USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 22
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 22
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The public buildings of Arapahoe County are neither numerous nor imposing. Though her warrants are at par, and her wealth constantly increasing, she has never erected a building for her courts and officers, although a block of ground has been bought for that purpose. An elegant
Court House is likely to be erected at an early day, however, and, when built, it will be paid for without plunging the county in debt. A well- built jail and a comfortable hospital have been constructed.
The history of Arapahoe County is so inter- woven with the history of Denver that a separate chapter in regard to the former seems out of the question, and for further information of the county and the men who have made it, reference should be had to the succeeding chapters and accompanying biographies. It is well to note, however, that the future of Arapahoe County may be largely influenced by the building of a railway already projected up the Arickarce into Denver, which will open up the eastern end of the county very rapidly, and may result in the building-up of a new metropolis 100 miles east of the present county capital.
DENVER'S FINEST SUBURB.
The elegant little village of Littleton has already been mentioned in general terms at some length, but a short sketch of its history should not be omitted from a work of this character. Mr. R. S. Little, from whom it takes its name, is liter- ally the father of the settlement, having located there in 1860, when there were no settlers between him and the mountains, in the valley of the Platte. As time went on, the rich agricultural lands of the neighborhood attracted other settlers, and, in the winter of 1863-64, a school was estab- lished, the district including the entire corner of the county down to within three miles of Denver, a scope of country now divided into five flourish- ing school districts. The first school was opened in a small log cabin at Brown's bridge, about two miles north of the present site of Littleton.
In 1873, a model brick schoolhouse was built at Littleton, and furnished with all the modern improvements, so that the town has a first-class school in every respect, with a good corps of teachers and about one hundred pupils in attend- ance.
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The first step in the transition toward a village | nicauts, but now the Church has forty members. was taken in 1867, when Mr. Little, L. A. Cole, Until 1873, it was a mission of St. John's Church, in Denver, but in that year Rev. T. James McFad- den became its Rector, remaining one year, when he became identified with the Reformed Episcopal Church and organized a congregation in Littleton. He was succeeded at St. Paul's by Rev. Charles De Garmo, and in turn Mr. De Garmo was fol- lowed by the present Rector, Rev. M. F. Soren- son, who came in 1876. In addition to the ncat church edifice proper, St. Paul's boasts of a com- fortable rectory, built in 1875, and costing about $2,000. John G. Lilley and Jesse Estabrook built the Rough and Ready Mills, which have since become so famous as manufacturing the best flour in the world. Some land adjoining the mill property was laid off into town lots for the use of the employes, a store was soon started, and sooner than its founders expected, Littleton became a "center." The mill did a good business from the first, being well supplied with excellent grain from its own immediate neighborhood, which is one of the wheat gardens of Colorado. A quarter of a mill- ion of bushels of wheat are said to have been harvested this year within a radius of ten miles from Littleton, and the estimate does not seem to be exaggerated. But although prosperous in so many respects, the Rough and Ready Mills have been singularly unfortunate as to fire, having been twice totally consumed, with large stocks of grain in store. The first fire occurred in January, 1872, inflicting a loss of about $40,000; the second, two years later, with a heavier loss. After the last fire, however, the mill was rebuilt of stone, and fire-proof throughout. The machinery is new and first-class and capable of grinding five hun- dred bushels of wheat per day.
Although the village grew steadily from the start, previous to 1871, the religious privileges of the people were limited to an occasional sermon by a Denver clergyman, either in the neighboring schoolhouses or in private residences. Early in 1871, however, Mr. Little and others, with some outside assistance, built a handsome Episcopal Chapel since known as St. Paul's. For several years, Mr. L. and his wife were the only commu-
The Reformed Episcopal Church was built in 1874. It is a handsome brick structure, costing about $4,000. John G. Lilley, Mr. Little's part- ner, was at the head of the new church movement, and was the Senior Warden, R. H. Mowbury being the other. The original vestrymen were F. Com- stock, H. E. Allen, J. D. Hill, G. W.Beltcher, L. B. Ames, J. M. Bowles, John McBroom, J. M. Fox, Otis Hardenburg, D. W. Powers, B. J. Berry and I. W. Chatfield. Rev. T. James Mc- Fadden, as already stated, was the first Rector, serving until 1877, when he was succeeded by Rev. T. L. Smith, the present incumbent.
