Public Health References
CDC * Colorado * Jefferson County * City of Golden
Coronavirus report from Jeffco Public Health’s Case Summary Page, as of 3PM Monday:
Cases in Jeffco
Monday: 2843 | Tuesday: 2876
Deaths in Jeffco
Monday: 212 | Tuesday: 213
Ever Hospitalized in Jeffco
Monday: 427 | Tuesday: 430 (currently 8)
Recovered
Monday: 2446 | Tuesday: 2480
Known Cases in Golden
Monday: 114 | Tuesday: 122
The Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors protocol is in effect. City and County fire restrictions are in place. The City is requiring masks on public property unless you’re six feet apart and the Creek is fenced off. See the City’s website for more details….
Virtual Golden
9-10AM Virtual Power Training
10:15-11:15AM Let’s Dance with the Library
8PM Wednesday Watch Party with the Library – Tonight’s Movie: McLintock
6-7:30PM Golden Anti-Racism Collective (GAC) Meeting via Zoom
6PM City Council – Special Meeting – Virtual
City Council has scheduled a special meeting tonight to discuss a proposed ordinance regarding masks during the pandemic. The proposed ordinance includes the following:
(1) All persons shall wear a Face Covering upon entering, and at all times while inside a place of business that is Open to the Public.
(2) All persons shall wear Face Coverings in those areas for which smoking is prohibited pursuant to Golden Municipal Code Section 5.11.030 (2) in circumstances where such person is not able to Maintain Safe Social Distancing from others not of their own household.
(3) All persons shall wear a Face Covering when using any form of public transportation within the City.
Read the full ordinance here. The reason for the special meeting is the need to have a “first reading” of an ordinance before it can be passed. The second reading will take place at tomorrow night’s regular meeting.
You can submit comment on the ordinance by sending an email to councilcomments@cityofgolden.net before 5PM.
The meeting can be viewed on the city’s website, or on GCO.tv and Comcast Channel 8 or 880 (HD).
Real Life Golden
3:30-5:30PM Vaccine, License & Microchip Clinic
5PM Hike to Happy Hour
Golden History Moment
Victorian etiquette dictated that “A woman’s name should appear in the newspaper only three times–when she is born, when she marries, and when she dies.” (This philosophy has since been superseded by “Well-behaved women rarely make history.”)
That earlier dictate makes it hard to research the lives and activities of Victorian-era women, so I was very glad to receive the following article from Paul Haseman.
Helen Berthoud – Loved Golden Pioneer
by Paul Haseman
Golden streets speak to the history of a growing city. Golden was first platted in 1859 by F. W. Beebe showing few streets. Later the survey was expanded with a recorded 1863 plat map apparently done by Edward Berthoud and his Union College fraternity brother, Silas Burt. Silas had married Nettie Ferrell in 1855 and Edward Berthoud married her sister, Helen, a year later. Good friends, indeed!
Their wives’ parents were John and Jeanette Ferrell, who in 1859 relocated to early Golden, where they opened and operated Golden’s first hotel, the one-story Miners Hotel, at now Washington and 11th Street where Clear Creek Commons now stands.
Ferrell also built a toll bridge across Clear Creek on Washington at the same location as it is today – although several reconstructions later. Kind of like George Washington’s cherry tree axe after 200 years – two new heads and three new handles.
Meanwhile, Edward and Helen were still in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, in 1859 but the siren’s call of gold discovery and with Helen’s parents already in Golden, a ten-day wagon trek found the two sisters and their husbands in Golden on 18 April 1860. With Berthoud’s expertise as a surveyor, it is no surprise that he and Sy Burt might set about supplementing the initial survey of Golden. Likewise, in doing this layout work, what would be more normal than to name some of the new ungraded and uninhabited (“paper”) streets after their wives and mother-in-law? Why not? Do the survey work – name the streets. So, on the map appeared Helen, Nettie and Jeanette Streets.
At the time, those streets were just lines on the map but that would change. We know these three streets today as the principal streets on the Mines Campus – Illinois, Maple and Elm Streets. So, when and why did these streets named after Golden pioneer women get renamed? It would never happen today. But it happened in 1904 with “Indignation being manifested among the old timers at the changing of names of certain streets in the city . . . having been originally named for . . . the earliest and most highly esteemed pioneer ladies of the town.” (Transcript, 3/9 and 6/29/1905).
Principal among them was Helen Samaria Ferrell Berthoud, who apart from her husband, Edward Berthoud was an outstanding historical figure in her own right. Born 19 October 1830 in New York State, she completed a liberal arts program at Terre Haute, Indiana, and later lived with her parents in Logansport, Indiana, where she married Edward Berthoud on 28 February 1856. Arriving in Golden four years later, Helen instantly made a major impact to the newborn community, bringing civility and kindness while she assisted in the operation of her parents’ Miners Hotel.
And in 1862, when her husband answered the clarion call to duty at a Union Army officer, Helen went with him. She served as a field nurse during Capt. Berthoud’s combat operations with the Second Colorado Volunteer Infantry in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri from 1862-1865 ministering to the wounded in field hospitals and in camp. This began her legacy of service to the troops, continuing after the war with her service as an officer with the Golden chapter of the Women’s Relief Corps, W.R.C. No. 5, which was an adjunct of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), similar to today’s American Legion. Helen Berthoud also was a stalwart member of Golden’s Calvary Church.
With many friends, Helen entertained often at her home. The Colorado Transcript reported following a typical party “the general verdict, as with all parties given by Mrs. Berthoud, was “they had a splendid time.” (25 August 1886)
In keeping with her commitments to her church and the W.R.C., Helen proposed a group home for indigent and disabled soldiers and sailors. This goal was fulfilled shortly after Helen’s untimely death at 56 on 2 August 1887, when Ed Berthoud donated a house and lot to establish the Helen Berthoud Hospital to serve as a home for servicemen, who have served in the Civil War. The State took over operation of this home and relocated it. The Home continues today as the Colorado State Veterans Center. Thank you, Helen.
Helen Berthoud was remembered by Transcript publisher, George West, as “Always foremost in every good work in the community during her long residence among us, and won the hearts of every one with whom she came in contact.” Her funeral at Calvary Church was the largest in the history of Golden. She is buried in Golden Cemetery where her husband joined her thirty years later in 1908.
Golden must do more to honor the contributions and sacrifice of Golden’s pioneer women.
[Note. Appreciate the assistance on this article of Richard Gardner.]
Paul Haseman and Donna Anderson are writing a book called “Golden Rocks! The Geology and Mining History of Golden, Colorado,” which is targeted for completion by year-end
