by Patti Dahlberg

The First World War was over but for many, the post-war world was perilous. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, which started during the war as a workers’ revolution and a protest against Russia’s involvement in the war, evolved into civil war ending with the violent overthrow of the Russian government and the establishment of a communist dictatorship. It should not be surprising that, as numerous post-war workers’ strikes throughout Europe and even in the United States became increasingly associated with violence, Americans’ fear of anarchy and communism amplified accordingly.

Social tensions throughout the world had been growing and, at times, erupting into violence for several decades. America had witnessed several fatal outcomes from labor conflicts, including the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago and a bloody battle between Pinkerton agents and steel workers at the Homestead Steel Works in Pennsylvania. In Colorado, altercations during the 1913-14 Colorado Coal Wars became increasingly violent, resulting in the Ludlow Massacre on April 20, 1914, when the Colorado National Guard fired machine guns into a colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families and fire swept through the strikers’ tent city. Twenty men, women, and children were killed with many more injured. The ensuing retaliation assured continued confrontations and casualties after the massacre. Somewhere between 70 and 200 people were killed during Colorado’s Coal War. During the 1919 legislative session, Colorado was still dealing with the aftermath of the Ludlow tragedy as legislators appropriated funds for House Bill No. 311 “Commission for Investigation of Italian Government Claims” regarding the “alleged loss of lives, and destruction of property of certain Italian subjects during the strike of Coal Miners in Colorado in the year 1914.”

Organized labor had grown in strength during the course of the war. The labor movement helped abolish the 12-hour workday when 8-hour days were instituted on war contract work. By 1919, half of the country’s workers had a 48-hour work week. Normal work weeks remained at six days, although the 1919 Colorado General Assembly did pass Senate Bill No. 92 “Holidays – When and Where Saturday Afternoon is a Holiday” to designate Saturday afternoons in June, July, and August as holidays. High wartime inflation, with food prices doubling and clothing costs more than tripling between 1915 and 1920, further aggravated ongoing labor disputes. More than four million workers—one fifth of the nation’s workforce—participated in strikes in 1919, including 365,000 steelworkers and 400,000 miners. This quantity of striking workers would not be seen again until 1937—during the Great Depression.

Some Notable Strikes

Worker strikes in America became more than simple disputes between labor and management and, rightly or wrongly, became tinged with red and therefore a focal point for growing fears of anarchy and communism. For six days in February, the first “general strike” in American history occurred when thousands of Seattle workers joined shipyard workers in their strike for higher wages. The war made Seattle a union city; there were unions for shipyard workers, longshoremen, streetcar motormen, conductors, butchers, waitresses, laundry women, housemaids, barbers, and even newsboys. By the war’s end, Seattle had 110 unions representing about 60,000 union members, and almost all of them agreed to the sympathy strike. The “Seattle General Strike” lasted from

February 6 to February 11, 1919, For two of those days Seattle’s streets were completely still as union members stayed home in solidarity with the striking ship workers. Although the strike was completely peaceful, it was condemned as a communist (“red”) threat to American freedoms. Coverage of the strike often shared page-one headlines with news of communist military activity in Europe.

On September 9, 1919, more than 1,100 or roughly 80% of Boston’s police force went on strike to protest the opposition to its attempt to organize a union and to seek improved wages and working conditions. New hire pay had not risen in 60 years, and officers worked 73 to 98 hours, seven days a week with one day off every other week. The strike left Boston streets unsupervised and led to several days of civil unrest, rioting, looting, and property damage. Governor Calvin Coolidge called in the Massachusetts State Guard to restore order by force. Nine were killed during the strike and more than 20 were seriously wounded. Striking workers were called “deserters” and “agents of Lenin.” The strike ended on September 13, and the State Guard remained in charge until mid-December, when all of the striking police officers had been replaced with new workers who received higher wages and better working conditions.

The largest American strike occurred among steel workers in the Midwest from September 1919 to January 1920. Known as the “Great Steel Strike of 1919,” it shut down half the steel industry, including mills in Pueblo, Colorado. The strike eventually involved more than 350,000 workers in 24 separate unions. Workers demanded higher wages, an eight-hour workday, and recognition of their unions. Company owners portrayed the workers as dangerous radicals who threatened the American way of life, preying on social fears of communism. Because many of the striking workers were recent immigrants, owners were able to portray them as foreign instigators of trouble. Government officials used National Guard troops and federal troops to quell strikes in many cities. Eighteen strikers were killed, hundreds seriously injured, and thousands jailed over the course of the strike.  At a time when communists were seizing power in Hungary and staging a revolt in Germany and workers in Italy were seizing factories, some industrialists feared that the steel strike was the first step toward overturning the American industrial system.

 

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Sources:

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Great_Steel_Strike_of_1919

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/content/historical-context-post-world-war-i-labor-tensions

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/labour_movements_trade_unions_and_strikes_usa

http://www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=policeStrike&laf=hpe

by Ashley Athey

In honor of All Hallows’ Eve, we’re reposting our article on the spooky tales and apparitions that haunt the gold dome. Have you encountered one of these spirits? Let us know!

As with many old, historical buildings, a number of ghost stories haunt the Colorado state capitol. Officially, there are no ghosts to be found in the building. However, those of us who have smelled an odd perfume, seen an odd figure, or heard an odd hoof beat know better. In honor of Halloween, we present to you a few of the most notable ghosts that unofficially haunt our halls.

