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.



*********c2016Cotopaxi-Colony.blogspot.com All content is copyright protected and may not be copied, reproduced, reused or reposted in any manner without permission.

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.

*********c2016Cotopaxi-Colony.blogspot.com All content is copyright protected and may not be copied, reproduced, reused or reposted in any manner without permission.

Oct 27, 1882 The American Hebrew - another letter from Saltiel on the Tuska Report

E. H. Saltiel must have been very unhappy about the Tuska Report as he wrote a letter in response to it and now, he is writing a somewhat longer letter to the American Hebrew.

The American Hebrew (1879 - 1902); Oct 27, 1882
Mr. Saltiel and the Cotopaxi Colony:  Cotopaxi Placer Mine Company
Saltiel, Emanuel H.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857 - 1922) pg 132 

Cotopaxi, Colorado, Oct 19, 1882.
To the American Hebrew. 

In your issue of October 4th, 1882 I find a publication purporting to be a “report” of Mr. Tuska, on the condition of the colony of Russian Refugees now here.  The glaring falsehoods contained therein necessitate a reply, and as you have given publication to Mr. Tuska’s side, I must respectfully request that my side be given, and assure you that in every specific charge made, I hold substantial proof - both under proper oaths administered by proper officers or by letters written by persons in high repute.
In the commencement of the quotation from Mr. Tuska’s report, he states that “Immediately on my arrival, I called on Julius Schwartz, 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 intrusted.” 

In this opening paragraph, the entire foundation for the falsehoods concerning my “doings” is laid bare, and the reason for the criminal libel, thereinafter perpetrated can be briefly shown. 

What criminal libel?   Saltiel wrote this on Oct 19 and we need to remember that Saltiel went to prison in November 1882 as Hart had him arrested on libel.  That appears to have started about the same time as this letter.

In the first place Schwartz, a relative of Mr. Tuska,

no proof of this relationship

was employed at the office 15 State St, last April as a clerk at a salary of Ten dollars per week out of which he boarded himself, and was, after several conversations, between M. A. Kursheedt Esq. and myself, appointed, or hired, at a salary of Twenty dollars per week, he to find himself board and lodging, to go to Colorado as a clerk and interpreter to the colony. 

Schwartz was paid $20 per week yet Saltiel only paid the Colonists $1.50 per day to work in his mine.

I went to Colorado at my own expense and arranged for the building of a number of houses during the summer months, guarding as is usual, loss or delay to the Contractor from flood, fire or visitations of Providence.  On the eighth day of May this contract was verbally agreed to, between the Contractor and myself and a memoranda agreement in writing was drawn up, but not signed on that day, but a short time afterwards the signatures of both parties were attached, and the houses proceeded with.

This memoranda agreement was never recorded in Canon City yet Saltiel dutifully recorded hundreds of documents.

He "went to Colorado at his own expense" - confirmation that Saltiel was not residing in Cotopaxi when he arranged for the Colonists to go there.

The "contractor" was his cousin, E. S. Hart.  Who was having him tossed in jail about the time this letter was written.

We now know that as of the end of July, the houses had not been completed.

The Refugees arrived on May 9, the at Cotopaxi and on May 11th.  I requested Mr. Schwartz to accompany a colored farmer, one Edward Jones, to Oak Grove Creek with a few of the colonists and stake out the bottom land under the farmer’s direction. 

There are records in the clerks office where Edward Jones had declared a mining site.  Nothing showing that he surveyed the Colonists plots.

What is "bottom land" at an altitude of 8000'?

In the afternoon the whole of them returned, discontented, and reported a fierce quarrel had taken place between Schwartz and themselves, and they did not like the land. 

Anyone given this land to farm would be discontented and quarrelsome.

Quarrelling continued between Schwartz and the colonists at intervals, until early in the Morning of May 12th, when I was awoke by loud cries and shouts.  I immediately partially dressed and started for the door of my house where I found Schwartz terribly excited, surrounded by a threatening mob of men and women.  Not understanding their language, I at length by asking a few questions in Hebrew, got to understand that they had demanded their “declaration of citizenship” papers; and that Schwartz had refused to deliver them up. 

