Sarah Polson, born in 1858, and James Beach, born in 1851, were married in Colorado on Christmas Eve, 1877, most likely in Lake County.  They shared common backgrounds, i.e., both were born in the Midwest to farming families, and both of their families would relocate to Colorado.  

Sarah’s parents were Norwegian immigrants James and Rosanna Polson.  We know that Sarah was in Colorado as early as 1877, since that’s the year she and James married.    By 1900, Sarah’s parents had retired and were living in Coaldale, an unincorporated town in Fremont County located about 40 miles south and west of Canon City.     Coaldale was established in 1891 and originally surrounded a charcoal factory, which supplied nearby towns with charcoal for use in the operation of ore smelters.

James J. Beach was born in Wisconsin to New York natives Joseph and Mary (Bradshaw) Beach.  Joseph may or may not have accompanied his family when they came to Colorado in 1868.  He was a Civil War veteran, and records show that Mary applied for Civil War pension benefits as a widow in 1869.  It’s unknown whether she made application soon after Joseph’s death, meaning he had died in transit to Colorado or soon after arriving there, or whether he had died before the move to Colorado.   As of 1880, Mary was living in Nederland, located about 13 miles southwest of Boulder.   Established in 1874, Nederland owed its early life to the discovery of tungsten, silver and gold in nearby areas.    Following her death in 1895, Mary’s remains were interred in the Nederland Cemetery.   It’s interesting to note that Mary is recognized as an early member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,  being baptized into the church in 1853 by church apostle Zenas H. Gurley. 

In the photo we see James and Sarah with their three children: Ralph, standing to the left of his mother, born in 1884; Rollie, seated in front of his brother, born in 1891; and James, Jr., sitting on his father’s lap, born in 1896.  Their first child, Laura, who was born in 1881, died in infancy.  James, Jr., would serve in World War I, where he would apply what he learned growing up in a farming and ranching environment, for his specialty in the infantry was that of “hostler,” i.e., someone who takes care of horses or mules.      

James and Sarah ranched and farmed outside the town of Cotopaxi, which sits in Fremont County between Salida and Canon City.  It’s about 25 miles southwest of Canon City, the Fremont County seat.  James would die in Cotopaxi in 1911 at age 61, and the following year Sarah would die, most likely at their place outside Cotopaxi, at age 54.  Their remains, as well as those of their daughter Laura, are buried at the Coaldale cemetery.

When I started researching the Beach family, I had never heard of the town of Cotopaxi.  In researching the town, I came across a very interesting story about an agricultural colony of Russian Jewish immigrants at Cotopaxi.  Below is what I dug up about both Cotopaxi and the colony.

It is thought that Cotopaxi got its name from miner Henry Thomas, also known as Gold Tom, who had prospected in northern Ecuador and seen the Cotopaxi volcano there.  He likened a conically shaped peak of the Sangre De Cristo mountain range west of Cotopaxi to the volcano.        

Cotopaxi, and Fremont County as a whole, never drew the number of miners that other areas did.  One reason for this was the relative absence of placer gold, i.e., accessible (e.g., by panning or sluicing) where there is flowing water,.  Also, the greatest deposits of silver and gold were in the lower half of the original Fremont County, which  became Custer County in 1877.   The above-mentioned Henry Thomas discovered the Cotopaxi Lode, which contained large deposits of zinc and copper, but didn’t have the financial resources or experience required to mine them.  This is where Emanuel H. Saltiel enters the picture. 

Emmanuel Saltiel was a New York native who had come out to Colorado in 1867 and would subsequently buy up Henry Thomas’ Cotopaxi claims.  Apparently successful in developing strong ties with financial and political players in the Denver area, he aroused the interest of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG), to the extent that when the D&RG built their line to Salida, they made Cotopaxi a stop on the line, built a depot there and even named the stop “Saltiels.”   The railroad was certainly encouraged to do so after Saltiel filed claims on 2,000 acres of government land in the area, on which he filed at least seven separate mining claims.   He indicated that the land would be used for town and land company development.  

