Nov 17, 1882 letter from HEAS to Jewish Messenger on Schwartz report.

I thought I was posting in date order, but I found a couple more articles stashed in my files.  This one is from an unknown author, published in the Jewish Messenger, Nov 17, 1882.  From the content, though, it appears this was someone from the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society in NYC.

The Jewish Messenger1882 Nov 17p 2, c 3

The Russian Emigrants
There was quite a large attendance of Directors of the Aid Society, at the regular meeting held on Monday evening, and an amount of Important business was transacted.  Mr. Edward Lanterbach presented an interesting report of his action while in Europe, representing the Society, and at its conclusion, the following was adopted:

“Resolved, That the thanks of this Society are due and hereby tendered to our worthy colleague, Mr. Edward Lauterbach, for the kind and valuable services he has rendered us during his presence in Europe, not only by representing us at the different aid societies, and vindicating our past course, but also by advocating our cause at the Vienna Convention, and procuring for us Important financial aid, whereby this society has been enabled to carry on its labors.”

Various communications were received and acted upon, among others one from the officers of the United Hebrew Charities, expressing their willingness to cooperate with the society in the work of providing relief to the Russian refugees, in the city.  Mr. E. S. Hart of the Cotopaxi Colony, submitted a flattering and encouraging report of its conditions, stating that the males are earning from two to three dollars a day, and the entire number of colonists are happy and contented, and in good health.

We have not found this report from E. S. Hart.  It would have been written to HEAS prior to November 1882...so before the first crop failed.  If you recall, Hart, and Ashkenazi Jew as the colonists were, owned the store at Cotopaxi.  He was a 1st cousin, once removed to E. H. Saltiel, a Sephardic Jew who owned/controlled the mines at Cotopaxi.

The number of refugees on Ward’s Island are gradually being reduced in number, mainly by distribution among the various colonies, under the management of the society.  There are now between five and six hundred persons on the Island, and peace and harmony on the whole prevails.  All the children are to be sent to the school maintained by the City on the Island, and applications wil be made to the Board of Education, for additional teachers. 

Mr. Julius Schwarz has prepared a detailed and comprehensive report of the Cotopaxi Colony, in which he pays the following compliments to the good qualities of the refugees:
“Your folks are first-class workers,” that is what I was pleased to hear about the laboring capacities our our people.  There is no doubt that the refugees have shown that they are not the lazy mob for which they were taken.  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; they have filled the ditches with rocks, which they have been 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 perserveringly as trained miners; they worked on the railroad giving entire satisfaction to their employers; they carried lumber on their shoulders, to spread 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.

This report can be seen here , and then the following 2 posts as it is in 3 parts.

They left out several paragraphs of the original report, but continue here:

Where these are facts, no theories are needed.  The argument of facts conjuers all other arguments.   The facts are, that the Colony in Cotopaxi is a success, 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 eloquences and of phrases, which we encounter with the weapons of facts  Facts speak.  Sixty Russian refugees left New York as paupers, five months ago.  Today they are self-supporting citizens.  They had been colonized, thus they became self-supporting; that is the logic of facts.  Do not spend lavishly your money for the purpose of distributing it to a desperate mob—-the mob will ever remain a mob—even if you give each individual the amount he gets now.  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 faith 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 ? 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.

All of this is a copy of the Schwartz report.

No author listed

This would be our evidence that HEAS had a copy of the Schwartz report by at least November, 1882.  

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Julius Schwarz replies to the Kohn/Witkowski report

writing to H. S. Henry, the President of HEAS, this was posted in the American Hebrew the very same day as Mr. Henry's response to the report.

Letter from Julius Schwarz to HEASUndated, Published in American Israelite, 2 March 1883To H.S. Henry, Esq., President of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society, New York:
SIR: – The so called report of the Denver Committee on the Cotopaxi Colony, signed by one Mr. Kohn and Mr. Witkowsky, has been laid before me, in order to reply to the ignorant and false statements contained therein.

Schwarz is about 21 years old, a lawyer who works for HEAS. He was assigned first as a clerk, then made manager over the Colony.  He was at Cotopaxi from May until October 1882.   He would want HEAS to believe that he did everything "right".  He would need to argue anything written that's negative about the colony.

It is only out of respect to you, Mr. President, and your honorable Executive Committee, that I will try to curb my just indignation and do my best to remain within the limits of objectiveness, for the impudent, cynical and unmanly manner in which the honesty of my administration is attacked, and the almost incredible ignorance of the subject which those gentlemen display in their report, which I could justly call “a tale of falsehoods trimmed with stale poetry,” would justify me to use expressions stronger than those set forth by the two representatives of the “generous Hebrews of Denver.”

 His attempts to make the Denver committee look bad are to be expected.

Trusting, however, that as far as my integrity is concerned, you will find the proper means to defend one of your officers, I can well omit indulging in any controversy whatever with the poetically inclined committee of Denver in regard to the honesty of my administration, and shall treat the subject before me “suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.”

 It was his job to manage the colony.  By this time he was no longer there.  He could not allow the colony to "fail" as it would damage his reputation.  Hewass still employed by HEAS so he absolutely must defend his position.

Anticipating that you, Mr. President, as well as the committee, are cognizant of the circumstance that it was not I on whose advice the colony in Cotopaxi was established; that it was not I who contracted for the erection of the houses, but that it was I who always expressed my opinion that the houses have been charged too high, and that of all the funds expended for the Cotopaxi Colony, only $3,000 were handled by me, of which sum I have on my return deposited $127 as unexpended in your treasure, while for the balance I have given sufficient vouchers even for sums as little as twenty-five cents – I can at once go in “media res.”

No one was accusing him of the above.

With all of the records, reports, writings that were made....HIAS claims today that there are no records.  HEAS did close in June, 1883, and it is possible that all of their records were destroyed when they closed.  HIAS is the present day agency.

The famous report of Denver commences with the history of the Cotopaxi Colony, as copied from my report. Already at the introductory lines we meet with a conspicuous instance of the utter carelessness and the want of study of the case, which those gentlemen willingly undertook or rather snatched up to treat. They say, namely, that since the existence of the colony only one child died, while two children rest in the little cemetery of Cotopaxi, the children of Joseph Nudelman and of David Grupitsky.

Verification there are 2 children that had died before March, 1883.  Perhaps before October 1882 when Schwarz left.

Of course it would have been burdensome for these two gentlemen to lavish their valuable attention on such a trifle as the life of a poor Russian babe is, but it is characteristic and strikingly proves with how little earnestness the writers of the report went on their work. They brought with themselves no earnestness and hardly any understanding, but a large quantity of turgesence and a nauseating mixture of ignorance and conceitedness.

Schwarz is around the age of 21.   He had only been in the US a few years at this point.  Again - in defense of his position with HEAS  - he has to make others appear wrong in order to keep his position.

Ignoring the three lines of poetry that embellish the report and regretting that your honorable committee forgot to communicate its correspondence with Messrs. Kohn and Witkowsky and neglected to solicit the advice of two such practical farmers in settling these people, I find the remark that the houses of the colonists cost $280, but could have been built for $100. This remark again shows how utterly ignorant the writers of the report were of their subject.

