Pueblo County, Colorado
Pueblo News 1900's

Page contributed by Karen Mitchell, news items contributed by Jean Griesan and Karen Mitchell. Our utmost thanks and appreciation to Jean for typing these up.
These news items are being extracted from the local newspapers. They are in chronological order. To search for any given name use your browers "Find" button.

1900



Yuma Pioneer 11-30-1900 - Employment agents for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company are trying a new experiment in the matter of employes at the steel works, says the Pueblo Chieftain.  They have recently put twenty-eight Greeks to work there, and if they turn out to be good men a large number will probably be brought to Pueblo and given situations.  The Greeks are a new addition to Pueblo's population, and besides these now engaged at the Bessemer plant there are nearly fifty more in the city.  They came from Chicago in a body to secure work, and are said to be a very industrious class.

1901



Yuma Pioneer 2-15-1901 - Pueblo veterans have formed a society to be known as the Association of Veterans of the Spanish-American War.  A. K. Lewis of Company A, First Colorado, was elected president, and Alfred D. Runyan of Company A, Thirteenth Minnesota, secretary.  Thirty members are already enrolled.

Yuma Pioneer 3-1-1901 - The Pueblo's Evening Journal's voting contest for the "most popular schoolboys in Pueblo" was decided in favor of Ed. G. Smith and Carl Maroney, whose expenses are paid to Washington and return to witness the inauguration.

Aspen Tribune – May 22, 1901 – Father and Mother Drowned – Pueblo, May 22 – Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Brown, well known residents of Beulah, were drowned in the flooded St. Charles river today. They left the house together and it is supposed they were caught in the water in the dark. Their three children who remained in the house all night crying and frightened, were found uninjured this morning. Yuma Pioneer – May 24, 1901 – Ruin Wrought by the Storm South and West of Pueblo – Pueblo, Colo., May 21 – (Denver News Special) – E. Brown and his wife were drowned at Beulah last night in a cloudburst which caused a great wave of water to roll down through the canon, swelling an ordinary small stream known as South creek to a roaring torrent. Various theories were advanced as to how they met their death, the body of the man being found a long distance down stream from the cottage into which the family had moved from Avondale some months ago. Mrs. Brown's body was found in a lower room of the cottage, where death by drowning had overtaken her. In their room in the attic the two small children of the family were found safe in their bed, but half frightened to death. It is supposed that when Mr. Brown found the water advancing he looked for some method of escape for himself and family and was carried away in the flood. Reports of the drowning came in this afternoon, but it was not until to-night, when some of the neighbors came in and took back with them two coffins that the certainty of the catastrophe was determined. Beulah, in the outskirts of which the drowning occurred, is a summer resort twenty-eight miles southwest of Pueblo, in the foothills of the Greenhorn range, and is much frequented by Pueblo people during the heated term. There is no railroad connection with the village nor any telegraph or telephone wires. Report has it, however, that considerable damage to land and crops throughout Beulah valley was done by the cloudburst which came down about 9 o'clock last night. Information was brought into the city to-night that every bridge over the St. Charles river from its source to its mouth at the Arkansas has been carried away. Several years ago a staunch steel bridge was built on heavy stone foundations on the old burned mill road where it crossed the St. Charles. This structure was swung from its foundation and twisted into a mass of iron and steel. The devastation wrought by this cloudburst in Beulah valley had its counterpart in the lower portion of the stream, causing the wreck to Rio Grande train No. 115 early this morning. After a blockade of nearly twenty-four hours caused by a rush of water down Hardscrabble canon into the Arkansas river, the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande road across the mountains was opened for traffic at 4:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Over 1,000 feet of track was thrown aside by the mighty weight of the oncoming flood, but a big force of men soon straightened out the track and cribbed it up so that the movement of trains was resumed. Passenger and freight trains were held at Salida and Pueblo while the repair work was in progress. Not a life lost. Not an injury received more serious than a cut of the hand from broken glass, a bruise, or a trifling sprain of some muscle, and every passenger able to continue on his journey. This miraculous record of the escape of half a hundred passengers aboard south-bound Rio Grande flyer No. 115, for Alamosa and the west, which plunged from a ten-foot bridge into a seething torrent laden with trees and debris into which the St. Charles river had swollen within an hour from a harmless and almost dry stream. It was just after 1 o'clock when the crash came. Section men had watched this long pile bridge until 12 o'clock. At that time, though there had been reports of heavy rain in the foothills to the west, no water of any consequence had appeared. But when the headlight on Engineer George Mathews' engine gave a view of that same bridge an hour later, he saw a mass of driftwood piled higher than his cab along the upper side of the bridge and the roar of the water could be heard above the noise of the engine and train. “It looked bad,” said Mr. Mathews in describing his experiences, “and I saw the bridge was out of line, but we were in for it and there was nothing to do but go ahead. When our pilot was half way over I saw the track ahead begin to swing down to the east and I threw her wide open and waited. We jumped the rails before we reached the south end and the baggage car, mail car and smoker followed after us. The chair car dropped bodily into the river. The Pullman hung by her hind trucks to the north end of the bridge, with her front end under water. The chair car must have been cushioned by all that driftwood, for when my fireman and I called to each other after we turned over and we found we were all right and then crawled out of the rear window of the cab, we saw that chair car right side up with care, settled as smoothly as if a big power crane had set the body down onto the trucks at the factory, and there she stood as solid as a rock on a low part of the bank, just about half way turned around from the line of the bridge.” The locomotive swung to the right, plowed along the dirt approach for fifty feet, turned over on its side, and broke not a steam pipe to scald Engineer Mathews and Fireman T. J. Johnson. The tender, meanwhile, dragged off by the baggage car behind, swung over to the left, the baggage and mail cars followed it and were more or less telescoped. The smoker was thrown farther to the left and considerably jammed up. The tremendously swift current meanwhile was lodging chair car 814 right side up with care in such a comfortable position without a drop of water on the floor that when the relief train reached the scene the passengers, with one exception were seated quietly, the lights burning and enjoying themselves until the waters should recede sufficiently to allow them to make their escape to high ground. The missing passenger had jumped into the flood and made his way to the shore.

