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“BUSINESS SENSE IF NOT SOULS”: BOOSTERS AND RELIGION IN COLORADO SPRINGS, 1871–1909

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2018

Gregory Atkins
Gregory Atkins*
Affiliation:
Washington State University
*
email: gregory.atkins@wsu.edu
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Extract

On July 12, 1871, the Colorado Springs Company and its largest shareholder, William Jackson Palmer, adopted a plan that divided the hundreds of acres they owned into the streets, blocks, and plots of Colorado Springs. To sell the city, the boosters of Colorado Springs marketed it as a refined resort for wealthy industrialists, health seekers, and tourists. Boosterism in Colorado Springs appealed to these audiences over the next four decades by using a changing mixture of politics, business, and religious morality. This boosterism successfully distinguished the resort of Colorado Springs from the mines, steel mills, and agriculture that defined nearby towns.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 77 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2018 

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References

NOTES

I wish to thank a few of the people who helped me with this article. Matthew Avery Sutton provided guidance from beginning to end. Darren Dochuk gave valuable feedback on two different versions. Carl Abbott and my other reviewer offered support and great advice. Finally, the archivists at the Special Collections of the Pikes Peak Library District, the Starsmore Center for Local History at the Pioneer Museum, and the Special Collections at Colorado College spent hours bringing me not only sources but also constructive insights.

1 Roosevelt, Theodore, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (New York: Century, 1901), 257 Google Scholar.

2 F. P. Stevens, Colorado Springs, Carl Mathews Photograph Collection, MSS 005, Special Collections in the 1905 Carnegie Library, Pikes Peak Library District.

3 Rocky Mountain Endeavor, YMCA Edition 1:7 (Sept. 1901) in MSS 072 YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, Box 9, Printed Matter/Publicity, Folder 17, Special Collections in the 1905 Carnegie Library, Pikes Peak Library District (hereafter SCPPLD).

4 For church lots in Grand Junction, see Underwood, Kathleen, Town Building on the Colorado Frontier (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), 12 Google Scholar. For booster tactics, see Hamer, David, New Towns in the New World: Images and Perceptions of the Nineteenth-Century Urban Frontier (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 43, 47Google Scholar.

5 Hamer, New Towns in the New World, 88. I wish to thank Carl Abbott for pointing me to other anti-frontier towns, the most virulent of which appear to be tourist and health resorts. For Greeley, see Boyd, David, A History: Greeley and the Union Colony (Greeley, CO: Greeley Tribune Press, 1890)Google Scholar; and Willard, James F., The Union Colony at Greeley, 1869–1871 Colony Series, vol. 1, ed. Willard, James F. (Boulder, University of Colorado Press, 1918)Google Scholar. For Humboldt, see History of Kossuth and Humboldt Counties, Iowa (Springfield, IL: Union, 1884)Google Scholar. For Evanston, see Sheppard, Robert Dickenson and Hurd, Harvey B., eds., History of Northwestern University and Evanston (Chicago: Munsell, 1906), 317–461 Google Scholar. For Pasadena, see Reid, Hiram A, History of Pasadena (Los Angeles: Kingsley-Barnes & Neuner, 1895), 475–511 Google Scholar. For a recent treatment of religion, boosterism, and tourism in Southern resorts, see Stanonis, Anthony J., Faith in Bikinis: Politics and Leisure in the Coastal South since the Civil War, Politics and Culture in the Twentieth-Century South Series (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014)Google Scholar.

6 James, Michael F., “City on the Hill: Temperance, Race, and Class in Turn-of-the-Century Pasadena,” California History 80:4 (2001): 186–207 Google Scholar. Boyd, David, A History: Greeley and the Union Colony (Greeley, CO: The Greeley Tribune Press, 1890), 235–36Google Scholar.

7 Abbott, Carl, Colorado: A History of the Centennial State (Boulder: Colorado Associated University Press, 1976)Google Scholar. Brosnan, Kathleen, Uniting Mountain and Plain: Cities, Law, and Environmental Change along the Front Range (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002)Google Scholar. Laugen, R. Todd, The Gospel of Progressivism: Moral Reform and Labor War in Colorado 1900–193, Timberline Book Series (Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

8 Although much scholarship exists on individual ecumenical organizations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, few scholars analyze how these organizations worked with each other and denominational churches to enforce morality.

