The Settlers

Early residents of the area were well aware of Fagan's Grave. Anthony Bott of whiskey rumor fame once told Professor Kerr of Colorado College that, when he first visited the Black Forest pinery, distances were measured by how far something was to one side or another of Fagan's grave.(1) Jerome Weir later told Professor Cragin, also of Colorado College, that from the time he first bought his sawmill he was aware of the grave. "Fagan's grave," Weir said, "had an upright stone set at each end, with the middle covered by slabs of fragments of stone."(2) Thanks to the collective memories of settlers such as Bott and Weir the grave continued to contribute as much to the area lore as did the ranches and communities that eventually came to surround it.

Some dozen miles to the south of Fagan's grave - at the trail crossing of Black Squirrel Creek - a sawmill was constructed in the early 1860's. Jerome Weir was employed there in 1863; he became owner the following year. His was only one of several sawmills that ringed the pinery. These sawmills supplied lumber to Colorado City and Fountain. In the early 1870's General William Palmer began advertising for the supply of ties to the Kansas Pacific Railroad then building west out of Kansas. It was said that the pinery provided nearly a half million ties at one dollar each.

In 1872 a post office was established in the offices of the Weir sawmill under the name of McConnellsville. The first postmaster was Austin Weir, son of Jerome. Mail was brought on horseback from Colorado City. This postoffice was later moved a mile and a half northeast and renamed Easton. When the Denver and New Orleans Railroad built through the pinery in the early 1880's the postoffice was relocated still further east - at the water station that became known as Eastonville

Eastonville

With the establishment of Eastonville just three miles to the southeast of Fagan's grave, the prophecies of the agrarian gold seekers were fulfilled. As the town grew so too did he number of surrounding farms and ranches. The Ayer ranch had already been started on Black Squirrel Creek in 1876; others soon followed. Dryland farming began to produce good yields of alfalfa, wheat, oats and potatoes. The planting of potatoes became so widespread that the town began to call itself "the Potato Capitol of the World." At harvest time entire freight trains were sidetracked and filled to overflowing. Two-pound potatoes were not uncommon during the anuual potato bakes. A factory was established to manufacture Bradshaw's Potato Sorter, a horse-drawn machine that sorted and shook the potatoes into separate sacks according to size.

By the 1930's a severe blight began to cripple the potato industry. Eastonville - which had once boasted a population of over 300, with three blacksmith shops, three hotels, three churches, a livery, a bakery, and several other businesses - began to lose its population. The town deteriorated slowly until 1935, when the great flood took out part of the railroad. After the damaged racks were taken up, the remaining families gradually moved away.(3)

The Eastonville of today is a ghost town. Nothing remains but one dilapidated house and a few foundations of concrete and rock that still hug the eroding railroad bed. The potato farms have long since reverted to prairie. The sawmills have been closed down. Many of the ranches have been turned into subdivisions, as sprawling suburbia from the south slowly encroaches upon Black Forest. In the valley that heads West Kiowa Creek construction has begun on several new houses. Mailboxes now stand where once anelope grazed. New roads are being carvd through the prairies grasses and new bridges span the creeks.

Only Fagan's grave remains undisturbed.

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FOOTNOTES -

(1)- Kerr, J.H. Papers, Vol.5, p.120. Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

(2)- Cragin, F.W. Papers. XVII, 3. Colorado Springs Pioners Museum.

(3)- Much of this information on Eastonville comes from Hobbs, Charle M. "Eastonville in 1886," Palmer Lake-Monument News, 29 April 1971.