Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886.

Volume I of Wyoming historical publications, in an article on Fort Laramie says in 1835 two men were sent to the Black Hills to induce Bull Bear's Ogallalas to come to the Platte to live, and that this was the first Sioux band to come near Fort Laramie to trade. There was no Fort Laramie then, and the Fort William that was the antecedent of the historic fort was builded 1835 …

The North Platte river was the dividing line, in the days of the trappers, although the Sioux were sometimes found south of the line. _i3/2386 In 1850 the scourge of cholera swept along the trail, and spread among the Indians east of and around Scotts Bluff, and its vital effect drove all else out of mind for a time. Stansbury found five lodges full of Sioux, all dead of …

This was in line with the promises of Colonel Kearney at Fort Laramie in 1845, where he warned twelve hundred Sioux that they must not try to close the Great White Medicine Road, "for it was used by the people who with their wives and their children and the cattle, were moving to the other side of the mountains, to bury their bones there, and to never return." Colonel Kearney …

The killing took place in a dry run leading down to the Platte, and the widowed squaw seemed .quite proud of the fact that it took so distinguished a man as Colonel W. F. Cody to kill her man and chief. Captain Clark, who later figured conspicuously in western Nebraska history, says that Whirlwind told him that the dates of the Horse Creek Councils marked the division of the …

Years ago, on the banks of the White river, an old Indian story teller sat by the fire, telling his midnight tales. And he said: "My story winds as winds a river, sometimes on one side of the valley, and sometimes on the other side, and sometimes turning backward for a distance, then turning again to continue its journey onward to the Big Water." So, while these events, and …

This story teller assured us, there in the shadow of the pines, the glow of the campfire illumining his face, and not so brilliantly the faces of his listeners, that, when the moon was full, the evil spirits began to eat it, and they never ceased until it was entirely devoured. Then the Great Spirit knowing it was not well to let evil spirits run about at all times of the …

An inside knowledge of Indian life yields the information that their sentiments, their romance, their poetry, their natural human inclinations are not far different from those of their white brothers. The "Indian in a man" has been referred to in many ways -- wild nature, vindictiveness, treachery, and is more frequently used to indicate cruel or evil characteristics. That is …

Fatalism is a part and parcel of the mountain and plain, and the greater frontier, as we well know, and we presume it is the same of war. The belief that "a man who is born to be hung will never be drowned," is old as the hills. In the remote periods of ancient India, Sanjoya sang the battle song of fatalism. But old chief Wau-bo-jeg, who once loved and roamed over the land of …

"Five winters in hunting we'll spend -- we'll spend Five winters in hunting we'll spend. When youths grown to men, We'll to war lead again, And our davs like our fathers' will end." The last line indicates the fatalistic resignation. Thus the teachings went on from one generation to another, and the glories of war were forever dangled before the eyes of the young braves. He …

She tried every wile known to a woman's heart to get him to give up his intended journey, she held their little brown baby up to be kissed, and then clung to him pleading with him. But when she knew that it was useless to plead longer, she hugged her child to her bosom and ran shrieking into the night. Their second son, soon to be, was prematurely born, as the result of the …

In each case a Sioux father had sold his daughter to a young Ogallala brave, but in each case that Indian maiden had a sweetheart of her own. The story of the Banner county episode is this : The village was situated on the little tableland where in 1885 Vance Cross homesteaded, just south of Long Springs branch, then unnamed, and the Ogallala had brought his ponies. On the …

The music, as it came to the village, all the inhabitants of which were now watching her, sounded weird and sweet, but was instantly recognized as the song of death. A dozen braves ran to save her, but in vain. They had almost reached her when she threw aside her blanket and as a statue of bronze stood for a moment in the morning sun, then with a cry that she would meet her …

"Then we shall cheerfully, praisingly sing, O-ka-gis, (the frogs) the heralds of Spring, First to renounce the Winter bound ball ; Hail sunshine and verdure and gladness for all." And they have a "Winter Song," a song of pleasing defiance to Par-kab-il-on-ac-ca, the god of winter. This thing with such a dreadful name, had decided to drive all the people south wiili the …

They touch the heart of that which they seek to express, in simple language, while we stumble through the phraseology of mythology and ages and leave a sentiment so buried in verbiage that it is all but lost. It must be the communion and mutual understanding which is given by living close to nature. The common language of the birds and beasts and redmen, where all are attuned …

No word picture in the classics has so vividly described this common incident in nature. Indians educated at Carlisle return to their tribes and the education gives them no better expression. Neither are they improved in arts, their work on the canvass with the single exception of landscape work is as crude as that of native ochre painted on the mountain sides. Their minds for …

On each occasion the Babylonian splendors struck them and they cried out: "Washtay, lela-wash-tay, lela-wash-tay te-pee," (fine, very fine, very fine houses) which was the limit of their expression; but, back in their wigwams, if unspoiled by education, they can tell the folklore stories of their people, as wonderful as Arabian Nights, yet in words and symbols of simple …

Sometimes the popular belle would pretend to find one, for the joy of the simultaneous rush towards her by her many admirers. But if one found a red ear that was not well filled, or was crooked or tapering, all would shout with glee and sing the song "Wa-ge-nim," "Wa-ge-nim. Wa-ge-nim, crooked ear, Walker of night, Stop, little old man. And take not to flight. Crooked ear …

Many, many moons ago; many moons and many winters, the Pawnees came up the river from the ruins of Quivera. The underground people of pre-historic Nebraska, and the corn raisers of hundreds of years ago, had left their "wallows." in the sands of the eastern part of the state, and had joined "the innumerable caravan that moves to the pale realm of shade," and the Pawnees …

