USA > Kansas > Lincoln County > Indian raids in Lincoln County, Kansas, 1864 and 1869; story of those killed, with a history of the monument erected to their memory in Lincoln court house square, May 30, 1909 > Part 4
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"Wishing to get ahead of them we turned a little east, getting to the creek as soon as possible; when, thinking we were below them we hurried down the creek as fast as we could under the circumstances, keeping our guns ready to fire at the first sight of a moving Indian.
"We had made up our minds that if we ran into them again we were going to do shooting at the first one we saw, without waiting for good one or fat one. Traveling on down the creek, dawn was fast approaching, we were still hugging the creek for protection in case of need. We had not heard a sound or seen a signal light since those mentioned.
"About sun up or a little after, we were near Fred Erhardt's place, where we found a company of United States cavalry in camp. We reported to the captain what we had seen-told him what we had heard in the night, out on the Saline river bottom, and of the fire arrows we had seen just a little above on Bullfoot. I begged him to saddle up at once-to furnish me a horse and I would lead them right to the Indians' camp, where I thought we could catch them if we moved at once and moved quickly. He replied, "I cannot move any farther until I get orders to do so. The Indians were in the settlement over the river yesterday afternoon, but I do not know how much
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damage they have done." He had sent a dispatch to Fort Harker for orders and would wait there until he received an answer. We were disgusted with his reply, drank a cup of coffee, ate a hard tack and started on home, keep- ing on the south side of the river, and just before noon got home.
"I got up my pony, intending to go back up the river, but as we had told the folks the story, they would not let me go until next day, when I went up. But the dead, ex- cept one, had been found, and all the wounded. My sis- ter, Mrs. Alderdice, had been captured.
"The next day, A. M. Campbell and some others came up from Salina, with whom I went up on Spillman creek to look the ground over, and to see if we could find Pe- tersen, the missing Dane. Finding his body, we dug his grave where he fell, on the south side of the Spillman. We also saw the graves of the others that the Indians had killed. They were buried by the party that were there May 31, 1869. We also saw where the Indians had been at the dug-out, where the Danes lived. I knew now that we were wrong in thinking there were three parties or bands of Indians. There was but one band; we were fol- lowing this party around, that made us think we were seeing different bands.
"The shooting on the Saline river was where the two men, T. Meigerhoff and C. Weichell were killed, and Mrs. Weichell was captured. They must have crossed the river after killing these two men near us, and went over to Bullfoot, and not down the river as we thought at that time, but we following them over caused us to think them another party. Yours very truly,
"ELI ZIEGLER."
The place where Eli Ziegler and Alverson were when the Indians overtook them, according to his letter, must be just where the Denmark school house now stands. This corresponds better to his description than any other place on Trail creek. The horses and harness were all that the Indians took, and it seems that they spoiled the harness badly by cutting the tugs, which was done very neatly. This is the place where Waldo Han- cock, of Beverly, says they found the wagon. The Indi- ans, after cutting the tugs, left the ends hanging on the singletree hooks, and in this shape they were found a few days later when they went up to look for the wagon. This wagon did good service for the settlers during that
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fall. They came up to the abandoned farms to gather what had been planted by those who had been killed by the Indians. Mr. Hancock informed me that they got some extra fine potatoes off of the Lauritzen farm. The pota- toes grew down near the water edge of Spillman creek. They were obliged to go up there several times to clear the patch.
THE SCHERMERHORN RANCH.
The Schermerhorn ranch has been often mentioned, in connection with the old history of this section of Lincoln county, but I never saw a description given of its location; nor what it was composed of or was represented to be. It was located on the northeast quarter of section 28, range 7, in what is now Elkhorn township. Mr. Schermerhorn kept a general store there where the settlers could get a few of the most needed things necessary to sustain life. It was about two miles due south of the present Rocky Hill bridge, where the Moffitts had their dwelling in 1864, and about three miles east of where Ferdinand Erhardt had his home. Gen. Alfred Sully had headquarters at this place in 1868. and investigated the conditions in this part of the country.
RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION GANG ATTACKED MAY 28, 1869.
