Live interview on Cotopaxi

Phil Helfrich  interviewed Nancy Oswald and me a few weeks back.  That interview is now live on KHEN radio out of Salida.  You can go to KHEN.org, click the "live" button and listen to us.  I understand it is getting very positive feedback!  I was able to listen and am very pleased with the results.  Congratulations Phil on a job well done!

The schedule is 1 pm Monday, 3 pm Saturday and 6:30 pm Thursday.  Test the internet station a bit before the scheduled time as there can be glitches in the broadcast.

khen.org





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Joseph Nudelman and Hirsh Lauterstein - at Cotopaxi before Painted Woods

When I first started researching the Cotopaxi Colony, one of the earliest names I came across was that of Joseph Nudelman.  I contacted some other researchers and they insisted that Joseph had never been in Cotopaxi.  I just put it on the back burner.....but I was always thinking about it.  How could he have made a land declaration at Cotopaxi?  Was it a different Joseph Nudelman?  How many Jews named Joseph Nudelman who were farmers were in the US in 1882?

Then I found the name Hirsh Lauterstein as a resident of Cotopaxi in the City Directory.  This is the 1883 directory.

 Now the plot thickened.  Hirsch was married to Katherine (Kaile)  and their children were Laura, Jacob and Rebecca.  Turns out, Katherine Lauterstein was Joseph Nudelman's sister.

So now, we have a brother and sister at Cotopaxi.  Joseph Nudelman is mentioned in several of the "critical documents" about Cotopaxi - yet neither he or Lauterstein are mentioned in Flora Satt's thesis or in the list of names provided by the "Spivak report".

Was this because they left Colorado and had no known association with the Denver community?  Quite possibly!

Much has been written about Joseph Nudelman.  He was married to Anna Sheechmann when he arrived at Cotopaxi.  She died in 1884 in Washburn ND where they had gone to be part of the Painted Woods Colony.   Note - they did not give up on farming after Cotopaxi - they tried again in a different location.  How much better was North Dakota?  Probably none.

In the Schwarz report, we learned that a Nudelman baby had died at Cotopaxi in 1882.  I have never found their ship's manifest, so I do not know the first name of this child, or if it was born before they arrived in Cotopaxi, or during their stay.

You can read about the family of Joseph Nudelman here.  This says that he immigrated in 1882 and that he worked in the Leadville mines before going to Painted Woods in 1883.  Yet it also states that Hirsh Lauterstein came a year later....and we know he immigrated in August 1882.  It also tells us that his wife (Anna) had been too ill to travel in 1881.

I was able to track down almost every family mentioned in this report and find their ship's manifests, but Joseph and his family were not on any of those ships.

There's a good deal of information on Painted Woods here.  And a list showing us that Joseph Nudelman was there:

Joseph remarried Fannie Kasofsky sometime after Anna died in 1884 and before their first child was born in 1886.  The Kasofsky's were another family listed above as Painted Woods settlers.

Going back to Joseph's sister, Katherine (aka Kaile).  Her husband, Hirsch, died Oct 1, 1885, in Portland, Oregon.  He buried in the Neveh Zedek cemetery.  Their last child, Rebecca, was born in October, 1883, in North Dakota.  Kaile then married Israel Bromberg (listed as H. Bromberd above) and their first child was born Aug 7, 1886, in North Dakota.

So something is amiss here.  Had Kaile and Hirsch moved to Portland where he died, then she returned to Painted Woods where her brother Joseph was, and then she married Bromberg, had her daughter, then both of them moved to Portland where we find them in the 1900 census?  That is the most likely scenario.

Here we have a brother and sister who both lost their spouses, both remarried, both had an additional child - all between 1883 and 1886.  A lot going on....and in areas where they were trying to form agricultural colonies.

One more link with interesting relationships between the Colonists at Painted Woods is here.  This is interesting as there is a possible connection between the Nudelman's and the Cohen's and there are Cohen's who claim to have been part of the Cotopaxi Colony.

Dora Bromberg, the daughter of Kaile Nudelman Lauterstein Bromberg, married Alexander Goldstein who was the son of Herman Goldstein who was at Painted Woods.  So, much in the chart in the above link is accurate.

Two photos of Joseph Nudelman that I came across online:

This is one of the stories that I received regarding Joseph Nudelman...a little different from the links above.

At an early age,joseph worked as an apprentice carpenter for 8 rubles a month including room, board and clothes. Joseph was the definition of a wandering Jew. He was born in Russia. Before 1880, he moved his family to Bucharest, Rumania where he opened a schenk (wine establishment for farmers). Then he moved back to Russia. Things were turning bad for the Jews at that time in Russia. In 1881, he arranged with Joseph Schiff in New York for a group to go to the U.S. to start a colony. At the last minute,

 Anna Bertha became ill, so Joseph and his family were not able to go with the group. In 1882, He immigrated to U.S. with his family.  In 1883, he moved to MCLean County, North Dakota, approximately 35 miles from Bismark.  They all built sod houses. Anna Bertha dies in 1884. He soon married Fanny Kasofsky. In 1886 son Hyman was born, In 1888 Robert was born, and in 1890, Dora was born. Joseph left North Dakota because his farm was not successful. The "black soil" was later found to be full of oil. He moved his family to Portland in 1892 where Louis was born in 1893. About a year later,Joseph, who still wanted to farm took the train to San Francisco. After touring California, he decided to In 1894, settle a new colony in Tulare County, California. In 1895. He moved to Orangeville, California. In 1896 he moved to San Francisco, CA. Moved to Nevada about 50 miles from Carson City in 1897. In 1897-98, he moves to a ranch near Genoa, NV. He purchased 20 milk cows and 25 steers which were taken care of by sons Maurice, Hymen, and Robert. They would mik the cows and deliver the milk to the creamery which was about 2 miles away, and get back to be at school by nine O'Clock in the morning. The income from the milk ranged from 28-32 dollars per month. He went back to San Francisco in 1902 and then in December 1902, he decided to move back to Portland where many of his extended family lived.

In Portland, Joseph opened a meat market,.one side of the market was kosher. Son Hymen left school to become a delivery boy. 

In the year 1920, Joseph and Labe Shank were instrumental in founding the Jewish Old Men's home in Portland and for many years they devoted their time to it's operation. He also organized the first Talmud Torah in Portland. He was the guiding influence in the establishment and building of Congregation Shaarie Torah and was elected it's first President. 

In 1934, when Joseph was 90, a party was held a the now demolished Congress Hotel, attended by friends and family, filling the banquet hall to capacity, to celebrate his birthday and the 50th anniversary of his marriage to Fanny. Joseph died later that year. Fanny died 3 years later in 1938 at age 81. 

Joseph was honored and respected all of his life. He inspired people to press on for a greater and more bountiful life, at the sacrifice of his own fortunes. His life was full of Jewish culture, he gave wise leadership and counsel. He was revered by his family and he will be long remembered by his descendants and the communities in which he lived and labored.

After all this research, I am more than convinced that Joseph Nudelman and his first wife, Anna, along with Kaile Nudelman Lauterstein and her first husband, Hirsh, were both part of the Cotopaxi Colony.   Most likely they left Cotopaxi sometime in 1883 and went to Painted Woods.

