History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 12

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company
Publication date: 1889-95
Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co.
Number of Pages: 791

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Trout Creek is another district which gave somewhat brilliant promise in early times, after the discovery of carbonates in Leadville. Okl settlers will recognize this as Chubb's Ranch, R. B. Newitt, proprietor, who with others located a number of claims, some of which were productive though none were highly profitable. Nevertheless the Iron Chest, Iron Mask and Iron Heart were united under a corporation with a capital stock of one million dollars. Sand carbonates having been discovered, together with some veins bearing goldl quartz, in the height of the prevailing excitement, some extravagant hopes were indulged, which in process of time, by the failure to materialize, were dissipated.

Vathrop is simply a way station on the Rio Grande railway, eight miles below Buena Vista, at the junction of this line with the Denver & South Park extension to Gunnison, but at one time was quite a thriving settlement.

Hortense is a station on the Denver & South Park road, thirteen miles from Buena Vista. It was formerly known as the Chalk Creek Hot Springs. Many years ago Dr. J. G. Stewart appropriated and to some extent improved one of these springs, while Father Dyer, the pioncer Methodist itinerant preacher, took in the upper, subsequently transferring his right, title and interest to D. H. Haywood, who converted his possessions into a fine sanitarium, preferred by many to any other in the county on account of the peculiarly healing qualities of the waters. They are now known as Haywood Springs. In July, 1872, J. A. Merriam and E. W. Keyes, who settled here, discovered and located the Hortense mine on Mount Princeton, and worked it for some time with encouraging results. The Chalk Creek mining district was organized the same year. The Hortense was sold to a New York company, Henry Altman, managing director, and Eugene HI. Teats, formerly of Gilpin county, superintendent. This was materially successful for some years, then from various causes was shut down. It is still regarded as one of the better mines of the county.

Alpine, as its name implies, is the highest station on the Denver & South Park railway, 22 miles from Buena Vista, in the canon of Chalk creek, 12 miles from the Arkansas river, and hemmed in on all sides by tremendous peaks-Prince- ton on the northeast, and on the south and west, Mount Antero and Boulder monn- tain. It never was a large place, and is only a way station now, but it was a mining camp of some importance ten years ago, with smelters, a bank, newspaper, hotels. business houses, saloons, etc. A great many mines were located, partially pros- pected and some fairly well developed, but most of the productive ones were situated nearer other towns on the belt line than this, hence its primal glory did not long out- live the first days of excitement.

Romler is a shipping point for the Mary Murphy mine. Hancock is a small mining camp a little south of Romley. Along the north, middle and south Cotton- wood are a number of mining properties, but mostly undeveloped. The Cora Belle company have recently built a concentrating mill for their mines on Fox mountain. A number of locations have been made in Dolomite district east of Buena Vista.

Some very extensive deposits of fine white statuary and variegated marbles have been located and partly opened near Calumet, and also at Garfield. Calumet is an iron mining camp, where there are vast beds of rich magnetic ores, whence the Colorado Coal and Iron company obtain their supplies. Some of the granite used

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

in the Kansas Capitol building at Topeka was taken from quarries near Buena Vista. It is said by Denver builders that the lime produced near Salida is the finest they have ever used, and vast quantities of the stone are burned and shipped to various points in the state. This region is also a large producer of charcoal. Thus it will be observed that the resources and industries of Chaffee county are wonder- fully diversified and very extensive. Along the Arkansas valley are the placer mines of gold, hay and gardening ranches, while in the mountainous districts are veins containing gold, silver and lead; near the great shipping point at Salida, iron and marble and stone; near Buena Vista almost innumerable hot mineral springs. While as a gold and silver mining county it has not equaled its neighbor, Lake, in productiveness, there are vast undeveloped mineral treasures awaiting patient capital and labor.

By the census of 1800 the school population of Chaffee county was 1,609, with 26 districts, and 27 school houses, with a valuation of $49,325. Forty-four were enrolled in the high school; 573 in the graded, and 504 in the ungraded schools, making a total of 1,121, with an average daily attendance of 747. Fourteen teachers were employed in the graded schools and 33 in the ungraded.

Following were the county officials for 1890-01: Commissioners, C. S. Elliott. A. H. Wade and W. D. White; sheriff, Hugh Crymble; clerk, E. G. Bettis; treasurer, J. M. Bonney; county judge, R. Linderman: assessor, C. H. Holt; coroner, Dr. E. W. Martin; superintendent of schools, Lee Champion; surveyor, H. J. Van Wetering; clerk of the district court, L. P. Rudolph.

