Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 28

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432

USA > North Dakota > Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life > Part 28

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 (link on the Part 1 page).

H. R. Porter

163

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

strated that he was correct. Generals Terry and Gib- bon were to go by another route and were to strike the Indians in front and Custer was to close in on the rear. Custer started from the camp on Powder river on the morning of June 24. I was sent with him. We were on the trail all that day and night. The night was very dark and we lost the trail once, but found it again by lighting matches.

"We proceeded until four o'clock, the morning of the 25th, when we camped in a deep ravine where the Indians could not see us. We were not allowed to unsaddle or unpack. Being very tired after our long ride, we laid down and slept, each man holding his horse by the bridle reins. In about an hour the scouts reported a large camp of Indians ahead. The command was ordered to get ready for action. Cus- ter came to me and said : 'Porter, there is a large canrp of Indians ahead, and we are going to have a great killing.' At six o'clock we started. It was Custer's purpose at this time to charge the Indians in a body, he supposing that our presenece had not been discovered by them. In a short time the scouts reported that we had been seen by the Indians. Custer then decided to divide the command. He sent Colonel Benteen with three companies to the left; Major Reno with three companies in the cen- ter ; and he took three companies and was to go to the right, his idea being to surround the Indian camp. Captain McDougal was left in charge of the pack train. It was about ten o'clock when the com- mand was divided. Just as we were ready to start, Custer came to me and said : 'Doctor, I would like to have you go with me, as you are younger and more robust and Dr. Lord, the chief surgeon. is not feeling very well.' I replied, 'All right. I would much prefer going with you.' Custer then said: 'I will see Dr. Lord and ask him to consent.' We rode over to where Dr. Lord was, and Custer spoke to him about the contemplated arrangement. The Doctor replied : 'Not much. I am going with you.' The poor fellow in those few words saved my life and sealed his own doom. I went with Reno. We had proceeded but a short distance when Captain Cook, Custer's adjutant, came up and said: The Indians are right ahead of you, and you are ordered to charge them as fast as possible.'

"We went forward at a lively gait. When we came to the river we discovered the Indians were on the opposite bank. We forded the river and sud- denly came upon ten or fifteen redskins, and they were running. We then thought that we had al- ready won the fight. We rode some little distance toward the Indian camp, when suddenly a swarm of red devils rose up and poured a terrific fire into us. We dismounted and formed a skirmish line. At first there were only a few, comparatively, then more and more of the savages appeared, and the ground seemed to be fairly alive with them. They were all naked and their bodies were painted hideously. They all rode their ponies bareback. The fire finally became so hot that Reno ordered his men to mount, and led them under cover of the woods. Then the

Indians closed in on us, shooting through the branches, killing some of our men. A soldier was shot in the little clump of trees where I was. I dis- mounted and found him mortally wounded. Reno ordered the troops to mount and charge, and a run- ning fight ensued. My horse was rcaring and plunging, and I had all I could do to hold him. The Indians, in their mad pursuit of our troops, did not notice me in the timber. They were passing within ten feet of where I was. I placed laudanum on the wound of the soldier and bandaged it as best I could, and again mounted my frightened horse, As I was leaving the poor soldier said: 'For God's sake, Doc- tor, don't leave me to be tortured by those fiends.' Bullets were flying thick and fast, and I turned my horse loose and caught up with our troops, who had gotten half a mile away. In that half mile ride I think I was the target of a thousand rifles, but I escaped without a scratch. We again forded the river and took a stand on the top of a steep hill. A few minutes later Benteen, with his three companies came up, as did McDougal, with the pack train. Benteen, after leaving us when the command was divided, had gone west to the river. Not seeing any Indians and hearing the firing he rushed back and joined us. We fought there the remainder of the day, surrounded by three thousand savages, while there were only three hundred of us, all told. The men dug rifle pits with their knives and tin cups. At dark the Indians stopped firing. Some of the men then crawled down to the river and secured water. We had been fighting in the broiling sun all day without a drop of water, and the wounded were begging for a drink. I had some brandy with me, but I told them that it would make them worse. They insisted on having it, anyway. Next morning the Indians again opened fire on us. Although Reno was ranking officer, Colonel Benteen was really in command, and to his coolness and bravery those of us who were saved owe our lives. With the air thick with bullets and some of them piercing his clothing, he stood calmly directing the troops. Occasionally a band of savages would dash up to within two or three hundred yards of us, and our men would then charge them. Several Indians were killed in these charges, and finally one of the soldiers killed and scalped an Indian in plain view of the others. This frightened them and they kept a safe distance away after that. A perfect storm of leaden hail was poured in on us all day the 26th until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when the firing grad- ually ceased. We were then frightened, as we thought the Indians were up to some bloodier mis- chief. Finally we saw them moving off in a body. That night most of the soldiers slept, and were much refreshed in the morning. After the Indians left we were able to procure water. We had all been nearly famished. During the morning of the 27th General Terry and his command came up. He and his staff were all crying, and General Terry said: 'Custer and his whole command are killed. We thought you were, too.'

