_Across the Plains in Sixty-five_.
I was perfectly at home in Turner's camp, not only on account of my
acquaintance with him, but on account of my old familiarity with
plainsmen's ways.
There were nineteen men in the train, and but three of them, Turner,
Cap. Hughes, the wagon boss, and James Curl, of Rushville, knew me.
They were all discreet and kept their knowledge to themselves. I
went by the name of John Allen. Just before we were ready to start
my brother-in-law, James Reynolds, sent me a mule, bridle and saddle
and a small amount of money. We pulled out early one morning, sixteen
wagons, four yoke of oxen to each wagon, and forty hundred in each
load. Some time was required to get the men and cattle accustomed to
traveling, and for a while our progress was slow. At Fort Kearney
the soldiers stopped our train. They told us the Indians were on the
warpath ahead and the authorities refused to permit any train to pass
on without fifty men. This forced us to wait until another train came
up. During this time we were required to organize ourselves into a
company of soldiers, elect a captain and drill several hours every
day. The captain ordered me out to drill with the boys. I told him
I knew as much about drilling as I wanted to know and refused to
go. Turner thought he had to obey the authorities and had all his
men drill very industriously. I told him he had better stop that
foolishness and pull out or he would not reach Salt Lake before
Christmas. He said he did not know how to get away from the orders
given him by the soldiers. I told him to turn the matter over to me
and I would show him. He did as I requested and gave orders that until
further notice I should be obeyed.
The following morning I was out before daylight. I quietly aroused the
men and ordered them to prepare to move. Everything was soon ready and
before sun up we were on the road. I made twenty-five miles that day,
which put us so far ahead that we never again heard of soldiers or of
the trains that expected to accompany us. Turner wanted me to remain
in charge of the train, but I told him I could not do it, as I had had
trouble enough the past four years, but that I would give him all the
assistance in my power.
The train moved along slowly over the old road up the Platte which
was so familiar to me, until it reached the upper crossing at South
Platte, where I crossed in forty-nine. From that point we continued
up South Platte over a road with which I was not familiar. When we
reached the mouth of the Cache le Poudre River we crossed and left
the Platte and followed the Cache le Poudre up about 75 miles, as I
remember it. There we left the river and passed over a high plateau,
or divide as we called it, and down into a beautiful valley, the
head waters of Laramie River. After crossing this valley we passed
through a very rough country that lay between the Laramie and the
North Platte. On this stretch of the road and at a point I do not now
remember, we passed a government fort. There I saw Gillispie Poteet,
with whom I had gone to school as a boy. He was a private in the
Federal service. I do not know whether he recognized me or not. I
passed him without speaking or making myself known. My experiences in
the war had made me doubtful of even my old school mates when I saw
them in such company as I found him.
After crossing North Platte, which was but a small stream at that
point, we passed into the worst alkali country I ever saw in my life.
It extended from the North Platte to the Colorado River--a distance of
one hundred and fifty miles or more.
We had a hundred and twenty-five head of cattle and about one-fifth of
them gave out before we were half way across the desert and had to be
herded behind the train. In this state of affairs, which seemed about
as bad as it could well be, Turner was taken sick. He and Captain
Hughes had been having trouble with the men, and Turner was greatly
worried, and I thought at first that he was homesick. The second day
after Turner was taken sick he came to me and asked me to take charge
of the train and let him go on by stage to Salt Lake City where he
could rest and see a doctor. I had been thinking for several days that
I would like to leave the train and go on by stage myself, but did not
like to leave Turner while he was in trouble. So when he proposed to
go on I suggested that he leave the train with Captain Hughes and that
I go along with him to care for him. He said he could not consent to
go on unless I remained with the train; that if we both went the men
would abandon the train on the desert. I then told him I would do my
best; that he had stood by me when I was in trouble, had carried food
to me in the brush when, if he had been discovered, it would have cost
him his life, and that I was ready to do everything I could for him.
I saw Captain Hughes and found it was agreeable to him that I take
charge.
We had then been nearly three months on the road. The cattle were
poor and worn out and there was little food for them upon the desert.
The men were tired and had been inclined to rebel against Turner and
Hughes, and many times it was all that all of us could do to keep
them from abandoning the train. Under these trying conditions, I took
charge, much against my inclination, but out of a sense of duty to
Turner.