The Bloody Espinosas
Perhaps the most well-known story of the capitol, this tale begins in 1863. Back then, the Colorado settlement was four years young, and the Gold Rush had brought a curious crowd to the territory. Denver was less a big city and more a town full of tents and temporary occupants hoping to make it rich. A few smaller mining towns were popping up throughout the state as gold was discovered, including Breckenridge, Colorado City, and Black Hawk, but these developments upset many people who already lived in the area. Two brothers from New Mexico, Felipe and Vivian Espinosa, were especially irate at the pioneers moving onto their land in the San Luis Valley and, for the better part of 1863, were intent on killing as many of the new residents as they could. Numbers of the murdered vary, but it’s believed they killed between a dozen and 30 people in just a few months.

Accounts of how the brothers’ bloody careers ended differ, but eventually the brothers were killed, likely by a volunteer group of citizens from Park County. Their heads were brought to the capitol to collect the bounty set by the governor, but the governor refused to pay and no one knew what to do with the heads. They were first kept in the Treasurer’s Office in the capitol building but were later moved to the sub-basement beneath the capitol. Eventually, the heads were destroyed in the furnace.

Since then, it’s been said that the heads of the Espinosa brothers can be seen floating through the building after dark. And if you’ve ever heard the sound of horses galloping up and down the main staircase, well, that’s just the Bloody Espinosas…looking for their heads!

The Victorian Apparition
On the third floor of the capitol building, rumor has it that you can see the ghostly visage of a woman wearing Victorian-era garments. She appears out of a mist near the entrance to the senate chambers and then floats off to either side of the chamber before disappearing.

The Woman in a Long Dress
A female spirit, appearing in a long, turn-of-the-century dress, is said to wander the steam tunnels beneath the capitol, as well as the capitol building and all the buildings connected to the tunnels in the Capitol Hill area. She’s been seen reading over the shoulders of employees in each of the buildings.

The Mysterious Tunnels
Certainly the steam tunnels under the capitol building lend themselves to spooky stories and an overall heightened awareness. In addition to The Woman in a Long Dress, there have been reports of odd cold spells, during which keys, ID badges, and other items are pulled away from the body of the owner and lifted into the air by an unseen force.

General Spookiness
While the above stories illustrate a few of the known spirits, there are still a few more spooky happenings in the capitol building that don’t have a known explanation:

• In the early hours before business gets going, and in the late hours well after business is done for the day, it’s said that the temperature in many areas of the capitol suddenly drops and a vintage, rose-scented perfume permeates the air before disappearing without a trace as the temperature returns to normal.
• When business is done for the day, voices, conversations, and footsteps can be heard in and around empty meeting rooms and offices.

 

For more on the Espinosa brothers, check out the “Legends of America” article about them here.

By Patti Dahlberg

If we stepped back one hundred years and fifty legislative sessions, what would we find?

Well to start with, when the dust cleared from the 1918 elections, the Democrats retained control of the Senate with 21 Democrats to 14 Republicans, but lost control of the House of Representatives with 41 Republicans to 24 Democrats, almost a complete flip in numbers from 1917. This House flip in Colorado mirrored political power flips in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as in many state assemblies across the country.

Coloradans passed three initiatives in November of 1918. The Bone dry prohibition law initiative passed 63% to 36% and made Colorado one of the driest states in the country. The ballot measure Placing state civil service in the Constitution passed 64% to 35% and moved civil service laws from the statutes into the constitution. The Relief of the adult blind measure passed 93% to 6% and provided for the creation of a commission to consider applications for financial assistance by persons who were blind. In addition, two referendums passed. Limiting the time for introduction of legislative bills passed 77% to 22% and required all bills, except the general appropriations bill, to be introduced within the first 15, instead of 25, days of the legislative session. Concerning the publication of proposed constitutional amendments and initiated and referred laws passed 88% to 11% and required ballot proposals to be published at least twice and in two different publications in each county.

The Twenty-second General Assembly

The General Assembly convened at “12 o’clock, noon” on Wednesday, January 1, 1919. The Colorado Constitution required a January 1 convening date at the time. In the House of Representatives, Mr. M.D. Bowen, the Chief Clerk of the House of the twenty-first General Assembly, called the House to order and read the official announcement and designation of members elected to the House. Representative Allyn Cole of Prowers and Baca Counties was elected to preside as Speaker of the House. (Photo from Presidents and Speakers of the Colorado General Assembly, Denver, Colorado, 2016 Edition.) The Senate was called to order by Lieutenant Governor James A. Pulliam, who presided as Senate President. Before 1974, the constitution required the state’s Lieutenant Governor to serve as President of the Senate, voting only to break a tie. Speeches were made, opening day committees were formed, the governor was notified. The House went on to start their work for the session, introducing “House Concurrent Resolution No. 1, by Messrs. Wilcox and Colgate” to ratify the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution “prohibiting the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors…”, and ending the convening day by remembering its deceased members from the Twenty-first General Assembly, Messrs. Baar, DuPraw, McDonald, and Murphy.

On the 14^th legislative day, Tuesday, January 14, 1919, the newly elected Governor of Colorado, the honorable Oliver H. Shoup, presented his inaugural address to a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate to direct their attention to matters he considered important and to assure them of his cooperation on addressing these matters. High on his list was determining how best to honor the sacrifice of and provide for almost 25,000 Colorado solders. Governor Shoup recommended that the legislature provide for returning soldiers to attend Colorado’s state institutions of learning tuition-free and for free medical treatment for wounded soldiers. The legislature responded by funding an educational loan fund for soldiers and appropriating additional funding to the University of Colorado to offer additional classes for those who served in the Armed Services or in the Red Cross. The General Assembly also set aside money for a memorial for Colorado’s soldiers who served in the First World War, and on the last day of the session the legislature designated November 11 as “Liberty Day”.

