In small print is a further notation: "Employee at the bank. More information in Pioneers of the San Juans, Volume I ."

The book does indeed have more information. In fact it describes an amazing story of courage and character in the face of great pressure and reveals the story of a young black man living a rather isolated life in a room in the First National Bank of Durango building in the early pioneer days of Durango.

Who was this man, where did he come from and how did he find his way to Durango?

The search for Frank Fitchue leads into a sepia-colored world of dusty corners, file cabinets, crinkly rolls of microfiche, and boxes overflowing with dry, yellowed papers. It winds its way to the Durango library where there are old copies of local newspapers from the 1880s to study, meanders around Virginia and along the western pioneer trail to Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas before finally coming full-circle back to Durango. By reading between the lines and by looking at what is not there, a little bit is revealed about the life of this first-generation man of a post-Civil War country.

The Frank Fitchue story

He is born Franklin Fitchue in 1855 in Missouri, to Sam and Caroline Fitchue. His parents are free inhabitants of St. Louis, Mo., possibly freed slaves. His father is a "boat man." He has at least one sibling, an older brother named William. A few years after the end of the Civil War, Frank and his family leave Missouri and head west to settle in Kansas. What is extraordinary is that his parents are able to hold the family together even during the turbulent years of the Civil War and its aftermath.

When Fitchue is about 15 his parents have probably died, because he and William are now living with relatives, including a cousin named James, in Kansas. Sometime between 1870 and 1882 he sets out on his own and comes to Durango where he rents a room in the house of Thomas Burgess, a clerk at the First National Bank of Durango.

There is much to be learned from studying the La Plata County census records of 1885. They reveal that white people who rent rooms are described by the census takers as "boarders." But Fitchue, like other black residents of the county who are renting rooms in private homes, is described as a "servant" in the Burgess home, not as a boarder.

He has a good job - he is a porter at the new First National Bank of Durango. Did Thomas Burgess help him get that job? He is single, but on June 19, 1895, he marries a 35-year-old woman named Jennie Moore. He is probably childless as there are no children listed in later census records. After 1900 Jennie disappears from all accounts, and in the 1910 census, Fitchue, age 55, is again single. His name appears in the 1911 Durango phone directory, and then he too disappears.

Certainly Fitchue is not the only black person living in Durango in those early days. In the late 1880s Durango supports a modest community of blacks who work mostly as cooks, laundresses, railroad porters and teamsters. But, by 1910 most seem to have gone elsewhere.

One gets the feeling that Fitchue is an impressive man for his times and circumstances. He is literate and has a responsible job in the bank. In November 1900, the Durango Democrat publishes a statement he has written in his capacity as trustee of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Durango. The statement praises those who aided escapees and survivors of the infamous Andersonville prison during the Civil War.

Later there is another report of him in the Durango Democrat . He has signed a petition showing "steadfast opposition" to silver coinage. On Oct. 10, 1903, the Durango Wage Earner reports that he is among those attending a talk given by Sam Herr about early Durango pioneers. He seems to have been a thoughtful man, respected and accepted by the community.

The attempted bank heist

But Fitchue is more than that - he is a hero too. In November 1883, he is approached by Cellas Hawkins, described in the Southwest newspaper as "a negro who worked at Philpott's Saloon." Hawkins tries to induce Fitchue to participate, along with his four white cohorts, in a plan to rob the First National Bank of Durango. Knowing Fitchue works (and lives) at the bank, Hawkins and his gang want him to stay away from the bank on the night they plan to rob it.

Fitchue refuses, showing incredible courage by standing up to a gang of men who are terrorizing the townspeople of Durango at the time. Instead he contacts A.P. Camp, a cashier (and future president) of the bank, to warn him about the robbery and that the gang plans to set fire to a nearby building as a diversion. Mr. Camp, along with Sheriff Barney Watson and the town marshal, ask Fitchue to help set a trap by going back to Hawkins and telling him that he will leave the back door of the bank open for the gang on the night of the robbery.

On Dec. 16, 1883, at 10 p.m., an unsuspecting Hawkins enters the bank and begins chiseling into the brick vault which holds $30,000 in gold and currency. Hidden in the bank are the sheriff, the marshal and several others, all armed and ready to capture the robbers. Hawkins chisels away but his gang never shows up (because they have seen the bank's preparations and stay away, not bothering to warn Hawkins).

A gun fight ensues - six-shooters blaze and bullets fly. In the dark and the confusion a popular merchant, Bruce Hunt, is shot in the heart by Hawkins. Hunt staggers into the arms of the sheriff, who carries him across the street to Parson's Drug Store where he bleeds to death.

Meanwhile, Hawkins flees on his horse to the Ute Indian reservation where, surrounded by a posse closing in on him, he falls over a precipice and beaks his neck. Hawkins miraculously survives several days, long enough to confess and to implicate the other gang members, Charlie Dow, Sam Landley, Charley Edwards and V. Keeton, who are part of what the Southwest newspaper calls the "saloon element".

The trial and questions

On Dec. 29, 1883, the Southwest gives a full report of the trial, during which the four men are not convicted, despite compelling evidence given by Fitchue and others.

There is no mention in the newspaper or elsewhere that the bank recognized Fitchue for his honesty or for his courage at the time. It is interesting that a year later, on July 8, 1884, Fitchue is arrested for carrying concealed weapons. This at a time when nearly everyone carried weapons, concealed or otherwise.

After 1883, evidence of Fitchue's life becomes very sketchy. In 1887 his brother William is arrested and fined for an unlisted offense. In 1898 the Durango Wage Earner reports that, "A slight misunderstanding between Frank and James Fitchue is causing James - Frank's cousin - to keep his arm in a sling for a few days."

And, except for the news reports cited previously, and the listing in the 1911 Durango phone directory, there is no more evidence of his life. There are no clues to where or when he died. Despite searches among the forgotten, falling-down grave markers in the neglected older portions of the local cemeteries, his grave has not been found.

Questions remain. Whatever became of that handsome man standing so proudly with his cane and fitted frock coat in front of a painted backdrop in the early days of Durango?

estgreen@sisna.com. Kathy Szelag, K.C. Robertson, Midge Kirk and Anita Fitchue Hewett contributed to researching the story.