Turner took the stage and left us. I immediately gave the men to
understand that I would have no foolishness and that I intended to
push the train on in good order and as rapidly as conditions would
permit. The men seemed to believe I could do what I said I could do
and became very well satisfied. I had trouble with only one man--a
negro that Curl had picked up at Fort Kearney, and placed in charge
of one of his teams. He weighed about 180 pounds, and had just been
discharged from the Union army. He felt very important, and still
wore his blue uniform. The trouble arose in this way: At night we
placed the wagons so as to form a large corral, leaving a gap on one
side. In the morning the cattle would be rounded up and driven into
the corral to be yoked. This negro would not go out in the roundup,
but would remain at the camp until the cattle came up, then in place
of waiting until the cattle were safely in the corral, he would pick
up his yoke and start for his cattle directly in front of the drove.
Many of the cattle would frighten at this and run away and have to be
rounded up again. The boys had scolded him frequently, but he paid
no attention to them, and when I went in charge they complained to
me. I spoke to the negro firmly but kindly and told him to wait until
the cattle were all driven in before attempting to yoke his cattle.
He paid no attention to me, and as usual frightened the cattle back.
I said nothing more to him. The next morning I took one of the long
bull whips, the stock of which was of seasoned hickory and eight or
ten feet long, and took my stand at the side of the gap as though I
intended to assist in driving the cattle in. When the front cattle
came up the negro started for his oxen with the yoke in his hands.
Quick as a flash I changed ends on the whip-stock and with the butt
of it I gave him such a rap on the side of the head that he dropped
his yoke and staggered out of the way. That was the last trouble I had
with that negro. He was as obliging and obedient to me after that as I
could ask a negro to be.
I got the train to the Colorado River where there was plenty of water
and grass, and rested three days. I crossed the river and moved on
up Black Fork about forty miles to Fort Bridger. There I met Turner
who had returned from Salt Lake to see how we got along. I drove the
train up close to the fort and stopped on a stream. The cattle were
unyoked and I had gone with them to the stream to see that they all
got water. It was a beautiful place to camp, and with the fort so
close at hand I thought we could all lie down and rest without fear
of Indians. While I was at the creek three men with yellow stripes on
their shoulders rode up and asked me where the owner of the train was.
I directed them to Turner, who was at the camp. They rode off and I
followed and reached the camp in time to hear them tell Turner that he
must move on; that he could not camp in five miles of the fort; that
they were saving the grass for hay. Turner asked me what he should do.
I told him there was but one thing to do--move on. That the fort was
placed there for the purpose of protecting emigrants, and freighters,
but that did not matter. Those gentlemen in blue clothes and yellow
stripes must be protected or they could not draw their salaries.
The dead line they had drawn was five miles beyond, and it was nearly
night and our cattle were hungry and we were foot-sore and worn out,
and all the Indians on the plains could rob and scalp us that distance
away from the fort and not a gentleman in blue clothes and yellow
stripes be disturbed by it, but we had to move. I was rebellious
again--more so I believe than at any moment during the war, which had
just closed--and but for my recent efforts and my dismal failure, I
should have felt much like challenging the whole regiment with my
twenty cowboys. We were not the only sufferers. An emigrant train of
about twenty families, men, women and children from near Rushville,
Buchanan County, in which were Joe Hart and Tom Hill, who I remember
had fallen in with us and were traveling close behind, they, too, had
to pack up and start. It was late at night when we reached a safe
distance from the fort under escort of the gentlemen in blue clothes
and yellow stripes, and we stopped on a desert so barren that we had
to corral the cattle and hold the poor hungry things all night. In the
morning we moved on some miles farther and found grass and water and
stopped the remainder of the day. A little less than a week later we
pulled into Salt Lake, seventy miles west of Fort Bridger, with the
merchandise in good condition, but with the cattle pretty well played
out. I remained with Turner until his wagons were all unloaded. When
that was finished my free boarding house was closed. My mule was so
poor that he was almost worthless. I had but little money, and my
friends were all preparing to start back. I could not think of going
with them and I felt the necessity for stirring about and finding
something to do.
In a few days a large train pulled in from the west. I went to the
boss and asked him what his plans were. He told me he was hauling
flour from Salt Lake City to Helena, Montana. I asked him about the
Montana country, and where and how he wintered his cattle. He said he
grazed them on Boulder Creek near Helena, and that there was no better
range in the west. I learned farther that he would start on his last
trip before winter in about a week. I did not tell him that I thought
of applying for a job driving an ox team.
