An 1880s Victorian Mansion in the Colorado Rockies: The Estemere Estate at Palmer Lake

by Edwards, Daniel

  Edward H. Rollins (left), served as a Republican Congressman from New Hampshire from 1861 to 1867 and a U.S. Senator from 1877 to 1883. In between his terms in Washington, Rollins was secretary and treasurer of the Union Pacific Railroad. His oldest son, Edward W. Rollins, was born in New Hampshire in 1850. E. W. Rollins’ younger brother, Frank, was governor of New Hampshire for one term and founded the investment firm of E. H. Rollins and Sons in 1883. That banking firm later opened offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. The Boston bank became known for the negotiation and sale of bonds issued by counties and municipalities in the western part of the United States.

  Edward W. Rollins graduated in mining engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1871 and went west to do a study of mines in Colorado and Wyoming. Edward was employed as a civil engineer on the Colorado Central Railroad in 1874. Two years later he opened an office in Denver to deal in municipal securities. The firm of Rollins & Young, organized in 1880, became the Rollins Investment Company in 1886. In 1892, Edward’s firm in Denver merged with his brother’s banking business in Boston and became a part of the firm of E. H. Rollins & Sons.

  In October 1891, Edward W. Rollins became the corporate owner of Estamere when Ada Thompson, then living in New York, deeded the property to the Rollins Investment Company.[16] How did Edward Rollins first become involved with W. Finley Thompson at Palmer Lake? Rollins was one of the founders of the Colorado Electric Company that brought the first electric lights to the city of Denver in 1881. In 1886, Rollins was a director of the company along with W. B. Daniels (who owned the Ben Lomond Ranch at Palmer Lake) and D. C. Dodge (a D&RG official who had worked with Thompson in developing Palmer Lake). Joel F. Vaile, an attorney who had built a summer home near Estamere, was also an organizer and investor in the Colorado Electric Co.

  Early in 1887, Thompson incorporated the Palmer Lake Water and Electric Light and Power Company to construct a system of town water works and to provide electric lights and electric power for the town. It is likely that Thompson then approached E. W. Rollins, who soon was to become vice president and later president of the new Denver Consolidated Electric Company, to discuss whether that company could construct a power plant to electrify the town, or, at least as a start, to provide a generator that could supply electricity to Estamere and the nearby Glen House hotel. Thompson hoped to raise $75,000 for his new company, and the fact that no electric lights illuminated Palmer Lake until 1932 shows that he was not successful in raising the necessary capital to proceed with his plans for generating electricity in the town.

  Thompson also knew that the Rollins Investment Company was active in the real estate market and ready to make commercial loans. As early as August 1886, Thompson was borrowing money through a trust deed for which Edward W. Rollins was the trustee. A month later, Thompson borrowed $4,500 in the same manner and put up land close to Estamere as security. Repayment for the loan was due 01 November 1892.[17] On that date, Thompson was in Durango, Mexico, with only two weeks to live, and it is clear that the Rollins’ debt was never paid. Thus, with Thompson’s default, if not before, the firm of E. H. Rollins & Sons assumed control of more land in Palmer Lake to go with the Estamere property.

  E. H. Rollins and Sons had Estamere on the market for nearly seven years. In June 1893, the company took out advertisements to rent or sell Estamere. The following year Rollins was asking $13,000 for the property, although he claimed the original cost of the estate was $40,000.[18]

  02 May 1894 Colorado Springs Gazette classified ad: Estamere for sale at $13,000.

  In April 1895, Edward W. Rollins, on behalf of the then defunct Rollins Investment Company, deeded Estamere to the firm of E.H. Rollins and Sons. A few days later, to provide additional collateral for a series of bonds the firm had issued, the Estamere property was included in a trust deed given to the American Loan and Trust Company of Boston.

  It is doubtful that Rollins invested additional money in Estamere during the years he held the property, other than maintaining the house in a condition that would attract potential renters or buyers. E. H. Rollins and Sons was to transact other business with the town after Eben Smith bought Estamere.

