Pioneer Association plans 100th birthday party

By Wayne Sundberg
Correspondent

There is a word that is sometimes overused, sometimes misunderstood. That word is "pioneer."

Certainly those old enough to remember Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon's surface would consider him to be a space pioneer. Jonas Salk's development of a polio vaccine makes him a medical pioneer. But what does it take to be considered a pioneer in a historical sense? Does John Sutter's discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California in the 1850s qualify him as a pioneer, an opener of the West, a trailblazer or any other term for big events? Should a woman who crossed the Great Plains with her 10-year-old son in 1866 to become Fort Collins' first schoolteacher be accorded the status of pioneer?

That woman was Elizabeth Keays, Auntie Stone's young, widowed niece, who certainly made a pioneering impact on this area. She began teaching her son, Wilbur, and Harry Cooper in an upstairs bedroom of her aunt's cabin in September 1866. She left her teaching job that December to marry Harris Stratton, the first wedding to be performed in the area. Thirty-nine years later, on Dec. 29, 1905, her daughter and son-in-law, Lerah (Stratton) and Peter J. McHugh, hosted an anniversary party at their large, red sandstone home at the southeast corner of Oak and Remington streets.

The guests were many of the early settlers of the Cache la Poudre valley, coming from the city, Timnath, LaPorte, Loveland and some of the surrounding farms. As the party went into the evening, according to notes taken, "... they commenced to spin yarns [and] tried to see who could tell the largest story." It was suggested that the group form a social organization to be called the "Old Settler's Association." John G. Coy, who had come to the valley in 1862, was elected chairman, and Ansel Watrous, an 1878 settler, took the role as secretary. A committee with Watrous, Mary (Moulton) Sherwood, and Frank J. Annis was appointed to draw up a constitution and bylaws. The celebrants went their ways later in the evening, with the promise of a second meeting in a few weeks to formalize the committee's work.

They met again on Jan. 12, at the newly remodeled and renamed Northern Hotel, formerly the Commercial Hotel. The reasons for creating the organization, now called the "Pioneer Association," were "... to promote and perpetuate a closer fraternal feeling among pioneers and old settlers of Fort Collins and vicinity and to collect, compile and preserve the annals of the early days, with sketches of the lives and services of the hardy pioneers who blazed the trail to this western country...." Any person who had lived in Colorado for 30 years or in Larimer County, the Cache la Poudre Valley and its tributaries 25 years prior to Jan.1, 1906, and who were still living in the county were eligible for membership. They elected 74 charter members and agreed that the first annual meeting would be on George Washington's birthday, in February, when they would formalize the organization's documents and its membership.

The first annual meeting started out on a sad note. F. W. "Bill" Sherwood, the organization's oldest member, had died two weeks earlier. He and his brother, Jesse, had come to the area in the early 1860s and took up a homestead 4 miles downstream from the fort.

As planned, the group elected its first officers: Walter D.W. Taft, president; Lerah McHugh, first vice president; Henrietta (Marsh) McClelland, second vice president; J.A. Brown, treasurer; Robert S. Fedder, secretary; and Winona (Washburn) Taylor, historian.

Dues were set at $1 annually. Wives of male members automatically were made members of the pioneer women's organization, with the first vice president serving as president of the women's group.

John G. Coy started a round of storytelling, relating the journey he and his wife made across the plains in 1862 and their settlement on the river. Caroline (Frazer) Taft told of her journey to the area with her parents, also in 1862. James A. Brown, who was a gunsmith for the soldiers at the fort, told of building the first wood-frame house in the town in 1868, on what would become Jefferson Street, where the old Union Pacific depot still stands. Later meetings included dances in Auntie Stone's original log cabin, dinners, Fourth of July and Colorado Day picnics and band concerts.

A century later, the Pioneer Association carries on those traditions. It invites the public to attend its 100th birthday celebration at the restored Northern Hotel from 1 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 25.