History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 53

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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In 1877 still another vote was taken, resulting in a victory for Greeley. This also was contested in the courts, but the result was not changed.

Evans is located on the South Platte, about four miles south of Greeley, and is surrounded by fine agricultural and grazing lands. It has three churches, a school house, a weekly newspaper and flouring mills, with a considerable number of business houses. The first newspaper established there, and probably the first in Weld county, was the Evans "Express," by R. W. Woodbury and John Walker, of Denver, in the fall of 1869. Being the temporary terminus of the railway, the town enjoyed much prosperity incident to the transshipment of freight and pas- sengers at that station, the support of employés, etc., which prevailed until the extension of the road to Denver, after which it receded to a way station. The "Express" was short lived. The "Journal" was founded in 1871, with Rev. A. C. Todd as editor. Major J. C. Feebles, Mr. Hartman, James Torrens, Dan Elliot and John Cheeley were at various times its editors. The "Courier," by Samuel McAfee, is now the only newspaper in the place. The old feud between Evans and Greeley long since died out, and the former is prospering upon its own merits, and upon the crops raised in the vicinage.

Platteville, about seventeen miles south of Greeley, is a flourishing agricultural center. It is situated on the Platte river and enjoys a fair trade with the farmers along the St. Vrain, lower Boulder and the Thompson creeks. It has two churches, a school, two public halls, a number of stores, a bank and two newspapers, the "Progress" and the "Star," the former edited by A. N. Elliott.

Lupton is situated on the U. P. railway, about midway between Greeley and Denver, and its town site is a mile from the old adobe fort from which its name is derived, a stage station prior to the advent of railways, and built by a frontiers- man named Lupton, contemporary with the Bents and St. Vrains about 1835-40. The present town, like its contemporaries of the plains, is supported by the neigh- boring agriculturists. It has a commodious school house, a Methodist church and several business houses, a post office and a newspaper called the "Cyclone."

La Salle is a small place at. the junction of the Cheyenne and Omaha lines of the Union Pacific, a few miles south of Greeley.

North of Greeley, on the Cheyenne branch, are Eaton, Dover, Pierce and Carr, all railway stations. Eaton, named for ex-Governor B. H. Eaton, is some seven miles north of Greeley, where a large elevator, flouring mills and warehouses for grain have been erected. This town has a sehool house and a Congregational church. The annual harvests of potatoes of the finest quality are very large. The Eaton mill is capable of turning out 500 sacks of flour daily.

New Windsor is some twelve miles west of Greeley, on the Greeley, Salt Lake & Pacific railway, in the midst of a superior farming region. It was here that Hon. B. Il. Eaton located his ranch in 1863. It has a good school, a Methodist chureh, post office, a newspaper, the "Star," and several stores, shops, etc.

Highland Lake, situated between Greeley and Longmont, about nine miles from the latter place, was settled in 1874 by L. C. Mead, F. P. Waite and C. L. Pound. It has a school house and a church. The lake from which the name is derived covers about fifty acres, and is a natural depression artificially filled. But it forms the supply for irrigating large tracts of land. The first canal taken out was by Mr. L. C. Mead and associates.

Hardin is a station on the Omaha Short Line railway about midway between La Salle and Orchard.

Hudson and Roggen are small stations in the southwestern part of the county on the Burlington railway. Hudson is east of Fort Lupton, and Whitman in the far northwestern part of the county ; all are farming settlements. In the northeastern part, on the Cheyenne branch of the Burlington road, are Stoneham, Raymer, Siding No. 2. Keota and Grover.

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Erie, in the southwestern corner, on the Denver & Boulder Valley railroad, and also on the Denver, Utah & Pacific branch of the Burlington railway, is the center of coal mining in Weld county. Just over the line in Boulder county is the mining town of Canfield. Erie was founded twenty years ago on Coal Creek, as a coal mining center, from which Denver derived a large part of its fuel supply. It is in the midst of an excellent farming and grazing region. The Mitchell, Baker and MeKissick coal mines are largely operated. The town has several churches, a school house, town hall, a newspaper, miners' supply stores, etc.

The Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of l'ythias and Knights of Labor have lodges here.

In 1889 Mr. David Boyd, of Greeley, at the author's request, prepared an admirable digest of the material annals of Union Colony, with every detail of which he was as familiar as any member of the heroic band of superior men who secured the first and broadest triumph in colonization that has been achieved in Colorado or the West. Owing to the extent of our notes on Weld county, limited space forbids the use of Mr. Boyd's manuscript, but the extracts subjoined illustrate some of the early conditions of that enterprise, and will be found especially val- uable to students of irrigation, for it is within the lines of the colony that the great problems relating to this subject found earlier and more perfect solution than in any other part of the commonwealth. Again, the better part of our leg- islation and canal engineering is due to the force, intelligence and practical knowledge of the Greeley farmers.

The charter of the colony provided for the building of four ditches, three from the Cache-la-Poudre and one from the Big Thompson. The colony man- agers estimated the cost of these at $20,000. The actual cost, including the dif- ferent enlargements to meet the necessities of the situation, was about $435,000. "They were without experience in the business, and the information they received from parties here that pretended to know led them to make this erroneous esti- mate. It is a matter of history that, after an experience of three years following the settlement of Union colony, equally extravagant views were held by men professing to be informed on the subject as to the area of land that a canal of a given capacity would irrigate. In October, 1873, an irrigation convention was held in Denver to make a joint effort to get government aid in building needed canals. In a paper read before the convention by a man claiming to be an engi- neer, it was proposed to take a ditch out of the Platte Cañon, 12 feet wide on the bottom and 3 feet deep, to irrigate 1,150,000 acres of land, and the only man present who comprehended the absurdity of this estimate was J. Max Clark, of Greeley. This gentleman, in addition to his experience here, had carefully read Capt. Baird Smith's work on 'Irrigation in Northern Italy.' lle read a paper full of facts and figures, largely taken from that admirable work, showing the quantity of water needed to irrigate a given area. The Denver papers attacked Mr. Clark and suppressed the figures. Mr. Clark, who is a sharp controversialist, answered, reiterating his statement. In his paper before the convention he under- took to show by a fair comparison with Italy, an extensively irrigated country, favorably comparing with Colorado in size, that we should probably never be able to bring under cultivation by means of artificial irrigation more than 1,000,000 acres; that our annual rainfall was less than one-third that of Italy ; that the minimum discharges of the principal streams in the great irrigated districts of that country, during the dry summer months, exceeded that of the Platte by two or three times; that her water system largely exceeded ours, and that after hundreds of years' practice and experiment she had only 1,600,000 acres of irrigated land. He dem- onstrated that the proposed canal from Platte Canon to the Missouri river, in order to water the land, would require a width of 200 feet, a depth of of feet, with a current flowing at the rate of four miles an hour, and that the project as outlined

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was sheer nonsense. The English company subsequently built a canal over a part of the proposed route, and its records amply justify Mr. Clark's estimate.

"In connection with the subject of correct views on the capacity of canals to water lands under them, Mr. B. S. La Grange should be mentioned. This gentle- man (now regarded as the highest authority) early saw that the canals built by the colony would be insufficient for the purpose. Many of the enlargements were put in his charge. His fertility in expedients to meet emergencies has made him extremely valuable to all interested in irrigation in the valley of the Cache-la- Poudre, and, through his exertions when water commissioner for this district, water distribution was sooner systematized here than elsewhere. His reputation in affairs pertaining to irrigation is as wide as the state." Mr. Boyd was placed in charge of Canal No. S about June 10th, 1870, and carefully observed the quantity of water a canal of a given slope and sectional area would carry, and also how much land a given quantity would irrigate. These computations early led him to much the same conclusion which J. Max Clark subsequently reached through another line of research. In a paper read by him before the Greeley Farmers' Club, he estimated that the South Platte and its tributaries could not be relied upon to irri- gate more than 500,000 acres of land. The experience of the last two or three years appears to have confirmed the correctness of these estimates. He feels, how- ever, that the area can be enlarged by a proper system of storage reservoirs.