Without finding Lauterstein in the Cotopaxi Directory, I would have made an assumption that this was a different Nudelman.

 I have never gone back to my original contacts because it is not my position to try and "prove" to anyone else what happened in Cotopaxi.  I am only writing what my findings are.  But that's what genealogy does. It "proves" history.  If you can put the relationship together, you can build the correct story.


Updated:  I forgot to add this link which explains that Painted Woods in North Dakota was joined by families from COTAXPY.....a new spelling of Cotopaxi!


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Tuska/Schwartz relationship

E. H. Satliel stated that Julius Schwartz was the nephew of Morris Tuska.  So let's see if that's possible.

Morris Tuska was born in 1831.  He had 4 brothers.

His oldest brother, Jonas, married Josephine Schwartz.  Their children would all be named Tuska, not Schwartz.  Josephine might have brother's who's children were named Schwartz....but they would not be related to Morris Tuska.  You simply are not related to your brother's wife's siblings.

The children of Jonas Tuska and Josephine Schwartz would be the nieces and nephews of Morris Tuska.

Jonas Tuska and Josephine Schwartz had a daughter named Julie and this is who Morris married.

Morris Tuska married his brother's daughter, his niece.

So now, his sister-in-law, Josephine Schwarz Tuska is also his mother-in-law.

This also means that the siblings of his wife, Julia Tuska, who were all his nieces and nephew, are now his brothers-in law and his sisters-in-law.

Could it get any more confusing than that?

Any of Julia Tuska's sibling's children could be her nephews and nieces.  However, none of her siblings married someone with the surname "Schwartz".    So Julius Schwartz could not have been her nephew.

Morris Tuska only had brothers, so none of their children could be named Schwartz.  So Julius Schwartz was not his nephew.

Morris' brother Jonas did marry a Schwartz, but her siblings children would not be related to Morris Tuska.  Her siblings would be aunts and uncles to Julia Tuska and their children would be her cousins.

Even when Josephine Schwartz became Morris Tuska's mother-in-law....her siblings would not be his nephews by marriage.

Therefore, I see no possible way that Julius Schwartz could be the nephew of Morris Tuska.

Can you?

Sage advice - never marry a relative.  It messes up the family tree.



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Jan 30, 1883, The Kohn & Wirkowski report on Cotopaxi

As we have just seen, Julius Schwarz submitted a report to HEAS in October 1882.  That report was not published in newspapers, so Saltiel never rebutted it as he had done so freely with earlier reports.

A "committee" from Denver visited Cotopaxi, but we do not know when.  We can safely assume it was sometime after the Schwarz report of October 1882.  This was written on January 30, 1883 and published in:

the Denver Tribune on Feb 7, 1883
the American Israelite on Feb 16, 1883
and a shorter version in the American Hebrew on Feb 23, 1883

This is a rebuttal to the Schwarz report.

It was the beginning of a huge debate in Denver about the Cotopaxi Colony.  We will look at this "argument" one document at a time.

Report of the Committee from Denver, Col., Upon the Condition of the Colony of Russian Refugees at Cotopaxi, Col.
The American Israelite.  Feb 16, 1883. p 274
_________
On the 8th of May, 1882, a colony consisting of thirteen families, numbering fifty souls, arrived after a five days’ journey from New York, at Cotopaxi.  From the 8th of May until the 28th of August, three family, numbering fourteen souls, arrived, so at that latter date (one child having died soon after its arrival at Cotopaxi) the colony numbered sixty three souls.

This concurs with the number of Colonists I have found through genealogy.

Happy to escape with their lives from Russia, they were ready, eager and willing to go anywhere in order once again to establish for themselves, their wives and their children, a home.  It was one of those times when—
“Their’s not to make reply
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die.” 

We have not at hand the records or correspondence of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of the United States, that would inform us at whose suggestion or upon what investigation it was resolved to plant this colony at Cotopaxi.  WE know the colony came, and is now at Cotopaxi.  One Julius Schwarz came with the colony as its “clerk,” and subsequently the entire management was intrusted to him. 

We already have confirmed that Schwarz was given the management of the Colony because Saltiel failed to provide for them as he had promised.

From all the information that we can gather at present, consisting of the report of Mr. Julius Schwarz to the President of the H. E. A. S. of the United States and the statements of the refugees, we conclude it was the intention of the Society to give each head of a family a house and the necessary furniture and cooking utensils, farming implements, seed, and 160 acres of land.  It was the duty of him in whose charge the colony was placed to so provide for them.

They have the Schwarz report, but from the first paragraph, we know they had nothing else.  One has to wonder why/how that happened.

Confirmation of what each family expected upon their arrival at Cotopaxi.

How was it done?  The houses, twelve in number, constructed of rough timber were built at a cost of about $280 each, and we can safely assure you and the H. E. A. S. of the United States, that any of the houses could have been built for $100. 

Here is the first conflict about what it might have cost to build these houses.  

But what strikes us as being a greater outrage upon the liberality and confidence of the H. E. A. S. of the United States, and therefore an imposition upon those who are intended to be the beneficiaries of their bounty, is the fact that these houses are constructed upon land claimed by the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Co. as a town site, for which we are informed by Mr. E. L. Saltiel, the resident director of that company, the colonists have a fourty-nine years lease. 

I will be providing documentation at a later date that this is true.  Saltiel staked a claim of 160 acres under the homestead act.  Then he sold 155 acres of that land  within a few months(a violation of the homestead act)  to the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Co (a company that he created and owned 100% of).

Upon inquiry we find that no lease has ever been executed by the company to the colonists. 

I have not located copies of any leases.  However, the sale of the Shuteran and Nudelman properties both state that the houses were on land that had been leased to them for 49 years from Saltiel.  I will share these documents later.

This of itself is a fact pregnant with danger, and reflects sadly upon the management of the colony.  If, perchance, the Town Site Co. should see fit to eject the refugees from their land, what would become of these sixty-three souls? 

There are several issues to consider here.  First being that there is no evidence that there were written leases.   Who allowed the Colonists to build on this land?  Those who state that Saltiel was generous and kind would make him appear to be benevolent by allowing the Colonists to build on his land.  Yet this would only be in Cotopaxi proper.  The farms located south of Cotopaxi - there is absolutely no evidence that Saltiel ever staked any claim to any of that land....although he claimed the the did.

Notwithstanding the glowing description of Cotopaxi, present and prospective, given by Mr. Schwarz in his report, where he says (page three):
“Cotopaxi is the headquarters of a rich mining district; is situated in a beautiful valley, surrounded by high mountains, most of which contain valuable minerals, especially in silver and copper, galena and lead.  The Arkansas River runs at the foot of the valley.  It is a pretty lively railroad station, and is, by means of its favorable site, destined to become one of the best places in the Centennial State,”  the fact still stares us in the face that Cotopaxi contains in all but sixteen houses and a water tank.

Again, no one knew that the mines were very limited in product and would soon be emptied and nothing left to mine.  Because of that, the town never thrived.