The assessed valuation of taxable property in 1879, the year of organization, was $399,944. In 1890 it was $3,689,358.40.

CHEYENNE COUNTY.

AN OLD INDIAN HUNTING GROUND-ALSO ONE OF THE EARLIER STAGE ROUTES TO PIKE'S PEAK-WARS WITH THE INDIANS-A FINE STOCK-GROWING REGION- EXPERIMENTS WITH ARTESIAN WELLS-THE KILLING OF JOSEPH MCLANE BY UTE INDIANS-FIRST SETTLERS RESOURCES.

This county, which takes its name from the Cheyenne Indians who made a part of that section one of their principal rendezvous in the years anterior and subsequent to the settlement of Colorado, and with their confederates, the Arapa- hoes, owned or claimed most of the plains east of the mountains and west of Kansas, was organized by an act of the General Assembly, approved April 11th, 1889. Its territory was segregated from the southeastern part of Elbert and the northern part of Bent counties. It is bounded on the north by Kit Carson, south by Kiowa, cast by the state of Kansas and west by Lincoln. Its area is 1,800 square miles. and by the census of 1890 its population was 534.

The county seat is located at Cheyenne Wells, one of the okler towns on the Kansas Pacific railway, west of Kansas. The building of this thoroughfare in 1870 greatly stimulated its growth, by making it an important station for the shipment of cattle, wool and sheep. Back in territorial times the Cheyennes. Arapahoes and Kiowas frequently made that region extremely perilous to white settlers and travelers. Raids came often, and many a pioneer lost his life in bloody encounters. Cheyenne Wells was a station on the overland stage line, then known as the "Smoky Hill route." It is situated in the eastern part of the county, is the

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

principal town and general headquarters for stockmen, wool growers, farmers and traders. The entire length of the county from east to west is traversed by the Kan- sas Pacific railway, the second rapid transit line built in Colorado (completed to Denver August 15th, 1870), and the southeastern part by the Big Sandy and Rush creeks, both fed by numerous small tributaries. The famous Smoky Hills. rendered historie by the fact of their having been the main headquarters of hostile Indians, lie in the northeastern portion, extending into Kansas. It was there that many parties of gold hunters in 1859 and subsequent years were attacked and roughly handled by savages. The first Pike's Peak stage and freight lines came to Denver by that route, starting from Leavenworth, and some years later it was occupied by the "Butterfield Overland Dispatch." From these bluffs or hills, the Indians sent ont war parties that desolated the border, intercepted and destroyed stages and freight trains, burnt ranches and stations, and killed all companies of white men that were not too strong for them. All the surviving settlers of the period still cherish lively remembrances of that noted camping ground, and the men who built the Kansas Pacific road also have occasion to remember the fierce assaults made on them from the same quarter.

For more than thirty years the tract embraced by Cheyenne county, and indeed the entire eastern border, has been a feeding ground for great herds of cattle. In none of the counties organized upon that strip, until recent years, has any con- sicherable attention been given to agriculture. Cattle and wool growing were enormously profitable in favorable seasons. The difficulty and expense of provid- ing irrigating canals, since there are no large water courses, deterred such as may have been inclined to farming, hence the region has never been thickly populated, and has always been dominated by the grazing interests.

In August, 1882, an attempt was made to discover and utilize the underflow of the plains by sinking artesian wells, Senator N. P. Hill having obtained from congress an appropriation to defray the cost of certain experiments in that direc- tion. The first well was bored near Fort Lyon, in Bent county, and the second at Akron, the present capital of Washington county. A digest of the proceedings at the latter place appears in the history of that county. Both failed to accomplish the end in view. On the 17th of June, 1883, the derrick, tools, etc., were removed from Akron to Cheyenne Wells, where the third and final test was made. By this time only a small part of the appropriation remained, but the drilling began, and, September ist, following, a vein of water was opened at a depth of 250 feet. The pressure was quite strong, but, in the end. this likewise proved a failure, and like the others was abandoned. Nevertheless, it went far enough to demonstrate the existence of a large deposit of water. It is now being used by the Union Pacific railway company to supply its locomotives, and in addition furnishes water for the town. This well was put down 1,700 feet, and at 750 feet a powerful flow of natural gas was produced. Soon after the completion of the Kansas Pacific road. in 1870. Gen. W. J. Palmer, who superintended its construction from Kit Carson to Denver, undertook to find artesian water at Arapahoe station, and. though a well was sunk to a depth of 600 feet, his object was not attained.