Here is a story not exactly a part of this book, yet it has some bearing on the tragedy, enacted here on the 30th day May. On the 28th day of May the same party of Indians tore up the track and ditched the train on the railroad and had a battle with the railroad gang that built the road. Two white men were killed and four were wounded in that battle. That was the time and place where our townsman A. Roenigk received a very serious wound from an Indian's rifle. He was shot through the lungs and for several days it looked very serious for Mr. Roenigk. It seems very much like he was on the road to the New Jerusalem, but he rallied, got well and is still hale and hearty, and has just completed a trip around the world, which included the Old Jerusalem. He, together with the others that were wounded, was taken to the gov-
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ernment hospital at Ft. Harker. Here he saw the Schmutz boy after he was brought there for treatment.
INDIAN OUTRAGES OF 1868.
In the early summer of 1868 three women by the names of Bacon, Foster and Shaw were take prisoners on Bacon creek about seven or eight miles northwest of Denmark. They were sadly mistreated by the Indians. Some author- ities have it that they were kept prisoners for a week and then released; others say that they were let go the next day, anyway none of them were killed. When found they were more dead than alive but for the reason they were not killed, their names do not appear on the Pioneer monument. Mrs. Alderdice was both captured and killed and Mrs. Weichell was captured and very badly wounded, therefore they are represented on the monument.
About the same time of that year 1868 the Indians did some killing around Beloit in Mitchell county, and took two little girls prisoners and carried them over here on the Saline river. They were about five and seven years old, and were worn out from hanging on the bare backs of the Indian ponies. For that reason, or perhaps for other rea- sons, they were dropped on the edge of the bluffs northwest of Lincoln Center. The little girls evidently thought that the Saline river was the Solomon, and that they were not far from home. They went down to the river and found an abandoned log house; here they were for two days without food. Ferdinand Erhardt and Martin Hendrick- son were out on a scouting tour and happened to see one of the little girls with a red shawl on her head. They first thought that it was an Indian, so they drew their re- volvers and advanced, but they soon found that instead of Indians they were two little white girls. The first thing they asked for was bread as they had not had anything to eat for two days. The girls were picked up and carried to the home of Mr. Hendrickson, and there they were cared for until their parents in Beloit could be notified of their whereabouts. The father, Mr. Bell came over from Beloit to Mr. Hendrickson's and took his daughters home. The soldiers did not rescue those girls; in fact the soldiers
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did not see them, yet the good people over in Mitchell county have it that the soldiers did the rescuing. 1 simply desire to correct the statement as it is seemingly incorrect.
General Sully by his presence did some good work here that summer, in preventing Indian depredations, but that is about all that the United States soldiers did here.
LACK OF MILITARY PROTECTION.
There are said to have been four stockades or camps in what is now Lincoln county, built by the federal or state governments for the protection of soldiers and settlers. One was at or near the Schermerhorn ranch; one near what is now Lincoln Center; one on Spillman creek, located about where Fred Sheldon's house now stands. But the most prominent of these camps was the one located at the junc- tion of Spillman and Bacon creeks, on the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 8, township 11, range 9, in what is now Grant township and is owned at the present time by Lars P. Larson. This was built more like a fort than any of the others and consisted of a two story log house, as near as I can find 24x24 feet, a large stockade for the horses, and a mess built of rock for cooking pur- poses. The remains of the mess building are still visible and can be easily traced but the stockade and the log house were burned by a prairie fire a few years after their erec- tion. It is at this place that J. J. Peate, of Beverly, be- gan his service as a government scout. It has been sug- gested that the place be suitably marked with a substan- tial stone, and the author of this book is willing to donate the stone for this purpose, the only cost will be for the lettering. It is asserted that soldiers were stationed at these points at that time for the protection of the few set. tlers who were then here. It is further stated in Miss Barr's History of Lincoln County that there were no soldiers here on May 30, 1869. This seems to be a serious mistake, as Ferdinand Erhardt is positive that soldiers camped on his place between May 30th. and 31st., 1869, and Eli Ziegler is equally positive that he requested the captain to give him a horse, and he would lead them to where the Indians were, but the officer declined to move, stating that he had sent a courier to Fort Harker to get
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permission from headquarters to give battle to the Indians. Furthermore that officer had information on the morning of the 31st, or the next morning after the mas- sacre, from three different parties of what had happened the day before. The three parties who brought informa- tion were Mrs. Kine, the Christiansen brothers, and Eli Ziegler. By consulting the map it will reveal the fact that the Indians and the soldiers camped within less than a mile apart. It looks like the case of the lion and the lamb sleeping together that night, and neither of them getting hurt. In all the documents and records that I have presented in this book, I fail to find where the soldiers did any protective work. General Custer and General Forsythe are the only ones who made the Indians come to time in this part of Kansas. The scouts in the Saline valley and the settlers were the ones who were always ready to turn out and give battle.
