People

John Bock Sr

2012-09-13T20:47:18-06:00

Short (10 minute) Video Interview with family of John Bock Senior who relates early history of John Bock from the age of seven until he came later to Colorado Springs.

Click here John Bock Sr (need to re-locate video and re-link)

Stone, Judge Edmond T.

2009-07-01T02:22:32-06:00

JUDGE EDMUND T. STONE

The Edmund Stone name shows up in several regional history books, but little has been written about his Colorado life until his great granddaughter, Mary Tate, wrote a book about the Stone Family. Here is a summary of his life.

Judge Edmund T. Stone and his wife Martha Riley Stone with their family moved to Colorado City in either 1863 or 1864. They were among the earliest Colorado City settlers. Before moving to Colorado, Stone had been a constable and probate judge in Haynesville, Missouri. His old title followed him to Colorado City where he was known as Judge Stone.

The Stones had five children by the time they arrived in Colorado City. A sixth child was born to them in Colorado City but she died in infancy. Her name, Louella, is on the Memorial to El Paso County Early Pioneers in the Mesa's Pioneer Cemetery (Pioneer Park today)

In 1868 when the Arapahoe Indians attacked and killed Charlie Everhart and the Robbins Boys the Stones escaped uninjured. Although on that day the Judge and his sons Millard, and John rode out to rescue settlers who were threatened.

Many credit Stone for finally, by 1871, getting the Ute Pass Wagon Road done once and for all. An 1881 History of Southern Colorado states “To Judge E.T. Stone, more than to any other man is given the credit.”

Judge Edmund T. Stone was also one of the trustees of the Fountain College established by Professor Wray Beattie. It grew out of a Colorado City academy founded and conducted by Beattie.

Besides Judge Stone and his Wife, the children, and their spouses were quite involved with Colorado City over the years.

This is an 1886 picture of the final version of the Store that was started after Judge Edmund Stone came to Colorado City. From their beginning the Stone family lived on the same location as the store – which is today the northeast corner of 27th and West Colorado Avenue. The store was named, over the years, the Stone store, Stone & Hilficker Store, before being named the Faulkner Store.

In 1878, the oldest son, Millard Stone, took over the store. He operated it as the Stone Grocery and Clothing Store after his parents moved to New Mexico. Following in his father's footsteps Millard became a Colorado City constable in 1873. This was mentioned in his obituary and at the same time, there was mention of his father. It read, "Judge E.T. Stone was one of the pioneer judges of Colorado and a prominent man in state and county affairs."

Millard's sister, Mary Emma, became the first Post Mistress in Colorado City.

After daughter Mary Emma married J.D. Faulkner in 1877 the store was named after her husband who had purchased it from Millard. The attached building was both a store and the Stone’s home. Millard moved to Cripple Creek in the 1890s after the gold strike boom there.

The photograph shows the store had two large store fronts. It also had ample living quarters upstairs and to the back where Mary and James Faulkner raised their eight children. They lived there until the death of Mr. Faulkner in 1918. The family did not sell the store until around 1928.

J.D. Faulkner became Mayor of Colorado City in the early 1890s. He followed Emma as the Postmaster. And after the store closed, he used the store for his law office and he became the Justice of the Peace of Colorado City.

Judge Stone and his wife, Martha, and their two younger sons, John and Sterling, had moved to Roswell, New Mexico in 1878 where they lived an active and civic minded life for the rest of their lives. They are both buried in the South Cemetery in Roswell, New Mexico in the Stone family plot. Sterling and John and his wife, Fredonia, are also buried there. Millard and his wife, Genoa, are also buried in South Cemetery.

Family information provided by Lifetime Society member Mary Tate, great granddaughter of Judge Stone and his Wife.

BELOW IS AN ARTICLE DAVE HUGHES WROTE FOR THE GAZETTE TELEGRAPH NEWSPAPER (HUB EDITION) ON AUGUST 26th, 2009

One of the satisfactions we members of the Old Colorado City Historical Society get out of our Volunteer efforts comes from helping living descendents of Colorado City and El Paso County Pioneers find the evidence of the lives lived here by their long dead ancestors.

This 2009 Sesquicentennial Year of Colorado City's Founding gave families, hitherto only connected to us via our Web site, and who live far away, the opportunity and excuse to travel to our Founders Day Celebration, and while here to get research help and guided tours by us to the places their forebearers lived, worked, and died in and around the original Colorado City.

One such grateful family, Mary Tate and her husband Bob, drove all the way from Indiana so she, the Great Granddaughter of Judge Edmund Stone, could find the exact locations and perhaps still standing buildings he and his family lived and worked in after he came to Colorado City in 1864. And perhaps find where a tiny family baby was buried.

Mary Tate had visited Colorado Springs in years past researching her kin, but she was frustrated by the inability of either Penrose Public library or the large Pioneer's Museum paid staff to help her locate any of the key locations important to her family. We came through for her. For our society and history center have so mastered the history of early El Paso County and the original Colorado City we can, and will, solely as unpaid volunteers, help do detective work and find historic homes and places. In turn, those decendents offer to us manuscripts, photographs, oral and video interviews, stories and letters about their ancestors. Their contributions become additions to our Archives, and are displayed on our always-changing Web site. We gather as much history via our Web site as we disseminate.

We were able to drive Mary Tate on a Sunday right to the site of the long gone "Faulkner Store," which Judge Stone built, and where he lived, and raised his children. Then we took her right up the stairs of the still standing Templeton Building at 2502 West Colorado to where Judge Stone's son Millard's family lived in an small apartment while he opened a Dry Goods store downstairs in that Victorian building in 1891 soon after it was built. She had the name of the store and the year, but no address, old or new.

Then we drove her right to the hard-to-find stone monument on the abandoned "Mesa cemetery" now called Pioneer Park where a child lies still beneath the grass in an unmarked grave. Mary was able to run her fingers over the engraved name "Louella Stone" beside the other 45 names put there in the 1950s by now deceased El Paso County Pioneer Association members.

Judge Edmund T. Stone and his wife Martha Riley Stone with their family moved to Colorado City in 1864. They were among the earliest Colorado City settlers, building a store and home. Before moving to Colorado, Stone had been a constable and probate judge in Haynesville, Missouri. His old title followed him to Colorado City.

The Stones had five children by the time they arrived in Colorado City. The sixth child was born to them in Colorado City but she died in infancy. They named her Louella. She was the one buried somewhere in Mesa Cemetery.

In 1868 when the Arapahoe Indians attacked and killed Charlie Everhart and the Robbins Boys, the Stones escaped uninjured, although on that day the Judge and his sons Millard, and John rode out to defend settlers who were threatened.

