National Geographic film crew at Riverside June 2011

On a beautiful breezy day in June 2011, the Fairmount Heritage Foundation met with a Shine TV film crew at Riverside Cemetery to film an episode for the National Geographic Channel. An advance team had already met with Patricia Carmody and Ray Thal in May that year to view the archival documents and take some background video in preparation for the shoot.

 The crew had traveled across Colorado in their quest for answers to the identity of a man buried in the old City Cemetery (now Cheesman Park) that had been unearthed during recent construction. They interviewed many of our partners and collaborators including: Tom Noel, Dr. Colorado (drcolorado.auraria.edu/); James Jeffrey, Denver Public Library, Genealogy Collection Specialist (http://history.denverlibrary.org/index.html and digital.denverlibrary.org) and William Convery, State Historian, Director of Exhibits and Interpretation (historycolorado.org/).  And now they were at Riverside to film final segment…

To learn more about the mystery you’ll want to tune into the National Geographic Channel on May 10^th ; look for The Decrypters USA – Cowboy Corpse. To see a preview of the Riverside segment of the show visit:

 http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/shows/the-decrypters/ngc-shameful-reburial/

]]> http://fairmountheritagefoundation.org/national-geographic-channel-films-at-riverside/feed/ 0 http://fairmountheritagefoundation.org/doors-open-denver/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=doors-open-denver http://fairmountheritagefoundation.org/doors-open-denver/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:53:52 +0000 patricia http://fairmountheritagefoundation.org/?p=1376

One event in Denver that is a great way to kick off Spring and nicer weather is the annual “Doors Open Denver”. Held this year April 14-15th, this FREE event is a fabulous opportunity for residents and visitors alike to experience Denver’s diverse architecture.

Participants have a choice of a self-guided tour or expert tour (led by architects and historians). For detailed information about Doors Open Denver 2012, visit the Denver City Website, where you can get a complete list of participating sites and their locations—as well as other helpful information.

This year’s theme is DENVER LANDMARKS, which can be found aplenty at both the Riverside and Fairmount cemetery. Our cemeteries provide many interesting historic landmarks that are a poignant part of Colorado’s history. So we  hope you will include us in one of your Doors Open Denver stops this year.

In addition to history, there are other things to admire at our cemeteries, from beautiful flora to wildlife. Mike’s Camera is a sponsor of this year’s tour, and is holding a photo contest with prizes. So when you visit us this weekend, bring your camera! Contest info is available on Mike’s website.

We hope you enjoy this year’s tour and hope to see you!

The Fairmount Heritage Foundation Staff

Orlando Ward was born in Macon, Missouri on November 4, 1891, but moved to Denver at an early age. In 1914 he graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, and was commissioned in the cavalry. In 1915 he accompanied General John Pershing on his campaign into Mexico to try to capture the bandit Pancho Villa, who had been raiding towns along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Seeing the end of horses in warfare he switched to the artillery, and during the First World War at the second battle of The Marne in France he took charge of a battalion of Field Artillery, and was instrumental in helping to stem a German attack. For his action he was awarded the Silver Star.

Between the wars he had various postings, including a stint as an instructor at the US Field artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he developed many innovations in gunnery, including a technique to concentrate battalion fire very quickly, which made the US artillery much more effective during WWII. Immediately before the war he served as secretary to the Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshal.

After the outbreak of the World War II he skipped a rank to be promoted to Major General, and became commander of the army’s First Armored Division, known as “Old Ironsides”. He led them as part of Operation Torch, the American invasion of North Africa. At the Battle of Kasserine Pass, the first time the US Army had encountered the Germans, the First Armored was sent reeling by sudden attacks from the Germans. Ward felt one reason was that his division had been split up into smaller units which weakened their ability to repulse strong concentrations of German troops. Headquarters believed this was the result of planning by the Corps commander, General Lloyd Fredendall, who was replaced with General George Patton. As the campaign along North Africa slowly progressed, Patton felt that Ward was not aggressive enough, eventually relieving him of his command, although Ward had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his action in Tunisia during an assault at Meknessy Heights in 1943, as well as another Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

Ward returned to the States and became Commandant of the Tank Destroyer Center at Camp Hood, Texas, and later Commander of the Artillery  School at Fort Sill. In 1944 he took command of the US 20th Armored Division in central Europe, and it was his troops that seized the German city of Munich in April 1945. In his book, “An Army at Dawn”, author Rick Atkinson stated, “In the American Army few relieved commanders got a second chance to lead men in combat; Ward was an exception because he was exceptional”.

