Cotopaxi, Colorado: Russian Jewish Colony
The Cotopaxi Colony
by Flora Jane Satt II. The People III. The Events IV. Conclusions V. Essay on Sources VI. Bibliography
Sketch of Cotopaxi in 1883 Genealogical Chart
I. The Place
Cotopaxi, a small, unincorporated village on the banks of the Arkansas River, has been the scene of an unusual chapter in Colorado history. This oddly-named town, today just a “whistle-stop” on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, Thirty-three miles west of Canon City in Fremont County, is mentioned in many encyclopedias and books on American agricultural colonies.1 Environmental factors are always important in analyzing an historical episode, but particularly in the case of the colony founded here because its failure has been attributed solely to these factors. The naming founding and description of its physical features are necessary for an appreciation of Cotopaxi’s role in this history.
The man responsible for the strange name was Henry Thomas, known to contemporaries as “Gold Tom”. He was an itinerant prospector who left the Central City gold camp in 1867, 2 and crossed the Divide to investigate the Upper Arkansas Valley around California Gulch. There he conceived the idea that some of the heavier gold might have washed downstream 3 so he continued south along the river, reaching
the forks near the present site of Salida about 1870. At the same time, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad began its survey of a proposed transcontinental route through the Arkansas Valley.4 By October 31, 1872 track had been laid as far west on this route as Labran, seven miles east of Canon City, and Henry Thomas had taken a job with the railroad to augment his meager prospecting income. His duties included procuring timber for ties and this meant he had to scout not only the region the being graded but neighboring alleys and mountains. Particularly struck by one of these valleys as closely resembling an area he had once prospected in northern Ecuador, he named the Colorado counterpart after the dominant Andean geographic feature, a volcano called “Cotopaxi”.5 At the juncture of the small tributary streams which flow into the Arkansas River at Cotopaxi, Colorado, looking westward through the narrow canyon of the river, one can see a conical-shaped peak, part of the Sangre de Cristo Range, framed by the steep walls of the canyon, Old residents of the area who knew Henry (Gold Tom) Thomas say that it is this unusual view which recalled to his mind the Andean volcano and caused him to call the little valley by the odd-sounding Spanish name. In 1873 he built a cabin there as a base for his prospecting in the surrounding hills. In 1874 he had filed several mining claims at Canon City and is credited with the discovery of the Cotopaxi Lode, one of the richest deposits of silver with zinc in Fremont County.
The small streams mentioned above are ephemeral, becoming quite dry in summer and fall, although they have been destructive during the spring flood stage. The northern one is known as Bernard Creek and the southern one, which flows out of the tip of (the) Wet Mountain valley, is called Oak Grove Creek. They join the Arkansas where a bend in the latter’s course widens the valley floor to about one mile in width. This confluence of streams has cut an oval-shaped, flat-floored valley almost completely encircled by steep, rocky cliffs. So narrow is the canyon cut by the Arkansas immediately beyond Cotopaxi that the Denver and Rio Grande tracks run along a man-made ledge cut out of the rock walls. The town itself lies at an elevation of 6,718 feet above sea level, while the elevation of the transecting valleys rises in a steep gradient to 8,000 feet within four miles.6
There are several such valleys along the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida and these wire first utilized by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad as sites for warehouses and for water, wood and coal storage. Henry (Gold Tom) Thomas built a shed to house his ties at Cotopaxi in 1874. It was not until late in 1878 that some of these storage sites became depots, post offices and townsites, due to the four-year delay caused by the famous “Royal Gorge War”. Bitter legal battles in the courts and violent physical struggles along the right-of-way itself between the Denver and Rio Grande and the Santa Fe railroads divided the people of the region into warring camps. This controversy was held responsible for the retarded economic development of western Fremont County.7
Mineral resources did not attract population to Fremont County, at least in a manner experienced by other counties. It never became a center of refining or smelting as did Pueblo County, although early in the 1880’s Canon City was vying with Pueblo for the title of “Pittsburgh of the West”.8 The best source of gold and silver was in the southern half of the county, which was separated for the northern half in April of 1877. This new section was named Custer County and as the scene several years later of several spectacular mining booms.9
The only comparable gold and silver mines in Fremont County were the Gem and the Cotopaxi Lodes but considerable deposits of coal, oil and iron were found and developed elsewhere in the county. Also, unusual metals such as nickel, molybdenum and pure zinc blende were mined. In general, mining laws in Fremont Count conformed to those and were patterned after the laws of other Colorado mining counties, except where coal and oil development required different provisions.
There was no placer gold to attract large “rushes” of “Panners” and “Fly-by-nighters” as in Clear Creek or Gilpin Counties. No one except Carl Wulsten prospected for silver in Fremont County before 1872. 10 When silver was discovered in large quantities in the region, it proved to be vary difficult to mine (with the exception of the horn silver at Silver Cliff), requiring skilled labor, considerable capital investment, as well as metallurgical experience to handle the ore in reduction works. The coal and oil deposits were mostly accidental discoveries, made while surveying for farms or digging artesian wells or irrigation ditches.11
Despite the altitude and aridity of the Fremont County section of the Arkansas Valley, it was early considered to be favorable for agriculture. The arable valleys were settled early in Colorado Territory’s history and the abundance of water was looked upon as a decided advantage over the lower, but drier, sections downstream. Nevertheless, these other regions soon surpassed Fremont County in agricultural production. Historians have offered many reasons for this situation. Hubert Howe Bancroft cited the delay in rail connection caused by the “royal Gorge War” as the main deterent.12 Alvin Steinel, professor at Colorado Agricultural College, pointed to the engineering difficulties of getting the water, admittedly most abundant, up on the plateaus where it was needed. These difficulties prevented cultivation.13 B.F. Rockafellow, an early settler in the county, remarks on the lack of mills and other processing facilities as the cause of Fremont Count’s slow development.14
During the 1860’s corn and wheat were planted in Fremont County, but weather and soil conditions were found to be unfavorable to them. Then fruit-raising, particularly apples and pears, was attempted and soon supplanted all else in the region. The pioneer in horticulture was Jesse
Frazer, known throughout the United States as the developer of the “Colorado orange apple”. 15
However, it was not until later that fruit-raising was recognized as the proper agricultural pursuit for Fremont County, after group attempts in the early 1870’s with grain crops had failed. These groups had felt that the collective method of the “agricultural colony” would aid them in solving those larger problems of irrigation and finance that the individual farmer could not surmount. The first of these was the German Colony at Colfax in [the] Wet Mountain Valley. 16 The second was the Mormon Colony which located near Ula in 1871. 17 Then a group of English people settled near Westcliffe in 1872. 18 Some ten years later still another agricultural colony was established in Fremont County, the Russian Jewish one, which came to the Cotopaxi area and farmed lands along Oak Grove and Bernard Creeks controlled by Emanuel H. Saltiel.
Saltiel was a Portuguese Jew from New York City who had come to Colorado in 1867. 19 By 1876 the Cotopaxi area had begun to attract a few settlers and many mining prospectors. Several shafts had been opened and sluices put in operation at the site of Gold Tom’s first strikes. Saltiel became interested in the Cotopaxi Lode, particularly when he learned that the discoverer, Henry Thomas, did not have the capital or experience to work it. Saltiels's business and political contacts in Denver were well-know in Fremont County and his influence with officials of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was sufficient to have that company designate his newly-acquired property around Cotopaxi as a major stop on their run to South Arkansas (Salida), build there a large depot and call the stop "Saltiels". 20
Saltiel had filed on 2,000 acres of Government land and made token payments at the county clerk's office in Canon City by 1878. This acreage was a long, narrow strip running north and south Oak Grove Creek and Bernard Creek. Within his "property", which he defined as a "town and land company" development, Saltiel also filed at least seven separate mining claims. These claims were quite clear and indisputable, for shortly after registering them at the County Clerk's office in Canon City, he had his workers construct shafts and tunnels and other improvements on the vein outcrops and had spent well over the minimum of $500 required by the Law of 1872, 21 thus acquiring a clear patent to the mineral lands thereon. These seven claims, all located within the broader boundaries of his proposed town-site, were along the streams, using their scant water for sluicing and other mining operations.