9 This article joins much recent scholarship concerned with the origin and sense of place in Sunbelt cities. A few recent books include Nickerson, Michelle and Dochuk, Darren, eds., Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Space, Place, and Region (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013)Google Scholar; Shermer, Elizabeth Tandy, Sunbelt Capitalism: Phoenix and the Transformation of American Politics (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013)Google Scholar; and Torres-Rouff, David Samuel, Before L.A.: Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1791–1894 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013)Google Scholar.

10 Fisher, John S., A Builder of the West: The Life of General William Jackson Palmer (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1939), 19, 26–49, 53Google Scholar. For the difference between Hicksite and other Quakers, see Crothers, A. Glenn, Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth: The Society of Friends in Northern Virginia, 1730–1865 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012), chap. 5Google Scholar.

11 Fisher, A Builder of the West, 71–74.

12 General William Jackson Palmer, Carl Mathews Photograph Collection, MSS 005, Special Collections in the 1905 Carnegie Library, Pikes Peak Library District.

13 Palmer, William Jackson, Report of Surveys across the Continent in 1867–‘68, on the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-second Parallels, for a Route Extending the Kansas Pacific Railway to the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco and San Diego (Philadelphia: W. B. Selheimer, 1869), 164, 177Google Scholar.

14 For Palmer's early vision of a north-south line, see Palmer, Report of Surveys, 171–72. For the purchase of land that became Colorado Springs, see Athearn, Robert G., Rebel of the Rockies: A History of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962), chap. 1Google Scholar.

15 For the colony's plan, see “Prospectus of the Fountain Colony of Colorado, Located at Colorado Springs, Colorado” (Denver: Denver Tribune Print, 1871). William Jackson Palmer to Robert A. Cameron, Dec. 1871 in Fisher, A Builder of the West, 200. “Colorado Springs,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), Apr. 22, 1874 Google Scholar.

16 For the beginnings of Colorado Springs, see meeting minutes for Apr. 4, 1871, and May 4, 1872, in National Land and Improvement Company Minute Book, MSS 0073, Colorado Springs Company Records, 1866–1877, Box 1, Minute Book, May 1866–May 1883, SCPPLD.

17 William Jackson Palmer to Isaac Clothier, Apr. 19, 1867, in Clothier, Isaac, ed., Letters, Gen'l Wm. J. Palmer, 1853–1868 (Philadelphia: Ketterlinus, 1906), 87–88 Google Scholar. William Jackson Palmer to Committee of Friends, undated 1867, in Elsie Queen Nicholson Collection, Box 2, Correspondence and Personal Papers, Folder 14, Correspondence 1863–1908, Starsmore Center for Local History, Pioneer Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado (hereafter SCLHPM). I want to thank Carl Abbott for pointing out that Isaac Clothier helped found the famous department store Strawbridge and Clothier and strongly supported Swarthmore College, originally affiliated with Hicksite Quakers.

18 “The Late William Jackson Palmer,” Evening Post (Philadelphia), Apr. 7, 1909 Google Scholar.

19 “The Late William Jackson Palmer,” Evening Post (Philadelphia), Apr. 20, 1909 Google Scholar.

20 For the similarity in temperance deeds between Colorado Springs and Greeley, see Boyd, A History, 186. For temperance in land deeds in Colorado Springs, see meeting minutes for Jan. 24, 1891 in MSS 0073, Colorado Springs Company Records, 1866–1977, Box 2, Minute Book, Colorado Springs Company, 1871–1941, Colorado Springs Company Records, 1866–1977, SCPPLD.

21 Cowell v. The Springs Company, 1880, 100 U.S. 55.

22 For the grant of land to Colorado College, see meeting minutes for Aug. 30, 1880, in MSS 0073, Colorado Springs Company Records, 1866–1977, Box 2, Minute Book, Colorado Springs Company, 1866–1941, in Colorado Springs Company Records, 1866–1977, SCPPLD. For the advertisement, see “Colorado Springs,” The Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), Apr. 22, 1874 Google Scholar.

23 “Colorado Springs,” The Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), Apr. 22, 1874 Google Scholar. Manly Ormes coined the booster phrase, “City of Churches.” He also provided the most useful published account of church history in the town. For both, see Ormes, Manly and Ormes, Eleanor, The Book of Colorado Springs (Colorado Springs: Dentan Printing Company, 1933)Google Scholar in Rare Books, Colorado College Special Collections (hereafter CCSC). For a couple of unpublished records of church land grants, see meeting minutes for June 3, 1907, and June 1, 1908, in MSS 0073, Colorado Springs Company Records, 1866–1977, Box 2, Minute Book, Colorado Springs Company, 1873–1941, in Colorado Springs Company Records, 1866–1977, SCPPLD.

