USA > Nebraska > Nebraska history and record of pioneer days, Vol I > Part 2
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I do not conceive but two of the wounded in danger-Howmany of the Indians were Killed I am at a loss to say, I think not more than 7 or 8 four or five were seen to fall on the Beach-I have thout proper to communicate this affair as Early as an opportunity offered, believing that you would feel disposed to make those people account to the Government for the Outrage Committed-Should that be the case and a force sent for that purpose in a short time, You will oblige me mnuch if you will send me an express at my expense if one can be procured, that I may meet and Co-operate with you-From the situa- tion of the Indian Towns it will be difficult for a small force to dust [oust] them without a Six pounder the Towns are newly picketed in with timber from 6 to 8 inches thick 12 or 15 feet high, dirt in the in- side thrown up about 18 inches high. They front the river, and im- mediately in front of them is a large Sand Bar forming nearly two thirds of a Sircle, at the head of which (when the river is very low) they have a Breast Work made of dry wood; the ground on the oppo- site side of the river is high and Commanding-They have about Six hundred Warriors, I suppose that 34 of them Armed with London Fuzils, others with Bows and Arrows, War Axes &C.
I expect to hear from Major Henry (to whom I sent an express) in 12 or 15 days during that time I shall remain between this place and the Auricara Towns not remaining any length of time in One place, as my force is small, not more than 23 effective men. Your friend and Obt servt W. H. Ashley.
Preparations To Move on Arikara Indians
Following are parts of four orders issued by Colonel Leaven- worth at "Head Quarters 6th Infantry Fort Atkinson" June 18, 1823
Companies A, B, D, E, F, & G will be prepared as soon as pos-
sible to march at a moment's warning. . . The actg post Qr. Mr. will immediately engage the Keel Boat and her patroon and as many of the efficient men with her as practicable.
June 19, 1823
Officers Commanding Companies ordered to be ready to march will have their Companies completely equipped and ready for in- spection at four o'clock this afternoon when they will be paraded for that purpose.
June 20, 1823
It is indispensably necessary that every possible exertion should be made to keep the men clean and to preserve their Soldierly ap- pearance. .
Same date.
The boats going up the river will be designated as No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. ... The companies will take as many of their spades & axes as are fit for use. . .
H. Leavenworth, Col. Comdg.
The Battle
The command, comprising about 220 men, arrived before the Arikara villages on the 9th of August, having made the distance from Council Bluffs, 640 miles, in forty-eight days. It had been joined by Major Joshua Pilcher of the Missouri Fur Company with forty men, General William H. Ashley's force of about the same number, and some 500 Sioux, making a total force of about eight hundred men. Opposed to them there were about six hundred warriors in the two Arikara villages, and between three and four thousand individuals all told,-men, women and children.
The Sioux Indians were the first to meet the Arikara in combat and although they were reinforced by the whites, little was accom- plished that day. The following morning the attack was opened by Lieutenant Morris with the artillery. His first shot killed the chief, Gray Eyes. After further shooting the first peace negotiations were entered upon. The Indians appeared penitent and made "fair prom- ises," Colonel Leavenworth adds:
Considering my small for'ce, the strange and unaccountable conduct of the Sioux, and even the great probability of their joining the Aricaras against us-And also considering the importance of saving to our Country the ex- pense and tronble of a long Indian warfare; and the importance of securing the safety of the Indian trade, I thought proper to accept the terms.
Before the Indians could be compelled to fulfill the conditions, they escaped from their villages, and the whites embarked for their re- turn journey at 10 A. M., August 15. Colonel Leavenworth reported that, "Before we were out of sight of the towns, we had the mortifica- tion to discover them to be on fire. There is no doubt that they have been consumed." The Colonel asserted that they were set on fire, through jealousy or spite by agents of the Missouri Fur Company. The true reason, probably, was chagrin because Colonel Leavenworth failed to do the very thing for which the expedition had been under- taken-severely punish the Arikara for their continuous assaults on . white traders.
In the operations before the Arikara villages the whites lost none in killed and but two slightly wounded. The Sioux lost two killed and seven wounded. Colonel Leavenworth thought the Arikara loss amounted to fifty. The cost of the expedition was about $2,000 and the time consumed about seventy-five days. The experience of the troops on the long march and the knowledge it gave them of the coun- try were among its most valuable results.
Return of Troops to Fort Atkinson
Aug. 29, 1823.
The Colo. Comdg. is happy to announce to his Command that the objects of the late expedition against the Aricara Indians have been effected. The blood of our Countrymen has been honorably avenged ....
