2012 Springtime Visit to Manassa, Colorado. Concluded.

Continued from here.

The only railroad running during the week of our trip to Manassa was the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Prior to Memorial Day, the trains from Alamosa, Durango, and Antonito, Colorado keep an off-season schedule.

When the transcontinental rail link was completed in Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869 the line bypassed Denver. The Union Pacific chose the gentler grade to the north, through Cheyenne, Wyoming. The following year they built a 106-mile spur south to Denver that was completed June 24, 1870. Thereafter they aggressively developed an extensive narrow gauge network throughout Colorado.  I’d have to do a lot of hunting through John Morgan's journal to determine whether or not he traveled the Durango to Silverton leg we took.

The narrow gauge train from Durango to Silverton ran The High Line, and traveled half-way to Silverton and returned. The single day adventure was great fun, the weather was beautiful, and I felt it was an excellent example of the late 19^th century Colorado trains John Morgan rode.

The 45-mile extension of track, originally called the Silverton Branch, was constructed by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1881-82. It followed the course of the Animas River.

Narrow gauge track in Colorado was laid at a width of 3 feet between rails, instead of the 4 feet-8-1/2 inches of separation with standard gauge rail. It was capable of making sharper curves, and thus more suited to the mountainous terrain found in much of Colorado. The track weighed one half that of standard gauge track at the time, and D&RG was able to operate lighter, less expensive equipment on its narrow gauge lines.

An 1886 John Morgan Journal account of a similar train that was detained for days because of inclement weather and blocked railroad tracks is posted  here.

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America’s Railroad, The Official Guidebook by Robert T. Royem, 2^nd edition 2007, pg 17.

2012 Springtime Visit to Manassa, Colorado. Part 3.

(Continued from here.)

The next morning it snowed again, and we visited Sanford, Colorado.

An early brick home.

Large trees remain without early homes and farms.

A couple of old San Luis Railroad Cars were retired to this field.

These Sanford horses reminded me of John Morgan. 

From John Hamilton Morgan's journal, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

1888

May 23 –  [Salt Lake City, Utah] Looked around to buy some horses.

May 29 – [Springville, Utah] Used Jno. G’s buggy in driving around and bought four mares during the day.

May 30 – Bought another mare this a.m. and in the afternoon, carried all five of them over to Spanish Fork Station where I found Peter Rasmussen and William Jackson with eight more.

June 6 – [Salt Lake City] ... Paid freight on horses. Met with LeGrand Young and A. F. McDonald about organization of company in Mexico. Attended the Theatre in the evening with Mellie, “The Old Homestead,” by Denman Thompson.

June 7 – Drove out with wife [Mellie] and accompanied her to the dentists and got an impression of her mouth for a new set of teeth. About home during the afternoon.

June 8 – Arranged with Hyrum G. [Groesbeck] for some means to aid in paying for horses.

June 9 – Obtained $300.00 from Hyrumn, paid some freight and sent the remainder due Crandall and Royland on horses. Busy arranging to start to Colorado. Bid the folks goodbye and left on 4 p.m. U. C. train for Utah County and Juab.

June 10 – Returned to Provo and had breakfast. At 10 a.m. came to Springville and had dinner at Rhodas [Groesbeck]. As the train was late, went to meeting and spoke to the folks. At 4:20 p.m. train passed, bid the folks goodbye and left for Colorado. Obtained an upper berth. All there was left in the car.

June 11 – Had breakfast at Cimmaron and passed through Black Canyon in an open car. Had a pleasant day and made snowballs on top of Marshall Pass. Dinner at Salida and arrived in Pueblo at 6 p.m.

June 12 – Woke up at 2 a.m. Dressed and at 2:45 a.m. left for Manassa. Walked over from the railroad. Home, and found all well. Remained at home during the rest of the day. Tired.

June 13 – Attended a Sunday School Jubilee held in the bowery. Well attended and fairly carried through. In the evening drove to LaJara with brother Jackson. A heavy wind and some sleet during the trip.

June 14 – Bought wagon from William Christensen for $1110.00 and a set of harnesses from Co-op at $40.00. Hitched up and drove about town a while.

June 15 – Brother J. H. [John Henry] Smith and wife [Josephine], myself and wife [Annie], drove across the river to the ranch.

Sanford looked very much to me like Manassa.

An abandoned adobe building in Sanford.

LaJara is on the railroad tracks that run south through the San Luis Valley

from Alamosa, Colorado to Antonito, Colorado. This is their train station.

Numerous Morgans settled in Conejos County, Colorado

George Morgan (unknown to me), from Utah, and his five sons lived in Sanford, Colorado

1910 Sanford, Colorado Census.

John and Annie Morgan's son, John Albemarle Morgan, lived in Sanford, Colorado

1920 Sanford, Colorado Census.

The Amateur Mormon Historian led me to a great picture collection housed in the Alamosa Library, and on-line here.  There are some great early Manassa and Sanford pictures in it. Most of them are identified. On a few of the photographs there is a notice that reads:  This photograph cannot be identified. It is one of 21 photographs found in the bottom of a trunk belonging to Joseph Morgan Valentine, grandfather of Raymond Valentine, who is the husband of Roberta Valentine of Alamosa, Colorado. This photograph may have been taken in Mississippi. Joseph Morgan Valentine migrated to Manassa, Colorado, in the 1890’s.