By 1879, Cotopaxi could boast of having its own hotel, a smithy, a general store, a saw mill and several residences, to be followed by a school and a church. The post office was established there in May of 1880. 

Saltiel discovered that the richer lodes down in Custer County had drawn workers away from the Cotopaxi area and, not being a terribly generous employer, he found himself in great need of labor for his mines.   He hoped to find the answer to his need in the persons of Jacob Milstein and Michael Heilprin. 

Jacob Milstein was a Russian Jew in Brest Litovsk, Russia, who became disgusted with Tsar Alexander II’s increasing oppression of the Jewish people, including evictions of Jewish farmers from their own land and implementation of  formal anti-Semitic policies and laws.   So, in 1878, with support from his uncle, and knowing he was in danger of being drafted into twenty-five years of service with the Tsar’s army, he came to the United States. 

Sometime after coming to the U.S., Milstein met American activist Michael Heilprin.  Heilprin, who was Jewish, was trying to interest immigrant Jews on the east coast into taking advantage of the federal government’s Homestead Act to establish agricultural colonies in the west.  However, he was having little luck, for most of the immigrants he was in contact with had no agricultural experience.  He would thus marvel at his good fortune when Jacob Milstein showed up in his office with the expressed desire to bring Russian Jews experienced in farming to the United States.  

By the time Jacob Milstein met Michael Heilprin, Heilprin had already received letters from Emmanuel Saltiel, who was also Jewish, praising Heilprin’s advocacy for establishing agricultural colonies for Jewish immigrants.     His letters contained the terms of a very generous offer for a group of twenty Russian Jewish families to establish a colony on land he owned in Wet Mountain Valley near Cotopaxi.  In his letters, Saltiel told Heilprin he would have houses constructed for each family, and also build several large communal barns and sheds.  In addition, he would provide the colonists with furniture and household equipment, farm implements, seed, cattle, horses, wagons and a year’s supply of feed for the animals.  The total outlay for all of this was estimated at $10,000, and Saltiel would provide $8,750 of that $10,000.  The remaining $1,250, to be raised by the colonists, would cover their transportation and living expenses enroute to Colorado.  

Heilprin agreed to go forward with the venture, but would first send a lawyer with the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society out to Colorado to investigate the situation and report back.  It was during this time that Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, and his successor, Tsar Alexander III, put in place even more restrictive anti-Semitic laws.  This set off a huge exodus by Russian Jews.  Given the need for a hasty departure, not all the Russian Jews headed for Cotopaxi who owned land had time to sell their land, and thus were deprived of earnings they had hoped to take with them to the States.  And, given the situation in Russia, when the Cotopaxi-bound Jews arrived in New York they encountered an overwhelmed Port of New York Receiving Station.  Delayed in New York, they spent valuable travel and subsistence money while going nowhere.   Unfortunately, when they were finally dispatched to the west, the attorney had not yet reported back to Heilprin on the conditions out there.  

When the colonists, sixty-three in number, arrived at Cotopaxi in May of 1882, what awaited them were not twenty houses, but, rather, twelve rudimentary cabins.  Each was about eight feet square and six feet high with a flat roof and no chimney.  No windows had been installed or doors hung, and only four had stoves.   Of the twenty parcels of land designated for the colony, each supposedly consisting of 160 acres, four were located on an arid plateau above Oak Grove Creek, the latter of which could be dry and sandy in the summer and a source of flooding in the spring.  Eight plots were marked out in dry, rocky soil at 8,000 feet above sea level, with no access to irrigation water. 

Anxious to prepare the soil for planting, the colonists decided to move into the unfinished cabins.  Some families doubled up in the cabins, two families set up canvas tents, one family constructed a home from cut sod and another family found a temporary home in an Indian dugout cave.    The colonists also went to work improving the existing structures and building new ones, at least to the extent that they were able to, given limited building supplies.   When the colonists approached Saltiel with their grievances about the state of their colony, he was quite apologetic and blamed labor shortages and the local shortage of building supplies.  He told them he had sent into Denver for more supplies, but that they had been delayed.   