This boat had a skeleton fn.me made of wood four feet wide, twenty feet long, and eighteen inches deep, and it took five elk hides to cover it. As Lisa says : he put great activity into his operations, and went long distances alone into HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA the wilderness, and for long periods he was buried in the forest, or wandered about upon the plains. He introduced …

They knew that such a movement would entail conflicts with their hereditary enemy, hence no village of small proportions would hazard the undertaking. In the village was one very old and neglected squaw, who, by silent consent and the custom of the tribe, was to be left behind. What cruel purpose or tradition originated this custom, I know not, but frequently the old and …

It, too, was crippled and stiff and old, was dun of color and its back was sore, and it was very poor. Partly because of compassion and not washing to leave the old horse to the mercy of prowling, camp-following beasts, and partly because Ik- wanted oik- horse, however poor, the young brave took the half-starved animal along, and found it of much service in carrying their …

A Spotted Robe was Big Medicine among the Pawnees, and the chief sent a crier through the village announcing that a charge should be made from the village, and the brave who brought back the spotted robe might marry his beautiful daughter. And the young brave mounted his old dun horse to take part in the race, but the others laughed at him and he drew aside. Then to his …

One by one the other braves came back to the village, and as they came, they rode by the lodge of the boy's grandmother to tell her of his good fortune, but she thought they were jesting and answered them angrily. When the young brave came up with the old dun horse snorting and prancing, laden with buffalo meat and a great robe, for her, and the spotted robe which he retained …

So the next day was a great battle between the Pawnees and Sioux at a point nearly opposite the opening in the hills now known as Round House or Reddington Gap. The young brave and the old horse were there, and they charged into the thick of the conflict. As he rode in among the Sioux, the air was thick with arrows, but he found the chief and slew him, and returned untouched …

Across the river with great tumult and splashing, they were driven, and up one of the arroyos to the north, and because of the many relics of the battle found in this vicinity, that arroyo and the water that flows down therefrom is known today as Indian Creek. The young brave mourned the loss of his now famous dun horse, and after the battle, he went out on the field and …

Then came another storm alike but fiercer than the first, and when it passed he saw the form of a horse. Then came a third storm, more terrible than the others, and when it passed he went down upon the field of battle and there he found his old dun horse, sore of back, and crippled and poor as when he had first found him. And the brave was sad for he knew that it Was his …

He followed the directions, and on the morrow he returned, and found his old dun horse and a beautiful white gelding. This he took to the village and it was better than the horses ridden by other Pawnee braves. The next tomorrow, he rode home a coal black steed, and so each succeeding day he rode another horse of another color into the village, grey, roan, pinto, bay, etc …

Then the old dun horse died, and disasters fell thick and fast upon the Pawnees. The Sioux made it so uncomfortable that the Pawnees decided to retire some distance down the river, having no particular objective, and to cover their retreat, they left a number of the braves to keep the Sioux engaged while the main village was moving. And these were attacked by the Sioux with …

Under the stars and moon forty-six Sioux and sixty Pawnees were cold in death, and HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA many another nursed his wounds. The Pawnees were so humiliated and discouraged, that they retired three hundred miles farther down the river, and gave up their claim to the North Platte valley. In the new land they have worked out the fulfillment of their destiny, and …

He climbed back up the rope to await the following night. When the darkness came over the land he called his men together, and told them of his plan for escape, and they all crawled to the edge where the perforation in the brule rocks made the well. One by one they went down the rope, and crawled out through the hole at the bottom and away in the darkness. And the last to go …

We were talking of Indian mythology and he told me this story which he said was sometimes told of the Chadron Plains, sometimes of the valley north and east of Scotts Bluff mountain, and sometimes of the high divide known as the Flowerfield Swell. Algon, a Sioux hunter, had chased a deer out upon the prairie, until its trail led to a circle where all the grass was trodden …

After it had alighted they all jumped out and began to dance in the circle and sing as they danced. One of them was very beautiful, and it seemed to the young brave that he must have her for his very own. Watching as she came to the side of the circle where he was concealed, he leapt out and tried to catch her, but quick as he was, they were the quicker, and all leapt into the …

Finally he made him a covering of deer hide with head and all, and he ran into the circle, HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA and leaped into the basket. Immediately all the maidens vanished and twelve deer bounded over the prairie toward the pine clad hills. After a time he left the basket, and the circle ; and the deer came running back, and they disappeared, and twelve maidens …

Seemed, I say, for all unknown to Algon, she worked upon and made a wicker basket. And one day he returned from the hunt and found she and the baby were gone. Someone had seen her going to the Magic Circle, on the prairie. He hurried out, but was too late, for as he neared the spot he heard her sing, and saw the wicker basket going up. Her song was of her happiness, but it was …

His entreaties won the heart of the grandfather, who told his daughter to take her young son, and return to the tepee of his father, and ask him to come, and to bring with him a specimen of every bird and animal he had ever killed in the chase. Algon, who ever hovered near the enchanted spot, heard her song before he could even see a speck in the far blue. She seemed to come …

One chose a wing, another a foot, another a tail and another a claw, until all the guests had chosen something. And those who chose a foot or tail became animals and ran off, those who chose a wing or claw became birds and flew away. Algon himself had chosen a white hawk's feather, and his wife and boy had done the same. Immediately they became white hawks, and flew down upon …

The Chugwater came by its name because of a rock along its course, which stands abruptly out of the level valley and resembles a chimney, and "chug" is an Indian name for chimney. Hence Chimney creek, or Chugwater. The traders at Fort Laramie became impatient for the fur of the Indians and sent over with the complaint a "hollow wood" (keg) of firewater. In the succeeding …

For several days previously the old scoundrel had been a visitor at the post, offering furs and ponies and the beads and blankets off his back for a hollow wood of firewater. This intimation that single blessedness was not well for him, and Chintzille's nervousness had seen what was coming. After some sparring for an opening, which was cleverly avoided, the old villain came …