The Colo. Comdg. cannot dismiss this subject without again men- tioning his very great satisfaction with the gallant and honorable conduct of General Ashley and liis Brave and hardy little Corps of mountaineers. Although for several days entirely destitute of sub- sistence they persevered in "noble daring" without a murmur ....... The Colo. Comdg. only regrets that he can offer them nothing more sub- stantial than his thanks.
H. Leavenworth, Colo. Comdg.
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Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days
A Hero of the Nebraska Frontier
"Dutch Joe" we called him. We were the homesteaders upon the high tables and in the rich black valleys of the sandhills west of Val- entine in the eighties. We were upon the skirmish line of the Ameri- can advance. We were fighting to prove that American homes could be made in the heart of the sandhills,-the last remnant of the "Great American Desert" making its last stand upon the Hindenburg line of resistance to the American spirit. The fight was fierce for the skirmishers. We plunged into the deep canons of the Niobrara and tore from their rugged entrenchments thousand year-old cedar trees, "snaked" them down the canon, split them into posts, hauled them forty miles to Valentine and traded them at six cents apiece for flour and bacon. We followed the trail of deer and elks for a week to bring home a bit of fresh venison. Pitch pine logs were our fuel. Water was our first necessity and our greatest difficulty. From the rich, smooth gramma grass table-lands where most of us had built our cabins and staked our hopes for a free American home, we could look miles away down the pine clad canons of the Niobrara. At the bottom of the canons ran splendid, gurgling brooks of clear, cold water. Lazy settlers homesteaded there and built their cabins at the waters' edge, where there was no plow land. The high table home- steaders hauled their water in barrels, sometimes a distance of seven miles, while they broke out their first fields and laid the foundations for a real farm home.
The first experiments at digging wells on the high table were failures. Some dry holes were sunk two hundred feet and abandoned. It was then that Dutch Joe appeared on the horizon. His real name was Joseph Grewe. He was born in Westphalia, Germany, in 1854, served two years in the German army at Cologne and came to Ne- braska in 1879. He was married in Cuming county in 1881 and homesteaded in Cherry county in June, 1884. He was a sturdy fellow of medium height, with a pleasant smile, firmly set, determined lips, and extraordinary muscular development. He undertook to prove that water could be obtained upon the high tables and dug his first wells down through the hard, dry Niobrara chalk rock over two hun- dred feet to the abundant underflow of pure, cold water beneath.
What a celebration was held when the first Dutch Joe well reached water upon the "German Table." It was for us an epoch making date, like that of the Declaration of Independence. It was a measuring rod by which each settler could calculate the probable cost of securing water upon his own homestead. After that Dutch Joe was in con- stant demand. Other settlers would break out prairie for him, do his farm work and haul him cedar, posts while he dug their wells. In the next seven years he dug over 6,000 feet of wells in the settle- ment, ranging from 100 to 260 feet in depth. There was no well dig- ging machinery in the region at that time, and the settlers were too poor to import any. Dutch Joe's wells were large, round cylinders, straight as a gun barrel from the gramma grass roots to the gravel underflow. Some of us who watched him work called him "The Human Badger." I have never seen a man who could strike his spade into the top soil and sink out of sight in such an astonishing short space of time. In a single day he was known to dig a well sixty- five feet deep. What a treasure he would have been upon the Flan- ders front today!
The Sioux Indian war of 1890 came, the terrible day at Wounded Knee on December 29. Many of the settlers were scared and ready to leave their hard earned homesteads. Joe Grewe persuaded his neighbors to let him go to the seat of war and investigate. When he returned he was able to persuade them that the danger was by, and the settlers stayed by their homes. It is now one of the most prosperous settlements in the sandhill region.
One day in 1894 Joe was called upon to go down to the bottom of the first well he had dug in the settlement and clear, out some obstruction. From the bottom of the well he gave the signal to hoist a bucket full of loose rock. When the bucket had almost reached the top it slipped from the steel catch which held it to the rope and falling swiftly 200 feet crushed the head of the German hero of the sandhill settlement. The steel catch was an original invention of Mr. Grewe made by himself and designed to save time by quickly detaching the bucket from the rope for unloading. Many years' ser v- ice had worn the steel catch, unnoticed, until it was ready for this last act in a frontier tragedy. The family of Joseph Grewe still live in the sandhills region. His children have grown into lives of useful- ness, some of them teaching school. Men who risk their lives on fields of battle are justly held as heroes. Those who risk and lose them in the cause of making human homes in what was once a desert are also heroes. Among these I write the name of Joseph Grewe. Let no one who has never dug in the darkness and danger of a deep well dare dispute it .- A. E. S.