The appellation "Cotopaxi" clung to the area despite the honor bestowed on its leading citizen by the railroad when it built the depot and warehouses and named the stop "Saltiels". By 1879 eight permanent buildings had been constructed and more were in the offing. Several large residences were built. Elaborate plans for a plaza or public park were drawn up and commerce got under way with a hotel, blacksmith shop, general store and a saw-mill. Efforts to establish a saloon and gambling hall were thwarted by the virtuous townspeople, but a meeting house which served as school and church were built that year. At the same time, the government established a post office in the town, but changed the name back to Cotopaxi. By 1880 the town ranked sixth in population in Fremont County.22 Saltiel had his assay office, mine and milling headquarters in a small building adjacent to the hotel which he owned in connection with one of his partners, A. S. Hart. 23
Saltiel was generally credited with the discovery and exploitation of most of the important mineral veins in the region, particularly the famous Cotopaxi Lode and the Enterprise Mine.24 But since Henry (Gold Tom) Thomas had been prospecting the area since 1873 and had filed mining claims thereon with the County Clerk in 1874, there seems to be sound basis for a claim controversy. It is recorded that Saltiel bought out Thomas' rights for insignificant amounts, in relation to what was taken out. However, there was little alternative for the independent, small-time miner, owing to the nature of the ores involved, all of which required much capital equipment and complicated processes to refine. Saltiel's experience business connections and vast wealth put him in a superior position in this respect.
However he soon ran into other difficulties. With the discovery of much richer lodes in southern Fremont County (Custer County now) labor supply became practically nonexistent in the Cotopaxi area. Saltiel had always been reluctant to pay adequate wages, in relation to neighboring mine owners. "Help-wanted ads" began appearing in the Denver and eastern papers, but even his eloquence there could not buck the competition of the simultaneous strikes in Leadville, Rosita, and Western Slope camps. In addition, those who did not care for a miner's life could take jobs with the railroads which were then also expanding at a prodigious rate. Saltiel's ingenious solution to this seemingly insurmountable problem was to import his own labor supply from Europe.
The people (see accompanying list page 31) who comprised the Cotopaxi Colony in the spring of 1882 were Russian Jews from the provinces of Volhynia, Kiev and Ekaterinoslav. Sixty-three persons in all, there were twenty-two "heads of family", each of whom were eligible to file on 160 acres of government land.1 Actually, most of the sixty-three were members of only three main family clans, consisting of several generations and relatives by marriage. Among these three families, too, there was much intermarriage and nearly every colonist at Cotopaxi was related to the others by ties of blood or marriage, the only exception being close friends who had attached themselves to one "patriarch" and were considered as "adopted". This aggregation had been well solidified in Europe, and the experiences of the pogroms, the emigration and the events at Cotopaxi served to weld it even more firmly together.
The traceable nucleus of the group begins in the early 19th century with a movement among the inhabitants of the Pale 2 known as "Haskalah" 3 or "Enlightenment", which sought
a middle road between the "fathers and sons",4 between the extremes of fanaticism espoused on the one hand by the "Hasidim",5 and on the other hand by those who denied Judaism or cultural assimilation. The disciples of modernation were known as the "Maskilim",6 and were despised by both extremes among their own people and certainly not given much encouragement by the Czarist government. This, in spite of its program for gradual "Russification", for establishment of Crown Schools,7 and for urging cooperation with the government. By mid-century the Maskilim concentrated their energy on combating the "Tzaddicks",8 the superstition-ridden, mystical obscurantists, chiefly by means of satire. Even so, the Maskilim themselves were dismissed by the more violent, modern young "assimilationists" as too slow and conserveative to be considered progressive!
One of the important leaders of this Haskalah movement within the Pale was an idealistic Volhynian, Isaac Baer Levinsohn, known as the "Moses Mendelsohn"9 of Russia.
Alexander II's program of social amalgamation. Clearly, the children of Jacob and Malka Milstein inherited a view of the Jewish problem quite different from their neighbors in Brest, and it was these same children who, by the 1860's and 1870's led the Maskilim of the province who favored secular education, a moderate religious position and the "back-to-the-land" dream.11
By 1874, with the failure of the Czar's agricultural colonies and the 'drift toward oppression' of the Jews, it became apparent that the Maskilim program would achieve very little. The sudden change of Czar Alexander II's policies and open anti-Semitism began with the Law of 1874 which restored the unfair methods of juvenile conscription for the Jewish population.12 The attempts at cultural fusion through secular education were recognized as utter failures and by 1873 a ukase closed the two rabbinical schools at Vilna and Zhitomir. 13 Also the "melammeds"14 renewed their attacks on the "assimilationists".
Jacob and Malka Milstein's youngest son, Isaac Leib, was forced to become an "only son" to a childless couple named Shames in order to escape the dreaded quarter-century of military service, a threat that had not menaced the Milstein family for many generations since they were of the exempt estate.15 Their eldest son, Saul Baer, had experienced during his lifetime the pendulum swing of government attitude toward Jews; first, liberalism, then, persecution intensified after the Polish Insurrection of 1863. As a child Saul imbibed the ideas of Haskalah enthusiastically, and as a young man he prepared to become a "Crown Riabbi" himself by attending the seminary at Zhitomir. He had encouraged his younger brother Benjamin to apply for the agricultural colony in Ekaterinoslav and had watched him, several cousins and friends go off in high spirits to farm--only to see most of them return discouraged and beaten in 1866 when the "last straw" had broken the backs of the 'camels'.16 By 1870 even those Jews who had farmed their lands since Czar Nicholas's reign were evicted and their lands distributed among the newly-emancipated serfs.17
With the death of his father in 1861 Saul Baer Milstein became the spiritual leader and business advisor to many people in Brest Litovsk and in the small rural villages in the Pripet River Valley, the vicinity wherein various Jewish families lived and produced the supplies for his warehouses and commission business. The Milstein family had been in this buisness for several generations since coming to Russia from Germany. As the eldest son, Saul Baer inherited the management of the entire concern, as well as his father's role in the community of leader and teacher. His was the controlling voice in matters not only relating to business but in family and social affairs as well. Nearly all employed by the firm were relatives. In addition to Saul Baer's duties as head of a large business with branches in Grodno, Kiev, and Brody, he also taught classes in those secular subjects which were not offered in the "yeshivahs"18 of Brest Litovsk.
By 1871 his younger brother Benjamin had returned to Brest Litovsk from the colony in Ekaterinoslav with his wife Hannah and their son Jacob. He was angry at the Russian Government's treatment of the Jewish colonists, but was still determined to prove that the Jews of the Pale could become successful farmers if afforded any sort of equality of opportunity.19 But Russia seemingly did not want Jews on the land, and it became increasingly difficult to produce the grain and other supplies needed in the commission house, since Christians were forbidden to sell their produce to Jewish wholesalers. Saul Baer was much impressed with reports from America concerning the liberal Homestead Act, whose benefits could apply even to immigrants who had filed declaration of intention to become citizens. Disappointed with the progress made by conciliation, cooperation and meekness advocated by Maskilism, he began to consider leaving Russia to begin a new life in America. The sale of the commission business should provide enough to finance such a move for the entire family group. Therefore, strengthened in his determination by the Repressive Acts of 1874, 1875, and 1876,20 Saul Baer encouraged his nephew Jacob, who had grown up on a farm, to leave Russia, where he was in danger of being drafted for twenty-five years' service in the Czar's Army, and travel to America to investigate the provisions of this Homestead Act and look over the possibilities for establishing the 'clan' in the United States.
Thus it was that in 1878 Jacob Milstein left Brest Litovsk to seek out land for members of his family and those others who wished to emigrate with them. He was to act as "advance scout" and to send back all the information on homesteading to his uncle, the leader of the proposed 'colony'. Was the American government really as tolerant of Jews as they had been led to believe? No special taxes? Freedom of worship? While he was learning these things, as well as the English language, his uncle Saul Baer would send him a monthly allowance to cover his living and travelling expenses.
But within a year of his departure from Russia Jacob had incurred the wrath of his uncle. He received no more money and for a time the gravity of his offense threatened the plans for the entire group's migration. Jacob's "sin" had been to persuade Nettie Milstein, Saul Baer's eldest child, with whom he had been in love for some time, to run away and join him in America where they could be married. Nettie was her father's favorite child, and he had lavished on her all his affection and material wealth. He had educated her as thoroughly as any of his sons and had taken her with him on business trips throughout Europe. By the time she was twenty years old, in 1878, a confirmed spinster by Jewish standards, she was able to relieve her father of many of his duties at the commission house, in order that he might devote more time to his studies and pupils, as she preferred a business career to marriage, having refused to accept any of the suitors offered her by the "shadchens".21 She was in love with Jacob, her first cousin, and since her father naturally opposed such a union, Nettie simply rejected marriage with anyone else, but when Jacob left Russia and the all-pervasive influence of his patriarchal uncle, Saul Baer, Nettie was impelled to flee and disregard convention, religion and social ostracism by going to Jacob in America. Leaving Brest Litovsk in November of 1879, Nettie journeyed to the home of relatives in Hamburg, Germany, where she awaited passage money from her fiance.
