Morse Coffin - Early Pioneer History

Of those yet living here and near here who served in Co. D there are Lieut. L. H. Dickson, Geo. L. Beckwith, Wm. H. Dickens and Columbus Weese; also L. A. White of Co. B., same regiment. There are also living at Berthoud Elijah Lovejoy and I. N. Gardner and at Boulder Granville Berkley, George Squires, Frank Montgomery, Wm. Elliott and H. B. Ludlow; also a few others in other parts of this state and in other states. But I must return and mention something I overlooked while running so fast.

Our party made its first visit to Denver July 29, 1859. Someone had a ferry across the Platte just below the mouth of Cherry Creek, but the river was now low enough for us to ford it. There was quite a sprinkling of little log shacks mostly made of cottonwood logs obtained nearly and tents, and many lived in wagons. There was plenty of selling and bartery going on. The most pretentious house was "Denver House" I think it was called, a sort of a hotel and gambling house. As I recall it this was part logs of a better quality than most of the houses and covered with canvas, though I may be mistaken in this. It stood on the north side of Blake street between Cherry Creek and present 15th street, near to and a little west of where the well-known elephant corral later flourished. To have foretold at that time the present magnificent city would, in my opinion, have taxed the aggregate wisdom and prescience of all the gods of both ancient and modern times; and the same would apply, only in modified form, to this entire country.

In November, 1861, I started for the old home in Illinois, going from Golden City with M. M. Seavy (now living in Denver) and six or eight other passengers to Omaha. From the latter town I walked nearly all the way to Marengo, Iowa, the western end of the railroad in that state.

June 22nd I started on the return to Colorado with three yoke of oxen, a horse and cow and one young man companion, W. W. Ogilvie of Canada. In Iowa we took in another man who assisted in driving the team. On this trip west I kept quite a lengthy daily diary of events and distance traveled.

I failed to note in its proper place that early in December, 1859, Jim made a trip to Denver with what little gold dust we had accumulated by sale of lumber, to get our winter supplies. As recalled now he got 260 pounds of flour, 100 of cornmeal, four papers of soda, four pounds of sugar and two bars of soap. Fortunately neither of us used tea nor coffee. I see by some of my old memoranda that a 100 pound sack of flour lasted us from 27 to 31 days, depending slightly on what else we had to eat. We must have had some salt and pepper already in store at this time.

In 1863, the Indian situation seemed to demand it and also an intimation from the governor that same was desirable, a militia company was formed at Burlington (our little burg) and called "The Evans Guard". The officers were Captain A. J. Pennock and lieutenants Alf. Cushman, L. H. Dickson, and Robert Woodward. In its makeup were many good men and it met regularly twice a month for drill. In the summer of 1864 the governor advised us to get ready and hold ourselves for instant service, which we did by rustling horses for those needing them and holding ourselves ready, as ordered, as did also Capt. Arkin's Co. at Boulder. But the crisis passed without our being called to active service. The large and beautiful silk flag presented to the guard by the ladies of the valley is now missing, as are also the records of the company which were, as I now recall, well kept by Geo. W. Coffin, as orderly sergeant. The "Guard" went dead on raising of Co. D 3rd Cav. as officers and many of the boys went into the new company.

On the 8th of July, 1865, I again started for my old Illinois home, going to Omaha with Francis M. Smith, well remembered in this section. We ran the gauntlet of Indians half the way to the river and traveled in large companies or took terrible chances, as we at times did, as the Platte valley was laid waste for some two or three hundred miles, ranches vacated and burned, with desolation on every hand. Nearly all the well known ranches we had been so familiar with only a few months before when they were teeming with life and activity, were now a mass of ruins. I have no data to guide or assist my memory now but just remember a few things. At American Ranch Mr. Morris, the proprietor, was killed and his wife and child taken captive. At a burned ranch some twenty miles this side of Julesburg we saw the iron remains of a large wagon train, which had been burned. In ruins of another ranch house we had the opportunity of shedding tears of joy over the remains of a warrior of the lamented "Lo" family. There were three wagons and four or five men in our immediate party, and sometimes we slid from the slower moving train and pushed on by ourselves, thus taking desperate chances, especially through sand hills and bluffs. This was a sad trip for all of us who had traveled the same route several times previous when conditions were very different. From Omaha I took boat to St. Jo, Missouri, and thence by rail to Chicago, my first visit to this city.

In December, 1865, I was married to Julia A. Dunbar at her home near DeKalb, Illinois, and May 11, 1866, we started west, by rail to St. Jo, and thence by boat to Omaha, where brother George had left our team of horses the fall before, and where we loaded our wagon with necessities for living. Prices at that time were something fearful. Bed ticking 95 cents per yard and cheapest prints 50 cents; fruits of all sorts in proportion, even as ordinary fruit as xante currants cost 50 cents a pound. It took considerable cash to buy even the most common necessaries for housekeeping.

M. H. Coffin