Tales of the Colorado Pioneers. Alice Polk Hill
“Instantly every rifle of the guard was leveled at me. Snatching the warrant from my pocket I held it up, showing the seal and the American eagle on the corner, and commenced in a loud voice to read the formal printed mandate of the warrant. ‘The President of the United States to the Marshal of Colorado, greeting: You are hereby commanded to take the bodies of—’ I got no farther with the reading than this, for those words were no sooner uttered than a voice in the crowd shouted: ‘ Boys, we can’t resist the President of the United States. Hurrah for Abe Lincoln! ’ The crowd echoed the cheer, ‘ Hurrah for Abe Lincoln ! ’ A serio-comic mixture of the sublime and the
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ludicrous. Immediately the guns of the guard were brought to a ‘present arms.’ With my camp knife I cut the ropes which bound the prisoners, pushed them before me through the crowd, remounted my horse, and, accompanied by a single assistant—a staunch fellow named Bill Burdett, who is now a faithful guard at the State penitentiary at Conon City—marched back across the mountains in the night, by a lonely trail, and sent the prisoners to Denver, where they were tried, convicted and sentenced to a term of years in the penitentiary at Alton, Illinois.
“And so were the foundations of law and order laid by the pioneers. When they were without Territorial organization each separate community was an independent sovereignty, with a democracy as pure as was that of Greece, and a republic as potent as was that of Rome.”
Soon after the Governor’s arrival in Colorado, he issued a call for a regiment of volunteer troops, with which to hold the Territory for the Union. In a few weeks one thousand men from the mountains and the glens rallied around him, in appearance a motley concourse, clad in all the odd fashions ever seen in a new and mountain district, and armed with such guns as the Governor had been able to purchase from individual owners—old rifles, shot-guns, old muskets, and anything, indeed, that resembled a firearm. But the loyalty and courage of these men saved the Union cause in Colorado and New Mexico, and well earned the uniforms and approved rifles with which they were afterwards supplied at Fort Union. Pressing southward, they met Sibley’s force and drove it back into Texas. This is claimed to be the first decisive victory won by the Government in the war for the Union.
CHAPTER XVI.
FIRE AND FLOOD.
On the 19th of April, 1863, one-half of the business part of Denver was destroyed by fire. The alarm was given between the hours of 2 and 3 in the morning, and before the town was fairly aroused, the flames had made such headway that all effort to extinguish them seemed unavailing. The most that could be done was to save the contents of the burning buildings.
The loss of property by this fire exceeded two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and embraced the principal business portion .of the town. Before the wreck of the burnt district was cleared away, while the ashes were still hot and smoking, the work of rebuilding began. The new structures were principally of brick, and the indomitable energy that characterized the pioneer caused a fine city to spring up, Phoenix like, from the ashes; and commercial transactions soon resumed their former bustling activity. Most of the losers in that fire are the prominent business men of Denver to-day.
The Cherry creek flood began about midnight on the 13th of May, 1864. It swept away a number of buildings and drowned fifteen or twenty people.
Said a lady: “ I heard a terrible sound rolling through the air, like a discharge of cannon. I threw open the door, and beheld a gigantic wave, like an approaching Niagara, reflecting on its crest the light of the moon. At first it was slow and majestic in its movements, then it came faster and faster, mounted higher and higher, tear-
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70 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS.
ing up solid soil until it held in suspension nearly half its volume in sand. Trees were toppled down, houses fell and everybody rushed in fright away from the mad torrent.
“After the sorrowful tales were told and the gloom wore away, we found much to laugh at. One lady awoke her husband and asked him to get up and see what was the matter, ‘she heard a noise like the screaming of people.’ He said it was the wind and gave himself up to sleep; but she ‘refused to be comforted/ and aroused him again.
He said, ‘if I go to the door and look out, I suppose you will be satisfied.’ Stepping on the floor, he plunged knee deep in water; then, muttering a few crusty words about leaving the children’s bath-tub in the middle of the floor, he took another step, only to discover that something was radically wrong. They were saved from a watery grave by the gallant men on horses, who were dashing through the surging waves, rescuing families from their flooded homes.”
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