USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 36
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with loaded rifles, had been within fifteen rods of a bunch of seven buffaloes, and some of them rolling on the ground, and that the whole herd got away, without even being shot at by the hunting party that was looking for sport.
The second chase occurred August 3rd, and was more successful. This was about two weeks after the first one and after plans had been matured. The horses were well rested and everything was put into good shape for a gallop over the prairies should buffaloes again come into view. One day three men from Marshall county, who had been over on the west fork on a buffalo hunt but who had failed to get trace of any in that region, drove up in front of the Ingham cabin with a team and wagon. After telling their hard-luck story they were advised to go over cast to the Boone and Jowa rivers where they stood a good chance of finding herds of buffaloes and killing them, by slipping up near them in the tall grass and weeds. On leaving they said that they would go to the Boone and follow it down towards their home. After they had gone the trio- hunting party decided it would be a good plan to go east to the higher points of the range and be in readiness to give chase to any stampeding herd of buf- faloes which the Marshall county hunters might start in their flight northward. Arrangements being made for a two days' trip the party set out for some more exciting experience. Kate was up and coming from the start and jumped at every moving object she saw and at some objects that didn't move. No more buf- faloes in her sport if she could avoid it was what she evidently was thinking of as the party passed along. The riders came presently to the high land near Prai- rie creek and almost south of where Wesley is and from the top of "Lookout Bluff" looked over the great flat with a field glass and saw in the distance elk and deer grazing but no buffaloes were to be seen. From there they went north- eastward to Buffalo Grove where they had discovered the herd of buffaloes on their previous hunting trip. The trails they passed over were no more fresh than when they had seen them two weeks before. At the grove they camped that night and made ready for an early start the next morning.
The second day's hunt now began. After riding towards the southeast for a while and not finding any game that was desired, the party changed their course and struck out for the headwaters of the Buffalo Fork with the inten- tion of following the stream down towards its mouth. When not far from the east line of the county, and about three miles from the stream, the riders observed on looking south a string of forty or fifty buffaloes in single file stretched out for a distance of nearly a quarter of a mile. No grander sight was ever beheld on the prairies of Kossuth than the one. that was before them on that August day. Kate saw the big animals in due time and knew what was coming. Waiting for the long buffalo procession to come on its way north until it came to a point nearly west of where they were, the riders ther hastened their horses in that direction in time to see the buffaloes stampede with their heads down, and crowding up in bunches. As the party and their game were far away from the marshy lands the time for a merry chase seemed at hand. The horses were spurred and the excitement began as the riders endeavored to cover the quarter of a mile space between them and their game. Here is Mr Ingham's report of their movements from this time on until the close of the chase:
"The mare, rather unexpectedly to me, by this time had fully redeemed her lost reputation as to nerve, and now when we were within some three or four
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rods of the buffalo and would have been at their sides within a few minutes, we unfortunately struck a beaver dam on the Buffalo Fork, where the buffalo jumped off from the bank some six feet high, into the water. The first one going off went down out of sight and then the others followed, tumbling on top of them until the narrow dam was well filled with struggling buffalo. By this time our horses were very much excited, to say nothing about their riders, and seemed determined to jump off the bank and follow on after them. To avoid getting wet we wheeled them around and tried to get off. Failing in this we began firing into the mass of buffaloes as best we could. until some seventeen shots had been made from our guns and revolvers while they were crossing over some four or five rods in width. The opposite shore was low and muddy, which made it slow work for the herd to get out on the bank. We did not expect to see all the buffalo leave the water after so many shots had been fired and several so badly wounded, but they did. At this time one of the wounded buf- falo turned out and left the herd and went off down the stream, bounding along in a wild and furious manner. Our horses now went off from the bank and swam across the dam, where they found it hard work to reach solid ground. When fully out on the bank we stopped long enough to reload our guns, and then took on after the herd which had led off to the north and east. We had only gone about eighty rods when Seeley lost his spur, owing to the wetting of the strap in crossing through the water. This ended his part of the chase as 'Flinka' had no intention of chasing buffalo without being well spurred. Covel and I went on leaving Seeley to hunt for the lost spur. When about one and one-half miles further on, the cinch fastening on Covel's saddle gave way and was lost in consequence of the soaking it got while crossing the dam, so that he too was obliged to quit the chase, and then went back to Seeley and joined him in looking for the lost spur. About the time Covel dropped out of the chase, the buffalo turned and circled around to the Little Buffalo, then down that stream to the Buffalo Fork, and so up on the north side, passing not far from Titonka. On their way they met the wounded buffalo that had turned out at the crossing of the dam, which now joined with the herd and went off with them. Their course now led them back within a few rods of where they had crossed the dam, and when about a quarter of a mile beyond, one of the wounded turned out and went to some tall grass at the side of the dam and stopped.