Rifle Reveille 7-19-1901 The directory publishers who have just finished a new directory for Pueblo, estimate the population at 47,000.  The census of 1900 gave Pueblo a population of 28,157.

Yuma Pioneer 11-8-1901 – Herman Chavez, sentenced last January 28th from Las Animas county for assault to kill, died in the state penitentiary. His was the only death in October in the institution, which at the end of the month had 546 inmates. Reports of the institution have been received by C. L. Stonaker, secretary of the state board of charities and correction. During the month two women were admitted, making the total of women inmates eight, and twenty-three men were sentenced to the institution during October. During the month six men were paroled, four liberated, one died and one was sent to the insane asylum. A total of 505 patients was confined in the state asylum at Pueblo at the close of the month, one was discharged and two were paroled. Two men and one woman died. There were at the end of the month 318 men and 187 women in the institution. Six nurses were discharged during the month.

1902



Akron Weekly Pioneer Press May 30, 1902 - In Pueblo Five Hundred People Are Rendered Homeless. Denver, May 27. - A Republican dispatch from Pueblo last night says: Pueblo is being swept tonight by the worst flood in the Fountain river since the settlement here was wiped out by the high waters of 1864. A cloudburst above Fountain has washed out several hundred feet of the Rio Grande and Santa Fe tracks, stopping traffic and doing much damage. Several big bridges in this city have been carried away and dozens of shacks have been swept down stream. Timely warning of the approach of the waters prevented loss of life in the lowlands of Pueblo, where 500 people have been rendered homeless. There are wild rumors of loss of life but none can be confirmed. It appears that the flood started with a cloudburst in the vicinity of Butten (?) about noon. When the water reached Eden it was twelve feet high and was gaining in volume and force. By the time it had reached Pueblo the river was a rushing mass of small shanties, tents and driftwood.

Rifle Reveille 8-15-1902 The new Minnequa hospital at Pueblo, recently completed at a cost of $300,000 by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, was formally opened August 6th.  The institution was financed by the company for the use of its employees, and is the finest building of its kind in the West.

Durango Democrat 11-2-1902 - Relations Were Entirely Proper - Pueblo, Colo., Nov. 1 - Mrs. Minnie Cooper, who, two days ago, was shot in the face by Fred Roberts, of Salt Lake, who then killed himself, is slightly better and seems to have a chance for recovery.  She remains rational, and talks of the tragedy, saying that her relations with Roberts have never been anything but proper, and that the money for which she asked him by letter was money due her for salary as bookkeeper in the foundry.  She says he was a good friend to her and she was aware of his infatuation, but could not marry him.