Cut off from his uncle's support, Jacob Milstein took a job in a tin factory in New York City. He learned English rapidly and also earned enough to put some aside as 'capital' with which to prospect for a colony site as well as passage money for his bride-to-be from Germany. But he had worked little more than a year when an industrial accident deprived him of the sight of one eye. It is noteworthy for those days that the owner of the factory recognized his responsibility in the matter of the accident and made arrangements for a pension to be paid his young employee-victim.22 Jacob was thus able to afford proper medical care and rest without resorting to charity. While recuperating, he became acquainted with the work being done by the well-know American Jew, Michael Heilprin.23
The latter, in 1880, was already busy organizing the Jews of the United States into a relief society to aid in the temporary support of the rapidly increasing number of immigrants pouring into the country from Russia, caused by the increasing rigor of Czar Alexander II's policies against the Jewish population.24 Western Jews were beginning to realize the hopeless plight of their Russian correligionists, due particularly to their peculiar economic and political status in the Czar's Empire. Historically sympathetic throughout the Diaspora, the more fortunate Western Jews had earlier formed aid societies, such as the "Alliance Israelite Universelle", 25 guided by Adolphe Cremieux and Moses Montefiore. Michael Heilprin had kept in close touch with representatives of this organization, which had announced a plan at a meeting in Paris in the spring of 1880 to settle refugees in the new and undeveloped countries in South America, South Africa, Australia and especially in North America, where the United States offered even aliens the benefits of their liberal Homestead Act. This plan appealed greatly to Michael Heilprin, who for years had been urging young immigrant Jews to leave the East and try farming, taking advantage of the Government's "free land".
Prior to 1880, there had been few Jews in America who were able or eager to follow such advice. Lack of money for land and equipment had not been the main deterent but rather the lack of any agricultural experience, coupled with the age-old fear of investing in land, a commodity not movable nor easily convertible in case of sudden persecution or expulsion. Therefore, when twenty-year-old Jacob Milstein, his sightless eye covered by a black patch, came to Heilprin's office on State Street in New York City, it seemed an amazing coincidence. Here was a representative of a Russian Jewish group, whose background seemed promising for the venture, who were determined to leave Europe permanently, who were most anxious to "return to the soil" and who best of all, included members who had been farmers in the short-lived agricultural colonies for Jews in Southern Russia and also, had adequate financial resources for the trip, land investment and living expenses. Coupled with these qualifications and Heilprin's interest in establishing experimental Jewish colonies in the United States, was the receipt, in September of 1880, of a most unusual offer from a wealthy Jewish philanthropist, Emanuel H. Saltiel, who professed a desire to help in the work outlined by Heilprin in the latter's widely-read articles and settle a colony of Jewish farmers on his lands in Wet Mountain Valley near Cotopaxi, Fremont County, Colorado.
Emanual H. Saltiel had gone to Colorado after the Civil War and had prospered in mining and milling enterpreises, as well as property investments.26 Although he maintained a home and an office in New York as well as in Colorado, he was not affiliated with any religious organization. Nevertheless, he wrote several eloquent letters to Michael Heilprin, expressing his admiration for the latter's policy advocating agricultural colonies for Jewish immigrants.
When Heilprin first spoke with Jacob Milstein it was with the idea of sending this particular group of which he was a representative to homestead on the 'donated' lands in Oregon, where soil, water and market facilities were known to be excellent. However, Saltiel's letters were very persuasive and promised that he would undertake to constuct houses for each family, several large communal barns and sheds, provide necessary furniture and household equipment, farm implements, seed, cattle, horses and wagons and a year's supply of feed for the animals. The offer was quite magnanimous, for Saltiel was to provide all this for a mere $8,750, the remaining $1,250 to be raised by the colonists to cover costs of rail transportation and living expenses en route to Colorado. The entire cost was to be kept under $10,000 which meant an indebtedness for each family of less than $435. 27
Within a few months after hearing these proposals, Jacob's father, mother, brother and bride-to-be arrived in New York and letters were dispatched immediately to the others still in Russia describing in great detail the generosity of this American Jew, Saltiel, and his plan to aid them in realizing their dreams of tilling the soil in a free country, to build their homes and equip their farms and help them adjust to life in America. The group in Russia was enthusiastic and began to make preparations for leaving, but before they could complete their arrangements, an event occurred which changed their situation. On March 1, 1881, Czar Alexander II was assassinated and his son and successor, Alexander III, immediately appointed Nicolas Pavlovich Ignatieff, a militant anti-Semite, as Minister of the Interior. At once a series of pograms began which caused thousands of Jews to leave Russia forever in a mass exodus unparalleled in modern history.28 The promulgation of the May Laws of 1881 29 was the capstone in the long history of repressive acts directed against the Jews of the Czar's Empire.
Consequently the tempo of Jewish immigration to the United States was tremendously changed that spring of 1881. By June the waves of destitute refugees swamped the inadequate facilities of the Port of New York Receiving Station at Castle Garden.30 Up to that time, assistance to those Jews who needed it had been rendered by private charitable organizations such as B'nai B'rith or the various religious congregations in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore.
But the scope of the 1881 migration was entirely too much for these private groups and the sudden realization of their inadequacy caused them to band together to try to provide emergency relief. The protest meetings that were held all over Europe because of the pogroms raised considerable funds, most of which were sent to the United States, which country received the bulk of the refugees. The Alliance Israelite Universelle mushroomed into a vast relief agency and was responsible for the establishment of depots, "escape hatches" and embarkation stations31 throughout Europe.
To American Jews the situation that spring was particularly worrisome as their heretofore pleasant and undisturbed insulation had not prepared them for such shock--or problem. Because the Jews came in such large numbers, so rapidly, to America, the government's immigration authorities were totally unprepared and available facilities completely inadequate. Promp action was imperative lest this problem become large enough to trouble the tranquil Christian-Jewish atmosphere in the United States. Therefore a relief committee composed of prominent American Jews was hastily organized under the chairmanship of a New York judge, Meyer Isaacs, in September of 1881. Within a month this was replaced by a union of all Jewish charitable groups along the Eastern seaboard, religious and secular alike, into what was called the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society (HEAS).32 By the end of that year, $300,000 in temporary relief funds had been raised and headquarters of the society set up in Michael Heilprin's offices in New York city. Heilprin was unanimously elected president and directed the affairs of the society until its dissolution in the fall of 1883. He had to discard for a while his theories of careful relocation of Jews on farms, as clearly these could not be applied quickly enough to solve the pressing and immediate problems of emergency relief. Whenever possible he urged the young men to leave the crowded urban centers and take up land in the West under the Homestead Act.
Despite Heilprin's preoccupation with Receiving Station duties and housing, he found time to help establish and finance two "colonies" with HEAS funds earmarked for this type of "experiment". The first of these was the Cotopaxi Colony in Colorado, the settlers, location and investment having been decided upon in 1881 as a result of the coincidence of Saltiel's offer and Jacob Milstein's application. The second one was at Vineland, New Jersey.33
Before the pogroms of 1881 had caused such precipitous migrations and had so drastically altered the situation of the Milstein group still in Brest Litovsk, Michael Heilprin had already decided to go ahead with this plans for an experimental colony located near Cotopaxi. His first act, once he had accepted the offer of Saltiel, was to assign a young lawyer connected with the society, Julius Schwartz, to go to Colorado, make a thorough investigation of the locality, markets, soil, climate, etc., and return a report to the New York office. Schwartz left New York in January of 1881, but HEAS never received any report from him or word concerning him.
Within a few months of Schwartz's departure, however Heilprin was submerged in the more pressing problems of the Russian pogram victims, and could not spend any more money investigating this far-off colony site. The $10,000 required for its establishment had already been approved and set aside by the society, the rest of the 'colony group' had arrived from Europe that winter and began to constitute a 'dependent immigrant classification', having been forced to flee Russia without waiting to sell property, etc. The expenses of tenement living during the winter of 1881-82 had used up what little they had been able to bring with them and the conditions in New York, plus the disappointment of delay had eaten up much of their enthusiasm. Heilprin had little choice but to permit the "colony" to go ahead without having received any report of Schwartz's investigation.34
Thus it was that in April of 1882 the twenty "family
groups"35 began their long train journey via Kansas City, Pueblo and the Royal Gorge, to Cotopaxi, without many of the things they should have had. First, they were without any first-hand knowledge of just what kind of country they were headed for--save for the descriptions of the eloquent Mr. Saltiel. Secondly, they were without their beloved leader, Saul Baer Milstein.36 His younger brother, Benjamin, had taken over as Saul Baer was still angry over the matter of his daughter Nettie's unfortunate marriage with his first cousin.37 That couple was also missing from the group which left New York for Colorado, having preceded it by several months. They were awaiting the arrival of the colony which they would join, in the meantime living in Blackhawk. Thirdly, the group was no longer well-off financially; the fee of $50.00 per head-of-family,38 the high cost of living in New York the preceding winter, the cost of the journey, the loss of expected profit from the sale of their property and businesses in Russia, had greatly depleted its resources. Despite these handicaps, the group was confident and optimistic as they set out for the "promised lands" in the rich and fertile Wet Mountain Valley, described so eloquently in the letter from their benefactor, Emanuel H. Saltiel.
