on the lode, the whole embracing five hundred lineal feet, and sold to a company organized in New York, at the rate of $1,000 per foot. Henderson's share was $100,000. The money was paid to his trusted friend and agent, who immediately plunged into speculation on Wall street and lost every dollar, leaving his principal almost as poor as when he began. Mr. Henderson's fate is still remembered as one of the melancholy incidents of that memorable period, for it ruined and embittered the after life of a most estimable man.
In 1860, the overland express company (Hinckley's) established an office for the receipt and delivery of packages and mails at Mountain City, of which Mr. Bela S. Buell was appointed agent. When Central City became the chief center of settlement, the
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
office was removed to that point, occupying a log cabin 32x16, on the site now occupied by the First National Bank. Some of the miners' courts were held in the same building. It was also the office of the Clerk and Recorder of Eureka Mining District. G. W. Purkins, and Lewis Ledyard Weld, attorneys at law, had their offices there, so it will be seen, the space was quite thoroughly occupied. The express charge for each letter was twenty-five cents in gold dust. Mr. Buell sold books, papers, stationery, etc., in connection with his duties as agent, making considerable profits on the same. In 1861 he was elected first recorder of mining claims for Central City District, and when the county of Gilpin came to be organized in the fall of that year, was chosen clerk of the same by an overwhelming majority. During the great speculative year 1863, when hundreds of mines were sold to Eastern companies, he was re-elected. During that and the succeeding two years, this office was the most lucrative one in the Territory. During 1864-'65 he acquired a handsome fortune by selling gold mines and organizing mining companies. He was one of the original incorporators and larger stockholders of the First National Bank of Denver. From 1869 to 1871 he managed the banking house of George T. Clark & Co., at Georgetown, and that of J. B. Chaffee & Co., at Central City. His stock in the First National was sold to Jerome B. Chaffee, when Mr. Buell purchased the Kip & Buell mines, which for some years were very large pro- ducers of gold. He was elected to the Territorial legislature in 1874. It may be related without extravagance, that during the term of his residence in Gilpin County he was its most popular citizen, through the possession in an eminent degree of those rare qualities which bring universal respect and esteem. Since 1886 he has been a resident of Lake County, and now occupies the post of assistant manager of the Henriett and Maid of Erin Consolidated Mines, where he is quite as firmly entrenched in the regard of his fellow men as he was at Central City. His birthplace was Newport, New Hampshire, being educated at Norwich University, Vermont, where he graduated. At the age of nineteen he turned his face toward the rapidly developing West; taught school for a single winter in Michigan, then moved on to the newer Iowa, where he joined the engineers' corps which made the preliminary surveys across that State for the Burlington & Quincy Railroad, after which he became traveling agent of the United Express Company. He has wrested two or three moderate fortunes from the mines, but unfortunately, sunk them in the same direction, sacrifices to his unquench- able confidence.
The first Board of County Commissioners was composed of George W. Jacobs, Archibald J. Van Deren and Galen G. Norton, appointed by Governor Gilpin, qualify- ing November 15th, 1861. The same day they appointed Thomas H. Barker clerk, and divided the county into three districts. November 18th, 1861, voting precincts were established and judges of election appointed as follows:
Lake Gulch Precinct .- Polling place at the house of J. B. Truax; Judges of Elec- tion, Alfred Burroughs, Ebenezer Smith and William E. Wheeler.
Leavenworth Precinct .- At the house of Levi Harsh; Judges, Hiram Foreman, Levi Harsh and G. V. Thompson.
Nevada Precinct .- At the house of Wm. H. Grafton; Judges, Wm. H. Grafton W. D. Perkins and James W. Clayton.
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
Central City Precinct .- At the office of Johnson & Taggart ; Judges, Lewis Ham- ilton, Harrison Otis and Albert Buddee.
Enterprise Precinct .- At the house of Henry P. Cowenhoven ; Judges, J. B. Cofield, E. W. Wells and William L. Lee.
November 19th the board finished the work as follows :
Wide Awake Precinct .- At the house of William Lynch ; Judges, Henry Laffer, 'William Wightman and N. K. Boswell.
Independent Precinct .-- At the house of Lewis Wait; Judges, Alexander Atkins, H. E. Hurlbut and J. Armitage.
Boulder Precinct .- At the house of J. L. Howell ; Judges, J. L. Howell, John Southworth and R. P. Chambers.
December 6th, 1861, the commissioners canvassed the vote for county officers, and ordered certificates of election issued to the following :
Sheriff, Jesse L. Pritchard ; Clerk, Bela S. Buell ; Treasurer, Columbus Nuckolls ; Probate Judge, Caleb B. Clements ; Coroner, L. L. Bedell ; Surveyor, James H. Reese ; County Attorney, Lewis Borton ; Superintendent of Schools, Wil- liam M. B. Sarell ; Assessor, Elmer Britton ; County Commissioners, D. C. Reed, three years, John Thomas, two years, and Hiram Foreman, one year.
