Contents ▼▲
Front Matter How I Came to Write my Story Who I am My Great Loss My Worldly Wealth Plans for the Future The Gold Fever My Great Disappointment Cured of the Gold Fever My Opportunity How I Might Work My Way Keeping My Bargain At Pueblo A Welcome Time of Rest Outbreak of Gold Fever Opportunity for Money Middleton Agrees With Me Middleton's Proposition Gold Seekers Land Claims Our Ranch Building a Dwelling Corn and Gold Dreams of a Harvest Disappointed Prospectors Returning Evil for Good Striving to Save Our Corn Defending Our Own A Council of War Interview With The Enemy Missouri Miners Make Sport How to Collect The Debt Possession of Cattle Night Before the Battle A War of Words The Prospectors Try to Kill Us A Real Battle A Truce Terms of Peace The Enemy Surrenders The Prospectors Depart The Growth of Our City Farming Or Mining My Share of the Harvest Middleton Goes on a Journey Auraria and Denver Middleton Turns Trader Middleton's Plan A Weighty Problem Middleton's Partner A Change of Homes Arrival At Auraria The Town of Denver We Hire a Shop I Regret Turning Merchant How We Transported Goods Middleton's Advice The Tide of Emigration Finding Goods By the Roadside Gold in Colorado How the Cities Grew A Post Office in Auraria Letters From Home Our Business Flourishes Denver Outstripping Auraria Claim Jumping The Claim Club The Turkey War The Need of Government Union of Denver and Auraria What Others Thought of Us Territory of Colorado Good Citizenship Civil War Breaks Out Need of a Jail Denver in Flames Our Loss By Fire Mrs. Middleton Consoles Us Good Resulting From Evil Middleton's Honesty Rebuilding Denver The Flood Destruction of the Town In Great Peril The City Destroyed Our Lives Are Spared Fears Regarding the Future Uprising of the Indians Begging for Help A Famine Threatens Horrors of an Indian War My Duty at Home Beginning Over Again My Story is Done

Seth of Colorado - James Otis




Plans for the Future

My first resolve was that my tiny patrimony should be put carefully away, where it might earn me somewhat in the way of interest, and at the same time be kept as a "nest egg," so that when I found opportunity for investing a small sum to good advantage it would be ready to hand.

Next came to my mind the fact that I must be up and doing, instead of living upon the bounty of Mr. Middleton, as I had been since that dreadful day when I was led away from the last earthly resting place of my dear parents.

[Illustration] from Seth of Colorado by James Otis

It was not practicable for me to find steady employment in the town of Lawrence, eager though I was for work, and in order to gain sufficient money to support myself, I always stood ready and anxious to turn my hand to whatever opportunities came my way. Thus it was that during the winter of 1857 and 1858 I worked at whatever was offered me, sometimes sawing and splitting wood, or doing chores around one of the stores, running errands, taking care of cattle while the owners were away from home, and, in fact, acting as jack-of-all-trades until the time came when the townsfolk of Lawrence were attacked with what seemed like a regular fever, because gold had been discovered beyond the western boundary of Kansas, in the unsettled territory which we know now as the state of Colorado.