USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 23
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 23
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 23
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216
INDIAN WARS.
Haven, Colonel Hayes returned to Carson and dis- banded his regiment. On the march he lost a valued scout, William S. Allen,18 who was shot from an am- buscade, this act being the last of the Pah Ute war of 1860, in the western part of the county of Carson. There was some fighting in the Goose Lake country between the force under Colonel Lander, then explor- ing for a wagon road over the sierra and across the great basin, who had been appointed special Indian agent. In August, Lander gave information that old Winnemucca, with the principal part of his band, was in the mountains north of the Humboldt river, and the Smoke Creek chief scouting from the Truckee river over to a point north of the sink of the Hum- boldt. Before quitting the Humboldt country, Lan- der sought an interview with young Winnemucca, and through him a convention was entered into by which Numaga agreed that the Pah Utes should keep the peace for one year, and Lander promised at the end of that time to use his influence with congress to procure payment for the Pah Ute lands.
The regulars under Captain Stewart remained at Fort Haven until the middle of July, some persons taking advantage of their presence to make settle- ments on the Truckee, and near Pyramid lake.19 The troops after leaving Fort Haven occupied themselves, under the direccton of Captain Stewart, in erecting Fort Churchill, a permanent post on the Carson river thirty-five miles below Carson City. Indian- agent Frederick Dodge endeavored to perfect the promised peace by setting off reservations at Walker and Pyramid lakes, and in the Truckee valley, where the fishing and other food supplies of the Indians were most abundant, and placing them in charge of Warren Wasson, an energetic, fearless, and just man.
18 Buckland's Indian Fighting, MS.
19 J. D. Roberts, Thomas Marsh, Robert Reed, Hans Parlan, O. Spevey, Anderson Spain, Washington Cox Corey, and M. A. Braley. The mines at Aurora were discovered by Corey and Braley, whose names were given to two mountains in that region.
217
ON OWEN RIVER.
By the exertions of Wasson and the friendly chiefs Oderkeo, Numaga, and Truckee,2º war was averted for the time.
The winter of 1861-2 was severe, and the Indians whose hunting ground had been spoiled, and whose stock of provisions was inadequate to their wants, killed the cattle belonging to the white men, and were themselves sometimes slaughtered in return. Retali- ations multiplied, and several white men 21 were killed in Owen River valley. The remaining inhabitants, herdsmen, fortified themselves thirty miles above Owen lake. Eighteen men marched from Aurora to the relief of the graziers, who now took the field sixty strong, under a leader named Mayfield, and had a skirmish with the Indians in force, losing one man.22 Retreating to camp they were pursued, and in another skirmish two other white men were slain.23 The com- pany escaped under cover of night and returned to their fortification, abandoning a considerable quantity of ammunition, eighteen horses, and leaving their dead on the field. On the march they met Lieutenant- colonel George Evans with two lieutenants and forty men of the Second Cavalry California volunteers, from Los Angeles, who joined his force to theirs, and went again in pursuit of the Indians. In the mean- time Governor Nye had been informed by Agent Wasson of the difficulty on Owen river, with request for troops sufficient to quiet the disturbance, and pre- vent the infection of war from spreading to the Pah Utes. General Wright, in command of the depart- ment, ordered Captain E. A. Rowe of the above mentioned regiment, stationed at Fort Churchill to send fifty men to the scene of the conflict, and the orders of Captain Rowe to Lieutenant Noble, in
20 Truckee died in October 1860. His name was given to the Truckee river by the early immigrants, to whom he behaved well. He possessed papers given him by Frémont in 1844.
21 E. S. Taylor, J. Tallman, R. Hansen, and Crozen were killed by the Indians in the spring of 1862.
22 C. J. Pleasants of Aurora.
23 N. F. Scott, sheriff of Mono county, and Morrison of Visalia.
218
INDIAN WARS.
