History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 6

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska > Part 6

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COUNCIL WITH THE INDIANS NEAR OMAIL.A.

village; convenient to the hunting grounds of the Sioux; and twenty-five days' journey to Santa Fe.

" Omaha is in about 41 deg. 16 min .; 41 deg. 18 min., is given as the place where the council was held."

There has, within the last few years, been some question and controversy as to the true location of this place, arising from the faet that a eity in Iowa, opposite the site of Omaha, formerly ealled Kanesville, has now received the appellation of Council Bluffs, the same name as was given by Lewis and Clarke to the spot where their conference with the Indians was held. The evidence, however, is overwhelming that it took place on the beautiful plateau now ealled Fort Calhoun, about sixteen miles north of Omaha. The reasons for this belief are briefly as fol- lows: First. The traditions of the neigh- borhood, never to be disregarded when tlie distance of time is so small, point to this bluff. Seeond. The latitude given eorres- ponds as accurately as could be expected to that of the present Fort Calhoun; and at all events could not possibly apply to the old Kanesville. Third. We read that after the eonferenee they set sail and reached Floyd's Bluffs under some bluffs-the first near the river sinee we left the Ayauway village. This description could not apply to any por- tion of the river in the vicinity of the place which now claims the appellation. Fourth. In a journal of a voyage up the Missouri in 1811, by Il. M. Brackenridge, Esq., he speaks of passing the river Boyer, and afterwards, in the evening of sailing by some high, elean meadows called the Council Bluffs, from the circumstance of Lewis and Clarke having held a council with the Ottoe and Missouri Indians, when aseending this river. Fifth. In the journal of Patriek Gass, which will be hereafter more particularly referred to, he describes the spot as follows: " At nine we eame to some timber land at the foot of a high bluff and eneamped there in order to wait for the Indians. At the top of the bluff

is a large, handsome prairie, and a large pond or small lake, about two miles from eamp on the south side of the river." This pond or lake, much redneed doubtless, in size, as is common with all the lakes in the Missouri Valley, may still be discovered about a mile and a half or two miles northwest from the site of the old fort. In short, there can hardly be any question that the location of the eouneil was on the beautiful spot which now forms the town of Fort Callioun.

"In the afternoon of August 18th, the party arrived with the Indians, consisting of the Little Thief and the Big Horse, whom we had seen on the 3d, together with the six other chiefs, and a French interpreter. We met them under a shade, and after they had finished a repast with which we supplied them, we inquired into the origin of the war between them and the Mahas, which they related with great frankness. It seems that two of the Missouris went to the Mahas to steal horses, but were detected and killed; the Ottoes and Missouris thought them- selves bound to avenge their companions, and the whole nations were at last obliged to share in the dispute; they are also in fear of a war from the Pawnees, whose village they entered this summer while the inhabitants were hunting, and stole their corn. This ingenious confession did not make us the less desirous of negotiating a peace for them ; but no Indians have as yet been attraeted by our fire. The evening was elosed by a danee; and the next day, the chiefs and warriors being assembled at 10 o'clock, we explained the speech we had already sent from the Council Bluffs, and renewed our adviee. They all replied in turn, and the presents were then distributed. We exchanged the small medal we had formerly given to the Big Horse for one of the saine size with that of Little Thief; we also gave a small medal to a third chief, and a kind of certificate or letter of acknowledgement to five of the warriors, expressive of our favor and their good inten- tions. One of them; dissatisfied, returned

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

us the certificate; but the chief, fearful of our being offended, begged that it might be restored to him; this we declined, and rebuked them severely for having in view mere traffic instead of peace with our neigli- bors. This displeased them at first, but they at length all petitioned that it should be given to the warrior, who then came for- ward and made an apology to us; we then most worthy, and he bestowed it upon the same warrior, whose name was Great Blue Eyes. After a more substantial present of small articles and tobacco, the council was ended with a dram to the Indians. In the evening we exhibited different objects of curiosity, and particularly the air-gun, which gave them great surprise. Those people are almost naked, having no covering except a sort of breech-cloth round the middle, with a loose blanket.

