Difficulties at the saloon locally

'I'm hanging John Barley Corn'

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Ernest Hemingway often said he drank to make other people more interesting. A little more than 100 years ago, it became increasing difficult to get a drink here in Colorado.  And here in Monument ...
Well, off and on, between the Whiskey men and temperance — it was interesting.

“In 1912, an amendment to prevent the manufacture and sale of liquor was submitted to the electorate,” wrote Carl Ubbelohde, Maxine Benson and Duane A. Smith in A Colorado History.

“The voters defeated the proposal. But that defeat stirred the various groups to common action. Submerging their differences, they sponsored another amendment two years later. This time the voters answered the question of ratification affirmatively, approving an experiment in social engineering, despite a two-to-one rejection of the amendment in Denver. The ‘wet’ forces in the capital city threatened to use the new ‘home rule’ prerogatives of the city to escape the effect of the law, but on Jan 1, 1916, prohibition became the rules in Denver and all of Colorado.”

Colorado was joined by six other states, (Iowa, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arkansas, and South Carolina) at that stroke of midnight as 1500 saloons across the state, 500 hotels, restaurant and drugstores stopped selling, and 12 beer breweries closed.

Locally, here in Monument, liquor and bad characters seemed to go hand in hand.

Lucillle Lavelett documented it this way in "Through the Years at Monument" and "Monument's Faded Neighbor Communities and Its Folk Lore."

"Monument always had its saloons and whiskey men. Two murders were committed in Limbach saloon. A feud between Daniel Davidson and Francis Brown developed over a cattle transaction, each accused the other of stealing cattle, On Oct. 21, 1876, they met in the saloon and exchanged words. Davidson drew his pistol and shot Brown twice. Brown died almost instantly.

"He is buried in the Monument Cemetery, and his stone reads: 'He was killed.' A trial was held in February, 1877. The jury found Davidson guilty. His lawyers obtained a writ of supersedeos and he was released on bond of $5,000. Almost three years of litigation followed. The second trial began on Feb. 13, 1880 and on Feb, 21, Davidson was found not guilty. He was elected to the Town Board in 1881 and Davidson was the promoter of the ordinance passed prohibiting the shooting of firearms in town, and increasing liquor licenses $300 per year," Lavelett wrote.

"The second murder committed in a saloon was a feud between Rube Pribble and a Mr. Neff.  Mr. Pribble accused Neff of stealing a plow from him. Mr. Pribble shot and killed Neff. On Sunday morning when he was shown Neff's body, his only words were, "I have killed my best friend."

Pribble was found guilty and sentenced to life in the penitentiary. On the second trial it was brought out Neff had not stolen the plow but a third party had, and hid it in the barn. Pribble, this time was sentenced to 25 years, but died of pneumonia in a short time," reported Lavelett.

With prohibition, many saloons became lunch counters and soft drink fountains and for the first time, women (other than those working the saloons) were welcomed.

In Monument, however, Limbach's Saloon became a pool hall operated by Bob Burell for a few years, starting in 1916, on the east side of Front Street. Saloons already had periodically faced challenges here in town.

"The license fee to sell liquor in 1897 was $500. The town had a very active Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C. T.U.) There was always battles going on between Temperance folks and Whiskey men," Lavelett wrote.

"The Whiskey men usually won every town election, except in April 1896. That year Ordinance No. 33 was passed prohibiting selling liquor in town. The W.C.T.U. folks sent a thank you resolution to Board Members to be written in the minutes. Evidently the Whiskey men gave the Temperance a bad time for it. One by one, Temperance resigned, until Whiskey got power again and Ordinance No. 36 repealed Ordinance No. 33, and the saloons were open again. One W.C.T.U. lady would gather up the whiskey bottles and hang them by the neck on her fence and put up a sign saying 'I am hanging John Barley Corn.'"

It had been an ongoing battle, according to Lavelett.

As early as  1881, the Monument Saloon was fined for keeping the window shades down on Sunday.

"Monument did not have a "peeping Tom" but there was a woman that lived in town who was very much opposed to saloons, and she was named 'peeping Sal.' She wanted to know who the men were who spent their evenings at the saloon, so she could give their wives a bad time. Most every night, she would go peek in the windows of the saloon, and several times the men had seen her."

Peeping Sal was known for disappearing down a narrow, one-way passage between the saloon and another nearby building, when spotted and she then remained in hiding. Reportedly, she was cured of the habit by saloon patrons pretending to be oblivious, urinating out of second story window into the hiding place.

"That was the cure for the peeping and the end of the sarcastic remarks to the ladies who husbands went to the saloon," Lavelett reported.

Photo Information:
1. Bob Burrel's Pool Hall, about 1917, man with the hat unknown, man with cap John Pribble.

2. Limbach Saloon, circa 1885.

History woven into fabric of Monument post office

"Abstract anger is great for rhetorical carrying on. You can go on endlessly about the post office, but it doesn't mean you're mad at your mailman."
__ P.J. O'Rourke

 First called Henry's Station before the first trains rolled through in 1872, but Henry, himself, is given credit for changing the little burg's name to Monument

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

In places like this, the post office is part of the fabric that holds the town together through time and history. The story of the Post Office seems to be a twisting and turning tale here locally in Monument. David McShane, who built the old stone fort near the edge of Monument and Palmer Lake, was of course, the first postmaster. But Henry Limbach, was the second.