Rifle Reveille 12-5-1902 Eight hundred poor children were fed by the charity organizations of Pueblo on Thanksgiving Day.  The Volunteers of America made their spread in their barracks on Main street.  Capt. J. P. Lister of the social religious movement had tables in the dining rooms of the Royal hotel.  George Lousteau, a restaurant proprietor, fed fifty newsboys, who, after the dinner, organized a union and elected officers.  The associated charities sent out large donations to several hundred families in the suburbs. Castle Rock Journal 12-19-1902 At Pueblo on the 7th inst,. John W. Frush, after a desperate quarrel in which he tried to kill his wife and grown son, placed a revolver to his left ear and fired a bullet into his own brain, ending his life almost instantly. He had been drinking, and it is thought he was temporarily insane.

1903



Akron Weekly Pioneer Press 2-27-1903 - Two new churches were dedicated at Pueblo February 22nd, one by the Methodists, costing about $25,000, and one by the United Brethren, costing about $8,000.  

Akron Weekly Pioneer Press 2-27-1903 - A Mennonite colony has been organized and land has been selected about five miles southwest of La Junta in what is known as the Fairmount country.  They have agents in a number of eastern states to represent the colonists' interests and a large number of them are expected to locate in the colony during this summer.  

Yampa Leader, July 25. 1903 William Olsen, a car repairer employed by the Denver and Rio Grande at Pueblo, lost both hands on the 13th inst. when they were run over by a freight car under which he was working. An engine accidentally struck the car and his hands were so badly crushed that amputation was necessary.

Glenwood Post 9-12-1903 Colorado Briefs - The Pueblo City Council has ratified the appropriation of $75,000 for park district No. 2.  With this money Carlile park will be purchased and improved.  It contains 150 acres, and will be created into the City park.  The car lines will be extended to it.  Brunner park will receive a part of the appropriation for improvement.

Yuma Pioneer 10-23-1903 - Congressman H. M. Hogg and Lyman I. Henry have formed a law partnership and have opened offices in the Pope block, Pueblo.  Mr. Hogg has lived in Telluride since 1888, while Mr. Henry has for fifteen years been a citizen of Ouray.  

Yuma Pioneer 10-23-1903 - Father Vladimar Kalneff, recently from Odessa, Russia, is in Pueblo to organize a Servian Orthodox Catholic church.  A church will be built at a cost of $20,000.  The organization is the only one of its kind in the state.  The membership of the church is composed of Greeks, Servians, Austrians, Prussians, Bohemians, Roumanians and Montenegrins. (This article was typed as is.)  

Yuma Pioneer 12-4-1903 - Adjutant General Sherman M. Bell and Governor Peabody were in Pueblo November 28th and witnessed the mustering in of the new Pueblo militia company recently recruited.  The company consists of fifty-five members.  George B. Dickerman was unanimously elected captain, R. A. Whadham was chosen first lieutenant and B. H. Lugerbill second lieutenant.

1904



Aspen Weekly Times 2-13-1904 Mrs. Judge Wiley and children arrived in the city Sunday from Hahn's Peak where they are now located, to spend time in Aspen, visiting at the home of her mother, Mrs. Babey.

Castle Nonpareil 2-19-1904 - Rufus Wall, janitor at the city hall at Pueblo has been selected as steward of the Colorado building at the World's fair.  Wall is a prominent colored citizen of Pueblo county where he has lived for twenty-five years. Castle Rock Journal 10-7-1904 City Detective E.H. Wilson was acquitted on the 3rd inst., in the District court at Pueblo of a charge of embezzlement. The case was not allowed to go to the jury. The prosecuting witness, Louis Wolf, refused to testify against the defendant. At the conclusion of the examination by the district attorney Judge Lewis instructed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty and fined the witness $100 for contempt of court. Three cases against Wilson remained to be tried.

1905



Yuma Pioneer 1-6-1905 - County Surveyor H. S. Fuller of Pueblo county, who has served in that capacity for eleven years, will retire from office on January 10th and start for Honduras, Central America, at once, where he has accepted the position of irrigation engineer of the Boston and Canadian Colonization Company of Toronto and Boston.  

Yuma Pioneer 1-27-1905 - There are about 200 Japanese employed at the Pueblo steel works.  They all board at a hotel fitted up for them near the shops and live and dress well, being cleanly in their habits.