Ferdinand Erhardt and Martin Hendrickson were neither scouts nor soldiers, yet they were always there if any- thing was doing. The regular scouts from the Saline valley were: J. J. Peate, Chalmers Smith and E. E. Johnson. These three may be put down as commanders of the volunteers. D. C. Skinner, Fletcher Vilott, Lewis Farley and his son Hutchinson, Thomas Alderdice, Thomas Boyle, Eli Ziegler, George Green, John Lyden, and John Haley. Those men were all in what is now Lincoln county. George W. Culver, Frank Herrington, Howard Morton, H. H. Tucker, G. B. Clark, A. J. Eutsler, E. G. Tozier, William Stubbs, and J. E. Green, were mostly from Ottawa county. These men and a score of others less conspicious were the heroes of the Saline valley at that time. They did not do their fighting for money or glory; they fought for Betsy and the baby, and I am will- ing to predict that a monument will be erected here some day in memory of their bravery.
The letter that opened this book, written by Robert Moffitt, to his sister in 1864, and the letter written by Eli Ziegler, show positive proof that the pioneers were thrown on their own resources. If they got through with their lives they were lucky; if they were killed, they had to
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bury themselves; if they were taken prisoners or crippled for life, they had to get along as best they could. There was no government aid extended. If they lost all they had, they would sometimes get a little money out of it after they had gone through a lot of red tape and long delay. Therefore the pioneer monument on the Lincoln county court house square is a fitting recognition from the present generation to future generations, of the hard- ships the pioneers had to endure in order that we of the present time may live here in safety. What happened in Lincoln county in pioneer days has happened all over the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Our coun- try has been one great battle field between whites and In- dians and whites against whites.
CHARACTER OF THOSE KILLED
The settlers who were killed here in 1864 and 1869, were fifteen in number, and mostly foreigners, hence innocent parties as far as doing harm or provoking the Indians was concerned. There were among them five children ranging in age from a few months to fourteen years. There were five foreigners who had not been here in the state more than from three months to two years. Lauritzen and wife, and Otto Petersen, those three came from northern Ger- many, from that strip of land ceded from Denmark to Ger- many in 1865. They were born Danes and emigrated to escape being German soldiers. Their birth place was in the neighborhood of Haderslev. Meigerhoff and Weichell came from Switzerland. The Moffitt brothers were born in Ireland, but came to the United States as young child- ren, so they may be classed as Americans. So we find that there were five Americans, five foreigners, and five children killed by the Indians.
As near as I can ascertain Lauritzen and his wife were farmers from the old country; Otto Petersen was a jewler, and is said to have had a good deal of small jewelery with him; the Christiansen brothers had been blacksmiths all of their lives, so it is readily understood that they were not so very well fitted to fight all of the battle incident to sub- duing the wilderness. Weichell and his wife were evident- ly of a class of people higher up in the social world of
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Europe. They had not only plenty of money and the finest of garments, but they had a lot of costly pictures, the like of which the common people in Europe have not. Mr. Weichell was evidently trained for agriculture or he would not have examined the subsoil so particularly as stated be- fore. Meigerhoff as near as I can find it was here with Weichell in the capacity of a scientific farmer and servant; or perhaps in the capacity of a good friend from the old country, but he is supposed to have been rather poor finan- cially. The old settlers never could understand why a man of wealth and refinement should go so far west. The chances are that Mr. Weichell meant to have become a second Lord Scully if he had been spared. It is however a question why Mrs. Weichell after she was cured did not return to her native land, as she had plenty to take her there. There are very many questions from that time that neither records nor traditions can clearly solve.
