Southwest Sierra #96 – “Col.” Straughn

Continued from last week… The “Colonel”(aka Uncle Will) is connected to Southwest Sierra County by the thread of my ancestry. Hopefully, others will find interest in his story. As mentioned last week, both he and his sister were born in Greencastle, Indiana, in the early 1840s. While conducting research for this article, I learned that Indiana played a pivotal role in supporting the Union during the Civil War. When the war started in 1861, Indiana had the 5th largest population of any state. It had well-established agricultural resources, a railroad network, and navigable waterways. Approximately 210,000 Hoosiers enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. Indianans are known as “Hoosiers,” and Indiana is officially known as the “Hoosier State.” The source of this term remains under debate, with the earliest documented use circa 1833. This week’s vocabulary word is “demonym.” An example of a demonym (think “demographic”) would be to refer to a person from Alleghany as an “Alleghanian.” Evidently, “Hoosier” is the only demonym accepted by the US Census Bureau that doesn’t relate directly to the name of a place. (This is what happens when one travels down the rabbit hole of online research).

When the Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861, “Uncle Will” was 19 years old, and his sister “Mary E.” was just shy of her 18th birthday. That same year, on October 4, Mary E. married John Murphy. Their first home was on the farm of her grandparents near Greencastle. According to Mary E: John Murphy wanted to join the army, but Mary E. wanted him home as she was expecting their first child. She persuaded her brother Will to “talk some sense” into her husband. Will told him that his place was with his wife and child and that he, John William Straughn would join the army instead.

John W. Straughn joined the Indiana 43rd Infantry with rank of Pvt. to Sgt. and then as a 2nd Lt. in the 156th Indiana Infantry. Evidently, “Colonel Straughn” was a nickname acquired after the war was over. After the war ended: Upon his return to Greencastle in 1865 he met and married Sarah Ellen Kennedy. They had 10 children, but only 5 reached adulthood. The first 4 were born in Greencastle. The next 5 were born in Dodge City, Kansas, and the last in Blackhawk, Colorado.

The photo of Col. Straugh featured in last week’s article was a surprise to me. I was searching for a photo of the statue in Denver, Colorado, and found several, but when an actual photograph of him popped up, I was delighted! There is a family resemblance between him, my dad, and my dad’s brothers around the eyes. The photo was courtesy of the Boothill Museum, which confirms part of the following family history:

Col. Straughn eventually settled in Dodge City Kansas where he became the deputy-sheriff under Bat Masterson; one of his duties was to oversee the moving of the old Boot-Hill Cemetery in Dodge City. He remained a sheriff for about two years but continued to live in Dodge City for many years. As the wagon trains of prospectors passed near his home, he too got “prospector fever” and in the late 1870’s made his first trip west, going directly to Park County, Colorado, in the Alma District. For the next fifteen years, he made many such trips. He and Ella now had five children, three boys and two girls.

After about two years in the Alma District, he returned to Dodge City and formed the Beverly Gold Mining Company. When he returned to Colorado, he took his second son, 16-year-old Francis Orion, with him and for many years operated mines in Park County. Later, Francis Orion went to the Cripple Creek District, and Col. Straughn went to Gilpin County and Central City. He was soon joined by his other two sons, the eldest Louis and the youngest Carl. Louis did not stay in mining very long, but Carl Straughn was associated with tungsten outputs in and around Boulder, Colorado, until his death in 1948. Col. Straughn’s last trip to Dodge City was in 1894, and on this trip he brought the remainder of his family, Ellla, and daughter Pearl, to Colorado.

He never made big stakes in the mining business, so he opened a wagon shop in Gilpin County. In 1891, he went to visit his sister, Mary E. in Denver. There he attracted the attention of a painter by the name of Pattee. Construction of the Mining Exchange Building had just begun when Pattee learned that Col. Straughn had been a miner with a pioneer background, and Pattee conceived the idea to do a portrait of the Col. from which a bronze statue could perhaps be made. Pattee’s portrait of Col.Straughn was set in a magnificent gold frame, and was on exhibition at the world’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. After the fair the painting was returned to Denver to the studio of F.E. Post, at the corner of 15th and Laurence Streets, where the painting remained for many years. The great bronze was cast and stood atop the Mining Exchange Building until 1951. It was removed and now is housed in a bank building in Denver. This information about the location of the statue is not in any of the information that I found online. Evidently, the statue was moved more than once.

The above information is from various family sources compiled by D. Thomason. Perhaps “Pattee” was actuallyAlphonse Pelzer? An online search only turned up one artist from the era named Else Dodge Pattee, who painted miniatures and would have been only 15 years old in 1891. She was living in Europe at that time, so it is not likely that she painted the portrait of the colonel mentioned above. Multiple online sources say that the statue is made of copper, not bronze. Several pieces of the puzzle remain a mystery.

Sources: Family lore and facts related to the Straughn family are taken directly from a research document compiled by Daniel Thomason in the 1990s (shown in italics). My cousin Donna Foster posted the document on Ancestry.com and it is in the public domain. Other sources: Northern Indiana Historical Society, the 1860 census, and Indiana and the Call for Volunteers by Joseph A. Parsons Jr. Thanks to goldprospectorsoftherockies.com for this week’s photos. There is an article about the statue on their website. Search “The Old Prospector” by Dick Oakes.