We have previously established that the value of the houses could not have been $280 as they were without windows,  doors, stoves, etc.

Had they, instead of putting poetry in their report, examined the houses, they would have come to a different conclusion. The material alone – 5,000 feet of lumber (the houses are double-boarded with tar paper between them, are sixteen by twenty feet and are twelve feet high in the center), nails, windows, doors, tar paper, stove and cooking utensils, cost more than $160, not counting the wages of the carpenters.

Why was so much effort was put into establishing the price of these houses.

Of course the two practical farming gentlemen knew nothing of the price of lumber, nor do they betray too much knowledge of what a house is composed of.

Is he referencing Kohn and Witkowski.  Why does he call them "practical farming gentlemen"?  They were and attorney and a business owner.  Is he mocking them?

To be sure, three hours’ time is hardly sufficient to examine into such trifles, and the gentlemen of Denver were in a great hurry to hasten to their comfortable homes, in order, as the report in its ridiculously fancy language says, “sitting in the parlor, in gown and slippers alongside the hearth” to compose a report, written on legal cap, clad in the vestige of romanticism and falsehood, and trimmed with glittering fringes of heart-rending poetry.

Schwarz missed the entire point about this in Kohn & Witkowski's report.  They were attempting to make the Denver Jews feel guilty and reach into their pockets and donate funds to assist the Jews in Cotopaxi.  It did not mean that they wanted to quickly get back to their homes to sit in their parlors.....

I will say that in 3 hours in Cotopaxi - yes, you could make a determination.  You could probably do it in a 20 minute interview with any of the Colonists.  Considering that at this point, Ed Grimes had walked away from the colony, and that the Snyders/Menkowskys/Newmans had also all left - you could definitely make an assessment in 3 hours.  Perhaps even more so by someone who had lived in Colorado for years and knew the weather, altitude, etc.

It strikes the gentlemen from Denver, as an outrage upon the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society, that the houses were constructed upon land by the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company as a town site, and that no leases have been acquired for the lots. 

In the first place, Mr. President, you know full well that our society holds a document signed by Mr. E.H. Saltiel, stating that the Placer Mining Company has granted a forty-nine years’ lease to the owners of the houses, and as soon as the leases will be drawn up, he will send them to your committee.

As meticulous as Saltiel was about putting everything into writing, why were these leases not documented.  Many of the records recorded in the clerks office were completely hand written, so they could not have been waiting on "forms".  Was it intentional?  And if these Colonists were promised land, why were they given a 49 year lease on Saltiel's land.

Remember, I am posting these documents in a chronological time order. It  is fair to go back and forth between current documents and future documents.  At the time of this writing, we did not know what the answers to some of these questions are.  But it is possible that future documents will give us answers.

In the second place, this very statement of the report reflects in the darkest colors upon the earnestness and the competency of the composers of the report. They, namely, after a long “apercu,” exclaim, “What shall become of the sixty-three souls, if perchance the Placer Mining Company should eject them from their grounds?” This remark betrays an almost startling ignorance of the matters of the colony. The gentlemen at Denver seemed to think that the lands of the colonists are on placing mining ground, and that the refugees can be driven away at any time and made homeless. Now the facts are, that only six of the houses are constructed on town lots, that the farms, however, are located on free government land, as my report says on page 5.

The question of 6 of the houses being built on Placer Mining Company ground is quite valid.  We  know that Saltiel claimed this land as part of the homestead act.  He was required to "farm" it for 5 years before it was his.  This land was not yet his.  Yet he sold 155 of the 160 acres to his own company, the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company - a violation of the homestead act.  He had no right to sell the land, nor did he have a right to lease this land to anyone else.  Most likely, young Schwarz had no clue as to the violations of law being committed by Saltiel.

I can well afford to ignore the ridiculous passage regarding the description of the lands. The two gentlemen of Denver state that they found no farms, and that especially farm No. 3 must have been visionary with me, or been swept away by the devastating floods that storm down the very same creek, of which the report remarks that “it runs dry in winter, and contains no water in summer.”

There is no  land declaration for this 3rd farm.  We know that the Shradsky's (Chorovsky's) were there.  There is no doubt that they farmed.  Yet there is no record of their land ever being declared as were all of the other plots.  Why not their plot?

It is quite possible for a creek to be dry in the winter and contain no water by summer.  Only in spring melt-off would there be water every year.

I refer in this respect, to the respective passages in my report on page three, line twenty- three, to the last line on page four. I would further refer to the personal observations of Mr. Morris Tuska, whose word weights as much as that of Messrs. Kohn and Witkowsky, and who, since twenty-eight years, has been an ornament to American Judaism. He saw the “flower garden” in full bloom, spoke with the owner of the farm, Sholem Chorovsky, settled a family dispute on the spot, and proceeded hence to Wet Mountain Valley, which is one of the most fertile parts of Colorado.

Again, there is not doubt that Chorovsky had a farm.  Somewhere.  And it is possible that the floods or hail destroyed it.  So it's possible to see both sides of this argument - based on the time the observer was present.

Nothing, Mr. President, shows more strikingly the utter ignorance of the Denver Committee than their denial of farm No. 3. While farms No. 1 and 2, on Oak Grove Creek are marked merely by stakes and wire fencing, farm No. 3 is marked by both fence and a house sixteen by twenty feet, which stands just at the front of the farm, alongside the road from Hayden Creek to Wet Mountain Valley. Now if the two investigators did not see the house, they could not have visited farm No. 3; consequently their statement deserves not the least consideration, and must be rejected as an untruth. 

New information.  The Chorovsky plot was on the Hayden Creek Road.  Could it have been the lot just south of Zedek's place.  That is the only place that makes sense.

But the report goes on in ridiculous description of the lands, and says that the farms have been located in a desert. Well, not less than five Christian farmers produce and excellent crop in quantity as well as quality, and one of them, Mr. Lewis, offered his farm for sale for $2,500. Under such circumstances it hardly needs any refutation that “a beast cannot subsist on these lands.”

It would depend on the location of these other 5 farms.  Were they on irrigation ditches?  Live creeks or streams?  Access to irrigation water would make all the difference in the world.  We also know that earlier settlers - those who were there first, bought up all of the water rights.  Thus this is hardly a valid argument.

Not only have the farms on Oak Grove Creek, which, as the report says, is a mean, narrow strip of land, produced a crop, but even the farms on Wet Mountain Valley – those worthless grounds have yielded, and would have yielded a crop larger in quantity, had not an early frost set in and destroyed it.

How one Schwarz claim that there would have been a successful crop when that didn't happen!  There was an early frost.  The crop was destroyed.  That should be the end of the subject.

