MURDER, CONSPIRACY, or ACCIDENT? #WesternFictioneers

Colorado Springs, Colorado that lovely resort town started in 1871. The founding fathers, with Wm. Jackson Palmer being the primary leader, did not allow the manufacture of 'spirits'. The property owners needed to be of good moral character. Palmer also donated land to build churches, having been raised a Quaker. Despite the founding fathers good intentions, both Helen (Hunt) Jackson and Isabella Bird, upon arriving in late1873, didn't think much of the new town.

Night closing on Pikes Peak (c) by the author

The town also experienced a death, in late 1873, that to this day is still an unsolved murder case. Below are the 'facts':

On November 3, 1873 W.H. (Judge) Baldwin met his demise by person or persons unknown. He may even have met that demise by his own actions.

His body was found in the well at Green and Stitzer’s slaughterhouse. After his body was recovered from the well, at 2 PM, it was noted that his pocket had been turned inside out and the money he that had been on his person the night before was missing. His horse was tied to the fence outside and his hat and shoes were found on the floor about five feet from the well. There was a bruise on his face near one eye.

Those are the facts reported in the local paper about his death. However there are some additional facts which may have some bearing on the his death:

The water in the well where the body was about five and a half feet deep and the well itself about four feet square.

The night before Baldwin was seen in town and was said to be intoxicated. Others said he was only slightly drunk. He told the bar keep in the billiard hall where he'd been drinking that he going home. (This probably meant his sheep ranch north and east of downtown Colorado Springs in the Templeton Gap area.) He was seen leaving the Billiard Hall with a man name Blondin. Blondin returned about 2 ½ hours later, alone. Later Blondin was arrested for intoxication, but slipped away around daylight. (In 1873 the city did not have a jail.)

Also in late 1873 there was a movement to drive out all the 'liquor sellers’ in Colorado Springs. One woman after notice of Baldwin's death, wrote to the paper and said the following: 'Baldwin was generous to a fault, children recognized him as a friend but was the victim of a disease.' She also said ” if the vendor of liquor has sons, when he looks at them, let him think of the sop which was made unsteady by his hand, of the brain which was crazed, of the struggle in the bottom of the well… The poor man…was trying to reform”

The Root & Reef saloon, one of the liquor sellers, had their court case thrown out on November 22. It seemed the witnesses who testified could not remember if they drank in the saloon or not. (The town was going through some pretty tough growing pains.)

Evergreen Cemetery, near Potter's field photo (c) by the author

Below is some additional information on Judge Baldwin:

He was born in 1825 in Massachusetts. His full name was William H. Baldwin. He was a ‘judge’ by virtue of judging a sheep contest at one of the territorial fairs. When drunk he would stand in the street and give speeches about General Jackson, the laws of the Constitution and the rights of man. After the elections in September of 1973 his new speech was “I’ll tell ye, boys, I’ll tell ya; I worked hard for ye, accordin’ to th’ rights o’ man and th’ laws o’ the Constitution. I’ll tell ye, boys —the New Town’s got it.”

There was also the story that he had been scalped while in South America, and was ever ready to show the scar to anyone who wanted to see it. He arrived in the region in 1868 and started life as a sheep herder. (Sheep were a major part of the early economy.). Later that same year he was shot in the leg and head by a band of Indians and left for dead. About four months before his death he had about 1,000 sheep but sold them to buy liquor. He also, at the time of his death, had a ranch worth about $1,000.

To this day there is speculation as to what really happened that night of November 3, 1873. Many pieces of information and facts are probably lost to time. The town was new and trying to establish itself as a wonderful place to live. Was it a conspiracy, murder or just an accident? We may never know, but the story still intrigues those who read it. He is buried somewhere in the Potter's Field section of Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs. 

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Member of National League of American Pen Women,

Women Writing the West,

Pikes Peak Posse of the Westerners

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

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