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Rocky Mountain Online ArchiveTable of Contents
APPENDIX - Historical background and additional collection information |
Inventory of the Albert E. Carlton - William K. Gillett, Correspondence, 1896-1916Pikes Peak Library District, Special Collections in the 1905 Carnegie LibraryEmail: http://library.ppld.org/SpecialCollections/SpecialCollectionsContact.aspURL: http://library.ppld.org/SpecialCollections/default.asp ©2005 Pikes Peak Library District
BiographyAlbert E. Carlton and William K. Gillett were financially successful Colorado businessmen and influential leaders. Both had banking, railroad, and mining investments and served as directors of several companies. W. K. Gillett was auditor of the Midland Terminal Railway when it received its name in 1893. He became the major stockholder and in 1898 became president and general manager, a position he held until 1905. The town of Gillett, Colorado, through which the railroad ran, was named for him, as was the first Midland Terminal Railway engine, #1. A. E. Carlton and his brother, Leslie, moved to Colorado from Illinois in 1889. They settled in Cripple Creek and established the Colorado Trading and Transfer Company, a drayage company hauling freight from railroad stations into Cripple Creek. They became the principal coal dealers in the Cripple Creek District. Later they were noted for reviving failing business endeavors, including several tunnels. A. E. Carlton was the banker controlling the First National Bank of Cripple Creek, the First National Bank of Canon City and the City Bank of Victor and was president of the Cripple Creek Central Railway Company. ArrangementPapers have been arranged chronologically. Undated material is filed at the end of the collection. Scope and ContentItems in this collection span the dates December 1896 to May 1916, with most of correspondence occurring between 1896 and 1902. The collection begins with a well-established business relationship and correspondence between Carlton and Gillett, continues with robust volume for about five years, then diminishes after Carlton's retirement in June of 1903 from the Colorado Trading and Transfer Company. Carlton's letters and telegrams essentially stop then, and Gillett's last letter and last telegram were sent in 1904. Although the correspondence between Carlton and Gillett was terminated, the collection contains other items, primarily financial, dated as late as 1916. Included in the correspondence are telegrams, typed letters, unsigned carbon copies of typed letters, and memos and letters handwritten in flowing script. The collection also includes some letters which were not written by Carlton or Gillett but which are closely related to the Carlton-Gillett correspondence. Additionally, there are financial documents (including balance sheets and profit and loss statements) and various reports, generally of the Colorado Trading and Transfer Company. RestrictionsAccess RestrictionsThe collection is open for research. Copy RestrictionsThe researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection. Preferred CitationAlbert E. Carlton - William K. Gillett, Correspondence, Special Collections in the 1905 Carnegie Library, Pikes Peak Library District. Processing InformationThis collection was processed by Lynne Miller in 2002. The finding aid was written by Lynne Miller and Donna McCrea. Separated MaterialThere are no separated materials. Related Archival MaterialMcFarland, Edward M. "Mel", The Cripple Creek Road: a Midland Terminal guide and data book, (Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Pub. Co), [1983]. Story of the Midland Terminal Railway. McFarland, Edward M. "Mel", Midland Route: a Colorado Midland guide and data book,(Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Pub. Co.), 1980. Story of the Colorado Midland Railway. Subject HeadingsCripple Creek (Colo.) History Carlton, Albert Eugene Colorado Trading and Transfer Company (Cripple Creek, Colo.) Gillett, William K. Midland Terminal Railway National Hotel Company of Colorado (Cripple Creek) Railroads - Colorado - Cripple Creek - History Box and Folder List
APPENDIX - Historical background and additional collection informationBusiness Interests