In one of these affairs, where a trader of less principle than Long Knife, sold some liquor to the Indians about the fort, there followed a drunken brawl and Susa-chiecha was killed, and around the body of their chief that night the Indians revelled in their frightful orgies. LTntil Captain Bonneville went into the mountains, and for some time afterward, the Cheyennes were …

Belden, because he voluntarily went among the Indians and married a squaw, two of them in fact, and lived with the savages for a great many years. Yet in the struggles that later took place between the people of his tribe, and the people of his race, he sometimes was on one side and sometimes on the other. More often, his blood asserted itself, and on many occasions where he …

Bridger told Belden of the doubting Thomas and that gentleman returned within his tent. After a time he came out with verses he had just written, and while long and somewhat crude, we repeat the production here because of its local color, and the references to distinguished characters of the west, none of which, I think, is now living. Ben Harding was a scout and was the …

You darned old polecat, or wuss. Where's your hoss? right there; yes, you're right, Tied up to a cottonwood tree. Well, you're going along with us on this tramp, None of your lyin' you bully old scamp, You are. How that's said. Suppose we all damp To success to Jack Grey's company. Why, dang it, it's more than a year since we met At the foot of old Court House Rock, And if …

Now, tell us the truth -- let up on the lies -- Why, what the blazes got into my eyes ? It stings so darn bad ; it almost makes me cry, When I said at that joke take a laugh. Well, no more of this, you're blubberin', Grey, A pretty frontiersman you are. Not a man in this crowd but has his day, Wrapped up in his blanket and laid away Some long tried friend, and no one to say A …

Then we'll mount and away for another year, other Court House Rock. On the prairies green, in the mountains drear, To trap the beaver,, and hunt the deer, From Arkansas to Yellowstone. Jim Bridger is one, John Nelson's another, And Gilman, he's two by himself, And we'll count him the third ; then Dick, and me, Jack Jones, Jack Morrow, Jack Grey -- Jacks three, A good poker …

And if it is Indians, we will soon make them find They have no business here, when we go it blind, And must take tother road, or strike ile. Why there's only one -- a horseman at that, Dick, us two can get off with him, Easy enough, can't we, be he friend or foe, For there's no two men have better rifles, you know. Don't appear to you though, that he's comin' darned slow; That …

So again, we are ten, countin' Slippery Ben, Ghost Ben and his shadowy steed. HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA One day Jim Bridger and Jim Baker were hunting together in the wilds a little west of here, when they came upon a mother grizzly bear and two half grown cubs. A lucky shot finished the old one and Baker proposed that they waste no more ammunition. That each take one of the …

"Ye tarnal fool, Jim, ye got me into this scrape, and I got myself out. I wanted to shoot mine, but you wanted to kill and sculp 'em with butcher knives. So as the ba'r fight were yourn, I thought I wouldn't interfere, and let ye have it plenty." After some reflection. Baker answered : "Dod rot it, Jim, if ye aint right, but I'll never fight nary another grizzly, without a …

On June 23, 1832, there was a Grand Council of the Chiefs of the lodge of Angry Man. On July 5. 1835, Col. Dodge held a council at a point about twenty miles above the forks of the Platte, which was attended by Angry Man, Two Axe, Little Chief; Mole in the Face, Bloddy Hand, Two Bulls, Big Head or Star. Mole in the Face was chief spokeman, and the years of wandering had been …

And the people of a generation ago knew of Little Moon Post-office, at the crossing of the Pony Express on Horse Creek, which site is now ( 1919) owned by L. J. Wyman. In his reports of 1835, Col. Dodge makes no mention of travel on the trail, but ten years later Col. Kearney tells a different story. The latter also tells of a thousand Indians at Fort Laramie, and he also …

About the time the conferences were being held by Colonel Dodge, the Presbyterian Church sent out Samuel Parker and his bride, in answer to the call of the Nez Perce Indians, and they made their "honeymoon journey" into the west, which journey ended in their death at the hands of "praying Indians." Their melancholy fate has been laid to the door of commercialism, and the …

The law of the early forties, that gave to each emigrant, who found his way to Oregon, a section of land, might have been legally applicable to the sand hills of Nebraska, sixty years before the achievement of Wm. Neville and M. P. Kinkaid was upon the statutes. The territory of Nebraska was unorganized for many years after the passage of the Oregon homestead act, and in Idaho …

another of nature's wonders, called "The Chimney, but I should say it ought to be called Beacon Hill from its resemblance to that famous land mark of Boston." "I crossed the river to get a nearer view with one assistant. When some distance from the river, we heard and then saw the stampeding of buffalo. We rode for the river to get out of their line of progress. They probably …

In Mitchell valley Parker found two thousand Pawnees, of which he said : "Their lodges were comfortable and easily transportable, and they moved from place to place as occasion dictated. They were constructed of eight or ten poles about eighteen feet long, set circular and the small ends fastened together and the large ends about twenty feet apart. This frame was covered with …

drop out of line, and a fire would be hastily kindled, and at night the wagon would come along and join the caravan, and the cheerful face of the doctor would tell to all the anxious matrons who might expect a similar event before the journey's end. that all was well, and that the mother and child were both doing nicely. He ministered to the failing, and said the last sad …

At night when the newly-weds would retire to their own wagon, the golden chariot that would be forever theirs, not infrequently did the youngsters serenade, or oftener still, run the wagon in the ditch, or creek or river. Among the chroniclers of events along the old trail, occasionally one indulged in classical poetic expression. It was John Minto, I think, who tells of the …

And lo ! the herds, they come, they come, A sweeping thunder-cloud of life, Loud as Niagara, and grand As they who rode with plume and brand On Waterloo's red slope of strife, Wild as the rush of tidal waves That roar among the crags and caves, The trampling besom hurls along; A black and bounding fiery mass That withers as with flame the grass, Oh, terrible ! ten thousand …