In 1946 following World War II General Ward was given command of the Sixth Infantry Division in South Korea. In 1949 before hostilities in Korea began, he returned to the US and became the Chief of the Office of Military History, Department of the Army, where he supervised the production of the official US Army Military history of World War II.

Orlando Ward retired from the army in 1953 and returned to Denver, where he died on February 4, 1972.

By Tom Morton

Military pension records from the National Archives show that Joseph was drafted into the 92nd  in 1865.  However, family lore indicates Peter had also participated in the unsuccessful 1864 Red River Campaign that was designed to capture Mobile, AL.  His involvement in this campaign was possibly as a civilian teamster.  Soon after joining the army he was placed on detached duty as a teamster to aid in the mustering out of union soldiers at the wars end.

After separation from the Army, Peter became a passionate advocate for military training in the colored colleges to prepare colored men for possible careers in the military.  He organized and led three independent military companies in New Orleans.  In 1888 he was a Colonel in the First Battalion of Colored Troops in Louisiana.  The Orleans Light Guard, with Peter Joseph as Captain, marched in the 1889 inaugural parade of Benjamin Harrison.

In 1875 he was a Captain in the New Orleans Metropolitan Police force.  From 1881-1892 he was the Captain of the night inspectors of the U.S. Customs, Port of New Orleans, where he was described as “one of the most efficient officers in the employment of the U.S. Government at this port.”  He later became very successful as a mason.

Peter Joseph was also active socially and politically.  He was Grand Master of the Masonic Stringer Lodge and a member of the Grand United Order of the Odd Fellows.  He served as President of the Grand Council of the Colored Men’s Protective Union which had considerable political influence.  In 1876 Joseph was elected to serve as a Presidential Elector from the First Congressional District of New Orleans in what turned out to be a highly contested race between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden.  He was allegedly offered a bribe of $100,000 to vote for Tilden, which he turned down.

Upon passage of Louisiana segregation laws and the increased intimidation of colored people, Peter moved his wife Cora and 4 children to Denver in 1892.  Three older daughters who remained behind were teachers at the Southern University of New Orleans.  Denver’s laws prohibiting construction of frame buildings was the ideal location for practicing his masonry trade.  He became prominent in the Bricklayer’s Union and was vice president of the Denver Trades and Labor Assembly from 1893 to 1894.

Peter Joseph was a proud man who valued education and hard work.  He passed these traits on to his children.  His daughter Zipporah was the valedictorian at Manual Training High School in 1901.  Initially she had been denied the opportunity to speak at commencement because of her color.  Peter was able to finally convince the school board to reverse themselves and allow his daughter to speak.  Peter’s military pension records shows that he worked as long as possible.  He did not apply for a veteran’s pension until the year of his death.  Peter Joseph was buried in a GAR lot in block 27 on July 17, 1905.   Other family members, including my mother and grandmother both named Zipporah, are buried nearby.

By Stephen E Hammond (Great-great grandson)

FHF FUN FACT QUIZ

 Can you name a well-known historic Denver citizen that was buried at both Riverside and Fairmount???

 ANSWER: JOHN WESLEY ILIFF

ABOUT JOHN WESLEY ILIFF:

• He was born in Ohio in 1831
• He attended Ohio Wesleyan University
• Moved to Denver in 1859 and began a mercantile store
• To get a supply of meat for miners he started a ranch north-east of Denver, along South Platte River
• Became the “Cattle King of Colorado”
• Owned up to 10,00 acres, 25,000 cattle, employed up to 50 cowboys
• Also supplied meat to the workers building the Union Pacific Railroad
• His ranch headquarters is now the Town of Iliff, Colorado
• After railroad completed, sent beef to the Chicago Stockyards
• He married Elizabeth Fraser in 1870 (12 years his junior)
• She was a Singer Sewing Machine Saleswoman
• They had three children, Edna, Louise, and John Jr.
• In 1878 he died at age 46 from drinking “bad water” on his ranch
• He was originally buried at Riverside Cemetery
• His widow erected a monument 33 feet high, topped by a statue of the Roman Goddess Minerva
• His widow remarried to Bishop Henry White Warren in 1883
• She and the Bishop began the Iliff School of Theology
• Denver’s Iliff Avenue and Iliff School of Theology are named for John
• Elizabeth died in 1920 and is buried in Block 63 at Fairmount Cemetery
• Later in 1920, John Iliff’s body and the monument
  were moved to Fairmount to be beside Elizabeth.