Yuma Pioneer 4-14-1905 - The Pueblo Orphanage Association has been formed and incorporated by the Protestant churches of Pueblo as a purely charitable enterprise.  Temporary quarters will be opened at the Deaconess home and the directors of the association will begin raising funds at once to purchase or construct a suitable building.  

Basalt Journal - April 15, 1905 - The Pueblo Orphanage Association has been formed and incorporated by the Protestant churches of Pueblo as a purely charitable enterprise. Temporary quarters will be opened at the Deaconess home and the directors of the association will begin raising funds at once to purchase or construct a suitable building.

Yuma Pioneer 6-2-1905 - Phelps C. Hurford of Pueblo, who graduated from the medical department of Washington University at St. Louis, May 25th, was the only student to receive a prize, having won, in competition with sixty-one graduating fellow classmen, the highest grade in chemistry and anatomy.

Colorado Springs Gazette 7-24-1905 - Police Arrest Charles Harris - Is Thought To Be Man Wanted At Pueblo For Cutting a Bartender - Charles Harris was arrested last night by the local police on the suspicion that he is wanted by the Pueblo police as the negro porter who carved up a bartender with a butcher knife.  The bartender was terribly slashed and may die.  The local police took their clew from the three missing teeth of the guilty man.  Harris has three teeth missing in exactly the same place as the man who did the criminal carving.  Another thing which places suspicion on Harris in this case is his extraordinary height.  The big fellow stoops when he enters an ordinary doorway.  When arrested the big negro was taking life comfortably in a camp which he and another colored man had made for the night a mile and a half northeast of the city in Palmer park.  He protested that he was not the man wanted and that he was an innocent Virginian seeing the country from side-door Pullmans.  Officers from Pueblo will arrive in this city today.

Yampa Leader, December 30, 1905 The following new patents have been issued to Coloradans: Robert H. Bowman, Canon City, combination tool; Peabody A. Brown, Denver, thermostat; Walter C. Cunningham and W.A. Stebbins, Denver, edge ironing and shaping machine; Frank H. Frankenburg, Pueblo, lawn mower; Henry W. Gremmels, Denver, combined socket and plug for incandescent lamps; Kate Mercer, Greeley, attachment for pickle casters; Herman P. Neptune, Boulder, shingle gage; David Plattner, Denver, hay stacker; George W. Skinner,Jr., Denver, centrifugal pump.

The Pueblo Chieftain, 1-18-1998 Unrest in Southern Colorado 1904-1905
By PETER STRESCINO
Bloody strikes, official corruption, industrial tragedy, train wrecks, floods and killing fires were part of the landscape of 1904-05 America.

And much of it was centered in Southern Colorado.

On the international front, Russia and Japan fought a terrible war. Russians revolted, not for the last time, against Czar Nicholas II. There were problems in Panama, as the U.S. orchestrated revolt against Colombia wasn't too popular with the Colombians.

And in the West, Kansas and Colorado were fighting about water. There was even talk in 1905 about Colorado annexing Western Kansas to stop the water quarrels.

There was enough news locally that a reader then might never look at the articles centered on Japan smacking around Mother Russia.

Pueblo's Republican Mayor Benjamin B. Brown was portrayed as sort of a Bill Clinton in a bowler by the Democratic Star-Journal newspaper. The paper called him B.B. Brown, and if official corruption is your thing, B.B. would be your boy.

Brown and the chief of police, City Council president, constable and several cops, chief among them Det. E.H. Wilson, were hit with close to 100 indictments of official misconduct for ignoring the gambling dens on Santa Fe and Union avenues.

In May 1904, less than a month after the gambling indictments, another grand jury handed down another 90 or so indictments for larceny, embezzlement and forgery. Brown again was indicted, as were two county commissioners, the sheriff, chief of police, city accountant and council president.

Detective Wilson also was indicted, as he was again in 1905 for voter fraud and trying to influence witnesses. He was found guilty on those charges that year.

In 1905, after winning election to governor for the third time the previous November, Puebloan Alva Adams was tossed from office by a joint session of the Legislature. Statewide voter fraud by the Democrats, especially in Denver and Pueblo, was cited. When Adams, who served two months before losing the governor's job, returned to Pueblo in March 1905, a huge crowd turned out to hear him speak.