"The next morning, August 20th, the Indians mounted their horses and left us, having received a canister of whisky at parting. We then set sail, and, after pass- ing two islands on the north, came to, on that side, under some bluffs-the first near the river since we left the Ayauway village. Ilere we had the misfortune to lose one of our sergeants, Charles Floyd. Ile was yes- terday seized with a bilious colic, and all our care and attention were ineffeetual to relieve him. A little before his death he said to Captain Clarke: 'I am going to leave you.' His strength failed 'him as he added: . 1 want you to write me a letter;' but he died with a composure which justi- fied the high opinion we had formed of his firmness and good conduct. lle was buried on the top of the bluff with the honors due to a brave soldier, and the place of his interment marked by a cedar post, on which name and the day of his death were inseribed. About a mile beyond this place, to which we gave his name, is a small river about thirty yards wide, on the north, which we

called Floyd's River, where we encamped. We had a breeze from the southeast and made thirteen miles."

Patrick Gass, one of the persons employed in the expedition, as he modestly styles himself, also wrote an account, in journal form, of the voyage, which was published in 1809, before the report of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke appeared. It was received with delivered it to the chief to be given to the , considerable interest because the reading public had long looked with impatience for the official report, and was chafing at the delay of over three years, which had been allowed to lapse without any publication. The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review for June, 1809, says of it: "In the mean- time this journal, written without lofty pretensions, will afford some amusement to those who are fond of perusing the relations of travelers in new and difficult situations." The Quarterly Review for the month of May, of the same year, remarks: "We ought not, however, to complain of Mr. Gass, whose journal of each day, taken on ' the spot, does him credit in his subordinate situation; and to whom alone, of all that were engaged in the expedition the public, as far as we can hear, are under any obli- gations."

This journal, evidently the work of an uncultivated man, is still not without inter- est, and is undoubtedly a correct diary of the expedition as it appeared to the writer. It consists, however, of little else than a dry log of the voyage, and the interest taken in it at the time of its appearance must be ascribed rather to the inherent importance of the subject than to any charm of style. So far as it relates to the region about Omaha it is no less brief and unin- teresting than the remainder of the work.

On the 20th of July, 1804, he says that the voyagers embarked early, passing high yellow banks on the south side and a creek called the Water-whieli-cries, or the Weep- ing-stream, opposite a willow island, and

JOURNAL OF PATRICK GASS.

encamped on a prairie on the south side. Of the next day he says: "At nine the wind fell and at one we came to the great river Platte, or shallow river, which comes in on the south side, and at the mouth is three-quarters of a mile broad. The land is flat about the confluence. Up this river live three nations of Indians, the Otos, Panis, and Loos, or Wolf Indians. On the south side there is also a creek called But- terfly Creek."

It will be noticed that in the reports of all the early explorers of the Missouri, the west side of the stream from what is now Kansas City to the present site of Sioux City, in lowa, is invariably spoken of as the south side. This arises, doubtless, from the fact that upon entering the river at its confluence with the Mississippi the travelers found its course an easterly one, so that the right bank of the stream was the south bank. This description, therefore, they con- tinued to give it even after the course of the Missouri had changed to north and sonth.

On Sunday, the 22d of July, they left the river Platte and proceeded early on their voyage, with fair weather, finding high prairie land on the south side, with some timber on the northern parts of the hills. Nine miles from the mouth of the Platte River they landed on a willow bank, at what was probably the present site of Belle- vue. llere their hunters killed five deer and caught two beaver, and messengers were sent up the Platte to inform the Indians along its banks of the change in the gov- ernment of the country, and of Lewis and Clarke's desire to treat with them. After the lapse of five days, however, during which the main body remained at Bellevue busily engaged in hunting, making oars, dressing skins and airing stores, provisions and baggage, the messengers returned from the Indian village unsuccessful in their object, as they found it silent and deserted. They set sail, therefore, at about noon on

the last mentioned day, and after proceeding about twelve miles they encamped on a handsome prairie on the south side. The changes in the course of the Missouri, which has ever since been swaying from bluff to bluff on both sides of the valley, render it impossible to ascertain the precise location of this handsome prairie. It could not. however, have been far from where the packing houses of South Omaha are now situated. "On the next day," says the narrator, "we set out early; had a cloudy morning; passed some beautiful hills and prairies; and a creek called Round Knob Creek. on the north side; and high bluffs on the south. Here two of our hunters came to us, accompanied by one of the Oto Indians."

