USA > Montana > Blaine County > In the land of Chinook; or, The story of Blaine county > Part 12
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"Major Pease, John Peck and I took a boat to go on down the river and see where the steamer was. We were five days and nights going to Fort Buford, at the mouth of the river, and found that the matter was off so far as the steamer was concerned. We arrived at Buford the morning of the Fourth of July.
"We had to be mighty careful going to Buford as there were quite a number of Indians in that section that were not at all in love with any one who was entering the Yellowstone country with an object of settling it.
"Pease went east, I waited and caught a steamer up the Missouri and was all the fall getting to Helena. Got their fair week, the first day. I remained around Helena till after the fair and then took the stage for Bozeman. The next day after arriv- ing in Bozeman I went over to the Yellowstone, just below Liv- ingston, took a boat and went to Baker's battlefield and built me a 'dugout' and stayed there all winter and wolved.
"The next spring, in March, the Government sent four troops of the Second Cavalry and others to take all the people out of the Yellowstone. I was the only one at my place (See the rest of his story). I was loaded up and taken to Fort Pease. Major Brisban had sent Paul McCormick to tell me that he was to take me out. I objected to being moved as I was not doing any harm. Brisban persuaded me to go and taking my pelts in the wagons we went to Pease and back to Bozeman.
"Of the twenty-eight men at Pease eighteen of them had been killed and wounded, four killed and fourteen wounded.
"That spring Gibbon had come from Fort Shaw and had organized at Fort Ellis. He had four troops of Seventh Infantry. He wanted ine to go with him as scout, but as the Government had not made arrangements for pay, other than a teamster at $16 per month, I would not go. Paul McCormick and I built a boat and went down the river and found Gibbon at Fort Pease.
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"Paul got a chance to take a message back to Bozeman and then he brought back some goods and started a canteen. There were several boats at Pease that Gibbon was going to take, but I told him that I was one of the men to help build the fort and as I was the only one there the boats belonged to me and he could not have them. I told him I would take Captain Clifford and the boys down, as we could scout and cover more ground that way than on the land. (I did not work for Gibbon.) We traveled down the Yellowstone pretty near the mouth of Powder river. One morning we took a boat to go down the river, Major Brisban, a soldier or two and a couple of Indians, were in the boat. He did not say what his object was but we soon found out that it was to see if there was a steamboat down the river, as it was about time that the forces were getting together. We run through the Wolf rapids and found a steamboat just landing. We went on the boat and found General Terry and staff. We learned that Custer was coming across from Fort Lincoln and was expected any day. Terry, the day before, had sent scouts out but they had been driven back and he was worried as to how he could get word to Gibbon.
"He told me he would give me $300 if I would take a dis- patch to Gibbon that night. I started out and got to the camp about three in the morning. Gibbon did not move. Terry steamed up to where Gibbon was, the next day. We then went to the mouth of the Rose Bud. Custer's command came up on the opposite side and camped. That afternoon they had a council of war on the steamer (Far West) about the campaign. Custer, Gibbon, Brisban and Terry were there. Custer sent for me to come across the river and see him. When I reached them they had a map lying on the table and as I stepped up Custer put his finger on the map and said: 'Do you know that place ?' I told him I did and he replied : 'You are the man I want.'
"That evening we started for what was to be Custer's Battle Field. I knew all that section of the country like a book and was not long in leading him to the place concerning which he had asked me.
"When we arrived at the point where the battle took place Custer turned to Reno and said: 'Lead out and take the scouts." Those were the last words we ever heard him say. Reno went to the stream and retreated to the bluffs to a place of safety. In doing this there were thirteen soldiers and Herendeen who had not heard the command and they were left in some brush. It is said that it was the knowledge of Herendeen's plainsmanship that rescued the men and took them to a place where Reno was.
"Afterwards when the Government was investigating the failure of Reno to do his full duty that day, Herendeen was
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called as a witness to Chicago and was complimented by the offi- cer in charge by saying, after the trial was over: 'Mr. Heren- deen, I believe you are the only man who has told the truth.'