Governor Shoup recommended that the legislature implement a budget system to guide the state’s expenditures and eliminate over-appropriation. He encouraged the legislature to invest in building good roads and to work with federal programs for highway construction and funding. He asked that the legislature simplify the workmen’s compensation process and make the prompt payment of just claims mandatory. He encouraged additional funding for education and other state institutions and called for the creation of a state institution for the treatment of the acutely insane. The legislature created the Office of the Budget and Efficiency Commissioner, which also required state agencies to submit budgets to the governor, and passed two bills to help fund highway construction: a Special tax created for the building of highways and a one cent per gallon tax.  In addition, the legislature passed the “Workmen’s Compensation Act of Colorado” and established the Psychopathic Hospital and Laboratory of the University of Colorado in Denver.

The Governor emphasized the importance of fostering, protecting, and stimulating the various industrial  interests of Colorado with improved transportation options, equitable freight rates, and the fair inspection and grading of products. The General Assembly enacted laws regarding livestock branding, state ore testing, and grain, produce, and mine inspections. Other general recommendations from the Governor included establishing a Civil Service Commission to enforce the recently adopted constitutional amendments regarding civil service laws, enacting a blue-sky law to protect consumers against the sale of worthless stocks, and providing for the codification and publication of the state’s statutes. The legislature established the Civil Service and Blind Benefit commissions and appropriated money for these entities. Bills to penalize the false representation of stocks for sale and creating a commission for the compilation of statutes to revise, consolidate, codify, edit, and prepare for publication the general laws of the State of Colorado were enacted.

In closing, Governor Shoup said, “We are entering upon a new era of National and State affairs. Let us not lightly abandon that which experience has proven to be good, nor stubbornly refuse to accept that which is new, simply because it is new. Let us at all times and in all things, give to the people of Colorado, whose servants we are, the best that is in us, unswayed by any consideration other than the public welfare. To do more is beyond us, to do less is beneath us.”

In all, the members of the General Assembly introduced 593 House bills and 436 Senate bills; passed around 210 bills; and adjourned sine die on April 7, 1919, at 6 o’clock.

So what was the climate in 1919?

Heading into 1919, Colorado and the rest of the country were relieved to see an end to World War I (WWI) but would soon be facing economic and public health issues arising out of the war and the Spanish Flu pandemic. WWI was the first global conflict using modern warfare and consequently was one of the deadliest conflicts in history. An estimated seven million civilians and 10 million military personnel died from war-related causes — bombings, poison gas attacks, combat, accidents, disease, or deaths as prisoners of war. Other estimates put the combined total of casualties closer to 40 million. After four years of fighting in Europe, the combatants declared an armistice on November 11, 1918. The large number of American troops sent overseas (more than two million men in combat or combat services) and the wait for a seat on a ship back meant that most soldiers did not return home until well into 1919, long after the celebrations ended. The ill and wounded returned with slow-healing wounds, amputated limbs, and blindness or with war-caused health problems such as gas-related tuberculosis or the newly coined “shell shock” (now termed post-traumatic stress disorder). As if that were not enough, the 1918-19 Spanish Flu pandemic infected 500 million people worldwide and left an estimated 20 to 50 million people dead. Just over 1,000 Colorado military personnel were killed or died in service during WWI, but almost 8,000 flu deaths were recorded in Colorado during a 10-month period.

Many of the able-bodied veterans returning home found re-adjusting to civilian life difficult. There was no GI Bill or other financial or educational benefits for veterans at that time; many found high unemployment, business bankruptcies, and falling wages. The high demand for the U.S. agricultural products that “fed the world” during the war years dropped, slowing down the economy even more. The fighting had stopped, but the post-war world now seemed out of control. In Europe, old empires were crumbling; the Russian Bolshevik Revolution ushered in communism, which threatened to overrun Europe. There were workers’ risings in Berlin, Bavaria, and Bremen. Factory seizures, strikes, and various revolutions took hold and then waned in Budapest, Barcelona, Paris, Lyons, Brussels, and Glasgow, across the ocean to Canada in Nova Scotia, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and even in the United States in Seattle, Boston, and Cleveland. These localized disturbances were soon followed by national steel and coal strikes.

How does this compare to today?

Luckily, we are not recovering from a devastating world war or flu pandemic. Based on opening day remarks by legislative leadership, however, the hot topics continue to be funding for transportation and education improvements. Other issues include addressing teacher shortages, opioid addiction, health care costs and coverage, inequities in the criminal justice system, and improving the quality of life in Colorado through economic development, job security, affordable housing, increasing renewable energy use, protecting water and air quality, and preserving our natural resources. The times have changed, but many of the issues remain much the same.

Sources:

https://www.theworldremembers.org/countries/united-states-of-america/the-united-states-and-ww1

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/

http://lawcollections.colorado.edu/colorado-house-and-senate-journals/islandora/object/journals%3A89265#page/1/mode/1up

https://www.codot.gov/programs/environmental/archaeology-and-history/highways-to-the-sky/ch5.pdf

by Jery Payne

The year was 1619. Although the colony of Virginia had yet to produce much in the way of profit, the years of starvation were at last over. The Virginia Company, who owned the colony because of a patent granted by King James I, had made a decision. The company decided that the necessity for martial law had passed, so it sent a new governor, George Yeardley, with instructions:

And that they might have a hande in the governinge of themselves, yt was graunted that a generall Assemblie shoulde be helde yearly once, whereat were to be present the Govr and Counsell wth two Burgesses from each Plantation, freely to be elected by the Inhabitants thereof, this Assemblie to have power to make and ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by them be thought good and proffitable …

This was actually Virginia’s third form of government, and historians have claimed that this grant was less motivated by a desire to advance the cause of representative government than by a desire to find a form of government that actually worked.

