Bradford Perley House

This is a pioneer's tale...In my last blog post--click here--I discussed one of the Native Americans who lived and frequently traveled through the community where I live in Colorado. Before gold was discovered in California in 1848, most of the western territories, including Colorado, were inhabited mainly by indigenous people, fur trappers and settlers of Spanish and Mexican descent.  The California Gold Rush brought the greatest mass migration of people to the western part of the country. By the mid-1850s over 300,000 new people were in California, including immigrants from South America, China, Australia, and Europe. The Colorado Gold Rush, which began a decade after in 1859, brought over 100,000 people to Colorado. One of them was Robert Boyles Bradford.

Bradford was born in Davison County, Tennessee in 1813.  He joined with Russell, Majors, and Waddell (founders of the Pony Express) to form an overland transportation company. Bradford went on to Denver in 1859 to set up a store for the supplies which the company would transport by stagecoach. He then set up the Bradford Wagon Toll Road to convey miners and settlers from Denver, first to "Bradford City" and then into the foothills to what is present-day Conifer and into the mining camps in the mountains, to Tarryall, Fairplay, Leadville and eventually to Breckenridge.

These are the ruins of the original house that Bradford built in 1860 on land he obtained along the foothills of the front range, where he had hoped to establish his "Bradford City."   Bradford left the Russell, Majors and Waddell partnership in 1861, and lived full time in his stone cabin, where he raised cattle and turnips, potatoes, apples, and peaches.  Settlers also used the broad valley in this location to rest and water their livestock before heading up the rest of Bradford Wagon Toll Road into the mountains.

 The Name "Bradford" is carved into the original house lintel, facing west toward the foothills.

In 1872 Bradford added on to the house, with a larger eastern entrance, and patterned it after a southern-style mansion. It featured eighteen-inch walls made from locally quarried hand cut sandstones and had board floors and a shingled roof.

In 1863, Colonel John M. Chivington used the Bradford house to recruit soldiers during the Civil War. Colonel Chivington was later involved with the Sand Creek Massacre, which I blogged about previously--click here--to read that post.

Some of the apple trees that were noted on a Homestead Act application Bradford made in 1870, are still standing and still produce fruit! 

They are Ben Davis variety, heirloom series.  

An early photo of the addition to the Bradford -Perley House. 

In 1867, Bradford married his third wife, Fannie E. Miller. His previous two wives had passed away before he left Tennessee. Travelers abandoned the Bradford Wagon Toll Road after a newer, more direct route to the mines was built through Turkey Creek Canyon in 1867.  Despite this economic misfortune, Bradford remained in his house until his death on December 29, 1876. Fannie gave up the ranch in 1878.

James Adams Perley purchased the property in 1895. He was a direct descendant of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Perley was a dairy farmer from Vermont, who came west with the gold rush. He eventually returned to dairy farming, when he bought the Bradford property. Perley died in 1926 when the house was then sold to John C. Shaffer, who already owned some of the surrounding lands.

The great=great granddaughter of James Adams Perley can be heard on this short YouTube video talking about her memories of her family.  More history about both Bradford and Perley can be read on this link.

 John C Shaffer's Manor House

John C. Shaffer was born in Baltimore and became a newspaper baron who first owned the Chicago Evening Post and a string of Midwest newspapers. After visiting his son, Kent, in Denver, in 1913, Shaffer expanded his empire with the purchase of the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Times, and the Denver Republic Newspaper. He built his own large and beautiful Manor House and did not live in the Bradford Perley House, that was now part of his property but used it as a place to entertain at times. Shaffer named his ranch after his sons, Kent and Carroll, which he shortened to "Ken Caryl Ranch."   Shaffer was an influential man and was a supporter of President Theodore Roosevelt, who visited the Ken Caryl Ranch on occasions. He was also a friend of President Taft and Warren Harding. Unfortunately, Shaffer's fortunes dwindled during the depression and Ken Caryl Ranch was taken over by the banks. Ken Caryl ranch was sold to three other ranchers during the years between 1938 to 1972: Allen, Minissale, and McDannald. None of them lived in the Bradford Perley House, and it fell into disrepair.  More history about the Shaffer year can be read on this link.

Sadly, a fire destroyed the wooded aspects of the Bradford Perley House in 1967, and only the stone frame was left standing.  The Johns Manville Corporation bought the entire ranch property in 1971, and built a campus building which became Lockheed Martin when The Martin Marietta Astronautics Group bought the property in 1987, and a housing community was developed for its employees and was mostly completed in 1997. The further history of the community can be read on this link.

The Ken Caryl Historical Society had the Bradford Perley House listed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties and worked to secure funding to stabilize the structure. In 2002 it was listed on the states most endangered places and repair to the stone walls was done to preserve the house ruins for its historical nature. It was declared "saved in time" in 2006. The Bradford Perley House was placed on the National Register for Historic Places in February 2015.

More photos of the Bradford Perley House ruins.

My granddaughter, looking out a Bradford Perley House window.

The Ken Caryl Historical Society members are the stewards watching over the Bradford Perley House and apple orchard.  We help maintain the properties and conduct tours for interested parties and schoolchildren who are learning about their local history.  We are preserving it for future generations to learn about those who came to this area of Colorado in pioneer days.

Knowing our history enriches our lives and helps us to appreciate our surroundings even more. We can imagine those who rode Bradford's wagon road up into the foothills to seek their fortune and the Perley's ranching days when this was a remote area south west of Denver City. We can appreciate the very land our houses rest on, that was once the large Ken Caryl Ranch of John C. Shaffer, and the subsequent ranchers that came after him.  

The present tells us that we are now a stable Denver suburb that is being surrounded by fast progress and development that has come in recent decades to Colorado.  What will the future bring? That is unpredictable, but we are happy to say that we will do our best to continue to preserve the history of this place for all time.

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