command of the detachment were not to engage the Indians without the sanction of the Indian agent. But when Lieutenant Noble met Colonel Evans on the 7th of April his command was taken away, and his men ordered to join in the pursuit of the Indians, whom Wasson desired to meet and pacify. On the second day, believing that the Indians were secreted in a certain cañon, Evans sent Sergeant Gil- lespie and nine men to reconnoiter in advance of the main command. The squad was fired upon almost as soon as it entered the cañon, the sergeant killed and Corporal Harris wounded. An attack was then ordered, the cavalry under Evans taking the moun- tains on the right of the defile, Noble, with his com- pany and a few citizens, the heights on the left, and the remainder of the force remaining below. Noble succeeded in gaining his position under a galling fire from a concealed foe, but the colonel of the citizen's company, Mayfield, who had accompanied him. was killed Not being able to cope with an invisible enemy, he retired down the mountain, and Evans having no provisions for an extended campaign, re- turned to Los Angeles. Noble then escorted the graziers with their herds, numbering 4,000 cattle and 2,500 sheep, to quieter pastures in Nevada, and the Indian agents undertook the task of soothing away the excitement among the reservation Indians, who from fighting among themselves were willing and anxious to go to war with the Owens River tribe should they be asked to do so. But with this people the governor of California made a treaty in the fol- lowing October,
On the 23d of May the governor met Winnemucca and his people in council at the lower bend of the Truckee, but nothing came of it. In August, eleven immigrants, men, women, and children, were killed by the Indians on the Humboldt, eight miles east of Gravelly Ford, and their bodies cast into a stream. Thereupon General Conner issued the eminently in-
219
TREATIES.
telligent, just, and humane order to "shoot all male Indians found in the vicinity, and to take no prisoners." When savagism and civilization fight, let me ask, Is it savage warfare or civilized warfare that the white men engage in ? The operations of Connor who as- sumed command of the district of Nevada and Utah in August 1862, against the Pah Utes of eastern Nevada, and the Snakes, Shoshones, and Bannacks of Idaho are given elsewhere in these histories.
Meanwhile desultory hostilities were carried on with the Gosh Utes. A company of regulars under Captain Smith crept upon a camp of Indians in Step- toe valley on the 4th of June, and killed twenty-four. Next day they killed five more, and the day after twenty-three-horrible massacres these acts would be called had the savages perpetrated them. Meanwhile the Indians continued to pick off an emigrant or a stage driver occasionally, and destroyed the stations all along the line. Treaties were made in the summer and autumn of 1863 with the Shoshones, General Connor and Governor Doty of Utah treating with the Shoshones and Bannacks in south-eastern Idaho in July, and Governor Doty and Governor Nye with those in the north-eastern part of Nevada, at a later period, including the Gosh Utes, who were placed on a reservation in Ruby valley.24 In the spring and summer of 1863 were raised the Nevada cavalry and infantry by order of the general government, which were distributed to the different posts and overland stations. Nevertheless, murders by white men and red continued through 1864 and 1865 much as before.
Twenty-nine of Winnemucca's men having been killed for stealing cattle, by a cavalry captain in March of the year last named, a conference was called at which the chieftain handed in a catalogue of crimes committed against him by white men, which far out- numbered those which could justly be brought against
24 The losses sustained by the stage company in the Gosh Ute war were 150 horses, 7 stations destroyed, and 16 men killed.
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INDIAN WARS.
him; yet Winnemucca was not able to kill ten white men for every twenty dollars' worth of property stolen, else he would have done so. In April the settlers in Paradise valley were attacked, and the Indians with
difficulty repulsed. In May thirty-six men attacked a force of 500 Pah Utes and Shoshones, 130 miles north-east of Gravelly Ford, and 75 miles from Para- dise valley. The troops were repulsed after four hours hard fighting, having lost two men killed and four wounded. An Indian camp at Table mountain was surprised in September and ten killed. A whole village full were butchered shortly afterward, and other camps and other villages; and so the game went on, until enough of the savages were swept away- the civilized war being likewise brought to a close- to enable the Nevada volunteers to be mustered out of service. 25
Troubles continuing in northern Nevada, Captain Conrad of Company B, of that organization, and a detachment of Company I, under Lieutenant Duncan, with eight citizens, had a battle on the morning of the 12th of January, 1866, with the Indians on Fish creek, sixty-five miles west of Paradise valley. The conflict was a determined one on both sides, the savages being led by Captain John, a chief of the Warner Lake Shoshones, who had killed Colonel- McDermit. After a three hour's fight the troops were victorious, slaying thirty-five warriors, capturing ten women with their children, and destroying their supplies. 26
The settlers of Paradise valley being again dis- turbed by Indian raids, an expedition against them was organized, under Major S. P. Smith, of fifty-one
25 The military farce in Nevada in 1868 consisted of 6 cos. of cav. and 2 of inf., which companies garrisoned camps McDermit, Winfield Scott, Ruby, Halleck, and Fort Churchill. Mess. and Doc., 1868-9, 368-9. In 1872 camps Halleck and McDermitt alone were garrisoned, the former by 1 company of the Ist U. S. cavalry, and 1 company of the 12tb U. S. inf. Sec. War Rept, i. 66, 43d cong. Ist sess.