Though Littleton is largely Episcopal, the other denominations are represented there, and the society is excellent for so small a place. Although Denver stands in no immediate need of a suburb to live in, the time will come, no doubt, when Lit- tleton's wealth and population will be swelled by the overflow of Denver, and no more charming country village can be found in Colorado than cozy Littleton, nestled in its groves of trees like any old New England village.
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HISTORY OF DENVER.
PART III.
CHAPTER I.
WONDERFUL TRANSFORMATION OF TWENTY YEARS-A PROPHECY.
D ENVER, the Queen City of the Plains, is to-day (1879) the most active, enterpris- ing and flourishing city on the continent. It has barely attained its majority. Even twenty years ago, it was a straggling town of tents and mud- roofed cabins, lining the west bank of Cherry Creek at the confluence of the latter with the Platte, with an ambitious rival, " on paper," oc- cupying the site of the now prosperous city. Even at that early day, the enterprise and vigor which has transformed the bleak, barren prairie into a great metropolis was manifested. Denver proper pitted itself against Auraria when the latter seemed to have everything in its favor, and Den- ver won the fight for supremacy, as she has won every successive battle, regardless of the odds against her.
Every one who noted the early history of Chi- cago awarded unstinted praise to the men who builded that great city in the wilderness of the then far West; but Denver was builded under circumstances tenfold more discouraging, and in spite of obstacles immeasurably greater. Chicago was backed up by other outposts of civilization, while Denver stood alone, 600 miles from any- where. Chicago had her great inland sea carry- ing commerce to her very doors, while Denver lay beyond an almost trackless waste, and waited upon slow " prairie schooners " for her supplies. Chicago was surrounded by fertile fields, and her soil blossomed as the rose, while Denver, at the first, raised nothing but cactus plants, antelope and jack rabbits. The comparison might be car- ried infinitely farther, but enough has been said to show that the work of building a beautiful city
on a cheerless site, so far removed from the appli- ances of modern civilization, was something like the labors of Hercules.
There is extant somewhere, and it should be in- troduced in this volume, an engraving which represents "Denver in 1859." The grand old mountains tower in the background of the picture, but the foreground contains a blank perspective closed by a cabin or two, a tent and half a dozen Indian " tepees." A little fringe of cottonwood trees marks the line of the Platte River, and the course of Cherry Creek is similarly, though less boldly, outlined.
The spreading plain lies desolate. There isn't enough timber away from the streams to make a toothpick. It is hard to imagine what wild fancy possessed the first inhabitants when they laid the foundations of the future city. Gold was not found in paying quantities hereabout, nor did the early settlers pay much attention to mining in the immediate neighborhood of the city. They head- quartered here, and prospected north, south and west, always returning to Denver, however, no matter where they wandered. So the town grew apace in spite of the sneers and efforts of en- vious rivals. Every now and then, from 1859 forward, some ambitious settlement with a high- sounding title would spring up and threaten to overshadow the Cherry Creek settlement, by reason of superior location, or something of that sort ; but, one by one, they failed to effect the promised revolution. Just why they failed is as mysterious as why Denver didn't fail.
Some of the most sagacious men who ever set- tled in Colorado pinned their undying faith to
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Golden City and invested their money there with great liberality, only to see it disappear forever from their gaze. And yet, Golden seemed to possess rare advantages. She stood in the gate- way to Gregory Gulch while that was the mining center of Colorado, but even then the Golden Gate was only a turnpike station on the road to Den- ver. When the South Park was opened, Colorado City sprang into existence, and threatened the " commercial supremacy" of Denver, without affecting it a particle. So, when California Gulch became famous, Cañon City was established to relieve Denver of her " commercial supremacy," and didn't do it. There seemed to be a fatality about these embryo " cities" which were cities only in name, for when they dropped the " city" from their titles and became " Golden," " Cañon," etc., they began to prosper. Denver, on the con- trary, was never rightly written "Denver City," and to this fact the superstitious may ascribe its prosperity.