An 1881 History of Southern Colorado credits Judge E.T. Stone, by 1871 "...more than any other man," with getting the one horse-wide Ute Pass turned into a Wagon Road once and for all.

Judge Edmund T. Stone was also one of the trustees of the brief Fountain College established by Professor Wray Beattie. It grew out of a Colorado City academy founded and conducted by Beattie. It did not last.

Following in his father's footsteps the oldest son, Millard became a Colorado City constable in 1873. Millard's sister, Mary Emma, became the first Post Mistress in Colorado City.

In 1878, Millard Stone, took over the store. He operated it as the Stone Grocery and Clothing Store after his parents moved to New Mexico.

After daughter Mary Emma married J.D. Faulkner the store was named after her husband who purchased it from Millard. The attached building was both a store and the Stone's home. Millard moved to Cripple Creek in the 1890s after the gold strike boom there to try his luck. Which wasn't good, so he returned to Colorado City.

The photograph shows the store had two large store fronts. It also had ample living quarters upstairs and to the back where Mary and James Faulkner raised their eight children.

J.D. Faulkner became Mayor of Colorado City in the early 1890s. He followed Emma as the Postmaster. And after the store closed, he used the store for his law office and he became the Justice of the Peace of Colorado City. They lived there until the death of Mr. Faulkner in 1918. The family did not sell the store until around 1928.

Millard, after coming back from Cripple Creek married, and opened a Dry Goods Store which had grown out of the Faulkner Store in the newly erected - 1891 - Templeton Building of Colorado City. His family lived in an apartment on the second floor of thatthree-story building - a twin to the Meadow Muffin building across the street. Those two buildings became virtually 'The Downtown Malls' and business center of then red brick Victorian era of Colorado City. Mary Tate was pleased that we actually could place her at the front door of where her ancestors both lived and worked over 100 years ago.

Judge Stone and his wife Martha moved to Roswell, New Mexico in 1898 and lived there until they died.

Mary Tate was grateful for our help. She became a lifetime member of our Historical Society, donated to the Sesquicentennial Monument, and left us a large manuscript that fleshes out the Judge Stone family story that is still largely untold. She will be an active, online Society Member for many years to come.

Dyer, Father, the Snowshoe Itinerant Preacher

2009-04-29T01:39:00-06:00

1901

Article "Denver, June 17. — The Rev. John L. Dyer, one of the most famous preachers who has figured in the history of the west, died of paralysis of the throat after a lingering illness. Mr. Dyer was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in 1812. "Father" Dyer, as he became known, began preaching in Wisconsin in 1849, and was the oldest, if not the last of the old Methodist "circuit riders." Coming to Colorado in 1861 he met many thrilling adventures in his travels in this state and New Mexico, and through his zeal in preaching to the widely separated and almost inaccessible mining camps in ail kinds of weather earned the sobriquet of "The Snowshoe Itinerant" He is the author of a book bearing that title."

He preached at least once in Colorado City, where Rev William Howbert was pastor of its first Methodist Church.

John Lewis Dyer was a methodist minister from Minnesota. As a young man, he fought in the Black Hawk Wars and worked as a lead miner in Wisconsin. He was "called by God" in middle age to preach, and began his career in Minnesota. Originally coming to Colorado in 1861 to see Pikes Peak, he decided to stay and preach to the settlers and miners of the region.

Settling in the town of Buckskin Joe, Father Dyer established himself over the next 29 years and became a frontier legend. Carrying the word of God over the mountians, he crossed 13,000 foot Mosquito Pass several times per week in all weather conditions. He fashioned long ski-like foot covers for the long winters and called them "snowshoes." He preached against many of the favorite activities of miners - gambling, drinking, and prostitution. He married, attended the sick, and gained a reputation as a truly selfless individual. When he needed money, he carried mail to and from the mining camps on preaching trips. A rugged, sturdy man, he wasn't above giving a miner a good thrashing when he was heckled.

Father Dyer has become part of Colorado legend. He is immortalized in the Colorado State Capitol building in a stained-glass likeness along with 15 other founders of Colorado. There are two mountains in the Tenmile-Mosquito Range named for him - this one and Dyer Mountain.

The Father Dyer United Methodist Peak in Breckenridge was built by Father Dyer in 1880, mostly by hand.

FATHER DYER PEAK
ELEVATION 13,615 FEET
COMMEMORATING THE 100TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE
FATHER DYER UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

IN HONOR OF

REV. JOHN L. DYER
1812-1901
AUGUST 23, 1980

Dyer's Judge Son, was murdered by vigilantes who hated one of his rulings. Below the Granite, Colorado where he was killed

Elias F Dyer

Born: Oct 8, 1836

Died: July 3, 1875

"A victim of the murderous mob ruling in Lake County. I trust in God and his mercy. At 8 oclock I sit in court.The mob have me under guard. I die for law, order and principle.”

Judge Dyer's Gravestone where those words were engraved

Trout, Hattie L. -Reminiscences of the Early Days in Colorado - transcribed edition

2009-02-17T04:04:30-07:00

Hattie L. Hedges Trout

Reminiscences of the Early Days in Colorado

Electronic Edition

Source Information: Hattie L. Hedges Trout, "Reminiscences of the Early Days in Colorado," October 10, 1933. Original in the Archives of the Old Colorado City Historical Society, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

__Page 1 Reminiscences of the Early Days in Colorado

I came to Colorado with my parents and sister in September of 1866. We came in a stage coach with four big fine horses which were changed for fresh ones every ten miles all the way. They would have the horses all harnessed ready to hitch on when we stopped then away we would go for another ten miles. Lunches could be obtained at the stage stations but were very high priced. A cup of tea or coffee would be one dollar. We had lovely weather and a nice trip. It took seven days and nights to come from Quincy Illinois where we lived, to Denver. We were quite tired after the long journey. My father was not very well that being one reason for our coming to Denver also he had a brother here who urged him to come and try Colorado climate. He was greatly benefited and lived to be nearly eighty five years old. There was not much of Denver at that time. We lived in a little house near where the Union Station now stands. Everything was very high priced those days. Flour was ten dollars per hundred. Quart cans of fruit or vegetables were fifty cents per can. Soap twenty five cents per bar. And everything else according. Day board was ten dollars per week. And later in the season when snows came they paid one dollar per hour for shovelling snow from walks and streets. We lived in Denver about two years then came to Colorado City in 1868. There were very few houses here at that time

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Page 2

and none in Colorado Springs or Manitou just a slab shed over the Soda Spring. We came here in stage coach from Denver and stopped at an old frame hotel that stood on the corner of Colorado Avenue and twenty eight street where the home of the Stockbridges now is located. Those were very exciting days as the Indians were on the war path here. People for miles around came and brought their families for protection from them, and were forted up in the old Anway house which was located at 2618 West Pikes Peak. As I remember it was a log house with a stairway going up on the outside. It still stands but has been remodeled and sided up and painted so no one could recognize it now. We were with others in the fort while