164

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

"During the two days we were surrounded by the Indians the inquiry among our men for Custer was loud, and that General's court-martial was freely speculated upon. After separating from us Custer had gone through a rough country for a distance of four or five miles and attacked the Indians in the rear. As soon as we could, several of the officers and myself went over to where Custer had fought, and found what General Terry had reported to be only too true. We found Custer's body stark naked, as white and clean as a baby's. He was shot in the head and breast. The body of Captain Tom Custer, General Custer's brother, was horribly mutilated. He was disemboweled, and his head had been crushed in by a blow from a stone hammer used by the In- dians. The only arrow wound I found was in his head. He had the Sioux mark of death, which was a cut from the hip to the knee, reaching to the bone. His heart was not cut out, as has been reported by Rain-in-the-face, one of the Sioux chiefs who took part in the fight. I cut a lock of hair from the head of each officer as he lay, and gave it to their families on my return home. The steamer Far West was moored at the mouth of the Little Big Horn. She was the supply boat of the expedition, and had made her way up the Big Horn farther than any other boat. After burying the dead we took the wounded on litters ten or twelve miles to the boat, and I was detailed to go down to Fort Lincoln with them. Colonel Smith, Terry's adjutant general, was sent along with the official dispatches, and he had a trav- eling bag full of telegrams for the Bismarck office. Captain Grant Marsch, of Bismarck, was in com- mand of the "Far West," and the steamer performed a feat unequaled in western steamboating. Marsch put everything in the most complete order and took a large supply of fuel. His orders were to reach Bismarck as soon as possible. The steamer never received the credit due her, nor did her gallant cap- tain. The Big Horn is full of islands, and a suc- cessful passage is not an easy feat, but the boat made it without an accident, after a thrilling voyage. At Fort Buford and Fort Stevenson we stopped a minute to tell the news, and at Fort Berthold a wounded scout was put off. Two of the wounded died, and we went ashore to bury them. We ap- proached home with something of that feeling that always moves the human heart. It was one mixed with sorrow and gladness. At eleven o'clock on the night of the 5th of July we reached Bismarck and Fort Lincoln, having made one thousand miles in fifty-four hours. Colonel Smith and myself hurried from the land up town, and called up Colonel Louns- berry, the editor of the "Tribune," and the telegraph operator, J. M. Carnahan, who took his seat at the key and scarcely raised himself from his chair for twenty-two hours. What he sent vibrating around the world is history."

One of the officers in Reno's command has the following to say of Dr. Porter's services during the memorable fight on Reno's Hill: "The afternoon of the 25th, all night, throughout the 26th, the night

of that date, and until the forenoon of the 27th, Dr. Porter worked as few men are ever called upon to work. He had no idea that he would get out alive, and believed every man around him was doomed. Still he was the same cool and skillful surgeon that he is today. He had a duty to perform that seldom falls to a man of twenty-six, and yet he performed it nobly. He was surrounded by the dead, dying and wounded. Men were crying for water, for help, for relief, for life. For twenty-four hours there was no water. The sun was blazing hot. The dead horses were sickening, the air heavy with a hundred smells, the bullets thick, the men falling, and bluffs for miles around black with the jubilant savages. The work of the others was not like Porter's. He must know no fear, no trembling, no rest. He had every agonizing sight before his eyes. The after- noon of the 26th, when the Indians ceased their firing and began to move off, there were around Porter on the ground fifty dead and fifty wounded. One in every three was either killed or maimed. I know little of hospital history, but I doubt if there is much that overshadows Porter's experience upon the bluff overlooking the Little Big Horn. If I had the genius of a Buchanan Reed, I would weave it into a song more heroic than 'Sheridan's Ride.'"