Why did they want their declaration papers?  So they could leave?  Why did Schwartz refuse to give them to them?  There is no record of them being filed in Canon City, so they had to have been filed in NYC before they left and brought with them?  Why was this even an issue?  Why didn't the Colonists already have them in their possession?  We may never have the answer to these questions.

I at once peremptorily ordered him to bring them to me, as the Colonists made themselves understood that they wished to leave Cotopaxi. 

So they did want to leave!  They visited the land Saltiel had selected for them.  Mind you, this land had not been surveyed - it had never been declared under the homestead act.  Saltiel just took them to No surprise that they wanted to leave.

On obtaining their papers from my hands with the exclamation “go in peace!  God be with you,” they quieted down,

He is upset with Schwartz because his management position of the Colony had been taken away from him and given to a man half his age.

until Schwartz turned on them with a hateful look and made use of some angry expression in German, that I did not understand. 

If Saltiel did not understand the expression, how can he write about it?

Whatever it was, it had a similar effect to throwing oil on fire, and a regular mutiny broke out;  

"mutiny" -what Saltiel was charged with at Ft Laramie. 

so much danger did I consider him in that I called to a couple of men and had rifles loaded to protect him if it should have become necessary. 

Evidence this happened in town as there were others around.

During this time, the colonists were comfortably housed in a long house that I had brought for them and in two log houses that I owned and had hitherto used for several of my miners. 

The Colonists were housed in the now vacant buildings that we found in the 1880 census that housed the men brought in to build the railroad.  Those 2 buildings were built by the railroad.  Once the track was laid, those workers moved on to other parts and the buildings would have been vacant.  Saltiel did not bring them in.  And there would be nothing "comfortable" about 70 Colonists residing in these limited facilities.

Detailed accounts of the tribulations of the colonists were sent to the Secretary and L. Gershel Esq. to New York;

These reports have never been located.  Do they exist?  Or is Saltiel just saying this?  HEAS closed in 1883.  Saltiel filed everything in Canon City.  Copies of items from other counties.  Why didn't he file copies of these reports?

and all of which are set forth in full in my report now only awaiting a settlement with the Society to complete.

Settlement?  He was paid before the Colonists ever left to go to Cotopaxi.

For about four weeks after his arrival, Schwartz worked hard, and being a young man, entirely ignorant of everything pertaining to either pioneer life or methodical business, did really well, and his efforts to overcome the novelty of his position, received from me warm praise. 

This would be from May 9 to June 9.  The first 4 weeks the Colonists were at Cotopaxi.

 On May 27th I went with Schwartz and another man into the Wet Mountain Valley, and selected a corner to start a survey line, and gave directions to run from that point as a centre and take up Two thousand acres of the best land. 

Surveys were never filed.  Only the declarations made by the Colonists.  But nothing on the 2000 acres.  Definitely not the "best land"

I drove three stakes into the land and directed Schwartz to tell the colonists that ploughing must commence on the following day.  One team of good horses and two ploughs had already been provided from funds sent to me by M. A Kursheedt for that purpose. 

So here Saltiel admits that out of thousands of dollars HEAS gave him, he bought one team of horses and 2 ploughs for 17 families (70 people) to use to plant food.

Several of the colonists had applied to me to give them lots to build on, upon the town site of Cotopaxi, of which I am the largest owner.  I agreed to grant them a forty-nine year lease

Saltiel had declared a claim of 160 acres in Cotopaxi.  This is in the clerk's office.  He filed under the homestead act.  He then sold all but 5 acres to his company, the Cotopaxi Coal & Iron Company.  He did not have the right to do that as he had not farmed the land under the homestead act for 5 years.  He did not have the right to lease this land to the Colonists. He was in violation of the law.

—and under certain restrictions permit them to take the water from the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company ditches of which ? I was President. 

These ditches were on the land that Saltiel filed under the homestead act.  He made his claim in 1879.  This was 1882.  He had not been there 5 years.