Next day Turner, having disposed of his goods, asked me what he owed
me. I told him he owed me nothing; that he had paid me long ago by
protecting me in time of war, and had brought me away from danger
free of charge. Turner said he would not have it that way; that if I
had not been along his train would be back upon the alkali desert,
and that he proposed to pay me. I then told him of my plan to drive
an ox team on to Montana, as I was a pretty good bull-whacker and had
to have some place to go. In reply to this he said I must do no such
thing; that if I would name the place I wanted to go he would see that
I had a way to get there without driving a team. I told him I had no
place in particular in mind, but would be satisfied anywhere among
the mountains and Indians--just so I could get away from the old war
troubles back in civilization.
In a few days Turner came back and told me his cattle were so poor
that he could not sell them, and proposed that I buy them and take
them along with me. I replied that I had no money, besides I was alone
and felt that I could not handle the cattle. He said I did not need
any money, that he would take my note and as to the other matters
he would fix them. He then made me a present of a fine mare, a gun
and a hundred dollars in money. He also gave me a wagon loaded with
provisions. With this equipment, it began to look as though I could
take the cattle, and that the plan he had made for me was much better
than any I could have made for myself. Jim Curl, a Buchanan County
boy, had sixteen head of cattle which he added to mine. He loaded a
wagon with provisions and each of us hired a man to drive our team,
and with this arrangement made we were ready to start.
We remained at Salt Lake until Turner had finished his business. His
entire outfit at St. Joseph cost him about seven thousand dollars. He
paid about two thousand dollars in wages to the men who assisted him.
He received twenty-five thousand six hundred dollars for his cargo.
I saw him get the money and put it in a bank. I realized then what a
loss it would have been to him had he failed to get his train across,
and he often told me if I had not been along he might never have
succeeded. I gave Turner my note for four thousand dollars for the
cattle and he took the stage for home. The next day Curl and I left
for Boulder Valley.
For seventy-five miles or more out of Salt Lake we had to pass through
the Mormon settlements and we had great difficulty in keeping the
cattle out of the fields and gardens. We crossed Bear River just above
the point where it empties into Salt Lake and, after crossing a range
of mountains, found Hedgepeth's cut-off, a road I had traveled in
1854. A short distance farther on, and from the top of a high divide,
I could see Snake River valley near Fort Hall, my old trail in 1849.
When we got down to the river and crossed the deep worn trail, the
scene was quite familiar to me, although it had been a good many years
since I had viewed it the last time. After crossing Snake River we set
out across the mountains for our destination. I can't remember the
names of many points on this trip. In fact the road was comparatively
new and but few places had names. I remember passing over a broad,
sandy desert, where our cattle nearly famished for water, and then
down a long grade over almost solid rock. Near the bottom of this
grade I saw a small stream some distance away, and rode down to see
if I could find a way by which the cattle could reach water. I recall
this distinctly because while hunting a path to the water I saw two
queer looking animals, the like of which I had never seen before. I
learned afterwards that they were lynx.
Next day we passed into a beautiful valley where we had plenty of
water and grass, but it snowed most of the day--a wet snow that soon
melted and did not interfere much with grazing. Passing on we reached
Black Tail Creek, (so named after the black tail deer), which we
followed down to Nelson River. After crossing Nelson River we passed
over a low range of mountains and down into Boulder Valley, the place
we set out to reach. In spite of the high recommendation given this
valley as a place to winter cattle, I did not like it, and we moved on
up the river about fifty miles, and reached a place where the grass
was abundant, but the frost had killed it. Curl thought this was the
place to stop, but I was not satisfied. I saw no bunch grass, and my
experience with cattle in California told me that we would not be
safe unless we found a place where bunch grass grew on the mountain
sides. However, we camped at this point and remained a few days to
look about. Just above our camp a small creek, which seemed to come
down from a big mountain in the distance, put into Boulder River. Curl
and I passed up this creek toward the mountain, which was covered with
snow. Some miles up we found the finest bunch grass I ever saw growing
upon the low hills which surrounded the high peak. We spent the whole
day looking over the place and went so far as to select the site for
our cabin. Returning to camp, entirely satisfied with our day's work,
we planned for the winter. Next morning early we were on our way to
the mountain home we had selected. The grade was steep, our wagons
were heavy and there was no road. We had to circle about the hills and
wind and twist in order to get along at all. It was nearly night when
we arrived at the spot selected.
