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The following is an anecdote told by Dr. O.D. Cass to the early Colorado historian, Frank Hall, who published his “History of Colorado” in 1895 ( Vol. III, pg 166-167). As I have mentioned before, Dr. Cass arrived in Denver during its formative years in 1860. He tried to make a go of it as a doctor in his first months here, starting with Dr. J.F. Hamilton the city’s first hospital. Though present Denver General traces its lineage back to this pioneer facility, the business struggled to survive. The two doctors in charge reportedly had to cover expenses out of their own pockets. Having had some experience in evaluating gold dust in San Francisco’s heyday, Dr. Cass turned to banking and opened an office at the corner of Market and Fifteen ( parts of this structure survive to the present), and began buying the findings of Colorado’s many miners. He also profited from “grubstaking” his customers, making loans at 25%- per month!
The story below occurred while he still had a physician’s office on Blake street, sometime in 1860.
“ One evening while sitting in my office, the door opened, and in stalked a man about five feet nine inches in height, ‘bearded like the pard’*, trousers in boot legs, his dark hair covered by a black slouch hat, beneath which I saw a pair of glittering black eyes.
“‘Are you the Doctor?
“‘Yes, sir.’
“‘ Well, I want you to go and attend my woman who’s sick.’
“’ What’s the matter with her?’
“’ I don’t know, but I want you to go and see her.’
“’ Well, my fee is twenty-five dollars, which must be paid before I go.’
“’ The words had scarcely passed my lips before the stranger whipped out an ugly looking six-shooter, and thrusting it in my face, said:
“’ Damn your fee! Follow me, sir, and be quick about it.’
“’ Thus positively adjured, I stood not upon the order of my going, but went at once. He led me to the door of his cabin, opened it, pointed out the patient, and immediately disappeared in the darkness. I attended her for a week, and cured her. I did not in the meantime see nor hear of my conductor. The woman having recovered, he came again. Striding up to my desk with the air of a cavalry brigadier, he said,–
“’ You cured her, did you?’
“’ Yes. I think she is all right now.’
“ Laying five twenty dollar gold pieces of Clark and Gruber’s mintage on the desk, he added in a milder tone,-
“’ Will that pay you for your services?’
“’ Yes, sir, abundantly, and I’m very much obliged.’
“’ See here, Doctor. I’ve taken a notion to you. There’s a good many rough fellows about town, who drink and fight and make trouble for honest people. If any of ‘ em ever interfere with you, you send for me. My name’s Charley Harrison.’”
Charley Harrison was a local thug who ran his criminal activities out of his saloon on Larimer Street, the Criterion, known as a notorious den of cutthroats and thieves. He had some standards of decency though, as Dr. Cass attested above. In a similar incident, William Byers, editor of the Rocky Mountain News, was kidnapped at gunpoint by some of Harrison’s goons after the newsman criticized him in print for gunning down an innocent black man. Charley freed Byers quickly, sending him back to his office with the warning, “arm yourself for protection against these sonsofbitches” ( as told by Bill Brenneman in his Miracle on Cherry Creek).
* a phrase from Shakespeare’s As You Like It., pard meaning leopard.
What a great story, David. I have run into Charley Harrison in my researches as well. As it happens, Ned Wynkoop worked as a bartender for him at the Criterion for awhile and testified on his behalf in a murder case. Harrison was also well known as a confederate sympathizer who may have taken potshots at the Colorado First Cavalry as they marched around doing drills.