History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 5

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co. cn; Vickers, W. B. (William B.), 1838-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 844

USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 5
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The Government more than once complained of the plucky, enterprising Coloradoans for taking eare of themselves without waiting for an " official" order to do so. It is not generally known in the East that an attempt was made by the South, very early in the war of the rebellion, to capture Colo- rado, but it is an actual fact, and the failure of the enterprise was due to the pluck and energy of the Coloradoans themselves.

This stirring episode in the history of the State occurred in March and April of 1862, when Grant was making his first memorable advances

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

upon the enemy. A military organization, which had been started in the fall of 1860, was revived on the breaking-out of the rebellion and became the First Colorado Cavalry. Col. John P. Slough, afterward Chief Justice of New Mexico, was its commander, and the boys humorously called them- selves Gov. Gilpin's "Pet Lambs." Gov. Gilpin had some trouble in getting them mustered into Uncle Sam's service, owing to their remoteness from the "front" and the difficulty of commu- nieating with headquarters, but the delay was a happy accident, after all. While the "Pet Lambs" were waiting for their marching orders, reports eame that a force of 3,000 Texans had left San Antonio for Colorado, and were making a clean sweep of the country through which they passed. They had already entered New Mexico and were entirely beyond the reach of the Union armies when the "Lambs" heard of their coming. No time was to be lost, and, without waiting for orders from Washington, Col. Slough ordered an advance.

The history of this short, sharp and decisive campaign appears elsewhere at length, but space will only admit of a review in this connection. The Texans were encountered just north of Santa Fe. They were more than a match for the Colo- radoans in number, but in strategy the latter showed their superiority. While a considerable body of " Lambs " engaged the lean and hungry Texans in front, the rest made a flank movement on the camp and commissary stores of the enemy, and destroyed everything they could not carry away. The result was that the Texans had to fall back in search of something to eat, and, having no " base of supplies," were forced to abandon the campaign. Bull Run, in the East, was hardly a circumstanee compared to Baylor's retreat from New Mexico, and the " Lambs" returned home, covered with glory. Their success earned for them the recognition of the War Department, but Gov. Gilpin received no credit for his efforts. On the contrary, he was soon afterward superseded by Dr. John Evans, of Evanston, Ill., one of the best Governors Colo-

rado ever had, and still an honored citizen of the State. Secretary Weld, for whom Weld County was named, was also removed, and succeeded by Samnel H. Elbert, afterward Governor himself, and now an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Gen. Sam E. Browne was about this time appointed Attorney General, and Gen. John Pierce succeeded Gen. Case as Sur- veyor General.

This was the beginning of the numerous changes in official positions which marked Colorado's Ter- ritorial vassalage. Her list of Governors ran as follows, from 1861 to 1876: William Gilpin qualified July 8, 1861; John Evans, April 11, 1862; A. Cummings, October 19, 1865; A. C. Hunt, May 27, 1867; Ed. M. McCook, June 15, 1869; Samuel H. Elbert, April 5, 1873; Ed M. McCook (again ), June 26, 1874, and John L. Routt about May 1, 1875. Routt held until the admission of the State, in 1876, and was the first State Governor, holding the latter office from November, 1876, until January, 1879, when he was sueceded by Frederick W. Pitkin, present in- cumbent.

During the same period, an almost equal num- ber of changes were made in the other officers of the Territory, except that Hon. Frank Hall served several terms as Secretary under Govs. Hunt, McCook and Elbert. The Secretarial succession was as follows: Lewis Ledyard Weld, qualified July 8, 1861, with Gilpin; Samuel II. Elbert, April 19, 1862, with Evans; Frank Hall. May 24. 1866, first with Cummings and later with Hunt; Frank Hall again, June 15, 1869, with MeCook, and still again with Elbert, April 17, 1873, holding the office honorably for seven years. To him succeeded John W. Jenkins, March 11, 1874, and John Taffe, who came with Routt and remained until the organization of the State. William M. Clark was the first Secretary of State, N. H. Meldrum is the present inenmbent.

