Oen Edgar Noland was born in Missouri on Sept. 25, 1852. He appeared in Saguache in 1873.
Later, he freighted with an ox team from Alamosa to Durango. He spent some time in Parrott City (north of current-day Hesperus) and later had a logging contract in Thompson Park with Frank Morgan, who owned a sawmill. Nearby, the Stanley Mitchells ran a boarding house. Oen was soon fascinated by the looks and smiles of their daughter, Callie Mitchell, whom he married in 1881.
The Navajo Indians had just been placed on their reservation when Oen became convinced that there was an opportunity in running an Indian trading post.
He had little in the way of money, so to raise the capital and comply with the conditions of a loan, he resorted to the remarkable expedient of insuring his life for $10,000 in favor of the lending firm for a like amount in cash to finance his trading post business.
The Durango bank saw it as a win-win situation for them because there was little chance Noland would survive very long on the reservation and thus they would get bank the money he still had in the bank and the $10,000 with which he had insured his life.
Not long after Noland had erected his first trading post on the San Juan River, near the Four Corners, he made friends with the Navajos.
The trading post was a stone building with port holes and a barricaded door. Thus it served as both a trading post and fort. As soon as possible a stock of merchandise was ready for sale and the store was opened for business.
Noland had a number of close brushes with the Indians, but he held on and finally convinced the Navajos that he was their friend. At that point they called him Bidani, a Navajo term signifying friendship and kinship.
A second trading post was established at Aneth, Utah, but not much later, he sold it to the Guillet Brothers. A Ute Indian agency was established at Navajo Springs and Noland established a large trading business there and sold the post at the Four Corners.
The family home was established at Mancos, but for some weeks each summer, the family lived at the trading post after it became safe for them to be there. Callie died on Oct. 1, 1895, leaving five children.
About 1900, Noland, in partnership with O.S. Crenshaw, bought the Bauer Mercantile business.
They conducted a large and prosperous business for a number of years.
After his retirement from the mercantile business, he lived out his remaining years among family and friends and passed away on June 4, 1935.
Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at [email protected].