There can be no doubt that among the " beautiful hills and prairies " which Gass mentions was the graceful elevation from which, at a later period the territorial capitol and now the Omaha High School have looked down upon the thriving city, which was then only a convenient hunting ground. None of the voyagers, however, except the hunters and those who conducted the lead horses along the banks of the river, seem to have set foot on its soil. Two days later, while bewailing the loss of a gray horse which had died the previous night, they came to some timber land at the foot of a high bluff and encamped there to wait for the Indians. This was the present site of Fort Calhoun. The large, handsome prairie. of which Gass speaks, is that on which Fort Atkinson was subsequently erected and which the charming village of Fort Calhoun now occupies. " This place," says Gass, "we named Council Bluffs, and by observation we found it to be in latitude 41 deg. 17 min. north." This latitude differs slightly from that given in the official report of the expedition, which was, as we have seen, 41 deg. 18 min. 1 sec. That the spot is the same, however, as that mentioned by Lewis and Clarke there can be no possible doubt. Gass even speaks of the

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAILA.

singular little animal which excited so much enriosity in the camp: " Two of our hunt- ers," he says, "went out and killed an animal called a prarow, about the size of a ground hog and nearly of the same color. It has a head similar to that of a dog, short legs and large claws on its fore feet; some of the claws are an inch and a half long."

Some two or three years after the visit of Lewis and Clarke, Manuel Lisa, an enter- prising French trader, ascended the Missouri for furs and peltries almost to its source. The success of his venture led to the forma- tion of an association under the name of the Missouri Fur Company. a corporation having its headquarters at St. Louis, and formed in the hope of carrying on the fur trade more extensively than it had thereto- fore been practiced, and in time of rivaling even the British associations in Canada. The company was composed of twelve per- sons, with a capital of about forty thousand dollars; and they engaged about two hund- red and fifty men, Canadians and Ameri- cans; the first for the purpose of navigating the boats, for the Canadians were renowned boatmen, and the latter as hunters; it being their intention to hunt as well as trade. In the spring of 1808 they ascended the Mis- souri in barges, and left trading establislı- ments in the Sioux country, and also among the Arickaras and Mandans. Owing to the jealousies and hostilities of the Blackfeet Indians, however, the expedition of 1808 proved abortive. Instead of three hundred packs of skins, upon which they might have calculated had they remained unmolested. they hardly procured thirty the first year, and the second none at all. The party was reduced to about sixty persons, by the detachments left at the different trading stations, by persons sent off with such furs as had been collected, and by skirmishes with the Indians, in which some twenty had fallen. Mr. Henry, who was in command, thought it hest, in this state of affairs, to cross the Rocky Mountains and establish

himself on the Columbia River, a movement which took him so much further from his base that he was not heard of at St. Louis for more than a year.

In this state of things it was resolved in the spring of 1811, by the company, to make one more effort, and, if possible, retrieve their losses. IIumanity also demanded that. if possible, their distressed companions should be relieved and brought back to civilization. Manuel Lisa, already spoken of, a man of bold and daring char- aeter, energetic, enterprising, well ac- quainted with the Indian character and trade, of indefatigable industry, and with a powerful and vigorous frame, was selected to lead the enterprise. Mr. Il. M. Bracken- ridge, a Maryland barrister, in a spirit of curiosity and fondness for adventure, decided to accompany the expedition. and to him we are indebted for another glimpse of the site of Omaha in its original, wild state. Mr. Lisa, with his party, including Mr. Brackenridge, set off from the village of St. Charles on Tuesday, the 2d of April, 1811, and ascending the Missouri with the usual monotonous adventures and provoking delays, passed the mouth of the Platte on the 10th of May. This river, he remarks, was at that time regarded by the jolly and rough boatmen of that day, as a point of as much importance as the equator among the navigators of the sea. All who had never passed its month before were required, amidst a good deal of jocose horse-play, to undergo the ceremony of being shaved with a rusty piece of hoop for a razor. and a bucket of slush for lather; unless they chose to compound for this unpleasant discipline by a treat for the men. Mr. Brackenridge declares that much merriment was indulged on the occasion, but leaves us in doubt whether he submitted to the operation or purchased immunity.

