GREELEY 



2613 



GREELEY 



GREE'LEY, COLO., the county seat of Weld 

 County, located in one of the most fertile irri- 

 gated farming sections in the state, fifty-two 

 miles north by east of Denver, and fifty-three 

 miles south of Cheyenne. It is on the Cache 

 La Poudre, South Platte and Thompson rivers, 

 and on the Union Pacific, the Colorado <fe 

 Southern and the Denver, Laramie North- 

 western railroads. The area of the city is 

 nearly four square miles. The population, 

 which in 1910 was 8.179, in 1916 was 11.420, by 

 Federal estimate. 



Greeley is situated on the great plains at 

 the base of the Rocky Mountains, which are 

 about forty miles distant. Melting snows of 

 the mountains, retained in great reservoirs, fur- 

 nish water for extensive irrigating projects in 

 this section. The land is well suited to the 

 raising of sugar beets, potatoes, peas, onions 

 and cabbages. One of the largest sugar-beet 

 factories in the state is located here, and this 

 and two others in the same county produce an 

 annual output valued at $5,000,000. Flour 

 mills, elevators and vegetable-canning facto- 

 ries are other important enterprises. Sugar 

 beets and' field peas are also grown for feed 

 for cattle and sheep, which are raised in con- 

 siderable numbers. Near the city there are 

 rich coal fields. 



Greeley is the location of a state normal 

 school. Among the more prominent buildings 

 are a Federal building, erected at a cost of 

 $150,000, a county courthouse costing $400,000, 

 a Y. M. C. A. building, a library and three hos- 

 pitals. Island Grove is a municipal grove of 

 forty acres. Estes National Park, a favorite 

 tourists' resort, is about fiftyfive miles west. 



Greeley was founded in 1870 by a colony 

 from New England and New York under the 

 direction of Nathan Cook Meeker, agricultural 

 editor of the New York Tribune, and the town 

 was named in honor of Horace Greeley, founder 

 of that paper. The organization of colonists, 

 then called the Union Colony of Colorado, still 

 survives and holds reversionary rights in all 

 places where intoxicating liquors are handled. 

 Greeley was chartered as a town in 1871 and 

 as a city in 1886. J.F.MCC. 



GREELEY, HORACE (1811-1872), America's 

 most famous journalist, the founder and first 

 editor of the New York Tribune, and the most 

 influential of that famous group of American 

 editors who represented the "old school" of 

 journalism. His position as a molder of public 

 opinion, especially during the last two decades 

 before the War of Secession, is fittingly sum- 



marized in Whittier's characterization of him 



"our later Franklin." Horace Greek-y was born 



in Amherst, N. H., on February 3, 1811. He 



was reared in poverty, and received only a 



common school 



education. When 



a lad of fifteen 



he became an ap- 



prentice in a 



newspaper office 



at East Poultney, 



Vt., learning there 



his first lessons in 



the profession 



that was destined 



to bring him into 



HORACE GREELEY 



national promi- Probably the greatest editor 

 nence. America has produced. 



In 1831 Greeley appeared in New York City, 

 with ten dollars in his pocket and a bundle of 

 clothes swung over his shoulder. After sup- 

 porting himself for two years by doing job 

 work in various printing offices, he founded, 

 with two friends, the Morning Post, the first 

 two-cent daily ever published. It was a finan- 

 cial failure, running only three weeks after 

 January 1, 1833. In March, 1834, its successor. 

 The New Yorker appeared; this was a weekly 

 literary newspaper that enjoyed wide popu- 

 larity during its seven years of existence. 



In 1840 Greeley began the publication of 

 The Log Cabin, a weekly campaign paper that 

 gave brilliant stlpport to the candidacy of 

 William Henry Harrison, the Whig nominee 

 for the Presidency. The following year this 

 paper was merged with The New Yorker into 

 the Weekly Tribune, a periodical which had 

 readers throughout the northern half of the 

 Union from Maine to Oregon, and which 

 wielded an influence unheard of up to that 

 time. 'Through its columns Greeley urged the 

 people to oppose the extension of slavery, and 

 because people believed in him he became a 

 mighty force in strengthening the anti-slavery 

 sentiment throughout the North. In April. 

 1841, he issued the first copies of the Daily 

 Tribune, which is still published in New York 

 City. In this paper he vigorously preached 

 the doctrines of the protective tariff and anti- 

 liquor legislation. 



Greeley 's commanding position in journalism 

 made him a prominent figure in national poli- 

 tics; he was one of the founders of the Repub- 

 lican party and a delegate to its first national 

 convention, where he used his influence to 

 secure the nomination of Lincoln. While he 