Analyses of the histories of these other Jewish Colonies, many of which
experienced even worse hardships and exploitation schemes than the one at
Cotopaxi, show the same underlying causes for failure. Most of them were
conceived in haste, under great pressure, emotional and political, without
adequate consideration of those factors upon which successful colonization or
even profitable private farming, depend. Geographical location, with
relationship to markets, national and local economy, transportation, the
character of the land, type of ownership, lease or title, the capital needs,
availability of equipment and seed, the existence of any special problems such
as the necessity for irrigation, drainage, erosion control, the economic and
social condition of the neighboring farmers in comparison with the prospective
colonists, the nature of work involved, the personality and integrity of
sponsorship and leadership, and last, but not least, the homogeneity of purpose
and temperament and physical fitness of the colony members themselves--none of
these vital requirements had received sufficient consideration in the hectic and
unhappy 1880's.
That the return of the Jew to the land is a good thing for America as a whole is
undisputed, for, looking beyond such factors as relieving congestion in urban
centers, redistributing population and skills, combating anti-semitism, or even
demonstrating Jewish ability to farm, there is a deeper and broader
significance, historically and sociologically. The gain, since 1890, in numbers
of Jews on American farms, during a period when the trend of population was to
further urbanization, is an important indication, not to be measured in quantity
alone.4 These numbers represent a positive gain in normalization, and the
Jewish farmers found for themselves and their descendants a precious lode of
self-satisfaction and self-respect in rediscovering the advantages of life on
the soil.
CRITICAL
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Documents
1, Colorado Secretary of State, Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention
Held in Denver, December 20,1875, Denver, Smith-Brooks Company 1907.
Consulted during preliminary research on Fremont County history. Useful for
names of delegates, and to check story that Canon City was offered the State
University but preferred to become the site of the State Penitentiary.
2. Colorado Territory, General Laws, Joint Resolutions, Memorials, Private Acts,
of First Legislative Assembly, Denver, 1872
This document was consulted to verify the Law of 1872 which dealt with
requirements for mine development.
Newspapers
1. Rocky Mountain News, February 23, 1865 April 12, 1896.
The files of this newspaper proved to be my most valuable source of material,
other than personal reminiscence and family archives. Accounts of the Cotopaxi
Colony and the personnel involved are less partial than family accounts and
serve as a check on the authenticity of the latter.
2. Denver Jewish News, April 6 - April 25, 1925.
Today this newspaper is known as the Intermountain Jewish News, but the issues
cited were in a special Anniversary Edition and included a two-page spread on
the Cotopaxi Colony. The April 25th issue contains a feature article on the
Colony, newsworthy then as a result of a 'Reminiscence Dinner' given for the
surviving members of the group.
3. Intermountain Jewish News, September 15, 1944,
Another more recent re-telling of the "Cotopaxi Colony” story, written by Mosa
Heller Hoffman of the News staff. It is a compilation of earlier features,
occasioned by the death at this time of Ed Grimes, a prominent Denverite and one
of the colonists.
4. Denver Republican, February 7-13, 1883. Clippings in the Dawson Scrap Book,
Colorado State Historical Society, XXXIII.)
The reporter for this paper seemed sympathetic to the plight of the Jewish
colonists and used sharp words to describe Saltiel’s motives and methods. He
also took the opportunity to divulge information concerning Saltiel’s personal
life, as well as other business ventures not at all connected with the
management of the Colony. He interviewed residents of Fremont County hostile to
Saltiel, quoting them at great length, and was responsible for the “atrocity
expose” which was so scathingly deflated by his rival paper, the Rocky Mountain
News. Senator Nathaniel Hill’s paper seemed about to ‘crusade’ in my ancestors’
behalf and was to be commended for its careful investigation of Saltiel’s
activities.
5. Denver Post, March 31, 1931. (Sunday supplement, Rocky Mountain Empire
Magazine). Clipping in possession of H. Mullins of Cotopaxi.
A feature article on this colony, using materials and pictures from the earlier
Denver Jewish News accounts and statement from interviews granted by colonists
then living in Denver.
6. Jewish Messenger, July 21, 1882. (Clipping in possession of Mrs. M. Milstein
of Denver.)
This is main source of references to Julius Schwartz.
Directories
1. Colorado Business Directory and Annual Register for 1877, Denver, J. A.
Blake, Publisher, 1877.
This, and the following business and mining directories, were consulted to check
on the address and occupation of various of the people mentioned in the paper,
particularly Saltiel, Thomas, Hart, Schwartz, Witkawski, Rudd, McCoy.
2. Colorado State Business Directory for 1880, Denver, J. A Blake, Publisher,
1880.
3. Corbett, Thomas B., Colorado Directory of Mines, Denver, Rocky Mountain
Printing Company, 1879.
Most useful in presenting complete list of all Saltiel’s mine holdings,
corporations, partnerships and smelting and reduction works.
4. Corregan, Robert A. and Lingane, D F., Colorado Mining Directory, Denver,
Corregan Printers, 1883.
5. Hall, Frank, First Annual Report and Directory of the Denver Chamber of
Commerce and Board of Trade, Denver, Brooks Printers, 1884.
6. McKenney, E., Business Directory and Railroad Gazetteer, San Francisco,
McKenney & Company, 1879.
Though not a Colorado publication, this gives many references to Saltiel,
Wulsten and other Fremont County residents. Connects Saltiel with Denver and Rio
Grande Railroad and cites property investments in Colorado Springs made by the
latter.
7. Wallihan, S. S., The Rocky Mountain Directory and Colorado Gazetteer for
1871, Denver, Wallihan & Company, 1871.
8. Western Mining Directory, Denver, Western Mining Directory Company,
Publishers, 1898.
This work was most useful in discussing various mining and reduction techniques
and devoted some chapters to the special problems involved in silver and
zincblende refining, as well as material on Fremont County resources such as
coal, iron, oil, mica and nickel. This directory lists all mining companies by
districts, date of discovery, discoverer, and amount of capital expended on
development.
Personal Correspondence and Family Papers
1. Milstein Papers
The bulk of these are in the possession of Mrs. Ethel Radinsky of Denver, a
sister of Saul Baer and Benjamin and Isaac Milstein. They include two letters,
in Yiddish, from Jacob Millstein to his uncle, written about 1879, from New York
City to Brest Litovsk, the naturalization papers for each of the three brothers,
Saul, Benjamin and Isaac, as well as for their sons, Max, and Menashe, Mrs.
Radinsky’s brothers. There are deeds to property in Denver held by the
above-mentioned in her possession also. She has a large collection of pictures
and a family bible which lists the marriages and births, helpful in making a
genealogical chart and in checking names. (She is the writer’s great-aunt)
2. Tarkoff Papers
Listed as such, because they are now in the possession of Mrs. Harry Tarkoff, of
Denver, but include papers belonging to both the Milstein family and the Grimes
family. Mrs. Tarkoff’s father was Saul Baer’s third son and her mother was Ed
Grimes’ sister. She has translated the letters which were written in Yiddish and
Russian and has made a collection of verbal anecdotes, in English. She has her
grandfather’s bible which shows the ancestry of the Milstein family back to the
early 19th Century, when the family migrated from Germany to Russia.
3. Saltiel Letters
Two of these are known to exist today; one is located in a scarp book now
belonging to the library of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of
New York, which inherited this from the earlier HEAS. Other documents from this
agency are in the private papers of Michael Heilprin and are not available,
except as they are cited in the biography of Heilprin by Gustav Pollak. The
other is a copy which appears in the Spivak Report to HEAS in 1882. This is
located in the files of the Jewish Agricultural Society in New York. HSIAS was
established in 1902.
4. Ornstein Papers
Private family collection in the possession of Mrs. S. Ornstein of Denver,
Nettie Millstein’s daughter. They include Jacob Millstein’s naturalization
papers, copies of deeds to property, a bill of sale for farm to Savery Savory, a
clipping from the New York Tribune describing Jacob’s accident and subsequent
pension, a clipping from the Central City Register (no date or title remaining)
showing marriage license issued to Jacob Millstein of Blackhawk.
Secondary Materials (Used primarily as source material for Part I and for
background research)
1. Anderson, George L., General William J. Palmer: a Decade of Colorado Railroad
Building, 1870-1880, Colorado Springs, Colorado College Publication, 1936.
This work was read to provide background material for the preliminary history of
Fremont County, especially the Royal Gorge War, as well as for dates of railroad
expansion as checks against the dates when Thomas, Saltiel and the colonists
were employed or connected with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad.