Four hundred years ago, these instructions led to the first elected legislature meeting in the new world. Its first law required tobacco to be sold for at least three shillings per pound. They passed laws concerning such things as contracts, drunkenness, and gambling. They also sat as a court, where they sentenced a man to four days with his ear nailed to a pillory. They finished their work in six days.

Small seeds grow mighty trees. Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington all served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.

To be sure, the new world’s first legislature didn’t always advance freedom. During its first century, its laws transformed indentured servitude to slavery. Before that, the colony had followed the biblical rule that a servant was free after seven years. But for people of African descent, a series of laws evolved this into the chattel slavery that led to the Civil War.

And some of their campaign practices would shock modern sensibilities. At a time when a day’s travel was about 30 miles, voting was an all-day affair. A person would come off a dusty road parched and tired. So the candidates would offer the voter a few drinks, such as rum, beer, or cider. This was known as “treating.”

In his first election, George Washington refused to treat the voters; he received 40 out of 541 votes. In his second election, his campaign bought 160 gallons of libations for the voters. He won that election.

Yet, for all its failings, the House of Burgesses inspired other colonial legislatures and made the colonists used to ruling themselves. Each colony eventually followed Virginia’s example and established a legislature. Self-government became a tradition they would not give up lightly. When the British Parliament levied taxes on the colonists, their protests and eventual rebellion were embodied in the cry “No taxation without representation!”

The 1765 Stamp Act taxed the colonists without their leave. It enraged many of the colonists and led to months of protests. On May 29, Patrick Henry introduced a resolution in the House of Burgesses declaring, “Only colonial assemblies had the right to impose taxes on their constituents and that right could not be assigned to any other body.” This direct challenge to King and Parliament raised questions of his loyalty to the mother country.

The next day, Henry gave his first speech in the House of Burgesses defending his resolution. Getting to George III, he said, “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third …” Cries of “Treason!” interrupted his speech. Henry had uttered the names of dead rulers and the authors of their deaths in the same breath as Britain’s King, George III. Henry paused until the uproar died down, and then, he calmly finished his sentence: “…may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.” Trolling is nothing new.

After months of protest, and an appeal by Benjamin Franklin before the British House of Commons, Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act in March 1766. But the King and Parliament kept levying taxes, so the colonies eventually rebelled. They wanted to be governed, not by Parliament, but by their own legislatures.

Four hundred years ago, the first general assembly was born in the new world, and the institution of the state legislature was born.

Happy Birthday!

by Patti Dahlberg

At the corner of Colfax and Broadway stands the Pioneer Monument, a triangular fountain (except when the water is turned off during the winter or water rationing) paying tribute to those who crossed the Great Plains from the Missouri River to Denver along the Smoky Hill Trail. The trail, although more dangerous than other prairie trails, became the principal route for prospectors seeking fortune during the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859.

The monument sits at the end of the Smoky Hill Trail. Designed by Frederick MacMonnies, it was dedicated in 1911 along with Civic Center Park. At its apex is a bronze figure of Kit Carson on a horse and around the rim of the fountain are three additional bronze figures – the hunter, the prospector, and the pioneer mother. The artist’s original design called for a Sioux warrior at the top of the fountain, but there was such an uproar about it that the artist switched the apex figure to the famous scout. The State Historical Society of Colorado added the plaque memorializing the Smoky Hill Trail in 1936.

History of the Smoky Hill Trail

As news of the gold found along the Cherry Creek quickly spread, would-be prospectors began traversing the country to seek their fortunes. There was, however, no official route connecting the East to Denver. The westernmost traveling point at that time was one of the jumping off points for the Oregon Trail in Salina (about 175 miles southwest of Leavenworth, Kansas). Prior to the Colorado gold rush, those traveling west would turn North or South to their destination in order to avoid the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains. To shorten the route from Kansas towns to Denver, frontiersmen began using an old Native American buffalo hunting trail along the Smoky Hill River.

In 1859, an editorial in the Rocky Mountain News condemned the men and newspapers in the East encouraging people, in their rush for gold, to start out on the Smoky Hill Trail with inadequate provisions and the expectation of a good road and good camps with plenty of wood and water. Instead, there was no road, very little wood and, in many places, no water.

Not deterred by the lack of food, scarce water supplies, frigid temperatures, and attacks by local tribes, thousands of prospectors, homesteaders, and soldiers traveled the Smoky Hill Trail between 1859 and 1865. Pioneers traveled in covered wagons or on foot pushing carts and wheelbarrows with many, especially that first year, barely surviving the trek. In Colorado, the largely unmarked trail separated into North and South paths, both ending in Denver. At one point there was a third path, called the “Middle Smoky Hill” which later became known as the “Starvation Trail” when the members of the Blue party were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive. Once the lone survivor (only because he was saved by the Arapaho) made his way to Denver with his tale, travel on the trail stopped while it was surveyed and more clearly marked to show the location of the trail and the best route for water.