The assessment roll for 1800, the first year after its creation, shows better than any other record the internal resources and principal revenues of Cheyenne county. Only 1,551 acres of agricultural land were returned, valued at $3.190; but of grazing lands there were 572,930 acres, valued at $861,610. The value of the improvements ou private lands was placed at $2.555. and on the public lands at $5.500. Of live stock the following were listed: Horses 276, mules 21, cattle 5.802 and sheep 6,220. The total assessed valuation of taxable property in the county for that year was St.590,218.86, of which the greater part was in grazing lands. This report shows that but little land has been cultivated, and as no large irrigating ditches have been dug. the few farmers rely wholly upon natural rainfalls for maturing their crops.

RESIDENCE OF MRS. M. E. ECKHART, HIGHLANDS.

الحمد

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

In 1890 the wool clip was estimated at 95,000 pounds. Again, more than half the population is in Cheyenne Wells, where the Kansas Pacific road, two years ago, moved its division headquarters, consolidating Hugo and Wallace stations at this point. Kit Carson, another station on that line to the west. is the only other con- siderable settlement, with about 150 inhabitants. In 1860-70, however, Carson was a great trading and shipping point, containing 1,500 to 2,000 people.

In the summer of 1878 a band of U'te Indians under Chief Shawano, while hunting in this region, killed Mr. Joseph McLane (July 30th), a brother of Mr. L. N. McLane, now, and for many years, a resident of Cheyenne Wells. There were 500 Indians and 250 warriors in the band. Why they killed him, if for any special reason, is not known. Three different searches for the body were made. covering a period of three years, extending between the K. P. R. R. and the Arick- aree, all led by Mr. L. N. McLane and conducted at his expense. The government furnished a detachment of troops, which was accompanied by 25 range riders. A vast region of country was traversed, but the remains were not found until the winter of 1881. It was one of the sensational mysteries of the period. The columns of the state newspapers gave all manner of reports and conjectures and much bitter- ness against the Utes grew out of the tragedy. In 1888, when the country came to be settled by immigrants, near the place where McLane was killed were found several trinkets, consisting of a gold ring, shirt stud. and several pieces of coin. All the circumstances indicated that a sharp running fight occurred, and that McLane. after being mortally wounded, had ridden away from his assailants on a fleet horse and concealed himself so completely that they never found him. It was also be- lieved that two Indian warriors were killed by him, as several of the tribe subse- quently acknowledged that two were missing and could not be found.

The officers for Cheyenne county in 1800-91 were, clerk, W. L. Patchen: treas- urer, J. W. Lamb; county judge, Robert H. Sheets: assessor, I. F. Jones; sheriff. C. E. Farnsworth: coroner, Mervin Pinkerton: superintendent of schools, S. C. Perry; surveyor, F. W. Steel; clerk of the district court, Henry Evler: commis- sioners. Lewis N. MeLane, Joseph O. Dostal, and Ernest Bartels. Most of these were the first officers of the county appointed by Governor Cooper.

The town .of Cheyenne Wells was incorporated June 6th, 1800. Its first mayor was John F. Jeffers; trustees, W. L. Patchen, L. N. McLane, L. H. Johnson, Win. ()'Brien, Fred Runeer, and II. S. Hamilton; marshal B. F. Beamer; clerk. C. H. Fairhall; treasurer, J. W. Lamb.

The officers for 1890-01 were, mayor (pro tempore). Charles Il. Norman: trustees, C. E. Farnsworth, M. P. Trumbor. P. Hastings and J. W. Fuller: marshal. B. F. Beamer; clerk, W. L. Patchen : treasurer, J. W. Lamb.

The county has a fine court house, built at a cost of $12,000. According to the census of 1890, the total school population of the county was 137, with an en- rollment of 127, and an average daily attendance of 46. There were seven districts and four school houses: value of school property, $42,000, which shows that while the population is sparse, the people have been remarkably liberal in expenditures for educational purposes. The county has no debt.

In 1888 excellent crops were raised without irrigation, but in 1880-90 rain- falls were infrequent, and, in consequence, the crops failed to mature. With abundant water, vast areas of land now devoted to grazing might be rendered verwe productive, but the settlers have no hope of such a consummation, unless it shall be accomplished by some of the recently invented methods for producing rain by artificial means.

The county seat has one weekly newspaper, the Cheyenne "Republican," edited by Mr. T. W. Vanderveer. The first modern houses were built by the R. R. company in 1860. One of the oldest settlers is Lewis N. McLane, who came there from Erie, Pa .. in 1860, when only 18 years of age, commenced work for the K. P.

