152 Years Ago
The August 27, 1873 Colorado Transcript provides interesting insight into life in early Golden.
New Laws
- The Board of Trustees (the City Council of the day) had just passed an ordinance prohibiting the firing of “any cannon, gun, fowling piece, pistol, or firearm” within the city without permission of the Board of Trustees. The fine for violating this law was $5-25.
- They were trying to cut down on speeders with an ordinance prohibiting riding or driving any horse or mule “immoderately.” That law also carried a penalty ranging from $5-25.
- Anyone operating wagons, drays, or carts used to haul freight was to purchase a license for $40/year and was required to display their license number in letters at least 1-1/2 inches tall.
Goods & Services
Advertisements sprinkled throughout the paper alerted us to the following merchandise:
- A desirable stock of dry-goods on sale by A. M. DeFrance.
- Beautiful greenhouse and bedding plants at the Colorado Nursery, two miles east of Golden. Best stock of roses in the Territory.
- Wholesale liquor available from Schmidt & Reinhold. They also carried tobacco, pipes, and cigars.
- Foreign and native jewelry was available from Millett & Company.
- The larger downtown stores offered a wide variety of merchandise. Armor & Harris carried groceries, provisions, dry goods, notions, clothing, hardware, crockery, glassware, tobacco, flour, feed, grain, boots, shoes, blasting & rifle powder.
- Banking services were available from F.E. Everett.
- The Golden House hotel offered bath rooms (literally, a room where you could take a bath). On Fridays, the bath rooms were reserved for ladies only.
Travel & Entertainment
- First class teams, carriages, and saddle horses were available at the C.C. Livery and Feed Stable.
- The Colorado Central Railroad offered four trips/day to Denver, two trips/day to Black Hawk, one trip per day to Georgetown, and two trips per day to Boulder/Longmont.
- The Colorado Central was offering excursion rates to attend a dance at the Beaver Brook pavilion. Roundtrip fare was $1 for passage from Black Hawk or Golden and $2 for tickets from Denver or Boulder.
Industry
Our nascent industries were thriving, as shown by advertisements for local coal, bricks, cut stone, locally grown hay and grain and locally cut lumber. The Golden Smelter was processing ore.
Housing Shortage
The Transcript had already begun its century-long campaign for more housing, worrying that we had lost “not less than one hundred families during the last six months who would have become permanent residents had we been able to supply them with houses.”
News Shortage
Editor George West, wanting to ensure that he had interesting news to print, offered himself as a subject:
A story seems to have gained credence that we have been chased with a shotgun…. Such an episode would be truly refreshing in this dearth time for items. Will some cuss blaze away at us–just to make it lively?
