USA > Kansas > Ford County > Dodge City > Dodge City, the cowboy capital, and the great Southwest in the days of the wild Indian, the buffalo, the cowboy, dance halls, gambling halls and bad men > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
Gc 978.102 D66W 1195461
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01065 0205
R. M. WRIGHT, 1875
Dodge City, Sancas,
The Cowboy Capital
AND
The Great Southwest - IN
The Days of The Wild Indian, the Buffalo, the Cowboy, Dance Halls, Gambling Halls and Bad Men
978. 10 2 DEbw
BY ROBERT M. WRIGHT
Plainsman, Explorer, Scout, Pioneer, Trader and Settler
PREFACE 1195461
W HETHER a preface is explanatory or apologetic, is immaterial, in the use we make of this one. Local history is both personal and public; but the narratives of a border life or from conspicuous events, having an origin and a purpose similar to the discovery of a new country. Local history is the result of development and progress; and each city or state history is the example of the whole country. The history of Dodge City, however, includes a wider environment than the ordinary city or town, because it was the focus of a range of country two hundred miles, north, south, east, and west. Therefore, its center of gravitation was equal in extent to that of a state. Upon this axis revolved and oscillated the bull- whacker, the buffalo hunter, the cowboy, the humble citizen, and the desperado. The character and life of this mixed class of citizenship was greatly sharpened and en- hanced by reason of the strenuous and characteristic im- pulses which governed the circumstances in pursuit and development. There was nothing passive in the life of the plainsman. The objective was the supreme motive; for he stood in face of danger, and his quickness of in- tuition and sense of warning kept him always alert. A character built up under such conditions must have been able to cope with the dangers and hardships incident to a country infested with warlike bands of Indians, and of outlaws which followed on the flanks of civilization.
It is the author of this book, Honorable R. M. Wright, we wish to emphasize in this simple explanation. Mr. Wright came to the plains country a few years before the civil war. As a young man, active and vigorous, he became imbued with a spirit of chivalry and courage, fol- lowed by those traits of character inevitable to this kind of life; charity and benevolence. Many of the narratives
in this book are largely his own personal experiences; and they are written without display of rhetoric or fiction. In everything, Mr. Wright took the initiative, for he had the ability and had acquired an influence to accomplish whatever he undertook. Possessing wealth, at one time, he fostered every enterprise and gave impetus to its ac- complishment. These are living examples of his public spirit and generosity; and these are living memories of his charitable deeds and benevolent gifts. This book is a fitting testimonial to his life and character. Time is generous in its rewards; but no testimony endures which has not a basis upon which to found a character worthy of testimonial. Mr. Wright will give this book as furnish- ing an example of what constitutes greatness in life; for few men have passed a severer ordeal, in greater hardship, and in more danger to life.
N. B. KLAINE.
INTRODUCTION
A T the solicitation of many friends and acquaintances as well as a great many people who are desirous of knowing about early life in the wild west and the Great American Desert, especially in wicked Dodge City, I write these true stories and historical facts. The task is a pleasant one. As I look back and endeavor to recall the events of that period, a kaleidoscopic panorama presents itself to my mind-a picture ever changing, ever restless, with no two days alike in experience. In those days, one lived ten years of life in one calendar year. Indians, drought, buffaloes, bad men, the long horn, and, in fact, so many characteristic features of that time present them- selves that I am at a loss where to begin.
I have often thought that did I possess but an atom of the genius of a Kipling, what an interesting narrative might I write of the passing events of that period. It would be another forceful proof of the trite saying that, "Truth is stranger than fiction". Had I but kept a diary of each day's events as they occurred, from the first time I entered the great West, what rich food it would be to the novelist, and how strange to the present generation would be the reading.