"Such a remark from such a source and at such a time was certainly a compliment. Herendeen could only see that the truth was what was wanted at that time. He is not one who talks much and has no wish to pose as anything but just an ordinary frontiersman who was doing his duty. He could not have had the fear of Indians very strongly in him as you find him all the winter, before, in his lonely 'Dugout' on the banks of the Yellow- stone, where he was not safe for weeks on account of the Red men. For days he did not feel safe in going over five hundred yards from his camp as the signs were too numerous of the enemy. He never speaks of any of his experiences as out of the ordinary, just natural occurrences.
"When the last battle had been fought he became a guide in the National park to Colonel Picket and was there with him in 1880 killing bear and showing the Colonel how to get bruin.
"He was elected a complimentary member of the Society of Montana Pioneers at Bozeman in 1914. He attended the anni- versary of the Custer Battle in June, 1916, and expects to help mark the trail that Custer followed from the Powder river to his death, in 1917.
"Truly a frontiersman of whom it may be said when he goes on his last hunt, 'He played the game like a man'."
The following little incident was told the writer by the old scout, George Herendeen. It is one of those things that happen to the old plainsmen in their lives on the frontier and which they consider as of no particular moment, that is, of not enough inter- est to the general public to bear repeating: "The expedition of seventy-four to the Yellowstone county was one full of quite interesting things. We always took them as ordinary occurrences, so thought little of them. In fact we thought no more of them than would the people who live the hum-drum of every day exist- ence in any walk of life.
"We had gone down the north side of the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Porcupine, which we had prospected, and made up our minds to cross the larger stream and go to the south, just where we did not care, as we had plenty of provisions and good transportation. On March 25th we made the crossing and were compelled to camp for five days on account of a big storm of snow which started soon after we were over.
"The country to the south was rough, coulees, rolling hills and ridges, on which there were some scrubby pines.
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"On April 1st we had resumed our march and had chosen a coulee as it was the only means of approach to the hills and benchlands that overlook the Yellowstone on the south.
"We had about twenty wagons, well guarded, as we had plenty of men. In all commands you will find some fellow who was more or less foolhardy-willing to try any experience once- and this particular day the hero (?) must be Charlie Dryden, a long-legged youth who carelessly rode on in advance of the party up the coulee and on to the divide. On that divide there was a great big surprise awaiting him. If he is alive today he will, no doubt, recall vividly the occurrence and while he may have no picture of himself as we saw him, he would not care to dispute our version of the affair as we were looking at it from another angle.
"It must not be considered a digression at this time to prepare the reader's mind for the cause of Charlie's excitement.
"While we were camped on the Yellowstone in the storm we had made big fires that caused great volumes of smoke to arise to such a height that any roving bands of Indians, though miles away, might see.
"Now that was just what happened. When Dryden passed over the divide he was discovered by a band of thirteen young Indians who, no doubt, were out to see what the smoke had meant. They were riding toward him when he was seen but they had time to disrobe and with nothing but their breech clouts as cover- ing made for him with the expectation of soon affecting his cap- ture alive. There was one thing that they had not taken into consideration and that was that that particular pony which Dryden had under him was a race horse with the speed of light and which no Indian pony could approach and particularly so with the fear they had put into the heart of her rider at that time.
"On hell-bent came the pony and not far behind the Red boys in full pursuit, expecting that they would be successful. They did not know that the advance guard was coming and that they would soon run into a trap, as they only knew that there was a lone white man who had strayed and who looked good to them. On Charlie came with his long legs fanning the side of the pony like the wings of an old-fashioned windmill. The advance guard opened up and he was safe. The Reds then turned and rode back but the whites gave them no time to pick up their saddles and clothing which were soon discovered and ap- propriated. This little thing did in no way disconcert the main body and we continued with our journey until time to camp.