One can well believe the hail storms are nothing new to western Nebraska, but the first record that we have seen was on July 21, 1844, the, Minto party were on the high divide between the Plattes, near Ash Hollow, when there came a sudden storm, and the people and the stock suffered from a severe pelting by hail, "some of the hailstones being as large as hen's eggs." In the …

George Cooke felt when he reached the summit of Robideaux Pass, when he saw stretched out before him the wide meadows or Horse Creek bottom, the billowy hills beyond, the treeless plains for miles on miles, then the mountains, "and Laramie mountain towering, at eighty miles." This is what he said: "Let the wide arch of the ranged empires fall. This is my space." HISTORY OF …

Red Cloud's distinction as a leader had already been increased by encounters with and victories over Pawnees, Crows, Shoshones and Kiowas from time to time. He now became the fighting chief of the Ogallala Sioux, and was the main leader in the wars of 1864 to 1869. It was he who planned and executed the Fetterman massacre, in which Captain Fetterman and ninety-six of his …

One can imagine the impetuous youth of sixteen, with the love of color and action, and indifference to consequence, riding like a whirlwind, silhouetted against the golden red of the sunset sky, and his sire seeing in him the Red Cloud of Destiny, prophetically cried out, "Marpiya Luta, Marpiya Luta." Ah! that was a name for an Indian. At twenty-five Red Cloud had a difficulty …

While nominally the head of all the Sioux during the great wars along the Trail, the activities were largely in the hands of the war loving members of the tribe, who with their independent bands moved without orders from the supreme head. HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA The experience of the United States at the close of the Black Hawk wars in the valley of the Mississippi, was so …

Names in Indian life are certainly an indication of character, for one naturally expects the assassin of a truly great Indian, to bear some such cognomen as "Crow Dog." While Spotted Tail was inclined to peace, while he would rather take his people to the hunting grounds at the head of Spotted Tail creek, or over on the Blue Water ( Snake creek) and there lay in a winter's …

There had been no signs of hostiles for sometime and they felt secure. Mitchell and Anderson wTere the only two to carry arms. As they started to return on that beautiful autumn afternoon, the Indians were observed pouring into the canyon to head them off. Mr. Bentz, who was mounted on a fine black horse, rode ahead with such surprising rapidity and suddenness, that he passed …

Anderson seized the reins and held them until Cramer could come forward, then he returned to the use of his rifle. The horses with the heavy ambulance could not keep pace with the light-footed Indian mustangs, and it soon became evident that the Indians would close around them. Captain Mitchell and Anderson Were shooting, but the roughness of the prairie, and the shaking of …

The Indians immediately following came to the ridge and stopped, for it was plain that those ahead were closing in on the luckless ambulance, and its occupants. One Indian dismounted and looked long and intently on the ground. He wore a spotted head dress of wild turkey feathers gayly colored, and reaching nearly to the ground. Captain Mitchell knew him to be none other than …

Another shot and another Indian stopped, but there were now returning shots. A sudden rush was made by a dozen or more of the Indians, but three shots in quick succession sent them back dragging with them three companions. That deadly aim was disconcerting. Captain Mitchell says he determined it was time for him to take a part, as he saw some thirty Indians preparing to make a …

The Indians could not have known how many might be concealed about them, and the delay and incertainty would have given time and the possibility of Bentz returning with assistance. But Mitchell remained quiet and the Indians made the rush. Notwithstanding his disabled condition, Anderson did work the Spencer to the effect that four more Indians bit the dust before they dragged …

It was back in 1889 that the writer, then a budding young poet (as he thought), visited Gering, on the Fourth of July. The party consisted of Miss Ida Eckerson, now Mrs. A. E. Scott of this city, Miss Minnie Shumway, now Mae Shumway Enderly of Los Angeles, William Wallace White of Gering, and the writer. We crossed the old bridge that had then but recently been built, and as …

It lighted upon the fleecy western sky ; A symbol of the great, now dead and gone, Who leave a brilliant lustre when they die. The sky back of the stream, reflecting, cast Resplendent lights of purple and of gold, And all the rainbow colors, changing fast, From lurid red, 'till fading grey turns cold. But here and there, the shimmering surface mars, HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA …

Yet, grim and earlier relic, doth it tell Its history in its own inspiring way. But from the crag of noble grandeur leaping Our vision falls upon the level plain, Swift over it, the evening shadows creeping Leaves a dull dreary waste upon the main. Beneath the plain a wall of dingy brown, Obscured the last faint rays of waning light. The lark's last note sounds through the …

Like every earthly pleasure, leaves behind Dark shadows, creeping on to darker night. Now here, new scenes on the then new bridge, and we were the new people. Ah ! surely here was an original poem, something of a descriptive nature that people would like, and the like of which I felt had never before been written. And for over twenty years I lived in the thought that I was the …

A heavy storm was approaching from the west, and the party went into camp on the summit of the hill. "A thousand Sioux were in the vast amphitheatre just east of Scottsbluff." They were breaking camp in great excitement, having determined to cross the river before the storm came upon them. The braves were galloping about, the dogs and children were scurrying to and fro, and …

Chimney Rock stood alone like a pillar of fire struck by the setting sun." Then my eye fell upon these words : "The sun set in the clouds ; but the glorious day, Parts not in gloom ; the thick veil is riven -- HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA The river and the sky in lovely array Are radiant now, with the light of Heaven. "Like an aurora, or the flashing trace, Of Angel's flight to …

I really wonder if this voice of eighteen forty-five was not reechoed from mountain and sky, while we were driving over the bridge in eighteen eighty-nine. At any rate, Cooke's advice to on peevish couple on this occasion will bear repeating now, as a solace to any regrets that one may have. "Now, for the love of Love, and her soft bowers, Let's not confound the time with …

