This is the fourth in a series of articles sharing the history of the pioneers, communities and happenings along the New Santa Fe Regional Trail. Before we meet William and Mary Young and their children Marian and Russell, let’s review our journey thus far by running the trail and do so back in the late 1800’s. If you’ve managed to keep up with the articles so far, this “way back” imaginary journey should be familiar. If you are just coming joining our adventure, catch up with the last three Long Run Newsletters and you’ll be ready for this long ago run and this next segment of the trail.
We started at the Woodmen-Rockrimmon trailhead and proceeded north. A Colorado City to Denver stagecoach kicks up some dust in front of us as their pathway crosses ours. Five dusty passengers and their driver wave at us as they pull into the Teachout Ranch to change horses and drop off some mail. Harlow and Leafy Teachout emerge from their beautiful 2-story hotel and greet the Denver bound folks and give us runners perplexed looks as we bob along on our run…remember, it’s the late 1860’s! We journey northward another mile or so and meet Elizabeth Lennox riding her horse southbound carrying several letters she’s written to friends back in Iowa and anxiously hoping the stagecoach brought her some mail. Elizabeth greets us with a smile and announces “there’s a dance tonight at Teachout’s, won’t you crazy runners stop by.” We soon arrive into the village of Edgerton where folks from the Cascade Ice Company are harvesting blocks of ice from their three lakes and promptly loading them onto railcars parked on the spurs. To the west up on the mesa we hear the laughter of the Edgerton school children as they adjourn for recess and peer down into the West Monument Creek canyon wishing the remnants of winter would fade faster so they could do some fishing. John Lennox and Aaron Blodgett stop their wagon load of timber to let us by as they put the finishing touches on a bridge they and family members built over the Monument Creek.
As the images and sounds of long ago yield to the present, we pick up our journey just under the roadway bridge that crosses over Monument Creek. We are about three miles from our Woodmen starting point. Look up at the underside of this bridge…be sure to stop running first and maybe stretch a little. You’ll see many, many cliff swallows and their unique nests. These are mud igloo-like nests. Did you know that cliff swallows do not build their nests over water? When baby cliff swallows are given their first flying lessons, mom and dad do not want them fluttering down to water, they work it so the little bird lands on the ground.
We are now approaching an area where William and Mary Young settled with their two children in 1871. It is unclear exactly where their cabin was, but for the next mile or so beyond the bridge, we’re passing through the Young homestead. Let’s review some important Young genealogy. Marian McIntyre McDonough was the granddaughter of William and Mary Young. Marian McDonough inherited her grandmother’s diary that grandmother Mary kept so meticulously during the family’s journey to and settling in Colorado. Mary’s daughter Marian Young, whom we’ll soon learn more about, was Marian McIntyre McDonough’s mother. Marian McDonough is the founder of the Palmer Lake Historical Society and wrote many history articles about the Young’s and the early days of northern Colorado Springs. She also wrote a marvelous book entitled “Wagon Wheels to Denver” that is based on stories from Mary Young’s diary. The photos of William Young (1870), Mary and her daughter Marian (1862), Marian McDonough when she was 16 years old, and their homestead cabin as it appeared in 1871 were provided by Mr. Roger Davis of the Lucretia Vaile Museum. Roger is Marian McDonough’s grandson and thus he’s the great, great grandson of William and Mary Young.
Let’s learn more about the Young’s journey to this location. All of my material is derived from Marian McDonough’s literary efforts, including a May 12, 1957 Gazette newspaper article and essay from the Colorado Prospector May 1974. I often use Marian’s exact sentences to ensure I’ve captured the wonderful story with Marian’s enjoyable and accurate writing style.
In the summer of 1871, tall dark haired William Bangs Young and his blue-eyed, chestnut-haired wife, Mary Eliza, left their comfortable home in Chicago. Doctors had advised them to come west to Colorado for Mary Young's lung trouble. They also advised them against taking the rapid climb to such a high altitude by the newly built Kansas Pacific Railroad, which traveled at a speed of 20 or 30 miles an hour. It would seem rather rugged for an invalid, but the doctors suggested they travel west from Leavenworth, Kansas by carriage and wagon because of the healthful out-door camp life. The Young's and their golden-haired 11-year-old daughter, Marian, and brown-eyed Russell, their 3-1/2-year-old son, left Leavenworth, Kansas on June 4, 1871 in a wagon train that followed the railroad west.
Mary documents this “outdoor camp life” quite vividly in the diary. A few days after crossing the Colorado territorial boundary and at a temperature of 110 degrees she writes, “this country ought to have the redeeming feature, healthfulness, for never was I in so Godforsaken a country…the sun pours down and bakes the ground till it cracks open. There is not a spear of anything green, nothing but grass and dirt.” The wagon train averaged 15 miles of progress each day. Often, she wrote, the kind conductors of the Kansas Pacific Railroad tossed off chunks of ice together with the camper's mail and the Chicago Times and Chicago Tribune. On arriving in the Pikes Peak Region on July 31, the Young’s camped where the Antlers Hotel is today. Mary Young wrote in her journal, "July 31, 1871. Camp Colorado Springs. We are encamped on a bluff with a grand view of Pikes Peak looming up above all the others with its bare rugged top. The Cheyenne Mountains to the left of us are grand with their rugged sides and irregular tops. Colorado City, a miserable town is located under the brow of Pikes Peak, numbers 45 houses. (Mary refers to Old Colorado City, which has emerged from being a miserable town) A new town (early downtown Colorado Springs) is started two miles from the old town.”