William Z. Cozens became chief deputy sheriff. In 1862 Pritchard resigned, having been appointed Major of the Third Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, when Cozens succeeded him, serving several years, both as sheriff and marshal.
NOTE. - While it is manifestly impossible to set down the names of all the early settlers, the temptation is irresistible to place on permanent record those of a few of the more prominent, as recalled to mind during the preparation of this chapter, some of whom are still holding the fort, and taking conspicuous part in the developments of the present epoch.
James Burrell, who erected for the Griffith Brothers the first stamp mill in Georgetown ; Enos K. Baxter, Charles H. and J. Smith Briggs, Uncle John Sensenderfer, Judge S. H. Bradley, G. B. Backus, Dr. Judd, William L. and Milo Lee, Leonardo Judd, Joseph M. Marshall, Matt France, Corbett Bacon, J. M. and Dr. Wm. H. Beverley, Joseph S. Beaman, Andrew Bitzenhofer, David C. Collier, Hugh Glenn, George A. Wells, Henry Chatillon, Hugh A. Campbell, Lorenzo M. Freas, Henry J. Hawley, Thomas Hooper, Joseph W. Holman (one of the discoverers of the famous Bobtail mine), Benjamin P. Haman (who built the first hotel, the Haman House in Central City), Joseph A. Thatcher, George T Clark. War- ren Hussey, Joseph W. Watson, William Hamill, George E. Thornton, W. G. Pell, A. Jacobs, Benjamin W. Wisebart, C. C. Clements, O. J. Hollister, James E. Lyon, George M. Pullman, David A. Gage, Patrick Casey, Ezra Humphrey, J. O. Raynolds, A. G. Langford, Hendrie & Boltlioff, Samuel Cushman, Jesse P. Waterman, George W. Currier, Wm. H. James, Thomas Barnes, Aaron M. Jones, Henry M. and Willard Teller, H. A. Johnson, Harper M. Orahood, Joseph Standley, owner of the celebrated California mine, who sunk the deepest shaft in Colorado upon the same ; Job V. Kimber, Wm Fullerton, H. J. Kruse, Fred Kruse, T. H. Potter, Perry A. Kline, H. P. Cowenhoven, Samuel I. Lorah, B. P. Frink, Charles McKee, J. D. Peregrine, who built the first Mexican arastra in Gregory Gulch; James Miller, Thomas J. Oyler, Philo Potter, John Q. A. Rollins of Rollinsville, Wm. M. Roworth, John W. Ratliff, who has been appointed postmaster more times than any man in the State; M. H. Root, John L. Schellinger, Alonzo Smith, chief mechanic of the original Black Hawk Mining Company; Eben Smith, Anthony W. Tucker, Dr. Casto, Dr. L. C. Tolles, Wm. Wain, Luther H. Wolcott, John D. Howland, C. C. Post, Judge Harley B. Morse, one of the original wheel horses of the Democratic party: M. Balsinger, John F. Top- ping, John Sparks, Jesse Scobey, N. S. Allebaugh, Wm. H. La Franz, John Collier, Robert S. Haight, David Cascaden, David A. Hamor, Louis Arrighi, E. S. Perrin, James Deavor, John Remine, John Best, J. H. Goodspeed, J. B. Zerbe, Leopold Weil, Charles W. Mather, A. J. Van Deren, Andrew Mason,
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
C'entral City has been continuously well represented by newspapers since 1862, the "Rocky Mountain Gold Reporter" and "Mountain City Herald" established in the summer of 1859 as elsewhere noted, having endured but a single season. Publication of the "Miner's Register" began in the summer of 1862, under the direction of Alfred Thompson, who brought types, a lever hand press and other material from Glenwood, Iowa. The first number appeared July 26th, as a tri-weekly. A short time later David C. Collier was engaged as editorial writer. April 9th, 1863, Collier, Hugh Glenn, and George A. Wells bought the paper. August 10th, 1863, it appeared as a morning daily, with associated press dispatches. Glenn sold to Collier & Wells, September 29th. October 17th, 1865, Wells sold his half interest to Frank Hall. Mean- while, the Register Block, of stone, had been erected. July 26th, 1868, the name was changed to the "Central City Register." Collier sold to W. W. Whipple June 12th, 1873; Hall purchased Whipple's interest, and continued in control until June Ist, 1877, when it passed to James A. Smith and Den Marlow. They continued until February Ist, 1878, when it was leased to Halsey M. Rhoads. In the meantime, February, 1878, G. M. Laird began publishing the daily "Evening Call." In May, it was consolidated with the "Register," taking the name of "Register-Call," Laird & Marlow, proprietors, by whom it has been conducted to the present time. For many years Pres Waterman has had charge of the local and mining department. The "Colorado Miner," a weekly journal, was started in Black Hawk, in 1863, by William Train Muir. It was purchased by Ovando J. Hollister the same year and then became the "Black Hawk Mining Journal." Toward the close of that year Frank Hall became associated in the management, continuing until October, 1865, when he went to the "Miner's Register." Hollister sold the "Journal" in 1866, when it was removed to Central, the name changed to the "Times," edited by Henry Garbanati, and O. J. Goldrick. In 1868 Thomas J. Campbell assumed control, and under the title of the "Colorado Daily Herald," published it until 1870, when he was succeeded by Frank Fossett. Several other small and ephemeral papers have been started there from time to time. In 1886 the "Weekly Gilpin County Observer" was founded in Black Hawk by a man named Crosson, and was originally known as the "Black Hawk Times." It was moved to Central in 1887, a stock company organized with Alex McLeod as editor, which position he still holds.
