Pueblo County CO Archives History - Books .....Historic Pueblo 1914 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 6, 2009, 6:49 am Book Title: Ranch Life And Other Sketches HISTORIC PUEBLO City building is a chapter in sociology of great interest to the philosopher. But the reason for the founding of a city, supposing any strict reason for it, would be very instructive. Men do not always build cities on the sites first selected. In other words nature, not man, determines finally where they shall be built. The selection of sites is governed by the concentrated requirements of commercial evolution such as the soil; the contiguity of wood, or coal, or iron; hygienic environment; and convenience of transportation, natural or artificial. Should man be so foolish as to violate these natural requirements he would suffer the penalty by failure. For instance, if those who, by their early settlement here, unconsciously selected Pueblo for the site of a city had been governed by estheticism and not by so-called requirements of physical necessities, it certainly would have been located away from the irregular bluffs and arroyas contiguous to the river. As it is, the city has grown over and around these, and in time, when the hard necessity of daily toil shall bring wealth and refinement to its citizens, the unsightly places can be made beautiful by the hand of man. The original pioneer inhabitants gave no thought to the mere beauty or ugliness of sites. A running stream, a spring of water, plenty of surrounding grass and timber, where, of course, would be also deer, or antelope, or buffalo for food, were the compelling, and to the pioneer the most beautiful, conditions. The pioneer had neither the leisure nor the ability to admire that which was not useful to him. The miner, for instance, was not usually an educated man of leisure and refinement, other than in the heart qualities of hospitalities and sympathy. But the location of placer gold in paying quantities, was always a beautiful spot to him, whatever the surroundings might be. The pioneer was his own farmer, baker, cook, tailor, butcher, nor had he any telephone by which he could order his dinner at the hotel miles away and whirl himself there in an automobile. The pioneer life, however, was a necessary step in the evolution of cities from mere sites of cities. It necessarily preceded, and was the essential fore-runner of the very much more desirable advance which the present generation is making. Those who braved the native Indian tribes lived in a primitive age and performed well the requirements of it, were happy and contented, and are entitled to our everlasting gratitude. Those of them who came into the Arkansas valley rescued it from a savage race, who did not occupy a thousandth part of it, who did not make any use of its endless resources; who would neither till the soil, nor extract the coal, and metals, from the mountains, nor allow any one else to do so; who did not welcome immigration; but repelled it with murderous savagery. The refined, the fastidious, the dilettante, could not penetrate the unknown desert and perform the rough work of a pioneer. The pioneer had no thought of city building. That was done by those who came after him. Yet the pioneers made settlements on the sites where cities had to be built. Unconsciously, by following the natural requirements of human needs, they chose the sites of cities. It would be difficult to determine just when, and in whose brain, the definite idea of a city at Pueblo first originated; certainly it was not prior to the advent of a railway and smelters, after the discovery of carbonates at Leadville. Those who now live here and study the situation, seeing how wise the first settlers were in selecting this location, on account of the water, soil, climate, and facilities of transportation, all think that our city, having its foundation laid in the adaptability of the natural conditions, will continue to grow to much larger dimensions; and the present inhabitants are the real city builders upon the site our forerunners selected. New York, Philadelphia and Boston were natural seaports, and grew upon the ground first occupied by the earliest immigrants. Cincinnati and Chicago did not grow upon the actual locations first selected for them, but like a water turtle, immediately turned toward the streams, and then grew like a willow tree, when placed where the water reaches its roots. Chicago flourished best in the swamp adjacent to the Chicago river, a natural harbor, and compelled its citizens, willy-nilly, to expend millions of dollars in lifting the city above the swamp and bringing the adjacent high ground where the city failed to grow, to the place where it would grow. The mountain thus literally came to Mahomet. The lakes, of course, are the determining factor in locating the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and Toledo, and numerous other lesser cities. But second to the lakes as promoters of city building in localities adjacent to an ocean or lake, are the mouths of rivers which furnish good harbors for transportation, also the banks of any navigable stream. After railroads expanded into great lines of commercial traffic, it was possible to build cities away from oceans, lakes and navigable rivers, such as