2. Anderson, J. W., The Prospector’s Handbook, London, Crosby, Lockwood & Sons,
1900.
Handy reference for mining and refining terms, laws and usages.
3. Baker, James H., and Hafen, LeRoy R., History of Colorado, II, Denver,
Linderman, 1927.
Used as a general text of Colorado history, since the more recent Hafen work was
not available in Detroit. (Cf. No. 15 below.)
4. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, 1540-1888, Vol. XXV of
Bancroft’s Works, San Francisco, History Company, 1890.
Chapters XII and XIII of this volume are invaluable as contemporary sources of
Colorado county history, and with Baskin, are practically the only source of
collected data on Fremont and Custer Counties. Bancroft advances several
interesting theories as to the reasons for uneven development in this region,
which are cited in this paper.
5. Baskin, O. L., Publisher, History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Chicago,
O. L. Baskin & Company, 1881.
This work is the most frequently cited reference in the paper, particularly for
general background in Part I. Written by prominent localities, the county
histories are clear, detailed, and very informative. Anecdotes and vivid
description enliven the statistics and pictures and illustrations alternate with
maps and charts. Specific reference to the cited chapters by Irwin and
Rockafellow will be found under ‘Articles’, below, (Cf. No. 6 and No. 14),
6. Binckley & Hartwell, Editors, Southern Colorado, Historical and Descriptive
of Freemont and Custer Counties, Canon City, Binckley & Hartwell, 1879.
Rockafellow and Irwin, the contributors to Baskin, do the same for a local
publication, with basically the same material.
7. Block, Benjamin, Colorado, Its Resources and Men, Denver, Kistler, 1901
An old book, biographical in nature, with interesting sidelights on well-known
Colorado person-ages. Includes a chapter on A. Gumaer, of Florence, who bought
Saltiel’s reduction and smelter works.
8. Brockett, L. P., Our Western Empire: The New West Beyond the Mississippi,
Philadelphia, Bradley & Company, 1881, pp. 637-661.
Includes a handy break-down of mineral output of counties in Colorado by year
and by metal, and was consulted for references to the British in Wet Mountain
Valley.
9. Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company, Associate Enterprises, Pamphlets and
Circulars, II, 1874-1878, Colorado Springs, Weistbrec Publishers, 1880.
Mentions development of station along the Arkansas River known as ‘Saltiels’.
Connects the Mica and Porcelain Corporation of Saltiel with members of the
railroad.
10. Farmer, E. J., Resources of the Rocky Mountains, Cleveland, Leader Press,
1883.
Provides contemporary material for mining and political background of Fremont
County history and refers to early development of zinc and silver lodes around
Cotopaxi.
11. Fossett, Frank, Colorado, New York, Crawford, 1879.
A well-known early account of mines and mining camps with vivid descriptions of
Fremont and Custer strikes. Used in background chapters and basic research.
12. Frazier, S. M., Secrets of the Rocks, the Story of the Hills and Gulches,
Denver, Hall & Williams, 1905.
A unique account of Colorado mining techniques and discovery methods from an
experienced prospector’s viewpoint. Argues the theory of heavy metals washing
downstream, which was believed by Henry Thomas, but later disproved by
scientific investigation.
13. Gaynor, Lois M., “History of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1872-1933,”
Boulder, M. A. Thesis, University of Colorado, 1933.
This thesis comprised the main source of information for sections on the
development of the coal and iron deposits in the section on mining history of
Fremont County.
14, Hafen, LeRoy R., Ed., Colorado and Its People, II, New York, Lewis
Historical Publishing Company, 1948.
General work used while in residence in Boulder for broad background reading in
such allied subjects as agriculture, stock raising, water rights and irrigation.
15. Heilprin, Angelo, and Heilprin, Louis, Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World,
Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1931.
Standard work for unusual place names and their origins throughout the world.
Supplied the description of the original Cotopaxi in Ecuador.
16. Hollister, Ovando J., The Mines of Colorado, Springfield, Mass., Samuel
Bowles’ Company, 1867.
One of the earliest accounts of general Colorado mine developments, together
with the Bowles descriptions, which set contemporary opinion on the richness and
accessibility of the various camps and boom towns. Hollister seems confident
that the ‘Arkansaw River Kanyon’ would prove a very rich area for gold
prospecting. He believed the tremendous pressures generated in the narrow gorge
would carry down the heavy metals and that the gorge’s mouth would become a
fabulous placer and fluming center.
17. Holt, A. H., American Place Names, New York, Holt & Company, 1938.
Used to verify origin of the name Cotopaxi. This work does not refer to Henry
Thomas by name, but does state that the Colorado town was named for its
resemblance to a town near the volcano Cotopaxi in Ecuador.
18. Legard, A. B., Colorado, London, Chapman & Hall, 1872.
This Englishman’s diary of his experiences in Fremont County offered the most
interesting contemporary account of the early 1870’s. His observations
concerning the likelihood of this area’s becoming an agricultural center are
most acute and accurate. He refers to many of the persons cited in this paper
and Legard himself was a personal friend of Reginald Neave, the British
gentleman who first considered the Wet Mountain Valley a proper spot for
Englishmen.
19. Logan, Paul Stewart, “History of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway,
1871-1881,” Boulder, M. A. Thesis, University of Colorado, 1931.
This thesis was used, together with the Anderson (see No. 1 above) work on
General Palmer, to verify statements concerning the railroad and the men who ran
it, when track was laid, methods and amount of wage payment and problems of
labor procurement.
20. Mathews, A. E., Canyon City, Colorado and Its Surroundings, New York,
Classic Publishing Company, 1870.
A very valuable illustrated volume on Canon City, its political and social
history, which contains a detailed description of the Royal Gorge and Grape
Creek Canyon.
21. Morrison, R. S., Mining Rights in Colorado: Lode and Placer Claims,
Possesory and Patented, Denver, Chain & Hardy, 1892.
A handy reference for mining terms, legal terms and rules, both Federal and
State, and some discussion of local regulations in Fremont County.
22. Rudd, Anson Spencer, “Early Affairs in Canon City,” Bancroft Manuscripts,
University of Colorado Historical Collection, Boulder.
A typewritten copy of the interview with Rudd by the Bancroft historian contains
much information on early days in this area, with Rudd’s own opinion of
colonizing attempts.
23. Rust, Collection of Clippings on Mineral Resources in Colorado, Boulder,
University of Colorado Historical Collection.
These clippings from the Mining Graphic and the Central City Register are not as
yet dated, but the writer judged them to be news of the years 1878 and 1879.
They contain several references to Henry Thomas and Carl Wulsten.
24. Steinel, Alvin T., and Working, D. W., History of Agriculture in Colorado,
1858-1926, Fort Collins, Colorado Agricultural College, 1926.
One of the best histories of Colorado agriculture available anywhere, and
certainly the most complete.
25. Wilcox, L., Irrigation Farming, New York, Judd Company, 1895.
An older work, but useful for description of special problems involved in this
area and the techniques employed at the time.
26. Willard, J. F., and Goodykoontz, Colin B., Experiments in Colorado
Colonization, 1869-1872, University of Colorado Historical Collections III,
Colony Series II, Boulder, 1926.
This work contains the most complete history of the German Colony at Colfax,
together with edited an annotated excerpts from contemporary accounts. It
suggested various sources of regional newspapers for use in this paper.
27. Wulsten, Carl, The Silver Region of the Sierra Mojada and Rosita in Fremont
County, Colorado: Its Geography, Topography, Geognosy, Oryktognosy, Natural and
Argentiferous Resources, History, Development and Commerce, Its Mines and Works
with Topographical Map of Same, Denver, Tribune Steam Printing House, 1876.
This is a very old and priceless pamphlet from the Western History Collection of
the Denver Public Library, which is thought to be one of the very few copies in
existence. Wulsten herein expounds his on original geologic theories on the
region and defends his position.
Secondary Materials (Used as source material for Part II and III)
1. Bernheimer, Charles S., The Russian Jew in the United States, Philadelphia,
John C. Winston Company, 1905.
A somewhat outdated work of a general nature, with brief reference to Jewish
agricultural activities and the colony movement. A somewhat defensive,
‘nationalistic’ bias is apparent.
2. Davidson, Gabriel, Our Jewish Farmers and the Story of the Jewish
Agricultural Society, New York, L. B. Fischer, 1943.
The best and most recent treatment of this subject, with a special supplement
devoted to the 19th century colonies, complete with analyses of why they
failed—or succeeded. Despite Dr. Davidson’s possession of the rare Spivak Report
(see Supra, p. 36, ff.) there is very little mention of the Colorado colonies.
3. Dubnow, S. M., History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, 1825-1894, II,
Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1918.