When the Cheyenne belles came among them they beheld a captain who wore glasses, and they screamed and rushed wildly to their village tents, nor could they be induced to come out so long as the captain was in sight. It was very embarrassing to him, for how could he know that they had been told that with glasses one could see through opaque substances and their gayly colored …

Then at night in the low-ceilinged room with its sloping sides, close under the shingles where my mother put me to bed. How I did dread to see her carry out the candle. How I hoped she would leave the "middle room" ajar, for the few moments respite from the dark. What a comfort to hear her moving about, and to know that as long as she was there the goblins of the dark would …

They could merrily go to bed, and joyfully go to sleep if the little fire fly would only give the safety of its feeble light. The young trappers and boy scouts, if they look, may find some evidences of the cache of furs that the American Fur Company once had in the bad lands at the foot of Scotts Bluff mountain. It was during the spring freshet of June, 1842, that fourteen …

He met them about two weeks after the unloading, and the men were in considerable distress as their tobacco had given out. A limited supply was given them, to last until they should reach the settlements. Next to Scotts Bluff mountain Court House Rock and Chimney Rock were the more famous land marks of the Trail in western Nebraska. And every chronicler had a different name or …

In the vicinity of Chimney Rock there came up one of the heavy rains, for which that spot seemed famous, and for three days the downpour continued and thoroughly soaked the party. On the third day as they were slowly moving to the west, they ascended the hill to the west of Creighton valley, Scotts Bluff mountain suddenly loomed distinct and clear above the fog that enveloped …

Kelly's "vision" had pictured Fort Laramie as a fortress, but in realization it proved "a cracked, dilapidated adobe quadrangular enclosure." "No wonder it was sold to the government." Bruce Husband was then in charge, and Fort Fontenelle Was in course of construction or almost completed. A short distance above Julesburg, at a point off to Mud Springs there stands a solitary …

The vow of his partner had been broken, and the condition of the girl was such that she could not return to the same circle of friends she had left. A short time after she had died. The brother said nothing of his horrible discovery, and together they made their way working toward the east. At the point indicated, the brother set upon and tied the other fast. He took him in …

The brother of the girl moved on into the east, satisfied with his fiendish revenge. When he reached St. Louis he found that his brother had tried to make all amends, that he had sought and plead with the girl to marry him, but an old aunt had persuaded her to have nothing to do with him. Failing in that, he made a will giving her all his property, which was considerable, at …

The operations of the road agents became so bad that the Overland stage traffic came near being abandoned, soon after its institution. The first Overland stage to California was put in service in 1859. and shortly after the pony express was inaugurated. The time for mail from New York to Sacramento, by the "Butterfield Stage Route," was twenty-one days, and the pony express …

President Lincoln's inaugural address was started from the Missouri river, March 4, 1861, and in just seven days and seventeen hours it was delivered at Sacramento. It then became a regular schedule of eight days to travel the two thousand miles, or two hundred and fifty miles each twentv-four hours. On April 3, 1860, the first start of the Pony Express was made, and on the …

Cody rode the Pony Express, and he was first hired by Jules Reni and put in '"Bill Trotter's division." He was the youngest rider on the entire two thousand miles of the road. He quit the prairie and went to the mountains in the summer, and met Joe Slade at Horseshoe station, where he offered his services, but Joe Slade said he was too young. Cody then gave him a letter from …

I've been mighty nigh all over three counties in Illinois." Slade's seemed to have been a wonderful nerve, for he drove stage through the wildest part of the road and shot down the road agents on sight. It was something different. Heretofore at the sight of desperadoes, the drivers would whip their horses into a fury of getting away, but now Slade would simply slow down and …

Slide would always take any advantage that cunning quick action or a quick wit would give, and on one occasion when the gentleman with whom he had had a dispute appeared to he the nimblest artist, Slade quickly said that it was useless for life to be wasted over such a small matter, and proposed that they throw their guns on the ground and fight it out with their fists. The …

Slade retorted that he would live long enough to wear one of Jules' ears on his watch guard. Just at that time the stage came along, and the superintendent happened to be on board. He ordered Jules' arrest, and they proceeded to hang him. He was strangled until black in the face, and then was let go on the promise that he would forever leave this part of the country. This …

When Slade reached Bordeaux, this was the condition in which he found him. He went up to the helpless man, deliberately shot him twice, killing him instantly. He then returned to Fort Laramie, and went through the farce of giving himself up, and was discharged. This was in 1862. It is believed that there was no mutilation, and that this was just an exaggeration of partisans …

He had the line completed to Salt Lake City on the 17th of October and on the 24th of the same month the California company reached the City on the Lake. Creighton had bought during the summer one hundred thousand dollars of Western Union stock for $18,000.00 and when the project was completed, he was given three shares for one. And shortly afterwards he sold his one-third of …

In some cases it left no hope and they became derelicts that lived about in the sod shanties on the outskirts of army posts, or ranches, like "Dirty Woman's Ranch," near old Wellsville and Camp Clarke. Calamity Jane became a combination of courage and vice. Virginia Dale, attached to the notorious character Slade, had a certain strength of personality that forced a degree of …

It broke her heart, and she heaped curses upon the perpetrators of the deed, and she cursed the silent friends of Slade, many of whom had witnessed the tragedy, demanding to know why one of them had not shot her husband, and saved him from the "dog's death." She told the leaders of the vigilantes to beware, that death was upon their trail, and that everyone of them was marked …

He weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds, and his wife was good looking and was about the same size, age and complexion, and often interfered in his business, and was generally a trouble maker. Virginia Dale, one of the stage stations west of here, was named for her. Much is said of the noted characters like Jules and Slade, but not as much of their wives. A short time …