The Denver of to-day is distributed over a good deal of territory which was not embraced in the original settlement, and a portion of the present town, formerly known as Auraria, was an older town and once a powerful rival of Denver itself. The first settlement, however, was several miles up the Platte River, and was known as Placer, or " Mexican Diggings." This embryo town was located at the mouth of Dry Creek, where gold was first discovered in paying quantities. These diggings were soon exhausted, however, and the town disappeared, no trace of it having been vis- ible for many years.
Auraria was the next " center." The town was laid out and christened about the 1st of Novem- ber, 1858; but, previous to that time, parties had been camping there, among them, Maj. D. C. Oakes, still a resident of Denver ; Jack Jones, since deceased, and Green Russell's party of Geor- gians. William Foster surveyed the town site, and Green Russell gave it the name of Auraria, from a town of that name in Georgia, whence he had emigrated. Auraria, now known as West
Denver, was on the west bank of Cherry Creek. Jack Jones built the first house, just before the town was laid out. Its walls were of logs set on end in a trench, close together and "chinked" with the adobe clay of the country, which, by the way, furnished much of the building material for subsequent buildings. Those adobe houses soon came to be familiarly known as " dobies," and the same term was applied to the bricks or blocks of which the walls were formed. Many of them are standing to-day, not only in West Den- ver, but on the principal thoroughfares of East Denver itself. The News office, on Larimer street, is a " doby " building, with a brick front. Stone's bookstore (formerly Richards') is a log building, weather-boarded. With all its metropolitan airs and graces, Denver is still so young that its swad- dling-clothes are visible, to the initiated, on every hand.
And yet it is, in all respects, a wonderful city, apparently fulfilling the destiny prophesied for it nearly twenty years ago, by that brilliant enthusi- ast, Gov. Gilpin, who wrote as follows in his book on the future of Colorado :
" As for the site upon which the city of Denver is founded, it is pre-eminantly cosmopolitan. It pre-occupies the auspicious focus into which nature groups all her colossal elements. We are at the base of the Eastern Cordillera, whose summit is nowhere penetrated by navigation for a distance of two thousand miles from the principal meridian which parts and unites the two hemispheres of the globe.
" Here the vast arena of the Pacific fits itself to the basin of the Atlantic edge. The goal is reached where the zodiac of nations closes its cir- cle. The gap between the hemispheres is bridged over forever. We are upon the isothermal axis, which is the trunk line (the thalwez) of intense and intelligent energy, where civilization has its largest field, its highest development, its inspired form.
"There is an intoxicating grandeur in the pan- orama which unveils itself to the spectator, looking
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out from the crest of the neighboring Cordillera. In front, in rear and on either hand, nature as- cends to her highest standard of excellence.
" Behold, to the right, the Mississippi Basin ; to the left, the plateau of table-lands ; beneath, the family of parks; around, the radiating backs of primeval mountains ; the primary rivers start- ing to the seas ; a uniform altitude of 8,000 feet ; a translucent atmosphere a thousand miles re- moved from the ocean and its influences ; a check- ered landscape, from which no element of sub- limity is left out-fertility and food upon the surface, metals beneath, uninterrupted facility of transit.
" Behold here the panorama which crowns the middle region of our Union, fans the fire of patri- otism, and beckons on the energetic host of our people.
" Here, through the heart of our Territory, our population, our mines, our farms and habitations, will traverse the condensed commerce of mankind, where passengers or cargoes may, at any time or place, emhark upon or leave the vehicles of trans- portation.
" Down with the parricidal policy which will banish it from the land, from the broadcast dwell- ing of the people, to force it on to the sterile ocean, outside of society, through foreign nations, into torrid heats, along circuitous routes, impris- oned for months and dwarfed in great ships.
" Railways, multiplied and spanning the conti- nent, are essential domestic institutions, more pow- erful and more permanent than law, or popular or consent, political constitutions, to thoroughly complete the grand system of fluvial arteries which fraternize us into one people-to bind the two seaboards to this one continental union, like ears to the human head-to radiate the rural founda- tions of the Union so broad and deep, and estab- lish its structure so solid, that no possible force or stratagem can shake its permanence-to secure such scope and space to progress, that equality and prosperity shall never be impaired or chafe for want of room.
