USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 49
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The People's Bank of Pueblo, the first National bank established in Southern Colorado, began business in April, 1873. Its capital was $100,000, and first president E. W. Railey; J. L. Lowther, cashier. The original directors were, besides the officers mentioned, Charles H. Blake, Lewis Conley, J. W. O. Snyder, Mark A. Blunt, and Judge Wilbur F. Stone.
In the fall of this year the Stock Growers' Bank was organized. Business for this year may be estimated from the exchange sold by these banks, amounting to $2,300,000.
Pueblo's advance was seriously interrupted by the panic of 1873, but this crisis passed, its growth was renewed with redoubled vigor. Its growth up to this time had been sure and steady, but compared with the progress of succeeding years it seems slow indeed. The health giving climate, mild winters, and the prodigal possibilities of its soil were unknown in the East as indeed they were surprises to the settlers themselves.
Immense clay beds were utilized in and about the city, at this period, which made the bricks used in the majority of new buildings-5,000,000 bricks were thus produced in 1873. Of lumber from the Divide and the Muddy, and better qualities brought from Chicago, over 3,000,000 feet were sold in this year. The county assessment of real estate of 1873, in Pueblo City was $936,000, and out of the city $228,000; while per- sonal property was assessed at $420,448. During this year 206,000 letters and 300,000 papers were received at the postoffice and at the four leading hotels, the Lindell, Drover's, National and Burt's-13,700 people had registered.
Two excellent private schools were well patronized-the Pueblo Academy, under the direction of A. B. Patton, and the Colorado Seminary established in 1872 by Miss Ellen J. Merritt, a boarding and day school principally for young women, where in addition to the usual curriculum, music, painting and the languages were taught. In 1876 a public school building was erected which at that time had no superior in the Territory. The district had voted $14,000 for this building which money after being collected by the trustee, Sam McBride, was embezzled by him, and Sam left the country and was never heard of again.
The Pueblo "People," first issued in September, 1871, by George A. Hinsdale (cor- ner of Fourth and Summit streets), was sold in 1874 to the "Chieftain," with which paper it was incorporated. Probably the fact that the "Chieftain" became a daily in 1872 most forcibly illustrates the period of progression upon which the busy city had now entered.
In 1870 the "Chieftain" was the only paper published in Colorado south of Den- ver. The office in which it was first published was originally constructed as an appendix to a lumber yard. It contained two small rooms with bunks around its sides
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in which editors, owners and printers rested from the difficult work of running a pioneer journal. Supplies had to be brought out by ox teams from St. Louis, and more than once was the stock of white paper exhausted, and the " Chieftain" compelled to come out on brown manilla wrapping paper, while single copies were sold at fifteen cents.
As stated by the "Chieftain:" "The first room used for amusements and public gatherings in Pueblo was located in the second story of Thatcher Brothers' building, on the southeast corner of Santa Fe avenue and Fourth street, on the ground now occupied by the Bank of Pueblo. The house was constructed of adobes, and the lower floor was occupied by the above named firms as a storeroom. The upper room, which covered the whole of the second floor, was at that time empty, and that was where balls were held and other home amusements took place, and an occasional traveling fakir of some kind furnished an evening's amusement for a number of people who seldom were favored with an opportunity to attend a show. The floor of the room was not very solid, and when a dance was to be held it was propped from below with two by four scantling in order to render it firmer. The ceiling of the floor below was not plas- tered, and was thickly hung with tin and sheet iron ware, the merry jingle of which kept time to the feet of the dancers above.
" The first entertainment of any moment given in this room during the recollection of the writer was the Masonic ball on St. John's Day, December 27th, 1868. A mas- querade ball was given during the same winter, which was quite a society event in Pueblo. Among the participants were Messrs. Ferd Barndollar, as a wharf rat; M. Anker, as a colored belle; Dr. Beshoar, as a ' What is it;' Scott Kelly, as an Irishman; George W. Morgan, as 'Nigger Jones;' R. N. Daniels, as a German peasant; C. J. Hart, as Don Juan; Dr. P. R. Thombs, as an Austrian officer; Lou Pegg, as a major general, and a variety of others."
