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Greeley, Colorado - The Union Colony at Greeley, Colorado, 1869-1871 (part 2 of 4)

From The Union Colony at Greeley, Colorado, 1869-1871, published 1918. 15,978 words, reproduced complete and unedited. Source changes inside the text are labelled in place.

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15,978 words

Machine-read from scans of The Union Colony at Greeley, Colorado, 1869-1871, published 1918. Nothing has been corrected: fixing what looks like a misspelled name is how an invented one gets published. Source changes are marked where they occur.

Again, no county contains a greater variety of soils. All along the streams there are extensive low bottoms, the soil of which is a black loam, covered with a heavy coat of grass, making better hay than the best of timothy in the States. Joining these are the second bottoms, containing a red clay soil, with sub-soil of yellow and red clay, which is suitable for the growth of wheat, rye, oats, barley, and vegetables of all kinds grown in the States. Indeed, there is no soil in Illinois, Iowa, Wis- consin, Indiana or Minnesota equal to it for small grains, either in quality or quantity. Back of these lie the table-lands and bluffs, covered the year round with the best of grass for any kind of stock.

Nor are these all. Along the foot of the mountains and in the canyons are small bottoms and hill sides, with soils just adapted to the growth of all kinds of fruit grown in the States, except in the extreme southern tier. These nooks of ground are peculiarly adapted to horticulture, being sheltered and protected by the hills and bluffs from high winds, and early and late frosts - for it is a fact that we do not have frost at the foot of the mountains as soon in the fall by about two weeks as we do at twenty, or ten, or even three miles away from them, nor so late in the spring either.

Thus we find there is no danger of any one branch of industry being overdone here as in the States, especially those we have named, because there is so large a field for nearly all branches of industry. No danger of grain coming down to State prices, because all will not be producers of it; the same may be said of all other branches.

We have mentioned but a few of the many natural advantages Boulder county possesses. While other counties have many in common with us, only a very few have all of them. We might mention many more of her advantages. Her vast forests of timber alone are a source of immense wealth, covering the foot-hill and mountains, their majestic shadows inviting the weary pilgrim to rest. Here too is the very place for the invalid seeking to recuperate or regain his shattered health. Boulder city certainly is the locality for him. Situated in the valley, in a curve of the mountains that places it nearer the snowy range than any other valley town we can truly say, her atmosphere is always salubrious, her scenery beautiful, and her water the best that nature affords.

Then we say again to the immigrant, go not back again ; but if you are not pleased with Weld, Larimer, Jefferson, or some other county, visit the valleys of St. Vrain, Left-Hand and the Boulders. In short, don't go back, and leave a country possessing a thousand natural advantages to one the country has that you return to. Stay and help develop this, the best, the healthiest, and destined to be the richest State in the Union. There is room in Boulder county for thousands more, and in the Territory for tens of thousands.

From Gkeeley

Greeley, May 31. - Greeley, at present date, contains seventy houses and 460 inhabitants, many of them still living in tents. This infant town is now four weeks old and growing vigorously; thereby, is entitled to rank as one of our western cities. She expects soon to shake hands across the Platte with Denver, and be her rival friend, with a friendship strong as the iron band, which in four weeks is to bring them so near together.

The places of business now open are three general provision stores, two bakeries, two meat markets, one hotel, neatly kept, with board and lodging at $10 per week; one boarding house; a blind, sash, and paint shop; a furniture room; an artist's room (landscape and portrait painter) ; a bank of exchange; a post office and depot ; also a telegraph office, soon to be in operation. Every day houses come over from Evans, and new ones are built. Wood is the only available building material. Houses are made in the plainest style of architecture. Much of the lumber comes from Chicago, costing $38 per thousand by the car load. There has been no important development of natural resources. A coal mining company has been organized and an exploring party sent out, also a lumber party has gone to the mountains.

Excerpts From Colorado Newspapers 265

The executive committee have charge of the division and distribution of lands. The first survey, or survey of the town and five acre lots, is nearly complete. All the blocks are 400 feet square and divided into sixteen, eight, or four lots, according to the distance from the depot. One hundred and thirtyfive acre lots lie immediately about the town. Nearly all this land is taken, except that reserved for persons coming next fall.

Cache-a-la-Poudre river runs closely along the northern boundary of Greeley, touches it on the north-eastern corner and passes off to the south-east, leaving a fringe of cottonwood trees to relieve the view in two directions. The irrigating canal passes through the south-west corner and forms a southern boundary. Hundreds of fruit and forest trees have been set out and much land plowed and planted in "good faith" that irrigation will shower its benefits on us in a few days. The workmen are now engaged upon the last of the nine miles of digging but "the way the water comes down at" our door remains to be demonstrated through all the lines, angles and curves of the whole distance. The trees meantime are watered from three or four wells; a Herculean task indeed. It remains for the future to decide whether energy now manifested by this colony is real unflagging enterprise, or merely enthusiasm.

It would be a seven days wonder, if "all went merry as a marriage bell," if there were no one to find fault, no one to make blunders or to be disappointed ; if every one found all his air castles without a blemish. There is no such seven days wonder here. Many are disappointed, some on very reasonable and others on very unreasonable grounds. Some very wisely, others very unwisely decide to go away. Perhaps fifty have left. Most of them young men who hoped to get clerkships. One man remained in Greeley nearly an hour, and shaking the sand of the desert, and the prickly pears from his feet, departed on the next train. Long's Peak blinked and beckoned in vain. He did not like the look of things.

Improved health is the rule and not the exception. Sickheadache, asthma and catarrh are very timid. A good moral tone pervades: no brawls, no drunkenness; not even a dog has been known to fight, so powerful is the moral influence. Public religious service is held twice on each Sabbath. It is proposed to build a Union church for present needs. No schools are talked of yet, further than to reserve good grounds for them.

Slanders Well Refuted.1

Mr. Horace Greeley is going West to lecture to the Greeley colony on the fourth of next month. If he talks as smoothly in the West as he did in the East, and can convince his dupes that they have been wise in following his advice, he may escape the halter. As near as we can learn from returning parties, the majority of Greeley 's land is very poor, and very many who consider themselves swindled, would return to their native heath if they had a few hundred extra dollars to defray expenses. -

We appeal once more to the press and people of the Missouri valley to stop depreciating the soils of this western interior. So far from the lands owned by the Union colony being "very poor", they are exactly the reverse of "very poor". They are, in fact, very good lands, and we say to the Times that it ought not to perpetrate such unmitigated slanders upon a country which, in its capacity for grazing is infinitely superior to any other in the United States in the same latitude, and in its capacity to produce the cereals, is not surpassed by any other in the world.

These are facts. They are amply attested by data which none can successfully question or dispute. For journals to thrust falsehoods in the way of colonized emigration to such a land, and especially for journals in our own midst to persist in doing this wrong thing, which is so diametrically opposed to their own selfish interests, is to us one of those curious anomalies which it is not easy to account for. For strangers who studied our boyhood geographies to denounce this great interior as a desert, but for our own press and people to do it, is not only strange but outrageous. - Omaha Herald.

The Election At Gkeeley.1

Editors News : - We have just closed our first election for executive committee with satisfactory results. On Saturday evening our president, N". C. Meeker, addressed a full meeting of the colonists in the open air, giving a full and entirely satisfactory statement of the past and present condition of the colony affairs, and an outline of the best future policy to be pursued. His remarks were practical, suited to the wants of our people, and were received with a hearty good will. He was followed by Gen. R. A. Cameron, who made one of his happiest efforts, and spoke most eloquently of the future of our town and vicinity. At the close of the addresses the following names were unanimously nominated as candidates for executive committee and elected to-day.

The result shows that there was no special cause for the proceeding, unless it was to test the strength of the colony; to ascertain if we really had a "local habitation and a name", or if we were a myth only. The people will be happy now and have confidence in their titles, their irrigation, their business, and, more than all, in their officers, for they have turned them off and elected them over again, all the principal ones, without exception.

To describe Greeley and the Union Colony, in its present new and growing condition, is rather a difficult task. A few plain items, however, regarding the history and growth of the place, will doubtless be of interest to all classes of readers.

The situation of the town is one the south bank of the Cache-a-la-Poudre, at the point where the railroad crosses the stream. The colony's lands extend up and down the Cache-ala-Poudre for several miles, and they have the refusal of all the lands along the river which are now controlled by the National Land Company.

This location was agreed upon on the 5th of April last, and on the same day the bargain for the lands was closed with the National Land Company, under whose auspices the colony was organized. The first house was placed on the townsite the day of the purchase, and the first well begun. Colonists also arrived the same day and began work, in fact a few families had come a week before, and were awaiting the decision of the locating committee.

As near as can be estimated there are now in and about Greeley about 475 persons. They represent various states in the east, with a few from California and Montana, one family from Utah, and about 25 from Colorado. Of this number there are about 35 families numbering at least 125 persons ; about 200 married men who have not yet brought their families, and 100 or more young unmarried men.