Two families only, out of the twelve here, appeared settled and willing to work the land with a determination to succeed.  To these two families, I apportioned two building lots each and ordered the Deputy County Surveyor to run certain lines across my lands to enable the houses to front what will at an early day, be a business street. 

Nudelman and Shuteran.  Saltiel did not have the right to have his land resurveyed and these surveys were never filed at the recorder's office, nor were they filed at the Land office in Pueblo.

This Deputy Surveyor Freeman, had already been engaged by me to lay out and survey the lands for the colony and it took him about two and a half days to run the lines across my lands for the benefit of these two deserving families.  That has been the only cost that the Society has been at in the matter.

Freeman is in the clerk's records and his residence was Cotopaxi.  No evidence of these surveys in the recorder's office.

About the end of the fourth week after arrival here, I found that Mr. Schwartz began to grow somewhat discontented at not having received his salary

Because he had not been paid.

and as he had learned through letters received by him from New York that Mr. Kursheedt had either resigned or that a change was about to take place,

HEAS was in great financial problems.  I will post those articles sometime in the near future. June, 1882, HEAS made a decision to stop funding any of the existing colonies (including Cotopaxi) and in June, 1883, they closed their doors.

he urged me to go to New York and see if I could obtain some further aid to guard these people during the coming winter and especially to look after his own salary.  On my asking how much was due him, he replied that some six week’s salary was due and after I had figured it up at twenty dollars per week, he demanded that his board should be added to it. 

He had no income, no way to pay his board.

I was so astounded at the proposition that I determined to simply hand him twenty dollars on account, pay his board bill and leave to the Society to settle up with him. 

Did Saltiel actually pay Schwartz? He put everything into writing, but not this.

I said nothing at the time to Schwartz but found that my business was suffering from the time and attention that I had given to the colony, for which I neither received nor asked any compensation;

There was no agreement between Saltiel and HEAS that Saltiel would receive money other than the initial lump sum.

but as I had performed much work for which Schwartz claimed both pay for and the merit of doing, I determined to have him earn, if I could, his full wages in the future. 

Saltiel is a disgruntled former manager who is upset that his job is now in the hands of a man half his age.

By my direction the horses of the colony were carefully stabled in a neighboring barn, neither Mr. Schwartz nor the field foreman Tobias paying much attention to them, I had my son and another lad take them up nearly every night. 

Evidence that John T. Saltiel stayed in Cotopaxi when his mother left to go to NYC.  John would have been 11 or 12 at this point.

By terribly hard usage, the horses became slightly disabled. 

One team of horses for 70 people!  Very hard usage.

I ordered them carefully taken care of for a few days by Edward Jones, and as soon as they had recovered admonished Schwartz of the necessity of caring for the horses better. 

Saltiel had thousands of dollars yet he only provided one team of horses.  There were 70 colonists who needed to plant enough crops to provide for themselves and to make a living.  This is high plateau, rocky, hard soil.  Saltiel should have known that only one team of horses could not do this job.  Again, was he wanting them to fail in order to force them to work in his mines?

So neglectful had Schwartz become, that on the 15th day of June I felt compelled to tell him that he had neglected his work. 

Schwartz had not been paid for 4 to 6 weeks, yet Saltiel expected him to continue to work at his normal pace.

I at once noticed his suppressed anger, but never imagined that it would lead him either of his own accord or by conspiring with others to attempt to defame my fair name. 

Saltiel is accusing Schwartz of the same thing he was accused of in Ft Laramie.

In the mean time two houses had been completed and occupied by the Nudelman and Chutman families,

This was a "double" house in Cotopaxi.   Two houses attached to each other, sharing a common wall.

notwithstanding Mr. Tuska’s report that “Saltiel had failed to build the houses,”

Nudelman was a carpenter. Did he build his own house?  This accounts for 2 houses.  What about homes for the other 11 families?

and forty thousand feet of lumber, a large quantity of nails, doors, windows, spikes and material purchased to build other houses, the greater part of which had been delivered on the ground near the railroad depot. 