"An important topic is the legislation enacted. It is well known that Colorado has taken the lead in formulating prudential regulations for the advancement of irrigation. The state engineer of California, two years ago, recommended the essen- tial features of our system to the legislature of that state," and Mr. Boyd takes much pride in asserting that these essential features originated with the Greeley farmers. "These are: The districting of the state according to sections watered by certain natural streams; the appointing of a water commissioner for each district to divide water according to priority of appropriations, and the establishing and putting on record these priorities for the information of the commissioners. This legislation had its commencement in a convention of farmers which met in Denver in January, 1879. It was brought about principally by the urgency of the Greeley farmers. All felt the need of some legislation, and those about Longmont shared in this feeling. But the remaining agricultural sections of the state were either indifferent, or were opposed to any legislation whatever. Many districts sent no representatives, and those that did, except the two mentioned, opposed. A major- ity and minority report was submitted. The Greeley men being in force on the floor carried their proposition through. The chair appointed a committee of five, consisting of Daniel Witter and J. S. Stanger of Denver, J. C. Pound of Boulder, J. C. Abbott of Fort Collins and David Boyd of Greeley, the latter chairman. This committee met in Denver and in the course of a week drafted a bill on the subject to be presented to the legislature, then about to convene, which embraced all the essential features of the law now in force. Some of its provisions were not passed at that session, the appointment of a state engineer being omitted. The bar of the state was almost a unit against all legislation, Judge H. P. H. Bromwell being an eminent exception.

"Again let it be recorded that the people of Greeley carried on in the supreme court, at their own expense, a contest against Judge Elliott's construction of the law, and during these proceedings compelled the bar of the state to recede froin its position that the law was unconstitutional." The father of the present code of irrigation laws was Hon. J. W. McCreery of Greeley.

Greeley Potatoes have become famous throughout the country, and their pro- chuction is one of the leading industries. About 10,000 acres are planted yearly in that vicinity. During the season of 1887 there were shipped about 1,800 car-

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loads, and in 1889 about 1,500. The falling off was due to a shortage of water late in the season. The farmers have been so long engaged in this business they have become experts in all the details. All sorts of labor saving devices are used. "The most thorough, deep, clean cultivation is generally given the crop, and this secures a fine wheat crop the following year. But the crop can not be raised at a profit for less than 75 per cent. It costs one-third to harvest, sack and put it in market. At the time we settled in the valley, one of the many flattering statements in circulation about the advantages of irrigation was, that irrigated lands never wore out. We soon discovered this to be a delusion. Some farmers on the richest lands, during the winter, haul sheep manure as far as fifteen miles and use it on fields devoted to raising wheat and potatoes. The fact is, that the water of our streams usually contributes little or nothing to the natural fertility of the soil. As a rule they contain nothing corresponding to the Nile mud. When the river is full, tearing its alluvial banks to pieces, the water will have in suspension such mud, which is a valuable addition to the soil, but this state of affairs usually only lasts a few days, and the salts held in solution by the clear water are already in the soil often in too great abundance. Therefore the question of fertilizing was be- coming a serious one until the extensive growing of alfalfa has removed all appre- hension in this regard. Not only has it made the keeping of more stock on the farm profitable and thus making barnyard manure abundant, but when plowed under is found even more valuable as a fertilizer than red clover. It is true, it requires a sharp plow and four heavy horses to turn over a well-set crop of it, but the labor costs less than to haul out manure from the barnyard to cover an equal area with a coat as valuable."