Nebraska History Plays in Nebraska By Frank A. Harrison
Students of the early history of Nebraska must often have no- ticed that among the younger, people and especially among high school pupils, the subject is regarded with indifference. They are much more familiar with the story of the Greek who ran twenty-four miles to carry the news of a victory than they are with that of the early set- tlers who raced to the west to save Nebraska and Kansas to the cause of freedom.
I had a theory that interest in early Nebraska history might be awakened by inducing school children to play some of the more dra- matic incidents, along the lines of the first history play given by umLI- versity students on the campus. Last year I put the theory to a test with gratifying results.
The first experiment was in Garfield county. Though the settle- ment there dates back only to 1871, it was full of action. The first men in the valley had to defend their homes against hostile Indians. There were two or three skirmishes near where Burwell is now situ- ated. The valley was made safe to settlement only by establishing a fort with a company of regulars between Burwell and Ord. Of all this the younger generation of Burwell knew little and cared less. Their attitude was just typical.
In April, 1916, I visited the high school and grades, talked to them about the early settlements and proposed that one of the Indian battles be carefully acted out on the actual battle-ground. They received the idea with enthusiasm, and committees were at once appointed to visit the spot, work out the details, and provide the costumes and other "property."
Two weeks later when I came back through Burwell there was intense interest, if not excitement, over the Indian battle. This had spread all over the country. The older settlers had gathered and discussed the event. They had cudgelled their memories for facts. They had decided who were the oldest in the valley, which log cabins were the earliest, and had raked up enough romance to furnish ma- terial for half a dozen plays. All this the younger generation had ab-
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Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days
sorbed. It was a new theme, surpassing in importance the story of Hannibal crossing the Alps.
The necessary twenty-five Indians had not only found costumes, but about forty girls had decked themselves out as Indian maidens and demanded a part in the play. This led to a new difficulty which was solved by establishing an Indian village near the Loup river, just north of town. Wigwams were hastily erected and all phases of vil- lage life were shown, including one courting scene where a lone buck had slipped back from the war party to talk with his "Night Bird." The climax of the village scene came when a courier on a pony dashed into the village bringing news of the fight with the whites.
This village scene was photographed by a motion picture camera, and by fully a dozen kodaks. About seven hundred spectators watched the performance, many of them coming from an adjoining county.
The next day the battle scene was enacted seven miles up the valley from Burwell. So keen was the interest that many young folks walked the whole distance from town to see it. Fully five hun- dred people were on the ground, some coming a distance of thirty miles. There were fourteen automobile loads from Ord, which is over twenty miles away.
The play was put on in a very creditable manner showing the settler-soldiers in their search for the hostiles, the council of war, the ambush arranged by the Indians, the surprise attack, and the running fight in which footmen and horsemen mingled. Toward eve- ning the spectators were back at Burwell and went out to one of the early log cabins where the arrival of settlers fresh from the battle- field was staged.
This little spectacle, with the newspaper comment it caused, brought about a general discussion of the early history of the Loup valley ,extending into several counties, which in turn brought to light many things of genuine historic value.
A few weeks later a similar experiment was tried in a small way at Bellevue. At the oldest log cabin of the town the small children staged a frontier scene. The first settler was shown at the door. His wife was busy with her housework. Three or four Indians were lounging about. Then followed the arrival of a party of easterners from the river, landing, their greeting at the cabin, their curiosity about the savages, and finally their survey of the rich Nebraska land under the guidance of the pioneer. This little play stirred again local interest in the romantic early history of old Bellevue.
A year later I tried the history-play on a western community. About fifteen miles southeast of North Platte is a wonderful locality called Moran Canyon and the Jackmore Flats. In scenic beauty it holds a high place. In early days it was the haunt of Indians, the hiding ground of outlaws, the camping place of emigrants, and at one time Buffalo Bill made his headquarters there.
With a camping party I spent several days in the canyon. It is one of the greatest freaks of nature in the state a series of gashes cutting deep into the hills; just the shape of a giant hand with the fingers distended. The walls of the canyons rise a hundred feet or more, and fringes of cedars add to their beauty. The bottoms are lit- tle grassy valleys.