A couple of stage lines started up and failed before the Butterfield Overland Dispatch[1] was able to establish stagecoach transportation in 1865. The Dispatch built relay stations about every 12 miles along the 592-mile long route. Forts were built and soldiers posted along the stage route to protect the stations and travelers. By 1870, the Kansas Pacific Railroad pushed toward Denver, eliminating the need for stagecoaches.

During the trail’s days of popularity, a number of famous and colorful characters traveled its path, including Generals Custer and Sheridan, Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp, John Wesley Hardin, and Buffalo Bill Cody. The trail also saw its share of bloodshed and death. Today, the old trail has several markers, old forts, and museums along its route from Kansas to Denver, ending in the Pioneer Monument in Denver.

 

Sources:

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-smokyhillstrail/

https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=23736

https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=4678

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8JH7_The_Pioneer_Monument_Denver_CO

http://www.keystonegallery.com/area/history/bod.html

 

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[1] The word “Dispatch” is spelled “Despatch” on the plaque.

by Patti Dahlberg

By November 1918, Europe had been at war for four years, the United States had been involved for a little over a year, and Colorado was benefiting from increased wartime demand for agricultural and mining goods. Coal production reached a new high of 12,500,000 tons, and new fields were plowed to produce more wheat. The state industriously mined molybdenum and tungsten, both needed to make high-grade steel armaments for the troops. The Climax mine in Lake and Summit counties was the nation’s greatest source of molybdenum.

Although mining and wheat production dominated Colorado’s economy during the war years, some local manufacturing of steel—in Pueblo—and agricultural products such as sugar beets, alfalfa, livestock, and other grains had begun to take hold. Railroads provided access for Colorado products to markets across the country and even helped an emerging tourism industry. Still there was the war, and in spite of high mining and agricultural production, Colorado like the rest of the country, experienced rising food and fuel prices and supply limits on sugar and wheat. Across the state, Coloradans planted gardens to supplement food supply, with some towns turning playgrounds into gardens. Denver even created a city-owned coal company to try to curb rising coal prices.

America’s involvement in World War I (WWI) officially began with its declaration of war on April 6, 1917. Coloradans stepped up through the purchase of Liberty Bonds to lend the U.S. government more than $150 million dollars to help finance the war and sent 42,000 of their citizens to serve in the military. Around 1,500 Coloradans volunteered for military service, and another 4,500 volunteer soldiers came from the recently federalized National Guard. But, as in the rest of the country, the volunteer numbers were not enough, and an additional 36,000 Coloradans were drafted to join the rest of the 2.3 million Americans drafted into military service. Colorado’s population had been just shy of 800,000 in the 1910 census.

There was also the Spanish flu epidemic. The Denver Post first reported a death due to influenza on September 27, 1918. By early 1919, the flu epidemic had killed more than 7,700 people in our state, compared to 1,000 to 1,100 Coloradans who were killed in the war. Most likely, the disease originated in crowded military bases in the United States or France in early 1918. Because of the war, any reports of healthy young service men and women becoming sick and dying from the flu were kept secret. In May, Spain became the first country to report flu deaths and so became the disease’s namesake.

In October, Denver quickly ordered schools, churches, and places of amusement closed. Within a couple of weeks, Denver’s Board of Health also banned all meetings indoors or out, social gatherings in homes, and public funerals. The flu spread across Colorado and hit many small towns hard. It’s estimated that 675,000 Americans died of the Spanish Flu. Worldwide, 50 million people or roughly 1 in 30 infected died from the deadly virus. The ensuing large number of claims against life insurance policies skyrocketed, causing many small businesses to go bankrupt and disrupting the economy even further.

Soldiers returning from overseas found warm welcomes but scarce jobs as wartime demand for Colorado products started slowing down. The prices of food and other goods began to rise, but wages did not keep pace with the rising inflation.

The 1918 elections

As the country marched toward the Tuesday, November 5, 1918, mid-term elections, WWI appeared to be winding down and the deadly influenza pandemic was ramping up. Earlier in the year, national campaigns agreed to downplay partisan differences in order to present a unified political front to the world, but these agreements were unraveling. The social climate of the war and loyalty perceptions may have played a significant role in some election results. The two Colorado incumbent Congressmen who voted against the 1917 war declaration were defeated, playing a part in flipping Congress to a Republican majority.

There were three ballot proposals initiated by the citizens of Colorado:

• Bone dry prohibition law. Colorado actually became a “dry” state—no alcohol allowed—in 1916, three years before the 18^th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding prohibition was ratified. In 1918, this initiated measure proposed to take prohibition a step further by closing certain loopholes that allowed liquor to be used for medicinal or religious purposes. Prohibitionists were successful in tying support for the additional restrictions to patriotism by condemning the use of the country’s precious grain supplies for the manufacture of alcohol instead of for the war effort. The statutory amendment passed 63% to 36%.
• Placing state civil service in the Constitution. Colorado enacted its civil service laws and established a civil services commission in statute in 1907. This initiated measure amended the civil service laws and moved them to the state Constitution. The constitutional amendment passed 64% to 35%.
• Relief of adult blind. This initiated measure established a blind benefit commission and a means to provide financial support for needy adults certified as blind. The statutory proposal passed 93% to 6%.

Also, the General Assembly referred two Constitutional amendments to the people for approval:

• Limiting the time for introduction of legislative bills from 25 to 15 days. This measure required all bills, except the general appropriations bill, to be introduced within the first 15, instead of 25, days of the legislative session. The constitutional amendment passed 77% to 22%.
• Concerning the publication of proposed constitutional amendments and initiated and referred laws. This measure required ballot proposals to be published at least twice and in two different publications in each county. The constitutional amendment passed 88% to 11%.

