CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1898-08-18
A PIONEERS STORY.
Being A Narrative Of the Doings oi
A yenturesome Male Resi-
dent Of cauon City.

18th, 1887, and there he spent lis
early childhood. When be was 10 Or
IL years old his parents moved to
Indiana, and later to Iowa, settling
on a fine piece of prairie land IN
| lAppanoose county.
/ On the 4th of May, 1864, he. in
company with some twenty-five other
venturesome men, yoked up their
loxen, bundled their families into NOV
ling wagons and started for the Land
of promise in the rugged mountains
of the far west. Something over
three months were consumed in the
Journey, the party finally landing at
Canon City and corralling on the pres
ent site of the Bates school building,
River street, on Saturday, August
18th, 1S64-thirty-four years ago
today.
This little band of fortune hunters
has gradually dwindled away until
the only surviving members in the
state known to the subject of this ar
ticle Mr.. W. H. Mcclure, of the real
estate firm of W. H. Mcclure & Co..
are his brother, J. E. Mcclure of Mont
rose, Ira Porter and wife, now living
on Hardscrabble, and John B. Callen,
residing on Beaver creek.
A notable popularity of this little
lparty of pioneers was the fact that
every male member of the Shoal Greek,
Iowa, Baptist church, except one,
came with it, and they became the
founders of the present organization
in this city The next day after their
arrival being Sunday and one member
of the party wearing the cloth of or
dained ministers, preaching services
we're announced. People came from
miles around to hear the sermon,
religious exercises being of rare cc-
currence at that time and ministers
Of the gospel hard to find.
! During SO and go Canon City had
quite boom, but when Mr.. Mcclure
and his party struck the town the
only other inhabitants were Gov. Rudd,
a Mr.. Platt Uncle Sam Cox, Currant
Creek, Colo, and woman bereft Of
reason. but there were plenty Of NJ
cant houses. The valley down about
Four Nile, however, was well settled
and the Four Mile ditch had already
been constructed. Events crowded
each other rapidly with our friends
and three of the party were delegated
to reconnoiter and report on the lay
of the land to the east and north.
One of these was W. H. Mcclure. The
trio were instructed to proceed down
the river to its juncture with the
Fountain qui Bouille, thence up this
stream to Colorado City, intending TO
cross the mountains by way of Ute Pass
returning to the Arkansas valley
] through what now is the Cripple Creek
1 gold belt. But at Beaver Creek Mr..
McClure's companions became disgust
ed with their trip, p,compelled right
about face" and returned to Canon
City by the same route they had gone
out.
1t was customary in these early
days for nearly everyone to seek the
mountains in the summer, returning
to the valleys as winter approached.
Being the poorest man in the outfit
W. H. loaded up what flour he had
lest-he having brought a good supply
from the ast-finished out his load
with vegetables purchased from Mr..
Toof on Four Mile and hustled through
to Breckenridge, late though it was.
His wares were soon disposed of at
fabulous prices. Starting back he
took q route which brought him by
the salt basin in South Park. Here
he secured thousand pounds of salt,
which was in turn sold to Arkansas
valleyites at l5c pound. In Breck-
enridge Mr.. Mcclure met a man who
kindly vacated the front part of his
house and turned it over to the free
use of Mr.. and Mrs. Mcclure. This
proved to be Uncle Jesse RAIDER.
Taking pity on MIR. McClure's con-
dition Judge d. ?. Wilson, who was
then engaged in mercantile pursuits,
gave up the front end of the building
now used by the Smith Mercantile
company, which he was using TO store
corn purchased for the government.
By close living and diligent work
the Mcclure brothers managed to
scrape together the munifcent sum
of 1926, which W. H. took to Denver
and invested in groceries, the whole
bulk. including scales and counters.
being deposited in one store window
of limited dimensions. Such = de-
mand was there for goods Of this