BROTHER VAN
Illustration: WILLIAM WESLEY VAN ORSDEL
But the Northwest knows him only as Brother Van
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BROTHER VAN
By
STELLA W. BRUMMITT
Illustration: (‡ Colophon)
NEW YORK
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
Copyright, 1919, by
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
To the Best Known and
Best Loved Man in Montana
BROTHER VAN
CONTENTS
Foreword
I A Boy at Gettysburg
II Explorers of a Continental Purchase
III Westward
IV A Sky Pilot’s Race Up the Missouri
V Brother Van
VI A Brother to the Blackfoot
VII The Gospel Team
VIII Scouting for Uncle Sam
IX New Trails
X Great Heart with the Indians
XI Brother Van and New Montana
XII Seventy Years Young
ILLUSTRATIONS
1 William Wesley Van Orsdel, known as “Brother Van.”
2 The Battle of Gettysburg.
3 A statue in honor of Sacajawea in Portland, Oregon.
4 Sitting Bull was dressed in full war regalia.
5 Historic Fort Benton, where Brother Van ate jerked buffalo
meat.
6 Brother Van visiting a Blackfeet medicine lodge.
7 The ceremony of adoption into the Blackfeet tribe.
8 Indians were terrifying settlers everywhere.
9 Brother Van’s dispatch to the Helena _Herald_.
10 Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Percés at Big Hole.
11 Dr. Thomas C. Iliff and Brother Van, who had many adventures
together.
12 Brother Van was “hail fellow well met” with the people.
13 Brother Van shot the herd leader in the head.
14 The Van Orsdel Home for Nurses at Helena.
15 Great Heart with a Blackfoot brother.
16 A copper mine at Butte.
FOREWORD
GRATEFUL acknowledgment is hereby given for the interest and
helpfulness shown by many people in Montana while I was collecting
material for this book. To have known Brother Van better has been a
joy, and to have met his beloved people “out where the west begins”
has been a privilege.
The readers of this biography owe much to the Rev. George Logan and to
the Rev. A. W. Hammer, both old-time friends of the pioneer missionary.
From them have come stories and tales of adventure which could not have
been forced from the boyishly modest preacher himself.
The story is sent out with the hope that through it some young people
may add a new name to their list of heroes.
STELLA W. BRUMMITT.
CHAPTER I
A BOY AT GETTYSBURG
“NOW, boy, watch and you’ll see one of the sights of the war! Our
troops are going to charge and take that battery.”
It was the first day of the great battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863;
and the Confederate cavalry leader, General Jenkins, at his post on a
sheltered hillside, was pointing out to a rough-clad, barefoot boy from
a near-by farmhouse the movements of the troops on the opposite side.
As William Wesley Van Orsdel had heard at home of the battles in which
his ancestors had fought, he may have wondered if some time, he, too,
would march away to war. He had never dreamed that while he was still
a boy one of the most important battles in modern history would take
place in the quiet fields and on the wooded hills surrounding the
little farm where he lived.
The opening of the battle found him ready to take his part whatever
it might be, even though he could not be one of the fighters. He soon
found that there was no lack of opportunity to help. Fearlessly he went
back and forth among the men of both the Northern and Southern armies,
carrying water to the wounded no matter what the color of the uniform
they wore, and relieving the distress of many a stricken soldier.
In the course of one of his errands of helpfulness he suddenly found
himself at the side of the dreaded Jenkins, whose cavalry raids had
made his name a terror to all of the farmers of the region because of
the heavy toll of horses, cattle, and grain which he took from them.
Jenkins’ present orders were to guard the baggage train and hospital
of the Confederate army commanded by General Ewell, and as he waited
at his post he chatted easily with the bright and attractive farmer lad
who showed himself to be so interested in all the stirring events that
were going on around him.
William was a loyal Federal at heart and he felt decidedly
uncomfortable in the presence of the Southerner as he followed the
General’s explanation of what was happening on the adjacent hills. It
was a scene of furious struggle and of seemingly wild disorder upon
which they looked. Now the Federals and now the men in gray appeared
to have control. Then suddenly Jenkins shouted, “Now, boy, watch, and
you’ll see one of the sights of the war!”
A fresh and powerful force of Confederate troops was advancing steadily,
and to his dismay William saw that the blue lines along Seminary Ridge
were giving way. It was one of the brilliant actions of the battle, the
charge of a fiery Southern general, Jubal Early, and the boy’s heart
sank as the Federal positions were overrun and their guns captured. He
could catch glimpses of the men in blue retreating through the streets
of the little town of Gettysburg to the slopes of Cemetery Hill. He hid
from the Confederate general his fear lest the attacking forces might
drive the Northerners even further back, but as the afternoon passed,
the fighting became less violent and when night fell Cemetery Hill was
still in possession of Federal troops.