These constant changes of officials, at such irregular intervals, served to keep the Territory in a state of political excitement not unlike that

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

engendered by the more practical and sanguinary "revolutions" of Old Mexico. They also served to beget a feeling of hostility toward the central Government at Washington. Andrew Johnson, poor man, was most cordially hated throughout the length and breadth of Colorado. Besides vetoing the bill for Colorado's admission as a State, he sent out one of the most unsatisfactory Governors she ever had, in the person of Cum- mings, whose brief reign was eminently unsatis- factory. Grant, too, was unpopular until the admission of the State, since when, he has been a sort of idol with the Republican element, notwith- standing their former enmity. MeCook, one of the fighting family of that name, was sent out as Governor by Grant. He was a gallant soldier but a poor diplomatist, and soon found himself very unpopular with some of the most powerfully influ- ential men in the Territory. Feeling ran high on both sides, and finally resulted in the overthrow of MeCook in the spring of 1873. Elbert was appointed Governor, and it was announced that henceforth the offices of the Territory would be intrusted to its citizens; that carpet-bag rule was at an end forever.

This announcement was received with great satisfaction. Whether justly or not, it had come to be understood that the Territories generally, and Colorado Territory particularly, were asylums for misfit politicians, who could not be "worked in " anywhere else, but who had to be disposed of somehow and somewhere. That the position was not well taken, is shown by the fact that no less than five of Colorado's seven Territorial Govern- ors are to-day highly honored citizens of the State. The names of Gilpin, Evans, Hunt, Elbert and Routt are household words in Colorado. Better men for the position they held it would have been hard to find, and yet the people chafed under their rule, for the simple reason that they were not called but sent. There is something in the genius of our institutions strangely averse to rulers other than those chosen by the people themselves.

Although Gov. Elbert's regime opened so flat- teringly, it was marked by some of the most stormy incidents of Colorado's political history. It is not necessary to recapitulate the events of the MeCook-Elbert war, which terminated in the removal of the latter and the re-instatement of the former, but the sensation it created at the time will not soon be forgotten by those who partici- pated in it. President Grant was visited with the severest censure for his action in the matter, and especially for his wholesale removal of Federal officials in Colorado at or about the same time. The immediate result was a total demoralization of the Republican party in the Territory and a Dem- cratic victory in 1874, which showed very conclus- ively that "some one had blundered." With characteristic manliness, President Grant corrected his mistake by again removing McCook and appointing a Governor who was acceptable to both factions and all parties.

This was the last act in the Territorial political drama. Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, just in time to pull President Hayes through the Electoral Commission into the WhiteHouse, and just in time, too, to earn the taking title of the Centennial State.

The passage of the enabling act was largely due to the efforts of Hon. J. B. Chaffee, and he was very properly rewarded by an election as Senator of the United States by the first State Legislature. His colleague was Henry M. Teller, a man of com- manding ability, who enjoyed the distinction of never having held an office until he was chosen Senator. He was also lucky enough to secure the long term, and will serve until 1883. Senator Chaffee's voluntary retirement from politics at the close of his Senatorial term gave Hon. N. P. Hill an opportunity to grasp the succession, which he did, defeating half a dozen opponents.

Curiously enough, although Colorado made such an effort to break into Congress at an early day, she was not effectually represented there until 1863, when Hon. H. P. Bennett went to Washing- ton, armed with undoubted credentials, attested by

Induit 22

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

the "broad seal of the sovereign Territory," as waggish attorneys used to say. Bennett was succeeded by Judge Allen A. Bradford, who served a second term in 1869-70. Hon. George M. Chilcott served a term between the first and last of Bradford, and Hon. J. B. Chaffee was elected in 1870, and again in 1872. In 1874, the McCook-Elbert war resulted in the

chance election of Hon. Thomas M. Patterson, who served until the admission of the State into the Union.

Mr. Patterson also served term as Representa- tive in Congress after admission, although his seat was unsuccessfully contested by Hon. James B. Belford, the present Representative, who defeated Patterson in 1878 by a large majority.

CHAPTER VIII. PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY.