" To Denver is secured a career into which all those favorable facts of position and circumferent area are now united. The North American peo- ple number 50,000,000 in strength; 2,000,000 annually shift their homes. This force is par ex- cellence the pioneer army of the North American people. This movement causes an uninterrupted pressure of the people from East to West, resem- bling the drift of the ocean which accompanies the great tidal wave. Diurnally is the surface of the sea lifted up in silence and poured upon the coasts of the continent. Exactly similar to this is the movement, annually gathering force, and seen to impel our people through and through from the Eastern to the Western limit of the land. The inscrutable force of gravity which, with minute accuracy, holds the planets in their orbits, or causes each drop of rain to fall, sways the instincts of society. This gravitation presses to all direc- tions upon the axis and to the focus of intensity. This regular instinct of movement has been tran- siently interfered with by the artificial passions and demoralization of civil strife.
"It rapidly assumes again its temper and its regularity. Our neighbors from California work up to us with miraculous energy and celerity. They bring with them the open avenue to us from Asia.
"The Mexican column reaches us from the south. On the north the activity is great and in close contact. These several columns simultan- eously converge upon us. They increase every moment in numbers, weight and celerity of motion. We no longer march into the blind wilderness dependent upon and chained exclusively to Europe in the rear. We open up in front the gorgeous arena of the Asiatic Ocean. At present the huge city of London monopolizes the imports from the Oriental world. These are stored there and retailed to the people residing in the basin of the Atlantic.
" Upon the labor of the American people so far as they participate in the consumption of Oriental wares, is harnessed the frightful burden to support the British people and the British Empire, and to be devoured by their voracious despotism of trade.
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The work of emancipation is accomplished by the intrepid energies and conquests of the pioneer army of North America. It only remains to be appreciated and accepted by the people. We are about to supply by direct export, the food and precious and base metals to 850,000,000 of neigh- boring Asiaties! To Japan! to China! to India. To the gorgeous islands of Borneo! Sumatra ! Java. To the Phillipines! the Celebes. To the Archipelagoes of the Sooloo Sea and Polynesia ! These are larger in aggregate area, and more pop- ulous than Europe ; and are nearer to us.
" Ineluded with the equatorial zone, but ap. proached by us through the temperate zone, they ' overflow with merchandises desirable to our peo- ple in multitudinous affluence. To ns will belong the prodigious carrying trade upon the seas for these infinite multitudes. The equatorial heats are outflanked and avoided. The conflict for dominion over the multiplied commerce of the world is fought, and conclusive victory is won for our country. A large majority of the American people now reside within the Mississippi Basin, and in this Asiatic front of our continent, which is born from us, nascent powers, herculean from the hour of their birth, unveil their forms and demand their rights. States for the pioneers ; self-government for the pioneers ; untrammeled way for the imperial energies of the forces of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Sea, may not long be withheld by covetous, arbitrary and arro- gant jealousy and injustice ! In the conflict for freedom, it is not numbers or cunning that con- quers ; but rather daring, discipline and judgment, combined and tempered by the condensed fire of faith and intrepid valor. As it is my hope in these notes to contribute what may be valuable, I adhere strictly to severe facts, and reject abso- lutely all theory and speculation. These facts are as indestructible established as is the alphabet and are as worthy of unquestioning faith and credence. That we may look into the gathering achievements of the near future, without obscurity, and with an accurate prophetic vision, I may without
censure submit what is within my own personal experience. It fell to my lot during the years from 1840 to 1845, alone and in extreme youth, to seek and chalk ,out in the immense solitudes filling the space from Missouri to China, the lines of this dazzling empire of which we now hold the oracular crown-to have stood by its cradle-to be the witness of its miraculous growth. It is not for me in this season of gathering splendor, to speak tamely upon a subject of such intense and engrossing novelty and interest. I may properly here quote the concluding sentences of a report which I was required to make on the 2d of March, 1846, to the United States Senate, at that time brimful of illustrious statesmen. What I said then and there, in the first dawning twilight of our glory, I will now repeat :
"' The calm, wise man sets himself to study aright and understand clearly the deep designs of Providenee, to scan the great volume of nature, to fathom, if possible, the will of the Creator, and to receive with respect what may be revealed to him. Two centuries have rolled over our race upon this continent. From nothing we have become 20,- 000,000. From nothing we are grown to be in agriculture, in commerce, in civilization, and iu natural strength, the first among the nations exist- ing or in history. So much is our destiny-so far up to this time -- transacted, accomplished, certain and not to be disputed. From this threshold we read the future.