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my Father and other men stood guard on the hill north of town. We were living here when the three boys were killed by the Indians near where the Antler's hotel now stands. They were herding cattle when they were watched by the Indians from the hills. The oldest of the boys was young Everhart. I believe he was twenty one years old. The Robbins boys were younger. They were brought here and laid out in the old log building which was the first state house. It was located on the north side on Colorado Avenue between 26th and 27th streets. I can just remember of going with my sister to see the bodies as everyone was flocking there so horrified and grieved over it. Oh they were a terrible sight scalped and speared and they had placed

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Page 3

their guns to their eyes and blew them out and faces and necks all powder burnt. Even after all these years I dread to recall the awful sight for at that time I hid behind my sister after a horrified glance at them. Oh those were terrible times for everyone so filled with fear and dread. The Indians also stampeded stock. The trail where they crossed Sand Creek east of Colorado Springs with the stock they drove away was a mile wide. Different tribes of Indians scalp differently. Some just took a very round piece of the scalp others took all over just leaving a few hairs in front of the ears. The Indians at that time attacked an old man by the name of Baldwin but found he had been scalped before so left him to die as they thought but he lived

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many years after that and finally met death by falling into a vat in an old slaughter house. After some time we moved to Pueblo and later to Wet Mountain Valley three miles south of Rosita. My Father helped dig the first prospect hole there which believe never developed anything to the company who were interested in it. While living there we had another experience with the Indians. My Father was working in a livery stable in Denver as there employment for him at home so mother and we three children were living there on the ranch alone. One day an Indian came galloping up on his horse and stopped and asked mother for biscuit. She gave him all she had. Then he looked at my sister who was fourteen years old at that time. He said nice squaw. You give me squaw.

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Page 4

I give you fifty buckskins for squaw. You can imagine the fear of my mother thinking he might take my sister anyway. He said to mother you got man? She said yes back here. She was afraid to let him know she was alone but after awhile he got on his horse and rode away. What a relief to us but mother lived in fear and dread until my Father came home. After a time we moved to Canon City then to Pueblo for a time then we moved to a ranch on the Divide fifteen miles northeast of Palmer Lake where I met and was married to Mr. Trout January 1st 1880. After a few years there we went to Denver on a farm six miles west of Denver then September 18th 1887 we came back to Colorado City. Very lively times here then as the Colorado Midland

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had built their road through to the Western Slope. Everyone was at work and happy no depression here. Then we had to live in a tent until we built our home at 713 South 25th street. There were no houses to rent. Men were employed in the Midland shops days and we could hear hammering all times of the night building their houses to live in. Anthony Bott was called the Father of Colorado City. He was very benevolent and was called the Poor Man's Friend. He and many of the pioneer residents have gone to their last reward which if just will be great. Clem Kinsman another pioneer who had lived here most of his life in speaking of Colorado City one time told me somehow he could sleep better if he laid down in the shadow of old Pikes Peak. He too, passed away.

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Page 5

Anthony Bott's log house where he lived in Indian times still stands. It is located just a few blocks west of my home on St. Anthony Street. They say there are portholes in it so they could protect themselves from the Indians by shooting thru them if they came there. I still live in my little home that was built in 1887 forty seven years ago. I love it and dear old Colorado where I have lived most of my life and it is my desire to end my days here and be laid to rest with my loved ones in the shadow of Pikes Peak. I am a member of the El Paso County Pioneer Association and the Half Century Clubs and I enjoy their meetings and look forward with pleasure to them and the reminiscences of the early days

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in Colorado City and Colorado Springs.

Written from memory by Hattie L. Hedges Trout for the El Paso County Pioneer Association and presented to them Tuesday evening October 10th 1933.

Copied for Charles Rogula, Jr. May 23rd 1934

By his true friend,

Mrs. Hattie L. Hedges Trout

Note from David Hughes, Old Colorado City Historian

The HIGHLIGHTED portion above in Hattie Hedges tale is the proof that, when the Arapaho Indians killed the two Robbin's boys and Charlie Everhart in 1868, their bodies were in fact 'laid out on the floor of the Garvin Cabin which still stands in Bancroft Park, Old Colorado City National Historic District. Not mentioned by Hattie was the fact, verified by other sources, including the Robbin's family, the two young (8 and 12) were NOT scalped by the Indians, but Everhart was.

Oral History Interviews

2009-01-12T00:38:59-07:00

Oral History

Here are a few pieces of history by old timers from Old Colorado City. You must have a player that can handle .mp3 files, such as Windows Media Player or Winamp player to listen to these stories.

"Ash-Can Joe". John McGrady, as a young boy in the 1920s, remembers a local man that everyone called "Ash-Can Joe." Kevin Shields interviewed Mr. McGrady on September 22, 1977. (36 seconds)
The Dalton Gang. J. T. Reiley recalls receiving some good advice from a famous bank robber when Mr. Reiley was a young boy in the 1910s. Becky Hughes interviewed Mr. Reiley on October 4, 1977. (1 1/2 minutes)
Firefighting. J. T. Reiley became a fireman in 1917 and remembers the horse-drawn fire pumpers, as well as other aspects of firefighting. Becky Hughes interviewed Mr. Reiley on October 6, 1977. (2 minutes)
Colorado City Hose Co. in 1875
Garden of the Gods Sunrise Services. Harriet Adams talks about Reverend Lewis beginning the Sunrise Services at the Garden of the Gods in the 1920s. Kevin Shields interviewed Mrs. Adams on September 7, 1977. (35 seconds)
Sunrise Service, 1928
"Herd Boy". Martin W. Drake, born in Colorado City in 1899, recalls the daily routine of the local "herd boy" in the early 1900s. Kevin Shields interviewed Mr. Drake on September 14, 1977. (30 seconds)
Midland Band and Midland Railroad. Luther McKnight reminisces about the Midland Band and Midland Railroad in Colorado City, circa 1910. Dave Hughes and Becky Hughes interviewed Mr. McKnight in 1978 in the West Colorado Springs Commercial Club offices. (2 minutes)

Courtesy of Pikes Peak Library District (Midland R.R. photo)

Movie Theatres. John McGrady fondly remembers going to the movies as a young boy in the 1910s and 1920s. Kevin Shields interviewed Mr. McGrady on September 22, 1977. (2 minutes)

