USA > Nebraska > Dixon County > History of Dixon County, Nebraska > Part 5
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In the fall of 1859. N. S. Porter had an interview with one of the Ponca tribe, which terminated in less fun for the Indian than usual in such cases. Mr. Porter was helping D. T. Bramble in his store in Ponca. One day Mr. Bramble went to Sioux City leaving Porter in charge of the business. At that time the goods most in demand were bacon, salt. tobacco and whiskey, the latter being only sold by the gallon. In the afternoon of the day in question, a band of Ponea Indians about a thousand strong came in from their reservation west of Niobrara and camped east of town in the grove now known as Stough's grove (near the present fair ground).
Possibly to fittingly celebrate their visit to their ancient home, two young warriors came up from their camp early in the evening and bought and carried back with them a quantity of tobacco and a jug of whiskey. Soon after they left. Porter was greatly alarmed on learning from John Bramble the brother of the proprietor, that by selling liquor to the Indians he had violated the law, and his worry was kept at a fever heat by Bisbee, Todd and Clark, who were at the store at the time and who enlarged on the enormity of the crime and the dire punishment that would follow if found out. To add to his trouble as the evening advanced the uproar in the Indian camp increased as though the
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jugfull was doing considerable execution, and that an In- dian outbreak was liable.
The Indians kept up their dancing and shouting until near midnight when twenty of them came to the store and loudly called for more whiskey. Porter refused their de- mands and told them he had no right to sell to them, and advised them to return to their camp. Instead of doing so. they commenced to beat the door with their hatchets. Porter partly opened the door when they shoved in their jug and it was broken, and one of them named "Smoker" of "Little Rabbit's" band raised his hatchet to strike. Porter caught the Indian's arm and grabbed up a stick of wood. then threw it away and gave the Indian a tremendous blow with his fist under the jaw. The Indian fell as though shot, striking on his head several feet away, and lay there ap- parently lifeless. Porter barred and closed the door and listened tremblingly to the loud threats of fifty or more Indians who had by that time gathered around the fallen brave. In a few minutes, however, the noise ceased, and on looking out, he saw the Indians steering for their camp, two of them leading the one who had been knocked down. Soon after, the proprietor, Mr. Bramble, came home and Porter told him what had occurred. Bramble said it might have been very serious but he hoped the danger was over.
At sunrise the next morning. Chief "Iron Whip" and about fifty warriors came up leading the victim of the night be- fore. His head and face appeared as though banged by a trip hammer.
Iron Whip told Bramble by signs that Smoker was badly hurt, but if he could have some whiskey to dose him with and some more to bathe him in. he thought he could cure him. Bramble took the chief and Smoker and two others into the back room and when they came out wiping their mouths, their faces shone with satisfaction and they ex- pressed the opinion that Smoker would now feel a "heap" better. As a final token of friendship they demanded that Porter and the wounded Indian shake hands. This was done and harmony again prevailed. During several years after, Porter often met Smoker and other members of Little Rabbit's band, and they showed no resentment toward him. They said Porter was a brave man for striking with his fist
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when he could have used a club, and no doubt this was the reason for not resenting the blow and taking his scalp.
The above, one of many similar incidents of frontier life. was somewhat threatening at first, but wound up at the end in renewed peace.
Mr. L. T. Hill gives the following account of the visit in the fall of 1860 of a band of Indians to his house in Ionia during his absence in Omaha. He says "I left Charley Smith to protect the family and look after things generally. One day while Charley was away, Mrs. Hill left the children at the house and went up the ravine to pick some plums. While there she thought she heard voices, and on looking in the direction of the sound, she saw several Indians mounted on ponies rapidly coming down the ravine towards her.
"She was greatly alarmed and started for home on a run. By taking a short cut across a field she reached the house before the Indians and shut and barred the doors. The In- dians did not attempt to enter, but she could hear their voices and she finally came to the conclusion that if her fate was doomed she might as well face it.
