Inside a Trading Post

Once the yearly rendezvous ended, trading posts became the place to trade.  Bent's Fort was the key trading post in the Southwest.  Protected by 14' high adobe walls, 2 musket towers with cannons, Bent's Fort was an important part of the Southwest's history.  Inside the fort were the stock and horse corrals, the smithy, the trader's rooms and even rooftop billiard rooms.

Bent's Fort was unsurpassed in size and importance west of the Mississippi River.  It could hold 200 men, and 300 animals.  The 4' thick walls were topped with a blooming cacti, a belfry and a watchtower complete with a telescope.

The ramparts surrounded an area 137 by 178' enclosing warehouses, wagon sheds, clerk's office, meeting halls, staff apartments, and a central square of small guest rooms that opened onto an inner court.  In the courtyard was a well and a huge press for the prime export - skins to the East.

The fort was a crossroad for many Indian tribes - Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowi, Utes, and Gros Ventres.  Here Indians could trade for tools, trinkets like glass beads to decorate clothing or sheaths, and weapons.  For a time Kit Carson and Tom Fitzpatrick were the official game hunters for the fort.
The fort was also a haven for sick travelers.  On their way to Santa Fe long caravans stopped and were resupplied with flour, sugar, coffee, cloth, tobacco, weapons, and whiskey.

Who were the entrepreneurs of this establishment?  Two Bent brothers, Charles and William.  As young men they left the cutthroat trading of the Northwest and decided to try what is now Colorado.  Cheyenne (William had saved the life of two Cheyenne) helped choose the fort's location - near the intersection of the Arkansas and Purgatory Rivers which was the southern boundary of the fur trade territory and the heart of buffalo country.

William became the resident manager until late 1840 when the US Army decided it wanted to buy it but offered William so little for it (surprise!) that he just abandoned it and built a smaller fort 30 miles to the east. 

Next time...the Great Southwest
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On this Day in Pioneer History: "On May 19, 1836,  Comanche, Kiowa, and Caddo Indians in Texas kidnap nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker and kill her family. Adopted into the Comanche tribe, she lived a happy life until Texas Rangers recaptured her and forced her to return to live again among Anglo-Americans.

Nellie Cashman and Friends

Nellie Cashman, proprietress of the Russ House in Tombstone (named after the original by the same name in San Francisco) was the Southwest's counterpart to Julia Bullete of the Comstock.  She was a venturesome woman of questionable morality, an angel of the booming mining camp, and as long as the frontier lasted, she was remembered as the belle of the ball.

One youthful Episcopalian minister, Rev. Peabody, was on good terms with everyone in Tombstone, from Nellie Cashman to the town's first millionaire, Mr. Ed Shieffelin.  Even Julius Cesar, the first restaurateur of 

Tombstone liked Rev. Peabody.

 

Crystal Palace, Tombstone

Rev. Peabody was educated in Cheltenham and the University of Cambridge in England before coming to the states. But in Tombstone, Peabody found himself in a predicament - he had no where to hold Sunday church services.  So the Reverend appealed to Nellie to get the owners of the Crystal Palace to allow Sunday services to be held in their saloon.  Admist the gambling tables, Peabody began to preach his sermons each Sunday morning.

Rev. Peabody went on to become the headmaster of the Groton School for aristocrats in Massachusetts.

More interesting characters of Tombstone next time...

The Legend of Tombstone

Schieffelin

What does the name of Tombstone kindle in your imagination? If any names from the Old West enjoy immortality in American minds, the town of Tombstone, Arizona has to be at the top of the list.  The story of Tombstone's beginning is just as colorful as its legend.

Ed Schieffelin came to Arizona in 1877 as a scout under Al Sieber.  While doing his "scouting duties" he came across unmistakable traces of silver in quantity on a desolate hillside.  Keeping his mouth shut, he went on a later reconnaissance mission which had nothing to do with the Apaches who were terrifying the border.