I had expected, from reports given me, to find a white settlement in
Boulder Valley, but there was none, and if there was a white person
within fifty miles of our camp that night we did not know it. Virginia
City and Helena were mining towns about a hundred miles apart, and
we were half way between them. I could hardly have found a place in
the whole western country where the chance of meeting a white man was
so small. It was, by good fortune, the very spot I set out to find
when I left Missouri. I told my friends when I left that I was going
out among the savage Indians for protection against the "yard dog"
militia, who had not been in the war, and who only commenced fighting
after the war was over and returning Confederate soldiers were at
their mercy.
A hurried camp, such as we were accustomed to make when traveling,
was all we did the night of our arrival. Next morning we were up
bright and early and, after attention to the cattle to see that none
of them had strayed, we began building our winter home. We had but
one axe and one shovel--one implement for each of us. Abundance of
pine and cedar grew near. I took the axe and began cutting the logs
while Curl with the shovel leveled the earth upon the site selected
for the cabin. Curl's task was soon done, but not until I had a number
of logs ready to be taken in. The oxen were then yoked and as fast as
the logs were cut they were dragged in. When we decided logs enough
were upon the ground, building began. It was slow work and hard work.
Each log had to be raised and laid in its place and notched carefully
so that it would hold firm and leave as little space as possible to
be "chinked." When the proper height for the eaves had been reached,
we elevated one side by adding logs to give slant to the roof. Stout
poles were then laid side by side, over which we spread a thick layer
of cedar branches and covered the whole with gravel. We chinked the
spaces between the logs and plastered over the chinking with mortar
made of mud. We then cut out a door, over which we hung a heavy
blanket, and with such stones as we could select, suitable to be used,
built a fire-place, laying the stones in the same kind of mortar used
in the chinking. Thus we had a house without a nail or a piece of iron
about it.
Before I left Salt Lake, I bought two fine greyhounds. I trained them
to sleep just inside our door. I told Curl they must serve as a lock
to our door. They were faithful and obedient and I knew no Indian
could get near us without warning. I felt more secure when I lay down
to sleep with those dogs by my door than if I had had a puncheon door,
barred and locked.
We moved into our cabin late in October, and I felt for the first
time in more than four years that I was at home. I was glad also to
get a rest. I had left Red River, fifty miles above Shreveport, in
April, walked the seven hundred miles to Buchanan County, fighting,
running and hiding--much of the time without food, as I have related;
then twelve hundred miles to Salt Lake, with a week's rest, then six
hundred miles to Boulder Valley--six months of trial and hardship
which few men are called upon to endure. In view of this I looked upon
my winter in the cabin, in spite of its loneliness, with a good deal
of pleasure.
There was an abundance of game all about us. Elk, deer, antelope,
bear, moose, and smaller game, grouse, pheasants and sage hens
plentiful. Elk was my favorite meat, and, while we had great variety,
I always kept as much as one hind quarter of elk hanging upon the
corner of our cabin. Any day I chose I could take my gun and go out
upon the mountain side among the cattle and bring back just such meat
as my appetite fancied.
We lived thus until near the first of the year 1866, without once
seeing a human face--either white man or Indian. One morning about
the time mentioned, Curl and I went out to get our ponies when we
saw a dozen buck Indians chasing an antelope down the valley. Some
were on foot and some on ponies. We hurriedly climbed up the side of
a mountain which gave us an extended view of the whole plain, and to
our astonishment we saw, about three miles away, a perfect village of
wigwams. We were no longer without neighbors. Curl was considerably
alarmed, but I told him we had nothing to fear, except that our game
would not be so plentiful and so easily procured. He asked me how I
knew we were in no danger. I pointed to the squaws, and pappooses
which we could see about the village, and told him that my experience
with Indians was that they were always peaceable when they had their
families along. I told him, however, that we must be discreet and make
friends with them, and assured him that I knew how to do that and that
he must follow my advice.
Out of extra caution we went back to the cabin and immediately put
all our guns in good condition. We had hardly finished our task,
when about noon, two Indians ran upon our cabin, to their utter
astonishment. They stopped and looked in consternation. Our dogs
went after them and I had hard work to make the dogs understand that
they must not harm them. When the dogs were quiet I went up to them,
showing my friendliness in every way I could. They answered me with
signs showing that they too were friendly. When I had convinced them
I meant no harm, I had them come into the cabin, and there I tried to
find out what their plans were in the valley. I could understand but
little they said, but I felt perfectly sure that by proper cultivation
we should soon become quite friendly.