"The first post office in this vicinity was in 1869, and was located on the David McShane ranch. David McShane was the first postmaster. Mail was brought to the office twice a week, if the weather permitted, by hack or saddle horse," records historian Lucile Lavelett.

Limbach made his first payment on for land in Monument on Oct. 1, 1870. The land was patented to Maria Linder, Henry's mother in law, who came over from Germany.

"Caroline Linder Limbach was born in Hilburghausen Saxony, on May 22, 1842. She came to America with her mother, Mrs. Linder in May, 1872. They stopped temporarily in St. Louis, Missouri. There by pre-arrangement, she was met, and married to Henry Limbach, who had been a companion and schoolmate of her childhood and early youth in Germany. Immediately after their marriage, she came with her husband; her mother accompanying them to his ranch, that had been made a station called Henry's Station on the D & R.G. railroad just then built," wrote Lucille Lavelett in 'Through the Years at Monument, Colorado.'

"The country around was still unsettled, only a few ranches near and the bride still unable to speak a word of English. She commenced her new life in a new, strange and barren-looking country. Caroline Limbach was the first white female resident in Monument. Her eldest son, Ed Limbach, was the first child born in this town."

According to the lore, though it was first called Henry's Station before the first trains rolled through in 1872, but Henry, himself is given credit for changing the little burg's name to Monument, after the nearby rock formation.

Henry himself, had arrived in this country as early as 1866, when he served in the Eighth Cavalry. He enlisted to take part in the Indian War and served as Captain.

"Later he became a true friend to the Indian. He and Chief Ingacio were very close friends," Lavelett wrote.

In January of 1874, Charles Adams and Henry Limbach filed a plat statement of the town encompassing about 60 acres in the North half of the South east quarter. 108 lots were platted with Limbach owning 36 and Adams 72. Adams and Limbach, with others, would later file two more additions by 1879, and be involved with more in the 1880s.

Mount Herman, West of Monument, was named after one Herman Schwanbeck, who homesteaded right about where Village Inn is now. A relative of his, Charles Adams, was both instrumental in the development of the town, and much of early Colorado, though Adams never lived in Monument, staying in the Manitou Springs much of his life, and died in fire and explosion at the Gumry Hotel in Denver in 1895.

"Charles Adams was born Karl Adams Schwanbeck in Germany in 1845. He came to the United States as young man and served in the Union Army during the the Civil War (as did Henry Limbach) and afterwards was a cavalryman on the Western Plains. He was appointed Brigadier General of the Colorado Militia in 1870. Later he was an Indian agent , a special agent in the post-office department and Minister to Bolivia. After the Ute outbreak in 1879 he distinguished himself by entering the territory of the Indians and persuading them to release their white captives. He was married to an English girl who did not like the German name of Schwanbeck, so had it changed to Charles Adams," according to Lavelett's history.

From 1869 to 1959, the Post Offices in Monument were located in stores or private homes. In 1959, for was the first time, Monument had it own new building for a post-office. It was dedicated April 24, 1960 with Lucille Lavelett as postmaster.

A new and larger office was constructed on Front Street in 1975 to accommodate growth related to development in Woodmoor, (the building surrounded by controversy recently regarding a possible Methadone clinic,) across from Limbach Park.

And finally construction of the current building, on Third Street, across from the old Schwanbeck homestead, began in 1998.

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Photo Information:

1. David McShane, first Monument-area postmaster.

2. Henry Limbach, second postmaster.

3. Caroline Limbach.

4. Charles Adams, with Ouray and Chipeta

5. Lucille Lavelett.

6. Limbach's house in 1880.

7. Limbach Saloon.

8. Caroline Limbach's Millenery.

Building was once Gwillimville School

With much fanfare, the Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce moved into the Highway 105 location in 1985, but the building itself has quite a storied history. It's been a bit transient.
According to a letter dated March 15, 1985, from long-time Monument historian Lucille Lavelett, the building has been bopping around Monument since perhaps as early as 1869.
"The C.E. (Christian Education) Building was once a one-room Gwillimville School. Gwillimville was once a small, thriving community five miles east of Monument on Highway 105. It was founded by Gwillim R. Gwillim in 1869."
Lavelett relates the following story:
"During a period of a few years, a dozen or more families had come from Wales and several from England, and settled in the community. Church services were held in the one-room Gwillimville School until the Gwillimville Church was built in 1893. This Church was built on the northwest corner of (Highway) 105 and Highway 83," wrote Lavelett.
"On Aug. 6, 1919, Monument School consolidated with three smaller districts which were Pring, three miles south of Monument, Husted, six miles south (Husted is now part of the United States Air Force Academy), and Stout, which was east of Husted. The following year, Gwillimville joined the new district (1920)," she wrote.
"It was in the late 1920s or early 1930s, Rev. R.J. Hassted, minister of the Presbyterian Church, and Earl Thompson moved the little white school into Monument and put it south of the Presbyterian Church to be used as a Sunday School and community services. To help the church, the Monument Homemakers Club in 1938, and 1939, paid for having ceiling and walls re-plastered and painted, built a new flue in the west end, bought a large coal circulator heater to heat the building and put linoleum in the kitchen area. The east end had a cook stove, sink and cupboards. Cook stove did not give enough heat to warm the building, so the new flue was built," Lavelett said.
"In the late 1940s, the church built the new kitchen and Sunday School room on the north side of the building. Also a rest room. The town, at that time, had natural gas, so a gas heater was installed," she said.
At the time of the 1985 move to its present location, Lavelett noted that this was third move for the old Gwillimville School.
"When it was built, its home was about one and a half miles north of (Highway) 105 where the children had to walk through a cattle pasture. Children were afraid of the cattle, so it was move close to 105. Moved then to Monument, and in 1985 to home of the Chamber of Commerce," according to historian Lavelett.
Then County Commissioner Frank Klotz and Chamber President Sandy Smith turned a spade-full of dirt in honor of the new building in February, and actual move took place in April of that year, reported the forerunner of the Tribune at the time. The chamber had been organized nine years prior to spearhead efforts to attract business and industry to the Tri-Lakes area.
The Chamber owns the building itself but not the land on which it is located (property of the Colorado Department of Transportation), and will be looking for a suitable tenant for their former location on Highway 105.
"I love this building," says current Chamber Executive Director Terri Hayes, "But we are just out of space."

On the prowl for faded neighbors

The lion was treed and brought down by a .22 caliber bullet through his brain

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

The big cat prowled the ridges of Rampart Range for years. A calf here, a lamb there – the huge animal took pretty much what he wanted.

Tipping the scales at 160 pounds, and having paws five inches across, the mountain lion grew old, tough, and battle-scarred with broken teeth. It also had become a menace in the late summer and fall of 1922. In October of that year, local ranchers had figured it had killed 30 calves and had been seen within a mile of town many times.  It was time for a change.

But times, they do change, as evident in the passing of time and fate of the towns themselves.

We know that by the way this little settlement might appear at the edge of a trail or along the railroad track or by the riverbed. Slowly it might grow, becoming a small village, or even a larger town. Who knows? Maybe someday, it could grow into a city. But, suppose whatever made it grow in the first place, stops. We know of the success stories, but what of the failures?

There are towns and villages that few remember, and even fewer can say they know what happened.

Towns like Gwillimville, Pring, Husted, Spring Valley, Greenland, Eastonville, Bijou Basin, or Jimmy’s Camp in “The Divide” country. Lucille Lavelett’s 1979 book “Monument’s Faded Neighbor Communities and Its Folklore” tells the story of some of them and has become the definitive source.

Gwillimville: five miles east of present day Monument on Highway 105.

“In its heyday, there were a cheese factory, creamery, store, saloons, a blacksmith shop, post office, school and a church. Across the road was housing for some of those who worked in the cheese factory,” wrote Lavelett.

Pring: Three miles south of Monument with a depot and a one-room school. Founder John William Pring invented the first hand corn planter and sold the patent to the John Deere Company.

Husted: Six miles south of Monument.

“Calvin Husted began his saw mills in 1867 and 1868. Many of Colorado Springs buildings were constructed from the lumber hauled from his mills; hauled by oxen and horses,” Lavelett said.

Spring Valley: Twelve miles northeast of Monument. A post office was established there as early as 1865 according to the national archive, on the old stage route from Denver. “A severe epidemic of scarlet fever took the lives of almost all of the children in the Spring Valley community,” according to Lavelett.

Greenland: Five miles north of Monument. Laid out as a 20 acre town site 1876, it became a busy stop on the Denver and Rio Grande railroad. The Higby store was built there in 1907.The small town also boasted two other stores, a post office (discontinued in 1959), a saloon, and other various businesses.

Eastonville: Near Peyton and north Falcon. The cemetery at the northeast corner of meridian and Latigo Roads in the Black Forest area was founded in 1865.

Table Rock: If you wish to visit this cemetery, travel east on County Line Road from I-25, the three quarters of a mile south on Campbell Road. Named Table Rock because of the high, flat rock mountain that is north and east of where there was once a store, church , school creamery, blacksmith shop and a post office, they were busy places,” wrote Lavelett.

I guess nothing lasts forever, and lions, and towns, and villages, all have their own time.

“With the aid of his dog Rover, Fred Simpson tracked the lion for three hours over the snow to a point on Hay Creek, five miles west of Monument, where the lion was treed and brought down by a .22 caliber bullet through his brain,” says Lavelett’s 1979 account.

Simpson had “Old Disappearance” mounted by a taxidermist and it was displayed for years at the A.E. Fox Cash Grocery on Front Street in Monument. Several years ago it was restored and placed in the Vaile museum in Palmer Lake.

Those involved in the restoration say it was quite a sight to witness the big cat hanging out of the partially-open doors of a van as it traveled to Colorado Springs to get its coat cleaned and freshened after years inside coal-heated buildings.

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