Union Colony as a corporate body went out of existence April 15th, 1890, by expiration of its charter, the term being twenty years. As the day approached, there were not wanting a few who believed that prohibition also would become extinct, for then there would be no authoritative body to which property may revert in the event of forfeiture of title to lots and lands, as penalty for the sale of intoxicating beverages. "But," says Mr. Boyd, "no confiscations have taken place by virtue of the prohibitory clause in the deeds, no prosecutions commenced for that pur- pose. No perfectly clear case of violation both in the letter and spirit of the clause in those instruments has arisen. Cases for violation of the town ordinances in that region have frequently been prosecuted and in a few instances convictions reached. but since for a long time the ordinances have been much more stringent than the stipulation in the deeds, a conviction in the one case by no means assured a like result in the other." In a communication sent by the president of the colony to the Greeley 'Tribune' and published February 22nd, 1882, he says: "The Colony during its whole existence has had only three causes at law, and in each case it was in self defense, and it won all of them. This exemption from litigation, I believe, has been largely due to the moderation and patience alike of the officers and people of the colony. All its affairs are now settled up and the forthcoming report will show that it is in debt only $300." Referring to the expiration of its charter, he says: "We must remember that the colony goes out of existence in eight years more. Whether then Greeley will remain a temperance town, or go the way of ncarly all the rest of the world in this matter, will depend upon the will of a majority of its inhabitants. Hence it is well to begin in time to rely upon other resources than that of the colony. Indeed, it will afford me great satisfaction, should I live to see the 20th anniversary of Union Colony, to know that not a single parcel of property shall have reverted to that corporation during all these years, while at the same time Greeley is the most thoroughly temperance town in the state. Temperance secured under the standing menace of forfeiture would be but a sorry result compared with that of a self-controlling, self-regulating community, alike

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refraining from the use and prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors." The wish was fully confirmed.

November 15th, 1871, Father N. C. Meeker wrote in the Greeley "Tribune:" "It may be that, after all, human nature will be able to triumph over intemperance. It may be that we ourselves are leading in the performance of this great work, and that in the future time we will be visited by the good of every land to study our methods or end their days in our midst. To carry out an object so tran- scendently beneficent, we have only to be faithful in the future as we have been in the past, and certainly, having known how to strangle the demon of rum for two years, we have learned how to strangle it for all time to come." While he did not live to behold it, both the desires and the prophecy were literally and nobly accomplished.

Referring again to Mr. Boyd's account: "This people are now at the exit of their second decade. The first was occupied in the endeavor to secure a firm foot- hold on this new soil, and at the end of it this was fairly achieved. The difficulties encountered were more numerous and formidable than the most sagacious fore- saw, and the predictions of unusual reward for ordinary effort in most cases have not come to pass. High prices and a home market for all we could produce have not been realized. The 500 miles of railroad between us and the then 'rainbelt' have been for many years to our disadvantage in our competing, not in Colorado, but in the towns of the Mississippi valley in the sale of flour and potatoes. When Horace Greeley returned to New York from his visit, in a series of replies to inquiries about us, he said, besides other things wide of the mark, 'that if every acre of the colony lands was plowed the following winter he had no doubt that they would yield an average of forty bushels of wheat to the acre, if sowed to that grain.' Now it has been found that a good average on sod is fifteen bushels, and twenty on old land, and this not including crops never harvested on account of locusts, hail or want of water.

"But still, with our temperate and industrious habits, in the face of all ob- stacles, a firm footing was gained during the first ten years, and when N. C. Meeker returned at the end of the summer of 1879, and was taken by J. Max Clark over the river and among the magnificent crops growing there, his heart leaped with joy, and he felt that, notwithstanding all the drawbacks and unfulfilled expecta- tions, the leading feature of his vision of the future had been realized, and he re- turned to his post (at the Ute Indian Agency on White river, where he soon after- ward was massacred) to die and close his bright benignant eyes forever.

"For this achievement Mr. Meeker never claimed more credit than was his due. In the 'Tribune' in the latter part of 1876 he wrote: 'For all that is done over there I take no credit. It was the farmers themselves who took hold of the work and carried it on in a most admirable manner. I only claim, as founder of the colony, to have provided for a system of cooperation within limited bounds, by which these things became possible.' During the last decade the progress has been steady. The price of real estate both in the city and in the farming dis- trict has yearly advanced. An 80-acre farm, with building not worth more than $500, and situated across the river three and a half miles from town, sold for $6,000 the past year. The highest price realized for a corner lot, 25x115, in Greeley up to ‹late (1889) is $4,000. It was Mr. Mecker's ambition, among other things, to estab- lish a city of beautiful homes, and this ideal has been very fully realized.