'There may be some guiding hand to lead us so that we, for a time, escape, what appears, by the breadth of a hair, from places of danger. After we had gone into camp and had some-
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thing to eat five of us started out to look over the country in order to pick out the most desirable road or to find if it would be possible to proceed at all over a section of country where no wagon had ever been before. The party consisted of Frank Grounds, the captain of the expedition, Buck Buchanan, 'Wild Cat' Bill Hamilton, the noted plainsman and author, 'Yank' Everetts and myself. We had proceeded but a short distance when I saw a deer track which led me to suspect that it could be followed and its maker killed. The other boys continued on while I struck out for the deer. Only a short distance away was a small grove of pines to which the track lead. When I had arrived at this place the desire for deer was soon dispelled as there were plenty of fresh pony tracks which I knew to be the marks of the Indians, so I started to overtake the four men who were ahead. The point to which they were making was a wooded hill. They were at the bottom of this rise and could not see the summit. What caused me to look up I do not know, but I did, and on the hill I could see an Indian on horseback waiting for our approach. I was probably five hundred yards away but I pulled up my rifle and blazed away, at the same time shouting to the boys to look out for the Indians.
"As soon as I shot I ran towards the boys and they began to fall back toward me-shooting at the top of the hill as they retreated. Bill Hamilton was deaf as a post and was much in the way as he could see nothing to shoot at and the others had no time, under the circumstances, to explain anything to him and tell the trouble. The boys began to spread out. Buck and myself to the left about one hundred and fifty yards from the other three. We would retreat and stop and hold the Indians while the others fell back. This continued until we could retire to a place of safety or until the boys in camp came to our aid. As I have said Bill could see nothing to shoot at but knew something was wrong some place as Frank had hold of him trying to pull him back. At this time Buck and myself were some one hundred and fifty yards back and Bill, seeing us, pulled his gun and was going to use it as he had an idea we were showing the white feather and leaving the others to do all the fighting. Buck saw Bill and said: 'See that old -, he is pulling his gun on me.' With that remark he leveled his gun on Bill and that changed the old fellow's mind to such an extent that we had no more real trouble from him. In the meantime the Indians kept firing at us but we were too far away for the old guns they had to do us any harm. It only took a few minutes till the boys came and we got back to camp.
"Jack Bean and - Bostwick were standing picket duty some two hours later when Bostwick, who was a harum-scarum
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fellow, wild as he could be, came to the conclusion he would go and have a talk with the Indians. He had not taken into consider- ation that these fellows were not dressed for company and for that very reason were in no good humor for a visit from a white man who was one of the party who held all their clothing, except their breech clouts and a little war paint which adorned their bodies and that April 1st is not warm enough to allow one to be in a pleasant frame of mind when so dressed. They allowed him to come pretty near to them, but when he came close enough to carry on a conversation he had changed his mind and made for the camp with the band after him, with the result that he got four flesh wounds from some old cap and ball pistol that did not lay him up, for he was ready for the fray only four days after on the Rosebud, when the whole bunch attacked us.
"He would, though, have been killed had it not been for Jack Bean, as an Indian was so close to him that he was trying to knock him off his horse with a quirt.
"That night we fortified a little by digging rifle pits. We had fifty-six head of oxen in the gulch below our camp where they were left to graze. Richardson, a butcher of Bozeman, was watching them. Some time during the night an Indian was trying to crawl up and drive them off when he was seen by Richardson and shot. This alarmed the camp and when asked why he shot he explained what he saw and that he thought he had hit his man. This proved a fact, as soon after this we could hear the wounded fellow calling for help which must have been rendered him as we did not find him the next day.
"In the light of today one may say that the escape we made that day was more or less miraculous. If I had not seen the deer track and followed it to the bunch of timber where I found the pony tracks we would no doubt have all been killed, as the Indians were waiting for us and could have held us at their mercy, as it would have been a complete surprise."
JAMES H. SNELL.
I was born August 4, 1854, West Moreland, Pa. We moved from there to Rock Island, Ill .. I was then a year old. My father was a contractor on the Rock Island railroad during that year. We then moved from there to Nebraska City which then comprised two stores, the names of which were Philadelphia No. 1 and Philadelphia No. 2. I was about two years old at that time. We then crossed the Missouri river, which was called the boundary at that time, and my father took a farm or homestead nine miles west of Nebraska City and I remained there until I was ten, about 1864. We then moved west upon the
JAMES SNELL. Scout and Plainsman with Miles at Battle of the Bear's Paw.
