History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 72

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

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THREATENED BY "JAYHAWKERS."

Mr. Jones soon found that while he had been away in Texas, times had changed in Kansas. The war had begun, and sectional feeling had been wrought up to a high pitch by John Brown and his adherents. He lived close to the Missouri river, and small bands of Rebel sympathizers, called. "Jayhawkers," frequently came over the river at night and roamed unmo- lested through his locality, stealing horses, cattle, and everything they wanted, making life unsafe and sometimes killing people. He lived too far from Ft. Leavenworth, it being twenty miles away, to receive protection from the soldiers there, as by the time the soldiers were given warning the Rebels would recross the river with their plunder into Missouri. Therefore, as soon

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as his cattle were fat he sold them to the soldiers at the fort and prepared to leave. He had been plowing corn all of one day, and had put up his team and was waiting for supper. He had laid down near the kitchen door, being tired, and had fallen asleep. He was awakened by hearing the sharp com- mand, "Surround the house!" Mr. Jones asked the intruders what they wanted, and they answered they were going to kill him. There were twenty Missouri "Jayhawkers" in the gang. They said he was an Abolitionist, and took him and his sons Charles and Cass, down to a creek where they tied their hands behind them, and the captain in command of the gang told his men to take the lariats off their horses, and hunt up a good limb to hang their captives on.

There was a house nearby in which was whisky for sale and the captain and his gang went there and helped themselves, so that nearly all of them were soon drunk. One of the men, however, slipped around to where the Joneses were tied and told them not to be afraid, as the gang was too drunk to hunt up a limb to hang them on. They were kept there until morning. when they were untied and taken back to their home. Here the "Jay- hawkers" took five horses, one cow and calf, two yoke of cattle, all the house- hold bedding, all the flour and meat and warned Mr. Jones to leave the coun- try within ten days. Charles and Cass Jones at once went to Leavenworth to enlist in the Union army. Charles was not accepted as a soldier because he had asthma, but Cass Jones, then twenty years of age, enlisted in Company I, Second Kansas Cavalry and served in the war for three years, the first part of his service being in Kansas and Missouri, where he had many oppor- tunities to be revenged on the "Jayhawkers."

ANOTHER PIONEERING EXPERIENCE.

As soon as possible, William M. Jones got out of the country and came up into the Territory of Nebraska, stopping a few miles north of Rulo. in Richardson county, where he found a number of families preparing to make the journey to Oregon on the Pacific coast. He hecame impressed with the many advantages it was said would be found there for settlers and he decided to join the party. In the winter of 1862 he made preparations for the jour- ney and in the spring of 1863, when he started on the journey to Oregon, he had two wagons, each drawn by two yoke of oxen, and one yoke of cows, the latter to furnish milk on the journey.

Seven families left Rulo together, and at Nebraska City they were joined by five more families, each family having a wagon, drawn by oxen.

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They traveled across the prairies and mountains until arriving at Ft. Laramie in Wyoming. There the Indians were hostile and it was not considered safe to go any further until a larger number of wagons were congregated together. When fifty wagons had gathered, a guard of about twenty soldiers under a lieutenant was furnished them and they were allowed to proceed on their journey. They had plenty of flour and meat to last them until they reached Oregon ; they also secured some game along the route, such as deer, antelope, elk and wild turkeys, but did not have any buffalo meat, as they saw only three buffalo during the whole journey.

The party had no trouble with the Indians, as there were so many wag- ons together the redskins were afraid to attack them. But when they reached the Snake river, in Idaho, an incident occurred that made them think they might have some trouble with the Indians. While they were camped there waiting to be ferried across the river, an old Indian rode right into their corral of wagons, riding a government horse and using a government saddle. He offered to trade the horse and saddle for one box of gun caps. They did not trade for the gun caps, as they were afraid the Indians might attack them if they could secure ammunition, as there were about one thousand Indians camped near. The next day they crossed the Snake river on a ferryboat that would hold only one wagon and a yoke of oxen. The ferryman charged one dollar for each wagon. He was kept there by the government and was fur- nished a guard of soldiers. The stock was forced to swim the river.