There have been 130 houses erected, and more are in process. About 20 wells have been dug, the depth varying from 20 to 30 feet. About 175 acres of land have been put under cultivation, and planted mostly with potatoes and vegetables. Not much grain has been sown. No fencing has yet been done. The ditch is completed, and is a fine piece of work. It is 10 miles long, 15 inches deep, an average of 8 feet wide, will carry

Excerpts From Colorado Newspapers 269

2,500 inches of water, covers between 5,000 and 6,000 acres of land, including the town site, and cost $8,000. Another ditch will be constructed this season, which will be not less than 25 miles long. It will be taken out at or near Laporte, and will cover not less than 100,000 acres. Its cost will probably be $20,000. This ditch will be on the north bank. Still another ditch is projected to cover 300,000 acres and to cost $40,000, but this will not be begun this season. A lumber company have purchased 300,000 feet of lumber, in the log, which will be floated down the Cache-a-la-Poudre, and cut at Greeley with a steam saw mill, which has been already purchased in Chicago. A coal company for prospecting and mining and also a cornpony for floating wood down the Cache-a-la-Poudre, have been organized. One school house is up, and two schools are organizing. The first sermon preached in Greeley was by Rev. Mr. Baxter, from Staford on the Avon, England. The greatest number of people at church on any Sunday has been 219, and 73 children at Sunday school.

Regarding the dissatisfaction which has existed it is not necessary to say much. Probably 50 persons in all have left, about 45 of them having sold out their interests entirely, and the remaining five retaining their interests. I believe that the dissatisfaction is growing less, and that a few weeks more will see every body happy and satisfied. There never was any real ground of complaint beyond the mistaken ideas and theories which people had formed in their own minds, and a stubborn determination not to learn anything, or to allow anything to be explained. All the dissatisfied ones need is a small amount of pluck, and they will soon be all right.

The location of the colony could not have been surpassed in Colorado, and in every particular reflects credit on the judgment of the locating committee. The richness of the soil and the ease with which it can be irrigated, the nearness to the railway with all its advantages of mails and markets and transportation, the fine climate and beautiful scenery, all combine to render the place a most desirable one. The managers of the colony are sterling men, and for energy, enterprise, business capacity, and a fervent desire to see the colony succeed have no equals in the organization. That the colony is now and will continue to be a success is a fact which can be asserted most positively. It has in it the live material, energy, enterprise and pluck, of which western men are made, and which impel them to success. Greeley will grow up to be a beautiful, thriving and prosperous town, and along the banks of the beautiful Cache-a-la-Poudre will be found one of the largest and most growing communities in the west, whose industry, intelligence, and prosperity will rival that of any section of our territory.

From Greeley.1

Resolved, That it is the duty of the executive committee to see that proper titles with the right to water be properly conveyed to each individual member; and that all the rights and powers belonging to the trustees of the ditch company be handed over and conveyed to the executive committee of the colony.

Resolved, That in the true spirit of colonization, any member entering upon his lands - a part or the whole - to build, in good faith, shall be entitled, at once, to his deeds for his business lot, his residence lot and his outlying land, upon respectively paying for the same.

Resolved, That in making the deeds for the members, a clause shall be inserted, forever prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, on the land so deeded.

Resolved, That the diffusion of knowledge, so essential to good government, depends upon the opportunities and advaniDaily Rocky Mountain News, June 21, 1870, p. 2.

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tages of education, therefore, we believe that at the earliest practicable moment, a public school shall be opened, free to any children in the colony.

Resolved, That until a municipal government can be organized under the territorial laws of Colorado, the government of the affairs of the colony shall be vested in the executive committee of nine, who shall serve without compensation, except for actual service rendered by the president, superintendent and secretary.

Resolved, That the executive committee be requested to appoint an auditing committee of three not of their own number, sufficiently competent for the purpose of examining and auditing the colony accounts, and make a report to the colony monthly.

A school committee of five has been appointed by the colony to confer with the county superintendent with reference to the establishment of a free school.

Another correspondent at Greeley sends these items : A board of education has been elected and a suitable building is being put up for school purposes. The funeral of Mr. Charter's son took place on the eleventh, an appropriate discourse being delivered by Kev. J. W. Schell. Mr. George W. Fiske received a telegram from New York, stating that his wife had been seriously, if not fatally, burned by the explosion of a lamp. He started home on the next train. Mr. McDonald, a civil engineer, well and favorably known in this locality, received a contract from the colony, on Monday morning, to survey two thousand acres of the colony lands into lots suitable for distribution among the members.

The great P. T. Whatisit put in a brief appearance here last week. Having telegraphed that he was coming, an immense concourse was assembled at the depot to receive him, consisting of our worthy postmaster and his mail bag, two small boys, your humble correspondent and another small sized dog. When the eye of the great showman fell upon this vast assemblage, his soul was moved within him to let off one of his best efforts, which he did.

Ladies and Gentlemen : - Glad to see you. Can't stop, because the caravan - train, I mean, won't wait. Give my love to all the ladies and Horace Greeley and ask him does his mother, &c., &c. I must be in Golden City to-morrow night. No humbug about that; admittance only fifty cents to the whole show. I am on my way after Geo. Francis Train, and I'll catch him before he gets to the White House. Adieu.

George Augustus Hobbs, one of the editors of the Geneseo (111.) Republic, who was a shareholder in the Union Colony - paid his $155 and we hope did not get a cent of it back - has made his pilgrimage to Greeley and got home again. Poor fellow! he should never again get out of reach of his mother's apron strings. Hobbs stopped a few days at Greeley, a public charge - he having been the first tenant of the poor house and then of the jail at that place. When at large he did a good deal of sitting around, and not being particular where he went to roost, he carried away a great many prickly pears, all of which have not been yet extracted by his Mamma we suspect. But the lovely George escaped from Greeley and bummed his way to Denver, where he sought to publish his woes in the newspapers, but his character was so readily apparent that the privilege was denied. We suspect he is the fellow who sent a lying special dispatch to the Missouri Democrat, saying that the colony had broken up, which dispatch was contradicted the next day in all papers taking the associated press reports.

Well, about a month after the gentle Augustus took his departure from Colorado, he turned up again at Geneseo, a little town in Illinois, which in 1853 was about half the size that Greeley is now and has held its own with wonderful tenacity ever since. His mother having extracted enough of the prickly pears to enable him to occupy the editorial stool with tolerable

Excerpts From Colorado Newspapers 273

There is one thing we can and will say to our uneasy, restless readers, namely : if you can't possibly stay where you are, dont go to Greeley, Colorado Territory! That is the last place on the face of this terrestial ball that any human being should contemplate a removal to! Greeley, Colorado T., is a delusion, a snare - it is a fraud, a cheat, a swindle, and the honest ( ?) Meeker and his long-faced coadjutors know and glory in it - or would do so had their plans been a little more successful. Greeley, C. T., is a graveyard in which are buried heaps of bright hopes and lots of joyous anticipations. Also, the remains of "Young Meeker," son of "Old Meeker,7' who issued false manifestos concerning the "colony" without authority! Two or three hundred of "floating population" that have not dudads enough to get down to Evans, 4 miles below ; a board of trustees consisting of honest Meeker, "General" Cameron, "Judge" Hanna ("brother Paul is left out,") Mr. West, id genus omne, (the "philosopher" H. G., is only a 'bob to the kite;) several stern wheel shanties and a few 1-horse tents compose the population of the great "Union Colony" at Greeley at the present time. Four hundred of the original colonists have been, looked, got disgusted at and gone, and the balance will ditto as soon as their friends send them money enough to do so with. That's Greeley, C. T. ! Two great works there are in Greeley, C. T., which, with pride and satisfaction, the new-comer is requested to turn his eyes to and let them rest on by the long-headed, shrewd and honest "trustees". These are the "Great Ditch" and the "Grave of Young Meeker" - the former being a tremendous irrigating enterprise; the other used as a standing witness to the honesty and sincerity of the "trustees".

This he repeats over and over again, dwelling especially upon the "grave of young Meeker", showing that he is devoid alike 'of decency and the common feelings of humanity. Elsewhere he says the "Great Ditch" "is a failure because it runs up hill at an angle of thirty degrees," and also "because there is no water anywhere around to fill it ;" that Greeley is located

"on a barren, gravelly, sandy plain - part and parcel of the 'Great American Desert', and is bounded chiefly by prickly pears ;" that "a crop of anything else on Greeley soil is totally out of the question, &c., &c. But provoking as such lying assertions are, the good people of thriving Greeley can afford to laugh at such a contemptible creature as their author - one alike devoid of truth, manliness, honor, decency and common sense - when they look at their prosperous surroundings, their growing town, their rapidly increasing numbers, and the floods of water from the "Great Ditch" that already nourish the gardens of the town and fields that surround it. Not over fifty disgusted colonists have left, and George Augustus Hobbs was and is the biggest fool among them. The next in rank we would honor with personal mention but from the fact that he has barely sense enough to keep still. Farewell George Augustus Hobbs, son of Old Hobbs - possibly - and - we dislike to be personal. We never again expect to gaze upon your like for pure, unadulterated, unmitigated, assinine qualities.