"After leaving Covel I kept in the inner part of the large circle the buffalo had made and only near enough to be able to see that none of the wounded ones dropped out without being noticed. The day was very warm, which told on the buffalo as well as on the horses, so that it did not take much running on the part of my horse to keep them in sight. After the wounded buffalo turned out, the herd went on between the boys and the dam, where Seeley took a parting shot, wounding one more. About this time I had cut across and reached the boys. Covel was not an experienced gunner and we had never seen him kill anything with his small gauge breech-loading rifle, so we told him to go down and kill the buffalo while Seeley and I would try and find the spur. When he got within some three or four rods he got off of his pony and fired at the buffalo standing broadside with no effect that we could see. After he had made four shots without any signs of the buffalo being hit. I told Secley he had better go down and help Covel out or the buffalo might yet get away. By the time Seeley
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got near the buffalo Covel had managed to get in some eight shots in all, with the buffalo still standing. When Seeley's gun went off the buffalo dropped, and then we were sure of one at least. By this time the herd was some distance away with three wounded buffalo straggling along together some ways behind. I now started on after them, expecting to make a quick and easy capture of the entire lot. When I got within some sixty rods of them my horse all at once broke down and appeared unable to go any farther; at this I jumped off and started on foot, and when I had gained about half the distance on them I too became well warmed up so that I was in no condition to shoot except at close range, and stopped for a moment to rest. With an old fashioned muzzle-loader I was not in the best shape for defense in case they should turn on me, so that at the thought of what might happen to me when away from my horse if I should get their attention, it did not take me long to see that one buffalo was all that we needed, and more than we could possibly use, and so gave them up. While watching them for a few minutes, I well remember how I longed for a fresh horse, and if some person could have been there with one for sale he would undoubtedly have found a quick buyer at his own price. As it was, I turned from the last wild buffalo I have ever seen, and went back to my horse and then to the boys. By this time they had almost finished dressing the buffalo. While still at work we heard someone hallooing not far away. On looking about we saw some of the hunters from Marshall county on the south side of the dam. At first they tried to have us think we had intruded upon their rights, as they had been following the herd up from the south. After a playful showing of resistance to their claim, we invited them to come over and get a supply of meat. As they could not do so without swimming their horses, we told them if they wanted to get some buffalo to hurry up the stream and cross over as soon as they could and then go on up about two and one-half miles, where they would find three wounded buffalo that we had left only a short time ago that could be easily killed. The last we saw of them they were crowding their horses on at their best and so passed out of our sight. A report reached us a couple of weeks later that a party of hunters had captured three buffalo at the headwaters of the Boone, so that we had good reasons for believing our wounded buffalo were all killed a short time after I had left them.
"While packing the meat and hide on the ponies it became quite a question for Covel, as well as for the rest of us, how so many bullets could have been fired without leaving more than two marks on the buffalo, being the first and last shots. After getting all ready we started down the stream and crossed over to the south side nearly north from Titonka, and then went on to the first white ash grove below, where we saw a large pile of chips and hewings left by a surveying party in making corner stakes the year before. It seemed to be the right place for a camp over night, and it did not take us long to decide, as we were very anxious to test our first buffalo steak, with rather well developed ape- tites, and also to give our tired horses a chance to rest. I have since learned that Mr. D. A. Haggard, then a boy, was one of the party that made the corner stakes in 1854, and so helped prepare the fuel used at our camp. During the night we were frequently disturbed by the noise of the beavers as they would strike the water with their broad tails. Only those who have heard them really know what a racket they can keep up when a person is wanting to go to sleep. Vol. 1 -18
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The next morning before leaving camp the stream was named Buffalo Fork, and then we were off for our cabin, well pleased with the outcome of the hunt. We had taken our buffalo on the plan laid down at first, and were well satisfied without the least desire to ever attempt to capture another. On getting back to the cabin our buffalo meat seemed to have lost its flavor of the night before, and so far I have never found any since quite equal to that we roasted on sticks before the fire at our camp on Buffalo Fork. Perhaps the German saying would explain this :- 'Hunger ist die beste koch.'"