Above the Platte at that time, the river was called the Upper Missouri, and the change from the closely wooded country

THE MISSOURI AND AMERICAN FIR COMPANIES.

below the Platte to the open, bare plains was then perceptible and great. The habit of burning the prairies was not then so com- mon south of the river as on the other side. The face of the land, however, he remarks, was so varied as to be pleasing and pictur- esque. On Sunday, the 12th of May, after passing the old Otoe village, which was then not far from the southern boundary of Omaha, Mr. Brackenridge went on shore, as he tells us, and wandered several miles through shrubby hills, seeing several elk and deer, without being able to approach them. Towards evening he entered a charm- ing prairie, and noted its rich, black soil. Ile speaks, too, of following a rivulet until it formed a lake in the river bottom, its banks for six or eight feet deep a rich black earth. There can be no possible doubt that this afternoon's walk was, over a portion at least, of the ground which now forms Omalia. and it was perhaps the first walk for recreation ever taken upon its site by a white man. About this point the journalist con- cludes that the party has reached the highest point to which settlements will probably extend for many years. In the evening of the 13th they passed the high, clean meadows called the Council Bluffs, of which he says: " It is a beautiful scene. The Council Bluffs are not abrupt elevations, but a rising ground, covered with grass as perfectly smooth as if the work of art. They do not exceed in height thirty or forty feet above the plain below. On ascending, the land stretches out as far as the eye can reach, a perfect level. The short grass, with which the soil is covered, gives it the appearance of a sodded bank, which has a fine effect, the scene being shaded by a few slender trees or shrubs in the hollows." It would not be easy at this day to give a more vivid and correct picture of the natural beauties of this charm- ing spot.

Twenty-three days before the expedition of Lisa had started on their voyage, another party, employed by the American Fur Com-

pany. and under the command of Wilson P. IIunt, a gentleman then and long afterwards renowned in the history of the north western fur trade, had set sail from St. Charles, and Lisa had been straining every nerve to meet him before he entered the lands of the Sionx nation. The meeting finally took place not far from the villages of the Poneas. In Mr. Hunt's party were two scientific gentlemen. enthusiasts on the subject of botany and mineralogy. One of these, Mr. Bradbury. a few days before Mr. Brackenridge reached the sight of Omaha, made an excursion with some Indians and hunters of the Hunt party to the mouth of the Elkhorn River. He described this as a deep, navigable stream, containing nearly as much water as the Thames at London Bridge, soon swallowed up, however, in the shoals and quicksands of the Platte, into which it discharges. Mr. Bradbury reported that he had passed for one hundred and fifty miles, through a delightful champaign country, of rich, open, smooth meadows, and the borders of the streams fringed with wood; that within eight or ten miles of the Missouri, the country is more broken and hilly, and with a still smaller proportion of wood. Of course, from the above meagre account of this short trip it will be seen that it is by no means evident that Mr. Bradbury passed over the ground where Omaha now stands, but it is probable that he either did so or came very near it. It may not be uninteresting to state, as a sequel to Mr. Brackenridge's story, that having ascended the Missouri as far as the Mandan and Arickara villages, and having fully satisfied his curiosity concerning the Indians, whose filthy habits were offensive to his civilized senses, he took charge of two of Mr. Lisa's boats, laden with peltries, descended the Missouri at the rate of about one hundred miles per day, passed the Black- bird hill, the site of Omaha and the mouth of the Platte on the same day, and after an absence of nearly five months, arrived at St. Louis early in August, 1811, having made

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

by their reckoning fourteen hundred and forty miles in a little more than fourteen days. He summed up the advantages of the region he had been exploring as follows: " This immense tract of country has now become the theatre of American enterprise. There prevails among the natives west of the mountains a spirit of wild adventure, which reminds us of the fictitious characters of Ariosto. The American hunters consti- tute a class different from any people known to the east of the mountains. The life which they lead is exceedingly fascinating; their

scene ever changing-ever presenting some- thing new. Confined by no regular pursuit. their labor is amusement. I have called the region watered by the Missouri and its trib- utaries the paradise of hunters; it is indeed to them a paradise. I have been acquainted with several who, on returning to the settle- ments, became in a very short time dissat- isfied, and wandered away to these regions as delightful to them as are the regions of fancy to the poet.

" 'Theirs the wild life, in frolic still to range, From toil to rest, and joy in every change.'"

CHAPTER V.