Mr. Jones arrived at his destination on October 10, 1863, and settled about fifteen miles southeast of Portland, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres for two hundred dollars, splitting enough rails during the winter to pay for the land. The land was heavily timbered and had to be cleared before it could be planted to crops. Mr. Jones commenced to clear his land of timber and the first year planted eight acres to crops, his fam- ily living on wild game and what they could raise. The climate was mild, but from September to May it rained nearly all the time and much of the time it was foggy. . \ll the little streams at this time of the year were run- ning brooks of cool, clear water, but at other times in the year they were dry. It was cold enough at night during this season often to snow, the tree tops being covered with snow in the morning, but the snow would be all melted by noon.

BACK TO NEBRASK.A.

Mr. Jones was disappointed in the country. it being no country for stock; and the climate was so different from what he had been used to, that

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he did not stay there long. In the spring of 1865 he sold his land, cattle and wagons, for two hundred and forty dollars and bought ponies and pack sad- dles, and started back for the east. With him were about thirty men in the outfit, most of them being cowboys and miners. .

The journey back to Omaha required one hundred and twenty days. Mr. Jones reached Omaha in the fall of 1865. There he worked during the win- ter in a stone quarry and at getting out rails over on the island in the Mis- souri river. In the spring of 1866 he again moved to Richardson county, and settled about three miles north of Rulo, on the banks of the Missouri river, where he and his sons, Charles and Cass, bought a half section of land from a squaw man, paying for the land eight hundred and sixty head of ponies and one pair of fine horses. On this land he and his sons settled, his son Charles on the west of the land he kept for his own; his son Cass on land north of him, and his son Stephen on land east of him: his son Lewis buying and settling on land near Salem. On that tract Mr. Jones built a log house in which he lived for many years before he built a frame house.

LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS.

The country was then a wilderness. . It was covered with brush and timber. An Indian trail passed just back of where Mr. Jones built his house, Indians passing every day as they roamed back and forth over the country. The region was inhabited by a mixture of Indians, French and half-breeds. There was a steamboat landing at Rulo, and the town of Rulo was about one mile west of the river, the intervening space being farm land. On the river bank at the landing were warehouses for the storage of freight, as all trans- portation of freight to this region then was by way of the Missouri river. There were a few stores at Rulo, the storekeepers depending for business in a great measure on the trade of the Indians, who were paid an annuity twice a year by the government.

Frenchmen had come to this locality some years before to trap wild animals for their fur and to trade with the Indians. Some of them had mar- ried Indian squaws, which gave them a right to the land of the Indians they had married, and this land they could sell to settlers. The Indians lived in teepees, or buckskin tents, stretched over poles; four or five families in a tent and three or four tents in a community. They were constantly roaming around over the country in quest of game and they lived by hunting, fishing and begging. A little camp of them would be in one place for a few days and then be gone, and other Indians would come and go. They had ponies

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and dogs, the latter they kept for food in times of stress. When their annu- ities were paid them, they would generally have a "big time." They would buy a steer, cut it up and cook it in kettles, have a feast and a big dance. The merchants would get the most of their annuity money for blankets, calico. sugar, coffee, ammunition and guns. Whisky was "bootlegged" to them, the "bootleggers" thus getting a good share of their annuity.

DEATH OF CENTENARIAN.

When Mr. Jones started to break the prairie on his land, two squaws came and sat down on an Indian grave and would not let him plow over it. He farmed this land until he was eighty-eight years old, doing most of the work himself, as he was always an active, healthy, vigorous man and never sick. When eighty-eight years old he sold his farm to his son Lewis, and he and his wife retired, though continuing to make their home on the place. Mrs. Jones died at the age of ninety-nine years, eight months and fourteen days. Mr. Jones survived for some years and was well past one hundred years of age at the time of his death. He had always voted the Whig or Republican ticket. his first Presidential vote being cast for General Jackson. He never missed voting at a Presidential election and voted for twenty Pres- idents.

THE STORY OF CASS JONES.