This volume has been most frequently consulted for general Russian history and
Jewish background. There are other works in this field, but Dubnow is
acknowledged to be the best in translation and the most complete authority.
4. Joseph, Samuel, History of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, Philadelphia, Jewish
Publication Society, 1935.
This book contains the best history of HEAS and the situation confronting the
charitable organizations in the 1870’s and 1880’s. It was also helpful in
tracing further the progress of agricultural settlement for Jewish immigrants,
and in ascertaining the extent to which these groups profitted from the
experiences of earlier colonies. It was useful in verifying statements made in
the paper concerning Heilprin, Gershal, Isaacs and Schwartz.
5. Levitats, Isaac, The Jewish Community in Russia, 1772-1844, New York,
Columbia University Press, 1943.
A sociological study consulted for background of Jews in Russia. Explains
motives for large migration to Western Russia following Napoleonic Wars. A
recent, up-to-date, factual account which supplements the Dubnow works.
6. Nathanson, D. B., Ed., Beer Isaac, Letters of Isaac Baer Levinsohn, New York,
Charles Scribner’s Son, 1902.
Collection of letters, well annotated, with special reference to philosophy and
religion of this important figure in Jewish history. The title, explains the
editor, is a play on words, since ‘Beer’ means ‘well’ in Hebrew, thus alluding
to Biblical story of Isaac’s well.
7. Pollak, Gustav, Michael Heilprin and His Sons, New York, Dodd, Mead and
Company, 1912.
An excellent biographical work, including reprints of important letters and
documents. Contains references to early plans for Cotopaxi Colony and to Julius
Schwartz. Gives complete history of founding and activities of HEAS and reasons
for its dissolution in 1883. Consulted frequently for background material and
cited often in Parts II and III of paper.
8. Russo-Jewish Committee, Persecution of the Jews in Russia, Wertheimer, Lea
and Company, 1890.
Detailed explanation of the May Laws and their interpretation and execution.
Contains good maps and graphs.
9. Stiles, W. C., Out of Kishineff, New York, G. W. Dillingham, 1903
A book dealing mainly with effects of May Laws and later pogroms. Some analysis
of adjustment of refugees to life in America.
10. Wilkinson, Samuel, The Evangelization of the Jews of Russia, London, R. W.
Simpson and Company, 1905.
A most unusual book concerning the little-known attempts on the part of
Protestants to convert the unhappy Jews of the Russian Pale. Contains sections
on the history of the various segments of Jewish religious and secular
components.
11. Wischnitzer, Mark, To Dwell in Safety: One Hundred Fifty Years of Jewish
Emigration, Philadelphia, Camden Press, 1949.
The most recent treatment of Jewish emigration with special reference to the
United States. Dr. Wischnitzer is much interested in the colony experiments and
has written several helpful letters to the writer. Someday the story of the
Cotopaxi Colony will fit in the total picture of Jewish settlement in America.
Articles
1. Batchelder, George F., “Mining Industry of Colorado”, Magazine of Western
History, XI, April, 1890, pp. 632-635.
This publication, used for background for both mining and farming, contained a
different perspective in a contemporary style, as well as citations for the
region desired.
2. Chauvenet, Regis, “Preliminary Notes on the Iron Resources of Colorado”,
Annual Report, Golden, Colorado School of Mines, 1885, pp. 13-28.
Contemporary account of iron deposits with much information on Fremont County as
a leading producer of this metal. Used in background chapters on mining history.
3. Davidson, Gabriel, “Agricultural Colonies”, Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,
III, New York, 1941, pp. 294-295.
Davidson has headed the JAS for many years and is the foremost authority on Jews
in U. S. agriculture. His material here is condensed but is generally similar to
his book, Our Jewish Farmers.
4. Dunbar, Robert G., “Agricultural Adjustment in Colorado in the 1890’s”,
Agricultural History, XXI, pp. 944-952.
Justifies the suppositions made earlier in certain areas that grain crops, etc.,
were not suited to high-altitude farming, that horticulture was better suited to
the Fremont County area, etc., and gives statistics on types of crops and yield
in the 1890’s, the period when the former Cotopaxi colonists were also adjusting
to land conditions elsewhere in Colorado.
5. Ihlseng, Magnus C., “Report on the Oil Fields of Fremont County”, Annual
Report, Golden, Colorado School of Mines, 1885, pp. 75-93.
Used together with Chauvenet’s article for material included in chapters on
mining history of Fremont County. This is one of the rare listings for special
articles on Fremont County.
6. Irwin, Richard, “History of Custer County”, in Baskin, History of the
Arkansas Valley, Chicago, 1881, pp. 689-764.
Main reference for information on Custer County, particularly for material cited
on the English Colony at Ula and Westcliffe.
7. Marshall, Thomas M., “Miners’ Laws of Colorado”, American Historical Review,
XXV, April 1920, pp. 426-439.
Condensed and well-arranged for quick reference, but not as complete as Morrison
and DeSoto. Used in chapter on mining history and to check Saltiel’s compliance
with filing and development regulations.
8. McCoy, C., “Irrigation in the Arkansas Valley”, Irrigation Review, VI,
Denver, 1895, pp. 47-51.
McCoy was an irrigation lawyer in Salida and wrote from personal experiences.
The work discuses problems of engineering and finance as well as the peculiar
topographical situation in this region.
9. Pearce, Richard, “Refining Gold and Silver in Colorado,” Magazine of Western
History, XI, November 1889, pp. 67-73.
An article devoted solely to problems of refining, reduction and smelting, with
some discussion of the leading refiners in the various regions of the State.
10. Philipson, D., “Max Lilienthal in Russia, “ Hebrew Union College Annual
Report, 1938, pp. 825-839.
A description of the early efforts to spread ‘enlightenment’ and ideas of
political assimilation among the Jews of Russia. It is mainly a biography of
Lilienthal, but contains references to Baer and Shneor Zalman, as well as the
movement known as “Haskalah”.
11. Reizenstein, Milton, “Agricultural Colonies in the United States”, Jewish
Encyclopedia, I, pp. 256-262.
Brief history of Cotopaxi Colony is included in this volume, with the usual
explanation of its failure attribute to aridity and poor land. Refers to
Cotopaxi as “the only attempt in Colorado”, thus ignoring the other attempts in
Atwood and Derby.
12. Richards, Clarice E., “Valley of the Second Sons”, Colorado Magazine, IX,
July 1932, pp 140-144.
Unique account of the British ‘remittance men’ in the Wet Mountain Valley.
13. Roberts, Dorothy, “The Jewish Colony at Cotopaxi”, Colorado Magazine, XVIII,
July 1941, pp. 124-131.
The article is somewhat incomplete, due to the inaccessibility of family
materials, and the fact that much of this material was not then translated from
the original Russian and Yiddish. The names, nativity and ages of the colonists
are somewhat erroneous.
14. Robinson, L. G., “Agricultural Activities of Jews in America:, American
Jewish Yearbook, 5673 (1912), PP 411-423.
This article contains statistics not given in other articles.
15. Rockafellow, B. F., “History of Fremont County”, in Baskin, History of the
Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Chicago, 1881, pp. 543-687.
Chief source of background material for history of this county. Excellent
contemporary account.
THESIS
FOOTNOTES
FOOTNOTES to PART I - THE PLACE
1. Reizenstein, M., "Agricultural Colonies in the U.S.", Jewish Encyclopedia, II, pp. 256-262.
2. Rocky Mountain News, April 16, 1867, p.4.
3. A popular, but fallacious, geological theory of the period. See Frazier, S.M.,
Secrets of the Rocks, Denver, 1905, p.24
4. Anderson, George L., General William J. Palmer: A Decade of Colorado
Railroad Building, 1870-1880, Colorado Springs, 1936, p. 58
5. Holt, A. H., American Place Names, New York, 1938, p.54.
6. Heilprin, Angelo and Heilprin, Louis, ed. 3, Pronouncing Gazetteer of the
World, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1931), p. 472.
7. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, 1540-1888, XXV,
San Francisco, 1890, p. 604
8. Rockafellow, B. F. , "History of Fremont County", in Baskin,
publisher, History of the Arkansas Valley, Chicago, 1881, p.646.
9. Rosita, Silver Cliff, Westcliffe, etc. See Baskin, O. L., History of the
Arkansas Valley, pp. 704-716.
10. Wulsten, Carl, Silver Region of theSierra Mojada, Rosita, 1876, p.
14.
11. Baskin, O.L., op. cit., p. 598.
12. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, op. cit., p. 604.
13. Steinel, Alvin, History of agriculture in Colorado, Ft. Collins,
1926, p. 398.
14. Rockafellow, B.F., in Baskin, O. L., (ed.), History of the Arkansas
Valley, Chicago, 1881, p. 566.