The grounds must not have been so utterly worthless if it is considered, that despite of the circumstances, that potatoes were sown as late as the end of June, and despite of the heavy hailstorms

Confirmation that there had been a hailstorm substantial enough to destroy crops that first summer.

and the devastations of the thousands of grazing cattle, Loeb Zedek, as he himself states in one of his letters, which I annex hereto, has taken up thirty sacks of potatoes. Zedek’s farm is located on Oak Grove Creek, on the very same mean, narrow strip of land, on which, as the two gentlemen remark, “no beast could subsist.”
Ignoring these remarks about “the clearest printed book which cannot make a man ignorant of the alphabet,” about “Paganini,” and his “violin,” about the “preacher” and the “pulpit”; about the “carpenter” and the “tool chest,” I may hasten to finish my statement.

Is Zedek the man who planted 14 bags of potatoes?  14 to 30 bags....is that success?  If you plant 1 potato, you should harvest numerous in return in a  good crop.  In a good harvest, you should get 50 pounds of potatoes for every 2 pounds planted.  That would mean that Zedek should have harvested 350 pounds of potatoes.  This was not a good harvest.  Did Schwarz not understand the return on investment needed?

That the colonists had not more than two plows is not my fault. Besides, you know, Mr. President, that upon my requisition, six more plows, rakes, hoes, scythes, hatchets, mules, seed etc., were resolved upon to be sent to Cotopaxi, and that all these things would long since have been distributed, had not the Denver people interfered with us, and by their attitude in the matter, succeeded in detaining you from furnishing the above enumerated necessaries.

This is a bit confusing at this point.  Is he blaming the Denver committee for the fact that additional resources had not been sent to Cotopaxi?  We know that as of June, 1882, HEAS said they were no longer funding colonies.  Was it that decision that prevented this expenditure and it had nothing to do with the Denver Committee?

As to clothing, I can state that the colonists never suffered for any want of clothing. At the Jewish New Year, when the colonists threw themselves in style, there was a display of dresses and jewelry which astonished me.

The Jewish New year in 1882 was Sept 2.

Black and green silk dresses, heavy gold earrings, rings and bracelets, and other jewelry was to be seen, and there was not one among the whole lot that did not look like any gentlemen or lady of Denver. Most of the Russian women paid a dress-maker in Cotopaxi, to make them dresses, and when a box of old women’s clothing arrived from New York, the women refused to accept them, saying, “What do we want these old dresses for, we have better ones.”

It is not impossible to fathom that the woman wanted special clothing for this holiday.  So perhaps they did have a good dress to wear, but they lacked coats for winter, boots, gloves, etc.  We will probably never know for sure.

On a holyday, I visited three of the Russian houses and I must confess that I found the tables of Messrs. Nudelman, Chuturn and Zedek, well supplied with bread. No, with meat, cakes, tarts, brandy, wine made of currents,

Did they made their own wine?

etc. Mr. Zedek showed me a collection of gold and emerald, golden knives, silver spoons, bracelets, watch chains, and a costly golden goblet from the time of Czar Nicolaus.

Schwarz picked 3 specific families.  What about the other 14 families?  These 3 may have brought a lot of goods with them when they came.  Did all of the others?  We already know that Nudelman and Shuteran shared a "double house" in Cotopaxi.   Zedek had the best land.  Were these the only families with resources?

This illustrates very strikingly the remark of the Denver report, that “the wives of the Russian refugees were driven almost to distraction in their attempt to obey the natural instinct of mothers to shelter their children, and to save themselves from cold and starvation.”

There is an oral history that one couple lived in a former Indian cave their first year.  We know that some of the homes did not have doors or windows.  We know that some had no stoves.  Did Schwarz not know what was going on with all of the families?  Or is he just attempting to make the Denver Committee appear wrong by being selective in the examples he provides?

This, Mr. President, is a falsehood, an untruth, and I cannot find words in which to express my indignation at such a monstrous misrepresentation of facts. “To save themselves from cold.” Why, they can have as much wood as they want, miles of oak trees being at their disposal, besides the coal that the engines throw off alongside the depot. The gentlemen saw the coal and the wood in the houses, and still they thought nothing of publishing it in their report “that they freeze with cold.”

It was 8 miles from the train tracks to some of these homes.  How did they get the coal to their homes?  How did they get the wood to their homes?  Was Schwarz referring only to the houses in town?

It should be mentioned at this place that your director, Mr. Rosentiel, has sent the colonists sixteen good warm blankets, and that most have feather beds and all have received mattresses and pillows.

Again numbers will tell the whole story.  16 blankets for 70 people. Not a lot of coverage.

The report says that the instances of suffering were numerous and pitiful. Of all the instances, the story about the heroic swimming tour appears to them the most pitiful. It was a question of “life and death” says the report. Minkowsky plunged into the river, and no other man would venture in it. Now, Mr. President, permit me to state that when Minkowsky swam across the river, in company with others, he was a single man and no wife and child were waiting for him as the report says. It was summer, the bridge was swept away by a sudden rain-spout that swelled the Arkansas River, and Morris Minkowsky, who returned from his farm in order to keep Sabbath with his friends and to attend worship in the synagogue in Cotopaxi, unhesitatingly undressed himself, jumped into the river and reached the other side safely.

Re-confirmation that there was a synagogue in Cotopaxi.
Re-confirmation that a bridge was sept away by a flood in the summer.  Was it June or July?
Menkowsky's farm  was 8 miles south of Cotopaxi. Amazing that these men would walk 8 miles to attend Synagogue, week after week.  Regardless of weather.

The same thing was done the next day by Joseph Nudelman, Michael Shammes, B. Milchstein and many others,

Some of these men were over 50 years of age.

and I myself crossed the river on horseback, in order to be able to inspect the farms on Oak Grove Creek. Besides on Friday evenings all the Russian women used to take a so called ritual bath in that river, into which to plunge was “a question of life and death.”

Did they do their mikvahs in the winter in this river?  How could Schwarz have known as he left in October.

Usually when the river rises, it remains that way for a few weeks.  There could be spots upstream or downstream that would have been sufficient for bathing.  However, the water right at Cotopaxi is more narrow and thus runs more rapidly than it does at other spots.

Another of the instances of suffering is that there is no midwife in Cotopaxi; that there are three women in a delicate condition. “The cries and appeals of these poor creatures as they contemplate the perils of childbirth, are beyond belief.”

1)  Cotopaxi in 1882 was the wild west.  Only 6 years since it had been made a state.
2)  Indians still roamed the area
3)  The McCoy gang and other outlaws lived in the neighborhood
4)  No medical provisions existed
5)  Was there a traveling doctor?
6)  Bears at night were drive away by bonfires
7)  The midwife lived 8 miles from those who lived in Cotopaxi.  You didn't just pick up the phone and call her!

It is apparent how they might have been concerned.

And further, “In Cotopaxi sickness and death are in store for healthy persons.”
Now I am exceedingly sorry that among all my strenuous efforts to civilize these people

Schwarz  took strenuous efforts to civilize these people.  That is an insult to the Colonists.

I forgot all about teaching them the theory of Malthus, and neglected the establishment of a college for midwives in Cotopaxi.

Schwarz is attempting to put others down to elevate himself?

But here again is proved how little credence can be attached to Messrs. Kohn and Witkowsky.

Schwarz has made their report look much more creditable than his own.  He is putting way too much effort into denying what they wrote.  Almost to the point of making you wonder if they are more accurate than he is.

