Founder stories: Charles Dunbar Pt. 1
I am going to put the disclaimers up front today. My subject of history today has no ties to the present-day Dunbar family of Meeker. However, some families like to claim famous or infamous relatives as some spice to their family trees. Who doesn’t want to be related to a king or pirate?
Charles Dunbar is remembered in Meeker as one of our mystery Town founders. We have no pictures to hang of him on the White River Museum wall. Charlie was here early enough and had enough cash to invest in shares of the original Meeker Town Company. The company had 20 shareholders. Mrs. Susan C. Wright bought 40 shares which gave her a 1/25 interest in the Town Company. The town company spent their capital on surveying lots, incorporating itself in Garfield County, and applying for a patent (a purchase from the U.S. government). It took about two years to get clear title for the lots they were already selling. The Utes had given up the land in a forced treaty (is there another kind?) but the government bureaucracy was dragging their feet in declaring it public domain.
One of the original shareholders, the promoter, D. M. Richards from Denver, had already left Meeker before it became an official town in 1885. Remember Mr. Richards, he plays a key role late in Charlie Dunbar’s story. Meeker predates Rio Blanco County by six years. I am going to begin Charlie’s story at his end. Charles Dunbar was shot in Meeker in the middle of a fight among the many drunks filling the town on election day, Nov. 6, 1883. The facts are in dispute, depending on which side of the fight you were on. The surveillance cameras were malfunctioning and Garfield County Sheriff’s Department couldn’t afford body cameras.
I would like to use Ed Wilbur’s account of the melee. Ed was serving as temporary help behind Charlie’s Bar. Election day was traditionally an excuse for men (the only voters before women’s suffrage) to buy votes at the local pub with beer and the usual fine whisky imported all the way from Rawlins or Leadville. Meeker was no different. Ed Wilber is quoted: The man that started this Meeker Hotel, Charlie Dunbar, was running a bar room and lodge. The day before the election, Charlie said, “Ed, I want you to help me behind the bar,” and I said, “ I don’t know a dern thing about it,” and he said, “Well, I don’t either, but you can wash and dry glasses” So I go “Maj” [Newton Major, manager of Hugus and Major] to let me off for that afternoon, and this same afternoon Pete Stewart shot Charlie. It happened this way: The boys were full, all had been celebrating, and Dick, a friend of Charlie’s and mine, was too full, so we took him to bed. Later Charlie said, “Ed, go and see if Dick is in bed.” I did, and he wasn’t, so I came back and told Charlie. The Wilson boys and fellers from down the river, had it in for Dunbar, and so when Charlie went down there, [Pete] Stewart had Dick pasted against the wall, and beating him. Charlie grabbed Stewart, and pasted him in the eye, then he, Charlie, took Dick and started out the door with him. Dick caught hold of the door—meanwhile Stewart came to, and when Charlie turned to loosen Dick’s hold, Stewart shot in the corner of Charlie’s mustache, and the bullet lodged in his cheek.” That was Ed Wilber’s point of view. I have seen later versions that characterize this as an Old West gambling dispute.
Charlie was known to gamble, but I am inclined to believe, as barman, he might have been too busy to be gambling that day. Regardless of opinion, I could find no first-hand account that mentioned gambling as a cause of the scuffle. Depending on which newspaper account, Charlie could have been shot inside the saloon, out in the street, in the doorway, shot in the mustache/cheek, between the eyes, in the body. It was written up a cold-blooded murder or self-defense by Stewart. The only facts that newspapers could agree on were that Charlie died instantaneously and that Pete Stewert was the confessed killer. This Wild West thriller to be continued NEXT WEEK.
My thanks to the Rio Blanco Historical Society and Ellen Reichart.
By ED PECK | Special to the HT