Ute Theatre, 1951

- Radio Stations. John W. Peck remembers spending hours as a young boy in the 1920s listening to the first radio stations in the Pikes Peak Region. Kevin Shields interviewed Mr. Peck on September 12, 1977. (31 seconds)
- Ramona. Martin W. Drake talks about the establishment of the town of Ramona in 1913 by saloon owners as a result of Colorado City residents voting to go "dry" on April 4, 1911. Kevin Shields interviewed Mr. Drake on September 14, 1977. (1 1/2 minutes)
- Red Light District. Louis Unser, a patron uncle of the racing Unser Clan who began their racing career in Colorado City, reminisces about Laura Belle, the queen of Colorado City's red light district, circa 1915. Becky Hughes interviewed Mr. Unser in 1978. (3 minutes)
- Street Cars. John McGrady used to ride the street cars as a young boy in the 1910s and 1920s. Mr. McGrady reminisces about the street cars, the design of the cars, where the tracks ran, and the cost to ride the cars. Kevin Shields interviewed Mr. McGrady on September 22, 1977. (4 minutes)
  Street Car #25
Women's Christian Temperance Union--WCTU. Jane W. Summers tells about her grandmother's involvement in the WCTU in the 1910s and then how the WCTU "blackballed" her grandmother for keeping liquor in the house for medicinal purposes. Kevin Shields interviewed Mrs. Summers on September 15, 1977. (1 minute)

Schmidt, Jacob

2009-01-11T23:25:47-07:00

The Jacob Schmidt Family of Colorado City

Catherine Dymkoski

Jacob, Henry, Louise, (deceased Reinhold painted in), Bertha

Jacob Schmidt Family History

Jacob Schmidt and Bertha Braun were early residents of Colorado City, who arrived in the United States just before the turn of the 19^th century. Jacob began his journey to the United State in February 1881, one month after his 16^th birthday. He’d left Germany to avoid induction into the Prussian military. He arrived in New York City on February 21, 1881 aboard the S.S. (Steamship) Main from Bremen, Germany. Bertha arrived in the United States sometime in 1884.

Jacob was a resident of Colorado City from about 1888 until 1913. He was born Johann Jakob Schmidt in Heiningen, Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany, on January 3, 1865. He died in Fremont County, Colorado, at 49 years of age. It’s not known how he came to Colorado. He’d been a farmer while living in Germany, but became a merchant after arriving in America. He learned the baking trade in Cincinnati, Ohio, while living in a German neighborhood know as “Over-the-Rhine” before he emigrated to Colorado.

Jacob’s wife, Bertha (Verena) Braun, was a resident of Colorado City from about 1888 until her death in 1950. She was born in Neuhausen, in the canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, on October 16, 1854. She died in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on August 22, 1950 at 96 years of age. She was 11 years older than her husband, Jacob. According to her grandchildren, Bertha came to the United States as a governess for a wealthy family. The family was believed to have settled in Monterey, California. But this hasn’t been established as fact.

Jacob became a naturalized United States citizen on October 28, 1891, before the District Court of El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Colorado. According to the Naturalization Act of 1802, as an alien wife of a U.S. citizen Bertha also became a naturalized citizen then.

Colorado Naturalization papers of Jacob Schmidt. (Note the County Clerk – Edgar Howbert, Irving Howbert’s brother.)

Jacob met Bertha in Denver, Arapahoe County, Colorado. He was a baker and she, it’s believed, was a governess there. They were married on January 3, 1887, by Reverend Henry Wegert of the German Reformed Church, and immediately moved to Leadville, Lake County, Colorado, to open a business. Their bakery, the ‘Vienna Bakery’, was located at 120 E. Third Street. That same year, they became partners with Emil Mangold instead. The new bakery, “Mangold & Schmidt”, was located at 724 E. 4^th Street.

Their first child, Henry, was born September 14, 1887, in Leadville. Sometime in 1888, they moved to Colorado City for better business opportunities.

Sometime after arriving in Colorado City, Jacob began working in the bakery at 516 Colorado Avenue (now 2516 West Colorado Avenue). Eventually he bought the business and called it “City Bakery”. Then, according to Jacob’s son, Henry, “…(he) sold the bakery along in 1896 and bought a saloon with a Louie Rumph, whom he later bought out and then continued in the saloon until prohibition.”

Jacob and Bertha had four children, one of which died in infancy. Another child, a boy named Reinhold, died at the age of 7 years. Their remaining children, Henry and Louisa (later called Louise), lived full and productive lives. Louise was born on December 24, 1890. A family story relayed was that Bertha delivered her daughter on Christmas Eve, and then went to work the next day to accommodate walk-in customers at their bakery.

The Bakery. Jacob is at Screen Door of 516 West Colorado Avenue, Colorado City. (Later, Gene Brent's Gun store)

Joe Krantz, in other Colorado City photographs identified as owning Star Loans is at left. The 7^th to right is Jack Gillespie, barber shop owner. In other Colorado City photos they are identified as the Colorado City Swells.

First Saloon Building. Jacob is right of tree.

This was at 612 Colorado Avenue, location is today 2613 Colorado Avenue. Even numbers in the 1890s were on south side of the Avenue. Evens switched to north side in 1910s.

Bertha Schmidt was a Christian and detested the saloon business. It’s said that she would not accept any money from it. It’s unknown, though, how she made her money. It’s believed the saloon may have included a “genteel” area for families where they could eat meals while the husband had a beer at the bar. Jacob would’ve been bartender and Bertha the baker/cook. (Note: A ledger of Henry’s personal expenses and income were written on stationery of the Zang Brewing Company.)

Here is a very rare two-sided Advertising Card made for the Saloon soon after the new building was built in 1904. The card was only located and won by Dave Hughes at auction on EBay in 2008.

Building today at 2611 West Colorado Avenue, formerly Jacob Schmidt’s Saloon and Beer Hall. Built by Jacob in 1904 next to the original site of his first saloon at 612 Colorado Ave. In fact, part of that building is visible on the right of the advertising card. It carries the name "Pikes Peak Family Liquor House" and in 1906 its proprietor was named Stine. That building no longer exists.

The brick building is an outstanding sample of brick and decorative iron Victorian Architecture. It was used as an apartment house in the 1960s and 70s. It is today a commercial building at 2611 West Colorado Avenue. The beer hall was in two long rooms on the first floor, gambling was on the 2nd Floor, Beer Coolers were in the basement. The notorious Red Light District was across the alley to the south facing Cucharras Street. And the Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge railway tracks were also on Cucharras Street. The Colorado City passenger stop was right at the 6th Street corner close to Jake's Saloon, delicatessen and restaurant. Everyone going to or from Cripple Creek during it. We think Bertha's 'Delicatesson' was in the long rear of the Schmidt building.

