Doyle Settlement was a ranch and settlement in

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

Pueblo County, Colorado Pueblo County ( or ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 168,162. The county seat is Pueblo. The county was named for the historic city of Pueblo which took its name from the Spanish lan ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on April 4, 1980.

Joseph Doyle

Joseph Doyle purchased 1,200 acres of land along two miles of the

Huerfano River Huerfano River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in Pueblo and Huerfano counties in Colorado, United States.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed March 31, 2011 Descr ...

in 1859 and established the Doyle Settlement. The land was from the Vigil and St. Vrain Land Grant. Born in 1817 in what is now

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, Doyle came west as a young man and was a trapper and trader. He was one of the builders of El Pueblo in the current city of

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

and then was a farmer, businessman, and territorial lawyer. He was the first county commissioner for Huerfano County. He operated a post office from him home Casa Blanca, having been appointed postmaster. In 1864, he represented Pueblo, Fremont, El Paso, and Huerfano Counties in the State Council of the Territorial legislature. Doyle died in 1864 and left the property to his wife, Maria De La Cruz Suaso, whom he married in 1844. Her mother

Teresita Sandoval Maria Teresa "Teresita" Sandoval Suazo (1811–1894) was among the first women of European heritage to live in the Arkansas Valley of present-day Colorado. She is one of the founders of El Pueblo (Pueblo, Colorado), El Pueblo in the current city o ...

managed the property. It remained in the family for decades.

Settlement

The Doyle Settlement is "the site of one of the earliest, non-mining communities established in Colorado." Structures began to be built on the site in the late 1850s and are thought to have been built through the early 1860s. The only standing building is the schoolhouse. There is some evidence of the previous buildings, such as a few remaining foundations and ruins.

Fort

An adobe fort was built by the Huerfano River. At the time of its construction, it was the only residence for many miles. There were probably no more than a couple of dozen people living at the settlement.

Residential buildings

Doyle's house, ''Casa Blanca'' or White House, was built about 1862 and is considered the most important of the settlement's structures. It is a large white frame house, like the kind of house he would have seen from his home state. With There were also two rows of houses with

jackal Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed ...

or adobe architecture. Running on a north-south axis, the houses faced each other. The western row were used as granaries and storehouses. The eastern group was used for living and cooking.

Cemetery

Northwest of ''Casa Blanca'' is a cemetery with "some of the finest carved headstones in Colorado" according to the Pueblo Regional Planning Commission for the Preservation Advisory Committee. The headstones represent the mixed heritage of the settlement's residents. Women were primarily of Spanish-Mexican heritage and men were primarily American.

School

The school, which still stands, is believed to be the oldest school and the oldest

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

in Colorado. It was built of adobe, wood siding, and wooden shingles. Doyle brought O.G. Goldrick to teach his children. He was the state's first school teacher. A sign by the schoolhouse provides information about its history.

Business

On the property was an adobe store, blacksmith shop, and a gristmill. Doyle had installed irrigation ditches and farmed 600 acres of the land.

References

External links

Oldest known standing school in Colorado
Smithsonian photo content winner {{Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Pueblo County, Colorado Buildings and structures in Pueblo County, Colorado