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Colora
do
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Dispelling myths
about the
Cotopaxi Colony
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One mile
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ntyIn 1882, Jewish pioneers
came to farm in Cotopaxi,
supported by the New York
charity, HEAS, in a colony
initially managed by a local
businessman, Emanuel Saltiel
The bare factsN
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Morris Tuska was a board member of HEAS, a New York Charity, established the year before to accommodate Jewish migrants from Russia.
Emanuel Saltiel owned a mine and other property in Cotopaxi. He agreed with HEAS to establish the colony there and defrayed $5,000 of its unbudgeted expenses.
Julius Schwarz was Tuska’s nephew, who served as the colony’s clerk for three months from May 1882 and its manager for ten weeks after August.
George Kohn was a Denver Lawyer, who took up the colonists’ cause after January 1883 and negotiated their way out of their financial predicament.
Eleazar Hart was Saltiel’s second cousin whose local store advanced the colonists $2,000 of goods on credit. His son, Meyer, wrote a rebuttal to Kohn.
PeopleN
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May to July: Saltiel in charge.8 May: Colonists arrive.End of June: Saltiel goes to New York to warn HEAS that colony is running out of money; gets a dusty answer.
End of July: Tuska inspects and criticises Saltiel. Replaces him with colony’s clerk - his nephew, Schwarz. Asks HEAS for more money; also comes up dry.
August to mid-October: Schwarz in charge.He too ends up in New York asking for more money.Gets nowhere.
After October: HEAS breaks off contact with colonytill January, when settlers wheel in their lawyer.
SequenceN
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Four places to bear in mind, with much to-ing and fro-ing. Oak Grove
Creek
Wet Mountain
Valley
Third Division
CotopaxiLocations
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The colony always had more than the intended number of twelve families.
There were 14 from the outset, rising to 18 after five months.
MaximumMinimum
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Arrivals & departures
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The colonists turned up owing $10,000 to HEAS for supplies and transport and almost no personal cash.
They bore losses immediately, losing an ox-team on arrival. They then had to rely upon local credit for store-bought food plus communal and religious necessaries.
More settlers than intended arrived in summer, adding to expense - as did to-ing and fro-ing between tracts.
The colony itself ran out of money In early August. Appeals to HEAS by Saltiel, Tuska and Schwarz all came up empty.
Even so, local credit was found for cows and wire. After Schwarz’ October report fell on deaf ears in New York, all such credit ceased.
This left the colonists decisively in debt and the colony busting its budget by 100%.
DebtsN
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ewm
an
M Sham
es
SchneiderKorpitsky
Four colonistsdisplaced by neighbours
in June
All colonists rejected
“bottom lands”at outset
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Nudelm
an
Zedek
Minkovsky M
Shuteran
I Shames
98 days
Schneider Newman
Torplitsky
Korpitsky196 days
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Back11 May
Arrive 8 May
Oak Grove Creek -
rejected on 11 May
Wet Mountain Valley - filed on11 June
Displacedc20 June
Third division - filed on
19 November
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Unbudgeted expenditures
now to those
myths…
N
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ntywe should
heed the
time-honored
stories
N
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ntynot smart
they’re plain unreliable
N
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ntyReport to HEAS from Morris Tuska
Letter from EH Saltiel
Report to HEAS from Julius Schwarz
Letter from Meyer Hart
Letter from HS Henry, HEAS
the most hair-raising author, Satt, never saw key sources…
…which demolish her bogus theories...
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…based on histrionicsfrom the colony’s babies…
…some not yet born!
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ntymean old Saltiel
“shrugged”
at the colonists’
distress
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far from it
he cabled their woes to HEAS within days…
… and after eight weeks took the train to New York to
plead their cause personally
unknown to the colonists themselves
N
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ntyscheming Saltiel
planned the
colony’s failure to
get cheap miners
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bunkum!
…with four of them recorded as unable to claim lands as minors, multiple claimers or late arrivals
all attempts to get cash out of New York had failed, so the settlers needed work…
…some chose the railroad; six out of 23 men chose
the mine…
N
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ntyunscrupulous
Saltiel denied
the colonists
“rebates”
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N
in fact the colonists
were most worried
about the money
they owed all round
$10,000 to HEAS
$7,000 in Cotopaxi
are you kidding?
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and that’s
what it’s all about
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the colonists needed to get out from under
so they dipped into their $1,000 war-chest and
brought in a sharp lawyer
Attorney Kohn
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Attorney Kohn’s job
to persuade HEAS to eat
losses of some $17,000,
just when it was overwhelmed
by Russian refugees.
N
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ntyHe would succeed by working
on the charity's remorse
for neglecting Cotopaxi
over the winter and
opening the door to
apply costs to Saltiel.
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his insight
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his argument
“Never mind my clients
breaking their word;
just feel their pain and
blame the bad guy.”
N
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nty four families with good
titles gave them up
two families had occupied tracts without titles
(locations approximated)
first, he tried for yardage with complaints about titles in Cotopaxi, but these were for houses - executed or to be “had for the asking”.
His play masked problemsfor tracts on government lands, where one claim was made in the name of a settler not yet in Cotopaxi; and
multiple occupancies by namesakes risked similar challenges.
three settlers definitively made duplicate claims, clouding title
Nudelm
an
Zedek
Minkovsky M
ShuteranLauterstein
Torplitsky
I Shames
S Chuteran
S Chorosky
New
man
M Sham
es
SchneiderKorpitsky
M Shuteran
S Chueran
M Sham
esI Sham
es
S Chuteran
S Chorosky
A N
Other
A N
Other
S Chrovsky
S Chuteran
Schneider Newman
KorpitskySchneider Newman
the title gambit
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then he revisited the summer complaints, turning them to argue that houses were overpriced
Nothing shows that HEAS took Kohn’s charges seriously.
But seventy years later, Satt revived them to salt the mine for her “sweated labour” fallacy.
N the house gambit
…with twelve 16x20 houses built to accommodate families
this mistook six 10x12 cabins built to satisfy the Homestead Act… $100
each
$280each
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N Attorney Kohn knew his stuff
he whipped up a campaign in Cotopaxi and New York, plus the local and “Russian-Jewish” press
One mile
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their debts…plus a grubstake
they moved on to make their way elsewhere
his tactics sullying Saltiel to this day
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and he succeededhandsomely
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N so who was Saltiel?no evil genius
Romantic
He came from London to New Orleans as a teenager.
He bought into the agricultural utopianism of his times.
Principled
He started in the West by blowing the whistle on his drunken thief of a Cavalry CO
He hastened to tell HEAS when things went wrong.
Generous
He was a founding donor of Denver’s National Jewish Hospital.
This very episode was a tragic failure of philanthropy.
Resourceful
He went from nothing but the clothes on his back to a Rocky Mountain businessman.
No quitter, still litigating left and right at the time of his early death.
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Nand who were the settlers?no babes in the wood
Romantic
They too bought into agricultural utopianism.
They travelled 5,500 miles to make new lives.
Principled
They strained themselves to keep kosher from the outset.
Within weeks of arriving at Cotopaxi, they built a synagogue.
Generous
They saved communally for mutual support, including for those moving on.
Resourceful
They enlisted a lawyer to grab HEAS’ attention after a winter of neglect.
They went on to success throughout the West.
N
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very
different
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