Henry W. Lake, Daniel S. Parmelee. Ed. C. Parmelee, Hal Sayr, D. D. Belden, B. T. Wells, B. O. Rus- sell, L. D. Crandall, Andrew N Rogers, Captain W. H. Bates, Thomas 1. Richman, J. H. Borham, T. H. Becker, L. C. Miley, L. C. Snyder, Commodore Rodney French, Dr. A. A. Smith, Henry Gunnell, John Scudder, Col. W. H Doe, John H. Hense, Tom Van Trees, Michael Storms, John Armor, W. H. Russell, General Fitz John Porter, John B. Fitzpatrick, Chase Withrow, Hon. Alvin Marsh, Dr. T. D. Worrall, Richard Mackey, Dennis Sullivan, B. C. Waterman, James Clark, Benjamin and A. D. Burroughs, P. F. Toben, George R. Mitchell, James V. Dexter, E. L. Salisbury, HI. A. Woods, Wallace Wightman, Captain J. F. Phillips, Jacob Tascher, Dr. R. G. Aduddle, L. C. Rockwell, N. H. McCall, William Queen, Daniel Banta, John and Titus Turck, J. H. Gest, C. M. Tyler, N. K. Smith, David Ettien, Frank J. Marshall, G. W. Drake, D. M. Richards, Samuel Buell, A. H. Owens, James D. Wood, O T. Sparks, Thomas F. Hardesty, Truman Whitcomb, William Train Muir.
The prominent lawyers were H. P. A. Smith, Sam'l McLane, Richard Johnson, Harley B. Morse, Judge Wakeley, Judge Mayhew, George W. Brazee, C. C. Clements, George Ainslee, C. R. Bissell, L. L. Weld, G W. Purkins, James M. Cavanaugh, W. T. Miller, John W. Remine, G. B. Reed, Judge Morgan, H. M. and W. Teller, H. A. Johnson, Al. Thompson, Alvin Marsh, E. T. Wells.
Mela D. Powell
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HISTORY OF GILPIN COUNTY.
Between 1869 and 1873 the important belt of silver mines at Caribou was developed, and attracted a considerable population to that point. The need of tele- graphic communication found expression in an appeal to the Western Union Telegraph Company for such facilities, but it was denied. It was then that Mr. Philip Mixsell, residing in Central, who had been trained in every branch of the business, resolved to supply the need, by the construction of an independent line to Caribou and Nederland. Therefore, in 1874 he organized the Central City, Nederland & Caribou Telegraph Company, his associates being John H. Pickel and W. H. Bush. The capital was $1,500. Materials were purchased, the poles set, and within thirty days the Western Union found itself confronted by a small but rather aggressive competitor. The office was opened in the Teller House. Soon after, the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co.n- pany extended it wires from Cheyenne to Denver. When completed, this and Mixsell's Company were consolidated under the name of the Rocky Mountain Telegraph Company, with Henry M. Teller president, John H. Pickel vice-president, W. H. Bush secretary and treasurer, and Philip Mixsell general manager ; capital stock $5,000. Wires were extended to Boulder and Longmont, and connected with Denver, Cheyenne and the East. Branch lines were built to Sunshine, Salina, Gold Hill, Idaho Springs, Georgetown and Silver Plume. These serious inroads upon the parent company soon brought overtures for purchase. Under Mixsell's management the lines paid one and a half per cent. per month on the capital invested. Having been offered very advantageous terms, he with S. T. Armstrong of the Western Union Company negotiated the sale to the latter in 1875, possession being taken June 6th, 1876. During most of the time of its brief existence, the "Daily Register" received its associated press reports from the Rocky Mountain line.
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