In the whole history of events concerning frontier life in Kossuth there is but one story that can be written about chasing and killing buffaloes, and that story has been told in this article. It presents a beautiful picture of the wild animal life and conditions in 1855. Many have written on the subject of the carly settlements, many about the stirring events during the Civil war period, many about their experiences with the Indians, and many about the hardships the pioneers had to endure, but no one has penned the story of a buffalo chase except W. H. Ingham, one of the three who engaged in the hunt. He is one of the few residents of that period who still remains. Seeley has passed over the silent river, but many times before his passing he took delight in giving an account of the only two buffalo chases engaged in by residents of the county. His story was identically the same as that herewith given by Mr. Ingham. The next year after the chase Seeley became the owner of Flinka by purchase from Ingham. Seeley and Flinka seemed inseparable for many years. His coming to town or riding over the prairies on her back, in a slow gallop, while having on the Oregon spur bought with the pony, was a famil- iar sight until long after the war. He kept Flinka until she died at the age of twenty-eight years. In May, 1861, Mr. Seeley and Miss Alice Benschoter were joined in marriage and in due course of time they became the parents of several children who grew to maturity. One of these-Nettie-(now Mrs. Isenberger, living in northern Minnesota ). becoming a teacher was presiding over her little school in Buffalo township, on the territory over which her father had ridden in the exciting buffalo chase many years before, when she learned that R. 1 .. Lamoreaux of that district had found a curious looking spur. As she had often heard her father tell about the one he had lost in the chase, she felt sure that the one found must be the one that had spurred Flinka across the beaver dam. Finally when it was compared with the one which had not been lost it became plainly evident that they were mates and had been used in the chase. It was during the summer of 1887-thirty-two years after the chase-that Mr. Lamoreaux plowed up the spur. near the creek, on section one in Buffalo town- ship. The finding was of historic value because it marked the location where the surging mass of buffaloes floundered in the creek and where the beavers had constructed their dam.
The spurs have been preserved and are in the possession of the Seeley fam- ily. They are brass and of unusual pattern. The name "Buffalo Fork," given to the stream by Ingham and Seeley at the time of the chase, has been recog- nized and used by all citizens, and will continue to be so used, perhaps, for ages to come. The name of that stream gave rise to the name "Buffalo township," and from both came the appropriate name for the village-Titonka-which is the Sioux Indian word meaning buffalo. These names serve as geographical
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monuments, commemorating the days when buffaloes roamed over the grazing lands in that region which today are in farms that are among the most fer- tile and valuable in the county.
RESCUING THE JOHNSON FAMILY
Although in preceding chapters numerous accounts of incidents occurring during the eventful winter of 1856-7 have been presented, there is still one more incident of that period of sufficient historical importance to be noticed in story form in this chapter. This particular incident, to which reference has been made, pertains to the rescuing from death's door of the Johnson family. The story in fact deals with a series of incidents relating to that subject. Who comprised that family, who they were, where they lived, where they were go- ing, how they came to endanger their lives, how the rescuers learned of their pitiable condition, what hardships the rescuers endured to reach the family, and who comprised the relief party, constitute a chain of subjects relating to the general topic under consideration. The important facts will appear in the narra- tion.
During the summer of 1856, while the Black Cat settlement was forming, a part of the immigration into the county passed through and settled in localities west and northwest of Kossuth. Some seven or eight miles west of the north- west corner of the county lies Tuttle lake, partly in Emmet county, but mostly in Minnesota. During that summer a settlement of four families was formed near the lake, north of the Emmet county line. Calvin Tuttle, after whom the lake was named, located his family there first, then came the Johnsons, who were followed by the other two families. Under the topic "The old-time blizzard" in a previous chapter, an account has been given of how that man Tuttle and his son, George, left home early in November, 1856, for the central part of Iowa with two teams to procure provisions; how on their return journey, after having reached the Black Cat settlement, they encountered a series of blizzards which buried their two loads so deep under the snow that they were unable to be moved until the last of the following April, and how Tuttle after an absence of nearly three months finally walked home, leaving his provisions beneath the world of snow. The failure of the two loads of provisions to reach the settlement made eatables so scarce that the outlook for the remainder of the winter was discourag- ing. Notwithstanding the heavy snow that had fallen, and the treacherous weather, the Johnson family decided to abandon their new home and go further south where civilization was more in evidence. Their going was a hazardous risk which they ought not to have undertaken, for it nearly cost them their lives. As the route of the Johnsons was destined to pass through the Black Cat set- tlement, a glimpse at the location of the cabin homes in that settlement that winter will now be in order. The families of Michael Reibhoff, Wm. B. Moore and Robt. Moore and the occupants of the Ingham cabin all lived in the grove on section twenty-four, in what is now Union township. These occupants were Wm. H. Ingham, A. L. Seeley, Thos. C. Covel, Charles F. Putnam and W. S. Campbell. Near the grove on the southwest lived the Horace Schenck family, and up the creek about a mile, on what is now known as the Sarchett place, resided the John James family, whose neighbor was Jonathan Callender. These-with
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George Tuttle who was still in the neighborhood-constituted the largest cluster of people living north of Algona that winter. All of these settlers had located there during the year 1856, with the exception of Mr. Ingham and two or three of his companions who had begun occupying their cabin the year before. Capt. W. H. Ingham having been one of the relief party who rescued the Johnson family after some of its younger members had been chilled into insensibility, while snow bound on the old Brayton farm in Seneca, it is fitting that he should tell the remainder of the story as he told it in the "Annals of Iowa:"
"Mr. Johnson fitted up a sleigh for winter traveling, and then with his fam- ily and household goods, started out the latter part of February for the Algona settlement, forty miles away, expecting to get through in two or three days. This he could have have done had the crust on the snow been as firm all the way as it was at the lake when he started. In many places where the snow was deep his team and load would break through, and then he was obliged not only to shovel them out, but dig out a road-way for some distance ahead. In this man- ner he worked his way on for six days when he found the supplies for his family and team were about used up, with more than half the distance yet to go. Hope- fully he worked on for another day and reached a high and sightly bluff on the river a short distance from Armstrong Grove, where he decided to leave his family and try and reach the settlement on foot for help.