15. A yellowish colored apple. See Hafen, LeRoy, R., Colorado and Its People,
II, New York, 1948, p. 147.
16. Willard, J. F., and Goodykoontz, C. B., Experiments in Colorado
Colonization, 1869-1872, Boulder, 1926, pp 29-133.
17. Irwin, Richard, "History of Custer County", in Baskin, History of the
Arkansas Valley, Chicago, 1881, pp. 693-695.
18. Richards, Clarice F., "Valley of the Second Sons", Colorado Magazine,
IX, No. 4, July, 1932, p. 140.
19. There are no biographical references available for Saltiel, except brief
citations in the newspapers of his time. He had arrived in the United States
prior to the Civil War and had apparently obtained his citizenship by serving in
some capacity with the Union Army. Service lists in New York do not include
Saltiel's name but an "E. Saleel" appears and his living descendants ascribe the
misspelling to Saltiel's thick accent. He had been educated in Europe as an
engineer and metallurgist. A brief notice in the New York Tribune for November
23, 1866 indicate he married, but does not give the bride's name or date of the
wedding: "Mr. and Mrs. E. Saltiel have taken up residence in their new home on
West 77th Street." This is the address given for him in the New York City
Directory for that year. Saltiel went west the next year for all further
references are in Colorado papers, beginning with these items in the Rock
Mountain News fro April 16, 1867: "Mr. Emanuel Saltiel is negotiating for the
right to manufacture concrete building stones and hopes to commence same soon."
On May 11, 1867, this information appears as an advertisement, "Mr. Emanuel H.
Saltiel, owner of the Saltiel and Company Map and Book Store, announces the
arrival of many fine prints of the colored map of North America, together with
military maps of Ireland. Denver's finest mapmakers;" On June 17, 1867, the News
informed its readers that "Mr. Emanuel H. Saltiel left last evening on a
business trip. His destination is Canon City." By 1875 Saltiel's business took
him frequently to Fremont County, where he owned considerable property.
Nevertheless he maintained a large suite of rooms at the Windsor Hotel in Denver
during the years he traveled, and even during the period 1878-1887, when he is
also listed as a resident of Fremont County. In 1877, Saltiel's name appears in
the Denver City Directory as a miner; by 1879, as General Superintendent of the
Saltiel Mica and Porcelain Company of Canon City, Colorado; in 1885, as E. H.
Saltiel and Company, J. Hazard, Contractor; in 1889 as a civil and mining
engineer; in 1892 as E. H. Saltiel and A. Rosenstein; in 1893 as E. H. Saltiel
and J. T. Saltiel, Son. Saltiel was sued for divorce by his wife in 1880 on
grounds of desertion and non-support. In 1896 he appeared in a court action
against on Harry Robinson who had forged his name to a $34.00 check, but a
torough search of Colorado court records indicate that no action was ever
initiated against Saltiel by any of the Jewish colonists of interested agencies.
20. Rocky Mountain News, December 22, 1880, p. 2.
21. Colorado Territory, General Laws, Joint Resolution, Memorials, Private
Acts of First Legislative Assembly, Denver, 1872, XVII, p. 91.
22. Rockafellow, B. F., op. cit., p. 618.
23. Rocky Mountain News, November 16, 1880, p. 2. Hart's association with
Saltiel was described by Miss H. Mullins, now postmistress of Cotopaxi, in an
interview, August 125, 1948.
24. Corbett, Thomas E., Colorado Directory of Mines, Denver, 1879, p.
438. See also, Rocky Mountain News, December 30, 1880, p.5
FOOTNOTES to PART II - THE PEOPLE
1. This number included boys of 18 who nonetheless were married and in some cases fathers of several children.
2. Area of tolerated Jewish Settlement within the Russian Empire.
3. Hebrew term meaning Enlightenment.
4. Reference to Turgenev's novel, Fathers and Sons, stressing difference of
outlook in generations.
5. Hebrew term meaning "excessively religious and orhodox people".
6. Hebrew term for "moderates", a middle-of-the-road group.
7. Schools sponsored by Russian Government and open to Jews for purposes of
"social assimilation".
8. Yiddish nickname for Hasidim, very orthodox.
9. German Jew, author of Nathan der Wiese, leader of 18th Century Enlightenment.
Although more famous for his literary and educational ideas than for his social
or political theories, Baer Levinsohn is considered the fount of the Russian
Neo-Hebraic Renaissance and the figurehead of the 19th century Jewish
enlightenment. One of his nieces, Esther Baer, married Menashe Milstein of Brest
Litovsk and proved to be a great influence in her husband's home city, a center
of Hasidism. In turn, their son Jacob married Malka, the daughter of Rabbi
Zalman of Zhitomir,10 well-known as the proponent of the government's rabbinical
schools and a preacher for cooperation with Czar
10. Prominent religious leader who helped found Crown Schools.
11. Fostered by Czar Nicholas's agricultural colonies for Jews in Southern
Russia: Ekaterinoslav, Bessarabia and Kherson. See Dubnow, S. M., History of the
Jews in Russia and Poland, II, Philadelphia, 1918, pp. 66-72.
12. Jewish Conscription Laws and Military Service were a collection of
ninety-five clauses, plus sixty-two special clauses which differed from the
general military conscription laws. Briefly, the chief difference lay in the
fact that the Jewish consripts could be taken as young as twelve years, and that
boys under eighteen could be educated in military establishments even if they
were exempted from the regular draft. Enlistment of Jewish recruits was done by
the "Kahals" and the latter were responsible to the Czar and subject to fine,
imprisonment and torture if found remiss. No Jew could become an officer. Once
released from service, the Jewish soldier had to return at once to the Pale.
Privileges, immunities, benefits and pensions granted to soldiers were denied
Jewish conscripts unless they foreswore their religion and were baptized in the
Greek Orthodox Church. See Dubnow, S. M., op. cit., pp. 18-29.
13. Dubnow, S. M., op. cit., pp. 174-177.
14. Hebrew term for primary or "Keder" school teachers.
15. The following categories were exempt from the draft: merchants, artisans in
a trade union, mechanics, agricultural colonists, rabbis, and those who had
graduated from a Russian educational institution.
16. The colonies were doomed to fail from the outset due to the mountain of red
tape, government bureaucracy and insurmountable obstacles placed in the way of
the farmers. The "last straw" was the ukase of 1866 which limited the number of
acres a Jew could farm and forbad bequeathing land to a Jewish heir.
17. Dubnow, S. M., op. cit., p. 197.
18. Hebrew term meaning secondary school of a religious nature.
19. Stiles, W. E., Out of Kishineff, New York, 1903, pp.64-68.
20. Repressive Acts, 1874-1876: Special laws designed to abrogate concessions
made to certain classes of Jews and to insure total mobilization for the
Russo-Turkish War. Act of 1874 changed method of conscription. Act of 1875
lowered age of draftees in the case of Jews. Act of 1876 forbad exemptions of
2nd class and even 1st class--thus depriving parents of even "only sons".
21. Yiddish term for matchmaker or marriage broker. One of these unsuccessful
suitors had been Ed Grimes, who joined the colony even after Nettie had run
away, in the hopes that her father could annul the civil ceremony. Then, several
years later, the breach was healed and Nettie and Jacob united in a religious
ceremony at Cotopaxi in 1883, Ed Grimes gave up and left the colony, settling in
Denver.
22. Jacob's total compensation from the tin factory in New York City amounted to
about $600. (Interview with his daughter, Mrs. Rose Ornstein of Denver, August
14, 1949).
23. Michael Heilprin was a unique and romantic figure of American Jewry. Born in
Poland, he was brought up in Hungary where his linguistic attainments and
literary genius won him a place in the society of 'revolutionary liberalism'. In
1848 he became Louis Kossuth's personal secretary and Minister of the Interior.
With the collapse of the revolution he fled to Paris, then to the United States.
He became a chief contibutor and editor to Appleton's New American Cyclopedia,
edited by Ripley and Dana, later an editorial writer on literary, historical and
philosophical subjects for the New York papers and The Nation Magazine. He was
completely Americanized and was not a professing Jew or member of any religious
organization, until the persecution of his people by the Czar. Then he threw
himself into the relief work with all the fervor he had once devoted to 1848
Revolution. See Pollack, Gustav, Michael Heilprin and His Sons, New York, 1912,
pp. 105-220.
24. Pollak, Gustav, op. cit., pp. 205-220.
25. Alliance Israelite Universelle, or the "AIU": A world-wide Hebrew Aid
Society, founded in 1860 with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and offices
in Paris, London and Berlin.
26. Supra., p.7, ff.
27. Letter from E. H. Saltiel to Michael Heilprin, September 19, 1880. (Fragment
in library of Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, New York City). Seen during
interview with M. Dijour of HIAS, May 3, 1949.