The school people of North Platte and the farmers in the Jack- more neighborhood were invited to come and take part in the play, which was arranged to show the progress of civilization from the primitive solitude down through a series of scenes or tableaus-the Indian wigwam, the arrival of the first plainsman, the coming of the soldiers, in regular order, the wagon trains, the government surveyors, the first farmers and stock raisers, the modern farmers and fine stock men, and finally the procession of automobiles loaded with pleasure seekers.
The result was beyond all expectation. Many attended who had never seen the canyons before. Farmers turned out with their fami- lies. They assisted in every way in arranging the details, providing the covered wagons and the live stock. It was a day that will long be talked about in that part of Lincoln county, and with that talk comes the raking up of all the early history of that section of the Oregon Trail.
These experiments were conducted without expense to anyone, and could be followed up in many parts of the state. The stories of the early settlements are full of romance, and a history play can be arranged in any community with the enthusiastic co-operation of young and old. It is a field in which the State Historical Society and the public schools can work together with great profit to both.
NEBRASKA HISTORY PUBLICATIONS. Continued from Page Threee
Omaha Indians; Anecdotes of White Cow; fifty-six pages of biography; Death of Governor Francis Burt; Annual Address of President Robt. W. Furnas, 1880; the Philosophy of Emigration; Admission of Ne-
braska into the Union; Gold at Pikes Peak-Rush for; The Discovery of Nebraska; The Place of History in Modern Education; The Organic Act of the Society; constitution, by-laws and roster of the Society.
Vol. II, 1887. 8 vo. clo., 383 pp., $1.25; paper in 4 pts., $0.75. Edi- tor, George E. Howard.
The Relation of History to the Study and Practice of Law; Sketches from Territorial History-in the Beginning, Wildcat Banks, Sectional Politics, Politics Proper, Pioneer Journalism; The Capital Question in Nebraska; How the Kansas-Nebraska Line was Estab- lished; Slavery in Nebraska; John Brown in Richardson County; A Visit to Nebraska in 1662; Forty Years Among the Indians and on the Eastern Borders of Nebraska; Notes on the Early Military History of Nebraska; History of the Powder River Expedition of 1865; histories of Cass, Dodge, Washington and Sarpy counties; Sketch of the First Congregational church in Fremont, Nebraska; Early Fremont; His- torical and Political Science Association of the University of Nebras- ka; The Discovery of Gold in Colorado; On the Establishment of an Arboreal Bureau; Twenty-seven pages of biographies; Annual meet- ings of the Society, 1885, 1886.
Vol. III, 1892. 8 vo. clo., 342 pp., very rare, $3.00. Editor, Howard W. Caldwell.
American State Legislatures; Political Science in American State Universities; History and Art; Salem Witchcraft; History of Educa- tion in Omaha; The Christening of the Platte; Development of the Free Soil Idea in the United States; The Beginning of the City of Lincoln and of Lancaster County; Early Times and Pioneers; The Fort Pierre Expedition; The Military Camp on the Big Sioux River in 1855; Reminiscences of a Teacher Among the Nebraska Indians, 1843-85; The Sioux Indian War of 1890-91; Early Settlers en route; An Introduction to the History of Higher Education in Nebraska and a brief Account of the University of Nebraska; Associational Sermon; Congregational College History in Nebraska; Thirty-three Years Ago; The Pawnee Indian War, 1859; Early Days in Nebraska; Reminis- censes of Early Days in Nebraska; Miscellaneous correspondence; official proceedings of the Society.
Vol. IV, 1892. 8 vo. clo., 336 pp., $3.00. Editor, Howard W .Cald- well.
From Nebraska City to Salt Creek in 1855; Old Fort Atkinson; The Indian Troubles and the Battle of Wounded Knee; Biographies; Remi- niscences of Early Days in Nebraska; history of the Fontenelle fami- ly of St. Louis; Old Fort Calhoun; Arbor Day; What Causes Indian Mounds; The First Postmaster of Omaha; Supreme Judges of Ne- braska; Omaha Public Library; Judge Lynch's Court in Nebraska; Stormy Times in Nebraska; County Names; Lieut. Samuel A. Cherry; Origin of the name Omaha; Omaha's Early Days; Early Days in Ne- braska; Personal Sketch of Rev. Moses Merrill; Extracts from the diary of Rev. Moses Merrill, Missionary to the Otoe Indians, from 1832-1840; Some Incidents in Our Early School Days in Illinois; Pa- pers Read on the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Lancaster County Courthouse; Hardy Pioneers of Dixon County; Nebraska's First News- paper; Biographies, pp. 215-271; History of Butler County; Tribute to the Mothers and Wives of the Pioneers; Annual meeting of the So- ciety 1891; constitution and by-laws of the Society.
