| In Meeker, Colorado he ranched among the Ute Indians for several years
and taught school for two. Kittie Hall Fairfield was a girl in Meeker
and with friends found an Indian mummy tied in a tree. They brought
it to the Coal Creek schoolhouse, but her teacher, Mr. Charley Grimes,
made them put it right back in the tree! It was up Coal
Creek, about five miles east of Meeker, that Sheriff Kendall rode in 1887
to arrest a Ute Indian thief leading to the last Indian trouble in northwestern
Colorado. Charles participated in the defense of the community.
One day in late 1888 or early 1889, Reverend Arthur L. Williams, rector of Saint James Episcopal Church in Meeker, while hunting and exploring, came upon a log cabin in the woods. As was customary in those days the latchstring was hanging out. The minister entered and proceeded to cook some dinner and eat. He noticed a large number of books in the cabin of a nature that indicated a cultivated mind far above average. He became interested in learning who in that godforsaken neck of the woods could enjoy such literature. He waited until Grimes appeared, and immediately a warm friendship sprang up between the two men. Reverend Williams found Grimes to be religiously inclined, and soon prevailed upon him to enter the church and ministerial work. |
Defenders of Meeker during the Indian Troubles 1887 |
