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Welby Truck Farms Were Pride of County: From “Adams County Crossroads of the West Volume II” by Albin Wagner.
Globe Smelter, the youngest of Denver’s three giant smelters, was built in 1889 by the Globe Smelting and Refining Co., headed by Dennis Sheddy, on the site of the earlier Holden Smelter on Watervleit Ave. (now North Washington St.), just north of the present Adams County line. A number of small houses, known as Sheddy Row, and the four-story Globe Hotel were constructed nearby to house employees of the smelter.
In 1889, the Globe Smelter, along with the Omaha and Grant Smelter and others across the nation, became part of the American Smelting and Refining Company.
The Germans from Russia and the Slavs that worked at the Globe Smelter lived in the town of Globeville south of the smelter (now part of Denver), while the Italians settled north of the smelter, where they supplemented their wages by growing vegetables on small truck gardens on the irrigated bottom lands along Clear Creek. Many of the families in the Welby area today are descendants of these farmers.
In 1909, the town of Welby was laid out on the north side of Clear Creek on what was known as “the hill area” by the Denver Laramie Realty Company, a subsidiary of the Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railway. The town included 20 blocks.
Welby was named for Arthur E. Welby, first vice president of the Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railway. Arthur Welby was born in Georgetown, South Africa and was educated in South Africa, Ireland, and England. He began his railroading career in Canada in 1872. In 1881 he helped Gen. William Palmer push the Denver and Rio Grande through the Royal Gorge. He became superintendent of the Denver and Rio Grande western in 1890.
From 1902 to 1904 Welby was general manager of the Cerreo de Pasco Railroad in Lima, Peru, returning to the Denver and Rio Grande system until 1908, when he was made vice president of the new Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railway. He died in Denver August 8, 1909 as a result of a diabetes attack, shortly after the railroad got started.
The Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railway was incorporated by four Laramie, Wyoming businessmen in Wyoming in 1906. It was to run from Denver to Seatt1e, Washington via Laramie and Yellowstone National Park. Construction began in May 1908 from Utah Junction along the west bank of the Platte River north to Welby, Patron (Riverdale), Poor Farm (now the site of the Adams County Regional Park), and Celeryvale (Z. J. Fort’s farm west of Brighton).
Milliken was another town the railroad established. It was named for Judge John D. Milliken, a Kansas lawyer who later moved to Denver, who secured much of the financial backing for the railroad. At Milliken the Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railway ran out of money. Undeterred, it reorganized as the Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railroad Co. (incorporated in Wyoming, February 1910) and began passenger service between Denver and Greeley with two modernistic looking gas-powered McKeen cars three months later. To reach Greeley it established the Greeley Terminal Railway, a separate subsidiary incorporated in Colorado, June 1909.
The company lost money from the very beginning. By 1912 the railroad was in receivership and in 1917 it was sold to a Denver junk dealer. He sold the half of the railroad north of Wattenberg to the Great Western Railway, a subsidiary of the Great Western Sugar Co., which used the tracks to haul sugar beets to its factories. The McKeen cars were used by the Great Western for passenger service until 1926. In 1947 most of the tracks south of Milliken were removed and in 1970 the Great Western removed the last remaining section of the old Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railroad.
At a meeting in Welby on November 12, 1911, 40 Welby families voted to build a church and rectory in Welby. Bishop Nicholas Matz of Denver supported the project and assigned the new parish to Father Joseph Bosetti, a young priest who had just came from Rome after completing his studies in Switzerland and France.
An acre of land was purchased from the Denver, Laramie and Northwestern Railroad Co. on December 4, 1911 and work on the new church was begun right away by the contractor, Nicola Flanti. The church was dedicated to “Our Blessed Mother under her title of the Assumption” on May 12, 1912.
In October, 1912 Bishop Matz invited the Servite Fathers, already serving Mt. Carmel Church in Denver, the pioneer Italian church in this area, to take charge of Assumption Church in Welby. Since there was no parish house or rectory, the Fathers lived in the rear of the church next to the Sacristy until 1916, when the popular pastor, Father Stanislaus Giambastiani (better know as Father John) built the first parish house, helped by a good neighbor Henry Cline, who donated the land and served as contractor for the work.
