No, not George Washington, our first President, but George S. Hazen, one of Meeker’s founding fathers. One of our earliest settlers and owners of the Meeker Town Company. Our George may not have been as colorful as Washington. I do not know if he owned any wooden false teeth or chopped down a cherry tree. He had the pioneer spirit to take him West at a time when things in the Dakotas, Wyoming and Northwest Colorado were unsettled and your life was in your own hands. Transportation was rough and slow. Railroads were far away. Supplies were freighted in from Rawlins, Wyoming. The closest big military posts were in Dakota Territory, and Nebraska Territory. There was a fort along the Oregon Trail at Laramie.
George was from a respected family in Ohio. He was born Sept. 17, 1837, in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio. His brother William was a career officer in the Army who had won recognition during the Indian Wars of the Southwest before the Civil War. Both brothers served in the Civil War. George advanced during the war to First Lt. with the 9th Independent Battalion, Ohio Light Infantry. George was discharged April 28, 1864, due to asthma he contracted in March 1862 in London, Kentucky.
He married Pauline Lamson on Sept. 21, 1858, and had two daughters: Agnes Eveline and Grace Evangeline Hazen in Ohio before the Civil War broke out and he enlisted in Cleveland, Ohio, on Oct. 10, 1861. At some point in time, George, Pauline and the girls headed west. Pauline died in Fremont, Nebraska on Jan. 17, 1871. I am not sure where the family was for the next nine years, but George and his brother William reappeared on the 1880 Census in Fort Buford, Dakota Territory. Fort Buford was named after General John Buford who died during the Civil War. ( A strange connection to our Buford, Colorado?) William later accused the Army of banishing him to this remote post in retaliation for publishing comments about his superiors including the Secretary of the Army. I guess the Dakota Territory then was the equivalent of the Aleutian Islands of later years. The Army never changes. Tick somebody in the chain of command off and get sent somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
The Census taker was listed as none other than George Hazen himself. I rather think George had a sense of humor. He listed himself as “postmaster” and his brother George as “soldier.” He intentionally forgot to mention that his brother William was a Colonel at the post and formerly a Major General in the Civil War. Fort Buford is now a State Park in North Dakota best known as the place where Sitting Bull surrendered on July 19, 1881. William B. Hazen was not at Ft. Buford at the surrender. In July 1880, William had been officially detached to be commanding officer at the White River Garrison in Colorado. He did not stay long at this remote location. In March of 1881, James Garfield, a personal friend, took office and William B. Hazen was back in political favor. He was recalled to Washington, D.C., where he accepted the appointment to Chief of the Army Signal Corps. According to the Sept. 5, 1885 edition of the Meeker Herald, George S. Hazen came here with the military establishment. Presumably that meant with his brother William from Fort Buford to the infant settlement surrounding the Camp on the White River and stayed there after his illustrious brother left for Washington. George was in perfect position to make something of himself. His brother, William had suggested to the Postal Department that George be made postmaster of the new Meeker Post office. George was here in 1883 when the ball started rolling in the formation of the Town of Meeker Company. In September of 1885, George proved up on a homestead in 1 North, 94 West.
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK, when George is arrested and taken to Glenwood for arraignment.
By ED PECK – Special to the Herald times