We see that Cotopaxi has 16 houses and a water tank.  In previous posts, I have shown plot maps, photos and other evidence that there may not have been 16 houses at that time in Cotopaxi.  But if you count up to 8 houses located on the farms south of town, with the 8 remaining houses in Cotopaxi proper, then yes, there could have been 16 houses in the total region at that time.

For the present we will leave the colony at Cotopaxi and proceed to the farms. 

But this statement takes us back to the concept that there were 16 houses in Cotopaxi proper at that time.  From what I have found at the clerk and recorder's office - this was not true.   Could there have been houses built that were not recorded?  

Proceeding up Oak Grove Creek we came to the first so-called farms.  Here are three “farms” of 160 acres each. 

Remember, I have never found the Chorotsky (Shradsky) land declaration so we do not know the location of that farm.

And we know of no instance where quality was so sacrificed to quality as in the selection of these so-called farms.  We do not exaggerate when we say that a beast could not subsist on these lands.  This, a mean, narrow strip of land, extending a few yards on either side of the creek, which runs dry in winter and contains no water in summer except when the snow melts in the mountains above and suddenly comes down in a flood, terrible in its devastation, inundating the whole valley, sweeping everything before it and leaving deposits of sand, huge boulders and drift wood to tell of the remarkable action of water and the freaks of nature.

My personal experience from living in this area would agree with this statement.  Flash floods will devastate and destroy every single thing in it's path.  These creeks run great in the spring if there has been a good amount of snow the previous winter.  No snow, no water.  Most all of them run dry by August - often earlier.  We know for a fact that these plots were long and narrow.  

The farm on this creek, which Mr. Schwarz describes as looking “like a flower-garden” (see page four of report), is either visionary with him or was swept away before we arrived.  At least, we can assure you that there is not the faintest vestige of any such farm to-day.

This is interesting.  Schwarz said in October that it existed.  Now it doesn't.   And it is the Chorovsky plot that I couldn't find.

A steep mountain range, 2,000 feet higher than even Cotopaxi, which is 6200 feet above the level of the sea, strewn with gigantic rocks, separates the farms on Oak Grove Creek from those in the next mountain valley.  Here are six so-called farms.  These farms contain 160 acres each, and after careful inquiry, we find that two-fifths of these lands are absolutely worthless, because the soil contains nothing but rock

After visiting this area and walking around, I can confirm this to be true.  Perhaps they were being generous by stating only 2/5ths of this land is worthless.  Many would claim that all of it is worthless when it comes to farming.

and the other three-fifths can not be made available because they can not be irrigated, all the water in the creek (and that all is but little) having been previously appropriated by two earlier settlers,

this is true - all water rights had been divided before 1882 and would need to be purchased

and to bring water from the Lake of the Clouds (the nearest source of supply), at a distance of eight miles, could not be done for less than $4,000. 

$4000 was the estimated cost of purchasing water rights and digging irrigation ditches.

The next farms are three and a half miles further on, and are as worthless for farming purposes as all the other farms.

Maybe even more worthless as they were harder to access and drier.

The total amount of land embraced in these farms is 1,780 acres, and there is not 100 acres of it that is fit for cultivation. 

Again, from my personal experience in the area, I would concur that if you could find 100 acres to cultivate (with accessible water supply) you would be lucky.

As an illustration, we need only tell you that one of the colonists, who planted four bags of potatoes, gathered as a return fifteen bags of a poorer quality than what he planted, and this with the most favorable wet season that Colorado had for twenty years.

 This report failed to address the short growing season that is compounded by a general lack of water in this area.

The question may be asked, Was this the fault of the land or the farmer?  To this we answer, both.  The land is as poor as we represent it.  The farmer, who was probably an expert in Russia, is a mere novice in the art in Colorado.

However, even a novice farmer in Colorado would quickly learn that crops fail with no water.  Today, June 21, 2016, it will be 102 degrees F. here in Canon City where I live - 35 miles east of Cotopaxi and at a lower altitude.  I live 1 mile north of the Arkansas River which does me no good.  If I do not water my flowers by 8 am, they will wither and die by 2 pm in this heat at this altitude.  In a single day, you will learn that your crops will die.  I water 20 minutes at 4 gallon per minute, every single day during the summer months.    I grew up in Indiana and did not understand this concept - which I learned the first summer I lived in Colorado.

The possession of the cleanest printed book can not make a man, ignorant of the alphabet, read.  Nor are you a Paganini because you own a violin of his make.  You can not preach a sermon simply because you stand in the pulpit, nor are you a carpenter because you own a chest of tools. 

Instead of clerks and assistant clerks with which this colony, from their accounts and the logic of events is shown to have been burdened, there should have been practical Colorado farmers hired to teach and instruct these people in that art which it was intended they should learn.  Practical Colorado men should have been consulted in the selection of lands for these refugees, instead of leaving it to a man who, however learned he may be in other matters, shows his ignorance of Colorado soil, climate and water supply in many instances in the report from which we have heretofore quoted.

The Colonists spoke only Yiddish and did not understand English when they arrived in 1882.  And there were no "practical Colorado farmers" who spoke or understood Yiddish.  However, I do think that hiring someone local might have been much better than having Leon Tobias as the overseer of the Colony.   And perhaps that is the point they are trying to make.  E. H. Saltiel certainly had no experience farming.

What can be more ridiculous to a Coloradoan than the following, which we copy from the report of Mr. Schwarz (page 12):
“In Colorado, in a tent, the tenderest babe and the most delicate invalid can live and sleep all the year round and derive benefit therefrom.  As a consequence of these facts our colonists enjoy the best of health.”
Gentlemen, we do not for a moment believe that even our brethren in the State of New York will credit such monstrous statements.

There is no way that even the heartiest of adults could survive and entire winter in a tent when we know there are periods when the hottest it gets in the middle of the day can be below zero.  Yet no one had spent a winter in Cotopaxi at this point - so these statements are "monstrous" in content.

  And let us state to you and them that in our opinion, and from our observation, the houses of these refugees (upon which nothing was quite so lavishly bestowed as the Society’s money) were built upon the theory that the delicate mother and the half-naked infant would summer and winter require the balmy air of Colorado, wafted through creek and crevice, as it can only be wafted from the eternally snow-clad peaks of the Sango de Cristi Range.

We know that some of these houses did not have windows or doors.  A tent would have provided more protection.  While Kohn & Wirkowski had not experience living in Cotopaxi, they were from Denver and would have experienced severe winters there.

What other property does this colony possess?  Two plows make up the heading of “agricultural implements.”  Two plows for fourteen persons, whose “broad acres” number 1,7890!

Confirmation of previous reports.

  Each family (except three) possessed a cow and calf—the quality of the cows being that they gave no milk. 

This is the first report that tells us the cows did not product milk.

Then some of the colonists have barbed wire with which to surround their farms, which is like surrounding a poor chromo with a rich gilt frame. 

Yet barbed wire was necessary to fence out the thousands of cattle that the cattle ranchers brought to the open range of this area.

The clothing and provisions of the people are scanty in the extreme. 