        By Tom Morton

He was born in Pennsylvania in 1855, but after contracting tuberculosis there, in 1878 he moved to Denver. Following a short stint as a clerk in the Daniels and Fisher store he entered city government, first as Denver City Clerk in1884, then as postmaster, then in 1891 as President of the Denver Fire and Police Board where by assigning patronage jobs he built a strong political base, as well as collecting graft from the Red Light district on Market Street, and after hours saloons. In 1901 he became head of the Board of Public Works, the city’s largest agency.

At that time Denver was part of Arapahoe County, but there was a strong movement for “Home Rule”. In 1902 Denver and some surrounding municipalities were merged into The City and County of Denver, and in 1904 Robert Speer became the first Mayor in a disputed election. He immediately set out to change Denver from a dusty western town into what he envisioned as “the City Beautiful”.

He more than doubled the city’s park space to 1200 acres, and ordered that there be no “Keep off the Grass’ signs in any city park, a policy which is still followed today. He had 150 miles of Denver streets paved. He expanded the City Zoo, replacing many cages with moated enclosures. In 1908 he had the Auditorium Theatre built (now the Ellie Caulkins Theatre) just in time to host the 1908 Democratic National Convention. Every year he donated young maple and elm trees to any citizen who promised to care for them, and many of these trees now shade the older residential sections of the city. Cherry Creek had become an eyesore, the original cherry trees had long been cut down and it was used as an open sewer. He ordered the Creek to be cleaned up, retaining walls to be built and trees and shrubs to be planted. In 1910 his supporters changed the name of the street that he had built along the creek from Cherry Creek Drive to Speer Boulevard. He began plans for the civic center, and began clearing the area west of the Capitol building.

By 1912 many people were tired of “Boss” Speer’s authoritarian rule, including the newspapers which charged that his administration was rife with ”cronyism, corruption and crime”. The reformers suggested a commission form of city government. Speer said that would never work, but seeing the mood of the citizens he decided not to run for re-election, but ran for the Senate instead, a race which he lost.

Speer’s prediction turned out to be true, the commission did nothing to beautify the city, although they did shut down the Red Light district in 1913. The mood of the city changed, and when Speer ran again for mayor in 1916 he won in a landslide. He immediately picked up where he had left off, including planning for Civic Center Park, and a large City and County Building.

Unfortunately he never saw these plans come to fruition. In 1918 he came down with a cold which developed into pneumonia, and he died on May 14th. Over 10,000 people attended his funeral, held at the Auditorium Theater, and he is buried in Block 24 at Fairmount Cemetery. His vision of Civic Center Park was completed by succeeding mayors, and his wife Kate donated the bell and the clock on the City and County Building in his memory.

By Fairmount Heritage Foundation Volunteer Tom Morton

With a cargo of hay and herring, her maiden voyage from Bath, ME to Charleston, SC must have felt like a cruise to the tropics. The January, 1853, eastbound sail with a load of upland cotton destined for Liverpool, England, was more challenging, as any winter voyage would expect to be. But Stinson’s real test as Captain came on his return voyage. With the William and Mary fully loaded, her steerage with 208 emigrants and her cargo hold with tons of railroad iron and crockery, she sailed low and slow, experiencing one storm after another en route to New Orleans. Some 20 passengers died on the crossing. With food and water supplies dangerously low during their seventh week at sea, everyone was elated on May 3rd when they began seeing evidence they were nearing land. Later that night while passing through the Northwest Providence Channel in the Bahamas, the Captain prematurely changed course, running the ship onto a pile of submerged rock, and puncturing her wooden hull. Immediate the ship began taking on water, alarming both passengers and crew. All through the night, passengers manned the ship’s two pumps and kept the ship afloat. But early the next morning, the Captain did the unthinkable. With a lifeboat stocked with water and food supplies, the Captain, his 2 officers, and several of the crew rowed away from their ship and its deckfull of horrified passengers. Unable to manuever the ship, the passengers did all they could do—they prayed and they pumped. Finally, after two days and just at the point of giving up, a small schooner appeared on the horizon. Although it was manned by Bahamian wreckers, those who make their living salvaging sinking ships, they first moved all the women and children to the western shore of Grand Bahama Island. Next they returned for the men and likewise delivered them to the beach. Eventually the travelers were moved on to Nassau, then to New Orleans, and finally up the Mississippi to become part of the American fabric.