Indianapolis, Indiana; Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia. Lexington, Kentucky, is an older city than Cincinnati, or Louisville, but it was not on the Ohio river and did not develop into a large city. Another curious fact in the location of cities in the United States is that generally they are located on the west sides of streams running north or south or bodies of water. The tide of emigration toward the west seems to be the factor in this tendency. The growth is toward the west. St. Louis, Kansas City and Omaha, are samples of this tendency in the newer west, as well as Chicago, Milwaukee and Cincinnati in the middle west. The great region west of the Missouri river did not grow into importance until the through lines of railroad were built. Its streams were largely unnavigable. But they furnished the water level for the railroad grades and along these the pioneer settlements had already necessarily been established. The pioneer was compelled to locate near water and such locations also contained timber and the best grazing; these features indicated the most fertile land. By reason of these natural features the early pioneers found the region of the confluence of the Fountain and Arkansas rivers a good site for a city surrounded by wide bottoms, good timber, plenty of grazing and near the mountains where afterwards mining became very profitable; whose barriers stopped for a time further westward treking and where game was plenty. It was not only in the line of travel from the east, but in that from the north and south, being on the first level land east of the rough mountain region to the west. The Arkansas valley from the beginning remained a great highway for travel from St. Louis, Independence and Westport, Missouri, toward the Pacific coast or into the Rocky Mountains. Some trappers of the American Fur Company, established by the elder John Jacob Astor, operated in this region and made Pueblo their winter quarters. Here came the buyers of furs, all for the American Fur Company, to meet the trappers and trade or purchase their collections. In 1840 the location was considered of so much importance that at least not later than 1842, a fort was built for the better protection of the permanent residents, and of the trappers and sojourners, against the Arapahoes, Cheyennes and Kiowas, who were troublesome. The first white child was born here August 17th, 1846. Her maiden name was Sarah Kirchner. Now her married name is Sarah Miller. There certainly was not another location at that time within the present boundaries of Colorado with so large a population of white people. It is true, that most of these were only temporary citizens, who remained only a few months, that is, through one winter. But, they lingered as long as they did because it was a desirable location in which to reside, and consequently a good location for a city. They found the winter mild, grazing good, and game plenty. It was easy to raise crops in the rich soil of the bottoms, which could be irrigated from cheaply constructed ditches, taking water from the Arkansas river. John Hunt, then 13 years old, was here in 1846. He attended the 18th Irrigation Congress from Arizona, which met at Pueblo in 1910. The special party which wintered at Pueblo in 1846-7 were induced to come to this point, because assured they could here get supplies. It seems, however, that the supplies, other than the plentiful game, consisted of corn and cornmeal. These they did not obtain at Pueblo, but from the Hardscrabble and the region west of Pueblo, there being some farmers on the Hardscrabble creek and a rude corn mill in that region. Why were these people at that particular place, and where did they come from? Their presence there can be accounted for as follows: about 1822, Colonel Wm. Bent made a rude fort at the mouth of the Hardscrabble, and established there his trading post. Under the protection of that fort, and the facility of obtaining supplies from Bent's store, undoubtedly those trappers of furs who had drifted up the Arkansas river, or who had come from Santa Fe, or Taos, in the south, settled on the Hardscrabble, or on the Arkansas river as far up as where Canon City now stands. They could get no further west without climbing the mountains. For some reason, Bent moved later from the Hardscrabble to where Las Animas town is now located on the Arkansas river. The probable reason is that he found the Hardscrabble too far west to catch any travel from either the north or south. The north and south trail parallel with the mountains ran up the Plum or Cherry creek from the South Platte, and down the Fountain to the Arkansas. From the Arkansas it would naturally follow either the Huerfano, St. Charles, or Purgatoire. So that the mouth of the Fountain, or of the Purgatoire, and not the Hardscrabble offered the best points to catch the travel coming from the north, east and south. Bent chose the mouth of the Purgatoire; and afterwards, the old Santa Fe trail, which was first traveled in 1824, branched off from the Arkansas river and followed south up that stream. But also many travelers kept on up the Arkansas to Pueblo, and then turned south. It turned out that Bent's fort near Las Animas did not become the nucleus of a city, but that the mouth of the Fountain, where in 1840 a small fort was built, did become such nucleus. This occurred because nature