During Schmidt's heyday everyone had to stay overnight in Colorado City and take the Midland Train the next morning. Thus business was good in the Schmidt Building.

Inside ‘Jake’s Saloon and Beer Hall.’ Jacob is on the right. (Joe Fairbanks in background.) It also, according to an 1890s Polk Directory and the Advertising Card, a German Delicatessen – which was probably operated by Bertha in the rear. It was, and still is, a large building.

Jacob Schmidt’s Souvenir Wooden Beer Mugs, given away around Christmas, together with other gambling paraphernalia the Old Colorado City Historical Society collected over the years and now displayed in its History Center/Museum. The Wooden Mugs are valuable collector’s items today.

Jacob’s business appeared to be thriving. Around 1900, he bought the former "Love" home at 931 Colorado Avenue (now 2932 West Colorado Avenue). The home is now gone, but it was a large two-story home with stone and wrought iron fencing around their acre of land. They owned that for perhaps 17 years.

In 1901, when Henry Schmidt was 14 years old, his father prompted him to “get out there and work.” And so, he left school after 8th grade to attend business trade school in Colorado City for one year. He studied to become a stenographer, a profession that included learning shorthand, typing, and bookkeeping. Stenography during this era was predominantly a male profession, although women were becoming more commonplace in the work force. There were two types of shorthand that were taught to stenographers in the United States, Pitman and Gregg styles. Henry learned the Gregg style of shorthand, which was a phonetic and cursive style and was the easier of the two to learn. He retained some of his shorthand skills throughout his life.

In 1904, at age 17, Henry was employed by the Colorado-Midland Railway Company as a purchasing agent, office stenographer, and payroll clerk. In 1906, he got a free pass from the railroad for a trip to San Francisco. He went there to see the damage done by the earthquake, and then went on to Long Beach, California.

Henry’s salary with Midland Railway was $75 a month, $10 more than the company foreman received, a married man with children. He worked for the railway company until 1907, after which time he started working for his father, Jacob, in his saloon. Henry said, “Father was rather hard on the help and rather exacting and kept wanting me to quit and tend bar for him. It was very much against Mama's desire but I gave in and was in the saloon for over seven years. I didn't drink anything and got along o.k. that way.” Henry received $100 a month working in the saloon. It was there, he said, he acquired a cordial manner for dealing with patrons.

By age 21, Henry had saved $2,500 from his earnings. He was convinced he could make money by investing his savings in a Colorado tire and inner tube firm. Shortly after his investment, however, Colorado was hit by one of its worst snow storms and a damper was effectively put on the market for automobile tires. He was close to penniless.

In his free time, Henry was a pitcher for the Golden Cycle indoor baseball team, who became the champions of the American Indoor Baseball League (Fall 1908) and also the Colorado Springs Independent League (Fall 1909). Later, he pitched for the West Side team, the 1910 champions. Henry’s prowess as a pitcher won him accolades from a sports reporter for The Denver Times---“Schmidt is admittedly one of the best indoor pitchers in these parts…Never was he more accurate and never was his delivery more baffling…Schmidt’s fine pitching at critical moments enabled the Golden Cycles to beat the West Side indoor baseball team”.

In addition to baseball, on Saturday nights, after the saloon would close, Henry and one of his friends would fix themselves sandwiches and hike up nearby Pikes Peak.

In 1913, Colorado City voted to become dry. It’s not certain when Jacob sold the saloon after that. According to Henry, “(Father) continued in the saloon business until prohibition, 1914, I think.” Like some of the other shut-down saloon's owners, he tried to make it in the still-wet town of Ramona, just 6 blocks north of Colorado Avenue on 4th Street (today's 24th street). That too closed down when the state went dry. But Jacob was gone before that happened. He and Bertha had bought a fruit ranch near Penrose in Fremont County, Colorado. Farming was something he hadn’t done since he’d left Germany.

At this same time, Jacob began the Central City Mining Company. With his son, Henry, he worked his mines near Straub Mountain outside of Victor, Colorado. (Jacob’s grandchildren still own the mineral rights to the “Colorado”, “April Fool” and “Gold Dollar” mines.) But it was a short-lived operation. Henry recalled, “On at least two occasions…I was almost killed. Once, while we were tracking a vein that ran back into the end of the cave, a watermelon-sized boulder fell from the cave ceiling and hit me on the head. It took seven stitches to sew that one up. Another time, I was moving some dynamite that had already been capped for blasting and a large rock fell right in the midst of the sticks. It would have been all over if they had gone off, but for some reason they didn’t.”

/Henry said of their fruit ranch “It wasn’t much good…The land was dry and it was harder than the devil to make any money off it.” He said his father, “…worked his head off and things were not bringing in a return for the effort. Fruit was cheap and the place needed so much in the way of improvements, etc. Mama and I worked along with him. Louise also would alternate between the Colorado City home and the ranch. It was quite different from the saloon business where you could see something coming in each day and it finally got too much for him.” It’s believed that Jacob’s last hope for making the ranch work was dashed when the water he depended on for the fruit orchard was diverted or just completely shut-off.

1914 Picture (after being forced to close the Saloon) on their Apple Farm near Penrose, Colorado. Son Henry is behind the wheel of their 1911 Maxwell. Jacob is leaning on the car. Hired hand Jim Hader at rear.

Bertha on the Apple Farm, 1914. Orchard in the background.

On May 14, 1914, Jacob ended his life at his fruit ranch with a self-inflicted gun shot wound. It’s not known how Bertha made her livelihood in the years after her husband’s death.

In the year prior to his father’s death, Henry moved to Simla, Colorado because money was being made there in wheat farming. He built a hardware store, Simla Hardware Company, on Sioux Avenue. When his sister, Louise, married Chester A. Huff, about 1914, the two men became business partners. They sold hardware, farm implements, tractors, and automobiles.

Henry also met his future wife, Beulah Blair, in Simla. Beulah’s sister, Georgia, and her husband, Issac Errett Alford, were homesteading near Simla. She came from her native State of Kansas to visit her sister. She ended up staying there to teach school. Beulah taught grades 2 through 8 in the one room Fairview school house. Henry and Beulah were married in Golden, Colorado in June 1917.

Henry called his years in Simla, “the good years.” However, things were about to change for both Henry and Louise. Chester was an unfaithful husband and had been embezzling money from their hardware business. Louise divorced her husband. In 1918, with the sale of the hardware store, Henry said “…to get rid of him (Chester) I took a farm in on the deal…” Henry, Beulah and their three children (Henry Blair “Hank” Schmidt, Robert Dean Schmidt, and Jean Louise Schmidt) lived on their farm outside of town. They raised corn and wheat. He said, “It also was an uphill deal and I lost all I had along with some of the money Mama loaned me.”