1From an editorial in the Republic , of Geneseo, 111., we infer that one of the editors of that paper has been to Greeley, Colorado, and he went there expecting to find golden paved streets, beautiful roses and lilacs and peonies and dahlias and violets growing wild on the prairies and on the few spare lots in Greeley which were not covered by magnificant brown stone palaces. And he thought that the beautiful streams which flow from the mountains and through the town, bore on their gentle bosoms sweet cream and buttermilk, so that all the happy denizens of thrice happy Greeley had to do, was to make his selection according to taste, and quaff from the limpid current until his angelic stomach should be satisfied. This poor disappointed editor comes out and finds that he has been swindled ; that instead of gold in the streets, there is nothing but good honest soil, such as the best Illinois farmers might be glad to possess ; instead of the flowers he expected to sport amongst, he finds some prickly pears that stick in his feet and renders it impossible that he should cast himself away in such a desert place. Instead of streams of cool cream and buttermilk, he finds nothing but water, and there is no ditch dug to irrigate his farm, and he has been a victim of one of the biggest kinds of swindles ever perpetrated in the history of the world, or the sun, moon or stars either. So he tells his readers to stay where they are, or if they must move away, do not, for pity's sake, go to Greeley, Colorado. This silly man, or boy rather, (for he argues like a boy who had never been weaned) came to Greeley without any idea of the trials a pioneer has to endure, and finding a colony located and passing through the easiest of them, he hasn't the sense to see the facts, but jumps at the conclusion that he has been swindled. We will guarantee that if the writer of the column and a half of nonsense in the Genesee Republic, will visit the city of Greeley, Colorado, in the year 1880, he will in his rage, tear the hair all out of his head, and curse himself for a fool, in having thrown away his chances ten years previously, of being one of the joint owners in the beautiful place.

- JOur correspondent E. W. G. writes us from Greeley under date of June 27 : Affairs here are progressing; everybody is busy and feeling well, excepting our M. D.s and lawyers, who, I am pleased to inform you, are slowly but surely dying of rest and inaction. The moth consumes the lawyer's useless volumes while the rust and mildew play havoc with the doctor's lancet and pills.

Our irrigation works well, and under its cheering influence our gardens are springing into life - plows and hoes are in active demand, and a large quantity of land is being broken up that has never felt a plow share since the day that Adam quit farming here ; for you must know that we have made the discovery that this is the identical farm that our first great progenitor occupied - I refer to Mark Twain as proof of this assertion. On Sunday last we organized an association, without regard to sect or creed, for the purpose of providing regular church services. A committee of twelve was elected to supply a preacher and suitable r,oom, while the rest of the colony is constituted a standing committee to supply a suitable audience.

Among the recent arrivals in Greeley I am most happy to announce that of Horace Greeley Meeker Cameron Dickinson, who arrived on the 21st. His appearance among us has made quite a ripple in the current of social life, for he is considered the "representative man" of a large class of immigrants of that kind, whom we may expect. A committee of ladies having waited upon him to ascertain his views concerning Greeley in particular and Colorado in general, have rendered a highly favorable report, as the gentleman is remarkably well pleased, and considers Colorado by far the finest country he has ever seen. In consideration of his possessing but limited means at the time of his arrival, the colony have agreed to donate him a town lot - - and a name. The original Horace Greeley is expected without fail on the Fourth, and we anticipate a good time. We extend a cordial invitation to the good people of Denver and all the rest of the country folks of Colorado to come to town on that day, hear one of the greatest of living Americans, and enjoy the hospitalities of Greeley. We have a good deal of land which can be easily irrigated but which cannot be used on account of lateness of the season, unless it be sown to buckwheat. Will some of your readers who have had experience in this matter give us the results of their labor, and also where the seed can be procured ?

- 1Our correspondent E. W. G. sends us the following items from Greeley, under date of July 19 : Weather hot and items scarce. Yesterday and to-day we have been drawing our lands - 40 and 80 acres; 189 shares were drawn and lots located.

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The modus operand! was to put all the names in a box and have them registered as they were drawn - then each made his selection. Everybody didn't get his first choice, but all appear satisfied with the general result, except one anxious individual, who watched the box with eager eye and attentive ear to catch his name - but the whole list was called and the box found empty, and his name not there. Indignation and wrath were no names for his feelings, until he was recommended to look in his pocket, where the unlucky paper had been snugly slumbering - Rev. G. H. Adams and E. C. Brooks have been here and organized a society of the M. E. church. The congregationalists have also organized a society - Our public school is working nicely, in charge of Mrs. Guiney, who has the reputation of having been a successful teacher in Ohio.

1Hon. J. H. Pinkerton, of Greeley, is in town. He came up to visit the Land Office for the purpose of ascertaining something about some land jumping operations which have been going on, on the lands of the Union Colony. Previous to the completion of the Colony's great irrigating canal, there was a large amount of land laying unclaimed by individuals, it not being considered of any value. Two or three days ago the plats showing the location, and also showing the lands that had not been allotted, and now under the ditch, were completed and posted up for the information of the members of the Colony, and a time set for alotting the unclaimed portion. Certain outsiders have sneaked in and examined the plats, and from thence have come to the Land Office and filed claims on the lands, in all probability for the purpose of compeling the Colony to repurchase its own property. The Colony has reclaimed it, and now certain outsiders have jumped in to try to make the Colony again buy it, which is mean, to say the least.

Greeley, August 22. - It is a great pleasure to watch the development of a town begun as ours was. Most places happen, but this was a deliberate intention. To observe it compresses a life into a few months, making even short lives long. I propose to glance only at its growth in business. Among the first arrivals were a number of traders, intent on the provision and grocery line. So many as to outnumber their customers apparently. Some of these have wisely left the business, and others have grown into larger establishments as their buildings have been erected, and their customers now have a majority - an item favorable to their sales. By them we have supplies of good quality and as cheap as railroad monopoly will permit. It is only lately that dry goods have received attention. Some firms are just beginning to receive their stock. There is a drug store and a book store, also a hardware, but shoes are shabbily treated by both dealers and wearers. The bank has been an invaluable institution from its organization, soon after the arrival of the first settlers. Some have purchased large farms outside of colony limits, on the old claims on the river. The lumber trade still continues to be a leading business and will, with the adobe and general building business, continue to monopolize attention for a long time.

These are some of the ways in which moderate or large capital is invested here. But since the first inception of Union colony it has furnished choice opportunities for the investment of small sums. Such was its admittance fee: For $150 each member obtained real estate worth three times that amount, so soon as occupied. The cultivation of the smaller tracts distributed is also a fine opportunity for those of small means, either of strength or money. Here is the chance for women who have the boldness to be independent and wish to avoid sedentary occupation. While strawberries are seventy cents a quart, or more, five acres are enough. So long as the plains support great herds of cattle, vegetable raising will pay. But the latest opportunity, and it bids fair to be the best, is the new stock association. It embraces all departments of dairying, herding, and breeding any kind of domestic animals on which profit can be found. It will also butcher if that is advisable. With the best well known profit of grazers it can hardly fail to make fine dividends. Its name is the "Greeley Cooperative Stock Association," and it proposes to have a stock of $10,000, with shares at ten dollars each. The association will accommodate all farmers who wish to have a small herd - too small to occupy their time - or those engaged in other business, especially salaried people, who wish to invest a surplus. There is no opposition to large investments in it, and there have already been some pretty heavy ones. It is now in operation with a will, and has nearly relieved us from the incursions of stock in our gardens. A. J. W.

Letter From Greeley.1

Dear Tribune: This rapidly increasing town presents a very lively aspect. Situated upon one of the finest sites in the country, well planned and improved it will at no distant day be the centre of trade for this section. The business houses are fast increasing in number, and are being built principally of brick. There are in process of erection five large ones of brick, among which I noticed one with a double front, being built by our friend Dr. Tuttle, the enterprising physician and druggist, who will occupy one half of it, with his own business. Gen. Cameron presides at the Post Office and the town meetings, and from present appearances, I am of opinion that their sittings are productive of good. The small crops of corn and vegetables cultivated, are looking very well and will add to the general comfort during the hardships of the first year in the far West.

