Douglas County was one of the original 17 counties created in the Colorado Territory by the Colorado Territorial Legislature on November 1, 1861. The county was named in honor of U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who died five months before the county was created. The county seat was originally Franktown, but was moved to California Ranch in 1863, and then to Castle Rock in 1874. Although the county’s boundaries originally extended eastward to the Kansas state border, in 1874 most of the eastern portion of the county became part of Elbert County.

The Marquis Victor house on Plum Avenue in Sedalia, Colorado built before 1876 by John Craig. The house is two stories, brick, and has a pitched roof with a chimney in the back, 1890

Sedalia creamery which stood ‘south of the railroad tracks, near East Plum Creek on land purchased from Lizzie Beeman’, 1895

Sedalia creamery which stood ‘south of the railroad tracks, near East Plum Creek on land purchased from Lizzie Beeman’, 1895

Children and women pose outside the Jarre Creek School, in use from 1888-1908 at the mouth of Jarre Canyon near Highway 67 west of Sedalia, 1898

A couple (George Nickson and Sarah Paddison Nickson) stands outside their cabin was which made of logs and has a stone chimneyin the West Plum Creek area, 1887

Two young women sitting on Castle Rock, view to the south. Town of Castle Rock is visible in the distance, 1889
via Archives and Local History at DCL