CNJ+ March 2024

CREEDE, COLORADO AND WORLD WAR I — A KNITTER’S TALE By Robert Moll

“Grandma, do you know how to knit?” It was the summer of 2000 and eleven-year-old Lizzie, a beginning knitter, hoped she’d found a mentor—her ninety-four-year-old grandmother, Mary Elting Fol som. Lizzie’s question took Mary back to 1917, several months after the U.S. entered World War I. Yes, Lizzie, I do know how to knit. I learned during the summer of 1917, when I was eleven. Surprisingly, my teacher was a British army recruiter who had come to my hometown of Creede, Colorado.

dle-class family. Her father was a storekeeper who sold hay and grain for the town’s horses and mules. Her mother was a former schoolteacher who gave Mary a proper up bringing. When Mary asked why the women standing in front of a house down the street were wearing kimonos, her mother answered sharply, “You’re too young to know.” Years later she realized that the establishment had been a brothel. In summer the family retreated from rough-and tumble Creede to Antler’s Park, a former dude ranch they owned west of town. Mary’s father, Charles Elting, had come to Creede as a young man—his doctor had recommended a move from New York State to the western mountains as a treatment for his tuberculosis. He arrived in Creede during the boom years and for a while stayed in a tent next to Bob Ford’s. Twenty-five years later, in 1917, he had become a prominent citizen. That spring he was appointed Mineral County’s representative to the Governor’s War Council in Denver. Then, in August, he played Cotton Mather in the town’s production of Anne of Old Salem , a fundraiser for

Located high in the San Juan mountains of southern Colorado, Creede was a silver mining town when Mary was born in 1906. Silver had been discovered there in 1889, just before the U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. This legislation required the U.S. Treasury to make substantial monthly purchases of sil ver, for which it issued special silver-backed paper cur rency. The price of the metal quickly shot up, and in a matter of months Creede became one of North Amer ica’s wildest mining camps. The silver craze attracted more than ten thousand prospectors, miners, and adventurers, who took up residence in tent cities that ringed the town. Legendary figures of the Wild West were among the town’s new inhabi tants. Bat Masterson turned up, not as a lawman but as a saloon keeper. Bob Ford, killer of Jesse James in Missouri in 1882, also came, only to be gunned down himself in his own saloon in 1892. Swindlers and gunfighters, gam bling halls and brothels—that was Creede in its heyday. Then, in 1893, an economic panic hit the country and people began ex changing their new silver-backed paper currency for gold coins. Fearing a run on its gold reserves, the U.S. Treasury stopped buying silver altogether. The price of the metal fell dramatically, ending Creede’s three year run as a silver boomtown. Work continued at the largest mines, but the population of the town soon fell to about a thousand. Still, Creede’s early rowdiness re mained a part of town life through the time of the First World War. In the midst of Creede’s roughness, Mary grew up in a respectable mid

Mary, 1917. Family Collection

the Red Cross. While we were at Antler’s Park during the summer of 1917, the English re cruiter stayed with us in one of the cabins on the ranch. Recently disabled by a war injury, he came to my school and talked about what life was like for sol diers. The stories were horrifying. Everyone squirmed when he gave a graphic description of “cooties”—the lice that plagued soldiers night and day. That summer the war was on everyone’s mind. News of the conflict filled the pages of The Creede Candle , the town’s four-page weekly newspaper. The Candle exhorted young men to volunteer for the army and urged everyone else to get to work: “‘No work, no eat’ is the slogan. The war leaves no room for slackers.” Slackers took a beating all summer long. A Candle feature called “Local Siftings” was Creede’s public message board. Townspeople could post announcements or proclamations on almost any topic. Rental rooms with electric lights were advertised. Special events were noted: A Tom Thumb wedding, where small children dressed up as

bride and groom and acted out a wedding ceremony, was a great hit. And there were expressions of outrage. Colorado had be come a dry state in 1916, and an irate pro hibitionist railed against unchecked drink ing in town: “This constant flow of booze has disgusted many of our better citizens and should it continue, an awful roar will be heard.” The Siftings reported all sorts of com ings and goings: Ada Skinner was in town between trains, and John Glendinning stopped by while bringing his sheep to higher pasture. Especially prominent were reports about anyone going anywhere by

Bob Ford’s tent, circa 1891. Family Collection

Creede, looking southeast, 1918. Courtesy Creede Historical Society

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MARCH 2024