If you wish to feel yourself more comfortable than a king while listening to the sweetest strains of music, come back into a warm, pleasant home with its comforts and listen to the crackle of a cheerful, open wood fire, after being out in cold and storm for a month or two, never, during that time, being near a house or comfortable habitation, while every moment being in terror of Indian attack, or suffering from cold and storm really more ter- rible than Indian attack, sitting up the greater part of
the night to keep from freezing, and riding hard all day on the morrow. In the joy of the change, you will im- agine yourself in the heaven of heavens. How many of us have often experienced these feelings on the frontier of Kansas in the early days. Yet this kind of a life gives one a zest for adventure, for it is a sort of adventure to which he not only becomes accustomed but attached. In fact, there is a fascination about it difficult to resist, and, having once felt its power, one could not permit himself to give it up.
In writing these stories, I have yielded to the request of my friends, principally, for the reason that there are but few men left who saw these things, and I, too, will soon pass away. But before I go, I want to leave behind a feeble description of the greatest game country on earth, as well as of the game that roamed over it, and of its people, and various phases of life.
No doubt, many readers of this book who are reared in Christian homes under proper influences and, by reason of wholesome teachings, parental care and guidance and pure environments, will naturally conclude that Dodge City, in its early period, did not offer the best social climate in the world.
Dodge City has been quoted all over the United States as the most wicked town in existence. The New York papers refer to it as such, the Washington papers do the same-so it goes. From New York to Washington, from Washington to New Orleans, from New Orleans to St. Louis, from St. Louis to Chicago, and from there back to Kansas, if horrible crime is committed, they say, "This is almost as bad, as wicked, as Dodge City."
But, in extenuation of the conduct of her early in- habitants, I plead the newness of the territory, the condi- tions of life, the dangers and associations of a western
-6-
frontier, and the daring and reckless spirit that such con- ditions engender.
I also insist that Dodge City was not the worst place on earth and at last I have heard of a town which was equal to, if not worse than Dodge City, and, by way of comparison, I here quote a graphic picture taken from the "Virginia City Chronicle," published in the 'zo's, of an- other bad town:
"There are saloons all over the place, and whisky four bits a drink. They put two barrels upon end, nail a board across for a bar and deal out. A miner who wants to treat pours some gold dust on the barrel head and says, "Set 'em up!" They never weigh the dust. Sometimes a man won't put down enough dust, but they never say a word, and if he's a little drunk and puts up ten or fif- teen dollars' worth they never mention it. They have three faro banks running all the time. They don't use checks, for the boys, when they won a pile of checks they threw them all over the place and some of them were too drunk to handle them. So the checks got played out. Now a man puts a little gold dust on a dollar greenback and it goes for two dollars worth of dust, on a ten-dollar greenback goes for twenty dollars, and so on-don't weigh the dust at all but guess the amount. We have a daily newspaper-that is, sometimes it's daily, and then when the compositors get drunk it doesn't come out for several days. If a man wants gun wadding he goes and pays four bits for a newspaper. Whenever they start a new city government they print a lot of city ordinances, then there's a grand rush for the paper. Sometimes it comes out twice a week and sometimes twice a day. Every man in Deadwood carries about fourteen pounds of fire- arms hitched to his belt, and they never pass any words. The fellow that gets his gun out first is the best man and
-7-
they lug off the other fellow's body. Our graveyard is a big institution and a growing one. Sometimes, however, the place is right quiet. I've known times when a man wasn't killed for twenty-four hours. Then again they'd lay out five or six a day. When a man gets too handy with his shooting irons and kills five or six, they think he isn't safe, and somebody pops him over to rid the place of him. They don't kill him for what he has done, but for what he's liable to do. I suppose that the average deaths amount to about one hundred a month."