Finally, in 1923, Henry moved his family to California with the hope of a new start. He’d received a Western Union Telegram from Julian H. Grunze, a family acquaintance, encouraging him to come to Los Angeles. The telegram read, “ Scale about ten. Big demand for plumbers. Some open shop. Building booming. Come and see. Think you can make it here. Will meet you. Wire me or take electric from Los Angeles to SAM. Store at Lankershim. Armstrong there. Will notify me.”

Three (3) years later, in Santa Monica, California, Henry and Beulah had their fourth child, Marillyn Schmidt.

All this time, Henry still owned his farm and debts were piling up back in Simla. Then the Depression hit in 1929. Julian Grunze closed his business suddenly one day. Henry decided to sell his farm in Simla to retire his debts there. He then began his own tile contracting business in Santa Monica.

Louise and Chester had one child, Donald Henry Huff, After they divorced, Louise raised Don with the help of her mother, Bertha. She never remarried. In an interview by the Denver Post (Feb. 28, 1954) Louise said, “I started out to be a wife and mother, not a career girl, but the time came when I had to go to work to support myself and my son.” So, she enrolled at a business college. She continued, “I always loved mathematics, and bookkeeping and accounting came easy for me”.

Following college she worked in the office of H.H. Mitchell, certified public accountant, and helped audit the city books in 1922. She was later offered a position in the City Auditor’s office as an assistant to Leo Dorlac. In March, 1924, she became secretary to A.M. Wilson. Then, on May 1, 1929, she was appointed City Auditor by unanimous vote of the City Council. At that time, Colorado Springs was one of four cities in the U.S. that had a woman in the position of city auditor.

Louise was described as being “a woman of great charm and distinction; her smile almost constant, and her ready humor a bright spark in a world of dull figures.” Louise remained active in her professional life, until her retirement as Colorado Springs City Auditor some 35 years or more. She was a member of the Municipal Finance Officers’ association, and assisted in writing the text book, The Support of Local Government Activities. She was also a member of the Public Employment Retirement association of Colorado and served on the legislative committee of the organization beginning in 1944. And, she was a charter member of the Business and Professional Women’s club, and member of the First Church of Christ Scientist (1932 – 1980). In 1951, a Denver Post article about Louise’s achievements said, “she won an honorable mention plaque awarded by Government News magazine, in competition with 400 outstanding annual financial reports submitted in a nationwide contest. She was the first woman ever to receive the award.”

Louise’s son, Don, was a graduate of Colorado College, class of 1935, and was a Tiger basketball star during his college career. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, Don became an engineer for the U.S. Department of Interior, and then executive assistant to the chairman of the Interior Missouri Basin Field committee, Bureau of Reclamation. He was also a member of and secretary for the Missouri Basin inter-agency committee, which was an advisory group in the development of the basin. In 1957, he was designated the chairman of the department’s Northwest Field Committee.

Louise cared for her mother until her mother’s death in 1950. Louise and Bertha resided at the Gutmann Apartments for many years, but their last known address was 216 N. Cascade Avenue in Colorado Springs.

Long lived Bertha on her 90th Birthday

From 1930 to around 1972, Henry owned his own tile contracting business in Santa Monica, California, called Henry Schmidt & Son Tile Company. He quit the tile business to turn everything over to his eldest son, Hank Schmidt.

Henry was also an inventor. On October 1, 1927, he applied to the U.S. Patent Office for a patent on his tile marking and cutting gauge. On August 14, 1928 he received his patent (No. 1,680,805). The tool, used by tile contractors, cuts a tile quickly to the correct dimension or angle before installation. In 1930 he traveled the U.S. his wife, Beulah selling his tile cutter. Their children stayed with Beulah’s parents on their Kansas farm. Henry sold the tool, called the “Schmidt Board”, for $5 and $7.50.

Then, in 1969, Henry developed the “Economy-Rack” (later called Econo Racks), which proved to be a timesaving device for setting tile. The metal frame rack was placed on the surface to be tiled. It had the exact spacing needed for tile pieces to be laid in. After turning his tile business over to his son, and with his son’s help, Henry kept making “Eono Racks” for many years.

Henry is remembered by his children and grandchildren as sharp witted, industrious, soft-hearted, gentle, and creative. He and Beulah lived frugally, but were always generous with their money when it was needed.

Jacob, Bertha, Louise, and Reinhold, as well as the child that died in infancy are buried in the Westside's Fairview (earlier Colorado City's) Cemetery. Henry and his wife, Beulah, are inurned at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.

Schmidt Family grave in Fairview Cemetery. Jacob's earlier 1914 grave was relocated to this site from elsewhere in Fairview after Bertha's 1950 death.

Added Note:

Rudolph Schmidt, was one of Jacob's brothers. According to the 1892 Colorado City Polk Directory , he was ‘Bakery Clerk’ in their store for an unknown time.

Other facts about Rudolph were:

He lived until he was 83 (1876 – 1959). He married Anna Pauline Solid. They moved to Seattle, Washington, in about 1900. Then, in 1910, they moved to Alaska. Their daughter, Gladys, was born there in about 1914. By 1915, they owned a grocery and bakery in Valdez. They returned to Seattle, Washington in 1917. Anna died there in 1944. Rudolph eventually remarried. Both Rudolph and Anna are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Seattle, Washington.

This information was assembled by Catherine Hughes Dymkoski, supported by Dave Hughes history from Colorado City first prepared November 21, 2007 and revised July 19, 2009. Information came from family photographs, a series of newspaper articles, family correspondence, and a few recollections of events by Henry ‘Hank’ Blair Schmidt, Robert Dean Schmidt and Jean Schmidt Hughes. Among the sources used were: Letter from Henry Schmidt to his uncle Rudolph Schmidt, March 12, 1956; article from a Colorado Springs newspaper, “Society and Club Activities – Woman of the Week”, 1949; The Industry News, Los Angeles, California, May – June 1972; Billings Gazette, Montana, December 12, 1957; and obituary from the Seattle Telegraph Gazette, 1959.

Edwards, Peter

2009-01-11T23:19:53-07:00

This information was emailed to the Old Colorado City Historical Society's prior web site from a Kathleen Leveroni when it was still in operation about 2010. No other information is available.

PETER EDWARDS

My great grandfather was Peter Edwards, born about 1855 in Missouri. My earliest findings of Peter are in the US Census for Colorado City in 1870. I find him at age 15 living with his mother, Jane, and two brothers, William, age 21, and a younger brother, Robert, age 9. There are, unfortunately, no middle initials for any of these individuals, and so, due to common names, I have been unable to positively trace any of these family members other than Peter. The boys were all born in Missouri according to the census and Jane was born in Kentucky. There was also no provision in the census records at that time to indicate whether Jane was divorced or widowed.