But how was it to be transported 8 miles up a 2000' incline?  The same team of horses?

In addition to the building material, six out of twelve No. 8 western cooking ranges, costing in Canon City $25 each had been delivered, as well as stove pipe and cooking utensils. 

What about the other six cooking ranges?

On June 21st, it became necessary for me to employ a lawyer on behalf of the colonists, as Mr. Schwartz had reported to me that an attempt had been made to illegally take away two parcels of land that the colonists had located upon.  I paid for that purpose $25 as a retainer, and to have the matter looked into.

There are no records of this in the clerk's office in Canon City.  And because the "2000 acres" that Saltiel said he had declared, had never been recorded in Canon, how could he claim someone else was taking it away illegally?  Only the 17 plots that we have found recorded by the Colonists and there is no record of anyone doing this in 1882.

Having found that the funds on hand were insufficient to both complete houses, buy wire fence, cots, etc., that were necessary,

What had Saltiel done with the thousands of dollars already given to him by HEAS?

I reluctantly left my business and started for New York, to lay before the Society the exact condition of affairs.  In the meantime I requested the then contractor, Mr. Hart, to continue building the houses steadily on the farms until my return, and ordered ploughing to be continued and a turnip crop be planted early in July. 

Saltiel was out of money.  Who was going to pay Hart for his work?

Planting anything in July would be too late for an early harvest required by mountain temperatures.

About fourteen thousand of seed potatoes had been sowed prior to the 21st of June, and a supply of seed for later planting, such as turnips, etc., that are planted always in July in this part of Colorado.

Is Saltiel a person who talks with a lot of authority, but has no proof?

My orders before leaving here were to push forward the building of houses vigorously upon all the farms selected by the colony, and particularly to take good care of the horses.  Several coils of wire fence I purchased, so as to start fencing in the most exposed places,

Colorado was "open range".  Cattle must be fenced out.  There were thousands of cattle in this area at that time.  Lots of cattle rustling.  Cows would eat any seedlings coming up out of the ground that was not fenced in.

and requested Schwartz to set that the men cut sufficient posts and have them set in the ground ready to receive the wire as soon as the Society should have supplied sufficient funds to obtain it.

Saltiel was given sufficient funds already.  Did he use this money for his own good?  In the mines?  To pay off lawsuits he was involved in?

  Mr. Schwartz gave me profuse promise that these instructions would be carried out, and the man Tobias, who acted as field man, well understood my directions.  I placed great confidence in Schwartz, so much so that, at that time he passed his time almost entirely with me—slept in the same bed and actually became a confidant of my social secrets.

 If you read older posts, you will see that Saltiel's wife had an affair and he sent her to NYC the year before.  And we know that he  married Fannie only 4 months after he wrote this letter.

While absent in New York trying to aid these people I received several letters, now in my possession from Schwartz, urging me to try to procure for his father a position in the Society, on account of his father’s financial condition, and also urging me to have his salary paid at $27 per week.  This, I afterwards learned was all that he had done during my absence of over three weeks in New York.

No proof of any letters.

On my return to Cotopaxi I found the horses dead—owing to the two men Schwartz and Tobias, not taking proper care to have them stabled at night. They were run over by passing trains on  on the railroad. 

Schwartz and Tobias were responsible to stable the horses each night.  Yet the horses were used on the farms 8 miles south of town.  Who took them to the farms?  Who brought them back?  Why did Saltiel blame Schwartz?

The few rolls of wire fence remained where I had left them; and no fence posts of any consequence had been set in the ground.  It was reported to me, that Schwartz had not visited the Wet Mountain Valley settlements during my entire absence. 

Schwartz had not been paid since he arrived in Cotopaxi.  Why was he expected to work at all?

The colonists crowded round me, on my return, with complaints and lamentations.  I told them that I could no understand much that they said, but that if they had any real grievances to set them down in writing, and I would consider them.  Tobias heard me tell them, it was the duty of Schwartz, the salaried man, to have taken care of them. 