had provided a natural line of communication between the Platte and Arkansas rivers, by the water levels of the streams mentioned, upon which the trails, wagon roads, and railways in succession were forced to be made, whether man so desired it or not. The Hardscrabble was too far west, and the Purgatoire, or Las Animas river too far east to catch the tide of travel which eventually set in along this natural trail from north to south along the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains. Now, since the Grand Canon of the Arkansas fifty miles west of Pueblo, gave a low grade for a railway through the Rocky Mountains toward the Pacific Ocean, Pueblo has the advantage of being a railroad center of through lines from east, west, north and south. No other point on the Arkansas river nor any other point in Colorado could give this combination of fortunate advantages. There is little recorded history of Pueblo between 1846 and 1854, the date of the massacre in the fort; nor from that year until 1858. In 1858 gold was discovered in the sands of Cherry creek near where Denver now stands, and the Pike's Peak immigration began from the eastern states. Several parties of immigrants came through Pueblo by the way of the Arkansas river, notably that led by Green Russell. In this party was the late Judge L. B. Gibson and Mr. John D. Miller, Otto Wineke, Mr. Josiah Smith, and Charles D. Peck came that year. During the next year, or two, they were joined by S. S. Smith, W. H. Young, Matthew Steele, O. H. P. Baxter, G. M. Chilcot, G. A. Hinsdale, Mark G. Bradford, Colonel Francisco and others. A new settlement was made near where the Walter's Brewery is now located, and called Fountain City. But that did not grow. In 1860 or 1861 the region now known as lower Santa Fe Avenue, north of the river, was chosen by a number of the settlers as the proper place to build houses, and from the feeble start then made the present city of Pueblo has developed. The Arkansas river then ran close to First Street where it crosses Santa Fe Avenue. It is stated that one Jack Wright built the first house at the foot of Santa Fe Avenue. Colonel A. G. Boone, a nephew of the famous Daniel Boone, opened a store; and Emory Young was the first child born in the new location. But he came 14 years later than the real first white baby in 1846. The name given to Pueblo in 1840 has clung to it ever since, because it was appropriate, meaning a village. The town, governed by trustees, was organized in the winter of 1859-60, but not incorporated until 1870. The county was founded in 1862, and then included all the territory now contained in the counties of Pueblo, Bent, Otero, Prowers, Huerfano and Las Animas, with O. H. P. Baxter, R. L. Wooten and William Chapman as County Commissioners, and Stephen S. Smith as County Clerk. Judge Allen A. Bradford was the District Judge. Mr. Smith is still a citizen of Pueblo. Judge A. A. Bradford was afterward one of the Supreme Judges of the Territory, and was twice elected delegate from the Territory to Congress. Pueblo is indebted to him for the acquisition by the county, of the tract of land known as the County Addition on which the present Court House is located. The United States recorded census of 1870 shows that Pueblo had a population of six hundred and sixty-six. It has made continuous growth since that time. In 1880 it was about six thousand in the two towns of Pueblo and South Pueblo. In 1890, twenty-four thousand five hundred and fifty-four in the consolidated city; in 1900, twentyeight thousand one hundred and fifty-seven; and in 1910, forty-four thousand three hundred and ninety-five. In 1870 the population of Colorado was less than forty thousand, and of the County of Pueblo two thousand two hundred and sixty-five. The Rio Grande Railway came in 1872; and the first depot was located about where the railroad section house now stands at the Mineral Palace Park grounds. Prior to that date the passenger traffic was done by one stage coach daily from Denver, as before mentioned. The first regular court in Pueblo was held by Judge Allen A. Bradford. A historical writer of Pueblo County made this statement in 1881: "Court was held in an adobe building on Santa Fe Avenue, near Third Street, until 1872, when the present handsome structure, the finest court house in the state, was erected." The writer is not now living, and of course, would be astonished, if still living, to see the fine Court House now standing upon the site of the one he so praised. The first hotel was kept by Aaron Simms, followed soon after by another kept by John B. Rice. These hotels were not very large and palatial, nor did they furnish Delmonico meals. The first postmaster was Stephen S. Smith, followed by Aaron Simms. In 1862 the United States mail came from Denver alone and the service once a week. Afterwards a stage line was established, first by A. Jacobs, who was succeeded by Barlow and Sanderson, who ran the line until the D. & R. G. Railway came in 1872. Mr. J. A. Thatcher came in 1862, as a merchant in a small way. About 1863 the first school house a small frame on the west side of Santa Fe Avenue, between Fourth and Fifth Streets was built by private subscription, Miss Weston being the school teacher a small forerunner of the present large system. The first regular religious services were held