USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 54
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Being of a family that emigrated to America in 1630, and made their first settle- ment in Boston, he is an American, with all of the attributes of a race that devoted the lives of a number of their generations to subduing the unbroken wildernesses of the continent.
He is not a little proud of the fact that with a somewhat remarkable memory he can at a moment's notice relate with comparative accuracy many of the important
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HISTORY OF HUERFANO COUNTY.
events that occurred in the early settlement of the gold region of the West and remembers kindly many of the leading characters who lent their lives to pave the way to the success of the centennial State, and enabled her to enter the sisterhood of the nation.
Charles Otto Unfug was born in Bielefeld, Westphalia, in Prussia, in 1846. His ancestors having occupied during many previous generations high and honorable political and social positions in the fatherland, he naturally grew with a more elevated view in life than the financial status of a father with a large family was able to sustain in their ancient home.
At the early age of sixteen he came to America with the hope of maturing his character and life, under the influence of the institutions of the country of his adoption.
He entered the field of commerce in the city of St Louis in 1862, and remained there three years, when being resolved to visit the Rocky Mountains, Mr. Unfug embraced the first feasible opportunity of joining in the tide of emigration westward that was then setting in with unusual activity, in the year 1865, as an employe of F. W. Posthoff & Company who were at the time doing a large business in the San Luis Valley in this State. He filled various positions in their employ until their business was dissolved and the new firm of Ferd. Meyer & Company became its successors, when he was placed in charge of the branch of their business that had been established in Huerfano County, he making his headquarters at Badito the county seat of the county. Here he remained until the business was closed. He then removed to Walsenburg which had been in the meantime made the seat of government for the county in the year 1872, when he was elected county clerk and recorder. His peculiar fitness for this position soon became apparent, and he was re-elected a number of times and also held the responsible position of clerk of the district and county courts.
During the years of his political life he was honored with the pomination by the Democratic party for the position of Secretary of State in the year 1880, and a second time in the year 1884. His party being in the minority he naturally suffered defeat with his companions in the canvass. He is now in company with his brothers Fred and Adolph, engaged in mercantile pursuits and is doing a large business at Walsenburg and in other parts of the country.
Mr. Unfug married Miss Kate Jeanette Withington, youngest daughter of Charles H. Withington of Allen, Lyon County, Kansas, in the year 1873, and is now the con- tented father of a considerable family of sons and daughters. He is proud of his successes in the various walks of life as emanating exclusively from his own personal efforts, and regards his preferment politically as a suitable indorsement of an honorable course as a citizen of the United States. He also takes pride in the fact that his first visit to his old home in St. Louis since his settlement in Colorado was made while in attendance upon the National Democratic Convention in the year 1888.
Although of German birth and blood in his life as citizen of the United States is thoroughly wedded in instinct and principle to the Republic. To his State he owes allegiance for his successes in life, and expects in her to find a home for all the years allotted to him.
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499
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
BOUNDARIES-GOLDEN CITY-FIRST MINERS AND SETTLERS-FOUNDING THE TOWN- EARLY DEVELOPMENT-GEORGE WEST-BERTHOUD AND HIS RAILWAY PROJECTS- CAPITAL OF THE TERRITORY-SECRET SOCIETIES-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS -- INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL-VALUE OF PROPERTY-OTHER TOWNS IN THE COUNTY.
This county was organized by an act of the Territorial legislature, approved November Ist, 1861. Its name is derived from the statesman Thomas Jefferson, was originally formed by the provisional government in 1859 and the name retained under the authorized organization of Colorado two years later. Its boundaries remained as then defined, bordering Arapahoe and Douglas on the east, Boulder on the north, Gilpin, Clear Creek and Park on the west, and Park on the south. It is twenty miles wide on its northern boundary and extends south seventy-two miles, where it terminates in a sharp point. The area is about 725 square miles ; is watered by the South Platte, and by Coal, Ralston, Bear, Deer, and Clear Creeks from which many miles of irrigating canals have been taken, and extended over a multitude of splendid farms.