Confirmation that the Colonists did not have much, if anything.  And winter was approaching.

The houses are so poorly constructed that on such a night as we saw them, the wind howling violently, the little shanty almost succumb, the illy constructed doors and windows, too small for their easements, admitting a constant draught of bitter cold air, the scarcity of blankets and bedclothing increasing the chances of sickness and death.

I can see both views here.  Schwarz, who had only experienced a summer and early fall, thought that the houses were good.  Kohn & Wirkowski who lived in Denver and knew what winter would bring, understood that the cold air would surly increase illness and then death for the Colonists.

We can sit at our cheerful firesides with gown and slippers, a book and a pipe, and listen heedlessly to the roar of the tempest and the rain as it comes down in torrents, but if it ever becomes your sad lot to find yourselves reduced to poverty, driven into a foreign, gloomy, desolate country, with scarce a shred to your backs, your wives driven almost to distraction in their attempts to obey the natural instincts of mothers to shelter their children, you will then wonder how people can be so deaf, not to the instincts of Judaism, but the instincts of humanity, as to let a poor, deluded people, Jews at that, die from cold and starvation.

This is Kohn & Wirkowski's ploy to the Jews in Denver to open their pocketbooks and provide assistance to the Colonists.

The instances of suffering among the colonists are numerous and pitiful. 

Confirmation of a number of oral histories.

On one occasion the family of Morris Mimkorsky was without food for two days; his wife was sick, and the Arkansas River was swollen to such an extent that it carried destruction in its terrible course.  It was a question of life and death.  Mimkorsky plunged into the stream, and, after a desperate effort, in which no other man would venture, reached the opposite shore in safety.  He secured the necessary provisions for his sick wife and brought them back with him.

There are those who have written that this was wrong because Minkorsky was single.  However, this report was written months after Mimkorsky (Menkowsky) had married Sarah Snyder at Cotopaxi.  So, yes, he did have a wife.  And while we have documentation of a flood about June, 1882, from a downpour.  But that is not the only reason the Arkansas will flood.

Last night, the Arkansas river reached flood level in Canon City and it is continuing to rise.  With the 102 degree temps, the snow still on the peaks is melting fast and this causes the river to rise and flood - without any rain in the forecast.  A much different situation that people back east might understand. If the water is high enough, it could easily have taken out these early bridges.

Currently, there are many warnings issued by BLM to stay out of the water, to not go near the banks of the Arkansas.

Of note here - we now know that Sarah Menkowsky died sometime before 1885.  One has to wonder if she ever recovered from her illness at Cotopaxi.

The wife of Zolle Puisane has for eleven weeks lain sick in a miserable hut in the mountains, without medical attendance or medicine; her husband has no work, and the people of Cotopaxi would not so much as give them credit for a sack of flour.

Zolle Puisance was Charles Prezant.  His wife was Clare.  He is one of the men who was not given land of his own, he arrived later with the second group of Colonists.  His wife was a sister to Anna Milstein, who was married to Baurch Milstein.  She also had another sister in Cotopaxi - Frieda Shames, the wife of Michael Shames.  So 3 sisters in the group at Cotopaxi.  And this one had been sick for 11 weeks.

Was this the Hart's store that would not give them credit?

Three women are in a very delicate condition, and will be confined shortly. 

Pregnant?  Well, not Clare Prezant.  They had 1 child at Cotopaxi and the next one wasn't born until 1885.

The cries and appeals of these poor creatures, as they contemplate the perils of childbirth - peril enough anywhere, but terrible beyond expression at Cotopaxi, where there is sickness and death in store for healthy persons, and where there is neither nurse, midwife, physician, medicine, or even food or clothing necessary for mother and child in such condition, are absolutely heartrending.  These Women must be cared for; they must either be properly attended to where they are or they must be removed to Denver temporarily, where our Hebrew Ladies’ Relief Society will give them that kind attention which only one Jewish mother knows how to give another.

I might tend to agree with this statement.  These women were living in an area in western Fremont county that took 2 days to access by wagon.  There were no doctors in that are, no medical facilities, no source for fabric diapers, etc.  The anticipation of childbirth would surely be frightening.  I have often wondered what these women did for a mikvah.  Someone said they dug a hole and filled it with water from the Arkansas River - but that would have froze solid in the winter.

The lands being barren and not susceptible of cultivation, for the reasons herein given, there remains nothing for these refugees to do save here and there a day’s employment in the zinc mine at Cotopaxi or an odd job for the Railroad Company.  But at no time have all the men had occupation; at no time have they had steady employment, and if one earned a dollar to-day the unemployed would share that dollar with the family of the man who earned it.

We know for a fact that their employment in the mines was not steady and then Saltiel stopped paying them.  We do not have records of their employment at the Railroad, but we do know the the tracks had been completed, so it makes sense that would with them might be scarce and/or irregular.

The fact is not, as some suppose, that the Russian refugee is lazy and unwilling to work.  How eager they are to work and provide for themselves is shown, among other instances, by the fact that two men, one of them just able to be out after two weeks’ sickness, hired out to the Railroad to saw logs.  These logs, probably eighteen inches thick, had to be carried down to the railroad track on the shoulders of these men and there sawed and piled up; for all of which these men were paid one cent per log, and realized together in one day $1.39, and froze their fingers besides.

That means they cut 139 logs in one day.  That's 2 men, so 70 logs per person per day.  1 cent per log then would be 23 cents per log today.  $1.39 in 1882 would be the same as $32.33 today.  Each man got $16.16.  Would you cut 70 logs today and carry them to the railroad for  $16???   These were incredibly hard workers.

There is so much exaggeration in the report furnished by Mr. Schwarz to the H. E. A. S. that we are pleased to be able to quote something at least which approaches the truth.  It meets our views, and we heartily indorse what is said on page thirteen of the report, which is as follows:
“‘Your folks are first-class workers.’  That’s what I was pleased to hear about the laboring capacities of our people.   There is no doubt that the refugees have shown that they are not that lazy  for which they were taken.  Under favorable circumstances they have done more than could be expected.  Only one who knows what it means to break up virgin ground with a common shovel can appreciate the industrious efforts of the refugees.

“They have broken up the ground with a shovel; they have done the hardest part of the work required to make a wagon-bridge; they have filled the ditches with big rocks which they were compelled to cut and hew from the mountains; they went up to their throats in the swift Arkansas River to make a foot-bridge to enable them to reach their lands; they worked in dark, damp mines as good and as perseveringly as trained miners; they worked on the railroad, giving entire satisfaction to their employers; they carried lumber on their shoulders to speed the erection of their houses; they walked often twenty miles a day to chop wood in the forests for the purpose of putting fence posts around their farms. 

With one word I can testify, and I fulfill a pleasant day in doing so, that our Russian co-religionists, as a rule, can work, and willingly, if they are properly treated and understood. 

 These are direct quotes from the Schwarz report which I have already commented on.

We are at a loss to account for the expenditure of $8,750 said to have been expended up to October 23, 1882. 

And I have already commented on this.  There is simply no way to resolve the math given in the Schwarz report.

