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Ezra Nowels,Baca County’s First Judge
Attorney Ezra C. Nowels left Rensselaer, Indiana in 1888 and came to Minneapolis, Colorado. The March 14, 1888 Indiana State Sentinel reports, “Ezra C. Nowels will start to Colorado next week. He will locate in Minneapolis, Las Animas County, where he will engage in the practice of law and the real estate business. Mr. Nowels…
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John B. Garvin, an Unsung Springfield Hero from the County Seat Fights
John B. Garvin, an Unsung Springfield Hero from the County Seat Fights John Garvin is usually a footnote in the history of Baca County. You usually see him mentioned as a name in a list of early Springfield newspapers as follows: Sam Konkel mentions him in the Springfield paper in 1918 (Right) when he pulled…
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Prairie Cattle Company Incorporated 140 Years Ago Today
Today is a day in history that may only matter to those of us in southeast Colorado, northeast New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle and the Texas Panhandle. An event in in an office in Edinburg Scotland change the course of the afore mentioned areas, the American west and the American cattle industry. You see, 140…
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Indianapolis, Colorado – Est. 1887.
In the 1880s Americans were moving in droves to the Western frontier. Waves of migrants were inspired by the promises of cheap land and riches, Following the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the journey west became considerably easier. Many entrepreneurs and private town companies began heavily advertising real estate, investment and tourism…
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Preacher Evans: The Great Orator of Minneapolis, Colorado
Public speaking was an important part of life in 19th century America. Whether you wanted to win an election, win support for a reform movement, or become a successful minister, you needed to learn how to deliver crowd-pleasing speeches. Candidates for office debated one another. Evangelical ministers hoping to win people to their denominations could…
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Offices of the Prairie Cattle Company
“The largest herd of cattle I ever saw was in the summer of 1888. It stretched north from the mouth of Leon Creek, 25 miles southwest of the present Clayton for 5 or 6 miles. It was accompanied by 2 crews of 12 men each. Cattle belonging in Southern Colorado and the Cimarron River country…
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Baca County News Nov 1898,
The following provides a sampling of a what was important in Nov 1898 as reported in the Nov 11, 1898 Springfield Herald. I think in the future I will tie these closer to the Month in which they occurred, but we will start with this one for now. There was very little local news. J.R.…
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Wilde, Colorado: Colonel York, the Bloody Benders, and West Point.
The town, Wilde, Colorado is not Baca County. It was technically in Old Bent county or what is now Prowers County just west of Two Buttes Mountain and north of Butte Creek. However, most of us from Baca County feel the mountain, just over the county line, and the area just north of Two Buttes…
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The Noted Burying Ground: Boston, Colorado
The “Noted Burying Ground” or Boston, Colorado Cemetery shown in the Dec 2018 photo below is all that is left of what was Boston, Colorado of the Southeast Colorado plains. There are two issues that must be clarified as we give you a bit of this story. The Southeast plains reference is important as there…
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Reading Old Time Newspapers: A Primer
It feels great to find interesting tidbits in old newspapers—for me it has been part of researching my book, for others, it may be finding an obituary, marriage announcement, or other types of notice. But sometimes historical newspapers used abbreviations and terms that are no longer common, leaving some of us scratching our heads. …