Strikes in Cripple Creek and Victor brought the state's "Army" out to attack strikers and union men in 1904. The streets of both communities were filled with blood, and even when Gov. Peabody told the militia to cease, the "generals" ignored their civilian leadership and continued to hunt down striking miners.

In 1905, the state Supreme Court ruled that the governor was the commander in chief of the state militia.

A train wreck at Eden killed more than 85 people in August 1904. Earlier in the year, a broken cable in Cripple Creek caused the death of 14 miners. The Purgatoire River turned to hell and wiped out much of Trinidad in the fall of 1904.

Things were vastly different than now during the middle of the century's first decade:

· "Another Chinaman weds white woman," a headline said, detailing the second such marriage in a month.

· Eight-room modern house, near Grand Hotel, $35 month.

· "Insist on using the weed," a long tribute to healthy tobacco use, appeared in the Star-Journal's meaty middle pages.

· McClelland Library, with a $70,000 donation from Andrew Carnegie, opened in Royal Park.

· Ads: "Fancy" hosiery, 34 cents; men's suits and overcoats, $11; buy your booze at L.E. Ross Family Liquor store; boy's shoes, $1.29.

· There's talk of getting families off county relief rolls. There are 262 paupers at the local hospital, costing the county $6,600 annually.

· The fire department is breaking in nine new horses, a story says.

· Bowling is huge. The two newspapers have a fierce competition and there is a Front Range league.

· Nancy Sneed, "35 and pretty," sold her husband's furniture, cleaned out his bank account and took off to California with the ice man, according to a story.

· Russian and Austrian Puebloans drilled in Bessemer, in case Russia called them to fight against what the paper called the Yellow Peril.

· Headline -- "Man robbed of 5 cents by Negro highwayman."

· Lake Minnequa freezes over in winter and hunting rabbits on the ice was big sport.

· Pueblo had 65,000 residents.

· Forty-two unpaid members of the state's militia seize the Pueblo armory on Jan. 27, and say they'll keep it until they're paid. The paper does not report how this turned out.

· Ida Miller abandoned her 11-year-old son and took off to Denver with the "Poet-Buglar of East Pueblo, William Wert." She killed herself with laudanum when she was captured.

· On April 6, 1905, the Chicago Nationals and Chicago Americans (the Colts) play an exhibition baseball game in Pueblo. Hall of Famers Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance play, as do notables Fielder Jones, Johnny Kling and Jimmy Slagle, all of the Nats, later called the Cubs. The paper runs a boxscore but no story.

· Pueblo County had several of its products on display at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, not least among them marble from Beulah.

· There were at least two opera houses in Pueblo.

· "Fewer idle girls now unwilling to stay home," a headline says.

1906



Yampa Leader 1-6-1906 - Mrs. Eliza Bliss, the oldest woman in Pueblo, celebrated her 101st anniversary December 30th in good health, being still able to assist in housework. She was born in Richfield, Connecticut, and remembers helping to sew tents for the soldiers of the war of 1812. She has a daughter eighty years old, living in California.

Yuma Pioneer 4-20-1906 Representative Brooks has appointed Joseph E. McCoombs, captain of the high school battalion of Colorado Springs, as a cadet in the West Point Military Academy. As alternates he appointed George D. Kimbrough of Central City and Lyman T. Elwell of Pueblo.

Basalt Journal - April 21, 1906 - A case of leprosy is reported to have been discovered in Las Animas county, the victim being a Japanese miner employed in the Majestic coal mine, sixteen miles north of Trinidad. He was promptly isolated and will probably be deported.

Basalt Journal - April 21, 1906 - Triplets, all girls were born to Mr. and Mrs. C. Gonzales of Watervale in Las Animas County April 6th. A picture of the family will be taken and sent to President Roosevelt. Each of the children weighed seven pounds and all are strong and healthy.

Yuma Pioneer 6-29-1906 Arrangements are being made by a number of the citizens of Pueblo to dig up from South Union avenue the stump of the famous old tree that stood in that thoroughfare until 1885, mention of which is given in the early history of Colorado and which was the scene of many lynchings and Indian gatherings long before there was any Pueblo. This stump is about eight feet below the surface of the street, having been buried by the building up of the grade.