26 Unionville, Nev. Gazette, Jan. 24. 1866; Sac: Union, Jan. 22, 1866; Doc., 7, Misc. Hist. Papers, MS.
221
WINNEMUCCA.
men of the same regiment aided by thirty citizens of the infested region. A battle was fought at Rock cañon, on the 15th of February, in which 115 Ind- ians were killed and 19 prisoners taken, with a loss of one soldier killed and Major Smith and six privates wounded.
By reference to the second volume of my History of Oregon, it will be seen that the troops in that state and in Idaho were driving the Indians south, while the Nevada troops were forcing them north, so that truly the savage had no place to lay his head. The total loss to Indians in the district of Nevada for 1866 was 172 killed and about an equal number made prisoners.
In 1874-5 there was some trouble with the Indians in eastern Nevada, which was, however, quickly sup- pressed. C. C. Clevland was conspicuous in putting down the disturbance. Owing to the milder disposi- tion of the Nevada tribes, as well as to the swift vengeance by which any resistance was met, the state has suffered less than some others by Indian wars. Probably 250 or 300 white persons have been killed by Indians in Nevada, while ten times that number of savages have suffered death at the hands of white men.
No treaty was ever entered into between the gov- ernment and the Pah Utes or Washoes. The latter never had a reservation, but roamed up and down the country formerly occupied by them, sometimes labor- ing as servants, but largely idle, with every combina- tion of vices, savage and civilized. The friendly Pah Utes, less vile, more manly, and numbering a little over 1,000, were for the most part established on re- servations at Truckee and Walker rivers, aggregat- ing 644,000 acres. These reservations were surveyed by the government, and confirmed to the Indians by executive order in 1874.27
27 Ind. Aff. Rept. 1871, 682. Land Off. Rept, 1864, 20; Hayes" Scraps, Ind- ians, i. 51; Sec. Int. Rept, iii., 9-10, 168-73, 361-95, 40th cong. 2d sess. ;
222
INDIAN WARS.
Winnemucca did not remain long upon the reser- vation at Pyramid lake, but roamed over the northern part of the state, being never met in battle. After the peace of 1868 in southern Oregon and Nevada, he remained in the neighborhood of Camp McDermit 28 and received rations from the military department.
It is quite certain that in the Modoc war of 1872-3 the Modocs looked for assistance from the Pah Utes and Shoshones in that quarter. A tract in eastern Oregon containing 1,800,000 acres was set apart in 1870 for a reservation on which to place the Mal- heur and Warner lake Shoshones, and the rest- less Pah Utes of northern Nevada. A few were gathered upon it in 1873, among them Winnemucca's band, who still spent the summers in roaming through Nevada and Idaho, and were fed whenever they applied for rations at Camp McDermit. During the wars of 1877-8 in Idaho and eastern Oregon, Winne- mucca's band was hovering on the edges of the hostile field, yet sustaining a neutral character. The war of 1878 caused the abandonment of the Malheur reser- vation, the Indians having destroyed the agency. At the conclusion of the war the Shoshones and Pah Utes were removed to the Simcoe reservation in Washing- ton, where they were not wanted by the Yakimas, who made them miserable by various systematized oppressions, causing them in 1880 to return to Nevada. The Malheur reservation was ordered to be sold, and the money applied to the benefit of the Indians. 29
The treaty made in October 1863, between the Indians of eastern Nevada on one side and governors Nye and Doty, of Nevada and Utah respectively, on the other, contained an article authorizing the presi- dent of the United States to select a reservation for
Tyler's Posts and Stations, 2; Ind. Aff. Rept, 1874, 3-4, 53-4, 104-79, 278-84; Id., 1873, 336-46; Nev. Sen. Jour., 1873, app. no. 6, 18; Sen. Doc., 42, i., 43d cong. Ist sess .; House Ex. Doc., 157, xii., 43d cong. Ist sess.
28 Winnemucca died in Oct. 1882. Reno Gazette, Oct. 27, 1882.
29 Winnemucca Silver State, July 10, 1880; Reno Gazette, Nov. 27, 1880.
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RESERVATIONS.
the western Shoshones. This reservation was estab- lished in 1877 at Duck valley, between the forks of the Owyhee river, in Elko county. The only other was the Moapa river reservation in the south-eastern corner of the state, established in 1875.30
30 In Feb. 1871 congress passed an act to provide for the disposition of useless military reservations, in which Camp McGarry, Nevada, was named. Ex. Doc., 1013, 1180, vol. 26, 46th cong. 3d sess .; Cong. Ghobe, 1870-1, app. 341. Total area of military reserves 22,195.33 acres. Ex. Doc., 253, vol. 25, 46th cong, 3d sess.