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

R. R. Co. as a telegraph operator and served as advance operator while the road was being extended from Sheridan to Denver. In those days, as we have indi- cated, and for some years afterward, it was necessary to place military guards at the station houses, and send out detachments of troops to protect the working forces. Mr. MeLane was permanently located at Cheyenne Wells in 1870, and remained a trusted employé of the road until the division headquarters were moved to that place in the spring of 1890. For the past fifteen years he has been interested in cattle and mining.

Mr. Wm. ()'Brien, another pioneer, settled there in 1869. His chief business was hunting buffalo, making Kit Carson, Sheridan, Grinnel and Buffalo Park his principal trading points. Ile afterward managed eating houses for the Kansas Pacific, at Fort Wallace. Ilugo, and other points along the line, but finally effected a permanent residence in Cheyenne Wells.

Mr. Ernest Bartels, one of the county commissioners, arrived on the scene among the early immigrants to the Rocky Mountains, and has been almost entirely engaged in raising cattle, sheep and horses. He now has a cattle ranch on the Big Sandy, seven miles southeast of Kit Carson, and is widely known throughout the state. Mr. J. (). Dostal, another of the commissioners, resided in Central City up to 1880, when, owing to ill health in that altitude, he located a sheep ranch on the Big Sandy near Aroya (now in Cheyenne county) where he has since resided. He is a careful business man, and by his industry and thrift has made a modest fortune. Having known him many years, the author may speak of him as a man of sterling qualities, honest, candid and upright.

CONEJOS COUNTY.

THIS IS HISTORIC GROUND-ROMANTIC AND THRILLING INCIDENTS-AN OLD SPANISH GRANT OF 1842-AMUSING RECORD OF ORIGINAL LOCATION-COLONIZED IN 1854 BY LAFAYETTE HEAD-BIOGRAPHY OF MR. HEAD-A LIFE FILLED WITH ADVEN- TURE-PROGRESS OF HIS COLONY-WARS WITH THE UTES-A REMARKABLE INDIAN TRADITION OF THE DELUGE-PIKE'S OLD STOCKADE-DESCRIPTION OF MEXICAN, AMERICAN AND MORMON TOWNS, AND OF THE SAN LUIS VALLEY-AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES-SOME GREAT CANALS AND FARMS.

The county of Conejos, a Spanish word, pronounced Con-a-hos (Rabbit), as created and defined by an act of the first territorial legislative assembly, approved by Governor William Gilpin, November Ist, 1861, took the name Guadalupe, from the patron Saintof Mexico. By an act approved seven dayslater, the name was changed to Conejos, and under that title it was somewhat imperfectly organized. Until 1874 it embraced all the extreme southwestern part of Colorado, lying between the Rio Grande river, which divided it from Costilla county on the east. Lake county, which then extended to the Utah line, on the north, and New Mexico on the south. Its original territory extended to the Sierra San Juan, and the Sierra La Plata chains of mountains, covering also the Mesa Verde, the headwaters of the Rio Mancos, Rio La Plata, Rio de las Animas, Rio Grande, Florida, Piedras, San Juan, Blanca. La Jara, Conejos. San Antonio and other streams. But by the demand for the organ- ization of new counties, it has been shorn of the greater part of its primal vast dimensions. It is now bounded on the north by Rio Grande and Costilla, south by New Mexico, west by Archuleta and east by Costilla. Its present area is 1,200

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

square miles, and by the census of 1890 its population was 7,193, an increase of 1,588 during the preceding decade. As the first definitive settlements in Colorado were made in Costilla and Conejos counties, then parts of Taos county, New Mexico (in Costilla in 1849 and in Conejos, 1854), it is important to trace their origin. The partial colonization of Costilla has been set forth in our third volume, page 328.