Cass Jones was only five years of age when his father moved to Iowa and he went to school at Iowa City. When his father bought the mill in Cass county, Iowa, he took an active part in that undertaking and later accompanied his father to Dakota county, Nebraska, and later to Dallas county, Texas, returning thenice to Leavenworth county, Kansas, as set out above.

On May 5, 1861, Cass Jones enlisted in Company I, Second Kansas Cav- alry, to serve six months. His regiment went from Kansas to Springfield, Missouri, where the Union forces were concentrating under General Lyon. Just at dusk on the night of August 9, 1861, the regiment left Springfield. with about five thousand soldiers under General Lyon, and on the next day they attacked twice their number of Rebels at Wilson's creek. General Lyon rode a large white horse and was a conspicuous mark for Rebel sharpshooters. who were in the large scruboak trees. In leading a bayonet charge General Lyon was killed. Cass Jones was near enough to him to see him fall from his horse. The regiment had been dismounted and formed the second line

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of the charging force, the sokliers climbing up rocks, crouching behind stumps. and doing all the firing they could. The Rebels surrounded them and the regiment again mounted their horses and made several charges in order to break through their opposing ranks. During the fourth charge Cass Jones's horse was killed. The animal reared way up, gave a big jump and fell dead. rolling over, and Mr. Jones was pinned under his horse. . \ mule driver who was retreating with a load of ammunition, passed close enough to hear him call and he stopped his team and came and lifted the dead horse and pulled him out from under the horse. His right hip was dislocated, his right shoul- der severely injured and his jaw broken, the latter wound being inflicted by the hilt of his saber striking him as he fell. He hopped on one foot, and with the help of the driver got to the wagon just in time to escape being trampled by his own regiment which came galloping back from its charge on the Rebel lines.

FURTHER MILITARY EXPERIENCE.

Mr. Jones was taken to the tent hospital in the field on the wagon, where three surgeons put his hip joint in place. That night he was taken back to Springfield in an ambulance. There he remained about two months or until he was sufficiently recovered to go to Leavenworth and rejoin his regiment. His term of enlistment having expired, he was discharged on November 18. 1861. Shortly afterward, and as soon as he was well enough, he re-enlisted in the same company and regiment, which was being reorganized under the three-years call for troops. The regiment marched into Missouri, going to Raleigh.

While guarding a supply train, through heavy timber on the way to Raleigh, the supply train was captured by the, Rebels at Lone Jack. . About two hundred of the regiment, which had dismounted and sent their horses back out of fire, were captured, as the Rebels got between them and the rest of their regiment and cut them off. Mr. Jones was among those captured. They were disarmed and driven to the rear just like a drove of cattle. While going through heavy timber Mr. Jones jumped over a big tree that had been cut down and hid under a big limb, the other prisoners and the Rebel guards passing by without his being discovered. He laid under the tree until dark and then started back through the timber, not daring to take the road, for fear of meeting Rebel pickets, and was out all that night, the next day and the second night, without any food, so hungry and tired he could make but slow progress. On the third morning he espied a negro cabin in a hollow

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and went to the door. A big negro woman gave him a big piece of corn bread and meat and told him to get away quick or the Rebels would get him. While getting over a rail fence on the third night he startled a lot of hogs, which ran grunting, making a big noise that set a pack of hounds to barking. He thought he was sure to be discovered and he got out of that locality as fast as he could in the dark. He ran down a hill and at the bottom, in a corn field, stepped on a man who must have been hiding there. This man jumped up and ran up the hill he had come down, and Mr. Jones ran up the opposite hill as fast as he could. It was hard to tell who was the worse scared. The next morning, Mr. Jones noticed tracks of shod horses in the road, and knew they were Union army horses, as the Rebel horses were not shod. Soon he saw blue-coated soldiers on the road. He went to them and they took him into camp. where he rejoined his regiment.'

BROKE UP A SLAVE AUCTION.

While over in Missouri they learned there was to be a slave auction. They went up to the crowd, to see what was going on. Their sergeant who was one of the soldiers in the squad, said to the sheriff: "Ain't it about time this auctioning of niggers was stopped?" The sheriff, without completing the sale, took a young negro girl out of the group of slaves, put her on a horse behind him and galloped off. Four of the squad of. soldiers took after lim, overhauled him and made him bring the girl back, making him dismount and help the girl off the horse. The sheriff immediately disappeared. The negro girl was told to go where she pleased and not to consider herself a slave any more.

