John Cleveland Osgood and Redstone, Colorado

John Cleveland Osgood

John Cleveland Osgood was a prominent figure within the coal industry and best remembered for erecting the town, Redstone, Colorado. Born in Brooklyn on March 6, 1851, Osgood moved to Burlington, Iowa with his father when he was 6. A few years later, he was sent to live with relatives in Providence, Rhode Island after his father died. An office job at a cotton mill taught him business. He moved to New York City at 16 and found work in a Produce Exchange Commission while attending night school. Afterward, he returned to Burlington and took a job at White Breast Fuel Company and a position at First National Bank as a cashier.

   During his time with First National Bank, he learned the banking side of the business world. This led to him taking over the fuel company at age 26 and visiting Colorado to learn more about the state’s coal resources for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad. Osgood bought several tracts of coal land in Colorado and formed the Colorado Fuel Company. His business grew fast and he eventually merged with Colorado Coal and Iron Company to become Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Bessemer Iron Works in Pueblo, Colorado became the company’s headquarters.  

   Colorado Fuel and Iron mined about three quarters of the coal in Colorado, but miner strikes between 1894-1901 proved costly for the company. Osgood testified before the Colorado General Assembly that he knew what was best for miners and not the labor unions, going so far as to declare labor unions a threat to the United States. During the same time frame, an idea to eliminate labor unions, known as welfare capitalism, was gaining popularity. Osgood approved this idea, believing a happy and content worker was a productive worker who didn’t strike, and set about providing for his employees’ every need by building Redstone, Colorado.

  

Coke ovens

Located west of Pueblo and south of Glenwood Springs, Redstone was constructed as a company town. Coke ovens were built to turn coal into coke (see explanation below on coke and coal). To carry the coal from the Coal Basin mines and the coke to the foundries in Pueblo, the Crystal River railroad was built. To accommodate employees’ housing needs, Osgood built 84 cottages for married workers and 1 dormitory with 40 rooms for single workers. The cottages and the dormitory were somewhat of a rarity as they all had indoor plumbing and electricity. Some of the cottages are still in existence today, as is the dormitory. To further accommodate his married employees' needs, Osgood built a school for their children.

Employee cottage

   Osgood also built the Redstone Club, which had reading rooms stocked with papers in different languages, weeklies and magazines. A library, small theater and a bath house were also part of the Redstone Club, which cost $25,000 to build; $707,000 in today’s market. Redstone boasted a saloon, with card tables and pool tables. Saloon rules were strictly enforced, to include a ‘No Treating’ rule, which prevented anyone from buying a round of drinks to avoid drunkenness. Gambling was kept to penny ante poker and dime wagers on a game of pool. Rounding off the town was an irrigated garden, a public barn for employee’s livestock, and a wash house for laundering clothes, but the crème-de-la-crème to Redstone was and still is Osgood’s castle, Cleveholm Manor.

  

Cleveholm Manor

Built to impress his second wife, Swedish Countess Alma Regina Shelgrem, Cleveholm Manor is a 24,000ft English Tudor-style castle. Designed by New York architects Boal and Harnois, work on the Manor began in 1897 and was finished in 1901, with a price tag of $50,000 (1.1 million in today’s market). Sometimes called Redstone Castle, the manor sits on 72 acres and includes servants’ quarters, a gamekeeper’s lodge, carriage house, greenhouse, and a kennel for dogs. Gate keeper’s homes were erected on the north and south boundaries. The stable housed horses, cattle and chickens, with a game preserve of deer, elk and bighorn sheep, and a stocked fishing pond.

   Sadly, Cleveholm Manor nearly fell to ruins. A strike at Colorado mines weakened Osgood’s company. He successfully foiled a takeover by John Gates from Chicago, but lost to John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould in a stock war in 1903. Osgood was forced to abandon his welfare programs, though he did remain active in combating unions, this time around with violence. He founded the Victor-American Fuel Company and took up residence in New York City; his stay at Cleveholm now infrequent. Eventually the manor was boarded up when Osgood elected to spend time in Palm Springs or cruising to Europe. He finally returned to the manor with his third wife, Lucille, in 1925 when diagnosed with terminal cancer. He passed in 1926 and Lucille tried to turn the estate into a resort, but the Depression thwarted her plans.

  

Historic Redstone Dormitory/Inn

Today, Redstone, Colorado is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has a population of about 130. The dormitory is now the Redstone Inn and Cleveholm Manor and the gamekeeper’s cottage are listed independently on the National Register. The castle contained 75 percent of its furnishing as of 2004 and was bought by the owners of Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs and underwent restoration, to include road and utility work. Currently, it is open for tours.

   ***Coke is made by heating coal in the absence of air to drive off impurities to leave an almost pure carbon. Cokes made from coal are hard, grey, and porous.

Interior Cleveholm Manor

Interior Cleveholm Manor

Cast Iron Cook Stoves

Pot Belly stove inside schoolroom

Benjamin Franklin is credited with inventing the pot belly stove. A cute appliance used to heat a room, the pot belly stove is made from cast iron and has a bulge in the middle, hence the name. The stove was mainly found in the mercantile or school house, and later on train cars. Some pot bellies were equipped with a shelf to boil a pot of coffee or to cook a pot of stew. Franklin is also credited with inventing a large cast iron box that was set on top of the hearth and used for cooking, but it’s Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, who takes credit for designing a flat topped cook stove with an oven to control heat as early as 1790. Rumford was considered an engineering pioneer and the first to scientifically study heat transfer. It was his goal to move cooking from the hearth to the kitchen. Originally, his stoves were made of brick masonry, but with the growth of the American coal and iron industries in 1820, cast iron soon became the rage.

smaller cast iron cook stove

Cast iron stoves are flat on the top, with perforated round ports that open to the fire below. Little by little, they became more popular in the States, and as the demand for them grew, improvements to the design were implemented. The stove was made bigger to accommodate extra burners, dual ovens, warming ovens and additional storage space such as shelves. At first, different types of wood were used to heat the stove. A woman had to learn which wood burned the hottest and the longest in order to prepare meals. Though stoves were manufactured in the same fashion, no two cooked the same, which proved challenging until one became adept at using her own stove. After the Civil War, coal replaced wood as the source to heat the stove. 

larger cook stove

Early on, stoves intended for use in or beside the hearth were retrofitted to expel the smoke through the existing hearth and flue. When the appliance was moved to the kitchen, a metal pipe was fitted to the stove on end and inserted into a new chimney on the other end that was smaller in size then the hearth flue. Most homes weren’t built to accommodate the new design so ells were added to the kitchen to house the new cook stove.

gas heated cook stove

The American cook stove saw another significant change in the early 1900’s when heating the stove went from coal to gas. Cooking by gas had been popular in England since the 1860’s, but many Americans thought gas too expensive, and some claimed gas left an after taste. But when gas companies saw electric companies infringing on their profits, they looked toward the kitchen stove in hopes of conquering a new market. Gas stoves didn’t need the heavy iron boxes to hold wood or coal or the pipes for exhaust, enabling manufacturers to design a new, smaller model. This idea went over well with smaller-sized homes. Another benefit of the gas stove was its lightness. The appliance could stand on tall, slender legs and eventually became known as a free standing piece of furniture, the same as the sink. 
 
 

While the stove has taken on even more changes throughout the 1900’s, most notably with the use of electricity, cast iron stoves are still in existence. In the hustle and bustle of today’s society, whether in the city or the country, the cast iron stove adds a feeling of nostalgia to any kitchen, taking one back to the days when families gathered around the kitchen table for a meal, for heat, and for conversation.