Above all, the part of Colorado wherein our colony is settled is one of the healthiest in the Union. Of course, Messrs. Kohn and Witkowsky know nothing of the fact that although as one ascends from the level of the sea there is a declension of temperature averaging one degree for every 300 feet of elevation. This is true only when the ascent is made from the surface of the earth, consequently at the base of the Rocky Mountains there is more genial climate and a higher temperature than will be found in the same latitude near the level of the sea. It can be seen now how much truth is in the melancholy but ridiculous remark, “In Cotopaxi sickness and death are in store for healthy persons.”

He fails to mention that the further north of the equator one is, the colder it becomes.   Are Kohn & Witkowsky referring to the risk of becoming ill in such an isolated location where the only means of transportation was the train or a stage coach ride which took 2 days to get to Canon City?  Mrs. Prezant had been ill for 11 weeks.

It is an untruth that there is no midwife in Cotopaxi. There is a midwife in Cotopaxi, and her name is Hannah Milchstein. She has attended to the cases of Mrs. Chorovsky and Mrs. Moskoviz skillfully and ably. So there is no earthly need of taking the three crying and appealing women to Denver to make thereby a grand show of cheap charity. Of course the three crying women would go willingly to Denver. Why not?

By doing the genealogy of these families, here is what I know:

1)  Mindel Shradsky gave birth to her daughter, Sarah, on 11/7/1883 at Cotopaxi.
2) Rachel Shuteran gave birth to a daughter sometime in 1882 and that baby died.
3) nothing to date on the Moskoviz (Moskowitz) family.

I hasten now to conclude. All I have to say is so much: The colonists at Cotopaxi were well satisfied with their lands when I left, as the inclosed letters will prove. When Mr. Morris Tuska was in Cotopaxi, and told them to move further on if they did not like their lands, they exclaimed, “We like the land, and we will live and die here.” They never entertained any apprehension of starvation, as the letter of Henry Lauterstein hereto annexed will prove, wherein he says, “With victuals we are provided, and hope to be able to pull through over the season.”

Schwarz left in October.  This is March.  Without the successful harvest, things could have changed almost overnight.   Schwarz could only address what happened before October 1882.

The farms were in a flourishing condition when I left the colony, and thus I had every reason to believe that the Cotopaxi Colony would be a success. The colonists had their cows, their horses, had to buy no fuel, had work at Salida, whenever they were discharged, having struck for higher wages; some of them had money of their own; they had a Mutual Aid Society, with about $100 in the treasure. The goodness of the soil has been proved by the fact that everything was growing and, despite of the late commencement, thriving, so that the Russians, when they took out their first potatoes, said, in their peculiar way of expressing themselves, “Ach wie ein theures gutes land.” (Oh, what a dear, good land.) They wrote several letters to me, stating that they were well pleased with their lands, and one of them, Loeb Zedek, went so far as to write: “Mr. Schwarz, if I enter my house I think I am Baron Rothschild.”

Certainly would be nice if we had any of these letters.  But here's a question - did they actually exist.  Schwarz says they were attached.  They were not published.  $100 in the "treasure" is not much for the 62 people who were still in Cotopaxi as of October, 1882.

Your committee has, on my requisition, voted another $1,000 to complete the agricultural stock of the colony, and will no doubt take measures to secure the services of a practical farmer to superintend and instruct the people, and thus nothing was left undone to make these people happy and prosperous.

Yet as of this writing, the $1000 had not been sent.  There is no evidence that a practical farmer was hired to superintend and instruct the Colonists.

In conclusion I would say that, knowing the nature of Russians, I fear that the morale of the colony has received a great shock, and that the ignorant interference of the Denver people has spoilt what always has been my only aim to reach, viz: to teach these people that while charity is justifiable in cases of distress, it was the duty of those that once received charity, and were given a fair start in life, to work out their own salvation by the sweat of their brows. I taught the colonists independence, self-reliance, industry. The Denver people, however, have wrecked my endeavors by opening for them the heavens of “Rachmones” (Jewish compassion).
I now close my statements, and leave the report of Denver, as a falsehood from beginning to end, to the contempt of every just and truth-loving man.
Respectfully submitted,
JULIUS SCHWARZ, LL.D.

At his young age, one has to wonder if he were capable of teaching.  He's pretty good at word play.  Did he do this with the Colonists?  He's pretty bad at numbers and facts.  

How much had changed for the lives of the Colonists between October 1882 and March 1883.  That was their first winter.  Had they come prepared for harsh weather with appropriate clothing, shoes, outer wear?  Did they own a shovel, broom, items to deal with the snow?  Did they walk the 8 miles to their synagogue if there had been a snow?  Where did the women do their mikvah baths when the Arkansas River was frozen over?  How did they get the midwife to their house in time to deliver a baby?

So many unanswered questions.

Again, there is very little mention of Saltiel in these reports and rebuttals.  Had he been gone for most of the winter?  He remarried in February 1883 and there is no evidence that this wife ever lived in Cotopaxi.  Had Saltiel been in Denver most of the time?

Why was it that Saltiel did not have their houses already built when they arrived?  Why is it that their land had not been surveyed?  Why did he claim to have staked out 2000 acres....yet never accomplished that task?

I think we have a lot of things to think about as we progress through even more rebuttals coming up.

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HEAS replies to the Kohn/Witkowski report Feb 15, 1883

Well finally, there is something from HEAS.  Now, keep in mind.  We know that in June, 1882, HEAS decided they could no longer financially support any of the colonies.  And a year later, in June, 1883, they shut their doors.  But at least we have this one reply from H. S. Henry, the President of HEAS.  Let's see what he has to say.....this is a reply to the Kohn Witkowski report.

Letter from H.S HenryDated 15 February 1883 Published in American Israelite, 2 March 1883New York, February 15, 1883

Messrs. H. Silver and George H. Kohn,

Who is H. Silver?  This is a new name.  I was able to locate an "H. Silver" in Denver in 1887 who was a member of the Bimetallism committee.  In 1912, an "H. Silver" attended the wedding anniversary of Mr. & Mrs. I. Rosenberg.  Also attending were the Markelwitz's.

Committee, Denver, Col.:
GENTLEMEN
I am in receipt of your favor of 5th inst., covering the report of the special committee appointed by the Jews of your city to visit our colony at Cotopaxi.

It is interesting that he identifies Cotopaxi as belonging to HEAS.  Even after they can no longer provide financial support to them.

This report has had the immediate attention of the Colonization Committee of our society, with a result which I will endeavor to set forth in this communication.

It is evident, that while Mr. Julius Schwarz’s report has taken too rosy-colored a view of the prospects of the Cotopaxi people, your committee has erred on the other side.

Julius Schwarz's report starts here, and the 2 posts following that.
The Kohn/Witkowski report is here.

Julius Schwarz was an employee of HEAS.

He derived his experience during the summer and a five months’ residence there,

Julius arrived in May with the initial group and left 5 months later, in October - which we have previously established.

 your committee took the depth of winter, and a very few hours (not twelve, we are informed,) to arrive at their conclusions – and probably because of this very hurried investigation – they have reported as facts many things that we know to be erroneous, and which upset completely the entire faith we should desire to give to so very well written and forcible a literary production.