The streets have two rows of saplings, on either side, fresh and green, which will in future years reward with their refreshing shade the labors of these worthy people. May success attend them. They are expecting an addition to their population this Fall, of four hundred. If the new comers prove to be as industrious as the present inhabitants, Greeley will soon rank among the first towns of Colorado. To all who come as these come, Colorado sends greetings, and will ever prove a true and worthy

A Masonic lodge has lately been organized in this place with F. L. Childs as master. Our place is to have a silver cornet band. Over seven hundred dollars have already been raised and the necessary musical talent secured. La Poudre lodge of Good Templars at this place numbers nearly one hundred members. Mr. I. H. Jones and V. A Howe Esq. are delegates to the Grand Lodge which meets in Idaho, Colorado next month. Our town has two brick blocks just being completed, one fifty feet front by sixty deep, the other one hundred feet front by fifty deep ; each two stories high. The rapid sale and increase in the value of lots in this place has received an additional impetus from the prospect of a new railroad from Pine Bluffs through Greeley. Large numbers of our colonists are now at work on the new thirty mile ditch. It is to be completed January 1 1871.

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have had a report. This report shows that our monies have been handled with such care, that not a dollar is known to be missing or squandered. It is fifty-six pities that all the crooks, the groans and whims, all the cries of "fraud", and "swindle" could not have been kept until something definite like this had been done. How much sighing and despair - how much breath and credit the keeping would have saved. Greeley would have been a good hundred stronger than at present. I subjoin a summary taken from the report of the secretary of the committee:

- 1Mr. Meeker, of Greeley, will probably issue the first number of his new paper, the Tribune of the West, the last of this week. From a letter received from Greeley, last evening, we learn that things are lively there, everybody building, and people coming in faster than houses can be built for them. An election was held, Monday, for board of trustees and members of the council, with the following result :

Horace Greeley.2

Mr. Greeley had a most enthusiastic reception at the town of Greeley yesterday morning. As the train approached the station the platform was found crowded with people whilst scores were unable to get standing room thereon. As he alighted a call was made by somebody for three cheers which were given with a will and repeated. Many crowded around to shake hands and a numerous escort accompanied him up town and to the office of the Greeley Tribune. Flags were flying from numerous houses. A meeting was immediately arranged for 1 :30 p. m. and workmen began the erection of a stand and seats in front of the printing office. After an hour's walk about the town, buggies were procured and a small party drove up the river to the head of the ditch, returning by one o'clock when people were found already assembling in large numbers to hear his address.

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He related briefly his experience in youth when he learned how farms were made in the dense forests of an eastern state where it required thirty years to dig out the stumps and roots. It took his father twenty years to make for himself a comfortable home though he did not belong to the earliest class of pioneers. He thought pioneering on the prairies of Illinois was not much easier or better. After all, his preference was rather for the woods. If he had been selecting a location for his colony he thought he should have preferred a timber country, and yet he expected he would have been mistaken. Timber near at hand would be of great advantage, but as between timber and the conveniences of a railroad he believed the latter the most important. Kail roads are a necessity in this age. Fifty miles over a wagon road would in the end be more expensive than three hundred miles of railway, considering the waste of time and cost of transportation. He advocated the herding of stock in preference to fencing for the cafe of crops. It would save great expense. He thought irrigation vastly superior to the chances of rain for the nourishment of crops ; illustrated it by examples from his own observation in European countries, and thought if he had his choice it would be to farm where rain never fell. He cited the earliest experiences in agriculture which he thought were in the valley of the lower Nile. He thought like a grumbling old farmer in Rhode Island, who being reminded that he ought to be thankful for the blessings of providence - especially rain ; "Humph," says he, "I think taking one year with another rain does about as much harm as good." In many of the eastern states where they rely entirely upon rain there is not a one third crop this year owing to the unusual drouth, many cattle are already dying from starvation and others are being killed, because their owners have no feed for them - he supposed they had not yet learned that grass after it died and was eaten up was still good feed for cattle. ( Laughter. )

He believed this an excellent locality ; and its soil greatly superior to that of Salt Lake valley where the Mormons have accomplished such wonders. He feared that Greeley had grown too rapidly; would rather have seen fewer houses in the town and more upon the prairies surrounding it. He thought there ought to be ten thousand acres under cultivation here next year. When he hears such is the fact he will set it down as a success. He followed with a great deal of advice about the proper management of the colony, especially in the matter of labor pursuits ; advised the organization of a farmers' club and other societies for mutual and beneficial intercourse, information and amusement. His address was eminently practical and will doubtless result in great benefit to the colony. We regret that we cannot reproduce it in full. Mr. Greeley goes on from Greeley by today's train direct for home to engage in the political campaign of his state.

From Ouk Traveling Correspondent.1

From Denver to Greeley, fifty-two miles by the Denver Pacific, is a journey moderately performed as a bit of morning recreation in the period of two hours and a half, including three stops, and brakes down on several other occasions, which was about the same as so many more stops, to save running over quite a number of cattle on the track. The curiosity of the poor brutes was so excited at beholding the firey monster that they seemed spell-bound and riveted to the spot, and nothing but the most extravagant tooting of the engine's whistle would frighten them away in time to prevent them from being crushed. And why shouldn't they be amazed and spell-bound, for it is certainly so astonishing even to us who have lived more than half a score of years in the Rocky Mountains and on the western border of what but a few years since was considered an almost impassable and quite unhabitable desert, that we can scarcely realize the fact of our having crossed this so-called desert once on foot, and twice on horseback, and now two lines of railroad cross it, bringiThe Daily Colorado Tribune, October 15, 1870, p. 2.

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ing to our doors all the modern improvements and the most progressive system of civilization ? To-day we are riding north in a palace car, in sight of the Snowy Range, and over acres of prairie dog towns and vast beds of prickly pears. We can distinguish away ahead of us the dark line that marks the Black Hills, while on our left the mountains look out upon us through the haze that has settled over the plains, obscured the foot-hills and left the Snowy Range bright and plainly visible above all. The plains to the east of us have robed themselves in panoramic beauty. As far around us as our vision can extend, all is one vast mirage. The country a short distance away looks as if covered with water, which glimmers throughout the haze, and dances in the beams of the sun as if a curtain of silver wa$ afloat on the surface. The bluffs seemed suspended in the air, and the cattle and the antelope that were some distance off looked to be suspended above earth, and seemed drawn out to an immense length, resembling trees more than animals. Scores of antelope would spring up near the train as we passed along, and some of the timid creatures in their blind confusion, instead of running away would run towards us and get shot at, but never harmed. One herd was so foolish as to run within easy gun-shot parallel with us for more than mile. Several shots were fired at them from a rifle on the train, but none were harmed, and they finally dropped to the rear, and coolly walked up to the track a short distance behind the train, as if to familiarize themselves with the strange thoroughfare.

But here I am, ahead of my story ; we have passed Hughes, and Johnson, and Evans, and were landed on the platform at Greeley some time ago. Some fifty or sixty Greeleyites crowded the platform, and around the train, which half inclined us to believe that perhaps we were to be treated to a distingue, and escorted by the constable to the calaboose; but no such good fortune awaited us ; they came to see if any of their friends had arrived, to hear the news, to get their mail and inquire after Horace Greeley. We met on the platform Mr. Fuller and Mr. Root, gentlemen whom we had known before, and by the former was introduced to Mr. Meeker, President of the Colony, whom I had met on a previous occasion, but presume he would not have remembered it. We can't recommend Mr. Meeker's social qualities as being of the highest order, but a man should not be blamed for what God never gave him. The Vice President, Gen. Cameron, is a frank, sociable, jolly good-natured man, and I found no difficulty in forming a pleasant acquaintance with very many of the members besides. I found them all as busy as an army of bees; there are no drones among them. The town is four months old, and they have probably erected two hundred buildings, and I conclude there are not less than fifty in course of erection at the present time. Their location is admirable; with a railroad at their doors, and an extensive grazing and arable region all around them, with water inexhaustable, and soil of surprising fertility, with the habits of industry and systems of economy peculiar to this class of people ; with such system and order as regulates every branch of industry here; with the capital at command, and finally, good judgment, their sound, practicable and theoretical knowledge will enable them to prosecute every industrial interest necessary to the success of this colony. I have already learned that there is no such word as "fail" in their vocabulary; they will not permit themselves to entertain an idea so unreasonable. The colony now numbers about 800 souls. The town is laid out in regular order, with wide streets and water flowing in little acequias, to all parts of the village. They have planted around their dwellings and along their acequias, several thousand soft maple trees, which look remarkably well, and indicate such a degree of thrift as one would scarcely suppose possible with exotics of this species. There are twelve or fifteen stores of every kind, one good livery stable, occupying one of the finest locations in town, and owned by our enterprising Denver friend, J. C. Higley, two jewelry stores, two blacksmith shops, a number of carpenter1 and cabinet shops, a barber and a butcher shop ; a book, periodical and stationery store, two drug styres, one hotel, as good as circumstances will allow, but like the greatest curse that blights Colorado to-day, in almost every town in the Territory, it is not up to what a hotel should be, neither in capacity nor any other way.