in this school house in 1864. Dr. M. Beshoar, a late citizen of Trinidad, founded the Chieftain as a weekly newspaper in 1868. Samuel McBride was the mechanicalhead, and George A. Hinsdale and Wilbur F. Stone, the editors. It was printed on the spot where the present Chieftain office stands. St. Peter's Church, still standing on the corner of Seventh Street and Santa Fe Avenue, was erected in 1868, being the first building used exclusively for church purposes. It was considered at that time to be out of town, only two buildings being north of it. In 1870 the six hundred and sixty-six inhabitants all dwelt on the northside of the river; Mr. Klaas Wildeboor lived on the south side, where his present house is located. William H. Young had a private bridge across the Arkansas river near the present D. & R. G. Railway bridge. Baxter's grist mill stood on the site of the present beautiful public building. Thatcher Brothers had a general store on the southeast corner of Fourth and Santa Fe in an adobe building. They also did a banking business, and in 1871 founded the First National Bank. Only two brick dwellings existed in the town, but the jail was made of brick of so pale a color that the building had the appearance of an adobe. They were the first bricks made here. An adobe school building just erected stood on the ground now occupied by the Centennial School. George M. Chilcott and Wilbur F. Stone lived in adobe houses on the opposite corners of Sixth and Santa Fe, where they still stand. The National Hotel was located at 405 North Santa Fe Avenue. The name was the biggest part of it. Its former proprietor, a Mr. Cook, had died in 1870. Next to it on the corner of Fourth and Santa Fe was an adobe one-story building used by a Mr. Scidmore as an agricultural implement store. The only brick building on Santa Fe Avenue, the dwelling, No. 806, still standing with its gable to the street, had just been built by Lewis Conley, a very enterprising contractor. Weldon Keeling lived in a one-story frame corner of Tenth and Santa Fe; the next house south then occupied by C. J. Hart as a dwelling, is still standing; the next John A. Thatcher's residence corner of Ninth. Cooper Brothers occupied as a tin shop the frame building still standing at 513 Santa Fe Avenue. Henkel & Thomas had a bakery on the east side of Santa Fe south of Sixth Street. The El Progresso building belonging to George Hall stood on the southwest corner of Third and Santa Fe Avenue and his dwelling was opposite where the Hobson Block now stands. Guilford Court House Budd, a black man, lived on the side of the bluff south of George Hall; he was the barber. The Post Office was just south of Fourth Street in a frame building, J. W. O. Snyder, the postmaster. The Drovers Hotel, kept by Harry E. A. Pickard, faced on Santa Fe Avenue between Second and Third and next door lived Com. Wetmore. O. H. P. Baxter's mill and residence stood on Main on opposite corners of Fifth Street. The ditch furnishing the water power to the mill ran through the mill and crossed Main Street at the alley beween the Central Block and the McCarthy building just south of Frank Pryor's store. There was nothing south of the mill ditch except a heavy growth of willows, and nothing south of the river except one log house in the Grove near where Clark's well and hotel are now located. The river, which now runs straight, then ran very crooked, with a sharp bend to the north. South Pueblo did not exist until 1872, after the D. & R. G. Railroad was built. Then a road was opened now called Union Avenue and a wooden bridge erected over the river. Lower Santa Fe Avenue, lower Main, Union Avenue and the streets west and south of Fourth and Main have all been filled for several feet, thus greatly changing the grade of the streets and altering the aspect of that part of the city. The present city has obliterated the contour and topographic features of the old town of 1870. The filling up of the mill ditch, the changing the river channel, the opening of extensions of the old streets, cutting down some and filling the low stretches of streets with six or eight feet of dirt, the building of numerous bridges across both the Arkansas and the Fountain, but more especially the building of dwellings, business blocks and other edifices necessary for a population of fifty thousand, in place of six hundred and sixty-six, have so metamorphosed the old town of 1870, that even those who resided here then cannot with the most vivid imagination recall, except in faintest memory, what the appearance of the Pueblo of 1870 really was. George A. Hinsdale lived near the corner of Fourth and Main in a one-story adobe. He died in January, 1874. He was a lawyer, a man of intellect, and a prominent citizen. His memory is honored, by the state in giving his name to Hinsdale County, and locally in Pueblo by naming after him the Hinsdale public school. There was little on Main Street in his day. Could he see it now, especially the corner of Fourth and Main, he could not possibly recognize it. Absolutely nothing remains in that region which was there at the time of his death. Could he revisit the place in 1914 he would see the same natural features of mountains, plains and sky, but scarcely a human face that he would recognize and not a single building on Main Street with which he was familiar