And so the "argument" continues.  Perhaps the perspective of a local such as myself.  If you were to visit the area on a very "bad" weather day in the depth of winter - you would walk away feeling like Kohn and Witkowski did.  When it is 30 below zero in the middle of the afternoon, one has to ask how anyone could survive such weather.  Yet Schwarz, who left in October, and did not experience any harsh winter weather thought that a baby could survive year round in a tent.

The colony at Cotopaxi was established by us at the instigation of Mr. E. H. Saltiel,

OK.  Verification from HEAS that Saltiel did establish the colony.

who represented that for a limited number of families the parks near to Cotopaxi furnished abundant land for the production of potatoes and other garden vegetables, which were always in demand in that section of the State, while the mines and town near by would enable able-bodied men to procure work when the season of farm labor was ended.

HEAS is stating that Saltiel told them that the land was suitable for farming.  (Yet Saltiel had never been a farmer).  And that the mines would be a back-up employer in the winter.  Verification that Saltiel's plan was to get them to work in his mines.  Saltiel has already said that Cotopaxi was "one of the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,"

An agreement was entered into with him for the erection of houses, etc., and the management of the colony was given into his hands.

Sad that we do not have a date of this agreement.  But we know Saltiel did not contract to start building the houses until the day before they arrived in Cotopaxi.  And we know that he did not survey the land for the farms until 3 weeks after they arrived.  He did not do anything to prepare for the arrival of the Colonists.  One can only assume that he wanted them to fail at farming and thus have to turn to his mines for employment.

 It is quite true, as your committee reports, that the society has suffered pecuniarily from this arrangement, indeed, we are certain that an economy of perhaps $2000 could have been effected by a more prudent investigation of cost, etc., and as Mr. Salteil did not carry out with the expedition he promised the builiding of the houses for which he had already received the money, we are induced to change the management.  Mr. Schwarz, at first only clerk, became manager, and left the colony only when the houses contracted for were certain to be completed, and when he judged the colonists could get along without extraneous aid.

Confirmation of what we have already learned.  Saltiel did not perform the duties of his agreement with HEAS and Schwarz was made manager of the Colony.  If you remember, Saltiel wrote a lengthy letter to the newspaper complaining about this action.

 The colonists themselves were selected generally with a view for their fitness to their new surroundings – they were not forced to go, but were told that pioneer life in this country was generally a life of hardship – that to become independent industry, perseverance and courage were necessary. It was explained to them that thousands of German and Irish immigrants, without the fostering care of a society such as they were fortunate enough to secure, went out in all directions westward, procured work, and out of the surplus of their earnings became in due time land-owners and independent farmers.

The fact that they came to Cotopaxi shows us clearly how bad their lives had been in Russia.  They were willing to go anywhere.  It certainly doesn't mean that Cotopaxi was the appropriate place to place an agricultural colony.  But then, it might be difficult for HEAS to admit they had been swindled by Saltiel.

Our people desired to settle on land, to found homes for themselves and families, and knew all about what they had to contend with.  It may read very well, therefore, to say:
“Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die.”

Sadly, 3 children died at Cotopaxi.

But the quotation is not at all applicable to the case.

Furthermore, it seemed to us that the very nature of the land at Cotopaxi, and the kind of farming required there, was specially adapted to the Russian refugee, whose previous experience had been chiefly in the planting of vegetables, whose physique was less able to battle with the clearing of land, and all the hardships necessarily attending settlement in the West and Northwest.

One has to wonder if Saltiel explained to HEAS just how much cacti would need to be cleared from the land before it was farmed.  I feel certain these Jews did not experience that in Russia!  Or did he explain that this was the "rocky mountains" and they would have to carry hundreds of rocks away from the land in order to farm? Odessa is at sea level.  Kiev is 587'.  Did anyone explain to these Jews, or to HEAS that this farm land was at 8000'?  And that's just a bit higher than any other agricultural colony that was ever attempted.  Painted Woods in North Dakota is only 1657'.  

There was a certainty of occasional work near by, and, furthermore, some of our own people were in the place already, and could render them a moral assistance, if nothing else.  In no respect, in any of these anticipations have we been disappointed.

There is no indication of who Mr. Henry is talking about here.  Was it Schwarz?  There were no other HEAS colonies near Cotopaxi.  Could he be referring to the Hart family?  The Harts did not know Yiddish.   Who else was at Cotopaxi from HEAS?

The possibility of the failure of the colony now is attributable to other causes.

 So Mr. Henry is predicting the colony will fail.

The Russian refugee, as a rule, prefers begging of his fellow-Hebrews to expending money that he has earned by his daily labor (however small that labor may be) for the supply of anything beyond the commonest necessaries of life. He likes to hoard his means against a rainy day, and will beg for clothes and help generally, even while he has much by him, wherewith to provide for his wants. Above all he has faith in the “rachmones” (compassion) of the Jewish race, which, experience tells him, is never appealed to in vain. There is nothing about him of that sturdy independence which has made great a less intellectual people – he whines and moans and appeals for alms, when his own right arm should procure by the sweat of his brow the means of subsistence for himself and family. How much he relies on this compassion is evidenced by the disregard he has of all prudence in his marital relations. He marries and gets a family while moaning that he has not bread to eat, and cannot earn it for himself, certain that in the end his extreme selfishness will be condoned by his wealthy brethren for the sake of the wife and children he has helped to make parties to his sad condition. This very compassion is answerable for much of the trouble involved in the settlement of these people. A little hardship, such as a German or Irish emigrant endures with equanimity – certain that with industry and perseverance he will overcome it – is magnified by the peculiar philanthropic ideas of our people into a condition of misery such as it ill befits the children of Israel to endure. Our views of comfort are altogether urban – we shrink from the idea of a snow-clad land and a log cabin, even with plenty of fuel at hand to make it habitable, and of all the discomforts inherent on the life of a pioneer – while we take little heed of the miserable city tenements, whole families crowded into a single room reeking with filth and malaria. These are to us the natural consequences of poverty, and, at all events, the sufferers are at our doors, and can be kept from starvation, if from nothing else.

I find this rather interesting.  Here is a Jew, the head of HEAS, wealthy, living comfortably in NYC.  And we already know that all of the Jews living in NYC wanted the immigrants dispersed throughout the country.   They were willing to front the money to establish farms....but they did not want the immigrants remaining in NYC.  They did not want to have to feed and house them there.

So Mr. Henry now claims that the immigrants are lazy and would rather beg for money than earn it themselves.  I would write this off to being a political commentary of the day.  Henry "had" to say something like this.  If the colonies failed and the Jews relocated to NYC, he would certainly lose his position and his status in the Jewish community there.