Inghram, now living at Scottsbluff, indicate that Jules' demise was at Bordeaux, (near Cold Springs) fifteen miles east of Fort Laramie. It would seem when Jules was killed that his friends did not correctly relate to the widow all the details of the tragedy; they probably thought to temper the grief and colored the story, or possibly, in the years that have followed, she has …

If they could reconstruct that other expedition, where mothers put their babies into carts, with their meagre personal belongings, and pushed them on and on, over the hundreds and hundreds of miles of prairie, of sand, of sagebrush, up hill and down, fording streams and traveling long stretches without water under a superheated sun and burnished sky. they might have a …

And with the profoundest self respect, Her natural impulses inclined Toward the lord of humankind -- Toward her own elect. Mysterious motherhood is there, And love of children chastened her, And made her life calm and serene. For they, and not for wanderlust, Part of "the Overland," she crossed Before the "closing scene." Within these caverns two, her eyes Looked up toward her …

The younger, whose brave still lived, said a few days later that she was going to return to the tent, because she was no longer fit to live with white people. Perhaps some mother can tell us whether that was the real reason she went back to the tribe. For back there in the wigwam of its father was a tiny little half-breed son, whose mute arms stretched through the desert night …

The hired girl was stripped naked and left dead, tied standing to a post and shot with a dozen arrows. The cabin was in ruins and Mrs. Eubanks and one child and her friend Miss Roper were carried away prisoners. The following January Two Face, with Mrs. Eubanks and child were captured near the present site of the Rawhide ranch, and Blackfoot with Miss Roper on Snake Creek …

This summary execution brought much criticism, and the easterners whose sob squad had been after the scalp of Colonel Moonlight and others of his strong kind, sent up a howl that was heard as far as Washington, and one mountaineer and trader said it would center the Indians at Fort Laramie for revenge, and "we will all be masscred," he declared. Colonel Moonlight's answer was …

I am not surprised that General Harney obtained the name "squaw killer," at the battle of Blue Water, for at that time it seemed that the extermination of the Indian race was the best solution of a bad problem. And it is no wonder that Qister said, when they accused him of throwing papooses into the South Platte river. after he had destroyed an Indian village, "if you kill the …

All the Indians agreed that "the great Road" along the Platte, and across the mountains should be free and open for white people, and the United States agreed to pay the Indians fifty thousand dollars a year in goods, for the use of the road through their country. The Indians agreed not to rob or attack the white people on this road, and the United States agreed to keep the …

The grave of Rebecca Winters, on the Burlington right-of-way in the east part of Scottsbluff City, is one of the land marks on the Old Overland Trails. The original mark was only a wagon tire set half in the ground with her name, and a few important facts chiseled thereon. The buffalo and then the range cattle found it a convenient rubbing place, and it was always kept bright …

< Mi arrival at the Indian lodges, he demanded of a sub-chief "Bear," the guilty parties. Bear informed him that the chief had already gone to the fort to apologize and make amends. Such a tame conclusion would reflect but little glory >"1 a Wesl Pointer, and Grattan determined thai the guilty man must be produced. Bear again told him that he did not consider the matter very …

Battiste Good says the chief's name was Mato-Wahyui, "Mato" signifying "Bear" and "Wahyui" means to "arouse or startle." Spotted Tail, the young warrior, then took a prominent part, and the Indians, infuriated, turned in with clubs and tomahawks, and destroyed the entire detachment, save one, who, though wounded, reached the fort. Richards, a squaw man, is said to have aided …

Fleming, in the meantime, martialed all the available men about the fort, which were maintained strictly on the defense of the station without any journeys or sallies out to assist the emigrants. A mail stage was stopped a little west of the Horse creek station and the driver and all the guards murdered. This was done under the supposed leadership of Spotted Tail. And it was …

killed in plain view of the caravan, but the river separated them, and they were powerless to aid him. After the murder, and some threatening demonstrations toward my father's party, the Indians retired in the direction of Sixty-six mountain. The event made a powerful impression upon the party, especially the women, who for the first time had witnessed a tragedy of this sort …

The event of the Bald Knob tragedy being of so recent date, the women became hysterical, and began to cry and sob, but retreat meant certain disaster before they could possibly reach the fort. The party proceeded without undue haste or hesitation down the hill and through the smoky city of tepees, and as slowly and unconcernedly climbed the hill farther on. The Indians made …

This pile was about eight miles east of the fort, and unless it has been obliterated, is still there, the only monument that marks the spot of this, the really first military tragedy in the North Platte valley. When General Harney demanded the surrender of the murderers of the Horse Creek mail party, Spotted Tail with a number of the other so-called murderers marched into the …

Ware says that he attended two of the councils at Camp Cottonwood in 1865, or the year following the date of Spotted Tail's leading in the Massacre of Cottonwood Canyon. After these councils, he moved with his band to the head of Spotted Tail creek, and rambled the country over for miles thereabout. He wanted peace, but he could not hold the young men, and when a peaceful man …

The attempt at arrest was made by a man who had contempt for Indians as fighters, and knew nothing of the characteristics of the race. Every effort seemed to have been made by the chief of the Brules to effect a peaceful settlement of the affair. He offered a mule to Grattan, as a recompense for the loss of the cow, but Grattan effected to think that it was offered to him …

A Minneconjou, "shooters of the mist," a stranger camped among the Brules, killed the cow, and it was eaten. On the 19th, Grattan with his twenty-nine men and an interpreter, (a hanger on around forts and camps, a hard drinker, and very boastful) with two cannon, a twelve pound howitzer, and a mountain howitzer, arrived aboul three I'. M. to arrest the Minneconjou. Grattan …