in 1874. Men and the handiwork of men change absolutely in a few years in this great growing west, but nature changes so slowly and uniformly that could Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in a hundred years from now revisit the location of his camp on this spot in 1806, he would see the same "great white peak" named after him, and if he calculated at that time the latitude, the longitude and the elevation, he would find that these were the same as they were in 1806. But he would raise his hands and brows in utter bewilderment at beholding the great changes made by the hand of man. It is thus apparent that nature has no time, as it is conceived by man and that what man calls time is simply his consciousness of changes in phenomena. If there were no changes recognizable by us in such phenomena as the rotation of the earth on its axis, its annual revolution in its orbit, the birth, growth and death of organisms, the speedy decay of all that is made by the brains and hands of man, we should not be conscious of that peculiar conception we call "Time." Therefore, living, forty years in Pueblo County means the unchanging aspect of natural earth and skies, but the rapid and very noticeable changes constantly occurring in the puny works of man. Allan A. Bradford was a delegate to Congress in 1870. He, Henry C. Thatcher, Wilbur F. Stone, George A. Hinsdale, George M. Chilcott, George Q. Richmond and James McDonald were the lawyers. None of these are now living in Pueblo. All are dead except Wilbur F. Stone and George Q. Richmond. Henry C. Thatcher afterwards became Chief Justice, and Wilbur F. Stone an Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court. George Q. Richmond became a member of the Court of Appeals. George M. Chilcott was twice a delegate to Congress, and very efficient in procuring federal legislation beneficial to this territory. When in 1882 Senator H. M. Teller was appointed in President Arthur's Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Chilcott was appointed by Governor F. W. Pitkin to fill Mr. Teller's unexpired term in the United States Senate. He took his seat April 17th, 1882. "The United States Land Office in Pueblo was opened in 1871, and sold 80,719 acres of government land that year." The development in 1871 was quite large, being only the effect of the prospect of the coming of the D. & R. G. Railway which did not reach the city until June, 1872. The entire business of this town at that date, was transacted on Santa Fe Avenue from First to Sixth Streets. General Samuel Brown of Denver, said that when he was United States District Attorney, prior to 1870, whenever he came to Pueblo, he always occupied the best room in the hotel, which was the hay-mow. It was very comfortably furnished when the guest brought his own blankets. The Southern Ute Indians passed through once a year, and always camped near town for a few days. Their picturesque appearance lent color and quaintness to the streets. Their big chiefs always rode; and in going from one store to another would always mount their ponies, even if the distance was only a half block, carrying the ends of the lariats across the sidewalks into the stores, the cayuse ponies being tied to the other ends in the street. These Indians spoke Spanish and a little English; but used few words. Signs and gesticulations make up the larger part of the real Indian language. One day an Indian was trying to buy some coffee. He laid down a tencent piece on the counter saying, "coffee, ten cent, swap." The grocer weighed out the coffee but while it yet lay in the scale the quantity not satisfying the ideas of the Indian, he picked up the coin, merely saying "no swap" and walked out. In 1872 the court house, lately torn down, was built. The coming of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway was celebrated in the new court house by a meeting addressed by Grace Greenwood and other speakers. The first city government was formed in 1873, a mayor and council taking the place of former town trustees. In 1876 the original Centennial school house was built and in 1879 the Insane Asylum established, with forty patients. Good climate has much to do with the growth of a city, although we must remember that St. Petersburg, built by Peter the Great, in almost an artic region, sixty degrees north latitude, is as nearly an artificial city as man can produce. But Peter had the resources of an immense empire at his control with which to work. The example is too costly to be followed, especially in a republic like ours, where cities are built, not by emperors, but by poor people who seek a milder climate in which food can be cheaply produced. A feature of the fitness of the locality in which Pueblo is situated for a thriving city, is found in the high average temperature of the valley in which it is situated. The isothermal line, indicating fifty-two degrees Farenheit yearly average, takes in Pueblo and Canon City by a sharp loop leaving out the contiguous region. This is the highest average temperature in Colorado on its slope east of the mountains. This means grass, vegetables and fruit, earlier than in other regions. It means a milder winter climate. It puts a higher percentage of sugar in the beets and more intensely sweetens the famous cantaloupes. The moisture is only twelve inches yearly on the