On the Monday following the election, November 11, 1918, the warring powers signed an armistice treaty to end the fighting in WWI. That morning, Denver health officials lifted the public meeting bans due to the deadly flu epidemic while thousands jammed downtown streets in celebration of Armistice Day. That evening, more than 8,000 people gathered in the municipal auditorium to sing together and listen to speeches. Movie and live theaters reopened that night to huge crowds. Eleven days later, 18 more flu sufferers died and public meetings, religious services, and private parties were once again banned, theaters were closed, and new rules now required people wear gauze masks while shopping.

The Twenty-second Session of the Colorado General Assembly convened at noon on Wednesday, January 1, 1919, to a state in mourning, preparing to care for sick and injured returning soldiers and ready to address lingering public health concerns, increase employment, strengthen the state economy, and pay its debts.

by Patti Dahlberg

February 28, 1861 – The Colorado Territory is carved out from portions of what was previously the Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Utah Territories. That autumn, the First Territorial Assembly selected Colorado City, a spot on the open prairie near Pikes Peak and close to the center of the new territory, as the territorial capitol. In 1862, the first and last territorial meeting was held in Colorado City. The lack of accommodations and provisions for the twenty-two members of the Assembly caused them to adjourn and reconvene in Denver City. There, the Assembly promptly named Golden City as the territorial capital. Since the Assembly also, at times, met in Denver instead of Golden, Colorado’s seat of government actually alternated between Denver and Golden between 1863 and 1867.

Moving territorial meetings and carting wagon loads of official property (tables, benches, and gunny sacks of archives) from location to location eventually grew tiresome, so in December 1867 the Seventh Territorial Assembly passed an act making Denver the capital city. Territorial Governor Alexander Hunt sent out a call for a land donation and received several offers. In January 1868, Hunt’s Capitol Commission accepted Henry C. Brown’s ten-acre-land donation, located less than a mile from the center of the frontier town. The out-of-pocket value of this donation was about $12.50, but for Mr. Brown it was a shrewd investment in the future value of the rest of his 160 acres surrounding the proposed capitol building and grounds. Could this be Colorado’s first public-private partnership endeavor?

It would be 18 years before construction on a capitol building would start and then another 20 years before it was considered finished. Mr. Brown, however, immediately began developing the area around the future capitol’s location, known as “Brown’s Bluff,” with brownstone mansions. Many initially dismissed Brown’s Bluff as being too far from the center of town, but soon Denver’s wealthier families began to leave the commercial building construction and congestion of the growing “inner city” to move to the quieter and more picturesque “Capitol Hill” area near the site of the future capitol building. Meanwhile, the Territorial Assembly continued to meet in rented rooms and warehouses along Larimer Street and the territorial governor held office in the Larimer Street Barclay Building/Hotel.

In 1875, there still was no sign of any construction on Mr. Brown’s donated land, and now that Colorado was actively campaigning for statehood, a reason to wait. A state capitol city would need to be chosen after statehood was attained, and there was no guarantee that Denver would become that state capital, so the land remained an open field. In 1876, Colorado, known as the “Centennial State,” became the 38^th state to join the union, but the public vote on the state capital city would not be held for another five years. In 1879, having given up hope on the construction of a Denver capitol building and needing the $50,000 his donation was now worth, Mr. Brown launched a legal battle to reclaim his land.

On November 8, 1881, after counting the 45,497 votes cast, Denver was elected Colorado’s capital city. Two years later, the legislature passed an act to build the Colorado State Capitol and appointed a “Board of Capitol Managers” to oversee the task, even though the legal battle for the land remained unsettled. The legal battle dragged on for seven years, making its way to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1881 and the United States Supreme Court twice. Each time the high courts ruled for Colorado; the last U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1886 was final.

Construction commenced the summer of 1886 with the state of Colorado barely ten years old and the log cabins and wood plank sidewalks from the gold rush days still lining the banks of Cherry Creek. The construction on a capitol building “large enough to house the state government far into the future” ended in 1908 when gold plating replaced the original copper plating on the dome. Colorado state government continued to grow with new agencies and additional employees and soon needed more office space than the capitol building could accommodate. By 1915 construction on additional state office buildings along Colfax and Fourteenth Street started.

Colorado is grateful to Mr. Brown for his generous donation that laid the foundation for its beautiful Capitol and grounds. Mr. Brown’s Attic is a public museum/gallery located between the Capitol’s third floor and dome dedicated to the history of the building he made possible and an ongoing tribute to the man who made it possible. Its photographs, displays, and artifacts tell the Capitol’s story from its beginning as a field of grass to the present day.

More about the man behind the gift

Henry Cordes Brown, born in Ohio in 1820, was the 19th of 20 children. He was orphaned when he was seven years old and worked at a nearby farm until he was 16. He then learned the carpentry trade and later worked as a carpenter with an older brother in St. Louis, Mo., for several years before heading west to California where he continued to work as an architect, builder and carpenter.

No stranger to hardship, Mr. Brown was a self-made man several times over. While in California, the banking crash and economic panic of 1854 cost Mr. Brown his life savings of $50,000. He simply went back to work and soon saved $6,000, and in 1857, sailed for Callao, Peru, for a shipping business venture only to return to St. Louis in 1858 with sixty cents in his pocket. Resuming his carpentry trade, he earned money for another journey west to California, this time with his new wife and young son. In 1860, they arrived in Denver and decided to remain there. He was able to obtain wealth and status through building contracts and other land and mine operations. In 1863, he claimed 160 acres, known as “Brown’s Addition” just outside of the frontier town of Denver.