We can assure you that the New York Society, and, therefore, the refugees, have paid more than twice as much for what they received as an honest administration of the funds would warrant.

This means that for every dollar that HEAS and the Colonists spent, they received a value of 50 cents.  Thus, only $4375 of the $8750 given to Saltiel could be accounted for.  What had Saltiel done with the rest of the money?  Did he use it to pay off his own personal debt?  We will soon know!

In conclusion, we would earnestly recommend that immediate relief, in the shape of clothing and provisions, be at once and without delay sent to the colony.  
That some means be immediately devised for the care and treatment of the sick, and those about to be confined.

Pregnant?

That we recommend to the H. E. A. S. of the Untied States the immediate  removal of the colony to some other place—some place where their eagerness to farm will be rewarded by crops that will keep them alive and reward their labors. 

And we will see that some did leave and go other places as early as the end of 1882.

 Then we can agree with Mr. Schwarz in the quotation from Cicero:  “Nihil uberius, nihil delcius, nihil homine, liberte dignius, agricultura.”  There is nothing nobler, nothing sweeter, nothing more becoming to a freeman than agriculture.

Respectfully submitted.
George H. Kohn,
Louis Wirkowski,
Committee
Denver, Jan. 30, 1883.

Final notes on this document.  When looking at the 17 family trees I have created for the Colonists, who might have been pregnant in the fall/winter of 1882?  It would be children born in 1883.

We know that Solomon Shuteran had a child born in 1882 and that died in 1882.
Fanny Snyder married Max Shuteran in August 1882 and their first son, Samuel, was born in 9/22/1883, so it was probably not here.

Reina Snyder Newman gave birth to her daughter, Tillie in March 1883.

Riva Schradsky Toplitsky gave birth to her daughter, Fannie Toplitsky in July 1883.

There are others who might have been pregnant at the writing of this report as well.

Notice that E. H. Saltiel's name was never mentioned one time in this report.


George H. Kohn was an attorney in Denver.  Listed in numerous city directories
no records for Louis Wirkowski or Werkowski.  There is an L. Witkowski living at 376 Lawrence St in the 1881 Colorado business directory.  I found Louis Wiktowski living at the same address in the 1885 directory.  He made boots and shoes.  Is this the same person as Louis Wirkowski in this report?

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The Schwarz Report, Part 3 of 3

 This is part 3 of the Schwarz report

6.  The working capacities of the Colonists.

Your folks are first-class workers,” that is what I was pleased to hear about the laboring capacities of our people. There is no doubt that the refugees have shown that they are not that lazy mob for which they were taken.

This allegation came from Saltiel

Under favorable circumstances they have done more than could have been expected. Only one who knows what it means to break up virgin ground with a common shovel, can appreciate the industrious efforts of the refugees. They have broken up the ground with a shovel, they have done the hardest part of the work required to make a wagon bridge:

We believe this to be over Oak Creek Grade

they have filled the ditches with big rocks, which they were compelled to cut and hew from the mountains; they went up to their throats in the swift Arkansas River to make a foot bridge to enable them to reach their lands;

Alleged to have been in June 1882 when the flood came.  Not sure when the first bridge over the Arkansas was built - possible later in 1882, but some records indicate not until 1884.  What this shows us is that at first, they had to hand carry any supplies from the train over the foot bridge on the Arkansas river.

they worked in dark, damp mines as good and perseveringly as trained miners;

confirmation that they had worked in the mines by October 1882.

they worked on the railroad, giving entire satisfaction to their employers;

confirmation that they had worked for the railroad by October 1882.

they carried lumber on their shoulders to speed the erection of their houses;

remember, there was just one team of cows and a plow.  No evidence of a wagon at this point.

they walked often twenty miles a day to chop wood in the forests for the purposes of putting fence posts around their farms. 

this is in contradiction to what Saltiel said in his rebuttal to the Tuska report.

Mr. P. M. Carrol, one of the officers of the Gunnison Division of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway - a man who, at my request, employs, and will constantly employ any quantity of our colonists for $2.00 a day, told me upon my question, as to his being satisfied with our people: “the only drawback with your people is, that they work too fast; you can see how anxious they are to show their working abilities.”  They furthermore worked their farms as if they were trained farmers, which they were not.

Some were trained farmers.  But they all had to be trained in irrigation.

Amongst thirteen families, numbering twenty adults, there were only three farmers, the rest were composed of tradesmen; and still to-day, one can hardly distinguish who was a farmer and who was not. With one word, I can testify, and I fulfill a pleasant duty in doing so- that our Russian co-religionists, as a rule, can work, and will work if they are properly treated and understood. 

7. Education and religious life of the Colonists 

There is a public school in Cotopaxi which answers the requirements of a good practical education. The children of our colonists visit school, and Mr. James H. Freeman, the teacher, assured me that they will pick up the English language very soon.

Children walking 8 miles to school every day?  They did not speak English.  Pretty certain that James Freeman did not speak Yiddish.  How did they communicate?

I arranged with him the plan of organising a school for the grown colonists, to teach them English, arithmetic, geography, etc., and he promised that he will earnestly take into consideration.

This had not taken place by October and there is no evidence that it ever happened.

Every Sabbath (that is, Friday evening and Sabbath mornings, as well as in the afternoons), divine services are held in the public school building, which are noted for the solemn and impressive way in which they are conducted.

Other reports have stated that they had a Synagogue.  This states that they met in the school.

The Rev. Dr. Baar, the worthy superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, presented us with a Sephar Thora, and two ladies, who do not want their names stated, adorned the scroll with two beautiful mantles; and I am happy to say, that although the colonists adhere to our sacred religion in a way which is called in America orthodox, yet they are by no means fanatics, but as enlightened as any of their European co-religionists.

We will discuss their religion in a future post.  Much discussion as to whether they were Hassidic or Haskalah.

They have formed amongst themselves a Congregation and Mutual Relief Society, called Ohev Sholem (Lovers of Peace) which is in a very thriving condition. 

Ohev Sholem is the name of the Synagogue on the marriage certificates.

The relations of our colonists to their Christian neighbors, I am happy to say, leave at present nothing to be wished for. It is, and was always my opinion, that the best argument to break the prejudice prevailing amongst Christians against Jews, is the “argumentum ad hominem.” Let the Christian see the Jew, let him come in contact with him, and in Cotopaxi they see each other, visit each other, deal with one and other.

this is in direct conflict with reports that the gentiles in the area did not like the Jews being there.

The surrounding Christians frequently attend our divine services, and as an evidence of brotherly spirit existing in them, it may be noted that the board of the school directors of Cotopaxi has offered spontaneously and voluntarily the recently built school house for public worship on our Sabbaths and holidays. 

8.  Expenditure made for establishing and supporting the Colony - the property of the Colony. 

As Mr. Morris Tuska, one of the Committee who has officially visited our Colony, has already reported – not counting the cost of transportation – the Colony cost so far, $8,750. 
For food for the period of five months, $1,544.87 were expended, that is, $25.80 for each person for five months, and $90 and some odd cents for each of the seventeen families. 
The cost of the houses is $3,360; for rent of the reception house we have to pay $100. 
The rest of the $5,044 was spent in barbed wire, twelve cows, a team and wagon, ploughs, agricultural implements, seeds, furniture, hauling, etc. 