Colonel Benteen said to him: "I know of no doctor in the regular corps who would have per- formed the work which Dr. Porter did, with his small force of assistants; don't think there was or is one in the army. There was no nonsense, no gush about him, only just a strict attention to duty, and as mod- est about it as a girl in her teens."

Dr. Porter's military service terminated in 1887, but at the opening of the war between Spain and this country he made the offer to present $50,000 to the government and either join the army as surgeon or serve in the ranks, which fact shows that the patri- otic fire which once burned fervently within him has not yet died out. After leaving the service he engaged in the practice of his profession at Bismarck for some time, and for a year or so visited Washington, D. C., after a tour of the world in 1893-4. But there was a fascination for him in the scenes in which a stir- ring part of his career had been laid, and he returned to Bismarck, where he now resides.

In 1877 Dr. Porter was united in marriage with Miss Lottie Viets, of Oberlin, Ohio, a daughter of Henry Viets. She died in 1888, leaving one child, Henry V. In his political views the Doctor is a Republican, but takes no active part in party affairs. Socially he is a Mason of high degree. He has been president of the Medical Society of North Dakota; superintendent of the board of health of Burleigh county ; vice-president of the board of examining surgeons for United States pensions at that point ; and is now a member of the council of the Associa- tion of Acting Assistant Surgeons of the United States army, and vice-president of the Society of Veterans of the Indian Wars. He is a pleasant, genial and polished gentleman, of high social qual- ities and is very popular, having a most extensive

165

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

circle of acquaintances who esteem him highly for his genuine worth. He has met with excellent suc- cess in life, becoming quite wealthy, and has trav- eled extensively, visiting all of Europe and a good part of Asia and Africa during the years of 1893 and 1894. He has climbed the Alps in Switzerland, and the Pyramids of Egypt. He rode a camel over the Nubian desert, and shot the cataracts of the Nile. He saw the Pope in Rome, the Sultan in Constanti- nople, witnessed bull fights in Spain, and the gam- bling tables of Monte Carlo. A month of sight- seeing in Paris gave him a pretty good insight into the mysteries of the gayest city in the world. Over a month in Rome, he had time to study art and ruins to a limited extent, but where a life time could be spent profitably exploring the wonders and mys- teries of the Eternal city. After visiting Cairo and the two oldest cities in the world, Mem- phis and Thebes, he sailed from Alexandria to Joppa, then by rail to Jerusalem, and on horseback to Jericho, the Dead sea, and the river Jordan. He visited Bethlehem and saw the place where Christ was born, the Garden of Gethsemane, up the Mount of Olives, and through the valley of Jehosophat. His trip through Palestine and Syria was made on horseback, camping at each place until everything had been seen. He camped, slept and lunched at Samaria, the plains of Jezreel, where Saul conquered the Phil- istines; also on the shore of the sea of Galilee, Nazareth, Capernaum and Damascus. He visited Cypres, Rhodes and Turkey, where he saw the sul- tan going to prayers, and a review of ten thousand Turkish troops. He spent a week in Greece and Athens, returning again to Naples and Rome, thence through Spain, sailing from Gibraltar for home.

HON. JOSEPH M. DEVINE, lieutenant-gov- ernor of North Dakota, was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, March 15, 1861, a son of Hugh E. and Jane (McMurray) Devine, the former a native of Ireland, the latter of Virginia. His father was edu- cated in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and became a professor of botany. In 1830 he came to the United States with his parents and settled in Virginia. His death occurred at Wheeling in 1885. In his family were five sons, two of whom are now resi- dents of North Dakota.

In West Virginia Joseph M. Devine grew to manhood, and was educated in the common and high schools of the city of Wheeling and afterward graduated in the classical course at the State Uni- versity. The following year he came to North Dakota and located in La Moure county, where he followed farming for one year and still owns land, to the cultivation and improvement of which he yet devotes a part of his time and attention.

In 1886 he was elected county superintendent of schools, and most acceptably filled that office for ten years. He was made state lecturer for the schools of North Dakota in 1890 and still fills that position. He was made chief clerk of the fourth

session of the legislature; in 1896 was elected lieu- tenant-governor and re-elected in 1898. He filled the office of governor from April, 1898, to Jan- uary I, 1899, after the death of Governor Briggs. His various official duties have been discharged in a most commendable and satisfactory manner and have gained for him the confidence and respect of all.