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fulness, but in dozens of other places in the Territory there is no excuse for furnishing as they do, such meagre hotel accommodations at such exorbitant rates. I believe, however, this people are disposed to adopt all the modern reforms as fast as they are able; and they have already started in with several very essential ones, for there is not a saloon of any kind in all this community. Not a drop of large beer or intoxicating liquors is sold by the drink or any other way, in this town, except what is sold at the drug stores for medicinal purposes. Sobriety, good order, peace, harmony and prosperity, characterize the people of this colony. Dr. H. B. Tuttle, formerly of Denver, is here, bustling away with his characteristic energy; he conducts a flourishing drug store, practices medicine, is just completing a large building for an office, drug store and dwelling house, has a farm but a short distance from town, and a beautiful garden in town, which contains a half acre of healthy looking strawberry plants.

Horace Greeley arrived yesterday and talked to the people in the afternoon, not eloquently, but practically and sensibly. He advised them to get out of town and build up the rural districts first, and the town would follow as a natural consequence. Our people were habitually gregarious and too fond to flocking to our cities and villages, where they help to swell the ranks of squalid misery and every manner of crime, and pestilence, and want, and all the evils that infest our densely populated places everywhere. He advised them to organize a Farmer's Club, and study and practice the various branches of agriculture, grow stock, and cover the naked country over with groves of forest trees, which would not only enhance its value, but greatly add to its beauty and utility. He thought fences were not advisable in a country where there was a scarcity of timber or other fencing material, but that every man should take care of his own stock, and cited his observations in portions of France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, where such was the prevailing custom. He thought artificial irrigation preferable to rain, and gave as an illustration some portions of Europe he had seen, where vegetables never failed but were always bountiful, because nourished by that system; also California, Mexico and the lower Nile,

We may have something to say in our next of Mr. Greeley's views on the Indian question, as expressed to us in a private conversation. We are sorry to know that the old disposition still rankles in his breast. But then the opinions he has held and cherished for years unaltered, of course will prevent the voice of reason from making any impression deeper than that which trembles on the ear drums.

From Our Traveling Correspondent.1

Snow fell here Saturday night and continued throughout the Sabbath; yet in all that time scarcely enough remained to whiten the ground. It melted as it fell, so that by Monday noon but little more than vestige of it remained. Monday morning the sun beamed forth intensely brilliant, as if prepared for the march and the work of a mid-summer's day. The atmosphere could not have been more pure, and the mountains were robed with a threefold splendor. Owing to the peculiar brilliancy of the subtle element, the mountains appeared nearer, and seemed towering to greater heights. The feeble snow quickly yielded to the influence of the sun and changed its condition into shining liquid, and stole away to its destiny. Thus in a few hours the snow and the water and the mud had disappeared, and the country had become dry land.

The Sabbath is observed here with Puritanic scrupulousness. All business houses are closed Saturday night, and are not opened until an early hour Monday morning. The nearest to gambling we saw in the place was a few innocent games of

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:ers for the championship, by some parties at the Bailey House. We saw a few decks of cards, but they were all business cards, and decked the counters of every business house in town. There are some grumblers and fault-finders even here, but that is the nature of the greater portion of the human family. There were grumblers in Heaven in early times. It would be unreasonable to suppose that eight hundred people could dwell together here or anywhere else, in perfect concord and unity in everything. There are strait-grained, gnarley-winding and crossgrained dispositions among them, and of course you cannot harmonize such freaks of nature by any earthly power. The greater portion of this people are reconciled to their lot, and believe they have bettered themselves by coming here. They have a salubrious climate and access to broad acres. They are all people of energy and intelligence, and many of them are men of means. They will soon have completed a ditch, 28 miles in length, which will irrigate 50,000 acres of land, and all susceptible of a high state of cultivation. One ditch, already completed, is 10 miles in length, and will irrigate 7,000 acres. They will thus be enabled to cultivate from fifty to sixty thousand acres next season, if they so desire. From present indications they will have added by immigration up to next June, enough to give them a population of fifteen hundred. I am glad to know that a great majority of the colonists are in favor of fencing their lands, and adopting such improvements as belong to a civilized people. If many of them feel too poor at the present time to build post and rail or board fences, they should at any rate fence as fast as they are able. Let them commence early and plant hedges, and thus grow fences, and groves in the meantime. In a country as highly favored with building and fencing material as this is, the people have no excuse but a lack of enterprise and good taste for not having decent habitations, and a few strings of fences, after a reasonable time. Fences make a country attractive, break the winds that would otherwise meet with no opposition; keep stock within bounds, and save money and labor, and crops enough in a few short years to pay for all the fences in Christendom. Heaven itself is fenced, and no anti-fence man can ever enter there. Fences are necessary everywhere among all people. A house without doors would be just as reasonable as a country without fences. It wouldn't cost any more for a herder to guard our doors than for him to guard our stock. If our railroads were fenced we wouldn't then have to stop the train so often and run ahead and drive cattle off the track. We fence ourselves in both summer and winter. Cities and villages are fenced and walled in, and every well-regulated community have fences, without which there would be loss of crops, quarrels between neighbors, and endless litigations would follow as a natural result. All God's universal creation is fenced in, and shall we refuse to fence the few acres that we till ? Soon millions of stock will feed upon the plains, and the mountains and the valleys will be alive with them. Who is to furnish the great army of men necessary to keep all this stock off the little agricultural patches that may happen to be farmed in the same region? The stock interest will be the greater interest, and of course the agricultural interest will have to protect itself with fences. Thus we would advise all who expect to till land, be it more or less, to fence early, and if possible, grow a fence, one of the most substantial and thorny kind. Such will not only make a fence, but will likewise break and check the winter winds that so often sweep across the plains. They will help to generate and retain moisture in the region of country where they abound, and finally, thrifty hedges are an ornament to any farm or any place wherever they flourish. The town of Greeley is located in a great bend of the Cache-a-la- Poudre, on the south side of the stream. The river encompasses the place in the form of a semi-circle, thus rendering all that section of country in the bend accessible to irrigation. Much of the lumber used in building here is of a very superior quality, having been shipped from Omaha by the Union Pacific to Cheyenne, thence by the Denver Pacific to this place. It comes thoroughly seasoned and is worth from forty to sixty dollars per thousand when delivered, prices varying according to quality. Dry goods and groceries are retailed here nearly or quite as cheap as in Denver or any other slope of the mountains. E. T. Nichols is doing an extensive grocery business, and I am informed his sales have reached as high as two hundred dollars in a single day. Mr. Nichols is a relative of the great showman, "P. T. Barnum," who likewise has an interest in Greeley. Plumb & Co. are doing a flourishing grocery and produce business, and are just completing a comfortable store. R. Fisk has completed the largest building in Greeley; it is advantageously located near the rail-road, and not far from where the depot will be built. The front part of the lower story is a store and filled with goods; the upper story is finished and furnished in ample order for the accommodation of Mr. Fisk and his family. Mr. Fisk is cousin to the famous Jim Fisk of Wall Street and Erie notoriety, and should he make such a splurge here as did his cousin in New York, then good bye to Greeley and all our railroads. Wm. H. Post has nearly completed a fine new building designed for a book, periodical and stationary store. General Cameron is the Postmaster, and has just completed a very suitable Postoffice which he has in connection with his drug store. Near the railroad stands a building about 24 x 100 feet, styled the "Hotel de Comfort/' Its object is for the accommodation of such as desire to avail themselves of its privileges until they have time to build and move elsewhere. As to the Greeley Tribune, it was whispered non constat.

That which is most needed just now is a good hotel. It would be profitable for all concerned. I believe, however, it is the intention of the company to erect a large hotel at an early day. They have several very good business houses nearly completed, which will soon be filled with goods and doing a lively trade. Quite a number of the members will soon have completed fine residences. There are two lumber yards, both doing a lively business and selling common lumber at from thirty to thirty-five dollars per thousand. There are other business places and various other enterprises worth mentioning, but I have filled my allotted space. H.

Mr England On Colorado.1

Railway, has at last published his experiences and observations upon that trip. His letter fills nearly three columns in the semi-weekly Sun of October 11. It is gossipy and readable, mainly correct and just, but contains some errors that deserve mention. Mr. England is naturally critical and fault-finding. The objectionable feature of anything with varied qualities strikes him first, and thus becomes prominent in his mention. In some cases he entirely forgets the other side. He also falls into the very common error of esteeming his opinions, based upon first impressions, as vastly more reliable than those of people who have lived in the country for years. He does not value the experience of others. We shall proceed to briefly review the erroneous portions of his letter and point out some of the most glaring of his mistakes. There was little to criticise until he got well out upon the plains. They were dined and wined, feasted and serenaded at the river cities and larger Kansas towns, and of course all was lovely. At Brookville, two hundred miles from the Missouri, they rested over night, and succeeding that we make our first extract :

Beyond Brookville to Denver, 438 miles, the climate is such that the land is only available for grazing purposes. The country is covered with a sparse growth of buffalo grass, with here and there a few weeds and cacti. For arable purposes it is valueless, unless it can be irrigated. The rainfall does not exceed six and a half inches per year. The streams are nearly all dried up in the summer. At no time is the buffalo grass green save for a few days after rain, the sun soon shrivelling it up to the brown and sere state in which we saw it.

