0. Fremont County Colorado
One mile
Fremont County Colorado

1. One mile
Fremont County N
Dispelling myths
about the
Cotopaxi Colony

2. Fremont County The bare facts
One mile
Fremont County N
The bare facts
In 1882, Jewish pioneers came to farm in Cotopaxi, supported by the New York charity, HEAS, in a colony initially managed by a local businessman, Emanuel Saltiel

3. One mile
Fremont County N
People
Morris Tuska was a board member of HEAS, a New York Charity, established the year before to accommodate Jewish migrants from Russia.
Emanuel Saltiel owned a mine and other property in Cotopaxi. He agreed with HEAS to establish the colony there and defrayed $5,000 of its unbudgeted expenses.
Julius Schwarz was Tuska’s nephew, who served as the colony’s clerk for three months from May 1882 and its manager for ten weeks after August.
George Kohn was a Denver Lawyer, who took up the colonists’ cause after January 1883 and negotiated their way out of their financial predicament.
Eleazar Hart was Saltiel’s second cousin whose local store advanced the colonists $2,000 of goods on credit. His son, Meyer, wrote a rebuttal to Kohn.

4. Fremont County Sequence N
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Fremont County N
Sequence
May to July: Saltiel in charge. 8 May: Colonists arrive. End of June: Saltiel goes to New York to warn HEAS that colony is running out of money; gets a dusty answer.
End of July: Tuska inspects and criticises Saltiel. Replaces him with colony’s clerk - his nephew, Schwarz. Asks HEAS for more money; also comes up dry.
August to mid-October: Schwarz in charge. He too ends up in New York asking for more money. Gets nowhere.
After October: HEAS breaks off contact with colony till January, when settlers wheel in their lawyer.

5. Four places to bear in mind, with much to-ing and fro-ing.
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Fremont County
Cotopaxi N
Locations
Four places to bear in mind, with much to-ing and fro-ing.
Oak Grove Creek
Wet Mountain Valley
Third Division

6. Fremont County Arrivals & departures N
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Fremont County N
Arrivals & departures
The colony always had more than the intended number of twelve families.
There were 14 from the outset, rising to 18 after five months.
Minimum
Maximum

7. One mile
Fremont County N
Debts
The colonists turned up owing $10,000 to HEAS for supplies and transport and almost no personal cash.
They bore losses immediately, losing an ox-team on arrival. They then had to rely upon local credit for store-bought food plus communal and religious necessaries.
More settlers than intended arrived in summer, adding to expense - as did to-ing and fro-ing between tracts.
The colony itself ran out of money In early August. Appeals to HEAS by Saltiel, Tuska and Schwarz all came up empty.
Even so, local credit was found for cows and wire. After Schwarz’ October report fell on deaf ears in New York, all such credit ceased.
This left the colonists decisively in debt and the colony busting its budget by 100%.

8. One mile
Fremont County N

9. Fremont County N All colonists rejected “bottom lands” at outset
One mile
Fremont County N
All colonists rejected “bottom lands”
at outset
Newman
M Shames
Schneider
Korpitsky
Four colonists displaced by neighbours in June

10. Fremont County N 98 days 196 days One mile Nudelman Zedek Minkovsky
M Shuteran
I Shames
98 days
Schneider
Newman
Torplitsky
Korpitsky
196 days

11. Oak Grove Creek - rejected on 11 May Third division - filed on
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Fremont County
Arrive 8 May
Back 11 May
Displaced
c20 June N
Oak Grove Creek - rejected on 11 May
Wet Mountain Valley -
filed on 11 June
Third division - filed on
19 November

12. One mile
Fremont County N

13. Unbudgeted expenditures
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Fremont County N
now to those myths…

14. we should heed the time-honored stories
One mile
Fremont County N
we should heed the time-honored stories

15. they’re plain unreliable
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Fremont County N
not smart
they’re plain unreliable

16. the most hair-raising author, Satt, never saw key sources…
One mile
Fremont County
the most hair-raising author, Satt, never saw key sources… N
Report to HEAS from Morris Tuska
Letter from EH Saltiel
Report to HEAS from Julius Schwarz
Letter from Meyer Hart
Letter from HS Henry, HEAS
…which demolish her bogus theories...

17. …based on histrionics from the colony’s babies…
One mile
Fremont County N
…based on histrionics from the colony’s babies…
…some not yet born!