Lewis Conley built the first legitimate amusement edifice in the city in 1869, on the north side of Seventh street, between Santa Fe avenue and Main street. Conley Hall was constructed of adobes, and was two stories in height. Afterward it was known as the Thespian Theater, and still later as Montgomery's Opera House. The Auditorium was first opened to the public December 27th, by Pueblo Lodge A. F. & A. M. The old Pueblo cornet band, of which Secretary of State Rice was leader (while Judge Hart, General R. M. Stevenson, Henry Cooper, Eugene Weston and J. D. Miller tooted horns and clashed cymbals), furnished the music. George M. Chilcott several years later erected a building containing a public hall, on the corner of Sixth street and Santa Fé avenue.
Hon. Bela M. Hughes, who was nominated for governor by the Democracy at their first State convention, addressed the electors of Pueblo in this hall. When the amend- ment to the constitution granting the right of suffrage to females was submitted to the people, and the State was overrun by a swarm of female suffragists from New England and elsewhere, addresses were delivered in the hall by Lucy Stone Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, and others. These meetings were well attended, not because the people of Pueblo favored female suffrage (they voted it down by a large majority), but because of their curiosity to see the speakers, and hear a real live woman make a speech.
Emily Faithful held forth upon one occasion in Chilcott's Hall, and was received with a salute of fire crackers and other evidences of delight on the part of a large and
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highly appreciative audience. Miss Faithful, if living, must still remember her flat- tering reception on the lecture stage in Pueblo, and some of those who formed part and parcel of her audience will never forget the fun of that evening as long as they live.
In 1876 an amateur local theatrical company was organized which presented "Among the Breakers" at the Thespian Theater, which then boasted a gallery and new stage fittings. J. M. Murphy, T. A. Bradford, H. K. Pinckney, and Att. O'Neill were prominent members of the cast.
The first public sale of town lots occurred in 1869 of what is known as the county addition. Lots were sold at $125, which twenty years later were worth $15,000. Among the fortunate first investors were H. C. Thatcher, Ferd. Barndollar, M. D. Thatcher, G. A. Hinsdale, Hon. Wilbur F. Stone, G. Bartels, O. H. P. Baxter, Lewis Conley and others. The sale of their lots April 24th, 1869, brought a little over $4,000, and the same property in 1890, is estimated as worth over half a million.
The first survey of main Pueblo was of what is now known as "old town," and to this was joined from time to time various additions as follows: County, Craigs, Blake's, Bartlett's & Miller's, Thomas & Thatcher's, Barndollar & Lowther's and Shaw's addi- tions. In the spring of 1874 Hon. G. M. Chilcott laid out an addition.
In 1875-'76 the Pueblo & Arkansas Valley branch of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad was completed, giving Pueblo a route to the east, and on the Ist of March, 1876, was opened for general traffic. Pueblo County subscribed $350,000 to this road, and its completion was the signal for two days of public rejoicings, and a monster excursion from Kansas and all points of Colorado.
The "Republican," a daily and weekly paper, appeared in 1874-775, under direction of J. M. Murphy. It did not prove over successful, and after a short life, it was pur- chased by Dr. A. Y. Hull and brother of Missouri, in 1876, who changed its name to fit its new principles, to the "Democrat." This in time passed into the hands of Judge Royal, and it later became the "Daily News."
The year 1876 was one of national glory and State pride. The centennial celebra- tion of the independence of the Union was observed in Pueblo with pompous display and processions Reverend Brouse delivered an appropriate oration, and Judge Wilbur F. Stone had an historical sketch of the city which was later embalmed in printer's ink. Pueblo felt the encouragement of Colorado's admission into the Union of States in this year, and in 1877, aroused by the gold excitement at Leadville, began anew to assert herself, and during the next seven years trebled her population.
