Unidentified newspaper clipping

Stone Cabin To Be Heated

Next winter the only telltale sign indicating that the oldest private building in Fort Collins has gone modern with natural gas heat will be a gentlehissing sound coming from an old coal stove in the center of the Aunty Stone Cabin.

And this has been accomplished without the pioneer cabin losing its authenticity or charm.

Several months ago, the Fort Collins Pioneer Museum contacted Don Cammack, Public Service Company's Customer Service Representative, concerning some type of heating for the cabin that would not detract from its appearance. While investigating possible gas fuel line locations through the Museum basement a very old, three door coal heater was discovered among some non cataloged antiques. Neither the present curator nor the retired curator knew of the donor nor of the history of the old stove, but "it had always been there in the basement since anyone could remember."

Converted to Gas

After a phone call to R. H. Freeman, Manager Gas Distribution, and Fred G atton, Gas Utilization Engineer, the stove was shipped to Denver for conversion. Public Service Company of Colorado refurbished the stove arid converted it to burn natural gas. It is being used as the primary source of heat in the cabin.

Before returning the stove to the Colorado State Historical Society, it was checked out for safety and efficiency and passed all tests with flying colors. In addition to installing a gas burner (of the type used in water heaters), Public Service Company Gas Testing Lab gave it a thorough cleaning, a good polishing and replaced the isinglass.

Built in 1864 by Judge Lewis and Elizabeth (Aunty) Stone, the cabin had a proud beginning and now has a promising future. However, in between these periods it did suffer some indignities not usually associated with such an eminent landmark.

When first built, it was located on the south side of the 300 block of Jefferson Street, facing the Army post of Fort Collins (nee Camp Collins) and was used as the Stone's private home. Aunty Stone and her husband moved from St. Cloud, Minn., to Colorado in 1862 by a wagon team consisting of two cows yoked as oxen (the cows provided milk and butter, the latter produced by the motion of the wagon). After a short stay in Denver, they located a claim in the St. Vrain Valley. They moved into their new cabin in Fort Collins in September 1864, about a month before Army troops fully occupied the Fort Collins station.

Boarding House

Army troops stationed at the new fort were sent thereto protect farmers and ranchers in the area and to protect wagon trains and stagecoaches from marauding Indians and outlaws along the Overland Trail between Denver and Laramie, Wyo., a major jumping off point to the Oregon Trail. The fort opened in 1864 and was deactivated in March 1867.

After having served first as the Stone's home, Mrs. Stone used it as a boarding house for Army officers stationed at the Fort for several years. Later, after Mr. Stone died in 1866, it was used for a number of years as Fort Collins' first hotel. It also hpcame the first school in Fort Collins when Aunty Stone's niece, Elizabeth Keays, taught a small class of children in her room in the cabin in the summer of 1865. Her niece achieved another first in 1866 when she was a partner in the first wedding ceremony to be performed in Fort Collins.

The cabin lost some of its glitter in 1873 when Aunty Stone sold the building. It was disassembled and rebuilt on the southeast corner of the intersection of West Mountain Avenue and Mason Street. It was used at this location as a part of the Agricultural Hotel, having been relegated to a kitchen and laundry for the next four years.

In 1877 the cabin returned to its former glory as a private home and remained that way until 1907 when it suffered the ignominious fate of being converted into a paint shop.

In 1909 it was bought by the Fort Collins Pioneer Women's Society and moved to the 200 block of South Mason Street, then county property. It was used primarily as a meeting place for the Fort Collins Pioneer Association and the Pioneer Women's Society.

After this site was sold by the county to the First National Bank in Fort Collins, the Pioneer Women's Society sold the cabin to the city of Fort Collins in 1959. At that time it was moved to its present location in Lincoln Park, 219 Peterson Street.

The cabin is now part of the Fort Collins Pioneer Museum complex. Nearby is the Antoine Janis Cabin, built in 1844 in Laporteby a French trapper who also served as an Army guide and scout. Janis lived in it until 1878 when he and his Sioux wife moved to the Fine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Aunty Stone Cabin will be warmer this winter with gas stove.

Antoine Janis Cabin built in LaPorte in 1844.

Stove rebuilt by Public Service Company (Photos by Dick Spahr)