Schwarz does not tell us if the $3360 is for 8 houses built  (at a cost of $420 per house) or if it is for all 12 houses (4 not yet built) at a cost of $280 per house.  If he had left the Colony, who had the monty for the other 4 houses?

$1544.87 divided by 5 months equals $308.97 per month.  We then divide that by the $25.80 per person and it gives us about 12 people.  There is something wrong with his math.  He states here there are 17 families.  If you allowed $25.80 per family per month for 5 months, you would be at $2193.

$90 times 17 families totals $1530.  Add that to the $1544.87 and the total is 3074.87.

Regardless, I took the total expenditure of $8750, deducted $3360 for housing and $1544.87 for food, the $100 for rent of the reception house  and the $1530 ($90 x 17 families) and was left with $2215.13 for the remainder expenses listed above.

Would be interesting to see if he kept an accounting ledger and how much was actually spent on what.

Although the colonists earn money daily, and are self-supporting, yet there are some reasons which induce me to recommend to your kind consideration the pressing of another appropriation of $500, as last and final contribution. These reasons are the following:  

1.  The families of Shamess, Prisrand and Vorsitzer, did not get cows nor houses, and as they are undoubtedly among our best men, who never grumbled, and who silently bore their misfortune, never complaining at the circumstance, that all the rest were generously furnished with house and cow, while they were left without them, because they did not belong to the colony from its start. I do strongly recommend that three cows and calves be bought for them at once, as they derived no benefit from our Society, except that of having being supplied for two months. For this purpose I request $150.00

True, Shames, Prezant and Washer came in the second wave in July.   It is interesting that some of the land declarations were not made until November - why didn't these families get land?

2. For the reception house, and as final payment on the houses when they will be finished $210.00

If you paid $100 rent for the reception house for 5 months, I wonder what this payment really was for?

3. Salary of Mr. Tobias, who ably assisted me in my labors, and board from 2nd of November to the 18th of November. $44.00 

This report was written October 23.  Was Schwarz still in Cotopaxi at it's writing?  Is "November" wrong?

4. For flour to be distributed amongst Colonists $96.00 
Total $500.00 

These figures show that I actually request for the Colonists only $96, the balance of the money being spent towards indispensable requirements. I only ask of you a contribution of $96 to our Colonists. They have brought respect to the Jewish name in the Rocky Mountains; they have gratified and pleased our Society by their success, they have more than realized our most sanguine expectations; the Committee will not withhold from them this trifle, which, under the circumstances, will make it easier for them to get along in the difficult road of human life.  

I lay much stress upon the fact, that our Colonists, previous to my parting from them, earnestly requested me to let them know the amount that they may be indebted to the Society, as they desire to repay every cent spent on them in yearly installments. 

The property of the Cotopaxi Colony consists of a strong wagon and two mules; two ploughs and box of tools, and some agricultural implements. I call these the property of the Cotopaxi Colony, as they belong to the Community, each farmer having an equal share in the enjoyment of them. 

As of October, 1882, this is all the common property of the colony.    

The property of each individual farmer is; a house,

but 4 houses had still not been built and only 12 total, so this is not true as there were 17 families.

a cow and a calf, the necessary agricultural implements, their land, the crop and their two arms that are ready to work, ready to take up the struggle with the vicissitudes of life. 

But we know that 3 families did not even have this as it is included in the request for additional funds.

9.  General remarks and conclusions. 

Where these are facts, no theories are needed. The argument of facts conquers all other arguments. The facts are, that the Colony in Cotopaxi is a success,

Yet Schwarz had not stayed long enough to ensure the first harvest.

 the facts are that those who advocated the idea that a Hebrew cannot make a farmer, have been refuted. They brought forward opinions, weapons of eloquence and of phrases, which we encounter with the weapons of facts. Facts speak. Sixty Russian refugees left New York as paupers five months ago.

We have no evidence they were paupers.  In fact, we have reports that 2 of the families brought funds with them.

Today they are self-supporting citizens. They had been colonized, thus they became self-supporting; that is the logic of facts.

Again, Schwartz is young (about 21 or 22) and trying hard to impress his boss at HEAS with this report.

Do not spend lavishly your money for the purpose of distributing it to a desperate mob – that will ever remain a mob – even if you give each individual double the amount he gets now.

Whereas Saltiel had just said in his letter to the American Hebrew to just give them $100 each and not colonize them.  Evidence of a feud between these 2 men?

The system of money distribution mitigates the pains of the wounds, but does not heal the wound. Colonize them, give them land, settle them, give them a home and the mob will become a class of peaceful citizens; who love the spot to which their faiths has tied them. There is a great and sublime principle in colonization. The principle of the qualification of Judaism. There never was a better opportunity to show the never dying perseverance of the Jewish race, never a better chance to prove to the world that agriculture is not adverse to the Jewish feelings and inclinations, whereby can be utilized the secret power of the soil. Distribute money, spend thousands of dollars for supplying daily wants, and you will breed and raise paupers and beggars; colonize and you will make self supporting men. 

Perhaps the sole issue here is location.  Had the colony been settled in Florence along the Arkansas River, it may well have been a huge success.  When we look at the location of other colonies such as Sterling CO - no water, or Painted Woods in North Dakota where the winters are quite harsh.  

Our colony in Rocky Mountains will always stand forth as a noble monument of Jewish charity, as the striking proof of the working capacities, of the perseverance, of the earnestness of our Russian co-religionists, and as the victorious declaration of the truth- that the Hebrew can be a farmer and is a farmer.

History has proven that this was incorrect.

Those sixty Russian refugees have again and again proved the truth of the beautiful words of Cicero about agriculture: “Nihil uberius! nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius agricultura!” There is nothing nobler, nothing sweeter, nothing more becoming to a free man, than agriculture. 
Respectfully submitted, 
Julius Schwarz

As a final note, Schwarz spelled his surname with or without the "t" in Schwartz.  This report was certainly premature, however, Schwarz was recalled to NYC to investigate colonies in other locations.

I have never found that this report was published in any publication and there is no known rebuttal from Saltiel.  But there was a chain reaction - either from this or from the Tuska Report and we will look at that in the days to come.

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The Schwarz Report, part 2

This is the second section to the Schwarz Report.  Click HERE for the first section.

4.  Colorado farming and the peculiarities of Colorado soil. 

Farming in Colorado can by no means be compared to farming in other States or regions. While farmers in Hungary or Germany depend upon rain to water the thirsty fields, the farmer who undertakes the task to break up Colorado’s soil cannot put too much trust in the natural rainfalls, but is as a rule compelled to do without it. He catches the bubbling waters of the many springs that run through the virgin soil and uses it to water his land with. In other words, he irrigates, and irrigation is no easy task. While in some parts of the west, as Dr Julius Goldman correctly remarks, farming on virgin soil requires no previous knowledge or experience, being mainly a question of observation and imitation, accompanied by such advice as is easily obtained; farming in Colorado requires knowledge of irrigation, which, however, can easily be learned, but not so easily carried out, as irrigation requires great patience, tireless attention, and a great deal of hand work – qualities which I proud to say I have found in our colonists.