-8-
CHAPTER I. The Country, Time, and Conditions that Brought About Dodge City
D ODGE CITY is situated on or near the hundredth meridian. It is just three hundred miles in a direct western line from the Missouri river, one hundred and fifty miles south from the Nebraska line, fifty miles north of the Oklahoma line, and one hundred miles from Col- orado on the west. As the state is just four hundred miles long and two hundred wide, it follows that Dodge City is located in the direct center of the southwestern quarter, or upon the exact corner of the southwestern sixteenth portion of Kansas. By rail it is three hundred and sixty- three miles from Kansas City, Missouri, toward the west. Dodge City was laid out in July, 1872, under the supervi- sion of Mr. A. A. Robinson, chief engineer of the Atchi- son, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and, for many years afterwards, general manager of that road, and a more pleasant gentleman I never met. The town company consisted of Colonel Richard I. Dodge, commander of the post at Fort Dodge, and several of the officers under him. R. M. Wright was elected president of the town company, and Major E. B. Kirk, quartermaster at Fort Dodge, was made secretary and treasurer. Dodge City was located five miles west of Fort Dodge, on the north bank of the Arkansas River. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad reached Dodge City in the early part of September the same year, and the town was practically the terminus of the road for the next few months, when it reached out to Sargent, on the state line. Meanwhile, what a tremendous business was done in Dodge City! For months and months there was no time when one could get through the place on account of the blocking of the streets by hundreds of wagons-freighters, hunters
-9-
and government teams. Almost any time during the day, there were about a hundred wagons on the streets, and dozens and dozens of camps all around the town, in every direction. Hay was worth from fifty to one hun- dred dollars per ton, and hard to get at any price. We were entirely without law or order, and our nearest point of justice was Hays City, ninety-five miles northeast of Dodge City. Here we had to go to settle our differ- ences, but, take it from me, most of those differences were settled by rifle or six-shooter on the spot.
Hays City was also the point from which the west and southwest obtained all supplies until the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad reached Dodge. All the freighters, buffalo hunters and wild and woolly men for hundreds of miles gathered there. It was a second Dodge City, on a smaller scale. Getting drunk and riding up and down the sidewalks as fast as a horse could go, firing a six-shooter and whooping like a wild Indian, were favorite pastimes, exciting, innocent and amusing. At this place lived a witty Irishman, a justice of the peace, by the name of Joyce. One day, near Hays City, two sec- tion-hands (both Irish) got into an altercation. One came at the other with a spike hammer. The other struck him over the head with a shovel, fracturing his skull and instantly killing him. There was no one present. The man who did the deed came in, gave himself up, told a reasonable story, and was very penitent. Citizens went out and investigated and concluded it was in self-defense. When the Irishman was put on trial, Justice Joyce asked the prisoner the usual question, "Are you guilty or not guilty?" "Guilty, your honor," replied the prisoner. "Shut up your darned mouth," said Joyce; "I discharge you for want of evidence." Many couples did Justice Joyce make man and wife, and several did he divorce. He went on the principle that one who had the power to make had also the power to unmake. Many acts did he perform that, although not legal, were witty, and so many snarls
-10-
were made in consequence that, after the country be- came civilized, the legislature was asked for relief, and a bill was passed legalizing Justice Joyce's acts.
Such is a sample of early day justice, and a glance at other phases of life on the plains, in early days, will make clear the conditions that made possible a town like Dodge City. During the '50's overland travel had become established, and communication between the Missouri River and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Denver, Colorado, was regularly kept up, in the face of many dangers and difficulties. I made my first overland trip with oxen in the year 1859, reaching the town of Denver in May. Three times after that I crossed the plains by wagon and twice by coach. My second trip was made in war times, in the spring of 1863, when guerrilla warfare was rife in Kansas. I witnessed some evidences of the guerrillas in the work of Jim and Bill Anderson, hard characters from Missouri who, at the commencement of the war, had taken to the brush. It happened like this:
Traveling along I noticed that the country was dotted with bare chimneys and blackened ruins of houses along the old Santa Fe trail, from a few miles west of Westport to Council Grove. The day we reached Council Grove, two men rode in on fine horses and, dismounting, one of them said: "I expect you know who we are, but I am suffering the torments of hell from the toothache, and if you will allow me to get relief we will not disturb your town; but if we are molested, I have a body of men near here who will burn your town." These men, I learned afterwards, were Bill Anderson and Up. Hays. A friend by the name of Chatfield with his family, and I with my family, were traveling together. We drove about ten miles from Council Grove that day, and camped with an ox train going to Santa Fe. Chatfield and I had a very large tent between us. That night, about midnight, dur- ing a heavy rainstorm, these two men with about fifty others rode up and dismounted, and as many of them
-11-
as could enter our tent crowded in and asked for water. We happened to have a large keg full. After they drank, they saw that our wives as well as ourselves were much frightened, and they said: "Ladies, you need not be fright- ened; we are not making war on women and children, but on 'blue coats.'" When we reached Diamond Springs we saw what their purpose was. They had murdered the people and burned their houses. The place, indeed, pre- sented a look of desolation and destruction. Not a living thing could be seen about the premises and we were too scared to make an investigation. We learned afterward it was an old grudge they had against these people.