average. The scant rainfall and the numerous sunshiny days insure the nutrition of the range grass in the winter, account for the clear atmosphere so delicious to breathe, produce a climate unsurpassed and exceedingly attractive for happy homes and contentment. Prior to its acquisition under the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, following the Mexican war of 1847, the territory south of the Arkansas river belonged to Mexico. South Pueblo lies upon a part of the Nolan grant of 48,000 acres derived from the government of Old Mexico. The same persons who built the Denver & Rio Grande Railway formed a corporation called "The Colorado Coal and Iron Company" and acquired this grant. It lies in the triangle formed by the Arkansas and St. Charles rivers and the Greenhorn mountains. This company established the city of South Pueblo, which in 1886 was consolidated with old Pueblo. The real growth of Pueblo dates from the advent of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway. The coming of that railway more than doubled the population in a short time but the coming of the Santa Fe Railway in March, 1876, did not produce that effect. The building of the Steel Works in 1881 again doubled the population in two years. After the discovery of carbonates at Leadville and the extension of the D. & R. G. Railway up the Arkansas river to that place, Mather and Geist commenced the establishment of smelters. When to these facts are added the later discovery of immense beds of coal near by, the building of a city of great importance at this point followed as naturally as that railways are constructed along water levels. Now, in the year 1914, with smelters, steel works, several railways, wholesale commercial houses, manufacturing in various lines, thousands of miles of irrigating ditches in the Arkansas valley and the consequent cultivation of 500,000 acres of irrigated land tributary to the city, the before mentioned pioneer features of the locality have been obliterated. In those days Arkansas river water was selling for 25c a barrel on the streets without either ice or filtration and no thought was then entertained that the river water was anything but pure and healthy. To have lived for forty years in a community and witnessed its growth from an insignificant village to a fair-sized city is a most interesting experience. It would be still more interesting to one who has lived here so long to witness the growth during the next four decades. The foundation only has yet been laid. The superstructure is yet to arise. As the area of agricultural land and the variety and quantity of mineral products shall grow, so will the manufacturing industry and the population increase in like ratio. No pioneer ever thought that any more land could come under cultivation than could be covered by the primitive and rudely constructed ditches taken directly from the streams. But now when flood water and surface waters are being conserved in every arroya and the underflow is being brought to the surface, the probable number of acres that may eventually be cultivated on the eastern water shed of the Rocky Mountains cannot now be estimated. A large city will gradually develop here parallel with the growth of the country. Larger manufacturing plants, more palatial residences, more blue grass lawns, finer and more numerous schools and churches will grace the mesas and bluffs; and, over all, the glorious sunshine from cloudless skies will continue to shine, giving more abundant life and power to a healthful, happy and long lived race of Anglo-Saxon white people. This will not be done in a few years. The possibilities of growth will remain as long as the Rocky Mountains rear their rugged heads into the clear blue of the empyrean. "All things come to him who waits" is not a truism confined to the individual alone, but can well apply to the race, especially to the white race which speaks the English language. It is even now within the vision of some men in Colorado that our state can and will eventually support a population of four or five millions. The development of a municipality has been likened to that of an animal organism which grows from a single aggregation of cells to a complex body. The comparison, while not altogether complete, yet in a crude way is true. The analogy is not perfect because the special units which make up the individual organism having unknown millions of years behind them, are more cohesive and uniform in their integration than are the social units that make up the aggregate of a community, which has had only a few thousand years of existence. The very early Pueblo could well be compared to a young child crude in its ways governed by no law except that of self-preservation and doing only those things which pleased itself. Nearly all the early inhabitants were adapted only to such a life. When more complex methods became necessary which required rigid city ordinances, police and fire protection, religious and moral supervision, the independent old pioneer declared it was "gittin' too civilized" and moved to newer localities better adapted to his established habits. Those who remained were the more intellectual who were able to learn the new ways and who had acquired so much property, as to prevent a change of location without too great a sacrifice. The constant increase