A couple of favorite pictures from this collection are here and here and here.
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(To be concluded.)

2012 Springtime visit to Manassa, Colorado. Part 2.

Continued from here.

The engraving above the door identifies this as the San Luis Stake Office. 

Cousin Flora Lee visited here in 2008 and was told it had been the tithing office.

This building is kitty-cornered through the block from the plaque

marking the first church and school building.

An online picture of the grounds in summer green is here.

The Old Manassa Cemetery is about five blocks south of

Main Street on 5th Street, just as the instructions I found online here said.

This plaque lists those buried in the cemetery,

 but does not give directions to their grave sites.

There is not water at this cemetery. 
It rests beneath the hill to the south of town marked by  an M.

The mold used for John and Annie Morgan's daughter's headstone

is a popular one in the cemetery, and appears to be made of concrete.
You can find John Morgan's journal entries about Myrtle's passing here. 

 

This gravestone marks Myrtle's grandfather's grave site and is next to hers. 

The row these two graves are on is P, 17.

Looking north from the cemetery are groups

of large trees, remnants of early farms.

Looking South from Manassa

Looking from about the same spot as above, this time to the East,

 where I imagine John Morgan's ranch, over the river, might have been.

The large cranes in this picture give away

 the present use of John Morgan's corner.

The John Morgan corner is tightly concealed

from the west by the trees he planted there.

This is a nice online picture of Manassa, 

green trees concealing all but the top of one crane. 

Two of John Morgan's Springtime journal entries while at Manassa, Colorado:

1886 - April 12, Planted thirty-nine fruit trees today. A very cold windy day.

1888 - March 17, Annie, Ray, brother Jackson and myself drove across the river this a.m. and visited brother Beecroft's place. In the p.m. we drove to Ephriam calling at Brother Corays. From there to Sanford where we bought some trees of brother Jones. Returned late in the evening.

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Part 4

2012 Springtime Visit to Manassa, Colorado.

San Luis Valley, Colorado map

4th Street, Manassa, Colorado, looking to the South. 

The trees on the left border John Morgan's lot.

A Trip to Manassa, Colorado has been on my “To Do List” for the last three or four years. This spring my husband made it a reality by driving us there. We got a taste of the route a train trip from Salt Lake to Manassa, Colorado might take, and what Manassa, Colorado is like today.

We definitely got a taste of Springtime weather in the San Juan Mountains and the San Luis Valley in Colorado. Historian Andrew Jenson wrote that the “San Luis Valley extends north and south about 150 miles, with an average width of about 50 miles. The elevation of the valley is from 7000 to 8000 ft. above the level of the sea. Winds are very prevalent in the valley, but usually only a little snow falls in the winter.” This was the valley John Hamilton Morgan guided emigrating converts from the Southern States Mission to in 1878.

Each of the five days we traveled it snowed, and each day the sun broke through revealing blue skies. As we descended below the 10,700 ft. high Wolf Creek pass in the San Juan Mountains, and dropped into the San Luis Valley, we met a wind so fierce that the skies had turned gray and were filled with dust. Gray blotted out everything, making it difficult to identify road signs. The skies cleared as we reached Manassa, but the winds never did die down.

True to John Morgan’s journal entries the railroad tracks traced the length of the valley from Alamosa, Colorado south to Antonito. We did not drive further south than Manassa.  A highway followed the course of the train tracks through the valley. As we turned off the highway and left the railroad tracks behind to drive to Manassa, I was reminded that it was always a three-mile-walk for Great Grandfather John Morgan, if he hadn’t arranged for someone to meet him with a wagon.

When we arrived in Manassa we followed the Platt Map that John Morgan’s son, Nicholas Groesbeck Morgan, included in a pocket of his 1965 book, The Life and Ministry of John Morgan by Arthur Richardson.

We saw most of the Manassa sites that are posted on the Internet here. And we found John Morgan’s lot on 4^th and Smith Streets where he built a home for Annie and their family, and where he planted countless trees. The home no longer stands.

This is the west side of John Morgan's corner lot.

John Morgan planted many trees on his Manassa property as recorded in his Spring 1888 journal entries.

March 20- Went across the river with Henry Huffaker to look at some government land and found a very nice tract. Had some holes dug to plant trees in.

March 21 – Accompanied by brother Samuel Jackson, went across the river and looked over the country again. Planted a dozen apple trees and six Lombardy Poplars.

March 22 – Hung my meat up to smoke and moved the coal. Fixed down the floor over the well and went across the river with several of the brethren to look at the land.

March 24 – Busy this a.m. setting out shade trees along the west side of the lot and other work about the place.

The sign is across the street on the corner.

The site where the first church and school house was built in Manassa

 is marked by this cairn and plaque. 

October 10-11, 1885 while John Morgan was in Kansas City he purchased some fruit trees and arranged for their shipment to Manassa. On November 25, 1885, John Morgan, Annie, and their baby daughter, Annie Ray, moved into the home he built on 4th and Smith Streets in Manassa. 

To be continued.
Part 2
Part 3

John Hamilton Morgan Journal, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.