"Early in the morning he parted from them and started out on the prairie, still hoping they might in some way be saved. He was so worn out that at his best he could only make very slow head-way, so that when night came on he was still a wanderer. Fortunately for him, as well as for his family, he heard the barking of a dog. This he followed up until about nine o'clock when John James, of the Black Creek settlement, heard him calling for help and went out with his lantern and found him and took him to his cabin. He told Mr. James about his family, their condition and where they could be found. Mr. James at once hurried down the creek, some one and a half miles, to Mr. Reib- hoff's and informed them. The news was quickly carried to others in the set- tlement-William B. Moore, Robert R. Moore and Horace Schenck-who has- tened to meet together at Mr. Reibhoff's for the purpose of sending out a relief party with as little delay as possible.
"When Peter Reibhoff, Geo. Tuttle, John James and Jonathan Callender offered their services, all hands went to work so that they might be off at an carly hour. While the men folks were busy making sleds to carry their sup- plies, the women were equally busy in cooking and gathering the articles needed for the trip. Everything seemed to be well arranged for this party, when Mr. Schenck thought it would be best for another party to go out lightly loaded, so as to reach the family as quickly as possible. With this in view he came to our cabin, three miles away, about four o'clock in the morning, and told us about the family and what had been done, and then with great earnestness and much feeling told us what he still thought should be done, and asked us to make up a party to reach the sleigh with as little loss of time as might be. Our sym- pathies were all enlisted from the start, so that when he had finished I turned to Wm. S. Campbell, who was stopping with us at the time, and said, 'What do you say?' His quick reply was, 'If you go I shall be with you.'
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"While breakfast was being prepared, the sleds were brought in, tent cover and blankets were rolled up and bound to them, also an ax to each. As the other party had a great supply of provisions, we did not wait to prepare any and only took what we could gather from the table for our lunch. At the first signs of day we were off and soon found out that the morning was cold, and as usual we had a strong northwest wind to face. About 11 o'clock the sky clouded over and soon after we were in one of those blustering snow storms so common at that day. At times it seemed as if we should have to turn back, or go to the timber for protection, and yet when we thought of the family that had been waiting so long for help, we nerved up all the stronger and pushed on. About 1 o'clock we discovered a break in the clouds at the horizon and by 3 o'clock the storm had passed by. We now saw the sleigh some two miles away, directly in front of us. This distance was quickly covered and when we walked up to it, so uncertain as to what we should find, and gave one of the bows of the cover a vigorous shake and asked, 'How are you getting along?' We for once at least, listened to a quick response, and such expressions of thankfulness as we had never heard before and probably never will again. This was followed by earnest appeals of Mrs. Johnson to her little girl, Mary, not to die, as help had come, repeating it over and over again, evidently in hopes of getting some expression from her showing that she was still alive. During this time Campbell, who was standing by my side, spoke the feelings of both, when he said, 'I am glad we came.'
"We now told Mrs. Johnson to be quiet as possible and when we got a fire started and camp ready we would come and get them. When she heard the word 'fire,' it seemed to have the desired effect, as she had seen none for some time. He went down to the river bottom, near at hand, where Campbell began cutting wood, while I cleared away a site for a camp in some four feet of snow with one of my snow shoes. When this was done and the support poles were in place, we spread the heavy canvas for a cover and fastened it down close to the ground on all sides but the open front. A fire was soon started and then with the rubber blanket spread out on the ground, with the Mackinaws and buffalo robe covering it, we had a really comfortable appearing camp, although the mercury was some thirty degrees below zero.
"A big fire was now in order, and when the camp was thoroughly warmed we hastened to the sleigh just above us and found the family all unconscious but Mrs. Johnson, and all helpless and unable to move. We took the little boy of some twelve years of age, and Mary about ten, out from between the heavy feather ticks, and carried them to camp, apparently beyond the need of help, and then Mrs. Johnson with her infant child was placed beside them. From now on we had plenty to do in keeping up the fire. Up to this time we had been so occupied that we had entirely forgotten the other party, as they had not put in their appearance. Hoping to aid them in finding our camp, we began firing guns at frequent intervals, and kept it up until quite late, when we gave up seeing them for the night.
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