"The Greeley Nurseries, owned and managed by A. E. Gipson, are a growth of the last few years. Heroic efforts were made in our early days in this direction by J. Heron Foster. But insufficiency of water and incursions by locusts proved too much for him, and no further attempt was made for many years. This locality has, so far, proven unsuitable for the growth of orchards. In this respect it is the most backward in the state. The growing of hardy varieties in our home nurseries,

James & Test

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it is hoped, will enable us to overeome the difficulties in the way, and so far as Mr. Gipson's part of the work is concerned he has succeeded admirably. About twenty acres are now in trees of home growth, all thrifty and able to bear our winters in the nursery. Mr. Gipson has made a special study of irrigation as ap- plied to horticulture, and is the author of a work on that subject. He is an example of our Greeley professional men who has turned his attention to the soil and suc- ceeded in this pursuit. He is the son-in-law of Mr. H. T. West of the original colony locating committee, whose eyes are delighted in beholding the realized future of at least a part of the golden vision that floated before the three on that April morning when, seated on the banks of the Cache-la-Poudre, with map spread out before them, they selected this as the site of Union Colony."

The Oasis hotel in Greeley, not the costliest, perhaps, nevertheless one of the finest in the state, was built in 1881. Its cost, completed and furnished, was about $85,000. It was first erected by a stock company, and was rather the result of a public spirited movement than of any hope that it would be a profitable enterprise. Finally it became the property of Mr. S. D. Ilunter, its principal promoter, and has been paying a satisfactory margin of profit.

In connection with the water system heretofore mentioned, there are seven artesian wells in the town, put down by associations of citizens. While the pres- sure is not great, it is sufficient to meet all requirements. The people take much pride in their factory for the manufacture of pumps, built at a cost of $50,000, by Dr. G. Law, president; Geo. H. West, secretary, and J. C. Swan, manager. Mr. Swan sunk all the artesian wells in and about Greeley. "Dr. Law," says Mr. Boyd, "is a good type of the kind of men who have made Greeley what it is. A native of West Virginia, his first vote was cast for the Union. He volunteered from that state in the early days of the Rebellion, fought gallantly with his regiment and wound up his army record in a Confederate prison. When Union Colony was organized he left a fine practice, which he had built up in Michigan, and joined it, being among the first on the ground. Having only about $350 in money, he went to work, made the brick and erected a two-story adobe house, doing every part of the work with his own hands. After building his house he went quietly on his way as a physician, soon gained a lucrative practice, and is now one of Greeley's capitalists.

The state is divided into water districts, whose boundary lines correspond with the drainage and the streams from which the canals and ditches obtain their sup- ply, regardless of county lines. The waterways of Well are linked with those of the counties to the east, and also with those of Arapahoe, but more especially with those of Boulder and Larimer. The Larimer county diteh, 58 miles long, the Cache-la-Poudre canal, 30 miles, the Larimer and Weld canal, 64 miles, form three great systems north of Greeley that unite with those of Larimer county, under which 28,000 acres were cropped in 1888. Another great enterprise is the High Line canal, 35 miles long, which links the farming interests of these two counties of Larimer and Weld, under which in the same year 15,000 acres of crops were raised. The Loveland and Greeley canal, 41 miles long, links Weld and Bonkler counties in an important system, watering 7,054 acres of erops. The U'nion Colony ditches and others around Greeley, Eaton and Windsor, and these with an intricate sys- tem from the Thompson and South Platte, down by Evans and Plattville, between which are the Mayfield, Union, Farmers' Independent, Buckers, Evans No. 2 and others; the Platteville Irrigating eanal, Evans ditch and Fulton Bottom ditch, with others down toward and around Fort Lupton; and still further south the Fulton, Brantner and Brighton ditch, complicate the system of Well with that of Arapahoe. Great eanals flow through Weld county like small rivers, from which there are thon- sands of smaller streams or laterals, irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres, These enterprises testify to the enormous amount of labor and capital expended

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History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 53

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