I then set food before them. I had a kettle of thoroughly cooked navy
beans simmering over our fire. I filled a couple of pans from the
kettle, set them out and provided bread and meat. They went in on the
beans and ate them ravenously. I tried to induce them to eat bread
and meat, but not a morsel would they touch, but kept calling for
beans. I told Curl we must find some way to stop them if possible, as
so many beans in their starved stomachs might make them sick and the
tribe would think we had poisoned them. We both then began to make all
manner of signs toward the bread and meat, but it was useless. The two
ate the entire kettle of beans and looked around for more. When they
saw the beans were gone, they ate large quantities of bread and meat,
and made signs that they were much pleased with their meal. When they
left they made us understand that we were invited to see them. They
pointed to their camp and said "wakee up." We made them understand
that we would come and when they were gone I told Curl we must keep
our promise.
Next day we saddled our horses, buckled our navies on the outside of
our clothes and each with a rifle in front across the horn of the
saddle, rode down. The dogs followed us. When we rode up the squaws
and pappooses ran for the tents like chickens that have seen a hawk in
the air. But few bucks were in camp, the majority of them being out
hunting. Fortunately for us one of the bucks who had dined with us
so heartily on beans the day before was lying in his tent (perfectly
well, to our surprise), and when the alarm was given he came out and
recognized us. He came up and bade us welcome, and invited us into his
tent. I was surprised to see how comfortably he was fixed. The poles
of his tent were probably twenty feet long and tied together at the
top. The lower ends of the poles were set in a wide circle, making a
room twelve or fourteen feet across. It was a cold, winter day and a
small stick fire was burning in the center directly beneath an opening
at the top of the tent. The draft was such that the smoke all arose
and escaped from the tent. They had gathered pine needles and packed
them upon the floor around the fire and over them had spread dressed
buffalo robes, making as fine a carpet as I ever set foot upon.
We sat down by the fire and talked as much as we could to our host,
making him understand that we were entirely friendly. Our dogs,
seeing the good feeling between the Indians and ourselves, accepted
the situation and throughout the entire winter made no hostile
demonstrations toward them except when they came about the cabin. From
this visit the whole tribe became aware that we were friendly, and
within a very short time the very best feeling prevailed.
Their only means of subsistence was the game they killed, and as they
had no weapons but bows and arrows it required almost constant effort
upon the part of the bucks to keep the tribe supplied with food. They
were very clever in their methods and would bring in game when white
men under such circumstances would have failed entirely. One of their
favorite plans was this: Fifty or more would mount their ponies and
make a wide circle, driving always toward Cottonwood Creek. The banks
of this stream were very steep and there were but few crossing places.
The antelope on becoming alarmed would start for these crossings, and
as they passed down the narrow gulches, other Indians with bows and
arrows waylaid them from behind rocks and brush, and shot them down.
They did wonders with their bows and arrows, but many antelope passed
through without being touched. Others, though wounded, escaped.
We soon began to join in these hunts, and I have from my station
behind a rock at one of these crossings killed as many as fifteen
antelope in a single hunt. I was an expert with the navy in those days
and rarely missed a shot. I always gave them every one to the Indians,
as neither Curl nor I cared for antelope meat, and they were, of
course, greatly pleased and regarded us both with our skill and navies
as fortunate acquisitions, and we lost nothing by our kindness to them.
We had a hundred and sixteen head of cattle and four horses. The
Indians had about two hundred ponies. All herded and grazed together
in that valley for four months. When the Indians left in the spring we
rounded up our cattle and found every one of them.
About the first of May, 1866, we moved our cattle over on Indian
Creek, about forty miles north. There was a little mining town near
and we set up a butcher shop, furnishing our own beeves to it. The
town was not large enough to enable us to do much business and, after
two months, we moved to Helena, another mining town, but larger
than the first. At that time Virginia City was the capital of the
territory. By the first of September we had disposed of all our cattle
one way or another and were ready for something else.
While we were deciding what next to do, Brother William and his family
arrived in Helena. I had not seen him for six years--since he and
Brother Zack left me at home in 1860 to care for father while they
went back to California to look after the cattle. I had heard little
from our ranch and our cattle in California, but was hardly prepared
to learn that war times had been so bad there. From William I learned
that great lawlessness prevailed in California and that our cattle
had been shot and driven away and that long before the war was over
William and Zack had nothing left but their families. They went to
Idaho and mined a while, and then on to Montana. While in Idaho,
Brother James, who had escaped from prison in St. Louis--and a death
sentence also--had managed to join them with his family. James and
Zack had bought a drove of cattle and had them in another portion of
Montana, so William, Curl and I decided to come home.