Page 45 - AreaNewsletters "Dec 2021" issue

Politics and gossip
eventually doomed the
colony. Local newspapers
described it as a “red-hot
lively town whose principal
activity was horse-racing,
gambling and drinking
forty-rod whiskey.” Since it
actually o ered far more,
founder Thomas Harris took the insults personally and insinuated in print that Castle Rock was a mere “sand pile” itself. P.P. Wilcox of Castle Rock responded that “the whiskey in New Memphis might be good but not the water.”
However, in 1874 Castle Rock was selected over the settlements of New Memphis and Douglas as the new county seat, despite New Memphis’s advantages of a rail stop and a post o ce. New Memphis quickly withered and by the following year Mr. Harris bought Lot 3 in Castle Rock from John Craig, moved the hotel to Castle Rock and changed its named to the Castle Rock House. Harris operated a saloon called the Star Saloon and Billiard Parlor as part of the hotel, and it stood on the corner of Wilcox and Fourth St. It o ered a billiard hall, good liquors and cigars.
The 1880 Census indicated that Harris was the proprietor of the hotel, his wife, Mary, was keeping house while they employed a waitress, a servant, and had boarders. The boarders included John Craig who developed Castle Rock, along with the county judge and another lawyer.
Tom Harris served twice as a town council member and Castle Rock’s second mayor from 1882-1883. In 1884 he was gored and tramped by a runaway steer while walking down the street in the center of town and died ve days later.
The long list of owners can be found
in the census records taken every ten years. Changes in ownership were often precipitated by deaths, and it was rare that anyone owned the hotel for any length of time. There was a re in November 1900 that begun between the kitchen chimney and ignited the tar paper on the roof.
The re alarm was sounded, but before the re could be extinguished, the roof timbers were badly burned and much of the plaster and wallpaper was damaged. (I found no records about refurbishing the hotel from the re.)
The hotel changed hands and names many times over the next century and many additions were made to the original structure. It was one of the rst large buildings in Castle Rock and during several periods in Castle Rock’s history it was the only hotel in operation. It often
Continued on next page...
45
Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters” • December 2021