JOURNEY FROM TIIE COLUMBIA TO THE MOUTH OF THIE PLATTE IN 1812-FIRST WHITE FAMILY LOCATING AT BELLEVUE - ESTABLISHMENT OF A BAPTIST MISSION IN 1833, AND PRESBYTERIAN MISSION IN 1834-GENERAL FREMONT AT BELLEVUE.

A notable journey from the Columbia River to the mouth of the Platte was made during the years 1812 and 1813. On the 28th of June, in the first named year, Messrs. Robert Stewart, Ramsey Crooks and Robert McClellan left the Pacific Coast with dispatches for their employers in New York. After almost incredible adventures and hardships, in the course of which the Crow Indians stole every horse belonging to the party, leaving them on foot, two thousand miles from St. Louis, in a desert which for fifteen hundred miles was utterly unknown to them, they at last succeeded in reaching St. Louis on the 30th of May, 1813, having consumed more than eleven months in the journey. They wintered on the Platte, six hundred miles from its mouth, and in the spring they followed its course undeviatingly to the Otoe villages near its mouth.

Six years after this journey, another ex- ploring expedition, pursuant to the orders of John C. Calhoun, was undertaken by Major Stephen II. Long. This expedition is famous, not only for the topographical results obtained, but as having been con- veyed on the first steamboat which ever passed the spot now occupied by the City of Omaha. This steamer, to which had been given the name of the Western Engineer, passed the plateau on which that city stands on the 15th or 16th of September, 1819. Major Long, the commander of this expedi- dition, was a brave, enterprising and indus- trions officer, born in the town of llopkinton, 3

in the State of New Hampshire, in the year 1784. Five years after his graduation from Dartmouth College, in that State, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the corps of engineers of the United States army, and in April, 1816, he was transferred to the topo- graphical engineers with the rank of major. During eight years thereafter he was assidu- ously and almost constantly engaged in a series of explorations of the western frontier, from the northern boundary of Texas to Lake Superior and the sources of the Mississippi, and traversed within that period more than twenty-six thousand miles of wilderness, procuring much information, till then un- known, concerning those portions of the national domain. The account of the expe- dition now under consideration was published in 1823. For a long time afterwards he was engaged in explorations and improvements of western rivers, in superintending the con- struction of hospitals and steam vessels, in surveys of harbors and roads, and in other labors connected with the engineering depart- ment of the United States army. IIis name is perpetuated by one of the loftiest peaks in Colorado.

By this time the muddy current of the Missouri was so frequently vexed with the keels of the fur traders, going to and return- ing from their hunting and trading grounds, that the trip up that river had ceased to he a novelty, A trading post and fort was estab- lished at Bellevue, long the abode of Peter A. Sarpy. His trading post at Bellevue was

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

originally established by the American Fur Company, in 1810. Francis DeRoin was the person first appointed to the post of Indian trader. He was succeeded by Joseph Robidoux (who afterwards founded the city · of St. Joseph, Mo.), who held the position for six years, when he was superseded by .John Cabanne, who in turn gave place in the year 1824 to Colonel Sarpy. The last gave soul, vivacity and notoriety to that pic- turesque and beautiful spot for more than thirty years.

Up to the year 1823 the Indian agency was established at Council Bluffs, now known as Fort Calhoun, but in the last mentioned year that agency was removed to Bellevue, which then for a time assumed the name of Council Bluffs, the Iowa town now called by that appellation, being entitled Mormon llollow and Kanesville. The agency at that date included within its limits the Omaha, Otoe, Pawnee and Pottawotamie tribes of Indians. In 1833 the first protestant mis- sionary ventured to settle within the limits of this, then, wild and dangerous region. This honor belongs to the Baptists. One of their number, the Rev. Moses Merrill, in the year last named, created a mission house among the Otoes, at a point on the present farm of Mr. John F. Payne, where a stone chimney long remained, and perhaps still is visible, to mark the spot where a faithful apostle of God was willing to sacrifice his life upon the altar of duty. He did not long endure the hardships, privations and sufferings of life in a new country, among barbarous tribes. He died in 1835 and was, at the request of his widow, buried on the left bank of the Missouri, at a point which has long since yielded to the irreverent surges of the river, all traces of his grave having been swept away. llis son, Rev. S. P. Merrill, born at Bellevue in July, 1834, is now a resident of Rochester, N. Y.

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History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 6

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1020