28. Dubnow, S. M., op. cit., pp. 243-260.
29. These were the May Laws of 1881, not to be confused with the "Temporary
Rules of May, 1882". The Laws were inaugurated by Minister of Interior Nicolas
Pavlovich "extirpate sediton". Soldiers were to expel any Jew found outside the
Pale, redress by legal action in the courts was denied, educational institutions
were closed to Jews, and increased conscription demanded. No Jew could live
outside of certain cities, sell or deal in real property or merchandise, or
conduct any sort of business or trade on Sundays or Greek Orthodox holidays or
Saint Days. See Dubnow, S. M., op. cit., pp. 259-265.
30. Joseph, S., op. cit., pp. 1-3.
31. One of the most important of these was the city of Brody, in Austrian
Galicia.
32. Pollak, G., op. cit., p. 223.
33. Pollak, G., op. cit., pp. 223-225.
34. Pollak, G., op. cit., p. 223.
35. The list of the twenty-two 'heads of family' who were eligible to file on 160 acres each includes the following:
1. Benjamin Zalman Milstein, 40, with his wife Hannah, and younger son Henry.
His eldest son
Jacob was married and thus the head of his own family.
2. Jacob Millstein, 19, with his wife Nettie, 20. (The spelling of the name was
changed on the
marriage license issued at Blackhawk, 1882).
3. Jacob Milstein, 18, eldest son of Saul Baer Milstein. He represented his
father, the original
leader of the group.
4. Isaac Leib 'Shames' (Milstein), widower, with two young daughters, Hannah,
Rachel, (Nettie,
see 6)
5. Michael 'Shames' (Milstein), 23, eldest son of Isaac Shames, with his wife
Frieda Raisie, and
two young daughters, Esther Mary and Sarah Bessie.
6. Joseph Washer, 22, son-in-law of Isaac Shames, with his wife Nettie.
7. Charles Prezant, 24, cousin-in-law, having married Keile Milstein in Europe.
They had at this
time one son, Isaac, 3 years old.
8. Max Shuteran, 19, having married Keile's sister Hannah Milstein, was also a
cousin by
marriage to the seven families listed above.
9. Solomon Shuteran, 21, brother of Max, with his wife Rachel and baby girl who
died in
Cotopaxi and was buried there.
10. David Korpitsky, 37, widower with three daughters and one baby son which
died in
Cotopaxi and was buried there.
11. Samuel Schneider, 48, with his wife Alta.
12. Abrahan Newman, son-in-law of Schneider, with his wife Nechama.
13. Berel Morris, son-in-law of Schneider, with his wife Sarah and daughter
Helen.
14. Samuel Shradsky, 65, widower.
15. Sholem Shradsky, eldest son of #14, with his wife Mindel, two young
daughters, Asna and Sarah.
16. Hyram Shradsky, 19, eldest son of Sholem.
17. Max Shradsky, 18, son of Sholem.
18. Herschel Toplitsky, 23, son-in-law of Sholem (#15), having married Riva, his
eldest daughter.
19. Charles Moscowitz, with his wife and four young daughters.
20. Morris 'Zedek' Needleman, with his wife Rivka, four daughters.
21. Max Tobias, with his wife Bessie.
22. Ed Grimes, 18.
36. Infra, p. 52, part III.
37. In Novembver, 1881, Jacob Milstein left New York to survey the prospects in
Colorado, and to look up Julius Schwartz. He never found Schwartz. From
Blackhawk, Jacob sent for Nettie, his fiancee. They were married at the Gilpin
County Courthouse in January, 1882. Jacob was then engaged in the mule trade.
Perhaps to conceal the fact that he and his bride were first cousins, Jacob
changed the spelling of his name to Millstein on the marriage certificate. Their
children later changed the spelling still further. (Muhlstein)
38. This fee was collected in New York by HEAS and sent to Saltiel at his
request. It was supposedly the initial payment on each family's indebtedness.
FOOTNOTES to PART III- THE EVENTS
1. The description of the Jews' arrival at Cotopaxi on May 8, 1882 was given the writer in a personal interview by Charles H. McCoy on August 15, 1948. McCoy was an eye-witness to the events recounted above. He was twenty-two years old at the time of the Jews' arrival and remembers vividly the unusual events surrounding the establishment of the "Colony". McCoy still lives in Cotopaxi, having come there as a small boy. He, and his father before him, first tried farming in the small valleys of the region, before giving up and turning to mining and railroading as more profitable vocations. McCoy knew Saltiel, Hart and Schwartz and had been a close friend of Henry (Gold Tom) Thomas. (Thomas was shot and killed on the steps of the Cotopaxi Hotel by A. Hart on May 23, 1883.) McCoy had transported a small load of lumber across the Arkansas River and up Oak Grove Creek to the site of the proposed colony and had helped with the construction of the twelve small cabins which Saltiel ordered built there.
2. Saltiel owned the Cotopaxi Hotel together with A. Hart, a partner.
3. A central plaza or park surrounding the flagpole, often referred to as "Saltiel
Park". See Rocky Mountain News, December 2, 1880.
4. Hart, A. S., Rocky Mountain News, November 16, 1880, p. 2. (See also supra,
p. 10.)
5. Schwartz, Julius, See supra, p. 30.
6. Saltiel's letter to Michael Heilprin, October, 1881. (Cited in Spivak Report,
now in Jewish Agricultural Society files, New York, N. Y.) The Spivak Report is
an account of the Cotopaxi Colony, together with what correspondence concerning
it was assembled in the early 1920's. It was sent to the Jewish Agricultural
Society at the request of its president, Dr. Gabriel Davidson. The report was
drawn up by the Denver Jewish Council, which was then headed by Dr. Spivak.
7. Description from Mr. McCoy, interview, August 15, 1948, and from surviving
members of colony, Mrs. Hannah Quiat and Mrs. Rachel Singer, interview, August
15, 1949. The writer saw two of these structures in August, 1948, while in the
area.
8. Baskin, O. L., History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Chicago, 1881, p.
700.
9. Mr. McCoy described the difficulty in building this road, completed in 1887.
Interview August 15, 1948.
10. Denver Jewish News, April 6, 1925. (Reminiscences of Cotopaxi Pioneers)
11. A Jewish law prohibits erection of a headstone until one year after burial.
12. Mr. Tobias was the only colonist not recruited in Russia, having joined the
group in New York during the winter of 1881. He and his wife had been in the U.
S. since 1877 and spoke English better than most of the others.
14. Denver Jewish News, April 6, 1925.
15. Hannah Shames (Milstein) Quiat. Interview, August 6, 1949, Denver, Colorado.
16. Roberts, D., op. cit., p. 128, refers to citation from the Jewish Messenger,
1882. (The Jewish Messenger was a weekly newspaper, published in English, in New
York City, beginning in 1857. Abraham Isaacs, brother of the founder and
publisher, was the correspondent who 'covered' the story at Cotopaxi. The paper
is no longer printed, having been sold in 1903.)
17. Denver Jewish News, now Intermountain Jewish News, April 6, 1925. (The pages
on which the reminiscences were printed is missing from the files of the Jewish
News.)
18. Saltiel’s letter to Michael Heilprin, September 19, 1880, see supra, p.
26.
19. Rocky Mountain News, December 2, 1880, p. 2.
20. Spivak Report (Letter to Jewish Agricultural Society) on file in JAS, New
York City. See supra, p. 36.
21. Hoffman, Mosa Heller, “Story of Cotopaxi,” Intermountain Jewish News,
September 15, 1944, pp. 16-17.
22. Logan, P. S., “History of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway”, M. A.
Thesis, University of Colorado, 1931, pp. 99-112.
23. Reminiscences obtained from interviews with Mrs. R. Ornstein, Mrs. H. Quiat,
August, 1949.
24. Charles McCoy’s Interview, August 15, 1948.
25. Contained in Spivak Report, (now on file at JAS) supra, p. 36. (The men who
prepared the appeal were G.H. Kohn, A. Strauss and L. Witkowski.)
26. Denver Republican, February 13, 1883. (Clipping from Dawson Scrap Book,
Colorado State Historical Museum, XXXIII, p. 464.)
27. Rocky Mountain News, February 13, 1883, p. 8, Col.4.
28. Pollack, G., op. cit., p. 210.
29. From family materials collected by Mrs. Harry Tarkoff. See also Roberts, D.,
“Jewish Colony at Cotopaxi”, Colorado Magazine, XVIII, p. 130.
30. Morris Kadish, of Boulder, has an old photograph of the Boulder County
Volunteers and both Milsteins are in the group.
FOOTNOTES to PART IV- CONCLUSION
4. For example, 30,000 Jewish farm dwellers are listed in 1910. See Davidson, G., op. cit., pp. 35-39.
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