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a proud part of USGenWeb®
I am
Rebecca
Maloney, Temporary Webmistress and Coordinator for Weld County, Colorado.
I hope you enjoy your visit. Please email me if you have any suggestions
or contributions you would like to make.
Weld County is one of the original Colorado Counties. In 1872 the eastern part was split off to form the short-lived Platte County. When Platte County was dissolved in 1874, Weld County reverted to its 1861 borders. In 1887 the eastern part was split off to form Logan and Washington Counties. In 1889 the southeastern corner was split off to form Morgan County. In November 2001, a small portion of southwest Weld County was split off to help create Broomfield County.
Before the coming of white men, it is known that various nomadic Indian tribes inhabited eastern Colorado. These included Cheyenne, Arapaho, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Pawnee, Kiowa, Sioux, and Ute.
The first explorers to the region were Spanish. The Spaniards created settlements in southern Colorado and claimed the land in the name of Spain. Later French trappers and missionaries visited the area.
Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States government sent explorers to the area to assess the potential of the land.
The accounts given by the explorers were unfavorable as the area ever being worth anything as far as agriculture is concerned. The area where Weld County is today became known as the Great American Desert.
In the 1830's and 1840's fur trading posts were built along the South Platte River in what is now Weld County. The posts, Fort Lupton, Fort Jackson, Fort Vasquez, and Fort Saint Vrain were stocked with items to trade to Indians for beaver skins. The decline in the demand for beaver brought an end to the commercial use of the forts.
By the 1840's a few settlers were living in Weld County. The numbers of settlers increased between 1840 to 1860. At that time the area was part of Nebraska Territory. Because the capital of Nebraska Territory was distant, residents felt that legal protections for their land claims needed to be nearer to home. The Saint Vrain Club was formed by residents near the abandoned Fort Saint Vrain. It was the start of Saint Vrain County,the forerunner of Weld County.
In 1861 Colorado was declared a territory by President Lincoln. The territory was
divided into 17 counties.Weld County was the northeastern part of Colorado Territory. The county was named after
Lewis Ledyard Weld, Colorado Territory Secretary.
The Pony Express and later the Union Pacific routes cut across the northeastern corner of Weld County.
With the coming of the Union Pacific, Weld County was about to flourish.
I hope you find my efforts helpful in your research of Weld County roots. I am unable to do additional research on your family as I live in Western Colorado and do not have direct access to records. I post everything I have for all to use.
Make sure you check the "Research Resources" section! There are books on line, helpful links, look up volunteers and local researchers to help you out.
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We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."
by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943."
Friday - An Arapahoe Leader
1860 First County Courthouse
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
Coordinator - AVAILABLE
State Coordinator: Colleen Pustola
Asst. State Coordinators: Rebecca Maloney - Betty Baker - M.D. Monk
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please to not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research.
