125 years in Montrose County history: The first official courthouse, attorneys and judges

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth installment in a 17-part series looking at 125 years of history in Montrose County.

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By 1885, our county government felt the need for an official courthouse. They purchased what was the town roller skating rink on the corner of Selig and Third Street (now Main). The one-story, long frame building served the county’s needs until 1923. A little stone jail was built in the alley behind the courthouse and remains there today at the back of Ace Hardware.

Some of the pioneer lawyers who worked in Montrose County in 1887 were F. D. Catlin, Hugo Selig, John C. Bell, Frank Goudy, John Gray, Thomas Black, N. G. Clark, Nat Young, Sam Baker, Robert Wilson and George Simmonds, the first appointed county judge. Later came S. S. Sherman, L.F. Twitchell, Ben Griffith and C. J. Moynihan.  

Bell was elected to the District bench in 1888 and while judge of the district court was elected to Congress at least five consecutive times. He was later appointed to the Court of Appeals and after it was abolished, he returned to Montrose and continued to practice law.

Judge John Gray was one of the most notable characters of his time. Born March 13, 1841 in New York State, Gray ventured to Silverton in 1883, then moved his family to Montrose in 1884. They arrived with four horses, a wagon full of household goods, including a Woodward & Brown piano, and $260 cash. His first office was a rent-free dilapidated adobe structure and his first client, a horse thief.

Gray became district judge, driving a lively horse and buckboard over steep mountain trails to attend court in the judicial district—Creede and Lake City on one end to Silverton and Telluride on the other. He outlived all of his contemporaries, dying at the age of 98, leaving a never-ending legacy.

Hugo Selig, nephew of town founder, Joseph Selig, arrived in Montrose via the narrow gauge railroad on July 4, 1887. He had just been admitted to the Colorado bar and went on to practice law in Montrose County for the next 50 years. Selig was elected  district attorney of the Seventh Judicial District in November 1904.

Sterling Samuel Sherman came to western Colorado in 1879, riding on a sleigh astride a pile of mail, arriving in Lake City with the temperature 40 below zero. Sherman came to Montrose in 1888, where he was associated with a number of law firms. Sherman was a county judge, president of the Montrose County Bar Association for 28 years, attorney for the Delta/Montrose Canal Company and the First National Bank of Montrose.

In 1908, Sherman’s son, Edward joined the firm which became known as Sherman and Sherman.

According to Selig’s memoirs, cattle and horse stealing in Montrose County seemed to be a favorite pastime. The stockmen organized the Anti-Horse Thief Association, hoping for the prosecution of cattle and horse thieves, employing Judge Gray as their attorney. As time went on, no one was prosecuted, so the association confronted Gray. He informed them that he had investigated 50 cases and found that the members of the association were all stealing from one another.

Bell and Gray themselves were known as shrewd horse traders. One day, sitting out in front of the frame courthouse, they traded horses with one another. The one Bell exchanged turned out to be stone blind, but the one he received from Gray turned out to be one of Bell’s own horses, with the brand mutilated.