Colorado's Historic Churches by Linda Wommack

Author:Linda Wommack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2019-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

The interior of Father Dyer’s original church. The structure is now located in South Park City. Author’s collection.

In 1899, an open belfry was erected with four pedimented gables and shingle siding. During the economic depression of the 1890s, the church building was moved to the northwest corner of Washington Street. There, Benedictine monks were instrumental in creating the St. Joseph Hospital, as well as the St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy. Both institutions stood next to St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

Garfield County was created in 1881, the year President James A. Garfield was assassinated. Two years later, the resort town of Glenwood Springs became the county seat. The first, and hence the oldest, church in Glenwood Springs was constructed in 1886. The First Presbyterian Church was built on a stone foundation quarried locally. The interior was bright with sunshine from the many windows, and the large rafters supporting the roof lent to an open atmosphere. Renovations and additions were added in 1949. (Colorado State Register, 5GF.)

In 1889, Rio Blanco County was created amid the White River Valley of Colorado’s western slope. The White River, as it was referred to by the white man, was known to the Ute Indians as the Smoking Earth River. It was in this area that Indian agent Nathaniel Cook Meeker was murdered in 1879 during a Ute uprising at the White River Indian Agency. The town of Meeker, named in honor of the slain Indian agent, became the county seat.

In 1885, a few local settlers in the White River Valley came together to establish a new town. With the leadership of William H. Clark, John C. Davis, J.W. Hugus, Newton Major and Susan C. Wright, the town of Meeker was incorporated. Many of the buildings that were not destroyed by fire during the Indian raid at the White River Indian Agency were sold by the government to the town founders for $50 each, with $100 for the officers’ quarters. These structures were moved to the fledging town.56 For the next twenty years, the town of Meeker remained the only incorporated town in northwestern Colorado. The same year that Rio Blanco County was created, Reverend Arthur Williams arrived in Meeker. Within a year, Williams had organized the local Episcopalians, held fundraisers for a church and raised more than $600. In 1890, Reverend Williams, along with members of the congregation, dug the foundation and laid the cornerstone for their St. James Episcopal Church. Located at the corner of Park Avenue and Fourth Street, the church was built in the traditional Queen Anne style. Local rough sandstone, quarried near Flag Creek, was used for the exterior, accented with buttresses of lighter sandstone. The spectacular bell was a product of the Blymer Bell Foundry of Cincinnati, Ohio.

After ten years with the St. James Episcopal Church, Reverend Arthur Williams became a bishop and was transferred to Nebraska. Then, in 1908, Reverend Williams was in Washington, D.C., as an Episcopalian representative for the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new Episcopalian cathedral in that city.

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