Various government posts were established along the trails for the protection of travelers and settlers, and the quelling of numerous Indian outbreaks. Fort Aubrey, Bent's Fort, and Fort Atkinson, were among the earlier posts, and Fort Larned, Fort Supply, Fort Lyon, and Fort Dodge were familiar points to the inhabitants of the plains before the establishment of Dodge City. Fort Lyon was in eastern Colorado, and was first established in 1860, near Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, but was newly located, in 1867, at a point twenty miles distant, on the north bank of the Arkansas, two and one-half miles below the Pur- gatory River. Fort Larned was established October 22, 1859, for the protection of the Santa Fe trade, on the right bank of the Pawnee Fork, about seven miles above its mouth. Fort Dodge was located in 1864, and the site for its location was selected because it was where the wet route and the dry route intersected. The dry route came across the divide from Fort Larned, on the Pawnee, while the wet route came around by the river, supposed to be about fifteen miles further. The dry route was often without water the whole distance, and trains would lay up to recruit after making the passage, which caused this point on the Arkansas River to become a great camping ground. Of course the Indians found this out, to their delight, and made it one of their haunts, to pounce down
-12-
upon the unwary emigrant and freighter. Numerous were their attacks in this vicinity, and many were their victims. Men were butchered in the most horrible manner, stock was killed, and women taken into captivity more terrible than death, and even trains of wagons were burned. Some of the diabolical work I have witnessed with my own eyes, and will speak of some of it later.
One day a Mexican Indian, or at least a Mexican who had been brought up by the Indians, came in and said his train had been attacked at the mouth of Mulberry creek, the stock run off, and every one killed but him. This was the first outbreak that spring. We afterward learned that this Mexican had been taken in his youth and adopted by the Indians, and had participated in kill- ing his brothers. In fact, he had been sent to the train to tell them that the Indians were friendly. They captured the train and murdered every one in it, without giving them the ghost of a show. The Mexican was then sent to Fort Dodge to spy and find out what was going on there, because he could speak Spanish. Major Douglas sent a detachment down, and true enough there lay the train and dead Mexicans, with the mules and harness gone. The wagons were afterward burned. The train had passed over the old Fort Bascom trail from New Mexico, a favorite route, as it was much shorter than the Santa Fe trail and avoided the mountains, but scarce of water and very dangerous. At last it became so dangerous that it had to be abandoned. The trail which came into the Arkansas four miles west of the town of Cimarron had to be abandoned for the same reason.
Many attacks were made along the route, and three trains that I know of were burned, and several had to be abandoned and stock driven into the Arkansas River on account of the scarcity of water. The route was called the "Hornado de Muerti" (the journey of death; very sig- nificant was its name). At one time you could have fol- lowed the route, even if the wagon trail had been obliter-
-13-
ated, by the bleaching bones. There are two places now in Grant or Stevens county, on the Dry Cimarron, known as Wagon Bed Springs and Barrel Springs. One was named because the thirsty freighters had sunk a wagon- bed in the quick-sand to get water; and in the other place because they had sunk a barrel. Sixty miles above where this route came into the Arkansas there was an- other called the Aubrey route, which was less dangerous because less subject to Indian attacks, and water was more plentiful. Colonel F. X. Aubrey, a famous freighter, es- tablished this route, and it became more famous on ac- count of a large wager that he could make the distance on horseback, from Santa Fe to Independence, Missouri, in eight days. He won the wager, and had several hours to spare. Colonel Aubrey had fresh horses stationed with his trains at different places along the whole route. He afterwards made his famous trip down through the wilds of Arizona and California, accompanied by a single In- dian, and came back to Santa Fe, after a six months' journey, with marvelous stories of the rich finds he had made. He had the proof with him in the shape of quartz and nuggets. When some gentleman questioned his ve- racity, immediately a duel was fought, in which the Col- onel was killed. No money, bribe, threats or coaxing could induce that Indian to go back and show where these riches lay. He said: "No, I have had enough. Noth- ing can tempt me again to undergo the hardships I have endured from want of food and water and the dangers I have escaped. Death at once would be preferable."