The Weichells were reported to have had $1,500 in gold which was supposed to have been stolen by the Indians. The solders found a little over half of this amount among the Indians and turned it over to Mrs. Weichell. She was also said to be the proud possessor of twenty-four silk dresses. Mrs. Weichell has visited some of the old settlers here a few times since this trouble occurred. She again married, and is supposed to live on a farm in eastern Kan- sas. She is at the present time negotiating with the old settlers around Salina for evidence through which to se- cure damages from the government for losses sustained at that time.
The letters and other reports in regard to the character of the Moffitt brothers will show that they were here to make a home, and that they were industrious, and of a good, gentle disposition. They have one sister now living in Philadelphia, and in her letter in my possession she says that the boys were agreeable and tender hearted; more like girls in their choice of play, no rough and tumble play for them. The letter which opened this book seems to indicate that such was their character until they met their death. Of Houston and Tyler nothing good nor any- thing bad is known; as they were only visitors here at the
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time of their death. So my judgment would be that they were good citizens.
WATERMELLONS IN "COLD STORAGE."
There were a good many funny things that happened during those days to mix up with the more serious things. While it is not the purpose of this little book to have much of anything in it except what concerns the pioneer monument or the victims that it represents, yet there are a good many things which the survivors did do at that time that will throw a little light on the way of living, in this, at that time barren country. Here is one as told by Waldo Hancock of Beverly. He was a member of the state malitia and was stationed at a camp a little southwest of Lincoln, on the southeast quarter of section one, near the present mill site. Some one had planted a good size water melon patch and had dug a lot of post holes. They were no doubt planning to build a fence. The malitia boys went after the water melons before they were ripe, and got nothing out of them. Mr. Hancock saw what was going on and determined to save some of them if possible so he slipped off to the patch and gathered as many melons as were full grown; but not ripe, (there were none ripe) and put as many as he could get into each post hole and covered them with fine earth sealing them up for good; sometime after this some of the boys expressed the desire for a good water melon and Mr. Hancock told them that he could get for them what they wanted and he took them down to the patch. Of course there were no melons on the vines but Hancock was equal to the occasion; he dug down into one of his "cold storage" plants and pro- duced as fine a water melon as they had ever eaten. This was evidently the first cold storage plant in Lincoln county and Waldo Hancock of Beverly was the originator of it.
HARDSHIPS OF PIONEERING.
I have all names and dates accurate, and I am sure that I have the character of each individual correct, and every place where everything happened is truly laid out on the map, so there is only one more thing to point out that
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made pioneer life hard for an average of twenty-five years if they were fortunate enough to escape being killed. They had to contend with floods and droughts, hot winds and blizzards, cyclones and windstorms, grasshoppers and chinchbugs; two or three well devloped panics also oc- curred during that time; when a man had money in the bank he could not get it; all of these things helped to make pioneer life the next thing to a burden and also to retard a more rapid development of the country. When a crop was good it generally brought nothing. Eggs were from three to six cents per dozen; butter five or six cents a pound; corn from eight to eleven cents per bushel; wheat not worth more than the hauling; fat hogs two and one half per pound; and cattle and horses in proportion. But this is not the worst of it all. As late as 1876 sugar sold in Lincoln Center at eighteen cents per pound; coffee from forty to fifty; tobacco eighty cents; boots, shoes and clothing were entirely in proportion to these prices, so it is the next thing to a miracle that the pioneers lived through it. A good many left as it was to much hardship for them.
In 1874 when the grasshoppers cleaned out the country and the panic cleaned out the banks, the government and the eastern people tried to aid and give us some sort of relief in our distress; the eastern people sent mostly food stuff; the government mostly clothing, which was all discarded soldiers uniforms. In 1875 when a stranger came here he would easily have considered everybody a soldier as all were dressed in uniform. When the Indians did the killing that was the period when we were bleeding; when the grasshoppers cleaned us out, that was the time when we were needing; when we erected by free gifts a monument in memory of all of these hard trials, that was the time when we were leading. Hence the monument stands for bleeding, needing and leading.
