History of the State of Colorado Volume IV

Volume IV is the longest of the four, listed in our catalogue at 780 pages, and it finishes the work in two big movements. The first is a history of the city of Denver and of the counties, taken one at a time, from Cheyenne and Conejos to Weld and Yuma. The second is a biographical department, a long run of sketches of the men Hall said had built the state.

It begins with political annals carried through 1890, including the 1888 campaign. The Denver chapter then gives, in Hall's words, much matter not hitherto published, built on the original records of the founding of Auraria, St. Charles and Denver that were recovered in 1894 and 1895. The mining districts, old and new, are treated with little description of individual mines, and Hall notes that he describes few individual mines because the leading producers of 1890 had been overtaken within a few years

Hall's introduction is candid about the labor behind the book. He took the commission in June 1887 and finished eight years later, and he admits that agriculture, irrigation, the bench and bar and other subjects got only brief mention.

Volume IV is aimed at county historians, genealogists and anyone digging for a specific Colorado family or town. Many readers come to it for the biographical department alone, since a grandfather or great grandfather who prospered in the 1880s and 1890s might be sketched there. Researchers of Denver's founding also need it, because it holds Hall's treatment of the recovered Auraria and St. Charles town records. Casual readers will find it dense and best taken in sections.

Frank Hall opens this volume by describing the task he took on in June 1887 and the eight years it consumed. He had earlier been Secretary of Colorado Territory, from 1866 to 1874, and he lived from 1836 to 1917 according to the Online Books Page. His author page covers the whole set and what we know of the man.

More about Frank Hall →

Hall's final volume was printed in 1895, later than he had planned. In his introduction he blames the financial panic of 1892 and 1893 and other delays, and says the long wait allowed him to add material about the beginning of settlement in Denver. In 1894 and 1895 the State Historical Society, through William N. Byers, recovered the original manuscript records of the founding of Auraria, St. Charles and Denver.

The county chapters that follow were meant to give every part of the state its due, and Hall invited readers to read them for the incidents of the early pioneers. A reference note at the back says the cliff dweller discussion in Volume I should be read with the history of La Plata County in this volume, and that Baker's San Juan explorations and the Russell party are expanded here. A comprehensive biographical department is appended, as the introduction promises.

Source: Hall, History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV (Internet Archive)