"She thereupon took the children with her and went out to where they were. A little way from the house stood a grindstone and the Indians were there sharpening their hatchets and knives. That naturally added to her terror. but knowing her inability to escape, she put on a bold face. They greeted her in their usual manner. how. how' and said 'tobac, tobac.'
"We had a barrel of fine cut in the house and Mrs. Hill went in and brought out a large pan full of it and told the Indians to help themselves. She said they expressed great joy at the sight of so much tobac' and stowed it away in a short time. After a brief jabber among themselves one of them ran to where their ponies were tied and brought to her a large chunk of jerked venison. Then they finished grinding their knives, and to the great relief of Mrs. Hill and the children, mounted their ponies and left. It was afterwards learned that the Indians were from Dakota and had been over in the Elkhorn valley on a pony stealing raid, and now on their return were hunting for a place to ford the Missouri."
Mr. Hill also furnishes an account of another adventure
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at lonia with the Indians. The trouble which grew out of a lawsuit is thus described by him: "In the winter of 1860 one John Gidross, living temporarily on the Hotchkiss place near Ionia, became indebted to J. J. and H. M. Pierce, $30 or $40. and without paying them moved his cattle and goods across the Missouri into Dakota where there was no law.
"One morning the oxen of Gidross were found on the Nebraska side, having crossed the river on the ice. Being a Justice of the Peace I was called upon to issue an attachment for the oxen, and James Barrett then acting as sheriff, levied on them, and placed them in the care of Andrew White until they could be advertised and sold. The day of sale came as did the sheriff. About ten o'clock in the morning. Gidross and a friend of his, a Frenchman, were seen to come out of the timber opposite lonia and start across the river. They had found out where the sale was to take place and not knowing that the sheriff was on the ground thought it a good time to recapture thecattle. When they were across. they waved their caps and in a few moments six Indians came ont of the timber and followed Gidross.
"There was no little excitement but Barrett was cool and told the people (only about half a dozen) not to be frightened but get their guns ready. At the same time he sent a messenger down the river to Andrew White and his father-in-law, Massenger. not to bring the oxen, but to come at once with their rifles.
"In a few minutes the Indians were on the Nebraska side and they and the Frenchman went into the cabin of the Pierces, and soon after two Indians were seen to bring H. M. Pierce out, he not resisting much. They led him a little way and began to trip him. Barrett could plainly see that the In- dians felt ugly. He said 'Boys, them cusses mean trouble: get your guns,' and led the way followed by six well armed men.
"As they came into view of the Indians, Barrett shouted to them with a loud voice and a big oath. What in h-lare you doing there. let that man alone.' It was no sooner said than done. They left Pierce and hurried back into the cabin. Barrett followed them and ordered them out. and gave Gidross and his gang five minutes to get across
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the river, saying that if they were not off in that time he 'would kill every d -d one of them.' Barrett was a large. powerful man with a voice corresponding in size, and with an eye that emphasized every word. The French- man said a few words to the Indians and they lost no time in getting upon the ice and from there into the Dakota timber.
"After a short consultation it was agreed that it would be best to adjourn the sale to Ponca and to have the oxen removed there that night. They were accordingly taken there, but the following morning no oxen were to be found. It was evident the cattle had been followed and stolen and were now across the river. That was the most exciting ex- perience we ever had at lonia with the Indians."
After the removal in 1857 of the Poncas to their lands beyond the Niobrara. Dixon county was on the route be- tween that reservation and that of the Omahas, and bands of Indians often passed through from one reservation to the other. On their trips they generally behaved themselves. though sometimes, as has been said. they frightened settlers into giving them what they wanted, that being the Indian way of begging. One of these scares was given J. Murphy who settled in 1857 in South Creek valley, south of Cavan- agh's place. In the fall of 1858 a small party of Indians in their trip across the country camped for a while near Murphy's claim and sometimes stole corn out of his crib for their ponies. One day he found a young Indian in the crib and kieked him out.