Yampa Leader (Yampa, Routt County) June 30, 1906 -Pueblo, Colo. –Twenty-five visiting colored men and women were in the city Wednesday in attendance at the second annual convention of the Colorado Sate Negro Business League. The attendance represented the substantial colored population of the state as every delegate is engaged in some business or profession. The closing feature of the afternoon session was the election of officers. The following being selected: President: J.W. Jackson, Denver; First vice president, M.B. Brooks, Pueblo; Second vice president, W.H. Hooper, Eastonville; Third vice president, Mrs. W.A. Gatewood, Pueblo; Recording and financial secretary, W.A. Gatewood, Pueblo; Corresponding secretary, Dr. J.H. P. Westbrook, Denver; Treasurer, L. L. James, Pueblo; State organizer, H.F. Bray, Pueblo; Executive board, E.R. Booze, Colorado Springs; S.H. Tarbot, Denver; Rev. J.A. ford, Denver, Dr. A.S. Huff, Pueblo; J. Bates, Pueblo; Mrs. Jennie Drumm, Eastonville; C.E. Jackson, Aspen; G.W. Gross, Rocky Ford. The convention was called to order by President W.E. Gladden of Colorado Springs. One of the features of the morning session was the address by M.B. Brooks, editor of the Colorado Times, the only paper in town devoted to the interests of the colored men. Another feature as the annual report of the sate organizer, Mrs. Ida Joyce Jackson of Colorado Springs. The report says: "We now have three leagues, one in Pueblo, another in Colorado Springs and one recently organized in Denver. As the organization is only one year old, this is indeed a good showing, representing, at the least, seventy-five or eighty well established firms in business." After enumerating the business housed in different towns Mrs. Jackson summarizes the result by saying "From figures compiled the amount of the capital invested in this state equal about $177,000 [unable to read the entire numbers] in various business pursuits." At the evening session the address of welcome was delivered by J.D. King, president of the City Counsel who is acting mayor in the absence of Mayor West. An address was also made by Former Governor Alva Adams. Resolutions were passed urging the colored people of Colorado to take advantage of the splendid opportunities offered then for profitable investments in homes, in business pursuits, in mining and in agriculture. Also that "efforts be made to invite our people, with capital, brains and enterprise, to come into our state and to become a part of the productive force of Colorado; and with this end in view we advise that circulars be printed by the State Business League, giving facts and figures showing the wonderful resources of our state, and the many opportunities afforded here for the judicious and profitable investments of capital." Other matters touched upon were: The publishing of the acts of Negro criminals to the exclusion of the work being done by the better class to uphold law and order; endorsing the resolutions of the leagues of Republicans in favor of cutting down the representation in congress of those southern states that deny the right of suffrage to Negroes; approving of the "appointment by President Roosevelt of our retiring president of the State Business League, Rev. E. W. Gladden, to be chaplain of the United States Army."

Basalt Journal - September 1, 1906 - L. W. Lewis, the negro who was blown up by a premature explosion in the stone quarry near Starkville, was taken to Trinidad and had his right leg amputated. He lost both eyes, one of his hands and his left foot.

Basalt Journal - October 20, 1906 - Juan Vigil, who is charged with shooting Juan Gurule and Juan Munez at Segundo Thursday night as the result of a drunken row, was captured Saturday morning and placed in jail at Trinidad to await the result of Gurule's injuries before a preliminary hearing. Gurule was dangerously shot through the stomach. Vigil's mother, who accompanied him to Trinidad, is a full blooded Navajo Indian. Creede Candle 12-22-1906 Two dozen Japanese, lately arrived, have been put to work at Eiler smelter at Pueblo. These are the first Asiaites given employment by the smelting company. Creede Candle 12-22-1906 On the 17th inst. John Worthley was found guilty in the District Court at Pueblo of assault with intent to kill his wife, Alvona Lee Worthly. The assault took place three months ago, and but for a neighbor, who heard Mrs. Worthley's cries for assistance, her husband would have cut her throat. Creede Candle 12-22-1906 Fifty Japanese arrived at the Pueblo steel works a few days ago in charge of one of the Japanese employment agents who have been bringing Asiatics recently from Pacific coast points. Most of these men are common laborers, but a few are skilled in certain ways and command fairly good wages. This makes a total of nearly 600 Japs in the Bessemer colony. Creede Candle 12-22-1906 David Babb, who is charged with the murder of his wife's cousin, Bennett Burleson, at Earl, thirty miles east of Trinidad, was arraigned before Justice of the Peace Coney at Trinidad, where he entered a plea of not guilty and waived a preliminary hearing. He was removed back to the county jail and his bond was fixed at $3,000, which he was not able to furnish.