CHAPTER X.
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
1849-1886.
QUESTIONABLE VALUE OF MINES-TRANSPORTATION-ROADS AND RAILROADS -MAIL ROUTES AND TELEGRAPHS-STAGES-PONY EXPRESS-STEAM- BOATS-FISHERIES-METALS-BOOK REVIEWS-AGRICULTURE-CLIMATE -WHIRLWINDS AND EARTHQUAKES-FLORA AND FAUNA-LIVE STOCK- CATTLE RAISING-LANDS AND SURVEYS-COUNTIES OF NEVADA-SUM- MARY OF RESOURCES-SOCIETY-EDUCATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, AND BENEV- OLENT INSTITUTIONS-NEWSPAPERS-BIBLIOGRAPHY. .
WHAT advantage to Nevada has been her mountain of silver ? What advantage her organization as a state ? Some, no doubt, but more to individuals than to the commonwealth at large. To the later inhabi- tants, the merchant, the miner, the farmer, the pro- fessional man, it is not a matter of great moment, the fact that millions of money have been taken from somewhere about Sun Peak, leaving hills of débris and ghastly holes in the ground-money squandered by lucky gamblers in New York and Paris, and used for purposes of political bribery and social corruption in Virginia City and San Francisco. Less than the least of the tailings of all this vast output of wealth has gone to benefit Nevada. California assumed in the beginning, and kept until the end, the mastery of affairs. San Francisco without the Comstock was a different city from San Francisco with a long list of Nevada mines, paying large dividends, on the stock- boards.
I wish I could say that Comstock ethics were likely to mend; but the truth must be told, which is that
(224)
225
VALUE OF MINES TO THE STATE.
the managers, when they had appropriated to them- selves the bonanza, erected a multitude of mills, and kept on reducing the lower grade ores at a cost to themselves of $5 a ton, but to the other stockholders of $14, when perhaps the rock only yielded $14, or at any rate it was reported at that figure. A thousand Comstocks at this rate would be of little value to a state. Some good, in spite of all this, remains from bonanza days. S. L. Jones, brother of Senator Jones, has worked several of the Gold Hill mines from the 350 foot level to the 1,700 foot level, systematically and economically, and Evan Williams has shown great skill and wisdom in the working of low grade ores. Had the same business like methods prevailed in former days it would have been better for all interested. In 1885 the state was redistricted for judicial purposes and in 1887 the old fee system revised, and by these wholesome measures much expense was saved to the state, without any detriment to the public service.2
But after all, the real wealth of Nevada lies in the improvements made; in developments that are in fact improvements ; in farms and manufactures; in roads and systems of irrigation ; which are due rather to
1 Williams was born in Blossburgh city, Penn., of Welch parentage, Jan. 13, 1844. He came to Nevada in 1868, and for some years was prominent in educational matters. He was subsequently a senator from Ormsby county for years. Noted for his ability and common sense; a fearless and just man, wholly reliable, very public spirited, of a generous nature, and deservedly popular ; became wealthy by intelligent land investments ; he did much to develop the Owen river section of Inyo co., Cal.
2 M. D. Foley, who participated in this legislation as state senator, was born at St Andrews, New Brunswick, October 22, 1849, of Scotch-Irish parentage; came to Nevada in 1867 and participated in the White Pine excitement; removed to Eureka, Nevada, in 1870, where he still resides. He has taken an active part in various enterprises of importance, notably in the affairs of the Richmond Mining company, is of the firm of Remington, Johnson & Co., successors to the well-known house of Walker Bros., Salt Lake City, Utah, with a branch of the business in Eureka; is president of the Bank of Nevada, Reno, in which he is a large stockholder; is interested in ranching and stock-raising. He served two terms in the state senate, of which body he was a useful member, especially in legislation on economic questions.
HIST. NEV. 15
226
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
the absence of enormous mineral developments, such as paralyze puny effort, invite speculation, and turn the heads of men from patient, plodding effort. Far greater general progress has been made since the Comstock mines ceased their fabulous yield than before. But this is not meant to deny the value of legitimate mining to Nevada.
With regard to transportation, always an important subject in an undeveloped country, Nevada was for a long time unfortunate. It is true that a road to Cali- fornia existed before the discovery of mines in west- ern Utah, and the same trail led backward to the Missouri frontier. But the distance in one direction and the high sierra in the other gave the territory an isolation which retarded development, and added to the cost and inconvenience of living. It was neces- sary to make provision in the summer for the sub- sistence of the people through the winter season, during which they were cut off by snow from travel in either direction through an uninhabited country.