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Platte river to Fort McPherson, Nebraska. We remained there until 1866, then I went east to school in Missouri, a little place called Phimore. I went from there to Pennsylvania to school. In 1868 I came back to Nebraska college, three miles southwest of Nebraska City. In 1871 I moved back to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and in 1874 I was with the expedition that went into the Black Hills to take out the first white men that were digging gold there. I then went from there to Fort McPherson and then back to Cheyenne. In 1876 I was with Crook's expedition after the Sioux in Montana. I was with General Crook's command at the time of the Custer massacre. I was probably about 70 miles from the battle, but we never went to the battle. In 1877 we went back that winter and wintered at Camp Carland, Wyoming. In the spring of 1877 we started out under the command of General Hart and we were held at Fort Mckinney, near old Fort Reno; then we came on down to the Yellowstone to the mouth of Tongue river, what is known as Fort Keogh. During the early part of the spring and summer we went on another expedition to South Dakota to Hart River and Cannon Ball after Indians and over to Old Man's Butte, then returned to Fort Keogh about the first of September, where we were ordered to Fort Custer to join General Buwell's command to get after Sitting Bull. The expedition broke up, then we returned to Fort Keogh and General Miles was ordered out to see if he could not inter- cept the Nez Perces. He had a dispatch that they had crossed the Missouri river at Cow Island, between the Bear Paws and the Little Rockies. The dispatch was brought down by Johnnie Buckman (Father) by skiff on the Missouri river. We then made forced marches day and night after that and we had to abandon the wagon train at Pochette with 100 soldiers and cannon to guard same. We then traveled day and night after we got the dispatch. The scouts discovered what was supposed to be the whole camp on Big Beaver creek at the foot of the Bear Paws. We charged in on them, supposing them to be the whole camp, which proved to be only the rear guard. Then we formed a line of battle and followed them up. The infantry was mounted on Indian ponies which we had taken from the Indians up on Mud creek and they being poor riders formed a poor line of battle and we had to stop and form over again. This was on Sunday morning, October 1, 1877. There was about four inches of snow on the ground. It was about nine or ten o'clock in the morning. We followed them over to Snake creek from Peoples creek and when we got up on the ridge on this side we formed a line of battle and again we charged the camp as soon as we saw that it was down in the bottom. The Seventh Cavalry was the right battalion and the Second Cavalry was the left bat-
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talion and the Fifth Infantry was the center battalion in reserve, and the horses of the Indians were on the left side under the care of the Seventh Cavalry. Sergeant McEwen had placed his little Rodman gun in the center of the battalion. The Indians had raided a store up at Highland and also a wagon train loaded with supplies for western points. These goods were piled up in the camp and back of them; it formed a kind of breastwork. We fought the Indians from then until the third day and then we had a peace talk and we had a good interpreter who could talk good Nez Perce and Miles offered him or anybody $300 if he could get them to surrender. Up to this time the Indians supposed that this was Howard or Gibbons or some other command which they had defeated. We talked a while on the third to get them to surrender. In the meantime we had sent back for the wagon, train that had the munition and soldiers. We were talking with Chief Joseph and another Indian called Mox Mox and at the time we were talking to them Lieutenant Jerome and Cayuse George, the interpreter, were down in the Nez Perce camp and when the train came in sight on the hill some one in the right battalion, the Seventh Cavalry, fired his gun off accidentally or intentionally, and then the peace talk was all off. This was along in the evening and they kept Lieutenant Jerome and Cayuse George and we kept Joseph and Mox Mox in our camp all night and shooting was going on every now and then all night. They told Lieutenant Jerome and Cayuse George to keep down as they did not want them to get killed. Snell said: "If I had owned the whole world I would have given it to have been out of that fight-at one time-as I never saw such shots in my life." The clothes I wore were all riddled with bullets. The next morn- ing they stopped firing long enough to trade back. We gave them Joseph and Mox Mox and got Jerome and George. Gen- eral Miles made a present of a pair of shoes to Joseph. Joseph said he did not want to fight the whites but was compelled by the other chieftains. After we swapped back war was resumed and continued until the coming Saturday evening. They came up and surrendered their arms. They thought Miles was going to send them back home if they surrendered. The next morning we started back for Fort Keogh. We camped the first night just below my present residence, at the east end of the Little Rockies, about a mile and a quarter of where I am now located. Little did I think then that I would be located here. In all my Indian career I never was in a standing fight until I struck the Nez Perce tribe. General Miles gave me eight head of ponies and a span of mules for carrying water for the wounded soldiers when nobody else would go. Captain Snyder was ordered by Miles to take a certain position and about thirty of the Nez
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Perces held this position and fought this company of soldiers from a little ridge, they being about seventy-five yards apart and forcing the soldiers back. If the Indians only knew, they had Miles defeated. Some of these holes were joined by tunnels. I never went up against anything like the Nez Perces in all my life and I have been in lots of scraps.