The annual rainfall varies from fifteen to twenty-two inches. Instead of a "sparse growth", the buffalo grass is a dense mat, covering the ground to the height of four to eight inches. It remains green from early spring to mid-summer when it matures, ripens and consequently dies, yet retaining, until the next crop grows, all its nutritious qualities.

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planting shade trees in the streets. The sight of these is most grateful after leaving the dusty plains ; but they require a constant supply of water by irrigation or the hot sun shrivels up their foliage in twenty-four hours like a frost. The door yards of the residents have been planted with annual flowers, which by contrast with the surrounding aridity are marvels of beauty. Yet the little plats must be kept saturated or the flowers would soon die under the summer heat.

Very many of the trees in Denver are not watered oftenei than once in two weeks and then the water is conducted to them for a few minutes only. Some at even longer intervals, and after two or three years from the transplanting, they do not require it at all, except those that happen to be in most unfavorable locations. But the cottonwood tree will grow with water all the time at its roots ; hence his opinion, formed from seeing so many alongside of the street ditches where water flows all the time. The flower plats are generally watered about once a week ; sometimes more frequently, but oftener the contrary.

His next grumble is about the Union Colony, which is termed "a monument of Tribune folly", a title that probably reveals the secret of his dislike.

The place was founded by N". C. Meeker, agricultural editor of the Weekly Tribune. On the 25th of April it had six inhabitants; on the 4th of July, 1,200; when we visited it (Sept. 4) about 600, almost any of whom would cheerfully sell out. Nothing can be done in this section without irrigation. The estimated cost of irrigating canals is $70 per eighty acres, and an annual tax for repairs. It is a fine country for sheep, if the wolves are killed off; but till then only horses and horned stock can be kept. Many of the original settlers of Gireeley cursed the folly which led them away from the rich bottoms of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, to these high and dry table lands over 7,000 feet above the sea level. To go from the fertile regions of the lower plains and prairies to these hot latitudes to farm for a living, is like trying to walk on your head when your feet are so much more servicable. It may be scientific farming to thus subdue the wilderness, but the ultimate profit of it is more than problematical; especially since, after all your irrigation, you are liable every two or three years to a plague of grasshoppers that devour the fanner's substance as they sweep down from the sterile regions of the north.

Greeley is only 4,740 feet above the sea level. There has been no diminution in the population of Greeley at any time. It had more people September 4 than July 4. Doubtless there are some who would have sold out at that time, provided they could have done so at a higher price than it would cost them to turn around and buy as good or better property. There was no such dissatisfaction as Mr. England's letter intimates. They did not expect to raise crops without irrigation. Seventy dollars per eighty acres to provide for irrigation is a trifling expense compared to the cost of draining eighty acres of the "rich bottoms of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas," and the "annual tax for repairs" is trifling compared with the annual cost of surface draining in those States; to say nothing of the months during which their people flounder through mud and water whilst we have good roads and ground in excellent order for plowing. On the wolf and sheep question, Mr. J. A. Moore says: "Out of 8,000 head of sheep I lost only two this (last) winter, by wolves." His location is more exposed to wild animals than is the Greeley settlement. We suspect that Mr. England did not hear of a single sheep being killed by wolves. He shows his self-opinionatedness especially in regard to "the ultimate profits of farming." The experience of farmers who have raised crops here for a dozen years counts to him as nought. His impression was unfavorable because our system was to him new and strange, and upon that impression he pronounces an opinion without argument or consideration. So of the grasshoppers. No part of the country has suffered from their depredations more than twice in twelve years, and many portions of it only once, yet the stranger who reads Mr. England's letter will think that utter ruin is a pretty certain thing every two or three years.

We visited Ex-Gov. Hunt, at his farm. Here luxuriant crops of hay, grain, and roots were grown by means of irrigation ; but on the slopes the water runnels were so close together that the space between them was not wide enough for two mowing swaths. The Governor said he had been away most of the season, and the overflow not being properly regulated his crops had not come up to the average.

The ridges to separate the levels on Gov. Hunt's farm vary in their distance apart from sixteen to sixty feet. His ground was originally unusually broken in consequence of which those obstructions are more numerous than is necessary on most farms. They are somewhat in the way but there is no waste ground or loss of crops on account of them. Previous to the date of Mr. England's visit, Gov. Hunt had harvested three crops off his clover field and he has since cut another, making four crops in the one season, and an aggregate yield of more than six tons of hay to the acre. ISTo part of this is told by Mr. E., but he leaves his readers to doubt whether the Governor got any hay at all. So he entirely fails to realize the fact that with irrigation all crops are immensely increased ; that they are assured by the care of the farmer himself, and not subject to loss or damage by excessive wet or drouth, or other freaks of climate or season.

The same one-sidedness characterizes his remarks about the mines. In his opinion failure and loss are the common rule, and he dwells upon it. "But two or three persons are named to me as having acquired fortunes from the rich mines they have discovered and sold" is all he has to say about any success in that pursuit. Generally, however, his mountain experiences were rather more rose tinted than those upon the plains. From first to last he loses sight of the fact that a considerable community was built up here long before the day of railroads upon the plains; that everything required for its early subsistence and subsequent comfort and elegance was dragged more than six hundred miles across the plains in ox wagons, fighting Indians all the way for long and weary years ; that despite all obstacles its people who came in utter poverty have wrung from what he considers sterile plain and forbidding mountain comparative competency; that they are actually worth more and produce more annually per capita, than any like number of people in his own or any other State; that from the first the rate of money exchange has always been in their favor - showing that they were sending out more than they brought in, but on the plains he notes with wonder that "all the stone, lumber, lime, and nails for all the dwellings along this dreary stretch has been hauled by the Kansas Pacific Railway Company."

Mr. England would not make a good pioneer unless he could find a country where there is unmixed good. He is not sanguine of advantages but critical of disadvantages and discomforts. When he learns to consider both and draw average comparisons between the worst and the best, and between different sections of the country, he will give better and more intelligible information to disinterested readers.

JThe Greeleyites are determined that the provisions of the constitution of that town shall not be violated, hence a man who recently undertook to locate a billiard sallon there, has been bundled out by the citizens. The shop was burned down, during the melee. The citizens of Greeley, believing such institutions calculated to harm the young men of the town they have founded, have the right to prohibit their introduction the same as they would the establishment of a house of ill-fame or a gambling den. An outsider knowing these facts, and daring the danger, should expect to take the consequences. We are disposed to allow the citizens of Greeley to run their town as they wish, and we have no sympathy with any individual party who attempts to break in upon their established rules, to the harm of the town and against the peace of its citizens.

Whisky In Greeley.2 Excerpts From Colorado Newspapers 297

Early on last Sunday morning a German came up from Evans and opened a saloon within the town limits, on a ranch partially owned by the Colony. Certain persons repaired to the saloon and "loaded up" preparatory to attending morning service at the church. Before the benediction had been pronounced, a committee was appointed to interview the saloon keeper. About two hundred persons gathered around the liquor establishment, soon after the committee arrived. The proprietor said that he had paid $200 for the use of the building, which was claimed by one Smith, of Evans, and he meant to stay until the lease expired. One of the committee got possession of the key and locked the door. The committee finally agreed to pay the whisky dealer $200 for his lease, and to cart the liquor to a' place of safety. Many were clamorous to burn the shanty and destroy the brandy casks. The den was soon after discovered to be on fire. Then the committee made a grand rush and succeeded in extinguishing the flames, besides saving the rum, with the card tables, decanters and dice-boxes.

While the members of the committee were congratulating themselves on this feat, the building was discovered to be on fire again, but the flames were subdued only to break out again on the outside of the shanty, and this last conflagration entirely destroyed it.

The next move was to preserve the brandy. A team was sent for, and after a slight remonstrance, the proprietor with his brandy, card tables and dice boxes, was escorted to Colony Hall.

Here the committee parted with a sigh of relief, and felt that their mission had been nobly and faithfully performed. The rum-seller went home delighted, for on a single Sabbath day he had cleared in behalf of the former occupant, the trifling sum of $200.

Affairs in Greeley are quiet and prosperous. A number of fine and substantial buildings are being erected, and improvements, of various kinds progressing most satisfactorily. There are by actual count 352 houses, erected and being erected in the town, a fact which will warrant us in stating the population at 1,000 persons at least.

The financial condition of the colony is sound, there being a cash balance of $9,038.66, in the treasury, besides $34,985. now due from colonists for town lots, water rights, etc.

The new ditch, on the north side of the Cache-a-la-Poudre, is progressing rapidly, and will be completed in January. It will be 30 miles long, and will cover and furnish water for 55,000 acres of land. It is contracted to be completed for $20,000.