  Dr. Malvern Wells Iles

  During the summer of 1892, Dr. Malvern Iles and his wife, Mary, occupied Estamere. Iles was born in Midway, Kentucky, on 07 August 1852 and grew up in Davenport, Iowa. He graduated from the Columbia College School of Mines in1875 and received a PhD in chemistry from Columbia the following year. Iles was a fellow at John Hopkins University from 1876-78. The following year he reached Leadville, Colorado, where he became an assayer for the Grant Smelting Company. Leaving Leadville, Iles first joined the Holden Smelting Company, then the Globe Smelting and Refining Company, established in Denver in 1888. At Globe, Iles worked as a metallurgist and superintendent of operations. The president of Globe Smelter was Dennis Sheedy, and its director-banker-investor was Charles B. Kountze, who rented Estamere from Finley Thompson in 1888.

  Dr. Iles became a leading authority on smelting lead and silver, obtained more than 40 U.S. patents for his inventions, and published 50 scientific papers during his career. He was a member of scientific societies both in America and Europe. The Globe Smelter ceased operations about 1899, and Iles retired and moved to California in 1907. He died at Oakland on 08 January 1937. Thus, Malvern Iles was one of several former members of the Leadville “mining mafia” who came to Estamere in the 1890s and early 1900s, and was the most accomplished scientist ever to stay at the mansion.

  Alfred Curtis Cass

  Alfred C. Cass had stayed at Palmer Lake before he rented Estamere for the summer of 1896. He, his wife, and daughters had stayed at The Rocklands Hotel in Palmer Lake in September 1895, and it is likely Cass had passed through the town on business trips to Pueblo many times before that. In early June of 1896, Cass and his family moved into Estamere to spend the summer.[19]

  A.C. Cass was born in Wisconsin in 1850 and attended Wayland University.[20] He then entered the dry goods business in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and moved with the firm when it relocated to Lincoln, Nebraska. Cass served as city treasurer of Lincoln. There he met John C. Osgood and joined him in a coal mining company. In 1882, Cass went to Colorado to work as a general sales agent of the Colorado Fuel Company, of which Mr. Osgood was president. Soon that firm consolidated with another company to form the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I). It became one of the largest corporations in the West.

  CF&I was established and prospered under the leadership of four men: Osgood (president and chairman of the board), Cass, John Jerome, and Julian Kebler. The company acquired thousands of acres of coal and iron ore lands in Colorado and neighboring states and constructed a steel plant at Pueblo. The firm built the Colorado and Wyoming Railroad to connect its mines in various locations. Cass was promoted to first vice president and traffic manager of CF&I. He served as a director of the company before a battle for control of CF&I broke out in 1902. During the fight between the Rockefeller and Gould interests, but just before John Osgood was forced to relinquish control of CF&I, Alfred Cass died at Osgood’s vacation mansion in Redstone, Colorado on 04 July 1903. Both Jerome and Kebler died five months later, all three CF&I executives perhaps victims of stress and overwork.

  Carrie Cass, A.C.’s daughter, who spent the summer of 1896 at Estamere, was married in Denver in September 1905. Her wedding made news because of her elaborate gown, said to be the most costly wedding gown ever designed in Denver. The robe was of rose point with ruffles of the point of lace and a chic little bolero of the same material. The lace alone was valued at $5,000. The foundation had three linings of chiffon using 130 yards of material. Miss Cass’ trousseau was described as the most beautiful and elaborate ever seen in Colorado. It is doubtful, however, that the home in which she settled as a new bride exceeded the grandeur of the house at Palmer Lake where she lived for a few weeks at the age of 11.

  Judge Henry Clay Caldwell

  Undoubtedly
the most distinguished and accomplished person who ever lived at Estamere was Judge Henry C. Caldwell, who rented the house during the summer of 1897. Caldwell was born in West Virginia in 1832 but moved to Iowa in childhood. He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1852, and was elected a state representative to the Iowa legislature in 1858 where he became chair of the Judiciary Committee. When the Civil War broke out, Caldwell joined an Iowa cavalry unit and, as a colonel, fought to capture the city of Little Rock for Union forces. In June 1864, President Lincoln appointed Caldwell U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Although initially viewed as a carpetbagger by the local populace, he soon won their respect for fairness and impartiality and lived up to the confidence that Lincoln had placed in him.