I was the first United States marshal in the eastern part of the mountains of Montana.
"DADDY" F. M. MARSH'S STORY OF KID CURRY.
In the early story of old Chouteau county and in that part that afterward became Blaine county, Kid Curry, the outlaw, was very prominent.
I have no wish to say anything wrong of this man, but to try and tell a little concerning him and some of the reasons or causes which made him a hunted man.
"Daddy" Marsh, the man who must be considered one of the characters of Chinook, was for years a trader on the Missouri at Rocky Point. From him much of the following was learned: "It must have been in the summer of 1884 that Hank and Kid Curry came to our place looking for work. They soon got a job riding for the Circle Bar. As they were among the last to begin work for that outfit for the season they were compelled to quit as soon as the busy season was over. They were industrious and needed something to do. They had a pony and with a half- breed sled, as a means of conveyance, cut and hauled, from the breaks of the Missouri, something like forty cords of pitch pine knots, for which they received about eight dollars per cord the next spring when the steamboats began to run. They began once more, when spring opened, to ride for the Circle Bar.
"As they were very saving they thought it a good plan to take up a ranch near one which was owned by Pike Landusky. The boys were illiterate-never having had a chance to go to school so could not write their names. Hank said to me one day : 'Daddy, I would give all I have if I could write as well as you can.' I explained that that was surely a probable matter, if he
would try. 'What! Do you think I can learn to write?' he asked. I told him yes and sent and got a Spencerian copy book and told him to practice. Every moment he could spare he would work along that line. Soon after this he told me the happiest day of his life was when he was able and did write out an order for some goods at my store. To tell the truth, I could not believe my eyes when I saw that order with his name signed to it.
"I said that he went to live near Landusky-Landusky had been a plainsman for years and had in some way gotten into a fight with the result that his under jaw had been shot. Pike was
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as kind-hearted a man as could be and would give the shirt off his back to one whom he liked. When he was loaded with 'rot- gut' he was as senseless as any fool. At such times he forgot everything manly. Hank Curry, for some reason, thought the less one had to do with Pike the better off he would be, so told the Kid to use him right but never have any business relations with him. It seems that Pike borrowed a plow of the boys and did not return it, but when they got it back it was very much worse for wear.
"I might say that by this time two more of the boys had come to this section-Johnnie and Lonnie. John was a little fellow who soon learned to pack a gun and wanted to be bad.
"In this same section of the country lived Winters and Gill. There was also, another man living there who had some trouble with his wife and she became the common property of several others, to become intimate with Johnnie Curry later. Her hus- band sold their ranch to Winters, who took possession. After the woman became the property (?) of John Curry he came to the conclusion to drive Winters off the land as he claimed the woman had as much right to it as her husband, but that she had not received anything for her portion. One day he rode up and told Winters that he would give him just so long to vacate the place. Winters was not by any means a man who would easily surrender his rights and so explained himself.
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