Vol. V, 1893. 8 vo. clo., 295 pp., very rare, $5.00. Editor Howard W. Caldwell.
Records and Their Conservation; The Lincoln Public Library; The Arikara Conquest of 1823; Some Frenchmen of Early Days on the Missouri River; Reminiscenses of Early Days in Nebraska; Admis- sion of Nebraska as a State; Nebraska Silver Anniversary; Early Life in Nebraska; The Political and Constitutional Development of Nebraska; A Brief History of the Settlement of Kearney County and Southwestern Nebraska; Annual meeting 1892; treasurer's report 1893; List of Members.
Proceedings and Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
Second series, vol. I, 1894-95. 8 vo. clo., 264 pp., $1.25. Editor, Howard W. Caldwell.
Part of the Making of a State; The Life of Governor Burt; Remi- niscences of Early Days; Freighting in 1866; Early Nebraska Cur- rency and Per Capita Circulation; Municipal Government in Nebras- ka; The Soldiers Free Homestead Colony; The effect of Early Legis- lation Upon the Courts of Nebraska; notes on the Society; Wanigi Olowan Kin; Reminiscences of the Third Judicial District; Freighting Across the Plains in 1856; Necrology and notes on the Society; Some Financial Fallacies among the Pioneers of Nebraska; Proceedings of the Society, 1893-1895; list of members; constitution and by-laws; ap- propriations, 1883-1895; list of donations.
Second series, vol. II, 1898. 8 vo. clo., 307 pp., $1.25. £ Editor Howard W. Caldwell.
The Poncas; A Brief Sketch of the Life of Captain P. S. Real;
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Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days
Bellevue, Its Past and Present; Edward Morin; Travelers in Nebraska in 1866; The Cost of Local Government-Then and Now; Under- ground Railroad in Nebraska; Biographical Sketch of Major W. W. Dennison; President's Communication; The First Territorial Legisla- ture of Nebraska, sundry reminiscences, pp. 88-161; Nebraska Women in 1855; The True Story of the Death of Sitting Bull; annual meet- ings, 1896, 1897; Papers and Proceedings of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences.
Second series, vol. III, 1898-The Provisional Government of Ne- braska Territory and The Journals of William Walker Provisional Governor of Nebraska Territory, 8 vo. clo., 423 pp., $3.00. Editor, William E. Connelley.
The Wyandots; The Walker, Family; The Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory; Documents Relating to the Provisional Gov- ernment of Nebraska Territory; A Brief Sketch of Abelard Guthrie; The Journals of William Walker, First Book; The Journals of William Walker, Second Book.
Second series, vol. IV: Forty Years of Nebraska at Home and in Congress. 8 vo. clo., 570 pp., $2.00. By Ex U. S. Senator Thomas W. Tipton. Editor, Howard W. Caldwell.
The Territorial Governors; The Territorial Delegates; The State Governors; State Senators; Representatives.
Second series, vol. V, 1902. 8 vo. clo., 381 pp., $1.50. Editor, Howard W. Caldwell.
Territorial Journalism; Newspapers and Newspaper Men of the Territorial Period; Pioneer Journalism; Communication of Hadley D. Johnson; Joseph L. Sharp; A. J. Hanscom; Reminiscences of Terri- torial Days; My First Trip to Omaha; Judge Elmer S. Dundy; ; The Nebraska Constitution; History of the Incarceration of the Lincoln City Council; A Nebraska Episode of the Wyoming Cattle War; Recol- lections of Omaha; Death of Logan Fontenelle; Reminiscences of the Crusade in Nebraska; Along the Overland Trail in Nebraska in 1852; Thomas Weston Tipton; Algernon Sidney Paddock; The Farmers Al- liance in Nebraska; Reminiscences; History of the First State Capi- tol; Early History of Jefferson County Overland Route; The Indian Massacre of 1866; Bull Whacking Days; The Pawnee War of 1859; Early Days in the Indian Country; Freighting to Denver; Freighting and Staging in Early Days; Freighting in the '60's; The Plains War, in 1865; Overland Freighting from Nebraska City; From Meridian to Fort Kearney; Freighting Reminiscences; Mary Elizabeth Furnas; Freighting-Denver and Black Hills; Early Freighting and Claims Club Days in Nebraska; The Building of the First Capitol and Insane Hospital at Lincoln-Removal of Archives; Underground Railroad in Nebraska; Minutes Annual Meetings, 1898-1900; Minutes Executive Board Meetings; List of Members.
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