1907



Durango Democrat 2-6-1907 - May Make Fortune Out of Durango Gold Mine - (Pueblo Chieftain) - After three years of persistent prospecting Dr. P. D. Russell and associates have been rewarded with a gold strike that he believes will be one of the richest made in Colorado for many years.  The mine owned by the men is located in a gulch in the La Plata mountains, twenty-two miles north of Durango, and is inaccessible in winter.  Three years ago the mountain was bored to a depth of 700 feet, and while good ore was reached, water was scarce, and it was decided to go further down the mountain and bore again.  About 7,700 feet of extremely hard rock was drilled through, the vein struck again and the miners now have all the water necessary to carry on their work.  The latest assay gives almost fabulous returns in gold, with a large percentage of silver also.  The mine has cost the promoters $40,000 thus far, but they believe they will be able to redeem this amount in a short time.  Dr. Russell and Ira Crawford are the only Pueblo men interested in the property, the other owners being citizens of Jamestown, N. Y.  The proprietors have all the money they need to develop the mine, and no stock will be sold.  There is no railroad running to the mine at present, but a spur probably will be constructed up the gulch during the coming summer, and in the meantime the ore is being stored.  Great difficulty was experienced in the development work, owing to the character of the country and the nature of the rock through which borings had to be made.  Three men have been killed during the past year by snowslides, and work during the winter is almost impossible.  Dr. Russell was jubilant yesterday over a letter received from the president of the company advising him that a new vein had been struck at a depth of 1,700 feet.  He believes it will prove to be the best mine in Colorado.

Basalt Journal 4-6-1907 John F. Polk, a veteran of the Civil War, was visiting Pueblo this week, from Denver, where he was accidentally shot and may die.

Yampa Leader 4-20-1907 Henry B. McCoy, formerly clerk of the District Court at Pueblo, has struck it rich in gold mines in the Philippines.

Yampa Leader, April 27, 1907 - Sad Awakening - Thoughtless son will return to vacant home. - Mother in Pauper's Grave - He Brings Back a Fortune, but no Welcome from Mother Will Greet Him - Pueblo, Colo. - Ten years ago Abner Greenwich, a lad of seventeen, disappeared mysteriously from his home in Pueblo. His mother, a widow, believed he had been murdered. The police of Pueblo and other cities searched for him but without fining a clue which would lead to the explanation of the mystery, and in a year the disappearance of Abner Greenwitch was forgotten, for the haunting face of the mother was seen no longer at the police station, seeking news of her boy. She had died of grief. Now comes the reappearance of Abner Greenwitch, who, in a letter written from Peru to a boyhood friend, John McGovern, says he is returning with a fortune of $1,000,000 gleaned from the pestilential swamps of Peru and the sands of its fever-ridden rivers. "I am coming home," he says, "with a million to make my mother's last days happy," not knowing that all the millions in the world could not have atoned for one hour of the agony which his mother spent in her lonely search for her son. "She shall have everything that money can buy, but I want my arrival to be a surprise to her." Little does Greenwitch know that he will be unable with all his wealth to ever buy a stone to make his mother's last, resting place, for she sleeps with the unknown dead, and that in all the world there is no person who will feel a mother's joy at the return of a wondering son. Of all these things Abner Greenwitch knows nothing. It is enough for him now that he has $1,000,000, and that when as a boy reading forbidden tales of adventure, he told John McGovern that some day he would disappear and not return until he had $1,000,000, he had meant what he said. According to the story of Greenwitch, he has paid dearly for his wealth. The fever of the tropics has turned his hair gray and is face is wrinkled like that of an old man. "I am afraid," he says, "to see a looking glass. Once I saw my face in a pool near my camp, and its appearance frightened me, but I guess mother will know me, anyhow." Greenwitch says that tiring of school and poorly paid work, he carried out is expressed determination to disappear and not return until he had $1,000,000. With the carelessness and cruelty of boyhood, he never once thought of the sorrow he would cause his mother, but, meeting a young college graduate from Chicago, he stealthily left Pueblo, and, reaching New Orleans, sailed with is companion on a ship bound for Peru. For the first three years they suffered all the privations of hunger, thirst and fever, and found themselves further handicapped by their ignorance of the native language. Then, becoming familiar with the country and its customs, they plunged into the wilderness and engaged in the rubber business. "Until my arrival at Lima a month ago," he says, "for seven years I had seen no white face, save that of my partner. "Now my last dollar of the million has been made. My partner has a like account and a month hence we will be in Colorado, when I shall endeavor to make amends to mother for my conduct in leaving like I did." Colorado Transcript 5-23-1907 One of the largest realty and live stock deals that has taken place at Canon City for a long time has been closed, whereby George A. Baker and Clinton A. Biggs became owners of the famous Beckwith stock ranch in the Wet mountain valley, for $70,000.