At the town of Golden, its capital and chief center of enterprise, simultaneously began with the primary lodgment of settlers on Cherry Creek-the present site of Denver, the initial chapter of the annals of Colorado. For more than twenty years Golden and Denver were in strong and continuous rivalry for the supreme position. When early in the spring of 1858 a handful of plainsmen, not of the immigrant class, but hunters, traders and adventurers, clustered about the rude trading post or stockade occupied by " old John Smith," reinforced at certain periods by bands of Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians, Tom Golden, James Saunders and George A. Jackson were hunting and trapping on the plains, and while during the summer of that year Green Russell and his prospectors were delving among the shining sands of Cherry Creek, Vasquez Fork, Dry Creek, the Boulders and the Cache-la-Poudre for gold, Saunders, Jackson and Golden were preparing to enter the mountains via Mount Vernon Canon. In the fall of 1858, these men established their headquarters camp for the ensuing winter in the lovely and inviting basin, lying between the base of the Rocky Mountains and the outlying foot- hills below, one of the most charming spots conceivable for their purpose, and for the purpose to which it has ever since been devoted. Here they pitched their tents, brought in their horses and settled down for the long season. We have Jackson's account of how they made short excursions to the Boulder, Bear and Ralston Creeks ; prospected a little but hunted game most of the time, evidently not passionately inspired by faith in the existence of gold in paying quantities, since their digging and panning gave no such assurance. On the 26th of December they started into the mountains
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
and in Bergen Park found a band of elk. The rest of the story has been told in our first volume and need not be repeated here.
Meantime some very fair placer mines had been opened in Arapahoe Bar, on the north bank of Clear Creek, about two miles below Golden, and now covered by the Wannamaker farm. Here, in due course, a large number of men congregated, and some seventy cabins were built. Four or five years later the last vestige of this settle- ment had disappeared. Neither Jackson nor Golden, notwithstanding the town took the latter's name, had any further part in its creation than to take some informal steps toward staking out a town site.
From the best information obtainable at this late day, Golden City was primarily es- tablished about the middle of June, 1859. George West (late adjutant General Colorado National Guard) arrived on the scene with seven associates, then known as the Boston Company-an association formed in the city of Boston during the winter of 1858-'59- June 12th. These men are accorded the prestige of having built the first house on the town site, a very respectable one of hewn logs; they were very active also in the general advancement of the embryonic city. This house or cabin is one of the very few erected that year which remains standing and occupied to the present day.
The first meeting to form an organization was held June 16th, in a tent owned by Mr. J. C. Bowles. They effected a preliminary organization and then adjourned to the 20th, when the session was held in a large tent used for gambling purposes, owned by Ed. Chase, the Ford Brothers and Ed McClintock. Various games were carried on there during the week, but given up to religious services on Sunday, because it would accommodate more people than any other inclosure on the ground. At the date named above, a permanent association was formed.
In the fall of that year, Jonas M. Johnson erected a large family tent on the lot now occupied by the Johnson House, the first hotel built in the settlement. Mr. George B. Allen, another of the original residents, affirms that he began washing gold on Clear Creek near the present town of Arvada, in the spring of 1859, and later moved up the stream and staked off the town site of Arapahoe City. David K. Wall arrived early in the same year, bringing a stock of garden seeds and agricultural implements with a view to gardening and selling vegetables to the miners and immigrants. After a time at Arapahoe Bar, he located a small ranch claim just below Golden, nearly opposite the present Colorado Central Railway station and began tilling the soil. He also took part in organizing the town. Ensign B. Smith is said to have built the second house in Golden and Judge T. P. Boyd, the third. David G. Dargin is credited with the second store, W. A. H. Loveland's being the first.
Captain Edward L. Berthoud, the accepted historian of Jefferson County, gives some other names of the early founders, among them, John M. Ferrell, Fox Diefendorf, P. B. Cheney, Dr. Hardy, Charles M. Ferrell, John F. Kirby, Walter Pollard, James McDonald, Mark L. Blunt, J. C. Bowles, J. B. Fitzpatrick and W. J. McKay.
The first bridge thrown across Clear Creek at that place, then a formidable stream to ford, was the work of John M. Ferrell, which opened a direct and safe thoroughfare for immigrants bound to the mines in the mountains. The town company to which reference has been made, was composed of George West, David K. Wall, J. M. Ferrell, J. C. Kirby, J. C. Bowles, Mrs. Williams, W. A. H. Loveland, H. J. Carter, Ensign B.