That salaried man wasn't getting a salary!

Schwartz knowing the fact also, immediately set to work, change his entire behavior towards me, and commenced the preparation of a Jesuitical plan to circumvent what he readily understood must be my action, namely, a demand for his instant recall from the position that he had of late so poorly filled. 

I telegraphed on the 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st to H. S. Henry that either Schwartz leaves or I erase my connection with the Society.  I was ignorant at that time of the fact the he, Schwartz, was a relative of Mr. Tuska.

Must be July 17, 19, 20 and 21st.

Mr Tuska arrived on July 30th and left on the 31st.  It will be perceived that there was a motive to shield Schwartz, or why did Tuska go to the salaried clerk of the colony instead of the Trustee and General Manger, who gave his time and labors gratuitously. 

The Colonists had sent letters to HEAS complaining about their treatment.  Schwartz is an employee of HEAS.  Saltiel is not. Tuska went to Schwartz, not Saltiel.

In my letter of instructions from M. A. Kutsheedt, Esq., no mention was made of Schwartz as a manager— he simply came here as an interpreter and clerk, or so I was informed. 

What letter?  If they existed, why weren't they published?

It must be plain to every intelligent person that a green student, only eighteen months in America, and never without a guardian, far away from his parents, could successfully plant a pioneer colony in one of the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,

Saltiel is calling Cotopaxi "one of the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado".  Saltiel knew this was not a suitable place for farming.

Saltiel is trying to make Schwartz look bad.  In that process, he has confirmed that he knew all along this was a bad place to bring Colonists to farm.

and without any previous training;  whilst I, who have lived here eighteen years,

This is an outright lie.  Saltiel had not lived in Colorado for 18 years.

mined successfully and brought hundreds of men to the mountains, and am personally known to all the leading men of Colorado, from the Governor down to the County Clerk of my County for the past sixteen years, could make a rank failure of the Refugees Colony. 

Schwartz had little to do with the failure.  It was the location and the land that Saltiel offered.  Nothing else.

The article published in the New York Hearald during the last days of my personal supervision, and written without my knowledge by Mr. Schwartz, gives the lie direct to the report made by Mr. Tuska on his visit a couple of weeks later.The utter absurdity of Mr. Tuska and his impudence in attempting to make our co-religionists believe in what he has called a report, is best exposed to the scorn it merits

Saltiel's true personality is showing up with these comments.   Why would Schwartz need permission from Saltiel to write a report?  Why would Tuska?  There are more similar reports that I will post in the future.

by quoting one of his own paragraphs, in which he absurdly states:—
“Cabbages, pears, beans, cucumbers, beets, turnips, etc., have been sowed, but owing to   slowness with which the houses have been built or, better said, owing to their not having been built at all, most of the garden stuff was destroyed by grazing cattle, etc.”
Mr. Tuska first stated that Mr. Saltiel did not give Mr. Schwartz funds to purchase potatoes and other seed.  Mr. Schwartz never asked nor had he any authority or reason to ask for such funds, as I had ordered and paid Mr. Hart for such seed, potatoes and other seed that he, Hart, had procured and delivered according to orders, and which my bills previously sent in fully exhibit.  Mr. Tuska then goes on to state that because the houses were being “slowly built”, or as he would probably have like to have had them “not built at all,” crops would not grow.  It is the first time in my life of experience in the mountains and valleys of the Far West, that I have ever heard of “cucumbers, peas, beans, cabbages, beets and turnips” requiring “houses” to make them grow or to shelter them. 

Here, Saltiel truly embarrasses himself.  Everyone knows the hierarchy of needs.  First is food, water, sleep.  Then shelter. Then they could go to work.  Yet these Colonists were forced to work first before their basic need of food was provided for.

Saltiel is getting more desperate with each paragraph to condemn Schwartz.

The proposition only tends to further show that Mr. Tuska is as ignorant of the subject that he essays to write or report upon as his nephew is boastful of his integrity and ability to manage colonists in Colorado.