Most famous for building The Brown Palace Hotel, Mr. Brown also owned the Denver Daily Tribune for three years and was a charter member of the Denver Board of Trade, the first business organization in the city, which later became the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. He helped bring the Denver Pacific Railroad to Denver, co-established the Bank of Denver, and was involved in establishing the Denver City Library.

Mr. Brown made a fortune from real estate development and his other land holdings until the global economic panic of the 1870s nearly destroyed him financially. He was forced to sell his home and estate for $50,000, but he somehow recovered and by 1880 was worth nearly five million dollars, making him one of the wealthiest men in Colorado. Twenty years later and only one year after opening the doors of The Brown Palace Hotel, the Silver Panic of 1893 hit Colorado, robbing Mr. Brown of his fortune one last time. Unable to pay his debts, he sold The Brown Palace Hotel and retired to California.

Mr. Brown died in March 1906 at a hotel in San Diego, Calif. His body was returned to Denver to lay in state in the Rotunda of the State Capitol, allowing Coloradans to honor and pay tribute to the man who helped make it possible. He is buried in Denver’s Fairmount Cemetery.

 

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Sources:

The Pride of Our People: The Colorado State Capitol, first published 1992 by the Colorado General Assembly

The Colorado State Capitol: History, Politics, Preservation by Derek R. Everett

http://www.genealogy.com/forum/regional/states/topics/oh/belmont/2004/

http://wallstreetoftherockies.com/those-illustrious-browns/

https://history.denverlibrary.org/capitol-hill-neighborhood-history

by Julie Pelegrin and Nate Carr

The Second Regular Session of the Seventy-first General Assembly is underway. Based on recent media coverage and the opening day remarks by legislative leadership, we know that some of the anticipated hot topics are funding for roads and bridges, teacher shortages, addressing opioid addiction, affordable housing, health care, rural broadband access, and shoring up the Public Employees’ Retirement Association. And people are hoping to address all of these issues in a spirit of bipartisanship in order to find workable solutions.

We thought it would be interesting before we get too caught up in the 2018 session to look back and see what was happening in the 1918 session. What issues were our legislative forebears tackling one hundred years ago?

Turns out, in 1918, they weren’t tackling anything legislatively. Before voters amended the constitution in 1950, the General Assembly met regularly every other year in odd-numbered years. They met in even-numbered years only if the Governor called them in to special session, which Governor Julius C. Gunter did not do in 1918. Not that there wasn’t a lot going on in Colorado in 1918: the federal government broke ground on “World War I Army Hospital 21,” later renamed Fitzsimons Army Hospital; the Broadmoor resort opened in Colorado Springs; the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 started in Colorado in September, ultimately killing nearly 8,000 Coloradans; and World War I ended on November 11.

Not to be deterred, we decided to see what the General Assembly was considering 101 years ago, when they convened in 1917 for the Regular Session of the Twenty-first General Assembly.

In 1917, the Democrats controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They held the Senate with 18 Democrats to 17 Republicans and the House with 40 Democrats to 25 Republicans.

The Twenty-first General Assembly convened at “12 o’clock, noon” on Wednesday, January 3, 1917, as required in the constitution at the time. Lieutenant Governor Moses E. Lewis, whose term ended on January 9, 1917, gaveled the Senate to order. He was replaced by James A. Pulliam, who presided as Senate President for the remainder of the legislative session. We should explain that, under the constitution until 1974, the state’s Lieutenant Governor served as President of the Senate, voting only to break a tie.

Mr. Erlo E. Kennedy, Chief Clerk of the House, called the House of Representatives to order and, after the committee on credentials reported that the persons elected the previous November, as certified by the Secretary of State, were entitled to their seats as provided by statute, Representative Boon Best of Arlington, CO, was elected to preside as Speaker of the House of Representatives.[1] And yes, Speaker Best was a descendant of Daniel Boone. (See Presidents and Speakers of the Colorado General Assembly, Denver, Colorado, 2016 Edition.)

So, what were the hot topics of 1917?

Alcohol and marijuana were both on the list. On January 1, 1916, Colorado became a dry state (Colorado was leading the nation even then). Not surprisingly, in 1917, the General Assembly considered and passed a law to limit the purchase and sale of alcohol to licensed wholesalers and licensed manufacturers. The intent was to ensure that alcohol was used only as a “component part of some manufactured article, and that no article ordinarily used as a beverage will be manufactured therefrom.” The General Assembly also passed H.B. No. 263, carried by Rep. Andres Lucero from Saguache, to “declare unlawful the planting, cultivating, harvesting, drying, curing, or preparation for sale or gift of cannabis sativa,” also known as “mariguana”. The penalty was a fine of $10-$100, or up to 30 days in jail, or both.

In his state of the state address, Governor Gunter praised Colorado for its impressive growth in the 40 years since statehood. Population had grown from 60,000 to 1,000,000; assessed valuation had increased from less than $45,000,000 to more than $1,211,000,000; and the total production of the state—$20,000,000 in 1876—had increased several times over due to steel production, sugar output, livestock, minerals, and agriculture.