Realice J
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Smith, William Davidson, Stanton & Clark, F. W. Beebee and Berthoud and Garrison. They resolved to take up twelve hundred and eighty acres, mainly on the south side of the creek. F. W. Beebee-later a somewhat famous hotel keeper at Idaho Springs and Manitou-was engaged to survey and plat the town, but he laid off only about three hundred and twenty acres in blocks and lots. The remainder of the survey was com- pleted by E. L. Berthoud. The basis thus carefully defined and the inhabitants being for the greater part young, strong and enthusiastically confident of the future greatness awaiting their endeavors, united in the common purpose of making it the principal town in the Pike's Peak region, one that should outstrip and perpetually overshadow its only aggressive competitor-Denver-which they regarded as ineligibly situated for a permanent city, lacking the natural advantages possessed by Golden in its superb position at the very gateway of the mines of Gilpin, Clear Creek and the South Park, with even a better chance to control those discovered above Boulder. A new and better bridge was built over the creek, sawmills were planted in the pine forests of the neighboring hills, an extensive scheme of wagon roads projected. Adverting to my first view of Golden in June, 1860, it was apparent that greater enterprise was exhibited and a better class of buildings being erected there than in Denver, and whether the visions of the principal men were, or were not well founded, they certainly deserved better success than that which awaited them. Great numbers of substantial frame dwellings and stores were going up on all sides, and scores of others projected. Immense stocks of merchandise for that period, were brought in, designed to supply the mining towns and passing wagon trains. Already the directing force of these move- ments, Mr. W. A. H. Loveland, had begun to formulate plans for a railway along the rocky gorges of Clear Creek, to the bustling communities perched among the hilltops, plans that came to fruition twelve years later.
By the close of 1859 there were seven hundred to eight hundred residents in Golden. The influx during the next year or two was steady, though not large. While these builders were enlarging and fortifying, others inclined to agriculture, probably the effect of early training, began settling up the choice bottom lands along the various streams. At that period a ranch claim on the uplands possessed no value, for none were considered arable but the long, narrow margins of the water courses, which were laid off in gardens. The raising of cereals was not undertaken on any elaborate scale until after the great irrigating canals were built, years afterward.
Mr. T. C. Bergen selected for his homestead the attractive and finely timbered park in the mountains which has ever since borne his name, and there resided until a few years before the close of his life. In 1861 the War of the Rebellion and the subsi- dence of the gold mining excitement caused the tide of immigration to recede back to its original source. In 1862 stagnation set in. A year or two later many of its dwellings and pretentious business houses were deserted, and there was a time when it seemed as if the town that had been founded with such bright anticipations would literally perish from the earth. Loveland, with a few of his sturdier confreres, were all that main- tained its existence, holding on with sublime persistence to the anchors they had cast.
The first election in Jefferson County was held under the provisional government in 1860, when county and precinct officers were chosen. The towns of Golden, Ara- pahoe, Henderson's Ranch, Mount Vernon and Bergen's, cast altogether, 711 votes. In
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
the same year the first public school was opened by Mr. T. Dougherty with eighteen pupils.
In December, 1859, appeared the first number of the "Western Mountaineer," George West publisher. West was a native of Claremont, New Hampshire, born November 6th, 1826; educated in the public schools ; learned the printer's trade, partly in Claremont, finishing in Boston. During the last five years of his residence in the latter city, he was one of the proprietors of the Boston stereotype foundry. In 1859 he came to Golden and engaged in mercantile pursuits, subsequently leasing from Thomas Gibson the small printing outfit-on which he had published the "Rocky Mountain Gold Reporter " at Central City, in 1859,-and thus entered upon his journalistic career. In the spring of 1860 he surrendered his lease, returned to Boston, sold out his interest in the stereotype foundry, purchased a new printing office with a press, and returned to Golden, resuming publication of the "Western Mountaineer." Albert D. Richardson and Thomas W. Knox, two famous American journalists who had drifted out to Pike's Peak, were the editors of this paper. On the 20th of December following (1860), the office was sold to H. S. Millett and Matt Riddlebarger, and by them re-es- tablished in Cañon City. West then engaged in the freighting business on the plains between the Missouri River, Denver and Golden. In 1862, when Colonel J. H. Leaven- worth began enlisting troops for the Second Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, West was appointed to the captaincy of a company, and taking E. L. Berthoud as his first lieutenant, marched with the regiment down to Missouri, served gallantly to the end of the great struggle, then came back to Colorado, entering the office of the Rocky Mountain "News" as city editor. In 1866 he purchased a new office and established the "Golden Transcript," which he has edited and managed during the past twenty- four years. In 1887 he was appointed Adjutant General of the State by Governor Alva Adams.