The Indians started to rush him then, and he fired his cannon and muskets in a volley. The Bear and a few Indians fell, the Bear mortally wounded. Grattan and five men were killed around the cannon, and the rest were all cut down within a mile of camp. One soldier, terribly wounded, was picked up by one of the sub-chiefs and kept in his lodge over night, and the next day taken …

After the looting of Bordeaux and Chouteau trading posts, the Indians took the body of their dead chief, and went over on the Niobrara, where he was wrapped in rich robes and put in a burial tree. Activities of Spotted Tail .and Little Thunder, after the Grattan Massacre, brought General Harney to Fort Laramie with re-inforcements from Fort Kearney. Little Thunder became the …

Little Thunder was in charge at the time General Harney with his powerful force, came into the North River country. Little Thunder was not anxious to fight, and wished to parley. He had with him on the Blue, forty-one lodges of Brules (or Burnt Thighs), and eleven lodges of Ogallalas, (or Dust Throwers). According to regular count this would indicate 326 Brules, of which 65 …

It was not intended that the Indians should be allowed to escape, and he was returning to the proper position when a squaw, who was out picketing a pony for her brave who was belated in arriving in camp that night, heard the sound of the creaking saddles in the darkness and gave the alarm. The Ogalallas rushed out of their tents and the cavalary charged. The Indians fought …

An order was issued to cease firing, and the Indian braves, taking advantage of the respite, dodged out of the rocks and ran away into the hills. Then to the rocks the soldiers went, and they found that a bullet had struck a woman sitting upon a rock. She had been holding a papoose, with its little feet between her legs. The bullet had passed through both her thighs and …

On the battle field of the dead a cavalryman was riding across it when he saw an Indian move, and turned his horse that way. The battle was over, and he no doubt intended to see what could be done for the wounded man. But the Indian raised his arm, and with his pistol shot the cavalryman from his horse. Another rushed up to sabre the Indian, but broke his sabre, both parts of …

After this battle, and Harney had passed on to Fort Laramie and Fort Pierre, he undertook to show the Indians what a superior man he was, by chloroforming a dog. He told them that he could kill a dog, and then bring it back to life. Accordingly he administered the chloroform, and the dog went to sleep. Then he undertook to revive it, but the dog was too dead for that and the …

Doane Robinson, historian of South Dakota, says "though hailed as a great victory, and an additional plume in Harney's crest of fame, Ash Hollow was a shameful affair, unworthy of American arms, and a disgrace to the officer who planned and executed it. It was a massacre as heedless and as barbarous as any which the Dakotas have at any time visited upon the white people." I am …

Eastman, in the Outlook, says that Spotted Tail was killed because he betrayed the Brules to the whites, and Crow Dog's killing him was the result of a pact made thirty years before by the Brules, that Spotted Tail should die if it were ever proved that he had played false to his tribe. This sounds like an apology for the murder of the great Indian, and the thought has …

It was eight years later that Crow Dog started trouble among the young braves, and some say that Spotted Tail was arranging to shoot him as he had shot Big Mouth. Crow Dog did not wait. In the terse language of the West he "beat him to it," and Spotted Tail was the one to die. Father DeSmet speaks of Crow Dog as a man of courage and with a withered arm. This was forty years …

He did the work uncomplainingly, and with not a murmur of discontent, for many years. One day they missed him from the work, and they never made a search. They knew that the wilderness had beckoned to him, that he had heard the call of the wild solitudes, and had gone. They let him go, to spend his few remaining years in the old familiar fastnesses, where his rapidly dimming …

At the close of the war, many men re-enlisted for service in the west, and they were among the best, for their experience in guerilla warfare well fitted them for the character of Indian fighting. Al. Wiker, of Alliance, with five others of his original company were with the Harney convoy that had a battle in Scottsbluff Mountain Pass. This convoy was in August, 1866, in …

The sound of battle reached the soldiers who were just mounting, and they started forward at a gallop. Instead of heading straight for the gap they rode toward the point of rocks, known as Eagle Crag, just north of the present pathway that leads up to the mountain top from the east. At its base the cavalry parted, and one-half swung around to the south, skirting Engine Rock …

Of the causualties on the part of the whites, five were soldiers, one a colored cook, and the others emigrants. Three wagons were burned. Owing to having left their horses in the Bad Lands, pursuit of the Indians was impossible, but the soldiers ran down across the Pass and climbed the hill that guards it on the south, and snipped off several of the Indians while they were …

Tin (.nil. were being taken along the riverside through the Bad Lands, but before they reached there, the noise of the battle was heard. Of the thirty-live men in charge, thirty joined in the ride towards Eagle Crag, leaving but five t<> take can- of the cattle. The thirty-eight dead were buried a few rods west of the west end of the gap, but a few days later, the bodies of …

A BUFFALO BILL EPISODE -- MORE INDIAN TROUBLES There seems to have been little systematic endeavor on the part of the Indians following the Grattan trouble. Bands of hostiles, independent of others, committed depredations here and there at widely scattered intervals. The Plum Creek affair, the Massacre of Eubanks, the surveying party of the Republican and attacks on the …

The other detachment of wagon were to follow a day later. The three were some distance in the rear of the first wagons, after they had passed over the big hill east of Ash Hollow, which, having been gone several hours, were out of sight. The guards were riding mules, and the J Indians were of such superior numbers, they concluded their only means of defense was continued …

them from the tension that for over forty hours had deprived them of rest and with but little food. The war of the Rebellion had a bad effect upon the Indians, for in 1864 at a council at Camp Cottonwood, one of the Indian orators asked the embarrassing question, how the Great Father expected the Indians to keep peace, when he was unable to keep his own children from …

"This meeting is to come to an understanding and make a treaty so that each of us will know what to do. The government will give the Indians blankets, flour, bacon and other supplies so that they will have plenty. That they should live in houses and the government will furnish them with carpenters and blacksmiths, and they should live like white people. But they must stay out …