Roughly one month after their arrival, the colonists had converted an abandoned cabin behind the Cotopaxi general store into a synagogue, where colonist David Korpitsky would serve as rabbi.  The two weddings he conducted in the summer of 1882 were long remembered as bright spots during a dark time.  One of the wedding goers later shared his remembrance of cherishing the canned peaches, fresh-caught trout and sugar cakes served at the reception.

The colonists obtained seed and borrowed horses, plows and other equipment from A.S. Hart, who was a partner with Saltiel in a general store in Cotopaxi.   Hart also extended credit to the colonists for the purchase of food and personal supplies.   In May of that year, Saltiel set out from Cotopaxi  for an extended business strip, so it was left to A.S. Hart and another business partner of Saltiel’s by the name of  Schwartz, to deal as best they could with the needs of the colonists.   It was near the first of June before the colonists could plant their crops, a very late start in a region where the growing season was less than four months.    That summer would end abruptly with an early frost, and their first crops were largely a failure. 

In the wake of their crop failure, the men needed work.  Many took jobs as laborers in Saltiel’s mines, for which they were paid in vouchers for use in Hart and Saltiel’s s store.  Fortunately, a better employment opportunity would present itself in the form of the D&RG, which was extending its line west of Salida over Marshall pass.  The D&RG, like Saltiel, faced a labor shortage, and was willing to pay the men $3.00 a day as track laborers.  The railroad was also quite happy to give the colonists Saturday off to observe their Sabbath and in return work them on Sundays.   

That winter would prove to be especially severe, almost certainly causing serious concern among the colonists about having sufficient foodstuffs.  Adding to the challenge of the winter weather were the large bears who came looking for food before their hibernation.  The colonists would use much of the precious wood they had gathered during the summer to build bonfires to keep the bears away.  In the absence of doors for their cabins, the men had fashioned crude coverings for their entrances with the few tools they had, and they had no locks or bolts, hardly sufficient protection from bears.    Firearms consisted of only a few revolvers, but the colonists could not afford ammunition. 

After word of the colonists’ struggle to stay warm that winter reached the ears of the D&RG crews, it was not unusual for the women of the colony to find coal and wood along the track  that ran through the area.  Aid for the colonists came from other sources as well.  Neighboring German immigrant farm families were sympathetic with the colonists’ plight and provided helpful advice.  This was possible because most of the Russian Jewish immigrants could speak German, and even those who spoke only Yiddish were able to communicate with the Germans.  Women from the colony would visit the Germans’ farms and be provided with milk and eggs for the children as well as meat and potatoes. 

That winter, groups of colonists would trudge repeatedly through miles of deep snow to Cotopaxi to appeal to Saltiel, apparently back from his business trip, asking that he honor in some way the terms of his original promise to  Michael Heilprin to provide for the colonists.  Saltiel wouldn’t budge.  Having no written contract with Saltiel, the colonists had no leverage.  

Responding to a petition from the colonists, financial aid from the Hebrew Immigration Aide Society (HIAS) in New York City would reach them in 1883 after they experienced another crop failure, this time due to a late spring blizzard that ruined a large part of their crops.  HIAS provided the colonists with $2,000 to use in funding their departure.  A few families took their share and departed, and those who stayed on would receive support from the Denver Jewish community to help them through the next harsh winter.  In the spring of 1884, following Passover, more families left, leaving six families to have a go at a third planting,  but it went the way of the previous two.  Thus, the remaining families decided to abandon the site. 

In New York, before coming out to Cotopaxi, each head-of-family had paid a fee of $50.00 for the filing of deeds to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Homestead Act.  Checking with the county clerk in Canon City before departing Cotopaxi, the colonists learned there was no record of any kind for such deeds or conveyances.  They realized they had simply been “squatters” on Cotopaxi town-site land.  They had wasted almost three years of their lives, under terribly adverse conditions, when they could have at least filed as homesteaders on public domain property nearby.    