D URING all these years, the country had been prosperous, more or less, according to cir- cumstances, and the miners had been steadily grow- ing in numbers and increasing their annual produc- tion. New processes of treating ores were intro- duced, which proved more profitable than the old, and the operation of smelting was found particularly adapted to the refractory ores of Gilpin County, where it was first introduced. Denver had been tried both by fire and flood, but her indomitable citizens never faltered in their forward course, and the town grew apace, as did the whole country. It is true that the miners left one locality for another pretty often, leaving large and populous cities almost desolate and without inhabitant, but the people turned up in another part of the State, very soon, and soon had another city under way. Though mining was always the principal industry of Colorado, agriculture and stock-growing kept pace with mineral development, as will be seen by the succeeding chapters specially devoted to these industries.

It was not, however, until after the close of the war and the disbandment of both armies, that the State entered upon its greatest era of prosperity. Large numbers of old soldiers emigrated at once to the new gold-fields, which had grown famous while they had been serving in the army, and others followed a few years later. Ex-Gov. John Evans, whose faith in the bright future in store

for Colorado was second to that of no man, not even that of his predecessor, Gov. Gilpin, had no sooner laid down his office in 1865, than he began to agitate the question of railway con- nection between Denver and the world outside.

The Union Pacific Railroad was working its way westward, and the Kansas Pacific was aiming at the mark which the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road has since hit, but neither enterprise then on foot looked to Denver either as a terminus or way station. Seeing that the mountain would not come to Mahomet, Mahomet got up and went to the mountain. The Denver Pacific road was built to a connection with the Union Pacific at Cheyenne, 106 miles due north, and in due time a railway route was completed from Denver to each ocean. Then the Kansas Pacific suddenly changed its course from southwest to northwest, and made Denver its western terminus, giving the metropolis of the Rocky Mountains competing lines to the Missouri River, instead of the patient mule and the steadfast ox.

It was a grand and glorious transformation scene. The city and State at once sprang forward with a mighty bound. Local lines of railway were soon projected from Denver in other direc- tions, and the foundations of Colorado's present very extensive railway system was laid within three years following the completion of the Union Pacific. Development was a little retarded, but

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

not checked by the panic of 1873, and the grass- hoppers of 1875, but there has never been a year since 1864-the year of the Indian war-in which Colorado has not made progress in some direction, if not in all.

The panic of 1873 has been mentioned as hav- ing retarded the development of Colorado tempo- rarily, but it is still an open question whether the country was not in the end a gainer by the panic, paradoxical as the proposition may appear. In point of fact, the panic did not extend to Colo- rado. There were no failures in the State worth speaking of. The banks stood firm. A consid- erable shrinkage in real estate was about the only effect of the panic upon the population of Colo- rado, but that only pinched a few luckless opera- tors, who bought high and had to sell low. It is true that a few men, who thought themselves mill- ionaires, found that they were only worth half a million, yet their sufferings were more imaginary than real. On the other hand, the panic drove many active business men from the East to Colo- rado, in the hope of rebuilding lost fortunes, and many of these new-comers in 1874-75 are now among the most enterprising and successful opera- tors in the State.

Following fast upon these accessions to popula- tion eame admission to the Union, which served to attract attention and invite further immigration. It was, in effect, a substantial and important

recognition of the status of Colorado, and an invitation to capital to come in and develop the undoubted resources of the new State. The result has exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the friends of Colorado, at home and abroad.

Within the three years which have elapsed since statehood became an established fact, Colo- rado has doubled in wealth and population, and she is still advancing with even more rapid strides. The future of the State is full of golden possibili- ties. Leadville, the present wonder of the world, is but a page in the history of mineral develop- ment. That Colorado is destined to be the first mining State in the Union seems well assured.

It is the habit of some travelers to assert that Colorado cannot sustain a large population, because her agricultural resources are limited. The force of this argument is hard to discover. Mining dis- tricts rarely embrace agricultural advantages too, and, in the East, it is not expected that a mining population shall supply itself with the necessaries of life. So long as Colorado can draw easily and cheaply upon Kansas and Nebraska for her lack of grain and other agricultural products, there is no reason why she may not support a population equal to the New England average. Her gold and silver will buy anything and everything the East has for sale, and she would still be a great and prosperous State, if she did not raise half enough wheat to feed her population.

CHAPTER IX. THE CLIMATE OF COLORADO.