I have received some information that Peter's father may be George S. Edwards and his mother Ellender (Ellinor? Or Ellen Jane?) This family appears in an 1860 census in Ray Co., Missouri. The father is George, age 41, the mother is E.J., age 33, James 14, William 10, Peter 3, and Francis M., 6 months. At this point, the connection with my ancestor and this family is just very interesting and nothing that I can prove.

I believe that Peter moved out and moved to Kansas by the time the 1880 Census was done. There is a Peter Edwards, age 23, in Jackson, McPherson County, in Kansas. This Peter was born in Missouri and the parents were both born in Kentucky. Since he isn't found on the 1880 Census in Colorado under the name Peter, Pete, or "P" Edwards, I am inclined to think that he had moved from Colorado, albeit temporarily.

By 1891 he had moved back to El Paso County. I have been able to find a certificate of marriage dated December 6, 1891 uniting Peter Edwards in matrimony with Miss Mamie S. Shoemaker. W. H. Sutherland, Justice of the Peace in Florissant, performed the marriage. Mamie's given name was Mary Susan but she often used the name Mamie. This marriage produced three children, Ruth Ernestine, born May 14, 1892; my grandfather, George Wesley, born July 16, 1895 in Cripple Creek (or Anaconda depending upon which document you look at); and Esther Mary, born December 24, 1895 in Cripple Creek (or, again, possibly Florissant).

During the marriage to Mamie, Peter was a teamster. He worked hauling timber for George W. Sadler and was living in Woodland Park in 1900. He was listed in the City Directory for Woodland Park in the 1900 edition. The Weekly Gazette of April 19, 1899 had an article about George Sadler and in that article he is said to have shipped over a million feet of lumber in March of 1899 from Woodland Park and Divide. There were also ads placed by George Sadler in April of 1900 and October of 1900 looking for as many as 40 teams and drivers. It is apparent that Peter must have worked long hours and been away from home for long periods of time if his employer was as busy as the articles indicate. The 1900 Federal Census lists Peter as working as a teamster and living in Woodland Park. He was listed as a partner with two other men on this document.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette of January 30, 1901, Mamie filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion. She was awarded $1500 (a huge sum for that time!) and $30 a month alimony as well as $50 to pay her attorney. By this time, Mamie was living with the children outside of Idaho Springs in Clear Creek County. She was shown in the 1900 Federal Census dated June of 1900. Interestingly enough, she is living next door to Mattie and Mabel Lawson and their stepbrother, Calvin Hamblin. Within a year, Mamie has married another Lawson brother, Harry Lawson, who had property in Texas Creek.

It appears to me that Peter's health had started to, perhaps, deteriorate. In April of 1910 he is age 51 and living in Hartsell, Park Co. He is working as a farm laborer at this time. Perhaps he returned to Colorado City for access to medical care. He died 18 months later.

I find that he died in Old Colorado City on October 17, 1911. Alexander Taws, a former police chief for Old Colorado City, signed his death certificate. Alex indicates that Peter was near 63 years of age. Because the date of his birth has remained consistent with each of the Federal Census, etc., I have to believe that he was actually nearer to 56 years old. He died of inflammation of the lungs with alcoholism as a contributing factor.

My husband and I recently spent several days in Old Colorado City trying to piece together Peter's life. I had been trying to connect the signature of Alex Taws on the death certificate with a friendship, work connection, or a professional connection. To date, I have not yet been successful.

Peter is buried without a headstone in Fairview Cemetery in Old Colorado City. The Reverend George H. Stuntz of the Methodist Church in Victor presided at the services. Our trip to the cemetery finds that Peter is buried in very close proximity to Alexander Taws and his wife Rosina. Since Alex was in law enforcement, I suppose it is possible that this was a professional who simply found Peter had died and signed the certificate. However, it had to be someone who had known him at least somewhat, since Mr. Taws knew that he had been born in Missouri, knew that he was divorced, and knew that he had recently worked on a farm. It is also interesting for me to find that, just a week prior to my grandfather's death, the mayor of Old Colorado City removed Alex Taws from office. Would Alex have been in a position a week after he left office to even sign the death certificate in some type of official capacity? I don't believe that my grandfather had the funds to pay for his own burial. He was working as a hired hand and, by all appearances, liked his bottle. Perhaps Alex was just an old friend with a kind heart who provided a resting place. I would like to believe that this is the case.

I would be extremely appreciative of any further information your readers might have regarding this family. I can be reached by writing to Kathleen Leveroni, 858 Westgate Court, Chico, CA 95926 or by e-mailing me at kleveroni@yahoo.com.

Henry Templeton (1831-1914)

2008-12-02T04:55:39-07:00

Henry Templeton (1831-1914)

Information Compiled by LaDonna Gunn and Dave Hughes

Henry Templeton and his family arrived in Colorado City in July 1862 by wagon from Henry County, Illinois. He was unable, when he tried, to join the Union Army because he had physically ailments. So he and his wife decided to move far west - away from the Civil War largely fought in the east.

Since they did not have a home to live in, the Templetons lived with the William Baird family on their ranch (known later as Beaver Ranch) until the following spring. When the spring of 1863 arrived, the Templetons settled below the mouth of Shooks Run in what is now Colorado Springs.

That summer the Templetons had the first baby girl in El Paso County--Mary Harriet. During the winter of 1863, Henry Templeton operated a hotel in the northwest part of Colorado City. With increased Indian hostilities, town residents build a log stockade around the hotel and used it for a safe house for women and children.

Although the exact date is not known, in the mid-1860s (possibly 1864), Henry Templeton and his partner, Mr. White, established the region's second flour mill, naming the mill the "Hawkeye Mill." Templeton and several men had gone "east" to purchase the necessary equipment for the flour mill. The men bought a combine reaper and mower, a 10-horse power threshing machine, and used a string of horses for power. Upon their return, Templeton and the men then built a ditch off Fountain Creek to supply water to the new mill. Their business venture eventually failed.

Because of Colorado City's decline in population during the 1860s, many settlers who remained in the area speculated in town lots which were recorded on the Fosdick Plat. Having invested in many lots, some of which Henry could buy for $1.00 Henry Templeton later was able to sell them in the mid 1880s when the Midland Railroad constructed its offices and rails in 1886 and 1887. Templeton then invested his proceeds and, for $15,000 built the 3 story brick "Templeton Block" in 1891 on the present-day corner of Colorado Avenue and 25th Street, opposite its twin looking Waycott Opera House building on the east side of what was '5th' street then. He also built a home on the corner of Pikes Peak Avenue and 25th Street for his sickly wife. She died before it was completed, but he was surrounded by his family, all of whom lived close by, for the rest of his life. He died in 1914.

