Greeley History Museum

5 days ago

In May 1936, George Hodgson, former county commissioner and pioneer of Weld County, was appointed curator of the Meeker Museum to succeed A. B. Copeland who had died in March. During the interim, Mrs. Mary Geffs was acting curator. Mrs. Geffs, a historian in her own right and author of the book “Under Ten Flags, A History of Weld County, Colorado” took the Denver Post to task for a news dispatch they published from Ignacio. Buckskin Charlie, of the Ute Indian Tribe, had died and it stated that he was the leader of the party that rescued the women abducted during the so called “Meeker Massacre.” Geffs refuted the Buckskin Charlie statement with documented information and then asked the question, “why did the dispatch speak of the White River tragedy as a ‘so called’ massacre? What did it lack of the real thing?” The so called “Meeker Massacre” controversy is still relevant to today‘s historians with many different and justified points of view. The Hazel E. Johnson Archives has documents, books, and photographs encompassing this 1879 episode in Colorado’s history that has a direct link to Greeley.

Pictured: Josephine Meeker, Flora Ellen Price, and her children, Johnnie and May, after the Meeker Massacre and their release. ... See MoreSee Less

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