24 Land Deed, June 3, 1879, MSS 0337, Congregational Church Papers, Box 6 Record Books and Miscellany, Folder 5 1924 Gazette Article and Land Filing, Colorado College Special Collections, Colorado Springs, Colorado, CCSC.

25 For the company's employment of Ambrose, see Ormes and Ormes, The Book of Colorado Springs, 189, in Rare Books, CCSC. For the minutes of the Baptist Church, see Book “A” Meeting Minutes, Nov. 2, 1872, Nov. 6, 1872, Nov. 13, 1872, First Baptist Church of Colorado Springs Archive.

26 For two recent studies of the ABCFM, see Corr, Donald Philip, “The Field is the World”: Proclaiming, Translating, and Serving by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1810–1840 (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2009)Google Scholar; and Putney, Clifford and Burlin, Paul T., The Role of the American Board in the World: Bicentennial Reflections on the Organization's Missionary Work, 1810–2010 (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2012)Google Scholar. The American Bible Society and American Tract Society lack recent attention. For the American Bible Society, see Taylor, Robert T., Wings for the Word: A Short History of the American Bible Society (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1978)Google Scholar; and Gibson, John M., Soldiers of the Word: The Story of the American Bible Society (New York: Philosophical Library, 1958)Google Scholar. For the American Tract Society, see Twaddell, Elizabeth, “The American Tract Society, 1814–1860,” Church History 15:2 (June 1946): 116–132 Google Scholar. For the increasing influence of ecumenical organizations focused on personal morality, see Foster, Gaines M., Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865–1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

27 The mayor, chief of police, and city physician were ex-officio directors of the Associated Charities before the mayor became its executive director in 1899. The mayor, judges, and police officers also often visited the meetings of the Ministerial Association. Judge James Severy was a board member of the YMCA and the mayor made many addresses at board meetings. In addition, Winfield Stratton, the mining magnate, served on the boards of both the YMCA and Associated Charities.

28 Although dwarfed by the growth of Denver, Colorado Springs expanded quickly from 1880 through 1910. The town had 4,226 residents in 1880 of whom 133 were African American and 10 Chinese and Japanese. U.S. Census Bureau, “Population by Race, Sex, and Nativity,” Table VI, Population, by Race, of Cities and Towns of 4,000 Inhabitants and Upward: 1880 and 1870,” Census of Population and Housing, 1880, Final Reports, Volumes 18 and 19, Part II, The Southern and Western States, 416. In 1890 there were 11,140 residents with 439 African Americans, 27 Chinese, and 1 sole “Civilized Indian” among them. U.S. Census Bureau, “Sex, General Nativity, and Color,” Table 19, Population, by Sex, General Nativity, and Color, of Places Having 2,500 Inhabitants or More: 1890,” Final Reports, Volume I, Part I, 452. The 1900 Census showed 21,085 residents of whom 875 were African America, 23 were Chinese, and 1 was an Indian. U.S. Census Bureau, Volume I, “Population of States and Territories,” Section 10, “Sex, General Nativity, and Color, Continued,” Table 23, 610. The 1910 census gives a close representation of 1909, the last year of this article. In 1910 there were 29,078 inhabitants that included 1,107 African Americans, and 35 Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and others. U.S. Census Bureau, Volume I, “General Report and Analysis,” Section 3, “Color or Race, Nativity, and Parentage,” Table 38, “Color or Race, Nativity, and Parentage in Cities Having from 25,000 to 100,000 Inhabitants: 1910,” 179.

29 The Associated Charities went through even more name changes until 1970 when it became the Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center. Despite the many names, the records of the organization are under Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD.

30 For Palmer's early belief in the health of the mountains, see Palmer to Clothier, June 12, 1895, in Clothier, Letters, 21–22. For the health campaigns of Edwin Solly, see Colorado for Invalids (Colorado Springs: Gazette Publishing Company, 1880)Google Scholar; and Comparative Merits of Resorts in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona (Detroit, MI: William M. Warner, 1897)Google Scholar in Rare Books, CCSC.

31 Dec. 29, 1888, Secretary Book, 1887–1890, Folder 1, Box 1, Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD.

32 Lucy Foster to Frank Bruno, Mar. 27, 1911, and Frank Bruno to Arthur M. Wakeman, Apr. 5, 1911, in Case Correspondence, 1911–1915, Folder 18, Box 4, Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD.