After the colony was dissolved, a number of families stayed in Colorado and became successful farmers and ranchers in places such as Rocky Ford, Longmont, Pueblo, Montrose and possibly Erie.  Others traveled to Denver and would establish themselves as successful businessmen and leaders of the West Colfax Jewish community.   

Today Cotopaxi is a jumping off point for recreational activities, including rafting or fly-fishing on the nearby Arkansas River, camping and hiking.   Per the website “Colorado Demographics by Cubit,” Cotopaxi’s population in 2020 was 34.

REFERENCES:

• “Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 for Joseph Beach” at www.ancestry.com

• “Coaldale Colorado” at http://fremontcolorado.com/Communities/Coaldale

• Colorado Post Offices – 1859 – 1989, by Bauer, Ozment, and Willard, Colorado Railroad Museum, 1990

• Colorado, Roster of Men and Women Who Served in World War I, 1917-1918 (www.ancestry.com)

• “Cotopaxi,” Come to Life Colorado at https://www.colorado.com/cities-and-towns/cotopaxi

• “The Cotopaxi Colony,” by Flora Jane Satt at http://cotopaxi-colony.com/flora-jane-satt-thesis.htm

• “Cotopaxi, Colorado,” Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotopaxi,_Colorado

• “COTOPAXI HISTORY,” by Nancy Oswald, Colorado Central Magazine, 2005 at  https://arkansasrivertours.com/cotopaxi-history/

• “Cotopaxi Items,”  The Fremont County Record dated July 14, 1883, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=FCR18830714-01.2.27&srpos=62&e=——-en-20–61–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-cotopaxi——-0——

• “Cotopaxi Mine,” Western Mining History at https://westernmininghistory.com/mine-detail/10087764/

• “Cotopaxi Population,” Colorado Demographics by Cubit at  https://www.colorado-demographics.com/cotopaxi-demographics#:~:text=Cotopaxi%20Demographics%20Summary-,Population%202020,Colorado%20out%20of%20457%20cities.

• “Cotopaxi Zinc Mines,”  Carbonate Chronicle dated October 4, 1884, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CCL18841004-01.2.44&srpos=57&e=——-en-20–41–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-cotopaxi——-0——

• Cuyle and Walker Family and Many More family tree (www.ancestry.com)

• Dawn Dixon Thompson (1) (1) family tree (www.ancestry.com)

• “A Destitute Colony,” Gunnison Review-Press dated February 13, 1884, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=GNP18840213-01.2.2&srpos=1&e=–1880—1885–en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-cotopaxi+jew——-0——

• Distance between Cities at  https://www.distance-cities.com/

• Early Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at www.ancestry.com

• “The History of Emanuel H. Saltiel in Cotopaxi.” at https://cotopaxi-colony.com/emanuel-saltie-history-cotopaxi.htm

• “THE JEWISH COLONY IN COTOPAXI – (C) 1882-1884,” FRIENDS OF THE MUSEUM AND HISTORY CENTER Newsletter, An Overview by Jennifer Moore Lowe , March 10, 2016, at https://www.fremontheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/APRIL-2016-FRIENDS-NEWSLETTER.pdf

• “Local News Notes,” The Salida Mail dated June 4, 1912, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=SDM19120604-01.2.16&srpos=21&e=–1912—1912–en-20–21–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-sarah+beach++——-0——

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hostler#:~:text=Definition%20of%20hostler,care%20of%20horses%20or%20mules

• “Nederland, Colorado,” Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederland,_Colorado

• “Notice for Publication,” Wet Mountain Tribune  (Westcliffe) dated January 26, 1901 at https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=WTE19010126.2.18&srpos=3&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-james+beach+cotopaxi——-0——

• Western States Marriage Index, 1809-2016 (www.ancestry.com)

• “What is Placer Gold Mining?,” Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Alaska, National Park Service at https://www.nps.gov/yuch/learn/historyculture/placer-mining.htm .

• 1900 Census (www.ancestry.com)