MAKING A HOME OF A HOMESTEAD.
I have been asked the question how long it would take a man to build up a fairly good comfortable home from a homestead. My answer is every time from twenty five to thirty years; and it had to be accomplished by hard
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steady work and rigid economy. A very few arrived with a good deal of money, but they were not so well fixed in the long run as the fellow who was obliged to borrow a part of the money required to file on his homestead, as it required a sum of fourteen dollars to homestead, and I know of a few who did not have that much money. The rich man's trouble was that he had the cash and tried to push ahead. He would hire to get crops in, that in most instances were utter failures; so he constantly spent; while the poor man hired out to him, and thus earned his living, making his own little improvements and planting his own patches with his own hands, and if he lost his crops, he was out nothing but his labor.
None of the surrounding counties have lost so many from Indian depredations as has Lincoln county, and that is what induced me to begin agitating the erection of the pioneer monument and place it on the court house square. It stands there today to remind the younger and coming generations that there was not always the same security and comfort in Lincoln that we of the present day enjoy. When we consider all of the improvements and luxuries which we have created in forty-one years, with nothing but the naked hands to work with, the question naturally arises what will the result be in forty-one years hence. Will the coming generations produce as big a change as the pioneers have produced? They have the advantage of a true knowledge of the country gained from the pioneers and have vast wealth to work with.
NOTE.
(Since chapter two was written I have found another version of what happened on Spillman on May, 30th 1869. This is told by Mrs. Helena Errebo. She is the daughter of Peter Christiansen and she states that she was not working in Wilson at the time of the massacre on her father's land but that she was at home on that day. She further states that her father had no dwelling at that time but that they all lived at the Lauritzen place. This does not correspond with what her father told me on several occasions while he was living, and it would seem impos- sible for all to live at the Lauritzen home as there were
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fifteen altogether. I give this second version for the pur- pose of showing how difficult it has been for me to ascer- tain the true facts as, in many cases, no two have told the same story alike. It is possibly owing to a faulty memory.
The name "Meigherhoff" has been run through this book as "Meigerhoff" as this comes nearer the proper pronunciation.
On page 28, the ninth line should read as follows: "killed, Eskild Lauritzen and wife, Stine; and Otto Pe- tersen.")
Southwest View Pioneer Monument
C. BERNHARDT, Chairman of the Pioneer Monument Committee.
C. Bernhardt was born February 18, 1847 at Vellerup, pr Skibby, Denmark, Europe. He came to the United States June 1st, 1867 and settled in Chicago. From there he came to Kansas in 1869 and settled in Junction City, Kansas on the 27th. day of November. On September 1st., 1875 he came to Lincoln county, Kansas and located on a homestead at Denmark, and has resided in this county ever since.
His life work has been blacksmithing and farming. At the age of twenty three years he did not understand a word of English and he had never attended any English schools.
REV. H. C. BRADBURY. REV. JOHN S. STRANGE. Members of the Pioneer Monument Committee.
Henry Chase Bradbury, the second son of Mary and Elbridge Brad- bury who was then pastor of the 1st, Presbyterian church of Wil- liamsport, Pa., was born August 15, 1844. He was born again in Christ in 1862. Was educated in a christian home and at his father's school. In 1866 he graduated from Amherst college and in 1871 from the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, where he too was engaged in Sabbath school and city missions. Came to Ottawa county, Kansas in 1872 as a Home Missionary. Preached first at Lincoln in 1873. He is a kind of a circuit rider and a sod-plow preacher, and at first roved up and down the Solomon and Saline valleys to hunt places in need of sabbath schools and churches and the gospel. He is now 66 years young.
Rev. John S. Strange was born near Elizabethtown, Kentucky in 1831. He was raised in Indiana and lived there until he enlisted in the 49th. Indiana Infantry and served a little over three years. In 1866 he came to what is now Lincoln county, Kansas. In 1870 he was appointed one of the first county commissioners and took part in the organization and naming of the county. At the first election he was elected as one of the county commissioners. He has made Lin- coln county his home ever since. He is a minister of the Christian Connection of America, and is a member of the Kansas State Chris- tian Conference.
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