33 Case Records, 1893–1894, Folder 6, Box 2, Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD.

34 “Associated Charities,” The Evening Telegraph (Colorado Springs), Feb. 14, 1896 Google Scholar.

35 Feb. 12, 1898 Meeting Minutes, Minute Book, Box 2, Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD. 1899 Annual Report, Box 4 Associated Charities, Folder 2, Annual Reports 1899–1910, Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD.

36 For the takeover of the Women's Aid Society by the Associated Charities, see Feb. 12, 1898, Secretary Book, 1890–1899, Box 2, Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD. For the Associated Charities use of city property and resources, see 1900 Annual Report and 1901 Annual Report, Box 4, Folder 2, Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center, Records, SCPPLD. For the high rate of arrests in the West, see Hernández, Kelly Lytle, “Hobo in Heaven: Race, Incarceration, and the Rise of Los Angeles, 1880–1910,” Pacific Historical Review 83:3 (2014): 410–48Google Scholar.

37 July 3, 1890, and July 5, 1890, Meeting Minutes, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD.

38 Nov. 10, 1891, Board Minutes, 1891–1901, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD.

39 Sept. 13, 1892, Feb. 13, 1894, June 4, 1895, Apr. 13, 1897, and Mar. 8, 1898, Board Minutes 1891–1901, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD.

40 Mar. 8, 1898, Board Minutes Books, 1891–1901, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD. Meeting Minutes, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, CCSC. Apr. 29, 1902, May 15, 1902, and Aug. 6, 1903, Board Minutes Books, 1902–1906, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD.

41 Oct. 3, 1903, Oct. 30, 1903, Nov. 17, 1903, and May 24, 1906, Board Meeting Minutes, 1902–1906, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD. For Dodge's failed run for Congress, see “Spent $4,813 for Moving Pictures, But Lost Out in Race for Congress,” Washington Herald, Nov. 30, 1912.

42 Dec. 30, 1904, and Oct. 31, 1905, Board Meeting Minutes, 1902–1906, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD.

43 July 6, 1909, Board Meeting Minutes, 1909, Box 1, YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, SCPPLD.

44 Nov. 4, 1901, and Dec. 15, 1901, Meeting Minutes, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, CCSC.

45 Council, City, Town Incorporation, City Organization and Reorganization (Colorado Springs: Colorado Springs City Council, 1902)Google Scholar, Google Book. Also see, Colo. Const. amend. XX.

46 Oct. 21, 1901, Apr. 3, 1902, and Apr. 14, 1902, Meeting Minutes, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, CCSC.

47 Dec. 23, 1901, Jan. 13, 1902, Oct. 26, 1903, and Aug. 1904, Meeting Minutes, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, CCSC.

48 See Nov. 23, 1902, Dec. 1, 1902, and Jan. 25, 1904, Meeting Minutes, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, CCSC.

49 See Jan. 20, 1902, Meeting Minutes, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, CCSC.

50 Aug. 1904, Meeting Minutes, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, CCSC.

51 “Mayor Hall's Policy,” The Gazette-Telegraph (Colorado Springs), Sept. 28, 1905 Google Scholar.

52 Mar. 20, 1905, Meeting Minutes, MSS 0377, Congregational Church Papers, Box 6, Ministerial Association Record Book, CCSC.

53 Rocky Mountain Endeavor, YMCA Edition 1:7 (Sept. 1901) in MSS 072 YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, Box 9, Printed Matter/Publicity, Folder 17, SCPPLD.

54 “Colorado Springs and Vicinity,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), Dec. 3, 1873 Google Scholar.

55 Rocky Mountain Endeavor, YMCA Edition 1:7 (Sept. 1901) in MSS 072 YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, Box 9, Printed Matter/Publicity, Folder 17, SCPPLD.

56 Rocky Mountain Endeavor, YMCA Edition 1:7 (Sept. 1901) in MSS 072 YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, Records, Box 9, Printed Matter/Publicity, Folder 17, SCPPLD. For a comparison with Pasadena, see Reid, Hiram A., History of Pasadena (Los Angeles: Kingsley-Barnes & Neuner, 1895), esp. 475–517 Google Scholar; and James, Michael E., “City on a Hill: Temperance, Race, and Class in Turn-of-the-Century Pasadena,” California History 80:4 (2001): 186–207 Google Scholar.