  Caldwell served as a district judge until 1890 when President Benjamin Harrison promoted him to circuit judge for the Eighth U.S. Circuit that included the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Utah, and the Indian Territory.

  Caldwell, who retired from the bench in 1903 after a judicial career of 39 years, received a tribute from President Theodore Roosevelt. The judge spent time in retirement at a summer home he built in Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado. He died in Los Angeles in 1915.

  Judge Caldwell was a supporter of women’s suffrage, temperance, and free silver. He issued important rulings from the bench involving debtors and creditors, the property rights of married women, and railroad receiverships. He presided over cases involving the Northern Pacific; Union Pacific; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe; and Colorado Midland railroads, and ruled against the actions of court-appointed receivers of insolvent railroads who sought to reduce the wages and change the regulations of employees’ working conditions. In this and other rulings, Caldwell supported the rights of employees to organize and was viewed as a friend of labor. Caldwell once described his idea of what a judge should be:

  He must know some law—no man can know all the law; and have a strong and unerring sense of justice, which is better than learning in the hair-splitting and technicalities of the law, which often defeat, rather than promote, justice. He must have moral courage and be indifferent alike to censure and applause. He must be serene and tranquil under all circumstances, for emotion is the grandest of levelers and impairs the force and dignity of magistracy. He must not believe without reason nor hate on provocation. His constant contact with the injustice and wickedness of men must not shake his faith in the virtue of mankind, for it is the bad and not the good that are most commonly brought before him. He must be mild and compassionate, but firm, inflexible and just. He must hear before he decides… His judgment must be controlled by force alone of the law and the evidence.[21]

  An incident that occurred in Little Rock in 1886 also sheds light on the values of Henry Caldwell. He was presiding over a trial for counterfeiting, the jury being composed of 11 white men and one African-American. The jury was still deliberating when the dinner hour arrived, so the jurors were allowed to go to the Capitol Hotel for dinner. The proprietor, however, refused to seat the men together and insisted that the black juror eat in a separate room. The juror refused, saying he owned a house in the city and employed a servant, so he went without supper. Breakfast was a repetition of the previous night’s dinner. When this was reported to Judge Caldwell, he was angered and declared that the men were not just private citizens but officers of the law and of the court and were all equally entitled to the same treatment as jurors. Caldwell ordered the marshal to take the 12 jurors to another restaurant, so they could all eat together. He refused to approve payment to the hotel’s proprietor for the men’s suppers, since not all the jurors had eaten. Although other local restaurants refused to serve the jury, the proprietor of the Capitol Hotel finally relented and allowed the black juror to have breakfast at the same table in the “white” dining room with his fellow jurors.[22]

  In 1896, the New York Times reported that the Populist Party might nominate Caldwell as its U.S. presidential candidate, since he was for “free-silver,” that is, in favor of the coinage of silver. Financial interests on the East Coast and the Republican Party backed the gold standard as the support for U.S. currency. Midwestern farmers and many in the silver mining regions of the West wanted silver to be legal tender, as they believed that would provide more cash for all and make it easier for debtors to pay their mortgages. Another “free-silver” Republican spoke of working with the Populists and Democrats to form a unity ticket, whose presidential nominee would give free-silver Republicans three cabinet posts, one being Judge Caldwell as U.S. attorney general.

  There was speculation in 1900 that Caldwell, although a life-long Republican, would be chosen as vice president to run with the eventual Democratic nominee, William Jennings Bryan, who also was a champion of free-silver and had delivered his famous “Cross of Gold” speech at the 1896 Democratic convention. Caldwell, however, stated he was not a politician and was committed to his judicial career, but that he supported Bryan and the cause he represented.