As early as 1851 the United States mail was car- ried by a contract with Woodard and Chorpening of Sacramento, from that place to Salt Lake City, going and returning once every month, the mail-bags being transported on the backs of mules, and the dis- tance being 750 miles. The route was via Folsom, Placerville, the old immigrant road through Straw- berry and Hope valleys to Carson valley, through Genoa, Carson City, Dayton, Ragtown, across the forty mile desert to the Humboldt river near the sink of the Humboldt, thence along the south side of the river to the point where Stone House station of the Central Pacific railroad was placed ; thence south of east by the Hastings cut-off to Salt Lake City. Woodward and two of his men were killed at Stone House station in the autumn of 1851, but Chorpen- ing continued to carry the mail until the expiration of his contract in 1853. Snow-shoes began to be used
227
ROADS AND MAILS.
in crossing the Sierra in the spring of 1853 by the carriers, Fred Bishop and Dritt, succeeded by George Pierce and John A. Thompson. The latter distin- guished himself by his feats on snow-shoes, being a Norwegian by birth. The shoes used were ten feet long, and of the Canadian pattern.
In 1854 the legislature of California appointed commissioners to lay out a road from Placerville to Carson valley. The contract for carrying the mails for four years was again given to Chorpening in com- pany with Ben Holladay, with permission to use a covered wagon and four-mule team, and to carry passengers, which was the best means of travel in western Utah prior to 1857, when J. B. Crandall established a tri-weekly line of stages between Placer- ville and Genoa, which carried the mail between these places, connecting with Chorpening's line at Genoa. This was the Pioneer Stage Line which became so great an institution in early times. It was transferred to Lewis Brady & Company in 1858, who established a semi-weekly line between Sacramento and Genoa; and George Chorpening secured the mail contract from Placerville to Salt Lake, where it connected every week with the overland mail from that city to St Joseph, Missouri, thus completing a transconti- nental mail and stage line between the Missouri and Sacramento rivers. The first eastward bound coach left Placerville June 5, 1858; and the first arrival from the east at Placerville was on the 19th of July following.
The improvement in mail communication was rapid. Letters from the east came through overland a week sooner than by ocean transit. The amount of mail matter that was sent by stage increased, and new routes were sought to shorten the distance, the stage stations being moved south in the autumn of 1859. to the Simpson route. During the winter a new stage line between Placerville and Genoa was started by John A. Thompson and Child, who used sleighs
228
MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
between Strawberry and Carson valleys, keeping the road open all winter for the first time.
The pony express was the next step. It was the conception of F. A. Bee,3 W. H. Russell and B. F. Ficklin, managing officers of the Central Overland and Pike's Peak Express company, incorporated by the Kansas legislature in the winter of 1859-60, to keep messengers going for over 1,700 miles, flying at the rate of from seven to nine miles an hour for ten days. Stations were first established twenty-five
miles apart, but the distance between was subse- quently shortened. The messengers were required to ride seventy-five miles, but the ponies were changed at every station. Not more than ten or twelve pounds of mail were allowed to be carried, five dollars being charged on each letter. Newspapers printed on tissue paper were allowed. The mail was wrapped in oiled silk and carried in pockets in the four corners of the mochila, or leathern saddle cover, which, with the saddle, went through from St Joseph to Sacramento without change. The first pony express from the east brought eight letters, and made the distance in ten days, having started April 3, 1860. The first from the west left Sacramento April 4th, and arrived at St Joseph on the 13th. The route followed was nearly straight, and through Nevada pursued the Simpson trail via Ruby valley. The expense of maintaining this line through an unsettled country was extraordinary. As an enterprise it was unpro- ductive, and the object of its founders has never been distinctly made known. They claim, however, to have shown that the central route across the conti- nent was feasible for railroad operating at any time of the year, which had been doubted. The view taken by Walter Crowinshield of Nevada, who assisted to
3 Bee was born Sept. 9, 1826, at Clinton, Oneida co., N. Y. He came to Cal. in 1849. Was early identified with telegraphic matters and later gained distinction by being the third in rank as consul of the Chinese government. He was a man of striking personal appearance and tenacity of purpose,
229
PONY EXPRESS.
restock the road after the Pah Ute outbreak in 1860, is that it was with a view of obtaining the mail con- tract over that route when its feasibility was demon- strated. Yet this company made no effort in that direction, but suffered the old Butterfield contractors to obtain the route west of Salt Lake under the name of Wells, Fargo & Co. and Ben Holladay to secure the eastern portion. But other considerations besides climatology settled the location of the first overland road-placing it out of the reach of the confederate states.
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