At the election held April 10th, 1860, J. W. Stanton was chosen mayor, S. M. Breath recorder, W. C. Simpson marshal, W. A. H. Loveland treasurer, R. Borton, J. M. Johnson, R. T. Davis, D. G. Dargin, O. B. Harvey, E. B. Smith, W. J. Smith and J. C. Kirby, councilmen.
The existence of coal near the base of the foothills, discovered on Coal Creek, fourteen miles north of Golden in 1859, set at rest all doubts concerning the perma- nency of fuel supplies, and encouraged the hope of its becoming an important factor toward the founding of manufactures. Prospecting for coal continued, disclosing further deposits on Ralston Creek, which resulted in opening the well-known Marphy mine, and the marketing of its product in Golden and Denver.
The next imposing advance, and one that has exercised marked influence upon the development of all northern Colorado, began in 1861, when it was determined by the people of Golden, Idaho and Empire, who (had been inspired by Loveland,) to take measures for opening a shorter and more direct route for the Missouri River stage lines through Colorado to Utah and California. Even thus early the project of a Pacific railway had taken distinct form, although the bill which made it a certainty was not adopted by Congress until 1862, and our pioneers resolved to be prepared with a line to be investigated by the engineers when the time should arrive for definite action. The original impulse, however, was to direct the overland stage and freight travel and com-
503
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
merce to and through this Territory; therefore E. L. Berthoud, an accomplished engineer of large experience, started May 2d, 1861, with a small party of men to explore the entire valley of South Clear Creek to its sources. Three weeks were consumed in this examination. They crossed the main range at what is now known as Berthoud's Pass, seven miles north of Empire, passed down the western slope into and across Middle Park, which was explored to a point six miles west of Hot Sulphur Springs on Grand River. Returning May 28th, the results of this reconnoissance were reported, exciting much interest all along the line. Early in June, Berthoud having first arranged with W. H. Russell and Ben Holladay, both of whom were largely interested in overland transportation, prepared to survey a wagon road from Golden City to Salt Lake, via Berthoud Pass. Organizing his party, he departed on this laudable mission on the 21st, over the route previously traversed, to Gore's Pass, thence to the Bear and Snake River valleys to below William's Fork ; thence over to White River and down that stream to the Green; across the latter just above the mouth of the Uintah, up that valley and the Duchesne Fork to the Wahsatch Mountains, crossing these from the head of Duchesne and Red Fork to Timpanogas Cañon, and on to Provo City on Lake Utah. The party returned in August, beginning the survey and measurement of the route from the northeast corner of Brigham Young's residence in the town of Provo, which was completed back to Golden, September 17th. "This survey," says Berthoud, "demon- strated the feasibility of a wagon road by this line, and also that it could be easily and cheaply constructed. The distance was exactly four hundred and thirteen miles. It was also a good and practicable route for a railway, fully two hundred miles shorter than the present line of the Union Pacific via Cheyenne. Besides, it would open to settlers a succession of fertile valleys, with an infinite number of valuable resources, coal, timber, and a great variety of minerals."
In 1862 Berthoud entered the Federal army and did not return until the close of the war. Meanwhile, the glory of Golden subsided until its light became well nigh extinguished.
In 1865 Mr. Loveland secured from the Territorial legislature a charter for the Colorado Central and Pacific Railway, and shortly after, at his own expense employed Mr. J. P. Mersereau and N. P. Reynolds, two skillful railway engineers, to make an exhaustive survey of the Clear Creek Valley to Black Hawk, with a view to ascertain its practicability-in other words whether a railway between these points was practicable. The result proved that a standard gauge road could be constructed, but the cost would be simply enormous, requiring seven tunnels in a distance of twenty-one miles, and involving the transportation across the plains in wagons at a tariff of fifteen to twenty cents a pound, of the rails and other iron material to be used. This put an end to speculation on the subject for the time being, but it was by no means abandoned.