The following two days were filled with thrilling adventures for the
boy as he saw thousands of men struggling desperately in the valleys
and on the hills where he knew every path and almost every tree. It
seemed very strange to him that these familiar places――Round Top,
Little Round Top, Seminary Ridge, and the peach orchard should suddenly
become of such importance. From the gossip of the village, however, he
knew in general what the Federal commanders had to do, and to many a
scouting party he was able to give valuable information about trails,
roads, and observation points.
Everywhere there were wounded men crying for water and all through
the hot days William hurried from point to point, carrying help and
cheer. Often he was in danger from the heavy shell fire, for Gettysburg
saw the greatest artillery engagement that had ever been known. Five
hundred and sixty-nine tons of shells were hurled by the opposing
batteries in the course of three days. The boy had at one time a moment
of breathless suspense when a cannon ball fell near him, but it failed
to explode. Except for some powder marks on his face, he came through
those trying days without injury.
William’s work was not done when he had spent the daylight hours in
going among the wounded on the field. In the evening, when there was
a lull in the fighting, he went into the village carrying news of the
battle and helping friends whose homes were surrounded by the fury
of the conflict. He was saddened by the death of his friend, Jennie
Wade, a girl of twenty, who had been killed by a chance shot that
came through the door of the house. She was the only resident of
the town killed during the whole battle. The home of another friend,
Josephine Rogers, stood where the thickest of the fight came in the
last two days of the battle. William watched over the safety of this
eighteen-year-old girl, and was able to give assistance and comfort in
the hours of danger.
On the first day, as General Carroll of the Union forces fell back, he
saw the girl at her door and exclaimed, “What are you doing here? This
house is in the trail of the greatest battle of the war. Seek a place
of safety!”
“Mother has gone, but I have bread in the oven. As soon as it is baked,
I will go,” replied Josephine.
When she took the fragrant bread out of the oven, there were so many
hungry soldiers that wanted it that she decided to bake more for the
struggling men. This work she continued for three days, and gave bread
to the troops on both sides. Her home became a refuge for the wounded,
and all the delicacies she could find were placed at the disposal of
the soldiers. On the last day of the battle the house was in the line
of General Pickett’s charge against the Union lines on Cemetery Hill.
From the riddled house the bodies of seventeen men were taken, some in
blue, some in gray; but the nurse and benefactress of both came through
the event without a scratch.
When at last the Confederates were forced to withdraw, after having
struggled gallantly but in vain to drive the Union forces from Cemetery
Hill, and from the adjoining hills now famous in history――Round Top
and Little Round Top――it was found that rarely if ever had armies
suffered such a high proportion of losses. Meade, the Federal commander,
went into the battle with eighty-two thousand men. He lost in killed,
wounded, and missing twenty-three thousand. General Lee had moved on
Gettysburg with about seventy-three thousand men and his losses were
as large as those of Meade if not larger.
Illustration: Copyright, Brown Brothers.
GENERAL HANCOCK AND HIS MEN NEAR ROUND TOP
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought among the
hills surrounding William Van Orsdel’s home.
The scenes of daring and of strife in those exciting days of battle
and the talks with the wounded men could not but make a deep impression
on such a thoughtful boy as William Van Orsdel. He saw what men were
given power to accomplish when they held their lives as nothing in the
struggle for the things which they believed to be right. The memory of
those stirring days with the acts of sacrifice and of heroism which he
had witnessed made him long for the time when as a man he could engage
in such deeds of action and of daring as those of the soldiers. With
the thoughtfulness which marked his quiet days on the farm and in the
country school, he now began to look forward to some life task that
would call for hardship and adventure and would make his life of the
largest service to those in need.
There was a dauntlessness in William which was partly due to the
fact that he had pioneer ancestry. His great-grandfather came over
from Holland to New Jersey with the early settlers. His grandfather
settled in Pennsylvania about the time of the Revolution, and William’s
father was born there. His mother came from England, and in the little
farmhouse near Gettysburg, William was born on March 20, 1848. Hard
work and heavy responsibilities fell to the boy early in life, for when
he was but fourteen years old, his father died. He then had the care
of his mother and sister and the management of the farm. Two strenuous
years followed; then his mother died and the children were separated
and taken into the homes of relatives.
William was now cared for by an aunt, whose farm was close to
Gettysburg. The change made it possible for him to attend a better
school and he was proud to become a student of Hunterstown Academy.
Eagerly did he grasp this opportunity to prepare himself to render the
greatest service in whatever life-work should open before him.