The Colorado Trading and Transfer Company (CT&T) was located in Cripple Creek, Colorado and had warehouses throughout the Cripple Creek district including Anaconda, Cripple Creek, Gillett, Independence, and Victor. At the top of one CT&T ledger sheet is the slogan "We want your coal, hay, grain and flour trade." Such commodities were conveyed to and from the Cripple Creek district both by wagon teams and by railroad, so there was a symbiotic relationship between CT&T and the Midland Terminal Railway. The Midland Terminal Railway was incorporated onAugust 9, 1892 as a link between the mining town of Cripple Creek and the Colorado Midland Railway's planned branch in the village of Midland, south of Divide. This linked Cripple Creek by rail to Colorado Springs and other cities along the Colorado Midland route which also ran to Leadville and Glenwood Springs. However, the Midland Terminal Railway soon acquired the complete route from Divide to Cripple Creek. Construction was completed in December 1895, one year before the Carlton-Gillett correspondence begins. (Later, in 1917, the Midland Terminal's route extended through Woodland Park, down Ute Pass and into Colorado Springs.) At times the Midland Terminal Railway and the Colorado Midland Railway were rivals and at times they worked together. Whether served by the Colorado Midland or the Midland Terminal Railway, there were many stations along the route from Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek via Divide. Swifter travel between the two was available on the shorter Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway, incorporated in 1896 and built with that competition in mind. In 1903 labor unrest closed many mines in the Cripple Creek district, and all railroads suffered badly. The Carlton-Gillett correspondence ends shortly afterward. Carlton served as president of the Midland Terminal Railway from 1916 to 1920, purchasing the Colorado Midland Railway at an auction in 1917 at which it was to be sold for scrap. Its assets were used by the Midland Terminal, which closed in 1949. The Midland Terminal was the last surviving railroad in the Cripple Creek District and the last home-grown Colorado Springs railroad. Besides the Midland Terminal Railway Company and the Colorado Trading and Transfer Company, Carlton and Gillett were involved in many other business enterprises. There are letters concerning the First National Bank of Cripple Creek and the First National Bank of Colorado Springs and several interesting (and entertaining) letters regarding specific management issues with the National Hotel Company, which was formed when Gillett financially backed the building of the new National Hotel in Cripple Creek following the disastrous fire there in 1896. Most of their other business endeavors consisted of buying and selling stock in their companies, the ongoing search for investors, and always the pursuit of profit. There were also occasional real estate transactions in towns where the railway had stations. Among prominent Colorado business leaders mentioned in the correspondence are Irving Howbert, Charles MacNeill, Spencer Penrose, E. P. Shove, W. S. Stratton and Charles L. Tutt. Other businessmen mentioned are Simon Guggenheim of New York, J. T. Milliken of St. Louis, and Marshall Field of Chicago. Gillett's courting of Marshall Field is particularly interesting. About midway in the correspondence there are numerous veiled references to the formation of a syndicate under which to consolidate the many business holdings of Carlton and Gillett. The syndicate included Carlton, Gillett, Spencer Penrose and Charles Tutt, along with many investors from eastern states. The holding company was named the Denver and Southwestern Railway, and it assumed control on December 1, 1899. The correspondence does not include a list of business holdings which were consolidated under this new syndicate, but it indicates that at least the following were involved: Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad, Metallic Extraction Company, Midland Terminal Railway, Golden Circle Railroad, LaBella Land, Water and Power Company, and Colorado Trading and Transfer Company. The formation of the syndicate as an umbrella company united all the steam railroads in the Cripple Creek district and probably made managing the many businesses easier and more efficient.
· amount and payment of salaries, bills, and dividends, · transfer of funds among accounts and banks, often in response to overdrafts or trouble meeting railway payroll, · financing the Strickler Tunnel, · debt collection, · squabbles with the auditor, · processing of accounts receivable and payable. Other railway concerns included such items as: · purchase and design of railway equipment, · construction of warehouse, icehouse, coal chutes, and additional track, · narrow gauge versus broad gauge considerations, · problems with weighing of freight and accuracy of scales, · provision of electric power, · difficulties with Strickler Tunnel construction, especially during flooding, · procurement of contracts and favorable rates for the railway, · sleuthing regarding activities and rates of the railway's competitors, · wagon lines from Colorado Springs and teaming rates, · settlement of claims against railway (damaged goods, stolen goods, and one station's "appropriation" of coal from railway cars), · requests for trip passes (granted to politicians, relatives, and influential people but denied to the Sisters of Mercy), · handling of unions, strikes, and boycotts, and · coal shortages. |
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