The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was the first rejuvenating force, and the next event of incalculable importance to the city was the development of mineral camps throughout the mountain regions which stimulated general trade and commercial indus- tries. Pueblo made great strides in these days, brick blocks were erected on both sides of the river, new industries began, and many more firms engaged in selling and for- warding supplies to Leadville and other camps. Eastern capitalists set the seal of suc- cess, and prophesied a grand manufacturing future for the city when Mather and Geist erected the first smelting works here on the northern bank of the river at the crossing of the Denver & Rio Grande, and the Arkansas Valley Railroads. Ninety days from the breaking of ground the furnace was in operation. The one furnace of that day
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soon proved a success, and in seven years' time fourteen were in operation. And the modest plant grew into the immense Pueblo Smelting and Refining Company. By its success it demonstrated the excellence of this location and the profit to be derived from the smelting industry when the various materials necessary can be brought together from surrounding counties so readily and cheaply as at Pueblo. Pueblo became a center for ores, fuel and limestone; while at this plant but a dozen men were employed originally, seven years later four hundred were at work. The "boom " now had begun, and a thousand business men and capitalists realized that Pueblo had become, in a moment, the Rocky Mountain Pittsburg.
Another great factor in Pueblo's activity was the consolidation in 1879 of the Col- orado Improvement Company and other companies having similar aims, and the formation of the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, with general offices in South Pueblo. This company in 1881 erected immense iron and steel works at Bessemer, which since has become a thriving town, and practically a part of the Pueblos. It is situated on a large tract of mesa land about a mile south of the Union depot. A town site was laid out here on the Rio Grande track, and numerous side tracks were put down. A large number of cottages were built as homes for workmen, and tall blast chimneys signaled the converting of rails and of nails. The history of this company, the richest in Colorado, is given in following pages.
In 1880 the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad had linked Leadville with Pueblo, Colorado's greatest railroad war was ended, and the prizes of the mountains could be brought direct to Pueblo for treatment-all the way down grade-where coal could be had as low as fifty cents per ton, and cheaper than at any known place in the world.
The Pueblo Street Railroad, with William Moore president, was constructed in this year, connecting the three towns, and prepared to extend its lines in all directions, as required by the now growing necessities for quicker transit. The Union Gas Company began a plant which should illuminate both Pueblo and South Pueblo, and this latter city had already become the foremost manufacturing city of Colorado and of the Rocky Mountain region.
The general assembly of 1879-'80 authorized the founding of an asylum for the insane at Pueblo, and made an appropriation for the purchase of land, and for a suitable building. Under this act, James McDonald, Theodore F. Braun and J. B. Romero were appointed commissioners by the governor. They purchased the residence of Hon. Geo. M. Chilcott, a short distance west of town, and remodeled it. McDonald resigned from the board soon afterward, and was succeeded by R. M. Stevenson, editor of the "Chieftain," who in turn resigned and O. H. P. Baxter was appointed. The asylum was completed and opened for the reception of patients in October, 1879, with accommodations for forty. It was soon literally crowded with unfortunates, bereft of reason. In 1880-'81 another appropriation of $60,000 was made for enlargement by the erection of another building. Waterworks were built on the south side, and the city was supplied with telephone connections.
In the spring of 1882 the Denver & New Orleans Railroad was completed to Pueblo and its line in operation, and a little later the Denver & Rio Grande Western had extended its track to Salt Lake City, giving Pueblo a through route to the Pacific. The Ladies' Benevolent Union and the Sisters of Charity each had well arranged hos-
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pitals, and another similar establishment was conducted under the direction of the Bes- semer Steel Works.
The Grand Hotel, four stories in height, and with a frontage of 130 feet on Santa Fé avenue, and a depth of 120 feet on Eighth street, costing $175,000, was erected in 1882-'83. Within its well arranged interior are to be found extensive halls and refec- tory, large rotunda with fountain in play, and over a hundred handsomely furnished apartments. At this time two large flouring mills were in constant operation, and Pueblo possessed one daily and four weekly newspapers; foundries and machine shops; six printing offices; sixteen real estate offices; six banks; six drygoods stores; thirty-five retail and three wholesale grocers; a cracker factory; seven wholesale liquor dealers; four lumber yards; a soap factory; six blacksmith shops; two agricultural implement factories; four commission houses; thirty-five law firms; twenty-six physicians, etc. The assessed valuation of Pueblo County in 1882 gives a fair idea as to the extent and resources of business in this year: Improvements of land, railroad property, $1, 100,000; city real estate, $1,818,301; amount of capital in merchandise, $785,000; valuation of farming land, $441,977. Total value of all property in the county, $7,066,720, of which nearly two-thirds is in the Pueblos. The directors of the board of trade of the Pueblos have, however, estimated property for the year 1883, in the county at actual valuation, as follows: Improvements of land, railroad property, $5,500,000; improvements of land, city real estate, $5,000,000; number of cattle, 39,000; valuation of cattle, $500,000; amount of money and credits, $650,000; amount of capital in manufactures, $2,000,000; amount of capital in merchandise, $2,000,000; valuation of household goods, $500,oco; total value of all property in the county, $20,000,000; property in Pueblo, $6,000,000; property in South Pueblo, $4,500,000; county outside, $9,500,000.