A few miles east of where the Aubrey trail comes into the Arkansas is what is known as the "Gold Banks." Old wagon bosses have told me that along in the early fifties a party of miners, returning from California richly laden, was attacked by Indians. The white men took to the bluffs and stood them off for several days and made a great fight; but after a number were killed and the others starved out for water, they buried their treasure,
-14-
abandoned their pack animals, and got away in the night, and some of the party came back afterwards and recov- ered their buried riches. Another version of the story says that they were all killed before they reached the states. At any rate, long years ago there were many searches made, and great excitement was always going on over these bluffs. In 1859 I saw a lot of California miners prospecting in the bluffs and along the dry branches that put into the Arkansas; and I was told they got rich color in several places, but not enough to pay. In this vicinity, and east of the bluffs, is what is named Choteau's Island, named after the great Indian trader of St. Louis, the father of all the Choteaus. Here he made one of his largest camps and took in the rich furs, not only of the plains, but of the mountains also.
At this side of the point of Rocks, eight miles west of Dodge City, used to be the remains of an old adobe fort. Some called it Fort Mann, others Fort Atkinson. Which is correct I do not know. When I first saw it, in May, 1859, the walls were very distinct and were in a good state of preservation, excepting the roofs gone. There had been a large corral, stables, barracks for troops, and a row of buildings which I supposed were officers' quar- ters. Who built it, or what troops had occupied it, I do not know. There were many legends connected with old Fort Mann. Some say that a large Mexican train, heavily loaded with Mexican dollars, took shelter there from the Indians, and finally lost all their cattle, and buried their money to keep it out of the hands of the Indians, and got back to Mexico as best they could. When they re- turned, the river had washed all their cache away, and it was never recovered; but the following is the best in- formation I could gather, and I think it is the most plausible story: In the '50's, and a long while before, the government did its own freighting with ox teams. Many a horn have I seen branded "U. S." One of these trains was on its way back to the states, loaded with ox chains,
-15-
for the simple reason that the government usually sold its wagons after they had delivered their loads of supplies, at their respective destinations, to the miners, hunters, and trappers, and turned the cattle over to the commis- sary for beef. This would naturally leave a large accumu- lation of ox chains. Now, this train loaded with chains met the heavy snowstorm in or near Fort Mann, and they cached their chains at the fort, and went in with a few light wagons, and the river washed the chains away; for the banks have washed in several hundred feet since I have known the place.
There was some inquiry made from Washington about Fort Mann, about thirty years ago, and I remember going with an escort, and, on the sloping hillside north of the fort, finding three or four graves. Of these, one was that of an officer, and the others of enlisted men; also two lime-kilns in excellent condition and a well-de- fined road leading to Sawlog. In fact, the road was as large as the Santa Fe trail, showing that they must have hauled considerable wood over it. This leads me to be- lieve that the fort had been occupied by a large garrison.
Another story, and a strange one, of very early times deals with the ever interesting subject of buried treasure, hinting of the possibility of companies being organized to dig for such treasure, supposed to have been concealed near Dodge City. About four miles west of Dodge, per- haps many of our readers have noticed a place where the earth seems to have been, a long time ago, thrown up into piles, holes dug, etc., indicating that some body of soldiers, hunters, or freighters had made breastworks to defend themselves against an enemy. We have often noticed this place and wondered if a tale of carnage could not be told, if those mounds only had mouths and voices to speak. But we leave this to be explained, as it will be, in the after part of this article, and will proceed to tell all we have learned of the story, just as it was told in the early days of Dodge.
-16-
R. M. WRIGHT AND SON, WITH WRIGHT PARK IN BACKGROUND
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.