Mr Sieber came across Ed sitting on a rock pile and learned he was prospecting.  Said Mr. Sieber to Ed, "All you'll ever find in these hills will be your Tombstone" and unknowingly gave the name to one of the most legendary gun fighting towns in American history.

Next time...one Lucky Cuss, Ed!

Pioneer Pieces: Greater than the Comstock

Comstock from the very start was the standard to which all others were compared.  "Greater than the Comstock" became THE phrase when overnight established towns emptied out, always in haste across the mountains and desert in search of the next big prospect of wealth.

First used in 1860's,"Greater than the Comstock" was heard in mining circles, and in speculator's circles - reportedly sending the market into a see saw. Long after the Comstock itself was no longer, new prospects at such places as Rawhide, Bullfrog, Rhyolite brought many with only the belief that this was the "big one".

Those who belonged to this group ranged from the top hats on Nob Hill in San Francisco with their millions in discovered gold and silver, to the poor pioneer who, after a lifetime of searching,  had only his mule and his pride left. Banks financed these bonanza fevers, even shady stock promoters like those that swindled millions out of British investors and brought relations between the US and Britain to an all time low in the 1800s.

Was anything "Greater than the Comstock"?  Next time...

Pioneer Pieces: The Shadows Fall

Many believe  the Comstock mines finally gave out as the 1800s came to a close, but the facts say that's just not true.  The vast ore deposits remained deep inside Mount Davidson, but the problem was the cost for mining this remaining ore was not economically justified - and it was extremely dangerous to do so.  So the mines didn't give out - they just became unworkable.

As the shadows descend over the Nevada desert, old-timers (aka "hot water plugs") moved to California to escape the severe winters of Nevada.  Businesses closed, railroads were torn up, houses were dismantled and moved to new towns in California.  New discoveries offered new wealth opportunities to die-hard miners, something known in history as "Greater than the Comstock"...next time.

Pioneer Pieces: The Wealth of the Comstock Reaches Far

The wealth produced in the Comstock mines had an enormous affect on the nation's economy.

Nevada's role in the Civil War was also huge - the Union wanted one more state with northern sympathies for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.  Nevada's annual production, even in that time, was nearly 35 million in silver bullion! What a great aid to the Union troops!  At the time it became the 36th state in 1864, Nevada had less than 1/6th of the population required for statehood - but hey - Nevada had something the US needed.

The Comstock's wealth was also significant in San Francisco prior to and after the great fire of 1906.  Lavish financing for expansion was made possible by the Comstock wealth of Con-Virginia, Gould and Curry, Hale and Norcross and other celebrated mines of Virginia City.

After the 1906 fire, these wealthy businesses helped to rebuild San Francisco's Palace Hotel (see Luxury at Its Finest post), the Flood and Sharon Buildings, the Fairmont Hotel, the Pacific Union Club, and the San Francisco Examiner.

John MacKay, the richest and most farsighted of all the "silver kings", acquired a monopoly of the world's cable services (telegraph, not TV).  His wife reportedly spent huge sums entertaining in London and Paris.  MacKay, however, is remembered for his great generousity upon his death to many charitable institutions.

How long did this frenzy of Virginia City last?  Next time...

Pioneer Pieces: The Virginia City Territorial Enterprise

Of all the frontier newspapers, Virginia City's The Territorial Enterprise, was the best known and most colorful.  The newspaper began in Mormon Station (the staging station), then moved to Carson City, and finally to Virginia City with the first pioneers.  For years, The Territorial Enterprise was a strong voice of authority in the mining world.

What made the newspaper so colorful was those on its staff - like Mark Twain (note: Samuel Langhorne Clemens was actually a very humble, quiet man).

Working with Mark Twain was Joe Goodman, Fred Hart, Wells Drury, Rollin Dagget and William Wright.  Wright wrote under the pen name of Dan De Quille.  His Big Bonanza, was recognized as an authoritative history of Nevada in his time.

For More on Frontier Newspapers, see the post on The San Francisco Chronicle
Next time...the effect of the Comstock on the nation

Pioneer Pieces: That's Quite a Guest List!