18. mean old Saltiel “shrugged” at the colonists’ distress
One mile
Fremont County N
mean old Saltiel “shrugged” at the colonists’ distress

19. he cabled their woes to HEAS within days…
One mile
Fremont County N
far from it
he cabled their woes to HEAS within days…
… and after eight weeks took the train to New York to plead their cause personally
unknown to the colonists themselves

20. scheming Saltiel planned the colony’s failure to get cheap miners
One mile
Fremont County N
scheming Saltiel planned the colony’s failure to get cheap miners

21. …some chose the railroad; six out of 23 men chose the mine…
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Fremont County N
bunkum!
all attempts to get cash out of New York had failed, so the settlers needed work…
…some chose the railroad; six out of 23 men chose the mine…
…with four of them recorded as unable to claim lands as minors, multiple claimers or late arrivals

22. unscrupulous Saltiel denied the colonists “rebates”
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Fremont County N
unscrupulous Saltiel denied the colonists “rebates”

23. Fremont County are you kidding?
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Fremont County N
are you kidding?
in fact the colonists were most worried about the money they owed all round
$10,000 to HEAS
$7,000 in Cotopaxi

24. One mile
Fremont County N
and that’s
what it’s all about

25. the colonists needed to get out from under
One mile
Fremont County N
the colonists needed to get out from under
so they dipped into their $1,000 war-chest and brought in a sharp lawyer
Attorney Kohn

26. Fremont County Attorney Kohn’s job
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Fremont County N
Attorney Kohn’s job
to persuade HEAS to eat losses of some $17,000,
just when it was overwhelmed by Russian refugees.

27. Fremont County his insight
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Fremont County N
his insight
He would succeed by working on the charity's remorse for neglecting Cotopaxi over the winter and opening the door to apply costs to Saltiel.

28. Fremont County his argument
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Fremont County N
his argument
“Never mind my clients breaking their word; just feel their pain and blame the bad guy.”

29. Fremont County the title gambit N
One mile
Fremont County N
the title gambit
Nudelman
first, he tried for yardage with complaints about titles in Cotopaxi, but these were for houses - executed or to be “had for the asking”.
His play masked problems for tracts on government lands, where one claim was made in the name of a settler not yet in Cotopaxi; and
S Chorosky
S Chuteran
S Chorosky
A N Other
S Chrovsky
Zedek
four families with good titles gave them up
two families had occupied tracts without titles
(locations approximated)
Minkovsky
M Shuteran
S Chueran
M Shames
I Shames
M Shuteran
Newman
M Shames
Schneider
Korpitsky
three settlers definitively made duplicate claims, clouding title
S Chuteran
I Shames
Schneider
Newman
Korpitsky
Schneider
Newman
multiple occupancies by namesakes risked similar challenges.
Lauterstein
Torplitsky

30. Fremont County the house gambit $280 $100 N
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Fremont County
the house gambit N
then he revisited the summer complaints, turning them to argue that houses were overpriced
this mistook six 10x12 cabins built to satisfy the Homestead Act…
$100
each
…with twelve 16x20 houses built to accommodate families
$280
each
Nothing shows that HEAS took Kohn’s charges seriously.
But seventy years later, Satt revived them to salt the mine for her “sweated labour” fallacy.

31. Fremont County Attorney Kohn knew his stuff
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Fremont County
Attorney Kohn knew his stuff
he whipped up a campaign in
Cotopaxi and New York, plus the local and “Russian-Jewish” press N

32. Fremont County and he succeeded handsomely
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Fremont County N
and he succeeded
handsomely
he got the colonists off their debts…plus a grubstake
they moved on to make their way elsewhere
his tactics sullying Saltiel to this day

33. Fremont County so who was Saltiel? N no evil genius Romantic
One mile
Fremont County
so who was Saltiel? N
no evil genius
Romantic
He came from London to New Orleans as a teenager.
He bought into the agricultural utopianism of his times.
Principled
He started in the West by blowing the whistle on his drunken thief of a Cavalry CO
He hastened to tell HEAS when things went wrong.
Generous
He was a founding donor of Denver’s National Jewish Hospital.
This very episode was a tragic failure of philanthropy.
Resourceful
He went from nothing but the clothes on his back to a Rocky Mountain businessman.
No quitter, still litigating left and right at the time of his early death.

34. Fremont County and who were the settlers? N no babes in the wood
One mile
Fremont County
and who were the settlers? N
no babes in the wood
Romantic
They too bought into agricultural utopianism.
They travelled 5,500 miles to make new lives.
Principled
They strained themselves to keep kosher from the outset.
Within weeks of arriving at Cotopaxi, they built a synagogue.
Generous
They saved communally for mutual support, including for those moving on.
Resourceful
They enlisted a lawyer to grab HEAS’ attention after a winter of neglect.
They went on to success throughout the West.

35. N
One mile
Fremont County
Not so very different

36. One mile
Fremont County N