Striking it big in Southern Colorado: The brief life of Joseph Doyle
On Memorial Day weekend 1993, a 176-year-old body was buried a second time just southeast of Pueblo city limits.
Joseph Bainbridge Doyle, a man who traded at the original Fort Pueblo and served as a Senator in the Colorado Territorial Legislature, died in 1864 at the age of 46. His grave, located in a family cemetery overlooking a 1,200-acre settlement off Doyle road, was reportedly desecrated some time in February 1987 by unknown vandals.
“What became of his fortune?” wrote local historian Edward Broadhead in a June 1987 edition of the Pueblo Lore. “It is still a mystery. Only a few weeks ago some vandal unearthed his grave, probably looking for buried treasure. After all, there were no banks to keep money safe in that day.”
Doyle was born July 10, 1817 in Mt. Pleasant, Shenandoah County Virginia to Alexander, a veteran of the War of 1812, and Jane Doyle. Shortly after the war, Alexander worked as a merchant in Belleville, Illinois. By 1839, the Doyles were living in St. Louis with 22-year-old Joseph working at Bent, St. Vrain & Company.
Bent, St. Vrain & Company was a fur-trading company founded in 1830 by William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain. They transported furs, buffalo robes, and other goods via wagon train across the Santa Fe Trail from St. Louis, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“Although we have scant records of (Doyle’s) tasks for the Bents, he probably assisted in hunting - the chief source of food for the fort - and in accompanying wagon trains between St. Louis and Santa Fe,” Broadhead wrote.
At the time of Doyle’s employment, Bent, St. Vrain & Company owned stores in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, according to legendsofamerica.com. To expand trade to the indigenous peoples in what is now Colorado, the company established Bent’s Fort in present day Otero County and Fort St. Vrain in present day Weld County.
Following his employment with Bent and St. Vrain, Doyle moved westward into Mexican Territory. In 1844, he established the Hardscrabble settlement south of the Arkansas River in what is now Custer County, Colorado with two men he met at Bent’s Fort; Alexander Barclay and George Simpson.
At Hardscrabble, the men harvested corn and vegetables. For thirsty travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, Hardscrabble was also a destination to trade for an item outlawed in the U.S. claimed territories north of the Arkansas.
“Thus there was no constraint on the whiskey trade which was illegal in the Indian trade in U.S. territory,” Broadhead wrote. “Hardscrabble was at the very extreme northern limit of Mexican lands and the authorities in Santa Fe (and in Mexico City) were practically unaware of the settlement which was illegal in Mexico.”
Doyle married Cruzita Suaso, the younger sister of George Simpson’s wife Maria in 1844. Cruzita was just 13 when she married Doyle. After leaving Hardscrabble in 1846, Doyle moved to Pueblo where he traded at Fort Pueblo on the confluence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek.
“When John Charles Fremont came through Pueblo on his third expedition, he bought some supplies from Joseph Doyle,” Broadhead wrote. “It is not stated clearly how Doyle himself obtained his supplies, but he must have made regular trips to St. Louis which was the only source where supplies were available.”
“This was not a simple trip but took many weeks each year,” Broadhead wrote. “Doyle followed the custom of most traders of taking a partner for a summer, or occasionally for a year or two. His first partner was Alexander Barclay with whom his partnership lasted for ten years until Barclay’s death in 1855.”
After two years in Pueblo, Doyle and Barclay relocated to northern New Mexico where they established the 200-acre Fort Barclay. Doyle left Fort Barclay to establish another settlement south of Fort Pueblo with Charles Autobees in 1853. Doyle and Autobees provided supplies for wagon trains traveling westward to Albuquerque and Salt Lake.
Christmas Day 1854 brought with it the destruction of Fort Pueblo. Distraught by the presence of disease and encroachment on ancestral lands, Utes living in the Arkansas Valley banded together under Chief Tierra Blanco to raid nearby Fort Pueblo with horses stolen from Marcelino Baca’s homestead, according to History Colorado.
“The attack was swift and over quickly,” according to History Colorado. “The Ute killed every man in the Fort, and took the only woman (Chepita Martin) and children (Felix and Juan Isidro, the young sons of Sandoval) as captives.”
After the raid on Fort Pueblo, Doyle retreated to Fort Barclay. Shortly after Alexander Barclay’s death, Doyle sold the fort and purchased 1,200 acres about 26 miles southeast of Pueblo in 1859. The purchase was initially named Casa Blanca, but is today referred to as Doyle Settlement.
A nomination form written to the National Register of Historic Places describes the Doyle Settlement as representative of large settlements of the time period.
“It was a self contained unit which included a main residence, dining facility, store, housing for the laborers, flour mill, blacksmith shop, grainaries, etc.,” according to the nomination form. “... Many of these structures or activities will rank among the first in the area.”
The Doyle School opened shortly after the founding of the Doyle Settlement and closed its doors in 1950. The structure remains standing today, making it the oldest standing schoolhouse in Colorado. Owen J. Goldrick, known as Colorado’s first school teacher, tutored Doyle’s children at the schoolhouse, according to the Smithsonian.
In 1861, Colorado Territory was established. Doyle, along with Autobees and Norton W. Welton, was named a county commissioner for Huerfano County, which comprised most of the southeastern portion of the state at the time. Two years later Doyle was elected to the Territorial Senate representing El Paso, Fremont, Huerfano, and Pueblo counties.
“Doyle was now the richest man in Colorado,” Broadhead wrote. “He moved to Denver on January 2, 1864. He became ill, refused to take the advice of a physician and died on March 4, 1864 in Denver. His death caused great sorrow throughout the state where he had treated everyone honestly and with a friendly concern.”
Doyle’s gravesite, an eight-feet-deep burial in a private family cemetery on the grounds of his settlement, remained undisturbed until the 1987 incident. Doyle would be reburied in a 1993 ceremony, but his skull was never found, Gail Pitts wrote in a May 29, 1993 edition of the Pueblo Chieftain.
“It was felt by all that when Joseph Doyle’s bones are returned and reburied, he will not be bothered for at least another 123 years,” Edward Simonich wrote in an October 1987 edition of the Pueblo Lore. “Maybe at that time, if it happens again, members of the Pueblo CAS will again salvage the grave site.”