Berthoud Weekly Surveyor January 30, 2014 Page 5
A LOOK AT BERTHOUD
Civil War veteran is namesake of McIntyre Lateral ditch C
aptain J.W. McIntyre came to the Little Thompson Valley when the Berthoud settlement was located at its original site on the river bottom. In 1877 he took over a quarter-section of land at the southwest corner Surveyor of present-day Columnist Weld County Road 3 and Weld County Road 46 that had been relinquished by another homesteader. In 1880 McIntyre received the deed to his farm even though he had Mark lived there three years instead French of the five required by the Homestead Act. McIntyre, a Civil War veteran and traveling salesman, later sold
the farm that had only cost him the $10 filing fee and moved his family to Fort Collins. Josiah Wheeler McIntyre was born in New York state in 1839. He spent his boyhood on a farm in Pennsylvania and completed a course in business training at Pittsburgh Commercial College as a young man. At the time of his passing in 1892 his obituary noted: “Josiah W. McIntyre enlisted as a private volunteer in the Union Army Aug. 30, 1862 and was attached to Co. N of the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry. While going to the front, the regiment was attached to fighting Joe Hooker’s command, doing valiant service throughout the war. Soon after entering the field Mr. McIntyre was promoted and made color-bearer of the regiment. At the battle of Shepardstown, Va., during the hottest of the fight, he was seen to fall from his horse. Shot in the face near his left eye, in the left wrist and left hip, flesh mangled and torn, he was left on the field for dead by his fast-fleeing comrades. The pursuing Confederates found him still
THE DOWNTON ABBEY COLLECTION
alive and hastily picking him up, sent him to the rear with hundreds of other prisoners captured that day. The next day they were all sent south, our brave color-bearer, more dead than alive, with the rest. He was given such care and attention as the Confederates were able to bestow upon our wounded heroes. Fortunately, an exchange of prisoners took place shortly afterwards and Mr. McIntyre was sent north where, with a change of scene and better treatment supplemented by a vigorous constitution, he rapidly recovered. He again went to the front, serving all through the war with honor and distinction, coming home at the close of the conflict with a captain’s commission in his pocket. He carried to the day of his death two rebel bullets in his body and could show scars of seventeen other wounds made by relentless minnies and remorseless sabers. After his discharge from the Union Army in 1866 McIntyre moved to Missouri where he pursued a business career and studied law. In 1870 he was elected judge of Caldwell County, an office he held until the fall of 1877 when he brought his family to a homestead northeast of Berthoud that had been relinquished by Sam Gulick. Several months later April 1878 McIntyre moved his family from his Berthoud farm to the town of Fort Collins where he resumed a
career as a traveling dry goods salesman. In 1881 the Fort Collins Courier reported, “Capt. McIntyre left Wednesday for the San Juan country in the interest of the wholesale clothing house of Chas. P. Kellogg & Company. The Captain will make the whole trip with a team.” McIntyre maintained possession of his Berthoud farm until at least 1884 when the Fort Collins Courier reported in its “Berthoud Farm and Stock Notes” that he was “fattening onehundred hogs on chopped wheat and alfalfa.” Photo by Mark French By 1885 the severe Weld County Rd. 3 that borwounds McIntyre sufders the west side of Capt. fered in the Civil War led J.W. McIntyre’s homestead to the loss of his eyesight. is now notable for the line of With the assistance of his towering power poles that daughter, who served as runs along its course. When his reader and amanuen- McIntyre homesteaded the sis, McIntyre then moved land in1877 it was necessary to Ann Arbor where he to haul water two miles from attended the University Little Thompson creek for the of Michigan and earned family’s domestic use. a law degree. In 1890 he opened a law practice in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, that he conducted until his sudden death two years later at the age of 53. The legacy of Capt. J.W. McIntyre; who was a soldier, dry goods salesman, homesteader, judge and lawyer, endures today in the form of the McIntyre Lateral ditch that has delivered water to his farm from the Handy Ditch since 1881. What role McIntyre played in the construction of the ditch is not known, but his efforts must have been notable since the ditch was named for him. While McIntyre moved to the Midwest to be educated as a lawyer, after his death in 1892 his body was returned to Colorado where he was buried at Grandview Cemetery at Fort Collins. His wife Lucy, who survived him by 48 years, is buried by his side.
Berthoud El student is district spelling bee champion By Surveyor Staff Berthoud Elementary School fifth grader Adrian Reghitto, 10, endured 14
rounds and outlasted 26 other students at the fourth annual Thompson School District Elementary School Spelling Bee on Saturday, Jan. 25.
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COME UNW ND WITH US!
Photo by Becky Justice-Hemmann
Dennis Bevins, national sales manager for Andover Fabrics, visited the Laughing Ladies Quilt Shop on Saturday and did a presentation on Andover’s Downton Abbey Collection, a collection of fabric from the popular TV show, “Downton Abbey.” Bevins showed videos from Downton Abbey and also a video featuring the current owner of Highclere Castle the Countess of Carnarvon. Quilts and clothing using fabrics from the collection were on display. Call 532-2130 to be added to the email list for future events.
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“I was surprised that they had to move back the start of the middle school spelling bee,” Reghitto said, because the elementary students competed for nearly two hours. In the end, Reghitto spelled his way to first place. As well, Turner Middle School student Elizabeth Netschke came in second place at the 17th annual Thompson School District Middle School Spelling Bee held the same day. Both events were held at Walt Clark Middle School in Loveland. Students from Ivy Stockwell, Berthoud Elementary and Turner Middle School participated, along with students from 19 other Thompson elementary schools and five additional middle schools. The elementary bee was held the morning of Jan. 25 and the middle school students competed in the afternoon. The elementary students took a 50-word written test with the top qualifiers proceeding to the oral round. Trophies were awarded for first, second and third places. The middle school spellers took a 75-word written test and then competed in the oral round. The top six spellers in the middle school division qualify to compete at the state spelling bee which will be held in Denver on March 8.
Photo by John Gardner
Berthoud Elementary School fifth grader Adrian Reghitto, 10, was all smiles at school on Monday, Jan. 27, after taking first place at the fourth annual Thompson School District Elementary School Spelling Bee on Jan. 25.