Hon. Wm. D. Kelly of Pennsylvania, whose views on pig iron and its products received throughout America the most respectful consideration, delivered an address in Pueblo August 16th, 1882, full of prophecy which later years have vindicated. From this address we make the following extracts:
" It was the discovery of the precious metals which first attracted settlers across the desert places to Cherry Creek; but it was the useful metals that summoned to Pueblo the brawny men who did me the honor to escort me to this hall, and who con- structed yonder admirably equipped steel works, which will in a little while be pointed to as the initial institution in Colorado's great industrial center. The plains, now intersected by a number of railroads, are no longer sterile, and Colorado's agricultural resources will bring the plow, the loom and the anvil into operation in closest proximity.
" There are three causes which create great and enduring States. First, the pos- session of immense masses of the precious metals. This it was that called together, as if by magic, the people of California and Australia, and of Colorado, when it was announced that there was gold at the foot of Pike's Peak. Another, that part of the State and some of the cities shall lie on a great line of inter-State travel, and furnish points for the exchange of commodities; or, in plain language, have facilities for the establishment of commercial centers. Your State has the precious metals, and is already traversed by great through lines of travel.
" My third proposition was that the possession of materials for iron and steel, and adequate fuel and fluxes for working them, would give prominence and prosperity to a
Vi. Id. Fitch
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State. These elements of greatness and wealth I declare unhesitatingly to exist in a greater degree and in closer proximity in Colorado than I have found them at any point I have visited in this country or Great Britain."
And two days later at Leadville, Mr. Kelly publicly stated: " The production of iron and steel, and the establishment of every branch of industry dependent upon the production of these metals, may be established more advantageously at Pueblo than at any other place I know of on the face of the globe."
August 28th, 1883, the Colorado Smelting Company began active operations in its works, situated about a mile south of the city, at Bessemer, and have since been in con- tinuous operation night and day. General N. H. Davis was president of this company; Dr. R. W. Raymond, vice-president; H. C. Cooper, secretary, and Walter S. Gurner, treasurer. At the beginning the pay roll numbered over one hundred men, and its sal- aries exceeded $100,000.
30 III.
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PUEBLO COUNTY.
(CONTINUED.)
THE PUEBLOS' UNIFICATION-BESSEMER -COLORADO COAL AND IRON COMPANY - IMPROVEMENTS -MINERAL PALACE-OPERA HOUSE - STATISTICS-COUNTY SET- TLEMENTS, ETC.
The position of the Pueblos in their relations to mines and metals and coal and markets was now becoming understood. The formations in which the Arkansas had furrowed its bed belong to the cretaceous epoch and are divided into several strata of sedimentary deposits, such as limestones, sandstones, clays, slates, coal, iron, etc. The limestones and the fine grained sandstones already were being shipped to the south and east, and the Leadville smelters were using the limestones and fluxes of Pueblo County. One mile below Pueblo, gypsum was found intermixed with clay, making a good fertilizer, and in the foothills a purer gypsum was found suitable for building purposes. Numerous mineral springs, some saline, some chalybeate and others sulphurous, have been developed. Along the valley, at Carlisle and at Rockvale and Coal Creek, thick beds of coal were mined and mineral oil wells yield enormously. Toward the south and southwest the Greenhorn Mountains are found to be formed of azoic rocks, granite, gneiss, full of porphyritic dykes, accompanied by mineral veins rich in copper ores .* Near to the head of the St. Charles, and between the Greenhorn and Red Creek, a conglomerate is found which consists of pebbles of quartz and obliterated crystals of feldspar, cemented together by red clay; this formation has a great thickness, and dips at an angle of twenty-two degrees. Intermixed with it are found dykes of trap, accompanied by small mineral veins carrying galena, with a few disseminated crystals of copper and nickel sulphurets. Ten miles west of Red Creek we encounter an entirely different formation, of which the origin is due to glacial action, and there we find huge masses of rocks, polished, rounded, striated, some formed of mineral vein matter, some of porphyry, gneiss, granite, etc., showing the different formations that have been disintegrated and carried away by the powerful action of ice.