Both the 'Templeton Block' building at todays 2502 West Colorado, and that home still stand.

Henry's entire family were involved in the Methodist Churches of Colorado City and he was a generous doner. In fact Henry Templeton was often called the 'Father of Methodism of Colorado City'

Henry had built a smaller, narrow building, between his home and the Templeton Block and rented it out. It became one of the earliest Mortuaries in Colorado City. At times, when the staff was unable to do it, Henry delivered services to the bereaved families in a small room in that building, before their loved ones were taken to the cemetery to be buried.

Spielman, David (1834-____)

2008-12-02T04:54:24-07:00

David Spielman (1834-____)

Information Compiled by LaDonna Gunn

In early 1865, Sheriff David Spielman, along with Andrew J. Templeton, and several other men, pursued two horse thieves who had stolen "Woodbury's best team of horses." The posse caught the thieves at Trinidad and took the thieves back to Colorado City where Dr. Strickler amputated the thieves' frozen toes.

Love, Arthur B.

2008-12-02T04:48:24-07:00

ARTHUR B. LOVE

A GLIMPSE OF A COLORADO PIONEER

by Richard Current

I interviewed Mr. Love, our neighbor in the 3100 block of West Pikes Peak Avenue, in the fall of 1928 when I was turning sixteen years old and he was eighty-four, my present age. My brother, Ira, lent me a camera to take Mr. Love's picture. I submitted this article and the photograph to the Gazette-Telegraph, which ran both of them without any byline or credit of any kind. This was my first publication in American history. In my youth, the sixty years from 1928 back to 1868 when Mr. Love first arrived in Colorado City, seemed to me like an unimaginable length of time. Since my conversation with him, more than sixty years have passed. That now seems like a very short time.

In the shadow of Pikes Peak, where three score years ago Arthur Bascom Love lived in the color and uneasiness of frontier life, now with his wife he lives in quiet and security. Whereas his house once stood out alone, others have since sprung up all around, and innovation and change have made "old town" almost unrecognizable.

"Bee" Love, as he was known to his old friends, lives in the past. A few words, a question, and the years are magically erased. While he strokes his grey beard, a faraway look comes to his faded blue eyes as if he were actually peering across the brink, trying to locate some object, some event, afar on the opposite bank of the chasm of time.

Born in Kentucky of pious Methodist parents who named four boys of their family of ten boys and two girls for Methodist bishops, he spent a large part of his youth across the line in Missouri.

"Why did I come west?" He chuckled. "Oh, just to better my fortune - like every one else." And by what whims of fate he was denied a fortune!

Accompanied by a friend, Arthur Love, a young man of twenty-four years, set out on foot from southeastern Missouri in April, 1868. At Sedalia he parted with his companion, who turned back to Illinois. Shortly afterwards, Love became ill with typhoid fever. In a few weeks he was wandering the streets, penniless, friendless and weak from his recent illness. He secured work, at last, with the Union Pacific Railroad, which was building westward. When he quit, he was given a ticket on which he could "ride as far as he wanted to." He left the train at Cheyenne, Wyoming, virtually the western terminal of the road at that time.

Since two of his brothers were already in the Pikes Peak region, he started in that direction. He rode with mule team freighters to Denver, then walked the eighty miles through Indian-infested territory to Colorado City. Of his trip he observes in that way of his, "I started out walking and I ended up walking, but I didn't walk all the way."

Not long after his arrival, he sold his 160 acres on the east bank of Monument Creek, the present location of the Colorado College campus and the fine residential section of Colorado Springs, to the Fountain Colony Company for thirty-five dollars! That was the first time a potential fortune slipped through his grasp.

Mr. Love bought his brother's holdings and during the late 1860's and early 1870's drove cattle in summer and freighted to Denver in winter. In either case, the dangers were plenty since the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were making their last stand to hold their tribal lands and were using intimidation as a means to drive out the settlers.

Once, when Love and two other companions were each driving a seven team wagon through the Black Forest, they saw a band of hostile Cheyennes riding along at a distance, shadowing them. Only the fact that the wagons were covered, keeping the Indians in the dark as to the exact number of white men, prevented an attack.

When Mr. Love tells of these experiences, red depredations, calls to the log fort, and all, he never uses the word "scalp" or "massacre": the words are "skelp" and "massacray."

Needing posts with which to fence his ranch, he took a claim in Williams Canyon. In compliance with the homestead law, he built a cabin and put in the winter of 1869 there. Before spring had come, crippled from rheumatism, he was forced to walk on crutches. His shack was but a short distance from the "sody springs" at Manitou, enabling him to bathe his afflicted leg every morning in the natural carbonate basins of bubbling mineral water now piped to the immense bathhouse, where people from the country over came to ameliorate their various ills.

It was while hobbling about on crutches that he first noticed in the side of the canyon the mouth of the cave which was later to become famous as the "Cave of the Winds." This he determined to explore when opportunity offered. As soon as he was able, he shoveled out the opening, making the access easier, and entered.

There, in the flaring light of a pine-knot torch, human eye first beheld the wonderful, grotesquely gorgeous formations of that vast cavern. Little did 'Bee' Love dream, as he gazed on the beauties of the subterranean palace and made his way in awe from chamber to chamber, that the time would come when the cave, lighted by electricity, would be visited by more than a thousand people a day. A veritable gold mine. "Better than a mine," as Mr. Love himself says, "because it never plays out."

Then, unaware of its value, he let it go. It changed hands several times before it was finally exploited. This second potential fortune also slipped through his grasp. Had he kept it, his declining years would have been easier.

After he was married in 1874, Love and his wife moved to South Park, a prairie in the mountains, and ranched there for a year. From that time Love's privation and pleasure, hardship and happiness, were shared by his wife. Three children, two girls and a boy, were born to them. Following a brief visit to Kentucky, Love returned to Colorado City and prospected a while in the neighboring hills with indifferent success. He turned again to his old occupation of ranching until about twenty years ago, when he took up work in the city.

"I never had any money I did not have to work for," are his words, and they are tinged with something akin to pride.

On Sunday, until recently, his ancient buggy might be seen regularly hitched outside the Methodist church. But his horse is gone; his cow is gone, too. Just the chickens and dog, beside the orchard and garden, remain to be taken care of.

His bulky, clock-like watch, fifty years old, says five minutes till five. "I've got a little irrigating to do - going to let it soak in for the winter," he explains as he walks off with the support of his cane.

And as I look after him, I reflect on this man who makes up none of the chronicled gilt edge, but is a unit in the solid foundation of this western empire.