In 1896 he was elected one of the delegates to the republican national convention held at St. Louis, and was made one of the vice-presidents of that convention ; also appointed one of the com- mittee to notify the president of the action of the committee.

In 1897 he was made vice-president of the Na- tional Sound-Money League, which position is still held. In this capacity he has written several articles upon finance, which were published and copied extensively in eastern papers.

His work in behalf of education in North Da- kota has been potent and far reaching. Much of the state's general system of education is due to his untiring efforts. In his capacity of state lec- turer he has delivered many addresses on educa- tional, literary and historical subjects, which have been received everywhere with popular approval and have been extensively commented upon, both in this state and others.

Since casting his first presidential ballot he has been an ardent supporter of the men and measures of the Republican party. At the age of twenty- two he left North Dakota and, at the special re- quest of the Republican state executive commit- tee, stumped his native state in the interests of the presidential campaign of that year. As a cam- paign speaker he is among the best in the west; his style been unusually clear, forceful and eloquent ; his arguments always comprehensive and yet com- pact. Truth, passion, conviction and good judg- ment are the qualities that have made his public utterances powerful and effective. He believes what he says and his heart is always in his words. As a lecturer on literary and historical subjects he is always in demand, and, perhaps, in this field ap- pears at his best. Instructive, interesting and en- tertaining, with a richness of illustration unsur- passed, and with a knowledge of the subject matter always full and complete and that evidences the hard student that he is.

Socially Mr. Devine is a thirty-second-degree Mason, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

HON. PORTER J. McCUMBER is one of the most distinguished and honored citizens of Wahpe- ton and is now serving as United States senator from North Dakota. He is a prominent lawyer and belongs to that class whose ability and charac- ter are making a deep impression upon the public life of this rapidly developing community in which he resides. In this broad state, with its abundant

166

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

room for individual enterprise, with its hearty appreciation of personal worth and its splendid opportunities for individual achievement, the man of ability finds the very largest sphere for useful- ness and gratification for personal ambition. His abilities will be discovered; his integrity will find appreciation ; his public spirit will meet with recog- nition, and he will be forced into prominence. Sen- ator McCuniber is an illustration of this fact.

He was born in Crete, Will county, Illinois, February 3, 1856, and spent his boyhood upon a farm near Rochester, Minnesota. After attending the district schools for some time, he entered the high school of that city, where he completed his literary education. He then taught school for a few years, and while thus employed took up the study of law. He graduated from the law depart- ment of the University of Michigan in 1880, and the following year opened an office at Wahpeton, North Dakota, where he has since successfully en- gaged in practice. In January, 1882, he formed a partnership with B. L. Bogart, and under the firm name of McCumber & Bogart they are still carrying on business.

On the 29th of May, 1889, at Wahpeton, Mr. Mc- Cumber was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Schorning, a native of Minnesota, and to them have been born two children, Helen and Donald. So- cially Mr. McCumber is a member of Wahpeton Lodge, No. 56, F. & A. M., and politically is a stanch Republican. While in the line of his profes- sion he has won distinction and success, he has al- ways been ready to respond to any call for pubilc duty, for years working on political lines for the advancement of the interests of the city, state and country. In 1884 he was elected to the lower house of the territorial legislature, and after serv- ing in that body for one term was elected to the upper house in 1886 for the same length of time. He also filled the office of state's attorney for Rich- land county for one term, and in the winter of 1899 was chosen United States senator for a term of six years. With the broad spirit of Americanism shap- ing his views and prompting his actions, he has won the respect of all classes and the confidence of the great public. Men with minds that are as alert and broad as his, are never narrow ; and men who, like him, view public questions, the social organiza- tion, politics and all the relations of life compre- hensively and philosophically are magnificent sup- porters of the best interests of humanity.

JUDGE NEWTON C. YOUNG is a prominent and successful lawyer who is now serving as asso- ciate judge, and is the youngest jurist ever on the supreme bench in North Dakota. On his admission to the bar he located in Bathgate, this state, and it was not long before his abilities became widely rec- ognized and he built up an excellent practice, which he continued to enjoy until appointed to his present responsible position. He is now living in Fargo.