  Henry Caldwell was no stranger to Colorado. His daughter lived in Denver, and the judge had spent several weeks during the summer of 1896 on vacation in Glenwood Springs. Legal issues surrounding the possible sale of the Colorado Midland railroad were before Judge Caldwell in 1897. The receiver and general counsel of the railroad met with Caldwell in Las Vegas in early June. The article also noted that

  Judge Caldwell has engaged a cottage at Palmer Lake as his home during his vacation this summer, and will bring his family to Colorado with him.[23]

  The “cottage” at Palmer Lake was Estamere. E. H. Rollins and Sons, the owners of Estamere, had been advertising that the property was for sale or rent.[24] Early in July, Caldwell began hearing cases at the U.S. District Court in Denver, yet soon he was staying at Palmer Lake with his wife, two daughters, five grandchildren, and three servants. During the summer, there were large contingents of guests at Estamere. In mid-July, an army battalion from Fort Logan, Colorado, stopped off in Palmer Lake. The officers were entertained at The Rocklands Hotel and at Estamere. Guests at Estamere attended a “hop” (dance) one Saturday evening at The Rocklands Hotel.

  Although officially on vacation, Judge Caldwell also conducted pending court business at Estamere. On 16 July 1897, Caldwell received a motion for the release, upon posting of a bond, of a man serving a 10-year sentence at the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas:

  [The attorney, E. T. Wells] made a trip to Palmer Lake to meet Judge Caldwell. He reached that point just before noon and the argument was completed in a few minutes… . Mr. Wells had a pleasant chat with Judge Caldwell in the course of which the judge gave him to understand that he was opposed to private individuals going upon bonds of public officers. The judge favors the idea of giving up such business exclusively to companies organized for that special purpose.[25]

  While Judge Caldwell refused to accept a $10,000 bond signed by the Bond and Surety Company, he intimated a private bondsman would be acceptable.

  Caldwell was involved in a more significant judicial proceeding in late July. A large group of parties—receivers, general officers, masters in chancery, and solicitors for the railroad and the reorganization committee—had come to Denver on a special train from Kansas City to hear the reading of the judicial decree authorizing the sale of the Union Pacific Railroad. Caldwell had been involved in this case, but since he was on leave, Judge Sanborn of St. Paul presided. Nevertheless, Caldwell, who had made earlier rulings in the case, was consulted at Estamere before the decree was approved and announced publicly:

  Two private cars were coupled to the Rio Grande southbound [on 31 July] and Judge Sanborn, Cornish and others of the party left for Palmer Lake to meet Judge Caldwell, who is summering at that resort. They returned at 1 o’clock, the proceedings beginning at 2:30.[26]

  Judge Caldwell also had presided over proceedings regarding the sale of the Colorado Midland Railroad. In early September, the railroad was sold at public au
ction and purchased by the Central Trust Company of New York for $290,000. The sale was held under a decree the judge had issued the previous May. Caldwell, however, had to confirm the sale before the new company could be organized. On 11 September, Caldwell completed the railroad’s foreclosure by signing the court decree at Estamere:

  The sale of the Colorado Midland road was yesterday confirmed by Judge Caldwell at Palmer Lake. Receiver Ristine, Master in Chancery Maguire and General Counsel Rogers were present, as well as Attorney Dubbs of the Santa Fe road and others…. Mr. Ristine returned from Palmer Lake last night and will leave for New York tonight to meet the reorganization committee.[27]

  In late September it was reported that Judge Caldwell’s health had improved and that he would continue staying at Palmer Lake for some time. Thus, in 1897, Estamere served at times as a temporary courtroom for a sitting judge of a United States Circuit Court. That judge, Henry Caldwell, is the only resident of Estamere/Estemere who has appeared in both Who’s Who in America[28] and American National Biography. The latter publication’s entry on Caldwell concludes:

  Though little remembered today, Henry Clay Caldwell during his lifetime seems to have been almost universally respected by members of all political persuasions, by the common man as well as the legal authority, for his integrity, common sense, and dedication to justice. His judicial rulings, only one of which was ever overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, helped heal the wounds of the Civil War and forged the beginnings of a more modern legal system during the western expansion of the United States.[29]