Basalt Journal - May 25, 1907 - John Vermillion, a Colorado & Southern brakeman, fell from the top of a car as the train was pulling into Trinidad, recently, and was badly injured internally. He was taken to his home and is in a serious condition.

Durango Democrat 6-4-1907 - Telluride friends of Mrs. M. B. Gerry will rejoice to hear that she is in fairly comfortable health, though still far from well.  She and Judge Gerry have been forced to permanently abandon Colorado as their home state because of the inability of Mrs. Gerry to live at this altitude.  They have disposed of their Pueblo home and are permanently located at Rome, Ga., where their only child, a daughter, has her home.  Judge Gerry writes: "We are grieved to have to leave Colorado, for we love the state and the people; all our dearest friends live there."  The Journal sincerely hope to be permitted the pleasure to frequently announce to her old Telluride friends, continued and permanent improvement in Mrs. Gerry's health. - Telluride Journal.

Basalt Journal 6-8-1907 After living four years like a hermit and existing only upon bread and water, James McClair was brought in Divide to Cripple Creek by Sheriff Van Puhl and placed in the county jail. McClair wears his beard and hair long, a leather strap resembling sandals for shoes, and a woman's jacket in place of a coat. The man has been living in a cave about one mile from Divide.

Basalt Journal 8-17-1907 As the result of a collision with M.D. Thatcher's automobile, C.J. Heine, a lineman for the Denver & Rio Grande, who was riding on his bicycle, was seriously, if not fatally, injured at Pueblo. The accident occurred in front of St. Mary's hospital, where he was taken at once. He was badly bruised about the hips and back and received several deep scalp wounds. It is also said he was internally injured.

Yampa Leader, September 7, 1907 - Search is still being made for Denver Boggs, a magazine writer who disappeared from Pueblo a year ago. Foul play is suspected.

1908



Yampa Leader, August 29, 1908 Will Marry In The Heavens - Pueblo, Colo. - A novel feature will be given spectators at the State Fair Pueblo Day, when Miss Ada Reni, an aeronaut, will be married while 1,000 feet in the air to Walter H. Williams of St. Louis, according to a letter received by Secretary A.G. Watson, of the State Fair Association. The letter came from Charles Brenard, who will have charge of the balloon races during the fair. It stated that Miss Reni, to whom Williams has been engaged for two years, had promised to marry him in Pueblo if he would consent to have the ceremony performed in a balloon. According to her suggestion, immediately after the ceremony, they will drop in separate parachutes and she is to remain on terra firma for the balance of her life.

Yampa Leader, October 3, 1908 A peach seed planted by Mrs. Nancy Oney in her dooryard at Greeley seven years ago, when she was 79, has produced a tree from which she picked 11 ripe peaches on her 86th birthday, a few days since.

Grand Valley News 10-14-1908 From "The Lariat" - Mrs. F. Frisby Fink, of our midst, intended to join the society of the American Evolution, but when she began to look up her ancestors and found nine of 'em in jail and seven in the insane asylum, she suddenly changed her mind and joined the Barkin Soap Club instead.

Yampa Leader - November 14, 1908 - Mrs. Alfred Valdez of Majestic, a coal camp near Trinidad, a few days since gave birth to what is probably the largest baby ever born in Colorado. It weighed twenty-three pounds. The mother, under normal conditions, weighs 125 pounds, while the father of the child is an ordinary sized Mexican, and a miner. They will name the baby William Howard Taft.

1909



Yampa Leader, November 26, 1909 The three Falconer brothers of Granada, attracted considerable attention at Pueblo a few days since. The combined height of the brothers is 19 feet 2 3/4 inches. Ed Falconer, the youngest, is the tallest. He stands 6 feet 7. Eugene measures 6 feet 4 ˝, while Williams is 6 feet 3 ˝. The brothers have adjoining ranches and are almost inseparable.    



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