That night at midnight the whole band, twenty or more in number came and surrounded his cabin and called to him to come out. As he cautiously opened the door an Indian reached in and pulled him out by his hair, tearing off his shirt in the squabble. The Indians then stationed him on a knoll where the keen wind would. bite his limbs and around him formed a ring in which they also placed the young fellow who had been kicked. Then singing and whooping and pounding a drum. they circled around in a war dance, and when the chorus would come in. Mr. Murphy would be kicked by as many feet as could conveniently reach him, and the young Indian would draw his tomahawk and pretend he would strike him.
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For an hour or two, the Indians thus enjoyed themselves while Murphy's wife and children were begging them not to kill him. At last they consented to spare his life if his wife would give them all the flour and bacon she had on hand, which she gladly did. Murphy was taken into the house where a good fire soon thawed him out, but the fright of himself and family was so great that they dared not stay there longer, and in a few days they abandoned their claim and moved to Dakota county.
Very often, and especially in the peaceable years follow- ing the troubles of 1863, parties of Indians while passing through the county on a hunting or visiting tour, would camp at night a short distance from Ponca. On such occasions, if in summer, the warriors were dressed in their warm weather costume of mainly paint and feathers. and were generally accompanied by some venerable copper colored patriarch as chief in command. If squaws were with such parties they were gorgeously arrayed in gaily colored blankets, which, together with pappooses, ponies, tepees, dogs and the ket- tles to cook them in. made np quite an interesting aborigi- nal crowd.
Sometimes the chief in command would be one who had been a "big Injun" at an earlier day. One afternoon such a party passed through town and camped at their usual place, and was said to be in charge of "Wabashaw." one of the noted chiefs who had handled the scalping knife and toma- hawk with much skill and murder in the Minnesota massa- ere a few years before, and who for his misdeeds had been sent to rusticate during the balance of his life with the rest of the Santee tribe on a reservation near Niobrara. Sev- eral went out to see and strike up acquaintance with so re- nowned a killer, and found him a harmless personification of good nature, of whom it was difficult to believe that in 1862. he used to relentlessly pranee down the warpath after the whites, his most cherished ornaments being a dozen or so of scalps. It is said he was the most fastidious scalper of the Santee Sioux, and loved the headgear of women and children for ornamental purposes better than any other. When last in Minnesota he grieved because he had not suc- ceeded in cleaning ont the whole state. On the occasion of this visit to him. the only thing which seemed to trouble
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
his placid nature was the fact that water was no longer cap- able of assuaging his thirst, and if his visitors had a bottle of fire water with them, he would like to gather a little of it under his wings. When his visitors told him they were not prepared in that respect. he looked sad and incredulous. and refusing to talk to them more. folded his arms and gazed contemplatively towards the setting sun.
Occasionally when a band of Indians came along. the set- tlers would have the fun of seeing an Indian dance. Such entertainments were grand, gaudy and peculiar, and were always witnessed by a large crowd of spectators. A circle of ten or fifteen tremendous, face painted warriors would show an agility and leg lifting talent entirely different from what the white people were accustomed to see. Accompanied by music pounded out of a drum or kettle, the performers would squat about half way to the ground and hump themselves around in a stiff legged sort of way. juggling their bodies up and down like jumping-jacks.
At such times they were always arrayed in buckskin striped in red and yellow and ornamented by bells, feathers. beads and fringes. Each carried a tomahawk in hand and from a cord around his neck were supposed to be hung the sealps he had gathered during the past season. Then, to the great enjoyment of settlers. (to whom such an exhibition was as good as a circus now-a-days. the dancers would whoop and dance with more fury and noise than pandemonium turned loose.
An initation "war dance." in which a grand panoramic display of the waving arms and leathery legs of a bewilder- ing constellation of bespangled and revolving savages with flashing knives and red painted tomahawks. usually conclud- ed the performances.
The foregoing are samples of the early Indian exper- iences in Dixon county. Many other similar stories could be told, but they are as bloodless and scalpless, and of as little importance as these we have related.
In marked contrast to the above trivial. latter day Indian stories, are the tales and legends concerning what happened here a hundred or more years ago.
From such legends it appears that the Indians in the old
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days were much more warlike and cruel than those with whom the pioneers of Dixon county had to deal.