T THE history of Colorado as a sanitarium dates back only to the advent of railways in the State, or about ten years ago. Before that time, overland trips across the Plains were occasionally recommended for the purpose of building up shattered physical systems, but such heroic treat- muent was usually laughed to scorn, and a sea- voyage substituted. The latter was more easily

and cheaply accomplished, and the dangers of the deep were less considered than the danger of los- ing one's life, or scalp, or both, at the hands of the Indians. Yet every one who returned from Colo- rado concurred in the statement that it was a healthy country, and the first reports concerning the rigors of its climate in winter were soon modi- fied.

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

It was many years, however, ere Colorado began to offer inducements to invalids, such as those for which it is now famous. The first settlers felt themselves banished, as it were, not only from their friends and former homes, but also from many of the necessaries and nearly all the com- forts of life. As time went on, and the country grew apace, these conditions changed rapidly for the better. Denver, and some of the other cities, became comfortable places of residence. The cost of living was high, but a steady reduction followed the opening of railway communication and the develpment of agriculture. In a short time, the trip to Colorado became a pleasure excursion, in- stead of a painful journey, and then the invalid tourist appeared above the horizon, and began his career of usefulness in the State.

No record of the resources of Colorado would be complete which did not include the invalid tourist, but, to the credit of the State, it must be said, that she has paid cent per cent, in sound health, for the thousands of dollars which invalids have poured into her extended palm. Not in every case, of course, nor in ninety and nine per cent of them, but in enough of them to make a very satisfactory showing.

Hundreds and, perhaps, thousands of people are enjoying good health in Colorado to-day who came here confirmed invalids. Many more, coming too late, have died here, but, if the fair warning given by such deaths had been heeded in the East, the number would not have increased so rapidly of late years. No one in Colorado, physician or lay- man, pretends to say that consumption, in its last stages, can be arrested, in this climate or in any other elimate. The contrary is true. It would be a miracle, indeed, if three-quarters or half a lung could expand in this rarified atmosphere sufficiently to support life in a man or woman, with one foot already in the grave, and the other trembling on the brink. And not only the dry and rarified air contends against nature, in such instances, but elemental disturbances tend to snap the rotten thread of life.

Colorado has not an Italian climate, and the absurd claims to that effect have brought much contempt on those who make them. She has extremes of heat and cold. The winters are marked by occasional storms of great severity. Dust is a nuisance to diseased lungs at all seasons. The summer sun would be intolerably hot if not neutralized by the refreshing shade. And yet the average of the climate is all that could be desired or expected.

The climatic conditions of Colorado are, per- haps, due entirely to the limited rainfall, though altitude has a separate bearing upon the problem. Without entering upon any scientific, or even technical, consideration of the question, it is enough to say that the limited rainfall leaves the sky free of clouds about three hundred days out of every year, and throughout these three hundred days, in winter and in summer, the sun shines bright and warm. With so much sunshine, of course the evaporation of moisture is perfect. The earth and air is dry. Malaria and the diseases incident thereto are practically unknown, save at rare intervals, as the result of defective artificial drainage. The air is not only dry, but full of ozone and electricity, and the altitude reduces its pressure. In healthy lungs, it is invigorating and restorative, but the contrary effect is manifested in lungs too weak to accommodate themselves to the increased demand upon their capacity, the volume of air inhaled in Colorado being considerably greater than at lower altitudes east or west.

The influence of altitude upon health has been noted, not only by every medical man, but also by every intelligent observer. According to the highest authorities of Colorado, the members of the State Medical Society, the sensations attending a first entrance into this State are always pleasant to persons in good health. "The dryness of the atmosphere," says Dr. Edmondson, of Central, "together with the electricity therein contained, combined with perhaps other peculiarities of cli- mate, excite the nervous system to a remark- able degree of tension. The physical functions

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

which, it may be for years past, have been accomplished in a sluggish, inefficient manner, at once assume a vigor of action to which the system has heretofore been a stranger. The appe- tite is keen, the digestion vigorous, and the sleep is sound and refreshing. The result of these manifold innovations on the established routine of the vital economy is, that all those lurking ail- ments to which the civilized man is more subject than he ought to be are swept at once away, and whatever there is in each individual of capacity to enjoy is called into the fullest action. He revels in what might be called an intoxication of good health."

