The daily sentinel., 1903-05-25
"BUT THINGS
HAVE CHANGED. :"

1
ter of century ago L stood on this
same spot, but things have changed,
that's sure. -
Then William Mckinley. one of the
first settlers of Grand Junction. Colo
RADIO, talked of Colorado and its early
days. Mr.. Mckinley. who is one of
the Oldest engineers ON the Denver &,
Rio Grande road, came to Denver to
meet his sister who is coming from
Pennsylvania
L wanted to give her good well
come, and then l sort O. wanted to see
how the old town was getting along.
| am pretty busy on my engine and
don't have much time to go visiting, +"
he began. Mr.. McGinley is shy only
on one thing and that is hair.
Il wish L had been fixed this way
on hair when | first came to Colora-
do, continued Mr. MCKINLEY. MAY
be chap wouldn't have worried SO
much about having his scalp lifted.
came to Denver first IN 1877. and in
September. 1881, started for Grand
Junction. But Grand Junction was
not on the map then. j. Clayton
Nichols, now over in Manila; o. D.
Russell and couple of horse thieves
known as ''Shep'' and ZAP were in
the party. The latter did not stay
long for things grew uncomfortable
for them and they left for a new
world. Mr. Russell is dead and Mr.
Nichols is out of the country, so that
leaves me alone as the first settler
1.-The Denver & Rio Grande wanted
to get a line up through the country
and l started to work for them just a
score of years ago.
1.-The Indians had been driven on
west and the government had decided
that the Indians needed protection.
Therefore when we came along we
States soldiers.
What's this for. l wanted to
know.
" oh, you five white men are liza
BILE to run all the Indians out of the
country, the captain told us.
"We were held for few days and
then given our liberty, but only with
the understanding that we would not
hurt the Indians. l don't know how
many redskins there were around but
there were several Thousand of them
and they were all looking for a fight.
so we decided not to run the In
dians into the Pacific ocean.
The Utes were in full swing in
those days and took great delight in
killing all the white settlers they
Ouray, who was the white mans
friend, the white settlers demanded
the removal of the Indians to a new
reservationn.
Genera McKen .ie was called upon
to do this work and helped bit in
getting the troops down the pass
August 28. along with number of
other men, we ATTEMPTED to pass the
guards and get in onto the reserva-
ton. We were stopped and taken be-
fore General Mckenzie. / remember
we told him we were on our way to
help a Mexican make hay.
"That was enough for the general
and he said it was all right. | made
another attempt to get by the guard
and was caught again. This time l
was sure it meant my death. l got
off again but was held until Septem-
ber under guard.
'"Then Governor George A. Craw-
ford came along in a short time. He
wanted to go to the present city of
Grand Junction and asked me if l
would show him the way. hardly
wanted to go but consented after
time and we marched on. Gov. Craw
ford at once started the building of
log cabins and after the work was
we'll under way he left for Gunnison.
leaving me as architect-in chief of
the new city. You could hardly call
Grand Junction city. town or vii
lage. 1t was typical frontier gath
ering. There was not score OF resi-
dents the first few months, but once
started Grand Junction took a boom
and today it is on the highway OF be-
coming one of the best towns in the
state. New buildings are gonig up