N

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Colora

do

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Dispelling myths

about the

Cotopaxi Colony

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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

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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

N

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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N

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Unbudgeted expenditures

now to those

myths…

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ntywe should

heed the

time-honored

stories

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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

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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.

N

his insight

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his argument

“Never mind my clients

breaking their word;

just feel their pain and

blame the bad guy.”

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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

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their debts…plus a grubstake

they moved on to make their way elsewhere

his tactics sullying Saltiel to this day

N

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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N