Schwarz was not Tuska's nephew.

  I regret to be compelled to take up so much of your valuable space in defending myself against the malicious attack that your columns have been made the channel of procedure, but I cannot close without stating the actual facts of the case, which are as follows:—
In the winter of 1881 and 2, I was urged by several of the directors of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of America to visit the office at 15 State street.  I reluctantly consented to do so, and one day in company with Uriah Herrmann, Esq, I went there, and was told of sending off of emigrants to Louisiana and other southern States. 

Saltiel was in a position in the winter of 1881/2 where he desperately needed money.  He also needed men to work in his mines.  Reluctant or eager?

I was asked my opinion, and freely gave it, to the effect that the peculiar training of Israelites and their wants would of themselves be sufficient to cause failure, when brought into competition with the half-starved half-clothed negro of the South, or the cheap pork and corn eater of Missouri or Arkansas, and I therefore recommended the rich phosphate soil of Colorado,

Earlier in this same letter he stated that this was one of the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountains when he was putting down Schwartz.  Now he is stating that it is a good place?

and the speedy growing and hardy vegetables as the most likely crop to have them succeed in raising.  After many subsequent interviews with M. A Kursheedt, Esq., Hon. M. S. Isaacs, L. Gershel, Esq. and Uriah Herrmann, Esq., I consented to look after the colony, as far as my mine-operating business would permit, and by request made a proposition and estimate which upon deliberation by the Committee was accepted,

why didn't he mention here how much money he received?

and I selected a number of families for a colony,

later in this letter we will see that he denies this.

that, with no change in the management, would have been a success today instead of a failure,

He is proclaiming Cotopaxi a failure in October, 1882?

excepting for the aid extended by myself and the railroad company in the shape of daily work for which they are paid actually more than they can earn when compared with the muscular Christian laborer. 

Saltiel's plan all along? But by having the management of the Colony turned over to Schwartz, then Saltiel had to see to it that Schwartz failed in order to get the Colonists to turn back to him and work in his mines?

At the time of Mr. Tuska’s arrival, the potatoe crop was several inches above the ground—thousands of cabbage plants were growing and all other seed plants were growing, and all other seed planted. 

With the use of just one team and 2 plows?  No wonder the horses walked in front of the trains!

Similar imaginary complaints, such as is heard every day in New York City from the refugees whenever a prominent Israelite comes near them, was repeated to Mr. Tuska.  What Schwartz in an attempt to obtain revenge for my requesting his dismissal may have tried to have coached them in, is unknown to me, although I am informed that he acted as prompter to them to air their new found grievances to his relative for nearly two hours. 

Schwartz had returned to NYC by October 1882.

The whole burden of the complaint appears to have been and yet is “the houses are not being built quick enough.” 

The Colonists had been promised farms when they arrived.  And now we know that as of the end of July, their homes had not been built. They had every right to complain.

Mr. Hart explained to me that a great flood had come about twelve days after my departure for New York, and washed away both wagon and railroad bridges, and thus prevented him from building as quickly as he could have desired. 

We can date this flood  to some time in June, 1882.  I have other documents that show the Colonists build a bridge - most likely one over Oak Grove Creek, not the Arkansas River.

This and other reasons equal legitimate, prevented the houses that would have been built in the Wet Mountain Valley from being rapidly constructed.

Saltiel just doesn't get it, does he?  The houses were to be done by May 9.  He did not even contract for them to start until May 8.  It is 100% his fault - yet he is pointing his finger at everyone else.  And we find that he does that over and over throughout his entire life.

