Hawkbells and Horseshoes on the Platte: Colorado's Ellbridge Gerry

Since the 1930s, Colorado historians have found the story of the Indian trader and first permanent resident of northeastern Colorado, Elbridge Gerry, a noteworthy but elusive subject. Although this book purports to be a biography, it is in fact a unique family saga. It can be said to have begun with the Elbridge Gerry who signed the Declaration of Independence, was governor of Massachusetts and Vice President of the United States under President Madison. His great-nephew and namesake came West about 1847 and married into the Sioux clans of Red Kettle and Swift Bird. Working as an Indian trader in the Ward-Guerrier Trading Company out of Fort Laramie and later with James Bordeaux, Gerry set up shop along the South Platte in 1852 at a site eight miles east of present Greeley, where Crow Creek flows into the South Platte. There he developed relationships with the Indians that led to his career as advisor to Territorial Governor John Evans during 1863 and 1864. His service to the Territory during the Indian wars was heroic. He was an entrepreneur who helped establish retail businesses along the South Platte from his home fort to locations in Fort Lupton and Denver. His lasting legacy came from his ranching operations and his love of fine horses. Sons, granddaughters and other descendants--all part Indian--lived the ranchman's life, gaining fame in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and later in early Hollywood westerns. This cultural trail has not often been noted in histories of the West, but Elbridge Gerry's family history carries the reader through the early West of the 1850s and '60s establishing a basis for the romance of the fictionalized West of the Wild West shows as well as Hollywood Westerns depicting the 1880s and 1890s.