Instead of such a report as your committee has made, a committee sent by a German, Irish, or Norweigian Emigrant Society would probably have encouraged the colonists by pointing out that their present discomforts were only temporary; that with the return of spring and another harvest, things would improve;

Yet Mr. Henry could not see that another spring would bring another flood.  The summer would bring hail.  The crop would be destroyed again.  And he did not have the hindsight that we have that 134 years later, there are still no farmers on this land.

that perseverance after all the expenditure of money would certainly result in ultimate success; that they must try to get along with a trifle of money help to the least fortunate of the settlers, which they would recommend, and that they would take care that such implements and seed as they needed should be furnished along with somebody who could instruct them in the necessities of the soil, etc.

Why did HEAS send a young Hungarian lawyer rather than a high altitude farmer?  It doesn't appear they are willing to admit their own mistakes with this colony.

This committee would understand that to start life in a new country is not child’s play – that there are frequent disappointments and some misery, but that after all, success, when obtained, opens out a vista of happiness and independence to which a peddler or small artisan in a city can never reach, handicapped as he is by a large family and competition by more experienced hands.

We also know that HEAS, located at sea level in NYC, had no understanding or comprehension of the geographical farming constraints at Cotopaxi.

Your committee dwells on the dreadful condition of the women about to become mothers in such an inhospitable clime, and amid such surroundings, and insist on removing them at once to the genial soil of Denver. Although the population at Cotopaxi is scant, children have been born there even among the colonists.

2 babies had been born - one had died.  So a 50% death record is not all that great!

There is a midwife there (the wife of Milchstein)

This would be Hanna Milstein.  She and her husband lived 8 miles south of Cotopaxi.  Interesting how Mr. Henry thinks she could walk to provide assistance when and wherever needed.  Again, evidence that he had no clue as to the logistics at Cotopaxi. No midwife is going to walk 8 miles in a winter blizzard - she wouldn't be able to.

who is represented to be a good person, and whose services have already been availed of. Why she should not be as competent now as heretofore, I am at a loss to understand, and I believe that the necessities of the case would have been fully covered without removal of these women to Denver as proposed, by the supply of a little money to provide them with some comforts, which their special condition required. The course pursued is a sure way to engender future trouble and make it impossible for these people ever to become satisfied without perpetual outside aid. 

Again, it is evident Mr. Henry simply did not grasp the logistics of the locations of the farms, the difference in altitude, the lack of transportation, etc.  I don't think it had a thing to do with Hanna Milstein's ability to deliver a baby, but rather her ability to get where she was needed when she was needed.  Babies just don't wait for the midwife to arrive!

There are undoubtedly a few families there who, from causes perhaps for which they are not entirely responsible, cannot make anything at Cotopaxi by outside work – these should be temporarily assisted, and if the new crop should demonstrate the impossibility of their continuance on the farm, so as to become self-supporting, some other provision should be made for them.

We know that the work at Salida would have been continuous for those that went there, had some of them been willing to submit to a differential scale of wages, but those that received $1.75 per day wanted $2.00, such as the more skillful hands obtained, and so the whole party got sacked.

This is new information.  Can we assume this was the railroad?  Where else did they work in Salida?

In the mines we know that continuous work has been given to several of the men at $1.50 to $2.00 per day – we know, too, that many of these men have money, and do not pretend that they are needy – we know, too, that with the assistance proposed to be given to them for the spring work, they have expressed themselves in writing (so late as the 11th January last) as perfectly satisfied, predicting for themselves a hopeful future.

I would agree that some of the families had sufficient funds.  But others did not.  I am also wondering why Saltiel only paid $1.50 to $2.00 per day to the Jews when he paid other workers $2.50 per day.  In fact, from the records that we do have, he only paid the lower wages to Jews.

Your committee has, we believe, been imposed on to a certain extent, either by the Christian famers, whom they have seen, or some interested parties – as to the character of the land at Cotopaxi. It is not sterile, and may require in parts irrigation, which may render much labor necessary.

Henry knows at this point at least that irrigation is needed.  But he doesn't say that he will provide the funds to accomplish that.  How does he propose a successful farming season if there is no means to irrigate?

The result of last year’s crop is no indication of the future. It was planted at least two months later than it should have been, and froze in the ground before, or at maturing. The early indications were for an abundant return of potatoes for the quantity sown and one farmer realized it. If only fifteen bags of potatoes resulted from fourteen sown in one instance, it was because the bulk of his crop got frozen, and not because the land was not rich enough to give a larger return.

His "argument" is faulted.  He does not understand the short growing season.  Yes, you could plant potatoes and they will grow.  But they will never get to harvest because of the short growing season.  It can snow every month of the year.  It can hail at any time in the summer.  There can be a drought and with no irrigation ditches and no water rights, the future crops were doomed before they ever got into the ground.

At all events we know that other farmers in the neighborhood have succeeded without much of the help given to our people, and we certainly should await another season before arriving at so extreme a conclusion as that come to by your committee.

I will do another blog post with maps to show that these other farms were to the south, in a much wetter, better irrigated place.  And that's why they were successful.

Your committee is correct in two of its strictures – that with regard to the leases of the town-lots on which six houses are built, not having been executed, but the delay arose from not having blanks at hand at first, and there is no question of their being executed on demand, and that with regard to a competent Colorado farmer being employed to teach these people the requirements of their agricultural work – and these suggestions have due weight – but we are grieved to say that beyond this there is little of value in their report, while the following matters can be proved to be the result of gross misrepresentations by some party or parties in Cotopaxi.

1st. The cost of a house such as is erected by the society fixed at $100.00 is absurd. It takes about 5,000 feet of lumber, worth in Cotopaxi $20.00 per thousand, to build it with, and this alone is $100.00, without labor, nails, tar paper, doors and windows or stoves; $230.00 would be nearer to the mark.

But here's the problem - the houses did not have doors, windows, stoves.  So we're back closer to the $100 mark?

2d. The episode so touchingly expressed as to Mitkowsky plunging into the Arkansas River to bring succor to his starving wife and children.

The facts are: Mitkowsky did plunge into and swim across the Arkansas River in July last, when he was a single man, and had no wife or child. It was a Friday evening – he was belated and desired to pass the Sabbath with his friends. A flood had carried away the bridge, he was a good swimmer and took the risk. All honor to him for what he did – there was pluck in the act, and it is not to be wondered at, that this man is said to be one of the best and most successful among the colonists at Cotopaxi.

If this did happen in July, then Menkowsky was single at that time.  Confirmation that a bridge was lost in a flood in July.  Is this an additional flood to the one in June?

3d  The two men who earned for a day’s work $1.39 in moving and sawing timber for the railroad.
They did earn $1.39, but they worked only about three hours to earn it. The company offered them short work at $1.50 per day; but they preferred to do the job by the piece. The weather was so cold that they knocked off in three hours, one of the men getting his ears frozen, as your committee reports.

What's interesting here is the admission that the weather was so cold the man's ears froze.  Yet Schwarz claimed a baby could live in a tent year round.  Once again - confusion.

In conclusion, I fear that more harm than good has resulted from the kind intentions of our co-religionists of Denver; the morale of the colony is likely to be injured by their action, and our efforts to render these colonists independent are thwarted to an extent now that it will be difficult to re-establish it. We are not inclined to meet your demand for cash to help them beyond a very limited sum to Grupitsky and one or two others, and our experience teaches us that what one family gets the others, although not in want, will certainly demand.