""'The untransacted destiny of the American people is to subdue the continent, to rush over this vast field to the Pacific Ocean, to animate the many hundred millions of its people, and to cheer them upward ; to set the principle of self-govern- ment at work, to agitate these herculean masses, to establish a new order in human affairs ; to set free the enslaved, to regenerate superannuated nations, to change darkness into light, to stir up the sleep of a hundred centuries; to teach old nations a new civilization, to confirm the destiny of the human race, to carry the career of man- kind to its culminating point; to cause stagnant
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HISTORY OF DENVER.
people to be reborn, to perfect science, to emblazon history with the conquest of peace ; to shed a new and resplendent glory upon mankind, to unite the world in one social family; to absolve the curse that weighs down humanity, and to shed blessings round the world !
"'Divine task ! immortal mission ! Let us tread fast and joyfully open the trail before us. Let every American heart open wide for patriot- ism to glow undimmed, and confide with religious faith in the sublime and prodigious destiny of his well loved country.'"
CHAPTER II.
PEN PICTURE OF DENVER IN 1859-THE PIONEERS.
T THE foregoing gorgeous picture of Denver's future state had little influence on the early settlers, who cared more about gold and green- backs than the work of laying a foundation for the " future great city " of the two continents.
Corner-lots, however, were a great attraction. A town called St. Charles had been laid out in the latter part of October, 1858, on the present site of Denver. Gen. William Larimer, whose name is now borne by the principal business street of Denver, built a log cabin, with a dirt roof, on the east bank of Cherry Creek, between Blake and Wazee streets, about where the Elephant Corral now stands. . But the General had no neighbors on this side of Cherry Creek. The enterprising West Side monopolized pretty much all the business and population. The foundation of another cabin was laid about the same time, but lack of faith in the future of Denver pre- vented the embryo millionaire from going on and completing his habitation. Probably he hied across the creek and joined the Aurarians, who, indeed, were having everything their own way.
Auraria was, indeed, a town of importance-on paper. The boundaries of the town site included all the country for two miles up Cherry Creek and the Platte, covering about twelve hundred acres. While Gen. Larimer was waiting for somebody else to settle in East Denver and keep him com- pany, Auraria was growing at a rapid rate. “In- dian Row," on Ferry street, between First and Second, became an aristocratic quarter in a short
time after the town site was surveyed. Ross Hutchins built a log cabin there. One S. M. Rooker from Salt Lake, brought in his family and built alongside of Hutchins. Mrs. Hutchins arrived August 30, 1858, and introduced female society into the camp-life of the new settlement. She was a border-woman in every sense of the word, and was very popular with the early settlers, who soon came to look upon the "Rooker House " as a social center which did honor to the camp. Mrs. Hutchins enjoyed the distinction of being the only woman in camp until Christmas, when Uncle Dick Wooten arrived with his family from New Mexico.
The vivacious chroniclers of those days assert that 125 houses were built in Auroria during the winter of 1858-59, but not much boast is made of the character of the tenements. Neither glass nor nails entered into their construction, and board floors were all unknown. Even the dirt roofs were not impervious to moisture, and melting snows deluged the interiors to an uncomfortable extent. In the spring and early summer, when the rains descended, the floods came through the roof, and, to use a favorite expression of the time, the rains usually continued indoors for three or four days after they had ceased outside. Proba- bly 100 of the first houses were merely “ dug- outs," with an occasional log cabin built by the more aristocratic emigrants.
Denver was a trading-post almost from the first, and asserted its commercial supremacy as early as
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