of population by birth and the advent of newcomers, the building of new houses, the construction of railways and manufactories, the opening of new farms in the adjacent country, which gave trade to the merchants and furnished sustenance to the people, made the comparison to the growth of an animal organism a very striking one. In much the same way does the blood of the body produce the cells that build up the bones and muscles; while both the social and the animal organizations maintain themselves and enlarge their functions, by increasing their correspondence with a wider and more complex environment. The lines of wagon roads, the commercial railways, telephones and telegraphs, which connect a city to other cities and remote regions, may well be compared with the nerves of the body through which come the sensations that give the organism its intelligence, its psychical function. These avenues of communication civilize a city, brighten its inhabitants, bring better houses, with more luxuriant furnishings, set better tables, and make schools, churches, and libraries necessities, just as the nervous system in the body produces finer mental qualities, as it becomes more complex or better trained, more facile in its correspondence with the outer world. To see for years, then, the evolution of a city, is similar to watching the development of a child in body and mind. The child passes from a helpless ignorant condition, to a positive dynamic, intellectual and moral force, as its body grows and its brain expands, by means of a physical and educational environment; first in the family; then with its companions in the community; in the common schools; the higher schools, and finally at college, it is fitted for the duties and responsibilities of complex citizenship. The whole process in both a municipality and in an organism is a constant readjustment of a developing organism with a constantly increasing complexity of environment, the latter being static, while the organism is the mobile factor of the adaptation. That is, the same environment is always simple to the simplest organism, and complex also to the most heterogenous organism. For example, the astronomical-mathematical environment finally reached by Sir Isaac Newton, when he discovered the principle of the attraction of gravitation, existed just as statically, that is, without change, when Newton was a baby in arms, with an environment confined to the nursery; but he grew by education and study, by successive steps, until the special avenues of his brain finally reached the very complex and wide environment of the universe and its laws. He was the evolving, changing factor, and not the stars and the laws of their movement. The latter had been complex, as he found them, for ages. Especially is the analogy between an organism, and a municipality true, when an ethical comparison is made of the iniquitous customs, which have a tendency to disorganize society, and the individual habits which apparently demoralize the citizen. The truth is commonly expressed in the well known aphorism so much dwelt upon at present, that governments and individuals must be equally controlled by the same homely virtues of common honesty. In the early days strangers were few. Every one knew or had a speaking acquaintance, with every other one. A wonderful change has occurred in that one can now walk the streets and not recognize a tenth part of the people. Such a transformation is not pleasant for the older people. They sigh for "the good old times," prior to the coming of the railways. In their declining years, men and women make few friends, and the dimming eyesight fails to become familiar with the features of the young, who pass so quickly, on nimble feet. The new modes of locomotion, by bicycle, motor-cycle, automobile, and soon by flying machine, are altogether too swift for the old people, who have spent the most of their lives in more deliberate methods, in walking, on horseback, or in horse vehicles. But, in truth, the newer ways are better for the young, and more conducive to the proper evolution of the growing business world. The swifter methods, making it possible to condense the time necessary to devote to business, into fewer hours, will give more time for mental and moral training, and to conserve health, prolong life, and increase the happiness of mankind. The added leisure which should follow the newer ways, with the intellectual habit, must give refinement to a much larger class of people. With the great increase of public schools, college and university facilities, a very large number, who, under the old and slower methods, would remain in ignorance, and in unrefined habits of life, will be added to the circle of intellectual people. It is to be hoped that this circle will enlarge until it will finally include the whole of our national population. Additional Comments: Extracted from: RANCH LIFE AND OTHER SKETCHES By Michael Hendrick Fitch Author of "Echoes of the Civil War as I Hear Them" "The Physical Basis of Mind and Morals" "The Chattanooga Campaign" and "Universal Evolution" PUEBLO THE FRANKLIN PRESS COMPANY 1914 Copyright. 1914 By MICHAEL H. FITCH File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/pueblo/history/books/ranchlif/historic74nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cofiles/ File size: 37.7 Kb