Mr. Jones's regiment was continually scouting around the country pro- tecting citizens from the gangs of "Jayhawkers" who roamed the country pillaging from houses and murdering Union men.

They also foraged for provisions. One day while on a foraging expe- dition, in a part of the country where provisions were plenty, Mr. Jones being in the rear of the column of troops, he saw a smoke house off the road at the foot of a hill. He went over there, slid off his horse and was investigating the contents of the smoke house when a big darkey woman appeared at the door, just as he had taken down what appeared to be a big corn shock. He had just made the discovery that the corn shock was full of sausage, when the negro woman wanted to know what he was doing there and began kick- ing him out. Some of the rest of the soldiers were there by that time and

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commenced making fun of him when they saw the negress kicking him, but as soon as they learned there was sausage in the corn shocks that hung up in the smoke house, they soon cleaned them out.

AVERTED A TRIPLE HANGING.

The regiment marched to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and then to Ft. Scott, Kansas, the journey occupying several days. At Ft. Scott they camped sev- eral days and then marched into Missouri again, as the James and Younger gangs of "Jayhawkers" had been killing men there. They camped on White river, being after "Jayhawkers" all the time. While there word came that at a town about sixty miles off they were going to hang three men, whom the Rebels had charged with stealing negroes. As the hanging was to take place the next morning, there was not much time to lose, if the rescue of the men was to be attempted. Colonel Thayer secured permission to call for volunteers for the rescue, and sixty cavalry men, of whom Mr. Jones was one, volunteered for this service. They started about five o'clock in the afternoon, galloped all night in the dark, and reached the town just a little before daylight. They divided into three squads, and came in on the town from as many directions at sunrise and surrounded the jail. Colonel Thayer ordered the jailer to open the jail door. At first he refused, but soon opened it and the three men were brought out of jail. They were shown the scaf- fold where they were going to be hung on that very morning, and then the soldiers tore down the scaffold. They took the men back to camp with then, confiscating Rebel horses for them to ride and to replace some of their own horses which had given out

The command reached White river on a very hot day and many of the soldiers at once stripped and went in swimming. in the stream, which was about sixty feet wide. A Rebel army was on the other side and some of the Rebel soldiers were in swimming at the same time on their side of the river. The opposing parties talked with each other and traded sugar for tobacco. As soon as the Union officers found out what was going on they ordered the soldiers out of the river. That night the Rebels retreated, but they were not followed. The Kansas cavalry then marched to Osceola, Missouri. This was in the spring of 1863. While they were camped there a well-to-do Rebel asked for a soldier to guard his house and property. The colonel of a New Jersey regiment furnished him a guard of one soldier. During the night this soldier was killed while in the house, a deed which so infuriated the New Jersey soldiers that they burned the house and all the houses in the town. except one, where lived a Union man.

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AN EXPERIENCE WITH SMALLPOX.

While camped near Raleigh, Missouri, Mr. Jones, with eight other sol- diers, caught the smallpox from a Jew suttler, whom he went to see about underclothing. A few days after this exposure he was taken sick, and his whole mess of eight soldiers caught the smallpox. An old building was utilized for a hospital, and an old man and woman took care of them until they recovered, and a guard kept persons away. Their hands were tied to boards, so that they could not scratch themselves.

Mr. Jones presently was promoted to the position of sergeant-major of the regiment. The command shortly afterward marched towards Lexing- ton, Missouri, where the Rebels had besieged the Union forces. They did not reach there in time to prevent the surrender of the place and the capture of the Union soldiers, but they pursued the retreating Rebels and rescued all their prisoners. They requisitioned every horse and all Rebel conveyances they could find to replace their horses that had broken down in the pursuit and to let the tired Union soldiers ride in on their way back. They returned to Ft. Leavenworth, where the regiment was filled up with new recruits from the North. Mr. Jones was assigned as a body guard, with two soldiers, to accompany him, of Adjutant General Bell and they went with the latter to St. Louis, where they stopped but a few days, and then took a boat and steamed up the Mississippi river to St. Paul, where they stayed all winter, General Bell being attached as a staff officer to General Sibley's command.