The patronage of the town to the railroad is large. Between May 6th, and Oct. 15th, there was received at the depet 9,853,800 Ibs of freight. There has been sold in the town 1,192,000 feet of lumber besides a large amount purchased in the mountains by private parties.

The citizens of Greeley are readers, for there are received at the postoffice 115 copies of the New York Tribune, sixty-three copies of the weekly Rocky Mountain News, thirty-five copies of the weekly Colorado Tribune, and over 200 miscellaneous publications.

Excerpts From Colorado Newspapers 299 Whisky In Greeley.1

Greeley, October 31. - The "whisky riot" of October 22, as reported in your columns a few days ago, culminated in a court of law, to say : Evans vs. Greeley come up before Justices Pinkerton and Gargin on the complaint of the "gentleman of German extraction," who came "with the morning sun" on that eventful morning, and departed with his "Mountain Dew" ere the afternoon shadows lengthened over the town. Six citizens of Greeley were indicted, first, for larceny; second for arson and riot. Mr. Mallory appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. Frank M. Babcock for the defence. Messrs. Ralph Meeker, Alonzo Long, J. Max Clark, Wm. H. Post, W. E. Strunk and a mythical individual, "to the court unknown," save as "John Smith," were up on a preliminary examination. After some dozen or more witnesses for the prosecution had been heard, during which but little satisfactory evidence was elicited, the court adjourned to Tuesday morning, at 9 o'clock, to allow the prosecution time to produce additional evidence.

Greeley, November 1. - Court opened at 10 o'clock, a. m., Justices Pinkerton and Sargin present. The absence of witnesses for the prosecution compelled an adjournment to 1 p. m., before which, however. J. Max Clark, one of the accused, was discharged from custody. At 1 p. m., Court opened. The prosecution offered two witnesses, one of whom "nix know notings", and the other, saw no disturbance, only "a fire." The prosecuting attorney here "rested."

The attorney for the defense then asked for the discharge of Kalph Meeker, Wm. H. Post and W. E. Strunk. This was opposed as far as the first and last mentioned gentlemen were concerned. The Court granted the request as far as Mr. Post was concerned, and discharged him. He "went off" immediately into private life.

Witnesses for the defense were then called, one of whom proved an alibi as far as the mithical individual, known as "Smith", yesterday, but today as Narcross was interested. The next witness seemed to confuse the mind of the prosecuting attorney as to the time it took to eat his dinner. After arguments for and against a motion to discharge all the prisoners on the ground that there was no evidence to hold any one of them for examination, the Justices after mature deliberation "on the boundless prarie" decided to hold Mr. Meeker, for riot, and Mr. Narcross, for arson.

Whisky In Gkeeley.1

Greeley, November 3. - A public meeting of the Colony was held last evening to discuss the temperance question now agitating the town. Dr. J. A. Barkley occupied the chair, E. W. Gurley acting as secretary. A majority report of the committee appointed to investigate the charges and to present a line of policy to be adopted by the Colony, was presented by William E. Pabor, Esq. A minority report somewhat more radical in its tone and measures proposed was presented by J. Max Clark. A lengthy discussion ensued, in which Messrs. Meeker, CamiDaily Rocky Mountain News, November 4, 1870, p. 4.

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eron, Gurley, Clark, Pabor, Fisk, Childs and others took part. But at 11 :30 p. m. no conclusion had been reached; whereupon the meeting adjourned to Friday evening. The people of the Colony are evidently awake to the necessity of enacting a stringent policy in regard to the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage on the lands owned by them.

Home Correspondence.1

Editor, Boulder News: - Among the many improvements and attractions of Colorado, it may not be amiss to give your readers a few items as to the wonderful rapidity with which the town of Greeley, has sprung up since the first inhabitant set foot on the location, which is now only about six months. I visited that place for the first time, last week, and though I had heard a great deal said about the beauty and thrift of the place, I was very agreeably disappointed, for its beauty, size and present prosperity far exceeded my expectations.

The town is situated on a beautiful high rolling prairie on the Denver Pacific Railway, overlooking the lovely valleys of the Platte and the Cache-a-la-poudre rivers. Its streets are much wider than most of the Western towns, being, I should guess, not less than 100 feet wide. They have taken great pains to plow and grade, and elevate them in the middle, making drains for water on each side, and have planted shade trees on either side of many of them. Since my residence in the West, I have visited a great many towns and villages just springing up, but have never seen one before that seemed to rise and grow as by magic, like Greeley.

It is said to contain now, about 500 houses, nearly all of which are built of good material, substantially erected and tastefully arranged and finished showing unmistakable evidences that those who built them intend to make permanent homes.

But the town seems not, to contain all this prosperous colony, for all around, nearly as far as my vision extended, I could see new comfortable houses erected and in process of erection on beautiful and rich lands intended for cultivation, a considerable quantity of which is already broken. This colony has certainly selected some of the finest laying and richest land in Colorado.

The broad rich valley of the Cache-a-la-poudre at and near its confluence with the Platte, together with the extensive bottoms on the latter stream are among its acquisitions.

They have also built a large irrigating ditch, about 8 miles in length, which is taken from the Cache-a-la-poudre, and supplies the town and a large portion of their lands with water, for all valuable purposes.

While there, I visited their literary society, which meets in a commodious hall once a week, and found it crowded with an audience of both sexes, that for intelligence and fine appearance would vie with almost any locality in the United States. Indeed, I am inclined to believe that Greely contains a larger per cent, of intelligence, refinement and industry, than almost any other Western town of its size and age.

Judging from the perseverance and industry which this people have displayed in building their town, and preparing their lands for cultivation, together with the efforts they are making at this time to have rail and wagon roads constructed to that point, I should not be surprised to see Greeley, in a few years, one of the largest cities in Colorado.

They have already located, and are constructing a firstclass wagon road from there, to connect with the Boulder City and Grand Island mining district, and they will soon have men on the route viewing a practicable line for a railroad from Pine Bluffs VM Greeley and Boulder City, and so on to the Caribou mines.

Some of their leading men, with others, intend forming a company and taking out a charter to build the road from there to Boulder, and from Boulder to Caribou. The road will likely

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This route will afford to the colony, a a short road to the Mountains and mines, and open up a forest of inexhaustable timber for fencing and other purposes. It will also give them access to stone for building purposes, stone coal, etc., all of which will be in great demand by that people. I could not help thinking, while admiring the beauty, cleanliness and taste, displayed in the laying out of Greeley, and its police regulations generally, that many of the inhabitants of the older towns in Colorado, if they would visit Greeley, might take lessons from it, that would tend very much to the cleanliness, order and beauty of their locality. B. G.

Mr. Greeley has at length found time to write out his impressions of the Union colony. He does it in a series of questions and answers, as the most convenient way of communicating the information so often sought of him by individuals. We give such of the answers as are of general interest:

What are the advantages of this location ? A. A rich deep soil, free from bog, stick, stump, or stone, very easily broken up and tilled, and requiring only water to render it abundantly and surely productive. All these, with a pure, bracing atmosphere and remarkably healthy climate, it shares with other localities : but its facilities for cheap and extensive irrigation are peculiar, and I think unequalled. Wood and timber abound on the lower hills and in the gorges of the Rocky Mountains, from 20 to 30 miles distant, and may be floated down to the settle ment when the Cache la Poudre is at its high stage, that is in June. The lands of the Cache la Poudre are covered and surrounded by the short, thin herbage known as gramma grass, which is said to be very nourishing and to cure on the stalk, so as to be equally acceptable to cattle in Winter as in Summer, and to subsist vast herds without other fodder. I am not sure that this

What are the leading Industries of this Colony ? A. As yet housebuilding, mainly in the village, with the arts subsidiary thereto, and digging irrigating canals, have mainly engrossed attention. When colonists began to arrive, late in April, or early in May last, there was not even a shelter for their heads to be had for love or money. A post office, 10 x 15 feet, was the only structure to be seen. Since then, four or five hundred dwellings have been built, with other structures, nearly so many gardens made, and water let into each ; a public park laid out and planted with trees, and large yields from small areas of spring wheat, buck wheat, turnips, etc., realized. I did not hear of a single failure except from the ravages of hungry cattle. I am confident that if every acre owned by the colony could this winter be plowed, and next spring seeded to wheat, the yield would average 40 bushels per acre The potatoes grown this year, though mainly planted in June or July, were at once abundant and excellent.

Where will this Colony find Markets ? A. Eight at home for the present, and among the mines which abound in the adjacent mountains at all times. The new and promising developments of silver are but 40 or 50 miles distant ; the gold-mining operations on Clear Creek, some 20 or 30 miles further. The mines of Colorado will consume all the grain and vegetables that can be raised in that territory for the next hundred years ; and, besides, the rancheros or cattle growers of the plains are every day increasing in number, while not very likely to fall away in appetite. Few of them grow grain, for want of irrigation, but all are glad to help to eat it. I judge that the price of most grains and vegetables will range as high here in the average as in our State or New Jersey.