Why Grupitsky?  Because he was the rabbi?  He had land just the same as the others and he was about the same age as the others.  He was a widower with children.  But so were others.

I find the disagreement with Denver interesting.  Not sure what the answer is, but I can see both sides.  The Colonists reached out to Denver who sent men to investigate and these men reported back to Denver and to HEAS.  Agree that they weren't in Cotopaxi very long, but it might not take long to see the situation as it was on that day.

On the other hand, this is the "project" of HEAS and it would be hard for them to admit mistakes, to admit failure.  They were using the money received as donations for the most part from other NYC Jews.  If this colony failed, it would not set well with the NYC Jewish community.

We are unable to determine for the present just what to do, but we would recommend to you that no steps, such as you propose, should be entertained, looking to the removal of these elsewhere, unless you are prepared to take all the responsibility and expense of such a movement.

Quite harsh!  But I can see where they are coming from.  They did not understand the conditions at Cotopaxi.....nor could they admit it had been a bad idea.  So the conclusion was to do nothing.

The publication of the report of the committee was a most unwise proceeding. The whole press of the country, especially the Jewish portion of it, will at once seize the opportunity of giving expressions and advice about a matter of which they have little actual knowledge and this Society will be forced against its will to publish some such statement as this I have made to put the matter in its true light.

Even more evidence that HEAS doesn't want their name tarnished.  If you can equate the newspapers of that period to Facebook today you might have a better idea of what was going on.   You wouldn't want your failures publicized on Facebook!

Our Society has no interest to serve; it may have made many mistakes, and this at Cotopaxi may be one of them; but it was hardly courteous to publish such a document, the result of a few hours’ investigation, without waiting to hear from us, who have considered the matter for months, as to what we thought of the conclusions arrived at.

At this point, perhaps HEAS was not aware of all the other letters that had been published about Cotopaxi?  But I think the Denver Committee almost had to publish this.  In order to validate the facts about Cotopaxi.  Keep in mind that they had tried to obtain information from HEAS and had not been successful in getting it.  At least by publishing the Kohn/Witkowski report - they got a response out of HEAS!

I am, gentlemen, yours faithfully,
[Signed.] H.S. HENRY, President H.E.A.S.

Stay tuned for even more responses to the Kohn/Witkowski report.  It got "under the skin" of more than just HEAS and Myer Hart!

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The Morris Tuska Report Oct 6, 1882

 One of the things I like to do with genealogy research is to take newspaper articles, letters and other documents in a chronological order and dissect them line by line.  It helps put perspective on the content of the article.  In this blog, the highlighted text is always the article.

1882, Oct 6American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger  p 2
The Russian Emigrants.

This report was published in the American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger on Oct 6, 1882.    It does not show us the date it was written.  Tuska arrived in Cotopaxi on July 30.  We don't know how long he stayed.

Mr. Morris Tuska, who was appointed by the Executive Committee to investigate the condition of the Cotopaxi colony, has made the following report:
I left for Cotopaxi on the 26th of July and arrived there on the 30th inst.  I immediately called on Mr. Julius Schwarz, the General Manager of the colony, whom I found master of the situation and who willingly gave me all information required as to the doings of E. H. Saltiel in whose care the colony was entrusted.

Why was Tuska sent to Cotopaxi?  Because Colonists had written to HEAS complaining about the fact that they had no homes, no land, no animals, no farm implements when they arrived.  So just imagine for a moment - HEAS had given thousands of dollars to Saltiel to build homes.  Yet they get letters stating this had not happened.  Wouldn't you send someone to investigate?   Of course they are going to be suspicious of Saltiel...and rightfully so!   This was less than 3 months after the Colonists arrived.

Earlier writers have stated that Julius Schwarz was not there from the beginning of the Colony (May 1882).  This report leads us to believe that he was.

The general condition of the colony is, considering the many difficulties having arisen from the mismanagement of Saltiel and from his omission to furnish the colony with the necessary funds, a favorable one.  Owing to the indefatigable perseverance of Mr. Schwarz, who rendered himself worth of the trust put in him the refugees were settled on Government land on 160 acres for each family.  The lands are very fertile, full of Phosphate and of almost surprising growing power.  

Here, Tuska clearly states that the Colony has been mismanaged by E. H. Saltiel.  And that he did not furnish them with the necessary funds.  I would remind you that Saltiel had not surveyed the land, had not built their homes....he failed on every single aspect of his agreement with HEAS.

The farms situated on the first division of the lands called Oak Grove Creek, are drained by a creek that is always supplied with water and is more than sufficient for irrigating purposes.  Here three farms are located. 

Tuska's visit was in July 1882.  There would have been a good water supply coming down Oak Grove Creek with the summer melt-off of snow in the mountains.  What Tuska could not have known is that there are many years when this creek dries up completely by August, if not earlier.

A high mountain range separates these farms from the second division of the lands from the so-called Wet Mountain Valley.  Here the rest of the farms are located.  Mr. Schwartz told me that although no water is extant to irrigate still he is confident that the farmers will in the winter be able to care for the necessary supply of water to be used next summer, by digging a three mile long ditch and filling the same with water which is in abundance in the lake, situated on the mountains that border the farms and separate Fremont County from Custer County.  

By 1882, all water rights had been allocated.  The Colonists would need to purchase water rights in order to fill the ditch they dug.   Most likely, Tuska was not informed about the need to purchase water rights. It's a moot point as to where the money would come from to dig a ditch....where would the money come from to buy the water rights to fill it?

The colonists sowed mostly potatoes, about 17,000 pounds altogether. 

The equivalent of 1,700 ten-pound bags of potatoes.  Later writers give us a wide range on this number.  This is the earliest report.

Mr. Schwarz assured me that he repeatedly requested Mr. Saltiel to give him the means to sow a larger quantity of potatoes, as they are salable and greatly wanted; but Mr. Saltiel did not give him the funds required. 

Why didn't Saltiel give him the funds?  Did he intentionally want them to fail?  If they succeeded, who would work in his mines?

Seventeen thousand pounds will, as Mr. Schwarz says, yields about 140,000 lbs; 40,000 lbs he intends to save for seeding purposes, and 100,000 lbs, he will put on the market. 

Once again, keep in mind that Tuska was there in July.  He did not know about early fall frosts at the altitude of 8000'.  Most likely, he did not understand the short growing season.

The general price of potatoes varies from 1 1/2 to 2cts. per pound, thus about $2000 are expected from the potato crop.  Cabbage, peas, beans, cucumbers, beets, turnips, etc., have been sowed, but owing to the slowness with which the houses have been built, or better said, owing to them not having been built at all, most of the garden stuff was destroyed by grazing cattle, and what has been spared is just sufficient to cover the household requirements.

This is quite an interesting statement.  The houses had not been completed at this time.  With no fences up, the cattle would consume just about anything edible above the ground.  Did Saltiel set them up to fail?