The Captain’s life also changed. The press of 1853 showed no mercy toward Stinson and he quickly disappeared into the western landscape. The 1860 Federal census shows him living in central Illinois; in 1872 he is found in Denver, many miles from the sea, and self-employed as a house painter. The following year, it would appear that he found peace in what had to be a troubling 20 years; he began attending one of the churches in downtown Denver, made public profession of his faith in Christ, and became a member of the church family. Over the next two decades he spent his days painting many of the homes in Denver, and each night went home to his wife. He never returned to the sea. On March 24, 1894, he died of heart failure and was laid to rest in Block 5, Lot 50 in Riverside Cemetery. A large white marble stone, the upper portion somewhat resembling the mast of a ship, now marks his grave and that of his wife and son.

Written by Kenneth A. Schaaf, a retired staff member of the Library of Congress, who lives with his wife near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
Photo by Mark DeNooy, Denver

Joseph A. Walker (

On November 3^rd, a service was held in Block 8 of Fairmount Cemetery to dedicate a gravestone honoring Joseph A. Walker, one of the first Secret Service agents killed in the line of duty. Recently his family, especially Robert T. Walker, Joseph’s only surviving Grandson, tried to find his unmarked grave, and Tim Wilson of the Fairmount Cemetery Company was able to locate it for them. A suitable granite marker was erected, and many members of the family attended the dedication, which took place exactly 103 years after his death. In spite of his 89 years Robert T. Walker participated in the dedication, as well as two of Joseph’s great granddaughters, and some of his 19 great-great grandchildren. Also in attendance were members of the Secret Service from Colorado and the regional director of the Association of Former Agents of the Secret Service.

Joseph Albert Walker was born in Port Henry, New York in 1856, but moved to Syracuse at an early age where he received his education. After earning a law degree in New York City he joined the civil service where he was employed for 32 years. In 1888 he moved to the Secret Service which had been created in 1865 to suppress counterfeiting in the US. For a time he was on the detail guarding President Grover Cleveland. He later moved to Denver and became the first agent in charge of the Denver Field office, overseeing operations in several western states and territories.

In 1907 there was a very large land fraud investigation in southwestern Colorado concerning coal mining operations. Seventy citizens of Durango and La Plata County had been indicted by a grand jury. On November 3rd Joseph Walker and another agent, as well as a geologist and a miner left Hesperus, 12 miles west of Durango, to investigate a coal mining operation on land owned by a man named William Mason. While the other three descended into a mine air shaft on Mason’s land seeking evidence, Walker remained on the surface. He was confronted by Mason and a man named Joe Vanderwiede. They later claimed Joseph Walker had drawn his pistol, and Vanderwiede shot Walker in the back with both barrels of a shotgun. It was later shown that Walker’s gun had not been fired, and from Walker’s wounds he could not have been aiming at them. After an autopsy Walker’s body was brought to Denver where it was cremated at Riverside Cemetery and his ashes were interred at Fairmount.

Mason and Vanderwiede were tried for murder in Durango in one of the largest trials in Colorado history. Although the evidence against the two was overwhelming, they claimed self defense, and a jury of local farmers and miners acquitted them. They were re-arrested on a Federal Warrant, but a judge ruled this constituted double jeopardy and released them. Without Walker to testify all charges in the land fraud case had to be dropped.

As a result of Walker’s murder President Theodore Roosevelt had two laws passed. One provided Federal pensions to families of agents killed in the line of duty, and the other made it a Federal crime to kill an agent while in the discharge his duty. So Joseph Walker’s life, although short, over the past 100 years has still had an impact on the United States.

by Tom Morton

RUFUS “POTATO” CLARK (1834 – 1911)

Of the many Colorado pioneers buried at Riverside Cemetery, one of the more interesting was Rufus “Potato” Clark.  He arrived here from Iowa in an ox-pulled covered wagon with his wife and child in July of 1859.  He immediately staked out a large farm in an area that is now Overland Municipal Golf Course, along the South Platte River across from Ruby Hill.  There he started farming on a quarter-section of land.  In her book Denver in Slices (written in 1959 but still popular), Louise Ward Arps wrote, “He was a character, this Potato Clark, a seafaring man ‘steeped in sin and prodigious profanity, and the curse of drink.’  But he got religion.”

As a teenager he ran away from home and became a sailor.  Rufus was at sea for ten years, at first serving on sailing boats and whaling vessels in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  Later, as chief mate of the Columbia in 1848, he sailed through the Bering Strait to the Arctic Ocean.  After gold was discovered in California, he spent over two years in the mines there.  He then traveled to Australia (by way of New Zealand because of a shipwreck), where he did more gold mining (and reportedly walked from Sydney to Melbourne, a distance of 400 miles).  He returned to the United States in 1854, took up farming, and married and became a father.