The latter comparison is not inapt. Nothing is more common than for people to say that the air of Colorado invigorates them like new winc.

In the very admirable essay from which the foregoing is quoted, Dr. Edmondson goes on to say : " An unelouded mind partakes of the elasticity of a healthy body, and the unwonted vigor of man's intellect is manifested by a newly aroused desire for activity and by an increased capability to accom- plish." Every brain-worker will attest the truth of this assertion, and nowhere in the whole country are the professions and all manner of busi-' ness pursuits prosecuted with so much vigor and success.

It has been often said that men are improved mentally and socially as well as physically by com- ing to Colorado. There can be no doubt of this fact. Invalidism always affects mental conditions, and a dyspeptic person or a sufferer from any chronic ailment, however inconsequential, cannot help but lose a little good temper. With restored healtlı comes not only renewed energy but a brighter view of life. The world seems a better place than it was. Companionship becomes pleas- ant, and Colorado is, of all countries in the world, the place where a hearty good will is most manifest in all classes and conditions of men.

This is a curious study, and one which has never yet been pursued with care by scientists. It would be interesting to note the effect of this climate upon

mental as well as physical conditions, but this task must be left to some one more capable of elucidat- ing it.

The early settlers found the seasons in Colorado at considerable variance with those in the same latitude toward the east. A warm sun in winter was the first peculiarity noted. Earth and air were dry, and the direct rays of the sun were a reminder of summer. It was found, however, that however hot the sun shone in midwinter, even when men went about out-door work in their shirt- sleeves, snow seldom melted in the sunshine, but a soft wind moving across the country would soon carry away on its invisible wings a heavy fall of snow in a few hours, leaving the ground not only bare but dry. Hence the winters were generally pleasant, the exceptions to this rule being occa- sions when the wind blew cold or a northwest snow-storm swept down upon the plains. The snow-fall in Denver has never been excessive since the settlement of the town, but it has been severe at times, generally between the middle of Decem- ber and the first of February. The latter month and the first half of March are usually pleasant. March and November are accounted the worst months in the calendar of the Atlantic and Missis- sippi Valley States, but, outside of the mountains in Colorado, they are very favorable, even to inva- lids. Early in April, the spring snows fall, some- times to a great depth, and doing more damage to the stock interests than any other elemental dis- turbance. When these snows disappear, usually a few days after their fall, grass and grain spring up and summer is at hand, except that foliage is often delayed a month or more longer. With the foliage come the rains, varying greatly in different seasons, but not increasing every year, as some ignorantly assert.

The " rainy season" in Colorado is a figure of speech merely, being used only to distinguish it from the season when no rain falls. The two are about equal. Rains fall from about May 1 to November 1, but only enough to purify the air and keep the prairie grass alive and green. It is

HISTORY OF COLORADO.

no inconvenience whatever to invalids, who have all the sunshine they want even in wet weather. It is this unlimited sunshine that builds up many debilitated systems, which seem to need no other medicine. The average number of cloudy days for each year since 1872, when the Signal Service was first established in Denver, is but a fraction over sixty-three; the days on which rain fell, consider ably less, and those on which snow fell, only forty.

As to the range of the thermometer, that erratic instrument should not be quoted officially in Colorado, until corrected for altitude and new climatic conditions. Its apparent range is very broad, and its record would seem to show that Coloradoans freeze up in winter, only to thaw out in summer, when, in fact, the extremes of heat and cold are much more apparent than real. Neither zero weather nor ninety-nine in the shade counts for much in Colorado. When the mer- cury falls ten or fifteen degrees below zero, which it often does, people put on their wraps as they go about their business, but nobody ever heard of a sunstroke in Colorado, when the thermometer was boiling over at the top. Invalids, of course, do not invite exhaustion by much exercise at such times, but, in the delightfully cool mornings and evenings of midsummer, they can get all the air and exercise necessary for them.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado, Part 5

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co. cn; Vickers, W. B. (William B.), 1838- Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 844

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co. cn; Vickers, W. B. (William B.), 1838-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 844