The frequent discoveries that have been made in this country of stone arrows, axes and other mementos of the ancient inhabitants have kept alive an interest in the legends which come down through the many years elapsing since the events occurred on which they were founded.
In 1875 while at Niobrara the writer was introduced to an old Scotchman named MeFarline who had lived nearly all his lifeas a hunter and scout among the tribes west of the Missouri, and was acquainted in a great degree, with their languages, enstoms and traditions. Before Dixon county was settled by the whites. Mr. McFarline had frequently been here, and this region was therefore famil- iar to him. He said the last time he was in Dixon county. about forty years before, he accompanied a small party of Brule Sioux who came with the purpose of trapping and hunting. and if occasion offered, of stealing a few horses from the Ponca Indians. He said that at that time this country was beautiful thongh wild and uncultivated. It was with great pleasure that he talked of the wonderful changes which had taken place since that time.
Among several curious stories of tribes formerly here Mc- Farline related the history of a certain blood-thirsty chief. Mish-te-ne-wah by name, and of his numerous wars and raids upon surrounding tribes. It appears that at the com- mencement of this century and doubtless during many long years before, the country embraced within the counties of Northern Nebraska along the river, was densely settled by Indians. In Dixon county were several very large Indian towns. One of the most extensive was located in the fine valley of the Daily and had a large population. Doubtless Messrs. Addison, Sherman. Thomas and others whose farms are within those old Indian grounds, often find such mementos as arrow heads, stone axes. pipes, etc.
At the place where the Daily intersects South Creek. near the spot where Martinsburg now is, there was another Indian town, a smaller place, however, than the other. Three miles this side there was still another village, which in an unlucky hour for it was destroyed, and all its inhabi- tants-Indians, squaws and pappooses-to the last one
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were killed and scalped by a raiding band of Chippeways. The mound marking the resting place of these unfortun- ates, is still to be seen.
There was also an Indian village occupying the ground where Ponca is. Another was about three miles east and down the valley: and along the bluffs on the north were several more. One of these, quite a large town, was on the farm of Joseph Brewer. Near where lonia was, were two villages, one of them as large as the town in the Daily valley.
The tough old chief Mish-te-ne-wah above alluded to. lived in the Indian town in Daily valley. It was his capital city and was about eighteen miles west of where Ponca now is, and its only monument is the one great tree of the valley. There he ruled supreme over a large force of warriors. When the spirit moved him to do so, he marched out his fighting men and made fearful raids upon the more peaceful tribe along the river near Ponca. Mish-te-ne-wah was a skillful hand in the fighting and strategical business and was therefore generally successful in his battles. taking large numbers of scalps and conveying home a numerous company of prisoners who went with the comfortable assur- ance of being burnt at the stake on their arrival.
But finally Mish-te-ne-wah came to grief. He came down one night with a band of warriors. when a large party of Indian hunters went for the marauders and hemming them into one of the ravines between Ponca and the river captured or killed the whole crowd.
Those who were taken prisoners were tied to stakes. wood piled around them and various interesting ceremonies were gone through with. the crowning feature of which was the torturing and burning of the captives, who sang bravely their war songs until the flames choked them off. Among the thirty or forty who were captured and burned was the warlike Mish-te-ne-wah.
The place where they had their threads of life burned off was, according to Mr. McFarline, about a mile northerly from Ponca. This was in a measure corroborated a few years ago by exploring a mound on the farm then owned by Mr. F. Conrad. There. on one of the high bluffs which over- look the Missouri, is a mound of circular form about twenty
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feet in diameter and ten feet in height. Its appearance in- dicates that it was constructed by human hands, and a few years ago N. S. Porter and others investigated it to see what it contained. The ground was packed down very hard. so hard that it was almost as impenetrable as rock. With great difficulty and labor, the explorers with pickaxes and spades were enabled to excavate a hole from the top of the mound downward about eight feet and some four feet across. They were rewarded by finding the bones of numerous human skeletons.