After Mr. Tuska had left, and as I had been pleased to learn, requested Schwartz to look after the colonists, what really was the duty for which he had been salaried.  I talked with Mr. Hart and got him to turn over the building contract to me and such building material as he had on hand, and permitted him to apply the various sums of money that I had paid to him to my credit for other matters that I might require,

Much more to come on the finances of Saltiel and Cotopaxi, and the feud between Saltiel and Hart which was ongoing at this time (remember, Saltiel will be in jail in Denver in a week from this letter!)  Did Saltiel ever paid any of his bills?

excepting five hundred dollars for the reception house, which I had already turned over to the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company,

again - illegal dealings as this is homestead land that he sold to his own company.

and I personally assumed the responsibility of building the houses, and have since that time quietly proceeded with them with two carpenters.  I have given some of the men of the colony frequent employment, and have two families yet in my log houses, burning my timber, and using a stove free of charge.

He makes this sound so charitable, yet he refuses to admit they are still there due to his lack of doing what he had promised he would do.

At the time of Tuska’s flying visit, he expressed himself pleased with everything excepting the slowness of house building.  He even went so far as to talk of uniting a certain smelting works works that he owned with one of my mines and asked me if Schwartz would not make a good Secretary. 

Heresay only - no evidence of this.

Other incidents occurred that lead me to the belief that Mr. Tuska has been somewhat imposed upon, otherwise a man of his standing would not have risked a heavy lawsuit for criminal libel.

What libel?  Tuska was making a report to HEAS - what he was hired to do.

In regard to Friedman the Shochet, he arrived after I had ceased controlling the colony, but I contributed $10 to his aid.  Schwartz prevented his remaining. 

Saltiel said earlier that he selected all the members of the colony.  Tuska confirmed this.  Saltiel denies it here?

So far as the colony is concerned today, the majority of them are on my lands gratuitously leased to them,

illegally

at their earnest solicitation, and are sincerely happy for being thereby enabled to keep their religious services in sight of the protection thrown around them by being near and in sight of my mountain home. 

Saltiel had sold this home at this point.

They are not living on the imaginary crops raised by the vivid imagination of Schwartz, but upon the proceeds of their labor done for the railroad company and in my mines.

Saltiel stops paying them for work in his mines.  More evidence that Saltiel was in deep financial trouble?  Or that he wasn't present?

What was the actual cause of the failure of their crops?  Nothing more nor less than the unnecessary time consumed in the preparation for every little religious feast and fast, engagement and marriage celebration. 

What a blatant lie!  And I'm pretty sure Saltiel knew it - he just wanted someone else to blame for his own miserable failure.

Schwartz, by pandering to these superstitious ceremonies,

 Why is Saltiel calling Jewish traditions superstitious?

obtained a mastery over their minds, and encouraged superstition and bigotry, and when one little man, Snyder, with more manhood than the balance, had the temerity to tell Schwartz and Tobias of their miserable actions and called them rascals, they had him formal excommunicated, and actually prevented him and his family from being employed and making a living. 

The Snyders did leave in the fall of 1882 and relocate to Denver.

The incapacity of Mr. Schwartz is not in itself blameable, as experience was lacking; but his persistent attempts to destroy the good name that I have earned by nearly eighteen years of hard and generally successful work in this State, is what I condemn, as sooner of later the truth must come out.

Saltiel spent a good deal of time schmoozing other people in this state.   And I will prove that he had not lived in this state for 18 years by 1882.  He was a good liar.

  I will, Mr. Editor, before closing hereby declare that I can take this colony of Russians, and without a dollar from the Society, make them Sow their crops in the Spring of 1883, and without a calamitous visitation from Providence, put every family in a good position by the fall of the year with abundance to live on and to spare.
Emanuel H. Saltiel.

Why did he write this when he has already declared the Colony a failure?  He has already witnessed a flood in June, 1882 - why would he presume there would be none the next year.  Further evidence that he had not lived in Colorado for 18 years - he did not know the mountain weather patterns.

History tells us that there was another flood that wiped out everything in 1883.    This letter is evidence that Saltiel pointed his finger at everyone except himself.   Yet he was the only one to blame.

*********c2016Cotopaxi-Colony.blogspot.com All content is copyright protected and may not be copied, reproduced, reused or reposted in any manner without permission.

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!


***** c2016Cotopaxi-Colony.blogspot.com  All content is copyright protected and may not be copied, reproduced, reused or reposted in any manner without permission.