Judge Young was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, January 28, 1802, and is a son of Charles S. and Joanna E. ( Williams) Young, both natives of Ohio. The father, who has followed farming throughout life, removed from Fulton county, Ohio, to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in 1849, and is now a resident of Fremont county, Iowa. The grandfather, William Young, was a native of Belfast, Ireland, and emi- grated to America in 1810, locating in Pennsylvania. He, too, was a farmer.

During his boyhood and youth Judge Young was provided with excellent educational advantages. After attending the schools of Tabor, Iowa, he en- tered the Iowa City Academy from which he was graduated in 1882. He graduated from the Iowa State University in 1886, and from the law depart- ment of that institution in 1887. In June of that latter year, he opened an office in Bathgate, North Dakota, where was actively engaged in practice until appointed to fill the unexpired term of Judge G. C. Corless, on the supreme bench in 1898. This ap- pointment was followed by his election in November, 1898, for a full term. Prior to this time he had filled son.e local positions, and was state's attorney of Pem- bina county from 1892 until 1896.

In 1887 Judge Young married Miss Ida B. Clarke, a native of Iowa City, and also a graduate of the State University located at that place. Her parents were Charles F. and Julia B. Clarke. Our subject and his wife have three children : Laura B., Horace C. and Dorothea P.

Fraternally the Judge is a member of the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Politically he is an ardent Republican and has served on the county and state committees. He is a genial, courteous gentleman, a pleasant, entertaining companion, and has many stanch and admiring friends among all classes. As an energetic, upright and conscientious lawyer and a gentleman of attractive social qualities, he stands high in the esteem of all who know him.

HON. GEORGE B. WINSHIP, founder and publisher of "The Herald," the leading daily paper west of the Twin cities, is one of the prominent men of North Dakota. He has devoted his attention to the growth and success of the "Herald," and after over twenty years of earnest labor has met with the suc- cess he so well deserves, and may well be proud of the results of his effort. Aside from his work in connection with the "Herald," he has found time to labor for the advancement and development of the social and financial resources of North Dakota, and is one of the well-known public-spirited men in the 'state. A portrait of Mr. Winship will be found in connection with this sketch.

Our subject was born in Saco, Maine, September 28, 1847, and emigrated to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, with his parents in 1851, and to LaCrescent, Hous- ton county, Minnesota, six years later. He at- tended the district school until thirteen years of age,

000000

THE HERALD

OGR

JOB PRIN

VINSHIP

THE HERALD

HW U. TELEGRAPH OFFICE.

103

JEWALI

COUNTING

Zeveryper la59.

HERALD BLOCK, GRAND FORKS.

HOTEL DACOTAH, GRAND FORKS.

1830

TING

Geo Huiship

171

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

and then spent three years sanding brick molds, and setting type in the local printing office. He offered himself as a soldier for the Civil war in 1862, and was rejected on account of his youth, but in 1863 he was accepted and became a member of the Second Minnesota Cavalry, in which he served till the close of the war. He was then engaged at various en- ployments, and in 1867 started to the Idaho gold fields with Captain Davy's expedition, but part of the outfit failed to arrive at Fort Abercrombie, and our subject, with others, declined to go on account of danger from hostile Indians, and he then spent a year driving a freight team from the end of the rail- road at St. Cloud to the various posts for the gov- ernment, and in the spring of 1868 he engaged with Dr. Schultz, of Winnipeg, ( who later became lieu- tenant-governor of the province), and the work of our subject was on the "Norwester," then the only paper published north of St. Cloud. He remained there about two years and then went to Pembina and spent a year in the employ of A. W. Stiles, post trader. There he met William Budge, and in 1871, when the Blakeley & Carpenter line of stages from Breckenridge to Winnipeg was started, the two men formed a partnership, and established a stage station at Turtle river, fourteen miles north of Grand Forks, where Manvel is now located. They built rough stables for the accommodation of stage and other horses, and a rough log house furnished shelter for guests, and thus business prospered at Turtle river station. In 1873 Mr. Winship sold his interests to Budge and Eshelman, and went to St. Paul, where he stayed three years, setting type on all the prominent papers then established in the city. He moved to Caledonia, Minnesota, in the spring of 1877, and established the weekly "Courier," which he operated two years with success, and in 1879 he moved his plant to Grand, Forks, North Dakota, and established the "Herald," and has remained here continuously since that date.

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.

Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 28

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle Number of Pages: 1432

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432