But we want to come to the Platte valley to trade and we will not give it away. We have let the white man pass over it, and he has gone over it so often that he now thinks he owns it. But it is ours, and it always has been ours. It belonged to our fathers and their graves are along the hills overlooking the valley from the Missouri river to the Rocky mountains, and we will not …

Some have said that Spotted Tail's daughter was one of the potent factors that made him incline to peace, but that is open to question. One time for instance, the great chief was so incensed with his daughter, because she wanted him to get her a white general or officer for a husband, that he upbraided her for her foolishness and ambition, and knocked her down. After the …

Before we agree to anything, you must stop the surveyors who now, at this very time, are going west on the Niobrara." While we all know that the traders were of a class that took advantage of the untutored savage, we wonder if the soldiers were any better, and we also wonder if this interpretation was not construed to mean something that was not really said, with the view of …

Colonel Kearney had nearly twenty years earlier addressed the Indians at Fort Laramie in the number of 1200 braves, telling them that he was opening a road for the white people that were going to bury their bones where the waters flow toward the setting sun. Of course this road was already opened, but like Fremont, the Pathfinder, he found paths that had been trod for a …

"If my people will be good to the whites, they will find that the presents they are about to receive will often come. Father, this does very well and pleases me. What you have told me, I am glad of from my heart. All you have told me is very good. I have found a father. We will no longer think of dying, but will live. I remember the words you have this day spoken to us. My …

While these episodes of adventure, and the causes of war were accumulating, there were, during the winter of 1864-1865, in the neighborhood of Fort Laramie about two thousand Indians who professed to be friendly. They said that the war tribes had made it dangerous for them to pursue their usual vocation of hunting, and under orders from Washington, they were fed and sustained …

While they appeared to be doing his bidding, he was confident that some of them were better scouts for their native tribes. The element of integrity did not seem at first to be requisite, according to Indian standards. One time, a chief of some note among the Sioux had offered his son as a candidate for position in a place requiring integrity, and one of the recommendations …

Through Butler and Hyde, comes a story, evidently of Indian origin, that the Indians were furious at certain white officers and soldiers, for taking young Indian girls into their tents, and keeping them there all night. It seems doubtful that there was any truth to the story, for the reason that there were a number of white women in the party, that were being taken out of the …

On the morning of the fourteenth, the advance guard started at five o'clock, the idea being to cover the eighteen miles to the meadows near Fort Mitchell for the next camping place. The wagons were strung out for a mile or more, when rapid firing was begun by the Indians upon the rear guard. Captain Fouts had ordered that no ammunition be distributed, fearing that some …

The Indians numbered more than five hundred warriors, and when at a distance of about three hundred yards, firing was begun by them, and answered with telling effect by the military forces. While Indians advancing from the front were checked by the fire from the Gallagher rifles, both flanks advanced as if to hedge in and surround them. Over the hills from the west side of …

About nine o'clock, Captain Shuman arrived with forces from Fort Mitchell, and thus reinforced another attack was made upon the Indians, but it was a little late. The squaws and papooses had by this time all succeeded in crossing the river, and the warriors were following. The military could not follow, for it would be impracticable, and quite likely impossible to cross the …

They pursued the Indians for two days and on the night of the second day camped near Dead Man's Gulch, which is now in the vicinity of Broadwater, it being the ravine where George Hacksby now lives (1919). At that time there was a bend in the river with steep banks on three sides and the camp was at the outer neck of the Horseshoe, with horses in the rich grass of the …

After losing the horses there was nothing to do but to destroy the saddles and other heavy materials and walk back to Fort Laramie. The distance was 120 miles and the way was not pleasant, especially with cavalry boots, and it was this walk as the culminating event, that HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA caused Colonel Moonlight to retire from military service. An investigation by …

Eubanks) and her daughter, whom he purchased from the Cheyennes. During the same evening and the next morning early the other Indians who were with Two Face, and who had fled on the approach of the Elston party, were also captured and lodged in the guard house here. Mrs. Eubanks gave information of the whereabout of Black Foot and the Indian village, and a party of soldiers …

She had been captured by the Cheyennes on the Little Blue, and after Black Foot and Two Face had purchased her the autumn before, she was compelled to such treatment that it was a wonder that she had survived. Her husband had been killed with several others. The woman had been compelled to do the work of an ordinary squaw, and had been dragged across the Platte river with a …

It was in the spring of 1865 that the author of this book and several other noteable people visited Fort Laramie, coming by way of "The Leavenworth and Fort Laramie Military Road," as the Overland Trail was then called. This line was along the south side of the Platte to the Fort Sedgwick Crossing (near Julesburg), thence via Wind Springs and the south side of the North Platte …

During the war, when we were adding a couple of million dollars to our national debt every day, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of the precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now. that the rebellion is overthrown and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, makes the paymenl of that debl …

He did not know then as we do now, that the agricultural products of the territory would at some future time prove of far greater value than her minerals. While millions have been torn from the ribs of the rock bound mountains, in the form of mineral wealth, there is within the radius of five hundred miles of where I am sitting, vastly more millions taken from the soil in the …

Having little means, he obtained a second hand light wagon and harness and a pair of dilapidated mules. With this outfit he began a journey of three thousand miles through an Indian infested and mountainous region. One of the mules had in its young days injured one front leg, and it lacked about three inches of being the length of the other. To overcome this, he invented a …

It was determined to burn the prairie south of the "South River," and thus drive the Indians to the Arkansas for food for their horses, as well as for game. So, one night when there was a strong north wind blowing, tires were set out, and for two hundred miles a sheet of flame swept the country from the South Platte river, for a long distance to the southward. It was a …