September in Early Fort Collins | FC Historical Society

In 1879 A.B. Tomlin & Co., a new mercantile firm was begun.

The first term of the Colorado Agricultural College opened with a small enrollment in 1879. The class of 1884 met in classes that were held in Old Main.

The Annual Report of the W.C.T.U. in 1899 reported that there were (in the period 9/30/98 to 9/1/99) 44 regular meetings; 4 parlor meetings; 5 teas; 120 visits to the sick and poor; 157 bouquets; 50 scripture cards; 19 books distributed; 15,000 temperance leaflets distributed; 12 visits to the jails; 127 letters written and 14 articles written for the press. There were 41 members at the close of the year and Lucy McIntyre was president.

In 1903 the Kampus Klub, a new boarding house started by the students was opened. Under the management of Mrs. Anna Wallance and Steward Robert D. Mauff, the monthly charge was to be $12 for first class table board. The Klub was located at 646 S. College Avenue, next to the College Grocery.

In 1905 a lady was walking down College Avenue and someone in the Avery Block spit out the window, covering her white dress with offensive tobacco juice. She was forced to hurry home and change her gown, besides enduring the mortification of having to walk several blocks in her soiled dress. Spitting on the sidewalk was against the city ordinance and anyone who was not gentlemanly enough to refrain from it should at least obey the laws of the city.

One of Fort Collins ever-popular pioneers died on this date in 1917. A. B. Ogden wore many hats in Fort Collins. He was a restaurant owner, a baker, and in 1890 was elected Marshal. He had an overzealous desire for law and order. The June 19, 1890 Fort Collins Courier reported that “City Marshal Ogden will make quick work of disposing of unlicensed dogs after July lst.” On July 10, one of the unlicensed bit him badly on his hand! When he died, the Fort Collins Express carried a 16-inch obituary.

In 1903 Loveland entertained the largest crowd of visitors at the corn roast in the history of the town. Two excursion trains in addition to the regular trains came in loaded to the guards and the town was literally full of carriages. It was estimated that there were approximately 5,000 visitors present. Corn by the wagonload was roasted and sandwiches were furnished by the thousands. The Modern Woodmen held their celebration at the east Ward school campus. The racetrack featured several good horse races. A dance in the evening wound up the day’s program and everyone felt satisfied with the hospitality of the Loveland people. The only drawback was the weather, which was almost hot enough to roast corn without going to the trouble to consign it to a furnace.

In 1903 the Fort Collins band gave another of its enjoyable open-air concerts, which was enjoyed by a large crowd.

In 1905, H.M. Balmer was elected vice president of Western Directors Association in Denver.

Not since the terrific hail storm of 1891, which laid waste a wide extent of country east and south of Fort Collins destroying over $200,000 worth of growing crops, has there been such a destructive visitation in this valley as the one the occurred on this date in 1905. Mrs. Preston Taft gathered a tub full of hail stones and broken glass from her parlor floor. Twenty lights of glass were broken in S.B. Griffin’s house and a woman in LaPorte had 200 chickens killed by hail stones. Damage was estimated at $60,000. The beet fields were expected to partially recover.

W.T. Dimick, the contract and building, disappeared in 1905, his present whereabouts unknown. It was strongly suspected that he had forsaken his family and a number of mourning creditors. It is said that his family was left without a dollar and he owed a number of tradesmen the city varying amounts.

5 & 6

In 1904, Loveland’s Annual Corn Roast Festival was held. The list of sports included baseball, shooting contests and a reunion of the Grand Army was to take place on the 6th.

Disaster struck in 1864. The Cache La Poudre river flooded in the evening. Company B of Colorado Volunteers was camped for a few weeks at Colona. Men and horses escaped but they lost nearly everything. Colonel Collins ordered his camp to relocate to a point a few miles downstream.

General William T. Sherman visited the post in 1866. The garrison then numbered one officer and 25 men. He wrote to Ulysses S. Grant and recommended that the post be abandoned.

In 1874 Rocky Mountain Jim Nugent died in a Fort Collins hospital after being shot by his neighbor Griff Evans.

In 1905 Loveland’s big corn roast and fall festival was held.

In 1868, as the population in Fort Collins and LaPorte increased, the spirit of rivalry increased, and as a result, a contest arises over the location of the county seat. This was the day of voting. When the votes were counted it was found that Fort Collins won by a slight majority and the county seat was moved to Fort Collins.

In 1892 Ms. Carrie Bolinger opened a dressmaking parlor west of Seckners.

In 1904 the paper reminded people to boil their drinking water as it might cost the life of a dear one or a big doctor’s bill.

Larimer County was created by an act of the first Territorial Legislature, which met in Denver City on September 9, 1861. It was not until three years later that the county was organized for judicial purposes.

