continued from last week
by Nancy Christofferson
WALSENBURG — Last week, in the December 7 issue of the World Journal, was a history of the advances made in December 1903 – 120 years ago – in Walsenburg, namely the approval and building of a new county courthouse and the construction of three churches and the large brick building at Fifth and Main Street destined to house the Paul Frohlich hardware store, and the existence of a coal strike under the watchful eye of Mother Jones. This week will highlight some other exciting or novel developments of that very busy time.
Around the first of November, Fred Roof had been made president of the First National Bank after it was reorganized by owner Fred Walsen. It had opened for business November 4. Today Roof is generally remembered, if at all, as the co-builder of the Roof-Dick building. He had come to Walsenburg in 1888 as a railroad depot agent and teacher, served as city clerk, county clerk from 1889-1895, though the city refused to accept his resignation, was clerk of the district court and an active “joiner”and leader of organizations. Best of all, he was the first paid subscriber of the Walsenburg World newspaper in March 1889. Roof was hired by Walsen for the Walsen-Wheeler bank and remained when it became Walsen’s Banking Company. As soon as he resigned from that position, the bank was reorganized as Walsen and Son, Bankers in 1901, and he was hired.
Roof and Walsen took over the bonding for the new county courthouse December 4, 1903, by which time the Walsenburg Investment Company had been incorporated by Roof and cronies.
Mixed into these things financial was the incorporation of the Walsenburg Investment Company with $50,000 by Roof, James B. Dick, George Dick, J.B. Farr and J.M Mathews.
It was just an organizing kind of month. The Walsenburg Rifle Club was organized, too, as well as the Walsenburg Hide and Wool Company which quickly obtained lots on the Colorado and Southern tracks for a warehouse. The “Hide” equaled cattle and the “wool”, sheep, two of the area’s biggest “crops”. At the tail end of the month, there was a twist on this – J.B. Farr, E.A. Lidle and E.L. Trounstine incorporated the Walsenburg Hide Company.
By that time, also, Huerfano County had obtained the entire block it now occupies and had torn down the old livery to be replaced by an ornamental iron fence and lawn.
Considering that organization was on so many minds, the Walsenburg Military Band scheduled a Grand Ball for New Year’s Eve in Mazzone’s Hall with an “imported” orchestra.
In mid-month, a new entity introduced itself. It was the Ethiopian Protective and Beneficial Aid Association, which had chosen a site for a “New Ethiopia” on 4,000 acres of land 12 miles south of Walsenburg near the Hezron coal camp in the vicinity of Pryor and Santa Clara. On this property, members were proposing to build an “Old Folks Home”, an industrial school, and even a hospital.
As if having Mother Jones visit them wasn’t enough, coal miners and their families must have been totally awed by the presence of the famous Polly Pry. Ms. Pry loved to rabble-rouse, and this time her target was coal camp housing. Since so many of the early miners lived in homes they’d built themselves, without amenities of any kind, and merely tacked on shanties to them to shelter their children, Pry had a lot to report.
No surprise, she didn’t like any of what she saw, mostly in Las Animas County. These included the Victor-American camps of Hastings, Del Agua and Tabasco initially. She was not only disgusted by the horrid conditions but the rents of $8 for a six-room “cottage”, $6 for a three-room and $4 for two. She was horrified by the lack of sanitation, amenities, and organization, as she perceived it. She reported many of these houses were deserted, no doubt due to the recent strike. Even the Pictou camp social column in the Walsenburg World had shared the news of few children attending school there. It was not a good time for mines or miners, and certainly not for their children either.
Nevertheless, Colorado Fuel and Iron Company chose this month to announce its reorganization. To keep the coal mining business separate from the steel making arm of the company, it would henceforth keep the mines under the umbrella name of Rocky Mountain Fuel Company while the CF&I title referred only to steel-making. Obviously, not everyone got the hint because the CF&I sobriquet has been used for any and all of the original’s properties ever since – 120 years so far.
Construction was marching on along Main Street and the side streets that December. The latest in new business additions was an office for the Colorado Telephone Company. Contractor J.B. Gittings won the job to build a 20-foot high, 33 by 20-foot structure. It would be of pressed brick with plate glass windows in front. The employees had hardly gotten settled the next month when the company moved into the Klein Hotel (where it had been before) on Sixth.
First introduced in Walsenburg in 1894, telephones had progressed from long distances, as in the original line between Pueblo and Raton, to short distances. Cost was one cent per mile for five minutes. At the same time, many of the coal camps got service, but the CF&I took things farther by connecting their camps by telegraph, through their corporation known as Mountain States Telegraph company. Anyway, costs went down per minute as use went up. By 1903 local circuits abounded and a second operator was hired.
Gold mining areas were not connected to phones, even though the upper Huerfano diggings resurfaced to “boom” for a few more years and the Copper Bull copper mine on Pass Creek was also back to production.
After months of being idle, some coal mines were finally reopening. The Toltec, owned by Northern Coal Company, resumed work mid-December, abiding by union-scale wages – a victory for Mother Jones and her miners. The company also owned the Jewel, Southwestern and Empire mines in the Aguilar area, so it is assumed all these were now union-approved. This affected about 150 workers, but it was a start. The strike, the World had declared earlier, was “a failure”. Even the important mine of Rouse was reopened January 12. With the return of the “good times” anticipated, the Gordon and Firm saloon added a billiard room with a “fine table”.
Not all mines adopted the union standards and some remained closed. Even by January 1, many miners of different companies were still “out” and rumor was some 70 more were at the time en route from West Virginia to replace strikers. Production soon was one-third of what the strike had caused and shipping was back to 115 railroad cars per day. Some of the ‘”scabs” were Japanese.
Mother Jones had retreated to Trinidad where she was reported quite ill with pneumonia. However, here and there mines were returning to production, though as late as February the UMW was still providing about $15,000 for strikers’ in the two-county district.
A few more rumors, quite true, it developed, were making the rounds. One was the drive to create a new county out of parts of Huerfano and Costilla. The other was renaming Walsenburg “Leon City”.
Ongoing construction included the completion of the belfry on the new Baptist Church while the Presbyterians were using theirs and still raising funds to pay for it. The new Frohlich Hardware was nearly ready to open. Perhaps its presence raised interest in surrounding properties because this is when the Walsenburg Masonic Lodge purchased its 30-foot frontage on Main Street, next to Mr. Frohlich and across the street from the growing mass that would be the Huerfano County courthouse. And, across the street another direction, the new First National Bank had increased its capitalization to $60,000.
1904 started out just as enthusiastically as the previous year, a feeling that had, with the strike, diminished. Also, hopes for the summer’s supply of water for irrigation were dim. The long-debated water system question finally came to a vote that spring and the election drew a very limited number of anyone who cared. Less than 100 ballots were cast. There was no strike that year, however, and while the number of construction projects was less, the year did experience its high points and, sure enough, life went on.