Mary’s health seemed to improve so much by living out of doors that William Young decided that ranch and not city life would be best for her. Immediately he canceled their plans to eventually go to Denver to live. "Mary would get well here," he told himself. On August 2, Mary Young wrote in her journal that her husband visited a ranch owned by a Mr. Aaron Blodgett." Shortly after this the Young’s bought the land we run through on this segment that is north of the bridge and south of the wastewater treatment plant.
The Young’s together with the two Gatchell brothers who came along with them from Chicago drove the mule-drawn carriage and camp wagon out to the Young’s new ranch early on the morning of the August 8th. Mary captures the arrival and describes their new home as having two fine springs, a tiny spring house and a rude cabin which was not fit to live in. They pitched tents beside the Monument Creek. Their camp was east of the creek and faced the “irregular bluffs dotted with scrub oak, pine and spruce trees.” If you can see over the current railroad bed and look west, you’ll see the very bluffs these Young pioneers peered upon.
The cold winds blowing off the mountains soon drove the Young’s across the creek closer to the bluffs which acted as a protecting ridge. Here they again pitched their tent and William Young decided to build his house below the ridge. For a time, they set up housekeeping inside a nearby cave. William began the tedious task of cutting and hauling pine logs for the cabin. "Finding it pretty hard work for tenderfeet," according to the diary. When there was enough timber, two neighbor ranchers; Blodgett’s to the southwest and Robinson’s to the north helped him build a unique home for Mary, Marian and Russell.
On Friday, September 29, Mary Young comments in her diary. "Nights and mornings are so cold we almost froze this morning. It looked and felt so much like snow we moved into the house. I do not like it much, it seems so close and warm." Imagine with that three-inch opening all around the house for air! Soon the cabin would be finished, but you may ask, what is the three inch opening all about?
The cabin had an imposing living room for those days of tiny parlors and what was even more imposing in a period sacred to pot-bellied stoves was a big fireplace. Camp cots for the children were set up at one end of the room while off the kitchen and pantry was the bedroom. From the front piazza and the west windows, one caught a glimpse of rugged Pikes Peak and could see the blue-shadowed range dominated by Cameron's Cone. But the thing that impressed those near and far was the three-inch opening left between the walls and ceiling all around the house. William Young was determined that Mary should have plenty of fresh air and thus uniquely designed and built the house to ensure she would get plenty of fresh Colorado air.
Going to the grocery store back then was a bit different than today’s trip to King Soopers or Safeway grocery stores. Mary and her daughter Marian took turns going about a mile southwest to the Blodgett’s ranch for milk, butter, and eggs. Mary preferred riding in a saddle whereas Marian preferred to ride her horse bareback. Carrying the groceries, the journal says, "...was no easy matter on horseback." Other days, one or the other of them would ride to the Robinson’s to the north to purchase meat. Other trips south to Teachout’s were accomplished for the mail.
The Blodgett’s loaned the Young’s a cow and Marian learned to milk it. She raised chickens and learned to cook, do cleaning and haul water from the creek. They were the proud owners of a Doty Washing Machine, which worked somewhat like an old-fashioned butter churn. Most of the clothes were not ironed but described as being “mangled on their backs”…wrinkles were in back then I guess!
Soon the construction crews of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad appeared and built the railroad right through the Young’s ranch. Mary captures the railroad construction event as plenty to watch and entertain Marian and Russell. She also documents a frightening day when several rough looking men came up from the tracks to the cabin for purposes unknown to her. She rallied Marian and Russell and their dog Chase into the house. William was in Pueblo purchasing some sheep at that time. She grabbed the revolver that she kept handy, locked the door and windows and pulled the curtains. The men fumbled and grumbled around the outside of the house but soon return down to the tracks. Mary was ready to defend her family and property!
The Indian troubles of the 1860’s were gone and occasionally the Ute Indians would ride through the Young’s land and stop by for a visit. They would sell brightly colored beads as well as bows and arrows for the kids to have. Hardly a week went by without a band of Indians stopping by. Often Mary would invite them in for her special biscuits, which the Ute’s called “heap biscuits.” The word spread and many of the Utes would come by the Young’s and bang on the door declaring “heap biscuit” as they sought Mary and Marian’s biscuits. One day a group of Indians rode the ridge to the west and came down to the Young’s for a visit. One problem, the Indians had mud on their feet and Mary had just spent the day scrubbing the kitchen floor. A wrinkled old squaw pounded on the door “white squaw, heap biscuit” she begged. But Mary tried to shoo them away, plus she was out of flour. The elder Indian would not let up “White squaw, heap afraid” she accused. Mary noticed some dough in a pan and quickly prepared some biscuits to feed this tenacious Indian gal and move things along…and she kept the floor clean too.
The Young’s lived in this area for 5 years and eventually moved into Colorado Springs proper. They sold their land and cabin to a Harry Brown for $5000. William Young later became the first president of the Colorado Springs Board of Trustees, somewhat like the mayor’s job today. Marian Young married Henry A. McIntyre when she was 18 years old, after a closely monitored courtship lasting 6 years. They had first met when she was only 12! Henry and Marian ran a hotel on South Cascade to the east of the Antlers Hotel. They eventually moved to Denver where Marian McIntyre gave birth to a daughter also named Marian. We are indebted to Marian McIntyre McDonough for her efforts to preserve the memory of the Young family and their pioneer spirit. The Palmer Lake Historical Society and their marvelous museum and staff are an everlasting testament to Marian McDonough. Do consider a visit to the Vaile Museum located on 66 Lower Glenway Street.
The next time you run, ride or stroll this section of the New Santa Fe Regional Trail listen for William’s saw as he cuts and hews logs for his cabin, watch for Marian as she hauls groceries back from the Blodgett’s, and be alert for Utes heading to the Young’s cabin for “heap biscuits.” Next time we’ll journey further north and learn more stories along the history trail.