In 1899 the Timnath Gun Club celebrated Labor Day by a shoot at clay pigeons thrown from their new Magautrap. They had a fine day barring slight trouble in getting the hang of the trap so that it would run smoothly.

In 1903 a post office was established in Wellington and was to be open for business as soon as the necessary papers and supplies were received. Ray Baker was appointed postmaster.

In 1883 improvements had been made in the city waterworks system by laying a main on Remington Street 800 feet toward Laurel Street. From this extension sub-mains would be laid connecting with houses of the neighborhood, of which there were nine at the time.

In 1903 the first step towards diverting the trade of Estes Park to Larimer County (“where it justly belongs”) had been made in the call for bids for carrying the mail from Loveland six times a week to Moraine, via Estes Park. The completion of a direct wagon road from Loveland via the Big Thompson to Estes Park marked the advent of a new era that would improve the vast commercial importance to Larimer County, particularly to Loveland and Berthoud.

G.T. Wilkins opened the Mountain Avenue skating rink in 1885.

In 1903 a complaint was registered against the large flock of “worthless pups and dogs” that were swarming over town, snapping at horses and bikers.

Kathyrn Bauder was born September 13, 1893 in Whitewater, Wisconsin. She came to Fort Collins in 1906 with her parents. Bauder Elementary is her namesake.

In 1878 Auntie Stone ran the Metropolitan Hotel until Bolivar S. Tedmon took the position. She left the hotel business after this stint.

In 1921 Iola Pennock came to Fort Collins. She wrote a book entitled, Pages from our Past about the early history of the Pennock family in this area.

Sadly, in 1913 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show sold at auction to satisfy debts.

In 1903 Mr. Raymond G. Baker was appointed postmaster of Wellington. This appointment, along with the word that Wellington had recently been considered so important by President Roosevelt that they were to be placed on the map in capital letters caused a scene of great and uncompressible commotion. The citizens of Wellington waved their hats and shook each other by the hand like long separated brothers. The boys beat tin pans, the dogs barked, the chickens crowed and the whistles blew. Charles Wilson turned on a full head of water in his irrigation ditch and took a bath he was so excited. It was said that Joe Connors took on such a very broad smile that he hasn’t gotten it straightened out yet. Mr. C.S. Wellington, replying to a citizen’s invitation to make a visit to the town that bears his name, promised to come as soon as he could and expressed his appreciation for the courtesy extended to him.

Jack McIntyre, familiarly known as “Rattlesnake Jack,” earned $1600 in bounties on wolves and coyotes in 1903, the money being paid to him principally by the livestock men. Kluver and Howard alone paid Jack the sum of $218.

The 1905 Weekly Courier editor reported that “Fort Collins keeps right on growing in spite of herself. Two hundred dollars an acre for Poudre Valley dirt, four miles from town is not so bad. Notwithstanding, Fort Collins is a dry town … there is not an empty house to be had for love nor money.”

In 1913, the city’s voters in an election on this date approved Fort Collins’ first home rule charter. It substituted a commission form of government for the previous aldermanic form. This called for a council consisting of two aldermen from each of four city wards. The first commissioners, elected the same day, were Sam H. Clammer, mayor and commissioner of safety, D. C. Armitage, commissioner of public works and Alfred A. Edwards, finance commissioners. An elected committee of 21 members had written the charter. It continued in force until a new charter was framed and approved in 1954. This substituted the present city manager form of government.

In Loveland the Larimer County Bank had broken ground in 1902 for the erection of an 80-foot addition to the north end of the present building. The new building was to be occupied by J.B. Bell for his undertaking rooms.

In 1903 the Fort Collins Courier noted that “empty houses in Fort Collins are scarcer than fiddlers in the New Jerusalem.”

In 1898 Judge Bailey, as chairman of the Republican convention had very conveniently ignored the ladies who were delegates to the convention in appointing his committees and tried to square himself by substituting the name of Mrs. C.J. Chapman for that of Mr. Cox. However, the latter had already signed the report of the committee on resolutions so the lady’s name failed to appear on the report and she had an empty honor.

In 1898 the first meeting of the Woman’s Club was held with a large number in attendance. Mrs. B.F. Hottel was elected president. The topic for the day was “Current Events” which was led by Mrs. Jane Budrow.

In 1904 many citizens attended a meeting in the district court for the purpose of organizing a Chamber of Commerce for the city of Fort Collins. Articles of incorporation were submitted, approved and signed. Membership was approximately 150. By-laws were adopted on September 26, 1904.

Elizabeth Hicock, better known as “Auntie Stone” was born in Hartford Connecticut in 1801.