Hardscrabble Creek springs out of this formation, and farther down flows through a cañon showing on both sides sandstone strata dipping at an angle of sixty to seventy degrees. The sand deposits along the creek contain some gold colors. Passing over the crest of the range, and descending the western slope, we reach the towns of Rosita
*Board of Trade Pamphlet, Pueblo, 1883.
9.18. Commin
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and Silver Cliff. These two localities present the most extraordinary mineral form- ations. In Rosita, true fissure veins of galeniferous quartzite, inclosed in trachytic porphyry, while on the northwest they are located in sedimentary rocks. Strata and beds of clay impregnated with chloride of silver are another striking feature, and belong to a sedimentary deposit, of which the dip varies from thirty to forty-five degrees.
One mile from Rosita, and on the southern slope of a hill covered with quartzite debris, are masses of round silicious concretions, from the size of a nut to that of a human head, scattered about with profusion. It is easy to recognize the results of the action of silicious waters, formerly existing here, results analogous to the deposits and incrustations observed in the silicious geysers of Montana and Idaho.
A little farther south is found the head of the Muddy, springing out of broken and disjointed sandstones, showing in some places well defined dykes of volcanic trachytic matter, and also some porphyry veins. At the head of the Muddy, and going toward the Cuerdo Verde peak, we meet a syenitic granite that covers all the foothills. This formation incloses several dykes of porphyry and iron ore.
The Cuerdo Verde peak itself presents a series of curious geological formations, beginning at the base with sandstone, followed by metamorphic granite, the upper part of the peak being capped by volcanic masses. The whole mountain is a network of veins of quartz carrying mineral, shown by well defined outcroppings. Fifteen miles south, and after crossing the Huerfano River, the sandstones and conglomerates are again met with, and the hills are covered with boulders of granite, trachyte and basalt, until Gardner is reached. There, taking a western course, at a distance of four miles we find several steep and denuded peaks, known as
Sheep Mountains, formed by a rhyolite rich in quartz. Half a mile south of Gardner stands a butte of trachyte, finely grained, embedding crystals of hornblende. In all the creeks running from these gulches and feeding the Huerfano River, gold has been found, and it is a surprise to all to-day to see our miners and prospectors going far away seeking for new fields of exploration, when they have so near immense treasures lying dormant.
The Spanish Peaks, seen in the southern horizon, are located nine miles southeast of the thriving town of La Veta, and promise to become one of the most important mining camps south of the Divide.
The main body of these peaks is a porphyritic trachyte emerging from the upper carboniferous formation, and cut by dykes radiating from the center of eruption toward the plains, and accompanied by a contact matter carrying galena, sulphurets and the precious metals.
As can be seen by this short description of the natural basin in the middle of which the Pueblos are located, at its very doors are mines of gold, silver, lead, iron and copper; beds of coal, limestones, sandstones, clays, gypsum, springs of mineral waters, artesian wells, petroleum, without saying anything of the surface formation of the plain, which is but a vast placer.
The products of all these mines come down from the mountains and the railroad hauling charges are therefore not excessive. Summit, Lake, Pitkin, Gunnison, Chaffee and Saguache Counties send their carbonated and sulphuretted ores, both carrying gold
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and silver, to Pueblo through the Grand Canon of the Arkansas; and in return cars receive coal and fluxes to work their low grade minerals. Ores, too, are brought from the eastern districts of Utah for treatment and sale. And all the southwestern counties rich in precious metals are closely linked by the Rio Grande tracks to this city of smelters and samplers.
In 1883 the metallurgical works of the Pueblos, included the Pueblo Smelting and Refining Company of Mather & Geist, the Eilers Smelter, the Rose & Reed Sampling Works, and the Colorado Coal & Iron Company-institutions second to none in the country, models of order, method, and of the most improved working facilities. And to quote again from the Board of Trade pamphlet:
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