A considerable part of Conejos county lying in the San Luis valley or park was granted to Jose Maria Martinez and Antonio Martinez of El Rito, Rio Arriba county, New Mexico, and Julian Gallegos and Seledon Valdez of Taos, October 12th, 1842. A few settlers came, but were frightened away by the active hostility of the Indians; hence no permanent improvements were made. The boundaries of this old Mexican grant are thus somewhat vaguely described in the original doch- ment now on file in the office of the Surveyor-General of Colorado, at Denver :- "On the north by La Garita Hill, on the south by the San Antonio Mountain, on the east by the Rio Del Norte, and on the west by the timbered mountain embraced by the tract." Then follows an account of how the lands were allotted to the original colonists, in these words :- "By measuring off to them the planting lots from the plateau Bend, there fell to each one of the settlers 200 varas in a straight line from the San Antonio river and its adjoining hills and its margins, to the La Jara river inclusive, there being eighty-four families, a surplus in the upper portion toward the canon of said river remaining for settlement of others, from where the two sepa- rate upward, and in the lower portion from the bend aforesaid to the Del Norte river. notifying the colonists that the pastures and watering places remain in common as stated, and the roads for entering and leaving the town shall remain open and free wherever they may be, without anyone being authorized to obstruct them. And, be it known henceforth, that Messrs. Antonio Martinez and Julian Gallegos are the privileged individuals, they having obtained the said grant to the land on the Conejos, and they should be treated asthey merit. And, in order that all the foregoing may in all times appear, I signed the grant with the witnesses in my attendance. with whom I act by appointment for want of a public or national notary, there being none in this department of New Mexico. To all of which I certify.

(Signed) CORNELIO VIJIL.

Possession of the grant was given as follows, the same being a transcript from the record:

"Cornelio Vijil, first Justice of the Peace of the First Demarcation of Taos, in pursuance of the decree and directions of the Honorable, the prefect of this district, Juan Andres Archuleta, under date of February 23rd, 1842, and which appears in the petition presented by the applicants ( Martinez, Gallegos and Valdez), asking that the Conejos river be given in possession to them, and I, the said Justice of the Peace, having proceeded to the tract, in company with the two witnesses in my at- tendance, who were the citizens, Santiago Martinez and Engenio Navango, and eighty-three heads of families being present, some of them in person and some by attorney, produced and explained to them their petition, and informed them that to obtain the said land they would have to respect and comply in de legal form with the following conditions."

The conditions were, that they were to occupy and cultivate the lands, raise stock, etc., etc. Failure to do so for a certain number of years would work a for- feiture of their rights.

Then. "All, and each for himself, having heard and accepted the conditions hereinbefore prescribed, they according all unanimously replied that they accepted and comprehended what was required of them, whereupon, I took them by the hand, and declared, in a loud and intelligible voice, that in the name of the Sover- eign Constituent Congress of the Union, and without prejudice to the National interest or to those of any third party. I led them over the tract and granted to

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

them the land; and they plucked up grass, cast stones and exclaimed in voices of gladness, saying: "Long live the Sovereignty of our Mexican Nation!" taking possession of said tract quietly and peaceably without any opposition the boundaries designated to them. "

Owing to the lack of proper evidence, when the United States acquired New Mexico, under the treaty of Guadalupe Ilidalgo, in 1848, this grant was not, nor las it since been, confirmed, though several efforts have been made to that end. It covered about one-third of the present valley portion of Conejos county. Much of it has been surveyed, entered and duly paid for by settlers under the laws of the United States, but rights to certain sections are still unsettled, and will probably be brought before the Court of Private Land Claims, established by act of Congress, approved March 3rd. 1891, which met in Denver for organization July Ist. 1891.

While Martinez, Gallegos and Valdez took possession as stated, the Indians. resenting the intrusion upon their cherished hunting and camping grounds, harassed the settlers continually and finally drove them out. Nothing further was done toward peopling this tract until early in 1854, when Major Lafayette Head, who had long been a resident of New Mexico, gathered a colony of about fifty families, and located them on these lands.

Mr. Head was born at Head's Fort (erected by his family as a defense against hostile savages), Howard county, Missouri, ten miles below Booneville. April 19th. 1.825. He was educated in the common schools. In August. 1846, at the age of 21. he enlisted as a private in company B. U. S. volunteers, for twelve months, under Colonel Sterling Price, and marched with the command to Santa Fé. At the ex- piration of his enlistment, he decided to remain in that country; therefore took a clerkship in a store, continuing until February, 1849, when he went to Abiquin, with a small stock of goods, which he sokl at a good profit. In 1850 he was appointed deputy U. S. marshal for the northern district of New Mexico. In 1857 he was elected sheriff of Rio Arriba county, for two years. In 1853, he was elected a representative for that county to the territorial legislature. But a year previous he had been appointed special agent for the Jiccarilla Apaches and Capote Utes. in the meantime the little wealth he had accumulated-about $15,000-had been lost through indorsements for friends; and. having been urged to attempt the colonization of the Martinez grant in the San Luis valley, of which he had received favorable reports, he accepted, and in 1854, collecting some fifty Mexican families, started for the promised land.

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History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 12

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company Publication date: 1889-95 Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co. Number of Pages: 791

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company
Publication date: 1889-95
Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co.
Number of Pages: 791