Cline School across the road from the Assumption Church was already a Welby landmark. It was built in 1884 on land donated by railroader David Moffat and was named after Henry Cline, one of the area’s first settlers, who built the existing school. The little four room schoolhouse served the Welby area until 1955 when old School District 16, which included Rankin School to the west, was consolidated with Adams County District I and the students were transferred to the new Lucy Auld School near E. 78th Ave. and Washington St.
The schoolhouse served as several restaurants and a recreation center for Assumption parish, before the building was purchased in 1977 by Community Corporation, which renovated it as an Adams County rehabilitation facility specializing in programs for people with physical or emotional handicaps.
By 1920 about 300 Italian families lived in the small 10 square mile area of Welby. To meet the needs of the growing population, Father John organized Assumption School and built a two-story schoolhouse. The Sisters of the Order of the Servants of Mary were invited to teach the school and arrived in August, 1920.
Father John and his assistant moved into the dressing rooms in the school and turned over the parish house to the Sisters until work on the convent was finished in August, 1922.
Vegetables grown in the Welby area became famous throughout the county. To insure fair prices for their crops, the families in the area organized the Vegetable Producers Cooperative Association (better known as the “Garden Association”) on July 28, 1923, under the leadership of Caesar A. Gerah, a born organizer who had prepared for the priesthood in his younger days. The association was one of the earliest endeavors at cooperative vegetable marketing in Colorado.
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A new facade was added to Assumption Church in 1942. In September, 1947 Father John had the walls of the old Assumption Church torn down to begin construction of the present church building. The children helped clean the bricks for reuse in the new church which was designed by J.K. Monroe and built by Elder Construction Co. The newer facade was retained and a second tower was added, similar to t he first. The new church was dedicated on April 27, 1948.
Another pastor who gave many years of service to Welby was Father Angelicus M. Barsi, O.S.M. After being ordained a priest in Italy in 1910, he came to Canada in 1912 and then to the United States in 1919. He was in Welby from 1924 to 1938 and died in the foreign missions in Swaziland, South Africa in 1949. Father Barsi was a student of philosophy and political science, an accomplished poet and musician, and a priest of Franciscan simplicity. He introduced fine music into the masses at Assumption Church and did much to promote pride in Italian heritage and culture in the community.
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The newly organized Welby Volunteer Fire Department, which was testing fire extinguishers in the Welby Mercantile Co., prevented Assumption School from burning down in February, 1931.
A flood early Sunday, September 10, 1933 caused an estimated $100,000 damage in the Welby area. A meeting of 100 indignant farmers was held front of Frank Ciancio’s grocery Sunday afternoon. Addressed by Ciancio and Major Alphonse P. Ardourel of the forest conservation camp, they called for federal flood control.
The Welby Community Improvement Association was organized in February, 1937 with Frank Ciancio as president. One of their first acts was to petition the commissioners of Adams County to oil the road from Welby to Denver (now York St.).
When the Adams County Planning Commission was first organized March 25, 1940, Frank Ciancio was elected as its first chairman.
References:
- Golden Jubilee Program. Welby: Assumption Church, 1962.
- Arthur Welby. Obituary. Denver Republican. August 9, 1909.
- Ron Rood, Gary Mohr, and Kent Minor. “History of the Welby Area and the Cline School.” The Forgotten Past of Adams County. Thornton: Thornton High School, 1975.
WHAT IS WELBY’S HISTORY? (following includes excerpts from “Italy in Colorado” by Alisa Zahller, 2008, Colorado Historical Society)
In 1908, Welby started as a farm town that sprouted up along the planned Denver, Laramie & Northwestern Railroad. New homes filled up as Italians who once worked in mining and railroading ventured into vegetable farming. Their farms were initially small (about five acres) and produced green onions, carrots, celery, etc. By the 1920s, more than 300 Italian families were doing small-scale “truck farming” in the Welby area.
Opened in 1912, the Assumption Church at 78th & York continues to bring the community together through religious services, an annual bazaar, spaghetti dinners, and is host of the annual Welby Days event.
Until the late 1940s, Welby truck farms produced much of the produce sold at Denver City’s Market and Denargo Market. By the 1950s, grocery store chains, the trucking industry, and the development of Adams County land had pushed the truck-farm era of Welby into decline.
Over the years, Welby has become one of the most diverse communities in Adams County. Diverse in its people and its commerce. The people of Welby are comprised of many ethnicities and economic backgrounds. Welby is also a strong source of commerce and jobs, in part due to its central location and immediate access to major roadways.