This clearly shows us that by October, Schwarz had learned about irrigation and the importance of it to a successful farm.  The officials at HEAS would not have understood it, thus he needs to take time to explain it in detail.

It is a general saying in Colorado, that the test of a good farmer is his way of irrigation, and our refugees have irrigated well. They irrigated with so much success, that they had the water readily at their disposal, not as it pleased the ditch but as it pleased the irrigator. In other words, our colonist created his rain but curbed it also. It rained when it pleased him. He opened and shut his ditches just as it suited him. He led the water from one end of his farm to any part of it; he caused it to branch out in many little streams, and to bring refreshment, new life and the conditions of thrift and growth to the sun-burnt and thirsty fields.

Schwarz explains this quite well.  But he has not mentioned at this point that there needs to be a source of water.  Springs in this part of Colorado are minimal and flow when there is runoff from the snow, but dry up quickly.  They can not be counted as a viable source of water.

  Colorado is a peculiar State, but the East has altogether an erroneous idea of its capabilities. There is hardly one person out of every five hundred in the East but who believes that Colorado is a barren plain, utterly unfit for agricultural purposes. It is the common belief that the State is good for nothing except mining and stock raising. It is my unshaken belief and conviction that Colorado can be made one of the greatest agricultural States in the Union, if the proper efforts are taken to make it so.

One great bugbear that has gained great circulation is, that it never rains in Colorado, and agriculture cannot be made a success in a desert. There never was a more egregious error than this. The present season has amply verified the fact that it does rain in Colorado, but even if it did not rain, farming could be prosecuted successfully and profitably. The system of irrigation mentioned above commends itself to the farmers as the means of promoting the growth of agriculture products, and there is no tiller of the soil but who will say that the prefers irrigation to natural rainfalls. The system of irrigation enables the farmer to get just as much water as he needs and no more, and to put it just where it will do the most good. Therefore, even the scarcity of natural rainfalls would not operate to the detriment of Colorado, and will not do so as long as the means for irrigation can be so easily taken advantage of.

He is buttering up HEAS as he is about to ask for money for irrigation?

The cost of irrigation cuts no figure in the case at all, the increased production from the land more than compensating for the cost of water. There are under cultivation in Fremont County, at the present time, about 15,000 acres of land, and 100,000 acres additional can be made productive with an effective system of irrigation, for which purpose there is an abundant supply of water in the Arkansas River.

15,000 acres in Canon City?  Close to the Arkansas River?  Where ditches had already been dug to carry water to farms?  He cannot be discussing the land where the Colonists lived as water from the Arkansas would need to be pumped uphill 2000'.

The principal crops are corn and vegetables. With good cultivation, fifty bushels of corn per acre is an average yield. In the production of vegetables the capacity of the soil seems boundless. One gardener raised 140,000 pounds of cabbages on nine acres the last year, all of which sold for two cents per pound. Another gardener reports 45 tons of carrot from a single acre. Orchards are growing on about 75 acres in Fremont County, the oldest being but ten years old, and that has produced its fourth crop. 

The only known orchards at this time were located in Canon City - a much lower altitude, a much longer growing season, with flat, tillable land.

A gentleman named Jesse Frazer has the largest orchard in the county.

Jesse Frazer lived in Florence, east of Canon City.  Perhaps an even more fertile location than Canon?
It is beyond me how Schwarz can compare farming in Florence to farming 8 miles south of Cotopaxi.

He was an Argonaut of 1859, one of the many who failed to find fortune in the golden sands of Cherry Creek, and in 1860, he wended his way south, halting at the spot where he has since lived. He manufactured a plow of cotton-wood, and with that crude implement broke the ground for his first crop. He now owns about 100 acres on the banks of the Arkansas River, eight miles from Canon City, two-fifths of which is in fruit – apples, pears, peaches, grapes, cherries, plums, strawberries, raspberries, black-berries, etc. Altogether, twenty acres of his trees are now producing, and from their spreading branches he can gather golden fruit, yielding him an income of $5,000 per year.  The apple crop finds also a ready market at Colorado at six cent per pound, in other words as much for ten or fifteen pounds as the New York fruit growers received for a barrel of that healthful fruit a year ago.

Of note - Frazer's farm was located right on the Arkansas river making irrigation quite easy.

Around our farms there are wild cherries and grapes growing in abundance, and in five years our refugees will be able to offer to the market the finest specimens of grapes and cherries.

This was most likely in Cotopaxi.  Probably not at the 8000' plots.

  The question is now: If water is the principal condition of harvesting a plentiful crop, is there always water on hand when needed? To which the answer is: water is on hand in any quantity, but for some farms it is more easily reached than for others. While, for instance, on three of our farms, on those that are situated on Oak Grove Creek, the water supply is constant and abundant;

only in a "wet" year.  Not in a "dry" year.  Oak Grove Creek will dry to a trickle.

in Wet Mountain Valley it must be led off from the mountains through a long ditch, the direction of which I have personally surveyed and pointed out.

This ditch survey was never filed in the clerk's office.

But the soil in Wet Mountain Valley is so moist even without irrigation a crop could be raised.  This year our farmers had to make shift with the natural rainfall, and it was found that the soil on the valley is so compressed that it keeps the precious rain drops for weeks, proving thereby that if it only rains a few times during the season a crop can be raised. The soil is black and feels like cool ointment. The main water supply of the country in which our farms are located is the Arkansas River. 

Again, 8 miles north of the Colonists farms.

 Of course, farms having a water front enjoy the benefit of an abundant, so to say, ready-made water supply.  Our farmers get their water partly from the creeks running through their lands, partly from the lake that flows on the boundaries of Fremont and Custer Counties. The irrigating canal of Canon City Hydraulic Company, receives also its supply from the Arkansas River at the mouth of the Royal Gorge,

remember, this is 35 miles east of Cotopaxi.  Really not relevant other than Schwarz is explaining irrigation?

and passes through the park north of that town, furnishing an abundance of water for irrigating all of the ground within the city limits and many thousand acres outside. From a point one and a half miles above the city to a point an equal distance below, the Arkansas River falls one hundred and seven and one half feet, and so great and constant is the volume of water, that the power yet to be utilized can scarcely be computed. Five turbine wheels having an aggregate of three hundred horse power are in use to furnish power for different purposes, and yet, competent judges estimate that not one-tenth of the power is utilized. It can be seen from this that water is always on hand, and that getting it is merely a question of more or less work. 

 Cotopaxi did not get electricity until the 1940s or 50s.

As to the qualities of the soil, nothing illustrates more its productiveness than the fact that, despite of unusually unfavorable circumstances whereby our farmers did not get all the agricultural implements that were needed, and were obliged to break the ground with common shovels, the seed soon yielded precious fruits. Fine cabbage, large potatoes, peas, beans, and squashes, rewarded the persevering labor of our farmers, proving the surprising growing powers of soil, and testifying to the willingness earnestness and industry of our Russian co-religionists, who, I believe, will do almost anything, if they are rightly treated and rightly understood. 

