John Cleveland Osgood

 John Cleveland Osgood was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 6, 1851. Orphaned as a youth, he lived with relatives in Connecticut and Rhode Island. As a boy, he worked as an office clerk for a textile firm in Providence, Rhode Island, and later as a bookkeeper for the William Ladd Produce Commission in New York City.
In 1878, Osgood purchased the Whitebreast Coal and Mining Company in Burlington, Iowa, and became the company’s president. Whitebreast was a chief supplier of coal for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. At the request of Quincy Railroad, Osgood headed to Colorado in 1882 to investigate reports of rich coal deposits in the Rockies.
hey struck the mother lode. In 1883, Osgood and three associates from Iowa — Julian Abbot Kebler, Alfred Curtis Cass, and David C. Beaman — organized the Colorado Fuel Company (CFC) to develop new coal resources in the state.

Redstone Colorado

Historic coke ovens just outside Redstone, CO, being restored in 2011

With an amazing flurry of activity, the building of the coke ovens, the village of Redstone, and Cleveholm Manor were completed by 1902. Osgood retained the Denver architectural firm of Boal and Harnois to design the mansion and the estate buildings as well as the village’s public buildings, workers’ cottages, and houses for the managers and supervisors.

Redstone is an unincorporated town and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Glenwood Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Redstone CDP was 130 at the United States Census 2010. The Carbondale post office (Zip Code 81623) serves Redstone postal addresses.
The village is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district and includes several properties that are also separately listed on the National Registry. 

Redstone was established in the late 19th century by industrialist John Cleveland Osgood as part of a coal mining enterprise. Osgood's coal empire also spurred construction of the Crystal River Railroad and Redstone's historic dwellings. As an experiment in "enlightened industrial paternalism," Osgood constructed 84 cottages and a 40-room inn, all with indoor plumbing and electricity, for his coal miners and cokers, as well as modern bathhouse facilities, a club house with a library and a theatre, and a school. Most of these Craftsman-era Swiss-style cottages are still used as homes.

The School in Redstone

The Redstone Inn in 1902 a place designed for bachelor workers to live. 

The Mangers Homes in Redstone

The Redstone Club House

Redstone Dairy Farm

The 1901 lodge is located slightly north of the Osgood Castle.

The 1901 lodge is located slightly north of the Osgood Castle.

Designed in the Swiss Chalet style by architect Theodore Boal, the 1½-story wood shingled lodge served as the residence for the caretaker of John C. Osgood’s private game preserve.  Dominating the façade are full-width galleries with decorative cut and sawn balustrades.  Large carved spindles support a balcony located under the wide, projecting eaves of the clipped gable roof.  Listed under Historic Resources of Redstone, Colorado Multiple Property Submission.

The Osgood Gamekeeper’s Lodge, located at 18679 Colorado Highway 133 in Redstone, Colorado

Teddy Roosevelt Hunting in Redstone in 1903

The Redstone Historic District in Redstone, Colorado. The district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Osgood Castle / Cleveholm / Redstone Castle

Also known as Cleveholm, the sprawling forty-two room mansion is located approximately one mile south of Redstone.
Designed for John Cleveland Osgood, under the direction of the New York architectural firm of Boal & Harnois, the residence was completed in 1903.  Reminiscent of a 16th century Tudor manor house in its overall appearance, towers, turrets, and oriel windows are among the most interesting architectural details.  First and second story walls are of cut and coursed red sandstone, while the third story and gable ends are covered with wood shingles.  Osgood first traveled west in 1882 and found his riches in Colorado coal fields.  He founded the Colorado Fuel Company, which he later merged with Colorado Coal and Iron Company to form the powerful Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, commonly referred to as CF&I. 

Strike

Ruins of the Ludlow Colony in the aftermath of the massacre

There was a general mine strike throughout Colorado from 1913-14. By this time, John D. Rockefeller Jr. controlled CF&I, but for the most part, he was an absentee owner.
The three largest mining companies involved, Colorado Fuel and Iron, Victor American, and Rocky Mountain Fuel, had a joint committee for establishing policy concerning the strike, but Osgood was the dominant voice. Osgood organized a publicity campaign to discredit the workers and union. He pressured Colorado Governor Elias M. Ammons to deploy the National Guard to the mines. Following the strike, he used his influence to persuade the judiciary to prosecute strikers. The reforms proposed by Rockefeller were delayed at Osgood's insistence. Rockefeller speculated that Osgood was trying to embarrass Rockefeller into selling his ownership of CF&I back to Osgood

The mine operators steadfastly refused to negotiate with the union or agree to government arbitration. Over the course of a year, frustration and anger on both sides grew and led to the Ludlow Massacre in 1914.