Tuska is from NYC.  He has no experience with the arid, dry, mountain climate of Colorado.  We cannot expect him to understand summer/fall droughts, flash floods that can wipe out everything in it's path, early freezes, snow in July.  Nor could he, in 1882, realize that in the next 134 years, absolutely no one would successfully grow crops on this land.

Had Mr. Saltiel used the money so readily put at his disposal for the purposes of the colony, for buying or hiring teams and ploughs, buying potatoes and other seeds, purchasing agricultural implements, erecting houses and buying wire for fencing, the colony not only would have been made self-supporting, but been able to repay every cent that has been spent for their sake.

Once again, Tuska is pointing the finger at Saltiel.  And the unanswered questions remain to this day - why didn't Saltiel have their houses built before they arrived?  Why hadn't their land been surveyed?   We now know he did not even start this process until after they arrived in May.

As matters stand at present, the colonists will be able to pull through; they must, however, be provided with cows and wire fences. 

Tuska is making an assumption here that they will pull through.  But he is not taking into consideration weather.

Mr. Schwarz proposed to purchase twelve cows and wire fence for ten acres on each farm, and assured me that by means of the income of the crop and by means of the cows, that will furnish them the two chief feeding articles, namely, milk and butter, they will make a livelihood and will next year get along splendidly; so much the more as Mr. Schwarz has been offered labor for the refugees during the winter, which will help them towards defraying their expenses for living.

Again - had Saltiel set them up to fail? It is obvious the offer of work during the winter is in his mines.  He did not provide them with the promised cows, fence, houses, implements.  One most certainly needs to question why not?  HEAS had given Saltiel the money.  What had he done with it? (I believe we will see that in future posts.)

The financial condition of the colony.  The facts are that Mr. Saltiel used the money put in his hands for his own purposes

Saltiel was in the midst of numerous lawsuits in the summer of 1882.

and left several bills unpaid, which he said were paid to him.  He did not built the houses, although having received the money for them, he thereby caused the colony great damage, much annoyance and disgrace.

It would be impossible to get around this no matter how you want to look at it.  This was July.  Saltiel had clearly failed to live up to his end of the agreement.

  On account of his actions and fully trusting in the ability, integrity and energy of Mr. Julius Schwarz, I took the charge out Mr. Saltiel’s hands and put it into the hands of Mr. Schwarz, who in my strong belief is the only man that prevented the colony’s final destruction. 

Tuska has removed Saltiel's authority over the colony.  Can we expect retribution?  Saltiel is 39 years old.  Schwarz is about 20.  Pretty sure this is not going to set well with Saltiel.  Why didn't HEAS ask for a refund from Saltiel?  Did they at some future point?

It is with much satisfaction that I note that the Society possesses a faithful, energetic, honest persevering officer in Mr. Schwarz, who gives his heart, mind and all his time to his duties.  Mr. Schwarz is now the only manager of the colony, and is ably assisted by Mr. Leon Tobias, who acts a field overseer.

We know that Tobias came with the colony in May.  We can assume that Schwarz did as well.  We also know that Saltiel has been absent much of the time since the Colonists arrived.  This was probably the only logical choice to make.

Permit me now to give you a statistical statement of the families that compose the colony. 

There have been on the 30th of July, fourteen families with 61 souls, 34 males and 27 females.  One family consisting of six souls, I sent to Denver on request of the head of the family, Abr. Moskovitz.  Another family the Schochet Joseph Friedman, who was sent on recommendation of Mr. Saltiel who promised to assist him, but failed to do so, was also sent to Denver as there was no prospect for his making livelihood in the colony.  Since my leaving Cotopaxi, 15 more persons, relatives of the colonists were sent, thus making the total number of families 15, with 64 souls, 34 males and 30 females.  the working force amounts to 25 persons.

The family genealogies that I have assembled over the past several years agree with these counts.  I have been unable to locate anything about Abraham Moskovitz (Moshkowitz, Mosko, etc) in Denver.  And I have not located Joseph Friedman.

It's interesting that Saltiel sent Friedman to Denver.  A Schochet is a butcher.  Had they had the promised cattle, perhaps his services would have been needed.

The sanitary condition of the colony leaves nothing to be wished for.  No serious cases of sickness have occurred.  The refugees show a very favorable appearance, look well and robust, since Mr. Schwarz took charge of the colony.   

Kosher meat is procured from Denver and the people are satisfied with their food.  
The colonists are clean and neat and take good care of their children.  The children will receive education at the public school, recently erected in Cotopaxi.  Mr. Schwarz will see that the houses are finished and the crop sold for the best price.  The colonists keep their religion in accordance with the ancient customs, keep the Sabbath and holiday, possess a Sephar Thora donated by Rev. Dr. Baar and are on friendly terms with their Christian neighbors. 

I contacted the schools and they have no records before about 1904.  But here we have evidence that there was a school in Cotopaxi before July, 1882.

As of the end of July, 1882, their homes had not been finished.

The colony required thus far the following funds.  $5250 paid to Saltiel, $500 paid to E. S. Hart by me, $1000 sent to Mr. Schwarz so far.  Total $6750.  

It doesn't really matter how you want to do the math, even in 1882, this is not much for 70 people.

Mr. Schwarz wrote me that $500 more will be required for food, $600 for cows and about $350 for wire, making the sum of $8,200 that this colony cost the society. 

There are many documents in the Fremont County Clerk & Recorder's office showing cattle transactions at this time.  Even the sale of a single cow was documented.  But nowhere do I find the sale of cattle to Saltiel, Schwarz, Tobias, or any of the Colonists.

The colonists are aware that they will have to repay the expenses laid out for them and I have no doubt whatsoever that the society will be partly repaid.  

He said this with great confidence - assuming that the crops would be ripe before the first freeze.

I hope that despite of the many drawbacks this colony had to undergo,—it will be maintained and stand as a monument of Jewish charity, and as the best proof of the laboring abilities of the refugees and of their capacity and competency to become farmers.  Jewish farmers were looked upon with scorn, the Cotopaxi colony has and will render evidence that such scorn is nothing but prejudice, and that the Jew can make as good a farmer as any other human being.

Respectfully submitted
Morris Tuska

It has been said that Morris Tuska was an uncle to Julius Schwarz.  I cannot find that relationship documented anywhere.  I have built a family tree and Julius Schwarz had a brother who married a woman who's maiden name is Tuska, but there is no relationship between this sister-in-law and Morris Tuska.  So while they may have known each other, there was no nephew/uncle relationship between the 2 of them.

Schwarz was back in NYC by October.  He was a lawyer.  Perhaps a bit young, but nonetheless, well qualified for his position at Cotopaxi.

Tuska is definitely pointing a finger at Saltiel in this report.  And no wonder!  If you recall a previous blog, Saltiel himself, tells us in a letter to a newspaper that he did not make a contract with a builder to build the houses until the day before the Colonists arrived.  He had not surveyed their lands until AFTER they arrived.  So while Saltiel has already confessed that he did not live up to his end of the contract with HEAS, in this report, we have Tuska verifying this to HEAS.

Do you think there will be a rebuttal from Saltiel?  His "management" position has been stripped.  Will he attempt to make Schwarz look incompetent?  You can almost forecast the future at this point!


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