These skeletons showed that those buried there were of great size, the skulls were large but thin and the jaw bones were powerful and armed with tremendously strong double teeth. With these bones they found a quantity of charcoal. The skeletons had been placed side by side in a sitting posi- tion and fronting the north. With them no beads, pipes or weapons were found. thus showing that the occupants of the mounds had been deprived of their weapons and orna- ments before burial.
It is not unlikely that this was the place of torture and burial of Mish-te-ne-wah and his band. The presence of the charred wood indicated that they were here tortured by fire. That they met their death by violence and were buried without the respect which Indians always bestow upon their friends is shown by the ignominious manner of their burial.
When Indians bury their friends they place in the graves with them their pipes. beads, weapons, etc., in order to give them a suitable outfit to start business in the next world. But in this case not an arrow or bead was bestowed upon them, nor even a pipe with which to enliven the jour- ney to the happy hunting grounds.
And from the manner in which the Indians were placed it would seem that those who buried them did not propose they should ever get to the happy hunting grounds at all. Their faces were turned to the north. away from the sun. in which condition according to ancient Indian theology. the spirit is supposed to always grope in darkness, thereby rendering the chances of success in finding the Indian para- dise very doubtful indeed. This is the Indian method of cruelty beyond the grave.
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
CHAPTER VI.
COURTS AND CRIMES IN DIXON COUNTY IN 1870 - INDIANS BROUGHT BEFORE THE DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MURDER OF MUNSON IN WAYNE COUNTY THE COURT OF JUDGE LYNCH, AND THE TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF MAT MILLER FOR THE MURDER OF MR. DUNN MYSTERIOUS FATE OF JAMES BIGLEY.
For several years after the county was organized. people were too busy and law abiding to have many lawsuits. Once a year a term of district court would be held but there were few cases to try, disputes having generally been settled by friendly arbitration. About the only use of court week was to give to grand and petit jurors, witnesses, sheriff and spectators an opportunity to rest from their labors. . renew old acquaintances and enjoy a sociable day or two. Discussions as to the crops. the increase of improvements and population and the chances of candidates for county office were held of more interest than the consideration of any civil or criminal docket.
About the only important criminal case ever before the district court of the county up to 1870 was that of five Win- nebagos who had been arrested for murder. The crime was not committed in Dixon county, but in Wayne, then attached to Dixon for judicial purposes. From the evidence it ap- peared that one C. S. Munson in the early part of the sum- mer of 1870, while at work on his claim near Phumm Creek. Wayne county, was attacked. killed and scalped by the five young Indians in question. They killed him and took his scalp. not especially on account of malice but because they wished to obtain a "brave" reputation with the tribe. The; were caught on the Winnebago reservation soon after, and in August. Sheriff Dewitt brought them to Ponca for trial.
On the day court was held, two hundred Winnebagos arrived in town to protect the interest of their five arrested brethren, and whether or not Judge Crounse deemed it un-
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healthy to proceed with the trial he transferred the case to Washington county. They were accordingly taken there by sheriff. On the route he was waylaid twice by armed bands of several hundred Winnebagos who insisted on the release of the prisoners, but his firmness kept them at bay. It was only fear of future consequences that saved him on that occasion of being scalped himself. However, he sucessfully stood them off and went through all right. The prisoners were afterwards tried at Blair and convicted and sent to the penitentiary. The evidence that convicted them was a scalp which was found in one of their tepees and which was identified as Munson's by a peculiar scar or mark. One of the prisoners was afterwards reprieved and the others died in prison.
But while a case of murder had never been tried before the district court of Dixon county, there was in 1870 a trial of that kind in the court of Judge Lynch.
In July of that year the county was excited by a tragedy within its borders, and for a short time the Arcadian pur- suits of peace were laid aside and the citizens became stern and relentless judges.
An account of the murder and of the swift and effectual manner in which justice was administered will be interest- ing to remember. This prompt method of settling with the criminal, in which no delays, new trials nor appeals were allowed to defeat the ends of justice. did more thereafter to mike wrongdoers avoid the county than a whole bench of big wigged judges and lawyers could do. For several years afterwards, if a man wanted to commit murder or steal a horse, he was careful to see that it was done outside Dixon county lines.
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