What manufacturers are likely to flourish there? A. Those of agricultural implements, saddlery, household-wares, and woolens. Sheep are already numerous in Colorado but are destined to become rapidly more so. There is no better location for the fabrication of cheap, substantial woolens such as blankets, cassmeres, etc. Water power in abundance is to be had on the Cachea-la-Poudre, Thompson, St. Vrain and other streams, just before or when they issue from the mountains, and before they are needed for irrigation. Ultimately, high, iight dams will be constructed at or near the point where they severally debouch from the mountains, and the water used for manufactures or for irrigation as the need shall be most urgent.

What is the prospect for trade ? A. A very considerable trade from the mines and the ranches already finds its focus at Greeley. More will do so as the adjacent region is settled and its resources developed. A railroad up the South Platte is expected soon to cross the Denver Pacific at this point, and make its way hence into the mining region. Greeley aspires to be a county seat and a considerable city, with what reason we shall see' by and by.

Will the Colony live and prosper? A. That depends on its people. I do not see how it can well contrive to die, unless its members should take to drink, or gambling, or some kindred folly, and so squander their magnificent opportunities. I anticipate nothing like this.

Would you recommend the formation of more such colonies ? A. Yes, ten thousand like this, or as much better as can be devised. To those intending migration to the far west, it would be worth while to form such an association, if with no higher purpose than to make bargains with railroads for the cheapest possible transportation of families and household goods by wholesale; but the hardships and privations of pioneer life may be immensely abridged and softened by such a combination.

Upon the Denver Pacific railway, midway between Cheyenne and Denver, near a small stream, upon a desert overlooked by the Rocky Mountains, is located a town that is famous in many ways : famous for its name, for its morals, but not for the fertility of its soil nor the charm of its scenery. We have been at Greeley, and we speak that which we know, when we declare that although the climate is good, the air pure, and the stars very bright at night, there is nothing to induce a sane man to plant himself on that desert. No trees are within fifty miles, except a few stunted cottonwoods upon the banks of the stream. The soil is alkali, and poor enough. The thing is a humbug. If it shall serve the purpose of cooling the brains of a few hot-head reformists by showing them the impracticability of their theories, it will serve a good purpose, but whoso reads this article and goes there, cannot say he was not duly warned of the humbug. Many have left it, and soon its last hovel will be deserted.

We are tired of answering such silly stories. How any man with a particle of sense can have the impudence to make such statements, when evidence to prove the contrary cannot but meet his view on every side and at every turn, is a mystery that exceeds our comprehension. The Sentinel man probably did not believe that Colorado has been peopled for twelve years, nor that thousands of acres of poorer soil than any belonging to the Union Colony produces yearly from twenty-five to forty bushels of better wheat than he ever saw in Wisconsin. He must be near sighted or he could have seen the unlimited forests of timber that cover the mountain sides down to within less than half fifty miles of Greeley. It is to be hoped that he has got back safely to his ma.

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when he saw an account in a Titusville paper of the burning down of the whisky shop, which decided him, and he arrived on the train, with his family, last Saturday evening.

Due Whisky Troubles.1

The leading facts in regard to whisky in Greeley, are, that a liquor-seller from a neighboring town rented a building on a piece of undivided property, of which the Colony owned one half, and had his shop running one Sunday morning. A committee was appointed to wait on him, and he agreed to leave; at the same time the old shanty took fire and was burned. Several persons, mostly young men, were prosecuted, and were bound over, while others were threatened. As they feared they would not have a fair trial, they left the Colony. The grounds for their fears were that the members of the Colony, as such, not being citizens, have no control in judicial matters. A great deal could be said on this subject, but at present it is not thought advisable. It is clear, however, that no one will be allowed to establish a liquor or billiard saloon in this town, nor to sell liquor as has been alleged to have been the case. Two druggists have been appointed to sell in cases of sickness, upon application to a committee. Any violation of the regulations will arouse at least three hundred who will stand together in a solid block.

Prospectus.2

1st. To give full particulars of whatever relates to the Union Colony, of which the town of Greeley is the center, and to show the advantages of colonization upon our plan.

2d. To call attention to the attractions and wonderful resources of the Rocky Mountain country, of which little, as yet, is known by the American people.

3d. To teach that the highest power which man can exhibit, grows out of mental culture and at the same time, out of well established habits of industry connected either with the cultivation of the soil, or with some mechanical pursuit.

4th. To enforce the doctrine that the foundation of all prosperity, whether of nations or of individuals, is based on the family relation as maintained in civilized countries, and that the highest ambition of a family should be to have a comfortable, and, if possible, an elegant home, surrouded by orchards, and ornamental grounds, on lands of its own.

desire to form a Company for the purpose of Dairying, Herding, Stock-raisng, Butchering and dealing in Stock, Hay and Feed, under chapter 18th of the Revised Statutes of Colorado, and the amendments thereto, approved February llth, 1870.

Second, - That the said Company is formed for the following pupose, to wit: first, to carry on the Dairy business, second, to Herd Stock, third, to Raise Stock, fourth, to deal in Stock, Hay and Feed, fifth, to engage in Butchering.

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Fifth, - The affairs of said Corporation shall be managed by Nine Trustees, and the following named persons shall be the Trustees for the first year and until their successors are elected, to wit:

Sixth, - The principal part of the business of said Company shall be carried on in the Town of Greeley, County of Weld, Colorado Territory, with the right to carry on a part of its business outside of said Territory.

1 Three sessions of the Greeley Lyceum have been held, the attendance was large and the performance of the speakers highly creditable. The questions discussed were with regard to womans suffrage, and to the permanence of ideas.

2Mrs. A. J. Wilber has been appointed to solicit donations of books for the Library, also, subscriptions of $1 from each, for supplying the Reading Room with newspapers. She will proceed forthwith to call on all our citizens.

What Kind Of People We Have.1 The Men

We have three or four classes of men, one is composed of educated mechanics, who are acquainted with farming and fruit growing ; who know quite well what a nice house should be, and who are able and anxious of themselves to build it. Another class consists of farmers, many of whom are handy with tools. They are reading and thinking men and they will be cautious to adopt best methods of irrigation, and to grow as large crops as the soil is capable of producing. Another class may be said to be farmers or school teachers, agents, or almost anything, for they are well educated. Some are graduates, and, during this summer they have labored like common men. Some of them are good public speakers, and having studious habits, they are destined to exercise an important influence, not only in the colony, but also in Colorado. But they are not in a hurry. They have learned that one who waits gains while he waits more than could be easily gained were we placed in a prominent position; and they are impressed with the new idea of this age that no man can be so powerful as he who combines literary culture with every-day industry. But it is seen that a full development in this direction requires much more time than when efforts are exclusively devoted to a profession. We have several ministers who might be included in this class, and they are esteemed for their practical good sense, for their knowledge of theology and rural affairs. They are much like those ministers of New England, who, in a former age, cultivated the soil with their own hands, and imprinted upon the whole American mind much of their acuteness and positiveness of opinions.

We have several politicians who are well schooled in all the arts, schemes, dodges and devices of this important and influential fraternity, and a silent and unconcious struggle is going on between them and the educated industrial class. What is to be the final result cannot well be predicted; but if the politicians lose their power, and a more practical class succeed them a great change will have taken place.

Excerpts From Colorado Newspapers 311 The Women

Perhaps a majority of our married women have taught school, and many of the unmarried ones have. The disagreeable condition in which they have been placed for want of comfortable homes has given to many a sad cast of countenance, and some have scarcely appeared in public. Of late, and since houses have been plastered and conveniences have multiplied, a change for the better in the appearance of the women has been apparent, and the congregations at church is much more elegant and cheerful than it was two months ago. The truth is a woman is weak unless she can have a comfortable house; and a man is not only weak but untidy unless he has a housekeeper.

As to intellect, the women are fully equal to the men and they only lack drill and wider means of obtaining information. Many of the females are remarkable for large perceptive and reflective powers, and these, often, are in excess of their vitality. Generally, this climate is having a favorable influence on the health of our women, and the hopeful condition of the colony in most respects, adds to the tonic given by the pure air. It is to be said that both the men and women of this colony are select, for they were alike receptive of the aims and objects, of education, of refined society, of temperance, and of elegant suburban homes; and they have gathered from many widely separated regions, to realize these ideas. In dress, our women show a refined and simple taste which everywhere is an outgrowth of culture, and the display of it at church and at the lyceum adds greatly to the high character of the audience. It is doubtful whether any assemblage in any of the states can present better dressed ladies. Nor should this surprise, since they have come from "New York, from Brooklyn, from the towns and cities of New England, from Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and other more or less important places in the west, or, if from country places, they had intimate friends in these cities, and thus, whatever distinguishes there, also distinguishes here.

Provenance

Text from The Union Colony at Greeley, Colorado, 1869-1871, published 1918, in the public domain in the United States and digitised by the Internet Archive.