But there were issues to address. He cited an investigation of the public education system, which showed that the system

provides for no efficient control or supervision of the schools by any state or county agency; does not provide for equality of opportunity; does not place the burden of support of schools equally on all property; [and] favors the city and town at the expense of the country. 1917 Senate Journal, Tuesday, January 9, 1917, 7th Legislative Day, pg 86.

He asked for collaboration in making the school system more efficient and “to properly recognize by salary and otherwise, those giving their lives to this respected and useful calling,” i.e., teaching.

The Governor raised myriad other issues, including state highways (“investment now more than $22,000,000”), encouraging the legislators to work with the director of the department to further develop “this great asset of the state.” He encouraged the legislators to raise funding for buildings and equipment at the state institutions of higher education and to appropriate state money to enforce the minimum wage law for women and minors. He called for legislation to “rearrange” the judicial districts and to adopt for the state a “Budget System for the expenditure of all moneys required for maintaining the government and the institutions of the state.”

In all, the members of the General Assembly introduced 434 Senate bills and 587 House bills; passed 155 bills; and adjourned sine die on March 24, 1917, at noon. In his state of the state address in 1919, Colorado Governor Oliver H. Shoup recognized the 1917 session as “the shortest regular sitting in the history of the commonwealth, the most fruitful in a time of greatest peril in the life of the state.”

Less than a month after the 1917 session adjourned, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I. So maybe it’s not so surprising that there were no special legislative sessions called during 1918.

 

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[1] Actually, we have been unable to locate a copy of the House Journal for 1917. The order of business presented here is based on the procedures followed on the first day of the 1919 session as presented in the House Journal for 1919.

by Darren Thornberry

The sine die gavel was still ringing in our ears when construction projects began anew this spring at the Colorado state capitol building. Much like the laws in our state, the building where those laws are made is itself a work in progress. Over the past two years, the interim (mid-May through late December) has seen tremendous restoration work completed in the people’s house. The Senate and House chambers and their magnificent chandeliers were restored to former glory, and the Senate committee rooms received a welcome face-lift.

In 2017, the House committee rooms in the basement are undergoing a significant renovation and various ongoing projects are underway on the roof of the building. Kudos to the architects, engineers, construction workers, capitol staff, and everyone else involved in beautifying and restoring this grand old building. Stay safe out there!

House Committee Rooms

Marilyn Eddins, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives, recently gave LegiSource a sneak peek of the renovations happening in the basement committee rooms. “No more high school classrooms,” she said with a smile as we walked and talked about the updates underway on the ground floor.

In the lobby of the committee rooms, where legislators, staff, and the public converge, brick and egg-and-dart crown molding that have not seen the light of day in decades have been uncovered by the construction crew. The crown molding will be on display once again upon completion of the renovation, and a portion of the brick might remain.

The tiny “Doc of the Day” room – 106 – is being repurposed as a small committee room with a table for 12. Room 107 is very exciting. Gone is the vertigo-inducing diagonal table. In its stead will be a straightforward, beautiful marble table. The St. Louis Antique Lighting Company, which restored the chandeliers in the House and Senate chambers, is custom-making two gorgeous lamps that will hearken back to those that hung in the room more than a hundred years ago. At that time, the room hosted a mining collection that boasted dozens of cabinets overflowing with stone and minerals including quartz, onyx, copper, silver, and gold (The Colorado State Capitol, Everett, p. 83). The renovation has already revealed an archway in Room 107 that once led outside the building. Hopefully, the room’s new look will showcase that unique architectural design after the renovation’s complete.

On the left as you walk into the lobby, rooms 111 and 112 will be combined into one large room to mirror the design of matching senate conference rooms on the third floor. In 112, the renovations have revealed interior windows facing the lobby that were covered up long ago. There will be windows in this wall once again; however, they will be glazed so that light may pass but the inhabitants of the committee room won’t feel like zoo animals.

Finally, at the rear of the lobby, a double egress will now lead to a vestibule and another exit from the house committee rooms to the ground floor.

On the Roof

Lance Shepherd, manager of Capitol Complex Architects, provided his notes on what’s going on over our heads:

“At the peaked ends of the roof, we are removing the tile roofing and replacing it with gray slate, which was the original roofing material. The asphalt shingle locations were originally slate, but due to the low slope the original slate failed. At these areas we are installing a zinc-coated copper to go with slate on the ends of the building. We are installing new skylights over the preserved original skylight frames.

“The scaffolding that has surrounded the building is for the gutter replacement. The gutters were originally lined with asbestos and copper. Over the years additional layers of material had been added as the gutters leaked. We are going back to the original look by removing the old gutter materials, abating the asbestos and installing new copper gutters.

“The iron rain leaders for the roof were lined with a plastic pipe sometime in the past, reducing the capacity of the drains by 50 percent. We are removing the plastic pipes and lining the original rain leaders with fiberglass and returning the capacity to the original design.

“The flag pole has been replaced with a new pole with detailing from the original drawings.

“The original chimneys for the steam boiler and the bathroom vents were removed sometime in the past. We are recreating them from the original plans and old photographs.

“Beneath the roof, in the attic, we have been dealing with asbestos fibers that remained behind from an earlier project when asbestos was not a material of concern. Due to the disturbance on the roof from both removing old materials to adding new materials, the asbestos has been [treated with a sealant material to prevent the release of fibers].

“We are currently scheduled to complete the project by February of next year, depending on the weather.”

The replacement of many of the building’s exterior windows and granite cleanup could be blog posts in themselves, but it’s plain to see there’s a lot happening inside and outside of the state capitol. Of course, the public is still welcome to visit and tours are happening daily. Pardon our dust!