Schwarz left Cotopaxi sometime in September 1882.  He did not remain for the harvest.  With the late start the he mentioned above, these crops had to remain in the ground longer to come to their full growth.  Unfortunately, there was an early freeze and the crops were lost.

Because Schwarz did not remain a full year, he did not experience late and early freezes and did not mention them in this report.  Yet they are a very common factor at 8000'.  Consider that timberline in Colorado is at 11,000' and the "tree line" is about 10,000'.  These farms were at a considerable altitude and weather would have been a huge factor.

In connection with the foregoing, I shall now take up the next point of enquiry:  

5.  The condition of the crop of the refugees - what they raise, their houses, the climate. 

The season having been too far advanced to sow wheat or oats (we arrived on the 9th of May

reconfirmation of the May 9th arrival date

expecting to find land already located, but as this was not the case,

confirmation again that Saltiel had not surveyed the land before they arrived

we had to prospect for it, and it was not until the later part of May that we established the first settlement) the colonists planted mostly garden stuffs and vegetables. As the settlement was commenced too late, I limited myself to distributing the land amongst the settlers, giving each colonist 160 acres of land in one body, ordered, however, that a number of acres be cultivated in common, and the crop to be raised thereon apportioned according to the size of each family.

This would make sense.  If you look at the plot mat, most of them are in one location.  Schwarz is stating that he took the best farm land and made it a communal farm.  Most likely 5 acres per family.

Thus about forty acres have been cultivated and ploughed up with potatoes, cabbages, beets, beans, turnips, onions, cucumbers, melons, peas, corn and radish. We planted 14,000 pounds of potatoes. The potato crop is in quantity as well as quality an excellent one. It could have been larger had not such drawbacks interfered that would have discouraged every earnest and honest beginner. 

We had no wire fences, hence the thousands of cows grazing in Wet Mountain Valley ate up the plants;

this would be true since Colorado is "open range".

our houses were not furnished (of the twelve to be built, only eight are built as yet),

2 in Cotopaxi, 4 elsewhere  from his prior statement in this report.  Now 2 additional have been completed with 4 still to be built.  Did Schwarz write this report over a length of time or was his prior statement incorrect?

hence the colonists could not live on their lands, could not watch and protect them, but had to walk home ten to twelve miles, or lie on the open field night after night;

despicable conditions brought on by the fact that Saltiel did not accomplish what he had promised HEAS he would do.

and yet, and despite of all these drawbacks, to the indefatigable perseverance of the colonists, owing to the circumstances that the management of the colony never failed to remain in contact with the refugees

here Schwarz is telling us that he was always in contact with the Colonists.  This is opposite of what Saltiel claimed in his letter to the American Hebrew.

, never failed to show that it feels for them and with them, imbuing thereby in the desperate hearts of the lingering refugees the consoling consciousness that there is somebody that watches over them, knows them, and understands them. 

Owing to the really gentlemanly conduct of the majority of the colonists, we have accomplished something. Our principal crop is the potato crop. It will suffice for the purpose of seed for the next spring and deducting some percentage will leave about 45,000 pounds for sale. As the price of potatoes in unusually low at present, I gave orders that the potatoes when picked up should be stored in underground cellars and kept until the early part of the spring, when it is expected that the market price will be considerably higher. I am glad to say that my recent reports from Cotopaxi announce a slow but constant rise of the price. 

Schwarz, at this point, did not know of the early freeze and that there were few potatoes actually harvested.

Our cabbage crop has been greatly damaged by cattle. It will, however, suffice for household requirements, as well as all the rest of the garden stuff and vegetables. The quantity of the latter is not satisfactory for reasons already detailed: the quality, however, is astonishing. The Colorado cabbages are, in comparison to cabbages that I saw in the Hudson Valley, perfect giants. A potato that I brought to show the Committee in New York weighs not less than two and one half pounds, and a beet about nine pounds.

Not enough produce to sell to make a living.  Only enough to feed the households.   A 2 1/2 pound potato and a 9 pound beet - were these average or did he pick the largest to show?

The committee has ordered twelve houses to be built for the colonists. Eight of them are completed. The size of the house is 16 feet by 20. The houses are double boarded, with tar paper between them, and have a 1-3 pitch roof. They contain three rooms and a kitchen, with stove and cooking utensils. The height of the houses is 12 feet in the centre.

Eight houses complete.  Still only 4 stoves at this point?  2 boards with tar paper between them.  Not much to keep out the elements of the winter fast approaching.

Before the houses were finished the colonists lived, and some of them still live, in Cotopaxi in a reception house. This is a building about 50 feet long by 28 feet wide, and is divided into three large light rooms, one good sized back room and two smaller rooms. 

Most likely, this is the boarding house that was built by the railroad workers when the tracks were being laid in 1880.   Yet the men had to walk the 8 miles to get to their farms.

We had also two good sized warm log cabins at our disposal. The climate of Colorado, especially of that part where our colonists are located, is the healthiest in the Union. It is called, and with reason, the sanitarium of America. It is well known that as one ascends from the level of the sea, there is found a declension of temperature averaging one degree for every 300 feet of elevation, but this is true only when the ascent is made from the surface of the earth. At the base of the Rocky Mountains we have a more genial climate and higher winter temperature than will be found in the same latitude near the level of the sea. This statement is pre-eminently true of the County of Fremont. 

As a winter resort for persons out of health, Fremont County has no equal. The altitude, the dry air, the rapid evaporation, and the direction of the winds, are the most efficient causes of all the peculiar characteristics of Colorado climate. The pure air, the dewless nights, the gorgeous scenery, and the mental relaxation so readily secured, are the advantages of Colorado climate. In Colorado, in a tent, the tenderest babe and the most delicate invalid can live and sleep all the year around and derive benefit therefrom. 

Again, Schwarz had not lived a winter in this area.  I have.  In January, 1981, I was living just NE of where the Colonists lived and we had a cold snap where the highest temperature of the day was minus 30 degrees - for a week.  I do not think anyone could have survived that in a tent.

As a consequence of these facts our colonists enjoy the best of health. No serious case of sickness has occurred, the infant that died having been suffering with diabetes since its arrival at New York.

Here is our first evidence of a death among the Colony.

In speaking of the climate of Colorado, I can justly refer to a very excellent observer and popular medical writer, Dr. W. W. Hall, who once remarked in relation to the beneficial results of Colorado climate: “I have seen the hollow chest expand, the sluggish step quickened into activity, the sunken eye grow bright, the weakened or undeveloped muscles gain wonderfully in strength, all within a few months.” Good climate requires also good food, and our colonists never lacked good food. Their chief food was bread, butter, fish, rice, coffee, beans, prunes, dried apples and potatoes.  Since the beginning of August I furnished them also kosher meat from Denver, and since the 1st of October, they having their cows and calves, they have also milk. 

The first evidence of what they lived on.  They went from May to October with no cattle, no milk?  We know they went to Salida on the train to get flour.  Fish from the Arkansas river?

Tomorrow will be the final section of this report.

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