In 1898 the Fort Collins Courier reported – “The Poudre Valley Bank is the name of a new institution that will soon be established in our midst under the controls and management of Honorable W. C. Stover and Charles H. Sheldon, two of Fort Collins’ most honorable, conservative and reliable businessmen. They will occupy the new building being erected for them on Linden Street.” The bank opened with a capital of $6,000.

In 1905 the new Elk Hotel on Linden opened with every room occupied. Mr. Tubb was the manager.

In 1892 Albert Damm sold his bakery to Edwin Simon, who had recently moved to Fort Collins from St. Joseph, Missouri.

Charlie Clemens started a cream route for Fort Collins Creamery in 1892.

In 1910 Lamb Day was held and attendance was 15,000 people. The parade in the morning was canceled due to hail.

A man traveling from New York, who dropped into A. W. Stover’s new drug store on the corner of Mountain and College, commented in the 1909 Weekly Courier, “We have nothing finer than this in New York.” The new store was finished in genuine mahogany with plate glass and French beveled mirrors on all sides. It had a beautiful soda foundation with a marble counter and mahogany paneling. All of the showcases were made of solid plate glass with a marble base. The light fixtures were brass. About 3,500 carnations were given out to the ladies on opening date and an orchestra played music all day long for the visitors.

In 1903 Mrs. George W. Moore opened her New York Toilette Parlors at 127 W. Mountain Avenue. The rooms were beautifully decorated with ferns and autumn leaves and a large number of Fort Collins ladies were present. Tea and wafers were served.

In 1883 the Woman’s Christian temperance Union opened a public reading room in the city hall. They reported that the rooms were cozy and comfortable and during the long winter evenings, one could partake in social and intellectual enjoyment. Colorado Agricultural College President, Charles L. Ingersoll spoke at the opening of the reading room and was followed by a quartette composed of several local Fort Collins ladies who sang, “I Am Wandering Down.”

In 1893, while the ladies of Colorado were waging a vigorous fight for equal suffrage, many of Auntie Stone’s friends were visiting her on the occasion of her 92nd birthday. The Women’s Relief Corp. gave her a large pyramid of flowers and a card that read, “The Lord also will be a refuge in time of trouble.” (Psalms 9:9).

The county commissioners made a trip over the toll road to Estes Park on this date in 1898. They were contemplating making it a county road. It was destined to be a popular thoroughfare and was to be free to all.

In 1902 C.A. Button had a contract from F.C. Avery to put a second story on the building occupied by the Golden Rule store. As planned, this second floor will have about 23 offices and a medium-sized lodge room. It will probably be heated with steam and the completed improvement will cost $10,000.

In 1902 Deputy Sheriff Richart went to Loveland and arrested John Riley who failed to appear the previous week in District Court to answer to the charge of dynamiting fish. The following week he jumped his bond at the district court. He was returned to Fort Collins where he was required to answer the charge.

In 1904 Judge J. Mack Mills invested in a new and very speedy powerful; red devil, which could make a mile a minute on good roads.

A.W. Scott, the chamber of commerce’s first president, found the organization on this date in 1904. Scott owned Scott’s Drug Store, at 101 S. College Avenue, now the location of City Drug. Fort Collins’ population was estimated at 12,000 people, consisting mostly of farmers, factory workers and their families. A sugar factory in Loveland was a major employer.

In 1902 the younger ladies of Fort Collins organized a club and named it, “On the Alert.” Their motto was “Push Onward, Keep Moving,” their flower was the carnation and the club colors pink and white. Miss Seckner was elected President. The members were planning to study travels in foreign lands with a musical every three months.

J.A.C. Kissock suffered the loss of his wheel (bicycle) while attending the Republican precinct primary.

In 1909 the Fort Collins residents held their first Lamb Day. This was celebrated to let the world know that Fort Collins was the center of the Northern Colorado industry of fattening range lambs for the market. More than 8,000 attended from near and far and over 200 lambs were roasted. The barbecue was set up in the 200 block of West Oak Street. Barbecue pits were dug the full length of the block. Two hundred carcasses were roasted over fires in the pits. Merchants, clerks and CAC students served the slices of lamb, carved by the towns butchers. Excursion trains brought people from far and near. Farmers came in their horse-drawn rigs from Larimer and Weld counties.

In 1880, E. M. Pelton retired from the Courier Publishing Company (established January 15, 1880). The paper was enlarged on Thanksgiving day 1880 to eight columns.

In 1893, the Democratic County Convention and the People’s Party Convention were held. The democratic nominees were Judge Jay Boughton for County Judge, Adolf Donath for Representative from the 9th General Assembly and John G. Coy, County Commissioner.

In 1905 Lady Moon filed in the district court a $10,000 damage suit against William Batterson and William St. Clair charging assault.