The Ludlow tent colony prior to the massacre. The caption reads: "Ludlow, a canvas community of 900 souls, was riddled with machine guns shooting 400 bullets a minute. Then the tents were burned. The site is private property leased by the miners' union, which has supported the colony seven months."

Sketch of the massacre from 1914, by Morris Hall Pancoast. Woman gasps for air while tents burn and Colorado state militiamen fire their rifles.

Underground shelter in which women and children died during a fire set by the Colorado National Guard.

Osgood married three times, but fathered no children.

Nonie Irene de Belote married John Osgood in 1877. He was ten years older but he was, of course, a multi-millionaire. Irene was born on a plantation in Virginia, even though she also claimed on occasion that she was born in England.
One of her passports showed that she was born in 1861. She later changed her birthdate to 1866, then 1869, then 1875. She was a young socialite writer of purple prose. John created a publishing company to publish her books and those of her friends. She prided herself on being an author of poetry and a novel named Shadow of Desire. Her novel was reviewed by the New York Times and they concluded that, “The book is as unwholesome as any they have had the bad fortune to read.”
She did not let her marriage interfere with her lifestyle, which involved traveling in Europe with her author friends. At about the time that John began planning the construction for their mansion, Irene chose to run off with Captain Charles Harvey. John circulated the story that she had been killed by a runaway horse in Central Park in New York. They divorced in 1899 and had no children.

Alma Osgood (Lady Bountiful)

Alma Regina Shelgrem originally met John at the court of King Leopold of Belgium. While it is reputed that Alma was Swedish countess, there is no historical evidence to back this up. They married in 1899, three months after his divorce from Irene. Alma was in her late 20s at the time and John was 48.
Alma was genuinely concerned about the welfare of the people in Redstone. She purchased the latest fashions to have in the Company Store and was very influential in the curriculum at the school. At Christmas, she had the children in town write a letter to Santa Claus to ask for one gift, and then they traveled to Chicago to purchase an item for each child. For her generosity, she was proudly nick-named Lady Bountiful by the townspeople.
When World War I broke out, Alma was asked by a French Hospital Organization to help with the war effort so she went to France. John divorced her for desertion in 1920. They had no children.

Lucille Osgood

Lucille Reid met Cleve in his travels and they were married in 1920. She came from Oakland, California and was 25 years old when they married. John was in his 70s by then and still had a great deal of money. They hired 165 workmen to repair and refurbish the castle and the grounds. They also worked on the Inn and the town. By 1925, everything was close to its original condition.
John’s health was deteriorating, and it turned out that he was gravely ill with cancer. He died in January of 1926 in the bedroom of the castle that he loved, at the age of 75. Lucille continued to run his many business interests. She tried to keep Redstone alive as a tourist resort but they were in the middle of the Great Depression by then, and many of the cottages were torn down for lumber or to get them off of the tax rolls. Lucille sold Cleveholm Manor in 1940.
John and Lucille had no children, and Lucille claimed that he never wanted them. Lucille was instructed to burn all of John’s personal papers after his death.

John  and Lucille, his third wife, returned to Redstone in 1925 when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Osgood died at Cleveholm in 1926 and his ashes were scattered throughout the Crystal River valley. Lucille tried to transform the estate into a resort, but the worldwide depression of 1929 doomed that plan.

Cleveholm Manor and the gamekeeper's cottage are both independently listed on the National Register as Osgood Castle and Osgood Gamekeeper's Lodge, respectively. As of 2004, the Castle still contained 75 percent of its original furnishings. The historic dormitory in Redstone, which is independently listed on the National Register as Redstone Inn, is now operated as a resort inn, offering year-round accommodations. Many of the cottages are still used as homes. The Redstone Coke Oven Historic District was established, and several dozen ovens will be stabilized, with a few completely restored.