Rufus Clark cultivated several crops, but his main produce was potatoes (hence his nickname).  On one day he hauled as much as $1500 of potatoes to Denver.  His land in Colorado totaled 20,000 acres, but he sold most of that property to developers for the formation of the “Clark Colony” several miles south of Denver.  The colony was divided into several-acre tracts and was heavily planted with fruit trees, although it died out with the 1933 collapse of Castlewood Dam in Douglas County.

His word was better than gold, and bankers lent him money with no collateral other than his promise to repay the loans.  He was an honest, generous, and highly regarded man, despite his penchants for alcohol and colorful language.  But his “hard drinking and profanity” days ended when he attended a religious revival meeting in Denver.

In 1864 he was elected one of the first represent-atives in the territorial legislature.  He served on the Arapahoe County school board and was one of the founders of the town of South Denver (since absorbed by the city).  After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Rufus raised money for the victims by auctioning off sacks of potatoes; the mayor of Denver presented the mayor of Chicago with a check for over $7000.  He donated much money and property to the Salvation Army.  When local Methodists needed a new campus for their college in 1886, he gave them 80 acres; the school became the University of Denver, and it currently is located on the land he donated.  That same year he provided the money to create the Rufus Clark and Wife Theological Training School in Africa.

Both a California ‘49er and a Colorado ‘59er, Rufus Clark died in 1910 at age 87.  On his gravestone at Riverside are the names of his wife Ella and his previous wife Lucinda, who died in 1881.  The inscription on this stone reads, “They lived and gave of their substance for the redemption of Sierra Leone, West Africa.”

By Garry O’Hara

Rodgers pension files indicate some confusion as to his rank at
the time of his discharge.  He was apparently made a Corporal at the time
of his enlistment and then was promoted to Sgt. the following month.
According to one document from the Adjutant General’s office in 1886, he was
discharged September 15, 1866 as a Sgt.  Two other documents though,
including his pension certificate, list him as a Private. In the AGs document
there is also a mention of his spending time at the military prison in Little
Rock “awaiting trial since April 15-66” no mention of why.  It states he
was back on active duty in May until he was mustered out as a Sgt.  How or why the rank was changed is unclear to
me. I will continue to think of him as a Sergeant.

Some of the things we learn from his pension file are that
Rodgers was a slave before the war and that he was also a big man; in 1892 at
the age of “about seventy” he was still five feet, eleven and a half inches
tall.  He had been wounded in a battle at Fort Smith Arkansas; a shell
wound to his left hip which he suffered from for the rest of his life.  He
was also wounded in a battle at Big Bayou Meadows, also in Arkansas.  At
this battle he claimed to have received a gunshot wound to his head, saber
wound on his left thumb, and an unknown injury to his right thumb.  To top
it off, he also had his foot stepped on by a horse.

In the fall of 1864, Rodgers relates that he was south of Fort
Smith; his shoes worn out, he stepped on a “cane” (?) that “run
into his foot”.  All in all he had a rough couple of years in 1863 and 64.

The file for Sgt. Rodgers contains the original of his pension
certificate.  It is the first time I have seen one; I think that it would
normally have been sent to the soldier.  Dated September 20, 1901, it
awards him the sum of six dollars a month for his disabilities. Obviously six
dollars went a lot further back then, but it still seems like a very small
amount.

Another interesting document in the file is a report from the Western
Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.  This facility,
located in Leavenworth Kansas, was one of eleven situated around the country
that offered housing and health care to the disabled soldiers.
(Eventually these facilities would become part of the Veterans Administration
Hospitals.)  Rodgers first was admitted to the hospital in November of
1887 for treatment of pain resulting from his hip wound.  He was
treated again in 1891, for a broken right arm, the result of a gunshot
wound.  Again we are left to speculate on what he may have been involved
in.  He would have been in his late sixties at the time of the shooting;
his occupation is listed as farmer.  I imagine him as being a tough old
guy that still wasn’t afraid to mix it up with anyone.

The last mystery concerning Sgt. Rodgers is that I have not been
able to find any connection between him and Colorado.  All the documents
in his file indicate he lived in Kansas, at least until September of
1891.  Maybe the gunshot wound had something to do with his coming to
Colorado?

Sergeant Cupid Rodgers was buried January 1, 1900 in section 1
of ward 6 in a GAR lot in block 27 at Riverside Cemetery.

by Ray Thal