Virginia City was "the place to be" in the later decades of the 1800s.  The names of national significance were many from the Pullman's who arrived by train of course, to Civil War General Sherman,  They came in private palace train cars and stately carriages and became so common place that no one seemed to notice them anymore.

President Grant, Baron Rothschild, and Artemas Ward arrived, dined and attended Piper's Opera House without anyone bothering to note it in the newspapers.  After all the help Nevada provided the Union during the Civil War, they were old friends :)

Senators William W Stewart and John Perceival Jones were the first "silver senators" whose flamboyant natures stirred up the social scene in Washington.

The first two women to live on the Comstock were Julia Bulette, a courtesan,  whose later murder was quite the topic throughout the West, and Elley Orrum, a washwoman AND Nevada's first millionaire.

Marcus Daly, the copper king of Montana and George Hearst, of the newspaper dynasty, made their first strike on the Comstock.

Adolph Sutro, cigar maker, and the most popular of San Francisco's later mayors, first found his fortunes when, against all odds and popular opinion, he built his mine tunnel into the lower mines.

Senator William Sharon whose wealthy ways even shocked San Franciscans who were used to such displays, had his beginnings in Virginia City where he was the manager of Darius Ogden Mill's Bank of California.

Along with many great performers, these "old time celebrities" made up a good percentage of the culture in Virginia City.

Next time we look at frontier newspapers...

Pioneer Pieces: Stick em Up!

It didn't take long berfore Stagecoaches were easy targets for bandits out to make some fast cash.  In fact, stagecoach robbers were elevated to popularity because the robbers themselves were such personalities.
One such personality was Black Bart, a mild-mannered type of guy who sported a bowler hat and always worked alone.  He robbed stages carrying gold and silver and was reported to be Wells Fargo's worse nightmare.

One day put a flour sack over his hat, grabbed a shotgun and took to robbing stages as a career from that day forward.  Black Bart always left a calling card - he was a poet - so he left his verses at the scene of the crime to identify himself.

"Here I lay down to sleep
to wake the coming morrow
perhaps success, perhaps defeat
and everlasting sorrow.
I've labored long and hard for bread
for honor and for riches
But on my corns too long you've tred
You fine, hard sons of bitches.
Let come what will and I'll try it on
My condition but be worse
And if there's money in that box
That's money in my purse."

Newspapers made him a celebrity for many years, and most all stagecoach robberies were attributed to Bart, whether he did them or not!  He was finally caught in San Francisco, in the 1870s by a laundry mark on his shirt and served a "short sentence" before disappearing from public life.

The last known stagecoach robbery was by Pearl Hart in 1899 in Arizona.

Next time - colorful newpaper editors

Steamer Day

In the 1850s Steamer Day in San Francisco was a red letter kind of day!  The Pacific Mail Steamship arrived in the Bay from 1840 - 1925 with the height of popularity in the 1850s.  All the town turned out for the event and received news and mail, including miners and ranchers who came from nearby areas to join in.  Remember that in the 1850's the Pony Express was still taking 13 days to arrive from Missouri and mail was not a daily or even weekly event.  There were no telephones, and telegraph was so new it was used in the newspaper business.  So gathering as a city to meet the mail ship was an event that called for a day of celebration!

Next time...a few of the criminal elements in early San Francisco

Society of Pioneers

San Francisco - the mining city "Before the Fire"... San Francisco's early history was either "Before the Fire" or after.  The city, of course, has a history all its own, and since this blog is "Pioneer Pieces" we won't give a history lesson on San Francisco, BUT there are some very interesting and colorful incidents that I will share.

As soon as the first pioneer set foot in San Francisco, it became THE city of the new West.  In 1850, when pioneers began to settle in the Bay City, the Society of Pioneers was organized by a group of original founders who stated that they had "experienced things no man would ever experience again." Only the first settlers were allowed to join and were men set apart from the later residents.  In fact, these men met together for a banquet every year until 1927 when the last surviving member was no longer able to raise a champagne glass in a toast!

Next time - Steamer Day