In the spring of 1864 they started on a campaign against the Indians. They went to Turtle Mountain, in North Dakota, on the Yellow Medicine river, having small brushes with the Indians on the way; went on to Ft. Rice. on the Missouri river, in North Dakota, and ran the Indians across the river. Mr. Jones and his two soldiers, acting as a hody guard to General Bell all the time. While on their way back, they were joined by the Second Nebraska Cavalry and other troops, under General Selby, and at his own request Mr. Jones was transferred to Company I, Second Nebraska Cavalry, as he wanted to see more service than he was having with General Bell. The regiment soon returned to Sioux City, Iowa, and there he was discharged on Novem- ber 18, 1863.

THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION.

.At Sioux City the Powder River expedition was being organized, and Mr. Jones hired ont to the government as a wagonmaster. The troops com- prising this expedition were the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry, and there was a

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train of fifty-six wagons to carry their supplies and ammunition. Mr. Jones was hired at one hundred dollars a month and had charge, with two assist- ants, of this wagon train. Each wagon was drawn by six mules. The messes comprised six teamsters, who cooked their own meals. When march- ing across the prairie. the wagon train traveled in two columns, so as not to be strung out too long. The Indians kept out of the way, but could be seen at a distance watching them. They marched up the Missouri river to Ft. Pierre, South Dakota, and then crossed the country to the northwest to Pow- der river, North Dakota.

ENORMOUS HERDS OF BUFFALO.

The buffalo on the prairie were so thick that they looked like a cloud when they were moving and stirring up the dust. A curious thing was that they all fed facing one way. The expedition often marched through the herds and sometimes they would stampede and come close to them. Details of soldiers every day would kill enough of them to supply the expedition with buffalo meat, furnishing all the meat needed while crossing the plains. Mr. Jones went out one day after buffalo and rode right up to a big one, as he rode alongside of him shooting him in the small of the back. The buffalo ran a little further and then fell down in a piece of marshy ground. A lieutenant, one of the party, got off his horse, as he did not want to ride his horse on the marshy ground for fear of miring, and went up to the buffalo on foot and shot the animal in the head, but the buffalo's head was so hard that the ball did not penetrate. The buffalo got up on his feet and showed fight, which frightened the lieutenant, who threw down his gun and ran for his horse and mounted. As the buffalo came out of the marshy ground Jones shot him behind the foreleg, but as he .did not drop. another shot was fired at him which brought him down. Antelope and elk were also very plenty and fur- nished their quota of food.

EVER ON THE ALERT FOR INDIANS.

The party had to be always on the alert for Indians, as every once in a while they would see redskins off in the distance watching the expedition, but as the Indians rode fleet ponies they were harder to get than the buffalo and other game. The Indians always vanished soon after they were seen and before they could be attacked, so that the party had but few fights with them.

When there was a prospect of a fight with the Indians, the wagons were

HOTEL

STONE STREET, FALLS CITY IN 1866

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corralled in a circle, with the mules turned in so that they could not be stampeded, and the troops would form on the outside of the corral. Some- times at night the mules were kept on the inside of the corral of wagons; this was when there was danger of their being stampeded while grazing at night by the Indians, but at other times they were put outside of the corral. Sometimes they would be chained to the wagon wheels during the night and turned loose early in the morning to graze under care of a guard. When there was not too much danger the mules would be herded and allowed to feed at night. If the Indians could at any time have stampeded the mules, the expedition would have had to be abandoned, as there would have been no way to transport the supplies needed by the soldiers.

There were no roads to follow. But scouts would go ahead picking out the best way to go. They had two Indians as guides. 'In crossing the moun- tains sometimes forty mules would be attached to one wagon, as the way was so steep and rough. Many of the creeks had steep, deep banks, that had to be cut down before wagons could cross; at other times streams would be fol- lowed up to their source before they could be crossed. At rocky places cross- ing was very difficult.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 72

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742