In January, 1866, Loveland began corresponding with Captain Berthoud, who was then in the government employ at Fort Sedgwick, respecting the proposed railway, reciting Mersereau's estimates. Berthoud in reply suggested the idea of a narrow or three foot gauge line, but nothing further was done until August of that year, when the Union Pacific Company, whom Loveland had interested in the enterprise, sent a corps of engineers to survey Berthoud's line of 1861. They followed the original line and rendered a favorable report, but it was rejected by President John A. Dix for reasons
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
set forth in our first volume, -- the great cost of grading, tunneling, etc. Viewed by the lights of to-day, it is clear that had the Union Pacific accepted and built by this route, though it would have cost more time and money than the one pursued, nevertheless would have given them a much shorter and better line to Ogden than they now have, besides the immeasurable advantage of perpetual mastery of transcontinental traffic. Berthoud and Loveland of Golden, and not the New York directorate, pointed out, years before the Pacific Railway was begun, the true route for that company to follow. It is deplored by Colorado that they were so blind as not to see it.
The records show the following county officers for 1862: Commissioners, David K. Wall, T. C. Bergen and T. P. Boyd. John M. Ferrell, treasurer; George H. Rich- ardson, clerk and recorder, George West, superintendent of schools. April 9th of that year J. M. Johnson was appointed coroner.
The document following indicates the preliminary steps toward entering the town site :
W. A. H. LOVELAND
AGREEMENT WITH
Golden City,
HENRY ALTMAN et al. Dec. 11th, 1863.
It is hereby agreed and understood, that in case W. A. H. Loveland advances the necessary amount of money to enable the Probate Judge of Jefferson County to enter the town site of Golden City, that then and after the said Probate Judge shall have made good deeds for the lots we hold respectively, and as well as all other bona fide occupants of lots in the town ; then and in that case, the said Probate Judge shall con- vey to said Loveland the residue of said lands so entered as above provided ; and further agree severally and jointly not to become litigants as against the land so entered and conveyed or desired to be entered by said town site of Golden City.
Signed -- Henry Altman, John Truby, J. M. Johnson, Seth Lake, Walter Pollard, John H. Titus, Mason M. Seavey, Thomas Crippen, Manuel Smith, John Mullen, W. H. Shea, G. W. Jones, R. C. Miles, Nicholas Gruber, Jr., O. B. Harvey, D. F. McGlothlin, Daniel Shea, D. E. Harrison, J. A. Moore, Jacob Fisher, John M. Snodgrass, Jonas Barker, M. A. Jenkins, Mrs. M. Harvey, Rebeca Judgkins, C. H. Judgkins, W. A. H. Loveland, E. B. Smith, J. R. Gilbert, Jno. G. Hendrickson, J. C. Bowles and P. B. Cheney.
Filed for record December 11th, 1863.
On the 14th of the same month Henry Altman, probate judge, filed the plat of the town site. In the recorder's office there hangs the framed map of Golden, as platted in the summer of 1859. On one corner of this stained and musty plat is the indorsement of the probate judge, that he had filed it December 14th, 1863, but the records show that this filing did not include all of the original plat of 1859.
Golden did not greatly improve between 1863 and 1867. It was made the capital of the Territory in 1862, and held the well nigh empty distinction five years, when it was moved to Denver. Governor Cummings was the only chief magistrate to make his headquarters there, and he only for a short time. During 1867, the Colorado Central Railroad Company made full surveys for their railway to Cheyenne and Denver. In August, Jefferson County voted a subscription of $100,000 in aid of the enterprise. January Ist, 1868, the work of grading began at Golden, as related in our first volume. By the methods employed in the present epoch, the road would have been completed in thirty to sixty days. But different conditions existed twenty years ago, hence it was
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
not opened until September, 1870. The Union Pacific that had control, had but one purpose in view, and that the rapid construction of its main line. The branches were considered mere side issues that might be deferred to a more convenient season.
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